The Teacher and the Werewolf 2 (Paranormal Classroom)

by Anya Merchant

  “I’m kidding! Come on, tough guy, can’t you take a joke?” Gabe laughed, and slapped Kato on the back.

  “Just get to the fucking point,” said Kato. “I don’t have any patience for your games.”

  “Okay, okay. Look, I’ve been in this area for a while, and I like it here.” Gabe leaned in close, as though he was getting ready to whisper something into his ear. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of the people here pretty well, and I know that most of them would flip out if they knew that a WEREWOLF was kicking around town!”

  Kato felt anger begin to boil up in his chest. He reached his hands forward to grab the scruff of the vampire boy’s shirt, an action that was greeted with more laughter from him.

  “Hey hey hey, just another joke, buddy!” Gabe gestured around to the students nearby, who seemed to be completely oblivious to what was going on. “They can’t hear me unless I want them to hear me.”

  “Enough of this, I have places to be.” Kato grabbed the books he needed and turned to shut his locker and leave. Gabe held up his finger and smiled.

  “We should hang out.” Gabe was nodding repeatedly and pointing back and forth between the two of them in a manner that was almost comical. “To tell you the truth, I’ve never actually met a werewolf before. I’ve heard about them, but never actually met one in person.”

  Kato felt exhausted by the encounter. He shook his head.

  “Not interested, I have enough on my plate to deal with right now.” He shut his locker and started to walk away from Gabe.

  “I think you’d rather have me as a friend, than as an enemy.” Gabe shouted to him, and Kato stopped for a moment and turned back. “Seriously. I’m good with people, and very good at helping them remember things…or forget things.”

  Kato turned and walked back to him. He was angry with himself for letting the encounter play out this way. He should have tracked Gabe down immediately after discovering his presence yesterday, and figured out who and what he was dealing with outside of the open environment of the school.

  “Let’s talk after school, Gabe,” said Kato. “I don’t need anything from you other than to stay out of my way, and mind your own business.”

  “I think you’re a lot more vulnerable than you know, Mr. Beast. I mean, aren’t we all?”

  The two of them stared into each other’s eyes, neither say anything for a moment. The hallway was still crowded and loud, but the silence the hung in the air between them was loaded and volatile.

  “If you want to have a go at me right here, go right ahead Kato.” Gabe had a disarming smile on his face that contrasted his words. “But you have much more to lose than I do, it seems.”

  “Fuck you.” Kato walked forward, knocking his shoulder into the other boy as he passed by.

  The situation was slipping from his grasp, and Kato felt the beast within him straining madly for control. What he needed to do at that moment was to stay calm, and he knew it.

  CHAPTER 3

  Kato’s thoughts were scattered as he went through his first few classes of the day. He barely managed to focus enough to keep up with what the teacher was saying in English, and completely forewent taking any notes in Science. The type of solutions his teacher was explaining in the latter were entirely different from the solutions he needed at that moment.

  He took a bathroom break midway through second period, and used it as a chance to follow Gabe’s scent to the classroom he was in. Kato knew that it wouldn’t lead to any information that wasn’t already obvious to him, but he was restless, and his impulses were hard to control.

  Gabe was in math class, and seemed to be going along with it, just like all of the other students. There was nothing unusual about his behavior, but to Kato, that was the biggest red flag of all. What business did a vampire have being a student in a high school? Then again, what business did he have being there, either?

  Kato caught Gabe’s eye right before he turned to leave. The vampire lowered his glasses and winked at him with one of his blood red eyes. It confirmed something that Kato already knew: his new friend was completely unable to take anything seriously.

  He headed back to his classroom, and shortly after, the bell rang for lunch. Kato spilled out into the hall, and ran into Amy headed the opposite way. She smiled at him and hugged her books tight against her chest as she approached.

  “Hey Kato!” she said, beaming at him. “Let’s have lunch together! I’ll share some of mine with you, if you aren’t interested in eating the school’s.”

