A Misfit

Mixed Signals

Point of view:

Tyler Baile

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” I heard the professor scream at Dr. Andrews.  

“Justin you will do well to not holler in my office or so help me I will restrict you from your next change!” 

“You cannot put that seventeen year old through that much pain on a weekly basis and you know it!” He said loudly.  

“Justin let’s face the facts if this had been any other student would you be this upset?”  

“What are you talking about?” He asked. 

“Justin are you in love with Mr. Baile?”  

“Where on God’s green earth did that freaking come from?”  

“I saw the way you held him and reacted when he was in pain. The look upon your face told it all. You care for him more than the rest of the student population. Tell me I am wrong.” Dr. Andrews said. I held my breath as listened for his answer. Minutes could have passed heck years could have passed before Mr. Thyro spoke again. 

“Yes I care about more than the rest but that doesn’t me I am in love with the student. I worry about him because I just do.” He said.  

“You know if someone where to find out you could be terminated.” 

“I do not love him I just cared about his safety is that truly wrong?”  

“None what so ever, but Justin just promise me you won’t have any other feeling for the boy.” It was then that I heard footsteps coming to the doorway and I took off in a sprint.  

“What is wrong with people in this school,” I said as I ran out of the building into the courtyard. What happened in that freaking session? God why couldn’t I remember. I thought back to last memory and it involved some stupid watch, and then it is blank until I woke up in Justin’s arms…Whoa! Justin? I mean Mr. Thyro. My head was hurting and now the world seemed too bright and I think the ground was spinning.  

“Hey you okay?” Mr. Thyro asked as he tapped me on the shoulder.  

“I don’t understand,” I said breathlessly, “seriously. I am having a hard time remember and even harder time trying to fit in. And now…” I said as I start stumbling, “I am just done.”  

“Tyler?” he said as he reached out to catch me.  

“Mr. Thyro I just need to lie down, the world is spinning to fast.”  

“Okay,” He said picking me up into his arms, “and Tyler call me Justin.”  

“I can’t.” I said as I rested my head on his shoulder. 

“Why,” He asked as he carried me to Laney Hall. 

“’Cause I’m afraid I’d fall for you,” I whispered. 

“What was that?” He asked me. 

“I mean the whole school regulations between students and teachers.” Mr. Thyro just nodded as he knocked on my door. 

“I wonder if that would be so bad,” He said as we waited for Clayton to open the door. 

“Wonder what?”  

“Falling.” I sat up in his arms and looked at him in the eyes. It was at that moment that Clayton decided to open the door. 

“What happened?” Clayton asked as he took me from Mr. Thyro.  

“He had a rough session with the doctor today.” Mr. Thyro said for me. Clayton carried me to the bed.  

“Who you mean fake Dr. Andrews who has no idea how to approach a teenager let alone another person?” 

“Uh yes?”  

“Thanks, Justin,” I said as I stared at him as he stared back at me.  

“Hey you just get some rest okay? I’ll check up on you tomorrow after class okay?” He said walking over to my bedside. 

“Okay night,” I said quietly. “Clayton you watch him until he fast asleep and if he says anything in his sleep within the first thirty minutes you write it down. Alright?”  

“Yes sir, good night Professor Thyro.” Clayton closed and with that I took that as my cue to finally pass out.  

The next morning began just as the rest. Woke up, showered, grabbed a protein bar and headed off to class with Donavan who’d smoke a cigarette. My classes were routine write notes, type up an essay, perform an experiment, train students in self-defense eat and dance until I bleed. When classes were done I walked over to the music department to do my check up with Mr. Thyro. When I walked into the studio it was empty and quiet. I made my way down the stairs to the ground floor to and waited. I looked around the room and saw many instruments and the black grand piano caught my eyes. I walked slowly and cautiously over to the piano.  

“She’s beautiful isn’t she?” I jumped and dropped my bag. “Sorry didn’t mean to scare you Tyler,” Mr. Thyro said as he came into my view from the office on top of the stair case.  

“No it’s okay Mr. Thyro I shouldn’t have been snooping.” I chuckled as I scratched the back of my head.  

“Tyler I thought we agreed that you could call me by my first name.” 

“Right well Justin I’m here to do that checkup.” I said as I sat down on the piano bench.  

“So have you bled or black out today?” Justin asked pulling up a chair.  

“No, but it seemed as if the day just went by. What about you?” I asked as I spun toward the piano.  

“I’m good. Do you play?” He asked as he got up. 

“I don’t know,” I said as I let my fingers feel the smooth keys.  

“Well try,” He said as he placed sheet music in front of me.  

“It just looks like dots to be honest.” I said as I continued to look at it.  

“Well then,” Justin said sitting next to me, “just play what feels natural think of a song and start playing what you feel the notes are.” I sighed and started playing what I thought sounded like If I ain’t go you. “You’re doing great,” he whispered.  

