Welcome readers to this new story, and great experiment! I have never written anything like this so hopefully you all like it. I do want to thank everyone that voted on some of the characters for this one, even though that was a long time ago. And a very special thank you to my dearest friend Christlove88 for her help.
Legal: I do not own and am not associated with DeGrassi or Epitome.
Important things to know:
The most important thing to know: Is that I drew from many, many, many sources for the origin/backgrounds/aspects of pretty much all species mentioned in this story, a few I even made up. I did not use one source for any of the creatures in this so please do not PM me or review saying disputing it. I brought many sources together, including my own mind for what would work best for this story.
Most of what you need to know about the characters will be revealed in the story, if not in this chapter in coming chapters. That includes their background, family and ages.
Like the characters what you need to know of the worlds (yes I said worlds) is also in the story.
So the other thing you'll need to know is how to pronounce some of the words, seeing as I invented a good deal of them for this story. The meanings (if one is needed) is in the chapter.
Pronunciation Guide:
*Caeleste (k-AYE-less-tay)
*Kitsune (kit-SOON)
*Anggitay (ahng-GEE-tay)
*Anthrodrakonai (ahn-THROW-drah-koh-NYE)
*Damphyr (dam-F-ear)
*Lignumalis (lig-NOO-ma-less)
*Virwyrvern (ver-WHY-vern)
* Oread (OH-ree-ADD)
*Spiltiko (sp-ill-tee-KOH)
*Caelumalis (k-AYE-loo-ma-less)
*Hyaenidae (HI-ni-DAY)
*Teneskotadi (teh-neh-SKOH-tah-DEE)
*Teneilios (teh-neh-EE-LEE-oh-s)
*Bakru (bah-K-roo)
Ch. 1 Welcome to Supernatural High
(CLARE)
"I don't see it, I'm not stepping through something I can't see, how am I supposed to know where it is?" Jake complains.
"It's there, just take Clare's hand, she'll guide you through," Mom insists.
"It's not there, there is nothing but air. Why would they even make a rift in the ravine, a really sketchy dark part of the ravine at that," Jake replies.
"It's not a rift it's a portal, an ingress, a doorway. Rifts happen, you cannot choose where they are, the doorways are created, and it was created here for the very reason that it is secluded. How do you think humans would react if they were to watch us suddenly disappear?" Mom questions.
"Okay fine, but I still don't see it, do you see it?" Jake asks me.
"See it no, I can feel it though, powerful magic right here," I tell him sticking my hand through. As my hand travels from this world to the other it disappears.
"Alright it's there," Jake says but squints his eyes like he's still trying to see it. "So, we just walk through?" He inquires.
"Actually, we have to jump it doesn't go to the ground, move that log over," I instruct my brother and father.
The two elves look at each other before going over and picking up the large log. Wood Elves are deceptively strong, and they move the log easily. Jake and I stand on it, hold hands and jump. Quicker than the blink of an eye we leave the ravine in Toronto and find ourselves on a lush deep green lawn, the grass is much darker than anything on earth. It's very soft though almost like silk. I look up, the sky goes from blue to orange and there appears to be two suns, one larger and one smaller. Yep, definitely not earth.
Before our parents come through they push our luggage through, of course the most important thing to me is on a light chain around my waist. The ornate purple and jeweled bottle is rarely not with me.
Just as our parents come through a woman approaches, she looks to be only a few years older than Jake and I. If she's from Earth she's certainly of some Asian descent, though given where we are I have no idea where she's from or what she is. She has long black hair, thin lips and eyes, but wears a warm and welcoming smile.
"Hello, you must be The Martin Family, welcome to Caeleste High. I'm Winnie and I'm one of the teachers," she says extending her hand to my parents and they shake it. "As a fellow Jinn I will also be Clare's mentor," Winnie smiles at me.
"How wonderful to meet another Jinn, so extraordinarily rare these days. I haven't seen another Jinn in a couple hundred years on Earth," Mom remarks.
"Yes, so many fled Earth and spread out," Winnie nods with the same sad look that Mom has. "It's one of the reasons this school is so important, we have several students that are some of the very last of their kind, as far as we know anyway. And as you know our founder and Principal is a kitsune."
