C H A P T E R   5

A    L I O N    S N A K E    H Y B R I D

Author: Raven Orthodox

It had been a silent week since the Belladonna X -Fort cafeteria incident. I was wondering why Diana stopped seeing me, and what was Vulture's next character assassination would be. And worst of all, I hadn't seen Cal for like eternity. They're seriously plotting for my destruction.

My enemies are still into hiding and I wonder what if:

One, they teamed up together to execute my downfall.

Two, they didn't team up yet each one of them had a surprise attack.

Three, maybe they just forgot about me and they're breaking it even and moved on.

Girl, calm down.

"There you are." Raven touched my back. "You know, Dominica's gone for three days since her dad has a very important errand for her to do. But she left a big present for you."

"Yes, I've heard. I wasn't even with her when she left, but we called last night. I was bringing my dog Austin from mom outside campus, that's why. My ex-boyfriend even called on the telephone, wanting a comeback from L.A, what a bummer."

"Come here, Austin." Raven whistled and made a come-to-me-doggy noise. "Ah ha ha ha! Aw. . . who's a good boy? Who's a good boy! You are!"

"Stop shouting," I said. "You're doing that loud fifteen-year-old screech like the banshee that you are."

She cuddled Austin on the bed as she scrolled on her phone. "Don't worry, only you and mom can hear me like that. But I know when to stop when others are nearby."She laughed, "Oh hey, Austin, don't go. Come back, please. . ."

Austin left her when I prepared him a bowl of dog food. "I wonder what's Dominica got something for me."

"It's beside the door. And trust me, I did not open it."

It was a huge shiny red box. "She really knows how to make everything mystical."

Raven turned off her phone, "Did she said anything about it when you two called?"

"Yes, I remembered. She said that. . . uh, I can only open the gift when something bad is going to happen, if I could recall. Besides, how bad is this going to get? It seemed as if their anger had calmed down and Diana may have had called it a truce?

"Although, Diana said she's not done with her wrath yet. She called it the Champions' Wrath, remember? It's already a week since I splashed her some Fanta Soda and a Cookies n' Cream smoothie."

Raven moaned. "Hmm, what's that smell? Coming from outside?"

We both smelled the aroma of something like a yummy hot melted chocolate. "Yeah, must be from the outside." I walked with my heels to the front door and opened a big bouquet of morning glories and roses. "What in the world?"

Raven sped up to grab the cookies, with freshly melted chocolate on top. Almost like they bought it immediately from a store or they ordered at the school's mini Candy N' Snacks bar.

"Oh here's a letter." Raven collected a piece of red paper."It's for Miss Alexis Frosty. With love!"

We brought it inside and closed the door. "Here you go," Raven handed me the letter.

"Purely handwritten in the most fashionable cursive way. Hmm. . . " I complimented the flawless cut and paper choice. "Dear Lexi, it's me, Vulture. I brought you a good riddance surprise gift. You thought it's from a guy? Phew! In your dreams, darling. If I am honest, Diana and I had secretly plotted on reporting you since Wednesday. But no matter how curious you are about what's gonna happen, I just want you to go to class immediately this morning and see the consequences you have made for yourself. Love, Vulture. (with an inserted wink emoticon)."

"What in tar-nation! Simple bully fights usually don't get reported to the office, and they're doing it now." Raven gnarled.

"Well, as for me, I think our enemies are multiplied by now." My voice trailed off, saying it in a way that felt like our lives are totally screwed.

Raven pulled up her lip gloss and opened a small silver-studded box, full of onyx rings and necklaces. She even had a choker adorned with tiny sparkling diamonds.

"Now," She put on her necklace and wore her rings on her expensively-done nails. "We are not going to class without a style. And although I'm fine with fake and cheap jewelry, my boyfriend is rich as hell, so I can't just waste these babies."

"I don't have to wear expensive ones. I just need to match my garments and blend my colors for accessories according to my hair. I've had cheaper ones and it still rocks." I smiled at her as I did my outfit with a finishing perfume touch-up.

"Okay, we're all set. Let's go to battle." Raven caught hold of my hand and led the way out of the door. "But first off, I still need to get my sorority I.D. verified."

Outside, we talked about how I should be top of the class and how she would try to run for president. "No way! You're sixteen, girl. And running for such a high-ranked position in the student body council and working in a public office is just a no-go."

"But it's too cool to get your name in bold letters. Student Body President - Raven Orthodox."

