New Pearl School. Wednesday, early morning, 8:00 A.m.

Class 5A

A blond girl with short hair and glasses riding low on her tiny nose, was scribbling on her notebook. She recalled the conversation, she had with her best friend Kate the other night.

‘Today’s the day huh? Kate should be here any minute and also…him. (Smiles)”

“ohh my god! You won’t believe who I just saw! Damon Smith! He’s back! Do you guys remember him? We lost him and his sister about a month ago? Well, I just spotted him walking his sister towards the school.”

“You mean Damon and Kate smith? he’s our senior, right?”

“What do you mean just a senior?!! He’s the only good looking senior in our school! And now I don’t know what he did but he just looks waayy more handsome!”

“Really? I mean, yes. He does look good, but don’t forget we had new transfer students coming in this semester.”

“Girrrllll! Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do to put this into perspective. I’m gonna rank him in comparison to the other good looking transfer students. If I give Mike, Daniel and Jason a 7 out of 10. Then Damon gets a solid 11!”

The surrounding girls then joined in on the conversation about their handsome seniors. Helen pushed a short strand of blond hair behind her ear, as she smiled. She highlighted the figure she was drawing.

‘Big brother Damon…..Gosh, I should stop calling him, big brother and just try calling him Damon. (Blushes)’

Helen and Kate had become fast friends as soon as they met, and best friends later on when they discovered they lived on the same street. That was how Helen first saw Damon, and she was hooked immediately. Although she never said a word about her crush to her best friend, even following Kate to call him, big brother.

‘ughhh I don’t know, what if Kate doesn’t like it? What if she doesn’t want to be friends anymore? .... Would I allow my best friend to date my big brother?’

Helen didn’t know and was too scared to find out. Helen’s interaction with Damon has always been on the capacity of his little sister’s best friend. They talked, made jokes--even borrowed his academic notes to make it easier for her to score her exams. Damon always treated her as his little sister, and that made her mad and happy at the same time. Because otherwise Damon only ever interacted with girls older than him.

“Hey Helen! How many times do I call you? Are you daydreaming again? You should probably get that checked out, you might have ADHD or some shit.”

A tall girl with long inky black hair leaned on one leg, chewing gum in her mouth. Another girl accompanying her was busy on her new K-phone.

Helen pinched her lips, “That’s not what ADHD does. What do you want?”

“Whatever. Here take these, I expect them to be done by tomorrow morning.”

Karen dumped a pile of books on Helen’s desk.

“Wait! I’m going over to Helen’s house today. I won’t be able to finish them today.”

Karen immediately drops her bag at the desk and looks at her happily, using her hand to cup Helen’s cheeks.

“Helen, that’s great! You get to hang around Damon again. See? I told you, you should make a move at him. Good for you….. (her fingers pinch Helen’s cheeks a bit tightly until they turn red) But, I’m sorry honey, I missed where that’s my problem.”

A slow grin spreads Karen's face, as the pinch starts to hurt.

“Helen?”

A confused Kate looks at the situation before her.

A teacher accompanied Damon to his classroom 8-A. Teacher Mrs. Cherry informs him about all the upcoming exams he would have to take later, on their way to class.

The class fell silent, as soon as Damon entered the room. Damon spotted everyone looking at him in amazement. He spotted Ron in his usual spot waving at him.

Damon was on his way there when a paper airplane zipped towards his eyes. Damon dogged it effortlessly and noticed a tall boy with colored hair smiling smugly at him. This takes him aback as he doesn’t remember seeing this boy before, and the lack of any response from his teacher.

“Ron Donald. Please take care of your friend and teach him every lesson that he missed.”

After a sing-song, ‘Yeasss ma’am’ Ron proceeded to greet his best friend, Damon and passed the newest addition to his Fire robot collection to Damon.

The class went as it always does-- boring and back-breaking long. Damon for his part excused himself from Ron’s gushing about the new fire robots, and borrowed Ron’s class notes to study.

Surprisingly, Damon understood and retained whatever he learned in a single attempt.

‘It might take just a week for me to catch up to the current class. Is this because I’m a cultivator now? That’s dope. Wonder if I can finish school entirely? Hmmm.’

“Psst. You must’ve been surprised right? I saw Hunter target you. Are you wondering why the teacher didn’t say anything?”

When Damon looked at him confused, where he was going with this. Ron sighed.

“It was actually 2 days after you left. The government all over the world announced Martial arts to be part of the academic curriculum. Now we all have to learn everything about basic human anatomy, and a martial arts expert will teach us how to fight in a separate class.”

“Damon right? I joined class last week. Hey, I was wondering if you could be my sparring partner for the martial arts class, we have tomorrow?”

Hunter stood at Damon’s desk like he owned the place. Damon’s heightened senses could already feel hostility hidden in those eyes. This only made him smile. If it was another cultivator like him, Damon would be a little cautious. But a simple human? If Hunter wanted trouble, he would find it.

“Sure. Guess I will see you tomorrow.”

