4 Chapter 4: The school bullies

- North Phoenix Preparatory Academy, Phoenix, Arizona

-August 25, 2022

-POV Joe Schatten:

It took me a few hours to fully accept what happened to me, of course for that I had to watch several times the memories of my other self to assimilate my situation.

I was alive and well in another body of an alternate me from another parallel world where the supernatural exists.

Well..., at least I had all his memories.

I reviewed my memories, or rather those of my other self, and tried to figure out what kind of world I was living in.

I don't know, I thought that maybe there was some fictional character that I knew, but I was surprised to discover that it was a world completely identical to mine, except that the supernatural also exists...

Well, this was not entirely true since I already knew that the Joe of this world knew a character from Twilight.

Yes..., imagine my surprise when I discovered that this world had a Twilight character, at first I didn't give it importance but now that I know that all this is real it is pretty important.

This world was not so simple since there were Twilight characters, so I assumed that this world despite being the same as mine in almost everything, also had other things from movies, series, or anime that I had seen, like Twilight.

So I did what anyone in my situation would do, I wrote down all the anime, movies, series, etc. that I knew, and then I searched them from my cell phone on the internet starting with Twilight.

And as I guessed, there were no Twilight movies in this world, so it was very likely that there was a strange mix between this world and that one, the only strange thing in all this was that the ages of the characters I found from Twilight do not match the date I was currently in.

One example is that I'm in 2022, several years after the whole plot in which Bella, Edward, and the Cullens meet for the first time..., well, all that hasn't happened yet and if I'm not wrong, it would take place in one or two years.

But hey, I just assumed that the timing of things in Twilight changed, it wasn't that bad, so I didn't give it much thought and went on with everything else on my list, I searched and searched and searched.

But I was very disappointed to find out that everything else on my list did exist in this world as an anime, series, book, or movie.

Therefore, none of the anime I watched or superheroes and villains from Marvel or Dc or others were likely to exist..., at least that I knew of.

It was quite frustrating, but it also took a huge pressure off my shoulders, since if the supernatural in this world had to do only with Twilight then I wouldn't have to worry about gods or supreme beings that could destroy the world.

Of course, my own ability had nothing to do with the supernatural beings of Twilight, but there were many things that were not shown and if Bella could have special gifts, other humans probably did too, they just never showed them, after all, the world of Twilight sure was much bigger.

...

Now I'm in school and pretend to act like the Joe of this supernatural world normally would.

At first, I thought things would get pretty complicated, but, luckily, no one comes up to me to talk even though yesterday was my birthday, yes, the Joe of this world spends most of his time alone.

But who knew that being rejected and avoided by everyone would have something positive.

Unlike me that in high school my life changed, the Joe of this world continued to suffer a lot in school..., he had no friends and no social life, he was an outcast.

Well, that wasn't entirely true because from what I saw in the memories there was someone who talked to this Joe.

And you'll never guess who she is..., or maybe you will...

Isabella Swan.

I learned that in this world Joe had known Bella since he was 9 years old when he first moved to Phoenix, they had both gone all these years to the same school so they were classmates and you could even say they were "friends".

You may wonder why I say "friends"?

Well..., from the memories I have of my other self, I can conclude that Bella does consider Joe as her friend and a very close one, I would even risk to say that more than any other when she was with him she almost didn't seem like the Bella shown in Twilight.

Sure she was still very lonely, quiet, and insecure, but with Joe, she had more confidence and even used to talk to him about several things that worried her... yes, Joe was for her like a best friend that you go to when something bad happens or when you feel sad/bad and being Bella this was a constant thing, apparently, she felt comfortable with him because..., well, you can draw your own conclusions.

But the funny thing in all this is that it turns out that my other self never saw Bella as a friend, actually he never told her this, but secretly he was very jealous of her and I don't even think he liked her.

It turns out that he hated and envied the fact that she had everything to be able to make friends, boyfriends, have a social life, etc, and yet she was so closed, lonely, and insecure.

