Cole and I wander quietly towards the boy's dorm. We take a few detours and longer routes because I'm looking for Luther, and Cole is so lost in thought that he's just going where I'm going. The lights flicker, and I know I'm getting close, because Luther makes anything electric go haywire. He has some sort of electric powers that I've never fully understood what they do, and he always zaps me. It drives me crazy. Luther also happens to be the kid I sat on and punched today. I hope he has a black eye, because he deserves it.

I don't like Luther.

He doesn't like me.

That's all you need to know.

The lights go dark for a moment but I just keep walking. I can see in the dark, and Cole's psychic abilities usually prevent him from walking into things, so we're fine. The lights flick on again and Cole is right next to me, glancing around with a confused expression. "When did we get here...?" He says. "Well, you were so lost in thought that you were just following me wherever, and I went to find Luther and get back at him for what happened earlier. I went a different way from the dorms, and you followed me, and we arrived here." I say blandly. Cole makes a face.

We turn a corner and I can see Luther standing with his posse of fellow snotty magical human students. The hallways in this part of the school are always empty, so it's the perfect place for a confrontation. They treat monsters like Cole and I as if we're not as good as them, and it seriously ticks me off.

"You know, you don't have to come with. I'm probably going to get in a fight, and I know you don't like fighting or violence or anything." We stop and stand in a side hallway to continue our conversation so they don't see us yet. Cole takes a minute to answer, looking conflicted. The lights blow out and shards of glass rain down on our heads, making Cole yelp. From down the hallway we can hear Luther's friends yelp too, and I smirk. Luther's powers have struck yet again.

"I made up my mind," Cole gasps, obviously not wanting to deal with more glass shards, but a seriously loyal friend. "I'll come with, but are you sure you can take them?" He says uncertainly in the dark, and I think back on how many there were. "Yeah," I say confidently, though I know there were almost twelve of them and I would most likely receive quite a bit of a beating. I do have the advantage until one of them summons a werelight or casts a luminate spell, but once they have the light back on, though, my height won't do me much good against twelve people.

"You can teach Luther a lesson, maybe insult him a little and shove him, but you're not going any further. Deal?" He says seriously. "There's a fine line between revenge and bullying, and I refuse to let you bully or beat up anyone." He growls. I sigh. "Fine." He nods. "Good. Let's go, then."

I grab Cole's shoulders and turn him around so he's facing the posse of idiots and march confidently down the dark, echoing hallway towards Luther with Cole holding onto the sleeve of my t-shirt to be sure he's going the right way. I can clearly see Luther from this distance and in this lighting-I could probably even count his freckles if I wanted to. I grow closer to the group of murmuring brats and smirk as I hear them trying (and failing) to cast a luminate spell. They're all arguing over who's the best at magic when they could just be casting the spell and getting it over with.

Cole lets go of me and stands somewhere nearby, facing the wrong way in the dark. I saunter over to an irritated-looking Luther and crouch so my head is right next to his shoulder, putting on my most deranged and terrifying smirk. He sighs and puts up a hand, snapping his fingers and making an arc of blue electricity crackle between them. I can only imagine how freakish I look making this face in this lighting, and Luther's posse's terrified expressions probably don't do it justice. Luther doesn't notice me standing next to him until one kid, some boy named Adam, points at me and yells.

"Hey, Luther." I grin, purposely making my eyes glow and go slit-pupiled to freak him out. I'm still mad about what he said earlier, and I want my revenge. He whips around with a yelp and swings his fist at me, but I'm prepared and dodge it. I back up a few steps and meet Luther's cold, grey eyes with my own glowing red ones. "What are you doing here, Monster?" Luther snarls. I cross my arms and frown down at him, just outside the circle of light his hand emits to be as creepy and intimidating as possible. "I'm getting back at you for what you said earlier, Lulu. You went crying to the nurse about your black eye so fast that it didn't get a chance to teach you a lesson." I growl, my feathers rising.

Luther's pitiful energy arc grows brighter as he gets mad. Cole, able to see now, walks forward to stand beside me, putting on his bravest face, and I'm once again struck by how loyal he is. Luther, on the other hand, wrinkles his nose. "Two Monsters? A feathered freak and a maggot-eating momma's boy? I'm terrified," He scoffs. "Good to see you know what an alliteration is," I mutter. "You've learned one thing since I last checked, which was sometime last year, I believe." I smirk, and Cole snorts.

