New: The Fluke

THIS WAS BORING AS HELL. Half an hour before class would end. Just thirty more minutes and then I could get back to the things I liked to do.
Thirty more minutes and I could get back to water. Not that anyone cared. But I cared and that was what mattered, right? Right.
I flicked the pen between my fingers, trying to concentrate even a little on the teacher's lecture. That wasn't working so well. I could feel the water in the ink, the way it turned and flowed in the plastic casing surrounding it. I knew that with a little push, with just a little help—my help—it could break out of that casing. It could be free just like I wanted to be.
"Mr. Hallowe," Molly—the beautiful, albeit old, blind vampire who taught all the Runes classes—called, snapping me out of my trance. "I don't mind if you don't take notes in my class, but at least pay attention."
My brows rose fractionally. "I'm sorry, Molly. I'm just rather bored, it seems."
Her red lips quirked in a slight smile, sarcastic and dry. Her white, milky eyes stared at me and I felt as though she could see my soul. "I can see that. I would give you extra work to cure your boredom, but you are wanted in the hall." She turned on her heel and sauntered back to the front of class. It was hard to believe she couldn't see with the way she moved.
Slightly curious, I stood and walked out the door, hoping this would at least pique my interest. The door hit me in my rump, sending me forward when I had stopped in surprise.
"Oh, hell," I swore, shoving my hands into my pockets and not trying to hide my irritation.
What the bloody hell were the Council's lackeys doing here? What did they want with me? I didn't recall doing anything awful. Not lately anyway. And definitely not since that girl—that Pheobe got appointed as Student Council President. It had only been a couple weeks, maybe a month, but everything had changed. Vampires and wolves actually talked to each other now. Ugh, and the Halves were actually thinking they were equals now. Like they could actually compare to those of us who were pure blood.
But these guys were pixies. They were okay with everyone, so everyone was okay with them. I certainly didn't mind them, but that didn't mean I went out of my way to talk to them. I certainly hadn’t gone out of my way to talk to these two particular seed-eaters.
"Are you Basil Hallowe?" the one I knew to be Cade asked. His bright-green pants were slightly blinding in the lighting of the hallway. It also didn’t help that he and his companion were surrounded by a cloud of obnoxious glitter.
"Depends," I said noncommittally. The snow beyond the windows behind them was distracting. All the water out there. I wanted to ball it up. Or sit in it. Something. Holy blood, I needed something.
Jade—a really famous pixie who'd run for SCP and lost horribly, if memory served—reached out a hand. "We're here to-"
Without even thinking, I backed away. I hated being touched as much as I hated the desert, and I was unable to stop the water from splashing into Jade's smiling and unsuspecting face. Oops. Where in hell had that come from?
"Hey!" Cade admonished. "That was uncalled for!"
Before I could so much as tell them it wasn’t necessarily my fault and that sometimes it just happened, they reached out and grabbed each of my arms and started dragging me down the hall.
"Just what's the big idea?!" I exclaimed, struggling. Their fingers tightened on my biceps and, though I was vampire, I had nothing on two pureblood pixies. Damn, they were strong. "Let me go!"
"Shut up and come with us," Cade ordered, obviously upset. "It's important."
Insulted, my mouth snapped shut, but I didn't make it easy for them. They dragged me along, and I dragged my feet. It was easy enough to make it difficult for them to pull me along and, by the time we got to the Student Council room on the second floor, they were pretty tired and so was I. I didn't like physical exercise. Or work. Work was annoying. And continuously trying to pelt them with water balls was as tiring as it sounds. Jade hadn't even bothered to dodge, but Cade had been ducking and batting the whole way and it had caused a lot of unruly problems—such as balance and time. Things that mattered.
Cade knocked on the door and, when it was opened, pushed his way inside, dragging me along with him. He flicked his messy hair out of his pretty-boy face and pointed at me. "This jerk," he said, pulling me forward in a rough manner, "is asking for it."
Jerk? That was damn rude. They were the ones who had grabbed me.
Scowling, I decided that the best thing would be to take in my surroundings. There was nothing else to do anyway. I had lost interest in whatever the hell was going on and it was obvious they weren’t going to let me go just yet.
