Disclaimer: I do not own 'Sky High', 'Charmed' or any other thing associated with Movies or Books, I only own the characters that never appeared in the movie & situations that you soon will start reading. This story is just a way to let my imagination go & for mine & the enjoyment of others, so, please DO NOT SUE ME. Even though I don't see any problem which will lead to federal charges, but if you do, I repeat, please DO NOT SUE ME!
Quick Pointer! - The Hazel Halliwell in this story is gonna be the same Hazel Halliwell from SWTWC. Why you ask? because I really wanna see how the whole story turns out with, apart from the fact that she's a witch, a lycan all the while. Obviously, the situations are gonna be totally different from her background story. This Hazel has nothing to do with 'The Covenant'. I hope this clears any confusions something caused :D & if you keep reading you'll see how Hazel's background is.
Quick reminder, guys! I re-edited chapter 5 if you want to swing around and give it a once-over! Sorry, for the delays~ Enjoy the read and remember to leave a review!
Chapter 6:
Clearing up the Smoke
Nobody was really prepared as to what happened next; Warren only managed to catch Hazel's red outfit turn pitch black in a matter of seconds. Sue was fast enough to start frosting over her part of the arena, her eyes completely focused on the girl among the flames. Layla was holding onto both Warren and Will, her brown eyes wide as saucers as everyone waited with abated breath for the fight to start. For some reason, he felt like they were totally going to forget to save the dummy before it got shredded to pieces.
The frost was quickly making its way towards Hazel's feet, the cool blonde had to make extinguishing Hazel's flames a top priority. But, the blonde with the glowing yellow eyes just stood on her half of the court, unfazed among her flames as the icy frost got closer.
"Why isn't she moving?" Layla asked herself, but their group heard her clear as day, the rest of the gym was waiting in total silence.
Warren noticed Hazel cocking her head to the side as the floor kept getting frostier and close enough to her feet. Everyone leaned forward when they saw the frost inches away from the fiery blonde. Warren only knew that he had blinked and what was in Hazel's place were only scorch marks on the polished wooden floors. His heart had begun racing frantically when his brain had registered that she wasn't there anymore.
Layla gasped and dug her nails into his forearm, the dark clad pyro was ready to scowl when he noticed that the hippie's eyes were upward. Hazel was in the air, impossibly high and still ascending. His head couldn't come up with the calculations of how her body had made enough force to jump that high and coming up blank.
The whole gymnasium remained silent, probably holding their breath just like Warren.
Sue had been bewildered when Hazel had disappeared, but the overhead lights casted her shadow on the ground. From the frosted ground, the cryokinetic formed some spears, and with a twitch from her fingers sent them up into the air.
Gravity had begun to pull Hazel down, the fall had everyone on their toes. Warren's eyes were glued to the frosted spears heading towards the still blazing Hazel. What came next was almost supernatural; heading feet first towards the growing spears, the falling girl tucked her arms making them an X across her chest she began to spin, making her flames become a blazing sphere. Nobody could look at it directly, she was shinning so bright that she was catching on to blinding the whole gym.
Sue was straining to generate the spears, she was going all out against Hazel. The spears were meant to harm and this girl was aiming straight at her opponent. All of them failed to hit their target as they melted feet from the hot sphere. Running out of defenses, Sue formed two layers of thick ice with swiping motions of her arms, engulfing herself completely and taking up almost all of her half of the arena. Inside the igloo like structure, the junior high student took in a couple of breath, her exhalations misting in front of her before screeching from the top of her lungs, "HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO DEFEAT HER IF NONE OF MY HITS GET HER?!" Sue couldn't come up with a plan good enough if her opponent was going to melt every attack thrown her way. Hazel came in very late into the term, her parents had never heard of any Supers named Halliwell. This chick was a late bloomer who couldn't control her fire, Sue had calculated this to be something much simpler. Sue Frost was never wrong, and she never lost.
It didn't take anything for the falling sphere to melt right through the two ice shields that she had made specifically to shield herself just in case Hazel was keen on flame jets, the ice hero thought she had made them thicker than the rest… the pyrokinetic and her flames melted right through as she landed 5 feet in front of the caped trainee.
