Hedgesville, West Virginia
Harbinger Academy
Friday, August 23, 1996
12:50 PM

"The bastard just let me shoot it off without warning about the whole backlash of the string," Jennie stated as she walked down the hallway beside Shan. She looked to her partner who was preoccupied with reading in a notebook he was holding. "Shan?"
"Oh, sorry," Shan whispered as he closed the book and looked at her with unfeeling eyes. "Looks like my guardian is coming to pick me up for the weekend. To spend some time with me. I'm a little...concerned with him showing up."
"Concerned?" Jennie questioned.
"Yeah, he's a bit wild," Shan said with a weak smile. "He tends to get out of hand.”
“Out of…hand?” she whispered, giving the boy an odd gaze.
“You know,” he replied, “drinking lots of coffee…”
“Lots of…coffee…” Jennie paused as did Shan. Both stood in the hallway as other students rushed around them.
“You hadn’t heard that demons get drunk off caffeine?” Shan questioned as Jennie shook her head back and forth, “Oh, well, yeah. Don’t ask me why, but we can drink alcohol with no problems. But caffeine is like our wine. Too much and we can get smashed.”
“And your guardian likes doing that?“ Jennie questioned.
“Pretty much,“ Shan laughed as they started walking again, “He loves coffee and soda. Not that I blame him. I like drinking a good cola, too, but it really can knock me off my feet.“
That’s really…odd…
“Tea,” he said, “doesn’t really bother us too much. That’s what I usually drank back at the abbey. Oh, and he's a monk. But not one of those kind you see with the bald heads! He was kind forced into the career."
"Forced into being a monk?" Jennie asked as she gave Shan a confused look.
"He was conceived when one of the temple maidens was raped," Shan stated as he stopped in front of his locker. He fumbled to with the lock as Jennie stopped beside him. "So he was trained to be a monk as atonement for his father's sins. To be honest, he's a lot like his father."
"Really?"
"His dad was great!" Shan said with a laugh as he grinned. "A great Scion!"
"So great that he raped a woman?" Jennie asked.
Shan looked out of the corner of his eyes to Jennie as his smile faded. "A Scion would never do such a thing," he replied.
"But you just said..."
"Let's just say that the temple maiden was trying to save her own ass," Shan replied.
"Oh," Jennie said, rethinking the situation. "WAIT! You said his father was a Scion, so that makes your guardian a Scion?"
"Yeah," Shan said with a smile, fumbling inside his locker then closing it. "Maybe I could stop by this weekend sometime and introduce you two. His name is Nikol."
"Nyquil, the cough syrup?" Jennie asked.
"No, Nikol," Shan replied with displeasure.
"Ah...Nicole," Jennie replied.
"No!" Shan shouted as he groaned. "Nii-kol!"
"Nikol?" Jennie said with uncertainty.
"Yes," Shan said with a heavy sigh. "He'll beat you with his staff if you say it wrong."
"Beat me with his staff?" Jennie said in a monotone voice as her eyes narrowed.
"You know what I mean," Shan remarked as he started to walk off.
"You can stop by on Sunday," she stated abruptly. "Tomorrow I'm going out with Rem."
"Really?" Shan asked as he turned to look at her. "A date?"
"Well, maybe," Jennie said while thinking about it. "But probably not. Just going to hang out at the park and maybe go swimming."
"Well, have fun, I'm skipping out early," Shan said, waving at her. "I have some things to take care of before Nikol shows up."
"Alright," Jennie said, waving back as he disappeared down the hallway. “So demons get drunk off caffeine. Does that mean if I feed them chocolate…?”