Shapeshifters

Ch 2: the fall from grace
Joanna McKindely was not a person of tall statue that is to say she was not very tall, most people in fact would call her down right short, but at 5'1 she was not suffering from lung capacity because she seemed to be screaming at me with an amazing amount of volume.
"Stududibaker! What are you doing? You can't walk during gym class! This is a time for exercise you can go walk on your time, not mine!" and with that profound statement Ms. McKindely slapped me on the ass ( like a damn race horse) with a small plastic rod that she insisted on carrying around as if she was a marine or something. If she excepted that to get me running she was dead wrong; all it did in fact was get me to jump about a foot in the air, and then come down on a puddle which then caused me to slip and fall getting mud all over my clothes. Good thing I was wearing my gym clothes or I really would have been pissed. Of course when I landed I happened to twist my ankle and was thus sent to the nurse's office who, as it happened was out. Out where, no one knew but I was assured that she would be back, "soon." Soon just happened to be an hour but hell it got me out of my Italian class with the ever hilarious, Mr. Jonston.
And that was how I first came to meet Taylor, sitting, pissed off, in my wet muddy gym clothes in the nurses office with my make-up running. He on the other hand was fit to perfection in ripped jeans and a white t-shirt the basic for about anyone at my school, except for well you know me. I was what the other kids would call a, "goth," but I was really far from it. I wore at least one thing blue or purple or red every day so what if it was just a hint of color in my sea of black. It didn't help that my eye liner was always too heavy and my eye shadow outrageous. And I wasn't always in black for example my hair at that particular moment was red, a dark red that I thought went well with my brown eyes. And my shoes were just a standard pair of combat boots that only went up to my mid thigh. Actually, they smallest pair that I owned due to the fact that my feet were only a size 6. I was a very short girl at 17 and didn't seem to be getting any taller. I was just barley taller than Ms. McKindely at 5'3. And due to the baggy clothes that I tended to wear I also looked a bit formless, but in my wonderfully wet gym clothes you could see all of my B cup breasts and small hips. I was short but I was short with a figure, not one of those sticks.
Taylor of course was helplessly lost, it being his first day of school here at (oh! fun!!) Ridgemont High. It was a very small high school in the rocky mountains, California side, and if I do say so myself it was a piece of crap. All of the school was built inside because it snowed, but since we had had to expand the school was all messed up and it took at least a week to figure out that one, nothing in the place worked and that two, you could never trust a number to lead you any where. For example room 63 was right next to room 96. And I was in the nurses' office right next to room 23; the office of course being on the other side of the building. Taylor happened to be looking for room 84, which happened to be a floor up and down the hall but he didn't know that, but seeing a huge sign proclaiming this the nurses' office he'd thought to ask where to go since by this time he was about 20 minutes late to his class. Why he didn't ask way before this I can't tell you expect that he was a very stubborn guy.
"Uh... excuse me miss-" At this point Taylor had actually looked into the room and saw not a nurse but little old me looking like a drowned cat and having the stunning social skills that he did, Taylor stumbled around on his words for a couple of seconds looking me up and down in my wet, white P.E. shirt with a black bra no less and finally blushing he said, "...umm.... We'll I was wondering were room ...," here he looked down at his paper, "84 four was... could you please tell me. I'm completely lost, ya know, first day at a new school.... and I have no idea were anything is. This is a very confusing place. You guys need like signs or something. ... so umm...could you help me. I would really appreciate it." By the time he came to the end of his speech his eyes were trained on my boobs and I was seriously pissed well truth be told I was a more pleased by that than angry it was just hat I as already very mad and his looking very intently there was very disturbing. I mean come on I'm little miss B cup who never even got looked at unless it was to see another one of the endless jokes that seemed to get made at my expense.
And it was this combination of events that compelled me to do what I did. As soon as he finished my eyes narrowed and I swung my legs off of the bed and limped up to Mr. I'm so cool with my suave hair and t-shirt and I grabbed his shirt and brought his face down to mine which was a real accomplish because Taylor was close to 6 feet. I pulled him really close so may be there was two inches between us and said, "Well that's quite a predicament you've got there Mr. ..."
"Oh! I-I'm Taylor..." he said with a gulp, not really knowing what to do in this sort of situation.
"Well Tay. I'm Melony and I am very angry right now and although I love guys staring at my chest; now is not the time, I am not in the mood for it right now so get the hell out of here or I am going to do something you really don't want me to do ..."
He looked lost for about a second then, "Uh... Okay," and then he left.
As soon as he was gone of course I felt really bad although I looked like a really mean person I wasn't and therefore I limped out of the room completely and saw him looking at the map they had given him at the office. Now I really felt bad who was I to make the guy scared on his first day it's really hard to go to a new school. So, I yelled at him down the hall, "Hey you! Go up the stairs and down the hall to your right." Then I immediately turned around to go back into the nurse's office and didn't see the small smile that curved on Taylor's face.
