We pull up at the school 30 minutes late and I have to kiss the beautiful Chevrolet Chevelle goodbye. For now.
Before I could get out and rush to class, my dad catches my arm, making me turn to him and saying with utmost seriousness," Whatever you see today, do not act on your instincts, use your brain, bye now, love you! Also I signed you up for lacrosse make sure not to miss it".
He speeds off and even the exhaust sounds like angels singing in a choir.
I get to class and the first thing I see is the teacher scowling at me, he was a plump man with a receding hairline and possibly the most annoying voice I've ever heard.
"Get to your seat before I write you up for being late".
"Since I doubt your name is Allison I'm going to take a wild guess and say you are one, Christian Richter".
"That's right."
"Your seat in in the very back right corner"
"Thanks", I say before I slink to the back of the room.
The one who I later learned was named Mr. Curtis screeches out,"As I was saying about the Syllabus".
The guy in front of me, a tallish guy with a buzz cut turns around and says with excitement,"Hey, my name's Stiles and my na-Shit, sorry no good at this making friends thing. Your name is Christian, right?"
"The one and only."
"Well, you can never have too many friends, right? Plus you need someone to show you the ropes and I'm just the guy".
"Yeah right, Ali, but I'll take it".
"Well, there's my ride or die Scott up there, he's a little braindead so don't take him too serious".
He does a little yell whisper,"Scott! Scott! Hey dumbass! Homeskillet! Fucktard!"
"I swear, I didn't mean he's actually braindead, he's just got ADHD out the ass so he's probably spacing out".
But when I look at him I get a totally different vibe, the hair on the back of my neck stands strait up and his ears seem to get longer, the hair on the back of his neck gets drastically longer before hanging over his collar and stopping. He whips his head around and looks out a window. That's when I see his full visage, he has hair all over his face, extra wrinkles around the eyebrows, making him look like he has a permanent scowl. Sharp teeth poke out between his lips and he has glowing yellow eyes.
I look around and nobody seems to see mr hairy over here and the words my dad said ring through my head, to not act on my instincts and use my brain. That's the only reason I'm not racing out of the classroom, well that and the hole I'm boring into the side of his head with my eyes.
I don't notice how hard I'm balling my fists until I cut into my hand with my fingernails soliciting a grunt of pain from me, as I open my hands and see the holes in my palms. Then something catches my eye, albeit very slowly I can see the tissues in my hand stitching back together.Terrifying, god sometimes I hate my Dad.
Trying to distract myself, I try to listen to what the teacher I saying," Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United Sta- Blah, bluhblah blah blah blah". Yeah that got me nowhere instead I zone out as stiles follows my example of trying to listen to the teacher.
When I zone out, something catches my eyes, in the top right of my vision. I see a capital G, but stylized to look like a skull. When I focus on it I hear a voice.
[Ah! User you've found me, as I have said before my name is Adelheid (Adle-Hide) but for sake of convenience you can call me Adel, and before you make everyone in your class thinks you're insane, please just think what you want to say and I can hear you]
'Am I insane?' (' ' means thinking)
[No, just incredibly gifted]
'What are you?'
[I am a system created by √×÷π @#$&^°, and was sent here to help you on the journey ahead]
'Like in a novel?'
[Exactly, like in a novel]
'Alright... you can call me Chris or Christian I might be too confused to care'
[Chris/Christian authorized]
'Well if you're like a novel what type of stuff can you do'.
[At the moment I'm limited in my abilities, I can give you general statistics about yourself as well as a way to improve yourself and make you more powerful. There is also a quest tab, and I will start giving you challenges now because you found me. All you have to do is unfocus your eyes and I'll pop up in the top right of your vision.]
'Alright let's see my stats then'
Stats
Name: Christian (Chris) Richter
Age:16
Height:5'8
Race: Grimm/???? ??????
Level:1
Strength:8
Agility:14
Reflexes:15
Will:15
Intelligence:16
Vitality:13
Skill points: 2
Exp:0/200
[Just so you know 10 is the average man and 20 is peak human ability]
'How did I get my first level, I didn't do anything yet'
[I would call the transformation process something, it was definitely painful]
'Oh yeah, honestly I tried to forget that'
'I know this might be short sighted but I'm going to put my two points into strength, because that is the only thing I'm really lacking at the moment '
[I fully support your decision, just so you know, and you don't fuck yourself up, don't keep the mental and physical stats too far away from each other because they are interdependent on eachother. For example if you raised your intelligence too high without your vitality being high enough your body wouldn't have enough blood to support both your body and your new brain.]
Strength:8 -> 10
Scott's eyes track something through the wall until a girl comes in tailed by the assistant principal.
