Call Me Echo

Normal Students are...Normal.

There I was once more, I was so nervous I was making myself sick, stomach tied in knots, on a little, gently rocking boat in a big ocean. I pulled out my phone from my back pocket as an attempt to entertain myself, only to make me feel sicker. I suppose my battery was pretty drained anyway... I thought, shoving it back into my pocket.

I had no idea what to expect. Apparently, according to what the staff had announced yesterday morning, our schedules wouldn't change, except for our curfew would be moved to midnight, as we would have until then to dispose of as many monsters as possible.

Similar to how it was back on our desolate little island, the students at this temporary location were assigned to "study groups" of 5 to 6 students. However, there were more periods in their school day, so we would simply be dismissed to our dorms early. We were sharing the dorms with our partnered study groups, divided into girls and boys of course.

Upon arriving at the new island, abnormal group thirteen was partnered with the normal group thirteen, and pairings of the sort remained consistent.

Just as the dorm assignments were being finished, it began to rain, soon pouring, making loud pattering noises on the roof of the auditorium. I found the noise soothing, like the pattering of many little feet on the roof, rushing to accomplish tedious tasks.

All of the students steadily filed out of the auditorium, those who had rain jackets hurriedly pulled them on, those with umbrellas opened them as soon as they stepped outside.

I stumbled outside, my shoes sinking into the soggy ground, causing water and mud to soak into my socks, making muffled squelching noises as I walked. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt on as an effort to ease my struggle against the falling droplets. Trudging across campus, I removed my sunglasses, seeing as it was raining, and squinted my eyes against the water.

As I stared into the distance, my eyes fighting the rain, trying to locate my dorm, I was pushed, hard, by a force I did not recognize. I was sent tumbling into the mud with a sickening noise of impact. I gingerly put a hand to my face and pulled it away; blood stained my fingertips, most likely coming from a cut that I could feel above my eyebrow.

I looked up. Standing above me was none other than Calcifer, the boy that wouldn't stop pestering me with flirtatious nonsense no more than a few days ago. I stared at him for a moment, curious as to why he possibly felt the need to assault me. Suddenly, it hit me. Just a few days ago, immediately before I had used my abilities to their full extent, I had slapped him, hard. I had done the same thing to him as he had just done to me.

I didn't bother trying to stand, I simply stared up as him as he knelt down to my level.

He looked me up and down, a fierce hunger in his eyes, and then he snatched the collar of my shirt and used it to lift me off the ground. I didn't struggle or squirm, I just looked at him, wearily, unmoving.

He shot me a threatening glare, and, narrowing his eyes, he ordered, "date me or die." I didn't nod or shake my head, I didn't move at all. I had lost my will. Not willing to fight him, I just looked down, surrendering. He lowered me until my feet touched the ground, and I took the first chance I had to run as fast as I could and get away from him.

I sprinted as fast as I could to my temporary dorm, winding my way in between other dorms to make it harder for Calcifer to follow me. I slammed into the door with my shoulder and it swung open, sending me tumbling to the ground inside. I stumbled to my feet and slammed the door shut by falling backwards into it as hard as I could. I slid to the ground against the door and stayed there, holding the door shut, until the violent footsteps I had heard were nothing but distant echoes.

I sighed in relief and rose to my feet, only to be met with an awkward stare from a short girl with long brown hair in two ponytails and rosy cheeks. She looked WAY too young to be in high school, but who am I to judge?

The girl must've been my age, she couldn't possibly have been any older. She stood there staring at me for quite a while, before stuttering, "umm...K-Kristine wanted me..t-to uh...let you know s-she's at a party..."

I pulled my hood back, revealing my face, which I can assume still had blood on it by the way this girl was staring at me. I just looked at her, expecting an introduction. When she didn't continue, I cocked my head to the side slightly as if to say; and you are?

Finally understanding, she said, "Oh! Um...I'm, uh, I'm Mary Jane. But you can call me Mary. What's your name?" I simply shook my head in response and wiped some of the blood from my face. Still seemingly confused, she simply asked, "do you want some help cleaning that up?" I nodded. This was going to be interesting.