Flashback to a few months ago.

Kappa everywhere, like a whole sea of them emerging from the ocean and onto the Beach just to attack innocent civilians, well I was the only innocent civilian on that beach, Little did I know at that moment until things went to heck.

Space Ruby is rarely verbal when I need it, first the disabled warriors tournament where I had to spar a guy I was attracted to, now this, why?

I thought I'd be able to handle these frog anglerfish hybrids on my own, well on my own with my trusty bow and quiver full of arrows, The bow was a gift from my godfather Tommy as well as a threat to call CPS if my parents didn't believe me the next time I ever claim to of been bullied.

I shot one square in the eye, it turned to sea foam, freeing that one arrow for me to grab and shoot another in the chest repeating the cycle with search/replace vulnerable parts of the foot soldier.

I kept hearing people call my name, they most likely tried to come to my rescue, but it was futile, I shot enough kappa for them to be out for my blood, this time for them was personal and it's blocked my escape.

One snuck up on me and kicked my bow out of my hands, that thing was rammed against a rock and it broke on impact, if only I had time to cry, this just got as personal for me as it was for them.

The kappa that broke my bow tried to take me out with a left hook, I blocked it before kicking it in the crotch, another one attempted to kick me in the face, ducked that and swept its leg for good measure, making it fall to the ground.

Yet another one tried to Hammerfist me off the top of my head, I blocked it with both my arms, but it was too strong and it caused my wrist to hit my head instead of its own fist, I fell to the ground and landed on my back.

That one king size sharptooth frog croaked in jubilation before it grabbed me by the shoulder with its flesh piercing claws, I was screwed until I heard someone shout "leave her alone" followed by my eyes being bathed in the sight of a redhead attempting and succeeding for the most part to tackle it to the ground, pain shot through my shoulder the moment I fell back onto the sand.

I sat back up using my arm that was attached to my uninjured shoulder to get a better look at my savior, it was that strawberry blond 16-year-old boy, The ash-blond man, Hunter's son… don't ask me what the other guys names are, Rien knows them.

the red T-shirt and swim trunks that ginger teen was wearing did nothing to hide his lady attracting muscles, he was followed by the rest of his family, A little girl and Hunter were twinning with the color Crimson, a white corn blond woman in light blue (I honestly mistook the two blond adults as siblings) with a not-all-that-big man in navy blue and a boy The same age as the redhead and with the same colored hair as the woman, his clothes were yellow.

Something suddenly unsettled me about them, they all had weird bouncy super-speed when they fought, one of the foot soldiers grabbed the white corn blond boy by the lapel and in the process of trying to get free… a uniform was revealed the moment that foot soldier tore his clothes off.

"In Front of a civilian? Seriously?" The blond boy shouted in frustration at the foot soldier that was still holding on to his clothes, the others noticed this and tore their own clothes off, revealing the uniform, all the decor on their uniforms matched their civilian attire.

They were ninjas, the very Halloween costume my bullies used to scare me a couple of years ago, as far as it used to concern me, any movie was a horror movie with ninjas in it no matter the actual genre.

I just crawled to the rocks and curled up into a ball, whimpering. "I have to check her for injuries, I'll be back in the fight as soon as I can." I heard the ninja woman in light blue shout.

Someone's hand lightly touching my shoulder wounds made me let out a startled and pained yelp.

They turned me around to face them, it was the white corn blond woman. "Sorry, are you alright, Marissa?" The ninja woman with light blue decor on her uniform asked, I frantically nodded, just wanting her to get away from me. "Are you hurt…? Yikes, that looks awful!" You get one guess as to what she was talking about, I could only turn my head away from her, close my teary eyes and tremble. "Hopefully, it's nothing Hydrokinetic based healing powers can't fix, come here, let me get a closer look." I obeyed, Ninja-phobic me was scared not to.

I was sure the ninjas would hurt me worse if I tried to fight back against them and as good of a fighter as I'd like to think I am, look what happened to me when I went up against the kappa, those things could've wiped the shoreline with me.

She touched my shoulder and while it melted the sting away, my shoulder still felt stiff. "Tori, how is she?" I… We heard a voice ring through the air in spite of the loud waves, I opened my eyes to not only see she who we can now refer to as Tori, but the not-all-that-big man sprinting towards us from over her shoulder.

"I just healed some scratches on Marissa's shoulder." The ninja woman, Tori answered.

