INTO

CHAPTER EIGHT

"We-"

Miranda got unexpectedly cut short as she felt someone drag her down from the chair. Her hair immediately fell to her face, covering her eyes and making her unable to see who it was.

"Wow, you guys must really have hit your heads on something."

Students sighed, hissed and all went back to what they were previously occupied with before Miranda caught their attention.

Miranda looked at the guy that dragged her, hissing as she noticed his grip was still on her. He had dark black long hair tied up in a little bun, brown eyes and perfectly angled face. He was in a dark black leather jacket, dark jeans and a white t-shirt.

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing right now?" Miranda fired, eyeing his grip on her hand.

"Oh," he finally loosened his grip on her hand, Miranda almost staggering as he did.

"I knew something was off with you guys the moment I saw you," the guy said. "But this? Was the drama really necessary on your first day?"

"What are you talking about and who are you?" Adam spoke up, getting in front of Miranda. "Oh. Oh, it's you."

"Yes. Yes, it's me."

Adam immediately recognized him. He was the guy that was nice enough to direct them to his father's shop on their first day.

"Oh, thanks for the other day," Adam's tone quickly changed. "Really."

"It's nothing," he replied, eyeing Miranda. "Is she your sister? What was that stunt she was about to pull? Things don't work that way around here."

"Oh yeah? Tell me how things work around here then?" Miranda moved closer to him. "I'm interested."

"Oh my," he broke into a huge smile. "You're so confident. How adorable!"

"Adorable?!" Miranda couldn't believe her ears. "Are you insane?"

"I would really love to pull your cheeks if you'd allow me."

"Pull them and that'll be the last thing you do."

He broke into a smile again. "You guys seem like psychos but it's cool. I like psychos, let's be friends."

He immediately sat next to Gwen and titled his face to look at her. "Hi?"

Gwen looked up, her cheeks obviously stained with tears. She looked at the guy staring at her then Miranda.

"Hello? Are you okay?"

With that, she got up and walked out of the cafeteria, heading to nowhere in particular.

"Gwen," Tina called out, getting up but was stopped by Adam.

"Don't worry, stay here," he said then shot Miranda a glare. "I'll go get her."

"Oops, did I come at the wrong time?"

"Just," Miranda flared at the guy who was still sitting next to her without her permission. "Just get lost, will you?"

---

Adam walked around the school, searching for Gwen. Calling out her name was going to be useless as he knew better than to be expecting her to reply such calls.

She had to be somewhere though. He checked empty classrooms, spaces and still couldn't find her.

"Um, excuse me?" he stopped a student. "Have you seen a girl around? Um, she's really pretty. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail and had this white t-shirt with dark jeans on."

"Oh, I think so," the student replied. "I think she went into that room. I saw her turn in that direction."

He thanked him quickly and walked into the classroom he pointed towards. Just as said, Gwen was in the classroom, seated on the last seat, her head rested on a desk.

"Gwen," he walked closer to her and tapped her by her shoulder.

"Go away."

"It's me, Adam."

"Of course I know it's you," she replied him, still not raising her head. "Miranda's a b***h and Tina doesn't have the balls to stay around me after I asked her to leave."

She finally raised her head from the desk, wiping her cheeks with her palm as she did.

"I'm sorry."

"Do you have any idea as to why Miranda hates me so much?" Gwen asked. "I mean I don't really fancy her either but still."

"If I'm going to be honest, Gwen," Adam replied. "As much as you have a lot of people who love you at school, a whole lot hate you too."

"So much to try to kill me, twice?"

"I'm sorry," was all Adam could say. " I really am."

"It's okay," she sat up. "It must be fun for her and even more fun to see me reacting like this. If this is really how she wants it to be, so be it then."

"Gwen-"

"Don't worry," she managed a smile. "I wouldn't try to kill her. It's not like I can anyways but I'll just let her be."

"Oh, okay?" he replied, unsure of what to actually say. "But are you okay? Are you fine now? I know you got really nervous earlier."

"I'm Gwendolyn Patterson, silly, remember?" she reminded him, flashing him her signature smile. "Of course, I'm okay."

"Okay, yeah, sure," he nodded. "Let's go then. I don't know if lunch break's over now though but let's just go."

"Yeah, sure."

They walked in silence, side by side as they headed back to the cafeteria. By the time they got there, Gwen had made up her mind she wasn't going to say anything to Miranda. She was just going to act like nothing happened.

"Adam," she called him as they walked back into the cafeteria. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?"

"For, you know," she smiled. "That. Coming to check on me cause you wanted to make sure I was okay. It felt nice."

He smiled in return. "You're welcome, Gwendolyn."

---

Gwen had never imagined they could have free periods even in the monster world.

