It was the most terrifying thing Derek had ever done, stepping into school the very next day. Thankfully, it was Friday, which meant he had the long weekend with no school Monday. Then it was homecoming week. He’d be staying longer at school, being president of the CCNC club and being in drama. They had so many after-school activities planned for homecoming. All of which Mr. Stower would attend. With Akshi.

Derek tried not to panic. Tyler was already on his way to Elmwood with the story that he would spend the long weekend helping his empty nester parents with some projects. Tyler had Monday off, too. And yes, Derek had no doubt Tyler’s parents would take advantage of him being home. At least Derek had a meeting planned at his house to go over what needed to be done. Now that Akshi was here.

Here.

At Elmwood High.

“Derek!”

He turned to see Nick walking up to him with a glare on his face. It meant they were going to talk about Walt somehow. “Hey. So, I’m only allowed to go on Saturday. My dad is curious why we’ve gone from months between CCNC sessions to now every weekend during school. As much as it sucks, I need to know which meeting is mandatory.”

Derek nodded, glancing around at the students, checking their eyes. All of their pupils were black. He didn’t know why he assumed they’d all be green from Akshi’s charm. The nightmare he had last night didn’t help. All the students turning as one with green eyes. It was freaky.

“I don’t even know how safe it is to wander around town looking for monsters to fight anymore,” Derek said.

Nick winced. “Yeah, I know. Especially with Grizzizzik.”

Derek didn’t look at his friend, instead made sure everyone had normal color eyes. “Did you tell your rogue yet?”

“Hell no,” Nick said. “Did you tell Milo?”

“It… sort of came out,” Derek said. After a pretty terrible panic attack once I was done describing everything to Tyler yesterday after school.

“That makes sense.” Nick brushed his fingers over the scar on his eyebrow. “So far Clarissa doesn’t know either, because we’re not sure if she could keep it quiet around Grizzizzik.”

“He’s going to find out. There’s no way he can ignore this,” Derek said.

“I know.” Nick sounded so defeated.

“Preferably tell him before we attack any more monsters, considering the stunt he pulled jumping out of my van last week.”

Nick winced. “Sorry about that.”

“Goddammed rogues,” Derek muttered again.

There was silence between the two of them, both lost in thought. Derek didn’t know Nick’s thoughts, but he kept his gaze on the student body, going over what he learned about the magic spells. Charm person would give someone a color to their pupils, unless the person didn’t want them to know they were being charmed. Akshi might not be powerful enough to hide his charm, especially with such a large group. He also had detect thought, but it would be nearly impossible to figure out if Akshi could use that on anyone. Judging from Mr. Stower’s actions yesterday, Akshi was getting quite powerful with charm person. It might even turn into dominate person. Mr. Stower might start randomly throwing punches at the student body.

The bell rang, causing both of them to jump. Nick covered his face, groaning. “I hate this so much.”

“It’s Friday. We have a long weekend ahead of us.” Derek said it in a way that he was trying to convince himself.

Nick gave a noncommittal nod. “I’ll see you… tomorrow. Possibly.” Nick did little more than run his hand through his hair as he melted into the hallway with the other students. Derek sighed, heading for his locker to drop his books off. Milo had been taking a lot of interest in history and biology of Earth, and he’d been reading through his textbooks like Ezekiel with fiction. He never figured out what book Ezekiel was on now.

Derek slipped into his seat in AP Biology, right as Mr. Anderson came out of his office with everyone’s homework. Derek was going to have a hard time concentrating today, so it was a mental effort to force his brain to be in a school mode.

Mr. Anderson began his lecture right at the bell, and Derek focused on his job as a student. He ignored the little sounds in the hall. Refused to let his mind think up the worst possible scenario while seeing every shadow. Derek wrote down notes, forced his mind back on the subject whenever it wandered. He could do this. He could keep a calm composure at the sound of footsteps in the hall.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Which was weird when, ten minutes before the end of class, Mr. Anderson paused his lightning fast lecture speed. His fingers hesitated at the whiteboard, and he sighed, grabbed the lid of the black marker, snapping it back on.

“Look, um… we’re ahead of schedule, actually. Take the rest of the ten minutes and work on the homework for the day,” Mr. Anderson said, placing the marker on the whiteboard.

It was so incredibly weird that no one moved, waiting for the real reason. They were in advanced placement biology. It was often speculated that Mr. Anderson would never stop lectures before the bell unless it was a life-or-death situation.

Mr. Anderson looked at the group. “Go ahead. It’s a Friday. Use this while you can. I won’t promise it another time.”

That was all Oskar needed. He shrugged, pulling out homework from another class he most likely forgot about yesterday. Once Oskar did, the rest of them did, too. Mr. Anderson stared at Derek, then made a motion with his head. The student part of Derek’s mind completely broke down, and panic mode entered. He honestly didn’t know if this was for him being a student or because of his request to have Milo work in his lab. Either way, panic returned.

