The Teacher and the Werewolf (Paranormal Classroom Book 1) Read online

  “I see you’ve taken a liking to my chair,” he said, staring at the blond haired boy and furrowing his brow. “How about you switch with me, and get nice and comfy in it?”

  The muscular boy seemed surprised, and looked to the other guys to the front and back of him before standing up and jutting out his chin at Kato.

  “I like the chair I have just fine,” said the boy. “Is that a problem for you, new guy?”

  “Brett! Kato! Both of you have a seat!” Ms. Vega yelled at them in a surprisingly loud voice, but the attention of the room remained glued to the face-off between the two teenagers.

  “It doesn’t have to be a problem, if you’d give me your chair,” said Kato. “But otherwise…”

  He offered Brett a smile that said far more than any of his words could. The muscular boy turned back to his friends once more, as if drawing the necessary confidence from their presence, and then lunged fist first at Kato.

  Kato had known that the attack was going to happen before the boy had even clenched his knuckles. It took more effort for him to keep himself under control and his inner beast restrained than it did to deal with the teenager.

  He stepped to the side, dodging the swing with ease, and then spun and twisted his shoulder into Brett. The muscular boy shifted through the air and catapulted over Kato’s desk, landing in a crumpled heap on the ground. From the perspective of almost everyone in the room, it looked as though Kato had just gotten lucky with quick reflexes, and Brett had been unlucky with his angle and approach.

  The room broke into laughter, and Kato heard a couple of the boys who had previously been supporting Brett voicing their approval of him. They were all fools in his mind, but they were Kato’s classmates, and in order to live any semblance of a normal life, he knew that he’d need to make nice with him.

  “Enough! Brett, are you okay?”

  Ms. Vega was making her way down the aisle towards the two of them. The defeated boy’s nose was dripping blood, not a lot, but enough to be visible. What caught Kato’s eye, however, was the expression on his teacher’s face.

  She was looking at him skeptically, like an all knowing authority figure that understood that there was more to the situation than meets the eye. Kato tried to play it off by shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head innocently, but Ms. Vega was smart, and clearly not fooled. The bell signaling the end of homeroom and the beginning of first period rang, but Ms. Vega held her hand up and began dictating to the class before anyone could leave.

  “Brett, head to the nurse’s office. Kato, why don’t you hang out for a couple of minutes and talk to me about your new situation here at Westbrook High?”

  He nodded to her, and leaned against the top of one of the desks as the rest of the students rushed out of the room, leaving him alone with his attractive female teacher, one of the most formidable women he had dealt with in a very long time.

  CHAPTER 3

  Ms. Vega sat behind her desk, and Kato sat in Brett’s chair, the one that had instigated the entire encounter. She was leaned forward just enough to offer him a faraway glimpse of her cleavage, and twirled a pencil between her fingers.

  “Kato, you seem like a very smart, capable teenager.” She paused, and took both of her hands and folded them into a steeple.

  Kato didn’t say anything, and instead just leaned back and waited for her to continue.

  “I want you to understand something. I don’t put up with alpha male, macho bullshit in my homeroom. If you come to school with that kind of attitude, it’s going to lead you into serious trouble.” Ms. Vega shot him a severe look, and Kato got the feeling that she was giving him a lecture that she had rehearsed many times over on other students.

  Kato had also heard similar lectures before, throughout middle school and what little bit of early high school he had stuck around for, back when he was in the foster system. He found it amusing and slightly nostalgic to hear his new cute, young, rather intelligent teacher going through the motions with him, and not realizing just what lie behind his unassuming brown eyes.

  “Ms. Vega, I don’t go looking for trouble,” he replied. “Usually it finds me on its own.”

  She smiled at his response, in a self-amused, slightly condescending way. Kato wrinkled his brow and smiled right back at her.

  “Kato, Westbrook might seem like a small, peaceful city to you, but it’s not as though people don’t get hurt.” There was emotion in her voice, and suddenly she sounded very serious. “Even take Brett as an example. He seems like a punk, but he knows people. People that you don’t want to get on the bad side of.”

  “Yeah, I’ll definitely take that into consideration, Ms. Vega.” Kato stood up from his desk, and with his usual slow, confident gait, started for the door.

  “Why is it that you transferred midyear? It’s already November, doesn’t that seem a little late to be switching schools?” Ms. Vega looked at him and started up with her questions as he passed by her desk. He turned towards her, letting his eyes really meet hers, and seeing both the curiosity and mild apprehension on the tiny woman’s face.

  “It was time for something new,” said Kato.

  “Where did you go to school before this?” asked Ms. Vega.

  “Somewhere far away from Westbrook.”

  His quick and vague responses seemed to be having the opposite effect. His teacher was tapping a pencil on her desk and biting her lip, and she looked at him as though he was worthy of all her attention and then some. Kato stepped closer to her desk, and the smell of her flower scented perfume floated into his awareness. She was beautiful, and the more he talked to her, the warmer the room began to feel.

  “Tell me about your family, Kato.” Ms. Vega didn’t ask, but still managed to seem polite, and genuinely intrigued by the young man standing before her.

