I caught sight of Hudson, sitting by himself, looking as if he was pissed off. His brother was with a group of friends, talking amongst him, if vampires were indeed real, that would definitely be them! He didn't look too happy himself, honestly, he looked miserable. Maybe a fight with the brother? Who knows, but neither of them looked too happy. "Trouble with the bros?" I asked Grace.

"Um...there's a lot of tension between the two. Jaxon was my...previous mate."

"Oh, you dumped one brother for the other? How scandalous!" I gave a goofy grin, which was not received in a positive way. Grace looked a little sad.

"Eh, not on purpose, it's complicated to explain, but you'll figure it out eventually." I don't know what that meant, but I'll take her word for it. I looked around the room again, there were some confused stares, but I didn't sense anything too negative. Then my eyes landed on one particular guy, sitting by himself, he looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

"Whose that?"

"I don't know. Must be the other new person."

He was pretty good looking, in an intimidating kind of way, his hair was a muddy brown, it reminded me of the Georgia clay that I'm so used to down in Georgia. It was fluffy and covering some of his face. He was very well built and seemed to have an "I don't care" look about him, but to me, it appeared to just be a front, maybe first day jitters being hidden behind a facade? There was just something about him, I couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt a bit drawn to him. A new kid thing I guess. I want to be around someone else that's experiencing this same bit of overwhelming feelings that I've been having since I arrived at this place. He must've felt me starting because he looked up and locked eyes with me, it felt electric, and to be honest, made me feel a little uncomfortable. I looked away quickly, and looked back at Grace. So where dyou sit, with your boyfriend?

"Usually, and Macy has her own group of friends. You welcome to sit with any of us, or with Flint and his gang. Just wherever you want to go. I'd steer clear of them though. She pointed at another group, and I will say, they did look a little mean, well, some of them did. I decided I'd avoid them and sit with Grace and Hudson.

"Sucks your boyfriend can't make up with his brother. I mean, the past is the past, right?"

"It's still kind of fresh." She looked down at the floor, looking ashamed.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"

"No, no it's okay. Come sit." She gave a soft smile that didn't reach her eyes. Honestly, she looked like she still loved his brother. What a shitty predicament to be in. At that point, I heard a very familiar laugh, a little too familiar. I looked over to the direction I heard it from, and it was the table Macy was at. I couldn't believe my eyes. Sitting right next to her, was my ex girlfriend. What's up with this place and all the exes? She left abruptly after eleventh grade, and I never knew where she went, there were so many rumors. So I guess the boarding school rumor was the true one. She didn't notice me though, so I didn't approach her. It felt weird to. So I joined Grace and Hudson. They were rambling on about Jaxon? Who I'm assuming is the brother. I didn't try to listen to the conversation, it didn't feel right, so I directed my attention back to the other new person. He was also looking at me. I tilted my head slightly, this time not looking away. I mumbled to Grace that I'd be back, not sure if she heard me though. I got up and made my way to him.

"Can I help you?"

"Probably not." He gave a smile. Which I didn't expect.

"Then why are you staring at me?"

"Because you keep staring at me." He was right, maybe I was the creeper here.

"Well it's rude to stare."

"It definitely is." He was still smiling. I felt he was taunting me, "So I'd appreciate it if you'd quit."

Before I even realized it, I was sitting next to him. "First day too?"

"How could you tell?"

"You look lost and definitely confused." And he's right, that's exactly how I feel.

"Do you feel like that too?"

"Eh I feel like the only person in this school I can relate to is the girl you were just hanging out with."

"How so?"

"We have our own...individual qualities, that no one at this school has." He ruffled his hair and gave me a sideways grin.

"What qualities?" I arched an eyebrow.

"You really don't know?"

"I don't know anything about this place, or anything about anybody. I'm new, remember?"

"I am too, and I know just about everything about this place, and who everyone is."

I was getting irritated, he was being arrogant.

"Good for you!" I began to walk off.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be a jerk. You really have no idea?"

I sat back down, "No I don't, everytime someone seems to mention something to me, Grace hushes them. Like..the whole school being filled with supernatural creatures, I mean, that can't be true right? It's just I heard my mom talking about it. That's crazy though, right?"

"Wait you don't know that?! But you go here?"

"I'm being kept in the dark, why? Is it true? I mean, I'm open minded, but it still sounds completely crazy."

