Okay this is from Thalia's point of view. I think the next chapter is going to be too but I'm still not sure but here, Enjoy!
Thalia woke up again feeling as if someone or something had been in the tower. 'If it is Jude I don't know what I'll do to him.' She looked over at the clock that read six in the morning. 'Well at least it woke me up on time.' She shrugged and got up out of bed and got ready for school.
On the way to school, Thalia was reading a book, when Derek spoke up, "Hey Thalia, how'd you cut yourself?"
"Cut myself? What are you talking about?" Thalia said, bewildered.
"Yeah on your right hand, look," Derek said, pointing from the seat behind her. Thalia looked down and sure enough, there was a cut there. The scratch was fresh too by the looks of it, and shaped in the form of an "S".
Thalia stared at it in wonder, not remembering injuring herself at all. 'Did the force that was in the tower injure me?'
"Hmm I wonder how that got there," Thalia said.
"Maybe you scratched yourself in your sleep. Your nails are getting long, and not to mention your…powers," Derek whispered the last part as they walked out of Alex's car and into the school.
"Yeah could be," Thalia said, doubting that was the reason, but she didn't want to worry Derek.
Today Derek passed up his locker and walked with Thalia to hers. Thalia noticed this and thought it was a bit strange; Derek never walked her to her locker.
"Um not that I mind or anything but, how come you're walking to my locker? Yours is in the opposite direction?" Thalia asked as they reached her locker.
Derek smiled as he leaned up against the locker next to hers and said, "Alex told me Masterson was bugging you yesterday and I thought if he showed up again, I'd tell him to buzz off."
Thalia returned the smile, "Thanks Derek, but I can take care of Jude. You should go get your stuff ready."
"You sure? If this dude's harassing you I want to know about it," Derek said protectively.
"Yes I'm sure, now go find Desiree. She's probably wondering where you are," Thalia laughed.
"M'kay, see ya later," Derek said as he turned to leave.
Thalia smiled at the red head's brotherly love for her. She didn't have any siblings so really in a way, Derek had become her big brother, Tyler too but he had enough to worry about with Alex. A thump broke Thalia out of her reverie.
Some of the football jocks stood beside her locker, "Well guys look at this, our little emo girl finally tried to off herself. But she failed, you know you're supposed to cut your wrist not your hand," the boy said grabbing Thalia's hand with force.
Thalia struggled to break free from the boy's grip, "L-l-let g-g-go T-t-todd," she stuttered. Although Thalia was less nervous overall, when she was in certain conditions she still stuttered a bit. Now was one of those times, taking down monsters and villains no problem. Standing up to the jerks at school, big problem.
"T-t-today junior! And no, we're just having some fun, and we want to have a bit more," Todd said as the other jocks circled around Thalia, leaving her no room to escape.
"F-f-fun? W-what kind of f-f-fun?" Thalia asked, she was shaking now.
The boys laughed, "Oh you'll see." Todd was just about to drag Thalia along side him when…
"Now Todd, didn't your mother ever teach you how to respect a lady," Jude said leaning in the doorframe across the hall, shuffling his cards, again.
"This ain't none of your business Masterson, get the hell out of here," Todd growled.
Jude stepped forward closing the space between them, "Oh I think it is my business, she obviously doesn't want to do whatever you boys had planned, so how about you go find Cassie Moth and see if she wants to play."
Todd let go of Thalia's wrist but stepped closer to Jude, towering over the card dealer. "This your girl Masterson? 'Cuz that will just encourage me."
"No she's not," Jude said quietly, "but she's not yours either. So get gone or I'll make you leave." Jude's face looked fierce now.
"Is that a threat?" Todd said.
"Only if you don't back off," Jude said calmly.
Todd laughed then raised his fist and aimed it at Jude. Thalia flinched and waited for the cracking of bones but it never came. She looked over and saw that Jude had Todd pressed up against the lockers. How, Thalia would never know, Jude was so much smaller than Todd.
