SOS: The School of Supernaturals

“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” I yelled, slinging my bag from my shoulder onto the floor. “Hello? Anybody home?”

“Hey, Ray, we’re in the lounge!”

Whoop. Dee. Do.

My parents never feel the need to tell me their exact whereabouts in the house when I walk in. I just sort of follow their voices. They only tell me their exact location when they a)- are together in the same room and not ignoring each other, b) – have big news and c)- have been attempting to discuss my possible reaction to this big news [I say attempt, because they are always one hundred percent, no questions asked, absolutely WRONG]. So the fact I had been told that they were in the lounge, I was instantly worried. Hadn’t my day been taxing
enough? Did I really need a family meeting, dysfunctional family as we were?

No. Apparently not- to both of the questions.

“Hey, baby.” Dad smiled at me as I walked in. I instantly took in his stance. His arm was resting on the back of the armchair where my mother resided, smiling encouragingly at me with her hands resting delicately on her lap. “How was your day?”

My eyes narrowed at my father. His milky brown complexion, his close-cropped short black hair and his friendly smile and chocolate eyes. Then there was my mother; china doll complexion, her bright blue vampire eyes and long black eyelashes and tentative smile on those red lips. If I hadn’t known my parents, I’d say they made a pretty good couple.

But unfortunately I did know them. So that couldn’t be said.

“Just get on with it.” I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose with my thumb. “It’s like waxing; the quicker it goes, the better.”

Okay, so maybe that hadn’t been the most parent friendly phrase in the world, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

Then my mother beamed at me and she uttered the most terrible three words in my own personal vocabulary.

“Honey...” She looked up at Dad, who smiled down at her encouragingly. He held her hand as it rest on her shoulder. God, could they not just stop with the freaking dramatics? I half expected a load of burlesque dancers to come out, doing the can-can and singing Have I Got News for You, or something of an equally crappy name. “I’m pregnant.”

See what I mean about her filthy language?

“NO!” I screamed. “Another child? Are you serious?! What do you need another one for?!”

“Honey, you’ll always be our number one.” My mother told me brightly. Was she fucking serious?! She sighed and looked up at my father. “Sweetie, I knew she’d be like this.” She murmured sadly.

“Hey! I am here, y’know!” I yelled. “I am not fucking well jealous.”

“Language.” My mother scolded with no real strength.

“Honey, it’s okay to feel a bit upset.” My dad told me, not sounding like my dad at all. “It is a bit overwhelming and jealousy and insecurity is understandable.”

I gaped at my father in shock.

“Wh-y- jealous?” I spluttered. “I am not, repeat not, jealous! Or insecure!”

“Sweetie, I understand.” My mother said reassuringly. “Of course, it might be slightly traumatic to a girl of your age to understand that your parents have an active sex life.”

I could only stare at her in horror.

“Oh my God, you did not just put that image into my head.” I said, in both disgust and shock.

“Tammy, that is kinda wrong.” My dad muttered, his face screwing up in a little bit of disgust, before turning to me. “You think that’s bad? Now every time I have sex with your mother,
I’m going to imagine you standing there, watching and making comments on my performance and shit.”

“OH, JESUS, DAD!” I yelled loudly, screwing up my eyes and covering my ears. I mean, really? Really?! “And I’m not jealous of this baby! I pity it! Didn’t you learn your lesson before?”

“What do you me-, oh baby!” My mother suddenly cooed, jumping up and hugging me. I stared at my father, glaring at him and telling him with my eyes to get my mother off me. I also made a conscious effort to not read his mind and stare into his eyes for too long. There are just some thoughts I never want – or need- to hear. “You were never a mistake.”

“Get off me, woman!” I shrieked, breaking free of my mother and crossing my arms over my chest. “And when did I say I thought I was a mistake?!”

Oh. Then again, I did say that a lot.

“Anyway,” I said hurriedly, seeing my father open his mouth. “This baby is going to have it even worse than me! You guys as parents? Two hybrids?! The poor kid is going to have just as much as an identity crisis as I am! Get rid of it!”

“Sweetie, that’s a bit harsh.” My mother gasped, her hand over her stomach protectively.