They surprisingly had a free period and she had left the class few minutes after it was announced, all the indistinct chattering giving her a headache. On getting up, she felt Adam and Tina's eyes follow her and then she flashed them a reassuring look, mouthing she was just going to the restroom.

She walked through the hallways quietly, having no exact destination in mind. It was way quieter than the hallways back at home, lacking chattering coming from every angle, girls giggling in groups, boys checking out girls and making flirty sounds and teachers yelling at students, trying to tell them what to do.

But here, it was so quiet.

"Hey! New girl!"

She paused to turn in the direction of the sound. Much to her surprise, she found three kids her age leaning by a wall, signalling at her to come.

"Me?" she arched an eyebrow at them. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes," one of them replied, Gwen immediately recognizing her as one of the girls who didn't hesitate to hide her hatred for humans back in class. "Come over here."

Normally, absolutely no one dared to ask Gwendolyn Patterson to 'come over here' but as nothing was normal about the whole situation she found herself in, she found herself walking towards them.

"Yeah?" She folded her arms on approaching them. A girl and two boys.

"We want to talk to you."

She was supposed to be scared knowing she could be dead in less than a minute if they found out what she truly was.

But still, "I'm pretty sure you're talking to me already."

"You see what I was talking about?!" one of the guys exclaimed. "I told you this chick was going to have an attitude."

Gwen remained silent, the only girl among the trio doing the same.

"Cool," she finally said. "I like you. I knew you were going to be just perfect."

"You sure have the eyes," the other guy complimented. "She just got here and you brought her in already."

The girl smiled. "Since you're new here, I'll introduce myself. I'm Petal-"

"Oh, the girl who asked why we hated humans."

"You're quite observant," she snapped her fingers. "I like you already. Anyways, back to my introduction. I'm Petal, the blonde dude over there is Stefan and the black haired one's Tyler. We're a group or team or whatever you'd like to call it. And around here, we're pretty much the popular monsters."

Oh, popular kids? Finally, people like her?

"Oh? Cool."

"And we'd want you to join us," Petal continued.

"Join you?" Gwen scoffed. "Join you with what? Hanging out with you?"

"Well, yes you can hang out with us but that's not what I'm talking about here," she said, making Gwen more curious. "Other than being popular and being a group of friends, we're a group for something else."

"And that is?" Gwen asked. "Do you all run an after school band or something?"

"I like her," Stefan complimented.

"No, honey," Petal continued. "The three of us have a common goal. In case you were wondering what that is, it's simple. To get rid of the human race."

Gwen gulped.

"We're positive that portal Mr. Crooks talked about can be opened," she explained. "If they can't come into our world I'm very sure we can go into theirs. Not just me, we're all very confident about that. So what's our plan? To find a way to open the portal and when that's done, lead an army of monsters and attack those pesky little humans. Once we're able to figure out a way, we inform the king and definitely, he's going to be in for a little fight with those humans. After all, every one still wants to get their revenge on them deep down."

Gwen felt weak in her knees. She should have ran when Petal called her. She shouldn't be talking to her at all.

"Oh," she said, trying not to stutter. "So, why do you need me?"

"Before then, we need to be stronger," Petal replied. "You're a Drezpire and we thought having one more Drezpire on the team would make us even stronger."

"Oh. Yeah. That's... smart."

"Is it?" Petal arched an eyebrow. "Why do you look so flustered then?"

"Because," Gwen was doing a bad job at hiding her emotions. She was scared. Scared even the lightest mistake could cost her life at that moment. "Because I'm surprised."

"Surprised?"

"Mhm mhm," a smile managed to spread across her lips. "Surprised people with the same mindset as me exist in this school."

"Whoa," Tyler exclaimed. "What you're trying to say is-"

"Yeah, you're right," Gwen cut him off with a smirk. "I've always hated humans and thought of different ways to end em so we can rule again. It's that's simple."

Petal smiled. A very satisfying smile. "So you're going to join us?"

"And if I don't?"

Petal's smile dissolve into a smirk. "It's simple. I'm simply going to have Stefan erase your memory of us ever having this conversation."

"W-what?" Gwen finally stuttered. "Erase my memory?"

"Mhm mhm," Petal nodded. "You Drezpires possess a unique strength, don't you? Well surprise, Stefan can take control of your memory and wipe it whenever he wants to. You didn't think we were just going to let you go after telling you all that so easily, did you?"

"Oh," Gwen couldn't deny the shivers that went through her spine. "Interesting."

"It definitely is," Petal folded her arms. "So make your choice. Do you want to join us or not?"

Gwen smiled back at her. "I have a condition but more like an idea. You want me to join you guys cause I'm a Drezpire and I'll make your team stronger, isn't it? Right."

"What are you trying to play?"

"If that's the case," Gwen took a step closer towards her. "How about you have not just one, but four Drezpires join you?"