"Now, I'm gonna let you go, and you're not going to bother Thalia again, got it?" Jude said as he threw Todd into the lockers across the hall.
"Jeez yeah sure, just don't flip out again," Todd said as he got was getting up, there was a crowd of students around but no teachers, strange.
"Dude who knew Jude was a beast!?" one of the jocks said to Todd as they walked off.
"Shut up!" Todd snarled.
Jude smirked and then turned to Thalia, "You okay?" His expression serious now.
"Yeah, um why did you do that?" Thalia asked confused.
Jude shrugged, "I was just filling in for your boyfriend."
"My what?" Thalia asked.
"The red-head Derek Grayson, he was hanging around you this morning and he's always at your locker after school," Jude stated.
"Derek's just a friend, not my boyfriend," Thalia told him.
"Didn't look that way to me," Jude said.
"Well it is that way, any thing else you want to say?" Thalia snapped as she folded her arms against her chest.
"Nope," Jude said with a smile.
"Well thanks," Thalia said as she started to walk off, of course Jude followed.
"Just one question," Jude asked still serious, "can I see your hand?"
Thalia perplexed said, "Um, okay." She showed him the top of her right hand.
Jude took her hand in his and saw the markings and his eyes grew wide. He quickly dropped her hand and turned away to run a hand through his hair.
"What's wrong?" Thalia asked.
"Nothing, I'll uh, see ya around Thalia," Jude said and disappeared down the hallway, leaving Thalia in front of their homeroom.
"Bye," Thalia whispered. 'What a strange boy.'
At the end of the day the Titans all met up in the parking lot, all ready to go home for the weekend. Thalia was rummaging through her messenger bag, it felt heavier than usual.
"Whatcha looking for Thals?" Tyler asked from the passenger seat of the red camaro.
"Nothing my bag just feels real heavy that's all," Thalia said as she saw some black material at the bottom of the bag.
"Aw shit! I forgot to give Jude his jacket back," Thalia exclaimed.
"Give it to him Monday," Desiree said climbing into the back.
"No I don't want it get ruined, Derek's still got a cold. I'll just walk by his house and walk home. His place isn't far from here anyway I don't think," Thalia answered.
"If you're sure," Alex said from behind the wheel.
"I am, maybe I'll have Valerie drive me home if it gets too cold," Thalia assured her friends.
"Okay, see ya later," Alex said as she pulled out of the parking lot. Thalia waited till they were out of sight to start walking.
Once when Thalia had to do a project with Valerie, Jude followed them to Valerie's apartment building. Thalia was about to snap at him when he followed them to Valerie's floor but stopped when he turned into an apartment room.
It was a lot colder than Thalia had thought it was, she shivered as she wrapped her arms around her.
'Jude had better be home, or I don't know what I'll do,' Thalia thought as she made her way down the street and took a turn onto Latham St. where Valerie lived.
The apartment building wasn't like normal apartment complexes, they were a bunch of old dance and artist studios that had been converted. Thalia rubbed her hands as she walked into the lobby, cursing herself for forgetting gloves today. She looked up Masterson in the directory, he was in 5C on the third floor. You didn't need to be buzzed in to go to the apartments here, so Thalia walked over to the bank of elevators and pressed the number 3.
Jude had skipped the rest of the school day, so Thalia was hoping he'd be home and not somewhere else, as she walked down the narrow hallway.
She stopped at door 5C and rang the door buzzer. A male voice that sounded like he was in his late twenties answered. "Who is it? If you Aaron, the rent is in the mailbox downstairs." He sounded irritated.
"Um, I'm Thalia Taylor, does Jude Masterson live here? I have something of his," Thalia shouted from behind the door.
She heard the sound of a deadbolt sliding over, the door opened to reveal the speaker. He was tall had the same dark eyes and hair as Jude but had an angry look on his face.
