January 13th, 1972

My name, Jaden Reign, I am a werewolf, my mission, keep the peace. I am being educated alongside my comrades in arms to protect the secrets of our worlds and the citizens therein. I'm being trained to be an officer of the underground law, accountable only to the authorities of the secret societies, unknown to the world. Trained in martial arts, weaponry, and a secret history of the world only around 1% of the population of the planet is even aware of. Yes, I am that cool.

At my school, there were two main mutant races, banshees and werewolves, two races linked by a long history of fighting together against the forces of evil and chaos.

All action, all awesome!

Well... most of the time things were awesome anyway. In the middle of fourth-grade math class trying to figure out who will even care if I learn long division and "beginner's" algebra, it was pretty hard to keep that in perspective. The only time math really came alive for me was when someone was talking weapon science, but even that was kinda boring.

'Let's see...' I started in my head, looking at my paper. 'Five plus x minus nine times thirteen equals fourteen... wow um...' Was I really going to have to raise my hand again?

"Simply cannot figure out another one dog boy?" asked Judith quietly. Banshees. Really half the population of Katlyn private school was werewolves, so being called a "dog boy" should have meant about as much to me as someone pointing out that I was using a pencil. Just something about the way Banshees insist on speaking. I looked back at the brown-skinned girl with her shoulder-length hair. She wore a purple shirt with slim jeans and had a row of rings in her left ear.

"Whose even gonna care about this stuff when I grow up? Don't tell me you like it."

"Not truly wolf. Not truly. Though that mother of mine keeps reminding me that I am lucky to even be getting a good education, considering segregation." I looked at her with a curious expression. "I may not be descended from slaves but I am still black Jaden. I'm even from Africa originally."

"Oh well yeah... still, aren't we technically segregated right now?"

"What?"

"No seriously. No one in this school isn't a mutant and we do that on purpose." Judith looked ready to answer but then she paused, tapping her pencil on her reading glasses.

The teacher, Mrs. Sallown, walked between us. "I trust you two are discussing the math problems."

"Actually teacher we seem to be discussing the merits of segregation in a secret society," Judith said. Wow... and then there was banshee honesty.

The teacher looked at both of us with eyes that seemed to see fit to drill right through us. "I don't have a problem with that on a moral level. But I might remind you, that whatever you don't finish in class, you will be doing it at home and your assignments will still be due tomorrow. I understand someone has a birthday today but... well, how you spend your evening is up to you Jaden." She walked away as Judith stuck her tongue out at me. Ms. Sallown did NOT turn her head- that I saw. "You too Judith. I better not see you disrespect one of your classmates again."

Judith looked back at the teacher. "How does the teacher do such things? She was turned away and saw me anyway- must she have eyes on the back of her head?" Judith looked back at her paper. "I only have a few paltry problems left. It would be of little consequence if I had to do them at home. Nary would it take me ten to twenty minutes."

I looked at her with glazed-over eyes. "I'm dead certain you screwed up that jumble of words, but I don't know where."

She rolled her eyes. "Point is wolf, you now have fifteen problems left. I could assist you today if you assist me tomorrow."

"In what?"

"Sparring."

"Um...well I um..." What could I say? If I said "no" not only would I not get help but I would look like a wimp.

"I promise you thus, we shall not have a... repeat incident." She held up her left hand and put her right hand on her chest to swear.

In that instant, I had a short flashback to the other reason I didn't like banshees, or rather, to an extent, THIS banshee in particular.

(***)

It seemed like so long ago. Really it had only been about two months but throbbing head aces, blurry vision, and constant dizziness spells can make the days seem longer somehow. November second if I remembered.

That day Judith and I had gotten into a fight about which race was more awesome, the banshees or the werewolves. "We werewolves are the official protectors of the underworld, we're the freaking feds!" I had proclaimed as my proof.

Judith however, gave her counterpoint, "We are the secret avengers! You guys only police the societies, we hunt down criminals and protect the innocent wherever the danger may be!"

Mr. Aims, our gym teacher, clapped his hands and walked over to us. "So you two want to fight this out?" He chuckled. "Alright. Take it to the mat over there. Sparring competition."

The problem with this was, neither of us knew how to spar with the other at the time. As a werewolf, I'm twice as strong and fast as a human. As a banshee, Judith had fists with a liquid metal alloy in them that made them heavier and more solid than a human's, as well as the ability to shoot out long blades of steel from each of her fingers. One hit from one of those three-pound near metallic fists and that would be it for me, but I knew one solid kick and I could practically knock her head clean off. "Sir we could kill each other," I said quickly.

