“Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.”

-Petrarch of Italy

Just A Bad Day

“Adrian!” my mom called from downstairs. The day hadn’t even started and she was on my case. She started banging on my door calling my name. I was hoping that if I pretended to be in deep sleep she would just back off, but no. She just busted on in, “Adrian, wake up right now! The school just called me again.”

“Oh, Christ. Mom. It’s nothing.” I rolled over and sat up on my bed, “They’re just blowing hot air.”

“It’s not nothing.” Mom lowered her voice but took her ‘I am your mother’ stance, “What are you going to do if they expel you?”

“Go live with Dad?” I answered.

“What! Do you think that’s funny?” She was back to yelling.

“Hilarious.” I stood up. I was over a head taller than my mom and twice as wide from the bulk my demon blood gave me. I started to head to the bathroom as I called back, “Because neither are ever going to happen.”

The bathroom door was between us, but Mom talked on through it, “They told me you keep disrupting class and that you’re bullying other students. These are the things that students are expelled over, and I’m just worried about you. I want what’s best for you.”

She hit me with the old mother’s love jab. I could only sigh as I finished washing my hands and looked at myself in the mirror. I could see the fire in my eyes. Literal fire that caused my eyes to glow in the dark. My father’s eyes. I grabbed one of my dozen pairs of shades and hid my eyes behind them before opening the door. My mom was hunched over weighted down by worthless worry. I set my hands on her shoulder. “Mama. It’s not a big deal. This isn’t some sissy mundane school. They can handle me just fine. And those other students I fight are tough enough. They’re not going to expel me. They would arrest me before that.”

“That doesn’t help to calm me.” Mom didn’t laugh.

“Alright, mama.” I went back to my room to dress for the day. Checking the clock it was six thirty, “Just next time they call, ask them about my discipline record. It’s probably a mile long already.”

Actually, I didn’t know if they recorded every time they smacked me around. I knew they had my detentions on record, but that Stonefist guy had leveled me a lot in the few weeks I’ve been going to that school. I didn’t mind it at all. That bastard father of mine always said that losing made you stronger and that every hit you took was just another lesson on how to take a hit. Pop did know a lot about fighting, and he did care about us. I knew that much, but that still didn’t help in the long run.

“Adrian.” A small voice called from my door. It was Ambrose. My little brother. By seven years to the day.

“Hey bro. What’s up?” I greeted him with a wave in. “Want to skip school and head to the arcade?”

“No, but can we go after school?”

“Hell yeah. See if any of those losers beat our high scores.”

Ambrose stood there and looked at the floor, “Mom’s mad at you.”

I sighed. Grown ups were easy to deal with. Tell them to fuck off and they either did so or punched my face in. Mom was just trying to look out for me at the end of the day, so I couldn’t be mad with her. I could only tell her the score and hope that she accepted it and accept that. Ambrose was different. He was my little brother, and big brothers took care of their little brothers. Which means I couldn’t let him go around thinking I was in trouble. I handled trouble. “Nah, she mad that those wusses at school can’t take a punch.”

“My teacher says fighting is wrong,” Ambrose said back.

“And they’re right, fighting is wrong.” I stood and flexed my arms, “Which is why I don’t fight. I spar.”

“What’s spar?” Ambrose asked.

“It looks like fighting,” I explained and lifted Ambrose on my shoulder, “but the two differences are you never go after anyone weaker than you, and you never go for keeps.”

I carried Ambrose downstairs to the kitchen. Mom hadn’t started breakfast, and I didn’t want to wait for her. I open the cereal cabinet and let Ambrose take his pick. Two bowls and matching spoons later we were pouring milk over flavored corn puffs. We chomped down and read the stupid puzzles they put on the back of the box and wondered who would win a cereal mascot fight. The winner was Deacon Cornman. The blue-collar worker mascot of Top Notch Corn Puff Cereal. An obvious choice.

Ambrose was scooping the last piece of cereal when Mom came back down dressed in casual clothes. She looked us over, “No playing hooky you two. You better head straight for school. Both of you.”

