Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Wyatt takes the bus down to Reyo, the town on the south of the city where Wyatt's college is. From there, he makes his way to Harrison University, and gets the key to his own dorm. Wyatt didn't have anyone else assigned to his dorm, so he was able to arrange the room however he wanted. It was now only him, and he had the whole day to himself. His courses didn't start until tomorrow, so he was free to do whatever he wanted. He tried relaxing in his room and avoid going outside, however he was not used to living in such a quiet place. It was always so noisy in Durley, and Wyatt wasn't used to this much silence. Wyatt left to go to the convenience store called Out & About, down the road, where he was going to start working tomorrow as well. He decided to familiarize himself with the people there before he begins to work there. His dorm and courses were free in this college, but food still wasn't free.
On his way to the store, Wyatt was looking around the streets. He was trying to memorize the whole place around his college, to become familiar with the area. While not paying attention, he bumped into someone. It was a short girl, who looked to be about his age. She was holding a dress in her hands and a sewing needle with a thread, rigorously trying to stitch a rip shut on the sleeve.
"Wah!" She says in surprise. She looks up at Wyatt and bows her head a little. "A-ah, sorry. I didn't stab you with the needle, did I?". Something about this girl seemed off. Her hair didn't look too clean, and her clothes looked really old. However, something about her struck Wyatt as beautiful. She has purple eyes, long white hair that was tied in a bun, and fair skin. She didn't exactly look like a fair maiden, but she definitely looked beautiful in Wyatt's eyes.
"Are you okay?" She asks.
"O-oh, I'm fine" Wyatt says. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going. You're not hurt or anything, are you?".
She nods her head 'No' and then continues walking past him. "Can't believe the stitching fell apart" she says as she hurries past Wyatt. "This is no good, I need more sleep". Before long, she walks out of sight down this road. Wyatt shakes his head for a moment, but then continues towards Out & About. When he arrives, the manager on duty immediately recognizes him.
"Wyatt!" He says, "we weren't expecting you until tomorrow. Eager to start working?".
"Ah... no" Wyatt says, "sorry, Jim. I just thought I'd swing by and meet the people here before I start working tomorrow".
"Oh, that's a great idea!" Jim says in excitement. "Come on! We can meet everyone! Hope you're comfortable being here for a while!".
As Wyatt was being dragged around the store, he thinks to himself "What have I done?". After a few hours of talking to everyone, while some of his coworkers start showing him stuff like how the cash register works, the bell on the door rings as someone walks through the door.
"Welcome!" The lady worker next to Wyatt, Amelia says. When Wyatt looks over, he saw that girl again. She no longer had the dress with her, and was still wearing ragged clothing. He could see a pouch, hanging from a strap over her left shoulder, on her right hip. Probably where she was keeping her sewing needles and thread. She walks in, staring at some coins in her hands, counting what little change she has. She seemed so focused and distraught, that she didn't even notice Amelia say "Welcome!". After counting, she looks up at the counter and asks "What all do you have to eat for 700 Centi?". Centi was this world's currency, and to roughly translate, would be about 7 dollars. After looking up and asking her question, she notices Wyatt. "Oh, it's you" she says, sounding embarrassed for meeting a familiar face. "Do you work here?".
"Ah, um... yes and no" Wyatt says. "I haven't started working here yet, I actually start tomorrow".
"I'm sorry for earlier" she says. After a while of thinking to herself, she says "I'll just leave".
"No wait!" Wyatt says. She freezes, and seemed a little scared. "It was my fault for bumping into you, I'm not angry. Don't worry, no big deal. If you're looking for something quick to eat, there's burritos for 450 Centi".
"That was some quick customer service" Amelia says. "However, if you've only got 700 and really want a meal, there is a deal on hotdogs".
"Hotdogs?" The girl asks.
"They're 500 Centi each" Amelia says, "but 700 for two. That way, you'd have more to eat... you look pretty hungry".
The girl looks down at the Centi in her hand and then looks up. Her stomach growls after a few seconds of thinking about food. Her face started to get red from embarrassment after. "Please?" She asks.
The girl hands over the 700 Centi and quietly takes the food and leaves. "You must be a natural at this" Amelia says. "If you're this polite to every customer, we're practically guaranteed to get more customers".
"Ah, not really" Wyatt says. "I'm just... trying to help I guess".
"Well, anyways" Amelia says, "it's already about nighttime. You should head home so you don't miss your first day of school. I'll help you learn as you start working after school".
"Alright" Wyatt says as he walks around the counter, towards the doors. "I'll see ya tomorrow then".
"Good luck on your first day" Amelia says.
Wyatt goes to his dorm and sleeps. Finally, the day arrived. Monday of August 19th, 2019. The first day of school. Wyatt wakes up in the morning and goes to his home room class. In this college, each class is assigned a single classroom. In that classroom, different teachers will show up during different periods to teach the different courses, while the students remain in the same room. When Wyatt sat in his classroom, there were a lot of students already spreading rumors about the school.