The room was bright, surprisingly. The windows at the far end were heavily draped in a rusty-red, light from the half-moon filtering in to cast shadows on the black and white tiled floor in front of it. The walls of the room were weird-ish gold color, the molding white. There were two couches in front of the massive desk on the left, a coffee table in the middle and two more chairs in opposite corners of the room.
There were also people. Three very specific people.
One of them was Gunner, the Alpha of the wolves and bane of vampires everywhere. Between his spiky hair, raccoon tail (which I personally didn't understand), and tanned muscles, he was setting my fangs on edge.
The second person I knew to be Pheobe. She had opened the door and was now standing off the side. She looked upset, not that I cared. She was the personal bane of my existence. Ever since this short, black-haired with those two stupid strips of white, pixie-eared, large, green-eyed, little girl had gotten here, school had gotten boring as hell. Vampires weren't vampires anymore. They actually stooped to socialize with wolves and Halves. Damned lower species.
The last person in the room—the one that made me refrain from hissing at the other two—was Cornelius Shadow. Tall, dark and imposing, he was everything every vampire strove to be: Cold, stoic and very, very discriminating. He was perfect, or had been until Pheobe came along.
Pheobe turned to Jade, obviously ignoring the other pixie. "Jade, is that him?" She shook her head, obviously rethinking her question. "No, wait. First, explain to me why you're wet."
Having enough of being ignored and pushed around, I yanked my arm from Jade's grip and tugged my jacket straight, trying to save some dignity. "Would you please let me go now."
Pheobe sighed, rubbing the starburst scar on her forehead. Whatever day she was having, it obviously wasn’t a good one. "Cade. . ." she said irritably. "Did you explain why you were bringing him here?"
Cade froze and I smirked. Stupid bug. Looks like someone was in trouble. I couldn’t help the singsong satisfaction that filled me as that thought raced through my brain.
His assortment of earrings and chains jingled as he gave the SCP a sheepish grin. "Uh, oops. Sorry, Pheobe. It wasn't my fault, though." He pointed at me accusingly and I went back to scowling. "He started shooting water at us before we could even speak."
I sniffed indignantly. "It was a reflex." Stupid pansy. What was his problem? It’s not like I pelted him with rocks. "And it's just water."
Pheobe made her way back to her desk as Cade shot me a glare, as if it was my fault she was mad at him. She sat in the massive chair and wrote on some of the official-looking papers scattered about. "Have a seat, Basil," she told me formally. As I sat, sinking into the cushions, she leaned back in her chair. "Sorry about Cade and Jade," she apologized, seeming to actually mean it. And it was about time. "They were supposed to ask you here, not force you."
I crossed my arms, still ticked. I didn't like being treated like a lower being and I didn’t appreciate being dragged anywhere. "Well, they did force me." I crossed my legs, careful not to hit the coffee table. "You need to teach them some manners."
Cade's wings chirped. "I don't think pelting us with water for asking you to talk qualifies as proper etiquette, either."
I hissed at him irritably and opened my mouth to tell his to go suck a rose bed when Pheobe cut me off. "Alright," she snapped. "That's enough." She sat up and flipped through something. I thought I saw my name. "Look, I didn't call you here because you're in any kind of trouble, but what I have to tell you is important, so listen up."
I sat up straighter, uncrossing my arms, finally giving her my undivided attention. What in hell was this about? I was getting a bad feeling about everything that was going on. Bad feelings meant annoyance.
Pheobe looked me square in the eye and I forced myself to stop my nose from wrinkling. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you're going to transfer."
My insides froze then I smirked, positive they had the wrong person. "There must be some sort of mistake. There's nowhere you can transfer me to." I stood, ready to leave—ready to get to water. "Thanks for the joke. It was entertaining for all of five minutes."
I had just made it to the door, which Cade had so conveniently blocked, when Pheobe said something that made me stop. "Cravorne Academy for Witches."
I turned, my frozen hand still outstretched for the knob, confused. I couldn’t have heard right. There was no way. "Excuse me?"
She stood, her hands on the desk framing a manila folder that was open and topped with my name and picture. Dread filled me. "That's where you're being transferred." She pushed a file forward and my mouth went dry. "Cravorne. Your papers are already done. They'll expect you tomorrow evening. You leave this morning."
