The next day at Nova High, Lily was barely awake. She'd spent a majority of the night up reading anything she could find about other paranormal creatures. Aunt Ollie stayed up with her, admitting she couldn't find the spider from this morning and it scared her. They scavenged through everything but it was difficult.
Humans weren't ready to see the supernatural creatures that walked with them, a lot of the supernaturals in the world had destroyed all evidence they could find. It was difficult to learn of their own history, but the history of a creature with no explanation? No truth?
They were searching for a toothpick within a stack of needles. Underwater. With no torches.
So that Thursday morning for school, Lily felt like she had needles stuck in her eyes. She wasn't feeling very happy, she was fed up. She wanted her eyes to burn again, wanted to know exactly what she was.
The weather reflected her mood; cloudy and dismal.
First lesson was easy, basic mathematics. Lily was already in a numb state so maths passed by with a breeze. She just wrote down the answers without a care, braiding and re-braiding her hair at random points. Lily spent a majority of the lesson trying not to snap at any of her classmates; vampires that fiddled with their sharp canines, werewolves who sniffed out the food in someone's bag, the fairies who healed the pain in their hands from writing so much, and the witches who used their magic to move their lead pencils.
Recess was easy - Lily kept her head down as she went to her locker, swapping her books and notes, grabbing some fruit. As she was changing her books over, she noticed two werewolf girls going to their lockers a few down from her.
Lily pushed down the feelings from her rogue fight two days ago - werewolves could hear a rapid heartbeat, so she started breathing calmly and merely eavesdropped.
"It's good to see Croft back though, Tricia," said the tall blonde Lily swore was called something similar to Laura.
"Yeah, I'm honestly not surprised he's here - I'd be worried if Alpha Andrew was roaming the school halls," Tricia replied, flicking her brunette hair off her shoulder. "Croft might be here just to make sure he doesn't fall behind in homework."
"I don't think that's what Andrew's thinking about at the moment." Laura scowled, eyes flashing gold momentarily before she shut her eyes, breathing deep through her nose. When Laura opened them again, they were shining. "Alpha Andrew. He's so young to be Alpha."
Tricia sighed, Lily quietly finished writing a few things in her notes and listened. "Croft's jumped up to help him quickly, he didn't cry when he heard about Alpha Roman."
"He's just trying to be strong." Laura huffed but paused. While Lily wasn't looking their way she felt those shining eyes lock onto her. She checked her heart rate, a little quick, and Lily shut her book, now feeling Tricia's dark stare too.
It was hard not to rush closing her locker, not to appear guilty, as Lily took her books for her next class and walked away.
As soon as she rounded the corner, Lily breathed a sigh of relief, but her mind was churning. She remembered Andrew's best friend Ryan Croft, it sounded like he was stepping in for his friend while Andrew mourned, until he could be the Alpha of Trawalla.
Next class was History, of the supernatural and the Supernova, how he funds the school. Lily hated history and rain was drizzling down. She still hadn't replaced her waterproof jacket, so she was walking home in the wet.
"Nova High has been around for a decade," Mr Booth was droning on. "The Supernova created the school to educate supernatural students on the human education system, as well as our own."
Lily was in the third row back, towards the edge by the window. Next to her notes she was drawing fangs and claws, wisps of magic. She was bored listening to the teacher, but she liked listening to the rain.
"Sir?" The witch from the library stuck up her hand. Some of the students snarled or moaned, Lily bit her tongue, because Jack was dragging the lesson on.
"Yes Jack?"
"What creature is the Supernova?" Jack asked, bringing her hand down to fiddle with the ten rings on her fingers. Lily wondered if they had any meaning to her, like Lily's single leather bracelet did, or whether they were just for show.
Mr Booth raised an eyebrow. "Good question Jack, but no one knows. He hasn't been seen in years."
"So you know his gender but that's it?" Jack questioned again.
"Yes, he's a man, but I don't know what kind of supernatural he is."
Just as Jack was going to open her mouth again, one of the vampires in the back row scoffed. "He ain't no witch, that's for sure - they're all weak!"
Some of the class laughed or smiled at his remark. Lily was watching Jack, how her fists curled under the desk. Her rings glinted in the light from the window, but Lily wasn't blind to the wisps of green magic rolling around her fingers.
