Author notes: Hello all, sorry for not uploading new chapters! There is no grand excuse, I had just been heavily focused on my studies and hadn’t had the time for writing (My first year of uni has been completed, two years to go). I obviously had time for uploads as I’ve already written these chapters and it only takes a few minutes per chapter, but I end up with a laser focus on what I am trying to do and put it off. I do a similar thing when writing or my focus is on something else too. Mass release incoming.
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“Good morning, everyone,” Mrs. Greyson, a female teacher with auburn hair in her 40s, greeted the students in their homeroom. “We have a new transfer student who will be joining us from today onward. Whilst it is a bit late in the year, the school is always eager to increase the diversity of the students we teach. Please be welcoming toward Senna and help her if she is ever in need of assistance.”
All 18 other students in the homeroom turned and looked at Senna who was sitting upright behind a desk at the far side of the middle row. Most gave a light smile and bobbed their head, but several of the boys had already been sending her fleeting infatuated glances.
Her crimson eyes and pointed ears revealed her non human heritage, but that only increased the other students’ interest. She quietly smiled back at them in greeting… even it was an extremely forced smile.
One girl in particular, with unadorned black hair down to her shoulders, ordinary black rimmed glasses and blatantly inhuman reptilian pupils had a giant smile on her face and kept waving at her in extreme enthusiasm.
“Helena, I’m glad you look excited to have someone of a common background in the same class, so can you please pair up with Senna under the buddy system for the rest of this week?”
At the teacher’s request, the girl in question beamed in joy and loudly answered, “Yesh~ I will love to!”
Despite slurring her words at the start, the sharp-eyed Senna noted that she spoke fluidly with an oddly authentic accent despite her forked tongue.
Mrs. Greyson then did the morning role call before announcing the school news.
“Just a reminder, Magic class is on hold until Friday. Mr. Sampson is on leave for the rest of the year due to an injury, so there will be a substitute teacher filling in. Please use any magic class time this week for self study. Year exams may be over, but that doesn’t mean you should stop studying.”
The students were only half paying attention to the homeroom teacher as they talked among their cliques, but Mrs. Greyson seemed familiar with this and wasn’t bothered by it.
Several students glanced towards the fae girl in the class intending on making eye contact before calling her over to their groups, but this plan failed due to her ignoring their gazes and not looking back.
Instead, she focused on looking through her class roster and other welcoming guides in her e-ink notebook, memorizing the information that she had inconveniently only received this morning. She had noticed their gazes, but was using this as a means of ignoring them.
The notes from her previous school’s classes were grouped together and archived with several backups before she opened a new directory for her new classes.
One student was entirely unperturbed though – Helena.
As the bell signaling the end of homeroom chimed through the school, Helena quickly intercepted Senna leaving the classroom with a giant smile that went from ear to ear.
“Senna, I am Helena and will be your buddy here. I am soo glad you are here, we can be best friends from today onwards! What are you? I’m a gorgon, myself, by the way. My host family is so nice to me, how about yours?”
The gorgon girl fired off questions like a machine gun a caught Senna off guard with her enthusiasm.
“…Fae.”
“Eh, a fairy? But I heard fairies were much smaller, like small children. Do you grow up like normal people? What type of fairy are you? I read that there were lots of different types.”
“…”
The corridors of the school were quickly packed with students on their way to their first classes for the day. Senna deftly maneuvered through this crowd with experienced movements, not so much as brushing shoulders with anyone else.
Helena also managed to slide through the people unaffected by the movement of traffic, often swaying her torso left and right as she moved in a snake like pattern. She stuck by Senna and kept bombarding her with questions.
“Senna, have you ever thought about how inconvenient human legs are? They are so awkward to use and really restrictive, don’t you think?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“I use transformation magic to make legs, but you could probably do the opposite too. We can both use tails and I will show you how much better it is! Is this your class schedule? It turns out we have all the same classes, how exciting!”
Even though she wasn’t human, Senna was already getting tired of this gorgon called Helena.
Being told that they shared every single class together, she was certain that this was orchestrated by the school and probably with Thomas’ involvement too.
Their first class together was English, something Helena was a top student in.
“Senna, Senna, you should join my club! I started an opera club in the school. I don’t have any other members currently, but it’s so much fun! I know you will enjoy it, humans have created some of the most incredible sounds. Also… don’t tell anyone, but sometimes, I just sing along to the latest popular songs.”
“…I will think about it.”
Memories surfaced of her homeland, a large grove in the heart of Germany, where everyone would often sing and dance as they played together. This was before the grove was targeted and she was captured, and a time of her life that she actively suppressed it.
