23 Ch. 23 Surprise!

"You've gotta be kidding me"

Myrddin is driving to the school, alone. But what's got him in a semi-foul mood is that he missed his alarm.

After hearing about the half body he forgot to turn his alarms on.

He also thought of something else the previous night: What if this body is different from the body he was thinking of?

Yeah, not good.

But back to being a teen and worrying about school.

Luckily he wasn't too late. He was used to getting up early so his body woke him up on its own. He even had to wake Gwen up. Their mom was driving her. But she takes longer to get ready than he does.

He parks at school and everyone is already inside, except for one girl sitting on a bench just outside the front door of the school while she talks on the phone and goes through her bag.

Myrddin is wearing a white shirt with a brown jacket over it, black slim fit jeans, and white shoes. His mom recommended he wear it for his first day back when they went shopping together for his new clothes that will actually fit him.

He slings his same old bag over his shoulder as he walks towards the school. He has to walk between a sliver Porsche and a bike rack. And as he walks up to the doors he remembers walking here for the first time last year and how uncomfortable his back was at that time due to a huge bruise courtesy of his sister. Now his mind is a bit uncomfortable about the whole 'half body' in the woods thing.

"…oh my god actually forgot a pen!"

Myrddin hears the girl complain as he reaches the door. He pauses and takes a mechanical pencil out from his pocket and turns towards the girl. "Heads up"

"Huh?" The girl looks up and sees something flying in the air towards her. She reflexively catches it on her free hand. She looks in the direction the object and voice came from and sees a model just outside the school doors.

Myrddin winks at her before walking into the school and going towards his first class. A grin on his face as he sees the schools principal.

The principal walks by him and gives him a glance. "I don't condone running in the halls, but you should get a little pep in your step to get to your first class"

Myrddin nods. "Yes sir"

They both go their separate ways and Myrddin pulls out his schedule before heading towards his first class of the school year. He wonders what the girl, who he was dancing with in his second vision, did in order to get the principal to personally escort her.

——————

That girl still on the phone outside the school

"What? Oh, sorry mom. Some handsome guy just tossed me a pen. Oh, I think that's the principal, gotta go-…. Yeah. I love you too, bye" She puts her phone in her bag and stands up to greet the man in a suit walking towards her.

The principal walks in front of the new girl. "Sorry to keep you waiting" He motions towards the school and begins walking back in with the girl. "So, you were staying in San Francisco isn't where you grew up?"

The girl remembers the conversation they had over the phone the other day to finalize her transfer. "No, but we lived there for more than a year, which is unisual in my family"

The principal opens the door for her. "Well, hopefully Beacon Hills will be your last stop for a while"

They both enter the school and the principal begins leading the way to the girl's first class.

"Say, did you see the guy who entered the school a minute ago?" The girl looks down the halls but can't see him.

"I hope you aren't already getting distracted by some guy before your first class even starts. And there are a lot of students here, I hardly know all their faces and names" The principal jokes.

"Oh, no. He just gave me a pen and I wasn't able to thank him before he left" She covers her tracks.

"Well I hope you stay here long enough to meet him again. Anyway, here we are" The principal opens the door to her English class. He steps inside and looks around the room as the new student walks in after him. "Class, this is our new student Allison Argent. Please do your best to make her feel welcome"

With that said he nods at the English teacher who is standing in front of a board that has Kafka's Metamorphosis written on it, which will be their first book that they will be reading and dissecting.

The girl, Allison Argent, awkwardly looks around the room for an empty seat before looking down at the floor and fixing her sleeve of her jacket as she walks to the only empty seat behind a cute looking boy.

She sets her bag down and when she turns towards the front she sees the same cute boy looking back at her. He awkwardly smiles before turning back to the front. And she can't help a bright smile from appearing on her face. Turns out this cute guy is actually kinda silly too, and not in a bad way.

The teacher grabs his book off his desk and holds it up. "We will begin with Kafka's Metamorphosis, on page 1"

——————

Myrddin walks into his first class and everyone stops what they're doing and looks at him. He smiles and holds up his schedule pinched between the fingers of his of his right hand. "This is Advanced Anatomy 2, right?"

The short female teacher wearing a small suit jacket with a pencil skirt looks at the new arrival. She's new at the school, and she was hesitant to take a position here after the whole situation the previous school year with Ms. Christin and that ordeal. But seeing Myrddin she can understand why a teacher would be tempted. She pushes her small crescent moon glasses up her nose as she looks way up at the students alluring green eyes. "Yes it is. And I don't suppose you are Myrddin Wyllt???"

"I'd prefer to start being called Merlin, it's easier to pronounce and less forgettable. Kind like your name Ms. Kendrix" Myrddin puts his hand down and stashes his schedule into his front pocket. "And am I seriously the only person late or not here?"

