Chapter 14

  Sunday passed by as Emma and Wyatt spent the day in the dorm, relaxing and talking. The two of them went to bed eventually, for classes the next day. However, the two of them were having trouble trying to sleep. "I can't help but to feel worried about her, though" Emma says. "Emily, I mean... Matilda seems to trust her, but she seems so mad about something".

  "I don't think she'll tell us about anything" Wyatt says.

  "Do you think we should at least try?" Emma asks.

  Wyatt thinks for a moment, then says "I'm not really sure. Do you think it might be something with her parents? I mean, she's staying with Matilda for now. There must be something going on with her parents. Do you think she didn't get along with her parents or something?".

  "I don't know..." Emma says. After a few moments of thinking to herself, eventually Emma asks "By the way, you've told me a little bit about your home before college, but what were your parents like?".

  "My parents?..." Wyatt says to himself. "Well... my mom was polite, and also big on manners. My dad was the usual 'tough love' kind of guy...".

  "What do you mean?" Emma says with a short laugh. "That's kinda vague".

  "Well..." Wyatt says.

  Several years ago, in Durley, back when Wyatt was about 9 years old. "Why don't you try making a few friends?" Wyatt's mother, Ann asks. "There are plenty of kids your age around the neighborhood. You should try getting along with at least one of them".

"I don't really like any of these people" Wyatt complains, "They're all always so loud and stupid".

"What have I told you about using names like that?" Ann asks. "You don't even know them, so how can you be so sure? Everyone has a problem in life. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. Maybe when the other kids are acting out like that, it's because they want other people to notice that they're going through a hard time too. Maybe they're just looking for help... you'll help them, won't you?".

Wyatt looked down at his feet and said in a low voice "Yes, ma'am".

Wyatt walked out of the front door of their small house. When he got outside, he saw Kemal sitting on the front porch. "What's up, Wyatt?" Kemal asks.

"Mom's trying to force me to make friends again" Wyatt says.

"Bummer..." Kemal says sarcastically.

"Look, I've already heard enough from the people that live near us" Wyatt says. "I don't wanna make friends with them. They seem kinda... mean".

"Yeah, you've got me there" Kemal says. "Then again, there's that new family that moved in from out of the city".

"There's another one!?" Wyatt complains.

"You're damn right there's another one" Wyatt's father, John says as he walks outside. "Why don't you listen to your mother and try getting along with these ones?".

"But..." Wyatt begins to say.

"No buts" John says. "Now go". Kemal started laughing to himself, then John says "That means you too, Kemal".

"Damn!" Kemal says, snapping is fingers in disappointment.

"Watch your language, kids!" John says. "Seriously... your mother would kill me if-".

"John!?" Ann calls from inside the house.

"Crap..." John says. "I hope this ain't about what I think it's about". As John starts walking inside, he stops halfway in the front door. "Go on..." John says to Wyatt and Kemal. "I mean it...".

Wyatt and Kemal complain to themselves as they leave. There was this house just a short distance down the street, which used to be vacant. Now, this house had a couple walking in and out of the house, repairing the outside of the house and arranging the inside of the house that they recently moved into. The couple saw Wyatt and Kemal awkwardly walking up to their yard. "Oh, hello!" The woman greets the young boys, "are you looking to meet Darren?". Wyatt and Kemal stood awkwardly in silence. "Wait here, I'll bring him out, and you can meet him. He's about your age, you should get along fine".

"I don't like where this is going" Wyatt says. "Why are their parents so weird?".

"Why are OUR parents so weird?" Kemal asks.

After a couple minutes of waiting, the woman comes out with a boy, her son. "Darren, this is..." she begins to say before she realizes "I haven't gotten your boys' names yet!". The woman laughs to herself and says "I'm Angela, by the way. I'm Darren's mother".

"Kemal" Kemal says with his hand up.

"I'm... Wyatt" Wyatt says nervously.

Angela pushes her son toward Wyatt and Kemal, as she says "Go on, honey, try to make some friends. We'll be living here now, so it's best if you find some friends early on...".

"But I-" Darren begins to say before his mother started walking away.

