User: AllieCat8

Name: Dakota Bennett

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User: I_like_chocolate1

Name: Hazel de Nile

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User: Rdmwrites

Name: Ripley Korina Alician

Once again, here I was. Changing.

Today was a ball or something. I didn't really pay attention when Kate explained it. We all had to dress up, not my favorite thing. Then we had to socialize with others, and eat fancy food and dance. Like a Bat Mitzvah filled with the supernatural.

I wore a simple outfit, a pretty royal blue dress that went down to my knees, with rhinestones decorating across my stomach. My wispy blond hair had been braided and curled, into a fancy bun around the back of my head, and one of the Guardes had even gotten me to wear makeup. I didn't look all to bad, really, if you didn't notice the fact that there were tons of tiny safety pins holding the dress in place, since even the smallest size they could bring to me didn't fit. It's amazing what starving yourself does.

As I added the final touches to my hair, making sure all the bobby pins were in place before I walked into the grand ball room, and hand tapped me on the shoulder, as someone slipped something into my hair. I whipped around, lightly feeling for whatever had been put into my perfect hair, which I found out a moment later was a silver clip. Put in by the one person I was not expecting to see here. Gabriel.

I suppose I should explain. I may have mentioned my mother's condition once or twice. But I never really told you why, have I? I had a brother, Gabriel, who died when he was six. I was born two weeks before he died, so I never knew him. My mother didn't believe that he had died, and she talked to him. She thought he was still here. The doctors loaded her on medicine, trying to erase him from her memory. I had never known Gabriel, but sometimes he came up with in dreams. In his older form, as though he was still alive. I talked to him too, confiding everything in the dead boy. I didn't expect to see him here.

"Gabriel?" I gapped, looking up at him. He looked like an older version of me, with blond hair and a warm smile. The only difference were his crystal blue eyes, looking down on me.

"You've certainly aged beautifully, Ripley. Shall we?" He didn't seem to noticed how fazed I was by his appearance, holding out his arm to me.

"You-you're dead, Gabe," I said, taking his arm none the less.

"I've got some explaining to do, but so do you, okay? I'm not dead, I'm a hybrid, like you. But we can talk about his later. You've got a party to enjoy," he told me, leading me into a line with all the other apprentices and their escorts. "Okay, Rip? Just follow my lead, and you'll be fine," Gabe told me, leading me down he stairs. I didn't answer, playing with the little silver bracelet on my wrist, which was supposed to interfere with my abilities. The line slowly inched forward, apprentices being called by their Gift. Finally the girl in front of me entered, and Gabe and I were behind the doors.

"Ripley Alician and her escort Gabriel Alician!" Called one of the men, as we entered the huge foyer. It was certainly a sight, hundreds of people, no, Hybrids, sitting at the table. I wasn't sure what to do, so I have a small curtesy and followed Gabe down a flight of extravagant stairs. I wouldn't tripped several times, since I wasn't looking where I was going, rather simply staring at the whole hullabaloo, but Gabe, being the brother he was, kept me steady. It was just like I had imagined him, but here, in real life.

We sat at a table with all the other apprentices, across from some boy I had met before named Noah, and next to a girl named Hazel, who was a mind apprentice herself. As I sat, I caught the eye of Kate from her own table, and gave her a slight smile. This certainly was a wonderful ball, and since it was partially thrown to celebrate her. She smiled back, although it looked as high she was searching for someone else. As the final apprentices entered the room, the lights dimmed, and two spotlights lit the room, one covering our table, and one at Kate's table. I watched as Thomas, who was sitting next to her, stood and offered her his hand. Gabe did the same, as did most of the male's in the room. I took it, bringing myself into the starting position to dance, and music spilled grouch the room. This time I didn't need Gabe to lead me, for something, which I could only assume was magick, was leading me through this complex dance.

Once the dance was done, the lights were raised, which Gabe, whispering into my ear as he guided me through the maze of tables, meant that we were aloud to mingle with the other Hybrids, all of the guests.

"Oh, hello Ripley!" says an older man with silver hair, enveloping me into a hug bear hug. "And Gabriel! How are you, my boy?" he chuckles good-heartedly, giving Gabe a little punch in the arm. I give my brother a questioning look, but he ignores me.

