Battle of the Faeries - Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The next morning, of course, she remembered almost nothing. All that remained of her frightening nighttime “excursion” was this odd feeling she couldn’t shake off that something horrible was either happening right then, or was about to happen very soon…
“EVELYN!” her teacher roared suddenly, slamming his fist down on her desk. Evelyn jumped and nearly fell out of her seat. Mr. Mellow’s face was inches from hers as he continued his tirade. “HERE AT SPRINGFIELD HIGHSCHOOL,” he screamed at her. “WE DO NOT DAYDREAM IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS!” She cringed, trying her best to ignore the flecks of spit thrown at her. “DO YOU HEAR ME?!” Mr. Mellow thundered.
“Yes, Mister Mellow,” she mumbled, staring at her desk in an attempt to avoid the 26 pairs of eyes she knew were focused on her.
“What was that?” the teacher said loudly.
“Yes, Mister Mellow!” Evelyn shouted back, staring up into his face, which was red from the force of his tantrum.
“Good!” he barked. “Because I’m sick and tired of you kids letting your minds wander off when I’m talking!” He glared around the room at everyone as though to prove his point. “So listen up!”
“Yes, Mister Mellow!” the kids chanted in unison as a reply. Evelyn wished she could just sink down into her chair, but she knew this would only earn her another one of Mr. Mellow’s rather memorable – and very loud – “lectures.” So, as discreetly as she could, she wiped the saliva off her face and quickly straightened her uniform before Mr. Mellow turned around to face the class once more.
When the lunch bell rang, she – and probably most of her classmates – heaved a sigh of relief. As she sophomores flooded into the cafeteria, Evelyn stepped to one side of the doorway to wait for her friend, Lana, to appear. As soon as she did, Evelyn grabbed her friend’s hand and dragged her off to the food line. Today was Pizza Day, and-
“Aw, man!” Lana exclaimed, cutting off Evelyn’s thoughts. “Cal took the last piece!” Evelyn followed her friend’s line of gaze and saw, to her dismay, that Lana was right. The pizza plate was, yet again, empty.
“Aw, man, we always miss it!” Evelyn said sadly as they gathered up the rest of their food and headed over to an empty table. This disappointment was something they received every Friday, so she supposed they should be used to it. But she just kept hoping that maybe, just maybe they would finally get a piece...
“That’s only ‘cause the stupid football players take, like, five pieces each!” Lana grumbled.
“And because you take forever to get into the cafeteria!” Evelyn replied, not knowing why she was defending the football players. As if they needed it, the great big bunch of lumbering…
“Hey, it’s not my fault I’m seated in the back of the class!” Lana retorted, interrupting her insulting thoughts. “And besides, I’ve told you plenty of times to go ahead and get my food, too.”
“We’re not allowed to do that, Lana.”
“Yes we are, Evelyn.”
“Are not, Lana.”
“Are, too, Evelyn.”
“Are not, Lana!”
“Are-“
“Why don’t you just eat the food you have instead of arguing?” said a deep, rough voice with a thick Russian accent from behind them. “That way perhaps you will finish before the time is up."
Both girls whirled around to see a young man – probably a senior – standing there holding a food tray. Lana opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She was clearly stunned, something that rarely happened to her. She looked over at Evelyn as if to say: “Do you know him?” Evelyn shook her head quickly, and then turned to the boy.
“Who are you?” she asked, trying not to stare at him. He was really quite handsome, in a creepy sort of way.
“I?” he said, walking around the table and sitting across from her. He seemed to focus all his attention on her as he spoke, which made her feel both flattered and somewhat scared. “I am Mikhail, a foreign exchange student from Russia. And you are Evelyn and Lana.”
“How do you know?” Evelyn said, surprised. Mikhail gave her a small smile and then pointed at the nametags all the students at Springfield High were required to wear. Evelyn glanced down at hers, and then blushed, feeling stupid once again. To prevent herself from saying more stupid things, she grabbed a few French fries and stuck them in her mouth.
“I heard your teacher yelling in class,” Mikhail said, finally turning away from her and focusing on his food. “Why was that?”
“Why do you care?” Lana said suddenly, apparently having found her voice. Mikhail looked up from his cheeseburger, raising an eyebrow slightly.
“I was merely wondering if all teachers here taught that way,” he replied calmly, as though this should be obvious. Lana opened her mouth to retort, but Evelyn caught her eye and gave her a ‘calm down’ look before turning back to Mikhail.
“Not all our teachers scream at us. Mister Mellow just has a few anger management problems…” she explained.
“Has he ever harmed anyone?” Mikhail asked, once more focusing intently on Evelyn. She now sincerely wished he wouldn’t, but said nothing about it.
“No, I don’t think he has,” she replied, glancing over at the teachers’ table. Mr. Mellow just happened to be looking over at their table and their gazes met for a moment. Evelyn looked away quickly, repressing a shudder. Mikhail watched her closely for a minute, but then he turned again to his food and said no more for the rest of the lunch break.

All through the rest of the school day, it seemed as though he shadowed her. Somehow he always turned up in her classes, but he never said anything. He was constantly watching her, though. She tried not to think about it, but every once in a while, when she would turn to get something from her backpack, she’d happen to look up and there he would be, staring at her. She tried to tell him a few times with some vague form of sign language she made up to look at the teacher and not at her, but this only got her weird looks from her classmates and detention for not paying attention in her classes. Another odd thing she noticed was that none of the teachers mentioned Mikhail before class like they normally did for other foreign exchange students. “If I didn’t know any better,” she said in a note to Lana. “I’d say that you and I are the only ones who can see him…” Lana sent back a reply saying:
“There’s definitely something strange about him. You should stay away as much as possible.” Evelyn nodded, only too happy to comply. Mikhail’s deep brown eyes and intense stare reminded her of the frightening dream she could not remember, and that feeling of foreboding was starting to irritate her.

After school, she stuffed her things into her backpack and headed on over to detention. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time she’d been there. In fact, as she walked into the “D-room,” as the regular detention-receivers called it, the supervisor looked up from his work and gave her a wry smile and a ‘welcome back’ wave. Evelyn just slumped down in her chair, only to bolt upright a moment later and whirl around in her seat. There was Mikhail, sitting there and watching her. “What are you doing here?!” Evelyn hissed angrily.
“No talking please!” the supervisor said, not bothering to look up from his work to see who had spoken. Evelyn shot a glare back at Mikhail, and then realized that she was getting a lot more odd looks from her detention-mates. Most of them were there regularly with her, and had never seen her acting so strangely before. Evelyn shrugged and turned back towards the front of the room, trying to ignore the prickling feeling on her neck that told her she was being watched closely by someone. Crossing her arms over her chest with a defiant glare in her usually soft blue eyes, she slumped down in her seat again. Lana was right; there was something definitely wrong with this Mikhail guy, and she was going to find out what.

©Copyright Forsaela (Me!)
I will hunt you down if you steal it... ><