Chapter 4

I woke up as the sun rose in the early sky, my angel spooned up against my side, her hand wrapped against my hard member. I pulled her closer to me and nuzzled my face into her hair, breathing deeply the scent of her hair products mingled with her scent. A sigh of contentment came from my Tessa as she awoke from her slumber. Her eyes cracked open and looked around her room.

"'Morning, big boy. I see we didn't make it to the bed last night." Tessa said with an amused grin on her face.

"It appears so my lovely angel." I said, stroking the side of her arm.

"What time is it?" she asked.

I braced myself on my elbow and looked for her clock, one of those 'electric' ones, finding it on her nightstand. "It's close to seven." I said.

Tessa bolted upright and ran from the room, still naked. I heard the water running and was wondering what that was all about. I laid there and waited for her to come back, the floor was oddly comfortable. Fifteen minutes passed before she walked back in wearing nothing but a towel.

"Why are you running like that?" I asked watching her as she got dressed.

"I have school today and if I want to be on time then I need to be there in the next fifteen minutes." Tessa said, pulling on her undergarments and hastily rummage through her drawers.

"Didn't your mother say you could have some time off?" I remembered Sandra saying that.

"Yeah, except that was for yesterday, not today. I am going to have to run all the way to school since mom left already. That means I going to be late for my first period class." She said desperately.

"How far is your school from here?"

"Um, three miles at least. Why?" Tessa asked while she pulled a long sleeved shirt over her head.

I got up and walked out of the room without answering and took a quick shower, not as fun without company. When I got out I pulled on a pair of jeans and a red shirt featuring a burning skull. When I was ready I found Tessa putting on her shoes and picking up a small blue rucksack.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm taking you to school." I replied simply.

"How? I know you can't drive yet and besides, there isn't even a car here for you to drive." Tessa stressed, pouting a she said it.

"Trust me love, I have my ways." I wiggled my eyebrows and received a giggle from Tessa.

We locked up when we left and Tessa looks at me, trying to figure out what I was up to. I turn my back towards her and gesture for her to get on. She hesitated at first, but then climbed on.

"Which direction is your school?" I asked.

"West, northwest. Three miles." Tessa says as she firmly holds on to me.

"Any wooded area near it?" I ask.

"Yes, there's a patch of woods behind the school with a creek running through it." She said.

"Ok, love. Hold on tightly, this is going to be fast." I said to her and hooked my hands under her knees getting a good grip.

I started out slow, walking the first five steps. Then started jogging for ten feet before going full speed after that. I ran like the wind, running down the street, faster than any person could have. Tessa buried her head in the crook of my neck and tightened her grip on me. My vision narrowed and everything outside the corners of my eyes became a blur. I bobbed and weaved my way through the light traffic, passing cars going faster than any horse from my time. I had to cut through a few backyards moving steadily towards the school. Soon the houses fell back and a large wooded area sprung up. Slowing down to a more manageable speed, I worked my way to the other side of the woods and came to the back of the school. I slowed to a stop and tried to catch my breath as Tessa climbed off my back onto her wobbly legs.

"Damn, that was fast William! I had no idea that you could do that." Tessa exclaimed as she was coming down from her adrenaline high.

"Yeah, it's been a while since I've run like that. That wasn't even full speed." I said.

"So thanks for the ride, you are indeed a life saver. What are you doing today?" She asked.

"I need to find a library with a good assortment of books. I pretty much depleted the Internet of all the information I could find. What I need is a text book, which I learned, are used in modern school systems. I figured if can start with the high school texts then I could work my way up to college level and beyond."

"Well, the school library was a storage room full of text books plus whatever is on those shelves that you find interesting. I don't know what the librarian will say when you start going through the library like a speed demon." Tessa said, arching her eyebrow at me.

I smiled and said, "I'll just make up a lie, make them believe I'm a new student. They can't remember every students name or face."

"That might work." She said and looked at her timepiece. "Let's go before I'm late. I'll pick you for lunch, 'kay?" Tessa grabbed my hand and we walked towards her school.

"Holy shit! Did you see that Beth?" said Chloe still watching from their vantage point across the grounds.

