Elizabeth sat in the window seat reading a book. She was so caught up it in that she didn't notice Ian watching her instead of reading his own book. Theodore did though.
"Nice book you've got there Ian." Theodore had been living here long enough to know that Elizabeth more then likely wouldn't hear him speaking. Ian didn't, he glared at Theodore in an attempt to tell him to shut up. "She can't hear us Ian, she's reading. The only thing that will get her attention now is if we say her name or hit her."
"I'd like to see you try." Elizabeth looked up at them from her book smiling. It wasn't a happy smile. "You forgot that movement often catches my attention Theo, now if you'll excuse me I think I'll read outside where it's quieter." She glared at the men as she gracefully walked past.
"Anthony wants to talk to us later!" He called to her. She made no indication of having heard him but Theodore knew she had. "Well that went well." Next thing Theodore knew a flaming book was hurling toward him. He ducked and shook his head at Ian. "You'll have to do better then that if you want to hurt me Ian." Theodore called as he walked out. He sensed Ian about to spring and mentally slammed the door shut just as Ian sprung. Theodore laughed as he heard the thud from behind him.
"You shouldn't torment the poor boy so much Theo, Elizabeth and I put a lot of effort into fixing it back up and if he burns it down…" Cynthia and Theodore cringed as they imaged Elizabeth's furry. She usually had a very good temper but if pushed the wrong way she was deadly. Theodore had only seen her that way once and nothing had scarred him more in his many years.
"Oh good you two are already in here." Anthony said, "Where's everyone else?"
Ian came stomping down the stairs and dropped angrily onto the couch, glaring at Theodore. "Elizabeth went outside to read and Ethel went shopping. Maribelle is either training or got dragged out with Ethel."
Anthony groaned, "Alright I'll go after Elizabeth, Cynthia why don't you call Ethel and tell her to come home, see if she knows where Maribelle is." Anthony left the house without waiting for an answer, he knew Cynthia would do as he asked without question. He would have called her himself but someone needed to get Elizabeth and he was the only one who knew where she went.
When he got to her regular spot though, she wasn't there. Feeling a little panicked he started searching the clearing. He couldn't smell anything or see any foot prints. She had never come here. He headed back to the house when something dropped on him, knocking him to the ground. Instincts kicked in as he rolled, trying to dislodge the thing on him. It hung on though and he finally took a breath in, it was Elizabeth.
"You know most people just say hello." He said as she pinned him to the ground. When he realised it was her he'd stopped fighting in fear of hurting her.
"You're no fun, you know that. If anyone else attacks you, even play attacks, you give in and have a good fight but with me? No, you just surrender to whatever I do like a man with a gun to his head. Why? Why don't you fight with me too?" She ranted.
He spun around underneath her, almost dislodging her grip but she hung on. He looked her right in the eyes and said, "I don't fight you because you're the healer. What if you were to get hurt? What would happen to everyone else? We need you here, health and happy."
"You've never hurt anyone else when you've fought with them." She glared at him.
He tried to look away from her but he was pinned until she let him go. Little did he know she wasn't moving until he fought his way free, "I don't want to take that chance. We all need you and we can't afford to let you get hurt."
"It's not fair!" She wailed, "I need to learn how to fight! What if someone were to attack me? I'd have no way to protect myself!"
"That's why we're here, you won't have to face that situation."
"Damnit Anthony!" He cringed, she only used full names when she was angry, "You can't just hope everything will work out the way you want them to! A good leader looks at every weakness and fixes it."
She hit a nerve, he glared at her. "Elizabeth, are you questioning my authority?" He spoke slowly.
"Does it need to be questioned?"
They both glared at each other, Elizabeth was the only one in the group who could push Anthony this far without repercussion. "Elizabeth, let me up before I do something I regret."
She studied him for a moment before saying, "Let me fight Tony." She spoke softly, hoping to calm him down.
"Elli," he sighed, "Fine, but you're training with Cynthia first. You're not allowed to train with Ian though, he doesn't have to proper control yet."
Elizabeth squealed in delight, "Thank-you!" She let him go and bolted to the house. He groaned and after a moment to compose himself he followed, muttering about female hormones the whole way.
When Anthony came back inside everyone was sitting around chatting happily. Elizabeth was talking with Cynthia and Maribelle, Ethel was discussing something with Ian and Theodore was focusing on making people do random things around the room. Elizabeth was the first to notice his return and beamed at him.
Anthony couldn't help but chuckle, just two minutes ago she had him pinned to the ground and now she was grinning like a fool. If he'd known she'd be this happy he would have given in years ago.
"Alright, we might have a problem. There have been rumors of vampire hunters being in this state so we need to be careful-"
"You called a meeting just to tell us that?" Maribelle asked, "I thought we might get to kill something or- Wait do we get to kill the hunters?" She was bouncing up and down in her seat.
"Only if they attack us first Maribelle." Elizabeth scolded. Maribelle shot her a glare.
"I called this meeting," Anthony started loudly, "because I want us to seem more human, to fit into their world. It'll give us better protection from the hunters." He looked around before continuing. "I've enrolled us in the local high school."
A chorus of groans echoed around the room. The only people who looked happy were Ethel and Theodore. Anthony made a mental note to speak to Theodore before setting him lose upon a few hundred teenagers.
