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How Not To Become Lunch: 13 - Don’t Become Homework
“I’m telling you, after a little while it just clicks.”
Jack lowered his wand, a bit disappointed and mildly frustrated.
“Yeah, well it won’t matter if I’m already sitting in some pred’s belly by the time it does. And at this rate, it’ll be Ms. Caster’s.” The marked boy looked dejectedly around the empty classroom.
“Calm down, man. She can’t brand you a failing student after just a week,” Ozzy consoled. “And besides, there’s more to magic than just casting. You’ve already memorized the words to, like, fifty spells, and you’re not too slow on the draw either.”
“I guess that’s something.”
“It totally is,” Ozzy reassured. “Now come on, let’s go to lunch already.”
“Let me just try one more time,” Jack insisted.
“Alright. Really try and get your arm straight on this one.”
Jack readied himself and took a breath, focusing on his target.
“JACK!!”
The startled boy nearly fell over. Head snapping toward the classroom door, he saw Fiona. She was panting, with a big smile of relief on a very anxious face.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere! I thought maybe I was too late!” She ran over and grabbed his hand. Ozzy took a cautious step back as she approached.
“Sorry, I know we usually meet up in the hall, but Ozzy offered to help me with my casting and-”
“Listen, you can’t go to lunch today,” she interrupted.
“Wha- why?” Jack asked, confused.
“Ms. Ivy gave my pred class a homework assignment. Everyone has to eat a marked prey by tomorrow morning!”
“What!? Gulping gullets! As if I wasn’t a big enough target already!”
“I know!”
“Okay, okay,” he said, thinking quickly, “I’ll just stick right next to you for the rest of the day, we’ll skip lunch, stay in empty places to avoid other preds- everything will be fine.”
“Ugh! I can’t!”
“Why?!”
“We have different classes next period! Also… I kinda have to eat a marked prey too.”
Jack looked a bit uncomfortable for a moment, though maybe that was just the stress. He put a hand to his head and thought hard for a moment.
“Ozzy!” he suddenly called out as an answer.
“You want me to mark Ozzy?” Fiona asked. “I thought you liked him.”
“No! Ozzy and I have math together next period.” Jack turned to him. “You can watch my back, right? We’ll watch each other’s backs!”
Ozzy looked back at his new friend with a good deal of anxiety, smiling awkwardly. He had taken a number of steps back from Fiona, especially after that last exchange.
“O- of course, man. I’ll do whatever I can. Especially if Fiona agrees not to make me her homework.”
“I told you, Jack’s friends are not on my menu. But you make sure he gets through math class alive, and I’ll owe you a big favor,” she promised.
“So what are you gonna do for your assignment?” Jack asked.
“Well, to be honest, school is the best place for me to find prey. Lots of humans around my size, all in one spot and they’re not allowed to leave.”
Jack took a second to morbidly marvel at how terrifyingly accurate that description of school was coming from a pred.
“I guess technically she didn’t say I had to eat the human, just get a good taste, but everyone knows Ms. Ivy’s only gonna give the best grades to the biggest bellies. It’s predator class. And besides, when it comes to marked prey, once you get a taste…”
“Right…” Jack understood morbidly. “Well, if I’m gonna go with you we should at least avoid the lunchroom. I guess that leaves the halls.” Another thought crossed his mind. “Do you think you’ll be able to catch anyone with me around?”
Jack had never really seen Fiona hunt. He could vaguely remember her chasing rodents when they were little; the way she crept up on them and then pounced, quick and quiet. He could only imagine that when she hunted a human, it would take even more agility, not to mention focus, two things he was sure to hamper.
“I guess we’ll find out. Just keep up the best you can, and try to stay quiet.”
Jack nodded. Fiona let go of his hand and turned back towards the door. Jack thought he might have caught an unusual look in her eye, just before she turned away, but he dismissed it. He quickly looked back at Ozzy to say goodbye, but hesitated over a few conflicting thoughts.
“Good luck out there,” he said after a moment. “I’d invite you to stick with us, but being the only other human next to me probably isn’t the best idea.”
