The light shone brightly against her eyes and she shut them tighter.
That had been a wonderful memory, and she remembered it so clearly. Also, her father never fully got to finish his story that day, she had been too tired. The whole next day was spent explaining how Luna became the mother of all werewolves and gifted them the mate bond so they could find happiness like she did. It had been wonderful.
Lupita carefully opened her eyes after thinking she had enough time with them closed and looked around. She was laying in some sort of hut on top of a blanket, in something that looked like a hut. Where was she?
It took her foggy brain a good minute before she finally remembered what happened yesterday. And when she remembered, she was less surprised when she saw the faun stretching out on the other bed. But Alexander wasn't there.
"Morning," the faun said and sat up one ear laying flat against their head and turned inside out.
"Where is Silas?" Lupita asked.
"He is probably out hunting or doing something else," Karri said and went over to the pot from last night after straightening out his ear and shaking his head to make sure everything was right in place. "He ate before he walked out at least."
Lupita sat up with the help of her hands and hissed when pain shot from her wrist. She had forgotten about it.
"Don't move it," Karri said and hurried over to her to examine her wrist. "You can't be moving it around that much, preferably not at all but I know you have school today."
Lupita didn't ask how they knew and instead tried her best not to stare at the faun's exposed chest. She had heard about people like this before. Born in the wrong body but knowing that they were and having people treat them how they presented themselves. Lupita knew of one person like that in her pack. She was born male but luckily their heeler was able to help her. Her wolf was also female so people didn't treat her any differently.
"Could you maybe not stare at my chest?" Karri asked in a small voice and Lupita's eyes shot to their big brown ones.
"I didn't mean to stare," she said as they walked away.
"It's fine," Karri said and came back with her backpack. Lupita took it and quickly checked that she had everything and saw that she had a few books in it. How did those get there?
"I don't think you are an abomination or anything like that. I don't think you are confused or a... what is it that these English people say?" Lupita wanted to reassure the faun she didn't think badly of him.
"It's fine, really-"
"It's not fine. I have seen people that treat people like you awful. And why should they when you are no less a living, thinking being with feelings like them?" Lupita asked.
Karri just stared at her for a second, and in the next Lupita found herself enveloped in a hug. She had never hugged a faun before, (mostly because some of her pack actually hunted them). Their skin was incredibly smooth and he felt so delicate. Lupita also caught the wonderful sight of their tail wagging excitedly back and forth along with the feeling of his ears flapping against the side of her head.
"Thank you for saying those things," Karri said and pulled away from the hug quickly before Lupita could even hug him back. "And I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable with not covering them up."
"First, you shouldn't be thanking me for something this basic. Everyone should think like this. Second, I don't care at all. If I could, I would be walking around like you, but I can't because of the weird humans and other people here."
Karri laughed and nodded. "True."
"What time is it?" Lupita asked. If she wasn't completely wrong, her school would start at eight.
"It is a quarter till eight," Karri said while Lupita stood up.
"How much is that in numbers?" Lupita asked. She could barely tell the time with these modern clocks, she was so used to the sun clocks back home or telling by the stars or sun.
"In digital, it would be 7:45, and in one of those other traditional clocks it would - you know what, you have fifteen maybe fourteen minutes."
"Faen," Lupita whispered and walked out of the hut while slinging her backpack over her shoulder. "I might see you guys later! Say bye to Silas for me!" Then, she ran. She ran as fast as she could through the forest. It had taken her almost 30 minutes walking to the tree from the school, even longer to walk to the hut. But maybe if she ran she could come in time.
Branches snapped in her way. The leaves swayed, and she was certain her face had cuts from the branches occasionally wiping her in the face. But she couldn't care less. This was awesome. Just running in the forest with no care in the world. This was how she wanted to live. To be free. Free to run around all day or just lounge in a tree or on a field on a warm summer day.
But her fantasy was ruined by a big fence quickly approaching. It was maybe 3 meters tall, maybe more. This was the way to the school, she was sure of it. Maybe they had fences for the students' safety. Either way, she had to do something. It was too late to slow down. So she turned to the only other option that popped into her head.
She approached the fence fast, wind whipping her in the face, making her eyes slightly water. The fence was only a few meters away now.
Lupita took a short breath before she pounced. She practically flew through the air, but that still was barely enough and her foot caught on the fence, making her slam into the ground on the other side with not as much grace as she would have liked. Luckily, she was able to save her wrist from the fall by quickly tucking it into her chest and landing painfully on her side. Why was she getting hurt so much lately?
She turned to lay on her back and just stared at the sky. It was a pretty clear sky today, though there were a few clouds floating around. Clouds were cool. They were almost like the stars of daytime. Not exactly, but almost.
