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mikalwrites · 2 years ago

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The Hidden Tribe: The Kids are Not Alright

How do I tell a well-structured story when my life is in absolute chaos?

That might sound a tad on the dramatic side but let’s be honest being a 17-year-old werewolf with hormones that fluctuate more than the moon phases, I have every right to be as dramatic. How rude of me not to introduce myself though, I am Jacobi Holt, a werewolf with a passion for getting into trouble that I shouldn’t be in. I live with 15 other foster kids, and yes we are all supernatural creatures and we are constantly on the run from many things, hunters looking for a quick kill, other supernatural creatures, bullies from the schools, and worst of all, CPS. Yes sometimes we do change our names and be homeschooled until we are laid low enough however it's hard to just live off in some remote area when constantly running. As much as books tell you how they do it, we aren't camp half-bloods and we aren’t Professor Xavier, home of the mutants. You may be wondering who the hell takes care of all these kids, two all-powerful creatures, Winston and Padora. Ignore their names sounding like they belong in a Tim Burton film; however, they are all powerful creatures who created supernatural creatures and a separation between us and the mortal realm. Let me not drown in so much information and get back to the main subject here, Me.

As I mentioned before, we move constantly and sometimes we do end up at actual schools, not all of us but the majority of us actually like going to school and interacting. Not me, I try my best to always be at home being homeschooled. However, Winston and Padora believe for me to become a regular civilian and not just a part man part dog creature that I am, they want me to attend high school for my senior year. They believe this school will be the school where I’ll actually make friends and be a well-rounded student. Now here we are driving to Northern California to a town called Maldetto with my two foster siblings arguing back and forth and a wet dog that smells like well you guessed it, wet dog, my foster father playing country music, and my iPod has died so I can’t drown anything out for the next 45 minutes. Can you tell I am excited?

“Winston, can you please change this godforsaken music?” Byron hollers from the back of the car. “Please change it, if I could I would hang myself right here right now.”

“My car does not have anywhere you can put your imaginary noose, Byron. So please just sit back and relax, we are almost there, you can bear it for a little longer.”

“How about us switching into another car Winston, cause every time Byron opens his mouth it smells like something died in his mouth.” Jessamine on the other side of Byron is rolling her eyes whilst petting the dog, Rufus. She starts fake gagging once Byron begins to retort back.

“The thing that died wasn't my mouth, it was my soul. Due to seeing your ugly ass for the last 10 hours.” Byron rolls his eyes and then the argument that I thought died back in Idaho ensues once again.

Winston looks over at me probably noticing that my iPod has finally died and smiles, “Are you excited for senior year?”

“As excited as I’ll ever be Winston.” I conjured up a smile, as real as I tried to make it, I can tell he could tell I was faking that smile. Before we can enter more into the conversation a shriek from the back shocks me back into reality.

“I’m going to kill Lana when I see her.” Jessamine puts her hands to her face and pulls them dramatically across her face. “I can’t believe we are watching her dog!”

“You said you’d watch it for her,” Winston states as he eyes Jessamine in the rearview mirror. “You know he gets airsick whenever she takes her flying carpet.”

“She didn’t have to bathe him before she got here though.” Byron sighs and pinches his nose, he dramatically rolls down the window.

“Now you found the source of the smell you mentioned earlier JJ.” I try my best to say it with a straight face and Byron goes and laughs directly in her face. She scoffs and pulls out her middle finger.

“I hate that nickname, and It’s still Byron’s nasty ass that smells.” She rolls her eyes and looks back to the window.

“Anyways ignoring you.” Byron puts his hand up to Jessamine who wasn’t going to entertain him anymore. “But speaking to you though.” He points to me and continues saying, “You aren’t a little excited for senior year. I mean let’s be really honest, new babes, me and you going to school together we haven’t done that since Maine. My fault about that I didn’t know you could make a Molotov cocktail in school.” He laughs uneasily when he realizes Winston looking at him sharply.

“I mean I am excited, but it’s just I don’t know. I haven’t been really well-liked.” I shrug my shoulders. “I always get into fights with people and I don’t even initiate or anything. It’s like I have a target on my back.”

“Well maybe don’t be so awkward. You have this attachment to that damn iPod of yours, you don’t even realize when you bump into people.” Jessamine breaks her two-second silence to give me her two cents.

“She does make a point. Don’t look at me like she does.” Jessamine doesn’t even try to retort back to Byron’s remark which I found more shocking. “You walked into two fights because of that thing, it’s not even an iPod touch it’s a regular iPod. Because Winston doesn’t believe in phones.” Byron leans in really close to Winston. Winston steps on the break sending Byron back into his seat.

“I’ve told you, phones and social media and that whole loud noise will get you caught up. With the Mystical High Courts, with people from the past, and worst of all Child Protective Services. Your mother put me in charge of you, Byron, this is the best way for her to see you.”