“It’s fine,” Ozzy replied a bit awkwardly. “No offence, but I don’t really want the reputation of ‘the kid who helps preds hunt’ either.”
Jack nodded understandingly; he couldn’t fault him for that.
“See you in math class, man.”
“See you in math class.”
Jack jogged to catch up with Fiona at the door. He could see her nose twitching as he approached. She spared a quick glance to see that he was with her.
“Let’s try this way,” she said as the two of them departed into the halls.
It was almost normal at first, just two friends walking through school, except usually they were talking, this time they were silent. There were a number of other students still roaming, small clusters either chatting together or neck-deep in their lockers. Most of them were preds, but there were definitely a few humans around.
“…What are you waiting for?” Jack whispered.
“…I’m… just looking for the right target, someone alone.” She spoke without looking back at him, apparently very focused on the task at hand.
I guess that makes sense, Jack thought. It always seemed so sudden when preds grabbed him; he’d never considered that some of them might actually take some time to plan before striking- though it seemed rather obvious in retrospect.
Fiona kept her head forward and her eyes peeled. She was glad Jack had bought that line- not that it was necessarily a lie, but there was definitely more going on in her head than she was letting on.
Stupid homework. I should be protecting Jack, not dragging him around the halls. And I definitely shouldn’t be taking him on a hunt where I’ll have to-
‘*thud* *thud* *THUD* *THUD*
The two of them stopped dead in their tracks, a few feet from the intersection of two hallways, just before a terrified kid sprinted past through the other corridor, followed almost immediately by a huge mass of brown fur that came rumbling into view like a freight train. And it hit like one too.
The pursuer rammed into the fleeing student in the middle of the intersection, knocking him over along with several other bystanders.
“You shouldn’t have run, kid!” came an angry grumble. The voice helped Jack recognize the figure.
Grizz… That kid doesn’t have a chance.
The closest kids, pred and prey alike, ran for their safety. Fiona side-stepped cautiously against a locker-lined wall with Jack close behind. But her instincts told her they weren’t in any immediate danger; he already had a target.
Grizz reached out and grabbed the boy he’d been chasing by the foot; and standing upright, he lifted his prey off the ground. The boy panted and made a few unintelligible sounds that might have been failed attempts at words. Grizz just gave a low, droning growl.
The bear boy reached up with his free hand, grabbed one of the human’s legs, and pulled. Jack was horrified for a moment that the predator was about to tear the kid in half in front of everyone. He really did not need the added trauma of having to see that. The kid screamed in terror at the same thought. Instead, the boy’s pants came tearing off, leaving him dangling by his foot in his underwear. A small handful of the more meanspirited preds chuckled.
Come on, dude, what was that for? Jack asked himself, feeling pity mixed in with his fear. You’re already gonna eat him, do you really have to embarrass him like that too?
Grizz seemed to maybe have a change of heart. He didn’t leave his prey on display for very long at all, he simply shoved the boy’s legs into his dagger-filled mouth and started swallowing. The poor kid, now more and more a meal with every gulp, was pulled ever closer toward the hungry maw by the bear’s domineering throat. Every remaining student stared on at the spectacle of a powerful predator at work.
Well, most of the students anyway. Fiona and Jack certainly kept a wary eye in that direction, but neither of them had realized that while Jack stood close behind his werewolf guardian, someone else was getting closer behind him.
Okay Wily, this is your chance to make up for what happened in the bathroom last week.
A fox boy inconspicuously lowered onto all fours. He was up against the same wall as Jack and Fiona, just a few lockers behind the marked human’s turned back. If he were quick, he’d be able to snatch the boy from right under that distracted werewolf’s nose.
She should have eaten him while she had the chance, now he’ll be my homework instead.
He tensed his shoulders, flexed his clawed toes, and then the fox leapt into the air, silent and graceful, right on course to tackle Jack to the ground.
*SMACK*
A locker door suddenly opened out of nowhere, right in front of him, and he plowed into it headfirst.
The loud, metallic clang made both Jack and Fiona turn around with a start. It was followed immediately by the startled cry of a girl, the thud of a student or two hitting the ground, and the clatter of a wooden wand.
