Sanctuary's Fiend

“Let the coven assemble!”

Jessica always made things so dramatic. It wasn’t like we were witches. It was just a school council meeting. And why were the lights in the gymnasium off? It must have been hard for her to see.

“Tonight, we make our final decision…” Why was she leaving such a long pause? We all knew the question, she’d texted us just before we came to the gym hall. “Can we let the new kid be part of the football team?”

The janitor turned the lights on and started sweeping.

Jessica liked to play these things up. She wasn’t even a supe. Just a normal human. And no supes I knew of met like this anyway. I mean, what were they going to do? Cast magical spells? Boy, did Hollywood mess up on that. I’ve never heard of any old guy chanting and throwing lightning balls all over the place. Although I guess they did sometimes wear big, dark, shadowy hoods, but those were just normal hoodies. Supes did occasionally get up to weird stuff, but not magic. Not magic like that, anyway.

“I don’t know what you guys think,” Sasha said. “But he keeps calling it rugby. Like, what even is that?”

She had a point. Richard had moved to Sanctuary only a month ago. He was from England, and… wow. I mean, sure, I’d heard that accent on TV, but in person it was totally unfair. He could say things and they just sounded right. Even his name was British. Richard. Ugh.

“Maybe it’s soccer?” Jessica asked.

“I guess. Maybe ‘rugby’ is what they call lacrosse.” Sasha rolled her eyes.

Seeing this was going nowhere and everyone was getting hung up on what rugby was - I had googled it earlier when he’d asked if we had a team for it on the first day - I stepped in. “Umm, maybe–”

Sasha cut me off and stuck her hand in the air. “We don’t need anyone else on the team. I vote for no.”

She hadn’t heard me. Right?

Jessica stuck her hand up. “I vote yes. Ariel?”

The girl to my left looked at me. Her hair was a radiant blonde that beat even Jessica’s. She was my only friend on this council. I was only there because she’d suggested it. This wasn’t my kind of thing at all. I just wanted to do my school work and get out of here. But Ariel was always into “activities” and doing “things”. However, she was a Siren - her voice could enrapture anyone and make them do her bidding. Like all the other supernaturals our age, she couldn’t control her powers properly. So she never spoke. And yes, her parents had a sense of humour when they named her.

She raised her hand and hummed an affirmative.

“Rellie?” Jessica looked at me.

I didn’t like being called Rellie, but even that was better than Reliquiae. What had my parents even been thinking?

I looked at all three of them in turn. Ariel was smiling at me, happy to be involved and doing things. Jessica was smiling because she wanted me to vote her way. And then Sasha was scowling at me like she always did. I don’t know why, but I guess when you’re the most beautiful girl in school, you don’t need a winning personality. Being nice is optional for beautiful people.

Oh, I didn’t know what to vote! If he joined the team, then he’d be around all the bouncy cheerleaders and I’d never stand a chance. But did I really stand a chance even if he wasn’t on the team? I’d never felt this way about a boy before, but was it fair of me to sabotage his opportunity to be on the football team. He’d passed the tryouts, so he obviously wanted to be on it.

I mean, I could always use my powers on him and seduce him to my will or something. Except I don’t have any powers yet. Also seducing is what succubi do, not vampires. I think. Don’t worry, I don’t drink blood either. Yet. Anyway, it’s forbidden for any supe to use their powers on humans. The SCIM - Supernatural Covert Integration Masquerade - would be pissed.

I raised my hand. “I prefer Rel, but umm, yes.” I couldn’t take his dream away from him.

Sasha huffed and puffed. “You guys always do this to me. Fine, whatever!” And she stormed out of the hall.

“Thanks babes,” Jessica said with her brilliantly white smile, and left as well.

I turned to Ariel. “Better get to class. I mean, why do we even get to decide these things? It doesn’t really make sense. Those two are the popular ones with their own hidden agendas and secret societies about which boy gets to be on the football team. We don’t have anything like that! I mean, apart from the whole… okay we have something like that, but it’s not the point.”

She was bouncing up and down, excited just to have taken part in a decision. I so didn’t understand why. I slouched and dragged my heels. Had I made the right choice? What were my chances with Richard now?

My phone buzzed. It was Ariel, right next to me. What’s wrong?

Apparently smart phones had helped the siren community immensely. “I dunno.” I hadn’t told her about my feelings for Richard. I’d only just decided it was for real. “Nothing. Let’s wait for Erin and the guys.”

Come on!

“No. It’s stupid.” She punched my arm. “Ow! Jeez, okay. It’s about Richard.”

He likes to just be called Rick.

Oh great. I was in love with him, we’d only spoken once, and I didn’t even know what he liked to be called. How pathetic.

“Okay, Rick. I just…” I waved my arms in the air. “You know. Think he’s kind of…”

Omg you like him :D

I sighed. “Yeah. Oh God, I think he’s amazing.”

She hugged me, jumping up and down. It’s so great that you can like someone even when they look like that. I mean, that nose? And forehead!

I looked at her in shock. “What are you talki–” I realized she was joking and scowled at her.

She giggled silently at just how hilarious she was, but then asked, Why are you sad?

People in the hall were wondering why it looked like my best friend was practically humping me with joy. I pushed her off. She always got way too excited. I really didn’t want people looking at me as I was about to cry.

“Stop it. I just voted away any chance I ever had with him. He’s going to be surrounded by nothing but sexy cheerleaders now. I mean, they’re all so…”

Beautiful.

“Yeah.”

And flexible.

I stopped and flung my back against a locker and whimpered. “What am I gonna do?”

Ariel saw how much I was hurting and leaned against the locker next to me. I think I know what you can do.

A spark of hope? I held back any more whimpers. “Yeah?”

You’re not a cheerleader. Nowhere near flexible enough. I shot her a glare. But I heard Jessica saying his dad’s looking for someone to help him get up to speed with schoolwork. You know, ’cos it’s different from in England.

I saw what she meant. “And… and I could be that tutor. Right?”

A huge grin spread across her face, happy again. She grabbed my hand and started skipping to class, dragging me along.

She was right. God, Ariel was brilliant! I could be his tutor. Then he’d have to spend lots of time with me. And only me! But what could I tutor him at? I liked reading. I could teach him English! Wait, he was English. Maybe he could tutor me? No, that didn’t make sense. Math? Science? Oh, whatever. I’d just let the teacher decide. The new teacher at school. The English teacher.

Rick’s dad.