Chapter 8 Werewolf hunting
Naomi
My heart thumped inside my chest as I left his office. He didn't even tell me why he needed me in his office. I touched my hands as I made my way to class. And those goosebumps forming on my body? What for? Was it because I had never had a man stand so dangerously close to me?
Asking me who I was. I was Naomi. What would I rather be?
I entered the class and sat on my new seat. Benita occupied the seat in front. I had no idea about the students behind me. They never cared about me, that's why I didn't care to know about them either. Calix and her friends occupied the last desk on this row.
The bell went off and everyone else went out for lunch break except me. I didn't have money for lunch. Aside from that, I already ate in the house before coming to school. I needed to stay away from him. And he had to stay away from me. My life right now was in so much chaos that I didn't want anyone coming to complicate it for me.
Friday came in a blink of an eye. Our first class was physical education. I went to my locker to change. I got into my training attire and went on to close the door, but it felt as though someone was holding it. I looked up to see Calix holding the door and towering over. Yeah, she was taller than I was.
Her friends stood behind her.
"I need to lock this door. Do you mind letting the door go?"
"I do mind." She raised a brow at me, definitely challenging me to do my worst. It was like she forgot what I was capable of.
No! That thought made me cringe. I was not capable of anything. I did nothing. It was just hallucinations.
I looked inside the locker. Our belongings were not forbidden to be brought to the training ground. She could stand and hold the door for all I cared. I grabbed my back and put everything inside. I threw it over my shoulder and started to walk away, but not without saying …"Stand there for all I care."
She placed her leg in front trying to get me tripped, but I skipped over it.
"You would listen to me when I tell you." She told me as she came to stand in front of me.
It was quite obvious that she didn't remember what had happened. What did Mr. Rex do? He had told me that he would make them forget. Did he? If yes, how did he make it? Did he threaten them? I didn't think that was possible, given who Calix was. With just a snap of her fingers, Mr. Rex would get out of this school in no time.
"Everyone to the field. We are getting late." I didn't have to turn around to see who it was. His voice told me everything. My mind reeled back to what happened days ago. He had taken my hand in his when I tried to leave. He said something like mate. I felt a certain kind of shock wave through my skin when he touched my hand. I didn't understand what that reaction was all about.
"Don't you have better sports shoes?" A husky voice said next to me. I refused to look at him. Rather, my eyes moved down to the old brown sneakers I had on. I have had it for over three years. Ma'a had given them to me as a birthday gift. They fit me so well. The only problem was a small hole on my pinky toe on the left foot. I didn't mind, because I expected no one else to like them, but me.
"These, better than any shoes I could possibly have." Well, that was a lie. They were better shoes outside there, but I prefer these. They were light and could support my tiny frame. I started jogging ahead, but his next question made me stop in my tracks.
"How much do you know about werewolves?" He fell into steps with me.
He didn't ask the question like someone who wanted to know more about werewolves. It was like he knew and wanted to test my knowledge about them. The thing is, he would not be asking me that question if he knew how much I hated them.
"Nothing." I responded and started jogging with increased speed. I had no business discussing such a thing with my teacher.
As usual, we formed lines in front of the court. Julian wasn't present yet. It was just Mr. Rex, who said, we would be doing some body stretches for the day and he was going to show us what to do.
We followed his lead. He started with the legs, telling us that it should be the strongest part when it comes to combat since you would need them to navigate around and then, he went to the hands. We will need that to clearly attack your opponent and defend yourself. We did back rolls, planks, and push ups. These were quite different from what we have been doing with Julian. Not like he was someone I like seeing, but I was wondering why he was yet to show up.
The training came to a stop almost three hours later.
"We can stop here for today and continue next Friday."
I moved down to the end of the field to get my bag, when I felt a hand graze my neck and get hold of the collar of my shirt. I spun around to face Calix and her friends. Deadly eyes stared down at me. "You see what you did to my neck?" She pointed a figure at the white scarf she had around it. She must have used it to cover up the marks or whatever and here I was, thinking that she could not remember and if she did, that was enough reason for her to stay away from me.
Clearly she hadn't had enough.
"What do you want from me?" I was yet to understand why she kept picking on me. The marks, you would say...but from every indication, it was something deeper than that. I needed her to tell me. If it was something I needed to make amends for, then I wouldn't hesitate to do that. But the thing I was not going to do, was to apologize for something I was born with.
"You disgust me, Naomi and I would make you pay for it, no matter what." She let go of my dress and walked away. I stood there for a moment. I sucked in a breath, unable to comprehend what that was all about.
"Announcement! Announcement!"
Julian just arrived and was in the court with a microphone in his hands. Once the students were gathered, he proceeded to make his announcements.
"We shall be using the silver swords next to train with. You all should come prepared and remember, lateness would not be tolerated."
Silver swords! I heard the silver was a kind of chemical used to induce pain on werewolves. If severely , some of them might die from it, especially if you were weak. It was designed just like the silver needles we carried around.
We haven't heard of any werewolves lurking around after the ones that were killed at City Bay. Maybe they heard of what happened and decided to stay away.
"And for the Scourge,you have a hunt this coming week. There have been news of werewolves around.
Oh. I was probably less informed about what was going on in this city.