  “It’s just me, Ms. Vega,” said Kato. “Now, would you mind telling me why exactly you’re so interested, to the point of making me late for my first period class?”

  “It’s...I mean, I take an interest in all my students.” Ms. Vega blushed slightly, her cheeks reddening in a fashion that made her look very cute and flustered. “You’re new here, Kato. I need to get to know you if I’m going to help educate you.”

  “I’m sure the records and information I gave the principal would give you more than enough to go on,” said Kato. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to the gym.”

  “I’ll show you the way.” Ms. Vega stood up and walked around her desk before Kato could object. She passed in front of him on her way towards the door, looking right into his eyes, so close that Kato could have grabbed her and pulled her in close against him. His inner beast seemed to well up momentarily, and he had to force himself to take a deep breath, and relax.

  He slowly followed behind Ms. Vega, and waited for her to drop her own pace back in order to fall in line with him. He looked over at her and smiled.

  “What’s your name, Ms. Vega?” he asked. “Your first name.”

  “It’s Kari.” She spoke quietly, with an undertone of embarrassment. “But to you, it’s Ms. Vega.”

  “Of course, of course,” said Kato. He continued walking, and then stopped dead in his tracks as they rounded the corner.

  They were in one of the wings of the school, off to the side, in a place that Kato hadn’t seen during his tour. His senses had always been more heightened then those of a regular human, and he could smell something on a locker nearby that pulled in his full attention.

  Ms. Vega kept walking for another step or two, and then turned and looked back at her student. The look on Kato’s face was intense and foreboding, and after a second he turned towards her and crossed his arms.

  “Ms. Vega…do you know whose locker this is?” Kato recognized the general smell of it. It was the smell of a creature he had not encountered in a very long time.

  “Hmm…If I remember correctly, it’s Gabriel’s.” She put a finger on her lip and looked upwards. “Yes, actually, I’m sure of it. H
e’s always there at the end of the day when I head through the halls to the teacher’s lounge. Gabriel Nemas.”

  “Gabriel Nemas…” Kato repeated. He smiled, and chuckled to himself. This was a curveball, something from left field that he hadn’t expected, much less bothered to have a plan for.

  Gabriel Nemas’s locker smelled like a vampire. Kato’s nose very rarely led him astray, and this time, he was absolutely sure of it.

  “I don’t think he’s here today,” said Ms. Vega. “In fact, I haven’t seen him since early last week. Why are you so curious about him?”

  Kato turned from the locker and shook his head. The boy was someone he would have to deal with eventually, but there was no use thinking about it until that time came.

  “No reason,” he replied. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

  The double doors of the gymnasium were at the end of the hall. Kato could hear the sound of sports being played from within.

  “Thanks, Ms. Vega.” He turned and started towards the door, and was surprised when his teacher grabbed his arm and held him back.

  “Wait. Kato, I can tell that there is something inside you…some memory or experience or burden that you’re carrying. I just want you to know…you can share with me, if you want.”

  Kato looked at her and smiled. He thought about the mysterious deaths of his parents, back when he was still a child, too young to understand what was going on. He thought about his experiences in foster care, all of the times that he’d fought with other kids, and run away, and been picked back up. He thought about all of the mental and physical abuse that he had endured, all the while smiling that same smile.

  “I appreciate your concern, Ms. Vega, but it’s really none of your goddamn business.”

  He pulled his hand away from his teacher, watching as her face shifted into a crestfallen heap, and then stepped back towards the door. Kato wasn’t heartless, and a tiny part of him mirrored the emotions that Ms. Vega was feeling. But he knew that there was no other way.

  “I’m your teacher!” Ms. Vega yelled at him, her voice wavering with emotion. Kato was glad that it was just the two of them in the hall. “Kato, I’m going to help you!”

  He just shrugged, and shook his head.

  “I’ll see you later, Ms. Vega….Kari.” He watched her face scrunch up as he used her first name, and then turned and pushed his way through the gym doors before she could say anything else.

  CHAPTER 4

  The gym was alive with activity as Kato made his way into it. For the second time that day, he was late. All of the other students were changed into gym clothes, and were split into two groups on either side of the gym.

  A game of dodgeball was under way. Kato’s blood pounded at the raw, aggressive nature of it, with foam balls flying thick through the air and teenagers laughing and crying out as they were hit. He knew that he’d have to work even harder than usual to keep himself in check, and to not give in.

  “Are you…Lancer, Kato?” The teacher was standing by the door, a tall, thin man wearing a pair of plastic rec specs over his glasses. Kato nodded to him.

  “I’m Mr. Daniels, first period gym teacher. Head into the locker room and change,” he said. “Here’s your locker number and its combination. There should be some clothes already in there, if you need them.”

  Mr. Daniels handed him a small slip of paper, and Kato headed off around the edge of the gym, towards the men’s locker room. The students on the floor didn’t seem to pay much attention to him, which he found refreshing compared to the nonsense that had gone down during homeroom.

  The smell of the locker room was a little overwhelming, a mixture of sweat, bodily fluids, and powerful disinfectant. He searched down identical rows of lockers until he had found his, and opened it up. There was a bag within it containing a one size fits all set of gym clothing, a t-shirt, shorts, boxers, and socks.

