Decisions Ch. 02

"Ready?" I said to Stasi.

The empty seat didn't reply back. "Oh... right." I mumbled. See what I mean? My sleep deprived brain didn't even register that I hadn't picked Stasi up this morning. Since I had to go to school so early to meet with the Principal, I told Stasi the night before to drive separately so she didn't have to wake up so early just to sit around and do nothing. She insisted that she come along to provide me company, but in the end, the prospect of another hour of sleep proved to be too irresistible. Yulia would instead be dropping her, Elena, and Viktor off and i'd be taking her home.

The car light turned on as I opened the door, slipping out of the car and shivering slightly in the cool foggy Bay Area air. I zipped up my hoodie, slinging my black Northface backpack over my shoulders and staring at the looming campus in front of me. It didn't look too bad. It was a gated in campus with four main buildings, supposedly one for classrooms, administrations, a multi use room, and... i'm not sure what the fourth one was. The football field was already familiar to me, being off to the left of the campus. Behind it was the currently-being-renovated hockey rink.

Shuffling one foot in front of the other, I walked through the haze in the direction of the administration building. Even though I had zero trouble finding parking so I didn't have to walk far, a considerable amount of cars were already parked snugly in their spots farther away from the Humans Only Parking. Must be teachers. After all, most, if not all, our teachers were monsters. After some walking, I finally arrived at my destination, the letters "BELCOURT HIGH SCHOOL" looming over me as I strolled into the administration building.

The interior of the building was modern, resembling the lobby of a high class hotel more than the administration office of a school. I looked around, admiring the architecture, before the middle-aged receptionist coughed loudly behind her counter. "Are you going to stand there, or are you going to tell me why you're here so early, young man?" I whipped my head around, sheepishly. "Sorry." I said, coming over to the counter she sat behind. "I got an email sayi-..." My voice trailed off as she held up her long-nailed finger, ordering me vocal-lessly to be silent.

That was rude.

I drummed my fingers on the counter top as she typed away on the computer, paying me zero heed and attention. While I was waiting, I thought it'd be a great time to play a timely classic. The Guess-What-Kind-of-Monster-This-Person-Is-Without-Being-Racist-Game. She was in her late 30s. Her high cheeks, pointed chin, and large irised eyes were human enough qualities and could've fooled anybody. That trend stopped there dead in it's tracks. Under the gray tresses that escaped from her bun, round tabby furred ears were perched high on her head. Her long, arched tail swished behind her. She was a cat girl/woman for sure.

Don't forget the crappy attitude... the standoffish demeanor... oh wait, that's racist and generalizing a whole race. Scratch that off my definition.

"Riiggght..." She finally said, clicking her mouse and sending whatever memo she had. She turned up to look at me, a smile on her face. "Apologies for that. I can't type when someone talks to me, and I can't talk when i'm trying to type. What are you here for again?" Her attitude changing as if it were a flip of the coin. From crabby to curious, like a cat. Go figure.

"I'm er... i'm here to meet with Principal Finch? My mother was sent an email a few days ago about it and it told me to come to school early today." I babbled. She gave me a look, her eyes roving up and down from the counter. "Christopher Williams?" She asked, curiously. I merely nodded my head. Her smile grew wider as she pointed to the entrance to the right of her. "You're late. Just down the hall, Chris. She's expecting you, but she's in a meeting with some of the teachers, she told me you can just walk in." She said. I nodded my head gratefully. "Thank you so much."

Her hands roved over the keyboard, but she was still looking at me. "Not a problem. My name is Mrs. Casarano, i'm the receptionist at Belcourt High School. It's nice to meet you. If you need anything, don't hesitate to find me whenever."

I started walking to the door, speaking over my shoulder. "Got it." I said. "And I will, don't you worry! I get lost pretty often." Mrs. Casarano giggled behind me as I walked through the open entrance into the office spaces. There was what looked like a nurse's office and a few other empty rooms. They were devoid of people but judging from the tacked up photos of kids, drawings, and little trinkets, they were already moved into.

I'll admit, i'm naturally curious. When i'm left alone in a space, one way or another, i'll end up exploring. Not snooping around, there's a difference. So, I did exactly what I said i'd do in an unfamiliar place. I started to poke my head into a few empty offices to look around and get acquainted with where everything was.