What would they feel like?
What would they taste like?
Was she going insane?
After a few seconds of just breathing through the pain in her side and collecting her thoughts - coming to the conclusion that the pain was getting to her head - she stood up and began walking to school. The best idea was probably to take it slow. And besides, the school couldn't be that far away... right?
Long story short, she arrived very late. No one was outside and Lupita could hear the wind howling, leaves scraping the pavement, and the mumbling of students inside. Was there a rule you had to follow if you came late for class? She hadn't really thought about that when wanting to go here. Well, she had to find out some way or another, so she decided to just walk in.
The hallways were empty, but Lupita could hear what was going on in every classroom. Why weren't these walls soundproof? If she wasn't mistaken there were kitsunes, vampires, werewolves, and fauns at this school. All of them had heightened hearing and this would drive them nuts. It sure was driving her nuts with the hundreds of different classrooms and thousands of different voices. They all mushed together and just made her head hurt.
"You are late."
"Shit! Faen! Jævel!" Lupita tried to punch the person that had snuck up on her but her hand was caught and she was staring at a vampire. She was pretty sure it was the teacher from yesterday's class.
"That sort of language is not acceptable in this school," he said in an annoyingly calm voice. "Why are you late?"
"You would like to know," Lupita tried and hid her arm behind her back when she caught him looking at her wrist.
"You are clearly hurt. I saw you limping and you are bleeding. I don't know where from, but you are. I would recommend you go to the nurse. I will pick you up once your next class starts." He talked in the most monotone voice and took excruciatingly long pauses between each sentence. "I assume you don't know where the nurse's office is. Follow me."
Lupita knew she didn't have a choice and reluctantly followed after the teacher.
He kept looking back at her as they walked and kept a good distance between them. Was he scared? Or was this normal here?
Lupita tried to find out where she was bleeding from and finally found a bloodstain on her thigh and a cut on her face. Nothing that serious.
They eventually reached a door that said "nurse W" on it. The vampire - Lupita had completely forgotten his name and didn't bother trying to remember it - opened the door and stepped aside to let her in.
"I have someone here for you Mrs. Smith," the vampire said as Lupita walked in. She was met with an old lady with a wrinkled face and grey hair. She was a little plump and looked very sweet. Though Lupita almost jumped out of her skin when the nurse turned and she was met with two piercing yellow eyes that did not fit the kind smile on her face.
"Oh, the new one?" she asked in a sweet voice while putting on a pair of half-moon glasses. She had a different accent than most people here, but it made her sound even sweeter.
"Yes," the vampire said and nudged Lupita in. The second he touched her though, Lupita growled. Though it wasn't her.
'Keep it together,' she thought to herself, hoping her wolf could hear her.
"Do not growl at me girl," the vampire said and forcefully pushed her towards a bed where she quickly sat down while battling her wolf for control over her actions.
"Now," the nurse said and walked over to Lupita, her yellow eyes going over her body, searching for anything. She eventually stopped at the cut on her cheek, then her bandaged hand, and finally the bloodstain on her pants. "Now this isn't good. Is it?" She looked up at Lupita who felt she needed to answer.
"It's not that serious. I've had worse," she said truthfully while the nurse took her bandaged wrist in her hands to examine it.
"Worse?" the nurse said and looked at her from over her glasses, "Well... this certainly is bad, but it seems like whoever bandaged you did a great job, though you could definitely do with cleaner bandages." She carefully placed Lupita's hand back in her lap before she walked over to her cupboard and took out a small, plastic basket. "You can leave now Mr. James."
The vampire gave Lupita one last dirty look before he walked out and carefully closed the door behind him.
"He didn't hurt you, did he?" the nurse asked as she sat down on a chair in front of Lupita before placing the basket on the bed beside her.
"No," Lupita answered shortly and let the nurse carefully take off her bandage.
"Good. He is a man with strange beliefs. He does not particularly like disobedience, especially by girls. And you are a werewolf no less," she said as she finished unwrapping the bandage and began to clean it with something that surprisingly didn't smell like anything. "He is an old vampire. Lived in the old ages and allegedly fought in 'The great war'."
"How old are you?" Lupita asked. She knew it could take hundreds of years before a werewolf would even begin to get their first wrinkles, let alone look this old.
"That is a secret between me, myself, and my wolf," she said playfully and applied a new bandage to her wrist.
Lupita didn't say anything else and let the nurse continue until she was done. She then moved to her face where she applied something that both smelled and stung terribly before applying something she called a band-aid. After she was done, she moved to her leg where Lupita had to take off one pant leg for the nurse to properly help her.