"Amazing, I thought they were gone, but he's a true kitsune?" Dad asks.
"Indeed, and a wonderful man. Now then let's take care of the kid's luggage," Winnie says pointing to our bags and they vanish. "Don't worry your luggage is waiting in your rooms for you. If you'll all follow me I'll bring you to the auditorium, Principal Simpson is going to welcome the families, introduce the staff and then we'll give a tour of the grounds."
It's not hard to see the school building, it's very large, almost imposing and certainly looks nothing like the school Jake and I attended on Earth. We were both very excited to learn about Caeleste, a school for…well non-humans, what I suppose would be referred to by humans as supernatural beings. As we follow Winnie into the large school building, I see a centaur talking with an anggitay, and a faun family talking with a demon looking girl and her mom, while a family of sprites fly by my face. Yep, it's Supernatural High!
"Mom look is that an anthrodrakonai?" I question pointing to the boy that's half dragon.
"Indeed Clare, a Jade Anthrodrakonai to be exact, K.C. and his parents are possibly the last of his species, you know how very rare anthrodrakonai are at all," Winnie answers.
I see a lot more kids and families as we walk into the large auditorium, many of them look human, but they aren't. Jake and I look human too, we can pass for human without any kind of disguise or magic, but we aren't.
"I think this will be a wonderful place for you kids," Mom grins.
"Please mingle around a little, we aren't quite ready to start yet and I have a few more families to welcome," Winnie says and then she's gone. No poof or puff of smoke, just blink and she's gone.
"I didn't know we could do that," I remark looking at my mom.
"I know Honey, we've been living with humans and blending in so long we've suppressed our powers. You hadn't learned much of your power when we moved to Toronto," Mom tells me with a regretful tone.
"Hey, I'm Adam," grins a slender boy with chocolate brown hair and freckles on his nose. He's wearing a large excited grin and his medium blue eyes sparkle with anticipation. "This is my brother Drew," Adam says pointing to the boy next to him. Adam and his brother look absolutely nothing alike. Drew has even darker hair and eyes, though his eyes are also blue. Drew however, has olive skin, he's taller and more muscular than his brother.
"Nice to meet you both, I'm Clare and this is my brother Jake," I tell them as we shake the boy's hands.
"These are our parents, Audra and Omar," Adam introduces us.
"These are our parents Glen and Helen," Jake says. The parents smile at us and shake each other's hands, then they begin talking about the school and how they heard about it.
"So, what are you?" Drew asks.
"Dad and I are Lignumalis," Jake says proudly, of course Adam and Drew only furrow their brows, "Wood Elves."
"And Mom and I are jinn," I tell them.
"Cool, a real genie," Drew smiles.
"So, you guys are a mixed family?" Adam asks. Jake and I nod. "Us too, Dad and I are shapeshifters, Drew's a damphyr and Mom's human," Adam tells us.
"Wow, a living damphyr," I grin and Drew smiles.
I have lots of questions, I'm sure they do too but we're interrupted by a man asking everyone to find a seat. Jake and I sit with Drew and Adam, both sets of parents sit just behind us. When everyone else has found a seat, or in the case of some of the hybrids a place to stand, the man on stage begins speaking, even though he has no microphone we can hear him very clearly.
"Welcome families to Caeleste High, I am founder and Principal Archie Simpson. I want to thank all you families and students for being here in our inaugural year, and for making this all possible. Before I get to what this school is all about let me introduce our incredible staff, we are grateful to have them all. I begin with my beautiful wife Christine, a werefox, she is also co-founder of the school, the school nurse, counselor, cook and pretty much anything else we need. This is our daughter Emma, a werefox of course, I adopted Emma when I married her mom. Emma and Christine will be mentoring our Were and Shifter students. Emma is our science teacher, she also teaches world and species relations and diplomacy with Mr. Dominic Perino. I believe that to be a vital class in these times, and to this school as we want all our students to be ambassadors, not just for their species but for all species. Behind me is our vampire teacher, Dominic Perino. He is over 1500 years old, he brings us many centuries of Earth knowledge and will be mentoring our vampire students as well as our damphyr student. Dom along with teaching the class with Emma next semester, is our social studies and history teacher. He will also be living in the Boy's Dorm as one of our dorm dads."