Eventually the nurse returned to her office and she put a rap on my leg to keep it steady and as she did this she told me with a grave voice that if thought I could steal her rap that I was mistaken and if I didn't bring it back first thing tomorrow that I would be fined the price of the rap which was going at the amazing price of $25. I glared at while she said this and wondering if she gave this lecture to everyone else with school or just me. Although I was used to people not exactly trusting me around their stuff it still hurt my pride especially adults who "knew" I was just going through a phase. I didn't say thank you like my mother had taught me to used whenever I could after she informed me of this and instead left to go back and get my clothes from the gym and maybe wash up in the sink a little before I had to go catch the last ten minutes of Italian class.
***
Later when I was eating lunch, which happened to be just a soda, by myself as was the usual due to the fact that I was considered a bit of a freak around school and they also seemed to think that I bit as well. So I was basically on my own that is until someone sat down next to me.
"Hello, it's nice to see ya again," after these words passed Taylor's lip he smiled like he actually though it was nice to see me again.
"What's so nice about it?" I responded hoping he would go away just like everyone else.
"Well ...," here he sat down next to me and looked me in the eye, "you don't seem to be quite as wet now as you did before, and that means you won't get hypothermia."
"That was a bit graphic, and I would enjoy a week off school. And I asked what's so nice about the day, not what is or isn't going well in my life." At this latest sarcastic remark he actually did something that totally amazed me; he laughed, like what I had said was funny, which it totally wasn't I never joked or at least no one around here got my jokes.
And the thing was he looked really cute when he laughed. He had thrown his head back and his longer black hair framed his dark classical face perfectly. And his eyes were almost closed from laughing emphasizing his high cheek bones and full lips. Suddenly and embarrassingly I felt myself beginning to blush which made me angry.
So I said, "What do you want anyway?"
"Nothing really. You're just the only one I know, but I have to admit that you were hard to find. I didn't recognize you in all that black," he smiled and although it wasn't a harsh or mean smile it still made me mad that he would be just like everyone else judging me by my clothes. It was then that I realized that I had been hoping that he wouldn't be like everyone else and I would finally get a friend in this maze called high school. What he said hurt me, and so I went into defensive mode.
"Get away form me asshole. I don't hang out with losers. I'm sure that you would fit in better over there." His face looked very confused as I pointed at the table were the preps sat in their varying t-shirts and jeans. And as my eyes looked were my finger pointed I realized that Jennifer and Megan were looking directly at Taylor and giving him they're most come here looks.
I really hated Jennifer and Megan. We had all been really good friends in third grade. We were the most popular girls. Jennifer had been our leader; she being the prettiest and her daddy was also Judge Gardner who was the only judge in the town and was very respected and rich. Megan was much more of a follower, but her father was a secretary for the judge and was quite pretty so she made it into our group even though she was a mouse. And I was a very bright child my father was well liked in town, but didn't hold much sway and I had about as much leadership in me as Jennifer did and she seemed to notice that I had the uncanny ability to get the students to do whatever I wanted, but that all changed the day I decided to show them my big secret. It had only been about a month or so earlier that what I could do was not normal, but I thought it was very cool. So one night when Megan and Jennifer were staying at my house which is just outside of the Preservation because my dad is the ranger that I showed them. I told them I would show them something very cool if they came outside with me, and then I showed them. I closed my eyed and send out my, "call." It really isn't a summons but just a way of saying hello I'm here if you want to play. When animals of all sorts stared to appear Jennifer and Megan started to freak out.
"What are they doing here?!" They asked freaked out.
"I called them? Isn't it cool. I want you guys to meet my friend the bear and her cub."
At this they're eye widened to an amazing size and they ran for my house, screaming all they way. They were so afraid that they had to go home. they didn't tell anyone what had exactly freaked them out because I don' think they really believed it themselves, but the next day at school I found myself suddenly without friends and from there I just became more and more of an outcast. Within a month of the "incident" I had become the class scrap goat instead of Willy, the geek. So I had become the "bad girl." and I learned that fear could keep people away. I became a very solitary creature with my only friends inside the forest.
I hadn't realized I was so starved for human contact, but as I looked at Jennifer I remembered why I kept away from people and their deceit. It was then that Jennifer got out of her seat on her big football player, boyfriend and made her way over to Taylor and I with Megan in tow of course. As Jennifer came to stand right next to Taylor she put her hand familiarly on his shoulder.
"Why don't you come and have lunch with me, Taylor." she gave him her best smile and pulled him up and started tugging him over to her table. He turned to look at me with troubled eyes which were questioning and confused at to why he was being taken away, but when Jennifer said something to him that I couldn't hear he smiled at her and I threw my almost full can of soda on the concrete and stomped into the high school. I didn't want him around me because he had gotten my hopes up, but I didn't want him around her either. I should have know she would claim him as her own because he was such a price choice in his form, and he looked like he didn't really know what was going on, someone she would easily control, but if she wanted to be Jennifer's sex puppy let him. What did I really care anyway?