Visibility for the audience was a little difficult under all that ice Sue had made to strike Hazel and protect herself. Boomer in his high seat muttered a not-so-quiet 'shit', "Activate the drones!" And, indeed a series of drones popped out from the ceiling and began circulating around the melting glaciers. The screens overhead and the saw a sweating Sue and a blazing Hazel facing each other.
Sue began to get into a fighting stance and the anxiety was about to make Warren puke when Hazel crouched like an animal and pounced on Sue, emitting so much heat, the chunks of ice were melting and falling around the two students in the arena. Hot jets of steam appeared out of nowhere, and it took everyone a while to figure out that the Sue was holding her ground against Hazel. The two elementals were hand in hand trying to get someone on the ground.
Warren's eyes were bouncing from the arena to the giant screen above them. He saw Hazel's lips move and her flames got way too hot, the beads of sweat sliding down Sue's face were clear as day. Blocks of ice were falling all around them as Hazel kept rising the heat, it didn't take long before he felt the steam coming their way.
Ms. Modas rushed to Coach Boomer, the fear in her voice made her a bit too loud that the first rows heard her clearly, "Stop this Boomer! She's getting too hot!"
Coach Boomer was so into the fight that he merely waved her off, his sun glassed eyes glued to the screen, "Halliwell's suit can handle the heat."
For the first time, Warren noticed Modas' eyes were big and fearful; you could see all the whites of her eyes, "She's scorching the suit, Boomer! She's going way too out of what we thought she was capable of!"
Boomer took a second to react, but, from his seat, the expression on the retired hero made him get up and run towards the gap that led him into the arena. Warren's gut had dropped, his stomach felt sick- he had never seen a look of total shock and slight fear on his gym teacher before, neither had Modas reacted to a power manifestation like that neither.
Out of nowhere the sprinklers over head turned on, but as he trained his eyes closer to the fight he saw how the water quickly evaporated before it even hit the flames encircling her, that's when he decided that he needed to get closer as things were getting quickly out of hand.
Sue was paler than usual, heavy beats of sweat were rolling down her forehead as she held her ground against the pyrokinetic, his heart sank too when Sue's face was scrunched up in pain.
Without thinking twice, the teen hooded in black picked up more speed and tackled the smoldering girl and pinned her to the ground. Warren had picked up too much momentum and it made them roll a couple of times. The flames didn't affect him, but his suit had started to pick up on her heat and he was turning hot white.
"Hazel!" Warren tried to shout so she could snap back, "Wake up!"
The Wolf kept struggling against him, even when he had almost all his body weight on her. "Let me out!" Hazel screeched, her glowing yellow eyes unfocused.
With no warning, her flames began to pick up strength again, engulfing them both completely. "Hazel, you have to focus! You have to snap out of it before you burn us out from the sky!"
As Hazel kept struggling, Warren closed his eyes and before he could regret it, clenched his fist and let it fly. He was careful to only knock her out, the bruise to her cheekbone was quick to bruise, but also quick to extinguish the flames coming from the unconscious blonde underneath him.
He hadn't noticed but he was panting, and hard. Hazel was small, but she could be a real handful to subdue. It took him a minute to realize that the only thing he could hear was his breathing because the whole gym had gone quiet. Running footsteps were the only thing that broke the silence followed by a couple of other footsteps.
"Oh my God, is she okay?" Layla was the first one to reach them, her eyes wide in total bewilderment.
"I don't know what happened." He quietly admitted as he looked down at the red clad young woman, her face serene after the chaos it had commanded.
"Mr. Peace, Ms. Williams please help me take Ms. Halliwell to the Nurse's Office." Principal Powers was quick to reach them, Warren spared her a glance and the expression on her face made the unsettling feeling take root on his chest and watered it to grow.
Without being told twice, Warren scooped Hazel in his arms and began following Powers out of the gym followed by Layla, leaving the rest of the class in total confusion and disbelief. It never crossed his mind to check on his girlfriend until much, much later.
The walk to the Nurse's Office seemed overly tense, and it all radiated off from Powers. Hazel hadn't twitched since the exited the gym and it had started to worry him.
"What was that, Principal Powers? That wasn't just…" Layla didn't know how to finish, she wasn't sure of what she had seen.