"Your father and I are a little busy for now" Angela says as she walks away. "Sorry, honey, but I promise I'll help if anything happens".

Darren looks at Wyatt and Kemal, then laughs nervously. After a couple seconds of silence, Darren holds out his hand for a handshake. "I'm... Darren" he says nervously.

Kemal shakes his hand and says "In case you forgot already, I'm Kemal". Kemal then looks over at Wyatt, who was still standing alone and being nervous. "My little brother over there is Wyatt. He's pretty shy...".

"Oh..." Darren says. "Is there anywhere... quiet we can sit? Being out in the streets of this neighborhood kind of makes me... nervous".

"Oh, trust us" Kemal says, "we know how that feels. We've got a spot outside of the neighborhood. There's a small forest north of town, and no one lives there... Wyatt and I go there to be alone kinda all the time".

The three of them go outside of the neighborhood, and out to this clearing near these thin woods. They spent a while talking to each other, and were slowing starting to get along. "Kemal and I are the same age!" Darren says. "We're both 11! Wyatt, how old are you?".

"I'm only 9" Wyatt says. "B-but I'm turning 10 this year!".

"Look at these nerds" someone says from behind them. As the three of them turn around, there was a small group of kids walking up to them from the neighborhood. "I knew you were weird in class" the boy says to Kemal, "but you're even weirder at home, ain't ya?".

"Troy..." Kemal says as he stands up.

"The new family in town is so weird" Troy says. "Figures someone as weird as your family would get along with them just fine. Weird people along with more weird people...".

"W-who are..." Darren begins to say as he begins to shake.

"Why doesn't your family just move out already?" Troy asks.

"We kinda can't..." Kemal says. "Looks like you're stuck with us". As Kemal talks, he walks up to Troy. Troy pushes him down, and throws a punch at Kemal, hitting him in the face.

"Stop!" Wyatt calls out as he tries to stand in the way. However, Troy punches Wyatt in the face too. Troy, and his group of four friends continued punching Wyatt and Kemal for a short while. Eventually, Troy and the others left.

"I'm... so sorry" Darren says. "It's my fault that-".

"Hold onto that thought..." Kemal says as he gets up and helps Wyatt stand on his feet. "It's not your fault that Troy is a dick... right Wyatt?".

Wyatt stands up, tears forming in his eyes. "Uh-Huh..." he says, nodding his head.

"Don't worry about it, Darren" Kemal says. "We may not be the most social type of people... but we ain't gonna let Troy tell us who we can or can not make friends with". Darren's face nearly lit up with hope after hearing those words from Kemal.

"What the hell!?" Ann panics as Wyatt and Kemal come back home. "Did you get into a fight with those boys again!?".

Wyatt and Kemal both silently nod their heads. "You guys just can't get along... can you?" John asks. After a while, John sighs and says "Look, if you're gonna pick fights with people, at least know how to fight...".

"But we didn't-" Wyatt began to say.

"No buts" John says. "If you're going to keep getting into fights, then I'll show you how to fight".

"John!" Ann protests.

"No no" John says, "it's about time they took responsibility. This is for their own good. However, they're going to have to accept whatever punishment comes after. A fight has consequences, whether you win or lose... it's about time they learned that".

After about a week, Wyatt and Kemal were done trying to learn lessons from their dad. After about two months, Wyatt and Kemal were sitting on a log in the clearing, talking again. Eventually, Troy and his friends came along as well. "You nerds never learn" Troy says. "This is our territory. Now beat it!".

Kemal stands up and gets face to face with Troy. "Make me..." Kemal says. Troy throws a punch at Kemal, hitting him on the left cheek of his face. The impact from Troy's fist forced Kemal's head to turn a little bit towards the right. However, Kemal threw a punch right back, hitting Troy in the nose. Troy stumbled back a little, covering his nose. When Troy removed his hands from his nose, they could see blood running out of Troy's nose.