What caught Jack’s eye first was the girl, suddenly appearing out of thin air, just two lockers down, her hands and knees on the floor as a wand bounced away from her. The human student quickly scrambled back to her feet, grabbed her property and ran quickly down the hall, frantically mumbling the words for a new invisibility spell. Just behind where she had fallen, underneath a dented, free-swinging locker door, was a semi-conscious fox boy, slowly peeling himself off the floor.
Is that the same kid who hit his head on the sink the other day? Jack thought. What just happened? I really need to pay more attention to-
Did that pred almost sneak up behind Jack!? Fiona thought. I have to pay more attention to-
Both their thoughts were interrupted by, of all things, a tongue. The long, squishy organ darted into view, wrapped once around Jack’s chest, and tugged back like a fishing line. Fiona reacted within a split second, fast enough to grab Jack’s arm as he was being whisked away, and with a solid stance and a jerk managed to keep both her grip and her balance.
You see, while Grizz was busy distracting everyone with his grizzly feeding, and Wily was busy using that distraction to try and outfox Jack, someone else was carrying out their own slimy plan to use that distraction from the distraction for their own self-satisfaction.
“Lily! Let go of him!” Fiona demanded, as she turned to lock eyes with her amphibian classmate. She should have known that wherever Grizz went, that frog wouldn’t be far behind.
“Come on, Fiona,” Lily replied indignantly, her words sounding awkward without the full use of her tongue. “I need him for my homework.”
“No! I told you, Jack’s my friend. I’m not eating him, and neither is anyone else.”
“Oh, are you still on that? Someone’s gonna eat him for their homework tonight. Better me than some weirdo, right? Besides, you can always mark someone else, I can’t. Help a girl out.”
“I said no. Just ask Grizz to mark someone for you.”
There was a short moment of angry silence. Then Jack felt Lily’s tongue release and retreat.
“Fine. I guess that’s fair, you are the one who marked him after all,” she spoke with the tiniest hint of spite under her social facade. “You’re just lucky I like you,” her tone softened. “And that my boyfriend’s a great predator.” She shifted her gaze to Jack. “See ya around, Tasty.” She stuck her tongue out for a moment and then grabbed Grizz’s arm and walked off with the bear and his wriggling belly.
Jack, panting lightly, heard Fiona take a deep breath. “Nice save,” he complimented.
She watched Lily leaving for a moment. “Don’t mention it,” she replied with a smile, though it seemed a rather weak smile.
“Well, there aren’t any humans still around after that, guess we need to try somewhere else,” Jack observed.
“Yeah… let’s go down this way.”
How many times do I have to tell people before they get it!? Jack is NOT a meal. She’s lucky I like her otherwise I’d take that tongue and-
“Fi, you alright?” Jack asked as they walked.
“Totally.”
His words brought her back to the task at hand. She had to find someone to mark and get this whole thing over with so she could bring Jack somewhere safe.
‘Do you think you’ll be able to catch anyone with me around?’ Her friend’s words echoed back through Fiona’s head. She knew what he’d meant when he’d asked that; practical concerns like slowing her down during a chase, or alerting her target by making a poor move. But she had other concerns, much more troublesome than those.
I shouldn’t have Jack with me for this, he shouldn’t be- …No, I have to keep him close, I have to keep him alive. It’s okay, everything will be fine, I can do this.
A bit of movement caught her eye. Her predatory instincts, well honed, pulled her out of her thoughts. She’d gotten lucky. Unbelievably lucky. One kid, a boy, practically alone in the hallway, well apart from anyone else. It was a rare occurrence; human students almost always moved in groups, the ones who didn’t either didn’t last, or were very confident in their magic.
Come on Fiona, he’s perfect, there’s no excuse not to take him.
“Do you recognize that kid from your magic class?” Fiona asked, very quietly.
“No,” Jack whispered back.
Well, that meant it wasn’t one of Jack’s friends, so he was fair game, but she also had no clue what kind of threat he might pose. This wouldn’t be a simple meal; she’d have to mark him and hold him until it took. They grew closer. The boy didn’t seem to notice them, his attention buried in his locker.
