Dry Heat

Free’s First Day

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by Kristin Black

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        I’m finally a freshman in high school! I can’t wait for the day to start. I think I will wear my white lab coat to school. My best friend Seth said he would probably not wear one like he does when we are at my house doing our own experiments. He mentioned something about girls. But I’m not sure if girls really mind if you are wearing a lab coat or not. Seth is funny like that. Seth is also loyal and has been one of my best friends for many years. Seth lives down the street from me, and when I went to a special school for kindergarten, Seth was there too. It was a school for people like my parents to put their kids in and wait. Kindergarten is usually the grade when it shows up. The grade when signs start to appear. My brother went to this kindergarten and no signs showed up. Seth and me though, signs definitely showed up for us. Not the signs for my Down syndrome, my parents already knew I had that. The signs they were looking for were more mystical, super hero, awesomeness kinds of signs. (I forgot to mention that my parents are vampires.) My dad was born with the vampire gene and my mom was turned in her teens. Sometimes parents like these have vampire children and sometimes they have regular children. My brother Cole is regular and I am double irregular. Super awesome Down syndrome, check, super awesome vampire, double check. I don’t drink blood though, don’t worry, I don’t do that. Because I was born a vampire I get the epic sharp teeth and super epic strength, without having to drink blood. Seth is single irregular, he doesn’t have Down syndrome but he is a vampire.

 

        I run down the steps in my house wearing my red shoes, jeans, white shirt and super white lab coat, I grab my new backpack hanging on the bottom post. My dad is taking me to school. He is almost as excited as me. He knows I am going to conquer school. I see him waiting for me at the door wearing his equally super white lab coat over his scruffy scientist

clothes and beaming at me from ear to ear.

 

“You ready buddy?”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s get this adventure started!”

 

        I turn to look at my mom who is standing a few feet to the side of Dad and she looks like she has been crying. She will be okay though, she cries at the beginning of every school year.

 

“Mom, I am strong and brave and smart. Everything will be ok.”

 

For some reason this reminder doesn’t stop her crying, moms are weird like that.

 

“I know honey. You have a wonderful first day, okay? I will be waiting right here for you when you get home.”

 

        Cole is still in his room and doesn’t come out to say goodbye. He goes to the special high school even though he is regular. He is now a junior and has very cool friends. His best friend Luther is a warlock. He always wears black and his eyes glow when he is angry, which is a lot. When his eyes glow, it makes me giggle. I like Luther, I’m not afraid of him. Cole and Luther are going to walk to school together later. Luther lives in our neighborhood too.

 

        In his old Buick while we drive to school my dad is playing his super awesome 80’s music. He is the best, we love to sing along to loud music. Cole doesn’t like this as much as we do. I think that’s why he walks.

 

        It only took us three Poison songs and one Bon Jovi song to get to my new school. I have been going to school with a lot of these kids my whole life. I can see Shelly, she is a werewolf, Steven, he can control the elements and Katie, she is a shapeshifter, as they walk toward the bright red front door of the very normal looking high school, I can’t help shouting at my dad to please hurry up and park. As soon as he parks I grab my backpack and jump out of the car, tell him I love him and start sprinting with all of my might toward the school. When I slammed the car door behind me, I heard my dad say “I love you too. Have a great first day!” and a loud crunch; I think I may have hurt the car again. My dad is used to this; he has the vampire strength too. Metal is too easy to crush.

 

        My red shoes are carrying me too slowly to my friends. I have super speed too but I am not allowed to use it outside during the day where anyone might see me.

 

        “Katie!” I yell as I sprint across the parking lot almost to the front of the school now. Katie, Shelly and Steven all turn around. As soon as they see me their faces break into super big smiles.

 

        “Yay! Free is here! I was hoping I would see you soon!” Steven has a squeaky voice and is small, like a Hobbit, but he is real.  He has red hair and a freckled nose. Sometimes when I am bored I try to count his freckles, he says he doesn’t mind. I know he is extra excited to see me because a big gust of wind starts to push against my back helping me get to them more quickly. He is not supposed to do that, but I won’t tell.

 

         Shelly has long black hair that hangs in braids past her waist and dark brown eyes that are almost as dark as her coal black skin. She is the friendliest werewolf I know, and I know lots of werewolves.

