C H A P T E R 6

A C O R N E R E D C O B R A

Author: Raven Orthodox

A month? On Lion's Den? Who do they think I am? A snake roast for Diana's claws?

"Tomorrow will be another grand opening entrance. You're a cornered cobra now. Surrounded by a pride of lions."

"I don't know what to do, girl. What if they socially embarrass and count me as an outcast?"

Her warmth enveloped me as she leaned to hug. We were sitting on the side of the bed, she rubbed my back and shushed me. "Relax, relax. And yes, of course, you most likely will be treated as an outcast, so get yourself a fact check and deal with it. But if that ever happens, I want you to believe in yourself that you'll still going to conquer it, okay? And it's not just that. . ."

She picked up the locket tied on my neck and opened it. It was a symbol of ice and fire, which is pretty symbolic of my last name, Frostfyre. "If they turn raging hot against you, turn yourself into a glacial ice queen, be cold and turn off their fire. But if they do turn cold, you must recreate yourself as the hottest goddess of fire. Burn them all."

I looked at her with funny disbelief, although I knew she was relatively smart, she's speaking wisdom as if she's had it memorized since we were five. "Well, I cannot fathom how great you are in words. You and your awesome metaphors." I laughed, and so did she, punching me in the boob.

"Hey, you hit me on the boob!"

Four minutes of dressing up, I broke into a fierce pose in front of the dragon-scaled mirror Dominica gifted me last week. My eyes were a mix of terror and anxiety. I could already see the future of me being dipped into the River of Styx as soon as I entered an unwanted territory. A territory full of lions, lioness, and their cubs. That was a metaphor, of course. Not actual lions.

Leaving the nest, I made sure that my heels clack in every step after Raven pinned the Serpent's Fang badge on my left chest. She had it redesigned in personal terms by the School Badge Faculty and made it look like a cobra with emerald fangs that shone at specific angles when I walk. She began, "Although I prefer rubies because red fits Serpent's Fangs, these cuties symbolize your venom, your intoxication, and your spiteful aggression."

"What do the Lions and Eagles wear?" I asked, wondering what Diana or even Raven's kind of shiny objects are.

"Gold for the Lions, and sapphire gemstones for the Eagles."

"Pretty cool, I see. What do the Serpents wear, bright rubies?"

"Yeah, duh, that is correct." Raven's brows furrowed in deep focus on my dress. "Hmm. . . your badge stood out more since your breasts were growing. And give me some slacks, that power skirt is killing me."

A loud boom and a starting course of pop music played through. Something was going on. As we headed out of the building, the announcer was already talking about individual superiority, the invisible hand of society, and all those exciting social science concepts. "It must be just some self-help speech nobody would wanna hear, but either way, you've got to go to the cat's territory right now. You don't want the Lions to see you as weak for being late."

"Uh-huh, that's true. Alright, we're pulling out too much tension now." I wanted to roll my eyes at how socially panicky we became now because of our own revolt. "What about the red box?"

"Of course, the red box. Your life is in ruins by now, and you already miss Dominica. But your life isn't that much endangered, so maybe after class, you may open it-"

"Yes, 'cause it's too predictable, it's gonna be the end of me after class." I did a second eye roll.

Raven ran off beaming as she separated herself from me to another structure just a few distances. We said goodbye, and she warned me to always be on the watch for danger.

I was walking in a cobblestone path, taking a good selfie from my phone and fix my silvery hair for just a bit while I walk into the entrance of Lion's Den. There was a Lion guard standing on the porch, looking out to was verify my identity. "You can't enter miss, you need a-."

"Believe me, I'm banned from my school building temporarily. It's just temporary and-"

"Sorry, miss, we can't have you here without a lion badge," He argued. He gestured the other Lion's Den students to enter.

Last time I entered, he fell asleep. Now that he's awake, he's blocking my way. Now I kind of wished that Aurora wasn't the only one Maleficent cursed to sleep forever.

"It's temporary, mister. Is this badge," I gestured on the cobra badge on my chest. "-enough to get you to stop talking and let me enter instead?" I did a third eye-roll by now when I shifted my stance to go near him. "You see this?" I unpinned my cobra and displayed it to him. "This proves that I'm a former student from Serpent's Fangs and our Dean switched me here, you've got to believe me."

He shook his head in disagreement, and later on laughed at my failed attempt at pressuring him. He looked at my clothed chest and down my legs. "You're very good at persuading me without even trying."

What? Seriously?