"Now this doesn't look that good," the nurse said and pulled back to look at the wound. "What did you do?"
"Fell," Lupita answered simply.
"A very hard fall," the nurse said and took out the stuff that both stung and smelled bad. Lupita groaned and the nurse laughed. "Never been exposed to alcohol before, I see." Lupita just nodded her head and prepared for the pain while the nurse poured some of it onto a cotton ball before gently applying it to her skin. "I thought werewolves having fur was a myth."
Lupita arched an eyebrow and looked at her non bandaged hand. A small coat of fur covered the upper part of it. It wasn't that much, but it was noticeable if you looked for it. She knew not many werewolves had it, but were there really that few?
"No?" she tried and hissed/growled when the cotton ball was placed back on her skin.
"Hmm," was all the nurse said as she continued cleaning her wound before she put a different kind of band-aid on it. "Well, seems like you are all good to me. Just be careful and try not to hurt yourself even more."
Lupita smiled a little. She was going to come in here at least once a week.
"Here you go," the nurse said and handed her something. It looked very weird, like a small, flat, red ball on a white stick. "What's wrong?" the nurse said and chuckled. Lupita pulled away as she pushed it closer to her. "It's a lollipop." Lupita came a little closer and gave it a sniff. She could only describe it as... sweet. "Try it." The nurse pulled off something that covered it and handed it to her. Lupita carefully took it and sniffed it again. The smell was more potent and she could smell hints of strawberry. Carefully and very slowly, she put the "lollipop" in her mouth. Her eyes widened.
It was delicious!
"I see you like it," the nurse laughed. Lupita nodded her head rapidly and kept licking the lollipop while it was still in her mouth.
The door suddenly opened and in came the principal, Elizabeth, and the vampire teacher.
"Are you a rogue?"
Lupita tilted her head to the side at the question.
"Does she look like one to you?" Elizabeth asked while motioning to her.
"I don't know what a rogue is supposed to look like," the principal said truthfully.
"They don't look a certain way, but with her anger issues, how she turns to violence, the fact that she has no pack, and her tendency to get hurt... I would say she is one," the vampire said.
The teachers began to argue amongst themselves. Well, mostly Elizabeth and the vampire, the principal just stood off to the side looking extremely scared.
"I prefer the term 'lone wolf'," Lupita said after taking the lollipop out of her mouth. The teachers stopped their bickering and looked at her. "Just so you know," she said before putting the lollipop back in her mouth and smiling a little at how good it tasted.
"No matter what term you prefer, you are still dangerous to this school and our students," the vampire said, bringing Lupita back to reality.
She just looked down and rubbed her feet together. She wouldn't consider herself good with words at all. Actions, expressions, and other kinds of non-verbal communication were way much better. Lupita would blame her wolf and her for being so close for that.
"I will speak to her. All of you other people, OUT!" Elizabeth said in a threatening tone which sent all of them out, the vampire being last.
Once the door was closed, Elizabeth turned back to Lupita. She walked over to the chair in front of her and sat down. Her eyes immediately began to roam her body before they stopped at the wound on her leg. "You have fur?" she asked.
Lupita rolled her eyes before nodding.
"Would you be offended if I said I wanted to feel it?"
Lupita tilted her head to the side before taking the older woman's hand and placing it on her leg, below the knee.
Elizabeth began to carefully run her fingers through the thin layer of fur on her skin, careful to not go higher than where Lupita had placed her hand. It wasn't uncomfortable in any way, it actually felt very comforting. She remembered how her mother would often brush through her hair and then move to brushing or scratching her back when she was younger. Most often after a bath.
"So," Elizabeth said and took her hand away, "About the whole, 'rogue' thing."
Lupita groaned while pulling up her pant leg and pulling the now empty stick out of her mouth. She looked at it sadly for a little bit before turning to Elizabeth. "I prefer the term 'lone wolf', as I said."
"I know what you said, and I will respect that, but we have to consider this," Elizabeth said and placed a hand on her knee. "What happened to your old pack?"
Lupita growled silently at the question and felt her wolf tuck her tail between her legs and step away from her mind completely, leaving Lupita to deal with this alone. 'Thanks a lot.'
She took a deep breath before she answered. "They were all killed. I think I told you yesterday."
"You told me your parents died," Elizabeth corrected and rubbed her knee. "Is it something you would prefer not to talk about?" Lupita nodded her head and began to pick at the bandage on her hand. "That is fine... but with this information, the other teachers are going to be wary of you. They will most likely tell their students and that way more people will be scared of you. And it won't only be on school grounds."
Lupita kept staring down and picking at her bandage. "I promise I won't kill anyone," she tried.
"But hurt someone?" Elizabeth asked and Lupita glanced up at her.
