Deathchill 3 A Bittersweet Surprise

I was never really the kind of person for sleepovers. It doesn't matter how long I've known them. I always feel just a little uncomfortable, but I don't want to tell them that or else they'll feel bad and stop having them with me. I look over and I see Shi with his b.u.t.t up in the air and head twisted a hundred degrees sleeping soundly, somehow. I see Hakai and she's curled up in a little ball, I don't know if she's breathing or not but I'm sure she's fine. Samuel was sleeping so elegantly I think he was dreaming about being a dancer or something because he's jazz handing in his sleep. I look over into the corner and I see Lukas, bunching up into a ball, hiding under his covers, he makes it so obvious that we only met him yesterday.

I go into my bathroom, brush my teeth and wash my face, then I brush my hair and go downstairs, Des and Troy are already up.

"Goodmorning, little sis'," they both say in unison.

"Goodmorning," I say as I start making myself some tea and prepare breakfast for everyone.

"What are you planning on making?" Troy asks me, with his head cupped in his hands.

"Eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast and fruit," I say as I open the fridge door, for some of the supplies.

Silly string sprays all over me, I look over at Des and Troy and they're both just sitting there with those pesky smiles all over their faces, "You guys are definitely my brothers," I say, chucking silly string at them.

"We'll get started, you go clean up," Troy says to me as he takes the pan out of the cupboard.

"Thanks guys," I say heading upstairs. Cla.s.sic destroy, why am I even thanking them?

I make my way back up to my room and I see that my bathroom door is locked, I start to look around and notice that Lukas is no longer in his little corner. Good to see that he's awake, I'll just use the guest bathroom.

I finish getting ready and I head back up to my room to see if Lukas is done yet, he's just putting the pillow and blanket back on my bed and starts making my bed, "Goodmorning," he whispers, noticing me. "I just felt like cleaning up a bit, sorry if I'm bothering you,"

"Don't worry it isn't, breakfast should be ready soon, when you're done," I whisper back.

All of a sudden everyone wakes up, it's gonna be really funny when Lukas becomes like this and starts looking at himself in horror because of it.

"Breakfast," everyone yells and runs downstairs.

"I clean all of this up first," Lukas says, standing in the middle of the sleepover battle field and smiling.

"I'll save you a plate," I say walking out.

"Thank you," he yells into the hall.

I make it downstairs and see everyone chilling on the couch, watching cartoons and talking with Des and Troy. What happened to getting started on breakfast while I was getting ready? I only took three minutes.

"Hey, Lexus, sorry, we didn't feel like cooking," Troy says to me.

"It's fine," I shrug and start cooking.

Everyones so full of energy so early in the morning, they're watching the original Pokemon. I can hear Lukas upstairs still cleaning up, every few minutes I'd hear something fall or a bang followed by a sigh so annoyed it could make a baby feel bad. It's either everyone on the couch doesn't hear it or doesn't think they should act on it, after all they all know what's going on.

"Hey, Lexus, I'm finally done," Lukas says lazily walking down the stairs and takes a seat next to the counter.

"It sure sounded like you were having fun up there," I looked up at him with a laugh.

"Hey, Lukas come join us," Shi looks over waving his hand at him.

"Breakfast will be ready soon," I rea.s.sure him. He takes a seat with the rest of the wild animals on the couch and I get to work on chopping the fruit and popping the toast in the toaster. Strawberrys, bananas, kiwis, pineapples, and apples. The bacon, eggs and toast are done, meanwhile the hash browns are almost done. I look over and everyone is quoting the characters and Pokemon, except for Shi he's lost in a gaze and smiling at me.

"Can I help," he asks, noticing that I'm almost done.

"Sure," I say, watching him teleport beside me, grab plates and utensils set them out.

"What would everyone like to drink?" He yells to everyone lounging on the couch.

"Water," Lukas says.

"Milk," Hakai adds.

"Orange juice," Des says.

"Apple juice," Troys responds.

"Surprise me," Samuel says, paying very little attention to who asked the question.

"I'll have tea and you already have a drink, I'll get to work on everyone's drinks," I said with a mischievous smirk. Samuel shouldn't have said surprise me.

