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01
JACKSON HALE
I walked through the crowded halls of my high school, students parting to catch my watchful eye. I walked through with such confidence that would make the bravest bow down at my feet. The girls of the school carefully stole glances at me as they were gossiping to their friends. At the end of the part stood my lifetime partners, Victoria and Keith. Both of them talk amongst each other, not caring to watch this usual scene unfold.
"Keith." I nodded to him and he nodded in return before going back to scrolling through Instagram. "Hey, Tori." I greeted her with a tight hug and smiled.
Victoria and I are close friends, our parents had always thought that we'd be soulmates but I had turned sixteen over a year ago, and still no mate. It didn't bother me much, I had a free realm of dating whoever I wanted. Tori, on the other hand, had found her mate on her birthday. Kate, another girl werewolf in our pack, had been excited to find out that Tori and she were mates. But Tori freaked out and said she needed time to think about it. About how she was going to tell her parents and most importantly, her pack.
"What do you think the meeting is about?" Tori asked me, referring to the pack meeting my father had called for the high school students and their parents. Our pack is a small pack so our school is the only school with the supernatural. There are vampires and sirens and others but we are usually all stuck in our own groups with our own cliques. We never crossed paths unless there was a fight. Which happens rarely.
"He hadn't talked to me about it," I told her. She furrowed her dark eyebrows and frowned.
"That's weird." She mumbled. Her dark hair slicked back into a low ponytail that flowed over her tanned shoulders and ended right before her denim jeans.
"What's weird?" Cayden asked looking up and down at Tori, admiring how good she looked. This was a daily occurrence that Tori seemed to get used to and occasionally returned the favor.
"The pack meeting," Tori answered him annoyed. She bit her full bottom lip to hold back any unnecessary comments.
"Oh- I heard rumors that it was about the humans." He gossiped.
"What about them?" I asked curiously. There was this unspoken rule with every type of supernatural, that humans are off limits. Most of the vampires had never even had fresh human blood, hell most of us have never been in contact with one (including me).
We had moved our own way, a while back in history, and humans developed a separate culture from ours. They decided to keep us at a distance and over time forgot about what we were. We were lost in history.
You would think that the immortals, such as vampires, would remember those days but back then they attacked many humans causing a riot. The humans hunted and killed a lot of vampires, those humans were called Vampire Hunters. So now there's a low chance that you would come across a vampire older than those days.
"I have no idea. All I heard was that it was about them and we might be meeting one." Cayden interestingly informed us.
"Seriously?" Tori exclaimed excitedly. She has an interest in human culture. She would always tell us fun facts about them but stopped when she realized we didn't care. "Oh em gee!" She squealed unusually.
"Tori, calm down," I whispered as she attracted unwanted attention. Including Kate who stared at Tori with longing. I knew that Tori could feel it but she ignored her anyway.
"This is amazing!" She quietly exclaimed. "I have so many questions and I've always wanted to meet one. What their interests are and maybe what they usually don't like."
"I thought that you already knew those answers?" Cayden questioned.
"I do but it would be different when it comes from the actual thing." Tori snapped softly.
I am actually kind of excited myself. I know it could all be just rumors but if it is actually true then that would be so cool.
___
"Thank you all for coming to this meeting." My father announced to the crowd of us. "I know that this is under unusual circumstances. So, I am going to get straight to it because we have lots to do." I smelled something different, unfamiliar in the air. I looked around and could tell that other people were doing the same thing. "We are shutting down the high school."
Gasps and whispers erupted throughout the room. I looked at Tori in confusion. Why didn't he tell me something this important?
"Starting Monday," He continued. "All Moon Stone Pack High students will be attending the human school Clovis East High School, the next town over."
My eyes widened in surprise. Not only will we be meeting a human, but we will also be going to school with hundreds of them. We will be in their town - 30 minutes away - and everyone around me started realizing that. They erupted in conversations and Tori squealed next to me.
"Dude, think of the range of girls we could have there," Cayden whispered in my ear. He does have a point though.
"I've decided that we need to begin to attempt to coexist with the human, like before, but this time in secret." My father pointed to the strange man standing behind him. "And to give you instructions on this issue is Principle Jim Higgins of Clovis East."
The smell, it's coming from him. As he got closer to us everyone immediately stopped talking and looked at him in awe. I didn't recognize the smell because I have never smelt a human before. And there one is, standing in front of us.
"Hello," Tori squealed again next to me. "as Mr. Hale has told you, I am the principal of the school you will be attending. We have spoken privately and agreed that the supernatural should remain a secret among the students. There has been a history of people reacting poorly to different cultures and types of people. We wouldn't want a mutiny on our hands." He pushed up his glasses to the bridge of his nose. Never have I seen someone wear glasses and actually need them.
"Before Monday," he continued. "the students will receive their schedules in the mail and be expected to attend all classes without resistance. Students will be expected to follow all rules set by the district, and if the rules are broken, students will receive the same consequences as the others. If expelled from the school, the student will have to continue their education at home. Under no circumstances should a student of any supernatural descent reveal their secret to a human, or said supernatural student will receive punishment from their home 'leader'. If there is an attack on any student, the attacker will face expulsion with no exceptions."
I looked around the room to see each person in the pack, even parents, listening closely to what Principle Higgins is saying.
"This concludes your verbal orientation, a printed packet will be included with the class schedule that is more in-depth of dress code, rules, and expectations." Higgins backtracked his steps, signaling that he was finished. My father took his place.
"I know you all are wondering about the other students of Moon Stone Pack High, and I am here to confirm that this exact meeting is taking place in their own groups. All supernatural students WILL attend the school alongside you guys." My father told everyone.
That means the vampires, sirens, etc. will also attend our school. All types of creatures will need to keep their secrets from humans. I wonder if we have to learn their history or if we will have separate classes for that.
"And that concludes this meeting." He announced to the room and everyone began to disperse out of the building.
"Man, they seem like they have a lot of rules," Cayden complains as he walks with Tori and me. "What the hell is a dress code and will I be disappointed?"
"I am so excited about this!" Tori exclaimed. I chuckled at them as they fangirl back and forth with each other.
"Jackson?" A familiar feminine voice calls behind me. I turned around to see Stacy, a common choice for fun, her skirt tight and ending just below her plump butt and a white tight-cropped shirt hugging her curvy tan body. She bit her plump glossy lip and smiled as her bright blue eyes stared me down.
"Gotta go," I told Tori and Cayden, they just nodded in response and headed off.
Stacy is a cool girl, she smokes wolfsbane with me and we occasionally have sex. She mainly does that with the rest of the guys in the school but as future Alpha, she obviously has her eyes set on me. Stacy can be a bitch but she doesn't usually push people around. That doesn't mean she isn't the stereotypical popular girl. I know Stacy is more interested in our physical relationship than our emotional one meaning Stacy and I mean nothing to each other.
"Wanna head back to my house?" She asked twirling her strawberry blonde hair around. "My parents aren't home."
"Do you even have to ask?"