Hybrid

by Melissas Writings

  He directed his gaze back at me like it was pretty obvious. Then he continued looking at me for some time.

  When I couldn't stand his stare any longer than I whispered "What is it?"

  "Young girls do not let boys touch them in inappropriate places." he replied

  I was not getting his point."What places?"

  "Fuck! Why did they keep you locked up?" he questioned vexedly.

  I opened my mouth to reply but then he appended "Just because of that stupid old woman, everything has happened."

  "What has happened?"I asked softly as vulnerable look has congealed in his face. Even though I had known him for less than 48 hours, I can still tell that something terrible had happened.

  His expressions changed to a serious one. "Nothing. But understand this thing very clearly. If the need arises, I will change my tactics with you. You don't seem to get certain things and I will make sure that you do exactly what I tell you to do. Get that through your head."

  He was not making any sense.

  "What?"I yelled frustratedly.

  He came closer and my heart suddenly started racing. I had never heard my heart beating so fast and loud. I was sure my heart thumping was almost as loud as this car's horn. I closed my eyes and placed both of my hands on my ears. It was increasing with every passing second. I squeezed my eyes so tightly that I was sure that some of my eyelashes must have broken off.

  What is happening to me? I was suddenly terrified as tattoo also flashed into my mind.

  A hand came on my heart and I screamed as the touch was like pure electricity shooting through my body.

  I felt as if my body was being drained.

  Then the rate at which it came, the same way it vanished. I opened my eyes and noticed that my cheek were moist. I had been crying. My eyes were still wet with tears.

  Then I looked at the person sitting next to me. He was too busy texting someone. It was like he didn't even notice anything strange. But, I was very sure that I felt someone's hand on my heart.

  Am I going crazy? This was the only possible answer that I could make out while looking at Zach's placid demeanor.

  There was no point in asking him anything since he didn't even notice any strange thing.

  "Zach, you said that I will come to know about something in ten minutes."I whispered as my body was still little weak.

  He looked up and replied. "Yeah. There is stuff that I have to say to you and make you understand, but that will have to wait. First, let's go and get this over with." He opened his side of the door and got out. I did the same.

  Then he headed towards the building in front of him. The building was three hundred meters away from us. He reached there in less than ten seconds and since my body was feeling weak and tired, so I was way behind him.

  hYBrID XIV

  The old looking building was unlocked and he turned towards me and motioned me to increase my speed.

  Why did he park the car so far away from that place?

  "I can't walk faster than this."I muttered thinking he wouldn't be able to hear. He was almost one hundred and fifty meters away from me.

  But he heard and almost yelled irritatingly "With this pace, I will have to stand here all day."

  Jerk!. What is so important that it can't wait. Moreover, I was little skeptical about this whole thing. What if, he was going to kill me? Where will he dump my body? I haven't even talked to my parents yet. What about Simon? There was no point in thinking about that now. I can't do anything if this is his motto. I can't even run because of my condition.

  After some time, I reached that place. He went inside without even glancing at me. I followed him inside.

  The first thing that I noticed was that the place was filthy. It was a huge storage place. A bunch of rope yarns were kept at one corner.

  He went to the opposite corner and opened a door and went inside. I mirrored his movements.

  When I entered the room, I saw few people sitting on the either side of the table. It was a fairly large rectangular table. There were twenty one chairs, with ten chairs on either side and one at the center. Sammy was sitting in the centre seat. Zach was sitting at his immediate right . There was an empty chair at Sammy's immediate left. Alex was sitting next to that empty chair. There was an old bald person sitting next to Alex, and he was staring at me with an intensity, which I quite didn't like. Next to that bald person, a very beautiful girl was sitting. She had blond hair and she was so pretty, that she looked like an angel. However, she was busy looking at Zach, who was having a silent conversation with Sammy, as their faces were turned towards each other. Next to her was a young guy. He also looked deep in conversation with the person sitting opposite to him in table. Rest of the chairs was empty, but it looked as if these chairs were occupied earlier and those people had left some time back.

  I was glued to the entrance of that room. Alex got up and reached my side "What took you so long? he looked at Zach and then at me. Then he took my appearance then demanded "Why are your clothes wet?" I shifted my gaze to Zach, who was responsible for my disheveled look. Alex also followed my eye movement then he narrowed his gaze at him.

  They stared each other for some time. Then Alex took my hand and dragged me to the empty chair to his right.

  We both sat down at our respective chairs and Sammy turned his gaze towards me. He just gave me a small smile. He didn't even say hi to me.