"Nonsense. I've never seen two nine-year-olds kill each other in a hand fight. I've been itching to see a cross-species spar since I was fifteen." We looked at each other awkwardly. Mr. Aims got down to look at us in the eyes. "I'll speak caveman style, as I'm sure your parents told you us wild men are proficient at. Me adult, you kids, entertain me." He pointed at the mat again.

"People train specifically to do this kind of thing... c'mon there are reasons this isn't just done-" I began, but the gym teacher just stared at me. In an instant, a wild man can summon up enough strength to move over ten times their weight and with just the slightest irritation. Thus, the hardcover attendance book Aims was holding, some fifty pages, he casually "folded" with one hand as he looked at me in frustration. As little as I desired to fight Judith, I had less desire to fight a wild man.

There we stood, on the mat. Knowing nothing of the future I already knew this was going to be an interesting match. As a werewolf, I was trained mostly in weapons tactics. Course I couldn't use a weapon here so I would have to fall back on my judo training. I'd been going over stick fighting drills since I was five, but only started grappling that year.

On the other hand, Judith, as a banshee, had started training in Kalaripayattu at four years old. It was an Indian martial art that focused on open hand strikes at a distance. Jujitsu focused on grappling so I would probably win if I got close, but still, one hit with an open palm, and this fight could end with a trip to the ER.

Mr. Aims announced what was happening to the other students. He then announced the rules. "Pretty simple rules here kids. No weapons," he looked at Judith, "no claws," he looked at me, "go slow on the joint manipulations so your opponent can tap out," he looked at Judith again, "and no banshee shriek".

Ah yes, the banshee shriek. Girl banshees had two attacks that were pretty deadly if they could use them. The banshee howl was something no banshee under the age of twelve could ever pull off, so I wasn't worried about that. The shriek however was a far quicker attack that could cause temporary deafness, a slight ringing, and could immediately throw a human being.

Judith got down bending her knees and pushing out her elbows with a palm over her fist in what I believe was called the "wild boar" stance. Myself, I took a simple boxing stance, left foot forward. Aims blew his whistle and Judith came at me. I was easily able to quickly grab her arm as it came in and redirect the movement forcing her down. I kept hold of her arm and quickly dropped to the ground placing her in an arm lock. I was doing it!

Everything was going so well at this point, I forgot what I was fighting. I pulled her right arm back, expecting her to tap out, but instead, she hit my knee with her left hand. Now I defy anyone to shake off being struck with a three-pound metal weight to the knee.

I released her and started hobbling around the mat, getting ready to surrender when I saw her get back up with a strange upside-down bridge move... no idea what that was called. She then pulled her right hand down and shot it back up, striking me right in the forehead.

(***)

That's the last thing I remembered before waking up in the hospital with Judith smiling at me with a bouquet of four or five white flowers. "I am so sorry," she said, as I blinked my eyes at her.

"Why isn't Mr. Aims here?" I asked, barely awake and not looking around, so for all, I knew he was.

"I think they put a kind of restraining order on him. He is now not allowed within twenty feet of children."

"Ah," was all I could muster to say for a few seconds. "Um... flowers... um... thanks..."

"I know they are not a, how you say, "guy thing", but I had needed to get something. I know better than to use hand strikes on people who are not properly prepared for them, I just forgot in the moment and... forgive me?" She pushed forward the flowers. "They are white orchids... verily they are expensive so my parents could only get a few." In that moment, though I would have preferred a toy car or something like that, I respected Judith.

"I'll try to keep them alive..."

"Yes, I will put them in water, you probably cannot get up... again, sorry about that."

(***)

Those flowers were kept mostly by my mother, but they were still alive and still a pretty good reminder of what happened. Still, it was my ninth birthday, and I didn't want to spend it doing homework, that was for sure.

"Well..." I started.

"I need to train in using my feet anyway," Judith said. "I promise to God," she said with her left hand on her breast and right hand in the air. "No palm strikes."

Finally, I slid my paper across my desk and closer to hers.

"To die will be an awfully big adventure," Raymie said from behind me. I cringed at the freckle-faced redhead. Another werewolf like me, Raymie, and I were actually pretty good friends. Still, he could be annoying.

"Knock it off Raymie," I snapped. I then hummed in nervousness about tomorrow.