"Yeah," Cole says bravely. "Not only that, but I could feel your fear from all the way down the hallway when the lights went out, you big baby. I'm surprised you didn't pee your pants when you saw Griff standing next to you, and you're the one with twelve of your fellow stuck-up morons to protect you." I'm surprised at how Cole is acting, since he usually says nothing to bullies like Luther and his gang when we confront them.

"Come on, Lulu, admit that what you said earlier was low even for a brainless parasite like you." I say, my arms crossed. Sparks rain from Luther's hand at my comment, but his mob of idiots do nothing, as always.

"At least I don't need to bring my little blue shadow along with me everywhere to keep myself from killing people. You must threaten him, otherwise I don't know how he can tolerate being within ten feet of you." Luther snarls, and immediately feathers start spreading up my neck.

I'm frozen in shock, feathers starting to block my vision, trying to crush down the anger bubbling up inside me. I know Luther doesn't know what the truth is behind my scars, but this is the second time today he's made some comment that went too far and cut too deep. Not only that, but he insulted Cole, who's never done anything (until now) to make him mad or bother him. Cole casts a warning glance at me but he's too late.

"You've crossed the line you-!" A long stream of Swedish swear words pour from my mouth as I step up to him and shove him as hard as I can. He staggers back into his posse, which is grouped in a semicircle behind him, and they half-catch him to keep him standing. Luther regains his balance, steps forward and shoves me back, and before I know it I'm on top of him, punching him for the second time today. I'm screaming something, but I'm not really sure what it is I'm saying and I'm too freaked out and angry to really care. I feel his nose snap under my knuckles, and I'm not going to lie that it felt good. His pitiful electric arc goes out and his posse starts shouting.

Someone finally grabs me roughly by the shoulders and drags me off of him. I'm breathing heavily and literally shivering with rage, all my feathers fluffed up as I continue shouting things without really knowing what I'm saying. It's a full ten seconds before I snap myself out of it enough to see what I've done. Cole is shouting something angrily at me (he was the one who dragged me off of Luther), but all I can see is Luther's bloody, mangled nose and the real fear in his eyes. His face is puffy, and he's shaking so much he can hardly stand. He stares at me, and I know he doesn't see me, instead he sees what I fear to see every time I look in the mirror. My eyes go wide and I start to hyperventilate, my chest tight with panic and horror, because I realise I've done something like my mom would have.

The posse is yelling and some of them are starting to come at us, looking scared but determined to beat us up. Cole grabs my arm and starts to roughly drag me away. He can't see once we leave the circle of light Luther's posse had made using luminate spells, but I don't lead the way. I hear and see teachers running past us, obviously having heard the screaming and shouting, but they don't notice us as we slip silently through the dark. Finally, we come back into a lighted section of the school and Cole leads me to a place he knows where the teachers won't find us-the disgusting boy's bathroom in the seldom-used part of the school.

"What the heck was that?!" He shouts, his long, deerlike ears flattened back. "I thought you were going to kill him!" His voice snaps me out of my horror and hits me like a sledgehammer. "You can't just attack people like that, no matter what they say. What if I say something as a joke, or on accident, and you lose it? Who will be there to stop you from killing me?" I flinch back, my eyes stinging. I wipe them with the back of my hand, shocked about what I did.

I smell something metallic and realise my hands have blood on them. A tiny, strangled noise escapes my mouth and I stare at them, my mind flashing back to the last time my hands were so covered in blood. That time, though, it was my own. Cole notices the blood too, and his ears flatten themselves to his head even more, but this time out of shock. "You broke his nose, gave him another black eye, and probably made him lose a few teeth, not to mention the fact that you scared him beyond belief," He says slowly. "You could have killed him if you'd hit his nose right, I hope you know that." He hisses. I cringe and nod my head slightly. "I'm sorry," I say, my voice thick and shaking. I switch to my first language. "Jag är ledsen,"

Cole makes a hissing noise with his teeth (which are sharp, by the way) and grabs handfuls of his hair as he paces back and forth. I stare at him with wide eyes, then take a glance at myself in the dingy, disgusting mirror. I look awful- my feathers are fluffed up all the way and go most of the way down my arms and back. Tiny feathers frame my face and slowly get bigger as they go back, until they're seven inch feathers that have replaced my hair and rise in a crest along my head and neck. Small, purplish-black spikes poke from my skin along the backside of my jawbone, just by my ears. I reach up to touch them, and notice my hands end in long black claws, and that the skin around them is incredibly tiny scales, like purply-black bird skin instead of my usual medium-dark tan.

