Chapter 30 New Studen (1/2)

Walking into the classroom, Laz sat down at his assigned desk for homeroom. Basin Falls was a small town to begin with and therefore had a combined Junior/Senior High School. Although it was one building, the junior high area was in a different section than the senior high area, allowing for some separation between the younger and older students.

Laz was in his 8th year or 8th grade as it is considered by American students. His classroom had a normal mix of guys and girls with about equal numbers of each.

The way homeroom worked is that you could spend your time doing whatever you wanted as long as you were in your homeroom seat by the bell. At that point, the teacher would share whatever information needed to be shared and then release you to go to your next class. Not everyone went to the same class as different students had different schedules. It would be far to hard for all the classes to stick together for the entire day so therefore, although you sometimes took classes with your friends, sometimes you didn't.

That didn't matter to Laz as he was not what others considered social and therefore in the two years that he went to this school, he had never made any real friends. The problem with small schools is that everyone knows each other and most kids already have their groups.

In larger schools, cliches form, in smaller ones, you get groups. It is also rare for students in different years to interact with each other with the exception of clubs, sports and other group activities.

Once again, Laz didn't join any of these things so it made no difference who was friends with who or who did what, or what ever types of gossip people liked to talk about.

He found it rather pointless. Having been dragged around by his parents for most of his early life, he didn't really get comfortable in any one place and therefore wasn't interested in what was happening.

The only thing that got his interest these days were the strange people appearing and what was happening with them.

Laz didn't want to admit it, but he was jealous of guys like ”Matchstick Man,” Jason who could become popular with their gifts. His wasn't nearly that awesome looking.

Of course, the real difference is that his made actual sense to have. Although the fight with Joey was dangerous and horrifying, he couldn't deny that it felt somewhat heroic to have killed that asshole and saved the girl.

Could that be where his life was going?

He knew that he would still get stronger, like he wasn't done changing yet. Because of this, he felt like he might actually become one of those chosen in the future where his great strength could set him apart.

That said, although these thoughts were running through his mind, he didn't know when he had changed about all this.

'When did I start caring so much?' Laz couldn't help but ask himself.

The only thought he had was that at some point when he realized he could be different, when he could make a difference, his mindset changed.

He shook his head to clear it of these thoughts. Although thinking things through is good, thinking about things too much is bad and leads you to worry for nothing. He was still young, he had time and he didn't become a green giant that lashed out at people.

Honestly, he was really coming out ahead in this.

Turning his attention back to the classroom, he realized that there was only 5 minutes until the bell rang so he started to look around. Interestingly, he got a similar reaction to when he was out in the hallway. Even though he didn't stare at the other students, he noticed that none of them were looking in his direction either.

Some students were actually sitting at a weird angle as though to avoid looking at him, even accidentally.

'I wonder if I look funny or something. Whatever. This works just as fine as well.' Instead of paying attention to what others were doing, Laz grabbed a book out of his bag and began reading.

Even being somewhat absorbed in the book, he was able to feel people stealing glances at him, but he just ignored it. What he didn't know was that as he sat there with the book, seemingly unconcerned with the people looking at him and giving off his somewhat primal aura, he looked rather dashing and not like a 14 year old at all.

”Who the hell is this kid?” Jesse asked Tommy, as he turned to face his friend.

Looking over, Tommy replied, ”I have no idea, but I don't think he's new.”

”Why do you say that?” Jesse asked.