I didn't spend too much time on that though, since Mrs. Casarano said she was expecting me. I didn't want to keep her waiting. I continued to walk around, until finally, I came across the teacher's lounge. Looking in through the glass window on the door, I saw what looked like a conference room mixed with a kitchen, a refrigerator and microwave tucked into the corner.

Inside was a large table, with around twenty chairs surrounding it. Every chair was taken and there were even people standing up. Sitting at the head of the table was what appeared to be Principal Finch, who was enraptured in a humorous talk with another teacher. I peeked around the room, catching the eyes and bald head of Coach Freddy. A smile broke on his face as he nudged the teacher next to him, pointing at me, and beckoning me to come inside. I placed my hand on the doorknob, twisting it and coming inside.

"Christopher Williams!" An excited voice squeaked as soon as I opened the door and entered the room. A short, squat dwarf with a long beard and a suit that could've fit a child gave me a bow, his long beard nearly touching the floor. "An honor to meet you. Huge honor! Very big honor!" He said, reaching up, firmly grasping my hand and giving it a shake, up and down. My mouth dropped in surprise as I struggled to find a reply to the excitable man-child in a suit.

"Nice to meet you too, Mr..." I leaned downwards. "Coppergut! Cedric Coppergut." He replied, excitedly and proudly, a sharp contrast to the usual dull and stoic dwarves that i've come to meet in my life. "I teach in the Math Department. Geometry and Statistics." From the way his chest puffed up in pride from talking about the subject, he was extremely passionate about teaching. I let go of his hand, which he was still shaking. "Looks like i'll have you as a teacher than, Mr. Coppergut. I'm taking Statistics this year." My words had a huge effect on him, nearly making him bowl over in happiness.

"Thank you Cedric for the very enthusiastic introduction to Mr. Williams." Mrs. Finch said smoothly, standing up to come towards me. At full height, she came up to my height of 6'3'' with no problem at all. She was in her early 40s, but could've passed for late 30s. It was all in genetics, I suppose. Through her hair, pointed ears jutted out like mountains among a field of straw colored tresses.

She walked around the table and crossed the room as if she was walking on water before coming up to me and extending her hand. Up close, I realized she was even taller than me. I grasped her hand, shaking it. "Welcome to Belcourt High School, Christopher. We met earlier in the Summer, but I didn't know if you wanted to transfer or not. I daresay that i'm pleased that you did. Come, sit. We have much to talk about."

I looked around the room at the unfamiliar faces, feeling as if I was a bacterial sample under a microscope. "Er... here, ma'am?" I said, unsure.

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes... here." She said. "Is something wrong with that proposition, Christopher?" I shook my head no. "Good. May someone retrieve a chair for young Christopher, please?" She turned around, returning to her spot at the head of the table. Mr. Coppergut furnished a chair next to him, patting it to get my attention. I sat down between him and another tall man, my eyes flickering around the room.

Boy, Anton wasn't kidding when he said most, if not all, of the staff here at the school were monsters. With what looked like the sole exception of Coach Freddy, everyone here was a monster one way or another. I was busy counting out and putting a name to all the different species when Mrs. Finch spoke.

"Well, now that we are all here, let us begin. Christopher, meet Adrianna Euthixie." Finch pointed at the Dryad to the left of her. "She's the student leadership advisor for this school year and when she heard you were transferring, she had some big ideas for you. Adrianna, will you please inform Chris on.."

"Certainly!" Ms. Euthixie said, a bit too excitedly. "What we had in mind is... well, looking at your previous school records at Jefferson High School, your resume is extremely impressive. You were in leadership three years in a row and was President of the Junior Class. You organized a bunch of fundraisers and cool events while managing to somehow juggle maintaining your excellent grades and sports! Belcourt High School has a student body of over 1,000 new transfers. The problem is, we haven't had any chance to host elections." She looked guiltily at Mrs. Finch. "Which was my bad, boss. So, we're hoping that you'd take the position of student body President. You'd be good for the role." She said, finally taking that deep breath that she so needed.

Imagine that, the face of a solely monster school being a human! I was Nelson Mandela!

