OCTAVEUS
I TOOK the tunnels down to my family's dens after school and quickly limped across the dark tile in the drop-off room. 'Why can't you just tell them already,' I scolded myself. I opened the door to our den and immediately started coughing violently. The air was filled with grey-white smoke. At first, I thought that the den was on fire, then I heard Jessie shouting French curse words and a loud slam. I shut the door behind me and breathed through my cupped hand as I walked down the hall and into the kitchen. The scene that I saw was not what I had expected; Gwen, my mom, and Anna were standing by the dining table, waving smoke away from their faces. Jessie and my dad were crouched in front of the open oven, both wearing one of those surgical masks that doctors wear and brown leather gloves, and Dad had his tool bag sitting next to them.
   I hurriedly limped over to stand next to Anna and said to her, "What's going on?"
   She turned to me, waving smoke from her eyes. "The oven started smoking for no apparent reason. Your dad and Jessie are trying to see what's wrong with it."
   "How's that going?" I coughed and blinked smoke from my eyes.
   "Tais-toi Octaveus!" Jessie shouted over his shoulder at me. He reached behind him and grabbed something from the tool bag as more smoke poured out the oven and a loud rattling sound escaped from it. He crawled halfway into the oven to look at something inside and Dad sat back and rubbed his hands on his jeans, leaving black smudge marks on the denim.
    Jessie, still halfway inside the oven, cursed suddenly (I mean, he'd been cursing the entire time, he just cursed louder and worse) and hit something inside the machine, and smoke immediately stopped spewing from it. The oven shuddered and made a loud clunking sound, then went silent and stopped moving. Jessie dragged himself out of the oven, oil smudged all over his face and shirt. He ripped off his surgical mask and, still cursing, took off his gloves and inspected the deep gash on his right palm. I noticed that the palm of one glove was ripped open and the edges of the rip were tinted red; blood was already dripping from his hand. Dad wordlessly opened his tool bag and pulled out a First-Aid kit, then handed Jessie a couple antibacterial wipes. As Jessie sat on the floor and cleaned out the cut on his hand, Dad got up and walked over to us, taking off his gloves and mask as he walked. Oil had turned his forearms black, so he looked like he was still wearing gloves.
   "How're you guys doing over here?" He asked, semi-sarcastically. "No one's suffocated?"
   "No," Anna said. "But Octaveus does look a little pale, don't you think?" She held her hand up to my face for him to compare our skin tones.
   "What are you talking about? My son, pale?" He gasped dramatically. "I have to see this!" He walked up to me and grabbed my face, turning my head all different directions and inspecting my pale skin. He even managed to open my mouth and compare the difference in color between the inside of my mouth and my face.
   "Aht are oo ooingh?" I tried to ask him 'what are you doing' but it didn't work. He let go of my face and gasped, stepping backward with mock surprise on his face.
"My God," he said, mock worriedly. "My son's a vampire!" He widened his eyes and slowly backed away from me. Anna laughed beside me. The smoke in the air had thinned, leaving only a slight foggy discoloration to everything.
I rolled my eyes, then bared my claws and snarled with my fangs fully extended at him.
Dad stumbled backward and yelled, "NO! Please, spare me!" then collapsed on the floor. We all started laughing as Dad rolled around on the floor, grabbing his throat like he was dying. Eventually, he rolled into the leg of the table and sat up, laughing with us. 
Jessie leaned over the counter and stared at us, his cut hand now wrapped in several layers of bandages.
"What's going on over here? All I heard was Oc snarling," he said. He looked at me; I still had my claws out and my fangs stuck two inches out of my jaw. I smiled at him, which felt weird with my fangs out, and he rolled his eyes at me.
Dad stood up and brushed off his jeans, still laughing quietly to himself. "Oh, I was just messing around with him," he said, then looked at me. "That reminds me, don't you have gymnastics tonight?"
"Yeah," I said, sheathing my fangs and claws, repositioning my bag on my shoulder. Jessie snickered. "Shut up!" I snapped at him, though I felt my face get hot. He smirked and threw the bloody paper towel that he'd been using to wipe the blood off his hand at me. It hit me in the head and I hissed at him. For us, hissing is like a death threat to a human, if it's directed at someone. I felt my pupils dilate.
