New Cat in Town | Night Cat #0.5

New Cat in Town - Chapter 5

Lunch Break Recognition

The new schedule the principal’s secretary had given me informed me that I had American History first period. Another hour of sleeping, in other words. I tried to ignore the whispers that circled around me as I tried to make my way to my locker.

“Who’s the new kid?” I heard a high pitched preppy voice whisper from behind me and tried to ignore the conversation that was about to ensue. Unfortunately for me, my Werecat hearing made that a slightly difficult task.

“Not sure,” another voice answered, sounding thoughtful. “He’s cute. I’ll ask Brad to find out.”

Rolling my eyes, I shut my locker door and headed off in the direction of my American History class, pretending to be oblivious to the cheerleaders’ conversation – immediately walking past another group of people that were talking about me. I sighed. I never had to go through this at my old school.

American History had gone just how I’d expected, and I slept through most of it. When the bell rang an hour later and I tried to find my next class – Algebra – the conversation in the hallways was more or less the same. Except for the fact that, since my first period teacher had introduced me to the class, my name had started to spread.

“His name’s Xander,” I heard one girl tell another, both of them eyeing me as I passed them. “Or was it Sandler? Sarah kind of mumbles.”

Algebra was only slightly more interesting than American History and – luckily – my teacher didn’t bother with introductions. I moved to sit at the back of the class, in the empty seat beside a short, sandy haired boy that, at the end of the class, introduced himself as Brad Fuller, the captain of the basketball team.

Brad. Was this the same Brad that the girl from the hallway had mentioned? Judging by his interest in me, I assumed he was. I couldn’t tell if his interest was genuine or not. For all I knew, the only reason he was talking to me was because that girl has asked him to.

He turned out to be an alright dude and introduced me to a few more of his teammates during fourth period physics, which we had together. By lunch, I was well acquainted with the entire team and had been asked to come to try-outs on Friday. They were looking for a new small forward and, as it just so happened, I was the point guard back in my old school. Having enhanced Werecat senses made me quicker than most when in human form and gave me excellent reflexes.

“What happened to the old one?” I asked one of the boys, Kevin something, as we walked to the cafeteria. He was probably the shortest out of our group, with muscles that made him look stocky in comparison to the rest of us, even though he wasn’t. My instincts told me he was the point guard.

Kevin shrugged. “Dunno man,” he said, shooting a careful glance at Brad. “He just disappeared one day. Didn’t come back from a camping trip with his dad and uncle. No one knows what happened.”

“The sheriff found a few, um, body parts a couple miles from where they were supposed to be camping,” Brad told me, face grim. “But no news yet whether it was Phil and his folks or not.”

I assumed Phil was the missing small forward.

“God,” I said. “What do they think did that, at least?”

“Bears,” Kevin answered as we stepped into the cafeteria. “There were a couple attacks a few years ago, and then they kinda stopped. The sheriff thinks they might be getting agitated again.”

The rest of the boys nodded their heads sadly. It couldn’t have been fun having to entertain the idea that a friend and teammate had been mauled to death by a wild animal.