John
I return to school the next day after puking. I’m lucky no one saw me. If someone had seen, my reputation would be in the garbage with my vomit. So I act as though I’d never even been sick. I hadn’t even felt sick after I threw up. The day I get back, I resume hanging out with Kasey and Krissy after school. When they first see me they cheer. “Ooh! John is back!” Kasey cheers happily. “Yay!” Krissy shouts. “Hello girls.” I say casually. We walk over to the shared wing between the middle and high school. In the shared wing, there are stone benches and walls. It’s just a place to chill after school or between classes. “So why were you out?” Krissy asks as she sits down on a stone bench. “I didn’t feel like going to school.” I say quickly and casually. It’s true. They don’t need to know I puked. I sit down beside Krissy. She pulls my arm and flings it around her shoulder as if it’s a scarf. Kasey sits on the other side of me and does the same. Surrounded by pretty girls. Lucky me!
We spend the afternoon chatting until Kasey and Krissy walk home. I stick around again and go back to my locker to get my jacket. While I’m standing by my locker, a freshman boy comes up to me. “Um . . . hi.” I say awkwardly. “Hi.” He mutters sharply. I look down at him. He’s short with a big head. He has thick, brown hair that’s pushed back. His big, hazel eyes take up most of his face. His shirt looks too big and loose on him making him look even smaller. The fabric of his collar is stretched out like it’s been yanked. “Can I help you?” I ask. He looks around. “Hello? Do you speak English?” I don’t have time for this. Out of nowhere, he punches me in the face. For no reason at all! “What the fuck is your problem!” I scream at him. I stare at him shocked as a change overcomes him. He gets an eerie yellow glow. His ears stretch and look like an elf’s. He pulls out some kind of mace. It looks like two spiky balls connected by a chain. I stand too shocked for words. Why is this kid so mad? How did he just turn into what he did? He swings his spiky balls around like a lasso. “Who the fuck are you? What’s going on?” I demand. “I’m Matt.” He snaps. He swings his balls at my face. The spikes sink into the skin of my forehead. In one swift motion, he yanks the spikes out of my head. I feel blood trickle down my forehead.
Matt stares at me his mouth open. “What?” I snap angrily wondering if my injury was that bad. “Um . . .” he says looking up at me. I look at my hands in shock. They are now covered by green gloves. My shirt is covered in green and yellow snake scales. My pants are green and shiny. It’s like one of those dreams where you go somewhere naked or in your pajamas. I look at my shiny gray locker to see the most dramatic change is my hair. Instead of its usual dull black, it’s blue with green streaks. What happened to me? I stare at Matt wondering what he has to with all this. “You little bitch. What’s happening to me?” I demand. “I dunno. I didn’t do anything.” He says in shock. Before I can react, he lifts his leg and kicks me right in the balls. I double over. He runs at me but I stop him. I shove him against the lockers. He steps back from me his nose gushing blood. He looks scared now. I punch him hard in the eye. “Ow!” he yelps covering his eyes.
The air around him begins to wave and move. He disappears through the air. I dash to the boys’ room to look at myself. My turquoise hair, vivid green eyes and snake scales. I don’t understand what happened to me. I look at the damage Matt’s mace did. There are three bloody scratches on my forehead. I can hide them. I don’t know who Matt is and why he attacked me. I know I’ll try to forget all this and act like it never happened. I’ll convince myself it’s all a dream. But right now, I know it’s not. Everything feels too real.
