I took a deep breath and tried to remember that not everyone who saw my skin tone and eye shape assumed I was from a different country. It was hard, because I got that a lot.
“Sorry. I’m not having the best day. Colorado, I suppose.”
“You’re not sure?”
“Well, before Colorado we moved once or twice, and I spent most of my summers on a boat until recently.”
“Well, that sounds interesting. Wanna talk about it?”
I chuckled. Seamus set me at ease for some reason, despite the annoying electric buzz I’d gotten when we first shook hands, and the weird smell comment. He didn’t seem… demanding.
“I’d love to, but I suppose we should wait until after class.”
I nodded towards the closed door that was labeled with the number that corresponded to the folded-over schedule I had wrestled out of my pocket on the walk here.
“Oh, yeah. Probably. Though I wonder sometimes if he’d even notice if we all left the room…”
“Huh?”
“You’ll see. Come on.”
He pushed open the door and we shuffled in, just ahead of a handful of other students who had arrived from the opposite direction. I followed Seamus to a low table in the back of the room. The tables were set up in rows, with one aisle down the middle and three chairs per table. The room was drearily devoid of decoration save for a lone poster from the Dead Poets’ Society.
It seemed as though our class wasn’t full, as no one tried to sit with us and there was also plenty of room to spare at the other desks. I usually preferred to sit up front for my classes, but today apparently wasn’t my day for it.
After class got started, I understood Seamus’ seating choice perfectly.
The teacher, a balding man without a single memorable feature, started by reading some truly terrible poetry, and continued... by reading more of it. No one asked a single question and indeed, the man just paced the front of the room reading aloud from his book without even looking at a single student.
Despite my best efforts to pay attention, around the seventh poorly rhymed verse about a whale frolicking somewhere in Scotland I gave up.
Besides, Seamus’ notes were too distracting. Mostly because they consisted of hilarious sketches about whatever oddity Topaz was describing in poem form.
A whale being harpooned, a royal carriage, a collapsed bridge… it was hard not to laugh aloud when he finally handed me a sketch of a blundering stick figure holding a goose.
This is truly terrible poetry, I wrote in reply. Does he seriously do this every class?
Seamus wrote back, I think so. I mean, last year I only had him for a week as a sub, but this was all he did.
I was amazed. Still, it wasn’t long before we had abandoned the topic of Topaz’s terrible poetry.
Is Vic short for Victoria? Seamus asked.
Yep. Not sure why my parents went full-on boring cat lady when they named me, but that’s my legacy.
I watched Seamus smile while reading my reply, and swallowed hard. I was doing my best to think of him in purely friendly terms, but my body kept reacting to him in a really… emphatic way.
Not sure what my parents were thinking when they named me Seamus, TBH, he replied.
I raised an eyebrow at that.
I just assumed you were part Irish.
That was a lie. I hadn’t assumed that at all. He didn’t look even remotely Irish, but now that I thought about it seemed plausible enough.
Good guess. I am, actually. But I’m mostly Navajo, and I’m still bummed that I didn’t get a much cooler name than Seamus.
Seamus sounds pretty cool to me.
Yeah, until you realize it’s just Irish for James.
Huh. Do you have a nickname you prefer?
Nah. I just stick with Seamus. What about you? he asked.
At this point we weren’t even pretending not to pass notes, we were just both hunkered over my notebook right in the middle of the table.
I already told you to call me Vic.
No, I mean heritage-wise. The Navajo is pretty obvious, but I just admitted to being part Irish. I was wondering what awesomeness produced those eyes…
I could feel blood rushing to my cheeks as I read the comment about my eyes. Part of me wanted to hurl at my own reaction. It was just a compliment, but, whatever, I was touchy about my eyes. Having someone appreciate them was… whatever. It made me blush.