"Get 'em" Troy says. Two people each attacked Kemal and Wyatt. The brothers tried fighting them off, and were succeeding for a while. Eventually, Wyatt and Kemal fell onto the ground. When the two of them were lying on the ground, all of the kids started kicking them while they were down. Everyone, except Troy and Darren. Troy was still sitting on the log, shaking and Troy looked up at him. "Make no mistake" Troy says to Darren, "we run this place. What we say goes, and if you don't fall in line... well".

Darren looks down at his friends, growing more and more anxious as the two of them were being kicked. "S-stop it!" Darren says, "leave them alone!".

Troy leans in close to Darren and says with a smile "Make me".

Darren begins to overflow with frustration. Eventually, he jumps at Troy, landing on top of him and toppling him to the ground. "I said let them go!" Darren yells.

When Troy looks up, he sees fox ears sticking out of the top of Darren's head. "A-A... laibah!?" Troy panics. Darren folds his hands together and comes down at Troy with his fists, like a hammer. Troy's nose began bleeding a lot more, and then the other kids stopped kicking Wyatt and Kemal.

Darren gets off of Troy and begins walking towards the other kids. The rest of them began to panic and run. When Darren looked down at Troy, Troy was already shuffling back onto his feet and trying to run. When Darren realizes what had happened, he tried to run away from Wyatt and Kemal in fear. However, something grabbed his leg, preventing Darren from getting away. As he looks down, he sees Wyatt holding onto Darren's right ankle. "Don't go" Wyatt says in a shaky voice.

Darren looks down at the grass in front of him. "I bet you guys think I'm a monster now, don't you?".

"Monster, not a monster..." Kemal says as he leans up against the log, "I stopped caring about that stuff long ago".

"You're still our friend" Wyatt says. "You're the first person I've made friends with...".

Kemal laughs for a split second then says, "You might wanna change back before someone else sees you though".

"R-right..." Darren says as he changes back into his human form. The three of them talk for a short while, before Darren asks "Are you guys sure... you're fine with being friends... with a laibah like me?".

"Hey, are you the one who was kicking us while we were down?" Kemal asks.

"Well... no, but-" Darren says.

"You also didn't start the fight, did you?" Wyatt interrupts.

"Uh... no, I didn't even want to-" Darren responds.

"Then what part of that makes you a monster?" Kemal asks. Darren fell silent. Both shocked from Wyatt and Kemal's reaction, but also happy that someone accepted him.

"I don't think laibah are monsters..." Wyatt says. "I didn't know what to think of them before, when all I've ever known about them is what I've heard from other people. But now that I've met one, I think I can easily say... you're a lot cooler than Troy".

Darren and Kemal laugh a little, then Wyatt asks "What? Did I say something weird?".

"You are weird..." Kemal replies.

"Thanks, you guys" Darren says. When Wyatt and Kemal look over at Darren, they could see tears rolling down his face.

"Hey..." Kemal says, "it's not our choice to decide how we're born. But we can always try to be the people we want to be... don't sweat it, we won't tell anyone about you".

Nearly three weeks later, the three of them met again on the same log. "My family and I are moving out..." Darren says. "Looks like the whole neighborhood figured out we're laibah, and none of them want us here".

"I-it wasn't me!" Wyatt says.

"No, I know it wasn't you guys..." Darren says. "Troy and the others probably told everybody. Even if they didn't know for sure if we were laibah or not, they probably don't wanna take that chance...".

"But... Darren..." Kemal says. "Why?... How can we help?".

"I think we're past the bargaining stage here..." Darren says. Darren then looks over at Wyatt and Kemal with his hand out for a handshake. "Even after I move" Darren says, "no matter where we go, or how far apart we'll be... you think we can remain friends?".

"I think we're more like brothers" Kemal says as he and Wyatt shake his hand.

"If we ever meet again" Wyatt says, "we can still be brothers then, too".

After Kemal and Wyatt return home, they told their parents about Darren, leaving out the part about him being a laibah. "I'm sorry, kids" Ann says. "I know it was hard for you two to make friends... is there anything I can help with? Is there something we can do to help them stay in the neighborhood?",

Kemal and Wyatt look at each other, surprised that neither her nor their dad heard about Darren and his family being laibah. "I... I think it's already too late for that" Kemal says.