"The first laibah teacher teaches at this school!" One of the classmates would say.
"No way!" Someone else says.
"Yeah! I heard he's our first teacher of the day too!" One of the other classmates say.
"Our home room teacher!?" Someone replies. "Why's it gotta be us!? I'll bet he's terrible at his job!".
"No kidding" someone else says, "I heard he hates humans!".
Student after student entered the classroom. Most of them joining the conversation. Wyatt sat in the back of the class, avoiding his classmates. As Wyatt sat in the middle seat, in the very back of the room, someone else enters the room. A male student enters, and when he hears the other students in the front already spreading rumors of this laibah teacher, his face grows with discontent. He sits in the back of the room, on the far right side. Several seats away from Wyatt. Then a familiar face enters. It was that girl again, the one Wyatt bumped into the day before. She avoids making eye contact with everyone in the room, and makes her way to the seat on the far left of the back of the room. She was wearing what looked like a new school uniform, but it also looked like the uniform were made from pieces of older clothing, well stitched together. From what Wyatt could tell, based on her stitching that dress while walking down the road, she probably made it herself.
After a short while of waiting, the bell rings. Everyone takes their seat, and then the teacher enters. He was tall, short black hair, brown eyes and wore glasses. He walks up to the podium at the front of the room.
"Good morning" he says, "my name is Refus Maloney. I'll be your home room teacher this year". The classroom lit up with whispering immediately. "Quiet down" Refus says, "I know everyone's excited but-".
"Excited?" A girl in the front row scoffs, "for a laibah teacher!?".
"Yeah!" A man next to her says, "why's it gotta be our class? Why can't you go teach somewhere else?".
"Look..." Refus says, "yes, I'm a laibah. I know people say a lot of things about me that are untrue. Also, I did not choose this class, I was assigned to it. That does not mean I'm willing to give up on teaching my students here though. I'm serious about my job. I've always wanted to be a teacher, and I'm not giving up on my students even if they've already given up on me". Refus kept himself calmed and composed. The general impression of him would be that of a normal human with confidence and a sort if coolness to him. You couldn't have possibly been able to tell he was a laibah right off the bat. Someone would've had to tell the whole school about that. It seemed like a lot of people wanted to get rid of Refus for some reason, and it seemed kind of sad to Wyatt. Nonetheless, Wyatt kept to himself. He didn't want to make enemies on his first day of college. Most of the morning was filled with the louder students in the front rows, speaking ill of Refus without letting him teach anything today. Eventually, the bell rang, and Refus left quietly and full of disappointment. It was his first day on the job and he felt like he was already failing. After a couple lessons, there came a lunch break time. Most of the students paid for the food in the cafeteria and ate there. Wyatt, however, had packed some food that he ate on the rooftop of the school. He went there to be alone. He didn't feel like he could get along with anyone already. Everyone was either too loud, too bitter, or too quiet. When he ate on the rooftop, it was just him and his food and it made him feel at peace. Suddenly, the door from the stairs open up. That quiet male student that's in Wyatt's class comes to the rooftop as well. It was the same guy who also sat in the back, on the far right of the class. He paused for a second when he saw Wyatt, then walks to the other side of the rooftop and sits down to eat.
Wyatt looks up at the classmate and waves at him slightly. "Hey" Wyatt says.
"What?" He responds.
"Just... sayin' hi" Wyatt replies.
"Mission accomplished" he says as he starts eating his food.
There were several minutes of a long awkward silence before Wyatt asks "I'm Wyatt, and you are?".
"Jackson" he says. "Are we playing 20 Questions or something? Because I usually stop at question zero".
"But..." Wyatt says, "there is no... question zero".
"Then leave me alone" Jackson says.
So much for not making enemies on the first day. "Why is everyone here either so loud or so bitter?" Wyatt asks.
Jackson laughs and says "You tell me".
"Is it the laibah teacher?" Wyatt asks.
Just then, the door opens again. That one girl was walking onto the rooftop as well, but notices Wyatt. She immediately turns around and the door closes behind her. Wyatt's head hangs in defeat. "She hates me, doesn't she?" Wyatt asks himself.
"Well, did something happen between you two?" Jackson asks.
"We..." Wyatt says, "bumped into each other last night on the streets".
"Were you not looking where you were going?" Jackson asks.
"No" Wyatt says.
"Then it's your fault..." Jackson says as he goes back to eating.
"Yeah" Wyatt says, "thanks jackass... like I didn't already know that".
"Glad I could help" Jackson says.
Wyatt sighs to himself and says "Today is gonna to be a long day".
While heading back to class, after lunch, Wyatt runs into that girl again. He stops her right outside of class and says "Sorry I bumped into you last night, you don't hate me do you?". The girl silently shakes her head 'No' in response. "My name is Wyatt Bogan" Wyatt says, "what's yours?".
"Emma" she says. "Emma Frey".
