Hunter
After being sent home by the seemingly evil nurse, I went back to school a few days later. It seems no one really missed me. But before I go to lunch, Katy stops at my locker. We don’t talk very much unless it’s for school or something. “Are you feeling better?” she asks. Her cheeks are pink. I think mine are too. “Yeah.” I croak. “Cool.” she mumbles. She looks at me like she’s about to say something else but she walks off. I watch her as she goes. I go to lunch with a red face. When I do, I discover Steve had taken to sitting with two girls I’ve never seen. I walk to my usual table. When I get there, I see Steve red-faced sitting across from the two girls. “Um . . . hi,” I say casually. I’ve seen these girls around but I just don’t know their names. “Hunter! You’re back!” he cheers jumping up and giving me a quick awkward hug. “This is May,” he says gesturing to a blond girl with bright green eyes. She is scrawny and skinny but pretty cute. I look to see Steve’s face glowing. Is he blushing? The girl next to May clears her throat. “Oh! And this is Krys.” He says pointing to the curly haired brunette. She has blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Her skin seems to sparkle when the light hits it. I know she is wearing make-up. But other than she is a complete tomboy. She has faded jeans and a gray t-shirt with a basketball on it. I sit down next to Steve and across from Krys. I notice she is really tall for a 7th grader. Taller than me and Steve and May. “So how are you today Barfy?” Krys asks. For someone I just met, she’s pretty rude. “I’m fine thank you.” I say annoyed. She laughs. “Relax. I’m just joking. Besides, isn’t Barfy a better name than Hunter?” she points out. I open my mouth to tell her off but I take a breath. “It probably is.” I mumble in defeat.
After school ends, I start walking to the bus to take me home. Before I make it to the bus, I run into Joe again. The same boy who teased me by the water fountain and is a well-known bully. I hate him. “Hello Hunter.” He says grinning cruelly. “Shut it fucker!” I snap. He scowls at me. “You little shit,” he growls angrily. “I’m little? Says the boy who’s only two feet tall.” I tease. It’s true. Joe’s really short and skinny. His tiny head is covered with short brown hair. It stands on a skinny neck that looks like it could collapse just from the weight of his head. His arms and legs are bony. He has one ear pierced. Joe scowls at me and grabs my hair. He yanks it and starts walking. To avoid extreme pain in my scalp, I follow him. He leads to the school’s parking lot. He releases my hair and shoves me down on the concrete. When my body hits the ground, I get a warm feeling. Joe’s eyes widen. “What?” I snap angrily looking up at him. He laughs at me. I turn and look in a nearby puddle and am shocked by what I see.
I see my reflection although it looks nothing like me. My hair has turned orange with lighter and darker streaks. I’m no longer wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt; I’m wearing a fuzzy shirt and shorts with tiger stripes on them. The weirdest thing is that I now have sprouted tiger ears and a tail! “Okay what the fuck?” I ask softly. Joe chuckles and I whirl around. “What’s going on?” I shout my voice cracking as I do. “I’m gonna beat the crap out of you, you little shit.” Joe says stepping toward me. I leap to my feet. “Oh yeah? How are you gonna beat a tiger?” I threaten. Although I’m still shocked by my transformation, I know I can sort out what happened later. Right now all I focus on is beating Joe. Although as I look at him he begins to change. He begins to get a soft red glow and big leaf-shaped ears. He yanks out a shiny, red gun and points it right at me.
“Is that real?” I ask timidly. “Why don’t you find out?” Joe offers fingering the trigger. Although his voice seems evil and merciless, I see he’s tightly clutching the gun. He holds it awkwardly at a distance as if it’s diseased. His eyes are big and wide. He looks scared. He looks innocent. His eyes shift around and he bites his lip. He doesn’t want to shoot me. I can tell. I quickly lurch forward and punch him in his stomach. I feel his ribs through his shirt. He falls onto the concrete dropping his gun. I kick it away from him. He crawls away from me and grabs his gun. Instead of pointing it at me again, he sits still. The air around him begins to ripple like water and he disappears. I stand with my mouth hanging open. “What . . . the . . . fuck?”
