Leo really wasn’t looking forward to joining his new school. From the moment he joined, he was confused. There must’ve been some kind of a fancy dress parade going on because Leo could see all sorts of weird creatures running around him. Leo had to admit, the effort put into these costumes was phenomenal. He saw a real wild wolf run past him and then appear to turn into a very hairy human, and some girl was being wheeled around in a giant swimming pool with a real fish’s tail hanging over the edge of the pool. But Leo couldn’t help but wonder why people were putting so much effort into their costumes. Leo was being distracted by the amazing costumes when suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind. Leo spun around and screamed, taken aback by how realistic the boy stood behind him’s costume looked. The boy was obviously meant to be a zombie, his skin was greeny blue (as if it’d gone mouldy) and there were even patches of skin that were missing altogether. But the strangest thing was that the boy appeared to have only one arm. In the place of the other one was a bloodied stub with a bone sticking out of the middle. But the boy didn’t seem to be in any pain. He just stood there, smiling at Leo. “Hi, I’m Matthias Wong, but my friends call me Matt! You haven’t seen my arm have you?” asked the boy. Leo rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You must be new. I’m a zombie, what are you?” Matt told Leo. Leo raised an eyebrow at him. “Look, yes I'm new. Nobody told me about this whole fancy dress parade thing so I guess my costume will have to be a human. Scary right?” Leo confessed. Matt looked at Leo with an expression of disbelief and fear. “Look, I don’t know what fancy dress parade you’re talking about, but are you really a human?” Matt asked. Leo rolled his eyes again. “Yes I am. And so is everyone else. You’re not fooling anyone.” Leo told Matt. Matt backed away from Leo as if Leo were some wild animal about to attack him, then Matt started pointing at Leo and yelling “HUMAN!” over and over again at the top of his voice.

Matt looked around him, expecting people to be staring but nobody took any notice. That is until a tomboyish looking girl went over to Matt. She would’ve been quite attractive were it not for her eyes being covered by a brunette fringe. Other than the fringe, all of her hair was stuffed into a black beanie hat. The girl put her arm around Matt. “Matt, calm down. Where’s the human?” she asked him. Matt pointed his one good arm at Leo, shaking like a leaf as he did so. The girl looked Leo up and down. “This frail little thing is human? Matt, I think you’re confused again.” She said rudely. “Umm I’m human. And so are you. Is everyone in this school completely insane?” Leo asked. The girl looked at him again. “Nobody here’s human. And you can’t possibly be human; you’re too scrawny and weak. Granted I’ve never actually seen the vile creatures myself, but I’m told they’re horrible creature capable of destroying everything in their path. And all they want to do to mythical creatures like us is destroy them.” she told him. “That sounds about right.” Leo said to himself. “And if you’re really not human, prove it to me.” Leo told her. The girl sighed. “Matt, don’t look.” She told the boy behind her. Matt buried his face in one of the lockers whilst the girl took off her beanie hat. Her beautiful brunette hair immediately fell down her shoulders and made Leo wonder why she even bothered to hide it in the first place. Then she moved her fringe up and revealed the most beautiful eyes Leo had ever seen. He immediately felt paralysed as he looked into her eyes. He was stuck there, lost in her eyes. Then she spoke in a seductive tone “go get me some lunch. I forgot my money.” And before he even knew what was going on, Leo found himself buying basically everything in the cafeteria and bringing it to the girl’s feet without even asking why she needed it. Then the girl put her fringe back down and Leo snapped out of it. “Now do you know what I am?” asked the girl. Leo paused for a moment. “Well you made me do things I’d never normally do for your own benefit...so you must be.... every woman on the planet.” He joked. The girl rolled her eyes and slapped him. “I’m a siren you idiot. You know, those creature that lure men to their deaths at sea. (I’m more of a modern day one so I look human.) That’s why I can’t wear my hair down or show people my eyes.” She told him. Leo nodded absent mindedly, still not 100% sure what was going on. Before he even had time to think, he heard a familiar voice from behind him yelling “Leo! What are you doing here?!” before he felt himself being dragged off by whoever was behind him.