The hash browns are done and everything is plated, I look over and Shi finished making everyone's drinks. Now he is working on Samuel's, I see several different foods surrounding his gla.s.s, tomatoes, citric acid, carrots, salt, pepper, raw egg, spinach, kale, high fiber cereal, bacon bits, grease, and much more. Sometimes I think Shi forgets that Samuel is a human, he mixes it all together, it makes a brownish gray colour and it has several layers. He sets the drink next to Samuel's plate as everyone is coming up to eat, the sheer fear in Samuels eyes as he remembers what he said, and he knows that he has to drink it.

"Please no," Samuel says, with complete horror in his eyes.

"You should've paid attention," Shi says, with a devilish smirk.

We all sit down and start eating, I can tell that Samuel is saving his drink, and his life, until he's finished eating. Samuel normally likes eating after every three bites, I can see the anger, turning into pure fire in his eyes.

We finished eating and now everyone is just staring at Samuel, Shi seems the most happy about this. He's just sitting there with his head in his hands and smiling, just waiting for Samuel to poison himself.

"Come on, you wouldn't want to waste it, drink up," Shi speaks up, impatient yet amused.

"Shi, maybe we should cut him some slack," Hakai says, putting her hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

"No, you know the rules, we all had to drink these kinds of drinks, this isn't the first he drank something like this anyway," Shi yelled, pushing the gla.s.s closer to him.

Everyone else is just sitting there in fear for Samuel's life. Samuel grabs the gla.s.s and starts to drink it, plenty of different emotions start to fly through his face. Disgust, fear, joy, addiction, vomit, which I think he drank up, and all over again for about two minutes straight.

When he finished he slammed down the gla.s.s and walked to the center of the room, "Are you alright, Samuel?" Hakai says with worry in her voice.

All of a sudden his powers went wild, his take over powers were constantly switching between all of his monsters, he was screeching in pain, a blood curdling scream.

"Everyone get back!" Troy yells, pulling me back.

We were all sitting in the corner of the room, watching as Samuel held his hands to his head, tears rolling down his face, and screaming getting close to the point of breaking windows.

Five minutes pa.s.s and it's finally over, dust and smoke is clearing, slowly. As the smoke clears, a beast, a monster, is in the center of my living room, none of the forms that Samuel owns. Shi and Hakai stand in front of us, becoming Shi Sos.h.i.te Hakai, are they actually going to fight that thing?

The beast is about ten feet tall, with long black hair all around it, mud and something red dripping down it. Was it blood? What kind of monster was that? Where did it come from? It's eyes were pure black and glowing, it wore a gold crown, it's ears were about a meter long and it's claws ten times that. It had fangs covered in blood, who did it kill? The beast turns to us and starts looking around, and sees us sitting in the corner with fear on our faces. Shi Sos.h.i.te Hakai are ready to attack just waiting for it to throw the first punch. The monster looks at its hands and runs to a mirror, touching its face, and poking his teeth.

"Yep, that's Samuel," Des says, with laughter in his voice. "That drink must've given him a new monster soul, but where did it come from?"

"I don't know, I never fought anything like that," Shi says, turning back to normal.

I walk up to Samuel and slap my hand on his shoulder, "Let's get you back to normal, school is starting soon."

"Shi, get our parents, Hakai get Samuel's parents," Troy commands.

They disappear and I look over and notice Lukas is just sitting in the corner, shaking. I walk over to talk to him, "Is everything okay?"

"Is this normal for you guys?" Lukas asks, not even looking up at me.

"Not the whole monster thing," I respond, rea.s.suringly.

"Okay, I think I need to sit down," Lukas says, standing up and wobbling from side to side to the counter top chairs.

I just smile and shake my head at him and walk over to Des, "Ready for school?"

"Just a casual morning, of course I'm ready," Des says, leaning on my head.

Shi makes it back with my parents, Hakai shows up empty handed.

"They were too busy, they told us to speak with our teachers and the princ.i.p.al about it," Hakai says, out of breath.

"Where's Samuel?" My dad, Richard Deathchill, asks looking around.

