It was a week later that it started. No, I'm not talking about the extinction of humanity. It was something worse than that: school. For some people, school would be considered heaven. That is, if they didn't do anything for the summer. But in my case, there is no such thing as heaven in school. In my school, you don't even get the chance to walk on the campus if someone wanted to grind your face on the pavement.
Welcome to Dalton Academy.
Now don't get me wrong, Dalton Academy was not an overall bad school. It had its perks. It was one of those schools that could hold Pre-K all the way up to even college students, so you can bet your bottom dollar it was pretty huge. But being this big isn't the only thing Dalton can boast about. For instance, academically, we are in the top five schools recommended for middle schoolers to go to. Athletically, we're in the top three. But that was just for show.
If you looked closer than normal, and discerned what was really happening, then you could see for yourself just what I was talking about. It was more like a puppet show and the audience was laughing at someone else's misfortune. Not to mention, the misfortune was painful most of the time. So it would make sense that to survive in this school, a person would need a high tolerance of pain, and that doesn't come easily.
At the moment you wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with the school. The campus itself was already full of students laughing and sticking close to their friends, but I could feel the tension. Everyone was on high alert since the school's two greatest frienemies, Brad Nelson and Peter Marlow, just tore down their truce.
History lesson: Brad Nelson and Peter Marlow were two new kids on the same day. Of course, they were gauged for popularity status. It didn't take long to see that Brad was a prodigy in all three aspects of school life: appearance, academics, athletics. As such he was almost automatically instituted into the popularity group. Peter, however, wasn't the best in all three aspects. Instead, he turned to minority crime and managed not to get caught. Strangely, he gathered a following of those who didn't want to follow the system and somehow created his own empire in the school. The two were supposed to have kept the truce until their graduation day, but everyone knew one of them couldn't wait that long.
While their confrontation was going on, I put as much distance between me and the closest person and pulled out my lamp. I actually found out that I was supposed to rub the thing with my hand, as I had unnoticeably done in the beginning. Making sure no one was watching, I gave it a good rub and thick blue smoke puffed out, then breathed in by Katie.
"Alright Katie," I said, "this is the last time we're going to practice. I need to know that you can handle answering questions on your own."
"I can do it, Master," Katie replied.
"I said don't call me Master in public," I chastised her. "Only when the two of us are alone are you allowed to do that."
"Sorry Xavier," Katie said.
"Now, they most likely won't ask you this question, but this is how they will identify you," I began. "What is your personality?"
"A care-free, but possessive schoolgirl," she answered.
"Now these questions, they will ask," I continued. "What is your name?"
"Katie Richards."
"When is your birthday?"
"October 31,1997."
"Where do you live?"
"5916 Hammer Avenue."
"What do you like to do on your leisure time, or what do you like to do for fun?"
"Draw ponies."
"Be serious."
"Okay, I like to watch comedy and horror flicks." I accidentally found that out the hard way.
"Who's your favorite actor and actress, singer, political speaker, etc.?"
"My favorite actor is Jim Carrey and Robert Downey, Jr., my favorite actress is Jennifer Lawrence and Debby Ryan. My favorite singer is the band Linkin Park and Deadmau5. And I don't care who is in charge of the government, so long as I live in peace."
"And the most important question of all . . . Do you have a boyfriend and what is he like?"
"Yes I do. His name is Xavier Knight, he has a loyal personality, and he is deliciously hot."
I came up with that part. With the questions out of the way, I gave her a brief look over to make sure her uniform was exactly like the rest of the female students. White button down shirt, black slacks, and blue shoes. She also had a blue ribbon in her hair, more for looks than to actually keep the hair out of her face. When I finished my inspection, I gave myself a look over. I, like all the male were, wore a black button down shirt over khaki pants and black shoes. The bell rang, and I rushed to make sure nothing was wrong with me.
"Katie, I wish we had the same classes," I said.
"You got it," she nodded, eyes quickly flashing.