Honestly, I don’t know that my heritage does much to explain my eye-color, but since you “admitted” to being Irish… just Tibetan on my mom’s side, and Dad’s is more of a mystery. He never talked about his family much. If I had to guess, based on what he did say… Euro-Mutt and… African? Not the entire continent, obviously, but I seriously have no idea which country, or even which region, really.
Seamus had just started penning his reply when the door to the classroom flew open and slammed against the wall, loud enough to actually cause Mr. Topaz to pause in his reading.
Edik stood in the doorway, and I watched with growing dismay as his eyes scanned the tables until they reached the one where Seamus and I were sitting.
Before I could blink, Edik was standing in front of me and glaring at Seamus.
“What are you doing sitting next to him?”
“Um… listening to terrible poetry. What the seven hells are you doing here?”
I felt safe making the terrible poetry comment because as soon as Edik had left the doorway, Mr. Topaz had started up again without the slightest indication that he objected to Edik’s batshit crazy entrance.
“Victoria, darling, you cannot possibly entertain this mongrel. He’s absolutely beneath you.”
“Edik. Seriously. What are you doing here? I’m in the middle of class.”
“I came to tell you the truth. Your scent is so compelling that I cannot keep it to myself any longer.”
I really didn’t want to know where this was going. “Edik. You need to leave now. Keep whatever it is to yourself and just go, please.”
“I cannot! I must tell you. It is a truth I cannot keep from you. We are meant to be. I am a creature of the night, and I love you.”
I HAD NEVER been more relieved in my life to smell the earthy, cloying scent of marijuana than when Albert Bumblebee had wandered into Topaz’s class for a “surprise audit.”
Edik hadn’t even said goodbye before glaring daggers at the principal and storming out.
As a bonus, Topaz had seemed reluctant to continue reading from what appeared to be a leather-bound journal of his own poetry after Bumblebee’s arrival, and instead we had started a somewhat lively discussion of Twelfth Night, which had been part of the assigned summer reading.
Honestly, the rest of my day was pretty normal after that. At least until I got to swim practice.
Swimming was on the list of the few things in life that grounded me, much like backpacking, rock climbing, and trail running, so I had been looking forward to this first practice ever since I had woken up vibrating with anger.
My anticipation hadn’t exactly diminished when I’d learned that Seamus was also on the swim team. Still, as I walked, dripping, from the showers in the locker room into the humid, chlorine-laden air of the pool, I was determined that even Seamus’ mostly naked presence wouldn’t distract me from getting into the zone.
That proved more difficult than expected.
He wasn’t decidedly better looking than most guys who swim competitively, and I was very used to seeing guys who swim competitively wearing next to nothing. It was literally part of my everyday existence during swim season, and I had been swimming competitively since I was ten.
So, why, why, WHY could I feel Seamus’ body in the lane next to me as if it were radiating flames?
Luckily, swimming isn’t the kind of sport that allows you to stop and ogle the swimmers nearby while you’re in the water. But it shouldn’t have been such a damned challenge to keep myself from trying to do just that.
I’d had
crushes on guys on my team before, had even dated a teammate for a little while at my old school, but, usually, once I hit the water, nothing else mattered.
At least, on a normal day.
Today was clearly not a normal day.
As evidenced by the completely naked creep swimming right underneath me.
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?!?” I screamed, pulling myself from the pool as though the water were lava.
Everyone was staring at me as I stood on the pool side shaking with rage, I could tell, but my eyes were fixed on the water, where Edik—still butt naked—was blithely hanging out near the bottom of the pool, without coming up for air, and waving gaily at me as though this were all terribly amusing and wouldn’t we laugh about it later.
Before I could even draw breath to ask if anyone else saw what was happening, a giant ball of fur shot past my left arm and flew into the water, going straight for the nudist.
Suddenly the water was a giant froth of wolf, blood, and naked crazy person.