We look over and see Samuel, still in beast form, putting on make-up and crying.

"Looks like he got a new monster soul, nice job," Richard says, giving him a thumbs up.

"He can't get out of it," Troy says, turning to him.

"You guys get to school and speak with your teachers about it," My mother Mercedes Deathchill said, grabbing our bags, and turns to Samuel. "You're most likely gonna have to wear the power cancelling jewelry."

"Come on Lukas, let's go," I say, turning to him. My parents just take one look at him and start to laugh, most likely because he's new to our friend group and isn't used to this stuff.

We get to school a few hours early to try and get this done as soon as possible, we go straight to the princ.i.p.al's office and explain what's going on and he calls our teachers in.

"So, Samuel got a new monster soul huh?" Mr. Stern says with a little chuckle. "And it had to be this weird furry, b.l.o.o.d.y thing?"

"Mrs. Jerper, you study this kind of thing, what monster is this?" Mrs. Diamonship asked.

"It's a Sholo, a carnivorous monster, native to swamp lands and snowy mountains. It only eats humans and has been extinct for over five thousand years, it can increase your strength," Mrs. Jerper exclaimed, "It can also summon its own offspring and collect souls."

"Well, Mr. Stern, your lesson today will be on how to control your powers, and Mrs. Jerper, yours will be on the history of monsters," Mr. Diamondship ordered.

"So we have to wait until gym to learn how to control our powers?" Hakai yelled.

"Yes, and don't forget the ranks are being announced today," Mr. Diamondship reminds us, "Now, get out of my office!"

We exit into the hallway and I see Anne waiting outside, she most likely already read my mind and was caught up on everything.

"Is Samuel okay?" She asks, pulling me into a hug. I'm happy that we're still friends, I'm happy that she's happy.

"Yeah and today's cla.s.ses were switched," I responded hugging her tighter.

"We have to go back to work now, see you guys at dinner," Mercedes said as she and Richard waved us goodbye.

"Group hug!" Hakai yelled, when she noticed Anne. Samuel even brings us in for a hug most likely forgetting that he's a giant Sholo. We all break into laughter and Lukas is a little distraught by all the mud, fur and… blood. Seriously where did all that blood come from? Where did this monster's soul even come from?

"Let's head to the field and get a headstart on trying to figure this out," Shi said, breaking the hug.

"We'll head to the library and do some more research on the Sholo," Troy says, as him and Des walk away. "We'll contact you if we find something."

"Okay, good luck," Anne yells back to them.

We make it to the field and we have about an hour to fix this as much as we can, "Alright, everyone, circle around Samuel, get ready to attack," Anne said, pointing us to our positions.

"What's the plan?" Hakai asks, taking Shi's hand. At this point Samuel is terrified.

"Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you, we're just going to test out your strength," Anne rea.s.sures him. Samuel gets into a blocking position and we get ready to attack.

All of a sudden a tiny flying thing starts to fly around us, "It's Troy's kinit, everyone stop!" Anne yells. A kinit is a flying communication device that can find anyone that the person wants to talk to, some of them have holograms, others only have vocals. Des and Troy's have the holograms but mine only has the voice. The kinit lands on the ground and Troy's hologram appears, "We've found some new information on the Sholo," Troy says, with the most stern face I've ever seen him wear.

"Yes, it is true that they have been extinct for millennia, but their souls can still be found, if they choose that you are worthy of controlling them. Samuel must have been chosen and because of that drink the monster must've come out in order to protect him."

"So how are we supposed to get him back to normal?" Lukas asked, finally speaking up.

"I'm guessing that he'll finally have control again once that drink is finally out of his system," Troy responded.

"Can you please give me that book next time I see you," Hakai asked.

"Sure, see you guys later," Troy finished.

"Bye," everyone answered.

We all turn to Samuel where he's doing a little happy dance, "Well seems we gotta give him fiber and make him run," Lukas says, different all of a sudden, "We got fifty minutes, Shi and Hakai get as much fiber rich foods as you can, Anne get us lots of water, and Samuel, run."

"What about me?" I asked him.

"Make him cold," Lukas responded.

All of a sudden Samuel seems a lot less happy.