As he was introducing everyone they stood so we knew who they were. Christine and Emma got up and stood right next to Mr. Simpson. Christine is short with short blonde hair, Emma on the other hand is tall and skinny with long blonde hair. I didn't even see Mr. Perino move, suddenly he was standing next to and just behind Mr. Simpson. If you didn't know he was a 1500-year-old vampire you wouldn't be able to tell, he looks maybe 30. Dark hair and angular features, his eyes, even from back here seem extremely dark. When Mr. Perino sits down again Winnie stands.
"Most of you were greeted by our jinn teacher Miss Winnie Oh. In addition to being the mentor to our only jinn student, she will be helping to mentor our winged students and those of hybrid nature. Winnie will be living in the Girl's Dorm as one of our dorm moms. Winnie is also our music and media immersion teacher. When the school was a fresh idea in our mind I traveled to the mountains of Canada to ask these two to come to the school and teach. Darryl Armstrong and Elstrini Dawes. Armstrong is a cave dwarf from a very ancient line. Likewise, Dawes is from a family of cave elves kin to Armstrong's cave dwarf clan. Armstrong will be staying in the Boy's Dorm and Dawes in the Girl's Dorm as dorm parents. Armstrong is our math, smithing and metallurgy teacher. Dawes is our art and ELA teacher, and they will both be mentoring all our students of the all the Fae species."
The Dwarf was not quite what I was expecting, not three feet tall and square with a beard. Shorter than everyone else on stage sure, and plumper, no beard or facial hair at all though. He does have short dark hair, looks stout, muscular and brawny with skin the color of mocha. Dawes is much taller and thinner as most elves are, but she is shorter than Dad and Jake, I suppose that makes sense for a cave elf She has creamy skin and long hair the color of honey, sharper and thinner features than the dwarf. When they sit down two young men stand up, one is tall, lean and muscular with dark hair and eyes. The other has sandy hair, he's a bit shorter, with light eyes and fair skin.
"This is Sean, a pureblood werewolf, and Jay one of the last surviving weretigers as well as a co-founder of the school. They will be mentoring the Weres and Shifters along with Emma and Christine. Sean also teaches mechanics & technology, Jay teaches photography and the two of them together teach business. Spinner and Paige Mason come to us from the Pacific Ocean. Our Finfolk teachers will mentor all our water beings, they teach water sports together. In addition to that Spinner teaches law, human and non-human and Paige teaches fashion."
The mermaid and merman, or Finfolk as they prefer to be called, are a lovely couple. I can see they are married by the way they look at each other, and I know Finfolk mate for life. Spinner is muscular with medium brown hair and square jaw. Paige has long honey-blonde or light brown hair with a round face, she's voluptuous and thin. Of course, they are on land and therefore have legs and not fins. When they sit down a being the likes of which I have never seen or even heard of stands. He's at least 6'5 with great silvery blue skin, he has horns and wings, but looks human otherwise. His height I'm sure adds to his slight figure though it's easy to see his toned and muscular body from here. He's got long dark hair that he's braided and lays over one shoulder.
"I'm very pleased to have Leland at our school to teach. Few beings from any world have ever even heard of the Virwyrvern let alone seen one. Leland will be mentoring our winged students and those of hybrid nature, along with Winnie. He also teaches outdoor sports, all world geography, and tracking and concealment. We have a terrific staff and an incredible mix for our student body this year, including my very own son Jack. This school was born from the idea and the need to foster relations and goodwill between species and worlds. To come together as beings of all kinds and not to persecute those that you don't understand or not of your kind. We are so much stronger together than splintered apart across the worlds. That is what we hope to impart this year, as well as teaching all our students their heritage, the heritage of all the species represented here. And to live to their fullest abilities and powers, to cultivate those abilities to help themselves, their families, their communities and the worlds."
