Spike woke up to the obnoxious sound of his alarm. It always managed to hurt his ears, even on the lowest setting. He turned it off and stretched in bed. It was the last day of winter break and the night of the full moon. Most of the teen werewolves will be in the town hall, shackled to a wall, being trained by other wolves on control. Legally Spike was allowed to miss the first day of this semester, but he'd skipped out on so much school that the faculty was no longer showing much pity for him as they did the past few years. Spike intended on attending the last semester as much as he could this year, so he had already made up his mind that he would go tomorrow.

After waking up, spike took a quick and well hated shower. He was quick to dry himself off. He placed his collar on himself and made sure the bell was on tight, so that no one in town would mistake him for a random wolf while he wandered around the city. Spike packed a bag with his clothing that he would carry with him should he decide to change forms later. Spike opened the door to a pleasant winter day, the cold air was wonderful, the sun was bright, and there wasn't any snow on the ground at all.

With his bag in his mouth, Spike made his way to the park. There was a young elf playing with a young witch on the slide. A young wolf playing tag with two younger vampires on the playground. It was a beautiful day. Spike made his way to a park bench in a secluded and shaded area. He set his bag down next to the bench and lay on it, closing his eyes. The children's laughter slowly faded as he focused his mind on the water in the stream nearby. He was finally accepting that despite being in a small town where everyone knew each other, he was alone. For now at least.

Eden lay awake in their bed for what seemed like an eternity. They rolled over once again to check the time. 8:00 am. They groaned. Having to get up and watch the younger monsters play in the park today was sure to be obnoxious. younger monsters. They laughed, in spite of themself.It was the aniversary of exactly on year since they had learned of what they were and where they came from, but they still found it bafflingly hilarious that something so impossible was their life.
Every kid in every orphanage they had ever been to had some sort of fantasy of who they really were. Of who their parents were. Little princesses and princes, pirates and thieves. Even they themself had hoped their mom was just a star too busy with work to take care of them, someone who would come back and whisk them away.
Suddenly, there was a banging at the door.
In walks Emily, a thin girl with slightly pointed ears, and black curly hair. Only six, and mute, Eden likes her the most out of the other children here. She smiles at Eden and silently pulls he by the hand out of bed and down the hallway of the orphanage, to a small blue and white kitchen where two boys were laughing and speaking at a counter next to an older woman. The older woman, affectionately called Miss Ana by all of the children, is thin like Emily, but pale with long white hair and silver eyes. She is a witch, like Eden, which make them wonder if they are strange among witches as well, due to the fact that they seem to lack the seemingly inherent ethereal beauty that she has, or if Miss Ana is just set apart. The twin boys are Thomas and Jaden, both elves age 12, somewhat rowdy and rude they shoot little tickling bursts of magic at each other and squeal.
Miss Ana notices Eden and Emily and hands them both toast . " Be careful at the park today and don't talk to strangers. Make sure Tommy and Jay stay out of the roads, and Emily please stay near Eden . Remember that most of those kids can't read and won't understand why you can't speak to them." Eden nods and helps Emily slip on her shoes while Thomas and Jaden run to the door and yell at us to hurry.
The walk to the park feels long and tedious, even though it isn't far, they hold the boys hands while Emily walks in front to keep the boys from walking into traffic. Once they finally arrive, Eden lets the boys go play while she and Emily sit under a tree together, Emily reading and small chapter book and Eden sketching.
Looking around for inspiration, Eden sees a white dog laying next to a bench and starts to sketch it.

Spike heard more children arrive at the park. It was the orphanage children, he could tell by their scent. He didn't know them well, he only even knew Miss Ana's name, but their scent was similar to hers. Among the orphanage children was a person who smelled older, and kind of like a girl. It wasn't Miss Ana. Spike looked up and stared at the person. For a moment, he was astonished by the beauty. It didn't exactly look like a girl or a boy specifically, if it weren't for the fact the person smelled more like a girl, Spike would have no idea whether it was a boy or a girl. He knew that there were a few transgendered and genderfluid people around the town, his parents had been friends with some of them, but never had he seen one that made him feel this way.

Spike came to realize that the person had been sketching him. He set his head back down as he had it and closed his eyes again. He thought to himself about that person, and why he was so shocked by them. Spike didn't even know their name, which was rare for this small town. Of course, there were still people he didn't know since he had been hiding himself away most of the time. Most of the people he didn't know were younger too. Spike nodded off into sleep as he thought about this new person.

Eden was quite content, watching Thomas and Jaden play tag with other children as they sketched the beautiful white dog. The peace was short lived however, as Eden noticed the boys wandering over to the dog. Concerned, Eden told Emily to wait under the tree as she hurried over to stop the boys from pouncing on the sleeping dog.

Spike awoke to the sound of two young boys coming toward him and also noticed that the person sketching him had started toward the boys. He stood up and faced the boys. Spike grabbed his bag and started stepping backwards so that the boys knew he didn't want to be bothered.

He whined a little, 'And here I was thinking I could nap at the park. Silly me.'

Spike knew the boys only wanted to play, but he didn't like to be bothered by people he did know, much less people he didn't know.

"Hey you three, don't bother Spike. He only came to the park to relax, not to play." An elf lady shouted from afar. Spike recognized the voice of his aunt Faith. She had come to the park with her four year old daughter who spent a large portion of her life being raised at Spike's house.