“Some people want it all, but I don't want nothing at all if it ain't you, baby. If I ain't got you, baby. Some people want diamond rings some just want everything, but everything means nothing, if I ain't got you, yeah.” I sang along with the piano. I hummed a small scale and my fingers slipped away from the piano.  

“Wow,” Justin said as he looked at me. “Someone’s got a voice. Why are you not in my class again?” He asked leaning in.  

“I’m in dance,” I blushed as I looked down at my feet. “I’m not the greatest but I am learning as I go.” Justin gripped me by the chin gently and looked me in the eyes and said as you do to a lover 

“You are so talented, don’t doubt yourself.” I was one hundred percent sure when he looked at me like that I blushed and leaned into him. “Hey well I have to go um…” Justin coughed which I took the hint, “I have to go grade some papers. Same time tomorrow?”  

 “Yeah,” I said to quickly as I stood up scooted the bench as I did. I winced at the shooting pain in my legs from dance and the sudden movement.  

“You okay?”  

“Yeah I am just sore,” I said as I grabbed my backpack and hurried away to Laney Hall. The entire way back to the school I kept thinking about Dr. Andrews’ and Justin’s conversation that I just so happened to eavesdropped on. Does Justin actually like me like that? If so how do I react to that? Yea he is totes gorgeous and smells so darn good, but what do I really know about him? I have his file…no I want him to tell me about him. 

“Don’t think too hard little one,” Donavan said as he leapt from his perch in the trees.  

“Jesus Don you scared me,” I said as I clutched my chest. “Never sneak up on a guy when he is lost in his thoughts.” I chided him as he walked me home.  

“So any big plans tonight?” He asked me as we walked up to my room. 

“Well depends if Anastasia has anything for me to do. Why?” I asked him. 

“Well a few friends of mine were going to hang out and watch some action movies. They were wondering if you would come too.” He said as he sheepishly rubbed his new five o’clock shadow.  

“Your friends?” I asked as I c****d one eyebrow. 

“Well maybe not all of them or any of them, but I was wondering if we could you know hang Clayton will probs be there so why not his roomie?” He said shakily. 

“Okay Don, if I can make I’ll text you and let you know that I can or can’t okay?” I said with a smile.  

“Great!” Donavan said brightly before heading to his room down the hall. I turned away and entered mine and Clayton’s room before going to meet up with Anastasia. My mind kept thinking about why Donavan would actually want to bring me around his regular friends but kept getting distracted how cute and funny he was. As I exited the hall I saw Brock walk up to me still holding his jaw where his teeth were removed.  

“Hey Brock,” I said sheepishly as I walked up to him. 

“Hey Tyler, how are classes going for you?” He asked sincerely.  

“Great and sorry about your mouth,” I said as jerk my chin toward it. 

“No worries it’s just some dental work. The dentist said I should have flossed better. Why are you even apologizing it’s not like you pulled them out?” Brock stopped to actually laugh and I joined in with a nervous chuckle, “see you later in class.” He said as he walked to his room. I stood there dumbfounded and my doubts the talisman were abolished. I started up the stairs taking three at a time and jogged down to Anastasia’s room. Evelyn opened up excited to see me and let me through. 

“Have you seen Anastasia?” I asked her.  

“Yeah she is on the balcony. Why what’s wrong,” She asked as she followed me to the balcony. 

“An okay get this, I had my doubts about the talisman but Brock just confirmed them. I went to go apologize but he went on and on about how it was dental work and flossing. He was different! He wasn’t mad at me or the world for that matter, he was sweet and kind.”  

Anastasia stood up from her chair and passed me her note book. “It’s worse than I thought,” She said as she walked to the wardrobe. She opened the doors and there was a large map of the campus and covered in push pins.  

“That’s insane,” Clayton said from the doorway.  

“It’s where the talismans might be or have been before.” Anastasia chastised him.  

“They have been before?” Evelyn asked as she looked at it. “So they have been moved before? Why?”  

“I had the same question and I found the answer,” Anastasia said as she went to her desk and pulled out a musty book. “We are not the first people to look for them,” She said as she showed an old parchment of paper. “This record file reports all known locations that have been since the school opened in 1923, they were originally set at the cardinal directions north and south but one was found and so they had to move them. From there is goes into a long list of places it has been moved. They’ve been moved eighty three times.”  

“So if eighty-three attempts have been made what makes you think the eighty fourth time will work?” Clayton asked dryly, clearly still full of doubt in this manner.  

“Because we basically have the entire talisman represented. A witch and,” Anastasia said pointing to Clayton, “a fairy,” She nodded to Evelyn, “and a hybrid. All we are missing is the werewolf, and for your information only they’ve only been hunted like five times since they were discovered,” She finished by hugging me with her free arm.  