"Tony," Maribelle groaned, "Why are you putting us through this?"
"I told you, to hide from the vampire hunters. The more involved we are in the community the more human we look. Then even if they do figure it out it'll be harder for them to kill us because we are so deeply rooted."
"Why should we have to get so attached? Why can't we just kill them?" Cynthia asked.
"Because we don't know where they are or who they are."
"So they might not even be within a 100 miles from here and yet you're forcing us to go to school." Ian growled.
"Hey guys it might not be such a bad idea. I haven't been to school since 1870 and I'm sure the changes will be interesting." Elizabeth added.
"They had school back then?" Ian teased.
"Well it was more like home school for me, I did go to an actual school once or twice but I hated it. My parents hired a governess for me instead." Elizabeth smiled lightly at the memories.
"She was a vile woman." Anthony frowned. Elizabeth's smile grew.
"She hated you with a passion. Thought you were the devil's child. Who would have guessed how right she was?" Elizabeth laughed.
"You two knew each other back in 1870?" Ian was stunned.
"Oh, yes. Anthony was the talk of the town. All the women wanted him and all the men hated him. A few friends of mine were planning on asking him to marry them, it was completely scandalous."
"As I recall, you were the only one who held against my charm. Too bad I lost control with you on that walk." Anthony frowned.
Elizabeth waved it off as Theodore said, "Anyways so we're going to school."
More groaning was heard. "Theo, is it possible for you to not ruin at least one moment?" Maribelle complained.
"Yeah, we'd all happily forgotten about the coming torture and you go and bring it up again." Ethel joined in.
"Speaking of which, you guys have to go down to the school and sign up for your courses so have fun with that." Anthony walked out of the room. There was a lot of glaring but everyone complied.
Maribelle and Cynthia raced their bikes down to the school and when they came back Elizabeth was sitting on the porch fiddling with a bunch of flowers. "Hey pixie dust, want to fight?" Maribelle called.
Elizabeth looked up with a menacing grin on her face. "Bring it."
Cynthia followed the two to make sure no one got hurt. Well, badly hurt. The first few tries Elizabeth was pinned within seconds. There were a few snapping noises that Cynthia hoped were twigs but at least Elizabeth had Maribelle pinned. "You're not too bad. I'm amazed you've been around for so long and never learned to fight."
Elizabeth's hold tightened and Maribelle winced, "Tony wouldn't let me." Maribelle suddenly burst from Elizabeth's grip and had her pinned.
"Screw him, you could fight without his permission you know."
Elizabeth lay limp in Maribelle's hold, "He's my oldest friend, my link to the past. Without him I worry that I'd lose myself." Maribelle thought it over and just as she realised her grip slackened Elizabeth broke free and was up a tree. She dropped down onto Maribelle within seconds and growled lightly into her ear. "Does this mean I win?"
"No, if we were really fighting I'd have killed you while I had you pinned. But nice tree trick, I never would have thought of that."
"Alright guys, I've heard way too much snapping for my comfort. Check yourselves over and call it a day alright?" Both girls started to realign fingers when Maribelle winced.
"Eli I think you dislocated my shoulder. I'm going to need your help fixing it."
"Sure," She grabbed Maribelle's arm and shoulder, "this might hurt." Maribelle hissed but stayed still and within seconds it was fixed.
"I missed one hell of a fight didn't I?" Theodore asked.
"Buzz off Dori." Maribelle growled.
"Mary!" Elizabeth scolded, "We were just practicing Theo, now why don't you go to the school or something?"
"Already did. I'm in all construction courses. I figured it be handy to know something about that."
"Wow, you're doing something useful for a change. I wonder what brought that on." Maribelle asked sarcastically.
"Brain tumour." Ian said from a tree above.
Maribelle laughed as Elizabeth asked, "How long have you been up there?"
"Well I was in that tree earlier but the fight seemed interesting so I came closer."
"You got to see the fight?" Theodore asked, "Man I miss everything." He scowled as he walked inside. Just before he closed the door he mentally shook the branch Ian was on. Theodore laughed as he heard Ian cursing him from the ground.
"Are you hurt Ian?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, just a kink in my wrist, it'll work out though." She frowned but respected his wishes.
The rest of the night continued as normal. Elizabeth was reading, Ian was watching, Theodore was pissing everyone off, Ethel and Maribelle were playing cards, Cynthia was exploding them and Anthony was Elizabeth only knows where.
The next morning was chaos. Cynthia and Maribelle were helping each other look as evil as possible, Elizabeth was helping Ethel get ready, Ian was setting Theodore's hair products on fire and Anthony was trying to keep everything under control. Somehow Theodore's bathroom managed to get set on fire which forced Maribelle away from the mirror. But once she put it out some debris got in her hair and it took three people to stop her from going after Ian.
Thanks to Anthony's planning skills he still managed to get everyone to school on time without injury. He only relaxed when he sat down in his first period class, the only class of the day where he was alone. "Hectic morning?" The girl beside him asked.
"You've got no idea." He muttered darkly under his breath. Just then the teacher started class.
(A/N) Hey guys I just wanted to thank anyone whose stayed reading this far and ask for any possible reveiws. Also Story title suggestions are welcomed.