I stared at the crisp sheet of paper in front of me, my eyes raking over the blocky font, my mind not digesting a single word. My throat slowly began to close up and I blinked. My eyes trailed up towards the man in front of me who peered back at me through his thick rimmed glasses. "Well? Have you reached a decision yet, Mr. Williams?" He asked, with a hint of malice. His tone was a far cry from how I usually heard him. He was jovial and festive, always happy and ready to crack a joke when he saw me. I didn't blame him for his mannerisms this time around. I'm pretty sure he disagreed heavily with what I was doing. "Have you even read the form yet?" He asked again, impatiently.
I opened my mouth to give out a snarky retort before I promptly closed it, swallowing the vitriol that was about to spew from my mouth. "One more second, please... sir." I said, forcefully. "It's just... my parents let me make this decision myself and it's... it's... i'm weighing all my options." I wondered how the words managed to tumble out of my mouth. I stared at the form once more, knowing that if I went through with this, battle lines would be drawn, paths would be carved, and my life would probably be changed permanently. I wish I was exaggerating, but this time around, I don't think I was.
Sports scholarship for football and hockey? Probably already withdrawn.
Most of my "friends"? Probably running for the hills as I sit here.
Social standing in my own community? Probably going to be destroyed too.
I stared down at my paper once more, my high school transfer form. Why would I even want to transfer high schools in my senior year? Instead of having an amazing final year at Roosevelt High School, complete with sports, academics, girls, parties, and celebrations, i'd get thrown in the deep end, forced to juggle incompetent teachers, strangers for classmates, and appalling sports teams. A part of me just wanted to rip up the form, beg for leniency, and go back to my normal life.
But I couldn't do that, because if I did, I wouldn't have them. Them being my best friends. You might ask why i'd throw everything away to be with them. Well, you see, i've known them since I was young. Well... i've only known one since I was young. Everyone else joined our little group of misfits along the way but that didn't diminish the fact that they were all family to me.
They were the people who stuck by me through thick and thin. The ones I could rely on to have my back and the ones I knew I could always lean on in case of trouble. The ones who didn't deserve anything that ever happened to them. I felt disgust and anger bubbling in the pit of my stomach like magma. This was wrong, terribly wrong. There was nothing even wrong with them! Well, except the fact that they weren't... exactly human.
There was Ricky Ortega, the giant. Eight feet tall, tanned skin, and black curly hair. I met him when I was just entering fourth grade and his family moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco after some people burnt down his home. His family wanted a fresh start. We became instant friends and I learned that the phrase gentle-as-a-giant couldn't have been truer with the Ortegas. His mother was a complete saint and his dad a hard worker. Ricky was the same way, a little mix of both, unless he was playing on the offensive line in football, that is. Then it was just Mean Ricky. Even taking that into account, it was hard to see why anyone would ever want to hurt them.
Lucy Bohannon, the arachne, was also an extremely close friend of mine as well. Eight legs, pale silver hair, smoldering grey eyes, and an ear that was always open to me. I could confide in her about anything and she gave the best advice. We met in eighth grade when she transferred to our school after her family just wanted to get a new change of scenery from the snowy regions of New Hampshire. Not really sure it was a good choice because she was bullied often in the eighth grade. It boggled my mind why. Sure, she had the odd habit of leaving cobwebs everywhere, but she was always a bit timid, shy, soft spoken, and very nice, never bothering anybody.
She was the polar opposite of Jasmine Coutu. Jazz, as she likes to go by, had the upper body of a slender woman with auburn hair and green eyes. From her wide hips down, it's just one big, long tale that was covered in glimmering scales like diamonds. Her scales had a deep green hue to it, rippling whenever her thick tail moved around. She was sassy, loud, funny as all hell, and never afraid to give a venom-laced retort (pun intended). We met in the sixth grade when I was paired with her for a science project. She was always a bit fringe on our little band of misfits but still a part of the group none the less.
Then there was... her. Stasi. You could've said she was my sister. Anastasia "Stasi" Sokolov was my best friend and had been my best friend since we first met 12 years ago back in my first day of kindergarten.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting down, huddled all to myself and building a house out of legos. My mom was talking with the teacher and the other parents, leaving me all to myself. I was sitting there about to finish my masterpiece of a house when a little girl with her raven hair in pigtails and watery blue eyes sat herself in front of me staring at my face. I had seen her getting consoled by her mom as I walked into class. Her parents had taken her early to the kindergarten class just so she could make friends before anyone else but she was still ignored. Not by me!