"I already did that," she mumbled and looked down again.
"You did, which has made teachers and students alike worry about you," Elizabeth explained. "I understand what he did made you angry, but you shouldn't turn to violence. It's never the answer. At least in these modern times, it isn't."
Lupita suppressed a growl and pushed her wolf back from taking control. If only this teacher knew what she had been through. Maybe she wouldn't try and suppress her feelings, or maybe she would put her in a cage.
A distant sound of a bell rang in her ears. Thousands of cheers. Someone shouted out her name, but it wasn't hers. Not now at least. It was getting hot. Her wrists were burning, along with her ankles. Her neck throbbed and her back stung.
"Lupita." The voice sounded distant. As if she was underwater. She couldn't breathe. She was suffocating!
"Hey, hey! Try to relax... Ok?" She tried but failed. "Just breathe. In... and out... in... and out..." Lupita tried to follow them. Their voice didn't sound Like Elizabeth's, it was from... someone else. She knew them, but how? Lupita slightly opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of black, white, and something slightly grey surrounded by light so their features became mushed together. A scent filled her nose. A comforting scent. She decided she should try to follow what this person wanted. And after what felt like a century, she finally calmed down and managed to breathe.
"What was that?" Someone asked. It was Elizabeth.
Lupita opened her eyes and realized she was laying down now. "Something... I'm not even sure," she said. It was half the truth.
"It looked like a panic attack, or maybe anxiety?" Elizabeth tried and helped Lupita sit back up. "Do you have any mental illnesses or disorders?"
"I have no idea what that means," Lupita said and rubbed her head. What had that last part been?
"Do you have these episodes often?" she asked. Lupita nodded her head. "Does anything trigger them?" Lupita shook her head from side to side while giving her a look that told her so-so. "What do you see in them?"
"Memories," Lupita whispered.
Elizabeth hummed and carefully rubbed her arm. "Just remember that you can talk to both me and Jazmyn about any of this if you want to. We will listen to you. And I know Jazmyn will be very happy if you were willing to talk to her again... She told me what happened yesterday."
Lupita nodded her head. She felt bad for what she did to Jazmyn, but it would be better to push her away than to keep her too close. She would get hurt.
"I know she would love to be your friend," Elizabeth continued and Lupita looked up at her.
"I'm scared of hurting her," she admitted.
"To be honest with you, so am I. I am terrified of you hurting my daughter because you are capable of doing so both emotionally and physically. And I don't want her going through something like that when her head is already messed up from being a halfling. So don't hurt my daughter... Please."
"I think it would be best if she stayed away then," Lupita said and scratched her neck.
"I think that would hurt her more," Elizabeth said with a sad smile. "Want to know how I know?"
Lupita couldn't even answer before Jazmyn barged in the door and threw herself at Lupita.
"Ow!" Lupita shouted as she felt Jazmyn collide with her hurt side.
"Sorry!" she shouted and stood up before hugging her again.
"You are very clingy," Lupita said but hugged the smaller girl back. It was nice.
"Thank my parents," she said and pulled back. "I was worried."
"Aww," Lupita said and put on her usual confident mask she wore around most people, which had surprisingly faltered a lot the past 24 hours. She didn't feel happy about putting it back on, but she felt safer. It was better to act confident than scared. Scared would get you killed, confidence would get you into fights. But people would be scared of you if you were confident. You could never be safe, but you could be safer.
"I was. I thought what I said had upset you," Jazmyn said and rubbed her arm.
"It did, but it's fine," Lupita said and narrowed her eyes at her. "What was with you and that vampire anyway?"
Jazmyn scoffed and rolled her eyes before answering, "She is nothing but a liar. She is mean, and awful, and irritating, and..."
"So what you are saying is that she is bad," Lupita summed up.
"Yeah. I don't like her," Jazmyn said and crossed her arms while an adorable pout painted her lips.
"What did she do?" Lupita asked while tilting her head to the side a little.
It looked like Jazmyn was about to answer but the bell rang.
"Off you go!" Elizabeth ushered them out. "You have already missed enough classes."
Lupita and Jazmyn exited the nurse's office along with Elizabeth and began walking down the halls. Though before they left, Lupita heard someone sigh followed by Jazmyn saying, "Saved by the bell."
A/N: I think this is my longest chapter yet.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and if you see any spelling mistakes it would be lovely if you pointed them out.
Hope you are all taking care of yourselves both mentally and physically. Make sure to eat and drink something.
If no one has said it to you yet: I am incredibly proud of you!!
Hope you have a lovely day/night/evening.
Love you all and thank you for reading. Leave a vote or comment, they are very appreciated! ❤💖❤💖❤💖