"Go, go, go!" Lukas yells.

Shi and Hakai teleport away, Lukas is yelling at Samuel to run, Anne is running to get lots of water, and I'm basically making this area skip fall and go straight to winter. I don't even know why Lukas told Anne to get water since he can summon and control it himself, he probably forgot about his powers because of everything that has just happened.

After a few minutes Shi and Hakai teleport back with fruits, vegetables and high fiber cereals, Anne makes it back with several gallons of water and Lukas is now steering Samuel towards us so he can eat. He stops right in front of me, if I could understand what he was saying I would probably try to help him, but I can't and Anne is the only one that can understand and help him.

"I'm sorry but this is for your own good," Anne says, pulling Samuel in for a hug.

"On the bright side this might be one of your strongest forms," I say with a laugh.

Samuel just gives me a death stare and then shrugs in agreement.

"Give him the fiber and water, Lexus make him cold the whole time," Lukas demanded.

"Got it," we all say in unison.

Shi and Hakai start shoving the food down Samuel's ma.s.sive, b.l.o.o.d.y throat, Anne was pouring water down every three bites and Lukas was controlling the water so then the digestion process will go much more quickly. Meanwhile I was just standing there making him feel cold, my part isn't that much of a big deal, it probably wouldn't change anything if I was or wasn't here. Anne looks over at me again and stops what she's doing, when everyone else notices her staring at me they stop, automatically knowing that I was thinking down on myself again.

"Group hug!" Anne yells, pulling me in and whispers in my ear, "For now on everytime you think badly about yourself we get to punch you."

I put on a fake smile and empty all of the thoughts in my head so she doesn't know what I'm actually thinking, "deal." Samuel is hugging us as well, normally when Samuel does do a take over a little bit of the monster's personality is still there, so it's either these monsters really loved hugs or it supports Samuel so much that it doesn't want to change anything for him.

"We've got five minutes left, Shi, Hakai, help," Lukas says.

"Six people to grade nine sector cla.s.sroom, all aboard," Shi says, teleporting us away.

We make it to the cla.s.sroom and Lukas turns to Samuel, "By the way, in about one hour you'll be living on the toilet, but the good news is, you'll be able to go back to your normal form again."

Samuel starts crying and we take our seats.

The bell rings and the teacher greets us, "Good morning everybody, how is everyone today?"

A mixture of responses erupts from the crowd, good, bad, middle, silly, dark, terrifying, creepy.

"Awh that's no good, well I'm going to tell you guys what we're going to do today before the ranks are announced," Mrs. Jerper says, pointing to the humongous board in the front of the cla.s.sroom. "Today we'll be learning about different beasts."

Without missing a beat the announcements start, "Good morning everyone, today is September 7th/ 6078 and I'll be announcing the ranks from first to last."

Here we go, "In first place, Darren Mungsion, second, Daria Mungsion, third, Rachael Zap." Nothing new there.

"Fifth, Brix Stix," Isn't that the creep that can see into the future?

"Tenth, Apollo Ares." d.a.m.n an eighth grader so far up in the ranks, good for him, he deserves a celebration.

"Seventeenth, Olivia Time." Good for her, but she's still one of Rebexca's little puppies. "Sixty Eighth, Rebexca Diamondship," I bet she's staring and laughing at me from a whole different sector.

"Ninety ninth, Des Deathchill." There's one of my brothers. It's a little sad that they are separated, but I'm sure that they'll be together soon enough.

"101th, Troy Deathchill," They're probably hugging and crying in each other's arms right now.

"143rd, Stephen Stormcry," He's pretty cool, the Stormcry family are pretty generous people.

"156th, Lexus Deathchill," that's me, everyone around me starts clapping, and smacking me on my shoulders in celebration.

"157th, Lukas Blue," I turn to him and give him a fist b.u.mp.

"176th, Hakai Shinit," the boys in the cla.s.sroom start cat calling her, Lukas douces them in water and I give them frostbite.

"321st, Francisco Mirror," there's one of my brothers friends.

"555th, Patrick Stormcry," I am so happy that this is going much faster compared to the first day of school.