I won’t get a better one than this. Let’s just get this over with.
They grew closer and closer. Jack couldn’t believe how much effort it took to control his own breathing, his footsteps, his eyes. He felt more self-conscious than he could ever remember, knowing that one wrong move could blow his friend’s shot at lunch. But more than that, knowing that in a few moments that kid would be going from student to stomach contents made him nervous, nervous in a way he couldn’t quite understand.
He spared a quick glance at Fiona. On the surface- and certainly to everyone else- she looked completely normal, not the least bit suspicious. But Jack knew her much better, he could see just a bit deeper, and what he saw was motivated, focused, deadly: a predator.
It all happened so fast that Jack barely had time to flinch. Fiona’s path took her right behind her prey, and before anyone else knew it, she had grabbed the boy’s wand from his waist and flung it across the hall with one hand, grabbed his arm with the other, and pulled them both into the center of the corridor. By the time the boy felt the urge to scream, it wasn’t because of the fear of being grabbed, it was because of the pain of teeth sinking into his arm.
“AAHHHH-!!”
Fiona clamped a furry hand over the boy’s mouth, cutting off his cry, and only then did she finally bring herself to look at her prey straight on. He wasn’t looking at her, not at first. His eyes squeezed shut in pain, he wrapped his free hand around his arm, the one Fiona was holding, the one she had bitten, and shouted muffledly through her fur-covered fingers.
It took a few long seconds before he could force himself to open his eyes and look at his attacker. When he did, Fiona saw the emotions inside: panic, fear, surprise, desperation. It was everything a predator came to expect from their prey, and it was inexplicably enticing. She felt her mouth begin to water, already being teased by the tiny traces she had taken away with her bite.
Then she remembered Jack. He had done really well, actually. He hadn’t made a sound, hadn’t distracted her in the slightest during her crucial strike. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was there, sizing up her latest human meal, and he was standing two feet away.
Her prey locked eyes with her, and in the unnerving stillness she saw a new emotion spring up.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” she said in a soft, emotionally detached voice. “I’m just letting my mark sink in first. Then you’re going inside.” She almost never talked to her food, not like that. Why did she feel compelled to now?
She reached out quickly with her other hand and grabbed her prey’s other shoulder, holding him tightly just before he began to struggle, just as Fiona knew he would. His eyes stayed locked onto hers, now wide pools of terror. Fiona’s sense of time slowly slipped as she stared into them. She felt the pull of her instincts, urging her to enjoy her meal, and she felt her reluctance at the thought of Jack’s eyes resting on her. The two conflicting feelings reached up from deep within and gripped her. And still she gave in to neither of them, continuing to wait until her bite took effect, changing yet another human boy into a walking invitation for a tasty meal.
And then it happened, and she almost lost it. The first hint of a whiff brushed her nose; the scent of her mark. And the thought that immediately crossed her mind filled her with almost as much horror as her prey.
It smells just like-
“FIONA!!”
Her head whipped to the side. There was a flash of colorful fur, the thud of an impact nearby, and the brief image of Jack’s face as he was tackled out of her sight. For all the thought and tact she had displayed up until that point, her reaction was reckless and fierce.
“NO!” she snarled.
*SQEAL*!!
A very brief moment of heavy silence was followed quickly by the sounds of limbs scraping hastily against the floor in a frantic escape.
It had been a neko that had attacked Jack, but Fiona hadn’t registered that until after they had started scampering away. She had completely dropped her well-captured prey, but that fact had yet to dawn on her.
Jack looked up at his friend. He was practically untouched, but he saw blood on her claws. Behind her, he saw the boy she had marked dashing down the hall. He might have yelled for her to chase after him, if he hadn’t seen her eyes.
“Fiona!...” He stopped at that, fishing for words. Asking ‘are you okay’ again would be stupid, she obviously wasn’t. “Wha… what’s going on?”
Panting, she reached her clean hand down for him to take. She felt the strong urge to turn away from him, to hide her face, but instead she forced herself to keep what little composure she had left. Jack took hold.
“Please, Fi, tell me what’s going on. I… I know it has something to do with this homework thing, right?”