"I've already called for Ms. Halliwell's father to join us with Nurse Spex. We can't talk about this lightly in the hallways, Ms. Williams."
The two teens looked at each other, million questions soaring through their heads. Just when they were about to enter the Nurse's Office, Hazel began to shift in his arms, a groan quickly following. "Why does my eye feel like it wants to explode?"
The dark-haired young man looked down at her, his eyes all dark and solemn, "I didn't know how to make you snap out of…" He trailed off just like Layla did, both teens coming to the same dead end with their new friend.
Entering the light filled school infirmary they found Nurse Spex waiting alongside a tall dark-haired man, his eyes the same shade as Hazel's, the first giveaway that they were family. He was quick to dash towards Hazel.
"Kal? You okay?" The man didn't wait to speak with Warren, he just took Hazel out of his grip to lay her out on the bed Nurse Spex had readied for her.
"I'm fine, dad." Warren noticed the look she shot Powers before settling into the bed. "I just lost my grip a bit."
"That's an understatement, Ms. Halliwell." Powers didn't miss a beat as she step forward to stand next to Hazel, her dad right across from her. "I believe there are details you failed to give us, Mr. Halliwell."
Hazel's dad frowned at the principal before looking down at his daughter, who pointily was not looking at him. "Kal, what does she mean?"
Hazel looked at the both adults and then to her friends, "Would you guys give us a sec?"
"They need to hear this too, Hazel." Power's said softly to the teen, who stared back at her as if the retired super had grown another head.
The blonde teen squeezed the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes as a headache pulsed alongside the pain in her cheekbone, everything was getting tangled up. "I keep…" She needed to take a deep breath before continuing. Sometimes she had to admit that she was just a kid and she couldn't face everything by herself, not always did she have all the answers to saving oneself. "I keep losing control of Crevan."
Chris' reaction was almost instantaneous, "How is that even possible?"
Both Layla and Warren had to frown in confusion, lost as to the meaning of the term.
Finally, Hazel raised her gaze towards her friends. "I'm not just a Witch, not just a Charmed One. My mother is a Royal Lycan, making me half Royal Lycan, too."
Layla's eyes grew slowly as the realization dawned on her, Warren stayed oblivious alongside Powers.
"Lycans are," Hazel explained for the sake of the clueless supers in the room. "Another type of Werewolves. You can only refer to someone as a Lycan if they're ancient servants to the Old Norse God Fenrir. The difference in my family, according to legend, is that we are direct descendants of Fenrir, making us Royal Lycans."
Warren squinted at Hazel, his head doing circles trying to follow her explanation.
"Every Lycan has… this other self," Hazel held their gaze, she wanted her new friends to understand her, to accept her as she was. "The Beast, this other self is the one that helps us survive in both our Fur and in our Skin. Mine is called Crevan, because when I Turn, I look like a fox. The mutation made something become unstable between her and me, she's not just a shared consciousness, she's becoming her own self who can control my body when I'm unconscious." Her heart was pounding a thousand miles per hour- obviously not, but her heart was thumping on her chest so hard that it was almost painful.
"Why didn't you call me? Called you mother?" Chris Halliwell racked his hand through his shaggy hair, he always had trouble understanding this part of her daughter and of his ex-wife. Sometimes, he was ashamed of this detail that lead to the downfall of his marriage and to many strain moments with his only daughter.
Hazel looked down at her lap to her folded hands, "I thought I could fix it myself, and I didn't want to bother mom, she already had enough on her plate as it is." Bothering her mom was out of the question with the huge favor she had asked out of the next Alpha to every pack in North Europe.
Chris crouched down next to his daughter, his face soft and concerned, "This could've turned much worse, sweetie. You know you can count on your mom and me for anything. It's your safety."
Hazel sighed, "Asking for help is not my strong suit, dad."
Chris smiled at her and took her hands in his, "It's a Halliwell flaw, Kal."
This whole time, Nurse Spex stayed in her office chair listening to the whole thing in total interest. "Isn't this exciting. We never had such a remarkable student before, right, Lynda?"