Everyone claps for this and when the applause dies down a little Principal Simpson invites everyone on a tour of the school grounds. We tour the school building first, we see the main dining hall where Simpson tells us we'll be eating lunch and sometimes other meals. Behind the dining hall is the large kitchen, all students take turns helping in the kitchen. There's the gym, and a larger pool than I've ever seen, bigger than an Olympic sized pool. Classrooms on the first, second and 3rd floors, stairs and an elevator, centaurs don't do stairs very well and I'm pretty sure the anthrodrakonai can't either, or some of the others.
After looking at the school building we're taken outside where there is a large lawn and sports field. To the left of the yard is the Girl's Dorm, the right the Boy's Dorm, behind the sports field are the faculty houses, Paige and Spinner in one house closest to the Girl's Dorm. Next to them is where Mr. Simpson, Christine, Emma and Jack live. Jay and Sean have a house next to them and Leland has a small but very tall house next to them. We also see lots of forest surrounding the school, mountains in the distance. Just beyond the faculty houses and some forest is a lake with purplish blue water. Then there's the "shield" as Simpson called it, he says it keeps the school hidden, because not everyone would like a school where students of different species learn together.
"Parents if you'll please come with me back to the auditorium we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have, and address any concerns. Students will follow their dorm parents into the dorms for a tour and to see their rooms," Simpson announces when we're back at the school. While Jake and the boys follow Dom and Armstrong to their dorm, we follow Winnie and Dawes to the Girl's dorm.
"Welcome to your home for the next several months girls," Winnie says as we walk in, the large double doors lead right to a stairway. "You can see part of the living room and kitchen from here, before we see those we're going to go downstairs to the basement area. Jenna, Ellie there's no elevator so I'll get you down there."
The rest of us follow Dawes down the stairs to the basement. We come into a laundry room with cement floors and stone walls. Jenna, Ellie and Miss Oh are already down here. To our left is a wall of washing machines with drying racks, to the right a wall of dryers with tables for folding clothes. We follow Dawes through a doorway to what appears to be a storage room. There's two large fridges, two chest freezers and shelves stocked with food and spices like a giant pantry. There are also a few empty shelves in the room Dawes explains are in case we need to store things. We follow Dawes through yet another door.
"This is my room," Dawes tells us. The room has stone floors and walls, the ceiling is lower than in the basement. The room doesn't feel claustrophobic though, it feels cozy. It feels very much like a cave, but she did spend her life in a cave so I'm sure it feels like home to her. She has a bed, dresser, armchair and bookshelf, no windows but again that makes sense for a cave. A door leads to a washroom, we don't go in but we can see it from here and see that it's got stone floors and walls too.
"Alright back to the ground floor," Winnie says and then she, Jenna and Ellie vanish.
When we get back to the ground floor they are waiting for us in the living room. We see the kitchen first, other than being more open than the average kitchen it's a typical kitchen. Oven, stove, sink dishwasher, fridge, counter space, cupboards. The only thing that isn't in a typical kitchen/dining room are the four long rectangular tables in an L-shape for dining. There's chairs around most of it but also open spaces for Jenna, Ellie and anyone else that doesn't want to sit while dining. The living room is open to the kitchen and dining room. The living room has a TV corner with a sectional sofa, next to that a reading space with a big bookshelf and soft chairs, in the corner a fireplace with more seating.
"Jenna, Ellie your space is right through here," Winnie smiles opening large double doors.
"This is great," Jenna smiles as she Ellie enter the room first.
The rest of us follow them in, we first come into a washroom area of sorts, it has one side that's an open shower area, the other a water closet, two sinks on the outside. Through that is the bedroom area, it's open and each side is a mirror image of the other. No beds but many pillows and blankets for them to lie on, and a small closet area. They don't need much as both can really only wear clothes on the top half of their body, at least I think.
"Your area continues out here," Dawes says opening double doors to the outside.
We come to a sort of outdoor room, on each side a natural stable of sorts. On Jenna's side it's portioned off by shrubs and has a soft grass bed, a willow tree offering a natural curtain. On Ellie's side a boulder that's been carved out to be mostly hollow and makes a sort of cave. There's a wall of shrubs around them but a good sized open area for the two of them to move and run.
