Obsession - Ch1

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"blah, blah" - normal conversation.
'blah, blah' - thoughts.
"...'blah'..." - words that are stressed.
BLAH, BLAH - exclaimed words
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Ch-1, The Fishy New Guy: 2

The road was really foggy. He had to switch on the head lights even though it was about eight in the morning. The climate had been like this ever since January had started. Or at least, back then, it was not this bad. 3

Peter Turner was heading to school. Actually, it was the first day of Winter Semester, after the long Christmas holidays. His car, a second handed Mustang, was his birthday gift from his father. Although it was old, it wasn’t in such a bad condition. It had so far been a very loyal friend to him. He reached Edward’s High School within fifteen minutes, even though he didn’t cross the speed limit; it wasn’t that far from his house. 4

Peter adjusted the rear view mirror, so that he would be able to see his own reflection. He found himself staring at dark brown eyes, one of which was covered by a lock of black hair up in the front. He tried to adjust his hair back. But no matter what he did, it fell back in front of his eyes again. He grinned. Even despite this faulty lock of hair, he always had considered himself to be nice-looking. He was taller than average, and with not too much thinness, he was one of the so-called hot guys among the girls at his school. But then, he was as modest as a person could be. All the right thing for a popular boy. Boy, was he lucky? 5

“Hey, Peter!” came Rachel’s voice. 6

Peter turned around to see his girlfriend running towards him. She was seventeen, like him. He had been with her only for a week and knew that he wouldn’t continue for long. Even though Rachel was a cheerleader and was a doll, he thought, she just wasn’t his type. No, no one seemed to be and he hated that fact. He had never actually liked a girl intimately. No, he started dating only last year, that too, only because he thought, it would be odd if he didn’t. He had never gone more than good-bye kissing. But never the less, being with Rachel was cool, he thought. She was one of the prettiest girls at Edward’s and that added some to his advantages. 7

“Heya, Rachel.”8

He glanced at her, and gave her a quick peck in the cheek. She put her arm inside his and he walked her into the school. Once entering the school, he said bye to Rachel, and went straight to his locker. His first class was science. Damn, he thought, he was never a fan of science, even though he would probably get a straight A, in that too. Only history intrigued him. All those, civilizations, wars, rulers, and mysterious assassins – wow, those were wonderful thoughts. Those were included in his dreams.9

He went to the science class. Mr. Robin was the only person there. The man smelled strongly of chemicals, as if he had been with them all life long – which he probably was. He was a nice guy. He was in his late fifties, with a balding head which deeply suggested one of a fatherly figure. Peter once took math classes with him. That was about two years ago. But he still remembered this short bald man, who has certainly helped him a lot in the past. 'At least', he thought, 'it isn’t going to be such a bad class.' 10

He sighed and went to the third seat in the third row. The chairs and tables were paired evenly, so that every student would have a person sitting beside them. And he would be having a partner in his right side. He wondered who it would be. He didn’t have any so-called best friends. He had class mates, who took his help, when they wanted and the matters ended there. He actually had no one to care about him. Even his girlfriend didn’t care about him. She was with him only because he was a hot guy in the soccer team and got A’s in class. And that thought made him feel really sad and lonely. But then, he thought, at least I’m popular and don’t have to be bashed by others, like they do to the other boys. 11

He still had twenty minutes before the class starts. This was one of his bad habits. He never liked the idea of being late and so he always tried to be early, which always ended up in him being alone, waiting for a long time for others to come. He tried to read the book he had in hand, but he wasn’t interested so he zoned out for sometime, thinking about the soccer practice he will be having in the evening. 12

After about ten minutes, students started moving in. Some of them were known to him, who waved to him, and others just went chattering all the way to their places. No one sat beside him. Well, he thought bitterly, at least there is no one to disturb me during the classes. It was the only way he could feel better. It might sound strange, but sometimes it was as if his mates were scared of him. But he wasn’t rowdy, he wasn’t a bully, nor was he into drugs or emo-stuff. Then why – Never mind, he thought. 13

Mr. Robin stared taking the roll for the class, and Peter answered him during his call. After the roll, the teacher started taking the class, which was nothing interesting to Peter, and was something along the lines of what will happen when Sodium Bi Carbonate and Hydrochloric acid was added together. After about fifteen minutes or so, the classroom door was harshly pushed open and someone came inside, panting. 14

"Mr. Robin, I'm really sorry. But I can explain it to you”, he panted. He forced a paper in the teacher’s hand. 15

"Well, well, who do we have here? ...Hmmm...Let’s see... Is it Mr. Atkins?"16

"Yes, Mr. Robin"17

Peter was keeping his head down all this time. He was so bored by the class that he didn’t even want to look at what was going in the class. He had completely zoned out. But when he heard his name, he jerked his head here and there, to see the source. 18

"Now, let's see where you can sit. Why don't you sit near Peter Turner, sitting up there?"19

Peter saw the blond kid for the first time, then. Instantly, he had a thought, 'Why does it feel as I have see him before? Naah..Just a weird thought, I guess, there’s no way I have seen this oh-I’m-so-pretty kid before.' He was comparatively shorter than him, slimmer than usual, had honey-blond hair, with sparkling blue eyes. Out of all, Peter, observed that there was something really special about those eyes. The lights were dancing in a pool of electric blue water. It was almost as if the eyes were creating electric energy.20

