Chapter 2
Observation Notes by Bartholomew H. Allen, High School years summary (sort of):
It took me a while to really wrap my head around my familiar being able to touch things around me and have others see it too. We didn’t even start testing it out really until the bullying from Tony got to the point that I was getting in trouble to actually skipping school. Joe was really upset with that phone call from the office.
When we did start testing, it was because Tony had me shoved against the lockers, again, just after the bell so no teachers were out to see, and I reached out with one hand to burry it in Nor’s ruff (He’s decided he’s a he for now and he would like a name, but Nor’easter is too long, so he has very kindly agreed to Nor..for now. Nor’easter’s are pretty fascinating actually. THey’re these micro-scale cyclones that occur along the upper East Coast of the US and Atlantic Canada. They get their name because the strongest winds are going counter clockwise from the off-shore air masses and that has them travel from the northeast to the south west over…what? Right, sorry, rambling again. Nor, remind me to delete this later.) as I listen to Tony start in on picking on me.
It doesn’t even take a moment before Nor reaches up and places a paw on Tony’s arm and that has Tony snapping his mouth shut, which has me looking down at what Nor is doing, which is now dragging his claws across Tony’s arm. Red marks are appearing, not scratches, but definitely something no familiar should be able to do.
Tony cries out, sadly doesn’t let go of me, and shifts his body. I’m still staring at his arm, too shocked at what Nor was ale to do to someone that isn’t me and certainly not my soulmate, so I don’t see that the shift Tony made was to haul back so that he can punch me. In the face.
The black eye is hard to explain, but the red welts on Tony’s arm are harder and I certainly wasn’t helping him. Any time Tony came after me after that Nor and I tested. Which was admittedly the dumbest way to test, but it was for science!
It all ultimately ended in senior year, the middle of lunch, with all the witnesses in the world…but no teachers. Seriously, why was there never a teacher around when you needed one? Tony had me pressed face first onto one of the tables and Nor had hopped on to the table trying to get at him. All of this only worked though if I was the one actively touching Nor, so him pressed against my side and bring to get at Tony wasn’t working, and Tony had both of my arms pinned behind my back. I’m not sure if he had figured it out too or if it was just dumb luck right then, but his timing, as always, sucked.
Nor was literally howling mad by the time I managed to slip one of my hands free and get it wrapped around one of his hind legs. I couldn’t see Tony, but I knew he could tell that something had changed in the moment. Nor had started a fresh howl when my hand had connected and Tony’s grip on my remaining arm became bruisingly tight, I’m certain that he could hear Nor howling. Nor shifted and Tony screamed and pulled away from me. When I twisted around I saw that he was cradling his bleeding arm and looking at me like he’d never seen me before. Nor was refusing to let me up until he was able to make sure I was ok, but we were drawing a lot more attention now, and that it, of course, when the teachers showed up.
Unsurprisingly they didn’t believe me when I said that my familiar had scratched Tony, but they couldn’t blame me for it because too many people had come forward and told them that I was still face down on the table when it happened.
Joe still grounded me for getting in another fight at school.
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