Thunder and Rain
RAIN
This is my story. Granted, it’s not the usual fairytale. After all, when has the princess had a black-belt in martial arts? Or when has the knight-in-shining armor had a gambling problem? Your answer? Never. I guess my little fairytale makes up for it, because I live in a different dimension. From humans that is. That doesn’t mean we don’t have some residents that ARE human. After all, where do you think Merlin learned his share of magic? At the proud Institute of Unusual Arts. Where the student body consists of elves, nymphs, and hybrids of all kinds. This is the story of Rain Mary-Elizabeth Antoinette Mauder. An orphan, a part-feline, and most of all, a teenager. Me, in short.
I hate rain, and I know it hates me. So the name I was given is a bit ironic. I especially hated my new home. There were at least a dozen places in the ceiling that leaked. And that’s just the first floor. I traveled from Magician’s Cove, my home, to move to this dump? Certainly the fact that it IS hidden helped ease my homesickness. And I love the fact that the town’s surrounded by a forest. Oh how I love the smell of pine.*shiver* But this whole town’s near the ocean. I can smell the salt.
“Oi!” a sudden rapping on my front door startled me out of my deep contemplation. “OI! ANYONE HOME?” I groaned as I got off my couch. School had been more trouble than I though.
I opened the door. There, standing before me, was the most absolutely, undeniably, gorgeous half wolf in this dimension. I mean, I’ve met werewolves, but not a natural-born hybrid.
“What took ya? Nice ears,” I rubbed the one-of-two feline anatomies I owned. “Ma name’s Thunder,” and, oh, what a bolt of energy he was to my eyes.
“Rain,” I decided to make a more thorough analysis. I looked up, and saw the most dazzling pair of green eyes smiling down at me. While I had feline appendages at the top of my ruby-red streaked, onyx locks, Thunder had his canine ears on the top of his aqua-marine streaked, platinum tresses. “Can I do somethin’ for ya?”
“Ya well, I noticed you were new at school, so I decided to fill ya in. if ya new, ya gotta do a dare. To fit in ya know,” I glared holes into his forehead. Why did someone so hot, have to be so dense? I mean, for Pete’s sake, he had washboard abs, and the sensitivity of a rock!
“What if I don’t wannna fit in? Huh? Think a that?” Thunder look at me like I was touched in the head. I covered my face with my hair. What can I say? If Thunder had looked, he would’ve have seen my face going blue from trying not to crack up. “Can you leave now? I still gotta unpack.” He gave me a once-over.
“Won’t cha cut your feet up wit out shoes?” What. An. Idiot.
“No, cuz I have tough feet,” I could hear my nails as they clicked on the doorway. “And I hate shoes.” I could tell from his dazed expression- and the fact that he was staring right in to my eyes- that they were changing from the usual gray to amber. They tend to do that when I talk to infuriating people.
“ ‘Kay then. Think ‘bout my offer. After all, whatcha have to lose? Ya came here a week before graduation.” I slammed the door into his face, fiercely hoping I hit him. Moron.

THUNDER
“That Rain girl, she is one fine piece of work. Did ya see her in Calculus?” I glanced at Cloud. He seemed just as stunned as I had been yesterday. Guess that was a yes. He deliberately offered his Hot Cheetos. I socked him and took a bite of my Snickers; he knows just as much as everyone else that I hate hot food. “She’s just my type; fiery, small, and gorgeous.” I bumped into someone.
“Did she take the dare?” That was the nth time some munchkin junior had asked me. Who had leaked? The dare was all over school.
“Nah. But I told her ta think ‘bout it.” I turned back to Cloud. “Ya should have been there, man. Her eyes turned all yellow before I left. Ya think that means somethin’?”
RAIN
I must be cursed. I have that moron in Calculus, Demonology 101, Combat Practice, and lunch. And he hasn’t stopped bugging me. But I was surprised that the moron wasn’t such a moron after all. He’s actually funny, and outgoing, and, and…WHAT AM I THINKING?! He’s just like the rest of the school. They all think I’m either the Goth Chick, Nerd Queen, or just a Jock. Not Rain. Guess I got the “Goth Chick” because I quoted Stephen King in Hybrid’s Literature. Oh wonderful. The moron’s coming my way.
“What’s the dare?” I asked in my most exasperate voice.
“Carnap the Principal’s Audi.” He seemed mildly alarmed. “But I came over ta tell you that every single male in this room has been watchin’ ya for the past half-hour. But tha’s okay too.” I left the room, then walked out of the school grounds. A certain Red Audi caught my attention as I passed. I paused, then continued walking. I had a lot to reflect on.
THUNDER
I. CANNOT. BELIEVE.IT. Rain. She actually did the dare. The whole school’s been in an uproar since it started.
Here’s what happened. She picked me up for school and explained on the way. Seems she “borrowed” some illusion spells from the Magic 101 class. To make it look like the car was still there. She also had to curse the car so that it would listen to her.
“Thunder, relax. You look we’ll get pulled over any second.”
“Cuz we are!” Rain fiddled with the car, and WHAM!, we’re invisible.
“Feel better baby?” She flashed me a smile worthy of the Cheshire Cat.
RAIN
Today’s graduation. Too bad. I got into my Jeep and looked at my new home for one last time. I had finally started to like the smell of pine and salt together. Funny, I’m leaving here, and it’s “Thunder Season.” Too bad I’ll never see the real thing again. I watched as the town disappeared into the foliage and fog as I drove away. When it was completely gone, I looked ahead to the glittering sea.
THUNDER
She got expelled. And today’s graduation. I’ve had on my fake smile since school started. I walked out into the glaring sun. Her house was empty. I had checked.
A real smile crept past me. I would see her again. I just knew it.