Principal Powers breathed in and placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at Hazel with a fond smile, "I believe we haven't, Annie." She answered the school nurse. "But, I also believe that we can come up with multiple ways to help you find control again. We'll assign you a mentor, and I believe Juaquin De la Cima will be wonderful for you, he handed in your mentorship papers already."
Warren tensed at the mention of their catty teacher, the image of him and Pan in the classroom still freshly branded in his brain.
"We need you to communicate more, Hazel. The more aware we are of your situation, the more we can help you." Principal Powers leaned forward and placed a reassuring hand on the young witch's shoulder. "And, of course, a good support system is always necessary." At this, Principal Powers turned to the only two other students in the infirmary room. "Friends are very important."
Layla couldn't help but blush when Hazel's dad looked her way. She had heard how the Halliwell family were all very good looking, Hazel was a very good example, but Christopher Halliwell was something else. Noticing that she had been staring at Hazel's dad for a bit too long, she tried to recover fast by stepping forward and introducing herself. "Hi! I'm Layla Williams," She made a quick gesture towards the quiet Warren "And, that's Warren Peace, he's in the same grade as Hazel."
Principal Powers was quick to follow Layla as she formed a plan for Hazel's training. "He will be working closely with Hazel since they both carry the same elemental power and helping her catch up in her studies along with Layla. I have my absolute trust on them to help your daughter wield this new ability that I'm sure would only be an asset."
Hazel threw a low whistle, "Wow, you sure can throw in a good pitch."
Principal Powers smiled fondly at Hazel, "I believe whole heartily in what I said, finding my students true potential is always my goal, and I believe Hazel Halliwell can be a wonderful asset to the Hero Community."
Hazel noticed how her dad's eye crinkled a certain way as she watched him absorb Principal Power's words. He was getting the hots for her new principal and her noble purposes.
"I think Hazel is in the right place, there is no doubt." The Halliwell charm started oozing out of her dad, his pheromones tickling her nose for a sneeze. Hazel sneaked a peek over a Principal Powers, and the evident signs that the Principal was oblivious to her father's advances.
"I'm very glad that you think that, Mr. Halliwell. We'll get on to Hazel's training as soon as tomorrow. I'll have a meeting with her new mentor to have a good plan as to how we'll help Hazel discipline herself with this new power and have her maintaining a good control in any situation." Powers threw a quick glance over at the clock over one of the cots in the infirmary, her eyes widening, "Stars and spangles, I'm late for a meeting with the Prime Minister of France. I must hurry, it takes me 20 minutes to get to Paris from this point over the Pacific," Principal Powers did the math in her head as she calculated her trajectory with the help of her Smart Watch. She extended a parting handshake with Chris before she saying, 'Comets away!' and dashing out of the infirmary in a rushing ball of light.
As their eyes adjusted to the sudden flash of light, Hazel heard her dad ask, "You sure she isn't a Whitelighter?"
"You should really stop listening to Aunt Phoebe saying that you would be good with a Whitelighter, dad."
"I think she's an alien." Layla pinched in, her eyes bright as she joined the conversation between the two Halliwells, she couldn't wait to tell her mother.
Hazel's eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline, "What?"
Layla nodded enthusiastically as she took the place that Principal Powers had occupied before, only to scooch over when Nurse Spex needed to inspect Hazel. "I heard she was found in a crash site, her aircraft was invisible, it took them forever to find it, right, War?"
Warren had stayed stoically on the other side of the infirmary, before answering Layla he crossed his arms and said in a gruff voice, "You shouldn't spread rumors around, Hippie." His fingers were twitching to touch Hazel as Nurse Spex took in her vitals and X-rayed her to see if here weren't any breaks.
"It seems you sprained yourself in multiple places…" Nurse Spex frowned, her eyes never blinking, "But, it seems they're healing on their own… Some of your extremities show multiple breaks that've healed multiple times." The nurse mumbled and looked at the teenager who was looking back at her with a serious face.
A silence began to tense, Chris shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other and Hazel looked at everything but the people in the room.
"It's one of the abilities that come with being a Lycan; my cells move faster. I heal quicker, so I burn a lot of calories, hence I eat like a cow." She tried to make it a joke, shrugging it off.
"Also explains your fever, too." Nurse Spex murmured after putting a hand to her tan forehead. "Do you ever get sick?" The elderly woman asked before blowing on the end of the stethoscope* and placing it onto her bare chest.
