Chapter 2

[11 years later…]

“C’mon Zone, you’ve gotta do better than that to beat the Dan!”
“I don’t want to hurt you. But if you carry on, I will.” Sephen once again was being ‘teased’ by his classmates. It was after school and Daniel Grey had asked him to see him on the outdoors basketball court. He had said, “me ‘n’ me mates are gonna get you after school.”
Sephen had laughed in his face and accepted to the ‘challenge’. To him, this was all a game he was fated to win. It was so pathetic how they talked. “We’re gonna get you”. “Me and my mates”. Why couldn’t they do it them selves? Lazy sods. He loved how dumb these people where. Too dumb to rebound on his remarks.
Daniel threw a punch at Sephen, but he grabbed his fist without flinching and threw him backwards. He heard someone behind him. It really didn’t seem fair. There were at least twenty of them, and only one of him, ‘they’re gonna need at least fifty if they wanna hurt me’ he thought. He began to laugh, and kicked the boy behind him. The girls in the crowd giggled and Sephen winked at them. One of them he recognized from his classes. Ctrien Alaura. One of the other girls had told him she had a crush on him and that was why she never talked to him. He winked at her and she blushed.
Another five boys came towards him.
“You know. I actually feel sorry for you. So I’m gonna let you have a shot each.”
They looked at each other and nodded. All at once they came in and kicked him in the stomach. It winded him and for a moment he couldn’t breathe.
“You really aren’t as weak as I thought,” He gasped, “no matter,” he straightened up, stumbling slightly, and took a few breathes.
“Before I knock the stuffing outta these guys I would like the ladies to seek safer ground please… but I wouldn’t want you to miss anything so please can we move somewhere else?” the boys talked to each other for a while, and Sephen gave the girls flirtatious looks. Some giggled, some smiled but the friends of the boys gave him horrible stares.
They had agreed to move. ‘The Dan’ said, “of course, the girls shouldn’t miss out. I need them here to gossip about how I beat you into the ground.” They moved around onto the entrance. The girls were sitting on the bike shed and the boys, near the main entrance of the school. They knew the teachers were gone. They had checked the school was locked before Sephen had arrived.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s about to get hot in here” smirked Sephen. ‘The Dan’ came forward and raised his fists. Immediately, Sephen shape shifted into his Diaelo form and added his own special feature, his red spiked tail.
He then surrounded his hands in flames.
“I wouldn’t expect you pathetic humans to understand what real fighting is about”
Dan looked from his hands to his tail, to his face.
“W-what is t-this?”
Sephen grinned at him, “…payback”

[*]

Averlia sat on the grass in the field with Flavius, watching the other humans play football.
She began picking the daisies and making a chain.
Flavius was playing with his long brown hair, deep in thought.
“It really is funny.” He said taking Averlia by surprise, he had been quiet for so long.
“Whats really funny?” she asked him.
“There’s over a hundred human schools around this part of the country which inhabits mostly Diaelo. Yet there are no Diaelo schools anywhere!”
Averlia laughed, and smoothed her black hair over her right eye to make sure it was out of sight, “that is funny. Well, it amazes me that they can find enough human to fill them. Especially this one. I heard of a school on the other side of the valley. There’s only one Diaelo in it.”
“I heard of that place. I read in the newspaper there was a huge explosion last night at the entrance. Burnt fifteen human students but one guy got out unharmed. Must have been the Diaelo. Didn’t say his name…”
Averlia looked up. On of the humans had stopped playing football and was pointing at them, laughing. Another stopped and joined in the laughing. Another six copied and soon all of them had stopped and were pointing at where they were sitting. They put their arms down and started to walk in Flavius and Averlia’s direction.
“Uh-oh… here we go again. Come on…” he stood up and tried to pull Averlia up too. She wouldn’t budge.
“I’m staying here. They can’t make me move. We’re always running away from them. They’re just human’s what’re they gonna do?” a girl Flavius knew from the year above Averlia came forward and pushed her.
“This is our field it isn’t a place for freaks like you.” She said.
Averlia looked up at her (she was quite a lot taller than she was), then down at the floor. She lifted up one foot and looked at the grass below it. Then did the same with the other foot.
“Your field? It hasn’t got your name on it anywhere. Oh, and speaking of names, I have one. I’d rather you call me Averlia, instead of ‘freak’.”
The girl smirked and looked around at the students behind her. They all smirked too and some sniggered.
“I don’t care what your name is. Freaks like you should respect us” she raised her fist and hit Averlia in the face.
Averlia staggered backwards and heard the girl gasp.
“She burnt me!” Averlia straightened up and looked at her fist, which she was holding in the other hand. There was a huge red mark on the tops of her fingers and her knuckles. The bully looked at Averlia and gasped again.
“Err look at her eye!” as the rest of the bullies looked at Averlia too they all gasped. She quickly smoothed her hair back over her scarred eye. She looked at Flavius and shook her head. Flavius came forward and said “and you better respect her or your not gonna exist.”
Averlia rolled her eyes “Oh for god sake Flavius you can’t even beat me up without me letting you get in a few hundred shots.”
The girl laughed, “you really think you could take on me?!” she laughed again and her ‘followers’ sniggered again.
“just because I’m shorter and younger than you, you think I’m weaker than you? Ha! You have a lot to learn about our kind. Especially when this school is surrounded by us”
The girl stopped laughing and looked confused.
The school bell rang and the bullies ran off. Averlia collected her belongings and zoomed off to the school doors (beating the bullies by at least five minutes), waved at them and zoomed off to class.
when she sat down she took out her things and wrote in her notebook while she waited for the rest of the class to arrive.
When everyone had sat down their teacher entered the room sobbing.
“class we have some bad news. The government has decided to close down the school to build more houses. So effective immediately, you are all no longer students of this school.”
At first she just looked at the class as if expecting them to cry. There was utter silence for a few minutes until a boy sitting at the back said, “are you messin’ wi’ us?” she shook her head and most of the class cheered at the top of their voices, and ran out of the class room.
Averlia met up with Flavius and Arneya at the front of the school, and to her surprise they were crying.
“what is wrong with you two? We get to pick a different school! Or no school at all! Ooh Flavius we can go to that crystal valley college we were talking about! At there’s another Diaelo there! You never know it might be Tierri or even Reona!”
“oh whatever ‘Verlia” sobbed Arneya.