“I…”
Dozens of words filled her mind, some that she couldn’t bear to say to him, some that she couldn’t bear to say to herself, but she also couldn’t bear to lie.
“…I’m just worried that when you watch me hunt, you’ll feel… like him.” She glanced away, down the hall behind her back.
For just a split-second Jack felt a pit in his stomach, as the image of Fiona from just a moment ago flashed through his mind. The way she had stared into that boy’s eyes as she held him- a boy just like him- ready to swallow him whole.
“No,” he said firmly. “No way. I think it’s cool that you’re such a great pred. You’re my friend. You’ve been my friend for years and nothing’s gonna change that.”
She smiled; a more genuine smile than Jack had seen this whole time.
“Thanks, Jack.” It felt good to hear him say those words. He smiled back at her.
“Now come on,” he encouraged. “If you don’t get that kid, someone else will, and I’d say you’ve earned it more than anyone.”
Welcomed support aside, he had a point. The boy was wandless- defenseless- and thanks to her mark he left a sweet-scented trail wherever he went.
“You’re right,” she replied. “Let’s go.” She turned to face the hallway where her prey had fled.
As much as she tried to ignore it, though, one thought passed grimly through her mind. ‘If you don’t get that kid, someone else will’… That’s the same thing they keep saying about you…
Fiona took off, but not at full speed; she kept her pace just slow enough that Jack could keep up. She wasn’t worried about catching up to her prey; he wouldn’t go very far. He would find somewhere relatively safe to hide out, maybe try and tend to her bite, but she would find him, she had no doubt. The only problem would be if someone else found him first, but very few others were left in the halls at this point, and he’d be avoiding anywhere preds would be common. ‘Sloppy’, her teacher might have called it, Fiona letting her prey escape, but Ms. Ivy wasn’t there to see how it happened. All she would see was the result: a big wriggling bulge in her student’s belly.
“Stop,” Fiona instructed. Jack came to a comparatively clumsy halt behind her. Snout lightly raised, her nose twitched, and then a moment later her ears swiveled. “He’s in there,” she said, pointing to a classroom door. Through the window they could see that the lights were out; the room was clearly out of use. She walked up to it and paused.
“Go get ‘em,” Jack encouraged, keeping his voice down.
Fiona opened the door, almost casually. It caught Jack slightly off guard. But Fiona knew it was over. Her prey had nowhere else to go and no way to hide; the time for stealth had passed. Inside, the room seemed inconspicuously empty, but her nose knew better. She sniffed the air once, then tensed her legs and sprinted at the teacher’s desk.
“AHHH!” came a frightened scream, as the werewolf pulled her arm out from behind the far side of the desk, revealing her prey, once again held tightly in her grasp. In one quick movement she stood him up straight, directly in front of her. She spared him a single, brief glance, more to line things up than anything else.
And then she opened her mouth, and she brought it down.
Fiona’s eyes went wide. Something overtook her: a sensation, a feeling more than a thought. Her mind exploded into a wordless blur, but if there had been words there would probably have been only two:
That taste!!
She felt a rush of energy; a bolt of lightning down her spine, from the tips of her ears to the end of her tail, and down her arms and legs to the points of her claws. Her mouth came alive, teeth tingling, saliva flowing, every taste bud on her tongue awash with pure bliss. And then a heartbeat later, a feeling bloomed inside her, inside her body, inside her stomach. It was an incredible warmth, but it was empty. She could practically feel the walls of her stomach, spreading apart, making room, yearning to envelop her meal.
She swallowed. A huge, powerful, hungry gulp, taking her down over her prey’s shoulders in an instant. Her hands darted forward, grabbing the boy’s torso and shoving him inside. She swallowed again, ravenously. She could feel the human buried in her chest, hot and snug, his head just inches away from the end of her throat, so close to her waiting belly.
She swallowed, and swallowed, and swallowed. Midriff, legs, knees. The bulge inside her rib cage sank lower, building up and swelling out. Her stomach erupted in pleasure, spurring her on. Her body enveloped her prey just as it yearned to, sucking the boy inside with terrific speed and wild abandon, his body sliding effortlessly across her tongue and down her slick, pulsing throat.
