Abnormalities

(Lena's POV) Chapter Eight

Just like a good dream, Mason's birthday ended before my eyes. I honestly didn't think I could see him as happy as he was yesterday; he even smiled a couple times. He never smiles!!
This morning, I watched him waltz into English with a restful, content look on his face. Before the final bell rang, I walked over to his seat in the back and talked with him a bit.
"How are you feeling, Mason? You look like you slept well," I say quietly, resting my arms and head on his desk.
"Yeah, I was tired out from yesterday. I think I went to bed early last night," he responds.
"Hmm... so, I was wondering, since you're coming to the party Cameron's hosting, what do you think you'll be dressing up as?"
Mason taps his chin gently for a moment; "I don't know, honestly. I've never really liked celebrating Halloween."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Uh.... p-personal reasons," he stutters.
"Well, let's change that. Maybe we could go as a 'couple,' wearing matching outfits and all," I suggest, making quotation marks with my fingers.
"'Couple?' What kind of costume would you propose we'd wear?"
"Maybe we could go as pirates? I think you'd be rather dashing with an eye patch and a peg leg, haha!"
"Whatever you decide, I'm okay with. Just as long as we're not cutting off my leg."
I giggle; the bell rings and I head back to my seat. Class begins, and instead of focusing on Mrs. Canis's lecture about Shakespeare, I try imagining Mason in various costumes. On a little sticky note, I write down a few ideas:
Matching costume ideas
Pirates
Marvel heroes
Disney Princess/prince couple
Zombies
That one Korean dating sim MC + whatever dude he wants to be
I'll show this list to him during lunch, I think to myself, plastering the sticky note to the inside of my binder. Mrs. Canis dismisses the lecture and says the rest of class is independent work time, so I pull out a late assignment from Criminology and work on it for the rest of class.

At lunch, I go to sit at my normal table with Cam and Abigale, noticing that Mason isn't there.
"Hey, where's Mason? I wanted to talk out something with him," I ask them both, opening my lunch bag.
"He got a pass to leave school during lunch; I think he forgot to get food from home and went to a fast food place to pick something up," Cam states, showing me a string of texts from just a few minutes ago. I nod and unwrap a leftover burrito from last night; I whip out my binder and take out the sticky note.
"What's that, hon?" Abigale asks.
"I wrote a list," I say, swallowing my hunking bite of burrito, "of matching costume ideas. Mason and I plan to go together to Cam's party."
"Oh, cool! I heard a few other couples are going together too, this'll be great!" Cam says excitedly. "So many people are RSVPing for the party, it's insane. I think I've got about two-fifty on the guest list already!"
"Dang, how big is your mansion, dude?" I ask.
"I honestly don't know. Probably a little smaller than the school, if you ask me."
"That's insane," I respond.
"Probably gonna cap it at three hundred," Cam continues. "Any more than that and my house'll probably explode!"
Abigale giggles at his silly comeback. I smirk, continuing to eat my burrito.

Criminology has already started, and Mason still hasn't come back, I worriedly think. I turn in my late assignment to Mr. Hollister, the manliest fairy on campus and the teacher of this class.
"Thank you, Ms. Santez," he states, stapling two other papers together as he grabs the key for my assignment.
"No problem, Sir," I state absently, staring at the door.
He leans over his desk and glances over at the door, then at me. "Is there something troubling you, Ms. Santez?"
"Hmm? Oh, I'm a little concerned about Mason; he was here earlier and hasn't yet come back from lunch..."
"He used a lunch pass to leave campus, I'm assuming?"
"Yes sir, he forgot to bring his own lunch and went out to eat. I would've thought he'd be back by now."
Mr. Hollister pulls a little pink pad from the corner of his messy desk and writes a quick pass for me. "If you're so concerned, I'll let you go for a few minutes to see if Mr. Slater almost back. I'll make sure you don't miss too much during your absence."
I take the pass from him and thank him, rushing out the door and into the hallway. I wander my way towards the school's front gates, looking back and forth, left and right, and everywhere between for Mason.
About ten minutes of looking, my search begins to feel fruitless. I look around one last time, amongst the tables and trees, only seeing the figures of the menacing noon duties wandering about.
Just as I thought to head back, however, a familiar, lanky beanpole walks into view. I gleefully start approaching him, but notice he's limping as he walks. Mason asks the nearest noon duty something, and she points him in the direction of the nurse's office.
"Oh, no..." I mutter.
Mason nods and briskly walks in that direction, nearly tripping on his own foot every ten steps. I follow behind him from a distance, hoping not to be seen by him.