  “Yeah, sure,” replied Kato. “Just let me drop some stuff off first.”

  Amy nodded, and headed off towards the cafeteria. Kato hurried towards his locker. On his way there, he felt somebody grab his arm. He tensed up and turned quickly, expecting it to be Gabe, only to find the slight figure of Ms. Vega holding onto his sleeve.

  “Kato, we have to talk. Now.”

  His encounter with Gabe had effectively made him push his concerns of being uncovered by Ms. Vega into the back of his head. There was still a danger of it, but compared to what he had on his plate with the vampire, it seemed like a lesser problem.

  “Ms. Vega, I was headed to the cafeteria to have lunch with Amy,” said Kato. “Look, can we talk about this some other time?”

  Kari Vega stepped in close to her student and stared deep into his eyes. Kato could tell that she was trying to overwhelm him with her presence, but all it really seemed to accomplish was to make his inner beast flare up.

  “I’m not taking no for an answer, young man. Come with me right this instant if you don’t want to make a scene.”

  Kato sighed, and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Just let me put my stuff in my locker,” he said.

  Ms. Vega followed him all the way there. If Kato were any other student, having a teacher escort him through the halls would have been a little embarrassing. For him, the antics of his homeroom teacher were more amusing than anything. What she knew did give her a certain amount of power over him, but Kato was beginning to get the feeling that she wasn’t going to take advantage of it.

  Kato dropped his books off, and then nodded to Ms. Vega and gestured forward with his hand. She walked with confident determination, as though leading a prisoner into an interrogation room. The two of them made their way into her classroom, and she locked the door behind them.

  It was almost uncanny just how quickly Kato’s teacher began her verbal onslaught against him. He opened his mouth to begin defending himself, but Ms. Vega was right in his face before he could say anything, hot with anger.

  “If you think you can just treat me like I’m crazy and brush this under the rug, you’re wrong!” Ms. Vega yelled at him, and the emotion in her voice said more than her actual words. “Kato, I know what I saw! Tell me what’s going on!”

  Instead of being cowed into confessing, Kato felt an irritable itch manifest itself within his own chest. He glared at his teacher, feeling as though her beauty only made it harder for him to deal with her effectively, and spoke in his defense.

  “Ms. Vega, you’re the one who was stalking me for most of yesterday afternoon, so get your accusations out of my face!”

  He lifted his finger up and pointed at her, and his teacher slapped it down.

  “If you think I’m just going to stay quiet and keep your secret, you’re wrong!” Ms. Vega reached forward and grabbed Kato by his shirt. “I’ll tell everyone if you don’t explain Kato, the principal, the other students, I’ll tell-“

  Kato leaned in and kissed Ms. Vega passionately on the lips, surprising himself as much as her. His beast had taken over without him realizing it, and triggered a primal, animalistic lust that turned the entire situation onto its head.

  Ms. Vega didn’t pull away, and for a moment, the two of them made out, like lovers reconciling after a fierce fight. Kato’s hands ran across her back, one of them coming to a rest on her butt, and the other identifying and sizing up her bra strap.

  His lips pulled away, and then
he dropped them down, kissing his teacher’s neck and pushing himself against her as he felt his inner beast readying itself for action. Ms. Vega was in a trance, and seemed to reciprocate her advances, up until his fingers began to grope at one of her big, soft, supple breasts.

  “No, Kato, we can’t!” Ms. Vega pushed him back. Her face was flushed bright red, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet and wavering.

  Kato felt the familiar signs of an oncoming transformation. He knew that his eyes would soon be red, along with the extension of his canine teeth, and then the appearance of his claws and fur. He turned away from Ms. Vega, and did his best to focus on his breathing and calm himself down.

  “Kato, what’s wrong?” She stepped towards him, and Kato held his arm out to signal to her to stay back.

