A Misfit

Extra Work

Point of View:

Tyler Baile

It was nice to have a guy friend. I had never had one before. Clayton didn’t fear me being attracted to him, whom I found him very, and he treated me like a brother. I was glad that when he brought me over to Donavan’s and stood up for me when his other friends looked at me like I was going to r**e them. I felt out of place in the group of jocks as they talked about sport teams, girls, and their lives at home.  

“So,” Donavan said trying to include me in the subject, “what are you going to do for the holidays?”  

“Huh?” I asked snapping out of my internal monologue.  

“What are you doing for the holidays?” Chase one of his friends repeated. 

“Oh, I don’t know probably stay here with Anastasia,” I said twiddling my thumbs. 

“Why?” Jake asked as he munched on his fifth slice of pizza. 

“I don’t have any living relatives,” I said as I reached for another slice of pizza. Silence ruled the room for a few moments until it got too awkward even for me, “Okay enough about my depressing life and watch someone else’s,” I said as picked up one of the four movies Don picked out. “Okay no,” I said putting down twilight. “No,” I said moving aside snow white and the huntsman. “Ugh snooze, then again I saw it in French,” I said as I moved dead silence away. “Promising,” I said held onto Dracula untold.  

 “Okay,” They said confused.  

“Not to be a d**k but don’t you have anything with more gore and blood?”  

“Of course but,” Jake shut up as he got a glance from Donavan.  

“Bring em out. Just because I am gay doesn’t mean I don’t like horror films. God how would I be able to call myself American?” I said setting the movie down.  

“That’s what I said!” Chase announced and everyone but me shot him a shut up look. Out of the silence I started laughing at them all. “What?”  

“Oh I just think how cute it is how guys tried to watch cutesy movies for me,” I said as I picked at the dirt under my finger. All four guys got up and rushed to the horror film stash. I smiled as the boys fought over which is better as a serial killer, Billy Loomis from Scream or Jason from Friday the 13th. From there the night was normal as it could get. Donavan sat next to me and talked with me instead of watching the movies. Clayton picked on both Jake and Chase and they poked back. It was nice to feel like a normal person and not some unknown freak show. I mean hello I am a gay teen hybrid witch that has a criminal record longer than the united states boarders makes it hard to fit in, anywhere.  

When the night was done Chase actually invited me back next week and Jake backed him up. I told them a maybe because it depends on any homework I have to do, but I figured around that time Anastasia and I will be scouting out in the forest as Evelyn stayed back and navigated more maps and mark hot spots. I was correct sadly, after that night Anastasia had helped me do my homework before we would head out. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Clayton and I would stay up and work on making the potions to protect us and guide us.  

Eventually I convinced Anastasia to do scouting on Fridays, and I got my Wednesday movie nights after bringing it to her attention. Soon after that it became a routine and life felt normal.   

“I’ve noticed you are feeling more contempt here,” Dr. Andrews said to me as our daily meeting came to an ending.  

“I feel normal most days,” I said standing up to grab my bag. “I used to feel like I was some kind of alien but now not so much. I’m getting A’s in all my classes, I’ve made somewhat normal friends, I can sleep better, and I’m even going to start helping another student in Alchemy.” I said as I headed to the door.  

“You know Tyler if you keep up this positive attitude and productivity you won’t need to see me. I estimate that if you keep going down this path in a month or so we can down once a month meeting that is if you’d like?” Dr. Andrews said as he looked up from his notepad.  

“That’d be great I’ll see you tomorrow.” I took my leave and headed straight over to the Alchemy lab to start helping Brock with our new assignment. I started up the stairs up to the lab when my phone beeped from a text.  

Ty we may have found the area where the Pimelea is located! Call Anastasia ASAP!  -E 

“Sweet,” I said as I finished my climb. “Hey,” I said to Brock as I entered from the side door. He swiveled in his chair and smiled at me.  

“Hey you ready to make potions?” Brock asked excitedly as he had all the components for our project.  

“Yeah I am,” I said as I pulled out the requirement sheet. “Okay so we need to create potions that can be used in an emergency, healing, and one for every day uses.” I said as I read through the list.  