Hardly a moment later, she felt the tips of her prey’s toes slip past that precipice. She swallowed one last time, more emphatically than she ever had before. The final gulped that sealed her banquet away, completely inside her, undeniably and inarguably her food. Her eyes were open wide, but she saw nothing, every atom of her attention was focused on the sensation as the last of her marked meal glided through her gullet and came to rest blissfully in her welcoming belly.
Fiona the werewolf took a deep breath, in and out, and then another, and another. She stared off into the darkened room, her eyes slowly focusing.
Jack was staring too. He was stunned, taken aback. He would never have believed that a human could disappear into a predator so quickly. He was proud of her, impressed even, but he was also… She had eaten him so quickly. Not a second thought, not a hint of hesitation, not a trace of reservation. She’d made the boy her meal, just like she’d set out to do, and there wasn’t a thing he’d been able to do about it.
And Jack could see she’d enjoyed it. A lot.
*gurgle*
The sound brought both of them out of their thoughts. Fiona slowly turned around, a small smile lighting up her otherwise distant expression. Until her eyes met Jack’s. She focused on him, her smile disappeared, and a new expression began to form. But before he could see it, something else stole his attention.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?” came an accusatory voice.
Jack turned to his side to see a man approaching from down the hall, looking at him rather pointedly. His mind a bit overwhelmed, it took him a moment to recognize Prof. Boron, his science teacher. Before Jack could find any words to reply with, the professor noticed the open classroom door.
“And what do you think you’re doing in here?”
Jack finally stumbled into a response. “It’s my lunch period, sir. I was just helping my friend with her homework.”
“In a dark, empty classroom?” Prof. Boron replied incredulously as he arrived in front of his student.
“Her predator homework,” Jack added.
The teacher peered into the room and quickly noticed Fiona. She raised a hand in a hesitant wave, but it was hard to look innocent with a giant, squirming bulge in your belly. On the other hand, that did corroborate their story. A bulge that active could only have been fresh. He glanced briefly over the rest of the room, nothing seemed to be out of place.
“She was chasing a kid, he’s the one who ran in here.”
The professor glanced at Jack. A human student sticking up for a predator? That’s not something I see too often.
“Alright,” he replied acceptingly. “You, come out of there. And both of you, come with me.”
Fiona approached as instructed. Prof. Boron closed the door behind her and then started leading the two students down the hall.
“I’ll let you two off with a warning this time, but your lunch period is to be spent in the lunchroom, not chasing other students around the school.”
Jack and Fiona looked to each other simultaneously with the same concerned expression as they both realized where he was leading them.
The lunchroom!?
*YELP*!
Fiona suddenly made a high-pitched squeal, surprising both Jack and the professor.
“Fiona?!” Jack asked with concern.
“Oooh, I don’t think my lunch went down right,” she moaned, slightly bent over with a hand on either side of her swollen gut, her ears and tail drooping. Jack looked at his friend with sympathetic eyes. Maybe she had eaten that boy too fast after all? Maybe her belly couldn’t handle it and she’d hurt herself?
“Maybe you should go see the nurse?” Jack suggested.
“No, I don’t think I- Oof! …Yeah, maybe I should.”
The professor looked down over the werewolf and her friend. Unlike the lunchroom, the nurse’s office was not in the direction he was headed.
“Will you make sure she gets there?” he asked Jack.
The boy nodded sincerely, and with a sense of urgency.
“Alright then. I hope you feel better.”
They turned away from each other and went their separate ways. Jack watched the ailing Fiona worriedly as they walked. After a few seconds, he noticed her ears perk up, as if listening closely. And then suddenly she straightened up.
“Phew,” she breathed. “That was close. We almost ended up in the lunchroom.”
“You- you’re okay?” Jack asked.
“You didn’t know? Sorry, when you suggested the nurse I thought you were playing along. Don’t worry, I’m fine. I was just faking to get us out of there.”
“Nicely done,” he complimented.
I guess her belly could take it after all…
“Naturally,” she bragged. “Now let’s find somewhere to hang out until next period.”