She had sworn she would never sing again, so the gorgon girl was to be disappointed if she expected her to sing along with her.
Once recess started, the duo walked out into the school grounds as Helena was showing Senna to where she usually sat to eat.
Helena giggled and swerved towards Senna, intending to grab onto her arm while affectionately pressing her body against her.
“You don’t know how happy I am to- tss!”
Noticing her movements well ahead of time, Senna shot the gorgon girl a glare full of killing intent wile her magic also spiked in activity, threatening the girl not to get too close or touch her. Helena, as a supernatural species with a high affinity for magic, had both heightened senses and powerful genetic instincts.
This killing intent hit her like a meteorite and caused her heart to almost stop in fright as she fell under an extremely realistic illusion where she was bloodily torn limb from limb. This wasn’t a real illusion or any kind of spell cast by Senna, it was merely her instincts going haywire after being assaulted with the former’s killing intent.
Her eyes flashed violet, a sign of her petrification gaze activating, out of pure defensive instinct before she started hyperventilating.
Nobody turned to stone, however, as even if Senna weren’t strong enough to resist it, the glasses she wore had a passive sealing enchantment that blocked her from accidentally petrifying anyone.
She glued her knees together and pressed down on her skirt with both hands.
“Oh! My! God! That was so scary! I think I may have peed a little!”
Not only was her fear sudden, so was her recovery.
Helena then quickly went to the bathroom before coming out and claiming it was a false alarm, to which Senna was genuinely unsure how she should respond.
She then led the fae girl to a spot on top of a small hill at the edge of the school’s sports field.
“Here it is, this is the best spot in the entire school. In Summer, it is right in the sun and suuuper warm. The grass is also soft and really nice to sit on. I’ll let you have my favorite spot on the grass for today, but I want it back tomorrow, okay? Say, what did you bring for lunch? What do fairies eat? I heard fairies eat the nectar from flowers, is that true?”
Whilst she seemed to have gotten the hint that Senna didn’t want to be touched, the message that she didn’t want to talk had yet to be conveyed.
“…Some do.”
Of course, she didn’t go into detail that they only did so because nectar was sweet and not because the needed to eat it. Fae, at least those born from and connected to nature, received all the nutrition they needed from nature itself. At least, that was until they begun to degenerate and were cut off this supply by nature itself, as if rejecting their existence.
Helena opened her lunch box and produced several strips of raw meat. She glanced at Senna before quickly picking up several strips and putting them in her mouth. She used her fingers to bashfully cover her mouth as she chewed and swallowed the raw meat.
“They garnish and prepare my food to make it more appealing, but humans still get a little repulsed when they see me eating it,” Helena smiled sheepishly as she explained. “You’re not human, so I hope you don’t mind it as much.”
Senna waved her hand dismissively in response whilst watching the gorgon take out a strange juice box that had the smell of blood in it. Not fresh blood by any means however, it smelt too artificial to even be preserved.
“Ahem, I would rather just eat a large meal once a month, but I get a little chubby and humans are quite picky with their appearances. It’s apparently better this way to fit in.”
When Senna opened her lunchbox, she ended up revealing a plethora of small cakes and lollies before the gorgon who turned wide eyed.
“Ohh, what are these? They look just like human food! I didn’t even know they could do that! I will have to ask my supervisor if I can get it too.”
“Supervisor? As in work?”
It wasn’t that she cared about what this overly friendly gorgon had to say, but she was completely lost track of what she was saying. She may as well be talking in an entirely different language by this point.
For instance, Senna just heard what sounded like her stating that her boss was providing her special non human food. Her immediate thoughts were that she was working at a pet store.
“No, no, I’m currently not allowed to work. I meant my GAIA supervisor.”
“…Your what?”
“S-GAIA?”
“…What is that?”
“…Ehhhh!??”
Senna sat on the grass with a confused expression while the gorgon went wide-eyed and waved her arms around in a panic.
“So you are telling me that this Supernatural Genome Adaption and Integration Agency, S-GAIA, or just GAIA, are the humans who handled your human registration and identity documents, allocated you to a host family where you live, while providing for all your dietary needs?”
“Yes! Not just that, they buy me clothes, accessories, magazines, and anything I need. They are the government agency that help all of us, not just me, learn about and fit into human society. Oh, they’re not all human, either.”
Helena also reached into the collar of her school shirt before extracting her phone, which was far more modern and expensive that Senna’s, much to the latter’s chagrin.
The gorgon showed Senna the S-GAIA home page, which gave an introduction to their mission and an overview of some success stories. Naturally, any instances of a host family dying or otherwise eaten wouldn’t have been published on their home page even if it did occur.
