**CHAPTER TWO.**
If there was one thing I hated about being a werecat it was the fact that I was always quick to catch a cold. As the lecturer, Mr Hellcaster, continued teaching I tried holding in my sneeze, eyes set on the projector as I wrote down some points in my note. I was a philosophy major in my sophomore year and the lecturer was meant to be taking us on epistemology, but for some reason, he decided to start the new semester with studies which included Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein works. I knew a lot about them, considering I grew up being a history nerd before deciding to study philosophy.
With every minute that passed it was getting harder to hold in my sneeze, but I didn't want to release it, especially not in the crowded lecture hall. I was scared a snot would fall out of my nose in the presence of my coursemate. It was a new semester and I didn't want to be the meme and talk of the whole campus.
The door to the lecture room creaked open, earning the attention of everyone. I didn't look back though as I was still trying to contain my sneeze. At this point, I was already using 80% of my nerves in me to do so. Loud chatters soon ensued in the lecture hall, and even the lecturer had stopped teaching. Everyone's eyes were at the back of the hall.
"Mr. Gallagher," intoned the lecturer, his words penetrating the ambient murmurs. I pivoted my gaze toward the source of this disruption, revealing Draken Gallagher – a figure straddling the dichotomy of campus adoration. "I assume this isn't your designated class."
"It's an elective," resonated his reply, a mellifluous cadence infusing his words. My heightened senses, a facet of my werecat nature, allowed me to discern his voice amid the hall's clamour. "Apologies for my tardiness."
The lecturer smiled at him. "Have a seat then, Mr Gallagher."
He navigated the sea of glances and laughter, ultimately deciding to occupy the vacant seat beside me. He walked over with a foreign aura enshrouding him. Murmurs and giggles flew across the hall as he took his seat next to me. I tensed, fidgeting with my pen as I tried my best not to inhale the otherworldly scent coming off him or even look at him. What pissed me off the most was the sneeze I was still trying to hold inside of me; I was already using 90% of my nerves to withhold my sneeze.
"Decorum, class. Lectures have resumed." Mr Hellcaster announced.
When lectures resumed, I could hardly pay any attention, especially with Draken Gallagher - my self-proclaimed nemesis - sitting next to me.
"Same ol' Plato and Aristotle, isn't there anything fun in philosophy aside from them?" I heard Draken say quietly, but loud enough for me to hear. Even if he had muttered it, I would still have heard it because of my hypersensitive senses.
Slowly, I took my gaze up and I was met with an intense set of forest-green eyes staring right back at me. He had a beautiful smile on his face, one that seemed alluring and delicate, with a side dimple that was big enough to contain a puddle. "I - am I the one you're talking to?" I almost stuttered, but I was quick to regain my composure.
He nodded. Even the way he nodded was majestic. It annoyed me to see that a human could be that perfect. While I, as a werecat — part of the 0.01% of the population of werecats, the only living supernatural being – was nothing short of impressive. The only thing I had going for me was my brain. I failed in the beauty department. The socializing department, and even the sports department. "Elective, I presume?" he conjectured.
"My major," I corrected.
"*Ah,* I see. Your favoured philosopher?"
"Lao Tzu."
"I believe I've perused one of his works."
"Which?"
"Tao Te Ching," he responded, with a hint of self-deprecation. "Apologies if I mangled the pronunciation."
"No butchering occurred," I assured him.
He passed me a smile and looked away from me for a brief moment to look at the projector on the board. I, unable to fully engage due to my internal strife, found myself ensnared in an unexpected *tête-à-tête* with Draken Gallagher. I couldn't believe that Draken Gallagher, who once was my middle school classmate- the one who never paid me an iota of attention, had asked for my favourite philosopher.
I couldn't believe that, for the first time in forever, Draken Gallagher had acknowledged my existence.
"I didn't ask," his gaze met mine again. "I didn't ask about your favourite work from Lao Tzu."
"Yeah, you didn't ask."
He smiled. "I know, and that's why I'm asking now."
"Oh, er, I don't really have a favourite work from Lao Tzu," I answered honestly. "I like all his works, but there's one that stands out to me. He authored the main book on Taoism around 500 BCE in Ancient China. I read the book when I was seven, and I've been interested in Taoism since then. Taoism focuses on the balance of animals and humans and how they should coexist in the universe."
"Interesting," he commented, combing his fingers through his dirty blonde hair.
"There are a lot of interesting things about Lao Tzu's writings," I delved further. "He also believed in spiritual immortality, in which your soul does not die, but instead, becomes one with the universe after death. Similar to the cycle of life from The Lion King."
