In his next class, Seth saw her again. This time, she sat behind him. He wondered why whoever was in charge of the schedules made it so he would have her in two classes in a row when the only class that he signed up for that wasn't an AP was French. Now, he had AP Lang. Seth decided that she most likely wouldn't try to talk to him again after their last confrontation so it should be okay. This theory was then immediately disproved when he had a ballpoint pen jammed into his back . Seth thought that maybe if he ignored her long enough, she would get bored and stop. This idea was was quickly proven false when the longer he stayed still, the harder she jabbed him. Seth rarely lost his temper, but he did have some self-respect. He turned and gave her the full force of what James called his "Ice King Glare."
The reason his glare was named this was because Seth happened to take after his dad, in that they were both tall and lean with pale skin, straight jet-black hair, and eyes that were pale blue, like ice. For some reason, people always got uncomfortable when either the elder or younger Drak looked them straight in the eyes, but to be honest,Seth thought this was because they both looked more like a ghost, not that it really mattered to him.
The girl then just stared back with dark green eyes that dared him to complain. Seth could swear that he felt a nerve twitch as he barked out, "What?" The girl leaned back in her chair and smirked as she said, "And so it speaks." "Excuse me, but did you just call me an 'it'" asked the stunned Seth. He could not remember a time in his life when he had felt so insulted and then he wondered why he even cared if she had insulted him. The girl in question gave him a condescending stare as she asked, "If you have enough guts to stand up to me when I insult you, then why do you act like some wimp who would turn tail at the first sight of danger?" She thinks he's a coward. He didn't know why, but the thought of her thinking that he was one unsettled him, but before he could answer the bell rang and class had commenced. For the first time in a very long time, Seth found that he could not concentrate on the lecture that the teacher was giving and that he had even almost forgotten to turn in his summer assignment.
When class ended, Seth felt hurt ,but the feeling was swiftly replaced by anger and irritation that a girl he didn't know was able to affect him like this. Why should he feel pain when he did nothing wrong? He wasn't a coward. He just wanted to have a peaceful life. What was wrong with that?On his way out, Seth saw the start of his problems walk away with a boy who must have been her brother because of their likeness to each other. Same skin color. Same hair. Same eyes. They even wore the same black ensemble. Black shirt. Black jeans. Black combat boots. The only difference was that the boy was a couple inches shorter than Seth with a broad frame and the girl reached only to the middle of Seth's chest and had a curvy figure that was much different than the willowy frames of the untouchables and the skinny bodies that the rest of the female population at St. Gregory's seemed to have. Seth found himself thinking that it was a shame that she had a mouth like hers or he probably would have developed a crush on her. He quickly shook that thought away because it unnerved him that he would be attracted to a girl that had accused him of being a coward.
As luck would have it, the only thing that was whispered about in the lunchroom was the news on the transfer students which just happened to be twins. Seth couldn't believe it. Out of all the transfer students that they could have got they happened to get god-damned twins, one of which, he was sure was here only to make him feel miserable. He knew he was being unreasonable, but he still remembered the pain that her comment had caused him and he felt that he needed to grab any reason to try and wash away that feeling away.
Seth saw James wave to him at a table in the corner with some people whose faces he recognized from his classes. Seth sat down and as he grabbed his BLT from his backpack, he said, "If any of you even think of mentioning either of the transfer students, then get ready to have your tongue ripped out with my bare hands." The whole table stared at him and Seth realized what he had just said. He dropped his sandwich as self-disgust settled in his stomach at the thought that he made such a threat to people that he called his friends. James asked if he was okay and Seth replied,"Sorry. I don't know why I even said that. I've had a long day and I really can't deal with any more talk about the twins." After that Seth felt a combination of dread and fear because he realized that when he made that threat, he had meant it.
James said, "Nah, man. It's cool. We've all had days like that." After which the people in the table nodded in agreement, but Seth noticed that the topic shifted from politics to the latest movie to different books and classes. Basically it was about anything, but the twins. After about ten minutes of this Seth felt himself relax and join in on some of the conversation. While Seth was in a conversation about the Lord of the Rings, someone came and shouted, "A fight broke out between Katrina Lupe and the new transfer students!"
One is to wonder what would have occurred if Seth had chosen to ignore the fight or if he had never heard that student announce that fight. Perhaps his fate would have been different. Perhaps he would have remained just the same without change, but change is inevitable and the fact remains that Seth did not ignore this and like the rest of the lunchroom, had raced out witness the fight with his own eyes.
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