  It became clear to him that he wasn’t going to be able to stop it from happening. Kato kept his gaze low to the ground, and hurried passed Ms. Vega out of the classroom, who was too embarrassed and confused to continue putting up the inquisitional front that she had been maintaining before.

  “Sorry Ms. Vega,” he said. “I have to go.”

  He rushed down the hall, moving at a speed far beyond what a regular human would be capable of. All of the teachers and students of Westbrook High were either in lunch or in class, and Kato was able to make it to one of the bathrooms without being spotted. He pushed into one of the stalls and collapsed into a seat against the wall.

  Kato was fully aware of just how close he had come to fucking everything up. His heart was pounding in his chest, and his hands in front of him still looked hairy, still looked like paws. If his transformation had gone on for even just a couple of seconds longer, that would have been it.

  Having Ms. Vega discover him in the early phases of his wolf form, at home, where he was under control, was completely different than this. She could have called people in, and started a veritable witch hunt. Kato didn’t know whether it was his own speed in getting to the bathroom that had saved him, or Ms. Vega being too shocked from what had happened between them.

  And Kato still didn’t understand just what had happened between the two of them. She was such an attractive woman, and in that moment, her beauty and breeding potential had become the only thing his beast cared about. Her lips had tasted so sweet, and her smell…so clean. But she was his teacher, and Kato forced the illicit thoughts of her out of his mind, hoping that there was some way that the two of them could come to an impasse.

  He took his time calming himself down, finally stepping out of the stall after a couple of minutes. He stared into the mirror, seeing his curly, shaggy hair, brown eyes, and human features. Kato breathed a sigh of relief, and then headed out into the school.

  The hallway was still empty. Kato had been half expecting Ms. Vega to be waiting for him there, ready to out him for what he was, or at least hurl accusations at him. He didn’t bother waiting around to see if she was on her way, and instead hurried to the lunch room.

  Kato had been hoping to be able to just get some food, and have a break momentarily. A quick scan of the cafeteria tables let him know that it wouldn’t be the case. Amy was sitting at one of them, and Gabe was right across from her, the two of them engaged in a very active conversation. Kato hurried over.

  Amy was laughing at something Gabe had said. She turned as Kato sat down next to her.

  “Oh, hey Kato. You know Gabe, right?” Amy had a smile on her face that was blissfully unaware of the tension simmering under the surface between the two teens.

  “Oh yes, I know Gabe,” said Kato. He was grinning, and it was genuine, pushed to the surface by his inner beast. “Where’s your food Gabe? Not hungry?”

  Gabe shook his head, and tapped the table next to his empty tray.

  “No, cafeteria food doesn’t really do it for me,” he said. “But of course, you already know that, Kato.”

  “What do you mean?” Amy looked confused, and looked back and forth between them.

  “We talked about it earlier today.” Kato rubbed Amy’s hand, and then put his folded arm on the table and leaned over it towards his new friend. “It seems that Gabe is a bit of a picky eater.”

  “Yeah, not like you Kato. When you get hungry I bet you eat everything in sight!” Gabe began laughing, as though he had told the funniest joke of the day. Amy looked around nervously.

  “Anyway, thanks for keeping Amy company,” said Kato. “You can go now.”

  Gabe looked at Kato for a moment, smiling broadly. He mouthed the word later, and then reached for Amy’s fingers, who held them out gingerly.

  “It’s been a pleasure dining with you, milady.” He kissed the back of her hand, and then locked eyes with her for a moment. Amy began to blush.

  “Oh, jeez, you are a sweet talker, aren’t you?” Amy started to giggle, and Gabe pulled away from the table, walking quickly out of the cafeteria.

  Kato wasn’t angry. It would not have been the right reaction, and even his animal side knew it. Instead, he found himself going over every piece of information that he could think of about vampires. If it came to blows, Gabe would not hesitate to kill him, and he needed to get into that same mindset.

  “He’s a really nice guy,” said Amy. “I always used to think of him as a bit of a nerd. The quiet type, you know? He never really said much in class. Kato? Are you listening?”