"I know you're exceptional, sister, you are. You've learned about five languages, and maybe more. You've mastered the social sciences. You've mastered Biology, Physics, and even Precalculus and Multivariable Calculus, as you say. But are you sure you still want to delve into a political mess, although you are a pre-med?"

"Right, fine. I'll think about it."

We reached to the Delta Gamma Eagle sorority house. Something I love about a sorority is their lawn. Though the setup of well-tended tulips and prune-cut evergreen and topiary trees aligned in circular shapes, it looked, "Amazing as always!" Raven complimented.

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The symbol on the house was an American eagle logo, with designated philanthropy: Service for the Visionaries.

There was a small stand outside the gates managed by a woman in her forties. There were two Eagle guards too, and another two beyond the gates securing the pillar-distributed porch of the house. "Um, hello, Ma'am? I've already been recruited on Rush Week and I think this sorority house best fits me so...you know, I kind of belonged here."

"Oh, I know you well, Raven Orthodox. Hand over your I.D., please."

"Can we pay a visit inside?" She asked.

"Nope." The lady disagreed as she returned Raven the I.D. back to her after verifying it. She dismissed her presence immediately as if she wasn't even in her sight in the first place.

"But why? I'm now verified, aren't I?"

"This isn't the University of Georgia, miss. Even if you could go to the commons area inside or even the foyer or the back door porch, you're still not allowed to tour yourself in without the Eagle's leader unannounced."

"Okay, then. So, Raven, you should probably calm your balloons down now, and let's wait until the leader comes back."

"Whatever, let's get the hell outta here."

After a few minutes walking back, she led me to the Serpent's Fangs territory, even though she wasn't invited here.

"Vulture humiliated me, by the way. Seriously, she destroyed a great deal on my reputation." "Wait, what!" She grabbed my hand as our step slowed down. "Haven't I knew about this? What did she do?"

I explained what happened about the publication of me and my ex-boyfriend and Vulture being a hag, having made a speech about me. I despised saying it, and it felt so piercing. But I did, nevertheless.

"That's insane." She opened up her phone. "For the record, the Kardashians built an empire from a scandal. And your reputation, however, was overthrown from your best friend's scandal, which isn't even about you. How unfair could the world be!"

"What are you doing on your phone?"

"Checking Arkbook's latest update. I thought maybe, I mean it when I say this, they even posted that hell-fire humiliation here." She leaned on me as she spoke. "And besides, you need to turn this over, sister.

Find her weak spot, target on what makes her feel like the trash that she is, for goodness' sake. I mean. . . why aren't you even angry? You should be angry. Come on, bring me that spirit. Show me your anger-vation motivation, show me your vengeance!"

I chuckled at her "Raven, relax! Ha-ha, I don't have to possess fifty horsepower to arouse revenge." I rolled my eyes as I picked up a comb to brush my blonde locks. "Let's lay low for now. And retreat."

"Fine."

"Do you know what happens if we keep engaging the attack?"

"Yeah, you told me that already."

"Our energies and resources go to waste, really fast. And we're giving our enemies more time to retreat and recover, and finally, destroying us at our weakest point. We can't have that." I looked at her. "Just calm down. Or else everything would turn to crap. Our weakness, being a Frostfyre and an Orthodox, is literally going mad, uncontrollable and undoubtedly destructive as we are lethal in nature."

Raven's eyes widened in deep fear. "I believed it so."

"It runs in our family; my venomous fangs and your sharp talons."

"Yeah," She rolled her eyes with obvious sarcasm. "-tell me about it."

"Our madness is dangerous, Raven. We can't let this frenzy delirium in our ancestry break free. Or else it would all be over. People around us gets hurt, our enemies shall taste the sting the same, but in the end, it's all going to be our fault."

Entering the building, we were lucky the Serpent guards let her in. "Hey, hey, hey! Your badge isn't Serpent's Fangs, you don't belong here, you need to get a building pass to. . . What are you doing?"

"Get the hell off me," Raven shoved off a student moderator out of the way as she urged me to hurry up. "Come on, walk those legs faster. The Dean's office is just here on the first floor."

"I'll report you to the Dean as soon as I'm done with these papers."

I laughed my butt off, "Yeah, duh. That's exactly where we're going, douche." I pushed off his shoulders as we got on our way.