"Boys, calm down!" Mom scolded us, "Octaveus, go get ready for gymnastics. Jessie, pick up that towel and throw it away. We don't need your bloody hand towels all over the house." I lowered my head, still glaring at Jessie through my hair, and stalked off to my room. I changed into a skin-tight black tank top and black sweatpants (description of my daily color scheme), grabbed the bag with my leg braces in it, then limped back into the kitchen.
Anna and Gwen were sitting at the table, discussing Gwen's book, while Mom observed from the counter. Dad was trying to clean the oil off the tile floor in the kitchen, but it didn't seem to be working too well. The rag he was using was stained black and the tile didn't look any less oil-stained than it had before. Gwen's cat Ginny was sitting on top of the oven, grooming her ginger fur and watching the pieces of shedded hair float to the floor. I leaned against the shadowed doorway and watched the ginger tabby bat at her own shedded fur floating in the air. Somehow it seemed mesmerizing how the cat played with her own hair. It reminds me of how dumb animals can be sometimes. Then again, people have called me an animal when they find out what I am, and I get almost all A's in most of the schools I've been to, so maybe I shouldn't talk.
Jessie walked into the room, just as I watched Ginny grab a chunk of shedded hair from the air and eat it. He looked at me in the doorway, and for a second I wondered how he knew I was there, then I remembered that I have glowing yellow eyes and paper-white skin, so he could probably see my face and arms, despite my black clothes and the shadows around me.
As he walked past Dad, who was still hunched on the floor trying to scrub the oil stain off the tile, I saw his eyes travel to my shirt, and he snorted. "Nice six-pack, little bro."
I grumbled and crossed my arms over my stomach as Anna and Gwen looked towards the doorway, just now noticing that I was there. Dad looked up from the floor, apparently also just noticing me, then resumed scrubbing the tile. (In case anyone wanted an update, the oil stain hadn't gotten any smaller.) I thought I saw Anna's face turn pink as she took in my outfit, but I probably imagined it (I hope). She smiled at me, then returned to her conversation with Gwen.
Dad sat up from his position on the floor and looked at me. "I need to ask you something important," he said to me. I nodded for him to go on. He took a deep breath, then said, "I won't be able to drive you to gymnastics tonight, so I was wondering if you could handle taking Bandit on your own."
By "I was wondering if you could handle it," he meant "I was thinking about letting you drive my precious motorcycle to gymnastics, but I'm not sure if you're going to get arrested for it."
See, when I was twelve I'd decided to take his motorcycle for a joyride, and I'd "accidentally" driven it into several trees and eventually into some guy's parked car; Jessie had to rat me out of going to juvie with the police. As you could probably imagine, Dad wasn't too happy when he found out either. But, to be honest, I think he was angrier that I'd crashed his motorcycle than that I'd almost gone to juvie.
Bandit is like the first child Dad never had; he absolutely loves the thing. He's had it since before Jessie was born, before we'd even moved to the United States, so naturally he's attached to it, but now he's become almost obsessed with it. If there's so much as a scratch on it, he has to repaint the entire thing, then investigate who kneaded their claws on his precious motorcycle. Most everyone who knows Dad well thinks he's obsessed with it. Even Mom has agreed that (though she'd never tell it to his face). I nodded at Dad to say that I could handle it.
Jessie sat down at the table next to Gwen. "I think your cat's going insane," he said, pointing at Ginny, whom had fallen off the oven and was now squirming around on the floor, trying to catch her tail. She finally grabbed it in her tiny claws and, apparently not realizing that it was attached to the other end of her body, started tearing the fur out of it in clumps with her teeth. The cat looked up, clumps of her own ginger hair hanging out of her mouth. She blinked at us, then resumed ripping the fur off of her tail.
Gwen sighed and muttered something about stupid cats as she walked over to the ginger tabby and picked her up. Ginny meowed in protest as Gwen removed the tabby's tail from her mouth and pulled the pieces of ginger fur out of her whiskers. She sat down with the cat in her lap and stroked behind the tabby's ears until she started purring.
Dad nodded at me, not even bothering to acknowledge the crazy cat situation. "Alright," he said. "I'm trusting you to only drive to gymnastics and back, right? No detours." There was a hint of threat in his tone, like 'if you so much as scratch a tire on my motorcycle, you will spend the rest of the week cleaning your room.' (That may not sound like a punishment, but believe me, it's impossible to clean my room. It's like a hurricane in there. You never know when you might get swallowed up.) I nodded at him again, though that didn't seem to reassure him. He sighed loudly and stood up from the floor, wiping his hands on his jeans. He pulled the motorcycle keys out of his pocket and reluctantly tossed them to me.