  It seemed like a business meeting to me. I could feel the old guy still staring at me. It was creeping me out.

  The person who was sitting opposite to the young guy, looked at me and smiled "Hi dear, I am Dick bender." I instantly recognized his voice as the membrane guy. "Do not make fun of my name. I do not like it. But if you want to bend or play with it sometime, I am sure we can discuss it somewhere private. And since your brother is giving me a look, it is my cue to shut up." he then winked at me.

  I have no problem in playing with people as long as they treat me with my favorite ice cream and chocolate.

  I looked at Sammy. He looked irritated with this guy and since I was sitting opposite to Zach, it was but natural that my gaze had to fall upon him. A muscle in his jaw clinched and his fingers were gripping the table so hard that it had turned white.

  The girl spoke "Don't you think we should start with our meeting?" I recognized her as Kaitley. Not only was she very pretty but even her voice was also so alluring that had there been a bed here, I would have taken less than ten seconds to sleep.

  "Yes, definitely." Sammy responded authoritatively.

  The old guy who was staring at me till now responded with a nod. "Your brother here told me" he looked at my brother than back at me "that from tomorrow, you are attending the local school."

  I nodded.

  Then old guy turned to Sammy "Imagine a situation, where he comes to know, because of a number of things that could go wrong, as we have already discussed, what is your back up plan in that situation."

  I blankly looked at Sammy. "We are not going to discuss anything here. Remember the reason why I agreed to call her here. You are free to have a little chat with her. Once you are done, then we will go back to our usual routine."

  Old man looked unhappy with this answer. "Samuel, you are young. You do not understand the consequences of the action that you are taking. Please, reconsider it."

  Sammy responded calmly "You are a very wise man. This is the only reason why my dad takes your advises very seriously. You think I do not know what is best for her. Just take a look at her. She needs to be among people, so that when and if something happens she will take the right decision. We cannot shield her for long. She has to evolve a sense of right and wrong, which will only happen when she is among people. We can give her people to talk, but that will not solve anything."

  Solve what? And why do they always talk in codes?

  The old guy looked at me for a while and then shifted his gaze to the rest of the people. "Okay Samuel. I think I agree with you on this point of yours. Bu
t, be very careful and keep your senses open at all times."

  I was not following this weird conversation of theirs. I was trying very hard to stay awake, but my body was getting weaker with every passing second.

  Sammy said something but my eyes and ears were shutting down.

  Tomorrow I was going to go to school. This day I will mark on my calendar as one of the most important days of my life.

  I wish, Simon was here with me. He always used to crib by saying that the worst thing about Sunday is knowing tomorrow is Monday.

  But for me the best thing was the next day which happens to be a Monday.

  hYBrID XV

  My brother wished me good luck for my first day and didn't give me any brotherly advice, which according to me was quite strange, but I ignored that and soon, Alex and I were off to my first school. I wanted to ask him a lot of questions, but that will have to wait till the evening.

  Unlike Simon who hits snooze button at least five times before he gets up, I got up at 5 am. I was so excited and nervous at the same time. I was ready in less than ten minutes.

  Since, I was ready so early, I had nothing to do so I just wandered here and there to pass my time.

  There was so much I wanted to tell and ask Simon, but he was clearly busy, as there was still no news of him. Last time when I visited this place, we talked daily for hours. I never had much to tell him, but he on the other hand, had so much to tell me, from his school friends to what he is going to have in the dinner. Before hanging up the phone, he always used to say come home soon, I miss you.

  What is keeping him so busy?

  May be he is not well.

  That is possible. I made a mental note of calling him through my brother's phone in the evening.

  The car's loud horn snapped me out of my reverie. The first thing I noticed was the signboard of my new school.

  "Welcome to Jackson County Virtual High School"

  Alex pulls into the parking lot of Jackson County Virtual High School with me staring at the brick colored school building like it was the most fascinating thing I have ever seen.

  Without so much as looking at my left, I got out and started walking towards the block in front of me.

  Alex's amused voice came from behind me "Do you even know where you are going?"

  For me all of this was so surreal, that if I so much as turned my head, it will disappear. So without turning my head, I said "No".

  His phone started ringing.

  "Yes, we just reached."

  Pause

  "Hold on a second."

  "Ashley, Can you go to Administrative block" he pointed towards the building to my right "Ask the receptionist about the main office."

  I nodded and walked towards the admin block.

  When I walked in, the admin block was a mass of commotion. Phones ringing, copiers running at the corner and voices were everywhere.

  I didn't even glance anywhere and went straight to the Receptionist. She was busy on the phone with someone. She mouthed "How may I help you?"

