Hollow Academy - PART I & II - (Book 2 in the Original ROYAL HOWLERS Duology) ✔

☽ N I N E T E E N: Meet the Parents

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What a strange thought to be standing in this underground city where there were Werewolves who shared this home with humans. This underground world was colorful, to say the least, and the Hall Monitors and Ella took it all in as they were exploring.

Children laughed. Women chattered. Men were playing basketball. It didn't matter what species they were, they had learned to coincide with one another. 

For the students, they had mixed feelings seeing that they had been trained to fight against Werewolves and here they were now... standing in an underground city where they were surrounded by the very species the team had been weary of for most of their lives.

"Oh! Look at those!" Ella cried, pointing out the glass wind chimes hung from a tree. She tugged on Lorena's arm who scrunched her nose a bit and nodded that she could see it. 

Ella still smiled, eyes bright as she tugged on her friend again. "C'mon, Lori! Let's get a closer look!"

"Lori?" Hal glanced at Lorena who sneered, "Yes. Lori. Move on." then grumbled at Ella that Lorena would tag along. Much to the girl's pleasure, Ella clapped excitedly and scurried off, all while Lorena shouted for her to slow down.

Hal raised a brow, grinning as he watched Lorena try to be discreet in sneaking glances at the bubbly blonde pointing out one of the wind chimes and asking the old lady about it. 

"Man... It's kinda weird but kinda cool to see Rena interact with Ella."

"Yeah," Derek was standing by Hal, crossing his arms as he too was studying the interaction between the blondes. "The only problem is... If Rena ends up liking Ella, will Ella feel the same?"

"What do you mean?"

Gesa pursed her mouth, looking at her friends as she answered for Derek. "Ella likes boys, remember?"

"Oh, crap..." Hal blinked. He sighed, shaking his head and complained about Lorena not catching a break. "First Milly and now Ella? That fucking sucks."

"Tell me about it," Gesa sighed. 

Derek pursed his mouth to the side, focusing on Ella taking Lorena's hand and tugging her off somewhere else after getting a wind chime. He squinted at the blonde girl's eagerness to touch Lorena. 

"I don't know... Maybe this time will be different."

The pair looked at him, though Derek was still looking at the girls. When they asked what he was talking about, the redhead grinned to himself, shrugging a shoulder and replied that it was just a feeling.

"C'mon. Let's see what else is around here." 

Derek led the way around, each of them taking time to stop to admire the vendors in the marketplace they found. Hal got a giant peach and was chomping away while Derek was stuffing his face with hot cheetos that he was splitting with Gesa. 

"This place is great!" Derek chirped, looking around at the homes painted different colors. 

"It is," Gesa nodded, looking over at a vendor spot where there were books and jewelry. She told the boys she'd be over there and they nodded, telling her they'd meet her in a few minutes. Gesa nodded, taking her leave.

When she approached the table, there was a small old woman who was grumbling about something. Her back was turned to Gesa so after waiting a minute, Gesa called over with, "Excuse me!" 

The woman turned, nose scrunched and then realized that Gesa was speaking to her. 

The woman waddled over to her and Gesa blinked at how really tiny this woman was! She'd never seen someone so small! Gesa felt tall compared to her.