"I hope you kids learned your lesson about fighting" John says.

"Yes, sir" both Wyatt and Kemal say.

"Still" John says, "I know it's hard, but don't let it get to you. You're still keeping up with grades, and maybe one day, you both can go to college. I have high hopes for you two, so make sure you don't let this fighting bring you down".

Back at the Harrison University dorm, where Emma and Wyatt lay in bed, Emma was thinking to herself about the story Wyatt just told her. "Was your father mean to you and your brother sometimes?" Emma asks.

"Well..." Wyatt says, "he always tried to be tough, but he wasn't really mean".

"Do you get along with your parents?" Emma asks.

"Oh, yeah" Wyatt responds. "One of them may be too polite, and the other a little rough, but in the end, they're still... my mom and dad, you know?".

"Yeah..." Emma says. "I think I get it now...".

The two of them slowly began falling asleep. Although, Emma was having more troubles doing so. "It should be fine if I told him, right?" Emma thinks to herself. "Maybe I'm overthinking this... but maybe I should wait until we can get closer. It might be harder to tell him at that point, but maybe he'll understand better by then...".

The next day arrives, and everyone shows up to class like usual. Before lunch began, Emma tried talking to Emily again. "I know you probably don't want to tell anyone" Emma says, "but what's wrong? Why are you always so... mad?".

"If you know I probably don't want to tell anyone..." Emily asks, "then why ask in the first place?".

"Come on, tell me what's wrong" Emma says. "I get it, you have a secret. We all have secrets. But what's so bad about your secret? What's making you act so... spiteful towards everybody".

"I have nothing to say to you" Emily says.

"Why can't you let me help?" Emma asks.

"Why can't you leave me alone?" Emily asks.

"Look, I'm close friends with Matilda" Emma says, "you can trust me!".

"You think I care?" Emily asks. "Let me get this across... I do not want to be here, I do not care if you want to help, I don't care what your relationship is with Matilda or anyone else, and I do not care about your secrets. Stay out of my business. I don't plan on playing your game of house at college...".

"Still no luck, eh?" Jackson asks when Emma arrives on the roof.

"Unfortunately, no" Emma says. "I just wanted to help...".

"It's fine" Wyatt says, "it's not your fault. If she really doesn't want to open up to people, then she won't. However, if she eventually changes her mind, I'm sure you'd be the first one she comes running to".

"Why can't people mind their own business?" Emily asks as she sits in the classroom alone with Refus again.

"From the sounds of it" Refus says, "even taking into account your story, I'm sure she's just concerned".

"Why is it any of her business?" Emily asks.

"Well... it's not, but-" Refus begins to say.

"But what?" Emily asks.

"Well... I'll let you in on a little secret" Refus says. "Emma tried avoiding people during the start of school. Now that she has friends that she talks to often, she probably sees herself in you, like a mirror".

"And this is significant... because why exactly?" Emily asks.

"Well... Emma was... a special case" Refus says. "When she had signed herself up for this college, she never had any parents with her, or any mention of her parents. My guess is, she also doesn't have her parents anywhere near this city. On top of that, she was quiet... but someone wouldn't stop trying to help her either. Eventually, she made lots of friends, and she probably wants to help you the same way. It's like paying it forward".

"Let me guess" Emily says, "next thing you're going to say is 'she also came from a laibah family' or something like that?".

"Actually" Refus says, "we don't know anything about her family. What I do know, is that she herself is a laibah".

"She is?" Emily asks. "But she makes clothes and stuff that she sells at Matilda's store! Matilda talks about that all the time! Why didn't Matilda ever tell me about that?".

"Not only that" Refus says, "but she's a laibah, as well as half of her friends are human... I'm sure she wouldn't have any problem trying to help you".

"And why are you telling me this?" Emily asks. "Aren't teachers supposed to hide the identities of their students?".

Refus shrugs and says "I get the feeling I can trust you with that information. Just think about it for a while. Take into account what they might've gone through before trying to help you".

"R-right..." Emily says, "I'll guess I'll... keep that in mind. I don't promise playing nice though".

"I don't really expect you to" Refus says.