"Oh, so now we're talking about dresses instead of getting a minor student to get to class and study?" Sarcasm poisoned my tongue, "Look, I get it. I totally get it that my dress was too fit and enthralling. So now, do you need me to apologize here in front of you? For dressing what I chose to dress?"

I wasn't even persuading him, I'm authenticating myself as a temporary student in this building. "As if I would believe you, girl."

People beyond the gates were watching already. And so I yelled my scream of pain. "Shows over, so why won't you just mind your own business!"

"Stop shouting, lady."

"I'm sorry, they're kind of annoying." I pleaded him with the most hushed tone I could come up just as much as only he could hear it. "So please, I'm begging you."

"No, I say." He made a grunt, looking at my eyes with a personal curious wink.

"I know you're just doing this so you could talk further with me."

"You filthy creep, don't you realize you're pretty much perverted for a Lion guard?" I said, reiterated and frustrated with a sturdy-strong voice. "Call Dean Scintilla of Serpent's Fangs for all I care. Hell, call your Dean, even. Call all three Deans if it freaking pleases you.

Now we could finally settle this faster and end your obscene flirting-with-a-student demeanor."

His droopy eyes widening, he hushed me up in shameful alarm. "Quiet, be quiet!" he whispered. "You just embarrassed me in front of the seniors, kid. You happy now?"

"Gonna let me enter now?" I said with a mad pout on my lips. I played my badge for a moment to tease his sullen anger simmering down.

"Jesus Christ," he groaned and opened the door gate. "Fine, fine. But get this right, flower girl, if you get suspended again for another shenanigan you're about to drag, that's on you."

I covered my lips with my palm to conceal the happiness I felt from winning against a perverted guard. Well, Alexis, you know they've got it coming.

And of course, as my heels entered the very halls, I was already getting hateful looks.

Another Lion guards were opening the double doors, letting me enter. Head held high and focused on finding my locker number, more people were eyeing me now. My anxiety and nervousness began to rise when I remembered that Diana and the rest of the Champions could be here at any moment.

"Oh, hello, Alexis." A big shadow loomed.

"What do you want?" I replied back to a well-built, athletic chap as I looked over my locker number. I've been counting so many times 'till I get to locker number 69. "Ah, there you are."

"I've heard everything about you, beauty. Curse my Ferrari, Alexis, but I got to tell you the truth that almost all of my friends in the Lion Gates House have been fancying about you, Alexis F-R-O-S-T-Y." He played with the toy strings on his phone and scrolled through his boring feed. "And FYI, Lion Gates is number one of the three sorority houses in Lion's Den. Better than all of the sorority clubs you and the Eagles have."

"Whatever," My fingers throbbed from forcing a key to open the locker, "Whoops, it's the wrong key." The dorm key, the car keys, front door key, etc., I'm confused with this multiple keys, and this guy just made nerd jokes and started cackling at me for carrying a load of stuff with me, so I pressed these books onto his chest without hesitation so he could hold it while I'm still opening the damned locker.

"Freaking keys." Next time, I'll color-code this and memorize its purposes.

"Easy, easy. You've got to hurry up, I don't want to be seen by my peers carrying girl stuff." He teased, or so I hope. I couldn't stand men who had issues with their own masculine traits and dissing out girls' material friends.

"Hi, Alexis!" A couple of girls recognized me.

"Oh, hello, my angels." I waved like a sophisticated queen and then turned back to my locker.

I thought quick for a moment as I put the books into the locker from the stack he was carrying. I was thinking about what would happen if I didn't have friends here because Diana would, of course, kill the people who made contact with me as soon as she finds out. So if this guy is that much interested in me, then we'll see how it goes.

Maybe I could plan a friendly date with this guy. Although I won't need to sleep with him, I just have to be best friends with him, which will definitely look like we're on a date.

After closing it with a lock, I smiled at him, and looked over his shoulder, people were already talking and looking at me like whispering ghosts.

"Hey!" A husky, deep voice entered our conversation, with his cushy and thick woody scent of sandalwood aroma airing the atmosphere. Earthy masculine thus a blend of spicy musk.

"Oh, hey, Cal." The guy recognized him. "Being leader of the pack, although we're not wolves, why so gloomy all of a sudden?"

"Ignore him," I told him, gripping my Health/Medicine and Trigonometry books a little too hard. I thought of a more killer verbal attack. "He was a douche, last time I saw him."

Calixon's extra-large arm pulled my shoulder to force me to have a face-to-face with him. I questioned myself what genes does this man have? "Last time I saw you, you weren't sorry for beating up my sister. And as I said, I am impressed." He looked at me with disappointment in his radiant blues. "But you've reached too far, baby. That shit you made was the total deal-breaker."

