Bizarre Worlds and Other One-Shot Stories

Sheep's Clothing

Buses roll down a road and to an open field. They stop and four professors, a field guide, and the students disembark with their bags and items, preparing for their college retreat, gathering and flocking like a flock of sheep. One student, a Brendan Cooper, is more than a sheep than his sheepish peers. And some of them will soon learn of his character in the weirdest way possible.

The school Brendan was attending, the Garou University, had planned a retreat in a form of camping. They journeyed a few hundred yards away from the buses and further into the open field. A student walked passed Brendan, bumping him on the shoulder, "Watch it, loner." he said, scornfully. His pals followed him and did the same thing to Brendan. His name was Stu. And they loathe each other.

Back in grade school, they were best friends. They played very often and hung around most of the time. They were almost inseparable, almost like brothers. But Stu's rebellious streak became more 'expressive' as years passed, and he Brendan's still pretty much his quiet self. And Stu found Brendan pretty boring to hang around anymore, and subsequently became the subject of his torment, mostly physically, and sometimes verbally.

And that's what gave Brendan the choice of avoiding making friends. Still conversating with people but refusing to be deeply acquainted with them.

"All right, everyone," said their guide, "this is far enough."

The students lowered their packs and started building their tents. While Brendan was nearing the completion of his tent, Stu and his pals walked by and kicked his tent's stakes, causing it to collapse, reverting everything to square one. Brendan was visibly calm, but inside he was furious, enraged, infuriated, fuming with anger. But he simply went back to rebuilding his tent as the rest of his classmates were already done.

"Need some help?" a student said. His name is Tommy, a young student with brown hair and hazel eyes, and a finely-built body. He is one of the few people in his class Brendan talks to. In fact, he's one of the few people Brendan ever talks to, including his parents.

"Sure," Brendan said, almost cold and emotionless, "go ahead." He and Tommy built his tent together. And they managed to finish it without any trouble at all.

The professors and the field guide, with the name G. Waggner written on his tag, declared a half hour of rest, and the students went inside their tanks doing business of their own; students visiting the other's tents, students using their phones to call their parents or play some mobile apps, and others were just reading some books inside their tents to pass the time. One of these book-reading students was Brendan, he was reading Fool Moon by Jim Butcher.

The hour of rest was up. The professors called for their attention, and the students crawled out of their tents. And their field guide started leading their tour to the nearby forests. They entered the forests, the trees were very tall and very thick, and the place had many famous plants and greeneries. As a matter of fact, the forest was a fairly decent tourist attraction known for said beautiful greeneries growing there.

But it's not just the greens habiting the forests. There were also animals as well; a fawn wandered near the forests and the students. But they paid no heed to it, not risking any chance of harming it directly or indirectly. But Brendan, unbeknownst to many who were focused on the tour, approached the fawn.

Brendan looked down at it as the innocent little deer stared back at him, its head tilted with curiosity. Their shared staring was long and somewhat not awkward as if they were sharing some sort of mental link between them. For a moment everything's quiet. Not a sound was heard. But then there was a blurred sound. And it gets clearer and louder.

A large but gentle hand was placed over his shoulder. He broke from his trance-like state and looked over his shoulder. It was one of the professors, "I've been calling you, Cooper," he said, firmly but calmly, "are you feeling all right?"