"It's ok Xander, she's from school," Jude's voice came, and suddenly appeared behind the man's figure.
Xander gave Jude a disapproving look but backed off, "You have a half an hour, no more."
"I know, it's ok just go paint something," Jude groaned as the man sauntered off into a separate part of the loft.
Jude watched until he heard the door slam and said, "Would you like to come in?"
"Um sure," Thalia said walking in, "Where were you all day?"
"Here, I didn't feel like dealing with all the Todd aftermath drama," Jude said as he walked over to what looked like the kitchen part of the room.
The loft was huge, the kitchen was on a raised platform, and the living room sunk down and was complete with a large black leather couch, and silver flat screen TV and stereo system.
"Sorry if my brother offended you, he doesn't really get out much," Jude apologized.
"That was your brother? How old is he?" Thalia asked surprised.
"He's twenty-eight. I was a surprise," Jude said as he handed Thalia a glass of water. "So you said you had something of mine?"
"Oh yeah, um your jacket you left it at the lunch table yesterday and I forgot to give it to you this morning," Thalia said as she dug for the jacket, and handed it to him.
"Thanks, I was wondering where I put it," Jude said taking the jacket from her.
Thalia then noticed something, "Jude, where are your parents?"
Jude was quiet but said, "They died when I was little, Xander and I were sent to foster homes till Xander finished college.
"Oh, sorry," Thalia regretted bringing it up, she had never met her dad and knew how uncomfortable things got when people brought him up.
"It's ok," Jude stated simply. "I didn't know them all too well."
"Well I better get going, my mom will worry if I'm out too late," Thalia said heading to the door.
Jude followed her, "Wait! There's something I need to talk to you about. It's kind of important."
Thalia stopped, "Yeah? What's up?" He looked worried, and that wasn't usually what Jude was.
Jude was silent, "You know what, never mind it doesn't matter."
Thalia didn't believe him but let it go, "Okay uh, I'll see you Monday then." She placed her hand on the knob.
"Yeah, see you Monday," Jude said with a grim look on his face as she shut the door.
"You were about to tell her weren't you?" Xander accused, he had appeared silently behind Jude.
"You know I hate when you do that, your invisibility is annoying." Jude mocked.
"You were about to tell her!?" Xander repeated.
"She's got the mark she's going to find out sooner or later," Jude said brushing past his brother and landing on the couch.
"Yes but not from you! We have ourselves to worry about! They're after us too! Remember mom and dad? Do you want to end up like them?" Xander yelled.
Jude stood up, "Don't bring them into this! I won't let her end up like them, I'm stronger I can protect her!"
"And the best way to do that is to walk out of her life, we leave tonight," Xander said walking off to the liquor cabinet.
"We can't leave. She's different from the others, she's y'know special," Jude hinted.
"All the more reason to leave," Xander protested as he downed a Scotch.
"You can, I'll stay here. I won't go to school but doing what we do Xander it's our job to stay here and you know it!" Jude shouted.
Xander sighed, "You're right fine, we'll stay but she finds out on her own! You won't see her, you won't talk to her okay? We'll do our job and watch over her but that's it. When the job's done we leave again got it?" Xander commanded.
Jude thought about this, "Alright fine, I don't like it but fine." He grabbed his jacket and walked out to the balcony, "I'm going out."
Xander nodded, "Don't get caught."
Jude smiled, "When have I ever?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Xander asked.
Jude opened the door got on the rail of the fire escape, stood on it turned backward and said, "Nope." Then jumped off the rail and disappeared into the air.
Xander shook his head, "He's going to break the rules no matter what I say."
I know I know, another cliff hanger but I promise it'll all be worth it guys! Just keep reading and reviewing! Okay so Breaking Dawn is coming out Friday so I'll be reading that all weekend, and I'm going on vacation on August 10th but I'll try to get one more update in before that. You guys are great!!
XOXO