Derek got up from his desk, holding his AP bio textbook. He needed some sort of lie if anyone asked. Derek walked up to the table, feeling nervous. Mr. Anderson was rubbing the bridge of his nose, not even looking at him.

“I have…” Mr. Anderson dug his fingers deeper into his skin before dropping his hand on the table. He then looked at the other students, who were doing exactly what he asked, some of them quietly whispering. Some of them even started chuckling before looking at Mr. Anderson with a nervous expression. “I need to talk to you about your homework. In my office.”

“Yes, sir,” Derek said.

They walked into Mr. Anderson’s office. He entered first, leaving the door wide open. Derek leaned against the doorway, watching his science teacher, who looked deeply uncomfortable. He folded his arms, looking at the door. “Who is the snake man?”

“Shit, you see him too?” Derek asked.

Mr. Anderson still didn’t look at Derek. “Of course I’ve seen him. I’ve seen a few obnoxious little creatures ever since I saw your…”

“We can call him my cousin if it makes you feel better.”

Mr. Anderson shook his head. He took a deep breath, then let out a sigh. “Alright, look. I still don’t want to know what you’re doing. But… but I liked Bob.”

“Bob?” Derek asked.

“Robert Stower. The vice principal.”

Derek couldn’t help it and crinkled his nose. “You liked Mr. Stower?” The vice principal always seemed like he was doing a little too much to gain the favor of students, which was creepy now that Akshi was controlling him.

Mr. Anderson shrugged. “The guy leaves me alone to teach my stuff. I appreciate that in a person.” If it wasn’t such a serious situation, Derek would have laughed.

“You’ve… seen more than Akshi?”

“I’m assuming Akshi is the snake man?” Derek nodded as Mr. Anderson kept his arms folded, staring at the wall. “I have absolutely no idea what you’ve done to suck all these people into this world, and I still don’t want to hear the sob story. But…” Mr. Anderson scrubbed his fingers across his chin. “But I’ve got a feeling many people’s lives are in danger. And…” Mr. Anderson let out a groan, then he spoke, sounding like it took every ounce of his mental capacity to say the words. “Your… cousin… may… use… the school’s lab.”

For the first time since he saw Akshi, Derek felt a bit of hope. “Wait, really? Seriously?”

“Shh!” Mr. Anderson said, looking far more distressed. “Your cousin can’t be seen by anyone. This arrangement is for as long as the Akshi guy is in control of Bob. And for the love of god, please don’t let him blow up my lab.”

“Oh, don’t worry Mr. Anderson. He’s blown up my mom’s kitchen a few times, but she can’t tell, and everything magically goes back into place, anyway. It’s wild.”

Mr. Anderson tore his gaze from the wall to give Derek a look of pure terror. “What?”

The small smile that had formed on Derek’s face while he was talking to Mr. Anderson dropped. “Um… things magically go back to place afterwards. That’s… that’s the important takeaway here.” Derek patted Mr. Anderson’s shoulder, who still looked at Derek with terror. “So, um… thanks.”

Derek moved to leave, when Mr. Anderson held out a hand. Derek was terrified he’d messed everything up, and he clawed at his mind for something to remind his teacher about the life-or-death situation they were in. Mr. Anderson sighed again. “There are no cameras in the lab. We don’t have the budget for it. There are cameras outside it, though. And Mr. Stower is responsible for monitoring the cameras. I don’t know how you’ll do it, and I don’t want to. If you need to use it during school time—” Mr. Anderson closed his eyes, looking like he’d aged ten years, “—I guarantee your snake enemy will hear an explosion.”

Derek nodded. “Have you seen Akshi before yesterday?”

Mr. Anderson shook his head. “I’ll stress that I want to be as little involved in this as possible. You get my lab, and I’m letting you have it. Whatever else this is, I’m not interested.”

Derek did not want to press his luck, but he had to say this, anyway. “Mr. Anderson, you’re one of the few people who see these things. We could really use your help.”

Mr. Anderson closed his eyes and shook his head. “This is the extent of the help I’m willing to give. I’ve learned to ignore the demon rats rooting through my trash every night—”

“Sorry, the what?”

“—so I’m going to choose to ignore everything else. I’m doing this to help a friend.” Mr. Anderson paused, then shrugged. “I’m choosing to help a colleague who happens to be a pretty okay guy.”

Derek blinked. “Because he doesn’t interfere in your life?”

Mr. Anderson gave Derek a look. “He’s way more friendly now than ever before, asking questions about my life, and I desperately need things to go back to the way they were.”

“Are you… hiding something, Mr. Anderson?” Derek asked, knowing he’d regret it.

“No. I’m simply an introvert, failing many times to explain to an extrovert why I enjoy living a quieter life.”

Derek had to physically work on keeping a smile from his face as he gave a nod. “Alright, well. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. I promise you won’t regret this.”

Mr. Anderson shook his head. “I already do.”