“I’m gonna need you to come back today after school for practice,” Dr. King said as he turned to the running students in my class. I was guessing that they had just finished their fourth lap around the track, and if memory served me correctly, that was a mile.
“Practice? Practice for what?” I squeaked.
“You are going to be on the wrestling team. We need someone in your weight class, and you’ve got the cream to rise to the top.”
“I don’t know anything about wrestling. I can’t be on a team. I uhhh, I don’t think that I can help you--” the wolf-man raised a massive clawed hand toward me, and then turned from the group of kids running toward us so that our eyes met. I really had to look up to see him, and I guessed that he must have weighed four times what I did.
“I can un-der-stand your per-dic-ahhh-ment. You don’t know if you are good at something, and you get all the feelings of butterflies fighting in your stomach. I’ve been there. Oh yeah. Sometimes you gotta face your inner man, and then ask him what he is made of. He might tell you something dumb, like that he doesn’t know something, or that he can’t do something. When that happens, you gotta grab him by the waist, throw him on the ground, and then pin him until the referee taps. Can you understand that the eagle-hawk doesn’t tell himself that he can’t do it? You’ve gotta be the cream. So I’ll see you here after school, and then we’ll make some honey. Oh yeah.”
“Okay,” I sighed and then glanced over my shoulder back to the school. Dr. King was making a big mistake asking me to join the team. I didn’t want to let the wolf-man down, but I just wasn’t good at sports, especially wrestling.
But something about what the giant wolf said made me hopeful. If I learned how to wrestle, I’d probably get strong. Would I become strong enough to protect Charlotte if she needed me? I cared for her, and even though I didn’t know what her exact feelings were for me, I knew that she’d spent all of our time together protecting me. I didn’t think women were attracted to “damsel-boys” in distress. What if I had muscles and could take care of myself? Would that help win her heart? Maybe it was worth a try.
“You’ve finished warming up your physical bodies for the trials ahead. Yeah. Now, can you fathom what might lieeeeeeee in store for you during the rest of the class period? Before you answer, think about the possibilities of a full body workout that can create the kind of environment that lets your brains and bodies become tools of power that only the just can wield.” Dr. King had a sing-song quality to the pace of his voice, and each word seemed to grow more intense than the previous.
My new classmates looked at each other with a bit of confusion, and then I saw one of the angel girls raise her hand.
“Hey,+ Kristen. What do you think?”
“You said earlier that we would be building better bodies. Did you mean squats?”
“Oh yeah! That’s what I meant. Great job!” The werewolf slapped his hands together with a series of thunderous claps, and the beautiful golden-haired girl blushed. “Now we are going to go to the weight room. Yeah. We are going to go meet some iron. It will be a good friend. The weights don’t make no promises that they can’t keep when the going gets tough. No. They only give you what they have to give you when you have given all that you’ve got to give. Oh yeah. Follow me class. Oh, and Sherman is going to be dem-onnn-sttraiting for us the proper technique.”
The students turned to face me after Dr. King gestured my way. I felt my face heat up like a stove top, but instead of bemused looks, the kids just nodded at me. It was kind of weird, and I wondered why no one had tried to point out my obvious lack of fitness.
“Let’s get to it! The squared circle awaits!” the giant werewolf shouted as he walked back toward the gym building.
The rest of the class followed, and I tried to prepare myself for public humiliation.
Chapter 3
“Why are you walking so weird?” Charlotte asked when we met in the quad for lunch.
“I had gym,” I said with a grimace.
“I know, so why are you walking--”
“The teacher made me do push-ups, and then I had to lift weights, and then I had to try to do pull ups.”
I thought the beautiful succubus girl would have mocked me, or maybe given me one of her playful smiles and made a light hearted joke, but she just pursed her lips.
“You are sore?”
“Yeah,” I said as we walked toward one of the benches. We had packed our lunches early this morning, and I took them out of my pack when we sat.