The assistant principal says," This is your new classmate, Allison Argent she just moved here, be nice".
Before the assistant principal walks out he looks at me for a short moment before winking at me. Confusion dawns on my face. Either he's a part of the association or he's a perv and I'm hoping the former is right.
Allison sits behind Scott and he gives her a pencil without her asking, yeah definitely weird.
...
Two classes go by and I see noticeable muscle growth, I see half an inch grow on my bicep, as well as a proportionate amount of muscle around the rest of my body. If I had to describe the feeling of muscles rearranging and growing to a more efficient position, it would be like snakes crawling underneath my skin, greaaat feeling.
The class is biology and it's your regular first day bullshit, except that Scott is my desk bud. How it's set up is at the front of the classroom sits the teachers podium, going from there to the back of the room there are three columns of two seated lab tables that we do our work on. Not the most efficient but it'll get the job done.
Scott is my desk bro though and I think it's high time I meet mister hairy. "Heeey is your name Scott?"
"Yeah that's me."
"I met Stiles and me being the new kid I thought I'd put myself out there and get some new friends, so whaddya say partner?"
"Damn, you're as awkward as I am, y'know what, why not?
"Play any sports?"
"Yeah I'm on the lacrosse team, why?"
"I'm on there too, but I really don't know how to play, I was just picked because I'm fast".
"No problem man, that actually happens way more than I'd like to say, but basically you've got a ball and nets, you try your best to make a goal by getting the ball in the goal. You can do a body check when someone has the ball or is whithin 5 yards of the ball, which is basically you hit someone as hard as you can. You keep playing until either one team wins or the ball goes out of bounds. Can't touch the ball with your hands, but you can kick it. Now that I think about it, it's grass hockey but instead of sticks it's nets. Huh.
"Very good to know, think I'll get in today?"
"Honestly, no way, they only let people who are good and have been good play on the first practice. I'd do some shooting drills because if you get called up and make a fool of yourself you'll never be on that field until the next time to prove yourself, and who knows what coach is thinking.
...
It's the end of the day and I'm bored out of my goddamned mind, but who knows lacrosse might be eventful, being whatever the fuck a Grimm is might give me an edge.
Stiles, Scott and I have 7th period together which is a godsend for our friendship, my main reason for hanging out with them is one,Stiles is underrated as hell, he should be popular, the shit he says cracks me up at every turn, and two, I wanna know what Scott is, because he definitely ain't human.
We all hike our asses to practice with a net that someone loaned to me, note to self, get one of those and some pads that barely fit my small frame, I just don't wanna think about what would have happened if I didn't put the two stat points into strength.
When we got there, we were one of the last ones there, I'd say that's probably because of all the cutting up we did. When we get there coach goes up to Scott and tells him he's goalie, but before he does it I give him some earplugs telling him "trust me you'll need em".
[MISSION ISSUED]
Score on Scott
Reward +2 stat points +100 Exp
Spell Book: Mage Hand
Temporary magic: Mage Hand
'I just fucked myself, great '
I feel a new wealth of information fly into my dome, telling me mage hand is like an invisible hand that you can manipulate, and how to use it.
So, much to my surprise I'm on the shooting lineup and when the whistle blows it doesn't mess with Scott, just like I theorized. Scott catches. Every. Fucking. Ball.
I'm hoping this mage hand spell saves my ass because I can't even shoot a ball strait. Let's hope I'm better at magic than I am lacrosse.
I step up to the line, ball in net, I hold the net as far down on the handle as I can, yeeting that ball as hard as I can. Well bad news I've never held a net before so it goes way off target, good news, mage hand. I'm basically holding the ball as it speeds toward Scott and he does exactly what I thought he would do, puts the net exactly where it needs to be, but magic says the laws of physics be damned I'm getting this ball in that goal. At the last second I make the ball swerve around the net in very fine circle, making it hit the back of the goal.
[MISSION ACCOMPLISHED]
+2 stat points +100 Exp
Spell Book: Mage Hand
I feel a small burst of euphoria, I'm guessing that would be XP and a hollow sense of unfulfilled potential which would be the stat points. No spell book fell from the sky so my idea is that I just keep the knowledge of mage hand.
Practice proceeded on with a few more shooting drills, shock training where you just get hit a bunch, not fun when you're the little guy, and regular training like running, calisthenics and weighted runs, honestly don't think I could've done it, had it not been for my strength stat.
Practice ended with every person there no matter the experience level, how fit you are, it didn't matter, you would be on the ground sweating your ass off, Coach Bobby's training regimen is hellish.
That beauty of a machine rolled up and I got in, it was a tense atmosphere that stunk of words that needed to be said.
"I saw what I think was a werewolf today, am I going crazy?"