DON'T BRING YOUR DAD TO SCHOOL

19 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, ENGLISH

After lunch, I met Maria outside the library and we did our usual walk around the school hallways. Nobody took our photo. It could just be that nobody could sell photos of me unless it looked scandalous and Maria and I looked like two girls walking arm in arm. Nothing newsworthy. Wait, come to think of it, an alpha and vamp walking arm in arm would probably be "explosive news". Omo.

I scanned the students we passed, nope, still no cameras. And then I realized they were standing quite still, "Maria, what have you done?"

"I can't be seen in a photograph with you Alpha." Maria shrugged, sticking her nose up at me.

Okay... Well, I feel the same.

But I didn't say it, I didn't even think it to her. My mind block had been clamped shut while walking with her. Maria was still a little different today, and even Boo was weary.

We walked the rest of the usual route and got back to class just before the bell signaled the end of lunch.

Mr Devon's English lesson was next.

Mr Devon was also uncharacteristically concerned for our mental welfare too, but unlike the other teachers, Mr Devon dropped a lot of clues so we could figure out why.

"Life is precious, just because you're stressed about the exams..." Mr Devon cleared his throat, "Now Romeo and Juliet that we studied recently was just a fictional work. A theatre play, if you would. It would be very silly to follow in their example, for any reason. Especially your exams. I don't want you to say that you took inspiration from there and do anything stupid. Now take out your textbooks."

So we took out our textbooks. While waiting for us, Mr Devon continued, "Now, results aren't everything. This is only term 1. Even if you were in your final year, it's too early to worry about the University Entrance Exams! Turn to page 65."

Urm... But we were only first years, why would we worry about something like university?

"Even if you don't make it into a University, there are other options like technical colleges, or night school." Mr Devon said, "Overdosing on pills is just the silliest thing you could do. I don't understand why anyone from Winderhill could be stressed to that extent! It's not like we are Black Forest High or the Lorent Academy. To be frank, Winderhill's academic standard isn't the most demanding. Alright, I see you've all gotten your books open. Let's edit the passage on page 65. Ah! The first error is quite glaring. Can anyone tell me what it is?"

Nobody raised their hands.

"Come now, it's in the first line of the letter!" Mr Devon tried to coax us, and then he added, "But even if you don't see it, it's okay. You need to tell yourself to buck up and keep going. Stay calm and keep going, I always say. I don't want to have any suicide attempts from this class."

Right...

So I said my wolf was wary about linking to Maria right? But you know how curiosity killed the cat, right? I took a quick side glance at the vamp next to me. She was staring ahead, creepy smile on her face. Should I asked her what had happened? I was sorely tempted, but Boo held back, {No. Bad.}

I remembered linking her briefly this morning, but seriously sensing weird vibes and pulling out super quick.

{Bad.} Boo informed me.

So I freaked out a little. Vamps were dangerous and sly with their many mind games. I was taught this since a pup... since when did I think it was okay to casually minklink one to gossip?

I double checked that my mindblocks were sealed. Boo actually helped. And then I turned back to the text book.

"Samantha, what is the first mistake?" Mr Devon asked.

Were we still at it? What did the other two students answer? I looked at the letter, it read, "Deer Susan..."

"Deer should be spelt D-e-a-r?" I answered.

"YES!" Mr Devon sounded relieved, "Now Ivan had already answered the second mistake. Can someone find the third one?"

This was going to be a long lesson.

I accidentally caught sight of Maria's text book, she had done some major rework on her editing exercise. I stopped to read it... The letter now read:

My dear Lady Susan White,

Your delightful basket of fruit and flowers almost reconciles me to the fact that I am today a century older than I was since we last met.

How did you know that I had always been curious to see how a basket of fruit and flowers would look on my mantle? Surely some good angel must have whispered the secret to you!

However that may be, you exactly suited my taste, and I thank you with my whole heart.

Your loving brother,

Thomas Hamilton

Sir Thomas Hamilton

New Haven Coven

Wow. It was like something someone from history books would write! Hahaha. Oh... Wait a minute...

I frowned, I knew something wasn't right with Maria - well, more so than usual, but now I was sure. Maria would NEVER write in her textbook. Her textbook pages were as blank as her glassy eyes whenever she was in the classroom.

I took a wild guess and leaned over, "Maria, why did you bring your Dad to school?"

"My what?" She asked, and then her eyes and mouth widened in some kind of internal realization and she chi-ka-boomed.

At least that's what I thought she did - just that it was a vampire version of it. Or rather she threw a tantrum. Right in the middle of the combined class effort to edit Susan's heartfelt thank you letter to her brother, she squeezed her eyes shut and made a very loud screeching sound.

My eardrums still rang when I thought about it.

Henry and the other wolves stood up immediately. Liam pulled Jasmine behind him. Jasmine was like "Eeek!" at Maria and then starry eyed "Awww" at Liam.

The human population of the class stopped, frozen. And this was another point where Maria's dad messed up. Pearl was spared. Lord Kosan did not know that Maria preferred categorizing her with the humans.

Maria stopped screeching, but she was wide eyed panting and shaking now, which was waaaay creepier than just screeching.

Pearl didn't stop screaming though, except to draw her next breath to scream some more.

I quickly stepped further away from both of them.

Mr Devon looked up from where he was reading, "Ahem, what seems to be the problem over there?"

"Samantha? I demand an explanation!" The problem with being the female lead to Mr Devon's production was that he remembered my name now and would call it more often than usual.

"What did you say to her, Sam?" Henry asked.

I shrugged.

And then Maria threw her head up into the air and wailed loudly. The hairs on the back of my neck seriously stood in its ends.

"Calm down now girl..." Mr Devon started to panic, "It's alright if you don't know the answer... What should we do? Samantha, can you tell me what happened?"

