Okay, now that you know my parent's life story, let's fast forward to the present.
Beep! Beep! Beep! "Silence that blasted piece of technology," grumbles my father's voice from the left hand side of my room's wall. Mother's voice is audible, but her words are unclear. Then, silence. I'm glad for it. My home is crazy enough without a pissed-off king of shadows.
I roll over under my silky silver duvet, and press the off button on my alarm clock. Strangely enough, it kept beeping. I frowned, confused. Thinking I hadn't pressed hard enough, I pushed the snooze button again. Remarkably, it was still on. I glared at it, and made a fist. I raised it high, and brought it down with a crunch. Not to brag, but after joining the boxing team, I've gotten much stronger at hitting and punching things.
To no avail, it kept making noise. I was contemplating bringing Natasha, my dog, into the fight, when my sister entered my bedroom. Graceful, swift and silent since her manifestation, at sixteen Belladonna was like her namesake: Gorgeous and sweet on the outside, yet lethal on the inside. Bella's lethality lay in her secrets. She knew everything about our family, from the passcodes to open the front gate, to the minute details of our parent's first date story, even the secret combination to open Father's vault, where he keeps his most powerful spell books and magical items.
She stopped around a foot away from my bedside table, taking in my ever-beeping clock. I gave her a look that said, Belladonna, don't you dare think about it. Her poker face was on, and her eyes said nothing. Here we go again, I thought. I braved myself for what would happen next.
Belladonna closed her eyes, and held out her hand, palm-down. She mumbled a few inaudible words, and her fingertips started glowing purple. The purple aura then spread to surround my clock. After around 5 seconds of her mumbling, she opened her eyes suddenly, and pulled her fingers into a fist. The second her fingers were tight against her palm, my clock exploded.
There was a horrible scream-like sound, as springs and wires flew everywhere. For a few seconds, we both remained silent. We were honoring the fallen who, in this scenario, had been my very unfortunate alarm clock.
"Really, Bella," I groaned after a prolonged silence. "That's the third clock! First impaling it with a crystal, then turning it into a salad bowl, what next? Making it grow legs and jump out the window?"
"That's not a half-bad idea," she mused. I grumbled something very unflattering about older sisters. She looked at me, and tossed her long black hair over her shoulders. Her dark blue eyes met mine, and she said, "Well, it was either that, or I let Bane come in here with his nut job nunchucks and let him go crazy." I rolled my eyes. "Please," I laughed. "Bane wouldn't come in my room if you paid him."
"True," she chuckled. "He hates anything related to boxing."
"Well, after I gave him a black eye using him for a training dummy he had a reason to," I smiled. It was uncanny how we could go from fighting one minute to joking another. "Well, I gotta go," Bella smiled. "Dad needs help organizing his spell books again. Natasha got into the library again." I shook my head. Little Tashy, always stirring up trouble.
"Well, go and help him. Also, you shouldn't be doing explosion spells. Save them for Mother when she's mad." Bella gave me one last smile, the tips of her pearly white fangs peeking over her bottom lip. Then, she turned on her heel and walked out, her wavy black hair cascading like a waterfall down her back. I got out of bed and stretched, letting the early morning sun warm my face. First day of High School, I thought. New teachers, new classmates, new rivals to fight then destroy-
"Don't forget the clubs," yelled Midnight Storm, one of my three brothers. He had mind reading abilities. Not too powerful, mind you, just enough to read minds close to him. And the clubs, I added to my mental list.
Half an hour later, I was ready to go. Dark blue leggings, black crop-top, denim jacket, silver ring earrings, I was all set. I applied a thin layer of lip gloss on, making my lips 'Shine like Princess Ash's!' She's such an attention seeker. Acting sweet and oh-so innocent. What a suck-up. I have a feeling she's not what she seems. But you couldn't catch me dead acting like that.
I slid down the stair banisters, making me get down to the dining hall 5.4 seconds faster. I opened the door to the dining hall, and found my three brothers and Mother sitting at the table. Bane, a 15 year old was enjoying a thick stack of fluffy pancakes. He had Mother's dark skin, but Father's eyes and hair. His twin brother, Midnight, was an exact replica of Mother. He had his nose buried in a thick book at the moment. A History Of Magicians And Their Weird Abilities, it read on the title. Abrax was poking at his pancakes, not really eating. I wasn't surprised.
After his manifestation, he barely ate anything at all. People thought he was anorexic, but that wasn't it. See, the reason he didn't eat was because he didn't eat normal food. Nobody knew exactly what he was, but we just called him a Dream Eater. His power was he could sense when people were dreaming and would eat their nightmares, giving them a peaceful sleep. Or, he would eat their happy dreams, giving the poor person nightmares.
At 17 he was an exact copy of Father, his hair, his eyes, everything. I seated myself at the table and helped myself to some pancakes and syrup. Abrax silently passed me some butter. I nodded my thanks and smiled. He smiled back, then winced. There were large bags under his eyes because of how late he stayed up at night. His arms were nothing more than skin and bone. It was a sad sight for me. He was my role model until age 9, when he manifested. He rarely spoke anymore. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I barely heard Mother ask me, "So, Ravena, are you excited for High School?"
I swallowed a piece of pancake I had in my mouth and relished its sweet fluffiness. "I'm a little bit nervous," I admitted. "New students that could threaten the order of the school system, different teachers, having to stand up for my boneless older brothers..."
"Hey," said Bane around a mouthful of bacon. "I'll have you know-" He was cut off by the entry of Father and Belladonna. Bella's hair was smushed over on one side of her head like a giant cowlick. Father's hair was wilder than the Everfree Forest during the Autumn Equinox. There were stifled giggles all around the table. Both looked very tired and grumpy. The strangest thing about the pair was that they were both covered in little cuts.