“I’m sorry. I can give you a massage after school. If you want?” she smiled at me as she took her lunch bag from me.
“Massage?” I asked as the pain suddenly left my body. The world started to spin, and I thought I heard harp music playing from somewhere in the school.
“Yes,” she confirmed with a wink. “I’ve never given anyone a massage before, but I am a succubus. So…” She shrugged when her words trailed off, and she opened her bag lunch.
“Ahhh. I uhhh. That would be won--”
“Right after school,” her eyes met mine suddenly, and I kind of felt she had twin tractor beams and my mind was falling into her.
Then I remembered Dr. King.
“I have practice after school,” I gasped.
“Huh?”
“I’m on the wrestling team now. Oh, and I have good news. I think that--”
“Did you see the target?” she interrupted me.
“Yes. Or, I think so. It was this Dr. King. The PE teacher and wrestling coach. He’s a really big werewolf, but he doesn’t look like a wolfman. He is more like a muscular furry man with a wolf’s head,” I explained, and I tried to figure out how I could get the conversation back onto her giving me a massage. I had never experienced someone rubbing my shoulders, but the idea sounded all sorts of wonderful. Especially if it was Charlotte.
“That is him. He is the wrestling coach? I should have suspected. They like to do physical type things.” The beautiful girl nodded to herself and then took a bite out of her sandwich. It was peanut butter & jelly, and I had painstakingly made hers this morning with care to have just the perfect amount of bread- peanut butter- jelly ratio.
“He is really nice. I actually kind of--”
“Did he make you work out?” she asked, and her eyes flashed dangerously.
“Yeah. Push-ups, and--”
“And he wants you to go to wrestling practice? Why?”
“He says that I have the stuff. Like the cream. Or something like that. He kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense when he talks, but his words got me really pumped up.”
“How long will practice go?” she asked as she took another bite of her sandwich.
“Till six, I think. They are committed to it. He might let me out early since I am new.”
“Or he might keep you until the end. Do you still have the school map on you?” she asked after she finished chewing.
“Yeah. Here,” I said after I took the paper out of my pocket and passed it to the beautiful winged girl.
Charlotte stared at it for a few moments and then pointed to the gym building. “If he has a car, he’ll need to walk this way to get to it. It will be dark. I’ll hide either here,” she said as she pointed to a building on the map. “Or here.” Her finger slid to the other side of the building. “Try to get him to walk with you and take him past this building.” She tapped on the map. “That will make it easy.”
“You want to do it tonight?” I whispered as I leaned into her.
“Not really, but the sooner I finish this mission, the sooner we can get out of here and move to the next assignment. There is something strange about this school.” She still had the thick rimmed glasses on, and she raised a perfect finger to the bridge of her perfect nose to push them back on her perfect face.
“Ahh.” I tried to hide my disappointment. I knew that Satan expected us to finish tonight, but I really liked the idea of living alone with the wonderful succubus girl for a few weeks
, or maybe even a few months. It felt straight out of a romantic comedy anime. We could go to school together, study together, cook together, and watch TV together. The idea made my stomach tingle with joy, and I let out a bit of a sigh. Ugh. It was just a romantic fantasy.
“What about the vampire?” I remembered the caveat to Satan’s plan, and I tried not to let my words come across as too excited.
“Just point one out at lunch,” she said as she gestured to the students walking by. “We’ll follow him or her to their locker. I’ll hack up the werewolf, then stuff his body in there. Maybe I’ll follow them home after school to see where they live, and then plant pieces of dog body there.” Her face upturned into a smile that reminded me that the beautiful girl was still a demon.
“Can you really kill him? He is powerful and aren’t alphas supposed to be the strongest? Didn’t Satan say they have healing abilities and you need to use silver?” I was worried that she was taking Dr. King a bit too lightly. The wolf-man was probably two or three times her size and a trained wrestling coach.
