Of the Blood

by Joshua Laack

Chapter 24

  Andrew's eyes flashed open as jolts of current flowed into his lips and throughout his body. Johari's face was pressed to his and he was instantly wide awake. After the initial surprise, his arms wrapped around her and pulled her even tighter against him. She allowed that for a moment and then pulled away with a small smile.

  “Good morning! I thought that you might appreciate this a bit more than the alarm clock.” Andrew's breathing was ragged and his heart was racing, but he managed a nod. After a moment to catch his breath, he grinned.

  “It was a little better I guess,” he said. She grinned back.

  “If you are good, it might happen again.” She stood up. “Now, I need to run home and change into school clothes and you need to get ready as well. I will see you later.” Andrew opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she was gone.

  After sharing breakfast with his parents, Andrew headed off to school, wondering what the day would bring. He parked Trusty in the student lot at the side of the building. He smiled to himself as he considered driving the Lamborghini to school. It would cause an uproar, but it would also just make people jealous. He didn't want that just as he was beginning to connect with his fellow students.

  Andrew walked into the building and navigated his way around the halls to his locker. There weren't many students in the halls yet since the buses hadn't arrived. Andrew glanced at a clock on the wall and realized that he was earlier than he expected. He had half an hour before class.

  He spun the combination on his locker and opened it up to put his book bag inside. He grabbed his English notebook and his copy of Hamlet out for English and shut the door. He realized that he had been a little distracted over the weekend and hadn't done much work on his Hamlet paper.

  He just about dropped the book and notebook on the floor. Johari was standing right behind his locker door again. A huge grin lit up Andrew's face as his heart slowed back down a little. An answering smile appeared on Johari's face.

  “Good morning. You are here a little early. Are you eager for school today?”

  “I am looking forward to it, but I had another motive. I was hoping to see someone here before classes started. I wanted to tell her I care about her more than anything else in this world.” Johari threw her arms around Andrew and squeezed. Then he did drop the things in his hands. It was hard to hold on to something when he couldn't feel his fingers. “Oof!” Johari loosened her death grip, though he supposed that to her, it wasn't a hard squeeze.

  “Sorry, for as much practice as I have had with this body and being around humans, it is still difficult to control myself sometimes when I get emotional.” She released Andrew from the hug. He was disappointed until her hands pulled his face down to hers. Her lips pressed into his and set off the fireworks that he doubted he would ever tire of.

  Andrew lost track of the time, and she did too because they both jumped when a throat cleared. He was pretty sure that they were going to get in trouble as he turned to see who had discovered them. Jason stood there, grinning at them.

  “For shame! Kissing in the school hallways. Don't you two know that it's against school policy to do that?” He winked at Andrew.

  “Just be careful not to get caught.” They both nodded and watched Jason walk away toward his own locker. Andrew picked up his stuff and then he and Johari just stood there talking as the hall filled up. Then he walked her to her first class, Ancient History, before heading to his own. He sat down just as the bell rang, signaling the start of first hour.

  After the weekend, the students were sluggish and unresponsive. Andrew smiled and threw himself into the class full bore. It didn't take long and the rest of the class followed his example. A few seemed surprised by their willingness to participate, but no one complained. The class flew by and all too soon, the bell rang to end first hour.

  No one had connected the changes to Andrew yet, but the news that the English class was fun spread through the school. Even students who hadn't been in the English class were excited before Spanish began. Mrs. Stimets encouraged the class to talk for a bit in Spanish and then after about fifteen minutes, called them to order. Andrew spent the hour talking with Johari, still in fluent Spanish. He didn't even have to think about it. His mind just switched and started thinking in Spanish. He wondered if there were any other languages in his mind that he wasn't aware of yet.

  Spanish ended and they had to end their conversation while Andrew went off to Chemistry and Johari went to Social Studies. At first, Andrew was bummed that she wasn't there, but then he got into the Chemistry. His classmates were quieter at first too and then as Andrew's involvement and interest picked up, the rest of the class followed suit. He was surprised at how much his own mood and interest affected them. Had that been the case before as well? Had his darkness dragged down the whole school as much as his light lifted them up? He tried to remember, but it was hard to see through the dark haze of his memory before the demon had been destroyed.

  Johari and Andrew continued their conversation from Spanish during study hall. They took turns asking questions about more mundane details of their lives. Her details weren't as mundane as his, but she seemed to enjoy learning about him almost as much as Andrew did about her. Study hall flew by and then they were walking down the hall to drop off their things at the lockers before lunch.

  The main option was what they called pizza wheel hot dish. It was a lump of overcooked round noodles with ground hamburger, tomato sauce and cheese. Not that it was saying much, but Andrew had always considered it to be the best meal that they had. The side dishes for the day were applesauce, carrots and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

  They found a group of the people that they had befriended over the last few weeks and sat down. After a moment, Jason got through the line and came to sit with them. He started to devour his meal almost as soon as he sat down.

  “Hungry,” Andrew asked? Jason just nodded with his mouth full. He slowed down and took much smaller bites once Mikayla came to sit down though. Andrew poked at his favorite meal. He took a few bites, but felt almost nauseous as it crossed his tongue. He pushed the tray away, shaking his head.

  “Anyone want my food? I'm not hungry.” Jason and two other guys, Pete Markowitz and James Fielding all pulled pieces of the food onto their own trays until it was empty. Andrew pulled it back in front of himself. He was still feeling a bit sick as the period ended and he dumped his dirty tray in the dishwasher window and then walked down the hall to the lockers with Johari.

  Government was an enjoyable class, and it had become more so as the students had begun to participate more. Andrew loved the terms that the teacher, Mr. Carrol used for things. He called the leaders of any government big poppa and big momma. He had names like that for just about everything which just seemed humorous for some reason.

  Andrew struggled for a bit of class until the nausea faded. After that, the class became more lively and entertaining. Mr. Carrol lectured about how big momma and big poppa sent their boys across the big pond in an effort to maintain their power over the colonies in the New World. Andrew wondered to himself how much of the history of governments and the history in general was accurate. Had Johari experienced any of this war? She had mentioned the demons being behind most of the worlds wars and having been there to fight them. Now that was a history class that would be far more enjoyable. Listening to someone who had been there just seemed so much better than hearing it from a book that might not even be right. Andrew bet she would tell him about the history of those wars if he asked.

  The rest of the afternoon went by in a flash and the bell signaling the end of the day surprised Andrew when it rang out of nowhere. He and Johari walked for the last time of the day to the lockers. Andrew wondered if she would want to hang out again tonight after his work shift or if she would be busy. He was going to ask, but she beat him to it.

  “So? Do you have any plans tonight,” she asked as they closed the locker doors. Andrew smiled at her and sh
ook his head.

  “I do have to work until about seven thirty, but I am free to hang out after that. Did you want to come over then?” Johari smiled back.

  “That would be nice. I will stop by your place around eight or so.” Andrew nodded and after a quick kiss in the parking lot, she vanished. He didn't think he would ever tire of seeing her do that.

  Work that day was busy, which made it go by faster than he expected. Before Andrew could believe it, it was seven thirty five and he was clocked out and on his way home. Andrew smiled as he thought of the girl he would soon see. He couldn't wait.