Despite what my brain tried to tell me about the low likelihood of a wolf diving into a school pool during swim practice, my eyes were quite convinced by the evidence to the contrary. I was too familiar with wolves to mistake it for anything else. The coat, the size, the lankiness, the flash of amber eyes that I saw briefly at one point when it came up for air… all of it shouted wolf. Especially the giant canines that were visible just before they tore into Edik’s arm again.
Once the initial shock wore off, I took a quick look around and saw that the same shock was nowhere close to wearing off for my fellow swimmers. Indeed, many of them had already run for the changing rooms. Even Seamus was nowhere in sight.
Right. So this was going to be on me, then. Fine.
I had a moment of wanting to just let the wolf ravage the batshit weirdo who had been swimming naked underneath me, because, honestly… just… ew. But Edik probably didn’t deserve to die for his crimes, and… well, I really didn’t want the wolf to get killed. Although, since the wolf was attacking humans it was probably already sick, and there was no way it would be getting out of here alive if authorities of any type showed up. Besides, what the hell did I think I could do to stop a wolf from attacking someone, anyway? Other than lose an arm, that is.
Then a quiet voice spoke up beside me and I almost jumped out of my skin.
“Do you plan to just let them go on like that?” the voice asked.
I turned to see Mr. Topaz, of all people, standing there still wearing the three-piece suit he’d donned for our class that morning.
“Um… did you have any ideas for getting them to stop?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“No. And it wouldn’t bother me, normally, but I like that Seamus bloke and I wouldn’t want him to get hurt. Edik’s a git, anyway.”
“What does Seamus have to do with any of this?”
I was beginning to wonder if Topaz was actually as batty as his poetry suggested.
“The wolf,” he said, nodding at the churn of water ahead of us, “is your friend Seamus.”
It might have been a bit early to deem Seamus a friend, but he seemed like a nice enough kid. He did not, however, seem like 130 pounds of canine fury.
“I am fairly certain that Seamus is not a timber wolf.”
“Really? Interesting. Is he a mexican red or something? But he’s all black… I’m not very good with animals.”
This conversation was getting away from me fast. Just then, I heard a small scream and turned to see none other than Seamus, locked in Edik's unyielding grip. The wolf was nowhere in sight.
I wanted to ask what had happened to the wolf, or how Seamus had shown up without my noticing, or why he was suddenly naked, but I didn’t take the time. I had been somewhat absorbed in talking to Topaz, anyway, so Seamus must have come running from the changing rooms just as the wolf ran off, and it all must have happened while I was staring in disbelief at my English teacher, who was suggesting that Seamus was somehow also a wolf. Giving up on figuring out how it had gone down, I went to split up what had now become a simple fist fight—well within my purview, and unlikely to lose me any extremities.
Not bothering to walk around the edge of the pool, I dove straight for the two young men entangled in the water, and as soon as I broke the surface on my way up, I also broke Edik's hold on Seamus’ neck with the simple expedient of a punch to the face. Fun fact: getting punched in the face will distract most people who aren’t used to it—and very few people are used to it. As soon as Edik loosened his grip, I grabbed Seamus by the shoulder and swam him towards the side of the pool. By the time Edik recovered, I had already thrown Seamus into a beached whale position on the side of the pool. I spun back to Edik, ready to receive whatever attack he might throw at me, my legs treading water and my hands in a fighting stance. I wasn’t used to fighting in water (I would have to ask my sensei about incorporating that into an upcoming class though, it would be fun) but I was willing to bet that Edik wasn’t used to it either, and by this stage I was looking forward to kicking his ass.
I was disappointed, though. As soon as Seamus was out of the water, Edik stopped trying to attack.
“Are you alright, my darling?” he asked.
I propelled myself towards the deck as quickly as I could.
“Get away from me, creep!” I shouted, while pulling myself out of the water as quickly as possible. Seamus was gone. That was weird as hell, since he’d seemed almost unconscious when I’d pulled him from the water and I’d only turned my back on him for a handful of seconds to see if Edik was going to keep fighting.