“Some do. Some don't. I’ll get the first strike. Attack first and attack last is my preferred strategy. I shouldn’t need silver if I can get to his brain. You just bring him into position, get out of the way, and I’ll take care of the rest. Then we can go back to Hell.”
“Okay,” I sighed and then looked at my own sandwich. I’d forgotten to eat when we were talking, and now I didn’t feel very hungry. My feelings were a bit mixed up. I wanted Charlotte to finish her mission so that we could return to Satan victorious, but I also wanted to spend more time with her alone.
I also found myself liking this school. It was odd, but I was accustomed to either being ignored, or being laughed at. Today I had kind of stumbled into all sorts of embarrassing situations, and been called out in front of my peers by the two strange teachers, but no one had laughed at me. It was a strange experience, and I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Do you know these girls?” Charlotte’s question yanked me away from my thoughts, and I looked up to see a trio of angel girls approaching. They all had wings of pure white feathers, and hair that looked to be crafted out of precious spun metal. The one in the center’s hair was the longest, and the color of gold. I recognized her as the girl from my PE class, and I recalled Dr. King calling her Kristen.
“Hi!” she said as the three angels stood before us. Angel kids always seemed to hang out together, which was weird because Charlotte and Satan had explained to me that none of these “Earth Soldiers” knew what each other’s race actually was.
“Hi, uhhh. Kristen?”
“Yes, you remembered my name. Sherman, this is Lily and Rose,” Kristen said as she gestured to the winged girls that flanked her. Lily was a bit taller than Kristen, with shoulder length silver colored hair. Rose was a hair shorter than Kristen, and had copper colored hair cut short with long bangs that almost covered her eyes. The midday sun bounced off their manes like reflective glass, and it seemed to make their heads glow with a halo effect.
“Uhhh, hi. Ummm, nice to meet you all,” I said, and Kristen’s friends smiled at me before they turned to look at the succubus.
“Oh, this is Charlotte,” I said.
“I’m his sister,” the purple eyed girl said with a nod.
“We can tell,” Lily said with a giggle. “You both look so much alike.”
“Are you twins?” Rose asked. “We don’t have any twins at this school.
“Yes we are!” Charlotte said as she shot me a wry smile.
“That is neat-o!” Kristen said. “I heard a rumor that Sherman joined the wrestling team. Is that true?” she asked as she looked at me.
“It was surprising because everyone wants to make the team. Dr. King said you didn’t even need to try out. Did you wrestle at your old high school?” Lily asked.
“Ahhhh,” I felt my mind sprint in opposite directions. Girls normally didn’t talk to me, especially angel girls, and no one ever remembered my name.
“My brother is a great wrestler. He hasn’t been able to practice because we were overseas for so long,” Charlotte said with a proud smile.
“Oh, really? Where were you both?” Kristen asked with obvious interest.
“Japan,” Charlotte lied, and I tried to hide my amazement by swallowing my gasp.
“Wow. Why were you over there?” Lily asked.
“Sherman was working with one of the video game companies over there. He was consulting with their latest fighting game. He won a few tournaments. We finally came back so that he could finish school in the states. Our parents like it there so they are going to stay.”
“There are tournaments for video games?” Rose’s eyes were an aquamarine color and grew large when she asked the question.
“Sure. He is one of the best in the world. He had to take a break from wrestling to do it though. I’m really blabbering about him.” Charlotte gave me a playful punch in the shoulder. “He is famous in Japan.”
“Wow,” all three angel girls said as the turned their glittery eyes to me.
I felt my face get hot, and I had trouble breathing for a few seconds. Why was Charlotte lying about me? It didn’t make any sense. All it was doing was drawing attention to me. It would jeopardize our mission.
“Uhhh, it isn’t that big of a deal.” I tried not to let my voice squeak.
“We wanted to introduce ourselves, and ask if we could interview you for the school podcast,” Kristen asked. “I thought that it was cool that you made the wrestling team, but now we have to talk about Japan! You might just be the coolest guy ever to transfer to our school!”
