---
A typically shady-looking man carrying a plain black backpack approached a girl that he'd been secretly tracking for quite a while now. She was called Aibhlinn, an unusual but oddly captivating name. Though the man was certain that she had siblings, he was not sure if they could transform. He knew of her own abilities, which was one of the reasons why he had been stalking - er,
tracking her. In no form did he consider it
stalking, exactly, because that would mean she'd have to be a normal human. She wasn't. This was his reasoning. She wasn't human. She was a creature. Therefore, she could be captured and manipulated with no damage to his moral conscience.
As he approached the girl, he noticed her fiddling with a sketchpad with earphones plugged into her ears. He plopped down on the bench beside her and leaned eerily close to her, looking at the paper she was drawing on.
"What'cha drawing there?" he asked. His voice was like smooth velvet with a deep, rumbling tone. Nothing like the usual "creep" voice.
---
"One more year," Alexa chirped as they pulled into the high school parking lot. "One more year and we'll be graduated. It's amazing to think about how we've lived such a normal life, you know, considering."
She looked over at her brother with a small smile, and he nodded his head sleepily.
"Yeah," he said. "I was almost certain we'd be bullied because of a spontaneous change we had. Or that, at least, mom and dad would find out by now."
"We'll have to tell them eventually," Alexa mused. "It's just, I've never heard them talk about it or anything, so I don't know their whole standing on the topic." She put a finger to her chin and rolled her eyes upward, looking at the ceiling of the vehicle. "I mean, I guess they wouldn't mind too much. It's not like we're monsters, or ravenous murderers or something, you know?"
"Yeah, well," was all Alex said as he grabbed his bag and hopped out of the car. Alexa sat in a bit of a stunned silence, watching him walk to the entrance of the school. He normally wasn't so crabby, even in the mornings. And that one little remark had been like a slap in the face.
She blew out an agitated breath, blowing her hair out of her face, then exited the car as well. She'd made sure to lock it before she walked away. As she headed up the front steps, she looked over and saw a very creepy looking man leaning over a girl that she wasn't familiar with, but had at least one class with before. Every part of her being screamed, "Stranger danger!"
Then, she had an inner fight with herself. Go over there and show the man that the girl wasn't alone, but risk being dragged into whatever he might be planning? Or simply go inside and be safe, and risk something bad happening to a classmate and potential friend?
Sighing, Alexa descended the steps again. The more caring and courageous side of her had gotten the best of her actions once again. She put on her "fearless" face and walked up to the girl. She tried to recall her name, but couldn't, and instead made one up and hoped the girl went along with it.
"Hey Abby," she said, knowing that the girl's name was
something to that effect.
---
Alex left his sister sitting in the car by herself. He hadn't really meant to be so harsh, but he was in an awful mood this morning with no explanation.
It must be hormones, he thought. After all, he was a growing teenage boy with plenty of reason to have angst, angst, angst.
At this thought, his face sunk and his expression turned grim and irritated. It drew some odd looks from classmates in the hallways, because they were used to him being such a happy-go-lucky person. He shrugged it off and went to his locker, pulling the metal door open after utilizing the combination lock. It frustrated him further to think about the time he just wasted, because he realized he didn't
need anything out of his locker. Slamming the door shut, he stormed off to his first class and sat himself in his assigned desk.
"What's gotten into you?" his friend, Aven, asked.
"I don't know," he answered truthfully through clenched teeth.
Aven's eyebrows rose in concern, but he didn't press the subject. For that, Alex was thankful. He put his head down in his arms and closed his eyes, letting himself drift off into
just one more minute of sleep before the school day officially started.