One thing I forgot to mention, most of us have parents who openly put us into Winston and Padora’s care. Unlike me, I was in the system until I blew up one of the group homes I was staying in. So he took me in without a second thought, I was only 7 at the time. Jessamine’s mother had given her up when she was 1 to Winston’s care and never came back again is what she says and Byron’s mother was reluctant to give Byron away but honestly it was hard for her to explain to babysitters not to let him be touched by water or his legs will turn into a mermaids tail. What Winston does exactly is make sure we go to school and get an education and stay out of trouble, just like any old parent. However, with his supernatural knowledge, he knows how to take care of us in ways most parents don’t, with his supernatural powers the government never really takes notice of the parents letting their kids go.

“Winston we get it but dang can we make a burner account and look at funny memes.” Byron puts his hands up in defense.

“No, I don't care who the memes are or how funny they are.” Winston's eyes were glued to the road now and I can see the words, Maldetto, glazed on a sign signaling us we have finally made it. The town was literally surrounded by tons of trees, and it looked like it was about to rain with all the rain clouds surrounding it.

“I’ll join basketball.” I finally say. “Maybe I’ll finally get a date with a girl.”

“Woah their big dawg, you're going to become a varsity player and a ladies' man overnight.” Jessamine is laughing, no she is cackling at the thought of this. Most of the other times when we lived in other towns I never really tried to date or do anything, just cruise through life under the radar.

“Maybe you should let Lana and Ava give you a makeover, they’d love that.” Byron shakes his head at this, “Like you need any fixing, you are pretty athletic and you aren’t bad looking, to be honest. Maybe they can help with your social skills.”

“What’s wrong with my social skills?” I believe I can talk to anybody really, I mean I can talk to anyone but it depends if I have anything cool or intriguing to say.

“That you severely don’t have any.” Jessamine flails her hands up in the air signaling that this was common knowledge.

“I have social skills.” I sink into the passenger seat a little bit more, I can feel Jessamines, Byrons, Winstons, and even Rufus's doggy eyes on me. “Okay, they aren’t the best but I think I’ll try. I mean what's the worst that can happen.”

“Attaboy! I think we finally reached the town and look I think there is the academy, it's the only school K-12.” Winston points and there were three buildings all right next to each other. You can see the football field with the stands so high you wonder how many people even went to those games. “We will be heading over there tomorrow, so you kids get a good night's sleep.”

“Who exactly is going to in-person school this time around Winston?” Byron shifted in his seat and perked up when Winston mentioned ‘we’. Winston and Padora have a system, they never let all of us enter a school at once, it’ll cause too many problems with each other and other students. So he switches up who enters the in-person school and who stays home and homeschools with Padora. Padora homeschooling was not your typical homeschooling, yes she follows all the things you have to get for regular students however she adds her own razzle dazzle to it. Lana prefers to have homeschooling only because she likes that Padora teaches them supernatural things, like the laurallilies, a magical lily flower that sings for you, or how to fly a dragon. Those things are fun and all however Padora being the teacher can be draining, even if she was one of the first-ever beings on this planet, she still acts like she is in her teens with her outbursts and her constant cycling of men that she dates who upset her and then she’ll make you read sad literature all day.

“Well from what Padora and I decided, Jacobi and Byron shall enter, and let’s hope it’s your last school for senior year, while Jessamine will be the only junior. Cassius is a sophomore and Lottie is a freshman.” Jessamine groans after hearing about Lottie joining us in high school. Lottie doesn’t seem to practically trouble me, however from Byrone’s and Jessamine’s words she is the literal embodiment of annoying. “Be nice Jessamine, she’s your sister. The LaRoux twins shall be 8th graders alongside Luis. Harper Luna will be in 2nd grade. I think that was what we agreed on. Oh don’t frown back there, I sense that this will be a different school year. It has been a while since we let so many of you attend together. It works out well due to the school being all in one building so you can all walk each other to school.” The last time we all attended a school was back when we lived in Georgia and when I tell you we barely lasted a month we barely lasted.

“Did the others volunteer that they aren’t going?” I finally asked. I turn my head to the window and realize the town isn’t so small after all, we pass by more schools and the police station. Which caused some anxiety to shiver down my back, a couple cops were sitting outside looking at us. I mean driving down in an old beat-up Cadillac, 2 Uhaul trucks, and a tiny yellow buggie car, you can only think, ‘Is the circus in town?’

“Don’t pay mind to them, they won’t do anything unless we cause trouble, which we won’t. To answer your question, Lana has finished her schooling so she won’t be attending Jasper as well, you know Ava hasn’t attended since Nebraska, and Renee has agreed to just stay home alongside Alden. Marcel and Agnes are not old enough yet. Casimir sadly lost the rock, paper, and scissors on who will go against Cassius.” Winston finally starts taking us down some houses and finally stops at the last house basically by the other end of the woods.