Hazel squirmed under the cool metal against her hot skin. "Not really?"
"This is fascinating, your heart's beating like a hummingbird's." Nurse Spex said, stepping back to look at the young teen in her infirmary.
There was a breath of stunned silence before the door to the infirmary slammed open and a crowd of people rushed in.
"I couldn't help with the pain, Nurse Spex! I tried everything!" Nurse's Spex assistant, _, said almost in one breath. A handful of people rushed after her, and between them was Sue with her hands heavily bandaged.
Warren's eyes widened, as he took in Sue's beaten up appearance. Her suit was full of soot, her cape was a little scorched up. Sue looked to be unconscious.
"I think she was too close to the source of the heat and that amount of time it cut off her oxygen supply." Nurse's Spex assistant kept explaining as they set up another bet for Sue.
Warren couldn't help but look at Hazel, her eyes were wide as they laid Sue on the bed. He saw how she looked down at her hands, her expression changed and turned her expression dark. Just when Warren was about to take a step towards her, her father placed a hand on her shoulder snapping out of whatever thoughts were dragging her that way.
"Hey," Chris called out to her softly, squeezing her shoulder so that his green eyes connected with her own. "Stop that, there's no need to put yourself through this again. You've come so far, already."
Hazel looked up at her dad and smiled, "There's always something, Dad. And, it always happens to be me. Nobody else gets to be sent to a super hero high school because the reason they make fire is no magic at all." She turned to look at Sue, an oxygen mask helping her clear out her lungs. "You don't see Willow doing these kinds of things, she's always out there helping out the Magical Community, putting the Halliwell name in every good grace there is to receive while I'm out here losing control."
Layla stepped forward to stand next to her friend and place a hand on her still gloved ones. "You always have to remember we're just kids, Hazel. Always having control is not necessarily our field of expertise. I know, you feel guilty," Layla threw a look over her shoulder to look at Sue before turning back to Hazel. "But I think there was a bit of an underestimation when it came to the capacity of your powers."
"Sue knew the consequences," Warren finally found his voice, for him the moment kept getting tenser and tenser, but he couldn't stop worrying about Hazel, and it the back of his mind, Sue. "They were only going to put you against me, nothing wrong would've happened. But she wanted to prove something." His dark eyes bore into Hazel's light ones, both of them felt guilty.
Hazel turned again to her father, "Please, heal her."
Chris smiled warmly at her daughter, and cupped her cheek, "Of course, sweetie." Wasting no time, he stepped away from his daughter's side to attend to Sue.
Layla had gasped when she heard 'heal her'. "Is this really happening?" Her brown eyes followed Chris towards Sue's bedside, and once he reached her, he let his hands hover over her chest and slowly his hand began to emit a warm light. Everyone watched as Chris' brow frowned as he started feeling around for anything that was wrong, his heart sank a bit as he took in the internal damage had caused the young girl on the bed. He couldn't tell anything to Hazel, or it would stick with her for who knows how long, but this girl was breathing by a miracle. The heat that his only daughter had generated had really caused major damage that would have left Sue with problems for the rest of her life. Memorizing the layers of trauma, he concentrated for the light to warm up more and start healing everything.
Everyone waited with abated silence as Chris Halliwell did his magic. Hazel's eyes never strayed from Sue's face. She really had to do something about this, she had to stop trying to figure everything else in day to day basis, she needed a concrete plan and evade situations that might trigger Crevan into having the strength to take full control. The visualization of locking Crevan couldn't be an option. The stories of Lycans that locked their Beast up and going crazy were far too many. Calling her mom wasn't an option, and she could only hope her dad wouldn't call her.
Something tickled in the back of her mind, making her aware of Crevan's silence. Hazel could only cross her fingers and hope that her Wolf was asleep somewhere with all of the energy she had burned.
Suddenly, Sue gasped and began breathing normally. Her eyes flew open and began to look around the room, finding Warren on the other side of the infirmary, Sue smiled at him before losing consciousness when their eyes locked. The guilt began to nibble at him, his remorse getting a little bit too heavy to be kept the back of his mind. Hazel's train of thought took the same turn as him as she watched him look at the unconscious blonde.