"She still looks like she's afraid of something." The not-all-that-big man… err… ninja lamented, his eyebrows knitted together with worry when he got a closer look at me, if they were fooling me, it wouldn't work. "She's trembling." He was right. "Or shivering, Are you cold?" Well my goosebumps had goosebumps, I don't even know what that meant.

Hunter came running… or rather, limping to us, i'm not gonna lie, that limp did nothing to make him look any less imposing. "My wrist and ankle still haven't recovered yet, let me try to comfort Marissa." He said, holding out his arms for me to go in for the embrace, I shrunk away and closed my eyes again instead. "No, it'll be okay, we won't let them hurt you." His hand at my shoulder or at least I think it was froze me with fear. "You're safe now, not in danger anymore." I wasn't buying it.

So why am I not pleading for them to not harm me or calling for help, you wonder? Because all the times doing so either got me nothing or worse wounds than originally intended by my tormentors and ninjas at this moment seemed like a recipe for disaster for me. "If you hurt me, they will hunt you down." I wanted to say, if I wasn't too scared to say anything

"Guys, is everyone all right? What happened?" I heard a familiar voice, Rien's, I was beginning to think he would protect me from the Ninjas.

"We're fine, but we can't seem to calm Marissa down." Hunter sounded like he was going to cry, I thought it was a ruse to let my guard down. "Well, I can't, am I doing something wrong?"

"Oh no." Rien said, sounding like he forgot some thing and realizing it now. "She's afraid of ninjas, now I regret not telling her that I'm one of you guys when she was ostracized into an aversion." Familiar as his hands felt when they gripped my elbows and helped me to my feet, they somehow managed to simultaneously feel stronger, A possible side effect of morphin grid access. "Marissa, i'm here, look at me." I opened my eyes and did as I was told, I saw Rien, one of my best friends… Dressed from neck to toe as a ninja, the uniform's decor was light blue like Tori's, I felt as if my blood literally ran cold.

"You're…" I couldn't finish that sentence, I felt like I had one foot in the grave being surrounded by ninjas, One of which was someone I've supposedly known since I was eight which made me feel all the more done for.

"Still your friend, just trained as one of them." Rien reassured, cupping my face in his hands, before giving my forehead a kiss.

I tried and technically succeeded not to burst into tears, but the tears refused to not flow, my lungs refused to draw a steady breath.

I felt soft, but calloused fingers dry my eyes. "Oh, don't cry." Rien cooed in an attempt to soothe me, pulling me into an embrace, rubbing circles into my back. "I know these guys, they'll protect you, shh, it's going to be OK." His attempts worked for the most part, but I was still struggling to breathe without sniffling. "You can't be here, you need to get to safety."

Tori faced me, shot a look of reassurance my way and petted my shoulder.

"But we were just getting warmed up." The blond boy complained.

"Sorry, Junior, i'm with your mother on this one." Hunter said. "Besides, I'm still healing from the last time we battled these freaks."

"Those things are creepy so I don't mind." The little girl said.

"And we'll take Marissa with us." The red headed boy said. "Even if she's scared of us, somebody's got to keep her out of peril."

"You got her bow, Blake?" Rien asked, The not-all-that-big-ninja… Blake had my bow.

"Hopefully, one of us can fix it once we're all safe." Blake answered, struggling to not drop every peace of my now falling apart bow.

"You've got Marissa, Hunter?" Rien Asked again, giving me to Hunter.

"She may not think so, but she'll be safe." Hunter said, taking me from Rien, his arms wrapped protectively around me, I was trembling again. "It's alright, you're gonna be okay, I'll make sure of that." That didn't help, neither did his picking me up bridal style, compelling me to swallow hard. "Just hang in there, okay…?" I nodded, wishing I could wake up from this nightmare.

"I think the infirmary is this way." The blond boy, Junior shouted, it's a wonder I could hear him over my heart pounding in my ears… well one ear, my other ear was pressed against Hunter's chest as they ran with me in their clutches, my butt weighed nothing at the time so his own heart pounding might be the result of running or rather hobbling. "They can check her for injuries Mom might've missed."

Adrenaline was starting to wear off, I felt dizzy and my eyelids felt droopy, as the infirmary appeared to be close at hand, everything faded away to pitch black.

All five of my senses failed me one by one, the last to go was my hearing and feeling of any part of the world my body came in to contact with.

