Chapter Text
“Do I have to spend my last day here playing with this mutt?” a 7 year old Sophia groans, looking at Daniela with pure, utter disgust written all over her features.
“Hey! Who’re you calling a ‘mutt?’” 6 year old Daniela shouts, glaring back at her.
“You.” Sophia replies flatly, unimpressed.
“You stupid blood sucker!” Daniela yells charging at her from where she was playing in the sandbox.
Sophia holds her hand out, her palm inches away from Daniela’s face.
“Sit,” she points her index finger down to the ground.
Daniela freezes.
She doesn’t want to.
She really doesn’t want to.
Not for this idiot.
Not for this stupid, snobby vampire, who thinks she’s better than everyone else.
But her instincts are refusing to listen to her head, her body isn’t linking with her mind.
Her face burns, a hot flush of humiliation as she sinks to her knees.
“Good girl.” Sophia smirks, the corners of her lips upturning slightly.
Her tail shifts under her- a single wag. A wag of pure frustration.
That is the first, only, and hopefully last, time Sophia Laforteza has smiled at her.
Luckily, she’ll never see it again.
Daniela’s taken pride in being a good girl all her life.
She beams when her mother ruffles her hair, telling her that she did such a good job in school that day, she grins when her teachers tell her to ‘keep up the good work!’
The point is, she always strives to be the good student.
The best student.
Except that time.
It’s been years now, but she still remembers it from time to time.
When Sophia Laforteza mocked her.
She remembers it vividly- the cold concrete of the sidewalk digging into her knees, the warmth on her face, the embarrassment she felt clinging to her skin.
She remembers hearing her mothers snickering behind them- thinking that their daughters were so cute- interrupting their long goodbye (which should’ve ended 2 hours ago) to watch their children play.
She remembers staring at Sophia’s smug face, the tip of her fang slightly poking out on her lower lip, looking at her like she was pathetic.
The shift in her tail, the way her ears perked up, the absolute mortification she felt with every second that passed by.
Sophia’s hand going to pet her, burying itself in Daniela’s hair before walking off.
And wiping it on her damn dress as if she was dirty.
Daniela doesn’t really know why the two started hating each other.
It’s been like this for as long as she could remember.
It’s not like vampires and werewolves have a long lasting feud, no.
That ended centuries ago, when a vampire joined a school for the first time- marking a werewolf, and the rest was history.
Their parents tried anything for them to be friends- family vacations, weekly playdates, bribing their preschools to put them in the same classes, enrolling them in the same extra curriculars- but no.
Well, if she had to guess, it was probably when…
“Dani! This is your Ate Fifi!” Ana gently encouraged her to go say hi, the 3 year old Dani hiding behind her mom’s legs.
The 4 year old Sophia stood next to her own mom, holding her hand, staring at Daniela with this… intensity.
Dani shook her head and buried it in the pit of Ana’s knees, clutching the fabric of her leggings with nervousness.
“Mom? Why ith she so cowardly?” Sophia asked, looking up at her mom innocently.
Carla’s eyes widened, with a mix of horror and an attempt not to burst out laughing, looking up at Ana.
“I’m so sorry! She just learnt that word today.”
Ana stared at little Sophia, before wheezing.
“That’s so cute!” she said, in between gasps for air.
Carla let herself too- cackling loudly while squeezing Sophia’s hand.
“Anak! Don’t-“ she snickered behind her hand, “Don’t do that.” she scolded her, with all the sternness she could muster.
“What does cow.. ward- cowardly mean?” Dani asked, face scrunched up in confusion.
“She-“ Ana wiped the tears out of the corners of her eyes, crouching down to her level.
“She called you scared, hija.”
Daniela furrowed her eyebrows, turning to Sophia- who was still staring at her.
“I’m not scared!” she yelled, stamping her foot.
“Yeah you were! You were hiding!” Sophia argued, crossing her arms with a little ‘hmph’ and turning away.
So even now- 10 years later- for every bit of praise she receives, the pride she feels in her heart flickers, her smile faltering, as she remembers that day.
Despite that moment haunting her for the rest of time on Earth, it was probably the best day of her entire life.
Because that’s the day Sophia got into her car, drove to the airport to the Philippines, and moved there permanently.
Out of Daniela’s life forever.
She would’ve done anything back then for it to happen, and then it did.
So despite that horrible, horrible moment,
It was worth it in the end.
“Dani!”
Daniela shut her locker, turning to the direction that she was called from.
From a distance, she saw her best friend- Manon Bannerman- running towards her, waving frantically.
She rolled her eyes, waving back less enthusiastically.
“Did you hear?” Manon panted, tucking a stray curl under her ear as she fell into step with Daniela.
“Hear what?” she hummed, looking through the pile of books in her arms to check if she had everything she needed.
“There’s gonna be a new student! I hear she’s like- insanely smart.”
“And hot.” a voice added on behind them.