Kendrix puts her hands on her hips and looks up at Myrddin. "Well then Merlin. Since you're late and interrupted my class why don't you tell us what the difference between the ascending and descending tracts in the spinal system are?"

Myrddin looks at the board and recognizes a page from the textbook. "There's a short answer and a long answer to this question. To save some time I'll go with the short answer that is also easy to memorize. The ascending tract in the spine is sensory info going to the brain while the descending tract is motor info going out to the body. The difference is that your brain receives info in ascending and sends info in descending. Ascending is what your brain receives from touching something while descending is what your brain tells your fingers to do"

Ms. Kendrix's eyes widen slightly as she watches Merlin point up and down his body as he explains to the class. She wasn't even expecting him to know what the tracts were. But he went above and beyond in his simplified version. And his smug smile does kinda tick her off. She coughs into the back of her hand and points to the only open seat, and it happens to be near her desk. Nobody wants to sit next to the teacher after all. "Ahem, Good job. Now please take your seat so I may continue my lesson"

Myrddin nods and walks across the front of the class. "Sorry about the interruption"

All the students, female and a male here or there, were captured by Myrddin's looks, but when they heard him talk they were caged.

After taking his seat he gets out 2 notebooks. One is already filled with notes while the other is blank. He wants to see if his teacher will be able to teach him something the book doesn't teach. But he isn't getting his hopes up. Most of the teachers just lecture straight from the book. At least watching Ms. Kendrix is amusing. Her shoulder length brown hair sways as she looks from the board, to her notes in her hand, to the students. Her height is also amusing, she can't be taller than 5'1".

He can think of worse ways to spend his first hour. Mainly like when he had P.E. first thing last year.

It was also amusing when she handed out the first as of Emert of the class. Myrddin was the last person in the front row to receive papers to pass back to those behind him. He couldn't exactly tell if this teacher was glad or mad that he was in the front row. But he knows for certain the ladies behind him were happy he was in the front row. He turned around to pass the papers back and he caught quite a few staring at him that didn't even bother to look away.

What's great was that when Ms. Kendrix sat at her desk Myrddin was right across from her, if not a little to her left. It was just funny and amusing to Myrddin. The look on her face when she realized he already had a notebook full of notes was great. She almost confiscated it but Myrddin was able to prove it was his. The handwriting was identical to his own in the full vs the new notebook. So Kendrix couldn't do much but apologize and be baffled by this student. Just who exactly is this Myrddin Wyllt? Or as he prefers now, Merlin.

——————

During lunch Myrddin found out that bad habits die hard.

He was eating alone outside near the lacrosse field.

The nets were set up and there was a stick and some lacrosse balls on the side of the field.

Myrddin couldn't resist. He wondered how throwing the ball would feel like. You never touch it with your hand so you catch and pass with the stick.

So he takes his jacket off and leaves it with his bag on the bench and grabs the stick. It was surprisingly light.

He grabs it like how he remembered the players did and did a few practice swings. It didn't seem too hard.

Myrddin looks down at the lacrosse balls on the ground and over at the net on the field. "As long as I don't lose any it should be fine, right?"

The mesh at the end of the stick goes towards the ground and scoops a ball up as Myrddin walks towards the net.

He drops the ball and brings the stick back as he does a few practice swings.

It feels so natural to hold and swing the stick. Although it is a bit concerning when he thinks about the vital points he can strike an opponent at to deal some lasting damage with this lacrosse stick.

He shakes his head and scoops the ball up. He looks at the net and it's like time slows down as he catapults the ball straight into the net faster than most of the players did during the lacrosse game.

Adrenaline washes over Myrddin and he gives a toothy grin at the net. "That's a rush"

——————

Coach Finlock just got done chewing out one of his players for leaving their equipment out on the field the previous night. He would have made him go get it but the player had lunch detention. So Finlock grumbles to himself as he goes out to the field to get the things himself. "Like I've got nothing better to do… I got classes to teach and a lunch to eat! I wanna sit inside and do nothing too, but I have to go through footage from the other teams last year!"

The coach makes his way to the field and he sees someone in the middle of the field with the lacrosse stick he's supposed to be getting. Right as he was about to yell at the guy holding the stick he sees the man's body and how he makes a goal from the middle of the field.

Finlock has only seen this done a handful of times in his life, and most were on recording. He doesn't stop the student from continuing as he proceeds to make the same goal 3 more times consecutively. And each time was different. Either from the left or the right, but each one was better than the last. Clearly getting faster and more accurate.

Then he watches as this prime specimen of a human being scoop up the last ball.

Now he was expecting to see another amazing shot. But his jaw nearly hit the floor when the guy jogs forward and the ball goes flying out from the mesh of the stick.

Coach Flicnstock facepalms as he marched onto the field. "That's how you run! I've seen grandmas run faster and handle balls better than you!"