  He changed into them and was pleasantly surprised by how they hung on his frame. After locking up his original clothes inside the locker, he took a deep breath and tried to clear his head. The last thing he needed to do was to get worked up, he reminded himself. Making it through each school day was about patience and control for him, and he needed to maintain.

  Kato walked back out in to the gym right as Mr. Daniels was in the process of blowing his whistle and setting up teams for a new game. He ran over to where all of the students were congregated, recognizing a couple of faces from his homeroom class.

  “Alright, last game for today, I want to see everybody putting in energy,” said Mr. Daniels. “Kato, throw on a blue jersey, you’ll be on the far side of the court.”

  Kato found one in a bag to the side of the gym, and then ran over to join his team. The rules of the game were simple enough to pick up, and boiled down to throwing the balls at the opposing players and dodging any that were thrown at him. If he caught one, whoever threw it was out.

  There were a number of bleachers running alongside the gym, and Kato noticed a couple of girls in cheerleading outfits sitting halfway up, having a quiet meeting. Some of them were looking down on the game, and Kato caught the gaze of one as he looked up, a busty blonde girl with a flirtatious smile.

  Mr. Daniels blew his whistle again, and the game kicked off in a flurry of activity. The balls had been set up on the center line of the gym, the divide in between the two halves of the court that neither team could cross.

  Most of Kato’s team mates charged forward in an attempt to get to the balls before the opposing team. About a quarter of them were struck easily by shots from their adversaries. Kato watched it all from the back of the court, not bothering to charge along with them. He found the effort that the rest of the students were putting in more than a little funny.

  A ball flew across the gym, aimed for his chest. He knew that it was coming before it had even left the hand of the boy throwing it. Kato watched it out of the corner of his eye, lifting his hand and catching it without even changing his facing direction. It was soft, and made of foam, and he looked at it for a second before tossing it under hand to one of his nearby teammates.

  “Thanks! You have good reflexes, man!”

  Kato just smiled.

  It only took the other team a couple of minutes to learn that Kato was the person that they should save for last. Every time a ball was hurled his way he caught it as though it was a pitch from a boy learning to throw a baseball for the first time. Mr. Daniels was looking on, checking his watch every couple of minutes.

  “Alright, when you get out, you can head to the locker room to change,” he said. “I want to see everybody putting in energy in these last few minutes! That means you too, Kato!”

  Kato smiled, and cracked one of his knuckles. He felt eyes locked onto him, and realized that the blonde cheerleader girl was still watching him. When he looked up and again saw that sexy, flirty smile on her face, one of his opponents decided to launch a sneak attack.

  The ball came closer than the last one, but Kato spun with seconds to spare, wrapped his fingers around it, and then hurled it forward at one of the players left on the other side. He had not taken the weight of the ball or the force he could muster with his arm into account, and it flew across the gym in a flash. When it struck the unfortunate teenager he’d been aiming for, the boy was knocked flat onto his butt.

  “Whoa! Nice arm!” yelled one of the girls on the bleachers.

  Kato wasn’t listening. The throw had excited him, bringing his heart rate up and his inner beast out. His body felt light and full of energy. He ran across his team’s side of the gym, picking up two fallen balls and then pegging them at new targets, who couldn’t manage to dodge in time and were easily knocked out.

  The gym was mostly emptied out by this point. Kato was the only player left on his team, and across from him, there were three students left, all holding onto dodgeballs and whispering about how they were going to take him out. They made their move in unison, each of them rushing forward and hurling their payloads at Kat
o simultaneously.

  He caught a ball in each hand and used one of them to slam the third back at the other team, knocking one of the players out with a hit on the leg. Kato felt his canines beginning to protrude as he launched the other two back and easily finished the game.

  “Alright, good work,” said Mr. Daniels. “Good energy Kato.”

  There was a whistle from the bleachers. Kato turned and saw the blonde cheerleader waving shyly at him as she made her way over to the girl’s locker room with the rest of her friends. Mr. Daniels called Kato over.

  “Help me pick up the balls, Mr. Lancer,” he said. “You show up late for my class, you stay late.”

  The locker room was empty by the time Kato made his way into it. His next period was lunch, and he was already getting used to being late. He pulled his locker open and started changing into his regular clothes, when the sound of light footsteps behind him drew his attention.

  “Hey there,” said a girl’s voice. “Uh, the shower in the girl’s locker room is broken. Mr. Daniels said it was fine if I used the one in here, as long as it was empty…”

  It was the blonde girl from earlier, and as Kato turned and looked at her, he felt his primal, animal-self begin to get a little excited. She was pretty, the type of girl that could easily be one of the top contenders for prom or homecoming queen. Kato smiled at her, and felt a mischievous slant develop in his eye that he knew so well.

  “It’s not empty,” he said. “I’m here.”

  The girl slowly stepped closer to him, twirling her long blonde hair between two of her fingers and pushing her chest forward.

  “You’re the new guy, right? I saw you playing dodgeball out there. You have quite a bit of strength and stamina!”