Flying Colors

Chapter I Max Part II

Max was listening to the rules and expectations that Ms. Xeno had for the students when he felt something hit the back of his head. Max heard a couple of kids snicker behind him. He turned around and saw two elf boys look away, trying to avoid eye contact with him. He looked down to see what had been thrown at him, and he saw a crumpled-up piece of lined paper. He reached down and picked it up. He turned back around still hearing the snickering and name-calling going on behind his back. He quietly unrolled the paper to see if they had written anything on it. It was extremely hard to read because of the horrid handwriting, it was riddled with spelling mistakes but it read, "You stoopid mut why du you even bothur going too skoole? "

"Why do I even bother going to school?!" Max thought, anger building up inside of him. "I go to school to learn just like everyone else!" He could feel a red film of anger going over his eyes and his teeth started to change from his regular human-like teeth to more animal-like teeth. Were-creatures didn't turn into their were-forms at a certain time of the day like the other four kingdoms believed, they turned when their emotions got too strong. They are usually able to calm themselves down before they fully change. When they do change, they become the embodiment of that emotion. It is very dangerous so they usually keep it under strict control especially their anger because if they turn while being angry they go on a full-blown rampage. Max has never fully turned before.

He breathed in and out deeply and just crumpled up the paper and set it on the corner of his desk. He set his head down on the table and tried to calm down. He felt the anger drain out of his eyes and his teeth started to change back to normal. "That was close." He thought. " Way to close." Max looked over at Pan and he could tell he saw the whole thing. His face was filled with anger and fear. Max saw him write something down on a piece of paper and set it on Max's desk.

Max grabbed it and in very small, neat handwriting it read "Only lambs can't keep control of their emotions. Why don't we figure out how well you can keep your emotions under control. Meet me behind the cafeteria." Why did the person who had to see me lose control have to be Pan?

"On the one hand if I don't go I will look like a coward. On the other hand, if I go I might lose control. What am I going to do?" Max pondered.

As the class continued Max continued to hear the two elf boys laughing and making jokes. He turned and looked over at Pan. He was still glaring and grinning ear to ear. His teeth were yellow and plaque-filled. His goat horns still weren't fully developed. He was only about 16 or 17 the same age as Max.

As the class continued Max just watched the clock on the wall tick the seconds by. He zoned the teacher's boring speech out and just wondered and worried about what was going to happen next. What is he gonna do? Why does he want to do this? Should I tell clover? No, I don't want to worry her.

The old school bell rang and Max almost sprinted out the door as he grabbed his backpack. Max walked over to his next class, Ms. Levine's class, species 101.

*****

Max walked into Ms. Levine's class right before the tardy bell rang. Ms. Levine was a young twenty-something elf. She had long blonde hair as most elves did, and bright green eyes like Clover. She was wearing a simple, light blue dress and black slip-on shoes. He walked up to her, avoiding eye contact. Max didn't like looking people in the eyes, because he knew what they saw first, a mutt, a crossbreed, a mangy disgusting animal.

"Uh, where do I sit?" He stammered while looking almost straight down.

"I can't tell you until you-" Max thought he knew what the end of her sentence would be, so he started to look up at her. "-tell me your name." It was too late he was now looking directly at her eyes, she saw how hideously blue his eyes were and just looked away. Some people say looking at a crossbreed's eyes brings bad luck. She must've been the superstitious type.