"600th, Griffin Vixin," I can hear Samuel's smile grow, I really shouldn't be able to do that. "666th, Shi Hakait.i.t," I look over and Shi is doing his 'I'm better than you dance.

"677th, Blaze Ruffalo," I wonder how his cla.s.smates are responding to that rank right now.

"678th, Samuel Starsprinkle," right when his name is announced his body finally digests all of that fiber and he runs to the bathroom. Shi teleports up to Mrs. Jerper and whispers in her ear, most likely telling her why he ran out, she nods and Shi teleports back to his seat.

"679th, Storm Ruffalo," all of the guys in the cla.s.s start chanting and smacking his back. "1,111th, Zing Hunter," poor guy, since he's a lower rank than Rebexca she will definitely break up with him any second now. Samuel comes back into the cla.s.sroom and takes a seat. He's still in the Sholo form, I wonder if he broke any toilets while he was in the bathroom. The second he takes a seat he changes back to normal, we'll be able to know if he can still access it once gym starts.

"45,682nd, James Aubrey," Just another person closer to Anne's horrible rank being announced.

"99,999th, Rodrigo Lopes," He was so close to 100,000th.

"100,000th, Bryan Pino," of course, frankly I'm surprised that Bryan got so high.

"100,976, Stephany Diamondship," that girl is getting punished really badly tonight. Her parents are way too strict on her, she's just a child. If they continue treating her like this then she will end up just like her big sister, Rebexca, and n.o.body that has to deal with her wants that to happen.

"Finally last and to very few not least in 200,976th, Anne Aubrey! Those are the rankings and the team rankings will start on Monday next week, have a great day everybody!" Mr. Diamondship finally finishes the announcements. The whole room goes silent, you can hear laughter coming from the other sectors. Everyone stops and looks at Anne, some faces look like they're ready to break into laughter as well, some completely blank, others with a look of concern and a hint of menace.

"Are you going to be okay, Anne?" I ask her.

"I'll be fine, my rank will only matter in testing and challenges," Anne says, not breaking eye contact with the teacher.

The others are completely struck with shock, Lukas turns to me and asks, "Is that why she was upset yesterday?" Anne just looks at him and nods.

"We don't care what your rank is, we know you for the amazing person that you are," Shi and Hakai both say in unison.

"That was kind of creepy, but group hug!" Samuel yells. We all bring Anne into a little group hug and a few people from outside our group of friends join us. Bryan Pino, Storm Ruffalo, but the rest I don't know, although we probably have a good two hundred people hugging us. I look around and the people who look like they were going to break into laughter before are smiling now, most likely Bryan's doing.

"Alright cla.s.s, take your seats," Mrs. Jerper interrupts.

We break the hug and go to take our seats, "As I was saying today I will be teaching you guys on different kinds of monsters. This will be the most helpful for the people who use takeover magic, but it's a requirement for everyone to know for their own safety in case of an encounter with one of these monsters," she continues. All of the takeover magic users start to cheer and celebrate.

Mrs. Jerper shows a black and white picture of a Sholo, "This is a Sholo, a carnivorous monster, native to swamp lands and snowy mountains. It only eats humans and has been extinct for over five thousand years. It's average height is 10 feet tall, it is covered in fur, mud and blood. It's claws and fangs tend to be bigger than the tallest human on the majority of surrounding planets."

Bryan looks at the picture and then points at Samuel, "Isn't that what he was about an hour ago?"

"Yes it is, he has been chosen to be able to wield this monster," Mrs. Jerper responded.

"W-w-w-w-wait, if the monster has been extinct for over five thousand years, how did he get it's soul?" Bryan asked, with a weird voice for some reason.

"They went extinct because humans attack what they fear, and they feared nature, that's why there's more herbivores than carnivores or even omnivores," Mrs. Jerper responded, picking up some weird device. "This is a Pirew, it was solely designed to kill Sholos."

"So did magic users make that or non-magic users?" Stephen Stormcry asked.