On the other side of her arrived Lara Raj, their other best friend.
“Ooh! Do you know which school she transferred from?” Daniela asked curiously.
“Nope, no idea- hey guys!”
The last two of their tight-knit friend group- the couple of their little squad, Megan and Yoonchae- joined their circle beside the lockers.
“Hi!” Megan grinned, swaying her and Yoonchae’s intertwined hands to and fro, “Whatcha talkin’ about?”
“The new student, apparently.” Daniela replied, trying to formulate something to say to said new student when she arrived.
Maybe they could be friends.
They started walking down the darkened hallway, chatting excitedly about the rumours.
What would she be like? Is she actually hot? Why would it matter if she was?
“Because maybe I’d wanna get her number!” Lara argued.
“The new student’s taken.” someone said, behind the group.
The 5 girls whipped their heads around.
There, Lexie Levin stood- arms crossed, eyebrows raised teasingly.
“And how would you know that?” Manon asked, squinting at her suspiciously.
“Because-“ before Lexie could finish, her phone chimed.
Her eyes lit up as she read something, turning to the door.
“She’s here!”
The group turned towards the door, which Lexie was currently barrelling towards- clipping into the shoulders of anyone in her way.
Daniela’s jaw dropped.
“Baby!” Lexie squealed, jumping into the arms of her girlfriend, “You’re finally here!”
“Hey.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Daniela blurted out.
All heads snapped towards her.
Including hers.
“Oh fucking hell.” Sophia muttered, “I knew I had a bad feeling about this damn school.”
Daniela’s eyebrows furrowed with annoyance.
Why the fuck is Sophia Laforteza back in her life? Wasn’t she supposed to be gone for good?
Also, she isn’t hot.
Not one bit.
“Babe? Do you guys know each other?” Lexie asked, looking between the two.
“What happened to that preppy private school of yours, huh?” Dani sneered, looking her up and down; not paying any mind to her friend.
“I left.” Sophia replied flatly, crossing her arms- ignoring her girlfriend’s question.
“Did they have enough arrogant assholes like you over there?”
“Why aren’t you in the school’s pet cages right now? I hear them refilling the water bowls.”
“You fucking-“
“Oookaay!” Lara clapped, silencing the two’s bickering, “So I’m guessing you know each other?”
“Unfortunately.” the two chorused, glaring at each other- the stare down never wavering.
“Not an original bone in your body, no matter how many times they repair themselves from your stupid transformations.” Sophia scoffed.
“Finally got rid of that lisp huh?” Daniela shot back, “Maybe you’d be less annoying to be around. If that’s even possible, of course.”
“I told you, I hadn’t developed the ability to retract my fangs yet! Is that too big of a concept for your puppy brain to comprehend?”
“It depends, is it as big as that fuckass ego of yours? I’d assume not-“
“Guys!” Megan yelled in hope of dispelling the argument, “This was supposed to be a good holiday!”
She closed her eyes solemnly, dramatically wiping a non-existent tear from the corner of her eye.
“Holiday?” Yoonchae asked, turning to her, “What holiday?”
Megan froze.
“You know…” she mumbled, “meeting the new kid… and stuff. Eh, I don’t know.” she shrugged before turning towards Sophia.
“Hi! I’m Megan!” she smiled brightly, holding her hand out.
Sophia returned a smile politely, shaking her hand, “Sophia.”
Daniela stormed off with a huff as Sophia made rounds with introductions from her friends.
Daniela nearly dropped her tray.
Pure irritation started to rise within her- a white, hot frustration that was bubbling over as she stamped over to her friends’ lunch table.
“What the fuck is she doing here?!” she pointed at Sophia, seething with anger.
“We’re friends now.” Sophia replied, shrugging and sipping a carton of juice.
“Friends-? What the fuck?! Who decided on this?!” she whirled her head around, feeling betrayed by her 4 best friends- who still don’t know why she’s so mad.
“Relax, puppy. You can’t control who they’re friends with.”
“I- no! What the- no!” Dani spluttered, steam coming out of her ears.
“So why don’t you take a breather, and sit?” Sophia asked, smirking.
Daniela froze.
‘Shit.’
She remembered.
She still remembers.
‘No, Dani. You’re better than this. Control it. Not now, not again, not ever.’
Daniela felt her knees wobble, and she started to panic.
As hard as she tried to fight against it, her instincts kicked in.
Slowly, she went down onto the cafeteria floor.
Her friends’ jaws dropped in shock.
“What the fuck is going on right now?” Manon whispered.
“I don’t know, but this is insane.” Megan replied, reaching in her pocket to pull her phone out.
“Don’t even think about it, Skiendiel.” Daniela growled, keeping her eyes on Sophia- who was pulling that same damn smirk.
Sophia crouched down to her level, threading her hand through Daniela’s hair.
She leaned over to whisper in her ear, punctuating every word with a pat on her head.
“Good. Fucking. Girl.”