 

         Katie is tall and blonde and has green eyes that remind me of grass in the spring. She once told me that shapeshifters can only shift into animals they have something in common with and then she turned into a fox.

 

        “Ready to go in guys?” I ask.

 

         They understand me perfectly in spite of the different way I talk because of my epically awesome Down syndrome, but out of nervousness they paused for just a second. I didn’t.

 

         Of course, I am ready to go in, this is going to be the best day of my life. I burst through the red doors and looked around at the school. On the outside, it looks like a normal high school, too much concrete, not enough color and nothing special about it. On the inside, it is better than you could ever imagine. The building goes up more than ten stories. Each story is a different height. The eighth story is almost thirty feet tall by itself; it must be where the giants go to class. I have no idea how they get up there, but I can’t wait to find out. The walls are all glass so you can see in the classrooms. The entryway is large and open, with faculty and staff offices lining the wall and a friendly mummy receptionist sitting at a dark wood desk in the front. When I look up I can see that each floor is open in the center so that all the way up to the ceiling is visible.

 

“Seth asked me to wait here for him so he could walk with me to our first class.” I tell the others as they come in through the doors.

 

“We’ll wait with you until Seth gets here. I’m in no hurry to go to my first class. I’m nervous.” said Steven.

 

“Well we can’t all luck out like Free can and get our favorite subject first thing in the morning. I came close though I start my day with American History.” Shelly Chimed in.

 

“Guys!” Seth walked through the doors only to run immediately into his friends. I’m not sure why they were all still standing so close to the front door. Maybe my friends are more nervous than I realize. I wish they wouldn’t be, high school is going to be awesome. I can’t help but bounce right over to Seth and grab him in a hug. He hugs me back.

 

“Come on Seth, let’s go to class. I can’t wait to meet our teacher.”

 

“Okay Free, I’m ready. See you guys later.”

 

We wave to Katie, Shelly and Steven as we turn and walk away. I know my science teacher will be fantastic. All scientists are good, like my dad, who is a scientist that studies the difference in genetics between vampires that are born and vampires that are made.

 

        I don’t know how to get to my class but Seth does so I just fall into step behind him. As I followed him I glance around the first level of the school. It is not as crowded as it will be later on when all the upper classman arrive. The freshman came early in order to have time to find their way around. A lot of the faces I see are unfamiliar. There is a group of shapeshifters standing in a circle, taking turns changing into different animals, while I am looking one turns into a rhinoceros and they all jump back, then another turns into a chimp and laughs hysterically. I can’t wait to meet them and become friends. Several other groups are scattered throughout the entryway, chattering nervously with each other. I notice a pair of identical twins standing alone, not far from where we were just a moment ago who are looking at their feet and not talking. Both have dark brown hair, but I think I see one with green eyes and one with blue. I’ve never seen twins like that who look exactly the same but have different colored eyes. It will be fun to ask them about it when I meet them later and we become friends.

 

        Seth stopped walking when he got to two normal looking elevator doors. I’m not sure how the giants fit through these doors to get to the higher floor. I pushed the up button and the two of us step through. As the doors begin to close, a girl with long black hair in a braid bouncing behind her ran towards us asking us to hold them open. Seth promptly put his hand out to stop them from closing. Seth is cool like that, he always wants to help. She told us a breathless “Thank you” and then asked us to push the button for the eighth floor. I pushed it and saw that Seth had pushed the button with a 10 on it. That must be where our science class is. We all ride quietly up to the eighth floor. I scoot forward a little so I can try to sneak a peek and spot a giant. I’m not sure why a normal size girl would want to go to this floor. When the doors opened, I saw a group of giant sized freshman standing together talking. The girl on the elevator pushed her way passed me and shouted hello to them. As the doors were closing I swear I saw her size begin to grow.

 

“Now that’s cool!” I shouted.

 

“Yeah it is!” Seth agreed, “My mom told me that children of giants who chose to enroll in this school are given technology imbued with magic to help them control their size. Once they are on their floor at school I guess they are able to turn their tech off and just be themselves.”

 

       We arrive at the tenth floor quickly and I rush out looking for our class room. Seth leads the way and it doesn’t take us long to get to the door and promptly burst through.