“Oh, give me a break.” I snarled. “I cannot believe you guys are going to make this poor child be brought into this world with us as a family!”

“What exactly is so hard about your life, Ray?” My dad asked, rolling his eyes. “You’re different. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Do you even know me at all?!” I shouted, aghast.

“Come on, Ray.” My mother said stonily, crossing her arms. “What hardships have you faced?”

There were so many on the tip of my tongue, they could barely come out.

“Submission forms!” I managed to splutter, before stomping out of the lounge and slamming the door so hard, it came off its hinges... which left me no choice but to then stomp up the stairs, too.

**

David: Hey Ray.
NotALittleRay: Hi Dave.
David: Ouch. Red font. How bad is it?
NotALittleRay: My parents spoke to me when I got in from school. In the LOUNGE.

David instantly got it.

David: Verdict?
NotALittleRay: My momma is getting ready to pop a sprog
David: YOUR MOM’S KNOCKED UP?
David: I’d freak if I found out my mom was pregnant.
David: Then again my mom and dad don’t exactly have a steady sex life, so that’s not really a problem I need to think about.
NotALittleRay: Jesus, David, tmi.
NotALittleRay: And what is it with everyone talking about senior citizen’s sex lives?!
David: It’s the new crack.
David: Back in a second, Melanie’s come over. 
David: You know me so well, I don’t even need to type the dirty thing I’m thinking. ;P
NotALittleRay: Screw you.
David’s status is currently set to Away and may not reply.

That wasn’t just an insult [the “screw you” thing].

David Barnes, son of the Barnes of Barnes & Noble, the famous bookstore chain.

Here’s a quick bullet list about David Barnes:

• My best friend
• Known him from when I lived in New York up until the age of thirteen, when my powers became apparent.
• Mortal
• Fucking hot [see below]
• Rich kid
• Completely ignorant to my powers and supernatural-ity

When I say fucking hot I mean it.

He was tall- taller than me, which was a bonus. He had green eyes. Black hair, that he usually ran his hair through a lot. He wasn’t muscular and he wasn’t stick-thin; he was healthy and fit. And he was awesome.

Oh, and I have had this stupid crush on him since I was seven.

“Don’t even.” I muttered to myself. No matter how many times I had tried to get over my stupid infatuation, it wouldn’t go away. Kind of stupid for a girl who can turn raw eggs into fried ones with a single look.

I drummed my fingers on my desk, waiting for David to come back. Melanie was David’s girlfriend; oh, don’t even. After three months of dating, I’d told David that I’d heard from a friend [mobile video footage] of Melanie hitting really hard on David’s best friend, Max. David had laughed it off. Turns out I was right and she was a lying skank. Six months later? She’d changed, she loved him, blah, blah, blah. And David fell for it. He’d always loved her, which annoyed me more than anything else; for crying out loud, the girl wore Taylor-Swift-style nerd glasses when she didn’t even wear contacts. Totally pretentious.

And she wasn’t a vampire either.

David didn’t take her as seriously now, which was an improvement. But he was still a guy; which meant that not taking her seriously didn’t mean he didn’t fall into her sick traps of seduction.

My cell phone started ringing, belting out the instrumental version of Remember December by Demi Lovato [she’s a Disney kid. Sue me. She had a voice, whether she was with the House of Infestation of Hollywood or not].

“Hello?”

“Hey, Ray.” I could feel David smile into the phone. I smiled a small smile to myself too.
Then I heard Melanie giggling in the background, which totally killed the moment. “Look, I have to go real quick, but I wanted to tell you at least through phone.”

“I’m listening.” I said, sandwiching the phone between my shoulder and cheek, getting up and deciding to hunt my room for some chocolate; I was in dire need of happy endorphins.
I loved my room. It was big, and on one side, slanted downwards as I was in the loft. My walls had charms on; geometric patterns, picture slideshows and funky wallpapers came on each different wall, depending on the settings. When the charm was removed, each wall was different: one wall butter yellow, one a dark-hot-pink, one lime green and one purple with big orange and navy strips going diagonally across. I paused the wall I was currently looking at to see a closer look of a picture David had sent of him and his sister [junior by two years] Mary, on Mary’s fourteenth the year before. I smiled to myself, lightly touching David’s cheek with my fingers.

