“Please stay quiet and open your books to page ten. Please read the section and complete the questions on the board. If you complete early, then you can leave early, but if you don’t finish then there will be homework.” Professor Jones said as he finished writing the questions on the board.

Right as I realized that I forgot the textbooks in my room, Bram stuck his hand in a nearby shadow and he handed me the textbook. He started flipping through his textbook and I was able to catch his eye.

‘Thanks,’ I mouthed to him.

‘No problem buddy.’ He mouthed back after he winked.

I opened the book and I got lost with all the strange words in it. At this moment, I wish I were born human so I could go to school before this year. I looked up at the board and saw the questions.

‘Rewrite the short paragraph to fix all of the errors. If you know any other languages, rewrite in all your known languages. Write a paragraph about what you agree with within the chapter. Bring it up to my desk when done.’

The chapter had to do with a news article talking about the enslavement of werebeasts during the war. I did not agree with the chapter at all because it was against werebeasts. It looked okay but I was not sure what errors he was talking about on the page. I saw something come out of the shadow under the book and saw the note on top of the paper.

Make it look like you are writing for a few more seconds then turn in the paper. I will help you after class. This assignment is stupid and means for the first day of school.

- Fangs (Bram)

I make eye contact with Bram and did a small nod before ‘fake’ writing on a piece of paper. I closed my book and turned in the paper. Professor Jones had a strange scent that told me not to trust him. I walked out then I saw the courtyard with the tree nearby and walked to it. I opened the textbook and I was still confused at all the new words and grammar.

“Ready to have a tutor time?” Bram said as he sat down next to me. “The headmistress should have told him that a lot of the students don’t have that much of an education. It is the first week and he gives us something hard like that. It doesn’t seem fair because this is the only place for half-breed and he acts like this.”

I did not realize that there was so much work into writing and reading. It was confusing because of commas and semi-colons that make no sense. Darkie showed up after I started banging my head on the textbook. It moved to Bram as he was studying our magic textbook and started looking at the pages.

“I wonder how you can talk to Darkie; I do my best even though all I hear is rattling noise and purring.”

I reached out and started to pet it on the ‘head’. It leaned into my touch and started making a purring noise.

“I don’t know, when she talks, I can hear perfect English and the purrs.”

I started to blink when I realize that Darkie was a female sprite. We watched as she started to change forms into a small pixie. We both started blinking at the craziness as she used the new wings to fly to my shoulder. She looked like a perfect copy of the pixie on the page except she was completely black all over.

“I guess we all learn new things every day,” I told him as Joy walked out.

Bram and Darkie started to hide behind me as she walked over while cussing up a storm. She was radiating a dark aura of rage that made me want to run away. I wonder why they have to hide behind me; I do not want to die right now either.

“Is there something wrong, Joy?” I asked in a quiet voice.

“That dumbass of a teacher is so fucking racist! He pulled up your paper and started criticizing it! He said that the only intelligence you had was to find food for the winter!” Bram handed her an apple to get her to stop yelling to take a breath.

“Did he say anything about mine?”

She shook her head as Bram gave her more fruit.

“I know that I’m not as smart as you two, but that doesn’t give a teacher a reason to pick on me! Just because I did not go to school when I was younger. Most of my education was when Bruce and Lewis tutored me until they started coming here.”

“Did you forget that I wrote the answers for you?” Bram pointed out as he pulled a blood bag out of his shadow.

“Exactly! However, just because I turned it in, he had to check it and point out the errors! He is a jackass!”

I had to give Bram a funny look as he tried not to laugh.

“Yo-our ears were sh-shaking as you were ye-yelling!”

I pushed my hair out of my face before glaring at him.

“I wish you would take me seriously!”

“Then quit acting so cute and sexy all the time!” He yelled with a deep blush on his face.

His eyes widened then he fell into his shadow. The two of us were staring at the spot that he was standing in. We just slowly blinked for a while as our brains tried to figure out what happened.

“That was odd even for him.” Joy pointed out after the shock wore off. “Well, we better look for the idiot.”

“We should check our room first. He might have gone straight there. Since that is the easiest shadow to get to.”

‘I wonder why he acting like that. His behavior reminds me of the summer before Alex and Viktor got together. How Viktor would act shy around Alex until they got together.’ I thought before it finally clicked in my head.

“Do you think that Bram has a crush on me?”

Joy started to choke on her apple and I had to pat her back to help her. She took a deep calming breath before answering my question.

“The shock aside, I think that Fangs does. Due to our crazy village, he could be afraid to ask for fear of you turning away from him. You two are nearly inseparable since we were young and he doesn’t want the chance to lose that.”

“Oakgrove messed us up. I wonder why our parents kept us there.”

“You mean to say that your mother never told you the story.” Someone said behind us.

Joy grabbed my arm in fear as we turned around, but it was just Mr. Harker. Her nails were digging into me until she calmed down. I am tempted to call them claws from how sharp they are.

“What do you mean, sir?” I asked while checking for wounds.

“Follow me to my room and I will explain it to you.” The two of us nodded our heads. “Bram is already waiting over there. He nearly gave me a heart attack when he ran into my room.” We turned back around before he started walking away. “Oakgrove has been in the control of one family for generations, and it wasn’t till recently that it spilled into two lines. The women of the family were mostly mages and controlled the village.”

“Whose family line was it?” Joy asked.

“The Oakleaf line,” I widen my eyes at the name, “and the current heads of the family are Lily and Lilac Oakleaf.”

“My mom is one of the leaders of the village! I never knew that but that explains why she had to leave the house so much.”

I always wondered why my mom and Aunt Lily kept their maiden names. I guess that is the reason why.

“Florence will become the next head after them.”

“But, why did you and my family move there?” Joy asked with a questioning look on her face.

“Because during the war, it was the base of the Wolves of Freedom, under the unknown eye of most of the villagers. Joy, your father was a great healer and he wanted to protect you and your mother, so he came to Oakgrove. Yes, most of the villagers hate werebeasts but very few of the old families hated mages. It just that a lot of the families later on married assholes that were anti-magic.” We finally got outside his room and he stopped. “Let me go talk to him before you see him.”

We watched him walk into the room and the door closed behind him.

“If you bloody like someone, then tell them!” We did our best not to laugh at the word choice. “When I first told your mother that I liked her, I spoke gibberish for ten whole minutes!” We were holding each other while trying not to laugh loudly. “If you are so worried about what I think of you dating a guy. You should know that I tasted that fruit many, many, many times before I met your mother.”

We could hear the ‘ew’ noise from inside the room. We fell to the floor laughing from how funny it was.

“I should go; I don’t want Anna to drag me away in the middle of dinner for dating advice, so I might as well deal with it now. I will save you and Bram a seat. Good luck and I will see you later.”

“Say hi to Lewis for me.”

I waved her bye as I heard some more yelling from behind the door.

‘Even if he has a crush on me, it could fade away if he meets someone better than me. I could lose him forever just for being myself,’ I started to breathe slowly to make sure I don’t panic, ‘I’m broken, people always throw away broken objects.’

I could feel myself slowly falling into the abyss within my soul. Every year I could feel myself falling deeper into that dark hole in me. There are times that I could pull myself out of it by myself, but there are some times where it would take days.

“Hey! I am still talking to you! Don’t walk out on me!” I barely heard someone say before I was pulled up into someone’s chest.