The Raven's Nightingale

#9 Part 2: Origins

The next morning, I awoke from a restless sleep, listening for any slight noise during the night. I woke up every couple of hours when I heard a loud enough noise, being on edge for anything that could mean danger. I managed to have a shower and get dressed for school without incident. I was suspicious as to why the house was so eerily quiet, so I was being extra careful about how much noise I was making. I went down stairs with my school bag slung over one shoulder and wincing at every noise that I made. I glanced around and saw my mother and her boyfriend passed out on the couch. Their bodies partially hanging off the sides of the couch, snoring lightly. I tensed when I saw them, and slowly backed towards the front door.

I only relaxed when I was far enough away from the house that they wouldn't see or hear me. I let out a breath before relaxing my shoulders and stretching my neck. The rest of the walk to school was much more peaceful and for a bit I felt like I would be okay. Even as I arrived at the school my mood was still pretty chipper. No one bothered me as I made my way to my locker and hung up my backpack before reaching around for my books for my first class.

Just as I pulled the books out of the locker the door slammed shut, just barely missing my hand. I jumped back and turned to see who had slammed my locker door. I glared when I saw that Mackenzie was leaning on the locker that was next to mine with a smirk on his face. Just when I was having such a nice morning, and it wasn't even a tutoring day. I took a deep breath in through my nose before turning back to my locker door and locking the door with my combination lock. I didn't know what he wanted but I was not in the mood for it. The only plus side was that his posse of asshats wasn't with him.

"What do you want?" I growled as I held my textbooks close to my chest.

"You intrigue me," Mackenzie replied with mischievous eyes and a wicked grin. I scrunched up my nose at the tone that he used. It held way too much unspoken words and innuendos that made me even less interested in trusting him. "And I look forward to our next tutoring session."

"Really?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow, lowering my guard for a split second.

"Yeah," Mackenzie murmured as he leaned in closer to me. Whoa, too close. I lifted a hand to stop his approach, my guard back in place.

"Okay, well then I'll see you on Thursday," I said with a stoic expression on my face as I sidestepped Mackenzie and walked down the hallway to where my first classroom was supposed to take place.

"Hey, I wasn't done talking to you!" Mackenzie called as he jogged up to my side keeping pace with my fast-paced walking.

"Well if you couldn't tell I was done talking to you, now if you'll excuse me, I do need to get to class," I told him not bothering to glance over in his direction as I continued walking. That didn't seem to deter Mackenzie to any extent as he still kept pace with me.

"Oh, come on I just want to talk, although you are quite cute," Mackenzie commented as he raked his eyes over my body. I scoffed at him not faltering in my speed walking. "Look I have to get to class and we have a tutoring session tomorrow in which we can talk, and then we have a tutoring session at your house on Saturday. I don't know what else you could want from me, other than to fuck with me like the people that you hang around with. Since I really don't need to deal with that right now, I'm going to have to say good day to you."

With that I was able to duck around Mackenzie and into my classroom without him following me any further. I didn't see him for the rest of the morning, thankfully. However, when lunch came around that was a bit of a different story. I managed to get to my locker just fine to drop my books off, but on my way to the cafeteria I took one of the less crowded corridors. Yeahh, I did not think that through. The people that were in the hallway quickly dissipated to other hallways that led to other parts of the school. That left me fairly alone in the hallway, except for the thudding footsteps that were coming up from behind me.