It was no surprise that I found Maria in the washroom combing her hair.
She looked at me briefly through the mirror, but made no move to pause her meticulous preening.
I walked back out to wait in the hallway. Leaning on a nearby wall, I waited for the vainest vampire in the world to complete her morning beauty regimen.
There were quite a lot of students mingling and walking about the hallways now. I stood there idly, taking in the smells and sights, just availing myself of the familiarity of the place.
A bunch of human girls passed me to go into the washroom. I didn't pay much mind until I heard them exclaiming inside, "Ewwww... It's the creepy girl again."
I heard no response from Maria.
"Eh, her being here just makes my morning bad," another girl complained loudly.
Still nothing from Maria.
I wasn't really worried. One vampire vs. four human girls. And I wasn't really expecting to hear Maria say anything. I guess I was expecting some kind of mind-wrap to happen to make them shut up.
"She's so disgusting," the human girls went on. Why did they talk like that? Why didn't they go tell Maria to her face that they didn't like her? They knew she could hear them.
They weren't talking quietly; I wasn't even trying to hear them. The other humans outside could hear them.
A passing girl sniggered to her friend, "Sounds like they are bullying the creepy girl again."
Again? What the hell.
I went into the washroom, beelining to the four girls, and punched the surface nearest to them.
That particular surface happened to be a cubicle door, which cracked on my knuckle but also slammed open and bounced back outwards again on its hinges before breaking off and crashing on one side.
I think the dividing wall must have taken damage when the door bounced off it, because the whole stall creaked and crumpled over into the next one, cracking the next door off on one end.
Wait, just to clarify, I didn't just totally demolish the girls' toilet! Just knocked it up a bit. Just a bit. It was probably structurally unsound to begin with.
The girls gasped. And then they froze, but not because of my awesome one punch or cool alpha dominance. No. Maria moved over silently, holding them captive with a look of her glowing red eyes.
I looked at the girls still frozen and then at Maria. My hand hurt. Oh… this was going to take another day to heal.
Maria hissed and pulled me by my bloody hand in one quick motion, dragging me over to the sink. For a moment I thought she was going to bite it, but she only stuck it under a cold tap.
That felt better, and once the blood stopped and the water ran clear, she pulled out some paper towels and stuffed it into my hands.
Then her red eyes faded back to her usual brown hue. She sighed a very little bit.
"Sorry," I mumbled, looking down at my scraped knuckles. They throbbed a little and were starting to swell.
The girls started moving again, "Oh my god, what happened here?"
They examined the wreckage next to them, trying to make sense of it.
More girls rushed in to see the commotion. They crowded around the broken toilet stall to give their two cents' worth. I heard something about termites.
Maria laughed, a very soft tinkling laugh. "What were you thinking, Alpha?" she asked as we walked out of the washroom together.
I hid my injured hand neatly in the pocket of my skirt. "They pissed me off."
"They are just humans," she said.
"I know," I mumbled. Just humans. Of course they hadn't bothered Maria. They weren't even talking to her.
This was why you can't solve irritating things with a single punch in real life. It leaves you feeling pretty foolish.
And you would also need a vampire to help you mind-wipe the human eyewitnesses so that your superhuman werewolf strength doesn't get you in trouble.
But punching something had assuaged my earlier moodiness, plus I conveyed my apology. And Maria wasn't trying to get into my head anymore. I guess it's my win.
By homeroom time, the school was abuzz with rumours about the girls' toilet. Some said termites, but there were others who said something more.
"Have you heard what happened in the girls' washroom?" Jasmine asked excitedly at homeroom.
"Termites?" I offered. Weak, I know.
"Have you seen it, Sam? That was no termite!"
"What happened?" Marcus asked from behind me. "I saw the entrance taped closed for renovation."
"Why were you checking out the girls' washroom?" asked Henry.
Marcus looked torn at that. "I-I wasn't! I..."
"It was destroyed. Completely pulverized!" Jasmine burst out, throwing her hands in the air.
Liam turned around and leaned back on her desk. "The girls' washroom?"
"It wasn't that bad," I said a tad defensively.
Jasmine was enjoying this too much. "They said it was a crazed werewolf, foaming at the mouth. It chewed through the walls and drank water from the toilets!"
WHA—what was that?
Suddenly Jasmine was laughing. "Just kidding, yeah, it was the termites."
The guys laughed. Liam turned back. I heard Marcus throw back a light-hearted "Whatever."
I started breathing again, careful to keep it slow and steady. Jasmine was still chuckling, "You should've seen your face, Sam."
I leaned in closer to her and said at a volume that only she would hear, "Actually, I did it."
You should have seen her face.