It was indeed a branch of the government, and they were also apparently the authority when it came the management and supervision of supernatural creatures adapting into human society.
“But why supernatural genome? That’s such an odd name.”
“Humans are uncomfortable around us when we are referred to as monsters.”
“We are though.”
Helena wasn’t offended in the slightest at Senna stating they were monsters and shrugged with a smile.
“Still, I can’t believe you are allowed in human society without being assigned a GAIA supervisor! I would do soo many things! Did you know, humans have these places called naked clubs-”
“Strip clubs,” Senna corrected her, recalling the times when she would have to go into them to bring back Thomas and stop him from spending all of what little money they had at the time.
“Right! Strip clubs! Get this, humans take off all their clothes and dance for one another. They use their stomachs like this.”
Helena, while sitting on her knees, pulled her shirt up and exposed her navel before doing what can only be described as a masterful belly dance.
“Have you ever been to one before?”
“…No.”
The gorgon watched nervously as Senna tore small chunks of a small slice of cake that had a large amount of icing and some strawberries on top of it.
“So how did you get into school if it wasn’t through GAIA?”
“Thomas enrolled me. He didn’t even tell me until after it was all done.”
“Thomas? Is that a man?! Host father, friend, lover?”
Referring to Thomas had always been a dilemma for Senna. She didn’t consider him to be human and thus generally never referred to him as a ‘man’, but that is what he appeared to be to others so it was an inevitable assumption.
“He refers to himself as my father, but he is actually…” Senna halted just before saying ‘food’ and changed her mind, “…my protector.”
“That’s so sweet~ You should introduce me one time~”
“I won’t.”
“Boo~~”
Watching the fae girl tearing apart her cake and feeling like they were making a true friendship, Helena timidly inquired, “I don’t usually eat it, but can I try some of your human food. It looks really good.”
Looking across the sports field and all the students either lounging on the side of the small grassed ridge surrounding it, or playing games with their friends, she had an idea.
“Okay, but you have to help me with something in return.”
“Anything!!”
Senna seemed reluctant and prolonged her hesitation before finally stating, “I want you to help me make friends.”
“I’m your friend!” Helena immediately responded without the slightest hesitation.
“… Sure, but I mean human friends.”
“That boy is Jonas Wright…”
…
“He is Kyle Walker, a scholarship student just like me but a bit quiet. It’s a shame, I always thought he…”
…
“And that one over there is Hadrian Mason, star pitcher for the school baseball team, and an ab-so-lute dream boat.” Helena waved her finger about matter-of-factually with an extremely infatuated expression. “Sometimes I just really want to wrap him up and squeeze him, you know what I mean? Not enough until all the gooey stuff comes out, but just a good squeeze… haaah~~”
The gorgon girl was completely red in the face and almost dreaming as her imagination ran wild. Senna sat there silently through all these introductions of her pointing to different people that were within their field of view.
Both of them had extremely good eyesight, so even if they were all the way on the other end of the sports field, they could easily discern them.
Senna had been waited patiently, but there was a certain aspect of this conversation that had been bothering her.
“Helen-”
“YES!?”
“…What about the girls? Everyone you have pointed out so far have been boys.”
“Oh, of course! They are nice too!”
“…”
It was at this point that a group of three boys approached and looked down on the two in a way that Senna could only consider condescending.
“Hey Helena, help me settle a bet,” The leading boy smirked and looked down at the two still sitting on the grass. “A group of my friends don’t believe your a monster. Show me your teeth so I can send a photo to them.”
“Sure~”
The gorgon girl gave a toothy grin, revealing mostly normal but sharper teeth. The true difference were the pair of upper and lower snake fangs that were similar but much larger than those of a vampire.
The boy took a photo while laughing before looking at Senna.
“What about you? You’re a monster too, right? Show me the pearls.”
“Fuck off.”
Senna’s glare sent chills down the boys’ spines, her crimson eyes somewhat frightening to look at. Helena trembled beside her in fear even though the fae girl’s killing intent wasn’t directed at her this time.
“Hmph, monsters stick together with monsters. Let’s go.”
The trio wrinkled their noses as if there was a bad smell in the air before walking off. One of them even commented just loud enough for them to hear, “Eat some more raw meat, animals.”
Helena soon recovered and complained, “Why did you do that?? They’ve been my friends for ages and even wanted to be friends with you. They may smell a little funny, but they are definitely squeezable!”
Senna shook her head in disbelief at the gorgon beside her. She felt like she asked the wrong person to help her make friends.
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