Sure, I can understand my other self a little bit, after all, it must hurt to see someone who can have everything you always wanted but decides to be like you, except that you never had a choice because the behavior of others towards you was always... shitty.

I know, it's ironic that my other self rejected literally the only person in Phoenix besides his mother who didn't avoid or reject him and who even saw him as a real friend.

But well..., fortunately, today Bella didn't come to school so I don't have to worry about talking to her, apparently, her mother met a minor league baseball player named Phil Dwyer..., and in order for Bella and him to get to know each other better, her mother decided that the three of them would take a trip together.

I imagine that right now Bella must be regretting encouraging her mother to go on more dates.

If you are wondering how I know all this, it is as simple as that Bella usually texts Joe frequently and tells him quite a lot of things, although Joe doesn't usually give her much importance...,and I would even say that whenever he could he ignored her, but she never bothered about this or rather she never realized that he preferred to stay away from her, so until today she keeps talking to him as usual.

But anyway..., going back to school, for now, I just pretend to be the usual Joe and everyone leaves me alone.

I won't deny that it was a little sad not even getting a single "hi".

I spent the rest of the day at school trying to understand everything about the supernatural ability I have, after all, it was my main interest, I always dreamed of something like that, so imagine how fascinated and excited I was with the idea of being able to control my shadow for different things...

Was like being a Nara in Naruto's world, although there were several differences between what they could do and what the Walking Shadows could do.

For now, the only thing I discovered that my other self knew how to do with his shadow was:

1: Can transform and move his shadow at will and endow it with physical power.

2: Materialize his shadow and then proceeds to extend it and attach it to the shadow of a target with the intention of taking over and controlling it without the need to make any movements.

3: He has the ability to expand his shadow to cover a greater range and thus trap multiple targets at once.

4: The shadow is transformed into one or several hands that climb up the target's body until it reaches the neck where it suffocates them, however, the effectiveness of this will depend on the distance between the user and the target. The closer they are, the more powerful the shadow is, although it cannot remain for a long time because the shadow weakens.

5: He can use his shadow to attack other parts of the body, transforming his shadow into one or more threads.

6: One can transfer his consciousness to his shadow, giving him total control of it, he can see with it and move it as he pleases, but by doing this his physical body remains helpless. It is also possible to transfer only a part of the consciousness allowing one to control both the physical body and the shadow, but in this state, the movement of the physical body is quite limited and the shadow will not be as strong as it would be with the full consciousness.

7: Lastly, he could use his shadow to teleport his physical body to another shadow, but it could only be to the shadow of a lifeless object in his range of vision..., and per day his other self could so far only teleport once and he would be physically exhausted. Apparently, sending one's physical body through shadows drains a lot of physical strength.

I know, pretty impressive, I too was happily surprised to see in his memories all these things he knew and could do.

Too bad having his memories on how to use all these skills doesn't mean I can also use them just like him..., no, it's a bit more complicated than that, it takes quite a bit of practice from what I could understand from these memories, so until then, absolutely no using my shadow to have some fun at school.

Sad, but I have no choice but to first learn how to properly use my shadow at home or somewhere where the normies can't see me.

And yes, it feels great to be able to call out to other Normies.

-End POV Joe

...

...

Today's classes were finally ending, the instant the teacher finished her class and left the room, Joe started to quickly put his things away to go back home and plan what he would do from now on, he had already decided that he would have to think about the whole Twilight plot to know what was convenient to do next...

Although the biggest reason why he was in such a hurry was clearly that he wanted to practice his powers with his shadow, he couldn't stand the desire to do it anymore.

As he got up from his seat to leave the classroom, he found a group of 7 boys in front of him.

"FreakyJoe" Michael called out.

Already knowing from his other self's memories that he and the rest of his group probably just wanted to make fun of him, Joe decided to ignore them and leave the classroom...

But unfortunately, it wasn't that simple, Robert one of the boys next to Michael pushed him against his seat preventing him from leaving the classroom.

