Turned To Stone

Chapter 1 - Connor

Connor could feel the judgmental stares before he even entered the school building. He was not looking forward to senior year, and he wished his mom had just let him stay home.

She usually didn't put up much of a fight when he wanted something.

That wasn't to say that Connor was a spoiled brat, Cynthia Murphy was just terrified of him.

"You've got to go at some point."

He brushed his hair away from his ear in irritation, digging a large beanie out of his bookbag. "Oh yeah, that's just what I need, a little voice in my head all day. Go to sleep."

A soft, hissing laugh floated out from behind him, then silence. Connor pulled the beanie over his hair carefully, making sure to disturb his companions as little as possible.

Two girls with wings, one of a bird and one of a bat, ran past him. They were giggling and whispering to each other. Connor sighed and looked up at the sign above the front doors of the school.

'Ma-jinn School for Mythical Lives' it proclaimed proudly. The sign tacked to the front doors added 'All Welcome!'

Connor snorted derisively. Yeah. All welcome. Except for him.

He didn't blame people for being scared of him. He was one of the rarest and most dangerous creatures in all known myths.

And of course, gorgons didn't have friends.

The circumstances that created a gorgon were strange and specific. A baby had to be born to a redhead via all natural birth on a blood moon, the first child of a family with Greek ancestry, on the date of death of another gorgon.

Connor knew it was selfish to wish his mother pain, but sometimes he wished that her labor had lasted a few minutes longer. He'd been born two minutes before midnight. So close to safety.

But no.

It hadn't been obvious immediately. The doctors just assumed that the scaly material on his head was a bad case of cradle cap. But closer inspection had revealed that the scales were part of him in a very different way.

A mytho-physician had been consulted, and had informed his parents that his petrification powers would not develop until his snakes came in. Connor always thought it sounded like a dentist talking about someone's adult teeth.

He had grown his first snake when he was 6, a month or so after losing his first tooth. It was a terrifying experience, waking up with something hissing in your ear. Like a human baby, Connor's snakes hadn't been able to talk when they first grew, and he didn't communicate with them until he was 10.

His first year of high school, Connor accidentally petrified a stray cat in their front yard. He'd never heard his mother scream so loudly. He tried everything to cover his eyes, from sunglasses to scarves. Nothing worked. His parents had begun to carry a petrification remedy, and constantly told him to keep his head down.

It wasn't until he petrified Zoe once that they stopped trying to connect with him and just started avoiding him. Connor became a loner, even in his own house. 

At school it was even worse. He lost count of the amount of times Jared Kleinman had made fun of him.

That was the all-time low. Jared had maybe three friends. If he made fun of you, you were the definition of a loser.

Connor rolled his eyes each time he noticed someone flinching away from him. One of his little snakes had slipped loose from the beanie and was hissing balefully at anyone who happened to glance in their general direction.

"Wallace, stop." Connor tucked him under the hat again.

Yes, he'd named all of them. With the least threatening names he could think of.

"All hail the Dandruff King!"

One time. One time his snakes had molted at school. And this literal four-eyed nerd was never going to let it go.

Jared Kleinman was the absolute bane of his existence.

The shorter boy quickly averted his eyes when Connor whipped around to glare at him. That was pretty normal. Everyone knew that was the first rule of being around him.

He hissed, just for the heck of it. Jared went pale, all of his eyes going wide, and scurried off.

"That's what I thought." He muttered. The first bell rang, signalling class was going to start soon. Connor shifted his bookbag on his shoulder and started in the direction of his first class.

He ate lunch in the library, since it was quieter and less people were there. Zoe was somewhere with a petrification remedy, but she and Connor had gotten into an argument before school and he'd turned her to stone again, so she wouldn't be very inclined to help him get out of detention.

Yes, it had been on purpose that time.

Connor was so focused on watching his feet as he walked, that he straight up ran into someone.

"Oh gosh I'm so- I'm so so sorry, are- are you okay? I didn't- I didn't mean to run into- into you, I should- I should have been watching-" Connor could barely comprehend what the kid was saying, he was speaking so fast. And he had a stammer.

He climbed to his feet slowly, rubbing his forehead. "Ow..."

"I didn't hurt you-hurt you did I?"

Connor looked up. "Not really, I-"

His heart leapt into his throat.

The boy in front of him was completely stone.

For a half second of complete panic, Connor thought he'd petrified the poor kid, but then he was talking again, almost too fast to comprehend. "I'm really- really sorry, I try to be careful- I try, I know I- I can hurt people pretty easily."

"What are you?" Manners were completely out the window. Connor was very confused. This boy was... made of stone?

"Oh I'm a gargoyle! I'm new, I'm-I'm a senior. We're pretty rare- pretty rare, in the mythical world. And you're- you're a gorgon, right?"

"Yeah." He said flatly.

Gargoyle-boy nodded quickly and stood there for a second, then he was off again. "Oh I'm Evan, hi. And you must- you must be Connor- oh geez, you didn't- you didn't introduce yourself I must- I must seem like such a creep I'm sorry, just- just Jared was telling me about- about you- I figured that I could talk-could talk to you since I'm y'know- sorry, that was weird though- I should have- should have let you introduce yourself, sorry-"

Connor interrupted him. "You say that a lot."

Evan flushed faintly, and Connor wondered idly how that was possible with a being made of stone. Did he have lava in him instead of blood?

"Yeah, I'm sorry- sorry, It's probably annoying- sorry-"

"Dude. Stop."

[A/N I'm using writing tips to write Evan's stammer, is it believable or too much? I've never actually talked to someone that I can remember they had a stammer. Credits for AU and idea are in the description of the story. Enjoy!]