The next day, Val headed to the animal shelter after school just as she had done the day before. On her way there, the hair at the back of her neck stood on end. More than just this chilly day at the beginning of October, Val had a sense of foreboding. Her neck craned around to check behind herself frequently.

Nothing but a few fallen leaves blew behind her across the sidewalk.

Val continued walking. She pressed on with her stride a little quicker now. Rationally, she knew that she had nothing to fear. Even if some underbelly thugs came to capture her, Val felt confident that she could take any assailants out with her superhuman strength.

The only thing that a demigoddess had to worry about were others who possessed divine blood, both more experienced and more powerful than herself. Because she has been keeping the secret of her blood, Val had no reason to worry about another demigod—or worse, a fully-fledged god or goddess—showing up to take her out. Despite her careful secrecy, Val still had a bad feeling deep down in her gut, so she carried along with her heart beating fast.

She neared the animal shelter now and passed some of the outdoor kennels. Beyond the fence of that outdoor run, some barks sounded.

Unlike the deep bark that she had grown used to hearing, this one sounded lighter. These woofs sounded more like a greeting to her than those of an alert. A beautiful Doberman bounded up to the fence and ran alongside it, showing himself off in front of Val.

“Foofy!” she called to greet him in return. Her hand dug into her pocket to find the same bag of carrots that she had used for treats yesterday. Before she could feed him one through the fence, Val found herself most rudely interrupted.

“Well, it looks like I was right after all,” a feminine voice called from behind.

The sound of that voice made a knot of annoyance twist around in Val’s stomach.

“That thing does belong in the pound, just as I had said.” Gina walked around the corner, followed by two other girls on either side.

Val stood up straight, arms crossed rigidly over her chest. “Do you have any business here? If not, I see enough of you during the school day. I would prefer not to be stalked by you outside of it.”

“Oh my,” Gina said. “You really think highly of yourself, don’t you? To think, you believe that I would waste my time following you around.”

The two other young women snickered at Gina’s side. As always, one of Gina’s cronies included Melaney. The other one, Val did not know by name nor would she bother to learn it. She could hardly be troubled enough to remember the names of the mortals that she did know. Most likely, the third lackey had been brought along just for the intimidation factor of numbers. Too bad for Gina that no number of mortal girls could instill fear in a demigoddess such as Val.

“I have to go. I work with the dogs here at Brillion City Humane Society after school. You are taking up their time. I don’t have time for any more bitches.”

The other two girls drew their eyes wide and looked to each other.

Gina just smiled crookedly with her hooded eyelids. “We already used that one on you. How unoriginal can you be?”

Val would argue that it had never been original in the first place, but she did not care enough to explain that. “Whatever.” She tried to carry on her way by walking past Gina and her minions.

“Where do you think that you’re going?” Gina snapped. “You really ought to learn your place. You can only leave once I say that you can!”

Meanwhile, Melaney circled around to block her from behind, as if Val would try to escape the other way.

Val was just trying to go about her own business and volunteer with some dogs after school. Did she really need to be harassed in a big display like this? If not for her trying to deescalate the situation, Val might have just rolled her eyes and tossed up a hand at the bother.

Right beside them all, Foofy’s barks turned into a livid, more aggressive thing. From his perspective, it must seem that many strange humans ganged up on the one familiar to him. He had no knowledge that Val with her divine blood could handle anything by herself, so he barked wildly.

Val stood there, wondering how long it would take for Gina to get bored with her. To speed along the process, she called within herself to Keep the Peace. While she had never used this ability on humans yet, a couple of mortals would make for the perfect first test subjects. Val focused on Gina, trying to lessen the hate that the other high school girl directed at her.

A cloud hung over Gina’s eyes, but they only further narrowed in hate. Her fingers lifted up to snap in an instant.

Val could only raise an eyebrow in confusion. A fair amount later, too late, she noticed the gentle tug of someone undoing the zippers of her backpack. “Hey! What are you doing?” Val spun around and took off her backpack in defense against Melaney, then hastily zipped the main compartment back up.

Already, Melaney waved a book in her hands. “I am surprised that you even carry around any textbooks at all, you know—but don’t worry! You won’t miss this.”

Val could feel her face growing hot. Just because she had better things to do than to sit in classes all day, it did not mean that she would be entirely irresponsible now that she had agreed to attend school.

“Let’s see how friendly that dog of yours is.” Gina nodded upward to Melaney.

With a swing of her arm, Melaney sent her textbook sailing into the sky.

The pages fluttered through the air as the book flew over the fence. The hard cover of the textbook slapped against the cement. Pages bent against the ground in the haphazard way that the book had landed.

Foofy’s attention shifted to the fallen book for a moment, then he returned to barking as loud as ever.

“Just try to get your book back from your precious dog now,” Gina said. “You’ll see that he really belongs in that cage for a good reason.”

Val seethed, standing there in place. Again, how dare Gina direct her insults towards Foofy! An excellent dog like him would allow her to climb the fence and retrieve her book, as simple as that. “I will get my book back right now.” Val stuck a pointed finger into Gina’s face. “Just you watch.”

She could go through the animal shelter, of course, but that would involve questions from the shelter worker. More than concealing her personal struggles, Val wanted to shove Gina’s attempt at bullying back in her face.

Foofy continued to growl and bark in vicious sounds. While he may have always been a well-behaved dog with Val on their walks, scaling a fence into his kennel would be another matter entirely. Would Foofy still accept her even when she trespassed?

Of course, he would. Val had no doubt in regards to her friendship with Foofy. She had even given him carrots.

Fueled by confidence, Val hooked her fingers around the metal links of the fence. Soon, she would find out Foofy’s true temperament when she found herself in a cage with him. She began to climb.