“Ambrose already beat you to it, ma.” I patted Ambrose on his shoulder, “We’re going to show up The Arcade after school today.”

“That’s fine. Just stay out of trouble.” Mom walked off to her own day. She didn’t have a job. At least not one I knew about. Didn’t matter though. Raising not one, but two half demon boys was work enough as far as the government saw, and I agreed. It wasn’t that mom didn’t catch breaks. The problem was she always seemed to catch the wrong breaks. Always in the wrong place at the right time to the wrong man for the right problem. That’s how Grand Dad told it to me once. Mom’s pop that is. Don’t know many on dad’s side. Don’t want to.

“Adrian, come on,” Ambrose called as he headed to the door.

“Hey, wait up.” I followed as I yelled out, “Mom, can I take the bike?”

“What? No.” She yelled back.

“Come on Mom? We don’t want to be late to school.” I slid my shades down enough to give Ambrose a wink.

“Then don’t be late. You have plenty of time.”

Ambrose smiled and added, “Please Mom. Just this once.”

“Once becomes twice, and twice becomes thrice. I said no.”

“Dang.” I snapped, “Well I guess we’ll have to take a few shortcuts.”

Ambrose smiled knowing the score. We headed outside. We lived in one of those compact suburbs where the houses were all real close to each other and roads were too small to really drive on daily. The perfect place for super tough guys like us to find shortcuts. Ambrose hopped on my back piggyback style and I started. Leaping straight up I climbed onto our roof and looked at the other house. They really were bunched up. The city acted as a mountain to create a man-made landscape of rolling hills. With trees dotting the way and sturdy fences separating yards the neighborhood was full of advanced footpaths. I darted across the roof and leaped across the way kicking off on a fence to land on the next roof. I didn’t stop my pace even as I heard Mom come out the door yelling, “Adrian! Don’t you dare!”

“Did you hear that little bro?” I asked Ambrose on my back.

“Nope.” Ambrose laughed and I continued my way across roofs and through trees and over fences. Ambrose hooted and hollered the whole way. He was still in high spirits as I made my final jump across an actual street and landed in front of the local elementary school. We demihumans didn’t get our own schools until high school. So Ambrose was the center of attention from dozens of mundane punks and the brats they looked after as he hopped off my back.

“Later dude.” I high-fived Ambrose as he ran off to his teacher.

“Young man, we’ve told you about these disruptive actions before.” One of the punk teachers started yapping in my ear, or maybe he was the principal, all mundanes are equally annoying.

I honestly thought about just knocking the guy’s lights out, but restraining myself I turned to face him. He stood his ground despite flinching at my smiling face, “Sorry about that. Ambrose is starting to get so big. Don’t know how many more times Big Bro is going to be able to carry him. You understand, right?”

He inhaled trying to keep his anger, “Still, please refrain from causing a scene in the future.”

“You got it!” I snapped off some fingers and he seemed satisfied enough to return to the other teachers. The coast clear I dropped the facade and turned my guns into birds. I headed off to the mountain that was the city proper. I might be a dumb brute with more fist than sense, but I’m not a mindless brute. I know when to pull my punches. Especially when it came to keeping family safe. Another of the few things I picked up from Dad.

I didn’t run the whole way into the city. It wouldn’t have been a problem for my demonic speed and stamina, but it probably would have tested my patience to get to school so early. Homeroom started at eight and only the loser nerds were there before that. So I just simply made my way through the outer city until I reached the bus stop and waited for the seven-twenty to come by. Checking the clock at the stop I had about five minutes to wait. I checked the crowd and with great luck I found something to entertain myself. On the other end of the stop was that fairy girl from my class. She was acting like she was waiting for the bus like everyone else. Which I mean, come on, a fairy on the bus? I had to investigate this anomaly. I stepped back and headed around the back of the stop. She never even noticed until I was on top of her.