“Welcome home children.” It was early morning as I forgot to mention so we were the only ones out in the neighborhood. There stood the house, it looked different from all the other houses almost untouched and vacated. I mean yes that's how you wanted your house before you moved in but it looked so soulless and empty. However, it was beautiful and big, at around two stories, and looked like the backyard was connected with the woods. The front had the regular two-car garage and a small piece of lawn in front of the door.

We pulled up in front of the garage, and alongside us was the yellow buggie who was driven by my older scratch oldest sister Ava. She had on black shades and long black sleeves with grey yoga pants and some slippers. Her long midnight black hair was tied back in a low ponytail and she got out of the car and glanced over at me and gave me a small smile. Ava looked as modern as girls come, however, I do forget she is 150 years old. As you guessed it, Ava is a vampire and you may be wondering why she still lives with you. She is so… mature. Well, Ava is a special case, she keeps a lot of her past a secret from us, only thing she mentioned was that she owed Winston a favor and that she was just like our nanny. She seemed to age still just very very slowly, her appearance now is as a girl in her late teens.

“Hey, stinky.” I didn’t realize that the other hand already exited the vehicle and I was face to face with Renee. Renee, one of my little sisters, is part of the fae, she has pointed ears and her eyes always seem to play a trick on you, are they brown or are they green or hey did they just change to pink? Renee came a couple months after me when she was only 3 and I remember how she always made me play tea parties with her. Like me, she grew up in foster care, she mentioned that she found Winston when her other foster siblings tried to pickpocket him. Winston doesn’t always pick the brightest of children, to say the least. Her hair was in a bob cut and was just a normal shade of brown, shocking she usually has it a bright pink or has highlights of blue all around.

“Hey buttface, no crazy colors for your hair? Who are you and what have you done to my Renee?” I grab her quickly and put her under my armpit while I viciously mess with her hair. She is shouting trying to claw at me, I follow behind Byron who is leaning on the doorway with Jessamine on the other side.

“Will you two be quiet? You are going to wake up the neighborhood. I want them to have their breakfast first before they start bringing their pitchforks and trying to burn us at the stake.” Jessamine narrows her eyes at both of us.

“California is in the middle of a drought JJ, they’ll hang us before they burn us.” A voice behind us said. Walking up the steps right next to me was Lana. “Don’t stress so much, I’ve scooped the neighborhood out, we mainly live next to an older couple on the left of us, a nurse and her son right in front of us, and oh how can I forget, a vicious supernatural hunter who targets kids with mommy and daddy issues.” Lana breaks into laughter and Jessamine rolls her eyes trying to hide a giggle. Byron lets out a snort as well as Renee and I. Ava jabs Lana on her side, shaking her head while smiling.

Lana is one of my closest siblings here, it could be that we used to have to share a bed when I first got here or the fact that she was the only one who would talk to me when the others thought I was psycho cause I burned down the group home, which I didn’t. We were basically super close in age, just two months apart. She swore up and down that she was 5’5 but she stood at 5 feet flat. She had super curly hair that reached to her back, her hair color seemed brown but in the sun it looked like a shade of purple. Her eyes were two different colors, one being a soft green and the other being purple. Lana was not a fae and actually was supposedly a hybrid, her mother is a werewolf however she doesn’t exactly know who her father was and has no werewolf abilities at all. What she does have is a spellbook that was given to her before she came here, Lana’s father has to be some kind of witch, she does spells and makes things appear and all that jazz. Unlike most of us, Lana has other siblings however her mother couldn’t deal with Lana having powers that she hasn’t dealt with and just gave her away. I always wonder if that upsets her knowing her siblings are being taken care of with her mother and she was shipped off here with us, a troublesome bunch to say less.

While Winston was trying to figure the door open, the younger kids were coming by the door looking absolutely wrecked. Most of the kids never sleep on the drive over, and we never stop at a motel, Winston and Padora always want to make the drives as short as possible. I felt a tug at my leg and there was my baby sister Agnes at my legs reaching her hands to be picked up. I grab her up and hold her as she sets her head down on my shoulder. I realize she falls asleep almost instantly. Agnes is 3 and doesn’t talk at all, I remember the day she came, it was raining so hard in Florida that we thought a hurricane was making its way over. A knock at the door and then a baby crying, Lana and I were the only ones awake. We were trying to cast a spell to cook a frozen pizza since the electricity went out. Lana, deep in concentration didn’t hear the door, I stepped away to see what it was and Agnes was with a note and no one else there. The note was written in an ancient language, that's what Lana says when trying to read it, and when we finally had to wake Winston he immediately is stunned and while waking Padora he finally tells us that she is our new sister and to call her Agnes.