LATER ON...
Ever since that girl from earlier possessed him, (or whatever she did) Leo felt as though he was in a daze. He wasn’t even sure whether he was dreaming or not at this point. He suddenly found himself stood outside a door that read ‘principal’s office’ in large bold letters. Leo saw an unnaturally pale hand reach over his shoulder and knock on the door. Leo turned around slowly and nearly jumped out of his skin as he recognised who it was stood behind him. It was his sister Jaz. The reason why he was so scared was that her skin had turned unnaturally pale. Now Leo had seen some pretty pale people in his time, but this was different; her skin was literally the colour of plain paper! But that wasn’t the only thing that’d changed about her, her eyes had suddenly turned blood red and her teeth seemed to be suddenly too big to fit in her mouth. As she smiled at him, he realised that her teeth had to be at least twice the size of his. “Jaz,” he said quietly. “what?...” “I’m a vampire.” she told him sharply. Leo was about to comment, when the door to the office swung open and Leo heard yet another familiar voice saying “Leo? I didn’t expect to see you here!” Leo turned around and to his surprise again he saw his mother. Like Jaz, Lisa also looked completely different. Normally Lisa looked relatively plain; thick glasses, brunette hair tied up neatly in a bun, baggy clothes that don’t compliment her figure at all, all the things a mother should wear. But now she was dressed in a beautiful white dress that flowed out behind her in a long trail, and her hair fell gracefully down her shoulders in little curly ringlets. She didn’t appear to be wearing very much make up (or even any at all) but her eyes had changed from dark brown (like Leo’s) to bright blue. She really did look amazing. Leo wasn’t even sure this was actually her until she spoke. “Leo, you’d better come in here. I think I have a LOT of explaining to do.” She told him.

Now Leo was sure he was dreaming. There was no way any of this could be real. So he just decided to go with it. He followed his mother into the room and sat down on the nearest chair, with his sister sitting in the other chair next to him. Lisa sat down at the desk and looked from Leo to Jaz and then back to Leo. “well Leo,” began Lisa. “this is a school for mythical beings and those with powers (like demigods and wizards) who’s power is now too strong to enable them to live in the mortal world any longer. Jaz here is the newest edition. She’s a vampire. I run this school to teach the students how to use their powers. You weren’t supposed to be here Leo. I was supposed to drop you to the human school down the road but I didn’t realise you got out until it was too late. But now I’m afraid you can never leave. Humans have found out about this school before but they were all ‘disposed of’ and I won’t have that happening to my son. And we can no longer trust you in the human world so I’m afraid you’ll just have to get to class.” Lisa explained. Leo looked at Jaz, then back at his mother. “You’re kidding me right?” he said. “this has to be some kind if joke! All of those people out there are in fancy dress and I’m being pranked, is that it?” Leo asked. Lisa shook her head and Jaz snickered under her breath. “Leo, you were possessed when I found you in the hallway. Isn’t that enough to prove to you this is all real?” Jaz asked. Leo rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what that hot chick did to me, but you’ll have to try harder than that, I’m not that gullible!” Leo yelled, looking around to try to see the cameras waiting to see his reaction to the prank. Jaz sighed and Lisa looked at Jaz. “Jazminda, look away.” Lisa told her daughter. Jaz nodded and dived under the desk. Lisa put one hand on Leo’s shoulder and his eyes immediately rolled back into his head and he felt himself falling to the floor.

All Leo could see was flashing lights and all he could hear was rushing water. After what seemed like forever, the lights finally stopped and Leo found himself sat in a classroom with a note taped to his hand saying “now do you believe me?” Leo still wasn’t convinced. But before he could leave, someone was stood over his desk. Leo looked up and couldn’t stop himself from screaming as he saw a giant creature glaring angrily at him and breathing scolding hot air in Leo’s face. In all honesty, Leo wasn’t sure what he was looking at. It appeared to be a giant bull standing on two legs. But instead of hooves for arms, it appeared to have the claws of a lion, and not to mention fangs to match. Leo genuinely thought the beast was going to eat him alive when to his surprise (and horror), the beast began to speak. “what do we have here?” growled the beast in a half human, half bear type of tone. “fresh meat?” Leo tried to speak but he couldn’t stop himself from trembling. All he could manage was, “I...I’m Leo.” The entire class burst out laughing at the sound of Leo’s voice. He didn’t even bother to turn around; he just stared at the beast in front of him. “Leo?” scoffed the beast. “as in the Latin form of lion? You don’t seem very lion hearted if you ask me.” The beast continued rudely. Leo tried to respond but he couldn’t. The beast sighed. “what race are you?” it demanded. Before Leo himself could answer, a female voice from the back of the class yelled “human!” and for some reason, everyone laughed again. (including the beast itself.)”very funny miss Aztec. But I think this little wimp should be allowed to speak for himself. Now what are you?” demanded the beast once more. Leo paused. “...it’s not a joke. I....I really am human!” Leo confirmed. The whole class gasped and a few climbed onto their desks in fear. The beast itself just stood, staring at Leo, as if not sure what to do. “Mister Minotaur!” yelled a boy from the back of the class. “I was scared too when I realised he was human, but he seems cool. Sit him back here with me and I’ll make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble!” the beast turned, (along with Leo and the rest of the class) towards the source of the sound. Leo was relieved to see Matt (the zombie from earlier) and the girl who possessed him sitting at the back of the class. Mr Minotaur paused for a second, as if debating whether or not to ignore Matt’s comment. “very well then.” He said finally. “I suppose a human will have the most to learn of all of you rejects so I won’t kill him...yet.” the beast turned back to Leo. “go sit with Wong and Aztec at the back of the class. I’ll be your combat teacher for the year.” The beast told Leo.