The next day at school, Val avoided eye contact with Gina, Melaney, and that other young woman whenever she passed them in the halls. During classes with them, Val paid attention to either the teacher or her notebook with razor-like focus. She did not want a single awkward moment passing over herself and those other students. With any luck, the trio of bullies would allow Val to maintain her guise of a mortal life. So far at least, no chaos had broken loose yet.

The lunch break came with the ringing of the bell. Val headed down to the cafeteria to sit at a table alone, one further away from any garbage cans this time. Having the table all to herself did not last for long, though.

“Hey Val,” a lowly voice said. Gina stood at the side of the table, fingers drumming on the back of a chair. “Can I sit by you?”

Val stared at the movement of her green nails, painted the same vibrant color to match the ribbon in her hair. Frankly, green nail polish looked hideous, as if she were prepared to dress up as her true form: a witch. While she did not want to eat lunch with Gina, she could not exactly refuse. That would be too dangerous, because this was a golden opportunity for Val to find out where she stood in regards to her compromised identity. “Go ahead. Sit.”

Gina sat, much like a dog obeying a command. “First, I would like to say that I’m sorry,” she said in a heavy whisper. “I had no idea that you had divine blood and I had no intention to reveal that secret to anybody.”

The lame excuse glanced off of Val’s ears. “So, you were only trying to break my jaw and knock out my teeth instead? You should consider yourself lucky that I happened to have divine blood. If you were to hit a mortal with that force, you would have injured them!” Val wanted to continue on in a rant to condemn Gina’s violent and reckless actions, but she held her tongue for now. Val would need to be on the most basic of friendly terms with Gina so that she would agree to keep her identity a secret.

Gina opened her mouth to defend herself further. “I had simply lost control of my emotions in the moment. Believe me, I would never hit a mortal that hard intentionally.”

Val did not have a mind gullible enough to believe that explanation. “If you had thought that I was a mere mortal, how come there was anything that I could do to make you lose your temper?”

“You act like you’re better than everyone here,” Gina snapped. “Just ask literally anyone. Any student in this school who knows you would agree with me—you like to act as though you are so much better than everyone else. You thought that you were so far above me, didn’t you? Of course you did, and that made me mad, given who I am!”

Did Gina have an ego, much? Her power as a demigoddess had gone to her head, it seemed.

Val raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? I hear you. How do you think that I felt putting up with the petty antics of someone who I had thought to be a mortal, pathetic, high school bully.” Those words tumbled from her mouth but immediately afterward, she wanted to kick herself. Val should have left off ‘pathetic’ as one of Gina’s descriptors. Again, they needed to be amicable here despite everything.

Gina glared with site for a while, but after a deep breath, she forced herself to smile. “That’s fair. I suppose that we are equal now.”

“No,” Val said at once. “The two of us having divine blood does not make us equal.”

Gina’s finely-waxed brow drew into a taut line. “You still think that you’re better than me, don’t you?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Val lied, trying to limit the sarcasm from her voice. “It is undeniable that we are both demigoddesses. I only meant that I am not going to become best friends with you just because of that.”

Gina sneered. “Well, good, because I wouldn’t want to be friends with you, either.” A dim, hurt light still fell over her eyes, despite her words. For a long moment, the other girl shifted around awkwardly.

What demented world had Gina imagined in which they suddenly became friends? Quite the opposite feelings of friendship had kindled within Val. Personally, she wondered something very different from Gina. To what extent did Val have an obligation to put an end to her now?

Demigods and gods killed each other on a regular basis. They did so out of competition to improve their status, and also with the intent to remove any menaces to the world. Some combination of the powerful and benign gods persisted into longevity, with a heavy skew towards the powerful.

A problematic demigoddess like Gina might need to be killed before she went on a power trip, terrorizing everyone weaker than herself. The temptation to kill her had sparked within Val.

Equally as quick, she shook the evil thoughts from her mind. Since when did she want to bring harm to anyone? Out of fear that her own morality was slipping, she thought no more of Gina beyond the immediate situation.

