I was late returning to the boarding school. Before I knew it, 9pm came and I was still miles away from the school, relaxing by a river stream. I only realized the time when I woke up to see the sun had gone down.

I rushed back to the school, barely finding the time to shift back and run. That'd take longer.

By the time I got to the entrance, I could immediately tell that absolutely no one was roaming the halls. Not even staff. I went ahead and shifted back (which wasn't painful to do) and got all my clothes back on. After I was fully dressed, I went through the house and out the back of it to go to the gym. Judging by noises coming from there, they were already waiting. And likely, Jack Ass was riling them up.

I sighed and entered the gymnasium. Rafael was waiting at the entrance for me and when he spotted me, he rushed over. "Where have you been? You're thirteen minutes late."

"I was out. Got carried away with what I was doing. Besides, thirteen minutes isn't bad."

"I heard a few people dissing you, man. They think you chickened out."

"As if," I scoffed, stepping around him to fully enter the gym.

Surprisingly, the crowd cheered at my presence. Jack was in the middle, being your typical ass kisser and whatnot.

From the corner of my eye, I saw none other than the blue-eyed tribrid coming my way. She stopped just in front of me. "How was it?"

"Relieving."

"That's good."

Over all the noise, I heard Jack calling out to me. "You coming or what?" Rolling my eyes, I removed my jacket and even my shoes before stepping out onto the basketball court. "It's about time you showed up. I thought you were gonna bail."

"Please, Jack, you mistake me for another hybrid."

"My name isn't-"

"Whatever. Just make this less of a waste of my time, please."

His eyes darkened as he was readying to attack me already, but the headmaster himself stepped in between us before he could. Ric raised a hand to silence the crowd. "Now, you know I don't condone this, usually, but I know sometimes you all need something to get excited about. So without further delay, let's begin." The students went back to cheering and all that, but Ric turned towards me and the wolf. "Don't kill each other, okay?"

"Don't worry, Dr. Ric. I won't even hit him."

He nodded before stepping back, raising one hand then ripping it back down to his side. That was our signal to begin.

And of course, Jack immediately lunged forward and took a swing for my head. Thanks to my quick reflexes, ducking to avoid the hit was incredibly easy. I stepped to the side and watched him stumble and almost fall flat on his face. Not gonna lie, I wish he did. That would've been hilarious.

Anyway, Jack regained his posture and turned back around to face me. I was already wanting to get this over with. But I did say I wasn't going to hit him- and I'm a girl of my word, so, I'm going to let him tire himself out. That way I can put him into a chokehold or something and make him submit.

Jack kept taking swings at me from the left, right, and center, but not once was able to land a hit. The guy even somehow punched himself?

I literally don't know.

I casually placed my hands behind my back. "I told Ric I wasn't gonna hit you," I said to him. And even though there was a lot of noise going on, I knew he could hear me just fine. "So I won't. Best thing you can do for yourself right now is to walk away."

"You don't belong here. It's bad enough we have that goddamned tribrid, now you? You should both just die."

I stepped back a little, tilting my head to the side. I looked in Hope's direction at the entrance. She had a somewhat sad look on her face and it didn't take Einstein to tell she heard what Caden said.

Highly unacceptable.

My head snapped back towards the wolf in front of me. "I'm gonna need you to repeat that, friend."

Although confused, he began to disrespect Hope again. "I said -"

But before he even got three words out of his mouth, I stepped forward and jabbed this throat. Caden stumbled back before falling on his back, holding his throat and almost started gurgling blood. Immediately the other students went silent, likely unsure on how to react to he fact that the prick couldn't take more than one hit.

Dr. Saltzman ran to grab me and jerked me back. "What the hell did you do Melori?"

"He'll heal."

"He-"

"Said something he shouldn't have," I growled. "He's lucky I didn't damage his vocal cords." At least I think I didn't? The hell do I care? He disrespected my princess.

Ric rushed over to Jack Ass to check his breathing. "You're lucky he's alive," Ric said. "You said you wouldn't hit him!"

"That was before he said Hope and I should die, Ric." There was a series of gasps coming from every direction. I folded my arms, eying the bastard viciously. "You're a real ass, dude."

"Screw you!"

"Jordan, please..." Another wolf rushed over to help Jack to his feet. Ric sighed heavily before leading them out if the gym, mumbling to himself. "I knew this was a bad idea."

So... now I was just... awkwardly standing here. In the middle of the court. Being stared at by hundreds of people. Like this isn't awkward.