Joe was surprised at how easily he was pushed, but then he remembered that he no longer had his athletic body, he now had a skinny and weak body.

Joe cursed his other self for not caring more about his physical condition.

"Yo freak I called your name," Michael said once he caught up with him.

"And" Joe replied turning to him with his eyes completely black raised. At that, he felt a sharp sting across his face and gasps all around the classroom.

"Don't you ever question me got it damn freak" Michael growled out. But Joe noticed that his eyes alone had already put him very nervous...

'And that pisses him off even more' Joe thought as he stared at Michael who was acting tough but a simple look from him scared him.

Yes, it was very likely that Michael's hatred towards Joe was because of his self-insecurity in front of him, he doesn't like to be intimidated by him so in return he seeks to annoy him to show that he is not afraid of him.

"Whatever," Joe said and started to walk away. But before he had a chance to get away a hand clamped around his wrist in an iron steel grasp and spun him around then he felt a piercing pain in his stomach and then he went flying back into the school desks. Joe looked only to come face to face with Robert.

"Don't you dare ever talk to him like that freak" Robert shouted at Joe.

"Hey FreakyJoe, I heard that yesterday was your birthday, did you get any presents?" David, one of the other guys in the group said jokingly as he laughed along with Michael, Robert, James, William, Nathan, and Thomas. The school bullies.

Yes, Joe already knew them, and not only from the memories of his other self from this world, they were also in his world..., but since he entered high school they stopped bothering him.

"Ha, come on David, as if it was possible for him to get anything..., I'm sure no one even remembered it was his birthday" James scoffed.

"Oh who knows, maybe his mommy gave him something" commented William with a nasty grin.

"Huh, you think so?, but if even his mother cares more about her job than her own son" finished Michael laughing exaggeratedly.

The 7 began to mock and laugh at Joe while the others in the classroom watched and muttered things among themselves without doing anything to help, some even laughed and jeered along with the school bullies, while others looked at Joe with contempt, pity, or dislike.

Joe was not very affected by their mocking, of course, it bothered him, but not too much, he had learned a long time ago to ignore the words of people he didn't care about.

But if there was one thing Joe couldn't stand it was physical aggression and it was worse not being able to do anything about it because of his current weak body..., something he would soon change with a lot of exercises.

When he was 11 years old he had vowed never to be in such an embarrassing situation where he could not be able to defend himself or stand up against others, so he trained a lot to strengthen his body so he would not go through such a situation again...

Of course, now he was in the body of his other self..., and his other self had never trained to get stronger physically because he only focused his time on controlling his supernatural ability.

Joe made one last attempt to get up and leave the classroom quietly, but again Robert pushed him against the classroom desks...

And that's when Joe couldn't take it anymore and something in him triggered...

Suddenly Joe's black eyes shone darkly and without his knowledge he unconsciously used his shadow, paralyzing everyone in the classroom and then materializing from his shadow several hands that climbed up the bodies of everyone present until they reached their necks and hanged them.

Luckily Joe quickly realized what he was doing and managed to stop his shadow in time, if he had taken longer he could have killed all his classmates.

However, they only ended up unconscious due to lack of air and with strangulation marks on their necks while Joe looked very surprised at what he did.

He never meant to do anything to them, but his negative emotions clouded his mind to the point where his shadow started to do everything on its own.

'Shit..., that was dangerous' Joe thought as he looked at his whole class passed out, people that now might have died because of him, he never thought something like this could ever happen.

It was then that he decided to go get the teachers to check that everyone in the class was okay..., he may have not liked his classmates, but that didn't mean he wanted them dead.

When Joe was asked about what happened, he just said that they all suddenly fell unconscious and appeared with marks on their necks, he didn't lie to them, this really happened, he just missed saying that he was the reason.

And if his classmates woke up and blamed him... well, there was no proof that he did anything so nothing would happen to him, besides Joe doubted that any of his classmates would have realized that it was his shadow that suddenly paralyzed and strangled them.