"Mr Wodnick, it's a pleasure to see you again. Ripley, this is Nathaniel Wodnick, a very big influence on the hybrid world. I helped him with some projects a while back."

"And those projects all went perfectly as planned, thanks to you!" Me Wodnick, Nathaniel, seemed much more interested in me. "And you, my dear. Do you have mortality powers like your brother?"

"Oh, no," I said timidly, "I have the gift of mind."

"Ah! What a rare one to find in someone so young. You're one of the youngest members of the exams, you know. Only a mere fourteen. How simply amazing-"

"Yes, yes, Mr Wodnick," interrupted Gabe, steering me away. "We've got a couple more things on our list, we'll talk to you soon!" As I was pulled away, I glared up at my brother. Why was he pulling me away so suddenly? I didn't have time to question him, because I was pulled into my second hug of the evening.

"Oh, isn't she darling!" Squealed the woman, holding me by my shoulders in front of her. She had brown hair falling in neat little curls around her face, and a rosy complexion. Next to her was a young man, around Gabe's age, with black hair slicked back and an expensive-looking tuxedo.

"Yes, yes, I know you love the little ones, Cordellia," he said,  before giving Gabe a short smile. "Fourteen, correct?" Gabe nodded, opening his mouth to speak. "And she looks pretty good for her size. I wouldn't be surprised if she's the one giving the speech tomorrow," finished the man, looking about the room.

"Never mind that!" Cried Cordellia, turning me so that her husband, or whoever the man was, got a good look at me. "Look how darling she is! I would just die for a figure like yours!" I pulled away at this comment, stumbling back a step. To get a figure like mine, you'd have to die.

"It's not a process you'd want to take," I informed Cordellia, a frown clouding my face. Before the woman could answer, a hand pulled me away, twirling me around the face whomever had pulled me away from my conversation. It was a young man, with a kind smile and blond hair sticking up like a brush on his head. He whisked me across the dance floor, far from a flabbergasted looking Gabriel.

"Hello Ripley. Sorry for startling you, but I needed to get you away from your overprotective brother," said the man, glancing around me worriedly.

"What's wrong with me brother?" I hissed, trying to pull away. He had an iron grip on me.

"Why are you protecting him? What do you even know about him, Ripley? Isn't he dead?" Asked the man, who seemed to be pulling me closer and closer to the doorway.

"He's come back to help me. I'm sure he has a good reason." I couldn't be so sure. What is this man was right? What did I know about Gabe?

"Listen, I've got to tell you everything, and quickly. My name is Aaron Tviet, and I'm a mind hybrid like you, okay? I know your brother, and he's not telling you the truth. He's not telling you anything. I want to help you, and i want you to win the exams. I trust in you, got it? I want you to be the keeper."

"So does Gabe."

"That's not entirely true."

"Listen, I don't know who you think you are, but-" I was cut off as loud feedback from a microphone echoed through the room. Kate was stepping up to a microphone, cringing at the sound.

"Ripley, you have more abilities than just your gift. You can win this. Don't hurt yourself like your doing, okay? And don't trust anyone," Aaron pleaded.

"Then why should I trust you?" He didn't answer, only pressing something into my hand quickly, and leaving me alone on the dance floor now, wondering what was happening. Gave intercepted me a moment later, leading me back to the table and telling me all about all the people who he talked to. He seemed more like my PR person than my brother.

Kate began her speech, but I wasn't listening. I was staring into my hand, at the small parcel Aaron had pressed into it before running off. It was a necklace, with a silver chain and a small green stone on the end. An emerald, pressed into my hand. But it wasn't some random emerald, not this one. There was a tiny scratch in it, which I would have recognized anywhere. I hadn't seen this emerald in two years, not since I left it in the tunnels that I spent most of my time in, under the city. Where I had first unlocked my ability. I hadn't seen it for two years. And some random hybrid brings it back to me tonight.

I couldn't register the rest of the night, only away of the emerald hitting itself in my closed fist. I was introduced to person after person, but no one made an impression. All I could think about were Aaron Tviet's words, and the green glass cutting my hand.