Hair in All The Wrong Places by Andrew Buckley

hear her anyway. The only thing that rang inside his head were the words
attacked by an animal.
    Coldness seeped into Colin’s bones as shards of memory pricked along the edges of his brain. He couldn’t fully grasp why, but something didn’t feel right.
    He looked back across the football field, but the stranger in the fog was no longer there.

Chapter Six
An Unexpected Visit
    A n eerie quiet had settled over the school as the students slowly left the grounds. Despite Principal Hebert’s direct delivering of the news, it came as a shock to absolutely no one that the entire student body was developing their own theories on what actually happened.
    Colin had returned to French class to retrieve his backpack, but everyone had already left. All that remained was a disturbing amount of vomit, and Colin couldn’t help but feel a small stab of sympathy for Eric the janitor who would have to figure out how to get the stain out of the carpet. The goth twins were seldom apart and did most things together, but throwing up in unison? That was taking the
twins
thing a bit far.
    Exiting the main building along with the last few stragglers, he was just in time to see Becca duck into the backseat of her father’s black sedan. Mr. Emerson lookedunhappy and as imposing as ever. As the car pulled away, Becca looked back at Colin, and his heart skipped several beats. At least
that
was a normal reaction.
    Near the main gate, Colin could see some tenth graders making fun of Kevin Hadfield who was still mostly covered in puke but didn’t seem to notice anything. One of his friends had just been killed.
    Puked on and then one of his only friends gets mauled by a wild animal.
    Colin wished he could feel sorry for Kevin but remembering what he had put him through for the past year made it next to impossible.
    As Colin walked down across the school grounds, he picked up bits and pieces of gossip from huddled groups of students.
    â€œâ€”heard Sam and Gareth got into a fight last night and Gareth threatened to beat him to death!”
    â€œâ€”no wild animals in Elkwood that could do that.”
    â€œâ€”demon hamster. I bet that’s what it was.”
    â€œDid you hear the goth twins projectile vomited in Fren—”
    â€œâ€”so sad. I always thought Sam was cute.”
    â€œâ€”brother heard from his cousin who works with the coroner. There were bits of Sam all over the—”
    â€œâ€”had to be Gareth Dugan.”
    Gareth was a bully, degenerate, and evil incarnate, but he was definitely not a wild animal. In no hurry to see his grandmother, Colin decided to walk home. He had a lot to think about.
    Were people hearing his thoughts or was he hearing theirs? What’s with the headaches? The puking? Thestranger on the football field? His blackout? Thinking about it all together proved to be depressing.
    Colin decided to get at least one of his questions answered by stopping by his grandfather’s old garage. He smeared the grime across the front window with the sleeve of his sweater and peered through the clean spot. The car was definitely gone. Nothing but an empty space remained where the old car had been resting peacefully until Colin had liberated it last night.
    Where did I leave the car?
    The garage flashed before him, and he once again saw smoke and a helicopter, a large creature, like the one in his shower, searing pain, a howl, running through the woods … a cascade of images that caused Colin to stagger backward off the sidewalk and into the road.
    Even though the vehicle screeched to a halt, Colin still took most of the impact.
    Upon collision, his visions disappeared, and he simply lay in a crumpled heap in the middle of the road.
    â€œColin! Holy crap, Colin! Are you okay?” Jeremy’s voice.
    â€œYou hit me with your car.”
    Jeremy was crouching next to him. “Well, my mom technically hit you. You came out of nowhere; we couldn’t have