Chapter Four (Eirika - East High: A few Days Before)

"Good afternoon class," said Mr. Barmon; the physics teacher, as he walked into the class, causing all noise to cease. He dropped his folder on the desk, picked up a board marker, and started to write, deftly, on the whiteboard. "Today we're going to be revising one of the most fundamental concepts in physics: Newton's laws of motion," he continued as he wrote Newton's three laws on the board and began to explain each one in detail, turning to face the class, perching on the edge of the table, he folded his slim arms against his chest. "The first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion with a constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

The door to the class was pushed open, interrupting him. A tall young adult with hooded eyes and black hair peered inside. 

"Come in. Come in, Hartwell, a moment more and you would have missed the fun part," Mr. Barmon said in exasperation.  

The younger man walked in and took the empty seat closest to the door. A quiet girlish giggle sounded from the back of the class. Eirika watched as Nigel Hartwell settled on his seat seemingly unbothered and took out a heavy-looking notebook. 

To her consternation, he looked back but not in the direction of the giggling girls but at her. Her temperature rose as hot dark brown eyes tinged with gold held hers. She quickly lowered her gaze, her heart racing in the wall of her chest.

Nigel Hartwell was the most intriguing character she had ever known. Not that she was anything but a creature that, more often than not, simply shared a space with him, she could hardly say she knew him. He was just a boy she often walks past in the school hallways and takes science classes with. Other than that, she knew nothing about him just like everyone else.

He doesn't make friends, doesn't belong to any group like most boys of his caliber, and does not even hang out with the football team he plays with. He was the very epitome of a lone wolf. The analogy made her lips stretch in a smile.

That was another thing she couldn't tell about him. East High was a mixture of fractions of wolves and the unchanging who could also be called humans. Unchanging are beings who lack the special ability to shapeshift even though they are wolf kin.

While most fractions of werewolves wear their identity as a badge to instill fear, Nigel Hartwell was not just that type. It made it kind of hard for people to place him. And Eirika thought that mysterious air made him kind of intriguing, now add that to his smoldering dark looks and you have an enthralling character. And unfortunately, all the females in the school also thought so – juniors, seniors, and even female teachers.

Mr. Barmon cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and looked around the room, making eye contact with several students. "Now back to Newton's laws of motion, can anyone give me an example of this in action?" When nobody spoke he let out a sigh. "Hartwell ?" he called.

"A hockey puck on ice," Nigel replied without pause. His voice was low and hoarse. 

"Thank you, Hartwell," Mr. Barmon nodded, the irritation in his voice easing off. "The friction between the ice and the puck is minimal, so the puck will continue to move in the same direction and speed unless something stops it. Now, let's move on to the second law."

He wrote the equation F=ma on the board and began to explain it. "This law states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on the object and inversely proportional to its mass." He turned to the class again. "Can anyone give me an example of this in action?" When nobody answered he groaned, and added, "Miss. Eirika Aedelwulf?"

"A car accelerating on a highway," Eirika said and gently cleared her throat.  

"Correct!" Mr. Barmon said with a smile and added, "The more force the engine exerts on the car, the faster it will accelerate, and the heavier the car, the less acceleration you will see.

Mr. Barmon continued to explain the third law and then asked the students some questions to test their understanding. As he was walking around the classroom he noticed that a few students were struggling to answer his questions or were just not interested.

"Come on class! I know you can do better than this! We have done this before. It's not rocket science!" He said jokingly, making the class laugh. 

After about two hours of revising old topics the closing bell rang and Mr. Barmon reminded the students to read for their final exams and wished them luck. 

Eirika watched as Nigel  Hartwell packed his books and left the class before anyone else. 

"He is always on the move," a voice she recognized belonging to one of her classmates; Jessica said from the back. “If I am not so partial to his good looks, I would think he has some dark secrets he is trying to keep hidden. It can’t be healthy to be that brilliant, and hot, and want solitude!”  she added and then a loud dramatic sigh followed.

"I heard Mrs. Adams called him into her office this morning – something about a gang fight..." another voice interjected and Eirika need not look back to know who it was. The girls' annoying voices were quite distinctive. She knew the last voice belonged to Sophy; one of Jessica Smith’s sidekicks. 

“I don’t care about his dark secrets. I just want an hour alone with him,” Jessica replied and more giggles came from the back of the class.

“You girls realize we can all hear you, right?” Thad; a boy on the other end of the class jeered with irritation. 

“D-duh! Mind your business, Willy!” one of the girls yelled back at him, clicking her tongue. 

“I’m Thad!” he hissed back.

“Nobody cares!” the girls yelled back.

The other boy got up, packed his books, and stormed out of the class.

