Alexander Penn's Story

"Kanega - oh, Mai," Zach said, understanding dawning over his face. "Man, it's been a long time since I heard her get referred to by her last name - huh?"

Seeing Robin frown, Zach turned around just in time to see a familiar looking boy fall to the ground. Considering how the girl was holding her hand and how her friends were giggling, it was obvious what had happened.

Zach frowned. "that's not really fair." he muttered to himself. He took a step forward, aiming to help the kid up, but before he got there Cassandra was on the job.

Zach whistled. Remind me not to get on her bad side.

When the boy - Alex - introduced himself, Zach gave him a wave. "Yo!" he began cheerily, "I'm Za-"

"Hey, people!"

"Whoa!" Zach leapt backwards in surprise the same time Ryner shouted, his hands reaching upwards as though to block an assualt. "Oh, it's just you, Mai," he said, relieved. He brought his hands down. "Don't scare me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

When Mai asked her question, Zach answered with an awkward smile. "I don't think we can meet up at the roof today," he said sheepishly, scratching his head. he glanced behind him as he did so; Ryner seemed to have the situation under control. The best he could do to help was probably by upping the normalcy by having a normal conversation to get rid of the weird feeling in the air.

"We're suppose to show Cassandra - that's the angry girl who was threatening that other girl - around the clubs during lunch break (or after school (and maybe after class too). Maybe her brother too, since he seems to be a freshman." Zach glanced at Cassandra before looking back at Mai. "Sorry. Did Finn fall asleep in class again?" he added anxiously.

Just then, the bell rang. Well, that's that. Meeting them at lunch doesn't sound so bad...

"Sure, see ya!" Zach gave the fleeing duo a wave. "C'mon, we've gotta go before we're late ourselves," he said to the others, shifting his backpack for it to rest more securely on his back. Hope this helps, Ryner. "I heard that we might be having Mr Ludwig as our teacher this year; he's good but he really doesn't like people being late. C'mon, hurry!"

Zach was already ready to run down the hall with the others, keeping pace with them. "Mai," he called over his shoulder. "Want to join us during lunch later to show them around?"

---

The bell signaled two things: one was that Alexander and Yuki had to depart from their presence for now. The other was that Ryner and this band of misfits also needed to head to class lest they be late. But Foster was just smiling ear to ear as he slowly turned his head to face Cassandra, dubious intention written all over his face.

"So....kissed a frog when you were smaller, eh?" it was at this point that Ryner couldn't help but laughing out loud. Really, it was truly hilarious that somebody could do such a thing, even if they were younger and naive at the time. Moreso it was Cassandra and to have something to tease her about was definitely enjoyable in Ryner's book. Just like having something to tease Zach about, or even some random student.

Maybe Ryner just liked teasing people.

The unvampire thought that maybe he and Alexander could be good buddies and hopefully he would provide more stories as time went by. If only Ryner had such stories to share about his sibling instead of the whole abuse thing and the fact that there was nothing that truly scared Ryner more than when his brother was genuinely angry. The same could be said about his parents, too. Despite them being very long-lived vampires and powerful in their own right, his brother was a monster that struck fear into even their hearts, not that they could admit it.

But yeah stories about your sadistic abusive vampire brother just did not seem as lighthearted as the ones Ryner heard from Alexander, so he would have to withhold on those.

"...wait." Ryner suddenly grew very serious. His eyes locked on Cassandra and demanded that she not look away. He had to make sure of something or their short relationship would come to an end as soon as it had just begun. "You... weren't trying to turn me into a frog... were you?"

Sorry, Zach. This is serious business.

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He's just jealous cause I'm better at archery.

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