CHAPTER 9
Oliver
The next day, everything started out pretty normally. I thought to myself that maybe we'll see another wolf sighting today, but that might be unlikely. As I was getting dressed I could hear my mother making breakfast for me and my father. I could hear them laughing and probably having a great time together.I was glad they were proud of me, for a while I thought they wouldn't trust me with a mission of my own. They have always been so careful in letting me do things.
Once I was done getting dressed in the school's uniform, I made my way downstairs into the kitchen. " Hey! There's my boy," my father said to me as I grabbed an apple to start eating. I smiled knowing they were proud of my progress. " So tell your old man the plans for today," he said eagerly before stuffing his mouth with eggs and bacon. " Well, maybe we'll see some other wolf sighting," I reply " that sounds like a great ide, son, hopefully, it'll lead us to where we need to go and whip them all out!" He says while taking a sip from his favorite coffee mug. He got it from his father, my grandfather, right before he passed away.
Right before I finished my apple there was a knock at the door. It must be Harper, I thought as I was getting up to open it. Standing outside was not only Harper but also Bill, Harper's father. " Hey, Oliver! wow look at you, it's been such a long time since I last saw you... I heard from Harper you got your first mission! Congratulations!" he says cheerfully holding some Union folders and a briefcase. " Thank you, Bill, I'm doing well. I was just about to head out for school with Harper, I replied back looking at her behind him. " Right! you guys are going to be late if you don't leave right now" he says checking his watch. He quickly turns around to Harper and kisses her on the head. " bye pumpkin, be good at school!.. see you soon Oliver, take good care of her, I'm going to have a quick chat with your father" he replies as I head out the door yelling bye to my parents.
As soon as we were a bit far away from the house I turned to Harper. " so what's your father doing with all those Union papers?" I questioned will we walk. " oh, he told me it was a bunch of just paperwork like taxes and boring stuff like that. I'm glad I won't be put in the Union cooperation part of the system. Seems so boring staying home or in the office looking at a computer all day long" she complains. Her father Bill is one of those corporate people, like my mother.
"Did you tell him about the mission we are on together?" I say in excitement, smiling from ear to ear. " Yeah did! He's so excited for me, I mean he's worried but excited" she smiles. "Your mother would be happy for you too," I say giving her a side hug. Harper's mother was attacked and killed by a wolf... it happened when she was still a baby, and she was on a mission. I know it's hard for her since she was so young and barely remembers her.
Soon I changed the subject to make her laugh for the rest of the walk. Eventually, we finally got to the school. Inside was still as chaotic as yesterday with people walking all over the place up and down the halls. It seemed everyone had kinda forgotten about the wolf incident and everyone was acting pretty normal. We both decided to part ways so we wouldn't be too late to the homeroom and agreed to meet back up during lunch.
As I was walking to homeroom, I remembered James Stone. I still haven't figured out why he was staring at me almost the whole time yesterday but hopefully, he doesn't do that again today. It did give me kinda the creeps but maybe that's because I was new to the school and he was trying to figure out why I was there.
Walking into homeroom, I saw everyone I saw yesterday except for James. His desk was empty but I guess he's late again. I saw that girl who gave me the tour and her brother. and next to my desk Miles. " Hey what's up?" I say to him as I set my back down. " Hi, it's going well thanks" he replies with a faint smile in that weird accent again. I noticed he wasn't as smiley as yesterday. Maybe the wolf incident rattled some people I thought to myself taking out my English notebook. I turn to Miles " I have been meaning to ask from yesterday but your accent is not from around here. right?" I say trying to keep the conversation light. " Yeah, sorry my family is from Europe and we just immigrated here," he replies writing the date in his notebook. " yeah no worries I was just curious that's all" I reply. I knew how hard it is to move all the time so I dropped that conversation.
As the class sat at their desk chatting a bit the bell finally rang and Ms. Garcia walked in with a big cup of coffee. " The bell rang boys and girls, which means we must be silent to take attendance" she states as she puts her bag down and types on her computer. I take a quick glance at James' desk fully expecting him to look at me but his desk was still empty.