“Any extra credit, I need some to help raise my C+ to a B,” Brock stated as he looked at the sheet.  

“No, it just says that the better the potion the higher the grade. If we create the three with all the requirements it will come to a total of 89 points but if we add an agent to either help make it last longer or make something completely original the points can reach to 103 points.” I said looking up from the paper.  

“Okay so let’s get started, I recall from class that we need wormwart, wolf’s bane which you will handle, vampire blood, sage, thyme, mortal’s hair, and cobalt.”  

“Don’t forget the lavender, it’s a calming agent,” I reminded him as I plucked it from the cabinet.  

“Of course,” He said as he grabbed the list, “Also we need copper, sweet grass and heat.” 

“So let’s put our heads together,” I said setting down copper shavings, lavender and sweet grass down on the table.  

“Obviously for the healing potion we should as the vampire blood and lavender. The lavender with counteract the crash the blood gives off.” Brock said as he wrote out a list with the title labeled Healing Potion.  

“Cobalt helps boost strength,” I said thinking aloud. “We could add lithium into the mix to help ease the pain and make the person feel bubbly. Though lithium is an addictive drug what could counter act to make it less addictive?” I said as adding Lithium into the formula.  

“You could add essence of bog for taste,” Brock said sliding the vile over to me. “Now the question is how much of all of the items do we use to make it?  

“Let’s figure that after we decide what goes into the other potions first,” I said as I took out two more papers.  

“Good then we make them,” Brock said as he started brainstorming.    

**** 

“Add 2/5 teaspoons of the cobalt into mixture and if we are right it should turn a bright blue,” I told Brock as he poured in the cobalt into the healing potion. I held my breath as the last of the powder melted into the red liquid. I picked the vile and swished the potion in the vile and prayed it didn’t explode. I heard Brock sigh as the mixture turned blue.  

“We did!” He announced as he put a check mark on the list.  

“We still have to test it,” I commented as I pulled out my wand.  

“Okay what are you going to do?” He asked looking at me. 

“I’m a bleeder so if I do a spell I’ll get a cut,” I said as I focused on a window, “Abeita.” Every window and desk drawers in the room opened instantly.  

“Cool,” He said as looked at my arm as two small gashes appearing on my forearm. “Here you go,” Brock said as he handed me the potion.  

“Here goes nothing,” I said as I pressed the vile to my lips. I titled back my head so only a small fraction of the potion would come out of the bottle. I gagged as the essence of bog assaulted my taste buds. Brock took the vile from me, capped it and set it down on the counter top. I raced over to the trash and tried vomit but the formal was already being absorbed.  

“Holy jez!” Brock said as the blood seeped back into the wound and closed itself.  

“It works wonderfully but tastes worse than I imagined,” I said as I looked down at my arm and back to Brock.  

“The healing potion is done,” He said as he moved onto the everyday potion, “this one is for me,” He said picking up the instant shave. Brock is known for growing a 5 o’clock shadow an hour after shaving. In the spirit of today he hadn’t shaved in three days and had a very nice gruff shadow growing from his side burns to his clef chin. I carried the trash over to him as he sipped on the pink substance. He step it down with ease and look to the mirror and we watched as the hair on his face fall off.  

“Two down want to try the third?” I asked him as the third bottle looked at us unsettling.  Brock went to answer but his voice was lost in the cry of the sirens. “What’s that?” I yelled over the sirens as Brock went out into the hall. 

“It’s something major, they have the fire alarms going off as well,” Brock yelled from the hall. Brock and I rushed out into courtyard hoping to figure out what was going on. We reached the stair case when the ground shook and screams filled the air. “Ty go get the potion!” Brock ordered as we turned around. I ran into the Alchemy lab as Brock headed for the Fire exit. I snatched the emergency bottle and the healing potions and followed Brock down the fire escape.  

I gripped the edge of the rails as the ground shook and more screams wailed out. “What the heck is going on?” I yelled as Brock jumped down the last flight. He waited for me to get closer but I didn’t wait for him. When my feet hit the ground I took off in a sprint toward the screams.