"Hello." She said, in a pretty heavy Russian accent.
"Hi." I replied.
"That's a pretty house." She said, before sticking out her hand. "I'm Stasi."
I remember how I felt knowing I was going to shake her hand. I felt like a grown up. My elation at shaking someone's hand wasn't even diminished by the fact that her hand was peculiarly cold. "I'm Christopher. But my parents call me Chris." I said.
"Can I play legos with you, Chris?" She said.
"Ok." I said. I didn't know then that my answer surprised her. Her look of shock was replaced by a beautiful smile that was so wide, you could see her developing fangs poking out. Yes. She was a vampire.
It was on that day that our friendship was born. Over the years of elementary school, we grew close, so much that our parents became acquaintances. It wasn't long before our parents became extremely close as well, with both of our dads always going off on their trips to the golf course or our moms always chatting on the phone. If I was never home, my parents knew I was over at Stasi's house, and if she was never home, her parents knew she was at my house.
I stared at the paper in front of me. The anger that was bubbling in me was reaching a breaking point. All of this was because of some stupid legislator who decided that "monsters" (who were in all actuality just regular people), were dangerous to society and had to be separate from "normal" people for their "own good." The new law, the Definition of the Treatment of Other Species Act (DTOSA) called for a separation between monsters and humans. That meant they were forced to attend separate schools, separate medical facilities, pretty much everything. You name it, they got it.
That idiot that drafted it probably didn't even pay attention in history class. I thought. But it wasn't just him that was the racist. This wasn't a first time thing. "Monster-people" were always considered the dregs of society, inferior to the "humans."
I hated just thinking about how unfair it was that Stasi never got any playing time on the volleyball team because she was a vampire (even though she outplayed most of her teammates during practices), or how Jazz's dream of becoming a doctor were constantly derailed because the local hospital kept denying her internship in favor of humans.
The only real exception was Ricky on the football team. Coach Freddy, our head coach, and a veteran of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s found no reason to not play Ricky on the basis of what he was despite pressure from the principal. Good for him. Ricky was the best tight end on the football team.
"Mr. Williams. Have you read the form yet?" Principal Weathers demanded, his patience wearing thin at my delaying. My anger reached its breaking point. Why should I be forced to ditch my friends because of what they were? Sure, I had human friends too, but i'm pretty sure they all secretly hated me for the group of close friends I had. No, they weren't just close friends, they were family. They were my family, and I wasn't going to abandon them.
"Yes. I have read it. I've reached my decision." I uncapped the pen and scribbled in my virtually unreadable and loopy signature at the bottom of the page. "I'd like to thank you for the wonderful years at your high school but I've decided to trans-.."
"Get out of my office." He said loudly, cutting off my spiel. I was more than happy to accommodate.
"Yes, sir." I said, booking it out of his office. As I closed the door softly behind me, I felt a sense of relief. I had sat on the decision for too long and made it in the heat of the moment. I wanted to decompress. I wanted to leave outright and go home to play video games with Ricky but I knew I couldn't. I had to go say good bye to someone first. I walked through the empty administration building until I got to the front desk where the receptionist sat. Some say she was at the school for as long as it was built and I couldn't disagree more. Her black hair was already starting to gray at some parts and her face had a little bit of wrinkles to it, but she looked like she was in her early 40s.
"Hi, Mrs. Speers." I said. Even though I tried to say it brightly and cheerfully, my voice had a dull, melancholic undertone to it. After having run errands for her for freshman and sophomore year, I had been an assistant in the office for the better part of a year when I was a junior. I had wanted to be an assistant in the office again for senior year, but looks like that wasn't happening with me not even being a student at the school anymore.
"Hello, Christopher! It's good to see you. How has your Summer been?" She said.
"It's been good. Stasi's family took me to go with them on their yearly trip to Moscow. We were able to see the Moscow Coven. It's such a nice place. I'd go again if I could." I replied.
"You and 'Stasi', huh?" She gave me a knowing look, but thankfully, didn't pursue the subject. "How'd the meeting with Principal Weathers go?"
I swallowed, looking at her slightly guilty. I knew I had to just rip off the band-aid. I was blunt, straight to the point. "I'm transferring."
