Wrong dose

Chapter 16 (Jake)

Since he had English right after lunch, Jake decided he might as well go to Mr. Miller's room a couple of minutes early. That way he would be with someone, and it would decrease his chances of being found by the scientists.
As he hurried down the hall, Jake's thoughts traveled to Skylar. Was she alright? Had the scientists found her? She hadn't texted him since the beginning of lunch, so he assumed that meant nothing had happened, but he couldn't be sure. A small knot of worry gnawed at his stomach at the thought.
Though Skylar was more than capable of defending herself, he had begun to feel a bit protective of her. Their bond as siblings had strengthened exponentially over the past few days. Jake wondered how his life would have been if Skylar hadn't moved to his state and attended his school.
Jake's steps echoed almost gloomily in the empty halls. When he was about to round the corner to Mr. Miller's classroom, he was jerked back by a brutal yank on his shirt.
Petrified, Jake slowly turned around, completely unsurprised when he looked up into the eyes of his personal bully, Benjamin. In fact, it was strange that he hadn't tried to attack Jake for such a long period of time.
So Jake supposed he was here to make up for all those long, beating-free days.  He knew that never getting bullied again was too good to be true. Besides, it didn't take a person with intelligence superpowers to figure out that only reason the bullying had stopped was because Skylar was always by his side. Without her, everything would come back to normal. It made Jake realize how much he depended on Skylar. He hated to admit it, but she was the only person who he had let himself be vulnerable in front of,  for whom he had let down his indifferent mask to reveal the scared, scrawny, useless boy he was on the inside. He had gotten too used to being with her, and had assumed that he would always be safe because of that. But now that Skylar wasn't here to protect him, what would happen?
That was what Ben asked him seconds later, as well. His voice was low and chilling, and  all of the pain from Jake's injuries inflicted by him last time flashed before his eyes.
"So," whispered Ben in Jake's ear, his putrid breath making Jake shiver, "That time in the locker rooms was fun, wasn't it?"
Jake's lips were frozen together. He just stared at Ben dumbly, his pulse beating furiously in his ears being the only sound he heard. His eyes danced madly down the long hallway, trying to find any way of escape, but to no avail. Jake's eyes filled with tears that threatened to spill over at any moment.
Would he be sent to the hospital again?
"Answer me, cripple!" hissed Ben, aiming a punch to his face, which Jake miraculously managed to dodge.
But the miss angered Ben. Jake slowly edged away from his bully as he watched Ben's eyes light up with an oh-so-familiar mad glint.  As Ben lunged once more, Jake knew he was a goner.

It would always be like this, he thought bitterly as Ben landed his first hit, he would always be powerless and unable to defend himself. The bullying would never end. Jake cringed away from Ben as he prepared to launch a new attack on him. He closed his eyes, tensing his muscles, awaiting the pain that would undoubtedly come.
But it never did.
Tentatively, Jake opened his eyes a crack, just in time to see Ben's eyes widen momentarily before scurrying down the hall, soon disappearing from his sight.

The ominous silence of the hallway was broken by the click-clacking of two sets of footsteps as they advanced toward Jake. Upon hearing that sound, Jake tensed again, a different fear filling him to the brim. Just when one threat had left, another one came to replace it, he thought ruefully. His enhanced intelligence had already presented him with a list of theories as to who the footsteps might belong to, and the most likely hypothesis was that it was the scientists. Knowing he had only seconds until he would have to turn and show the strangers his face, Jake made a snap decision. Almost unconsciously, he quickly grasped his hood and pulled it over his head, lowering as close to his eyes as possible. Jake's  body somehow knew what to do, because he found himself taking strands of his blond hair and overlapping them over his right eye. That way, his bright green eye would be concealed from view.
He was just in time.

One of the strangers cleared their throat, an obvious signal for Jake to turn around, which he did.
He looked up to see two adults, a man and a woman. Immediately, alarms went off in his head. They looked normal enough at first glance, but Jake distinctly felt an aura of danger around them. His gut clenched unpleasantly–he was almost positive these were the scientists.
The couple was dressed in the classic businesspeople attire.
The woman was wearing a white, flowy blouse that was neatly tucked into a black, knee-length skirt. Her legs were clad in beige tights and at her feet was a pair of black pumps, polished to perfection. She also carried a large brown handbag. But that wasn't what worried Jake. The woman's facial features were almost completely concealed. She was wearing a scarf that wound around her neck several times, covering her face from the mouth down. Her eyes were hidden behind a humongous pair of black sunglasses, and on her head was a black, wide-rimmed hat that made it impossible to see her hair and cast a blanket of darkness over her forehead. All in all, the only feature Jake could see distinctly was her nose.

The man was dressed in a similar fashion. He wore crisp, black pants, and shiny shoes of the same color. His upper body was clad in a white dress shirt and black business jacket, completely free of wrinkles. His right hand was clutching a briefcase, as shiny as the rest of his outfit. Again, the man's face was hidden from Jake's view in the same manner as the woman. The collar on the man's jacket was pulled up to mask his mouth and part of his nose. He too wore a pair of large sunglasses which not only covered his eyes, but also part of his brow. The man wore no hat, so Jake could tell his brown hair was cropped relatively close to his head, and was streaked with gray. 

"Hello, young man," began the woman, "Since lunch is still going on, would you mind if we asked you a few quick questions?"
Jake quickly nodded, knowing he had no other choice.
Any last vestiges of skepticism he might have had about the couple's identity were erased at those words. The was no doubt these were the scientists. One mishap, and they would find out his real identity. He couldn't let that happen–it would be the end of him.
With that in mind, Jake quickly ducked into the classroom the man had signaled him to enter.
Jake quickly took a seat on a chair as close to the door as possible. You never know what could happen, he thought. The two scientists sat down in two chairs opposite of him.
Nobody had bothered to turn on the lights, which gave the room an even more sinister atmosphere. The man and woman hadn't even started asking questions, and already Jake's hands were shaking from nerves.
Just get on with this already! He thought as he watched the man fumble in his briefcase.

The man finally set a large packet of papers on the desk in front of him. Jake was hit by another wave of apprehension as he realized that those papers had to be the list of names of every student who attended the school. The rumors had been correct.

Clearing his throat again, the man said, "Alright, could you please tell us your name?"
Of course, Jake had his reply at the ready. "I'm Benjamin Moore," he answered quickly.

The man nodded, and opened the packet, flipping through pages until he found the name, or at least, that was what Jake assumed. He held his breath for an agonizing second, desperately hoping Ben hadn't been interrogated.
Jake finally blew out his breath as he watched the man mark something on the paper.
"Thank you," said the man, "And if you don't mind, could you please tell us whether you were adopted?"
Of course, Jake did mind, but he wasn't about to tell the scientists that.
"No, I wasn't adopted," he said instead.

The man and the woman glanced at each other, and after a moment, the woman clasped her hands in front of her with a sense of finality.
Jake silently observed her. Though he could barely see any of her face, she seemed oddly familiar to him. She definitely reminded him of someone, but he couldn't quite put a finger on the person's identity. The answer eluded his grasp, and that frustrated Jake.

"And I think that will be all," said the woman, getting up and retrieving her handbag from her desk. "Thank you for your time."
Jake mumbled an incoherent reply before grabbing his backpack off the floor and exiting the room as fast as he could without seeming too eager.

But maybe if he had turned around once more, he would have seen the man mutter something to the woman. He might have seen the woman take her phone out of the handbag and snap a picture of Jake's profile as he left.
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And that's another chapter! What do you think will happen next?
Again sorry for not updating earlier. I am currently on spring break, with crappy wifi :/
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. don't forget to vote and comment!