Before. You know. I shook my head and bounced a nearby basketball off my head [yeah, I have more stuff in my room. Like a basketball hoop and a guitar and stuff. But I just can’t be bothered with the long descriptions].

“I’m coming to visit you in Long Island.”

I instantly dropped my lightsaber – which I had been making Star Wars poses with in my stripy wall [settings] – in shock.

“W... what?” I managed to choke out.

“Yeah, my mom sorted it out with yours a few hours ago. I’m coming to stay! I got offered for a temporary scholarship at your school by Mr Reed before he left ...”

“Not Mr Reed...” I groaned, remembering the retired Potions teacher who had left David’s private school in New York to teach the Potions module here at SOS, and had seen the picture of David and I back when we were ten tacked on the inside of my locker door. He’d been doing his last week at David’s school during his first week at SOS.

“... and he said he knew a perfect place for me to do a swap and said he knew you, and he’d do it for a favour and something about my special abilities being helpful there!” David finished excitedly. “Cool, right?”

Special abilities? And what was Mr Reed thinking, sending a mortal to a supernatural school?! Unless David was supernatural?

Impossible. Stupid to think it. David would have been immediately sent to SOS. Mr Reed was senile- everything he knew was forgotten, except [unfortunately, or so I’d heard] his potion teaching skills. Stupid old dwarf was trying to be helpful.

“Ray?”

“What? Oh, right, yeah.” I suddenly realized David was waiting for a reply. “That’s, uh, really cool.”

“You don’t sound excited.” David said dubiously.

“No, no, I am.” And I wasn’t lying. Seeing David in the flesh for the first time in four years would be amazing. “It’s just... well, my school’s a little...” I thought back to my run in with Natalia earlier that day. “... boring.”

“Well, we’ll spice things up.” David told me, instantly making me smile. Though it was more of a grimace. “I have to go now, but I’ll email you later, okay?”

“Sure... text me if you want, I might go out.” This was news to me, but hey, David didn’t need to know that. I didn’t want him to think I’d become a complete loser and staying in while he had sex with his cheerleader, micro-mini-skirt wearing, peroxide headed, spit-faced...

It occurred to me that I hadn’t even thought of Natalia in that way. Wow. In case you didn’t get it though, I was describing Melanie.

“Ooh.” David said in a high, teasing voice. “Date?”

I scoffed.

“Sure. I’m meeting up with a vampire.” I stopped, shocked at my own idea... Dean! Why didn’t I go and see Dean? Sure, we weren’t exactly best friends... or friends... or even talking... and we did try to rip each other’s throats out earlier- but still! Mom and Dad had left me alone, but I had exiled myself to my bedroom, and it’d be nice to get out of the house. Plus,
riling Dean up was kind of fun.

“Haha, very funny.” David said drily. “Melanie’s a banshee too, didn’t you know?”

I wished. However, I was ridiculously pleased at David’s statement. Despite David laughing and apologizing to Melanie afterwards.

“But of course.” I murmured, rolling my eyes. “Look, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye Sunshine.”

“Bye, Pirate.”

IN REFERENCE TO THE NICKNAMES: Sunshine because everyone called me A Little Ray of Sunshine [hence the MSN name] and David knew it got on my nerves and Pirate because I had once said David reminded me of Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean [in my defence, I was saying it about David in a pirate suit on Halloween and teasing him about his hygiene] and it pissed him off too. And it was payback for getting anyone who didn’t call me Ray to call me it.

I hung up and went back to my computer, which proudly showed a picture of Slutanie and David as his new picture and that David was offline.

On the upside, his Twitter had been updated and said:

Can’t wait to go visit Ray after all this time! =] So buzzed. Hanging out with Melanie.

Mixed bag, but bearable.

I grimaced at the “hanging out” bit. We all knew what was going to hang out. Stupid Slutanie [the new cruel nickname until further notice. Any suggestions?].

I sat down on my bed for a moment, contemplating what to do next, as I refreshed my Twitter
page. Inspiration struck.

“Got it.” I said to myself, a slow grin spreading on my face.

Then I got up, grabbed my khaki jacket off my chair and left before I could change my mind.