“It’s always you that she falls asleep instantly but the whole trip she was being so grumpy. I guess you have the magic touch huh little bro.” Jasper is holding our youngest brother Marcel in his arms. Other than me Jasper is the oldest boy here. Jasper is the total opposite of me in every way possible, he’s social, extremely athletic, always has the right things to say, and is just all-around cool as a cucumber. He’s also a werewolf like me, however, has everything under control and never once struggles on full moons. He came right before he mentions, he said he ran away from his father he mentions his father was a very powerful alpha werewolf but his father was having power struggles and was trying to kill Jasper’s mother, which she left Jasper to deal with it. He jolts me back into reality with a question, “You ready for senior year, little bro? I know you are going to have a good time. I feel it.” He shoots me a smile. Before I could even reply we were squashed some more on the porch due to all the other kids now exiting the car and joining.

A shout from the back alarms us all, Padora looked annoyed that Winston still hasn’t managed to open the door and that we weren’t really helping. “Winston not to alarm you my dear brother but.” She waves her hand and the door unlocks magically and slowly a key evolves from her hand and she tosses it to him. He catches it and smiles, the double doors of the home spread wide open and we all rush in to not cause a scene outside and wake up our neighbors.

To say the home looked large was an understatement, it was built inside like a mansion. The outside made the home look like any average home but the inside was pure magic. As if he knew what we were wall thinking Winston clears his throat and says, “I know I know, we did tweak up this place a bit to fit you, children. However, not everyone has their own room. Let’s discuss roommates. I did take in any consideration and switched and compared it to past behaviors and saw that I made a perfect list.” He whips out a piece of paper and it reads.

1st Floor

Jacobi & Byron

Jasper & Luis

Ava & Lana (basement)

Agnes, Marcel, and Padora

2nd Floor

Harper Luna & Jessamine

Lottie & Renee

Cassius, Cassimir, & Alden

Garfleld and Chester

“I’m not with Jacobi this time?” I perk up hearing my name and realize it's Luis looking devastated that we weren't rooming together. “But who's going to check under the bed for monsters?” He said the last part in a whisper not wanting the twins to scorn him for a week about his fear of the dark. Luis and I’ve roomed together for almost 3 years, Byron and I caused so much trouble that we simply could not share the same room. So while Byron usually got to share a room with Alden, his social skills made me seem like an extrovert. I’ve always liked Luis though, from all the younger kids he annoyed me the least even if I did not want to admit it. He came to live with us at 4, I remember because it was around Christmas time and Winston said in addition to our gifts we had an even bigger one and then Luis came walking in between Winston's legs scared to even look at us. He only spoke Spanish until one day he came home speaking English fluently, I always knew he spoke English, I used to hear him talk to his stuffed animals.

I catch Luis’s eyes when it finally lands on me and I say in a low whisper, “I promise I’ll still check them, scout's honor.” The smallest smile spreads on his lips and he turns away continuing to listen to Winston's speech on our chores. Winston brushes the chores we had to do, I got to do laundry on the weekends which is probably the worst of everything we had for chores, only because the weekdays were when everyone had to take care of their own clothes by why take care of them than when you can wait on the weekend where someone else can do it. We finally dispersed into our rooms, Byron and I’s room was the last one at the end of the hall. The room was spacious with two twin beds, each on its respective side, and a window at the opposite end of the door.

“Dibs on the right side.” Byron throws his backpack and slams his whole body on the bed. “Man, my back was killing me in that car. I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when school starts, actually don't I can’t stand public school.” He groans having the thought of it. I chuckled at his frustration but I could only imagine how school will be going for us. I usually go through without a problem, I always have a low profile and try not to make any friends, there was never a point in making friends if we just left in the middle of the night and could never keep contact. Before I could make a remark, Agnes is making noises to tell Byron he was being too loud. I try to remember what room she's in but before I even can do anything. Padora is standing in the doorway with her hands outstretched for Agnes.

I attempt to peel her off me and she starts crying which makes Padora roll her eyes, “You always want Jacobi, what am I chopped liver?” Agnes finally gives in and lies on Padora's shoulder. “Boys, late breakfast will be ready. Hopefully, I have Lottie and Jessamine in the kitchen so be patient.”

“You setting them up Padora, might as well get the fire hydrant ready.” Byron rolled onto his back and shook his head at her. “I’d rather starve if that food doesn’t burn, why switch Lana from the kitchen, we had it so good.” He fakes cries into his hands. Padora doesn’t even answer him and walks off with Agnes rubbing her back and going into their room which was two doors to the left of us. I slowly closed the door and slid myself into the bed, the sheets smelled like lavender, and before I could even comprehend I was out like a light.

