FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL

Xavier’s first day of school turned out to be like a typical werewolf’s first – terrible. Dressed in an oversized grey T-shirt and black leather pants, he looked pretty cool. His sand colored hair had been cut neat the previous day bringing out his handsome facial features and Aria was not at all surprised when boys glared angrily and girls tripped over their laces, staring at him. Xavier was thirteen, handsome and he was a werewolf.

Aria escorted him to the door of a classroom and after a brief discussion with a lanky woman on a pair of binoculars, she smiled and left him without saying a word. He turned to follow her but feeling a soft hand on his back, he turned back. It was the woman Aria had been speaking with.

“Xavier, I suppose?” she squinted at him through her binoculars.

“Yes Ma’am,” he said.

“The good kid I see,” she smiled. “Got some manners there.”

“My ma taught me to greet my elders and stay out of trouble,” Xavier replied.

“Your ma?” she frowned, wondering why he spoke Old English. “This isn’t 1901 boy. Your mum.”

“My mum,” Xavier repeated. “I’m sorry Ma’am.”

“Call me Mrs. Megan,” she smiled. “I’m your history teacher.”

“Okay ma’am…I mean, Mrs. Megan,” Xavier said.

“You’ll get used to it,” she said pointing towards the door. “There’s your class. Go on in, don’t forget to make new friends. I’ll want to hear about all of them.”

She turned and walked away abandoning him in front of the door of the classroom and he stood there for some minutes wondering how he would walk in to a class filled with teens that he didn’t know. He finally gathered the courage to walk in and just then, the bell rang and he panicked, hearing the sound of everyone standing up and preparing to come outside.

The door opened and a girl walked out first. She was average height and her brown skin shone under the morning sun. She stared Xavier down for like a second before walking towards the cafateria. In the short time that their eyes met, he was able to capture her name which was engraved on a blue tag on her chest. Her name was Melania and she was the class president. The rest of the class began to file out one by one and they all stared at him for a while before walking away. He heard some of the boys murmur and he noticed that the girls blushed and laughed as they walked right past him but he ignored them all. Melania had captured his attention already by the way she stared him down with those hazel eyes of hers and unlike the other girls, the way she walked away immediately like he didn’t matter.

He walked into the classroom after everyone had gone out and he sat down. He brought out his history textbook from his bag and dropped it on the table before him. Hearing a shuffle, he turned to look. He saw a fat boy about 17 rummaging through a drawer at the back of the classroom. He was obviously looking for something of importance so Xavier turned back quietly not wanting to intrude. In the process, his chair made a scraping sound against the ground and the boy looked up alarmed, realizing that someone was there.

“Who’re you?” he asked walking up to Xavier.

“The new student,” Xavier replied.

“That’s not a name,” the boy grunted.

“Allow the new student settle down Brad,” Mrs. Megan said walking in.

“Brad,” Xavier thought to himself. He turned around and as their eyes met, his worst fears were confirmed. It was the same Brad that had bullied him and tried to steal his family necklace some days ago.

“What are you doing here weirdo?” he gnarled at Xavier as he walked away “I know your secret.”

“Leave him I said!” Mrs. Megan commanded. "Not now."

Brad chuckled and walked back to his seat, abandoning what he has been looking for while the students trooped in one after the other at the sound of the bell signaling that their History lesson was about to start.

Xavier stared at Melania she walked in and he was surprised because she stared him down, a blank expression on her face.

“You’re on my seat,” she said once she had gotten to where he sat.

“Sorry about that,” he replied standing up immediately. She remained quiet watching him.

“Melania!” Mrs. Megan called. “Come sit at the front, allow the new boy sit there.”

Melania glanced at him angrily and took her bag to her new seat while Xavier cursed inwardly wondering why the history teacher was spoiling his chances with the beautiful class president by removing her from her seat for him.

“Good day class,” she started.

“Good day ma,” they chorused.

“Today we’ll be talking about the Mongolian conspiracy,” she announced. “Anyone knows who Bodoo was?”

On impulse, Xavier raised his hands up and everyone in the class turned to stare at him, wondering how on earth he knew whoever Bodoo was. Mrs. Melania was not excluded as she stared him down, wondering how he knew the answer to what she thought was an impossible question.

“Yes,” she said finally. “Xavier, tell us what you know.”

“Dogsomym Bodoo was the prime minister of Mongolia for some time. He got executed a month ago,” Xavier said confidently.

The rest of the class turned to look at the teacher, expecting her to disagree.

“Correct,” she said surprised. “But you should be specific about the year, it was August 1922.”

“Which is a month ago,” Xavier muttered to himself.

“Sit down,” she smiled.

Xavier sat down proudly and he caught Melania glancing across at him. He knew that look very well – she was the star of the class and him answering a question that she couldn’t answer meant he was smarter than her. He turned away and listened closely for the rest of the lesson, wondering why events of a month ago were recorded as history. The class was over soon and as the students filed out, he saw Melania walking up to him.

“How did you know the answer?” she asked. Xavier was still thinking of how to tell her that he enjoyed reading newspapers when Brad the bully walked up to them.

“I know how,” Bran shouted, getting everyone’s attention “He’s a werewolf. And he has been alive for a hundred years!”