I may or may not get anxiety in these types of situations but let's not talk about that.

One of the witches in the stands stood abruptly and for some weird reason he was actually smiling. "Well it's about time someone gave him what he deserved."

"Right?" Another witch scoffed. And unsurprisingly, a good number of people agreed ad well. "Let's hear it for Melori!"

"That's not neces-" annnnd now they're cheering and clapping again. Yeah, I'm just gonna go.

Hope, Rafael, and even the twins followed me out. "Mel."

"I'm not really in the mood to be chewed out again, Hope, please..."

Hope caught up to me then grabbed me by the shoulder, spinning me around. I fully expected to be yell at, but what I didn't expect was a hug. And even further, Hope whispered a thank you in my ear.

Regardless of being confused, I wrapped my arms around her waist. "I don't know what that's for but you're welcome?"

Hope pulled back, still keeping me at arm's distance. "I know you know I know what be said. Hell, the whole school does now. You know you don't have to defend me like that, but-"

"I do, okay. That dude was way out of line."

"Caden's not a huge fan of mixed breeds," Rafael sighed.

I turned to head back towards our room. All the others hurried to keep up. "You could've mentioned that, Alpha Boy."

"Al... what...?"

"Good thing you won though."Josie patted my shoulder. She was looking on the bright side of things. Even though I'm now in deep shit with Alaric, I at least pleased the other students in the school. "I caught word from the witches. They don't think you're so bad."

"Because I nearly made a guy lose his voice? Or his life? What if he couldn't breathe anymore?"

"Wouldn't be the worst thing..."

"Lizzie! Don't day that!"

"Oh please, Josie, one of us had to say it. Oh and by the way, Hope, Mel." We'd just reached mine and Hope's room. The door was opened for some reason, but I thought nothing of it.

"For what it's worth," Lizzie sighed, plopping down on a chair in the corner of the room, "I... maybe, kind of... actually enjoy having you guys around."

"Did Lizzie just say something nice?" Rafael was absolutely, positively baffled that yes, Elizabeth Saltzman had just said something nice. Even I know that's a rare occurrence. "Hell's frozen over."

"Hell will reach earth if either of you say a damn word."

"Noted."

I smiled softly. "Either way, thank you." I slid onto my bed, actually just realizing how tired I was. Must've been from running into the woods pretty much all afternoon. "So will people actually try to get to know me now?"

"Yeah," Hope nodded with a smile. "That's just how it is these days. Popularity is the structure of high school society. You're pretty popular now."

"That fairy kid might now have a crush on you though," Lizzie smirked.

Hope tossed her head back and did a slight belly laugh. "Oh yeah, he's got a thing for hot, powerful girls of any category."

Much like every else's in the room, my eyebrows went up and stayed there as I looked at her. "I'm hot now? Thought I was annoying."

"I- shut up."

I sensed MG speeding down the hall just a second before he appeared in the room. Panic was all over his face. He was also pointing behind him with his thumb, panting. But it wasn't because he was out of breath; he was afraid. "You guys need to come see this."

"What's wrong?" Hope stood from her bed, ready for action.

"There's- there's this big scary vampire dude with some lady outside-"

"MG, slow down..."

"Yo, you don't get it alright? He's mad scary looking. I've never seen a vampire like that before, man, his eyes are red and-"

"Did you just say his eyes are red?" I asked.

MG nodded, and Hope's expression dropped just as mine did. MG's eyes widened, "You know him?"

I nodded, quickly pushing myself off the bed, making my way out if the room.

"He's my dad."

I forget if I mentioned that I plan to make this as semi-drawn out but I so please bear with me here.

alsoooo, fun fact, I kinda wrote chapters ahead of time. like before I ever published so I have a few chapters lined up and ready to upload (after some editing). but I kinda keep those for just in case I lose inspiration to write for a while , I can just upload a chapter I already wrote. but anyway,

the very last one I just wrote, I lowkey figured out a way that Malivore could be destroyed. EVEN IN THE ACTUAL SHOW, IF THEY WOULD JUST GET RID OF THE DANG THING UGH

anyway, you'll see that in like.... four or five updates... because that's now many I have lined up for ya :3

..I should really start doing that for Lucienne..

anywho thank you for reading, I really REALLY do appreciate the support. and hey, I wouldn't mind if you uh, shared it to some friends 👀👀👀 IF you want.

but yes, thank you again and have a wonderful wonderful time

kisses x