"Magic users made it after a few baby Sholos found their way to civilization and started gnawing on a few babies," Mrs. Jerper responded. "We could've just hunted them down ourselves since we have powers, but we can't use magic around non-magic users out of the chance of getting spotted. So we created the Pirew, you point it at someone and it enhances their scent, lewering the Sholo towards them, that way we can take them somewhere private and if you press this b.u.t.ton," Mrs. Jerper said pointing at the bottom of the stick looking device. "It will weaken the monster and kill it where it's soul will be stored here," she said pointing at eight long see through tubes on the side of the lightsaber looking device. "We would then give the souls to the takeover magic users in the military, but even then they wouldn't be able to use that soul unless it was a life or death situation."

"So how did Samuel get it's soul?" Bryan asked, pointing at Samuel with his thumb.

"One night a Winkap, I tell you guys what that monster is next, wandered into a laboratory where we were keeping the souls and ended up breaking everything, setting all the souls free, latching onto everything, even babies. We tried to retain the souls but after ten minutes of them being free they became invisible, so we can't," Mrs. Jerper exclaimed. "Also there's Sholo souls pretty much everywhere, they're kind of like oxygen now."

"If you guys have any more questions you can ask me after cla.s.s," Mrs. Jerper continued.

Mrs. Jerper pressed a b.u.t.ton on her remote and the slide changed,"This is a Winkap, a magicvorours monster, native to areas with large amounts of magic. It eats magic power out of the air and when angered it can even eat your own magic power, when it's a baby it eats it's parents magic power, female Winkaps have more magical power than the males, it is one of three monsters that aren't endangered. It's average height is 3 feet tall, it can reach a maximum height of 5 feet tall and a minimum of 5 inches tall. It looks like a rat but has glowing stripes on its body and it's eyes glow in the colours of it's mood."

No one responds so Mrs. Jerper moves on to the next monster, "This is a Juoipi, a herbivorous monster, native to gra.s.slands and around large populations of people. It only eats weeds and flowers and is the only one of three monsters who are not endangered. It's average height is 7 feet tall, it can reach a maximum height of 12 feet tall and a minimum of 2 feet tall. Depending on where it's from it can either be covered in gra.s.s, dirt and trees or metal, t.i.tanium and plastic. It's eyes tend to be bigger than their mouths and tend to love everything."

Everyone starts to break into laughter, "Who here has at least one of the three monsters that Mrs. Jerper just named?" Mr. Stern asked, bursting through the door.

About forty kids raise their hands including Samuel, "I have all three so far," Samuel yells.

Mr. Stern does a little chuckle, "And you're the only one that can say that because of the Sholo soul."

"What are you doing here?" Mrs. Jerper asks, turning to Mr. Stern.

"I'm here to take the takeover magic users and Samuels friends to train," Mr. Stern says, signaling to us to follow him.

"Why us?" Lukas whispers to me.

Shi and Hakai teleport everyone to the training field, "Is this everyone?" Shi asks.

"Yes it is," Mr. Stern responds with a nod. "Alright, everyone line up over there, except for Samuel, try to change into the Sholo soul again."

We all line up in front of the bleachers and Samuel steps up to the center of the field which is probably about twenty kilometers away from the side lines.

"Lexus, use your death power on him," Mr. Stern said, turning to me.

"What why?" All of us respond, except for the other random takeover magic users who are still clueless.

"Fine give him one try then use your power on him," Mr. Stern says with a sigh.

"That still doesn't answer my question," I say.

"I think it's because he wants you to weaken him with it that way the Sholo soul will try to protect him," Lukas says putting his hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me, it's not really working.

"You're asking me to weaken him with my death power, I use death not weakening!" I start yelling at him and his stupidity.

"Fine then weaken him with your fire or cold powers," Mr. Stern says pointing at Samuel. "You get one try, then I'm speeding things up."

Samuel nods at him then looks at me and gets in a stance to prepare to change, "Takeover, Sholo soul," Samuel yells. He gets it on the first try, that Sholo must really like him, I wonder what's about him that separates him from the rest.

"Bravo, Samuel," Mr. Stern says, clapping along with everyone else. "Now everyone else, use your most powerful monsters and try to fight Samuel one on one."