“Well well well,” Instantly her body locked up. Sweat started beading around the flowers in her hair. “What do we have here? A bug wanting to ride the bus like a big person?”

“Leave me alone Adrian.” She tried to defend herself, “I’m heading to school like you.”

“Nah, that’s where you’re wrong.” I grabbed her shoulder and waved her back and forth like paper mache, “I’m going to school to learn how to be a proper member of society and junk. You ain’t nothing but a waste of space everyone tolerates to keep those queens of nothing happy.”

“That’s not true.” Her eyes started to water and her voice shook, “I’m half-human. Which means-”

“Which means jack diddle!” I interrupted laughing, “No one cares who boned who. You still ain’t nothing but a fairy.”

“And you don’t seem to be much more than a brainless hell ape.” A man stepped in between us. He was tall. Easily a head over me, with the lean and long build of an active athlete. However, it was the sharp shape of his face along with his green eyes and blond hair that marked him for what he was. “I’m surprised they let you out of your cage. Zoo’s not busy today?”

“What did you say?” I puffed out my chest and I kept my feet firmly rooted. I knew better than to trade footing for a few inches of height. “You must have balls for days to come up on me.”

“Please. It would take more to face an alley cat than go toe to toe with you.” He didn’t even budge, “Although I guess the smell won’t be as bad as whatever you piss out.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” I was pissed. I usually could take trash talk, but this guy’s talk got to me on another level.

“I am Christopher Bell, Gwen’s father.” He raised his chin and looked down at me, “I highly suggest you step back before I am forced to drag you up and down the city and return you to the ratchet hole you crawled out of. And to be clear, I’m referring to your likely whore of a mother.”

I gritted my teeth. “What did your lily ass just say to me?”

I was ready to fight this man across the damn globe, and I was prepared to throw the first punch straight into his jaw. It was then that a whoop whoop cut through the air.

“Disperse you two.” A mechanical voice came from a nearby cop car’s speakers. “No fighting in the street.”

“Daddy. Come on! The bus is here.” The fairy girl tugged on the man’s sleeves as she tried to climb into the bus.

“Very well. I was growing sick of the smell of sulfur. However, eggs are a good source of protein.” and he stepped onto the bus. I stared him down as the door closed and rolled away. As the city bus turned out of sight I heard the voice of the other people. They were talking about what just happen.

“Did you see that?”

“I can’t believe that man would act like that.”

“A grown man. Talking to a kid like that.”

“Seriously, would you expect anything else?”

“Even if he was being a punk, he’s still just a kid.”

I could feel the fire in my eyes rage as I turned to the collection of mundanes. “Fuck you! I could have taken him, and I don’t need your pity or protection! You’re all nothing but a bunch of mundane plebs! You don’t know what you’re talking about! So keep your plain, pathetic, mundane opinions to yourself! Then go fuck yourself with them! Understand!”

They were scared. I could see the air warping around me. I looked down at my hands. They were red. Not just from my anger either. I was on the edge. The only thing in this world that pissed me off more than bastards who thought they were stronger than me were those who thought I wasn’t as tough as I was. These mundanes thought they were on my side just because I wasn’t an adult. I was returned to my senses by the police siren going off again. Looking over I saw the two officers looking at me.

“Don’t do anything rash kid.” was all they said over the speaker. I spat on the ground and scowled into the middle distance.

“Damn, Adrian. Chill.” My brooding was interrupted by the voice of my desk neighbor Abraham. His face still sunken like the man didn’t even know food existed. “What got you terrorizing the common man today?”

“Nothing.” I spat on the ground again. “Just that fairy bitch from our class.”

“Gwen? Gwen was here?” Abraham asked as if he cared about her. “Was she on the bus?”

“Why do you care? Planning on hunting her down? Cause tough luck. I got dibs on first blood.” I explained the score.

“Okay.” He said, “Cool. I don’t really do hunting.”

“Tsk. Whatever.” I leaned on the bus stop.

“I guessed I missed the seven twenty. Was Gwen on that one?” Abraham asked looking at the clock and causing my own realization.