"Excuse me?" I repeated, panic starting to slip through my veins as my pulse hammered. "I'm not leaving to anywhere."
She sighed. "I'm afraid that's not your decision. Or mine. You were scouted."
"Scouted by what, exactly?" I demanded to know. "And what for?" There was nothing I could think of that could possibly qualify me for acceptance to the Academy, but instincts were telling me I wasn’t going to get out of this. That didn’t mean I had to go quietly.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Cade sneered. I was seriously not liking this pixie and he was lucky the air in here was particularly dry or I would have thrown another water ball at him.
"Um," Pheobe interjected, her eyes darting between us. Lucky for Cade. "W-What Cade means is that, it's obvious from your. . er, water control why you're being sent to the Academy. It was the last decision Roison made before she left."
"Are you kidding me!" I exclaimed and she flinched a little. "There's no way in hell I'm going to become a witch. I'm a vampire!"
"The correct term," Jade explained calmly, "is Fluke." He had taken off his wet jacket and his glasses and looked vastly differently with the curly hair he was now sporting. "A Fluke is like the halve form of a witch—not a pureblood; just an otherworlder with extreme magical power. They're rare, too. In fact, I think you're the first in nearly half a century."
"Good luck with being a freak," Cade smirked and if I had known any better, I would have sworn he was doing his best not to stick his tongue out at me. And I had a hard time not rolling my eyes.
"I'm not going to a new school," I told them, narrowing my eyes stubbornly. "No way in hell." I could feel water around me. Everywhere. I could feel it in the snow outside, in the air, in the paint. . . It was gathering. I was making it gather. I wanted it to gather, because I didn’t want to go anywhere else. I didn’t want to be with humans. I was a vampire! "I'm not going anywhere. Especially not to become some freak in a new school."
Before I could blink, a hand was around my neck and I was smashed into a wall. I couldn't feel the water anymore, the impact and shock of the attack had knocked the grip I had on water gone. His hand squeezed and my eyes shifted in and out of focus as I stared into the red eyes of Cornelius. A very angry Cornelius.
"Stop sniveling," he hissed and, although I was intensely afraid and quaking in front of the head of all vampires, the rest of my was trembling with pride that this was my king. "You're going whether you like it or not." He let go of me and I stumbled on my feet and I narrowed angry eyes on him. "Suck it up, Basil. Stop being a spineless leech and be a vampire."
I wrinkled my nose, insulted and slightly hurt as I rubbed my neck. I was not a spineless leech and I didn't like being told I was. I had the same amount of dignity as any other vampire. And no one liked being told they were less than what they were, especially not by the idol of all vampires.
"Fine," I agreed stiffly, sniffing as I straightened my jacket for the umpteenth time. It seemed there was no rationalizing with these people, so I would just have to speak with those in charge at the Academy and get them to see reason. "I will go pack my things."
"Guide will come and get you when it's time," Cornelius told me, looking down his nose at me, daring me to disobey. "You had best get some sleep in there somewhere."
I nodded then turned to the door Cade was blocking. I gave him my best glare, raising my chin. "If you'll excuse me, pixie, I have some loose ends I need to get to tying up."
He didn't look particularly angry anymore. Instead, he gave me such a sympathetic look that I wanted to throw up, but instead, I bit back an understanding sigh. "Uh. . Is there anything I can do to help?"
My brows rose in slight surprise, and a little bit of grudging respect reared its ugly head for the bug. "No, thank you. I can handle my affairs myself."
He moved aside and I left, storming off towards the dorms. I didn’t have much time, and I wasn’t exactly sure where to start, but I needed to start somewhere. Although, it seemed now, that the further I walked the angrier I became.
"Settle my affairs," I muttered as I started to ease back on my stomping. What affairs did I really have to settle? I didn't want to go to the hordes of girls that normally trailed after me and tell them I was leaving. No way in hell. They would start crying and begging and things would get annoying. Just no. It was better to leave quietly. No one would really miss me, anyway.
But, dammit all, I was really not looking forward to being the bloody "fluke", or whatever that entailed. I had seen what came from it. I didn’t want to experience first-hand what consequences came from being the “new”.