Immaculate

Chapter 4

"Why, hello there!" a tall man with brown hair greeted me.

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

He smiled. I felt my skin crawl. Did everyone in this building have to smile all the time?

"Please tell me your name so I can find your seat," he told me.

I glanced around the room. There was only one seat open.

"Uh, Immaculate Dropletia," I said.

"Immaculate Dropletia?" I heard a few chuckles and whispers pass over the classroom. A wave of red rose to my face as I realized he was humiliating me in front of the entire class.

"I didn't pick it," I defended. "Also, that's kinda rude. You're an adult man. Act your age."

"I thought you were still over at Elite's Training," the teacher said.

"I'm here now. Did you look over your roster before starting the school year at all?"

"Well, Immaculate, you sit right there, between Emil and Alexson."

I glanced at my new classmates. Emil, the blond, smiled and waved. With a bit of shock I recognized him as the person I had run into in the bathroom. Alexson had raven colored hair and light green glasses. He blushed and looked at the ground when I looked at him.

"Hey," I said as I sat down.

I tried to shake off the weird vibes I had been getting all morning and remind myself that I was finally getting what I wanted. So maybe it was a really nice public school. At least it was a public school.

"Well, hello everyone! I will be your teacher this year. My name is Mr. Canyons. Any questions? Good."

I glanced around. Nobody else seemed confused about how quickly he had skipped past any questions. He hadn't even given anyone time to raise their hands. Oh well.

"Football and cheerleading tryouts take place tomorrow after school in the gym. Remember your forms!" Mr. Canyons said.

Football? Cheerleading? I liked those ideas. It sounded like the mainstream idea of a public high school. Immaculate Dropletia, captain of...something.

I needed a form, though.

"So, where do you live? A castle? Do you have any pets? Do you like being famous? Will you do football? Do you wanna join my club?" Emil asked me during lunch.

"No, nope, definitely not, maybe, and sure," I responded.

I was momentarily distracted by the whole raw chicken shoved in my lunchbox. It had a knife and note attached that read: I did the hard part, now you must learn to carve this yourself. So that's what Barry put in there.

"Awesome! Our club is REALLY popular. We have only male freshmen in it, plus an eleventh grader and a college student!" Emil exclaimed.

"Really? What do guys do, exactly?" I asked.

"Well, we all get cool nicknames, we smoke, goof off, commit small felonies, flirt, and all that stuff," Emil said. "You know, normal high school things."

Normal? I liked the sound of that. "What do I have to do to get in?"

"You take a blood oath," Emil said, holding out his palm. He pointed to a small scar. "Everyone picks at it so it doesn't heal all the way."

"Gross. But cool."

"You can come with me today after school," Emil said. "Oh! And...."

I tuned him out after "and."

"Cool!" I said.

Alexson was reading a book in the far corner of the cafeteria. He was alone.

How sad, I thought. He must be very lonely.

After school, I went to the main office and picked up a form. Emil waited for me.

"Hey! Nice to see you remembered!" he greeted me.

"Of course," I said.

He smiled and began to walk. I followed. We passed by a bunch of houses until we arrived at a decently large one with pale green walls and white trim.

"My pad," Emil said.

"Nice."

He hurried up the stairs and opened the front door for me. I walked in.

"Let's go up to the attic. That's where we always meet. Follow me."

Up one staircase, up another, and we had reached the attic door. I was starting to get second thoughts about this whole blood oath thing. What if the attic was a tiny murder chamber?

I was wrong. (Well, about the tiny part, at least.)