Getting ready for bed, my mind played the conversation I’d had with a total stranger in the woods on a endless loop. When my brain finally let me sleep, I was more agitated than I had been since my parents had failed to come home from their round-the-world journey.
I woke up so angry it was a physical sensation.
As I stared down my reflection, while brushing my teeth, I was practically vibrating with rage.
Who the fuck was this Gwen person anyway?
And I don’t mean that in the figurative, "who does she think she is," type way, although, hey, that too while we’re at it. But—who was she? She was the kind of nut job who went around claiming to be a narrator and a deliverer of quests, that’s who she was. I should just ignore her and her ridiculous claims about my parents, but…
But she’d disappeared like she was straight out of Hogwarts. That could be some kind of special effect. It’s not like I searched every inch of woods for her right after she ammscrayed from my line of sight, or like I could have searched well enough to eliminate the possibility that she’d used smoke, mirrors, and a hologram to fake her disappearance, even if I had tried to. She could totally be putting one over on me. It’s not as though vanishing made the rest of what she said true. It was just that…
What she’d said about my parents…
Damn it!
I’d spent so much time trying to accept my parents' death. Every day since I’d gotten the call six months ago, it had been the main thing I'd been doing with myself. Gwen hadn’t been wrong when she’d accused me of running into the wilderness to hide from people and…process things. It was what I was doing with every weekend backpacking trip, with every afternoon trail run I took into the mountains…
But I had researched my parents’ death as fully as any seventeen year old could without retracing their every step. I had tracked down all of the records from their GPS, all of their emergency logs. Everything that their beacon broadcast the day that their boat was lost…. All of it.
It had taken me months to even accept that they were dead. That it wasn’t all some ridiculous mistake. The possibility that they hadn’t died that day…but was that even what the naked narrator lady was implying? That my parents were still alive? Or was she just suggesting that they hadn’t died by drowning in the Indian Ocean?
I shook myself from where I’d gotten lost in the mirror and swore loudly when I checked the time on my phone.
Great. On top of everything else, I was going to be late for my first day at my new school.
~~~
I must have still been furious when I rushed into my first period physics class that morning. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for why I decided to sass the teacher when she asked me why I was late. Well, that, or the fact that the bell had rung while I was walking through the door.
“Why are you tardy, Miss… Marmot? What a quaint name.”
The teacher was a middle aged woman with lank black hair and what looked like a permanent sneer. I rushed past multiple rows of black-topped desks, each with pairs of stools supporting a variety of fellow teenagers, barely noticing any of the people around me, or the vaguely generic science paraphernalia around the room, and took a seat at the back. I replied while rummaging through my backpack for my notebook.
“Sorry. It’s my first day. I got lost on the way here.”
No. That wasn’t the sassy part.
“And you believe that excuses your tardiness?”
I stared at her for a moment before replying.
“Well, it’s kind of a one time excuse, so… yeah.”
There we go! Sasstastic!
“Well, class, Ms. Marmot believes the rules don’t apply to her. How does that make the rest of you feel?”
“We should punish her!” shouted an enthusiastic blonde kid from the front row.
Great. Next up, I expected someone to accuse me of turning them into a newt.
Before anyone could get my funeral pyre ready, though, the voice next to me spoke up.
“She smells amazing.”
I turned, incredulous at the inanity of that statement, and found possibly the most handsome boy I’d ever seen staring at me with a disturbing look in his eye.
“What was that, Edik?” the teacher asked.
“Nothing, Ms. Rebuke. I said ‘no hazing.’ The school rules dictate that we shouldn’t—”
I snickered and he stopped speaking. I hadn’t meant to let the noise escape me, but… Rebuke?
“Do you find something funny, Ms. Marmot?”
Now the woman was suddenly standing right in front of my desk and I was too mesmerized by how quickly she’d moved to come up with a witty retort.
“No, Ms. Rebuke.”
I barely managed not to chuckle saying her name. I felt bad though. Most people had no choice in their last names.
“If you are so intent on entertaining this class, Ms. Marmot, perhaps you can entertain us with today’s lesson. The topic is dark matter. Please, why don’t you enlighten us with your extensive knowledge on the subject.”
Well, that was an odd punishment. I was a little surprised that dark matter was today’s lesson, even though this was an AP physics class. It wasn’t exactly an intro topic, but whatever, far be it from me to discourage interesting lesson plans. I shrugged.
“Ok. Do you want me at the front of the class? The chalkboard would be handy.”
Ms. Rebuke said nothing, only glared at me.
I decided to stay in my seat.
“Dark matter is a popular theoretical explanation for all the excess mass in the universe,” I began.
Did I mention that binge-watching Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos remake was another way in which I dealt with my parents’ death? Honestly binge-watching anything on Netflix should be considered an official stage of grief. Somewhere after denial and anger, but before acceptance.