Someone cleared their throat, setting things back into motion, and in amidst the movement Chris watched his daughter make eye contact with the long-haired young man, who had been standing furthest away from her. Both didn't break eye contact, making his heart sank when he recognized the intensity in which their stare kept escalating. Chris worry kept taking hold of him, as the signs pointed to something that he had known too well.
His daughter's Alpha had found her Omega. Chris had to call his wife.
Sue felt her whole-body throbbing, taking a deep breath she opened her eyes and let her blue eyes wonder. Her mother was on her laptop by her bed and her father was nowhere to be seen. As she sat up, she caught the ice blonde woman beside her.
Closing the laptop lightly, Mrs. Freeze, aka Ms. Snow, reached and took her daughters hand in hers.
"We came as soon as we could, I was up in the arctic trying to make more ice for the bears and your father was in a meeting with ONU. Jesus, sweetheart, who did this? Warren?" Mrs. Frost pushed a stray hair out of Sue's face as her daughter stiffen.
Coldly, she pushed her mother's hand away. "This has nothing to do with him." Sue had to swallow because the words left a bitter taste in her mouth. It had everything to do with him. "I volunteered to go against a new girl. She's a pyrokinetic who can't control her powers." She let herself roll her eyes, but she regretted the statement as soon as her mother's face became stoic.
"You lost to a freshman?"
A freshman would've been better than the whispered answer Sue gave her mother, "I lost to a late bloomer. But, mom," She interjected quickly before her mother had a chance to start screaming at her. "She's way too powerful for an LB."
Her mother looked at her as if she was stupid, "An LB did this to you?"
Sue had messed up, she had said too much. "She's not normal, mom." Sue was quick to say, the only thing she feared more than failure was her parent's wrath towards her failure. "The professors treat her like she's their new project, because she's not just a LB."
When her mother's expression changed, she knew she had done a good job. "They give her special treatment?" The eldest Freeze woman frowned in curiosity.
"She started class as a Super, today was her first evaluation."
At the information, Mrs. Freeze sat back in her chair. "Why haven't we heard anything?" She asked quietly as she tapped her long pale finger against her lips.
Sue wasn't sure if the question was directed at her or her mother was asking herself. Nevertheless, she leaned forward to keep gushing everything she knew, as long as it meant her mother forgetting that she had lost. "I started asking Mr. Boomer this morning, but most of my question he just answer them with 'it's classified'." The urge to roll her eyes was barely irrepressible, but she knew all too well that her mother hated when she did that.
Mrs. Freeze squeezed the bridge of her nose to push back her annoyance back, "Jesus, that man can't keep anything out of attention." Opening her blue eyes, the Super Hero didn't waste any time in getting her phone out and sending out multiple text messages. "I'm having a meeting with Powers. If this LB is as powerful as you say, than with her being unstable she's a threat to the safety of this school, and I'm not having it."
Sue's eyes widened a bit, "You're not going to say that I told you all of this, right?"
Her mother reached and took her hand again in hers, "Of course not, sweetie. I'll just say that I saw the damage made in the gym, and one of your friends called me, telling me that you were injured badly, which is true- but..." She trailed off as she observed her daughter closely and kept talking more to herself than to her daughter, "There are no wounds and Nurse Spex says that everything inside is perfectly healthy. What damage is there?"
A memory came rushing forward, and she remembered that she couldn't breath because the air was too hot, her insides had felt like she had swallowed a hot poker. But, she took in a really deep breath, held it a couple of seconds before letting it out feeling ever like nothing happened. Though, there was something in the back of her mind telling her that the pain was too scrutianing for it not to be real. Not thinking about it too much, she shook her head at her mother. She shouldn't make a fuss over nothing. "There's none."
The expression on her mother's face softened, "That's a huge relief, honey. When Kat called, I honestly thought something terrible had happened."
Sue smiled at her mom and squeezed her hand back, "Everything's fine, mom."
Her mother smiled back before saying, "Good, because we paid good money for that gym and there is hell to pay for those damages."