Hunter walked away laughing. While Ron began sweating, but before he could say anything Damon stopped him. He was in the middle of solving a math problem and he didn’t want to get distracted….wow he never thought this day would come. Damon? Choosing math over his friend? Just amazing.

“Just be careful around him, he’s not like your average bully boy.”

At the end of the day, Damon stood in front of the school gates. Waiting for his little sister. As he watched groups of students spilling onto the street and boarding buses, he recalled his usual school days. Comparing those boring days to the vampire attack, He considered them a blessing.

Kate and Helen, as usual, walked with hands holding each other towards him. A smile spread unknowingly on his lips on witnessing this sight. He never thought he’d be so emotional over a simple and routine scene like this. They knew each other for a little over 2 years now. And the happy memories started flooding in.

“Were you waiting for us again? Here, hold my bag.”, Kate passed her bag to Damon.

“What about you, Helen? I can carry your bags if you want.”

Her cheeks turned slightly red as she passed her bags to Damon. The group walked slowly back to their home, particularly Damon and Kate were taking their time observing the surrounding. Helen didn’t mind so she happily clung to her best friend, whilst stealing glances from Damon.

“Oh, Helen? Is that you?”

A girl’s voice drifted from behind them. Karen’s friend Val stood there clutching her phone, accompanied by 2 students around Damon’s age.

“Would you look at that? I thought Karen told you to do your homework right? But here you are on a date?”, Taking a smug look at the group of trios, she said sarcastically, “So much for acting so pure. I knew you guys had something going on. Threesome much?”

Damon frowned as he glared at Val. A fact that the 2 guys accompanying her considered offensive.

“Hey, ken doll, what are you looking at?”

When Damon just turned to glare at him, the other guy looked surprised as he exclaimed, “Who’s this new guy? Want us to teach you, how to respect your seniors?”

“I don’t care what you guys are; senior or otherwise. (Pointing at Val) She needs to apologize to Helen.”

“HA! You meet all kind of kids these days.”

“Stop! I’m sorry! I was on my way home with my friends. You can expect the homework by tomorrow morning. Please we don’t want any trouble.”, Helen bowed as she pleaded.

Now it was Damon and Kate’s turn to look surprised. The Helen, they knew would never bow her head to anyone, always stubborn and steely. This sad display by Helen made him wonder if anything untoward had happened to her when he was gone.

“HUH? what does that have to do with anything?”

The tall guy moved in a ‘Gangster walk’ with his legs spread apart like he owned the place. Then he presses his head near Damon’s ear and whispers, “I think, these 2 girls are probably looking to have some fun time. So why don’t you leave them here and make yourself scarce, Snowhite?”

Damon narrowed his eyes as he glared at the tall boy. He decided that some light punishment was necessary to sort this situation.

“You really do have a death wish, don’t you, white princess?”

The tall guy lighted his hand to land a punch on Damon’s face but Hellen screamed pushed herself between them.

“No! we’ll go. Val! if anything happened to me then Karen won’t receive her homework tomorrow. Who do you think will take the blame?”

But before Val could say anything the tall guy went ahead and landed a solid punch on Damon’s face. Helen cried, as the 2 boys laughed. Kate just stood there looking eerily at Val.

The other guy laughed as he said, "This is what happens when you don’t obe—”

He was stopped midway because he saw Damon standing there unharmed. The fist was still on his cheek, other than Damon’s head turning a little-His cheeks weren’t red from impact. Damon moved Helen out of the way.

A slap was heard as the tall boy landed face first on the pavement. He spit out 2 broken teeth out his blood red mouth.

‘What? He broke him with a single slap? And why didn’t he react to Fan’s punch?’

The other guy visibly flinched as Damon turned towards him. When he tried to fish his phone out of his pockets, Damon shouted, “Watch out he’s got a knife.”

“What the-“

Before the other guy could react, a punch to the face dropped him unconscious. Then Damon faced Val, who stood there too shocked to move or run. Damon towered over her, his glare sending her heart into a frenzy, as sweat poured down her head.

“Handover the phone. Hmm, Just as I guessed, you were recording this.”

Damon proceeded to transfer the video to his mobile. Before dropping hers to the floor.

“Now what do we do with you?”

Helen stood there stunned and unresponsive at the scene in front of her. While Kate struggled to hold herself upright, which proved to be difficult considering her fatal attraction to the blood spilling off the boy’s nose.

“If I hear you or this Karen girl coming anywhere near my sister or Helen. Then…I don’t need to say right?”

Under the primal glare of Damon, Val hurriedly nodded as she kept her gaze on the ground.

“Kate? What’s wrong?”

Damon’s heart jumped at Helen’s voice. He saw the exposed blood and put the 2 and 2 together. Damon hurried over to Kate then made his way towards home with Helen trailing behind.

Unbeknownst to them, A man wearing shady glasses witnessed the entire incident, behind a thick tree.

‘Interesting’

“Look mom! A child molester!”, A young kid pointed at him with his lollipop, while tugging on his mother’s hand.

“Shh! Avoid eye contact with such people.”, said the mother as she quickly brought her son away.