One of the things I like about Katie now is that I was able to get around the whole "Yes, Master" thing. Instead of her being a stiff, obedient genie, she is now a more flexible genie. Speaking of which, there are a lot of things that I also found out about her. Being a flexible genie meant that she was able to do some things on her own like a regular girl. Unfortunately, that also meant she had to learn a multitude of things that regular girls were supposed to know. Like last week, Mom caught me feeding Katie cereal. To her, it was a romantic thing. In reality, I was teaching her how to properly eat instead of trying to gulp the whole bowl and drown her lungs.
We entered the gymnasium and I looked for friendly faces. With her new personality, Katie thought friendly faces meant a smile and that the first guy that flashed her a smile looked 'friendly' enough. I had to remind her that I was the one looking for the friendly faces. As it turned out, I didn't have to look at all. They were in the same corner from when we first met up . . . on the other side of the gymnasium. Was I excited to see my friends? Absolutely. Did I want to walk as fast as I could so we could catch up on old times? Absolutely. Did I want the whole gymnasium to see me walk across the floor with a girl everyone on earth knew I had no business being with? Well . . . when its put that way, I guess I should have gone around to the other entrance.
It felt like I had done something illegal. I mean, there wasn't one pair of eyes that wasn't looking at me. And these weren't goo-goo eyes either. These were the death in every possible way type of eyes that they were giving me. I mean, the guys were jealous that they didn't have a breathtaking girl on their shoulders and the girls were jealous that the guys would even think that. And then, just when we sat down, I almost missed it, Katie did a slow turn and gave just about everyone an eye that dared anyone to touch me. I'd love to see the day anyone got on her bad side.
Now, the only two people who were actually surprised that Katie was right next to me was my two buddies, Louis Farland and Nick Campton. Louis was a weird kid. Let me tell you now, if you go into his house, you better be part cat because you'll need all nine lives to get out of there. Just saying. He was pretty tall, just a bit above six feet, and had sandy hair. If you can get over the fact that he likes to cook weird food, then you'll realize that he's just a chef prodigy looking for a new recipe.
Nick was my best friend. We met in the neighborhood I lived in before I moved and stuck together since his name was the same as my dad's. Not to mention, Nick was smart and athletic. He could be a tight end or a center if he played football and/or basketball. The only reason why he was staying under the radar was of the jocks reputation. However, we both knew that was a lie. The friendship that we had would have immediately been destroyed by one of the empires on their quest to seek more members.
And then there's me. I like to sleep. If anyone forgot that, let me tell you what I did last week. I taught Katie how to act more human, I ate, had sex twice a day, and besides my bathroom duties, I was sleeping. You wouldn't believe it, but I make it my mission to be in bed by nine o'clock. Why? Because the moment I fall asleep, I'm like a rock. I sleep so deeply, you'd need dynamite to wake me up. I wasn't like this before though. When I was young, I loved moving around, I just couldn't stay still. But one day, my friends Jerk and Doofus decided to play a trick on me.
They took a cup of water, grabbed a bunch of sleep aiding pills and mixed them together. When I came inside, thirsty like a desert, I drank that and was out like a light. I woke up, the next day, in the hospital and found out what my friends did. By then, the joke was dead. I learned that my heart randomly stopped a few times. Now, I don't eat or drink anything from anybody; if I want something, my own two legs are sufficient enough to go get it.
"Xavier, where did you . . . " Louis began, amazed.
"In my new neighborhood," I laughed. "I live right next to her."
"Does she have a sister?" Nick asked.
"Nope," I psuedo-sighed.
"Man, why is it that every babe is an only child?" he groaned. She giggled and suddenly it seemed like everybody within earshot was looking at her.
"How did you . . . " Louis tried again.
"I was lost and she was on her way back from the store," I explained.
"At night," Katie added. I was shocked, but I managed to hide it well. Katie was learning real quick what would get a guy's attention.
If it was anymore possible to get close to someone without touching them, then these boys did it. They were so close, she and I had shade from the lights. One guy even tried to be sneaky about it. He was standing next to her, a little stiff, like he claimed that spot. The moment he moved his foot, Katie looked him dead in the eye.
