I woke up in a strange bed, completely soaked. Gayle stood over me, holding an empty bucket that dripped slightly. She had a slight smile on her face and then had the nerve to look slightly embarrassed as I gasped and spluttered, pushing wet hair out of my face.

My body was dripping with water, and when I shifted, I collided with another wet body. I turned and jumped away from Moreno. He was wearing athletic shorts and a tank top and lay next to me in the bed.

"Wha-" My brain was racing as I tried to place my surroundings.

Then my eyes fell on the bookshelf and the set of photographs, and I realized I was back in Moreno's room with no idea how I'd gotten there.

"We had to sedate you," Moreno said. "And I said I'd keep an eye on you. Kaleb helped me move you to a more comfortable bed, and I thought I would just lie down for a second."

"It's morning, and Alana told me to wake you up," Gayle said. "My mother always says that a cold shower is the best remedy for a tussle with poppy."

Moreno's chuckle was throaty. "That's cold, Gayle. Really cold."

"It worked," Gayle smiled again. "And Alana has you on a double patrol, Lord Ethesis. She said I could keep an eye on Terri today."

"A fitting punishment for me," Moreno shook out his wet hair. "Don't know about Terri, though. Why are you on babysitting duty?"

Gayle grimaced. "Maybe I volunteered."

"To change the sheets, absolutely," Moreno said. "You ruined my bed."

He stood and water dripped off his tanktop and onto the floor. He reached around to pull the towel hanging on chair by his desk. Then instead of drying himself he handed me the towel.

"Here," he said. "Since darling, Gayle seems to have decided we both needed a dip."

He held out his hand and pulled me from the bed. Then he wrapped the towel around my shoulder and glared at Gayle.

"How did I get here?" I asked.

"You started having visions, and you started to scream," Moreno said. "Nothing we could do would bring you back. Hellene has mentioned that sometimes Victor will fall into a stupor when your mother and grandfather start trying to pull visions at the same time. Kaleb decided it was best to sedate you. Then I brought you here to keep an eye on you overnight. Apparently, I fell asleep, and I apologize for that."

I remembered the vision and all the spinning colors. My head ached dully, and I remembered screaming until my throat was raw. The pain was agonizing, and then suddenly, it had all stopped.

"You were wailing for a good while," Gayle said. "It was a good thing sedating you helped."

Moreno gave Gayle a look. I dried off my arms, and I realized that my shirt was sticking to my skin. My face heated, and I buried my blush in my towel under the guise of drying my face.

"Guess we should get going," Moreno said. "Wouldn't want to ruin Alana's timetable."

He disappeared into his bathroom. I squeezed water out of my hair and turned to look at Gayle. She twirled her purple highlight around her finger and smiled.

"Guess I should clean this up," she said. "You should change. I left you something cute on your bed. You don't have to thank me or anything. After all, we can't ruin Alana's precious timetable."

I made my way down the hall to my room, clutching my towel to my chest. I traded it for a dry towel once I entered my room.

As promised Gayle had layed a set of clothing across my bed. There was a short black strappy shirt with a sheer panel across top. Then there was a pair of gold pants that were high waisted and a pair of black combat boots.

It wasn't really my style, but the clothes looked like they fit. I guessed she'd tailored them herself since I knew it was difficult to find clothes for anyone my height.

That was promising enough that after I toweled off, I decided to wear them. Then, after I laced up the boots, I tied up my damp hair with a scrunchie.

Gayle pushed open my door. She drummed her fingers on the frame. She looked impatient, but I wasn't sure why she was so grumpy if she was just stuck watching me all day.

"Thanks for the shower," I said.

"I wanted to dump water on you last night when you were screaming, but the others insisted that it was a bad idea," Gayle said. "Apparently, according to Kaleb, it wasn't scientifically sound."

"You were just trying to help," I said. "And it's the thought that counts."

"That's a nice sentiment," Gayle said. "But no one here cares about my contributions."

I moved towards the door. "I'm sure that's not true. These clothes are nice."

Gayle sighed. "Even my own parents think I'm useless. They love Cullen because he's the perfect soldier, but I'm just a disappointment."

"I'm sure if you trained harder..." I sighed. "Honestly I don't know if that even would help. I just don't know enough about halfant culture."

"We'll let me spell it out for you," Gayle said. "Halfants train, and then they get assigned a compound. If they get lucky, they have kids, and then those kids lather, rinse, and repeat. You don't break the mold."

"And you want to break the mold," I said.

