Chapter 17

When I got out of the room, I saw Blaze and Anton playing a game of poker - now that was weird because when I first saw her, I thought she’d be good at poker - on a new coffee table, which I swear was not there before. Jake was nowhere to be seen, which either meant he wasn’t finished or he was in the bathroom or something.

"Congratulations, Avril." Anton smiled, "your time is two hours and twelve minutes." What? It felt like I was only in there for like one hour! Oh well. "We’ll wait for Jake, although you guys already know the verdict." So, he wasn’t out! "Actually, no. Avril, you have a detention to go to, I’m sorry." I rolled my eyes and Blaze bit her lip. "I know Chelsea is a b***h, but you really just can’t punch her. That’s twice in a week, you know?" Blaze could not contain her laughter anymore and she burst out laughing,

"Avril?" Blaze smiled, regaining her composure, "every great lycan has punched that b***h. I commend you." Smiling, I nodded in acknowledgement and Anton rolled his eyes. He escorted me out of the top secret ninja training headquarters and led me back to my vampire tactics class. Fulton was standing there with a smug look on his face.

"I think, Mavra, that is only right that you join the dance committee, so that you and Chelsea Petra can learn to get along." Real Horror came on my face - like actual horror, like a little kid had just seen their worst fears right before their eyes. I jinxed it, didn’t I? I said how I should join it just because... Wait a second, there was more of us - as in my friends - on the committee than there was of Chelsea’s goons. There was only Chelsea and so, we weren't going to ruin it for her, but make it better for us. Mulling over ways to do this, I smiled sweetly and accepted my punishment rather gracefully.

"Yes, sir," Fulton looked impressed that I was taking it so well. He had no idea of my secret agenda. Funnily enough, he released me after that and I walked to the dinner hall. Those stairs were a b***h to climb every day.

When I got there, with my enhanced hearing, I heard Tikaye and Ash talking amongst themselves and so, I stood on the other side of the room and listened - not eavesdropped.

"Chase doesn’t dance, Ash, you know that." Tikaye told him in disbelief and he shrugged,

"I just thought he might; I mean, there are new people here and…" He was cut off by Chase entering the conversation, smiling facetiously at his best friends.

"And what, sorry, Ash?" He prompted, urging Ash to go on with his sentence. Instead, he bit his lip and fell silent. I knew that Chase was suppressing a laugh because I kind of was too. My stomach started to rumble in that moment - probably because I just went hundy in a vampire hunting simulation, back at secret ninja training club. Speaking of which, I hadn’t seen Jake. Had he made it out of the simulation yet? I knew that he would because, let’s be honest here, Jake was a badass and he could handle anything. Dinner was pizza - my favorite, but it was bought, which I found amusing. There were so many boxes and a sign that said, One Box per Person. The kitchen staff must have needed a break. Either that or they were really starting to get to know me here. The the four flavors were pepperoni, Hawaiian, vegetarian and my personal favorite - meat-lovers. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good barbeque swirl. I was just about to pick up a box when Chase appeared behind me. I thought I’d better tell him I was on the committee for the organizing thing now… but it could wait until after dessert, so I wasn’t put off my food. Just thinking about it made me want to throw up; I had to work with CB and I had to organize something. Two of the worst things in the world. I was then distracted from such crude thoughts when Chase murmured,

"Chelsea-B***h is too smug now," he informed me, "she thinks we’re together." I shrugged,

"Well, yeah, I did kind of tell her I was your girlfriend and now that I’m on the organizing committee, it’ll help keep her in line." That wasn’t exactly how I’d planned to tell him but I had no impulsivity control sometimes. His eyes lit up and he tried to conceal them before he looked away, embarrassed. He smiled politely as he took two pizza boxes from the stack.

"Now, let’s go sit down before our pizzas get cold." Nothing more was said on the topic.. Instead, Ash brought up something else to do with the masquerade.

"Hey, guys, is it true that the guys have to wear dress robes and the girls have to wear corsets and puffy dresses and stuff?" I stared at him dumbfounded and Tikaye and Chase exchanged disbelieving glances,

"F**k off!" We three exclaimed in an incredulous unison. Ash let off a sigh of relief and Chase filled Tikaye in on the newest committee member, handing her a pizza box.

"What did you do?" She asked me and I smiled at the memory of my punching CB in the face.

"I punched Chelsea in the face," I told them bluntly and then an awkward silence fell upon our group for about two minutes and then suddenly, everyone wanted to fist-pump me. That was when Jake showed up, looking pale and dead on his feet. I allowed alarm to cross my face and then I asked him,

"Hey, Jake, are you okay?" I stood up, just in case he needed to sit down because there were no seats left.