"She lost consciousness." Hunter sounded frantic. "Marissa, can you hear me? Marissa." And that along side my back laying on what felt like a patch of grass was the last I heard and felt… before I came to in a nice warm bed, the one I could have sworn I feel asleep in last night.

Another flashback, I'm not sure what the deal was with that one in particular, but there wasn't enough time to ponder it and go about my morning at the same time.

All that followed was bit of a lather/rinse/repeat as far as how freshman orientation day number two went, with one notable exception, I was to see the town afterwards.

Predictably, it was a nice day again, there I was riding shotgun in Silas's car, Kira Ford's rendition of Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot playing on the radio. "You're gonna love this place, Marissa." Silas said from behind the steering wheel of his silver CUV, It rode smoother than the voyager, if I was that kind of girl, It wouldn't be fair to me one bit.

I mean, a car is an automated box on wheels, why be so hung up about what can and cannot be helped when it comes to the automobile? I haven't even learned how to drive because while the age society deems most appropriate for driver's ed is sixteen, you need proof you either were or are being educated, homeschoolers, at least where I'm from are out of luck in that regard until they're eighteen, now that is what I call unfair.

I made an attempt to continue the conversation… Sort of, "I bet I am… it's uhh…" it proved to be feeble, around any other boy, I'm not like this and it would be a lot less embarrassing and awkward if Penny and her male cheerleader weren't in the backseat.

"You are, it's a cute little pizza place." Penny said from backup shotgun. "And it's across from a frozen yogurt shop, Caius and Silas actually know this place well. "

That was nice and I was really hoping that the yogurt itself contained probiotics (because what would be the point of it being called "frozen yogurt"?), by the looks of it, I hit the jackpot either way.

"Really?" I asked, suddenly intrigued, I craned my head around to face them, although I was relying a little more heavily on my peripheral vision.

"Uh huh, Aunt Kywie, Silash and I come here on de final Fwiday of da month evewy summa since we moved here." Penny's male cheerleader, I'm guessing is named Caius answered with a crooked smile most likely from cerebral palsy between that, the hobble/sprint from yesterday and the slurred speech.

Within our conversation, I didn't notice that Silas found a parking spot. "Alright, it's all on foot from here." He announced, we all unbuckled and emerged from the car. "Lance and Cato are probably waiting for us."

"Wait, Lance and Cato?" I asked in spite of feeling too squeamish to know the answer, this wasn't exactly in the metaphorical brochure, is this a social anxiety intervention? Can interventions be staged for that? "You mean there's more tagging along?" We sauntered along the sidewalk for a few minutes, One eye of mine on things being pointed out to me and the other one on the group so as not to lose track of them, getting myself lost in the process.

One of which was a cute little book store, the type that only sells the classics like The Great Gatsby or the occasional old comic book, probably nothing i'd write/publish, but then again, I've been known to read the occasional classic.

We turned a corner and came across two motorcycles parked in a parking space on the side of the road, The occupants yanked off their helmets to reveal the athlete that helped me with directions to archery class yesterday and the mechanic with downs syndrome.

The athlete's dark skin aside, A split second Glimpse into his eyes indicated that they matched mine, piercing and Amber, his hair was half collar length English micro braids and half cornrows. the portrait of a timber-wolf on his royal blue shirt peeking through his navy leather jacket, from the looks of it, he was pretty slim and/or strong and half a head taller than me, if the two of us were wild humans, we would be the people of the moon; him, a lycanthrope and me, a mermaid.

The mechanic with downs was tanned as heck, it matched his hair, what looked like a painting of a gremlin and a mogwai on a yellow T-shirt peeking through a gold leather jacket, he had some pudge to him, but otherwise looked just as strong and tall as the black athlete.

"Guys, this is Marissa, the new college girl." Silas said gesturing between me and the boys. "Marissa, this is Lance." he gestured to the black athlete. "And Cato." He gestured to the mechanic.

"Si, apart from not getting each other's name, we've met." The athlete, Lance said, I nodded in agreement.

"Really nice to meet you, Marissa." The mechanic, Cato said, sounding like he hailed from Britain, the lisp somehow made it hard to tell where in Britain that might've been. "Silas has told us a lot about you, we didn't even believe him until yesterday." He must've participated in that basketball game the day prior to now.

Once we got back to walking, we turned another corner. "Here's the pizza place." Silas said, gesturing to the establishment before us.

