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sábado, 6 de julho de 2013

Hunger - Chapter 2: The New Student

NOTE: This tale IS NOT mine, I merely translated it into English, the original author of it is the contributor Jaqueline Miguel.

Monday: the most painful day in the world.
With a supernatural effort, I get up from bed and take my breakfast. In the kitchen, my mother is already there just like a stack of succulent pancakes and a glass of milk.
“Mmm, that looks good! I'm starving! I said as I devoured the stack of pancakes.
“And since when aren’t you hungry?She asked laughing.
I shrugged and smiled. Human hunger is never as intense as wolf’s, so to speak. Hunger is painful, never deadly, but maddening. One thing that nobody can understand is why we need human food and eat something well… that is "alive". The best theories say that, as we are half animals, we have the instinct to eat what we kill or something like that ... Well, despite all these suspicions one thing we are sure: we must quench our hunger, because if we don’t quench it for some time, we go crazy and are very able to transform in public and eat the first living thing that appears. But, contrary to what legends say, we are not affected by the full moon, or silver, damn, we aren’t even werewolves! I mean we turn into wolves, but we prefer the term shape shifters.
After breakfast, I went up to my room and put on a black sweatshirt, the first jeans that appeared, then I put on my black all-stars and tied my hair up.
Since there was some time until I had to leave for school, I watched a little television, even if it was only for ten minutes. The only programs that were on were boring, so I decided to leave early.
On the way to school, I saw a moose hidden amongst the vegetation that made my mouth water. It's odd but in this city it was very common to see moose wandering the streets. For normal people, they are a horrible and dangerous plague, but for my family, they were a juicy and delicious plague.
Actually, my parents decided to move from a village in Alentejo, a region of Portugal, when I was about six years because, as a family, a cow or two wouldn’t be enough to quench our hunger, and if we caught more, farmers would suspect. So we went to Europe until my dad picked up the trail of shape shifter friends who were on holiday in Germany and suggested to come here.
They also live here, in the other end of the city; however, they don’t turn into wolves. Instead they turn into a kind of human with wings, teeth and ears of a bat and they don’t eat meat, just the blood of prey.
The children of my father's friends, Adrian and Shioban are my best friends and the only people that I can truly trust.
I arrive at school and I go straight into the huge South Anchorage High School.
I practically have no friends except for a nice girl who sometimes walks with me, perhaps out of pity, named Sophie.
Most humans follow the instinct to move away from us so it's hard to make friends.
The bell rings and I go to English class for the first period. I sit alone in a desk and I try to pay attention to the lesson. The class was running smoothly when a knock was heard.
“Come in! Shouted the teacher.
“I apologize for the lateness,” A young, beautiful, dark brown spiky haired boy, with incredibly green eyes, a black long-sleeved shirt, a black leather jacket, motorcycle boots and an irresistible bad boy look, came through the door. “I'm new here. My name is Adam. Adam Hatten.”
“It does not matter,” Sighed the teacher, obviously annoyed by the interruption.Mmm ... sit there on the edge of ... mmm Alexandra.”
Great...
Don’t get me wrong, the guy is really cute, but the longer he’s with me, the more he’ll find me weird and be afraid of me, like the rest of the school.
“Hi! He said, making a charming smile.
I was surprised. Most humans followed the instinct to get away from me, but there he was sitting ... He must be a shape shifter.
I sniffed twice and the smell was just of a normal human. Weird.
“Hello,” I said finally.

***

“So, Alex, you've seen the new guy? It's so hot!” Sophie said smiling happily.
“Yes, sits next to me in the first period of English.”
“Oh my god! So?”
“So what? I asked confused.
“Is he as cool as the rumour’s saying?
“I Dunno,” I shrugged.
“My God, if I were to sit next to him ... She said with a dreamy look.
I rolled my eyes. Sophie fell in love too easily and then suffered… a lot.
We went into the cafeteria to get food and we sat down at a table where some friends of Sophie were. I sat in the farthest chair.
“Have you seen the new guy, Sophie? Asked a short girl, which, if I remember correctly, was called Anna.
“Yes, he’s so hot,” she answered. “And you know who is sitting next to him ... Alex!”
“Alex?” She looked at me with a barely disguised "poor guy" look.
“Yes! Isn’t that wonderful?! She can ask his number for us! She smiled.
“It would be so cool! Said another little girl, whose name I have already forgotten.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. At the same time, Adam came into the cafeteria and made ​​a seductive smile for some girls who were the total cliché of popular girls: blondes with pounds of makeup on top, provocative necklines and shorts that barely covered their ass, who still wore them, even though it was freezing cold.
I just noticed that I was staring at him when Stacia, one of the girls whom he smiled to, made me a sneer and her dumber clone, Avery, stared at me like I was contagious. But what surprised me the most, was the fact that Adam look at me as well, as if it were normal, something that no one in this school apart from Sophie, did.
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