  Kato’s mind was preoccupied with wondering about whether he still had any garlic in his apartment, and if he’d be able to focus and grip things well enough to use a wooden stake in wolf form.

  “Sorry, what were you saying?” He scratched his head and smiled at Amy.

  CHAPTER 4

  The rest of the day went by in a blur for Kato. He was angry, at himself and at the world. The entire reason he had come to Westbrook was to take another shot at living a normal life, and now it was as though his own indiscretion and the fates were conspiring to ruin it for him.

  The last bell rang, and he headed out into the student packed hallway towards his locker. It took him several minutes to get there, and Kato used the time to think about what it would be like to be a normal high school student. They all had the privilege of being able to go about their lives without running into any problems beyond homework and relationships. It was almost unbelievable to him.

  Kato stopped in front of his locker and put in the combination. No sooner than he had gotten it open, Amy arrived, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she settled in next to him.

  “Hey! Let’s hang out after school again today!” She was peppy and enthusiastic, so different from the way that Kato typically felt about himself and the world. Amy was beautiful, and Kato appreciated her company, but it still seemed almost like a practical joke of the universe for him to be the one she had become infatuated with.

  “I can’t, sorry,” he replied. “How about tomorrow night?”

  Amy looked crestfallen, and she stomped her foot on the ground like a little girl that had been denied something that she wanted.

  “Oh, come on! What are you going to do instead?”

  Kato leaned towards her and cupped her cheek in his hand.

  “Sorry, that’s classified.” He smiled at her, and then leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

  Amy stared at him as he pulled away, as though she was trying to see deep into his soul.

  “Kato, you don’t have to be so closed off, you know.” She flicked a strand of her out of her face, and stood up on her toes so that her eyes were level with his. “You can tell me what’s going on inside your head, I’ll listen…”

  Kato ran his hand across her forehead.

  “Maybe some other time, Amy,” he said. “Just trust me.”

  The girl looked a little hurt, but she nodded, and then turned away from him. Kato watched her walk down the hall, feeling a little more emotion at having to push her away than he had expected.

  It didn’t take him long to come back to the problem at hand. Gabe needed to be dealt with, and Kato needed to figure out ju
st what dealing with him would entail. In a straight up fight, he wasn’t sure which of them would have the power advantage.

  On top of that, he wasn’t sure what kind of vampire Gabe really was. Kato had worked to temper a moral compass into his behavior over the years. If Gabe was taking advantage of people using his abilities, and living like many of the vampires that Kato had encountered in the past, he would have no choice other than to put him down.

  Easier said than done, a voice in his head chimed in. Kato pulled out his messenger bag, dropped off his books, and then shut his locker and headed down the hall. As he exited the school, he could feel the effects of the nearly full moon, even though it was still day time. It was the only saving grace to the danger he could be heading into that night.

  His cell phone rang in his pocket, and he pulled it out. The number on the preview was one Kato didn’t recognize it, and he tapped it on and held it up to his ear.

  “Yeah?”

  “…Kato, I wanted to talk to you about what happened in my classroom today.” The voice of Ms. Vega was not what Kato was expecting to hear. He looked around, noticing students rushing by him and towards the parking lot and bus loading area. Kato headed around the corner and leaned against the wall of the school.

  “Ms. Vega…Kari…I don’t really have anything to say about it. Things happened, I didn’t mean for them to.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. Kato realized that he felt something for his teacher, something that went beyond normal concern, or the fear of her revealing his secret.

  “Call me Ms. Vega, Kato,” she finally said. “Look…It takes two to tango. I…I kissed you back, and it wasn’t right.”

  It was Kato’s turn to be silent. A long second went by before he found the words to respond with.

  “Look, I’m not going to tell anyone about it,” said Kato. “You have my word. You can still be my teacher, and I can still be your student, and we can just put everything that’s happened in the past few days behind us…”