Lily's veins were laced with fire as she watched the class laugh at the vampire's joke. Jack wasn't weak, she was just asking questions about her history, what was wrong with that? She wasn't tied to blood like he was, she was free - that didn't make her weak at all.
Lily scowled at the vampire in question, Isaac. He caught her sharp gaze, but she looked away to Mr Booth.
"Weren't vampires created by a witch, Mr Booth?" Lily asked, and the laughter quickly died down. Silence echoed around the class.
Mr Booth smiled. "That's right Lily - a witch named Andromeda was experimenting with how much power she had, and created vampires while trying necromancy." The teacher walked behind his desk and sat down.
"And isn't it true there have been more witches as the Supernova than vampires?" Lily asked again, ignoring the hiss at the back of the room, focusing on the rain instead.
Mr Booth drank from his water on his desk slowly, eyes flashing wolf gold, before waving Lily off. "Yes it is - would you like to teach the class Lily?"
Lily flushed and the class laughed again. She put her head down, nose back into her books. She wasn't his alpha, she shouldn't have pushed back.
"Pick a fight with your own kind!" Isaac joked, before the class laughed again. Mr Booth told the class to quieten down, how that behaviour was not acceptable, but they couldn't stop laughing. She kept her eyes shut, jaw clenched, as she tried not to rage.
Her hands were splayed on the desk, her anger racing through her veins. Her eyes burned as tears threatened to escape but Lily willed it away. Her pain and anger evaporating like water.
The windows rattled as the rain hammered down onto the school, followed quickly by a roar of thunder.
The students jolted and Lily opened her eyes at the weather. Her eyes were still watery; they wouldn't shed a tear but the sky would for her. The sky was dark as the surprise storm struck around the school. The vampires and werewolves were confused, usually they could sense a storm approaching.
The classroom door slammed opened, some of the students jumping in their seats as someone stepped into the room.
Lily frowned, looking away from the window to see who dared to enter halfway through Mr Booth's class, and gulped.
A werewolf stood in the doorway, his dark blonde hair wet from being caught in the rain, his school uniform not fairing much better - his trousers were splattered with raindrops, shoes were soaked, and his white shirt was now slightly see through.
While the classroom were gasping and muttering about how 'gorgeous' and 'handsome' he was, Lily had somehow lost the ability to breathe.
Draped over his arm, covering his school bag, was her waterproof jacket.
"Croft, good to see you." Mr Booth's eyes flaring gold briefly but all he did was nod back. He wasn't in the mood for pleasantries, it seemed.
He merely walked past the front two rows, and stopped at Lily's empty desk. Her desk was always empty, no one sat next to her, Croft usually sat at the back with his werewolf friends if they got there before Isaac and his crew.
Lily's stomach sank when he sat down next to her.
The class was silent as Croft rummaged around in his dry bag, putting his books on the table and tossing his wet hair out of his face. Lily swore someone was sighing when he moved his arms up to run his hands through his hair to keep it back, but Lily was glancing between her books and the waterproof jacket Croft had placed down between them.
Her jacket she'd given to Alice when rescuing her from the rogue werewolves.
Lily's heartrate was through the roof, she knew Croft could probably hear it, but she was terrified. Was he going to say anything? Was he going to interrogate her in this very classroom? She just wanted to find out what species she was and her life to go on as normal - Lily didn't want any attention!
"Sorry about missing the class," Croft smiled softly. "Carry on sir, I'll catch up."
"I'm sure Lily will share her notes with you." Mr Booth said, waving a pen between the two of them, and Isaac snorted from the back of the class, causing more laughter once again.
She put her head down again as Mr Booth tried to calm the class down while discussing the origins of vampires, and the old supernova Andromeda. Lily merely pushed her notes towards Croft's side of the table, her book pressing against her waterproof jacket.
Croft took the jacket off the table and placed it under his seat, bringing the book closer as he copied some of the notes down. He didn't look her in the eye, or look at her at all.
Maybe he doesn't know?
Come on, he knows. He has your freaking jacket.
Lily was staring at the board, memorising Mr Booth's notes when her notebook was passed back to her. She frowned at the speed of his writing, taking her notebook back when her heart leapt to her throat.
He'd written in the corner of the page.
'Alice says thank you for saving her life.'
This time, when Lily looked up at Croft, he was looking right back at her with sky blue eyes that shone gold briefly as his wolf pushed through.
Lily's eyes shone with fear.