I caught them, internally screaming, 'yes yes yes yesssssssss!' as I darted toward the door.
"Vee!" Dad called to me as soon as I reached the door. I turned around to looked at him again. "No detours."
I nodded and hurried out the door to the private choroni garage before Dad could change his mind about letting me go.

LIEH

(Pronounced 'Lee')

I listened to the sound of a motorcycle outside the doors of the building and sighed to my friend Kiera beside me, "There he is."
Kiera laughed. "How late is he this time?" Her sleek dark brown hair was in a ponytail, her silver leotard making her chocolate-colored skin look slightly darker than it was.
"Less than two minutes," I said. "Hey, where'd Lucky go?"
"Right here," I heard the new girl's shy voice behind me. "I didn't know there was another boy in our class," she said, nervously fidgeting with the corner of the jacket she was wearing over her blue ocean-patterned leotard. Her long caramel-brown hair was also in a ponytail, her blue eyes sparkled nervously.
"You probably just assumed that he was a girl when you saw his name." I said.
"What's his name?" She asked.
"On the list, he would have been Vee Fleur." I responded, smiling at the confused look on her face. "That's what everyone calls him."
"Oh," she said. "What's his real name?"
I shrugged. "Only coach knows if Vee isn't his full first name. Oh, right, and you might be a little. . . shocked when you see him." I turned my gaze back to the door as it opened, Vee walking through. I immediately heard Lucky catch her breath when he came in and I smirked at her.
Vee was wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, though it was unzipped, revealing that he was wearing a tight black tank top that showed all of the muscles underneath. He was wearing black sweatpants, silver metal braces lacing up his legs and fixing his walk. His black hair hung over his vampiric pale face and down to his shoulders, messy as usual, and his yellow eyes glinted in the artificial lights. His large eyes were lined with thick black eyeliner, and he also looked to be wearing an amount of black eyeshadow. His facial features were almost feminine, which made him look absolutely gorgeous, in Kiera's words. The form of his muscular body was clearly visible beneath his tight shirt.
Lucky stared at him while he walked over to where he usually kept his stuff (by 'stuff' I mean jacket if he brought one and the bag that his leg braces went in) and took off his motorcycle jacket, setting it down in that general area. His muscular arms were paper-white and covered in pale pink scars, except for the interesting red-gold-and-black rope-like tattoo on his left shoulder. Lucky finally seemed to regain her voice and said, "Wow."
I laughed.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Kiera said to Lucky. "That's my thought every time I see him. 'Wow, he's hot.'"
I rolled my eyes at her. "That's your thought every time you see a good-looking guy, period."
Lucky chuckled and Kiera agreed with me by nodding her head. She caught Lucky staring at Vee again and said, "Hey, you should go talk to him. Adam told me--"
"Adam told you what now?" Adam said, walking up behind us. He had feathery sandy-brown colored hair and blue eyes and olive skin, bearing an odd resemblance to depictions of the Greek god Hermes, right down to the mischievous light in his eyes and the skill at stealing things. He was the only other boy in our level, besides Vee.
"Adam told me," Kiera continued to Lucky, shooting a glare at Adam. "That Vee didn't necessarily like meeting new people, so don't make any sudden movements. But other than that he's a nice guy."
"Hey, it's true," Adam said before Lucky could answer, referring to the 'sudden movements' thing. "I tapped his shoulder once and the guy nearly ripped my face off!"
"Well, he's probably had some bad experiences with people, such as, oh I don't know, meeting you?" I snapped sarcastically at him.
He held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, not my fault he hates socializing."
I glanced sideways and smirked. "Hey, Adam?"
"Yeah?"
"He heard you," I gestured at Vee, whom had sat down on the bench next to him and was watching Adam with a smirk on his handsome face.
Adam smiled at him from across the room and Vee shook his head, bending down from his sitting position to untie his shoes. Kiera looked at Lucky, as if waiting for her to say something.
"Um. . . what were we talking about?" She asked, looking genuinely confused at what she was supposed to say.
"Go talk to him," Kiera sighed at her. "Maybe he'll like you more than he likes me."
"Oh, give it up Key," Adam said to Kiera, using her nickname. "You can't keep sympathizing to yourself that he doesn't like you enough to ask you out."
"I can sympathize how ever long I want to," Kiera snapped at him. "Especially because he's much more likely to have fallen for that one blonde girl already."