Samuel looks ready, this must be part of the Sholo soul, I wouldn't be surprised if they become best friends. Everyone changes into their beast forms, and lines up one by one, some furry beats other muddy beasts. The boy in front of the line introduces his monster soul, "takeover, Atkinji soul."

The boy starts attacking so quickly I couldn't get a good look at the beast's appearance, he tries to knock him down, and stops in his tracks the second he runs into Samuel. Now that things have slowed down I finally got a good look at the soul, it looked a lot like a healthy farm hog and had red stripes in the same pattern as a zebras stripes. I think that the boy got knocked out or something because he wasn't moving, Samuel was just scratching his head and poking at him, of course because of it's long nails the poor boy started to bleed.

"The Sholo form enhances strength, speed, balance and protection," Mr. Stern says writing something down on his clipboard.

Shi teleports the boy out of the way and a girl walks up, "Zingope," she transforms into a one foot tall bird, silent, fast and can fly. She swoops down to try to pick up Samuel, but instantly fails. So next she flies straight into him and tries to pierce his skin, her beak almost broke, she flies to the back of the line and changes her form back into human.

"Wait, why didn't she have to say takeover and then it's soul?" One person in the line asked.

"Once you guys improve your skills more eventually you guys won't have to say anything in order to change forms," Mr. Stern answered.

Another girl walks up except this girl looks more muscular, with much more broad shoulders, she's built like a man but still clearly a girl, I would hate to get in a hand on hand fight with her. "Takeover, lioness soul," everyone else starts laughing, probably because she didn't use any magical animals.

The girl starts running laps around him and attacks from behind, piercing his skin, fur, blood and mud getting all over the lioness. Samuel let's out a yelp and swings at the lioness sending it flying, did it actually hurt Samuel? How? So far nothing has hurt him, the girls teeth didn't even break.

The lioness almost flies into a pole until Hakai teleports her back onto the bleachers, possibly saving her life.

"Alright, everyone, times up now you guys are going to practice how to take over without saying anything," Mr. Stern said, checking if the girls are still conscious. She probably has some trauma from almost dying.

"I agree," Anne says to me. I would say that I don't like it when she reads my mind but I have nothing to hide from her. Something that Anne and I like to do is go somewhere public with non-magic users and just talk using her powers. So we'd go to a cafe or something and I would be asking yes and no questions and Anne would read my mind and answer accordingly. I just love how everyone would stare at us in awh and some would think that we are crazy, Anne just laughs and gives me a little side hug.

Everyone spreads out and starts to practice using their takeover magic with saying as little as possible. I think that it's a good idea, because if anything bad happens then they can change without bringing any sort of attention to them.

"Takeover over, you may go now," Samuel says, switching back to his normal form.

"Hey, Mr. Stern, what does our schedule look like today?" Lukas asks, turning to Mr. Stern.

"We've already called into the school in the human world, you guys will be late to cla.s.s, so until then you guys will be helping Samuel train," Mr. Stern explained.

"So no lunch?" Shi asked.

"Sorry, no," Mr. Stern apologized.

"Well what's the goal?" Hakai asked, staring at everyone switching in and out of their forms.

"Just to get as far as possible, you guys are only going to be like thirty minutes late," Mr. Stern answered, joining her in watching them.

"Alright, Samuel, time to get to work," Anne says, pushing him to an empty area of the field.

"Go with something small, like your first monster that was either given to you or earned," Mr. Stern suggests, not even looking back at us.

"Alright," Samuel responds.

"Takeover, Zingope soul," Samuel says, gliding to the ground and changing back.

"Come on, you got this," Anne and Lukas say simultaneously.

"Zingope soul," Samuel yells, and his arms turn into tiny wings.

"Wait, let me take a picture!" Shi yells, grabbing his phone.

I can tell that Samuel is trying to smile but he just can't, at this moment it's physically impossible. Mainly because Samuel has a very faint beak at the moment so it is physically impossible.

"Got it," Shi says, putting his phone away.

"Send me it," Anne says as Samuel changes back.

"May I have some water," Samuel says, turning to Lukas.

"Sure man," Lukas says, summoning some water for Samuel.