Silas opened the door and signaled for me and/or Penny to walk through and the moment we went through the door, the interior reminded me of this one pizza place back home, it wouldn't have mattered if I was missing home in the first place, if the food tasted anything like it did back home, I wouldn't.

After everyone placed their orders, I placed mine. "Just a slice of pizza and some plain dry spaghetti, I'm new here so I want to see what I like here." I said to the cashier before going to hand her my debit card, I felt a hand grasp my wrist, strong as it felt… shoot.

"No need, my treat and I'll take responsibility if you don't like it." I heard Silas say, turning me into a shocked vegetable, my ever-widening eyes still on the… Not sure if the person manning the cash register was male or female, but anyway, The redheaded… Whatever he or she was was handed someone else's plastic, possibly Silas's. "Don't you worry about it."

"Trying not to." I muttered under my breath, the people in my life never give me a beeper when I need one. "Can I pay for my own food next time?"

The others, Silas and I looked for somewhere to sit and eat, we found a booth at the back. "So far so good, huh?" He asked.

"A little early to say." Was my only answer, I haven't eaten yet.

Lance sat next to Cato, who sat next to me, Silas sat across from me, next to Caius next to Penny this was as equally heart attack symptom triggering as if he were to sit next to me, but I had to take it as lesser of the two evils.

"Okay, while we wait for the food, let's hold an FHA meeting, shall we?" Silas asked, earning a raised eyebrow from me, he probably took it as an asked question as the expression on my face indicated that I didn't know what FHA meant. "That's Former Homeschoolers Anonymous, it's a support group for those who feel it ruined their lives to have been homeschooled." Well, how intriguing… wait, what? "I'll start, hello, I'm Silas, I was homeschooled."

"Hi, Silas." Everyone else said in unison with me lagging a few seconds behind.

He continued. "For refresher purposes because we've got a guest, I don't really feel like it's ruined my life, it wasn't even homeschooling for me or Caius, it was more on-the-run-schooling." He and the dean/principal keeps saying that… I wonder. "That is, until we immigrated to England, mom freaked out in the aftermath of a car accident the three of us were involved in and we fled to America so it's not really me or Caius whose lives are ruined, I guess I've heard enough stories about people's perception of us as homeschoolers that could mess that up, but meh, what is one going to do? Really, what can one do but stick with others like you?" Everyone applauded him.

So that's how he builds muscle, by lifting people up when they feel down, not sure if that's how it works, but… I don't understand how that works even if it's metaphorical.

"Hi, I'm Caiush, I wash homeschooled." Caius took his turn.

"Hi, Caius." The rest of us said in unison.

"Copy and pastech what Silash sheaid, it's shimilar." Caius said.

"Howdy, I'm Penny, homeschooled."

"Hi, Penny." The rest of us said in unison, only I was the one who do so with a chuckle, so what if there was something amusing about her accent?

"It was because I was tested for dyslexia and it turned out I have it, my reason for feeling like you ruined my life was because it exacerbates people's negative interpretation about you or so I eventually came to realize, they find out you can't read properly, next thing you know they blame it on the Homeschooling the moment they find that out about you too." Even if my pain wasn't the same as hers, our pain still felt one in the same, such a decision for a parent to make and neurodivergence stop mixing when you consider what people will think. "Doesn't even matter if my mama did a good job, but at least I'm not alone, with my family, I was." I feel the irony.

Lance then took his turn, introduced himself, in his piece, he seconded Penny's about how being homeschooled exacerbates other people's prejudice against… anything else about you… same with Cato when he shared… but then it was my turn.

"Hi, I'm Marissa and I was homeschooled." I said after a minute of hesitation.

"Hi, Marissa." Everyone… ahh, you get the idea.

I braced myself for the tears. "Have you guys ever had that conflict with your folks about the decisions they made in raising you?" I asked, earning some nods of heads. "Did your parents ever turn a blind eye while you were ostracized for their choices in upbringing? Mine did, I've told them I was being bullied and my mother dismissed me on grounds…" My voice broke before I could finish that sentence and I was in tears.

I felt looks of sympathy shot in my direction."It's okay, just let it all out." I heard Silas say, felt his hand take my own, it was big enough to fit two of mine into one of his.

"My parents think homeschool students can't be bullied, not sure what they'd know, they weren't in my shoes when they were kids." I rasped with tears in my eyes. "Neither were my godparents, but at least they threatened to sick CPS on my parents if they ever dismissed me again."