One For The Road

Chapter Two

I didn't encounter Heidi again until the end of the day, after the final bell.

We crossed paths in the hallway, and when she realized I was the person who she'd passed, she turned around and started following me. I nodded to acknowledge her presence, leading her to my locker so I could put my books away.

"I wanted to thank you for sticking up for me," she said quietly, leaning against the locker next to mine. "People don't normally do that kind of thing for me. I appreciate it."

"I didn't say anything that wasn't true." I closed my locker. As I walked down the hall, she followed me. "It's pretty cool that you're so smart for someone your age, and you don't deserve to be treated badly for it. And I'm sure you have more common sense than that other guy will ever have."

"About that," she countered. "The boy? His name is Jacob." She hesitated. "Can you hold up during a fight?"

I snorted in spite of myself. I'd had my fair share of bullies before moving here. "Yeah. Does he think he's tough, too?"

"He's stronger than any other student I've met. Just be careful if he ever tries to give you trouble, okay?"

"Thanks for the warning."

"Thanks for having my back."

With that, she left just as quickly as she'd appeared. I smiled a little. She seemed to be a sweet girl.

My smile disappeared quickly when I saw Jacob making a beeline down the hall, staring menacingly at me. Oh boy. I knew I'd be dealing with temper tantrums occasionally, but I didn't know they'd start on the first day of my Ledgewood career.

"Can I help you?" I asked boredly as he approached.

"Just wondering if you have any more degrading comments before I beat you up."

I actually laughed as I closed my locker. "You're going to beat me up?"

"Of course I am." He said it like there was no choice in the matter.

"I don't think you have a reason to beat me up, nor the skills to do it." I started walking away, but he pressed his arm to my chest and slammed me against the locker, glaring at me.

"I could fight ten times better than you," he growled. He snorted as a new thought came to his mind, which, let's be honest here, wasn't probably all too full before. "You're probably too gay to actually know how to fight like a man," he sneered. My face went blank for a second, and then anger roared through me.

"Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I know how to fight," I said calmly before punching him square in the face.

Alarms blared angrily in my head. It was true that I was gay. I had known for years. But I didn't want to come out like that. Especially not to this guy.

"Leave me alone," I growled before turning on my heel and walking away. I could feel fangs protruding at my lips, and I knew I'd gotten too angry too quickly.

Being part leopard came with advantages and disadvantages.

"Did you just punch Jason Krotz in the face?" Just appeared next to me, and I could barely stifle a groan. I was attracting too much unwanted attention for the first day. My goal had been to remain unseen for as long as possible, but that was long gone.

"I guess I did," I replied, not trying to hide the annoyance in my voice. Just must have picked up on it because he backed off, silently walking one step behind me.

We parted ways as we walked to our cars so we could head home. I appreciated the quiet that enveloped me as I sat in my car, waiting for a moment before starting the engine and making my way home.

It wasn't too long of a drive, so I arrived at home fairly quickly. As usual, my mom wasn't home when I arrived. Jenna Henderson was a very busy woman who loved her children, but didn't have the time or money to spend much time with us. I was used to it, though, and she made up for it with long phone calls during some work days and leaving us dinner to heat up instead of forcing us to eat takeout every night. She was gone before I left for school in the morning, so most days she cooked something quick for us before leaving for work. We could hear it up whenever we wanted dinner.

I was fine with this. My dad had left us when I was nine years old, right before my brother, Kaleb, was born. I still felt sick over the fact that my mom didn't have anyone else to turn to when Kaleb was born, so I was the one who had to help her. As a nine year old. Now, Mom spent most of her life away from us, and I resented my father for it. But there was nothing I could do.

What I hated the most about the situation was hat Kaleb had to deal with living without any parents, basically. He was always cheerful, though. Even now, I could feel myself smiling as he scrambled into the kitchen to meet me when I got home.

"Hi, Kaleb," I greeted him. "How was your first day?"

"Good," he replied in a cheerful voice. "My classmates are nice. Did you make any friends?"

I thought back to Just and Heidi and decided it would be better to tell him I did have friends so he wouldn't try to find them for me. "Yeah," I said. "I made a few."

"Awesome." He gave me a toothy grin, and I smiled back.

"Was everyone nice?" he asked.

"Yeah." Almost.

"Cool." He paused. "Can you call Mom so I can talk to her?"

"Of course I can." I pulled my phone out of my bag and dialed mom's number before handing it to Kaleb, and he skipped out of the room in all of his adorable seven-year-old glory. My heart melted for him.

If anyone had anything bad to say about him, they could come to me.

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HOO BOIIII

I actually updated within the same week yaaaay