"What in the world is Raven Orthodox thinking, dozing around inside a different building, thinking as if hurrying in such a place like she literally own it. Who does she think she is?" A minor student whispered. And then another, "She's Raven? Gosh, how stupid could a pretty girl not remember her school building." And another. "Did she just violated a moderator's authority?"

"I'm pretty than most of you all, okay? And most of you all are just dumb enough to ask me if I really got here in the first place to help my sister talk to the Dean, because I do."

"Let's just go, sis." I urged her, pushing her back slightly so she wouldn't go too far as to deliver a powerful blow upon those crackheads right in their punch-able faces.

We reached to the Dean's Office. Raven's carefree nature suddenly turned like a first class teenage warlord back She pushed open the door and gripped my hand with full force. She didn't mean to hurt my arm but to give me a sisterhood strength, "Ow, Raven, you're hurting me."

"Oops, sorry!"

"Excuse me?" A woman in navy-blue, militant, fitting dress asked. She was so elegant, fewer styles and accessories yet it stood out on her as if it outshone her modern exceptional office. "What are you doing here, young girl?"

She referred to Raven, being a student from Eagle's Haven. She stopped in her tracks from loss for words to explain, so I stepped forward beside her so our forces unite as one. "Madam, I don't know how to say this, but a student from Lion's Den had reported me about bullying and assault, was that right?"

She stood up to step closer to us and agreed at my point. "Yes, yes, I knew that. I am Dean Scintilla of Serpent's Fangs. And I was waiting for you to report back to me on my office. Here, now, I want you to know that Arkskye is not just any academy to be treated like a playground for bullies."

"What are the consequences?"

"Four weeks of janitorial cleaning inside the campus however Diana pleases."

"What?" Raven laid shock to the core. "But Madam, that is too much for my sister to handle. I mean, four weeks is a bit too much, but with Diana's commands?"

"Yes, I can declare that. Diana has been the assaulted here, and you even outed them by posting an HIV positive revelation against her and her brother Cal, you should be-"

"Please, Madam," I made a genuine-seeming smile to appeal to her favor. "You don't realize that the entire situation is not heard from both sides. From my point of perspective, her friends were gossiping about me, and I only made an anti-bully move. The HIV thing was their idea in the first place, a tricky move to blackmail me, so it's only fair if I -"

"An anti-bully move? Is that even a word?" Raven snickered.

"Whatever, Raven, it's just a play on words." I silenced her, and then I smiled back to Dean, "Madam, I'm asking for forgiveness. And yes, respectfully speaking, I take full responsibility of what happened, although I honestly know they made the first move. So, I will take whatever punishment you or Diana deemed worthy."

The Dean looked at me, almost as if she believed me, yet I knew there are other tricky students who tried to persuade her, yet to no avail. She doesn't seem to be persuaded at such a short amount of time.

She took out a specialty paper from her desk told me to sign it. She called the chief magistrate of the Serpent's Fangs, even the Dean of Lion's Den. "Well, I do believe that blackmail is a very big issue in our academy, and I suppose what you did was the right thing to do, which is reversing their verbal threat. "

I nodded my head in agreement, "Yes, Madam, that' is right."

"But you still humiliated her in front of a large number of people in the cafe," She looked at me with a stern dedication, as if to lecture me on something I sinned in the name of the Lord.

"Sorry, Madam. I am hoping it will not happen again. I promise."

"Yes, Alexis, But what you did was still not okay. Even if they started the whole incident, you could have just reported the blackmail agenda to me and shut up about it. And even then, we have discussed everything, and how it will play out. The Arkskye students are required to play a responsible role in and out of campus. You should all be dedicated, reform-minded, and idealistic individuals who-"

She turned on her back and kept going on and on about her speech about how important a credit-worthy, stainless, students in the academy is. I felt awkward since that's exactly the opposite value I possess right now, so I looked at Raven, and her eyes rolled like it's the most boring speech she had ever heard of. I just shrugged and crossed my arms, whispering. "Stop making those faces, or you'll had me laughing on the floor."

When Dean Scintilla was finished and sat back on her throne, I turned to agree to what everything she had said, "Yes, Madam, I understand. So how's it handled then?"

"I do believe that your own reason was unheard of and underrated. So I'll lower your punishment this time, you're a freshmen out of a big institution, of course."

"What's her punishment?" Raven pleaded to know, her eyes were so done to trying to know what is.

"Well, I know this is going to be hard for you." Dean Scintilla made a declaration. "-but we have agreed that you will stay on Lion's Den for a month and that is final."