At the nurse's office, I sit outside and listen in on the quiet conversation between the nurse and Mason. I peer inside the window and notice him clenching onto his rib cage and hardly speaking; a little bit of blood dribbled out of his mouth every time he opened it.
"Now, tell me what happened," the kind nurse asked politely, handing Mason a bowl to spit into. He holds it under his chin with his left hand shakily.
"I went to McDonald's for lunch, ma'am."
Well, that explains a lot...
"I had forgotten my home lunch and, well, you know how bad the food here is."
"Mhmm, go on."
He began to quiver. "I-I ordered my food and thought I should just eat in, h-have it while it w-was h-hot. As I was starting my meal, s-someone came up to me a-and asked to see me behind the re-restaurant as soon as I could. I th-thought to just get it over with, eat my food later, b-but when I got to where the guy told me to b-be, he... he beat me up.."
"Take it easy; deep breaths, deep breaths. Spit into the bowl if you need to, I'll get you some medication for you to numb the pain."
Mason breathes in slowly and coughs loudly. My heart drops, watching him spit blood all over the walls in front of him.
"O-oh, oh dear, this isn't good..." the nurse states, pulling her clawed hands to her face. "I'm going to call you mother, see if she's can take you home early and get you to a doctor." She looks up Mason's mother's number on her desktop and rings her up immediately; "Hello, Mrs. Slater? I'm the school nurse, I'm calling about your son. It seems he was beat up pretty badly- oh, I'd be more than happy to let him go early, if you could pick him up and sign him out, that'd be great."
I decide to leave the nurse's office and only pray for the best. I cover my mouth in shock; who on earth would beat him up so badly...?

"Ms. Santez, were you successful in finding Mr. Slater?" Mr. Hollister asks me as I rush back to my seat.
"I, uh... n-no. I didn't," I lie out loud, sitting down shakily.
"Hmm... well, we have no time to waste. Please take some notes on the presentation I posted online before class ends. I'll have to mark him absent."
I nod and occupy myself for the last half of class, writing what notes I could manage to blurt out onto my paper. My hand jitters with every word, scribbling messy words onto the fragile loose leaf paper; I end up setting my pencil aside and decide to take notes on the rest of the presentation later tonight.
The bell rings and my classmates loudly hurry out the door, as usual. I trail behind with my head low, my mind buzzing with negative thoughts.
"Ms. Santez, before you leave, a word?" Mr. Hollister calls from his desk. I saunter over to him slowly.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Remember the first thing I taught this class last month?" He asks in a serious tone.
"Hmm... how to catch a liar, right?"
"Exactly. What are a few things that define a liar's behavior?"
I look at his desk, examining his trinkets. "Well, there's the aversion of eyes, irregular body movement, and change in vocal tones..?"
"Right you are. Listen, Lena, I know something happened while you were out. You saw Mason, didn't you?"
I hesitate to answer; breathing in, I tell him what I saw in brief detail. He nods slightly with each sentence, waving every so often at other students in the hallway. After my explanation, he lets me off with a word of advice.
"Don't worry about him too much. He seems like a tough kid; he wouldn't be back here at school if he wasn't."
"Thank you, Mr. Hollister," I say, hurrying out the door.
"Make sure you do a better job lying next time, ya hear? I'd hate to catch you again!" He shouts as I run down the hall for my next class.

Author's note: I apologize that this chapter is a lot shorter than others! I have big plans for future chapters and wanted to get this filler bit out of the way. In the meantime, comment which costume couple you'd like Mason and Lena to dress up as! (Note that the Korean dating sim mentioned refers to MysticMessenger.)
- Kiki