I was astounded. Not at the offer of being the President of Belcourt, but the fact that she spoke so long without taking in a breath of air. "I er... I...um..." Words stumbled out of my mouth. "What he means is that he accepts." Coach Freddy said, a glint of approval in his eyes.

"Right, that. Yep. I accept. Thanks, coach."

"No problem, kid. Just make sure you don't lose focus on the season. We have a game friday."

"Yes, coach."

"Now that that is rectified," Principal Finch said, smoothly. "Onto our next part of the agenda.."

Chapter 5:

I could've stayed in the Teacher's Lounge until 1st Period, but Mrs. Finch booted me out, telling me to go see the front office to see if 'The Lone Receptionist' needed any help processing the 1,000 students. On the way out, I gave Coach Freddy a scornful look. He must've told stories to Principal Finch about one of the many mishaps I had working as an office assistant with his wife back in Jefferson.

In the office, Mrs. Casarano put me to work right away at one of the unused computers, delighted to have some help. "Your job is to open up the files for each student and retrieve their schedules...for example..." She reached over me, typing in my name into the computer's database. My file popped up along with my information, a picture of myself, and... my species?

"See where it says schedules? You have to click that and print it. You have to print them out fast to keep the line moving. Tell me if you need help, typing and clicking can be super difficult." She said, patting me on the shoulder and leaving me to my own devices, her tail swishing behind her. I turned back to the computer, seeing that I still had some time left. I clicked on the search bar, typing LUCY BOHANNON into it.

Her file popped up immediately, her smiling face appearing as the picture she took at registration. Her pale, silvery hair was covering up six of her eight eyes, her main two ones where human's should be the only ones showing. I scrolled down, looking at the information. Sure enough, it directly outlined her species.

I was confused for a second on why that was necessary, but I remembered. "Oh... that's right." I mumbled to myself. All monsters were required to submit their name to a database by the government. The database was accessible by schools, hospitals, police, pretty much every government establishment. It was supposed to be so that they could easily accommodate monsters better, but there were theories that the government did it so they could keep check on populations and demographics in case they needed to "re-appropiate" populations.

I clicked on her schedule, printing it out and setting it to the side. I did the same for Jazz, Stasi, Viktor, Elena, and Ricky. I didn't want them to wait in line anymore than they had to. Benefits of having a best friend as an office assistant right?

By the time I had just printed out Stasi's schedule (which I hoped was identical to mine) and set it to the side, the sound of the door opening caught my attention and I looked up at the young freshman who walked in, shyly looking around the lobby. My eyes darted down to the screen, seeing that he was a bit early.

"How can I help you?" I asked. He came up to me, nervous. "Is this where I pick up my schedule?" I nodded in reply, holding my hand out. "Yep, let me just see your ID, buddy." He removed his black lanyard from around his neck, handing it over to me, his school badge hanging from the end. I set it down on the counter, looking at it as I typed his name into the database.

"You're Christopher Williams, aren't you?" He asked.

"Huh?" I looked up, confused, the printer whirring to life as it began to print out the schedule of Freshman Neville Poole. "Christopher Williams, isn't that who you are? The person that's dating the vampire?" He repeated. "I'm not dating anybody, but yeah, I guess that's my name, why?" I said, reaching over to grab the sheet of paper, handing it to Neville along with his school ID.

"It's just... you're going to be the only human at this school. Aren't you like... scared or something?" I thought on that for about half a second and my answer came back just as fast. "Nope." I said, smiling. In truth, I wasn't scared of anything except spiders... which was ironic considering Lucy was my best friend. "Why would I be scared of normal people? Anyways... here's your schedule with all your classes, the room numbers can be found..." I pointed to it with my finger. "Here. Welcome to Belcourt High School, hopefully, i'll see you around Neville." I said, my attention being diverted to the door where another group of students were entering.

It was easy at first, processing the few trickles of students that came in. What soon became a small trickle, became a fairly big flow. Right, nothing I couldn't handle. I was pretty good at multi-tasking. That flow soon became a massive flood at around 8:10, 20 minutes before the first bell was due to ring. I was furiously typing away at my computer, saying a plethora of:

"Hey, how was your summer?"

"Welcome to Belcourt High School."