"But there aren't options," Gayle said. "Not real ones. You don't get paid as a halfant until ten years are served. Then, since I'm from this side, I'm not even real to the humans, and fixing that is real expensive."

I frowned. "What do you mean you're not real?"

Gayle blew out her cheeks. "No birth certificate or identification cards. I was born in Jontun. Most second-generation halfants get stuck here because it's hard to prove you're human. I don't have a driver's license. I've got no high school education. I'm not human, and that separation makes it hard for me to just step into their world. There are ways around it, but it's terribly expensive."

I nodded. "And you have to serve ten years before your first payout."

"I don't want to be twenty-eight before my life starts," Gayle said. "But I'm stuck here because my parents say I need to earn my future. They think I'll get married and lose my dreams of studying fashion on Earth."

She walked with me back to the dining room. The compound was quiet today. Kimmy sat in the corner of the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal.

Gayle tossed me an apple and poured herself a bowl of Lucky Charms. I bit into the fruit and took a seat at the marble-topped bar.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"The giants are more active," Gayle said. "My brother, Tres, Kaleb, and Petra are asleep, so they can take over the night shift. Alana has everyone else running patterns while Daleron watches the cameras."

"What about you?" I looked at Gayle.

She smiled. "Told you. I volunteered to watch you."

I found that unlikely unless she was volunteering exclusively to get out of patrolling. I wouldn't put that past Gayle. At least Moreno liked spending time with me.

"Do you want to hit the training gym?" I asked.

Gayle scoffed. "What's the point? Not like you can show off to Moreno. I mean, why else keep training with him? He's all in awe of your skills, and some of us don't like looking like fools in the ring."

Then it hit me. She was jealous. She didn't like to train Moreno and the others because this wasn't the life she wanted.

Then I walked in and acclimated to training better than a fish to water. I showed her up by training every day and somehow succeeded in everything I was doing. I had Moreno's attention, and she had already expressed how hard it would be to find a partner in the compound.

"I mean, do you want Moreno's attention?" I asked. "Because if you do, I don't think throwing water on him is the way to go."

She scowled. "I don't think being Lady Gayle Ethesis is even in the cards anymore. Clearly, you're winning on that front, princess."

Moreno deserved someone who saw him as more than a title. Gayle only saw him for the family who hated him and the title he got from being born.

"Moreno has been nothing but nice to me," I said. "And I've met his family. He doesn't care about his title. It's just pain."

Because if we could get rid of it, we would. I'd give anything for my life to go back to normal before I knew I was a princess. Moreno hated his father, and being a noble made his human family targets. He'd easily trade their lives for his title.

"Moreno will run this place one day if he can ever get on Doc's good side," Gayle said. "What better way to do that than date Doc's great-niece? I mean, he has options there, but you're lucky he picked you."

My face heated. I knew that she was just trying to get under my skin, but there was a grain of truth there. I was a princess and an Oakeley. Moreno could be using me.

"I mean, you're not Ashton," Gayle said. "But Ashton has taste and class. All of the aunties love Ashton. She's always so perfect."

"Tres's sister?" I asked.

Gayle threw back her hair. "If I have to hear my own mother fawn over Ashton one more time... She's the kind of girl that every halfant wants as a daughter."

She was so caught up in how she was falling short she couldn't see herself clearly. It was no wonder she was trying to make everyone else miserable since she felt so down on herself.

"You don't have to be anyone but yourself, Gayle," I said.

Her face flushed. "I am myself. It's not enough. No one here wants me to be me, Terri. That's the problem."

"I think you can be yourself," I said. "Without all the drama and baggage, everyone would love you, Gayle."

"Sure," her laugh was cold. "Easy for you to say, princess. You just don't get it, do you?"

She pushed away from her breakfast and stormed out of the room. I watched her go stunned. I wasn't even sure what I'd done wrong to make Gayle completely forget she was on guard duty.

There wasn't much to do around the compound with everyone working. Kimmy ran off to run a shift, and even Carisma was nowhere to be found.

I sat in the kitchen corner and messed with my communicator on my wrist. I still wasn't used to the bulky screen or the messaging apps. Once I finally got the main messaging app open, I noted a dozen unopened messages that were sent from my cousin. It looked like Dylan sent me one every other day.

I smiled softly as I scrolled through the barrage of messages from my best friend. He missed me, and I hadn't seen him in ages. Suddenly, I knew how I was going to spend the rest of my day. It was high time I visited home. 

Hey friends!!  Things are heating up between Terri and Moreno. I hope you liked this chapter. What do you think of Gayle? Until next time!!!