"What one blonde girl? None of you guys are blonde," Adam asked cluelessly.
I looked at Kiera. "You have to speak stupid in front of the Adam," I turned back to Adam. "That one brown-eyed blonde girl that was with his sister the one time they came to pick him up. The one with the really long hair."
"Ooh, the hot one!" Adam said, nodding. "Now I understand! Geez, Key, why didn't you say so?"
Kiera rolled her eyes. "Apparently I'm not good at speaking stupid." I laughed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Vee watching Lucky with curiosity.
I elbowed her lightly. "He's watching you," I sang at her quietly, and she looked over at Vee. He, unlike most other guys do when girls look at them, didn't look away when she looked at him; he met her gaze evenly. I saw her face get red after a second and she looked away, giving me a wide-eyed look. I saw Vee smirk and get up when she looked away, walking over to the door to the gym and going in.
As soon as the door to the gym closed behind him, Lucky let out a breath that she'd been holding in.
"Oh my God," Kiera said, sounding jealous. "He looked at you, did you see the way he was watching you?"
Lucky's face flushed and she looked at the floor.
"He definitely likes you," Kiera continued. "Now you have to talk to him."
"I can introduce you," Adam said after Lucky just smiled shyly at the floor. "He's at least a little comfortable talking to me, after whatever gave him people trauma."
"I don't think it's trauma," I interjected. "He probably just doesn't like socializing."
"Speaking of socializing," Kiera said. "Have you heard him talk? His voice is so. . . melodic. It's almost like he doesn't speak much English at all, with how little he talks."
"He probably doesn't," I said. "He's French. He had to learn English when he moved here."
"Whatever, we should probably go join him and Julian before they start without us," Kiera said, walking toward the gym door. Adam, Lucky, and I followed her, after Lucky took off her jacket and put it with her bag.
Vee was standing on the white tape line on the floor mat, conversing with our gymnastics coach Julian in French. (Julian is multilingual, so he is basically the only one Vee frequently talks with.) Julian was Hispanic and muscular like an acrobat, though compared to Vee he looked a lot less muscular than he was. Especially because Vee was almost three inches taller, could lift twice his own weight (which was a lot), and just looked more menacing overall, especially with his vampire-white skin, messy black hair, and huge yellow eyes.
"Nice of you guys to join us," Julian said sarcastically. He held out his hand to Lucky, immediately recognizing that she was new. "I'm Julian, your new coach." She shook his hand and introduced herself.
"Well, I see you've met Kiera, Lieh, and Adam, the 'late gymnast trio'," he said, gesturing toward us. Lucky nodded. "This is Vee, the 'master of all things requiring arm strength or flexibility'," he gestured at Vee, who smirked when Julian called him the master of arm strength. The smirk only lasted a second though, and the normal blank look returned to his pale features. I caught Lucky looking at him interestingly for a second before she looked away. Julian caught this as well and smiled to himself.
"Okay, today's Wednesday, so you guys get to choose either the playlist or order of which we practice," Julian said, addressing all of us. "So, first order of business: which one do you five want to decide? Playlist or schedule?"
"I vote playlist," Kiera said. Julian nodded.
"I second that," Adam added.
"Any objections?" Julian asked the rest of us, but no one responded. "Alright, who was the last one to choose playlist?"
I raised my hand, "Vee's next."
"Okay," Julian looked at Vee. "Once you're done with the playlist, we'll be on floor."
Vee nodded and walked over to the iPod that was hooked up to the speaker system and started tapping the screen, choosing songs. Julian led the rest of us to the floor area, Vee soon jogging up to us as music started playing out of the iPod-- Fall Out Boy, how surprising.
"That was quick," Kiera commented as Vee jogged up to Julian, stopping to stand in front of him next to Adam.
"Alright," Julian got our attention. "First, I'll give you five thirty minutes to warm up however you like."
"Hey, Vee," Adam nudged his shoulder as Julian walked over to chat with one of the other coaches. "Can you do that backbend thing?"
Vee looked at him, confused.
"You know," Adam explained, "the thing where you go into a backbend and, like, literally fold yourself in half?"
Vee nodded twice, both saying that he knew what Adam was talking about and that he'd do it.
"Hey, Lucky, watch him do this," Kiera pulled her forward as they went to watch, me following them. Vee bent over backward, getting into the normal backbend position, but then bent further until his shoulders were almost even with his knees and his chest was resting completely on the floor.
"How the heck do you do that?" I exclaimed. Lucky just stared at him open-mouthed.