I didn’t realize I had been so tired until the twins were shaking me awake, alongside Harper Luna jumping on the bed shouting my name “Jacobi, Jacobiiiiiiii, Ja co biiiii.”

“I’m up, I’m up.” I extend my hands to stop Harper’s incessant jumping. She collapses into my arms and wraps me in a hug.

“Come on, we are waiting for you!” Chester shakes the embrace which makes Harper shout in my ear. I try to scramble out of the bed and just like Agnes, Harper won’t let go of me. I swing my legs over the bed and the boys make their way and head out the door with me slowly following behind. Alden was in the hallway standing waiting for us to come to eat.

“Hey, Al how are you?” He walks alongside me and doesn’t make eye contact. He pushes up his glasses and then starts counting from 1 to 10.

“I’m g-g-g-ood. How are you, J-j-jay?” He looks up to me and gives me the briefest smile and then goes back to looking down. Alden always needed a little more time to talk, I always found it nice whenever he made time to talk back to me.

“I’m good thanks for asking.” We reached the dining room which is to the left of the entrance of the house. It had a long brown table with exactly 17 seats. Everyone but the 5 of us was not sitting, the table was lined with food. Take out food to be specific and before I could even ask how cooking went Lana cuts in and tells me exactly what I was going to ask.

“Lottie and Jessa got into a fight about how long to cook the pasta and little did either of them know, they had placed the pasta in the pot without water. It caught on fire, and Jasper put it out before it could get bigger. Then while Jasper is putting out the fire, Lottie swings at Jessa because Jessa called her a dumbass and then they were fighting and knocked over the marinara all over Marcel, which Cassius thinks it's blood, and throws up and faints. Renee and I cleaned it all up and then Ava ordered to-go from the only ethnic restaurant around here. Now that I caught Jacobi up, can we eat Winston?” Lana was trying her best not to laugh, however, I can see her smirk. Winston, who didn’t seem so happy about what happened, raised his arms for me to proceed to my seat. I was between Lana and Byron, across from Luis, Lottie, and Renee.

“Yes, of course. But before we dig in Charlotte is assigned to yard work from now on and is grounded for a week. Jessamine is assigned to bathrooms from now on and is grounded for a week. Lana you are back on kitchen duty, shall I ever make that mistake again do not burn down the house again.” With that he gives us older children a glare which we know that he isn’t being sarcastic. “Lana, please delegate the food.”

With a snap of her fingers, the to go boxes start to disperse to each one of us. Everyone got two chicken tacos, a side of rice, and a side of refried beans. Soda bottle glasses appeared out of thin air. I got a coca cola and Byrone had gotten a sprite, what I really wanted was the pineapple Fanta Lana had.

“Let me get a sip.” I eye her drink, hoping I acquire magic powers and steal that drink.

“No, you snooze, you lose.” She begins to eat her food without looking at me and then I realize my Coke had become a Fanta.

“Thank you.” I quietly say to her while I start to eat the food. 1 word to describe the food was amazing, I mean Lana could cook everything and it would taste delicious but this food just tasted so nostalgic like I had eaten this before. I’m going to have to go to this take out place again and find out what they put in this recipe.

“So does this mean everyone in this town is white?” Renee shoves a mouthful of rice after asking the question. It looked like she was asking Lana the question but the way everyone's head turned in Renee’s direction seemed like the question was towards anybody.

“Majority of the town is white people, yes. However it is mentioned to be a growing city and multiple cultural epicenters on the next towns over and it seems to be looking like Maldetto is soon to be adding more flavor to it.” Padora smiles and she was cleaning up Marcel spitting up his beans. Majority of us took a glance at one another knowing that this is going to be a rough school year. For the most part we all had a semi decent idea on what race we were, given that most of us were not brought up with much information on who we were. Jessa, Jasper, Luis, Agnes, and I were all some part hispanic from what we could remember and with information that Winston has told us. While Harper Luna, Ava, and Renee had East Asian heritage. Byron’s mother was white but his father is of Pacific Island descent. Lana and Marcel were black. Cassius and Casimir were orphans however their parents were black and white making them mixed race. Alden is middle eastern with tan skin and eyes that looked like it had been coaled. Lottie was the only white person here with the exception of Padora.

“Gosh if school wasn’t already hard enough, we gotta deal with racism. Splendid.” Jessa sighs from the other end of the table. She was in between Ava and Jasper, she stuck her head out at Lottie and stuck her tongue out. Lottie just rolled her eyes and continued to pick at her beans.

“You kids will be fine, the school has a zero tolerance on bullying.” Winston puts his fork up like he was stating that that was going to protect us. “I’m more worried for the school about you than the other way around.” He chuckles like he was telling a joke but I knew in my gut he was serious.