Suddenly, Midnight burst out laughing. "I got you so good," he wheezed. "Making your books come to life was the best trick I've pulled on you guys all year!" He then continued to laugh until he fell out of his chair. I rolled my eyes. "You do know now that Father knows you are responsible he will punish you, right," I asked. He stopped laughing.
"Ravena proves a valid point," Father says. "But, enough talking." He smiles, his sharp fangs glistening. "You're late for school."

* * *

An hour later, we're sitting in the school auditorium waiting for the teachers to dismiss the parents. It's pretty boring, since we've done it since I was in second grade. I spot my friends Ezra and Ophelia, the vampire twins on the other side of the room.
That is, until Princess Ash took to the stage.
I must say, even for someone as shady as herself, she's fairly pretty. Actually, I take that back. Very pretty.
Her sky-blue eyes gleam like diamonds. Her candlelight colored dress matches her skin tone perfectly, and her belt is incredibly flashy, adorned with jewels the color of fire.
But what's most intriguing is the scar across her left eye. I'm wondering how she got that. Another thing is her glossy black hair. It looks exactly like mine, minus the colored streaks.
Then, the people around us started chattering about her murdering a class at another school, then burning that school to the ground. Someone said she keeps her enemies' ashes on a shelf in her room. A few mention she's a pyrokinetic, and the very thought made me shiver with fright and excitement. Another wild thing to tame. If I can conquer the fire princess herself, I can take down anyone.
Father leaned in close to my ear, and whispered, "She is Ashlyn Adara. Daughter of Celestia, capable of controlling fire and the mind." That's a bit trippy, I thought. Father continued. "Her belt is a magnetic whip chain. She knows how to use it, so don't get on her bad side." I rolled my eyes and sent a mental message his way: When has anybody given me trouble that I can't deal with? I run this school, and we both know it's going to take a lot more than a bad-tempered teacher's pet to harm me.
Father gives me an unsure look and turns back to the front. Suddenly, the princess meets my eyes. She gives me a half smile, revealing petite fangs like mine. Another thing to add to the list of similarities, I thought. I half-smile back. The less threatening I appear, the more she'll relax around me. When the teachers dismiss the students, I grab the arms of my brothers and pull them through the sea of bodies moving around. We break through the crowd into the main hall.
Ash and Cedar Green are already there, and it looks like he's taunting her. Cedar is my #1 enemy, and has been since 4th grade when he joined the class. Suddenly, a fight breaks out. Cedar is throwing punches and stumbling, like the big buffoon he is, and Ash is dancing out of his reach like a little songbird (no pun intended).
Then, his fist connects with her left eye. My brow furrows. She could've easily dodged that blow. I think harder. Maybe she purposefully didn't dodge it......very smart, Ash. Very smart. While my strategy is making everyone fear me, she plays the pretty victim. Interesting.
I'm half tempted to join in the fight, but another part of my mind says Bide your time. I really want to see Cedar get pounded by somebody other than me. I also want to see how Ash chooses to play this.
Ash reaches up to her head and pulls something out of her hair. It looks like a barette, but when it hits the ground, the whole hall is flooded with light. It stings my eyes, and my body goes into panic mode. I think I see an explosion of fiery gems, or is that just from the impact?
In a second, I feel my bones folding in on each other like a collapsible chair, my legs shortening and my skull stretching. The ground speeds towards me faster and faster, until I am eye to eye with Belladonna's shoes.
I'm a gecko, with shiny skin the color of tar and deep magenta decals.
Bella kneels and offers her hand to me. I crawl into it, and jump off. Another second later, I'm in my human form, sweating like crazy. I wipe off the lather and focus on my shoes, the only things in the world that aren't tilting. Shape-shifting takes a lot of my energy, and I don't necessarily get it back soon. I wipe off a few extra scales that stuck to my shirt, and survey the fight's aftermath.
Cedar is lying on the ground with heavy bruising on his stomach. Ash has two security guards gripping her arms tightly, and her eye has swollen black and blue. The teachers are basically interrogating them about the fight. I overhear the teacher ask the bystanders, "Tell us what happened?"
I step forward, knowing exactly how I'm going to play this. You don't hold all the cards, Ash. "Cedar started harassing Ashlyn. He then raised a hand to strike her." I hold my head up high, and act confident, like I'm playing the lead role in a play. "She just dodged, then set off a light bomb to get away."
Ezra, the vampire boy comes to my side. "Cedar started it. He punched her, kicked her, and she didn't do anything back." I turn and see Father watching me talk to the teachers. I walk over and fill him in on the fight. But I keep wondering, why is Cedar in so much pain, especially in his midsection area? And what was that explosion of fiery gems?
He mulls over it for a spanse of 3 seconds, then turns to me and says, "That was her whip chain. She must've whipped his entire midsection, but done it so it only bruised. He'll be in extreme pain for weeks. Ash's strategy is the opposite of yours: be innocent, the darling of the kingdom." I nod.
"I want you to get closer to her. Understood? Make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble. Now, for how you get closer to her...I'll leave that up to you. Once you know more about her, we can decide on a strategy from there." I nod again.
I meet the twin's eyes. The message being sent is clear: Back me up here. They trail behind me as I grow closer to Ash. The crowd has mostly dispersed by now, and we are alone. I approach her silently and swiftly, and curtsy. I may hate her guts, but I still have some respect for royalty, especially after what she did to Cedar. I'm not that rude. "Hi," I say, smiling. "I'm Ravena Nightshade."