I force myself to take a deep breath, but my heart's still beating incredibly fast. I manage to slightly lower my feathers, but I'm still shaken up at how little control I had over my actions and the terrifying amount of anger I still feel. Cole stops pacing to glare at me as I stare at my unfamiliar reflection. "Yeah, you look terrifying. Are you happy with what you've done?" He growls, his expression murderous. I turn to face him, my feathers fluffing back up again in a cream-colored crest along the back of my head. "I'm sorry, okay?" I say loudly, clenching my fists. "I really, truly, one hundred percent am, and yeah, I feel really awful about what I did. I couldn't control myself and I shouldn't fight or even interact with people because I'm dangerous and if I do I'm going to hurt someone beyond belief one day. I'm like my mom, literally a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and end up hurting anyone around me. Are you happy now?" I say through gritted teeth. "Are you happy I've told you what you've been thinking?" My eyes sting and fill with hot, angry tears, though I manage to hold them in.

Cole's expression changes from anger to shock to plain old horror. "What are you talking about?" He says. "I never-" He turns around so his back is facing me and swears. He takes a few seconds to either think or to compose himself and turns around again.

"You thought this was about your mom?" He says, his voice small and worried. I can't meet his eyes, and my anger dissolves into something else. "I was scared you thought I was turning into my mom." I swallow past the sudden lump in my throat. "I'm scared I'm going to be like her every day of my life," I shuffle my feet. Cole bites his lip as I wrap my arms around myself, sick to my stomach and feeling weird from finally voicing my biggest fear.

"What I said earlier about you hurting people was cruel of me," He says, "I was mad and scared about what happened, and I don't really think you would ever hurt me or Lily or anyone. And, I know for a fact that you're not like your mom. Don't ever think that." His face is dead serious and, yet again, I'm struck dumbfounded by how loyal and great of a friend he his.

"Thanks," I say gruffly, embarrassed at my sudden emotional breakdown, wiping my eyes, still all weird and shivery and angry inside. "I'm sorry I was so violent." I manage to lower my feathers at last and Cole heaves a sigh. "It's fine, just don't do it again. Honestly, what a day," He grumbles. "I did not wake up today expecting all of this to happen. Really, it's an interesting change." He smirks, and I find myself joining him. He starts to laugh, out of the blue, and it's a slightly panicked and crazy laugh but a real one all the same. I find myself laughing too, and soon we're laughing away all the stuff that just happened. The extra feathers fall off of me and the claws pull back into my skin, and I find myself relaxing slightly now that they're gone.

The bell signifying curfew rings and the smiles fade from our faces. Not only did I seriously beat up Luther for the second time today, but we're not in the boy's dorm by curfew, and are pretty far away from our destination on top of it all. We must have missed the warning bell either during the fight or sometime when we were shouting at each other, and after the fight the teachers will be on maximum alert. We exchange a glance. "If we get caught, this was all my idea." I say, still chuckling. Cole frowns. "It was all your idea," he points out. I smirk. "Come on, then." I say, and we leave the disgusting bathroom at last.

I don't know how we do it, but we manage to sneak back to the dorms undetected. Luck must be on our sides after all the ridiculous stuff that happened, and I'll admit I'm relieved that at least one thing went right today.

I'll also admit I'm really, really embarrassed about having an emotional breakdown in front of my best friend, who I'm pretty sure literally thinks my only emotions are happiness, anger, and embarrassment. I've never actually cried in front of him before, and he seems weirded out by it, not to mention worried. Really, I think he's more freaked out about what happened than I am, because I've already gone back to feeling nothing and making sarcastic comments in the boy's dorm.

It's easier for me to handle things that way.