Ms. Garcia took careful measures to take attendance of everyone and one by one she called out names and marked them on her computer. When she called for James, she paused for a moment before calling his name again, just to be sure he wasn't just sleeping but still no answer. Assuming he was just absent for the day I didn't pay much attention to it until he was absent for four days in a row after that.
It was the next week and still no sign of James. It was almost like he vanished just as fast as that wolf did the first day. I wondered all weekend if he was just sick.. or if maybe he was a wolf. I shook my head while sitting beside Miles, lost in my thoughts. " are you doing okay?" Miles said as he looked up from his notebook. " yeah I was just thinking what for lunch today" I lied. I need to be more careful with my thoughts I think to myself.
Soon there were 10 minutes left for homeroom. It was pretty quiet with everyone writing in their notebook when Ms.Garcia got up from her desk. " Students," she said pausing for everyone to look at her. " before you leave today I wanted to go over the group project you will be working on for the next few weeks about finding solutions to the social problems we face on a daily basis and how we might solve them or so" she stated flipping threw the papers. "I've already decided on the pairs I will put you all in," she says holding up the paper she was looking at.
Everyone kinda groaned when she said that knowing they might not be with their best friends. She slowly started listing everyone's names and who they would be paired with. " Owen, you'll be paired with Sophia... Ava, you'll be paired with Miles.." she stated looking at the piece of paper. Eventually, she got to my name. "Oliver... you'll be paired with James.." she said looking at me. "Every group should make a board or some sort of physical project to deserve full credit! and please remember that project counts to 35% of your grade." she states at the end of pairing everyone up.
Before I could process everything the bell rang. I was confused as to why she paired us together when he hadn't even been at school these past few days. As everyone was still packing up I took the opportunity to ask Ms.Garcia some questions. " I understand your concern about this project and the fact that James has not been here these past few days, but I talked to his parents and they said he'll be back later this week in time for you both to work on it and to present," she states as she types away on her computer. Soon everyone was either leaving or entering the room so I decided to leave for my next class.
All day I was having trouble figuring out what to do about this project I'm currently doing by myself. I also wondered why James still wasn't at school. So I decided to get some answers for myself and for once doing some of my own investigation, to settle my racing head. Even Harper knew there was something on my mind during lunch. " Hey, you doing okay?" She asked me while stuffing her mouth with her burger. " Yeah, I have just been thinking about this project I have..I even got pairs with James Stone." I say taking a sip of my milk. " You got paired with James Stone?" She asked eagerly. " yeah I did.. this way for a while I can keep an eye on him or any of his family members," I say to her in a low voice. " you said it yourself, his family works all over this town.. so this might be a blessing in disguise," I say with a slight smile. " you really thought this out, didn't you.. guess you don't need me anymore?" She teased. " I'll always need you, you're my best friend" I reply.
After lunch, I walked into the period I had with Ava, I was going to ask her about James since she must know something since she and her brother practically know everyone. In the classroom I see Ava sitting at her desk looking over her notes. She seemed so concentrated flipping through all the pages. I move past a few people to get to her. She didn't seem to notice me so I gently tapped her on the shoulder. As she looked up she adjusted her glasses, " oh, hey what's up Oliver" she said with a smile. " hey sorry to bother you I was just wondering if you knew anything about James since we are partners together and everything" I say not trying to be too suspicious. " oh, I think he's sick.. I heard Ms. Garcia talking in the office today with the principal.. something about him having the flu maybe but I'm not too sure" she says with a slight smile. I wonder why she was in the office. " Oh, well hopefully he gets better soon," I say trying to act surprised.
"Well thank you for your help," I say to her before returning to my seat next to Harper. "So what were you and Ava talking about?" She says to me. "Oh well, I was asking her if she knew the topics for that project we both have, we have the same homeroom." I reply not wanting her to be suspicious about my investigation. I didn't want her to jump to the conclusion that James was a wolf. I felt better knowing he was just sick.
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