"Thank you for being so patient, as you can see, we're a bit understaffed."

"Here's your schedule, hope you have a great day!"

It was nothing that me and Mrs. Casarano couldn't handle, but some of the students waiting in line in the growing lines in the lobby were growing impatient. It was nearly 8:20 when just as the lines began to taper off. I was standing up, handing a young dragonnewt her schedule when the next person in line said, "Man, the service here is terrible!" My head snapped up, my eyes narrowing, which promptly melted away when I saw a smiling Viktor get softly whacked across the head by an equally smiling Stasi.

I sat back down on my chair, an exasperated smile on my face. "I don't serve your kind here." I said in a joking manner. "Like hell you don't." Elena said, bouncing on the heels of her feet, cutting her older brother, and holding out her hand. I stared her down for a moment. "Are you going to say the magic words?" I asked. "The magic words." She replied, snapping her fingers. "Schedule, please." Normally when someone gave me this kind of attitude, I gave attitude back, but from Elena, it was endearing as hell.

I reached under the printer for the schedules I pre-printed for the Sokolov family, handing both over to Elena and Viktor, to a chorus of thank yous. All that was left was Stasi.

"You're late." I said. "I'm not late. You're just early." She replied, holding her hand out and leaning daintily forward on the counter, her long raven hair spilled around her like darkness. "Sorry I couldn't pick you up this morning." I said, guiltily, reaching for the schedule that was pinned under the printer. Stasi shrugged. "I got to sleep in and spend time with my siblings. What's not to love?" There was just a hint of sarcasm to it, but it was barely there. Stasi loved to spend time with her siblings, almost as much as I did.

I handed Stasi her schedule, which fortunately, was nearly identical to mine, save for our names and one discrepancy including a Pre-Law class. My courses were made up of requests I made the year before at Jefferson. They carried over to Belcourt. "Here you go, darling." I said, teasingly. Stasi gave me a dazzling smile as she took the schedule and fitted it into her binder. "Want me to wait for you so we can head to class together?" I nodded. "Yeah, i'm actually just about done here. Let me just log out." There weren't that many students left in the lobby. "Mrs. Casarano, can you handle the rest?" I asked, turning over to her.

She turned to me, irked that I interrupted her conversation with another student. "Yes, you're free to go. Thanks for all your help this morning, Christopher." She said. I rapped my knuckles on the counter, logging out of the computer and shutting off the monitor, slinging my backpack over my shoulder and walking around the counter to meet with Stasi, who promptly grabbed hold of my hand and lead me out to the quad so we could go to our next class in the other building, AP Statistics.

The quad was nice, if not a bit empty. Everyone must've already been in class, balking at the process of being late on the first day of school. We were walking and enjoying the mutual silence until...

"You know how you always tell me everything and I tell you everything?" She said, out of the blue. I nodded. She was more of a confidant than Lucy, even more so ever since we came out to each other. I could tell her anything and not get judged. "Yeah." I said, slightly apprehensive at what she was going to say next... oh god, please don't talk about...

"Then how come you never told me your house got vandalized?" Stasi asked, her tone neutral.

Shit. I blanched. At least she wasn't angry, right? Wrong. "How'd you know about that?" I asked. "Your parents told my parents, who then told me, who is now mad that her best friend and love of her life didn't notify her when it happened." Of course my parents told the Sokolovs. Our parents were like me and Stasi. Thicker than thieves. Stasi sighed. "Chris, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry about something trivial, that's all. It was just a bit of paint. Our garage door looks as good as new with a fresh coat." I said. Stasi stopped walking, looking around the quad for any sign of anybody before wrapping her arms around my neck. "Chris... I love you with all my heart. I don't know what i'd do if you ever got in trouble or got hurt because you transferred schools and picked sides. If anything ever happens, you have to let me know, alright?"

I stared into her crystal blue eyes, eyes that I fell in love with a long time ago. "Alright, Stasi." I said, resigned. "I just didn't want you worrying about me over nothing, is all." Stasi stroked my cheek affectionately. "I'll always worry about you, idiot. I worry every time you step on the field, when you step on the ice, when you stick up for your friends, and when you transfer schools to be with us. That's what people who loved each other since middle school do. Promise you'll let me know if anything happens."