“On its largest scale, the universe behaves in a way that suggests that there is far more mass in it than we can currently detect. The theory is that most of the universe’s mass, therefore, is matter that we cannot see, sense, or detect with current instruments. Something like 99% of the universe is made up of this non-detectable mater, in fact—”
“That’s enough Ms. Marmot! You may visit the principal’s office at any time now. You certainly aren’t needed here, as you’ve made it clear that you're already an expert on today’s subject.”
“Wait, are you kicking me out of—”
“Go!”
Ms. Rebuke sounded like she was ready to spit flames, so I didn’t argue. I really hadn’t meant to give her any grief to start with, but being marked tardy as I walked in while the bell was ringing, on my very first day at a new school, in a new town, when I had already woken up angry… I wasn’t at my best. I had started to pack up my stuff when the stupidly handsome boy next to me spoke up again.
“I’ll take her,” he said, in the tone of someone who had been asked to help the less fortunate. “She won’t know how to get there.”
“Excellent, Edik. Please come right back.”
I had a school map in my pocket, and the look in Edik’s eyes still freaked me out a bit, so I headed for the door without looking to see if he was behind me.
UNFORTUNATELY, MR. DAZZLING Eyes was indeed with me as I walked out the door.
“You don’t have to take me, really. I can find the office on my own.”
As if I hadn’t spoken, the dude wrapped his arm around my shoulder and started talking.
“Don’t worry about Ms. Rebuke. She doesn’t even teach physics, normally. She’s the chemistry teacher. Just subbing, for some reason. Not sure where the real physics teacher is today, but have no fear, I won’t allow her to harm you.”
“Um…dude, can you take your arm off me, please?”
I like to ask before I force people to move in ways that are likely to hurt them.
“Oh, of course, my dear. How terribly forward of me! Wouldn’t want to give anyone the wrong im
pression, would we? I’m awfully sorry. I simply… got caught up in you.”
“That’s weird, Eric.”
“It’s Edik, not Eric.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
I wasn’t particularly sorry, because this guy was setting off my creep-o-meter something fierce, but I did like to get people’s names right. I was in favor of people being addressed in whatever way they preferred to be addressed.
Edik though…. Not only was this guy’s accent decidedly inappropriate for Arizona, but his manner of speaking was entirely wrong for this century. However, talking oddly wasn’t a reason to bestow violence on anyone, and as he had removed his arm from my shoulders I decided he didn’t require a knee to the balls just yet. Still, he was doing himself no favors with his “let me save you” talk and his lack of personal boundaries.
I spent the rest of our brief stroll through the featureless hallways trying to surreptitiously walk farther away from my escort, but he refused to give me more than a handsbreadth of personal space. Thankfully, a few well-marked turns down blandly lit hallways delivered me to an office that was leaking small, disturbing wisps of smoke from the crack where door met frame. Just as I was trying to tactfully tell Edik to hit the road, he saved me the trouble.
“I hate to leave you, my darling, but I cannot abide the smell of this place. Fare thee well!”
And before I could even thank Too Creepy To Be Handsome Anymore dude for unnecessarily guiding me to the door quite clearly labeled “Principal,” he was gone.
“That… was decidedly weird,” I muttered, before cautiously knocking on the door.
I am not overly versed in recreational drugs, but even I could tell it reeked of pot in this hallway, so I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see when the door opened.
A bushy-browed, grey-haired, long-bearded man in a crushed velvet bathrobe was definitely not on the list of things that crossed my mind in the few seconds’ between when I knocked and when the door opened.
The giant wave of pot smoke that billowed around him was also a bit of a surprise. At least, in the sense that it was pooling out of an office clearly labeled “Principal” in the middle of a school day. It wasn’t surprising given that wisps of smoke and pot reek had been pouring out of the office before the door even opened.
“Umm… is now a bad time?” I asked, unsure how to proceed.
“Is he gone?” the man asked.
“Is who gone?”
“That vampire twat, Edik.”
“Umm… Edik left, yes.”
“He hasn’t got to you, has he?”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re not in love with him, are you?”
“What?!”
“It’s a long story.”
The old man, who was speaking with a decidedly British accent, peered suspiciously down the hallway in each direction and then gestured me into the office.
I hesitated, if only because I didn’t particularly want the contact high I was fairly certain would result from walking into that room.
“Come, come. If he’s left, then now is the perfect time to talk.”
“Ok.”
I was a bit baffled. I hadn’t even had a chance to explain what I was doing here.
“Ms. Rebuke sent me,” I began, planning to confess my sassy sins, but the grey-haired man shut the door behind me and cut me off.
“I know, I know. Not sure what’s got her knickers in a bunch today. I suppose she’s miserable about substituting for Physics again, but Ms. Squirrel is still unwell. Anyway, that hardly matters at this point. Come here, child, let me look at you.”
