Bianca Hersey couldn't help it, she still felt offended. Why? Because of all the times she's been with Alexander and his friends in the entertainment room, they never offered her to play videogames; not even once (she would've refused, but she would've valued his good intention anyway). Instead of that, as soon as one classmate of theirs and her friends appeared, the boy's group invited them to play and soon forgot about Bianca. She left the room quietly (nobody even noticed) and went outside, slightly irritated.
She was conscious Alexander and his group hung out with her out of pity, or because Mr. Zachary ordered him to; or both, Bianca reminded to herself, but a linger of hurt wouldn't leave her, maybe because he used to be her dear childhood friend.
Small groups of students were around the campus, the older ones sitting on the grass and talking, and the younger playing what seemed like hide and seek, jumping the rope, and one group was encouraging a boy to climb a tree.
Bianca walked up to a lonely tree and noticed a squirrel over one of the branches. Its' curious fluffy ears impressed her, never seen one like that in America; it was really cute. She debated herself if she should run to her room, take her camera and catch a photo of this cutie, or if it wasn't worth the effort (the little creature could leave at any moment).
"Come, pretty thing..." She told him sweetly, or was it her?
Nothing.
She attempted to gain its attention by making 'ho-ho' noises, and little squirrel only looked at her like 'what's wrong with this weird ground monkey?' (or at least that's how Bianca imagined its thoughts would be).
"What are you doing?" A confused boy asked her from behind.
Bianca turned to look at a boy of her same age, only a few feet away from her.
"Nothing?"
The boy looked up to the squirrel, and then at Bianca.
"You were trying to call the squirrel, right?"
Bianca felt uncomfortable, especially because this boy was a warlock. She recognized his face from some of her classes, but didn't know anything else about him. What? Why wasn't he avoiding her? He wanted an excuse to laugh at her? He seemed very relaxed, and strangely curious instead.
"Yes" She answered reluctantly.
"Why not just use some magic to catch it?"
"Eh... I haven't thought about it, but I don't want to anyway".
She didn't want to involve herself or others with magic unless it was strictly necessary, especially this innocent creature. On the other hand, the boy seemed to like her reply for some reason.
"You need to gain its trust first, and slowly. Be close to it for some time, so it gets used to you, and then try to feed it almonds or fruits".
Why was he giving her advice? He already had to notice she was an hybrid.
"Are you also American?"
"Yes" She curtly replied.
"Awesome! Me too. I'm Dereck Nolan, we share some classes together" He introduced himself, ignoring her not-so-friendly attitude.
"Yeah, I know. There's not many of us".
The little squirrel went down the tree quickly, and with the same speed, ran away and disappeared. Bianca was visibly disappointed, which Dereck noticed.
"It'll come back, probably" He consoled her.
"Why are you talking to me?"
"You seemed kind of lonely. Always lonely".
Okay, has he been watching her? Not strange at all (note the sarcasm).
"You know I'm an hybrid…" She reminded him in case he was retarded.
"Yeah?"
"And your kind hates me".
"Not me. Is it a contagious decease or something?"
"No".
"Then I don't care".
Wow. That was weird. He must be lying, or being really clueless.
"You also know I was placed on level zero in Fighting Concepts?"
"Impossible not to know. Was everyone's talk for like a week".
"And you don't mind?"
"Why should I?"
Strange boy.
"I mean, I know a lot of the magic users here do care, but not me" He explained "I can't see myself using it in a real life situation".
Both of them received a few sneaky looks from the other students, maybe expecting a dramatic fight, but the boy seemed oblivious to it and Bianca feigned ignorance.
"I'll get going. Bye" Bianca hurriedly said.
"Bye".
Dereck seemed friendly, but Bianca wasn't going to be misled. She went into the school's building and wandered in front of the entertainment room, catching Alexander's group with the girls still sat and playing videogames. Don't they get tired? Their asses will lose their shapes at this rate.
On the other hand, Bianca's fighting skills sucked. Even when her classmates were sixth graders with zero experience like her, most of them were taller, stronger and had greater progress learning. Being defeated so many times by younger kids was humiliating. It was so bad the teacher already hated her for it, and practically ordered her to look for a tutor to give her extra lessons.
Fighting wasn´t for her. Where will she find a willing tutor? All magic users hated her.
As she was sitting with Alexander and his friends during lunch, she told them this problem in case they (miraculously) could her help; who knows, maybe they had some warlock or witch acquaintance she didn´t know about that didn't hate hybrids too much.
"We don´t talk with any witch or warlock" Taylor told her.
I figured, Bianca thought to herself.
"Hey, why don´t you tell your brother?" Travis suggested to Alexander.
His brother!? Was he here? She hadn´t seen him in years (didn´t even remember he existed until now). Alexander instead laughed out loud and hit the table with his fist at his friend's ridiculous suggestion.
"No way! He hates her. He even told me to stay away from her".
"As if he was your boss" Travis commented.
"Now I´m gonna stick to her, just to annoy him".
The boys looked like they were having fun; Bianca didn´t. She wished she was away from them, but something they said made her curious.
"Your brother... where is he?" She asked, feeling dumb at just realizing his lack of presence.
"Dad didn´t tell you? He´s at Honored Disciple´s Academy".
"What´s-where's that?"
Alexander, Taylor and Travis looked at her, astonished. In what world does she live?