Maria covered her own ears and screeched, "Get.out.of.my.head!"

"What did you say to her, Sam?" Henry demanded.

"I just asked her why she brought her da-"

"Bat!" A man's voice spoke from Maria's mouth. She was now standing, an emotionless puppet at her desk.

"Yeah, her bat." I took another two steps back. Fluffy and EJ were growling lowly. They stood on either side of me.

"Stand back, Sam." Henry tried to step forward.

"No, Henry." I didn't let him, "I've got this."

Kind of. Okay, no, I don't "got" anything.

"Maria, Mr Devon is going to report to Principal Laura and call your Dad if you don't snap out of this." I told the vamp in my sternest voice.

"I am?" Mr Devon asked, "Ah, yes. Exactly."

See, I totally got it.

"No." Maria said in her dad's voice.

Suddenly Mr Devon froze. Oh great! Okay, I don't "got it" at all.

"Keep your mindblocks up tight guys." I said under my breath. Last I needed was the wolves behind me falling under Lord Kosan's mind control.

But no matter how powerful Lord Kosan was, he didn't seem able to actually manipulate anyone physically beyond immobilising them.

This could be because Maria seemed to be fighting him tooth and nail from inside. She had somehow managed to take control again and she screeched once more, while covering her ears. I covered my ears too.

Okay, so the screeching, no matter how torturous to my ears, seemed to be messing big time with Lord Kosan's grasp of control, at least over Maria's person.

"What's going on Sam?" Henry asked.

"It's Maria's dad." I explained.

"Vampires don't have fathers." Henry informed me, "They have sires."

"He's controlling her remotely." Fluffy, the residential expert said with a smile, "Ask him what he wants, Alpha."

No way! I was not about to speak to a possessed doll.

"I'll do it." Henry decided.

No way! I was not about to hide behind Henry like a... Like a Luna. I'm the alpha.

"What do you want, Lord Kosan?" I demanded.

Maria's body suddenly went limp and he answered, "Many pardons, Blue Alpha, but I was only curious what this school was and why my Maria would want to return."

"If you wanted to know, why didn't you just ask her?" I suggested, "Like when she comes home, you could ask her how was school or something."

Lord Kosan considered this.

"You're not suppose to be here. I'm sure it's somewhere in the treaty you signed." I remembered Dad mentioning it in anger when he found out that Principal Laura had let Lord Kosan into the school to pick up Maria, "You're endangering us."

Lord Kosan laughed, "Yet you are unafraid."

He had to be kidding, I was so freaking out, my ears had shifted again. But I was the Alpha, I would protect everyone.

"What a brave little blue alpha." Lord Kosan mused, "But tell me, how did you know I was here? I concealed myself so well, even my own spawn did not see me."

"I guessed." I answered honestly, "Now please put everything back how it's supposed to be and leave. We are in the middle of class."

Lord Kosan chuckled, "Lord Ciara has chosen well. Until we meet again, blue alpha."

And he was gone. I knew because I suddenly felt like I could breath easily again.

Maria stumbled back, but she caught herself on the desk with one hand, while the other clapped dramatically over her heart.

I took a quick glance behind me, "Are all of you okay?"

"Yeah." Henry nodded.

"What do we do with the others?" Marcus asked.

We stood there looking around us. The rest of the class was still in suspended animation.

And then Fluffy suggested, his usual smile in place, "Let's wait."

"What?" Marcus whipped his head around.

"We can do our own work till the last bell before releasing them." Fluffy said.

Maria actually smiled, "Yes."

I watched as the guys considered it.

"Yeah, sure." Henry decided and took out his phone. Marcus joined him and they both sat and started tappity tapping on their phones.

Fluffy sat down to continue reading his textbook. EJ flopped down next to him, and then declared not two seconds later, "I'm bored."

Liam winked at Jasmine, "Want to go for a walk?"

Jasmine cast the creepy human statues around us one last glance and nodded, "Thanks, Liam."

Maria was sitting back at her desk, like one of the inanimate statues. I carefully examined her creepy smiling expression and decided she was back to her usual self.

I sat down too.

I guess that's okay? Well no, I would much prefer to put everyone back to how they were right now. This was weird, but I didn't want to talk to Maria. I've had it with vampires. I'm so annoyed!

It's like all the fear coursing through my blood was being converted to anger.

Wth was with it with vampires and their kids? Were all vamp parent-child relationships so dysfunctional?

I remembered some case in the news about a female vampire who adopted a human orphan. And then she fed off him, and eventually she turned him so they could be together forever... It was very disturbing.

Okay, I guess there were disturbing news about Lycan relationships too. Like with the cliche one where a Lycan guy would kidnap his human mate and hold her against her will until she agrees to mate with him. Apparently, it's illegal and against human rights or something.

It was kind of a hotly debated issue among the Lycan community. Some felt the guy had every right because she was his soul mate and he loved her and protected her and in every way gave her everything she could want (besides her freedom). Others said they sympathised with him, but felt he could've handled it better. They called for more support and education for young wolves to understand cross cultural mating. And then there were those who felt the guy should pay for his crimes against women, and wild wolf packs were a threat to the safety of all humanity.

Although the issue was presented by the news as a hot new topic, these things had been happening for ages. I mean, based on the webnovels my friends read, it did sound like the usual male wolf and female human romance plot. Luckily, for most part, the human falls in love and decides to stay after all.

But I guess real life was far more complicated. Luckily, my mate was also a wolf so I won't have to deal with human rights when I'm with him. Keeping him in a cage to protect the rest of the world is still a viable option.

Savy's mate was human though. I guess that's why she was worried and had that elaborate plan to pretend to be human and date him first.

I guess she could try. If it didn't work, I'll just kidnap him and do it the webnovel way.