Robbie stood in the corner warily watching all the kids rush around, greet their friends, laugh and horse around. He thought of the conversation he had with his uncle that morning.
“Remember, keep calm and if anything happens, Carl will be there to protect you.”
“Uncle Foster, I told you, I don’t need a bodyguard. Carl has better things to do than babysit me. He’s an enforcer, let him enforce things.” Carl snorted a laugh from where he sat at the kitchen table and Robbie shot him an evil look. The man only raised his hands in surrender. Robbie’s uncle didn’t look convinced, and Robbie sighed. “Uncle, you want me to fit in, don’t you? For the pack and the whole town to accept me, right? Well, they’re not gonna do that if I have an enforcer for a bodyguard. What kind of message is it gonna send, do you think? That you don’t trust your pack? Or that you don’t trust your own nephew whom you adopted?” Robbie’s uncle sighed but relented.
“Okay, you are right, Rob.” His uncle took to calling him Rob ever since he started living with the man and Robbie didn’t mind it one bit. “You’re much too smart for your age, you know that?” Robbie gave a derisive snort. He wasn’t smart, it was just common sense. If he saw a new kid in town trailed by a bodyguard, he’d think twice about approaching that kid. And then he’d start wondering why they needed a bodyguard at all.
So his uncle let him go to school alone with admonishment to search a teacher in case of any trouble. After five minutes in the school halls Robbie was doubting his own decision.
He thought to that moment a few months ago when he had wished his uncle was something cool like a spy, and then to his disappointment that the man was a boring civil servant instead. Boy, was he wrong! No, his uncle wasn’t a spy and yes, his job involved civil service, but the man was as far from boring and ordinary as possible.
Robbie’s uncle was a werewolf. Yes, a werewolf. And not just any ordinary werewolf either. Foster Stoneheart was the Alpha of one of the most influential werewolf packs in the country and a leader of a thriving supernatural community. The town they lived in was comprised entirely of supernaturals. They had their own hospital, primary schools, secondary school, college and university. They had an industrial estate, a cinema, theatres and restaurants. Cafes and pubs. They had everything a regular human town would have. Except humans. Everyone in town was a supernatural. It was an unwritten rule. There were just too many supernaturals in one place to avoid weird incidents which would easily betray their true nature to humans. So humans were not allowed in. That’s why Robbie’s uncle insisted Robbie go through the transformation. An alpha’s bite could change a human into a werewolf, that’s how Robbie’s uncle ended as one after all. He had been on a hiking trip in Europe when in some remote forest in an Eastern European country he’d encountered a wolf trapped in a poacher’s trap. There had been no mobile service in the area and the place was far from any human settlements. There was no one to help Uncle Foster with the wolf. Good man that he was, he couldn’t let the animal die and so he decided to help the wolf himself. Despite taking precautions, the animal was in too much pain and had bitten Uncle Foster when he was freeing it. Then the wolf fainted, and to Foster’s huge surprise, when he was taking care of it, the animal turned into a human.
The wolf had actually been an alpha of the local pack who had gone for a solitary run to clear his head over some troubles. Caught in a trap he would have died if not for Foster’s help. The accidental bite ended up turning Foster into a werewolf himself. The alpha who made him shared all the knowledge of supernatural world with Foster. After he returned to his country Foster had been approached by an older Alpha who wished to retire from leading a pack. That’s how he ended up in the town of Fulsham leading first the werewolf pack there, then the entire supernatural community.
And now here Robbie was, about to join that same supernatural community, and not nearly as confident as he’d tried to convince his uncle he was.
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“Hey!” A loud voice spoke from a place next to him, which had been empty just a second ago. Robbie turned to see a big black girl looking at him strangely. She leaned in and sniffed him. Sniffed him! Robbie was never going to get used to supernaturals! “Who are you? You smell weird!” She proclaimed.
“Mary! You’re not supposed to say that to people! It’s rude.” A smaller black girl with two ponytails appeared right next to the bigger girl. “Hi, I’m Amina but everybody calls me Mina. What’s your name? I haven’t seen you before, are you new?”
