Mute
Nothing makes sense! I turned into a bat! How does that happen? I don’t tell anyone. I don’t even have anyone to tell. I avoid Nick for the most part but I’m not scared of him. Part of me wants to ask him what happened but he doesn’t want to talk. He wants to fight. I keep replaying what happened in my mind. My grades begin to drop slightly. I can’t stop thinking about it. And I don’t want to until it makes sense. I continue to roam the hall after school. I notice a bond forming. Five kids named Rose, Hunter, John, Krys and Jenny have been hanging out. Their new friendship interests me. They don’t share too much in common. Rose is a sweet goody-good. She seems pretty insecure. Especially about that fact she looks way younger than she is. She’s sixteen but she looks thirteen. She’s in my grade but we don’t share any classes.
Hunter is an immature twelve year old. He short and pudgy. He does dumb things around school with his best friend Steve. John is still a flirt. He still hangs out with Kasey and Krissy just not as much. Krys is tomboy. She seems confident and tough. She’s tall and pretty. Jenny is just really energetic and talks to random people. They have nothing in common so I don’t see why they bother socializing. I don’t really care though. They may end up having a fight. One day, I’m hanging out near them when Nick comes up to me. “Hey stalker.” He taunts. This time, he’s leading his followers. This relieves me a little. He doesn’t seem to want to become that monster in front of his friends. “I’m not a stalker.” I say calmly. “Yeah okay.” Jared says sarcastically. I lower my eyebrows. They wouldn’t beat me up here. There are people everywhere. I bite my lip. “What do you want?” I demand. “To beat the shit out of you.” Jared says softly. “Leave him alone!” a high pitched voice shouts. I look to see Jenny came to defend me along with her group of friends. “What are you gonna do about it you little freak?” Jared taunts. I feel a surge of gratitude for her defending me. She knows she’ll get made fun of but she does anyway.
“Shut up.” Jenny says fiercely. “Yeah Nick! I thought you were above beating up random people just cause you’re a sadist.” Krys sneers. “Shut it bitch.” Nick mutters. “C’mon. I don’t want to spend another second near these bitches.” Nick says his eyes shifting around. He walks off followed by his posse. I look at the group. They were nice to stick up for me. No one really bothers defending each other anymore. “Thanks.” I mumble softly. “No problem.” Rose says happily. She thinks for a second. “Has anything weird happened to you lately?” she asks casually. I raise one eyebrow. Her friends look at her confused. “No . . . not really.” I wonder if she knows I turned into a bat. “You sure?” she persists. “No. Quit stalking me.” I reply annoyed. I don’t want to hurt her but I can’t let her find out about me turning into a bat. “Sorry.” She mumbles her face turning red. She walks off with her friends.
A few days later I’m after school again. I walk around in random hallways. I begin to wish I had some friends I could hang out with. But friends are a waste of time. In the end, I’d lose all my high school friends and have to make new ones in college. “Hey Mute.” A voice taunts. I whirl around to see Nick. I realize he’s not with his friends again. This means he probably wants to fight me with his powers again. “Get away from me you freak!” I shout backing away from him. For a moment, I catch hurt in his eyes but he shakes it off. “Don’t call me a freak. It’s not my fault I . . .” He doesn’t finish. “What?” I ask suspiciously. “Never mind.” He says. The same orange glow surrounds him and his ears grow again. “Shoot.” I mumble. I have no idea how to transform again and defend myself. I see myself with no choice. I take off. I sprint down random hallways trying to outrun him. I don’t dare look over my shoulder to see if he’s chasing me. I run forward until I’m stopped by a ripple of air. It’s the same one Nick used at our last fight. He emerges from his portal and grabs my shirt. “Don’t try to run.” He growls.
“I’ll bet you wish you had your shitty bat powers now.” He teases. “Get the fuck off him!” a voice yells. A beam of orange light hits Nick and he falls to the ground. I look to see the same group as before. Rose, Hunter, John, Krys and Jenny. But this time they look way different. They look like me. Rose has black cat ears and a tail. She’s wearing a pink and green striped dress. Hunter has tiger striped clothes and tiger ears and a tail. John’s shirt is made up of snake scales and he has shiny green pants. Krys has a blue and red feathered dress and bird wings. Jenny has a purple dress covered in red hearts and a lizard tail. I gawk at them amazed. “Take this and lift it up.” John commands tossing me a gray gem. I obediently lift it. A gray glow surrounds me. When it fades, my bat wings and ears are back. “That’s impossible! B.B said there were only five.” Hunter marvels. “Only five kids went to the nurse.” Rose adds. I look at them funny. “Who’s B.B?” I ask. “We’ll tell you later.” Krys says. Nick stands back up. “I should’ve known you little bitches would come back.” He murmurs taking out his knife.
I don’t know why but I hold out my hand. A beam of gray light shoots out of it and hits Nick. He falls over again. “Fuck you.” he says opening another portal. And then he’s gone. “So . . . what’s going on?” I ask. “Well there’s this stuff in the water fountain! And these glowing murderers and Le Café and . . .” Jenny begins eagerly but Rose covers her mouth. “Just follow us. We’ll tell you what happened.” She insists. I hesitate. I don’t really want any part in being some crazy bat that I am. But maybe these people can tell me why. So I follow them.