"And that's why he's the master of flexibility," Julian said, walking up behind us. "Try pulling yourself forward a little more," he coached, crouching down in front of Vee, who wrapped his arms around his own calves and pulled his chest forward a little so that more of his stomach was on the floor, though we could tell that it was starting to get harder for him to bend that much.
"Don't flex your abdomen, it strains your muscles and makes it harder to bend. Just relax." Vee did as our coach said and was able to pull himself a little farther.
"Alright," Julian said once Vee had nearly folded himself in half and he had started straining, breathing more heavily. "Try and hold that position for as long as you can." Vee held himself like that for a couple seconds before letting go, unfolding himself and just lying on his back on the floor, catching the breath that he'd been holding that entire time.
"Good job," Julian patted his shoulder. "We can work more on that next class." Vee nodded at him from his place on the floor. Kiera nudged Lucky, gesturing at Vee.
Before Lucky could respond to Kiera, Julian said, "Alright, for this. . . activity, you're all going to need partners; and don't even bother running towards each other, I've already picked pairs. Kiera is with Lieh, Adam will come with me, and once he's done dying, Vee with be with Lucky." Kiera gave Lucky a jealous look after Julian finished listing the pairs.
"Okay, now I'm even more jealous," she said. "You get to be partners with Vee!"
Lucky's face turned red-- again. "Why, is that such a big deal?"
"Well," Kiera began. "Usually when Julian puts us into chosen pairs that means that we're going to do something that requires you to know what's going on, so he doesn't let us choose our partner." She glanced at Vee, who was now sitting up on the floor. "I wonder what you two are going to be doing. Usually Vee is with Julian because either he can't do whatever we're about to do or he wouldn't be able to communicate with us for whatever reason." She glanced at her. "You don't speak French, do you?"
Lucky shook her head. "Not fluently."
"Huh," Kiera scowled, thinking.
"Why wouldn't he be able to do what you were doing?" Lucky asked.
"He can't walk properly," I answered. "That's why he wears those metal things on his legs. He has some muscular disease in his legs and limps."
"Oh," Lucky said.
"Okay, for the next six or seven weeks we will be doing a sort of competition against other gymnastics facilities. Each of you have a partner, and that person will be your partner for the next six or seven weeks, so get along." Julian said. "Each pair will be doing a different area. Kiera and Lieh, you two will be on floor. Adam, I will be helping you on beams. Vee and Lucky, you two are on rings. Each pair has to come up with a routine on their own-- except you two," Julian pointed at Lucky and Vee, who had gotten up off the floor and was standing behind Lucky, "I have something for you. Okay, go to your areas and you can start brainstorming routines." He turned to Adam, "Wait for me by the beams." Then he turned to Vee and Lucky.

LUCKY
"I have a routine for you two to try,"Julian said to me and Vee. I was very aware that Vee was standing directly behind me and tried to keep the redness out of my face. Julian started walking toward the ring area and beckoned us to follow. Vee walked around me and followed Julian almost as soon as Julian started moving, so I jogged to catch up with them.
"Alright," Julian turned to us when we got to the rings. "Stand next to each other." Vee moved to stand beside me and Julian compared our heights. Vee was several inches taller than me.
"Okay," Julian muttered to himself. "Vee, can you hang from your legs?"
"Yeah," that was the first time I'd heard him speak. His voice was high-pitched for a guy, with a smooth melodic tone to it. He had a thick French accent that slurred his syllables a little.
"Good." Julian beckoned him over to the rings, which was nine feet and two inches off the ground. There was a large foam mat stood up next to the rings. Vee climbed onto the foam mat from the floor and slid one of his legs through a ring, hanging upside down by one leg for a second before putting his other leg through the second ring. His long bangs that covered his forehead and hung over his eyes when he was standing now hung away from his face, revealing that he did in fact have eyebrows— there were catscratches shaved out of the end of each eyebrow. His black tank top pulled down a little bit, showing a strip of his pale stomach.
"Alright, now Lucky, I want you to grab his forearms." Julian coached. Vee extended his hands to me and I wrapped my hands around his forearms, him wrapping his hands around my forearms, giving us a better grip on each other than if we were to just hold hands. I noticed that his fingernails were painted black, contributing to his emo look. I also noticed that there were parallel scars lined all the way up his inner forearms and wrists, except for a patch of skin on his right wrist that was completely clear. His hands were like baseball mitts compared to my small hands.
