Running from Wolves | Sally Face

Chapter 3: First Day

The dreaded day had finally arrived: Monday.

Suffice to say I was fucked.

I had spent the past few days either spending time with my family or hanging out with Sal and Larry. When we weren't hanging out we had taken to messaging each other, they were both awfully chatty. Not that I was complaining, I was glad to get along so well with them.

It was so much fun that I had almost forgotten I'd be starting in a new high school. Again. With Nockfell being such a small, quiet town I didn't expect there to be much drama going on. Or that many students. I had asked Sal to tell me a bit about the school to feel better prepared at least, and he was nothing but helpful.

What was concerning is that he had mentioned some students had gone missing. Something that should be big news was hardly talked about, there was an overwhelming lack of concern and missing persons posters.

I had brought it up to my parents who were immediately alarmed, and wasted no time in warning me to not try to investigate it and to look out for my siblings. The latter was a given, I would always look out for them and spent the majority of my time doing so while my parents worked.

My mom was a medical doctor who got a cushy gig at the town's hospital while my dad did 'research.' An interesting change of career for him when he used to be in a band.

Back to the present, I was in the bathroom getting ready for my first day when my phone went off. Checking the screen I saw I had unread messages from Sal.

Sally Face: me n lar will meet u in front of the school, we'll help u find ur classes

Me: awesome! ill see u goofs in a bit!

Shoving my phone in my jean pocket, I looked back towards the mirror. My hair was a mess, more-so than usual, of brown knots. Random blonde tufts stuck out at the ends of my hair. I had been fighting with it the past five minutes, my hairbrush stuck in a particularly feisty group of knots.

Fuck.

Deciding to ignore it for now, I washed my face and brushed my teeth. Gazing at my reflection I looked otherwise normal and not too sleep deprived. There were still some dark circles under my eyes but at this point it added to my look.

My lips twitched as I stared into my eyes, the focal point of the insults I tended to receive. I had heterochromia iridum. Both my mom and dad insisted it made me unique but I had a feeling it was more from what I was than a simple genetic mutation. My left eye was a pleasant almost vibrant green, what I assumed would have been my natural eye color.

My right eye however was like a kaleidoscope of brown and gold. If it was just the amber shades it would be fine, but it was the way my eyes reacted to light and dark that scared other kids when I was growing up.

We tried to play it off as an effect of the condition that I had, or a trick of the lighting like when your eyes shine in polaroid photos. But to a lot of people it was still unnerving, and to me it was just another reminder that I wasn't exactly human.

Sal and Larry hadn't commented on it, which was a nice change. On occasion there would be the odd compliment but it felt nice to not have aspects of my appearance scrutinized or asked about.

I patted my face and took a deep breath. "Time to sort this mane out." I muttered, voice monotone.

—

After lots of blood, sweat, tears, and texturizing taffy later my hair had been somewhat tamed. I was dressed in old baggy jeans, the bottoms folded into cuffs showing my black converse high tops. My 'Alice In Chains' shirt was half tucked into my jeans, and I put on one of my dad's old Dickies' work flannels.