"Like ecology?"
"Not quite, close enough though," I chuckled and that seemed to widen the smile on his face. "While ecology is the study of organisms and how they interact with the environment around them, the basic idea of Taoism is to enable people to realize that, since human life is only a small part of a larger process of nature, the human life which makes sense are those which are in harmony with nature."
"I know little to nothing about Taoism," he admitted, and that made me happy. Glad to know that I could finally beat him in something. "Why do you love his book on Taoism so much?"
Being able to relate with Lao Tzu on a deeper scale was all because of my existence as a werecat. It made me find meaning in a life where my kind, having to live in seclusion, was 0.01% of the earth's population. The idea behind Taoism made the existence of werecats seem like a larger process of nature, one which humans were unaware of. However, I couldn't tell Draken all about that. Everyone in my family were all werecats – and we were the only living werecats in the whole of New York, if not the whole fifty states of the United States. No one outside my family knew about our existence, and it was a pledge made between us all to let it remain like that until we found a trusted one to love and cherish for life. AKA; someone like *Shrek.*
". . ." Draken eyes were still set on me, looking at me hopefully for an answer.
"I don't know," I answered as the bell resonated, signalling the lecturer's conclusion.
I quickly packed my stuff and departed, without once sparing Draken a glance — grappling with the revelation that, for the first and probably the last time in an eternity, Draken Gallagher had acknowledged my existence. It wasn't until I had left the lecture hall did I realised that I was holding my breath. And most of all, I had forgotten about my sneeze in the wee of the moment.
As I continued to move absentmindedly through the bodies of students in the hallway, I collided with a body, causing my stuff to fall to the ground.
"I'm sorry," I quickly apologized as I bent down to pick up my stuff.
"This hallway is big enough for hundreds to pass at the same time, what are you? Blind? Why don't you look at where you're walking on?" A familiar voice retorted.
I looked up to confirm who had spoken and it was indeed her. Amanda Griffin — Draken Gallagher's girlfriend. "I apologized, didn't I?"
"Like hell you did," she passed me a cruel look, one I'd only heard about without knowing I would one day be at the receiving end. She moved away from my front, purposely kicking away one of my books to a far locker by one end of the hallway. "Watch your front next time you walk, an outsider."
I stood up and held her back by her hand before she could take any step further. By this time, we had gotten the attention of those around us. "You also have eyes, don't you?" I retorted, feeling my heartbeat pick up and I was beginning to feel the presence of my claws. As a werecat, I just wanted to run those claws through her face; but I couldn't. I had an identity to protect.
Moreover, I hated confrontation, but what I hated more was being picked on and made to feel like a lesser being.
I grew up in a strict household, and my granny had taught me to never let an insult pass through me because if allowed once it could be a daily occurrence. I cleared my throat, adding, "If so, why didn't you avoid me then? Unless you're just looking for someone to boost your self-esteem-"
She dragged her hand away from mine, her hazel eyes filled with intensity as she stared down at me. "Self-esteem?" She laughed. "Why would I need to feel better by picking on a girl who can't even match her clothes properly? A green turtleneck and a blue coat, even your style is laughable. Those in the 1700s sure had a better sense of fashion than you do."
"Sure they do, but I don't care," I said. I was bad with words, so I couldn't find a proper reply to her response. I was beginning to feel like I shouldn't have held her back. I shouldn't have confronted her, especially now that the whole school had their phones out, probably expecting us to drag our hair or tear our clothes off and give them a show. "At least I don't have to dress to impress anyone."
"Or you can just admit you have no taste in fashion," she replied.
I was beginning to feel like a high schooler in a clapback with another high schooler, and I didn't like that feeling. Throughout my middle school year and high school years, I tried my best to avoid any sort of altercation. I was about to just leave her presence, to admit defeat, when suddenly I sneezed and a scream pierced through the hallway, followed by snickers and laughter from the crowd of students that had gathered.
"You shrew! Did you just sneeze on me?" She was hysterical as she held her hand up, eyes scanning her body. "Is- is- is this snort?"
She screamed again. This time, louder than before as she scurried away from my presence.
The crowd around still had their phones up as I went to pick up my book that Amanda had kicked towards the end of the hallway. I had tried avoiding any sort of scandal on my first day of sophomore year, but having snorted on Amanda Griffin had gone against my wish for my first day of being scandal-free.
As I picked up my book, I saw Topper — one of Draken's friends. There was a huge grin on his face as he brought his camera closer to my face. "As of today, the whole school calls you *snorter.* How do you like your new name? I just know you'd go viral on *Tiktok.*"