When everything had calmed down, Chris had left after making sure that Hazel was going to be okay. He had made his daughter promise to call him as soon as she would get home, since he had a new Charge in Russia and the time difference made it hard to keep an eye on a future Whitelighter. Warren and Layla had gone back to their classes since Layla hadn't been in the fight and Warren never had a chance to get his butt kicked. After giving her a once over, Nurse Spex told her she was free to go and gave her a pass for the rest of the day, letting Hazel take her time using the school's showers letting herself forget about the events of the day, Crevan awfully quiet.
Hazel pulled her long hair into a messy bun, before heading out of the locker room, she could only hope she could convince a bus driver to get her out of the floating platform. To her surprise, Warren was waiting for her by the stairs at the front of the main entrance.
"I'm here to get your phone," He lightly pushed her when she raised her eyebrows at him, getting a laugh out of her, "And your email so you don't fall behind for tomorrow."
Hazel pushed him back, still laughing, and making him stumble a bit to his own surprise. "Sure, but you don't need and excuse to ask me for my number."
Warren grinned down at her, ready to shoot a pervy comment only for him to get serious and somber, "I also want to talk with you, I'm going to break up with Sue."
The statement made Hazel widen her eyes, her emotions becoming so intense that they made Crevan come out from her hiding spot. "You sure?" What a stupid question.
Warren could only chuckle, "It's for the best, she wants to plan my future to a T, and I'm in no mood to let somebody make decisions for me. Plus, I can't get you out of my head, Hazel." He opened his arms and gestured all around him, "This is all I've always known, and for the first time I'm curious about everything that you come from."
"Where I come from is not a really safe place, a lot of the times." Hazel said quietly, looking up at his eyes waiting for the doubt to set in.
"It's nothing I can't handle."
Hazel let herself smile, "I have no doubt about that." Biting her lip for a second, she told him, "I think that we should talk, too. There's a lot you need to know."
"I'm off on Saturday," Warren wasted no time, "I can pick you up and we can go and have ice cream."
Hazel squinted jokingly and teased, "Are you asking me out on a date?"
Warren sheepishly smiled and put his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. "It sure sounds like it."
Hazel could only smile at how cheesy they were being. Suddenly, her phone was vibrating in her pocket snapping her out of their little moment.
When she read, 'Mom', something in her set alarm bells in her head and Crevan began to get restless. "Um, I kind of have to go."
Warren didn't waste any time on getting his phone out from his back pocket. Hazel swiped to answer while, at the same time, reaching over to take Warren's phone and dial in her number.
"Hey, mom." Tapping on 'Save contact', Hazel handed the phone back to a smirking Warren who glanced at his phone.
'Hey, sweetie! How are you? I'm sorry I missed your first day at the X-Academy!'
Hazel couldn't help, but snort at her mom's joke. "Ha, ha. Very funny, mom." She gave an apologetic look towards Warren, who just waved it away and leaned against the railing, making her aware that he had no problem waiting for her to finish the call, even if it took a while. "It's a pretty ordinary high school, except that they've already made me wear a tight, bright suit and cause some terror. But, you know, everything's under control now."
'About the 'causing some terror' part, I got a call from your dad right after he Orbed out of there, and he filled me up on some things that got me pretty worried, baby."
Hazel had to turn her back towards Warren, as an uncomfortable feeling settled on her chest, "I didn't want to worry you, mom. There's already enough on your plate because of me as it is."
She could practically feel the eye roll from the other end of the line, 'Hazel Kalyna, your grandfather needs to understand that the Old Ways aren't always the right answer for every problem that threatens your legitimacy. You don't threaten the line, so, this arranged marriage is a little over the top.'
Hazel couldn't help but shift from side to side as her stomach made nauseating flips inside of her. "Yeah, so, how's that going?"
The young Witch heard her mother sigh on the end of the line, 'Somebody really drilled it into his head that this could solve the rivalry with the Southern Packs, I still don't know who proposed it, if the North or the South. Can you believe we were the last to know?'
That made Hazel frown, "That isn't customary, and Grandpa wouldn't just decide something for me without telling us."
'Yeah, well, a lot of things were in the works when I got here.' Hazel didn't like the sound of that. 'Anyways, I told Quinn to stay over at the Washington house with you since your dad and I are a bit busy, and we don't want you staying there all by yourself.'