We didn’t say much after that, we all ate our food and turned back into our rooms and started to unpack. Winston had this whole spiel on how we shouldnt keep a lot of useless things, he said materialism is a thing of simpletons and we are clearly not simpletons. I don’t believe in that, I mean why limit the items we can have however I never had many relics to keep and never had much time to keep many things since we would never know when we were on the run next. I mean having multiple children with supernatural abilities, time is not something you have when avoiding torture.

I had only a box and a bag of things. The bag was filled with clothes, not much since Lana had the ability to give us an ever changing wardrobe whenever you needed it. The clothes were like my relics, gym shirts, or items friends had given to me but never had a chance to give back to them. I had a cowboy hat that I had been given by a friend back when we lived in Texas. As I was unpacking every item I had sat and stared.

“Seeing you do this gives me a pang in my heart.” Byrone sat on his bed looking at me in distress.

“It’s having empathy and what you are feeling my friend,” I pause to put the cowboy hat on. “What you’re feeling is darn tootin sadness.” I tried my best to sound as dramatic southern as they did in the movies.

“I hope the people of Texas feel that disrespect and come here and kick your ass.” He chuckles and continues to open his bag up. He takes out a picture frame, I had almost forgotten about since we hadn’t roomed together in a while. In the frame it was a picture of his mother, holding a baby Byron, and a man who Byron never likes to admit was his father. He was staring at the photo, he wiped his face, I knew that it was my que to turn and rummage through my stuff. Before I could ask how his mother was, a knock came at the door. I sprang up to answer the door.

“What y'all doing?” Lana says she walks past me and is taking in every inch of our room. “Don’t answer that, I don't care. A little birdie told me someone was looking to get a makeover.” She plopped herself onto Byron's bed next to him. He scurried quickly to put his frame away.

“No thank you Lana, I’ve been handcrafted by the gods but Jacobi here might need a little help in the looks department.” Byron snickers and winks at Lana.

“Oh please Byron honey, you don't need a makeover, you need a miracle and a lot of toothpaste.” She plugs her nose and wafts at him. He rolls his eyes and checks his own breath, he makes a face and shakes his head.

“It was just a thought. I like how I look.” I put my hands up and sit down looking at the both of them who were both biting back a laugh.

“No you are good looking, nothing points to you being ugly. But a little help can go a long way.” Lana convincingly was getting to me until, “First we are piercing those ears of yours.”

“No. No. Hell no actually.”

“Why not? Ear piercings on guys are like totally in.” Lana is getting up from the bed and heading over to me.

“Yeah Jacobi its like totally in right now.” Byron mimics Lana. She turns around and hits his arm.

“No I will not pierce them. Are you crazy?”

“You are so dramatic.” Lana grabs a hold of my shoulder and gives me a good shake. “Please, it's your senior year and I want you to have a movie type of school year. Let me do this please please please.” She pouted her lip and interlocked hands begging in a sense.

“Alright alright. You can. But if I don’t like it I’m taking it off.” I crossed my arms together trying to show dominance but I knew she won.

“Okay well gentlemen, lets go to my dungeon of a room and get this makeover started before dinner.”

We all obviously got up and walked towards Lana’s room. Her room was on the other side of the first floor by the laundry room. Her room was adjacent to it and once she opened the doors it was pitch black.

“Watch your step.” Lana turns to us before stepping into the darkness. Byron soon follows after her and I as well. Werewolves are known for their keen senses but right now it felt like I was 100% human. The door closes behind me, as if linked with the lights lanterns across the wall lit up with blue fire. Illuminating the staircase ahead of us.

“Nice touch.” Byron mentions looking over the edge.

“Thank you, Winston made me and the dragons stay downstairs due to them getting so big. Kinda sucks when I have to sneak them in for sunlight, still trying to find a spell to make them tiny for a small amount of time. I’ll get back to you when I finally figure that out.”

When we finally reached the bottom it was a nice set up, Lana’s bed was against the left side of the room and right across was her desk filled with papers, spell books, and dog treats.

“Where is Rufus?” Her absurdly large dog was nowhere to be found. I looked diagonally from where I stood and saw a cage with two yellow large eyes staring back at me. Lana had two dragons, she acquired them on her 13th birthday from her aunt who she has never seen and never spoken to. Her dragons were relatively calm for the most part, they could fly, breathe fire, and do what most dragon tales imply of them.

“He’s with Lottie, she wanted to play with him.” Lana had gone to pet her dragon, I assume it was Mizuko, a blue dragon with yellow eyes, it purred at Lana’s touch. Lana for the most part took care of her mystical beasts quite well, as for Rufus he’s a family dog that everyone loves but Lana usually takes care of. Her mother gifted her the dog one Christmas and has never given anything since. “Jacobi come here to my desk and relax.” Lana tapped the small purple computer chair.

