“What is a Mazikeen?” The stunned girl asked the pixie that fluttered around her. She saw the flying girls face grow contemplative before she answered.

“They are more of a who than a what.” Victoria was confused by the answer but she waited for a better explanation. “So its biblical but the Mazikeen are the descendants of Adam and Lilith or well some of the descendants.”

“Adam was married to Eve.” The teenager mused.

“He was but they were separated and exiled from the garden of Eden and both lay with, well creatures. So anyway. The Mazikeen is one result.” Victoria shuddered. “They are very powerful but they are mortal; live, breath eat and have children.”

The teen brushed her dark hair back as if trying to frame a question. “Why has she been torturing me?”

“For fun. She is probably someone you knew and goes to school by taking a different form when she leaves.” The little pixie smiled. “There's a spell for that.”

A surprised look suffused Victoria’s face her lips made an ‘O” in surprise. “Detect monster” She whispered. Then she had a smile as she cast the spell. “How long will it last?” She asked.

“Just a few minu…” Before she could finish the bell rang releasing the students to the first-period class. They both rushed out of the room.

“What do I do if I find it?” The excited teenager asked.

“You kill it.” The Pixie replied matter of factly.

The girl thought for a moment. “What do I do with the body?”

“They usually deliquesce.” She said with a smile at Victoria.

“Usually?” She asked for confirmation.

“Well…” The Blond Pixie temporized. “ Sometimes they are more a part of this realm than they should be.”

“So if I killed it I might be having to explain away a dead body.”She said with exasperation in her voice.

“Yes, like the Coco yesterday.”

“Wait? That was a rat.”

“No. It was a Coco, or Cuco also Cucuy. Have you ever had a rat talk to you before? That one was a baby they feed on people's fears.” She said happily.

“So it was feeding on my dad's fear? And I killed it?” Lacie shook her head in confirmation. Sighing Victoria stepped to the side of the hall out of the rush of students then stepped to a locker where she proceeded to dial in the combination and began putting things in it and taking some out to prepare for class. “I’m not prepared for this. There should be a monster hunter class.” She muttered.

She heard a snort from two lockers down. Looking she saw one of the boys from the club she hadn’t met the day before. He had curly dark hair, broad-rimmed bifocals, coffee-colored skin and about twenty pounds more than he should. “Heh, not in the first edition maybe in Monster Hunters international or something.” His smile showing off teeth encased in braces.

“I’m sorry I didn’t catch the name.” She said giving him a smile but wondering if going to the club had been a wise idea after all.

He stuck out his hand. “Hadrian Touphalhunden.”

“I am so sorry.”Her eyes had gone a little wide.

“Call me Touph.” He chuckled as she shrugged. The young girl noticed the number of students were dwindling so she made a break for her next class about fifty feet away.

“I have to go I’m late.” She said in apology as she ran.

X X X

The first class of the day went as usual. Victoria managed to stay awake even if only just barely. Why the AP teachers had to be even more boring than the usual teachers she didn’t know. However, she attempted to use her new understanding of social cues to analyze the class and students in the class better. She didn’t know what exactly was going on but noticed there were three groups of students in the class that seemed to group together. Four if she included herself. Then found herself asking if just one person could constitute a gang. Periodically though she would cast detect monster to both practice the spell and see what she might be able to learn.

The first two casts she didn’t detect anything but on the last three tries, she detected something moving below her and to the west-northwest of her. Thinking about the location she thought it must be located in or near the gym. Fortunately, that was her next period class, one she obsessively hated with a passion. She checked her mana levels and found that the last stretch of class she had replaced all the mana she had previously used.

She hurried through the double doors into the old building and found the couch had the ball carts out. That meant either basketball or dodge ball. She hatted dodge ball, she and the other semi and uncoordinated kids became the victims of the more athletic players. She gave it some thought if she wanted to level her dexterity wouldn’t this be a good way to do it? Maybe it really did come down to her attitude. “I’ll look at this as an opportunity.” She said as she stood up to her gym locker and started to take her gym clothes out of her bag and get dressed. She heard banging and giggling coming from down the row looking she saw it was Karen Polanski. Karen was the queen bee cheerleader that everyone loved to hate. More importantly, Karen seemed to love to torture Victoria in her own right. “I wonder.” She said then got a sly look on her face.