“Okay so my question is this,” Clayton asked sitting on Evelyn’s bed. “Do they both have to be dispelled at once?” Anastasia’s smiled faded.  

“That’s just it, I don’t know,” She said grimly as she looked back to the map.  

“Okay,” I said going back to her notes. “I think we should start with the witch talisman, the Pimelea plant.” I said looking to Clayton. 

“Can’t you just do it?” He asked him, “I mean you are a witch too.”  

“Won’t work.” Anastasia and I said together. 

“Why not.” 

“We need a pure bred witch, Clayton. You are one of the purest here. You of all people should know something like this would take purity,” Evelyn said for Tyler.  

“Yeah she is right. I’m only half.” I shrugged my shoulders.  

“But it is going to be really hard,” He whined.  

“No Clay, it is not.” Anastasia chipped in.  

“Ugh, I so hate this day. How am I supposed to despell it?”  

“That’s where this comes into play,” Evelyn said as she tossed Clayton a small burlap sack. “Here are some herbs to help calm yourself and a spell book to help with breaking enchantments.” Clayton and I just gave her the weirdest look ever. 

“So you keep weed and a magic book under your bed?” I asked slowly.  

“God no it’s lavender and the book is from the library. Anastasia asked me to keep there.” She said rolling her eyes. Feeling like an ass, I shut my mouth and picked up some of the books and sorted them.  

“When should we start searching for the plant thingy,” Clayton asked as he looked through the book.  

“I was hoping we could start searching tonight but I think we should wait until you have a spell picked out that should despell it.” Anastasia said as she flipped through a book with more maps.  

“Why is this page missing?” We all turned to Clayton, but we didn’t see a missing page.  

“What are you talking about Clayton?” Evelyn asked.  

“This page just jumps from 59 to 63. We all looked closer and I finally saw the hints.  

“No seriously there is no pages missing.” Anastasia said.  

“No guys there really are pages missing,” I said. Now the girls turned to me thought I had lost some of common sense. “Oh wait no they aren’t,” I said as I saw page 60. “Wait no it’s gone, god this is frustrating.”  

“Ladies and gentleman I think we found the spell,” Evelyn said as snatched the book away from Clayton.  

“What are you talking about,” Clayton asked scratching the back of his head.  

“It’s glamoured against witches from seeing it,” Evelyn said as she wrote down the Latin title. I walked next to Clayton and looked down with him at Evelyn as she wrote down the alchemy formulas. She flipped the invisible page and sketched down the plant and wrote the incantation spell.  

“That shouldn’t be too hard to remember,” She said as she flipped the last page and scribbled down the last of the information. “Here you go,” She said as she finally looked up. “Whoa you two look a lot alike.”  

Clayton and I looked at each other and shrugged. We didn’t see it but whatever.  

“Great so how long will it take you to remember the spell?” Anastasia asked him.  

“Two hours tops, but the potion is going to take three weeks to make enough for all of us,” He said as he read everything.  

“Great so in two weeks we shall being the search.” Evelyn said cheerily. 

“Question,” I said as they were about to leave. “Where do we start looking? Oh and what if we get caught during the ritual?” I asked them. 

“While Clayton makes the potion the three of us are going to learn how to read maps. As for the second part hope no one sees us or we will be in deep sh-” 

“Anastasia!” Evelyn cut her off.  

“What I’m being honest,” She shrugged. I sighed inwardly as I thought of all the things that could go wrong. I walked onto the balcony and watched the world carry on. I leaned on the ledge and watched as the sun began to dip behind the mountain.  

“Hey,” Clayton said closing the balcony doors. 

“Hey,” I said looking over my shoulder to him. He sighed loudly as he leaned on the ledge next to me.  

“What are you doing?” He asked me as he followed my gaze. 

“Reliving a moment I have everywhere I’ve been.” I said taking my gaze off the sunset.  

“Oh,” He said politely.  

“Do you ever just feel so alone and the world is trying to drown you?”  

“Yeah once in a while,” Clayton said looking down at the ledge. 

“It’s been almost ten months since their deaths,” I said quietly. Clayton gave a small grunt and patted me on the shoulder. “In six days don’t be surprised if I am silent or unusual.”  

“I completely understand. I’ve lost count for how many months it’s been since I lost my parents and little brother in a terrorist attack.” Clayton said taking away his hand.  

“I’m sorry,” I said. I could only imagine the pain he must feel losing not only his parents but his little brother. According to his record he lost those months before I lost mine. “Come on, let’s go over to Don’s for the movie,” I said pulling him away from the ledge. We walked back into the girls’ room and found them with Anastasia’s chest of mass weaponry.  

“Who did we just declare war on?” I joked with them. 

“Ana is going to train us with these so in the event we do get caught we can get out of it!” Evelyn said as she pointed a crossbow pillow.  

“Just don’t shoot your eye out,” I said as we left their room. Clayton laughed as we made our way down the hall making me smile.