Byron had wandered around the room and finally plopped onto Lana’s bed. “Mizuko & Lucius let’s bow our heads for our brother Jacobi as he might end up looking like he did back in the 7th grade.” The dragons growled at Byron saying their names being called by Byron as if they could understand him they both turned to me.

“Oh shut up, don’t scare him and also i don’t know who told you shaving your eyebrow was cool.” Lana had gone to another part of her room and was digging through a box she had. I touched over my left eyebrow that had a small scar of where I was trying to shave a piece of my eyebrow like Jasper had it. It did not go so well however it was the only time that I ever got scarred so I thought it looked cool after a while. “Okay I got it!” She has an ear piercing gun in her hand and some clippers in her other one.

“Lana I do not want my ears pierced.” I put my arms up to keep her away from me.

“Cmon, you mentioned you wanted one back in Maine.”

“That was two years ago, I’ve grown.” I was putting thought into it that maybe I did want to pierce them for a new look.

“Look we will fix your hair, that overgrown mess isn’t serving anyone any good.” Lana pointed at my hair like a disgusting beast.

“Yeah please do.” Byron was up again looking at Lana’s bookshelf. “He’s trying to be me so bad, sorry Cobi you can’t achieve my luscious length.” Byron's hair was actually really nice, he had cut it recently but it seemed to be growing again. It was wavy black and for the most part in a bun.

“Shut up before I give you a buzz cut.” Lana grabbed my head gently and started to cut. Lana had usually cut hair, she used to practice on the twins for the most part since they would get it so dirty and long. Soon enough she started cutting everyones hair. “So you excited? I heard Winston was trying his best to give you a decent senior year.”

“Why me though? I mean Jasper and you homeschooled it, I wouldn’t have minded it.” She turned my head to the side.

“I hated public school to be honest, I hated how it was so long and how they don’t really care about teaching you what’s important and I hate asking to go to the bathroom.” She sighed at that last part and I sighed too just thinking about it. “Jasper was a bad ass kid and he picked homeschool, after the last time he went he almost got us found out.” I remembered that had occurred.

It was back almost 2 years ago when Jasper had lost it on a full moon. He had been out with some friends on a bonfire and one of the friends' father was a supernatural hunter that had a hunch about Jasper. Jasper sensed something was off with the whole get together, he had taken Byron, Cassius, Cassimir, and I to the thing just in case. At home where most of the others had been, had gotten surrounded by other supernatural hunters. Lana had them attacked with an illusion of ghost soldiers and had everyone evacuated. Us on the other hand had been attacked by the kids' dad, most of us can usually keep our cool with the moon but once something else comes into the equation it’s tough to keep the beast inside. Winston had picked us up and was so mad that he didn’t speak to us till we were out of town and into the next. None of us were hurt but the damage had been done and had to go under the radar. It wasn’t so bad, however the air had felt different ever since.

“Okay done!” She hands me a pink hand mirror. My long hair turned into a nice little crew cut. It had been nice not to have hair on my face. “Look, a nice set of earrings would be nice?”

“Maybe you are right, I will take them right out if I don’t like them.” I gritted my teeth once I heard Lana squeal with excitement.

“Oh okay Cobi wants to switch up foreal this year.” Byron was now messing with the dragons and playing peek-a-boo with them. “About to call you panty dropper because the ladies finna love this.”

“Keep your talking to a minimum please. I need pure concentration.” Lana’s heart so loud beating right out of her chest, for someone who never seems to get nervous she was a bit too scared with the ear piercing gun.

“Just breathe.” I gave her a thumbs up. Byron came around my side and tried to hold my hand and I swatted it away.

“Bro you acting you don’t need no moral support.” Byron grabbed my hand and was gripping me harder than I was.

Lana’s heart rate slowed down and finally a really nasty pinch on my ear lobe. It didn’t hurt that bad and then she turned me and did my other ear.

“All done, now look.” She handed me the mirror and I looked at myself. Nothing really phased me except that I thought that she didn’t have to pick the biggest diamonds ever to hang on my ears. “What’d you think?”

“Why’d you give me earrings that need to be in a 2000’s rapper's ears?” I finally say handing back the mirror. Byron busted out laughing once he took a look at the earrings. Lana rolled her eyes and sat on her bed.

“What do the kids say nowadays? You look swagalicious.” He busted out laughing again before he could even finish uttering that word.

“I’m going to take that as a “Thank you, Lana. I appreciate you, Lana.’” She had a stank face and rolled her eyes at Byron's absurd laughter.

“Thank you, Lana. I appreciate you, Lana.” I stand up from the chair and dust off my cut off hair and give her a high five. “The earrings will grow on me. But I don’t know if the kids will let me live when they see this.”