“Uhh I d-d-don’t really know a-a-about that,” I stuttered as I scratched the back of my head. Interview? There was no way I could do an interview with her. I wasn’t a professional gamer from Japan. Did Charlotte want me to lie?
“When is the podcast?” the succubus asked.
“We are trying to do it in the next few days. Can you do tomorrow?” the blonde angel girl asked.
“I don’t know about--”
“Sure he can. How about after school?” Charlotte interrupted me.
“Great. It is in the media room. Do you know where it is?” Kristen asked.
“No,” I said as I looked down at the map.
“It is right here.” The angel girl was instantly at my side opposite Charlotte and leaning over to point at my map. “Room one oh three. Can you be there right after school? ”
“I might have practice,” I said. The girl was sitting a little too close to me, and she smelled like peppermint.
“It is just a thirty minute interview. I’ll have it all set up when you get there. You’ll be able to make it to practice with plenty of time.” The angel girl smiled at me.
“He’ll be there!” Charlotte said. “Oh, but can you girls help us out with something?” the succubus asked in a whispered tone, and the three girls leaned in toward her. It was actually a little uncomfortable because Kristen’s pretty hair fell onto my shoulder and tickled my neck.
“We’ve heard great things about Dr. King. Do you know anything about him? Does he live around the school? Does he drive here in the morning? Did you ever interview him on your podcast?”
“He is great! We have the best high school athletics program in the state because of him,” Rose said as she nodded and flipped her copper bangs away from her eyes with a quick motion of her hand.
“He normally drives a yellow Jeep. It’s got a fluorescent camouflage pattern on it,” Lily said as she gestured to the office on the far side of the quad. It was the lot where we parked our car this morning, but I couldn’t remember seeing a fluorescent painted jeep.
“I often interview him on the podcast. We try to do one at the start of the winter and spring seasons so that we get his opinions on how all of our teams will do,” Kristen said. “If you look on the school’s podcast website, you’ll find a list of each episode.”
“Oh, thank you. We’ll listen to them all tonigh
t!” Charlotte beamed at the girls. It was perhaps the strangest sight I’d ever seen, and I had seen a lot of crazy stuff in the last few weeks. The succubus girl didn’t smile a lot, and I had never seen her make friends with other girls. Especially with girls that seemed so bubbly.
“Okay. Ummm,” Kristen looked around the quad. “Lunch is almost over. We like to eat in room one oh three at lunch. If you both want to meet us there tomorrow, I can introduce you to everyone.”
“Everyone?” Charlotte asked with a raised eyebrow. Her facial expression made my heart race in my chest. All these angel girls were beyond beautiful, and belonged on the covers of fashion magazines, but none of them made my vision spin like Charlotte.
“Sure. We have a newspaper, a website, and most of us are in the student council.” Kristen laughed, and the other two girls echoed the chuckle. “We don’t bite, honest.”
“Sounds great. We’ll be there,” Charlotte said, and I tried once more to keep the shock from my face.
“Great, see you there. Have fun at practice, Sherman,” Kristen smiled at me, and the other two girls made small waves before they turned to leave.
“Interesting,” Charlotte said when they were out of hearing range.
“What is? Why did you lie about the wrestling? And Japan? How am I going to be able to keep my stories straight? That wasn’t part of the plan we had talked about.”
“Were they angels?” the succubus asked me.
“Yeah. How did you guess?” I asked, but then I realized it was probably a dumb question. Charlotte was one of Satan’s most skilled assassins, and while she couldn’t see exactly what each girl really was, I imagined that she could get a hint of their secret race when she spoke to them.
“They like to travel in threes like in those movies. Same as the Erinyes since they are dark angels. Those three were also way too nice, and the student council was a dead giveaway. Demons and Devils don’t care about that shit.”
Werewolf!: Hell High Book 3 Page 3