It was Hazel's turn to roll her eyes, "Mom, I can take care of myself. Quinn has better things to do that babysit his kid sister."
'Watching over his kid sister is the best thing he can do right now, under the circumstances.'
She couldn't put her finger on it, but Hazel felt how her mother's voice became a bit tense. The words that tumbled out of her mouth were straight from her gut, "There's something you're not telling me."
'They have people looking for you.'
"Looking for me? For what?"
'There's a lot of insisting for your wedding to take place as soon as possible.' Hazel was left speechless. 'As soon as you get to the house you should put Wards up."
Hazel stayed quite, her hand hurt making her realize that she had balled it up in a fist so tightly that her long nails were digging into her skin. "This is my decision to make." It was her decision to make and people who didn't know her were making them for her. "What the fuck is going on, mom?"
'That's what I'm trying to understand, baby.' The sadness in her mother's voice was palpable. Both mother and daughter were deeply dissapointed at just how messed up the situation had turned out to be. 'But, don't you worry, I'm going to get you out of this.'
"Mom, they don't know, right?"
'They don't, sweetie. I'm sure of it.' Her mother's answer lifted the pressure off her chest, but barely. 'I'm going to take care of everything, don't worry.' Even when the reassurances kept coming, it only made her worry more. 'I'll call you tomorrow, Quinn might get there tonight or tomorrow morning. I wish we could talk longer.'
"Me too, mom. Please, be careful."
"Of, course, baby. Kisses to Dad if you see him first. I love you."
"I love you, too. Hugs to Dad if you see him first." There usual goodbye made her feel a bit at ease, but that could only be short lived.
When she hanged up, she remembered Warren behind her as he cleared his throat. "Arrange marriage?"
Hazel cringed a bit, as she turned towards Warren, "I'm really sorry you had to find out this way, I really wanted to sit down and talk with you before bombarding you with explanations."
Warren shrugged, as he tried to wrap his head around the part of the conversation he caught, "I can come over tonight to give you all of the homework and my note, and talk a bit?" He suggested, not sure how much he could poke around. His head was filled with questions that were gnawing him on the inside, and like his mother said, patience was a virtue he lacked.
Hazel smiled at him, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "My older brother might come home tonight, if you don't mind him popping out of nowhere."
"That's cool," He smiled back at her, "You don't look like the kind of girl that has siblings."
Hazel raised her eyebrows and laughed, "You're just saying that I look like an only child." They both snickered and she shrugged as she clarified a her family history a bit, "Quinn's my half-brother, he's 10 years older than me. His dad died when he was two, my mom and my dad met when he was five and got married two years after. They took their time making me."
Warren laughed and bit his lower lip as he took her in the afternoon sun. Her skin seemed to soak up the sun, making her look as if she was made out of gold with her golden skin, with her golden hair. He couldn't tell if he it was his imagination, but he could've sworn that she was emitting a warmth that kept tugging him towards her. His whole body kept trying to get closer to her, to feel her flushed against him.
Hazel could feel a delicious tension building between them, her lower abdomen began to get all warm. "I'll see you tonight?"
He smiled at Hazel before stepping forward and cupping her cheek with his right hand. "I'll call you before getting there. I need to sort some things out here, first." They both cringed, Warren didn't need to be specific. "You have a ride home?"
"I'm gonna call one of my cousins, I think I can remember where I have to land."
Warren frowned concernedly, "If you need me to give you a ride, it's cool."
Hazel was shaking her head and already hitting her cousin's contact number, "Don't worry, you go back inside." Flashing him one last smile, she turned and made her way to the edge of the floating platform.
Warren looked after her, her phone on her ear. She exchanged a couple of words on the phone, and next thing he knew she became a group of lights that flew in the air, first to the left before dashing to the right and out of sight. Turning back to the main entrance to the school and making his way back inside. His day seemed endless, he could only hope that it would end on a good note. But, at least things were looking up with Hazel, he just had to wait and see how things were going to end with Sue.
"Fucking high school."
A/N: Howdy there, new readers and all of those who have stayed throughout the long wait I have made you all endure. I'm deeply grateful.
I hope all of you enjoyed this new chapter. Remember to leave your review!
Lot's of love,
brujatropical/ MG