"This is amazing, almost like home," Ellie grins.
"We want you all to feel at home here," Winnie smiles, "and did our best to make sure all your rooms will feel a little like home."
(OWEN)
"You kids be safe, watch out for your brother," Mom says hugging me tightly.
"Mom, we're in a shielded school with a genie, a werewolf, a weretiger and humanoid wyvern thing, we'll be fine."
"Virwyvern Honey, and I know that I meant with the other kids."
"I'll look out for Tris, I always do," I assure her.
After the boys and girls split up to tour the dorms the parents came to see our rooms. I was really happy to find out Tris and I were not rooming together, I feared that they might do that because we're siblings. Tris is on the second floor and I'm on the fourth floor. The parents are about to leave and so they're all saying goodbye, so we're all gathered in front of the school again.
I hug Dad, Mom hugs Tris about three times and the parents are escorted away. Winnie goes with them, I'm assuming to get them all back to wherever they came from. All of us students follow Simpson and the other teachers into the large dining hall for our welcome dinner. Everyone gets food and sits down, Winnie joins us after a short time and sits with the teachers near the front.
"Welcome students, you met all of us earlier and I'm sure some of you met while touring the school, but I'd like you all to introduce yourselves. Tell us your name and tell everyone your species and anything else you'd like to share about yourself," Simpson tells us. He points to me, sitting at one end of the first table so I guess I'm starting.
"I'm Owen Milligan," I say standing up, "werepanther." I sit back down, Fitz is next to me and he stands up.
"Fitz, just Fitz. Canine Claudoshifter," he says and sits down again. A blonde girl a couple tables away raises her hand and Simpson nods to her.
"What's a Claudoshifter?"
"A Claudoshifter is a type of Were-creature, however Were's can only change into one single animal of one type. Claudoshifters can change into any animal of the same family. Fitz as a Canine Claudoshifter can shift into any type of canine from the largest wolf to the smallest puppy," Simpson explains and Fitz nods.
"Drew," he says standing, "damphyr."
"I think you'd better explain what a damphyr is," Adam says to his brother before he sits down again.
"Human, vampire hybrid. My mom is human and my birth father was vampire," Drew explains and sits down.
"Damphyrs are exceedingly rare because the mother must be human, must be willing to be impregnated by a vampire. To drink his blood for the entire pregnancy, and the father ultimately sacrifices himself for the child," Dom explains. Some of the other students look at Drew and begin whispering, at least until Leland shouts at them to be quiet and they all shut up.
"Adam, shapeshifter," he says without standing up.
"Can you change into any animal?" Tris asks from two tables away.
"Any animal, including people but they are far more complicated, I've only tried it once."
"Clare," she says standing, she needs to she's short, "jinn."
"So, if I capture your bottle and rub it will that make you my slave?" Dallas asks from across the room.
"That's a myth, started by humans of course. I wouldn't recommend trying make my sister your anything. One thing the myth wasn't lying about is that jinn have a lot of power," Jake comments from the next table.
"That's right Jake, like many of us here our true heritage is very different from the myths perpetrated by humans," Winnie smiles.
"Jenna, anggitay; that's a female centaur," she announces from the end of our table, though we already knew she was a female centaur just by looking at her.
"Maya, I'm a sprite," she tells us standing up and then with a small flash turns very small which must be her normal size. She then turns human size again
"Ashley, I'm a siren and to be clear we're nymphs of the sea and an entirely female race. Sailors were lured by the siren song for breeding, when sailors began crashing on rocks and dying the human stories turned sirens into monsters."
"Anya, I'm an Oread that's a nymph of the mountains."
"Oreads are closely related to Cave Dwarves and Spiltiko like me, that's Cave Elves," Dawes enlightens us.
"Dave, satyr," he tells us but I'm pretty sure everyone knew that as soon as they saw him.
"Wesley, I prefer to be called Wes. I'm a Caelumalis, that's a sky elf."