"Good. Now Vee, try to lift her as high off the ground as you can. Lucky, when he does, try to stand on his arms."
Vee tightened his hands around my forearms, and his forearms tensed under my hands. 'He can't really be able to lift me that easy, can he?' I thought, incredulous about it. At least, I was incredulous until he let go of my forearms and grabbed my waist, pulling me a couple feet off the mat below the rings. I instinctively put my feet on his forearms when he let go and grabbed the rope that the rings were suspended on.
Julian smiled when my face turned red. "Okay, Lucky, I want you to let go of the rope and Vee to grab her legs before she can lose her balance."
I steadied myself and got ready to let go of the rope, but before I was ready to my foot slipped off of Vee's forearm and I instinctively let go of the rope and swung my arms for balance. It didn't work; instead I found myself falling face-first toward the mat and closed my eyes to brace myself for the impact. 
Suddenly I wasn't falling anymore; I opened my eyes to find the mat inches away from my face. Heart pounding, I shifted to look at why I wasn't face-first in the mat right now and saw that Vee had grabbed me by the back of my leotard just before I'd hit the ground; he'd wrapped one arm around my thighs and the other arm around my chest. The placement of his arms was a little uncomfortable, but I was still glad he'd caught me.
"Good save, Vee," Julian said as Vee set me as gently as he could on the mat. Julian looked like he'd been about to leap forward, but he would have been too far away to do anything. "Why don't you two just practice what we have so far. Try to prevent any more potential injuries." He said and walked away to join Adam by the beams.
Once Julian had left, I turned to Vee, who had gotten down off the rings and was standing beneath them. "Thanks for catching me," I said to him, my face slightly pink.
He smiled, and it almost looked like his teeth were all pointed canines. "No problem." The rest of class we practiced having me stand on his forearms without holding the rope, making sure that I didn't fall again.

After class, Kiera and Lieh came up to me while I was putting my jacket on.
"So, how was practicing with Vee?" Kiera asked.
"It was fine," I said, my face turning red again. Kiera waited for me to continue. "He's really nice. . ."
Lieh smirked and shook her head. She had long wavy dyed blonde hair with brown roots and kaleidoscope-like eyes that changed colors in the light. Her fair skin was smudged with chalk, along with the front of her autumn-themed leotard.
She was going to say something but was interrupted by the gym door opening and closing. Vee walked out, sitting down next to where he'd put his stuff and undoing the latches that kept the metal braces on his legs. He had chalk smudged on the front of his tank top and hands. He put the braces in their thin black bag and stood up again, shifting on his feet.
"Where is he going?" I asked as Vee limped back into the gym.
"He and Julian have private classes after our full class," Lieh said. "C'mon," she beckoned me to follow her as she started to walk up the stairs to the viewing area upstairs. She led me over to the gate-like bars at the end of the balcony overlooking the gym and directed my attention to the floor.
Vee was standing with Julian, talking in French. Julian said something to him and stepped back to the edge of the mat. Vee took the familiar stance that I'd seen many gymnasts do when they're about to do some sort of flip or cartwheel.
"What's he going to do?" I asked Lieh.
"Just watch," she said and I turned my attention back to Vee. He rocked back on his feet a little bit, then took a running start and did a perfect aerial, landing on his feet with his knees slightly bent and his arms out in front of him.
"How did he do that?" I asked Lieh, awe-struck. I would never have thought that he would have been able to do a perfect aerial. Adam can't, at least. And Adam doesn't have something wrong with his legs.
Lieh smirked. "He can get into the full splits on both sides as well," she said. I just stared at her. She shrugged. "Perks of being naturally unnaturally strong and flexible, I guess." She added when I gave her a blank look, "He can lift five-hundred pounds."
"You're kidding?" I stared wide eyed at my partner down on the floor.
"Nope," Lieh said. Vee and Julian saw us watching them and Lieh mouthed something at Vee. Vee nodded, then dropped down into the splits.
"Okay, now he's showing off," I said, and Lieh laughed.
"Come on," she said walking back towards the stairs. "I think your mom's here." I followed Lieh down the stairs again.

GWEN
Octaveus limped through the door and promptly collapsed on his stomach on the couch in the living room, tossing his leg braces on the floor next to him.
"Tough class, huh?" I asked him, not looking up from my book. He groaned and grumbled something that I couldn't hear, then getting up and going to his room, grumbling about his cramped tail. I sighed, shaking my head and continuing to read.