Truth Be Told

In Which Some Stuff Is Explained

Taylor's pov

On my way to the bathroom, I thought about the current situation.

What the hell was Callisto doing here?

And posing as our substitute math teacher, too. What kind of a name is Grant anyway? I scolded myself. Callisto's choice of name was besides the point here.

This school was filled with humans, who all ignored the existence of supernaturals, or thought they were just bedtime stories meant to entertain children.

They could be so blind, sometimes.

As one of the few supernaturals in this school, I could assure you that supernaturals are real, and thriving at that. They just make sure to keep their distance from the human folk, and all seems to go as normal. It still shocks me sometimes, when, in a crowd of human people, I spot a supernatural amidst them, going about their normal business, perhaps as an employee at a supernatural company, away from the regular haunts of humans.

Yes, away. Especially the adults. Then why was Callisto here?!

I stormed into the bathroom, and splashed my face with water. Callisto was a demon, and as a demon, he liked to feed on living souls. Imagine the fright one gets when a demon like him randomly shows up at their school! Is he going to use it as a feeding ground???

And besides, Callisto, like a few other demons of his particular...race? - were part of the Protectors.

Protectors are supernaturals handpicked by other Protectors to be part of a very important force. The abilities we get (on top of the ones we already had, being supernaturals) depend mostly on what time of the year you were born in. Winter-borns would have something to do with ice, spring-borns to do with earth, Summer-borns had to do with fire, and autumn-borns with wind. If you are born inbetween seasons, your abilities would be a cross between both, or even completely unrelated to those two seasons.

As Protectors, we have a job to do. And that is to keep an eye on the beings that threatened to break the current veil of peace between humans and supernaturals.

Not that it is very strong, I thought as I wiped my face with a towel. The humans will panic on discovering us, and then go all destructive on us like before.

So if Callisto is here, then where is the being he's watching? Unfortunately, it seems like the only way I will get an answer is by interacting with him. I sighed, and walked out the bathroom door, heading to class. I don't doubt that Angie picked up my books for me.

I put my hands on my hips as sudden thought struck me. Callisto didn't actually...get rid of Mr. Brown...did he?

I shook my head to clear the thought, and kept walking down the hall. Best to ask him in person than come up with a bunch of theories, I thought, turning the corner.

~~~

The bell rang, signaling break time. I hurried through the throngs of students in the halls, my feet pounding on the floor. Eventually, I caught sight of them. Up ahead, Angie and Jade were occupied in light conversation, but Angie kept glancing around, looking for me probably. I picked up my pace, and waited for when they were paying the least attention to sling my arms around them.

"Hiya!" I chirped.

Jade let out a little yelp, while Angie jumped, and then pressed her hand to her heart.

"I have a weak heart! You want to kill me?" She said and punched me in the arm.

"Sorry," I replied, grinning all the while. "So, what're you guys up to?"

"We were just going to drop off our bags in the English room." Angie replied. I fell into step with them, and on the way, passed by the open double doors, leading into an indoor court, where a game of volleyball was just about to begin.

"Oh!" exclaimed Jade. She stopped, and yelled into the court,

"Is it okay for me to join you?"

"Yeah, sure, come on!" a brown-haired boy called back.

"Bye guys. See you later!" hollered Jade, dashing into the court. I linked arms with Angie, and we continued on our way. At some point, we found Luke, desperately trying to yank his locker open, but clearly, it was resisting all his efforts.

"Why don't you try using the combination?" I called, smirking. His locker had a notorious habit of rejecting whatever combination was meant for it, and as a result, it was quite a common sight to find Luke trying to yank his locker door off its hinges.

He rolled his eyes at me, and said, "If you think you can turn a dial better than me, then by all means, go ahead and demonstrate your amazing abilities."

I retorted that he had better hope that some of them rubbed off on him, so he could embarrass himself a little less often . Although I doubted that - lock goblins are a thing, and they do hate him. I reached his locker, and dialled the combination for the infamous locker. I pulled at it. No luck. Luke gave me a funny face.

"Huh. Normally it usually works when I do it. I think you've really done it this time?"

"Aw, come on. They just don't know how to appreciate a good joke."

"Maybe because you keep picking on the fact that they're stuck in tiny fissures."

As if in reply, the lock jumped and let out a tiny growl. Luke and I both leaned back in surprise. We weren't worried about anyone seeing the supernatural - most here were human or blissfully ignorant - it was just rare for them to reveal their presence.

"Quit annoying my brother, Tay, and come look at this." Angie was staring at the bulletin board situated right next to Luke's locker. It had a bunch of notices pinned up on it already, being the beginning of the school year, but the one Angie was looking at was the one that listed the new teachers at the school. There were only a few, but apparently one had caught Angie's attention. She pointed at it.

"I guess Mr. Brown really did leave. That sub's here to stay."

"Apparently it was a car accident," I said.

My eyes left Callisto's picture and roamed over the rest of the new teachers, when they snagged on a particular one. I saw the name, and it had a picture next to it. I glanced at it and felt my blood turn to slush.