"I'm Thomas." He completely ignored the question. "What's your name?"

"Ember." I sighed, and looked back over at Grace, who suddenly looked alarmed. Did she just now realize I was gone. I stood up.

"Well don't answer me then, that's fine."

"It's not for me to tell, go to the Headmaster."

I then headed back to Grace. A sigh of relief washed over her. Her and Hudson both smiled at me. This place was so weird, I'd admit that. Still kind of pissed no one will give me a straight answer though. It was definitely kind of suspicious though. I decided I was just going to leave it alone for now. But if people keep acting weird around me, I was eventually going to start demanding answers, for right now, I'll just work through the whole being the "New kid" thing. Grace and Hudson started including me in the conversation they were having, I guess to keep me from wandering off again. I looked back over at Thomas and he was giving me a huge goofy grin, but his eyes looked different to me, they were very calculating. Almost catlike. These people definitely have secrets, the school in general does.

Suddenly, I wasn't sitting on the one side of the table alone anymore. The presence beside me was strong, and commanding. And I could tell by the look on Hudson's face, who it was. I didn't even want to look at him. He honestly was kind of scary. But I couldn't help but look, I turned to face him. He had black hair that fell in his face, and about that face, it was perfect. Holy shit this dude was good looking, His family is just good looking, because damn so was Hudson, but this guy, I just couldn't stop looking. He gave a small sideways smile.

"I'm Jaxon, you must be Ember." What? This gorgeous guy already knows my name. Wow, I couldn't even talk. "Hello brother, and Grace." They both silently nodded at him.

This boy was definitely a vampire, or atleast looks like one. His face looked like it was made of stone. "These two are treating you right?"

"Yeah, they're good, doing um...good." I couldn't even form a coherent sentence, wow, what the hell. Jaxon chuckled softly.

"If you tire of them, I'm over there." He nodded at the table he was originally sitting at. "But I see you've made yourself comfortable with the new guy, makes sense as you're both new, but I'd stay far away from him, we're not used to..people..like him, so I'd steer clear."

Great, he is even being all vague and weird with me too. I need to talk to the Headmaster, I believe his name is Finn?

"I'm sure she'll tire of you quicker." Hudson has a grin on his face that screamed smart ass. Jaxon rolled his eyes. It wouldn't hurt to be friends with Jaxon, people seem to really respect him from what I've seen, or they're scared of him. Well everyone except his brother.

"I think I can make my own decisions of who I'll tire of on my own, thank you, and if you two are going to act like that, then it'll be both of your, very quickly." Grace's mouth dropped open, guess she didn't see that coming. "And also, I can make my own choice of who I'll stay away from." I got up and stormed back over to Thomas and sat back down.

"Boy troubles?" he gave a cattish smirk. "Those two already look like a handful. I've heard she left one for the other."

"Yeah, that's kind of messed up isn't it?"

"Well you can't always choose who your heart belongs to." His smirk softened a little.

After some heated words passed back and forth, Jaxon went back to his table, but kept watching Thomas and me. Grace got up and headed towards me.

"Sorry about Jaxon, he does that a lot." She looked at Thomas. "I'm Grace, by the way."

"I know." Thomas looked at her curiously. "The one and only."

"Yep, and I've heard a lot about you too. I mean I haven't been here long, but welcome to Katmere."

"I appreciate it Grace." Suddenly there was a large commotion, and as I looked up a guy turned into a wolf, right before my eyes. He was snarling at Jaxon, who was seemingly unbothered.

"Well I guess the cats outta the bag now." Thomas shrugged. Grace's face was unreadable. Part of it was "Oh shit" and another part of it looked unsurprised, don't how she pulled both of those faces off simultaneously, but she did it. Thomas was still laughing, like he made some kind of joke, which I missed because I was too fixated on the huge wolf that was now standing in the middle of the cafeteria.

Without a second thought, I opened my mouth, "I knew it!" Both Grace and Thomas looked at me, but Grace looked nervous, and Thomas had a huge smile on his face. At least I got confirmation, but then that begs the question, why the fuck am I here? I'm just a human, there's nothing remotely special or supernatural about me. And while I'm running away with these thoughts, Finn had arrived in the cafeteria, and was trying to calm down the situation. The only thing I even heard out of the commotion was "Stay away from her." It seems he's still protective of Grace, that's sweet. I tugged on Graces sleeve like a lost toddler.