——————

Myrddin can feel the ball escape the mesh as he runs forward. And now he realizes why the players rotate the net to keep the ball from doing exactly what just happened a moment ago.

Then he hears something about running grandmas handling balls.

He turns and sees Bobby Flinstock, Beacon Hills teacher and head coach of the lacrosse team, marching towards him with an angry expression. "Can I help you Mr. Finstock?"

Bobby stomps up to Myrddin. "Yeah! You actually can! Give me this fuckin' thing!"

Myrddin doesn't stop Finstock from taking the lacrosse stick.

The coach goes over and scoops the ball up and turns around. "I NEVER wanna see you go 'prancing~ through the daisy~ field' while running on my field again! And when you run with the ball you cradle it like it's your fathers ball sack. Because if something happens to this ball while it's in your possession you won't ever be born, at least I'll make you wish you weren't. And if you ever, and I mean EVER, drop the ball while running without being laid the fuck out… I'll lay you out myself"

Myrddin opens his mouth but he can't really find any words. He just watches as Finstock marches back over to him and demonstrates how to run with a ball in the mesh as he relates it to cradling his fathers balls. Something he never, ever, wants to hear again.

Finstock looks Myrddin up and down. He can see his toned arms and can practically imagine the rest of the kid's toned body. He's able to spot lacrosse talent when he sees it. And this kid looks like he was made to play the sport. "Take this stick. Run to that net. And throw the ball just before you step in the circle without actually going in"

Myrddin takes the stick after Bobby shoves it against his chest.

"The hell are you waiting for? I'm getting older here! Go!" Bobby folds his arms over his chest as he yells.

Myrddin doesn't really mind doing this. It's what he was going to do originally anyway. And he doesn't want to make Bobby more mad. The teacher/coach could claim that he was trying to steal the equipment.

So he runs down the field and just before he goes into the circle around the net he launches the ball at a frightening speed.

Bobby is gobsmacked at what he just saw. But he wipes the look off his face and furrows his brows before Myrddin turns around. Bobby then walks towards the kid as he puts back on his 'angry coach' act. "What the hell is your time on the 40?"

"You mean my 40 yard dash?" Myrddin rests the lacrosse stick on his left shoulder. "I'm not sure. I haven't had it timed before"

"Haven't had it timed before" Bobby mimics mockingly. "What sport did you play before this?"

"Haven't played a sport my entire life" Myrddin says flat out.

Bobby looks up and down Myrddin's body. "You're telling me. That you. NEVER. Played a sport?"

"Not once" Myrddin confirms with a nod.

"Well how old are you? And where did you come from?" Bobby asks. If he's above a certain age he can have the kid play varsity. And he wants to know which school he should bitch at for not seizing this kids natural talent.

"I'm 16" Myrddin rubs his chin as he thinks back. "And where did I come from? Are you asking before I came to Beacon Hills last year? If that's the case then I would say I spent about a week living in L.A. and then a week living in Miami during the summer. Before that I finished my middle school in-"

"You've been in Beacon Hills for a year? And you're 16? What grade are you in?!" Bobby demands.

"Started my first day of my sophomore year today" Myrddin says with a smirk.

"How come I've never seen you around here?! What's your name kid?" Bobby puts his hands on his hips.

"My name is hard to pronounce, so you can just call me Merlin" Myrddin says without joking.

And Bobby was waiting for the punchline. After a few seconds he realizes this kid ain't joking. "Okay Mr. Wizard. 2:35. Out here on this field in your gym clothes. Don't be late"

Myrddin watches as Bobby begins to leave. "Why would I do that?"

Finstock turns and points at Myrddin up and down. "I've seen athletes like you before. None of them can compare to what I just saw you do. But you all have that same damn smug ass grin when you run around on this field. This isn't an option. You'll be freed back to your parents after 2 hours of grueling work. I lost some very talented seniors last year and you're exactly what this team needs to make it to the playoffs again. I'll even consider this community service, you know you kids need that to graduate right? So show up. Practice like you mean it. And this entire town might be cheering your name in a few short months" Bobby then begins walking back to the school. "And get that lacrosse equipment in my office in the locker room yesterday or you'll be running until you pass out!"

The lacrosse stick bounces on Myrddin's shoulder as he considers what Finstock just said. He doesn't really want everyone to know his name. But playing might actually be fun.

For more than a few reasons. A big one is that he can get back at Jackson AND Lydia some more. Now that he doesn't need them as an excuse to for friends, he has a beating to return to Jackson. But it'll be more of the humiliation kind than physical.

And having his mom sit in the stands, cheering him on. And his dad beside her. It used to be something he thought about a lot when he was growing up. And now he can finally do it. Who cares if he wastes a little bit of time each day. It'll just force him to make a better use of the free time he has.