“That Fairy Bastard! He made me miss the bus!” I slam my fist in anger into one of the stop poles denting it.

Abraham stared at me. “That sucks.”

So it was. Abraham and me waited for the next bus to come back. The seven-thirty came and left and we watched it pass since it was going in the opposite direction. However, the majority of the mundanes who witnessed the event were gone, which was just fine by me. Before long another grouping of people started to collect around the stop. These groups however had a lot of familiar faces.

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“Yo! Abraham! Adrian! Ain’t this a sight.” The massive form of Semy came up on the stop. “Yall running late or early?”

“Fuck off.” I barked back. Honestly, I didn’t mind the bastard. He was a mutant, but he held his own. He was one of the few people in my class who could take my punches and throw some back. I respected that.

Taking up the space of three, Semy entered the waiting group. He slapped me on the back with his casual strength, “Come on! Got up on the wrong side of the barbecue today?” He laughed at his own joke.

“Apparently he missed the Seven Twenty bus because of Gwen,” Abraham explained.

“Gwen? What did she do to cause that?” Semy asked.

“Nothing!” I spat on the ground, “It was her toothpick father that got in my face.”

“Oh seriously! Mr Bell was here?” Semy lit up at that, “Aww man. I can’t believe I missed him.”

“Why? Got your own beef to settle?”

“Nah, man. Mr Bell is super cool.”

“What?”

“Yeah, last time I saw him he gave me some of this super bread. I wanted to get the recipe.”

“What!?”

Abraham spoke up, “I think it’s called Elvin Bread and I think only fae can make it.”

“Really? That’s sucks.” Semy sighed.

“What are you talking about?” I couldn’t believe this. I knew the guy was stuck on the same team as her, but this was too much. “Why would you ever take food from a fairy in the first place?”

“Mr Bell isn’t a fairy. He’s a half-fairy.” Semy pointed out. As if that mattered.

“Half, full, one-thousandth, a fairy is a fairy. You can’t trust them!” I tried to explain to the guy I saw as an almost friend, but it was my almost kin that countered me.

“Bold claiming from an infernal being.” said Abraham, “I don’t even think you’ve been baptized?”

With no response that I could give with the police nearby, I just turned away and went back to waiting. I couldn’t believe Abraham. He was literally the son of the devil himself. He knew the score. He knew that demons and fairies were nothing alike. Sure, demons were backstabbing cocksuckers the whole lot of us, but we were honest about it. We put our deals in clear terms with ink and paper. Sure, we try to get the underhand, but you can read that in the fine print like anyone else. Even our handshake dealings were always upfront and straight up and actually required a full handshake to be sealed. Fairy deals were insidious by their very nature. A slip of the tongue can screw you over, and they never explained their terms. Always falling back on that bull excuse that they couldn’t lie, as if that meant anything. Demons couldn’t lie either. Not without consequence. We also couldn’t back out of deals without consequence. Breaking a contract could half your strength. Fairy simply just avoided paying out when possible, but they always come to collect. One and done, that’s how fairies worked. Demons understood the importance of repeat business. That’s why we made the best lawyers. Abraham knew all of this, and to stand there and actually praise one of their kind. Unbelievable.

The seven forty eventually came and dozens of obvious students climbed abroad. The ride was packed. Even if Semy wasn’t on there wouldn’t have been room to sit. Luckily, the ride was short and soon we were all heading to our classes. The halls were full with noise as students chatted by their lockers and the teachers watched over them. Among them were of course the disciplinary officers, Mr and Ms Stonefist. Their barks and shouts were heard over the crowd. One of them caught sight of me and stepped in my way forcing me to stop.

“Priest, not causing trouble?” Said the towering stance of Mr Stonefist.

“Not yet. I was wanting to wait until I ran into you.” I towered back, but he still was over a head higher than me, “Ain’t no fun if there ain’t no fight.”