 

The room is empty. There are black tables with all kinds of gadgets, empty vials, microscopes and textbooks on them in rows from the front to the back of the room.

 

“Hello?

 

        The voice made me jump. We turned and looked and saw a short round woman with large spectacles on her eyes and wearing a super awesome white lab coat that is almost as cool as mine.

 

“Hello!” I shout.

 

“Hello.” Seth mumbles. He sounds nervous.

 

“My name is Free Solus and this is my friend Seth. We are both students in your class this morning.”

 

“Wonderful! Welcome, I am Professor Mateo.” She replied.

 

        Other students came through the door and Seth and I decide to grab a table in the front. The rest of the morning continued to be great. Ms. Mateo was everything I hoped. I had History next and then Language Arts. After that I headed toward the lunch room on the third floor. All I had to do to find my way was follow the stream of students heading in the same direction, I didn’t even have to use the map handed out in first period. Once I got there I began to look through the crowd to try and find Seth and the rest of my friends. I saw several regular humans mixed in with vampires, giants (now at a normal height), mummies, shapeshifters, warlocks, centaurs, fairies, dwarfs and others that I have never seen before. I see Katie and Shelly hanging out in the back of the cafeteria trying to blend in. I can’t wait to hear how there morning went and begin making my way towards them when I spot those twins again. The ones I saw this morning. The blue eyed one looks up at me and when I smile and nod at him he just stares, I begin to feel cold. Not on the outside like when Steven makes the air cold all around us on a hot day, but on the inside, like someone is freezing my insides.

 

“Free!”

 

I break eye contact and turn to see Seth calling me from the doors to the cafeteria I just entered through. I wave at him to catch up and continue to make my way towards my friends. I wonder if I should tell them about what just happened with that twin.

 

“Free, come here, we saved you a spot.” Katie says, glaring at a group of other freshman who looked like they might want to sit near the beautiful blonde.

 

“I hope your morning was better than mine, Free” Shelly said, “My morning was rough!”

 

“My morning was epic, everything was perfect” I retorted. Shelly should know better than to think my day would go any other way.

 

“What happened?” Katie asked her.

 

“Well, it started off normal. Our American History professor, Mr. O’Brian, was taking us through what we should expect this quarter and began handing out maps of the school to each of us when I turned to see who was sitting behind me and made eye contact with this really creepy kid with bright green eyes and dark brown hair. I smiled at him, but he didn’t smile back so I just turned back around. Then the weirdest thing started happening, my heart started racing, like really racing. It just sped up and kept picking up speed until I started hyperventilating. Then the most embarrassing thing happened, I fainted.”

 

“What!” shouted Steven. He must have walked up while we were listening to Shelly.

 

“I know! On my first day. I woke up to Mr. O’Brian shaking me and asking me if I was ok. I told him I was but he still insisted I go to the nurse’s office on the first floor. She was cool though. By the time I got to her my heart was beating normal again and she just gave me some crackers and had me sit for a minute mumbling something about first day jitters.”

 

“Is that creepy guy in here now?” Seth asked.

 

“Yeah, he is standing over there with his twin brother.” Shelly nodded in the direction of the twins I had just walked by.

 

        I turned and looked to where they were still standing in the cafeteria, careful not to make eye contact and could see them there, staring at their feet.

 

       The rest of lunch went on without any problems. I waved goodbye to my friends and skipped my way to the start of my afternoon class for vampires on how to develop our powers to their full potential. Another epic experience.

 

       Soon the day was over and I took the elevator from the top floor down to the bottom. It was crowded with students this time and I bumped into Cole and Luther. When we got down to the first floor Cole nodded to me but walked towards the exit with Luther. I will tell Cole about my day when I get home.

 

        I go out to the front of the school to get picked up by my dad and while I’m out there I say goodbye to my friends. I can’t wait to see them tomorrow for our second day. I know high school is just going to keep getting better. I can hear dad blasting 80’s music from the parking lot and I can’t help but sprint to him with my vampire speed. He smiles, but gives me a look that says, you know you’re not supposed to do that. As I begin to sing, dad pulls out of the parking lot, and I glance back at the school to see those twins waiting in line to get on a bus. They both look up at me and I get the shivers. I can’t wait to tell mom and dad and Cole everything when I

get home, but maybe I won’t mention those two.

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