Samuel starts drinking the water and about half of the people here have already figured out how to say less words. The girl that only had to say the name of the soul that she is using can already change without saying anything.

"Let's try this again," Samuel says, getting into position. "Zingope soul!" Samuel still has the wings except the beak is more defined and he's much smaller now.

"That is so ugly!" Hakai yells, looking at the mix of bird and Samuel.

"Photo shoot!" Shi yells, grabbing his phone.

Samuel quickly changes back but Shi has already taken about twenty pictures, "You shoot the photo an I shoot you in the head."

"Alright alright, lets just try this again you're almost there," Shi says slowly turning to Hakai, "Year book."

Samuel tries one more time, "Zingope soul!" We watch as he yells over the hundreds of voices all stopping and turning to face him. Complete silence broke out as we all watched Samuel change form, he succeeded. He was a perfect recreation of his old pet, Precious, the first soul that he has received. An applause broke out in the crowd and even a few cheers then everyone continued to work on themselves.

"I- I did it," Samuel said, in complete shock as he changed back.

"Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong," Lukas says, pointing his finger up with his eyes closed.

Samuel gives Lukas the finger and continues, "Zingope soul!"

Samuel changes perfectly again and he changes back and looks at Lukas, "Keep going," Lukas says to him. Samuel gives Lukas a dirty look and tries again.

Samuel has done the same thing over twenty times lunch is already over and we have about ten minutes until we have to go to our non-magic school. Samuel now only has to say the name of the soul in order to take over, he may be able to say nothing by the time gym starts.

"Okay guys grab your jewelry and go to school!" Mr. Stern yells, throwing jewelry at us.

"See you guys in a minute," Anne says putting on a ring.

"You just love messing up Fast And The Furious quotes, don't you?" Hakai says, putting on a necklace. Anne just smiles and disappears.

Everyone is almost gone, a few random people, Samuel and I are left, "I bet that you're excited to see Julian," Samuel says to me as he puts on his earrings.

I finish putting on my brooch, smile without saying anything and teleport to the school.

I appear about a block away from the school in an alleyway, makes sense, can't risk the non-magic users finding us out and starting a whole war. I leave the alleyway and notice that everyone is already here and they even have some Tim Hortons for me as well.

"Well it's about time," Lukas says, handing me a m.u.f.fin.

"Here, your favorite," Hakai says as she hands me an iced capp supreme vanilla.

"Thanks, by the way Samuel should be here any second now," I say, picking at my m.u.f.fin.

"We made sure to get sprinkles and extra whipped cream for him and his favorite red velvet cookie," Shi said, slapping my back as I was drinking my drink almost making me choke.

"Red velvet!" Samuel yells emerging from the alley. "Gimme, gimme gimme!"

"Come on, let's get to cla.s.s," Lukas says as he tosses him the drink and cookie.

"Cookie!" Samuel yells, doing a cookie monster impression.

Samuel downs the whole cookie in under a second, it may not be very big but it's still big enough to at least take three seconds to eat. We get to school and sign in within around forty minutes until we leave for gym cla.s.s, I wonder how Julian is doing.

"Ooh you love him," Anne says in a voice mocking me. How does she even know what I am thinking? Am I being that obvious?

"Love who?" Lukas asks, a little worried by the answer.

"Julian," Anne responds, still using that d.a.m.n voice.

"I do not!" I yell at her.

"You're wondering how he's doing right now," Anne says slowly backing off from the voice.

"Lexus, you know that we can't date non-magic users until they're approved by the council and you need at least ten references to even be considered," Shi says, with his little smart guy voice.

"Y- you don't actually like him though, right Lexus?" Lukas asks me, a little nervous.

"Of course not," I respond.

"She totally does," Anne says, with leaving even a second of silence between us.

"Shi, aren't you a little hurt?" Hakai whispered to him.

"Unlike Lukas, I'm actually able to hide how I'm truly feeling," Shi whispered even quieter so we wouldn't hear them. I still could though and Anne can read their minds.

This whole time Samuel was drinking his drink and skipping to cla.s.s, somehow not responding to what was happening.

Julian came out of nowhere and put his arm around me, "So you have a crush on me huh?"