Uh… weird. That was definitely a weird request. People I’d only just met asking to get a closer look at me was not something I was entirely comfortable with, but I wasn’t getting any leering vibes from the old dude, so I let it slide. But then he was staring deeply into my eyes and tearing up, and that was a bit more than I could handle, creepy vibes or no. It was disturbing enough that I looked around the room. Anything to keep from locking eyes with the ones behind the half-moon spectacles in front of me.
The room was still smoky, but underneath the smoke it reminded me of an old cat lady’s living room, minus the cats, plus a couple of very large lizards.
I was just about to ask about the origins of the six-foot-long iguana that lay along the back of a red velvet wingback chair, when my thoughts were completely derailed.
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
“What?!” I almost shouted, my eyes snapping back to the grey ones in front of me.
“Your mother, Tenzin, you have her eyes.”
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes. Of course. Didn’t you know?”
“Mister, I don’t even know who you are!”
It was true. I assumed that this man was the principal of the school, but the pot smoke had made me doubt that a bit, and I certainly didn’t know his name. I most assuredly had no inkling that he had known my mother.
“Didn’t your parents tell you about me? Professor Bumblebee? I taught them both.”
“What?”
I sat down in the red velvet wingback, despite the hissing of the iguana.
“Your parents both studied with me. Didn’t they tell you? Surely you’ve wondered how they learned it all?”
“Learned what? My father was an English professor and my mother was a professional triathlete. I wasn’t aware that they’d ever studied the same subjects.”
My tone was probably bordering on insolence, but I couldn’t help it. Between crazy ladies in the woods telling me that my parents hadn't died the way I thought they had and this guy revealing that he was an old family friend… I just didn’t have enough energy left to stay polite.
“Well, let’s see. Where to begin? What do you know exactly?”
“About what, Mr. Bumblebee?”
“Oh, call me Albert.”
“Ok, Albert.”
I would have asked why I was supposed to call my school principal by his first name, but a knock on the door stopped the words in my throat. I was so desperate to have a conversation that wasn’t emotionally draining that I almost hoped it was Edik come to escort me to my next class.
It wasn’t.
Albert opened his office door to reveal another student who looked about my age. He was slightly taller than me, and had long, black hair pulled into a ponytail to reveal high cheekbones, startling amber eyes, and skin the same shade as mine. For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
“Mr. Topaz sent me to get the new student.”
His voice was deep and quiet, and far more alluring than it should have been. I shook myself and turned to Mr. Bumblebee.
“Oh? Yes, yes. I suppose she should go to classes anyway.” He turned his half-moon spectacles in my direction then. “Do come back, dear. We have much to discuss.”
I nodded, numbly, and then stepped out the door and stood awkwardly next to the student who had come to retrieve me.
“Umm… hi,” I muttered, lamely. What the hell. I was never tongue-tied in front of guys. “I’m Vic.” I cleared my throat and proffered my hand.
“Seamus,” he said, taking my hand and shaking it firmly before dropping it like it was hot.
If he had felt the same electric jolt up his arm that I had just felt up mine while shaking his hand, then I didn’t blame him.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, after an interminably long pause during which we said absolutely nothing but just stared at each other as if we’d never seen another human before.
“You smell good,” he replied.
Right. Well, my day was officially stupid.
“I’M SORRY ABOUT that,” Seamus mumbled.
“What?” I asked, no longer sure that we were both speaking English.
“Saying you smell good. That’s creepy as hell. It’s just… true.”
I nodded. “Ok. As long as you acknowledge it’s creepy and don’t expect me to be flattered or anything…�
��
“Gods, no! I just… said it before I could think. I’m sorry. I’ve never said anything that weird before. I mean, not since I was like five.”
“Right. Ok. You can stop apologizing now.”
He nodded. I tried to take a deep, calming breath, and then realized that he smelled amazing. Like a pine forest and a mountain breeze and… gingerbread with chocolate sauce? What the hell!? I shook myself and looked pointedly towards the hallway that I thought we should be walking down instead of standing awkwardly in front of Mr. Bumblebee’s door.
Seamus finally caught on and gestured towards the hallway with one hand, while standing well back from me.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“Sure.”
I gave him the same wide berth he’d given me. The man smelled better than anyone I’d ever met, and sent sparks shooting up my arm when we touched…. Did not need more of that right now.
~~~
“So, where are you from?” Seamus asked, as we wandered yet another bland institutional hallway lined with lockers. Honestly, this school was so drab it could have been any public high school in the US. How it managed to hide within its walls a cadre of teachers, seemingly all hailing from the UK, piloted by a oddball hot-boxing principal, was a mystery that would have fully enveloped my attention had I not been distracted by Seamus’ attempts at conversation.
“What makes you think I’m not from here?” I asked, before I could stop my typical knee-jerk response to the question.
“Well, you’re new here, but you’re a senior… I just assumed you moved here from somewhere else.”
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 2