After that long pause, Gina tried to change the subject. “Yesterday in front of the pound,” she began, “I had felt that you were trying to do something to me. What were you doing?”

As it turned out, Gina had been able to detect and resist Keep the Peace. Whether that had to do with humans being intelligent creatures or more specifically with Gina’s possession of divine blood, Val knew not. She would need to conduct more tests on mortals to understand the present nature of her power.

In response to Gina’s question, Val said, “I was not doing anything that would have caused you any harm, if that is what you concerns about. It would have deescalated the situation.”

Gina narrowed her eyes. “So, you do not want to share your powers, then?”

“No, not particularly,” Val said with a shrug, even though her true feelings were a firm ‘no.’ “I doubt that you would want to share yours either.”

“I suppose that is fair enough,” Gina admitted. Hushing her voice even further, she leaned close to ask, “Do you plan to make your way to the Summit of Ascension?”

Letting Gina know the truth in regard to that could not hurt anything. “Of course. What about you?”

“Absolutely!” Gina leaned closer yet—uncomfortably close—to ask, “By any chance, do you know how to get there?”

“No, I’m sorry.” In this case, Val would refuse to give information about the Summit of Ascension’s location whether she knew or not. Sadly, she happened to be telling the truth on this one.

If Gina happened to hold that knowledge though, Val would gladly receive a tip. Maybe if they could have a beneficial relationship, Val’s friendship could be bought. “Do you happen to know where it is?”

“No,” Gina said, but her eyes narrowed with skepticism at her. “How do you not know, though? I heard that your brother moved out over the summer. Assuming that he has divine blood too, then that must have been a lie to preserve the front of a mortal life. He must have left for the Summit! Didn’t he tell you where to go?”

Val shook her head. “I have no idea how he would have found out about its location. If he did, then he certainly did not share anything with me. I cannot even say for sure why he left. He never said goodbye to me.” Recalling Ross’s abrupt disappearance still made her throat sting. Val shrugged these lingering emotions off, though, saying, “Maybe he had just run away on a whim, still needing to search for more information.”

After a stiff silence, Gina said, “Well, at any rate, we may not be friends but how about we cooperate? Obviously, we are keeping each other’s blood a secret. Let’s also tell each other if we make any progress on finding the Summit, okay?”

“That sounds like a good plan to me.” Val nodded along. While she had no intention to tell Gina about the Summit of Ascension’s location once she did learn about it, she very much liked the arrangement to keep each other’s divine blood a secret. “It is your job to keep Melaney and that other girl in line, too."

Gina nodded earnestly. “Of course. You have no reason to worry about them! Melaney has known about my secret since kindergarten. I don’t think that Nadia will tell anyone, either.”

“Nadia?” Right, she thought, remembering now. That was the other girl who was supposed to be Val’s friend, according to Gina’s announcement on the first day of school.

“She was the other girl who was with me yesterday when we, you know….”

Val raised her brow at Gina. They both knew what she had done yesterday, so why did she need to beat around the bush? “Yeah,” she said sourly, “I know.”

“Uh, you do not exactly seem to be enjoying my company here, so I will let you have the rest of your lunch in peace.”

“That sounds fine,” Val said. “I appreciate that you reached out to me after what you have done yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Gina murmured, “sure thing. Again, I am really sorry about that.” She regathered her things and retreated to a nearby table where Melaney, that other girl Nadia, and some other girls had already begun eating.

The worry of her compromised identity no longer loomed immediately over her shoulders, so Val enjoyed her lunch much more than she would have otherwise. The audacity of Gina would never cease to irk her, though.

Now, Val could return to going about her usual business. After school, she would volunteer at the animal shelter yet again. Hopefully, she would see Foofy there, alive and well. In the event that he had left the shelter, it meant that he would have found a new home, Adelaide willing. An anxiety ebbed within her with each passing day, as the risk posed to Foofy’s life increased.