While my eyes tried, and failed, to locate Seamus, I felt a hand touch my ankle and kicked backwards, connecting solidly with what felt like Edik’s nose. It gave a satisfying crunch and he gasped in pain, but I didn’t turn back to see what he was doing. I just made a beeline for the ladies’ locker rooms and hoped to hell he wouldn’t follow me in there.
I WAS STILL shaking a bit when I stepped into the warm afternoon that awaited me outside of the pool building. I closed my eyes, letting the mountain sun heat my face up a bit before I started my walk home. With my eyes closed and the fall-scented mountain breeze in my lungs, I could almost pretend I was back home in Colorado. Almost. Opening my eyes always brought a tinge of disappointment as I took in a view that lacked a full range of white-capped Rocky Mountains. At least the view had a mountain. It could have been worse. It could have been the flatlands.
I still wasn’t sure why my parents had kept a home in Northern Arizona that I’d never known about, or why they had left it to me only on the condition that I occupy it. It had required leaving the high school I’d been attending for the past three years, and all the friends I’d made there, and starting over from scratch. When I’d first read the will I’d thought that had been particularly cruel. High school was hard enough without having to be the new kid in your senior year… but then I realized that my parents probably hadn’t been planning on dying. I suppose they hadn’t really expected any of this to come up just yet.
So the only odd thing, then, was that I hadn’t known about the place at all. I mean, isn’t it a little weird that they owned a whole house that I never knew about? Also odd that they’d made a provision in their will for me to occupy the house alone, even if I was underage still. Technically, my great-uncle Algernon was my legal guardian, but he was only required to check on me once a month. We didn’t have to live together. My lawyers (yes, my inheritance had come with lawyers) told me that was rare. But whatever, at least I had a place to live, even if it was in a different state from everyone I’d known for most of my life.
Still, after all the awkward silences, pitying looks, and sympathy hugs I’d gotten after my parents had died, moving twelve hours away from my friends had seemed like a fine idea when the time came. Not to mention how impossibly lonely our Colorado home had seemed after the accident.
I hadn’t even made it a block away from the nondescript concrete building that was Fla
gstaff High School when I felt a hand on my shoulder, and Seamus wound up eating dirt.
I realized who it was halfway through the throw and did what I could to help him land well, but he still hit the ground with the kind of gasp that lets everyone know that it’s going to take a minute to start breathing again.
“Shit. Sorry, Seamus. Don’t do that.”
Seamus still didn’t have air in his lungs, so I just tried to help him to a standing position while he worked on re-inflating his lungs.
“My bad,” he muttered, when he finally had a enough air to speak. “I should have known you’d be on edge.”
I shrugged.
“Not a good idea to grab me when I can’t see you, anyway. Muscle memory takes over.”
He raised an eyebrow at that.
“I’ve been studying mixed martial arts since I was ten.”
“Right. Ok. Mental note. Do not touch Vic without her explicit permission.”
I nodded.
“Not a bad rule for all humans, really.”
Seamus thought about that. He nodded, but then frowned.
“I’m pretty cuddly with my friends, though. Male or female, doesn’t matter. I like to hug, and wrap my arm around people’s shoulders and stuff.”
I smiled.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t touch people, Seamus, just make sure they’re cool with it first. You don’t need a written waiver every damned time, but, you know, pay attention to body language and facial expressions, and if you’re ever in doubt, just ask.”
He still looked upset, so I continued.
“I, for one, love hugs from my friends. I just need to be able to see them coming. And if I ever don’t feel like being touched, I sure as hell will let you know.”
“Preferably before you knock the wind out of me,” Seamus said.
I shrugged again.
“Preferably, but I make no guarantees. Don’t sneak up on me. I’ve been trained to hurt people who do.”
“Fair enough,” he said. Then he hunched his shoulders and stepped back a bit. “Well, this makes half of my mission seem obsolete.”
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 3