"I… Yeah." He said in a daze and then out of nowhere, he fainted.

Effortlessly, Ash picked him up off the ground and quickly ran him to the emergency doctor’s room. I had no idea we even had an emergency doctor’s room. Chase started explaining to the doctor in rapid Russian. I was very impressed that Chase could speak Russian. I would have never had picked it. When the doctor spoke, I froze.

"Hello, April-Rose," Doctor Adrik was alive and well. He was the doctor from the orphanage. I’d heard he went crazy and was attempting to blend the two species - werewolf and vampire - together to create a super-race but I think that was just a rumor; I couldn’t be sure. Charlie and Tegan had to be notified that Adrik was here and that Jake was injured and so I ran - yes me, Avril Mavra ran - to find them. Tegan was eating her pizza with Emilee and I whispered to her what had happened. At first, she looked alarmed but then she just smiled,

"He’ll be fine. Now go and find Charlie." I looked at her a little taken aback; usually it was her doing all of the worrying. Then I shrugged it off; she’s nine.

And so, I set off to find Charlie. After asking various randoms, I found out that she was in her dormitory. After I climbed all of the stairs and opened the door, I saw her sitting on her bed with her head down and her face shielded by a black curtain of hair. She was crying. Something she never did. When she sensed my presence, her head lifted slightly and she smiled, even though we both knew it was forced.

"Charlie," I began. I wasn’t sure whether to comfort her or tell her about Jake being passed out under Adrik’s care. I went to comfortingly pat her on the back, but she shrugged me off. That answered my question. "Jake is in the emergency room at the moment. I think Anton overworked him in strategy class today." I informed her and she was up as quick as lightning. We both dashed down the stairs and I struggled to keep up with her and then we came bursting into Adrik’s room, who was taking a blood test for Jake. Instantly, Charlie was at his side,

"What the hell is wrong with him, Adrik?" She demanded, not paying any attention to the doctor’s so-called ‘authority.’

"It’s lovely to see you again, also Charlease," he smiled, "it appears he has been too worn down. Usually, this can be caused by using your lycanthrope abilities too frequently." She nodded slowly, but I was confused.

"Alright, does anyone wanna tell me what the hell that means?" I asked impatiently. I was always out of the loop! Charlie was leaning over Jake and then Chase pulled me aside from them.

"Okay, Avril. We all have these, uh, powers, if you will, and they help us to do certain things. We can usually only control them when we are human and when we’re a wolf, well, they get harder to control because we’re still trying to learn how to channel our strength and get our sense of self. Using these powers too much can wear us down or even kill us. Jake’s bloody lucky." I stared at him, my jaw wide open. So, now, not only am I the only werewolf that could stop everyone else being a werewolf, but I also now have special superpowers? Man, my life is complicated! I wondered what Jake’s was and why he would have to use it in strategy class and how did Charlie and Jake know about all of this stuff, while Tegan and I stayed in the dark? Why would they leave out such an important detail? Are they really our family if they keep us in the dark like that? I started to wonder. Jake didn’t wake up and Adrik said he wouldn’t until at least tomorrow and so it’d be best if we left. I glanced at Charlie and her eyes said, ‘you go. I’ll stay. I don’t trust Adrik.’ I nodded because there was just something about him that I didn’t entirely trust either and it wasn’t just the rumor I’d heard; he actually looked a tad insane because of his twitching eyes and his thinning silver hair at the age of thirty-two. Chase, Ash, Tikaye and I all left the room and walked to the library. Chase and Ash explained more about these ‘lycanthrope abilities’ but would not mention what theirs were. When I asked Chase, his face darkened and he fell silent but when I pretty much nagged Ash until he told me, he finally cracked.

"I can slip through things, like a ghost, see?" He demonstrated by putting his arm literally through a bookcase and it just looked unreal. Tikaye and Chase didn’t show me their powers, which kind of disappointed me a little bit. Soon, after a short while, Ash and Tikaye left the library. I walked to the history section, where I usually went and sat down, my fingers laced together on the tabletop. Chase sat directly opposite me and then frowned,

"So, this is where you go at night?" He asked, smiling. I nodded and he just laughed good-naturedly, "you’re such a geek; has anyone ever told you that?" I had too much on my mind to pay attention to anything else really, but then he caught me off guard. He sighed, "We need your help with the organizing thing. We really do. Chelsea has no idea what she’s doing and it is going to be chaotic and... I think…" he paused, as if trying to find the right words to say, "It would be more fun with you," he finished in a murmur. I was thankful that Chase was here. "Let’s find Tikaye and Chelsea. I think it’s time we made some changes to the little masquerade," We grinned deviously at each other and it was decided.

"Alright, let’s do this."