"So are Jaxon and Hudson vampires?" I ask meekly. She sighed and looked at me.

"Yes, yes they are."

"Cool!" I had so many questions! "What are you?"

"Come back to Macy and mine's room, we'll explain everything, well, almost everything." I looked over in the direction of Thomas, but he was gone. How disappointing. But I was too excited about the existence of vampires and werewolves, it's like I've walked into Twilight, but with a Harry Potter (boo Rowling) school. Interesting. I wonder who all was a vamp and who all was a werewolf. I bet Flint is a wolf, he's huge! But what about Grace? She's dated vampires, so I assume she's one as well. And Thomas, his eyes looked more catlike than vampire or werewolf. Hmm. So so SO many questions.

After the situation was calmed down, Finn sent everyone to their rooms, except me. He wanted to talk to me in his office. I couldn't wait to get to Grace and Macy's room!

Finally up in Finn's office, he closed the door and sat at his desk.

"So, I'm sure you have questions."

"I do, but I figured I'd let your daughter and Niece explain."

"Well let me explain the serious stuff first, now you're aware that this school isn't like most schools."

"Yeah the castle part kinda gave that away." He crossed his arms on the desk and leaned onto his hands. He stared at me for a moment, it appeared he was searching for the right words to say.

"This isn't the first time I'm having to explain this. Had to do this for Grace several months back. It was a bit easier to explain it to her. So first things first, what questions do you have?"

"Why am I going to a school for werewolves and vampires when I'm human?"

"Well, there are more than those two things attending this school, there's other kinds of shifters besides wolves, there are dragons."

"WAIT! Dragons? How? Are they like tiny human sized dragons?"

"There's also witches."

"Mhm, I see. So why am I here? I'm human?"

"Well see, no you're not." I was speechless. I was pretty sure I was human. Last I checked I was. No blood lust, I definitely don't turn into a dog or a dragon, and as far as I know, no magical powers. My mind couldn't quite grasp onto what I was hearing, sure I said I had an open mind, but damn, this is some life changing shit.

"Why am I here, Finn, really. I am HUMAN, I'm fairly certain of it."

"You had a spell put on you when you were little, too little to remember, to keep you human, but you see, it's wearing off. It's why your mom called me. She felt this would be the place for you, she probably didn't expect it to come out on your first day.

"Finn, what am I?"

"A dragon." I'm sure my eyes were as wide as my whole head. There's no way, I'm still skeptical about the dragon thing anyways. I literally can not be a dragon, see now that is crazy. I'm human, a spell, no way. I just couldn't wrap my head around this.

"I'll let the girls explain the rest." He got up and opened the door. My head was running in circles when I walked out of there, I rushed to get up to their room, but not before I smacked into a wall, or atleast what felt like a wall. I looked up and a short scream escaped my mouth, then a hand was on my mouth. It was Jaxon. He removed his hand and arched an eyebrow at me, studying me. He looked very concerned, more concerned than I'd expect someone I just met 30 minutes ago to look. I took a few deep breaths. It was weird standing toe to toe with a literal vampire. I kept my eyes locked on his.

"I'm so sorry Jaxon!" I was in a panic.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to bite you." He chuckled softly. He brushed a bright red strand of my hair out of my face. It was intimate but not in a romance way, if that makes any sense, it does in my brain at least. I could see myself becoming good friends with him, that is if I can get past this all, he's a vampire thing.

"Finn explained everything, and I'm just kinda in shock I guess." and I wasn't lying. I was. "I'm heading up to Grace and Macy's room for them to explain.

"Or I could just explain it? But if you're more comfortable with them, I completely understand."

"To be honest, I don't know who I'm comfortable around, and I'm supposed to be this badass dragon lady, yet now I'm hella scared."

"Maybe the library can give you some insight?"

"They're expecting me…"

"Well meet me back at the top of these stairs in say like, 30 minutes? I can take you there." I nodded then rushed to their room. I gave a soft knock. Macy then threw the door open and gave me a huge hug.

"Are you okay?" I nodded and gave the best smile I could, I hope it was convincing, so much for this open minded crap.

"My dad go over everything?"

"Yes, sorta. Don't know how I'm a dragon, like how does that work?" She pulled me into the room and I plopped done on a bright pink bed. Grace's bed. I looked at the covers and all I said was "Nice." I looked around the room, it was cozy enough and felt very safe.

"So what are you two?"

