Chapter 7

"So, you're from Ohio, huh?" I turn to my lab partner, a goth-looking girl with short black hair."My name's Sasha." She says, happiness in her voice.

"Yeah," I say, nodding, "Yep, Ohio. Kind of a bland place compared to here."

"Well, hope you find this place a lot more interesting, cause you probably know," the teacher deposits the tests to our table before moving on to our neighbors, "We get a lot more alien attacks than Ohio." We both laugh, and I feel a little more comfortable.

"Alright, class! Flip 'em over and begin!" And off we go, on the wonderful road to tears and failing grades. Looking at the first problem, I have no clue what to do. I sit, staring at the paper for a moment, my hopes and dreams swirling down the toilet. Exhalingout of my nose, I place my head in my hand and trace the equation over with my pencil, over and over and over, until-

Something clicks in my head, and I know exactly what to do. Slowly, I work it through, second-guessing every step of the way. I work it through a second time, getting the same answer, and happiness floods through me. Moving on to the next question, I work through it faster than the last, and I end up blowing through the test like it's kindergarten math, finishing before anyone else. Sitting at my desk, I pretend to be working hard, but in actuality, I'm watching everyone out of the corners of my eyes, waiting for someone to get up and turn in their test so I can follow.

Anxiety's a bitch.

"Pst." I turn to my lab partner, and she glances from me to my test, and I switch my pencil to my left hand and doodle on my paper, giving her an easier view of my paper. She gives me a grateful look, and I give her a small smile, keeping an eye on the teacher who is heavily focused on his grading.

Sasha completes her test, and signs 'thank you', and I return by signing 'you're welcome'. Her eyes light up, and I turn back to watching the class.

God, I'm such a sad human being. I wish I had the bravery to turn in a frigging test first.

Peter scoots his stool back and turns in his, his footsteps taunting me.

Well crap. If I turn in my test now, I'll look as smart as him, and I'm sure people are watching to size up the new girl, and I don't want to have anyone think I'm smart as him... or think-

"Fifteen minutes left, class! Fifteen minutes." The teacher interrupts my thoughts, startling me. Multiple people get up and turn in their tests, and I follow them, Sasha follows me.

On my way back, I see people pulling out computers or books to fill the time, so at least I don't have to sit bored. When Sasha and I sit back down, I make sure she is deeply engrossed in her computer when I pull out my book. I open it up, continuing through the second chapter. It speaks of the magic on Midgard and how long ago, a select amount of people had a small taste of it, and because of this, it brought unwanted attention to the people.

Frost giants had come, wishing to kill and enslave as many as they could, attempting to take Midgard and all its magic and resources for themselves. Odin had intervened, successfully driving back the frost giants and preventing major bloodshed and death. The people saved had worshiped the gods before, but not as seriously as they did afterwords. They began basing their very lives around their saviors, and occasionally the kinder gods would come down and feast with them.

As I flip the thick parchment page, I glance up and see Peter looking at me. I do a small two-finger wave, and he looks away. How do I make him realize that I'm not the threat he thinks me to be? The bell rings and I stand, putting my things in my bag.

"Hey, what do you have next?" Sasha asks, and I check my map and schedule.

"Uh, advanced history with... Mr. Yerth?" She takes a sharp inhale. "What?" I laugh, and we walk out of the class.

"I have history right next door to you, so I'll walk you there. But, I had him last year, and let me tell you, if I had a dollar for the number of times I've cried because of him, I'd be rich."

"Ooh, then I don't know if I will be able to live... you know what they say about people who make you cry often?" I turn to her, "It's an unhealthy relationship and you need to dump that person at all costs."

She snorts. "Yea, trust me, I tried. My counselor just said that life is full of people that will make me cry, so I have to harden up a little. She also said that she can't switch me, because she already turned down most of the people in his classes, and if she switched me, then she would have to switch the others." She pauses as we weave through a clump of students, "So, I decided to take her advice, harden up, and ask to be switched to a study hall! I took the rest of the course online." She finishes her story right as we reach the classrooms.

"Well, then I take it back, I know I won't be able to survive." We laugh, and she says, "Good luck in hell!"She waves, smiling, then disappears into her class. Taking a deep breath, I walk in.

"You must be the new student!" A voice booms, and I turn to see a really round, sweaty man with a bad comb-over standing at the front of the class. Most of the class had gotten to their seats, and they all look at me.

"Yeah, that's me," I say, feeling my face turn bright red.

"Well, welcome to my Advanced History class! Now," he points to a desk smack-dab in the middle of the classroom, "Sit!"

I tilt my head slightly, aggravation taking over my cheerful mood. Great, a power-hungry douche-bag teacher.

I begin the walk of embarrassment to my seat, feeling everyone judge my every move, even Mr. Yerth watches me get to my seat. When I sit, he looks at the rest of the class, then picks up a top hat and presents it to the rest of the class.

"Alright, everyone! It's Top hat Tuesday! Who would like to draw a random topic from the hat?" Multiple people raise their hands, but instead of picking any of the willing volunteers, he turns once again to me. "How about you, uh," he looks at a paper on his desk, then back to me, "Ass-ta?" Some of the class snickers and he waddles towards my desk.

"It's, uhm, Ash-ta, a-" I try to help, trying not to be 'the new girl Ass-ta', but Mr. Yerth interrupts me.

"Yes, yes, original name, don't care. Pick a topic from the hat." He smacks the hat onto my desk, and I look up into his beady pig eyes.

Violence may not ever be the answer, but I'm sure as hell questioning why.

I rustle my hand around in the slips of paper and pull one out. He snatches the paper from my hand and retreats back to his desk.

I sit in shock of the rudeness and assy-ness of this guy. Usually, I don't like to mouth off to teachers, and I don't really stand up for myself much, but that was an act of war.

