A Secret on Raven Block - Raven City Part Two

18

It was the first week of school. Nerves and excitement shot through her as she drove to school, parked in the student parking lot, and walked into the school. It was finally her junior year. She was excited to be junior but also nervous as hell. There were ACTs she had to study for, she had mostly AP classes, she had to plan for junior prom, she had to start applying for colleges, and decide what she wanted to do with her life. Even though she was sixteen, about to turn seventeen in a few months, she didn't know what career she wanted in life and the fact that everyone was pressuring her to find out soon wasn't helping. 

But she wasn't going to think about that right now. She wanted to enjoy her first day and worry about that later.

Kendall brightened as she walked into the lobby and saw Jade, Hannah, and Stephanie standing together. She walked over to them and they hugged and greeted each other even though they saw each other four days ago but it was the first day of their junior year and a lot was going to happen.

The four girls stood and talked to each other as they waited for the bell to ring. Other students milled around as well and she found herself looking for Kameron. She realized what she was doing and forced herself to stop. She was not going to think about him right now.

"I'm so happy you're back," Hannah was saying and Kendall quickly tuned back into what her friends were talking about. "It was so weird without you last year."

"I'm glad to be back," said Kendall. "I -"

She heard the loud, distorted sound of the intercom and could hear someone making an announcement but the lobby was too loud for her to hear and she strained to hear.

"Did you hear that?" Kendall nearly had to shout over the loud voices.

"No," Stephanie shouted. "I can't hear anything in here."

Teachers started rushing in and saying something to the teachers and staff that were already in the lobby. Then they started calling out, "Everyone to the theater. Everyone to the theater." And started ushering everyone to the theater.

Kendall and her friends looked at each other in confusion but started walking to the school theater as the teachers instructed. Usually, after the first week of school, they would have an assembly to kick off the new school year but never on the first day.

They made their way to the theater and sat in the very back row and watched as the other students filed in and filled up the chairs. Kendall saw Kameron sitting near the middle and she felt her heart start to race a little faster. She forced herself to quit looking at him and wondered what was going on with her. Why was she so transfixed on him? Ever since she saw him, even before she found out he was a shapeshifter, she had this weird fascination with him and she wanted it to stop.

Kendall forced her gaze to the stage and saw Principal Banks standing at the podium, waiting for everyone to come and get settled.

Several minutes later when the entire student body was inside and the auditorium was quiet enough to speak, Principal Banks adjusted the microphone and greeted everyone.

"Good morning, everyone," he said. "I'm very excited to see everyone here this morning. I know I say this every year but I know this will be a great school year. . ."

Kendall tuned Principal Banks out after that as he gave his standard back-to-school speech that she heard since freshman year but something in his statement had her tuning back in.

"As you have heard on the news, supernaturals have revealed themselves to us," he was saying and Kendall frowned, wondering where he was going with this. "I know this is a scary time in history and that you all may be confused and unsure of what to feel about this. I can assure you that you will be safe and that you won't have to worry about your well being and a way to do that is to let everyone know who is supernatural and who isn't."

Gasps and murmurs could be heard throughout the auditorium. Kendall was shocked herself and wondered why Principal Banks was acting like this.

"So, to make sure that we all feel safe and comfortable and we can know who to look out for, I'm asking for every supernatural student in this room to come to the stage and tell the rest of the school what they are so we can know and not be taken by surprised. And if the students refuse to comply, they will be expelled immediately."