Macy spoke first, "I'm a witch." She moved her hands in a circular motion and a puff of smoke appeared as well as a cup, she sent it my way and I grabbed it.

"Hot cocoa." Then I turned my gaze to Grace. For the first time since I got here she looked unconfident.

"I'm a...gargoyle."

"A what?! Finn didn't mention those!"

"That's because I'm the only one." I sipped on the hot cocoa and we all just looked at each other in silence. I couldn't wrap my mind around the Gargoyle thing at all, she didn't look creepy and made of stone, she just looked like a normal girl, kind of plain, long curly hair. Nothing "gargoyle" about her.

"H..how? Do you, like, turn to stone or something?" She nodded, twirling a curl with her fingers. The silence seemed to grow between us. I didn't know what to say or even ask, and they didn't know what to say in return. But I enjoyed the silence, it gave me a little time to think.I needed to wrap my head around this but it was difficult, but I had to, this was my life now. Would they have the answers to the dragon stuff, or do I need to find another dragon.

"Who else is a dragon?"

"Flint and his friends, Flint's a good guy, seemed a bit flirty."

"No worries, you're not his type." I pondered on what that meant, but I think I figured it out.

"So everyone here knew I was a dragon, except me?" It felt like Thomas even knew, but he came in after me and it looked like he wasn't making any friends, so did he know? He acted like he knew, hell he acted like he knew me in general. I needed to talk to Flint, for sure, But I still needed to meet Jaxon. I pulled out my phone to check the time, I was late, shit.

"I gotta go. Jaxon's showing me to the library!" I finished up my hot cocoa, thankfully it was in a paper cup, I tossed it in the trash. I headed out the door and I heard Macy speak, I'm sure she thought I was out of earshot. "Jaxon? Do you think they're?
This time Grace spoke, "mates?"

What the hell was up with this mate business? I'd have to ask them, or I could just ask Jaxon. He was standing at the top of the stairs, smiling, which looked kind of weird, it was a nice smile, but he doesn't look the type to smile, like, at all. I approached him, he smelled pretty good, and sure he was hot, but I don't think he's really my type, I don't think I'd ever date him. Plus I was kind of crushing on Thomas if I were to be honest with myself. But that could just be that we're both new so it was familiar territory.

"So we can only study there for about 45 minutes. I have class. Did you ever get your schedule?" Shit, I didn't. I got too thrown off balance by this whole school of Supernatural thing. I'll have to go back to Finn's office to get it. People, well, non people, were giving us funny looks as we walked to the library. Do they think we're a thing too, because we're not, and we're not going to be.

"Do they look at you like this all the time?"

"Mhm, here we are, we made it." We entered the library and no one was at the desk. He headed directly to a section marked, Dragons. He handed me a book that was really warn down and definitely older than my great grandparents, if not older. I sat down and opened the book and dust flew out. I began reading, when I heard a commotion. It was Flint, why was he here.

"Don't you think I should be the one teaching her about dragons? I am a dragon you know, why have you staked a claim on her or something, is she like your new mate?"

And there goes that word again, its starting to actually bother me.

I finally got tired of it, I walked up to them both and stood between them. I looked up at Flint,

"No he's not my boyfriend, nor is he going to be, he's just trying to help me out because I'm basically lost and I have no way of finding you. I would definitely like your help actually, having some insight outside of reading sounds great. Jaxon looked at me, his face hard as stone, then back at Flint."

"Be careful with her, she doesn't know her strength yet or how to use her powers." All of that sounded so weird. Just last week I was at another school, a normal school, planning on going to prom, I even already had my dress picked out and everything. My best friend Liam and I were gonna go, he was going to be my gay date, and I was going to be his. No one had asked either of us. I was thought to be weird, and a bit on the crazy side, people were even intimidated by me, because the last guy that touched me ended up getting put in sleeper hold. I don't mess around. After that no guy, girl, ot non-binary human would come near me. I don't blame them though, I even scared myself with that incident. He seemed the older I got, the worse my temper got, and it definitely was something I had to learn to cope with, I was seeing a therapist and had anger management classes. So we agreed to go together. Is it the whole dragon thing that's got me so angry all the time? I mean fiery and all, makes sense to me. While lost in my own thought, Jaxon had already left. Flint was staring at me confused. "Alright new, new girl, what questions do you got?"

"What's with this whole "mate" thing?"