Oliver was in the library. He was reading the book; WEREWOLF MORPHOLOGY, which he found in the old library, a few days ago. He had been reading the book for a long, now, and so far, he had been able to learn a few things about the strange creature he saw in his last vision. The first thing he found out was that it was a werewolf; which means a human transforms into it. He also had a feeling that the werewolf might be someone in the orphanage, possibly a fellow student.
He was trying to figure out how to identify someone who was a werewolf, how werewolves wolf out, and how they relate with prey. According to the book, the average werewolf has their first full-on wolf-out during their early teens, and as they begin to notice unusual changes in their physical appearances, they become furiously driven by curiosity, into various odd places, to get answers through the sight of full moon.
Oliver circled the phrase; odd places, with his black highlighter pen. Something quickly hit his mind, the moment he saw the phrase. He recalled that lately, even before having the vision, he had spotted two boys heading towards somewhere that could be qualified as an odd place, at an odd hour too, and he already had a possible suspect in mind.
Oliver spotted Jasper coming in through the door. He immediately hid the book he was reading, underneath his large math textbook. Jasper came and sat with him.
"Hay buddy looks like you're busy," Jasper said.
"Yeah... Sort of," Oliver muttered.
Jasper was puzzled, as he saw the book Oliver was reading.
"Wait a second, who reads math?" Jasper asked.
Oliver glanced at him.
"I don't know... Me?" he replied.
"I thought you'd be reading something a little wordier," Jasper said.
"Why did you think so?" Oliver asked him.
"Because of the spelling bee... I guess," replied Jasper.
"Oh... That..." Oliver muttered, nonchalantly.
Jasper looked a bit worried.
"You don't think you're taking the competition a little less seriously, do you?" Jasper asked him.
"Yeah, maybe I have other important things to do with my time," Oliver replied.
"Right... I'd leave you with that, then," Jasper said.
There was a moment of silence between Oliver and Jasper. Felicity had just entered the room a few minutes ago. She stood before the large bookshelf which stood on the other side of the wall, where She was searching for a book.
"You should go talk to her," Jasper said to Oliver in a low voice.
Oliver looked puzzled.
"What... Who?" he muttered, as he glanced at Jasper with narrow inquiring eyes.
"I mean, Felicity; the girl you've been staring at for a while now," replied Jasper.
Oliver was more surprised.
"I wasn't staring at her," he protested.
"Yes, you were. You stared for like over ten straight minutes, you couldn't even set your eyes off her just for a second," Jasper said.
Oliver looked around to check if someone was listening, then he bent his head slightly, and told Jasper with his lowest voice,
"Alright, maybe I did stare at her, but it wasn't that obvious, was it?"
Jasper smiled sheepishly.
"Well, in my opinion, I think obvious is an understatement," he answered.
"I know you're lying," Oliver said.
"I'm not," Jasper said.
"You should go talk to her... Except you're scared."
"I'm not scared of a girl," Oliver protested.
"Then why won't you talk to her?" Jasper asked.
"Because I already have, and... It was complicated," answered Oliver.
There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them before Jasper eventually broke it.
"I always knew you were into her," he said to Oliver, with a snicker.
"Stop it, Jasper," Oliver told him.
"There's something you just don't get. I don't usually have a crush on girls, or do any of those things. It's not my kind of thing," Oliver said.
"I wasn't born this morning, dude, I see the way you always look at her, even during class lessons. Imagine how you left the infirmary when you were not yet well enough to do so, just to see her in the old library, last Saturday. You even claimed it was so urgent," Jasper said.
Oliver became so surprised, and also puzzled, as he heard what Jasper had just said. He could remember vividly, that when he left the infirmary, he never made mention of where he was headed. He never told Jasper that he was going to look for Felicity, neither did he tell where he had gone, afterward. He was also sure that he left the infirmary alone; neither Jasper nor Xavier accompanied him, and he didn't notice any of them following him, as he looked around for Felicity.
The comment that Jasper made about his meeting with Felicity at the old library, still sounded so odd and impossible to him. He wanted to ask Jasper how he managed to know his whereabouts that day, even when he never told him, but then he decided it was best to keep it to himself for the time being.
Oliver found out that Felicity was no longer in the library. She must have exited the library when he was busy arguing with Jasper about him having a crush on her.
Oliver quickly began to stuff his books inside his black backpack, with a sense of urgency.
"Are you leaving?" Jasper asked.
"Yeah, I need to do something in the hostel," answered Oliver.
He was actually going to the hostel to check on Ugly; the little soft-headed elf. He was going to check if there was anything he needed.
As Oliver took his bag and was just about to leave, something quickly caught his attention. It was at that very moment that he noticed the book that Jasper had been with all along. Jasper was with another copy of the exact same book he got from the old library; the WEREWOLF MORPHOLOGY.
Jasper having such a book could've been termed by anyone as a coincidence, but to Oliver, it meant something totally different from that. He thought about it, there were over a thousand different books in the old library, each with just about three to four copies. If Jasper actually picked a book randomly, why must it be the one about werewolves, why didn't he pick some other attractive and fascinating book, if not a lame brown sheeted book, with a weird sketch on the cover page, and what was his reason for wanting to read a book about werewolves? All these were the questions that went through his mind at that moment.
"I uh... Guess I should get going now," Oliver said with a casual tone, as though he wasn't surprised at all.
"Right, I'll be here, then," Jasper said.
Oliver quickly exited the library, swiftly making his way through the long hallway to make it on time to the hostel before lunch. As he went, he noticed someone a few distances ahead of him. It was a girl with brownish gold ponytailed hair, wearing a pair of light blue jean overalls shorts, with an orange turtleneck sweater. Immediately, Oliver recognized that it was Felicity.