“Mind yourself, Adrian. I’m not here for your amusement.” His stare turned into a leer, “If I have to step in to handle you, you’re going to regret it.”

“Don’t I know it. Mom got your phone call today.” I smiled up at him, “Threw my whole day off.”

“Well get back on it, or else.” He stepped aside and pointed forward, ordering, “Now get to class!”

I just laughed and strided on. The Stonefists were a pretty cool pair. I had never managed to get the ire of both of them. Ms Stonefist only handled the girls just as Mr Stonefist only dealt with us guys, and he knew how to gauge his punches. If you took a swing at him he returned it with premium interest, and I would know. I’ve lost plenty of time out cold from making that investment. Like I said, I respected that.

I entered the back of the class just a few minutes before the bell. Semy and Abraham were already sitting as they had gone ahead of me. I gave Kevin a high five on the back of his head. The guy was already snoozing. Like he didn’t know nighttime was for sleeping. As I got to my desk I looked over and saw that the fairy girl wasn’t here. Which was fine by me. Hopefully, she finally lost her nerve and dropped out.

I took my seat just before Mr Galacto came in and dashed my hopes away, “Good morning class. Today, we have a special guest teacher for a homeroom lesson.”

His monotone tone gave the announcement with the fanfare of a leaf falling and continued on adding a gesture with the same energy, “Please welcome Mr Christopher Bell. He’ll be giving a lecture on the foundation of Human-Fairy Relationships.”

“How romantic!” That Samantha girl called out as the lanky figure of the fairy that insulted my mother walked in.

“Political relationships, Ms VonBec.” Mr Galacto said stepping aside as the fairy man wrote on the chalkboard.

“Romance and politics are often more closely intertwined than we would like to admit, Mr Galacto.” He set the chalk down and revealed his writing to be his bio. “So while I’ll be addressing legal terms primarily a few steamy details might crop up. Now, Good Morning to you all. My name is Christopher Bell. I’m a member of the North Virginian Fairy Kin Commune, and the father of your classmate Gwendolyn. I am a second-generation half-fairy, with my mother’s mother being the closest Otherside family. My grandmother is also Gwendolyn’s closest Otherside family as my father and her mother are both fourth-generation. This makes my little dew drop a third-generation half-fairy as we track the shortest path through our linage. Any questions so far?”

“Why do half-fairies do that?” Mary asked with a raised hand. “The generation counting I mean.”

“We technically don’t. The counting of generations back to our Other kin is done by the state.” He answered looking at her, “Often by the Department of Demi-Humans. It’s the same with many otherkins, such as demons.”

He slid his eye over at me. He was right. I was a first generation half demon. Ambrose too.

“If you were to track the longest path, how many generations would that go?” asked Frank in front of me.

“I’m not sure.” The fairy man grabbed his chin in thought, “My father’s line starts with Alexander Hamilton, but we have lines that reach back into the old world. I would say at least ten.”

“But Alexander Hamilton married a mundane human.” The Sara girl pointed out, “So how are you a half-fairy?”

“Because half fairy doesn’t mean perfectly half. In fact, most humans have at least a few drops of blood from Otherside somewhere in their lineage.”

As the class took that in and thought about their own family tree I decided to ask my own question, “Why do you bother making more?”

The class dropped into silence as he looked at me, “Pardon?”

“You heard me.” I crossed my arms and repeated, “Why do you bother making more? You fairies don’t provide anything but trouble and yet you all keep popping out more and more.”

I could feel the dirty glares that the others were giving me. As if I cared. If they couldn’t stomach the real question, then fuck’em. I stood my ground as he gave his answer, “The same reasons anyone brings children into the world. Whether they’re planned or unplanned. Like with you.”

I shot up at that, “You got something to say?”

“Yes, I do. That’s why I’m here. Don’t you remember?” He spread his arms, “I’m here to give a lecture. Which we should move on to soon.”

“You think you can just insult me like it’s nothing!” I slammed a fist down on my desk.