“Yeah.” Robbie swallowed to clear his throats of the nerves and extended his hand to the girl. She looked at it strangely then gingerly took it and gave it an exaggerated shake. “I’m Robbie. I just moved in here to live with my uncle after my parents died.” The girl inhaled sharply and took a step back.
“Does it mean you’re the alpha’s nephew?”
“Yeah, I am.” Robbie straightened, afraid he knew what was coming. Another kid appeared right in front of him. Were they using their superspeed or teleporting or something? The new boy was about as tall as Robbie with blond hair and blue eyes hidden behind glasses.
“Is it true that you’re a human?” the new boy said excitedly. “I’ve never met a human. Is it true you lived in human world until a few months ago? My dad said you did and that your uncle brought you here and bit you to change you. Is it true that it didn’t take? That you went through the whole of the process and came out of it as human as you’ve been before? My dad says it never happens. He says supe blood always wins, even in half-bloods. That’s kids whose one parent was human. They always take after their supe parent. My dad is geneticist so he knows. He says you’re an anomaly, that you shouldn’t be possible.”
“Eli, calm down.” A bigger boy with shaggy black hair approached them steadily. “You’re overwhelming him.” The new boy extended his hand to Robbie. “Hi, you must be Robin Blackwell, I’m Tomlin Rightley. My dad is the head of a Vampire division for the Town Council. This is Eli Mason, he’s a selkie, and the girls, Mary and Mina are pookahs. Please excuse our behaviour. None of us ever met a human before.”
“That’s all right.” Robbie said, still slightly tense. “I know vampires and Selkies, my uncle told me about most of the races that live in Fulsham, but I’ve never heard of pookahs.” He looked at the girls in curiosity. The bigger girl, Mary stepped forward.
“We’re not very common.” She turned around and swished a horse-tail at Robbie whose eyes grew huge at the sight. “We’re shapeshifters, but when in human form, we always retain an animal part like my tail. It got harder to hide in human world, so we’re nearly extinct now.” She said it calmly as if it didn’t bother her. Robbie frowned.
“Well, that’s not fair. You should be allowed to be yourself.”
“Yeah.” Amina said and smiled at Robbie shyly. “That’s why we moved to Fulsham, Mary’s family and mine. We can be ourselves here. It’s safe.”
“Yeah.” Robbie nodded seriously. “Uncle Foster takes safety very seriously. I think too seriously sometimes. He’s a bit overprotective. He wanted me to have one of enforcers as my bodyguard.”
“Really?” Eli started jumping up and down as he chattered. “Enforcers are sooooo cool! Did you see them train? They’re like ninjas or ancient warriors or something. They can kill you with just their pinkie finger. I wanna be an enforcer, but you have to be fifteen to start training so I need to wait, but I’m taking classes in strategy and warfare and I’m starting judo this year to hone my fighting skills.” He gave a few chopping moves and punches. Robbie couldn’t really see the overexcited kid as an enforcer, but what did he know? He was new in this town and new in supernatural world. Maybe overexcited selkies made for great enforcers? The bell rang startling them all. Eli muttered something under his breath and disappeared in a blink of an eye. The girls waved at him and did the same. That left Robbie with Tomlin.
“Um, do you know where English class is? I haven’t had a chance to check the school map.”
“Ah, don’t worry. I think we’re in the same class. Is your English with Mr. Speister?” Robbie nodded and Tomlin grinned. “Mine too. He’s really cool. Come on, I’ll show you the way.” Robbie smiled at the bigger boy gratefully and felt himself relax. His first day at new school was turning out to be pretty cool. His and his uncle’s dire predictions on how everyone would react to his human status seemed slightly exaggerated. Robbie knew the day wasn’t over yet, but at least Tomlin didn’t seem bothered by it. Eli, though a bit scatter-brained, had been fascinated rather than horrified, and even the girls seemed to get over their initial apprehension. All in all, it was far from a total bust.