Hey guys, this is the first time I'm writing from Simon's POV and I wanted to get it right, sorry it's taken so long! Let me know how I did. Also I'm keeping the author's notes short due to my crazy life ATM. But thank you all so much for your amazing reviews! I thought you'd be more interested in a chapter than a lengthy AN anyway so here you go!

"Oh man oh man oh man oh man!" I ran circles around my room, looking for my backpack. It had all of my pens and inks and fine-tip brushes and everything that I needed to finish my senior project.

"Simon!" Chloe's voice called from the doorway and I froze mid-panic. "Looking for this?" She held up my bag and I let out a whoosh of a breath. "You left it on the counter genius."

"Oh thank baby Jesus and the happy Buddha and Shakira's hips." I fell to my knees and grabbed the bag, rifling through and nearly whimpering in relief when I found my fine-tipped calligraphy pens.

Chloe rolled her eyes and gave me a critical look. "You look like you didn't sleep at all."

I shrugged, betraying myself with a yawn. "I'll sleep when I'm dead, or when this project is done, whichever comes first."

"Get dressed you idiot, breakfast is getting cold."

A lead weight dropped in my stomach, I'd been joking about dying before the project but if Chloe had cooked breakfast that become a very real possibility. She glowered at me and I tried for an anticipatory smile that definitely came out more like a grimace.

"Derek cooked it you butthead." She turned on her heel and stomped down the hall.

I fell forward. "Ohthankgod." I whispered, adding on some more thanks to Buddha and the shrine of Shakira's hips.

The floor was actually comfortable in the way that all surfaces get comfortable when you're exhausted, I'd never noticed how soft wood could feel. I found my eyelids getting heavy...

"SIMON." Derek had hoisted me up and was shaking me like a puppy.

I HATE it when he does that.

"The fuck?" I kicked and he dropped me.

"You fell asleep on the floor. I tried waking you up nicely and it didn't work."

"How hard did you try exactly?" I glared at him and yanked on a pair of jeans.

He shrugged with a half-smile. "Called you from the bottom of the stairs."

"You're a dick."

"And you need sleep."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my flip-flops and backpack. "Whatever, let's go."

"Uh… Simon?" Derek waving a shirt from my clean laundry pile. "Might want to put that on."

I looked down, I got my pants, shoes, boxers, backpack and if you counted the glucose meter and back-up battery that was like eighty percent of an outfit, a passing grade.

"Eh. Close enough." I waved off the shirt and ducked into the bathroom to check my glucose level. Stress always affected my blood sugar and within the last year and a half I'd had more stress than your average lemming on fire. I cleaned, pricked and determined I wasn't dying before heading down to breakfast.

"Just think. After this afternoon it'll all be over and you can take a nap." Chloe smiled and held out the t-shirt Derek had brought down. "Please put your shirt on. The giggling and swooning is bad enough already, the female population of the school would go supernova if you went shirtless."

I smiled at that, a little surge of male pride perking me up better than coffee. "But my ego could definitely use the stroking." I flexed like Schwarzenegger and waggled my eyebrows at Chloe. "Anything?" She glanced from me to Derek and I sighed dramatically. "Out muscled by the werewolf again."

While it was true that Derek had more muscles than places to put them, working out with him kept me in awesome shape (if I do say so myself). As a "normal" supernatural if I even wanted to try to keep up with Derek on a run or in basketball or football or anything else ball I had to push myself to my limits. But it was just like being diabetic, I'd never been the stronger one so I didn't have anything to miss and being jealous of a werewolf for their strength was like being angry with the ocean for being wet, you either accepted it or you didn't. I accepted it, I got to be the funny one and that was good enough for me. Most of the time.

I pulled on my shirt and glanced over at Chlerek. "So… I assume you're going to the party?"

"Of course, rite of passage and all that. Limo picks us up after six, what perky popular girl are you bringing?" The female half of Chlerek responded while the male half shrugged non-committaly.

"None." I rolled my eyes at her mock-shock look. "I don't have a date because I'm not going."

Both of them stared now. Chloe in real surprise and Derek with pure panic that I was abandoning him. I did feel a momentary stab of guilt but it vanished as soon as he pulled the kicked-puppy look. He had Chloe to entertain him, no reason to try to manipulate me into going.

"You teaching today bro?" I asked around a mouthful of toast. Real subtle subject change.

Not gonna lie, hearing that Derek was TA'ing was about the most contradictory mental image I'd ever had, almost being my imaginative abilities. Chloe and me had snuck in to watch one of his classes, Physics of Light or something crazy and sciency. To our mutual shock, he was actually good at it. There was not a single student spacing off or doodling in his class, probably because they were terrified of him. But it hadn't been exclusively terror that made them scribble notes like crazy and genuinely try to understand what the heck he was talking about.

He was explaining how a pinhole camera worked and had everyone make one from materials they'd brought-I had the sneaking suspicion that he relied on the fact that no one in the class knew that he was younger than all of them. Looking all grown up and adorable in his 'nice' jeans and a light sweater Chloe had undoubtedly bought him helped.

He was all confident and calm as he demonstrated how to guerrilla-together a ghetto camera. Mostly they used boxes but more than a few creative alternatives including one girl (with a killer figure) that made hers out of a Pringles can. The class became increasingly more interesting after I started talking to her but oddly enough I couldn't remember a word Derek said after that.

"Only one class, then I'll be helping set up." He said as Chloe slung her backpack on and they started for the door.

"Sweet. I'll be in the studio all day if you need me." It was a sunny day and I stretched before getting into Chloe's car, basking in the warmth before I had to retreat to my cave of solitude in the art room.

