Mutation

Prologue: How It All Started (Part 1)

Hazel

"Dude, scoot over!" I said, obviously frustrated with my best friend/enemy, Leo Esteban. Again, he has left me on the very edge of the bus seat, leaving me centimeters from falling in the aisle. The bus we ride is horribly overcrowded, so each person is three to a seat. It gets pretty annoying, especially when you're stuck sitting with Leo.

Leo smirked mischievously, scooting over the opposite way of which I told him to move. He laughed as I fell, and caught myself by gripping onto the bus seat. I rolled my eyes at him to show him that I didn't think he was funny. This is pretty much how mine and Leo's relationship works. We're always going to be best friends, and we help each other when we need someone to talk to or if one of us is failing a class at school. But at the same time, we despise one another.

So I did what I always did when I wanted him to apologize to me. I turned and faced the other direction, so he would see that I was ignoring him. Leo couldn't stand it when I did this, and usually gave up and said sorry to me. I could see him squirming in his seat from lack of conversation. He's kind of like a puppy because of the amount of attention he needs.

"Hazel, I'm sorry. Relax, it was just a joke." Leo pleaded. I wasn't quite done messing with him yet, though. He tried to get my attention again, this time, shaking my shoulder to get me to turn around and look at him. I tried my best to keep a straight face.

"Hazel," he sang in a sing-song voice. He kept repeating my name over and over again until I finally was about to slap him. Looks like he found my weakness. The continuous name-calling gave him a huge advantage, since I absolutely hated my name. This is only because my mother tortured me as a child, constantly saying how much she loved my name. She named me after my "stunning hazel eyes that can draw in eyes from thousands of miles away." (She's also a poetry freak, so most things she said were long and fancy-sounding with over-used vocabulary.) Pretty much summing it up, my mother is crazy. Don't even get me started from when she was pregnant with my twin brother and sister Cody and Maddie, who are six now....

My step-dad, Collin, has a nice job and all, and supports our family of five, but has severe anger issues and all that junk. About 5 years ago, Collin and my mother got into a huge fight that caused my mother to start popping anti-depressant pills. So, she spent about a year in rehab, and came home a poetry-obsessed, hippie-like, weirdo. Seriously, everything my mother says is either a quote from a dead poet or some random words that are at least six syllables long. During my mother's time in rehabilitation, I was forced to live with Collin and my siblings.

That's when I met Leo. I would always play outside as a kid, and one day, we had new neighbors move in. It happened to be Leo and his mother who just moved to America from Spain. I was ecstatic, since I was eight years old and loved meeting new friends. Leo and I met and then became partners in crime and best friends.

Anyways, back to reality. Bottom line, I hate my name. And Leo knows this and never stops saying it. My name is always in his mouth.

"Okay, fine. You win," I muttered. It really sucks when he wins these things. I guess we'll continue one of our regular quarrels tomorrow.

After a long fifteen minutes, the bus came to a stop. There was a massive traffic jam ahead of us. We were near the school campus entrance, but cars were lined up beyond the road where we needed to turn. The entire bus was prepared to stay there for a while. Not that I'm complaining. In fact, I was pretty satisfied with it. I smiled to myself in delight.

Five minutes past, and I could hear horns blaring from annoyed cars, and I saw the angry faces of people trying to get to work. The bus driver was clearly annoyed and was cursing like no one was around. Finally, she unbuckled her seat belt and turned around, facing all of us. That was never a good sign.