He turned round to check if someone else was coming. Seeing that there was no one in sight, he hurriedly went to approach Felicity where she was, calmly walking along the hallway. It wasn't long before Oliver caught up with her.
"Hay," Oliver said, gently touching her on her shoulder.
As soon as his hand came in contact with her body, she immediately jolted with panic, as a charge of electricity had just gone through her body. She was so surprised, as she found out that it was Oliver.
"Oh my god, you just scared the hell out of me," she said, panting laboriously.
"I'm so sorry about that, I thought you heard me coming," Oliver said, thoughtfully.
She sighed.
"I didn't hear your footsteps, you should have heard I'm not a very good listener," She said.
Oliver looked a bit puzzled for the moment.
"By the way, what were you coming to meet me for?" she asked him.
Oliver slightly scratched his head, involuntarily avoiding direct eye contact with her.
"It's nothing, actually... Nothing that should be a problem," Oliver replied with a low mutter.
She was still staring at him with inquiring eyes.
"Oliver, I do have to go right now," she said, as she was about to leave.
Oliver immediately held her wrist. Her eyes widened, and her lips parted slightly.
"Wait... Please," he said, looking straight at her, now.
"What are you doing?" she inquired.
"I just want to talk," replied Oliver shortly.
"But Oliver, we agreed not to..." she said, with her forehead wrinkled with worry.
"I know... It's not that," Oliver replied.
Felicity kept on looking around, cautiously and uneasily.
"So what is it? Even if it's urgent we speak with each other, it shouldn't be here. I have a bad feeling someone might see us and think we're... You know..." she said.
"Listen, there are over a thousand people in this school right now, out of which, about ninety-five percent are presently outside of this building, busy with one activity or the other. The remaining five percent; aside from us, are in the library, preparing for the selection test for the math competition, and we both know that they won't leave there until lunch. So you see, the chances of someone running into us now, is inarguably low," explained Oliver.
She looked at him and sighed softly.
"So what is it you need to tell me?" she asked.
"Felicity, you were the first person that was actually nice to me since I got here. Before then, I never knew what it felt like to be treated like I belonged. I know that you're just trying to help me, too."
She was gazing straight into his sincerely solemn blue eyes, almost spellbound.
"All these while, I've been thinking of a way to return the favor, I think I might've finally figured out something you might want," he said.
Felicity seemed really curious, at this moment.
"Because I don't want Olivia Anderson and her friends to see another reason to humiliate you again, I decided I'd teach you all I know about trigonometry... If you want, though," Oliver said.
At this point, Felicity seemed so stunned. She stared at him with wide eyes and open-mouthed disbelief.
At that moment, they both noticed the sounds of approaching footsteps. They spotted a group of boys heading their way.
"I should go," Felicity told Oliver, as she hurried away, leaving him there on his own.
Oliver stood there in the hallway, watching Felicity hurry into the distance. The group of boys was closer now. Oliver could recognize all five of them. Drake led the way, as the others followed steadfastly. Alex wasn't with them.
Just with the looks on their faces, mainly that of Drake, Oliver knew it was him they were coming to, and they had some ill intentions. Oliver knew what they came for, as a matter of fact, he had been expecting this for a long now.
Slowly, they surrounded him, hindering any further movement.
"Well look who we got here," Drake said, " the Oliver logan."
"What do you want, Drake?" Oliver asked him, with straight firm eyes, showing no sign of intimidation.
Drake scoffed irritatedly.
"What do I want, huh? Do you really think you would humiliate me in front of everyone, and go free?" Drake said.
"It was a mistake, Drake, I already told you that," replied Oliver.
"Yeah, I'm sure you enjoyed every bit of it. I'll tell you what I want, looser, I want payback. I've finally got my hands on you, and right now, there would be no one to rescue you from me," he told Oliver.
"You're getting it all wrong. It was a mistake, I swear it," Oliver protested.
Drake signaled to the others to get hold of him. Before he knew what was happening, they ceased both his arms, holding him tightly against the wall. Oliver struggled to set himself free, but they were too much for him.
"You don't have to do this," Oliver muttered.
Without hesitation, Drake swung a fist at Oliver's midsection, right beneath his left ribcage. Oliver let out a long, deep groan, as fresh pain blossomed in his midsection. This was a brutal five-on-one assault. Oliver was totally outnumbered. He didn't beg them or try to struggle anymore. They kept on antagonizing him, and they seemed to be enjoying it so much.
"Get away from him," came a low voice from behind them.
Drake stopped to see who it was. Lo and behold, standing right there behind them was Felicity, and she wasn't smiling either.
"Wait... What did you say?" Drake asked her.
"You heard me, jerk," she replied, rather brusquely.
Drake suddenly burst out in laughter.
"Oh my god, looks like Oliver has gotten himself a little girlfriend," Drake said. The others laughed.
"Get away from him, Drake. Trust me, you wouldn't want me to repeat myself," she said, meaningly.
They were all surprised at the type of courage displayed by Felicity, even Oliver was stunned.
"So tell me, what are you gonna do about this..." Drake swung a heavy fist at the side of Oliver's face. This was followed by a roar of laughter from the other boys.
Felicity immediately rushed closer to him and forcefully swung her right foot up through the middle of his legs, smiting it hard against his gonads.
"Ahh...!!! Why did you do that?!!" Drake cried out loud in agony.
"You were warned," she said to him.
Drake began to limp away, quickly, favoring his groin.
"I'll be back for you, Oliver. You and your deranged girlfriend will pay for this!!!" he yelled angrily, as he limped away in shame. His friends had already fled past him, by that time.
Felicity headed off quickly, with a slight satisfying grin on her face, without uttering any word to Oliver, who stood there, frozen in shock.