[*]

“err look at her hair”
“I told you she was a freak didn’t I!”
Once again Averlia was being bullied. But this time, at Crystal Valley College. She had been there a week and hadn’t made any friends, but had been picked on everyday since she started.
At first she was a little intimidated, but now it had become part of her day and she really didn’t care. Her teachers weren’t too strict and there wasn’t much homework. But the best thing by far was the optional uniform.

"i don;t care if you think i'm a freak because to be honest i think your a muscle bound she-man with too much facial hair"
The larger of the three girls stepped forward and looked down on averlia, "see i don;t like girls like you... the kind who don;t know when to shut up"
Averlia looked straight back up at her, "awww, too bad! too bad i don;t give a shit!"
The girl pulled back her fist and charged into Averlia middle, winding her.
"i told you to shut up" the girl whispered in her ear.
"and i told you to watch you you mess with!" a strong deep, arrogant voice spoke from just above them, possibly standing on the bike shed Averlia had now folded over in front of. Two of the girls ran off, but 'Tiny Tina' remained standing, fused to the spot. She began to stutter, "s-s-s... w-we didn't know... i-is she a f-friend of y-yours?"
The voice spoke again, "you could say that... now beat it. before i knock you into next week"
"yes sir!" and with that she ran off.
Averlia straightened up,. panting heavily and watched her go.
A boy jumped down in front of her. He had long blood red hair that blew feircly in the wind, He had soft yet dangerously handsome features, that made Averlia go weak at the knees.
"you okay?"
She shook herself out of the trance and nodded, "uh..,. yeah thanks..."
He smiled and she felt her legs collapse from under her.
He rushed forward and helped her up, laughing, "sure?"
She grabbed onto his shoulders for support, and felt his muscles as she pulled herself up. They were firm, and tensed. He held her by the waist, lifting her from the ground with ease.
She looked up at him blushing, "sorry..." he caught her eye and gazed into them. Averlia felt herself blush more as she gazed back, falling for him, wanting him.... needing him...
He held her closer, tighter and leaned in, pressing his lips gently to hers. She closed her eyes and let herslef sink into his arms even more so, caressing his buldging, tense biceps and shoulders.
The school bell rang in the distance and Averlia was dragged relectantly into eality. ?The boy in front of her seemed dissappointed to. They seemed to connect for a second, both wating to skip next class to be together.
"Averlia!" She heard her brother Flavius shout of her, and her heart sank to her ankles. She turned back to Him, "thats my brother i need to go..."
He was 'hovering' around her lips, breathing on them softly, making her shivver and sweat. His eyes were half closed and he moved his ands further round her waist, "i... i don;t want you to go" He kissed her again. More passionatly this time, moving his lips up and down as she did the same, moving his hands up and down her back. She pulled away, hating herself for it and ran toward te school for her next lesson, not looking back. For a while, he just watched her... then made his own way to his next lesson.

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