“Insult you? I did no such thing. I just pointed out that you came into this world like the rest of your class. If there’s some detail about your birth that you find shameful, then I apologize.”

“You fucking-” I had had it. I was ready to break this guy’s face. However, we were once again interrupted.

“Adrian Priest, sit down.” Mr Galacto called out, “You’ve disrupted this class enough for today.”

I gawked at him as I tried to find words that weren’t just a chain of swears.

“Mr Bell is here with my full authority. To disrespect him is to disrespect me. Understand? Now sit down, and remain quiet.”

Again, I might be a brute, but I’m not mindless. I sat back down as the fairy continued on. Going into detail about the dealings the different human governments had with the fairies of both Otherside and Earth. About the different court trials throughout the world and the precedents they set. I actually knew a lot of them since they often lumped all otherkin together, which included demon kin. Stuff that preserved our rights to humanity. The whole time Mr Galacto kept me in his sights.

Eventually, the hour ended and the bell rang just as the fairy finished summarizing Hamilton v. Georgia. Mr Galacto stood up and lightly clapped, “Thank you Mr Bell for your time. Are there any other questions before we move on to today’s history lesson?” A number of hands were raised, “Well then a list of resources with provided so you might research further on your own time. I’ll be seeing Mr Bell out. Behave while I’m gone.”

The two of them exited the class and closed the door behind them. At the same time, a textbook was slammed against my head which I had noticed more from the sound it hitting me than the actual force of the blow. I turned to see the mundane girl in my face. “Leave Gwen alone asshole. I’m sick of you being so mean to her!”

“Fuck you!” I shot back, “I would expect better from a mundane. Don’t they teach you about fairies in pre-k?”

“Not surprise you don’t know.” She leaned, “I am surprised that they let your semi-literate ass in here. I thought these schools had standards.”

“You thought that after they let you in?” I laughed, “Listen here girly-”

“No, you listen.” Another voice said with a slam on my desk. It was Carl, “I’m done with tolerating your treatment of my teammate. You better not even breathe too hard in her direction, because if I catch you I’ll knock you into next week.”

“Hell yeah!” Melissa cheered. “Star Power!”

I looked between the two of them as they flanked me. “Damnation! Kevin, you seeing this?” I looked back at my own teammate only to see him asleep, a light snore answering me. I saw Nazuri avoiding eye contact. I leaned over to see Runesir scribbling in a book. “Runesir, you’re a wizard, back me up.”

The man didn’t even look up, “While I do agree with being cautious to fairy kind, your attitude is far too extreme. I’m siding with the rest of the class on this. Leave Gwen alone.”

I looked around the room. They were all against me. They were all siding with the fairy girl. All scowling and reinforcing what Carl had said. Grinding my teeth I finally turn my sight to Gwendolyn herself. I was met with the stare of Mary shaking her head at me as the girl in front was seemingly trying to fall out of existence. I needed to spit. The taste of sulfur was filling my mouth, but I like I said, I’m not a mindless brute. I slammed my fist on the desk, “Fine. I’ll leave her alone. Happy?”

Everyone seemed to be content. All except Carl who stared at me and asked, “Who?”

“What? What do you mean who?” I asked with genuine confusion.

“Who are you going to leave alone?”

“Are you serious? Did your brain fall out when I wasn’t looking? The fairy girl.”

He lifted his hand and crossed his arms, “Say her name.”

“What!” I growled, finally understanding.

“Say her name, and that you’re going to leave her be.”

The fire in my eyes started to rage. I was reaching a limit that I often didn’t hit. The taste of fire and brimstone washed over my mouth. I swallowed, “I will leave that fairy girl, Gwendolyn Bell, alone.”

“Swear it.”

“I swear I’ll kill you.”

“Cool. Now swear you’ll leave Gwen alone.”

Being a half-demon came with a lot of baggage. The strength and toughness were also paired with my words holding power over me. All fueled by the same demonic energy that coursed through me I couldn’t have any of the boons without taking all of the banes. It was the same with nearly all magic users, and this fucker knew that. “I swear it.”