"Yeah, it's that guy from the mall alright, with Tessa Martinez. He can't be human. I mean, he saw us as something different too, but he just isn't human to move that fast. Not even a spell could give a human that amount of speed." Said Beth.

"Well, he can't be a vampire, it's still daylight out. A wendigo maybe?" Stacy said.

"Maybe. But I doubt it; wendigos are rare for these parts. Also, they hunt down their prey in the woods, sometime driving them insane, and they don't carry them around piggyback style. Plus they are deformed and tend to look like Bigfoot with frostbite." Beth said.

"Hmm, that leaves only a few options as to what he could be." Chloe said as she watched the two disappear into the school.

"We'd better go or else we'll be late. We'll talk at lunch and try to figure out what this guy is." Stacy said a she walked out of the clump of trees towards the school.

After a parting kiss with Tessa, which earned us few wolf whistles, I managed to find the library all by myself. The librarian, on the other hand, eyed me like a hawk the moment I walked in and was suspicious to boot. Though fairly attractive, she acted as if I was going to rob her the moment her back was turn and didn't stop when she asked me what I wanted. I told her I was doing some research for a project of mine and need a few books on several different subjects.

"What do you need?" she asked abruptly.

"Text books on; calculus, life science, chemistry, biology, world history, computer operations, computer programming, website design, and a few others, that will fill my needs." I replied.

If nothing else, that made her even more leery of me. Her attitude was starting to get on my nerves or grate on my nerves. She briskly led me to the back of the library, to a solitary table, which reminded me of an island in the middle of nowhere.

"Sit. I'll be right back with a few of your requests." I could swear that a look of disgust past her face as she said 'requests'.

I waited patently, looking at my surroundings, a few rows of book shelves to my left, the shelves facing me. While a few book cases to my right had there decimal system clearly displayed to me. Then I looked down at the floor and was revolted at my discovery. I saw what had to be the ugliest faded neon orange carpeting ever creative, which bordered close to crimes against humanities. About that time a rather large stack of thick books landed near my hand, if it had been any closer I'd be sporting a nasty looking bruise later. I did a full on glare with this spinster woman and she gave as well as she got. This lasted for two minutes, neither one of us giving in, until some unfortunate boy interrupted us with a question for the librarian. That led for a three minute 'ass-chewing' and I thought the boy would pee himself if she didn't stop soon.

"Thank you for your help, I'll let You know when I need further assistance." I said with as much contempt as I could muster. That earned me a withering look, after which she stormed off, red faced, daring anyone with her eyes say something.

The boy looked at me then back at the retreating form of the spinster woman and let out a sigh of relief. "Jesus, what the fuck was that about? I've never seen her get like that before."

"And I thought she had a switch shoved up her arse." I said dryly.

"You're new, aren't ya?" he asked.

"Something like that." I replied, with a slight smirk on my face.

"Welcome to Pemberton Twp. High School, also known as the third circle of hell. I'd watch your back, if I were you."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"I need to explain the social dynamics in order to answer your question. In this school alone there are three social classes; The Rich, The Popular, and The Dreds or Outcasts, if you prefer. The two upper classes rule this place without question, while a large percentage of these two groups have a vicious and nasty streak running through them. The Dreds are basically shunned by the other groups and are the focal point of the cruelty dished out by The Rich and Popular. Otherwise they're pretty mellow and fun to hangout with, plus an overabundance of sharp wit and boundless sense of humor. That's the gist of it."

"That's a very colorful hierarchy, you've got here abouts." I said with a small smile.

"I'm Jan by the way. Your accent sounds a little odd, where are you from?" asked Jan, cocking his eyebrow up as he finished his question.

To be honest I said the first thing that came to mind.

"I'm from Canada. Alberta to be more specific." I was really shoveling the bullshit thick on this one.

"That's cool. I went to Canada a few times, lovely country. Little pollution from what I've heard."

"Yeah, it's very clean." I said and was becoming desperate trying to remember as many facts about Canada that I had read.

"Look, I gotta go before the book Nazi comes back. It's been nice talking to you." and he turn to go, but hesitated for a few moments. I was going to ask him what was wrong when he turned back to me, "And by the way, if you happen to see anything strange, anything at all, come track me down and we'll talk about it." He turned yet again and rushed from the library.