I explained to him about the part where Diana Dayne was so jealous of my booth modeling, and she tried to blackmail me by HIV in the first place. "So that was that. Diana should taste the very point of her own claws."

"Hmm," He mimicked on crossing his own arms and stroke his chin in understanding my side. "Actually, the HIV thing was very fatal, but luckily, only idiots believed your story and almost no one, and I mean no one, will believe your story after we had proof of our health status."

"I see, good for you."

"Good for me, yes, because your failed attempt at striking us down really sucked."

"Oh. . ." The guy behind me made a shocking-yet-annoying remark. "You got burned, woman."

"You poor, poor thing." Cal smirked and made a retarded 'tsk' noise. "Are you even trying to fit in by causing a scene to up your status in the game? You're just a Bambi waiting to get eaten."

"Look at her all pissed." The guy behind me laughed and started making animal noises and went off to sing like a retarded cretin. Why was he suddenly going from liking me to hating all of a sudden? And I didn't even know his name.

He started singing some cringe-worthy crap."A coat of gold, a coat of red, a lion still has claws."

"Shut up, incel." I silenced his Game of Thrones melody. "The only time I ever noticed you were because you're a player, but you're just as boring and trying hard as the others. Flaunting your sexy cars as if it shows your true wealth, huh? Really typical and bland."

"Shut up, woman. You don't even belong here. You're just another python slave my friends could toy with." He said and made a smile with Cal. "No wonder you're a Serpent, you're too skinny as hell."

Calixon looked at the fancy green fangs of my badge, "What's this?" He tried to touch it, but I slapped him the moment he almost reached for it.

"The Lionsguard was the last straw, don't you dare touch me."

"What's going on?" somebody asked. I realized it was none other than the nosy Diana Dayne, and the moment she noticed my platinum hair, she knew it was me.

She smiled, lipstick-smeared. Plenty of keen observers and joiners are leaning close to the scenario, some snickering in a hostile charade, some chattering about whether or not my bag was fake.

Well, it is fake, yes. But letting these fools see right through it, that wasn't what I expected. Nobody ever noticed my fake branded bags weren't genuine since time immemorial.

"It's not fake." I lied out and made a one-sentence explanation of how original my bag's brand actually is. Oh, the irony.

"Lexi, please, just stop it, yeah? Even those trash you're wearing right now doesn't even suit you." Cal stated.

"It's not trash."

Diana and the girls were talking the same, yet with prolonged babbles, and meaningless utters, earning mirth and scorn from their peers. "You don't fit in on our world, sweetheart. Not even on yours, the Serpent's Fangs, I say."

The moment my vision seems to be spinning in confusion as if I was thirteen once more and all the way discriminated by my weak, stick-like body and damaged frizz hair, my stomach ached, and I realized I felt sick on my nerves.

I'm a cornered cobra surrounded by a pride of lions.

"God save me," I muttered and quickly turn to a free direction as I walked with shame. "What's the matter, sweetheart? You scared by a bunch of cubs?" Diana called.

Everyone's inaudible voices were exponentially getting louder and even more sensitive to the ears. Catchphrases like 'lowlife' 'pretend it-girl' 'royal loser' 'anorexic witch' 'ugly duckling' were taking me back to my previous high school life.

People were looking at me already as my weakening heels still managing to quicken a step. From that visible weakness, they knew I was now getting the outcast treatment.

It felt too nostalgic from the past. I knew this would happen, and I knew what would happen next. Treating me with total disrespect. Treating me like the trash that I am. Treating me as if my level was a negative number.

As the roars grew louder, teasing me, degrading me, badgering me, my heart shrunk weaker and ever more frightened, going back to the depths of that locked sunken fear of the previous bullying.

I looked for my schedule and quickened my way following up a route as I entered Trigonometry class, panting in dread and couldn't stop the spinning wheel running in my mind.

With determined luck to fake a good posture, only a few noticed my haze and feeble feet as I sat down with my books still gripped tight with my chest. Everyone was focused on the discusson instead of looking at me for now. "Thank Jesus, I am finally free from their claws."

My eyes watered against my will while checking on my phone "And goodness. . . I am torn."

Raven's unexpected message appeared on the screen, recalling an important reminder that this battle is not yet done.

Raven Cawthorne: If anything happens, Dominica's present is just on the other side of your dorm's door. Don't forget!

"If anything could help me level up my revenge on the battlefield. . ." A big star of hope beamed up to my mind. "it's Dominica's gift!"