Unique ~ Chapter 3

He grinned from ear to ear mischievously. I was speechless. Literally. My throat felt like it was closed up and had a cloth stuck in it. I couldn't breathe. All of the air was just sucked out of me.

"Hey, sup?" He greeted me normally. As if he didn't know me. And maybe he didn't, and it was just a coincidence that he looked EXACTLY like the guy in my dream.

But Emmy answered instead, twirling a stray lock of curly brown hair as she did, "Oh nothing much...just boring school...as always.... Hehehee..."

I rolled my eyes. She was such a flirt. And even though my sixth sense was screaming 'RUN AWAY', my body was frozen in place. Like a deer caught in the headlights. Knew danger was approaching, but just too shocked to move.

He ignored Emmy. "I'm Kaleb Latham, I just transferred here from Denmark, nice to meet you." He extended his hand towards me.

Again, Emmy ignored the fact that he wasn't talking to her, and shook his hand enthusiastically. "Oh, the pleasure's all mine, Kaleb, darlin'." Oh dear God, not the southern twang, I thought. She must've been REALLY off guard to let her accent slip through.

She usually was super careful not to talk in her "country voice". All because of what Tyler Branum said to her when she first moved here from Montgomery, Alabama in the 2nd grade. He asked ignorantly, "Why are you talking so weird? You sound stupid." The teacher heard him and gave him a timeout but Emmy still cried for an entire day. Being the "sweetheart" that I am, I comforted her. That's how we became "friends".

Even though I didn't like her very much, I could've hugged her right then. She might not have known it but she saved me from having to shake a guy from my nightmare's hand. I said a silent 'Thanks' to Emmy in my head even though I knew she couldn't hear it.

"So, what brings you here to New Jersey?" I found myself asking.

"My parents work for a traveling agency or something.... I'm not quite sure actually...." He ran a hand through his dark mane.

"Oh," was all I responded with. I guessed that I was worrying over nothing. Wow, I was stupid. Letting my imagination take a hold over me like that. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He was just a normal guy who just HAPPENED to look similar to the guy in my dream.

"Did you expect something more?" He chuckled, seeing disappointment written all over my face.

"Um, well- no," I stated defiantely, surrounding myself with my icy shield again.

He grinned. "Okay, see you around then," he chuckled and winked at me before he walked away.

The whole time he was talking, Emmy was hyperventilating and had animated hearts in her eyes. I, on the other hand, was less impressed. What was I thinking? He was just a cocky guy who transferred, not a psychopath trying to hunt me down. I needed to stop watching those crime shows.

"OHEMGEE! HE IS SOOOOO FREAKIN GORGEOUS!" Emmy crooned. "Did you see his hypnotic eyes and amazing body?? Oooh baby I'd like to-"

She was cut off by the bell. And me saying, "Save it, Em. Gotta get to class." I didn't give her time to answer and sped off to Algebra 1 Accelerated. Room 313. Aka HELL.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that I was terrible at math or anything. No, I just hated doing it. The long equations killed. It was super boring and the teacher was an old bat who was hard of hearing, screeched at the top of her lungs, and threw temper tantrums. Ironically, her name was Ms. Ruhe (German for "calm").

Also, half the time she didn't even know what was going on in our classroom. She'd be up at the board writing, thinking we were all being quiet little angels (which we weren't), and a group of boys would walk casually out of the room without her noticing and not come back until class is over. Or, if the boys were feeling really badass, they'd turn the TV off and on, yell obscene words, steal her markers, or shoot her hand lotion at eachother (which was white, so you can imagine what their perverted minds were thinking).

So mix this all up with the difficult, drawn out algebra problems and you can guess we never got any work done. I still managed a B+ every semester though. I couldn't say the same for the gangsters though. I didn't know how they even passed. Must be paying off someone.

As I opened the door to go in, a shock wave hit me. Know what I heard? For the first time I heard the sound of earsplitting silence in our 1st Period Algebra class. No one was talking. No one was whispering or making snide comments or rude remarks. No one was even eye-talking. Everyone was busy at work in their desk.
I almost had a heart-attack.

"Miss Shaye, please take your seat and start working on the packet that I have assigned you," Principal Patricia Peterson (aka "Triple P") commanded, while leafing through some papers at Ms. R's desk.

"Yes, ma'm," I answered respectfully. On the inside I wondered, 'Why is she here? Where's Ms. R?'
Ms. Ruhe never missed a day of school. Something was up. I didn't have time to ponder for too long though, I had a packet to conquer. Quickly and quietly, I walked over to my seat in the back left corner of the room. Only then did I notice it was taken.

By Kaleb Latham. "Um, Principal P.?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"I normally sit here...were new seats assigned?"

"No, I thought that was an extra seat. Please pull up an extra desk from the back. I apologize for any inconvenience," P.P. said formally.

"Yes, ma'm." I pulled out rusty old desk from the back that had a half a leg missing up to the last row. Great, it was first day and he already pissed me off. It's not his fault, Nice Brooke assured. Whatever, Bitchy Brooke answered.

During the whole class I could've sworn I felt him staring at me, though every time I looked back he was concentrating on his paper. Maybe I was going crazy. "Somebody's Watching Me" started playing in my head. Stupid Geico commercials.

~~~~~~After Class~~~~~~~~

I finished my packet. I didn't know how I did it, it was like four pages back and front side. But I did it. Emmy congratulated me, she only finished two pages. The rest of the day was uneventful, everyone dragged their feet around like grey blobs and teachers gave loads of homework. The only surprising/weird part of the day, was the note I found in my locker. It read:

Brooke,

Meet me at the huge oak tree by the woods after school, I have to tell you something.

-K-

I was more than a little startled. Kaleb/Guy from Nightmare(?) + Woods = BAD. The oak tree was near the school so he couldn't do anything bad could he? No, I shook my head. Plus, we already established that he was just a cocky guy who transferred right? Don't worry, I assured myself, he's not a bad person, you're just being paranoid, dreams don't mean anything.

So I went after school. Ignoring all the "good-bye's" and "see-you's", I ran towards the woods. Of course the oak tree was a short distance into the woods, so I had to scramble through some bushes, thorns, and needles, before I got there. Right when I entered the clearing I knew something was off. An uneasy feeling swept over me, making my body tingle. Walking over to the oak I spotted a shadow, it was leaning against the trunk.

"Knew you'd come," a voice rattled through the trees.