“Oh who cares what they think. To them you’re cool Cobi. It’s Renee, JJ, and Lottie who’ll eat you alive.” Lana smacks her teeth when she says this. “Teenage girls know exactly how to rip you to shreds.”

“Especially JJ. She’s been meaner lately and I really can’t pinpoint where it all went wrong.” Byron jumps right next to Lana on her bed and shakes his head in dismay thinking of JJ.

“Well I’ll be fine with everyone in this house, it’s just this new school that I’m dreading. Spinning back onto Winston wanting me to have a good year, why again? You two didn’t answer my question.” I decided to plop myself on the floor twisting my earrings that had healed now.

“Well you literally have had the shit end of the stick multiple times. I mean remember back in Minneapolis we were like in the 6th grade you had your first crush and then when you finally mustered up the courage to speak to her we had to move that night because Padora had a vision something was going to happen to us if we stayed any longer there.” Byron cleared his throat before he was to continue. But I had almost forgotten about that, I do remember my crush was a Somalian girl named Jamila. I had sat next to her for two months and I remember one week I just couldn’t keep a pencil for the life of me so I kept asking her for one to borrow. She would always give me one and would tell me good morning even though the other kids didn’t talk to me and I remember she had given me a valentine for valentine's day and I didn’t give her anything but I promised I’ll bring her one. So after a long discussion with Jasper on how to tell her I liked her we had to leave that very night and I never got the chance to give her one back.

“Or that one time in Texas, where you were in the soccer team and you were doing so well and your team was about to play in the playoffs but you had to leave because the twins had blown our cover and Lana had to basically brainwash the entire town to completely forget we existed.” Byron clapped his hands giving the face ‘might I go on.’

“Yes I remember I remember, I mean Jamila and the Central Centaurs don’t even remember a Jacobi so whatever it’s fine. We went by other names and Padora had wiped the memories of most, so it’s tragic for my aliases but not for me.” I try to sound as genuine as I can but I did feel a little sad at times of all those lives I’ve lived but had to hide my identity.

“Well maybe it’s a favor he feels like he wants to pay for you. Don’t think about that though, aren’t you excited to be a California boy?” Lana seemed extra giddy about the infamous west coast city.

“It’s not like we are even in the bay or even in Socal, we are literally in Northern Cali. Not even that close to Sacramento.” Byron was always the reason we never went to cities with anything water related due to a request his mother made.

“You know why we can’t go that close so don’t act that annoyed.” I start to stand on my feet now. “I’m excited to go to an actual high school, hopefully it ain’t like the movies where they shove me in the locker or in a toilet. Well, we do need to head upstairs and set up our room, I assume you already filled the wardrobe with decent clothes. I am thankful for you giving me a makeover.”

“Oh we are not done with the makeover, we still need to do a face mask, eyebrow threading, trim those nose hairs, and floss those teeth, head back to my chair and Byron get comfy.” Lana quickly pushed me to the chair, I tried to fight back but she was awfully stronger than I remembered. Byron obediently shook his head and grabbed a snack from I don’t know where and sat back on the bed and watched us.

“Alright, let's get this over with. Hold still Jacobi.” Lana was coming with a strip of wax and I closed my eyes once she placed it on my bro. “On the count of three.”

“Man, I feel like Lana peeled my whole face off.” I was talking to Cassimir in the bathroom, I was washing my face and he was brushing his teeth. It was already 9pm, we had a later dinner which was just pasta that Renee had cooked up while Lana had finished ripping all my skin off. Everyone was bustling on getting ready for bed.

“Let me touch that shit.” Cassimir smoothly placed his hand on my face. I looked at him and he simply said, “Don’t make this weird bro we literally are siblings and she lowkey did rip all your dead skin off, okay esthetician Lana. Man, this sucks. I literally won’t even see you because you are going to be at school. I’m stuck here, homeschooled by Padora.” Cassimir was always my favorite from him and his brother. He’s more chatty and never really cared about anyone’s perception of him. “At least I got Renee and Al though, oh and Lana’s here too. Man maybe it aint so bad.”

“You lowkey do have it better, Lottie and Jessa are at each other’s necks at this point so going to and from school might add fuel to the fire. The twins are out of the house, so you already won.” I laugh and so does he knowing the twins are actually equal to 7 kids with the energy levels they are on. “I’ll keep Cassius out of trouble. Don’t you worry.”

“Nah put that motherfucker in trouble, he won the rock, paper, scissors to go to school might as well live it up. He is always so scared.” Cassimir and I headed out the bathroom and bidded each other a goodnight and headed to our rooms. Once I reached my room, Byron was already knocked out, so I turned off the lights and prayed to the highest power that we can finally have a regular year.

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