Heart of Flame: Freshmen Year

Chapter 19

BEEP BEEP BEEP. I heard my alarm go off, which startled me. I slammed my fist on in, which both broke my alarm clock and my bedstand. My eyes widened when I saw the damage I had done, and I checked my fist to see why I hadn't felt that. To my surprise, I found out that my normally hardly seeable scales were starting to show themselves. I rubbed my hand, and I sighed, figuring that I couldn't really do anything to fix the alarm clock. I tried to cover the damage with a couple of volumes of Fairy Tail, and I figured that as long as no one looked too close, you can't really see it. I looked at my alarm clock, and not really knowing what else to do, I just threw it in my trash can, hoping that mom doesn't check there. Without a second thought, I got dressed in my usual t-shirt and jeans. When I was done, I walked downstairs.

Thankfully, the rest of the morning passed by without any more incidents. I just microwaved something for breakfast, gathered all of my stuff and went out the door. As I was walking, I put in my headphones and turned on my music so I didn't have to hear people whispering about me as I walked. As I neared the school, I hoped that people would leave me alone and that my friends would forgive me.

    Out of habit, as soon as I had walked into the doors of the school, I immediately went to the cafeteria. As usual, everyone was there. I took out my headphones and turned off my phone. "Hey, guys." I said, testing to make sure I was in everyone's good graces. "Sorcha! Thank god you're here! I would've thought that as soon as your dad saw you gone, he would've tried to kidnap you again!" Rhythm said, tackling me into a hug. "No, mom made sure dad got the message to leave me alone." I said, thankful that it wasn't possible for a human to squeeze me to death. "Well, that's good!" She said, finally letting me go. I looked at my other friends. Kyle and Carlos were still not looking at me, Nathan would occasionally look my direction, but as soon as I tried to make eye contact, I smelled a rush of fear from him and he would look down and away. Aiden was (unsurprisingly) still eating his breakfast, Ame was finishing up her homework, and Damian was keeping a very close eye on me. I even saw the flash of tranq darts hidden in his jacket, which made me a little mad at him. What did I do to make him lose trust in me to the point where he thought he had to carry tranq darts whenever I was around?

"Sorcha, you okay?" I heard Ame ask me. I was a little surprised by her question, and I just nodded. She gave me a sideways look like she didn't believe, but she went back to her homework. Few minutes later, the sound of the bell nearly murdered my ears. I even had to plug my ears to make sure I didn't lose my hearing. When the bell stopped ringing, I grabbed my bag and I left, not really wanting to hang out with them if they were afraid of me.

First period passed by without any real drama. Someone did leave me a note at my seat at the lab stations, taunting me and challenging me to a fight. Mr. Johnson was going to ask me to give it to him, but he was a little late and I burst the small piece of paper into golden flames, which thankfully didn't turn on the alarms. I saw a mixed look of fascination and horror spread across my teacher's face, but he dropped it and went along with the lesson.

    Second period passed, and I stayed as far away from Nathan and Aiden as possible without Ms. Nelthrope becoming suspicious. I still smelled fear radiating off of Nathan, and I thought it would probably just be weird if I hung around Aiden, since I still felt pretty guilty about what happened yesterday.

Third I just hated. While I was walking down the hallways, people kept on trying to trip me, pull on my hair and yank me by my backpack. A few even tried to challenge me to a fight, but I just ignored them and walked on. I enter Mr. Dennis' classroom, and I saw that almost no one was there. I sat in my usual seat up front, and I brought out my packet for the unit. Not long after, Ame walked in, and she sat next to me. I didn't say anything, and I didn't even really try to talk to her. She tried, though, and I would occasionally nod or let out a grunt of agreement, but I didn't actually talk to her. She saw I didn't want to talk, so she stopped and I saw her start a doodle on her packet.