“Good.” and he turned away to sit down. Soon after Mr Galacto returned and the day went on. The whole time I could barely even think. Every time I tried to look at Gwen I could feel someone looking at me.

“I just can’t believe this.” I stabbed at my lunch with a fork.

“Get over it, dude. Gwen is cool.” Kevin scowled as he ate his own lunch. We were sitting alone, as the rest of the school avoided us. Avoided me.

“She is a fairy.” I pointed out to him.

“And you’re a demon. What’s your point?”

I didn’t have a response to that. She was a fairy. That was the point. “Whatever. If they want to defend that half pint dust ball, let them.”

“Dust ball?” Kevin raised an eyebrow. He set his own fork down and looked right at me, “Alright man, I have to know. Why do you hate fairies so much?”

“Because they’re fairies. They’re tricky, swindling, thieving liars.” I laid out the score, “You can never trust a fairy, or their ilk. They’ll just come up on you and act like there’s nothing wrong and then the next thing you know your eyes have been plucked out of your head and you’re speaking a language that doesn’t exist. They always fall back on their nature of not being able to lie to act all innocent, but it’s bullshit. They don’t care about anything other than themselves. That’s why I hate them.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“What do you mean that’s it?”

“Dude, what you just described sounds like dealing with any Otherside being. Like demons.”

“It’s different. Demons tell you the score. You don’t have anyone to blame but yourself if you get screwed over by a demon.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.” I crossed my arms with a proud stance, “We pride ourselves on our fairness.”

Kevin raised another eyebrow before sighing and returning to the food, “Alright man. Whatever you say. Still, Gwen is a demihuman. Just like us. With all the same rights.”

I scoffed, “Yeah, don’t remind me.” and started back on my own food. When lunch ended, me and Kevin headed back to homeroom for the end of class. After, neither us having extra classes, we left school.

“Arcade?” Kevin suggested.

“Sure, just got to pick up my little brother first,” I explained as we turned the corner.

“Hey, how do you have a brother?” Kevin asked, “I mean, you’re dad’s not around. Are you two half-brothers?”

I balled up a fist and showed him, “What you trying to say?”

“Nothing, just asking. If it’s a big deal then forget it.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” I huffed and dropped my fist to my side, “It’s just that dad wasn’t always AWOL. He stuck around after I was born. Or, I guess mom stuck around him.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means my dad was a demon, and demons are demons. He wasn’t evil or anything, but he was a professional asshole.”

“Professional, huh?”

“Yeah. He would always talk down to Mom and me, but not in a hateful way.”

“I didn’t know you could belittle someone in a loving fashion.”

“It’s complicated. Point is dad didn’t bail until after Ambrose was born. There was some bull with another gang.”

“Wait, gang? Your dad was a gangster?”

“Yeah, a lot of demons are. He was legit though. Did everything through the treaties and agreements. Never stepped out of line. At least, not until them.”

“The other gang?”

“Yeah. A fairy gang was trying to move into our turf. His turf I mean. Things went wrong. I don’t fully understand it, but the other gang got him in some loophole, and at the end of the day my dad had to make a choice. Give up power, or ditch us. Worse part was Mom’s relief when he made the choice. I don’t blame either of them though.”

We had stopped at a street corner. The spot where we had to split between the arcade and Ambrose’s school. The people walked by leaving us be. I just stared down at the ground, hands in my pockets. Kevin finally broke the silence between us with, “Damn. That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.” I huffed out a sigh, “What about you? Where are your folks?”

But he had already walked away by the time I looked up calling back, “See you at the arcade. Tell Ambrose to be ready to play me at Battle Brawl.”

I snorted. That guy was on another level. I didn’t know how he managed to be the way he was, but like the rest of the people who knew the score and kept on swinging, I respected him. I continued on my way taking up a jog that would have outpaced a mundane run and before long I was in front of the school I had jumped to just that morning. I looked around for Ambrose when my eye caught the school’s giant name board. It read Alexander Hamilton Elementary School. I stared at it. It wasn’t surprising. The Founding Fathers had their names on everything, and the school needed a name. I went to look for Ambrose.

