Tiger's Eye - Book 1

Chapter 9

Book 1: Tiger's Eye

Book 2: Concealment

Book 3: Ignited

Chapter 9

"Okay," our history teacher began, "We're starting a new topic today that goes along with our previous topic. What is it that we've been studying?"

A preppy girl named Alice in the front row raises her hand and the teacher calls on her as if he does not realize she's the only one raising her hand. "We've been talking about countries, new and extinct," she said.

I looked over at the others who were already looking at each other. I got another weird feeling. I agree Pilote thought to me. What's going on? I thought back to him. I don't know he thought back. They can't possibly know anything about the Tigmas. Even if they did, why would they bring it up now? It's not on any high school curriculum.

"Say nothing," Pilote mouthed to everyone. We all nodded and the teacher continued. "Good and what's the most famous extinct country? And why don't people know about it?" he asked.

The same girl as before raised her hand and the teacher rolled his eyes, but still called on her. He only called on her because he knew no one else in class would answer. "Tigma," she said which made us look at each other again. Our eyes got bigger but we tried to keep our cool and listen. It can't be a coincidence that he would bring it up shortly after we arrive. Somehow they found out about us. There are only 10 of us in the real world and I cannot imagine any of us betraying each other, but nobody else knew our plan to go to a public school.

"We destroyed and erased them from the history books. Our country didn't want the world knowing how cruel we were or what they were," Alice continued.

"Correct!" the teacher exclaimed. "Although we don't know much we do know they were different. We felt threatened by them and couldn't handle competing with them. We were afraid of them and wanted them dead."

The rest of the class time the teacher lectured and the same girl answered all of the questions. The bad feeling I got kept getting worse. The human world thought we were the bad guys. Not us personally, but the Tigmas in general. The human world thinks the Tigmas tried to rule the world. We walked out of class and went to lunch, carrying our trays, and meeting Jasmine, Carlot and Selma. Our table sat away from the others allowing us to talk. The only time we got to spend together during school was at lunch because every other time we separated into our groups. I sat next to Jasmine and Pilote. Before we ate, Jasmine and I spoke up. "Was your guys' day as weird as mine?" Jasmine asked.

"You too?" I asked. "We spent our entire history class talking about Tigmas."

"What?!" Jasmine, Selma and Carlot yelled in surprise.

"Yeah, it was bizarre," Teegan said and the rest of us all agreed.

"I think they knew," Vince said.

"How is that possible?" Layal asked.

"Wait," I said, "What weird thing happened to you?"

"We had English," Jasmine said, "And we had to write a paper about Tigmas and Silthras. The teacher wouldn't stop staring at us. I left my paper blank. I figured if he asked I could say I'm new and I never learned about them."

"They know," Seth said, "They have to."

"Why else would they all bring it up?" Selma asked. "Tigma isn't a popular subject taught in public schools today. They act as if they saw us coming ahead of time."