Ignorance, Chapter 4

The cats were never family at my highschool. Everything was divided by emo clubs, band geeks, cliques, and intellectual ability.

Felines have always been the second smartest things on the planet, believe me. I'm not saying they aren't. Because, in case if you haven't already figured it out, I'm no genius. I get As and Bs and Cs, but I'm never on the honor roll.

But the gift of knowledge and be able to turn into a enormous wild cat and having twice the lifespan of an average human does not make up for social skills unless if you're a "beautiful person" like Lucas and Jessica. Ignorance's traits of punk and goth and emo don't mix with the popular people her sister was in with.

So there we were. I was strolling into my highschool on the cool September morning with three totally different people behind me, all with strange hair and eye colors, and what a surprise, someone notices that there are, alas, new comers and they aren't all that normal.

"Look, has the freakshow gotten himself a girlfriend, boys!" It was just another football jock that bullied me on a daily basis.

He strode towards me with his pack of hungry-looking players. Half of them eyed Jessica with interest in places I do not care to mention, but looked frustrated when Lucas clutched her hand tight and stopped her from turning into a leopard right then and there and ripping the jocks to shreds for being such perverts.

I thought I heard one of them murmur, "She's taken, damn it!" to one of his muscle-bond friends and shrink to the back of the crowd in embarrassment.

Ignorance stood beside me, her eyes darkened by the shade of her bangs. Her cool blue hair was down today, I noted, and it had gotten brighter over the summer. She looked furious, but extremely unconfident.

I learned that Ignorance only harmed people, or went tiger on them, if they tried to hurt her. She was very fussy over being hurt, and avoided all pain-related situations. She's not the type to go and risk her life for someone, at all.

"So, Richard, did you go shopping for girlfriend at an asslym or what? And why is her hair blue, hmm?"

"Stay away from us." Growled Ignorance.

"Look, it talks." Snickered the leader, lifting Ignorance up by her chin so she would look him in the eyes. She trembled, her arms shaking at her sides, the only thing propelling her up was the leader: her feet barley skimmed the ground. She managed to say,

"Your intellectual ability is a tenth of mine, so, cretins, release my face now or survival will be unnecessary for you and your team of oversized low-lives."

The jock leader laughed and let go of Ignorance. She almost stumbled onto the pavement, but caught herself.

"Those are some big words…your smarter than you look." He smirked. "I like smart girls…the dumb blondes are getting irritating," (Jessica huffed, but Lucas kissed her neck and she calmed down) "How about you and I got get some drinks after school, sugar?"

"I refuse to participate in your drunken games with women." She twirled around and grubbed us by the wrists, tugging us to the front office. "Let us be off, encounters with thugs should not be apart of our schedules."

"Wow, Iggie, that was so out of your character!"

Jessica could always be her bouncy, light-hearted, care-free ways even after a situation like that.

"Yes, on occasions, it's best to not act myself…and that was for the best…a simple mood change, mhm?"

"Mood changes are good when you use 'em, Iggie. Nice one back there." Lucas noted, punching her shoulder.

Ignorance winced.

"Yeah, whatever, nice job, Ignorance. Now let's go before other morons find us."

Ignorance nodded and strode ahead.



"World War Two was one of the most serious world wars in the entire history of wars…"

Mr. Beckerman's words trailed off in my mind. We were all arranged in order of alphabetical order, and since the cats did not claim to have one, poor Mr. Beckerman had no choice but to place the weirdest kids in the class in the front of the class, because if he'd put them in the back of the class, it'd be like putting an elephant in the back of the room-who WOULDN'T look at it?

Jessica was actually intent on the lecture, she was surprisingly obsessed with bare-brain history since I came into their lives, and I had to spend hours telling her about the historical people in our history who do nothing but die and then show off their famous faces to the world. I hated 'em all, the good and the bad.

Lucas was also intent on the lecture, probably only because Jessica was, and he side-glanced at her from time to time making sure she wasn't going to cry when Mr. Beckerman said that quote, "millions and millions of innocent people died…", unquote.

Ignorance was taking down notes in her extra-thick 5-subject notebook, that was used for her sketches before the school year started, but I could see her handwriting: small, neat cursive.

Ignorance sat by the windows, sunlight pouring all over her like honey seeping through cracks. Her eyes glittered, in the sunlight, and her skin looked pale, and clean, and smooth in the sunlight. Mr. Beckerman had opened the windows, and wind stirred up her hair, making it wave and wrap around her shoulders. And her strong scent of roses blossomed in the room, calling out to me like an owl in the middle of the night.

SHRRRRINGGGG!

The bell woke me from my thoughts and we all walked out of the room together.

"I have English next with Ferri in building 3." Lucas said to us.

"Rats, I've got Science with Miller in building 2! But I guess we'll see each other next period at lunch, right?"

Lucas nodded and the two paced away.

"I have Algebra with Fosnot in building 4. You?" I asked Ignorance.

"Same." She said quietly. She led the way, she had memorized the school in ten minutes, unlike me, who had spent years in the jail cell not caring where I was half the time. Her hair was flowing out behind her, and I longed to reach out and touch it. But I was most worried that she would just turn around, flash me a wink and a smile, and disappear into a cloud of glitter, and I would be myself again, but then I remembered she was real: she had almost killed me, remember?

"You've been kind to me," she said to me quietly as we exited building 5, striding across campus. "I appreciate it…I have never felt as close to you as I have felt with Jessica and Lucas."

I nodded. "Well, I've never been close to another person…well, cat…well…whatever, you know, before...."

"We're both outcasts, right?"

"That's one thing that will never change." I laughed. "Even if we tried, we would never change our w--"

And that's when Ignorance twirled around, and flashed her legs out and kissed me on the mouth.