It didn’t take me long to spot him. He was on the playground. The teachers were watching them as parents came by and picked up their own kids. One of them saw and narrowed their eyes at me. I realized it was the same guy who got on my ass that morning. I popped out the finger guns again. Last thing I wanted to do was deal with the fallout of punching his lights out. So I just strided around the field waving at the teachers who recognized me. When I got to the spot Ambrose was playing I finally noticed that he was playing with a friend, and that his friend was a girl. At the same time I was starting to feel pride for my little brother I noticed the telltale signs. Her frame was smaller than the rest of the kids and she moved like she weighed nothing. She was barefooted and yet she didn’t have any dirt on her. Her hair was blond and braided with the dead giveaway of flowers in it. I stopped in my tracks and just stared for a moment.

“Adrian!” Ambrose called out when he saw me. He waved and I waved back breaking the spell over me.

“That’s my brother Adrian. We are going to beat every game at the arcade today.” Ambrose said to the girl. “Those losers won’t know what hit them.”

“Okay. I hope you have fun.” The girl talked so softly I had to guess what she said.

“The arcade is always fun. Ask your mom if you can come next time.” Ambrose said, “I’ll show you that super move I told you about on Battle Brawl.”

“Okay, I will.” The girl giggled and then leaned in and pecked Ambrose on the cheek, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ambrose went red in the most mundane fashion and agreed with a “Hell yeah!” before he ran off to me calling behind, “Later!”

Immediately upon reaching me I slapped him with a high five. “What is up little brother? Are you ready to teach some plebs what it means to be humiliated?”

“You bet.” He caught the high five and gave a thumbs up, “If they think they can best us then they have to think again!”

“Well you better be ready,” We started back towards the city, “cause that punk Kevin thinks he can take you in Battle Brawl.”

“Well, we better go teach him how wrong he is.” Ambrose pumped a fist.

“Hey, by the way, I saw that girlie you were hanging out with.” I patted him on the back as he turned red again, “What’s the score with that?”

“Her name is Lily. She’s new. She’s really cool. We’re in the same class and,” He hopped in front to show the light in his eyes as he exclaimed, “She’s a demihuman! Like us!”

“Nah, little man. Not like us.” I corrected him, “We’re half demons. She’s a… something else.”

“Yeah. Her dad is a fairy.” He said as a matter of fact, “But he’s not around. Also, like us.”

“Again, not like us.” I pointed out.

“But, our dad isn’t around.”

“I know, but it’s different. Dad had to bail on us. He didn’t want to, he had to. Dad cares about us.”

“I know, but-”

“But nothing. Don’t compare us to their kind.”

Ambrose didn’t say anything to that. I just pushed my shades up and kept my eyes forward. We stopped at a cross walk as public taxis passed by. There were other people on the streets, and I didn’t want to start anything by scaring someone with my flame gaze while Ambrose was around.

“Adrian,” Ambrose whispered, “Does dad love us?”

I stared forward watching the light tick down to green, “Of course he does.”

The light finally turn and we stood there. “I don’t remember dad that much.”

“You don’t?” I wasn’t surprised. Ambrose was barely talking when it all went down.

“I remember,” Ambrose focused like an archer taking a shot, “He was tall. Taller than mom.”

“Yeah, he was.” I watched the light turn red again. “He was taller than Mom.”

“I remember that he was loud. Like thunder.”

“Louder than thunder.” I corrected.

“And I remember, he was red. Was Dad red?”

“Only sometimes.” The light changed again and I felt a pat on my back. I looked to see some guy. Just a guy. He looked Asian with a salt-pepper beard. He just grinned and nodded his head forward. I nodded my thanks and started forward as Ambrose followed. We didn’t have time to reminisce about the past. We had that punk Kevin’s ass to kick.