"So. No date." Chloe said when we were on the road. "Any particular reason? I'm sure you could find a date in thirty seconds or less if you wanted."

"I don't want to date a non-supernatural."

"Is that racism I detect?"

"Nah. If anything it's speciesism." The two main ingredients in the cocktail that is Simon Bae are artist and sorcerer. I don't want to have to hide half of who I am from someone who I'm supposed to be intimate with.

Chloe hesitated, then sighed. "You know it might be nice to have your ego stroked for a little while by an adoring fan girl."

"And here I thought girls were only good for other kinds of stroking."

"Sexist douchebag."

"Haley Joel Osment." I paused, thinking intensely and gave Chloe a serious look. "Chloe if you're really worried about me…"

"I am."

"-I can always subscribe to playboy."

She glared at me.

"I'm serious." I kept a stony resolute expression on my face. "We could tell Derek it's for figure sketching practice and you can go halfsies on the subscription."

She rolled her eyes and braked in front of the school. "Just get out."

I did a double-take at where she'd stopped, giving her a look of genuine trepidation. "But… this is the front of the school."

"Uh-huh."

"Not the parking lot."

"Gosh it's a good thing you're pretty! As long as you blind people with your attractiveness they'll never notice that you're a ditzy blond."

I glared at her. "This isn't funny."

"Face your fears! Also I'm running errands for my class first period and won't be parking in the lot." We usually parked behind the school, where it was mostly abandoned in the morning and we didn't have to talk to anyone on the way in.

"I could come, everyone needs an errand boy right?" I said it only half-heartedly, knowing that my senior project had first priority.

Chloe kissed my cheek and handed me a sack lunch like a soccer mom, patting me on the head and smushing the hairstyle I had so carefully cultivated during the night. Seriously, I had to stay on one side for most of the night to really capture the "slept on one side" lopsided messy look.

I made it four steps down the sidewalk before Chloe had the passenger side window down.

"Have a good day at school honey!" She smiled and waved as she abandoned me to my fate while simultaneously chumming the water by drawing attention to us.

It was super weird but she had unintentionally slipped into a mother-like role in our household. She was already the worrier and (obviously) the only source of feminine energy that regularly inhabited the house. I assumed she appointed herself the nurturing role because she didn't have that figure in her life growing up, just like us. I was cool with it, it didn't bother me and the whole mother-type affection thing could be kind of nice in an overbearing, invasive, annoying sort of way.

I am invisible. I thought as I walked to the school, I couldn't flat-out run because that would attract too much attention but I strolled with the pace of an Olympian stroller. I am invisible. I am invisible. I am invisible.

"Simon!" A girl's voice squealed and I picked up the pace, pretending not to hear.

"Hey there." Another girl stepped into my path. A beautiful brunette that was no doubt involved in the cheerleading squad in some way (okay, not stereotyping here, she was wearing the uniform).

I am invisible. She is talking to someone behind me. She took my escape attempt as flirting—why is it that girls think you're flirting when you ignore them?

"You've been a hard man to track down."

Another sidestep from me, another casual sway into my path. Step, block, step, block. This was getting ridiculous. I noticed several more girls sneaking up in my peripheral vision, made bold by obvious rejection of my human blockade.

"I really have to finish my senior project, if you'll excuse me." I touched her shoulder to move her out of the way, big mistake.

"I think it's so hot that you're an artist." She caught my wrist with a vice-grip that would have kept even Derek trapped.

If you break my damn wrist I won't be an artist for long. I peeled her fingers off of me, trying not to surreptitiously check for bruising. "It was nice to see you again…" I pretended to struggle to remember her name, nothing pissed popular girls off more than that.

"Gwen." Her tone was icy but she recovered with rattlesnake speed. "I heard you haven't asked anyone to the dance."

"Not going." I backpedaled slowly, I could see a few girls closing in from the sides, scenting blood in the water.

No sudden movements. Ah damn that's T-rex's, what the hell did you do against a pack of velocirapters?

I'd never understood why girls were attracted to me. All I did was try to be nice to them, joke around and show some school spirit by playing on the athletic teams. When I asked Chloe in an attempt to find an effective girl-repellent she'd rolled her eyes as though I was asking why the sun rose. Because you're hot. Duh. Which really didn't help with my primary goal. When I asked Derek he'd said it was genetics. You have unusual genetic features, you're obviously of mixed race and you're athletic, indicating that that particular genetic mix was successful. This appeals to their primary goal in life, procreate with a genetically strong male counterpart who can protect their offspring. That had been even less helpful. Of course dad had just sighed and slumped in his chair; Simon… it's time I told you about the family curse. Hah hah dad.

I don't want to date anybody! I want to work on my art without interruptions or distractions! I looked around, desperate for an escape route.

"Simon!" I was saved by the shout from the captain of the basketball team. He slung an arm around my shoulders and walked me into the school. Before I could thank him for rescuing me he turned with a determined gleam in his eyes. "Are you going to play in the last game this season?"

I rolled my eyes with an exasperated sigh. I'd joined the basketball team at the start of the term but it cut into my senior project time too much and I'd had to drop out. It hadn't gone over well.

"I'm scrawny and useless, like a starved kitten… with a bad case of TB." I didn't flex my arms to prove my point, they'd just indicate otherwise. Just because I quit the basketball team didn't mean I stopped working out, I needed the extra boost I got from the endorphins.

He laughed. "Toilet paper? You're a funny guy Simon."

I smiled weakly at his idiocy. I could see the door to the studio, it was just around the corner. All I needed was a distraction…

"Isn't that Megan Fox?" I asked, squinting down the opposite hall.

"Huh? Where?" He spun with the reflexes of an eighteen-year-old hormone-driven basketball team captain.

I ran for it.