As she dressed, she surreptitiously cast her monster detection spell. With an indrawn, his of breath Victoria saw small purple glows spring from the necks of the five cheerleaders, that were surrounding Karen getting dressed. Victoria killed the spell quickly when she saw the glow envelope the head cheerleader. “Hey, want to sit and talk during class?” she heard her friend Caroline said as she slipped in next to her to get dressed for the class. Wide Eyed The brunette beauty turned to her friend and nodded a bit of a shocked look on her face.

“Yeah, we definitely need to talk.” She said in a muffled tone as she pulled her top over her head.

“Hey look they’re looking our way.” Looking over Victoria saw it was true. “They never look over here.” Caroline continued. “I wonder what's up.” Victoria had a sinking feeling that they knew. She shrugged and looked worriedly at the queen bee and her minions.

She bumped her friend. “Whatever it is we’ll find out all to soon. Let's find a seat and talk.” The blond girl nodded and followed.

The class was seated on the bleachers as per usual. Looking around the hall she saw five red rubber balls spaced on the centerline, which could only mean one thing. Their teacher stood up to her full height of five feet six inches and bellowed at them, It was always a shock such a large voice coming from such a small woman. “Alright, ladies today is Dodge Ball. A through K on this side the rest of youns on the otha. “ The class make-up was twenty-five girls between the age of sixteen and seventeen. Mrs. Smiths informal breakdown of students meant that approximately half were on each team. But numbers didn’t mean much when there was a clear disparity inability.

The students wandered into their positions, some with more alacrity than others. The basic rules to dodge ball were easy. If you got kit by the ball you were out. If you caught the ball the person who threw it was out. If it touched the floor before it hit someone the ball was dead. Sometimes the teachers wanted the game to last longer so if you caught it a player that was out could come back in the game. The unwritten rule, however, was to hammer the weakest player first. With the trill of the coaches whistle the melee began.

Karen and her squad were on the opposite team they grabbed four of the five balls and then threw in a coordinated effort, now Victoria thought she knew why the mean girl's clique acted in concert on most things.

“I’ve got this!” she said as the first ball streaked toward her group. With an effort, she got to it in mid-flight and caught the ball. She smiled in glee as she then aimed, reared back and threw the ball she had just caught as an Asian girl stomped off the court. Even as she threw another ball came streaking in toward her. She dropped to the ground and the ball sailed past her then she popped up to grab at a second ball that seemed to have been aimed at her. She bobbled the ball a little but then got it in control and grabbed it before it could touch the ground. From the other team there came a grown of displeasure. She noted though that her own team had lost four players despite her own spirited defense.

Victoria watched as Caroline threw her ball and the aim was good but it struck a red-headed cheerleader on her upper back as she tried to dodge. She had a stunned look on her face and Victoria remembered that was the general area that the monsters aura had come from. She risked a quick spell then took aim at another cheerleader that had her attention on the stunned girl then she released her ball. Her aim was good and it too struck her on the back in an area that was glowing. She too went down stunned but Victoria only had eyes for a small glowing creature that was knocked loose and scuttled across the gym floor.

The other girls were cheering her and Caroline on as they did battle against the cheer squad. “We can do this!” She yelled to her friend as Caroline dodged a ball that struck the floor and Victoria recovered it and used it to block two of the other team's balls that had been thrown at her. The first bounced back toward a blond cheerleader that Victoria didn’t recall the name of. The second popped up into the air and was caught by Caroline who threw it at a distracted and anxious Karen. The ball was thrown quite well but seemed to just miss the girl. But as she Dodged Victoria's missile struck her on the thigh. With a cry of rage, she glared at Victoria and Caroline. “You’ll regret that.” She said.

“Wow, soar loser much.” Caroline quipped quietly to her friend.

Looking thoughtful Victoria nodded. “Yeah, if we are only that lucky.”