"Eirika?!” Toby; Eirika's friend since junior class called out, gesturing to her to come to him and his girlfriend Nina, who was now her friend too. 

Eirika smiled, getting up to quickly pack her books and join her friends in front of the class. 

“Have you heard about Wendy?" Nina said, leaning in to whisper close to her ear. 

“What about her?” Eirika whispered back, her eyes darting in their sockets as she searched her friend’s dark green eyes. 

“Not in here,” Toby whispered, reaching out to grab Nina and Eirika by the wrists and led them out of the homeroom into the hallway. 

“What about Wendy?” Eirika whispered again. Eager to have all the juicy details about the beautiful, cold-blooded leader of the school cheerleader team. 

In East High, there is an unspoken hierarchy of fractions and the unchanging are at the very bottom of it. But Wendy, even though came from a line of beings that are just wolves' kin, had somehow managed to stay at the very top of the ranking. 

Toby had once said what she lacked in the gift of shapeshifting she got in a full spectrum of evil hence why everyone figured she must be some sort of a witch. 

Eirika recalled the few times she had a spat with the passive-aggressive bitch and suppressed the urge to make a sign of the old ways of warding off evil. 

"Apparently, Mr. Marnet was caught making out with her in the supply closet after school hours yesterday!"

"No way! Mr. Marnet? The same Mr. Marnet who always lectures us about professionalism and appropriate behavior? That Mr. Marnet?!" Eirika said in evident disbelief. 

"The one and only. Can you believe it? I mean, he's not exactly a spring chicken, but he's still got it, I guess."

“You guys are forgetting he is from a fraction of powerful Lycans … which means he controls a certain amount of power and he is Chris Evans hot,” Nina supplied. 

"He is like twenty-eight, Nina! That's old! And an administrator. That's just scandalous. I wonder how this is going to affect his job," Eirika said, a frown creasing the center of her nicely trimmed eyebrows as she chewed on her lower lip. 

"Well, I heard he's already been put on leave while they investigate," Toby supplied.

"And Wendy? What punishment did she get?" Eirika asked, folding her arms against her ample bosom with an arched eyebrow. 

"I saw her in the cafeteria earlier on. She didn't look fazed one bit. Daddy being loaded and all…" Toby replied, saying the last part under his breath. 

"That isn't fair," Eirika muttered, looking indignant. "Perhaps getting caught was not coincidental after all."

"That's what I said!" Nina interjected. Eirika shared a knowing look with her. 

"Enough about that, are you excited about your final exams?" Toby said.

"I'm trying not to think about them too much. But, I'm definitely ready for them to be over," Eirika replied.

"Same here. We should celebrate once they're done. How about we go clubbing the night of the last paper?" said Toby.

"That sounds like the perfect way to celebrate. But …” she paused to show her friends her plane ticket on her phone dated for the last day of her finals. “My dad already sent a plane ticket. It's going to be my birthday and my dad wants me home. You know what happens on eighteenth birthdays.  Or I might turn out to be a late bloomer and wait till my next one,” Eirika added with a comical grimace. 

“Come on! Is it not bad enough you have to go back and we may never see you again unless you keep your promise to visit? On top of that, we have to miss your eighteenth birthday too, and all the drama that goes with it!” Toby said in a rush.

“I promise to visit! You two are my BFFs! You are not getting rid of me that easily,” Eirika protested in a laughing voice. 

"What if you get back home and meet your childhood friends and forget about all our escapades; all the troubles we got into together," Toby said theatrically with a narrowed gaze. Eirika giggled.

"I solemnly swear that will never happen," she replied, equally as dramatic.

“You had better not. And convince your old man to let you join us at ECU. Wouldn’t that be great to meet again in college?!” Toby said, wrapping one arm around Nina’s tall frame and the other around Eirika’s neck. Eirika giggled, trying to match her tall friends’ strides. 

“I promise to try,” she said. 

“Okay then, let’s go clubbing tonight, today is Friday after all. Exams start Monday,” Nina suggested. When Eirika stared agape at her, she quickly added, “Don’t you dare refuse. We have to celebrate somehow! Then when we meet in college we'll party like rockstars." Eirika giggled. 

"Fine! Let’s pray I don’t get caught then," Eirika said with a broad smile. She was too engrossed in their discussion that she almost walked into an open locker. Her heart skipped a beat when someone walked in her path instead and when she raised her eyes they met hazel-colored ones. 

“You should watch where you are going, Pup,” Nigel said, before squeezing past her. Eirika and her friends turned around, stunned, watching him walk away. 

“D-Did he just spoke to me?!” Eirika whispered in utter disbelief.

“The fuck!” Toby whispered in awe. The two exchanged glances.