"Nice to meet you" Wyatt says as he holds out his hand for a handshake. Emma ignores his handshake and turns around to find her seat again. Wyatt sighs again and says "Maybe she really does hate me...".
After school ended, Wyatt stops by his dorm to leave his school stuff at home. When he begins to leave the campus for work, he sees Emma walking alone. Wyatt chooses not to try and force her to talk with him, since it seemed like she really didn't want to talk with him. He walks down the street towards Out & About. However, sure enough, down the road was Emma walking. She was walking away from him this time and not towards him. However, the direction she was walking leads only outside of town towards the woods. There wasn't anything there to do really, unless you just want to go see all of the trees. However, as strange as it seemed to Wyatt, he kept walking towards Out & About. Wyatt starts work, but the entire time, he couldn't get Emma out of his mind. It was like Wyatt knew something was off about her, or that something was wrong. He didn't know what, so he tried to put it off of his mind. When Wyatt finishes work, late at night, he begins walking towards the college. On his way, he passes a clothing store, and outside of the clothing store was Emma. She was sitting on the street, leaning against a wall and sleeping. She was holding another dress, but she seemed to be using that as a blanket. As Wyatt walks up to her, she wakes up in a panic.
"Are you alright?" Wyatt asks. Emma seemed a little too scared to answer, and now embarrassed that one of her classmates had seen her like this. After a short moment of silence, Emma's stomach growls again. "Are you... hungry?" Wyatt asks. Emma nods her head lightly, feeling embarrassed. "I can get some food if you want" Wyatt says.
"Oh no!" Emma says, "I couldn't... I mean- I don't want to... I can't ask for-".
"Don't worry about it" Wyatt says, "consider it my apology. Besides, I've got a job. I'll get more money soon".
Emma hesitates for a long while but eventually says "Okay" quietly and stands up. With her left hand, she grabs onto the back of Wyatt's shirt and follows him back to Out & About. Emma holding onto Wyatt's shirt seemed strange at first to Wyatt, but he figured if it makes her more comfortable, then it's fine. Eventually, they reach the convenience store called Out & About. When there, Wyatt buys them both food so she won't feel uncomfortable for being the only one eating.
While eating, Wyatt asks "Where do you live?". Emma stops eating and freezes for a moment. "You were just sitting on the streets" Wyatt adds, "do you need someone to escort you home?".
Emma swallows her food and says "I don't... live anywhere".
"Anywhere?" Wyatt asks. "Are you homeless?".
"Well, I mean-" Emma says, "I live in the... forest... over there". Emma then points south-west, towards the forest outside of town, "but I..." Emma continues, "don't have a home there".
"You couldn't get a dorm at the college?" Wyatt asks. Emma once again shakes her head 'No'. "Want to stay at my place?" Wyatt asks. Emma jumps with such a surprise that she begins to choke on her food. "W-What I mean is..." Wyatt clarifies, "if you don't have anywhere to go. I don't want to just leave people on the streets like that. I live in one of the dorms in the college, but they never assigned another student to my room... so there's space there if you want a place to sleep".
Emma swallows her food after pounding in her own chest for a while. After that she asks "But isn't that- I mean... is that... okay to do? What if we're... well... I mean, as long as you don't mind".
"Well, it is a boys dorm" Wyatt says, "so I'd have to sneak you in, but that shouldn't be too hard. All the other students are always so caught up in their bitterness, I'm sure it'll be easy enough to do".
"S-s-sure" Emma says. "I hope it's not... a burden to you".
"Don't worry about that" Wyatt says. "By the way, I saw you stitching up that dress, and then you were waiting outside a clothing store... what have you been doing?".
"I'm a..." Emma says, "a clothier... kind of. I make clothes, like my uniform, but it's more of a hobby of mine. Sometimes I sell my clothes to the people at that store to buy food".
"And that's why you're always so hungry?" Wyatt asks. "Is that also why you were worried about that dress having a tear in the sleeve?".
Emma nods and says "it won't sell if it's already ripped up before being worn".
After a little while of talking, Wyatt and Emma walk back to the college. While walking, Emma thought she heard something rattling near them. Then suddenly, a loud squeak as a rat jumped out from behind a trash can. Emma jumped and stopped walking. When she got scared, a fox tail and fox ears popped out of her. When Wyatt noticed she stopped, he turned around.
"You alright?" He asks.
"Y-Yeah!" Emma says, folding her fox ears back and covering her tail with her hands. She was looking up, pretending to take deep breaths. What she was really doing was making sure Wyatt didn't see her ears.
"Oh, it's just a rat" Wyatt says as he laughs. "Did he give you a jump scare?".
"Yeah" Emma says, "jumped right out in front of me". Emma starts laughing nervously and says "Come on, let's get out of here already".
Wyatt turns back around and begins walking again as he says "Alright".
As Emma shapeshifts back into her human form, she whispers to herself "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! This is your one chance at having a home for the first time in a year, don't let him know you're a laibah!".
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