He unfolds the slip of paper and reads it aloud. "TheGovernment-approved poisoning of alcohol during the prohibition. Now, as always, I bet five dollars none of you know about this event."

Pictures flash in my mind's eye, showing me factories, people using strange metal tubes and buckets, speakeasies, hospitals, graves. My hand shoots up before I realize what I'm doing, and by the time I realize it, it's too late.

"Ah, I see you are eager to try for the five dollars. Stand up in front of the class and tell us all about this historical event." He says, his small beady eyes watching me. I stand up slowly and walk to the front of the class, then turn to look at every one.

"The alcohol poisoning was, uh, it occurred in 1926 when alcohol was illegal, the government decided to, uh, poison people," I hesitate, and Mr. Yerth takes my hesitation as a time to butt in.

"Wow, very informative. Thank you for that." He does a slow clap, and I clench my fists.

"Because the government couldn't shut down and control all of the speakeasies, they decided to hit them where it hurt." The facts flow from my lips, and for a moment I marvel at it, but then continue before Mr. Yerth can interrupt me, "At that time, people were getting alcohol from paint thinners and wood polishes, so, the Government made it so chemicals were added to these products because it was practically impossible to remove them from the alcohol. These added chemicals were methanol, or methyl alcohol. This caused about ten thousand people to die from this poisoning, and many more to become severely sick from it. Side effects included blindness, severe hallucinations, and vomiting." I finish, feeling really proud of myself.

"So, you think you're a wise guy, huh?" Mr. Yerth says, and I turn and smile at him.

"A wise guy who's five dollars richer." The class laughs, and Mr. Yerth's face begins turning red.

"You know what? No. I will not tolerate cheating, and that is what you did. You searched it when my back was turned, therefore you do not get the five dollars." He wheezes, furious.

"I did not cheat, and I don't tolerate liars. If you really believe I cheated, then pull another event." His face turns red, and I can almost see the steam coming from his ears. I feel my embarrassment creep into my cheeks and ears, too, but I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.

It's fine, it's fine, it's fine, you're just mouthing off to a teacher, it's fine.

"You know what?" He says, very close to a yell, "Fine!"He thrusts his hand into the hat and pulls out another piece of paper. "You want to play coy? Tell me about the French Women who had their heads shaved bald during World War Two!"

I think for a moment, and images appear in my brain once again, showing me scenes of that time. "The French women were shaved bald because they had children or relations with German soldiers. It was used as a form of punishment and shaming. Can I have my five dollars, now?" I ask, raising my eyebrow. Mr. Yerth has turned a very deep shade of red from all of this, and my classmates seem to be enjoying this battle.

Mr. Yerth snatches up his money, crumples it, and throws it at me, and I catch it before it hits me in the face. As I walk shakily back to my seat, I smooth out the bill before folding it and putting it into my pocket. I sit, and Mr. Yerth yells to the class, "Now! It seems we have a smart-aleck in our midst, and I will have none of it!" He turns to me to yell the next part, "You will NOT disrespect me, you will NOT embarrass me!"

A guy wearing a gray hoody sitting next to me pipes up. "Uh, yeah, it was you that disrespected her first, embarrassed her first, so..." He turns to me and winks, and I smile gratefully.

"SILENCE!" He bellows, "ENOUGH WITH THIS! I DEMAND SILENCE!"

Oh, how I wish I could leave. I wish I could make him stop; I wish... My eyes snap to the coffee mug he has sitting next to him.

I wish his coffee mug would spill onto his computer. I find myself staring at the mug, and for a moment, I swear the thing wobbled. I watch it, and slowly, slowly, it begins to move as he continues his rant. I flick my left pointer finger, and-

"AARG!" Mr. Yerth yells, shooting up out of his chair as water stain begins to appear down his pants. The class laughs and he storms out of the class, slamming the door behind him. People begin whooping and cheering, and I begin having a mini freak-out.

Did I do that?? I mean, if I can teleport, can I move things with my mind as well? God, I hope not, that would make things so much worse.

The guy that had stood up for me snaps me out of my thoughts."Hey, I'm Adam. So I'm guessing you're a history freak, huh?"I blush. Realistically no, but somehow, I knew about those events, had seen parts of the events...

"Yeah, a little." He gives me a high-five.

"With you here, we may never have to deal with Mr. Girth'sabuse ever again!" He says. People around me buzz about what had just gone down, some thanking me, others amazed at how I stood up. All the attention makes me a bit dizzy, and my stomach is already queasy from what had just happened, but this situation is making it worse. I try to pull through, and luckily, they move on with their conversations, leaving me in peace. I'm usually ok with talking to people, but this many, all while I had just run a teacher out of his class?

What if he was just misunderstood? What if he was bullied by asshole teenagers, what if he didn't deserve this? What if I just gave him the reason to die that he had been looking for? What if I had just ruined a man's life?

I pull out my phone and do research on the man I had just publicly shamed. About five minutes and multiple searches later, I find his facebook under a false name. It is filled with hateful posts, ranting about people in general. I locate his mom's account, and hers is just as bad. Maybe I was justified? I don't know, I just feel so bad...

Before I realize it, the period flies by, and the bell rings for dismissal. As I put away my phone, Adam taps on my shoulder.

"Hey, what class are you going to next?" He asks, and I check my papers.

"Uh, English. How about you?"

"Damn, I have computer engineering. But hey, have a good day!" He says, walking away out the door. I follow him out, meeting up with Sasha in the hall outside. Before he leaves me, though, he turns to me and says, "Continue kicking ass today, Ass-ta!" He teases and walks away, causing Sasha to look at me, expecting an explanation. I roll my eyes and fill her in on the shenanigans on the way to English.