"I'm an arachne," Ellie says from the next table over. "That's a…"
"Human and spider hybrid," Luke speaks up from next to her, "we can tell." He is right, she's a girl from the waist up and spider from the waist down. A very large human-sized spider from the waist down that is. She's got eight legs, and arms of course, I wonder if she can make webs.
"Luke, my sister and I are kelpies. Some people call us water horses. We can look human for a while but this is not our natural form," Luke informs the room with a proud smile.
"Jake, my dad and I are Lignumalis, Wood Elves."
"Katie, I'm a sprite like my sister Maya, and I'm not making myself small. And don't even think of calling us pixies."
"Alli, I'm a Succubus," she says with a grin. Looking at the girl that should have been obvious. She's got sort of tattered bat-like wings, horns on her head the shape of a heart and a tail.
"Eli, vampire," he says without standing up or hardly looking up.
"Jack, I'm a werefox like my mom and sister but with four tails because my dad's a kitsune."
"Caitlin, seraph," says the girl with white semi-birdlike wings and short light brown hair.
"Connor, centaur," he tells us from the head of the table, of course we knew that by looking at him.
"Werepanther, like my brother Owen said," Tris speaks up. He stands and waves to everyone with that big smile of his.
"Toby, troll of the Cliffside Cave Clan."
"Holly J, faun," she tells us but that was obvious.
"Becky, like my brother said we're kelpies," she says without getting up and looks around the room sort of glancing at everyone.
"Terri, I'm a mermaid, or Finfolk."
"Zig, vampire."
"Bianca I'm a Pyrad, that's a Fire Nymph."
"Like that wasn't obvious," Becky comments. She says it rudely but she's not wrong, if you look at Bianca that should be easy to figure out. She's got redish skin, not like a Native American red, like a translucent scarlet red, her eyes are red and she's made small wings of flame appear on her back at will.
"K.C., I'm an anthrodrakonai, Jade to be exact, and one of the last," he says sadly.
"Alexa, harpy and the myths about us are mostly wrong too," she tells us but she does so with a smile. Gotta say she does look like a harpy, she has bird talons and large bird wings but other than that she's a pretty cute girl.
"Fiona, Nixie. It's a kind of water fairy," she explains when everyone looks confused. She has deep green hair, skin the color of a fresh lake, green lips and eyes like the early morning sky.
"Lucas, and that's Jane my sister. We're Claudoshifters like Fitz but we're Hyaenidae Claudoshifters, that's the Hyena family."
"What he said," Jane remarks rolling her eyes.
"Dallas, you know what I am," comments the cocky centaur.
"Tori, I'm an elf, Teneskotadi to be exact," she tells us but doesn't elaborate.
"Dark Elf," Winnie enlightens the rest of us.
"Imogen, I'm a Sun Elf or Teneilios is our proper name."
"J.T., I'm a Bakru we're a type of gnome."
"Which is part of the Fae family," Winnie says.
"He doesn't look much like a gnome," Fitz whispers to me.
"No, he doesn't," I agree. J.T. has a human face and neck but his arms and probably more of him is wood, sort of like a humanoid plant.
"Johnny, weregriffin."
"Cool, I should try a griffin, never tried a griffin before," Adam comments.
"Grace, I'm a wereleopard."
"Craig, I think it's pretty obvious what I am," he says. Considering he's human from the waist up and an octopus from the waist down it's very obvious but I have no idea what he's called.
"Obvious yes Craig, but it might be good for everyone to know your species is Cephlanoid," Paige comments.
"I'm Mia, I'm a Xana, another type of water fairy."
"And I'm Marco, a Gonven," he explains. I though he might be an incubus. He has small horns and a tail, but his dark wings are more bird like. Sort of like a crow's, dark with feathers it looks like. He does have thin pointed ears, like many of the elves here.
"Again welcome to all of you, I think this will be a wonderful year," Simpson smiles.
Update soon, will pick up from about here in someone else's pov as the school rules are explained and the students go back to their rooms for their first night at the school. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter even though it was a lot of explanation. Next story updated is Best Thing that Never Happened.
