The class grew silent; all the students looked up at the sudden words and found Noah standing head to head with Leeroy.
But it was strange—Noah had been around 5'7" and Leeroy was 6'3", so why was Noah at eye level with him?
Meanwhile, memories swirled through Noah's mind, recalling the time he first started taking drugs. It was a dare at a party he didn't want to even be at.
From the guy in front of him.
After that, they milked him for cash to buy their drugs and threatened to expose him every time he refused to shell out a buck, even when he was broke.
He had half a mind to crack Leeroy's skull right here. But it was too public; the time would come, and he'd extract every last dollar he lost to this fool.
"What do you want, Leeroy?" Noah said calmly, green eyes gleaming with contempt. "And why are you calling me names? Next time you speak to me, you can call me Noah or you can just shut up."
Leeroy thought he was in a dream or something. There was no way in hell that this was Noah. Noah was small, scrawny, and would never even dare look into his eyes, much less talk to him like this.
It sickened him, made him want to slam the bastard through the wall.
"You get a bit tall, and now you're the shit? I wanted to ask you some questions, friend. Can we speak outside?"
Noah's face didn't move an inch; he simply shook his head and took his seat. It was obvious what Leeroy wanted to talk about.
Dalton and the boathouse Noah burned down.
But not now; he would only talk to the local enforcer or captain for the mob. In these parts of the city, it should be Isaac, or it might have changed.
Leeroy didn't like being ignored; his face scrunched up, and his complexion reddened. Anyone else that saw this would jump up immediately. But Noah simply took one look at him, daring him to try something.
Leeroy backed away. The situation was urgent, but they were still on campus. He would make sure to beat the breaks off the bastard the moment he stepped off university grounds.
In the meantime, he and his two friends returned to their seats and waited for the lecturer to come.
The rest of the class didn't seem ready to do the same, but Noah was not returning any looks, and anyone that tried talking to him was thoroughly ignored. He just stared out of the window and tried to control himself.
He could feel the ghost part of him clawing at his chest, yearning to be set free, to smash Leeroy's skull to bits and scatter his blood over the classroom. Noah couldn't, for the life of him, understand why.
The hunger that he had been suffering this morning followed him to school and had grown painfully intense when Leeroy was in front of him. It responded to his desire to kill the boy, and his strength even grew a bit.
He whipped out his phone and started searching things—types of ghosts mainly—to try and pinpoint what he was exactly. The ghost girl he met in the park didn't have the same features that he did.
No flaming black head.
She looked exactly how she did when she died. So what was the difference between them? The best answer he could find came from a popular blog about spirits.
And it put him as a headless rider after filling a questionnaire, but he doubted that. For starters, he had no horse, and he couldn't control fire; he just had a head of flames.
The closest comparison he could find was an Onryō, a type of Japanese ghost.
This one was tied to vengeance and hunting people that wronged them. Maybe that was why he came back.
The door to the classroom opened, and their lecturer came in, so he put down his phone and opened his notebook. This was his first time being a student, but he'd have to pull it off for the former Noah.
The next few minutes were spent going over simple algebraic terms as they revised what was learned in the previous term. But then the lecturer decided to have a test since some people were sleeping.
This was a bit worrying since he did have the original Noah's memories, but he didn't know if that transferred to experience.
"If anyone so much as looks at another person's paper, we'll take a trip to the dean's office," the teacher promised, eyes narrowed. "Great to have you for another year, Noah."
He nodded at the lecturer, a bit surprised the man instantly recognized him. But maybe he was used to having students suddenly grow a couple of inches. After all the quizzes were shared, the class grew silent.
He read through the questions first because that was what Noah always did, and then started thinking of answers slowly.
But suddenly he knew all the answers.
It was like they had just been in front of him this whole time, and he was just finally seeing them.
He let himself smile before he started answering every question. His hands finished questions before he even knew what was happening. He had to stop and go back sometimes as he tried remembering when he answered that.
He was done with the quiz in five minutes. Short, sweet questions that actually made him happy to see complete. It was a strange feeling, one his former apathetic self never really had.
But he liked knowing the answers to a quiz. He turned to the lecturer, who had been waiting and watching the students from behind the class. The lecturer raised an eyebrow, then smiled, coming over and retrieving his test.
After ten minutes, the quiz time was done, and after a short talk, the class's time ran out, and the lecturer exited. Noah got up, even though he still had a class here, because he knew Leeroy still wanted to speak to him.
The boy in question rose from his seat as he saw Noah leave the class and followed. His two friends weren't far behind.
Noah tried to control the surging hunger in his body and the headache pulsing through his head. This talk would be civil, at least for now.
No one would die.