  I responded "How can I reach main office?"

  She excused herself from the caller, got up and asked me to follow her. I followed her like a good student.

  We reached outside of the main office and I thanked her.

  I entered the office and saw an old lady sitting in the room. The plate on the desk says Ms.Margaret Laurence. She was going through some paperwork. She was so busy in her work that she didn't even notice me standing in her office.

  I cleared my throat to get her attention. "uhmm."

  Her neck jerked in my direction. Infelicitous was written all over her face. She was not at all happy with this interruption.

  "I am new here."I said nicely.

  She adjusted her glasses and responded "That I can see."

  "I mean, What I have to do for registration?"

  She sighed as she closed the file that was spread on her table.

  "What is your name?"She asked

  "My name is Ashley"I replied

  She got a weird look on her face like I was missing something

  "There are at least three Ashleys whose applications we have received last week. Give me your last name?"

  "Sorry, My last name is Sorenson" I responded

  She took out a fresh form from her desk and started filling it up.

  After some time she handed me the form and said. "Please check that I have filled in all the details correctly. If something is missing, then let me know."

  Everything was fine, so I communicated the same to her.

  Alex barged through the door without even knocking.

  From the look on his face, the phone call had not gone well.

  He asked for a registration form and then filled something.

  Then he gave it back to the receptionist.

  She looked at him and then at the form. Her eyes narrowed at the form and she muttered something along the lines of why can't people fill their forms properly.

  "You have not mentioned" she pointed the column to him and then added "Reason for Changing School in the Middle of the School Year."

  What?

  He was studying in a different school?

  Why is he changing school? Just for me?

  My brother's brain is definitely getting rusty with age. I could have joined that school, rather than him joining this school.

  Alex snatched the paper from her hand and filled it without quetching.

  "You both can go and visit Mr. Adam Gallagher. I have appointed him as your advisor. He will give you your timetables. His room is diagonally opposite of this room." she told us.

  I thanked her, as Alex was clearly in no mood of showing gratitude.

  Then we left her office and headed towards our advisor's room.

  I was about to knock, when he himself opened it and asked us to come inside.

  After making us comfortable in his room, he gave us our class schedules and the school's map.

  I scanned my timetable, as expected I was enrolled in honors classes. I knew all about the grading system, thanks to Simon. At least I won't feel like Alice in wonderland.

  His heavy voice reached my ears. "Alex since you were in 11th grade there, I can't shift you to freshman classes. Neither can I shift her to your class. What I can do is, I can make some of your classes common with her. I have given her a timetable where she will have some sophomore classes and some freshman classes. I have done the same with your schedule. You have to attend some junior classes and some sophomore classes. This is the only solution. Nothing else can be done in this situation."

  Alex who was already in a bad mood got up from his seat and almost yelled. "I will attend all the classes with her."

  Adam replied coolly "You can shout as much as you want, but things run differently here, unlike your old school. You will have to follow the timetable, otherwise you will end up getting detentions. Understand this thing very clearly, that I will not bail you out of those detentions."

  Alex stayed quiet for some time then gritted angrily "Why did you become our advisor?"

  Adam smiled "I trust only myself when it comes to you Alex and I do not want to take any chances. You also have a temper similar to Zach. The only difference is that he is angry all the time” I wanted to say that it is not true. He also has this blank look that haunts me at times “and you my boy pile up anger inside yourself, only to explode at the smallest things."

  This was so not true. Zach is always mean to me, but on the contrary, Alex never shouts at me, however bad his mood is.

  Alex muttered "Whatever." and rushed out of that room leaving me with Adam.

  Adam's reaction to Alex's behavior was quite unexpected as his smile broadened, like he knew his secret.

  He moved his hand towards the button on his right and pressed it. A small guy of about 5 foot entered his chamber.

  "Ashley, Now you can go with Greg. He will take you to your classroom." Adam informed me. I got up and thanked him, to which his response wa
s just a smile.

  I followed Greg to my first class of the day.

  hYBrID XVI- Greenish blue eyed girl

  Sean entered the dark basement of the five level building. He couldn't fathom the need of being called at this time of the night. It was almost midnight. What was so important that couldn't wait until morning.His wolf was furious to leave his pregnant mate's side. Any other day it would have been fine, but today he wanted to watch his wife sleep peacefully. Lately she had been very tired, nauseous and dizzy because of his child that was growing in her belly. As a result she was not able to sleep at nights. So leaving her sleeping mate when she had a calm and serene look on her face had been one of the most arduous task for him.