The kid nodded and walked towards him. On the way, he dropped a couple of books. His hands were shaking. Peter assumed that it must be because of the nervousness being in a new school. Peter had never seen this kid before. The kid clumsily picked them up again, walked to him and sat on his the right hand side. And Peter thought, 'Heavens. What now?'21

"Hey, I'm William, William Atkins." stammered the kid. 22

"Hey, Peter here.” replied Peter coldly, which actually surprised him, because usually his voice was always filled with warmth. He assumed that he wanted no dealings with this guy, but why he felt that way, he didn't no. "New?"23

"Yeah. From Stephen's"24

"Oh, I see.", he didn’t know what else to say which was weird for him. He had never felt as nervous as he was right then. 25

*****26

The class ended with the usual bell. He had taken very few notes and dreamnt through most of the class about a place that he had never seen before. He woke up to some one calling his name – 27

“Turner. Hey dude, Turner, if you continue this, you are going to be in trouble man.”28

“Uh-”, Peter slurred, “Yeah, whatever.” 29

“Well, nice to see that some cares to study science,” came the sarcastic remark. Peter looked up to see the smirking blond. 30

“Yeah, and nice to see that someone’s trying to make friends” he retorted only half-jokingly. Peter stood up and saw that the class was nearly empty. “Anyways, thanks for waking me up and all that. And don’t think that I’m emo, ‘’cause you can’t be more wrong. It’s one of my off-days. So, if you don’t mind, nice meeting you.” Peter finished with a drawl that sounds very unlike him. The smaller blond was having a weird expression on his face that he could not fathom. 31

Peter placed his book bag, and made for the door. He was almost out of the class when he could almost swear he heard – “Yeah, and nice to see you, 'again'.”32

*****33

The rest of the day went with more zeal for Peter. He didn’t doze of in his history class, and went to the lunch hall with his usual brightness. He walked to his table, were his class mates were sitting in their usual places, and oh, yeah, his girlfriend was there too. Kevin, the school’s official weight lifter, meaning – the strongest guy in school sat across him, and his girlfriend who resembled a horse, Juan, was sitting by his side. Claire, who was the school’s coolest jester, was sitting by his right side. The group of five ended with his girlfriend Rachel, and whose seat was replaced once in a while. 34

“Did you see the new guy,” Claire started gossiping as soon as he reached the table with his usual meal. “He seems kind of fishy. Had him in my Calculus” 35

Peter sat down a surveyed the table. Claire seemed to have got everyone’s attention. Even Rachel who was never the one for gossips, was showing interest – Because, it was not usual for Claire to say something like that. 36

“Whajushedatt?”, came a question from Kevin, who was trying to multi-task by eating and talking at the same time. Juan gave him a pointed look, which stopped him from further spitting his lunch on everybody. 37

Peter turned to look at Claire and asked, “What do you mean? Did he get you in trouble or something?”38

“Nope, but it’s as if he’s here to plan an assassination or something. You know what I mean, yeah? Like, he looks all around him, and observing and all that –even for a new guy, he acts so stealthily. He would make a great spy, I suppose”, Claire answered thoughtfully. 39

Rachel piped in the conversation, “Claire, I think you are watching to many murder mysteries these days.” 40

“Yeah, and you can’t deny that you are jealous” - this came from Juan. 41

“What?! Why would I be jealous?” He asked, then stopped to think and said, “Well, yeah, I would be – If he owned an A3F4 U.F.O to assist him in his spy mission.”42

Everybody laughed at that. Every body knew Claire and his sci-fi fanaticism and that he wasn’t a guy to be jealous over random handsome kids. 43

No one mentioned the ‘new-guy’ after that, not even when the said guy came and sat on a table across theirs and glanced in their direction. 44

*****45

The rest of the day went well for Peter. He went to his Literature and Business Management class without much incident. Not that he cared for Literature or Management studies as much as he did for history though. It just seemed a bit brighter compared to his science, which he sure thought was going to make him feel dead one of these days. After classes were over, he went to his locker to change into his soccer uniform and boy, did he get a surprise?46

No one would believe him, if he said that a black kitten had appeared in his locker out of the blue. Well, no, they wouldn’t, but yes, there was a kitty sleeping lazily in his locker. It was a black one, and its posture was that of something that had nothing in the world to worry about. 'Well how wrong it is,' thought Peter, ‘’cause I’m gonna kick it out of my locker now.' 47

When he made to lift it off from his locker and place it in the ground, the little creature woke up and stared at him with emerald green eyes. Well, now, who has seen a cat with green eyes before? – 'Well not me,' he thought. 48

The little thing made a catty sound, which he was sure, was usual for a cat, but there was something about the sound that lessened his annoyance. He picked it up, and held it level with his eyes and smiled – “Where did you come from, kitty? You are not supposed to be in there. Do you know who placed you in my locker?” He knew that if the cat could understand him, it would sure think that he was a mental case, but anyways, he did want to know how the cat had come inside his locker. 'Must have been someone’s idea of prank, the poor thing, he thought. Wonder how long it has been here. Not long, I suppose. I was here during my lunch break – at least, not long enough to harm this kitty.' 49

“Poooor kitty, ain’t it?” he heard a snicker round the corner, and turned to see a freshman kid looking at him and the kitten in his hand. When Peter thought of scolding the kid for playing a prank on a kitten out of all, the kid just flew from the place before he could even open his mouth. 'Damn,' he thought, 'I’m so getting you for that!'50

He turned to glanced at the black creature in his hand. Well, he didn’t have much choice now, did he? The most popular guy at school now had a cat for a pet, and that was that. 51