Chapter 33: The Half-Sister

Seeing Nathan show zero tears, zero repentant confession, Ms. Langley's anger flared hotter. "If you can't explain yourself, this goes straight to the counselor's office and your mother gets a call. Do you have any idea how intense ninth grade is? These next few months will decide the course of your entire lives. If you've got that much spare energy for romance, why not wait until college? Why waste time at the exact age when studying is this brutal?"

The last thing Nathan wanted was this reaching his mom—never mind that he genuinely felt wronged. Wren hanging around him had nothing to do with dating; it was because they were both bloodborn... It's just that this reason could absolutely never be brought out into the open.

If he told people "Wren and I are close because we're both bloodborn," they might not believe he was a bloodborn, but they'd definitely decide he was a full-on delusional fantasist and a certified lunatic. And Wren would absolutely never corroborate that story—the bloodborn girl was head over heels in love with ordinary human life.

"How do I explain this to the homeroom teacher? I've never prepped anything for this situation. If I'd known, I'd have gotten our stories straight with Wren first. Otherwise I'll invent one reason, she'll invent another, the stories won't line up, and won't the whole thing fall apart..."

Nathan was mildly stuck, with no idea how to paper this over—when Primrose's voice rose behind him: "Ms. Langley! Nathan is not dating Wren. These photos... a lot of them are Photoshopped!"

Nathan didn't turn around, but a flicker of surprise crossed him all the same—he'd never imagined Primrose would speak up on his behalf.

Primrose, having summoned all her courage, pointed out several "flaws" in the photos in a thoroughly professional tone, showing deep expertise in photography and Photoshop. Ms. Langley nodded along again and again, instantly convinced the photos were indeed suspect.

Nathan was dumbfounded. He knew those photos were absolutely genuine—he was the party involved, after all; he knew he really had appeared in those places with Wren, and the scenes at the time matched the photos pretty closely. Nothing about them was faked.

Primrose held forth for half an hour straight. When she finished, Ms. Langley sighed softly—clearly she trusted her academic rep completely, and it never crossed her mind she'd been conned.

Ms. Langley gave Nathan a couple of perfunctory remarks, brushed the whole "mix-up" aside with a single stroke, urged him to study hard and aim for good grades, told Primrose to keep her updated on the class, and sent the two students back to their room. Though she never actually apologized to her student, her tone and attitude amounted to conceding she'd gotten it wrong—and naturally the matter of calling in a parent never came up again.

Nathan hadn't expected this hurdle to pass so easily. He hadn't said one word the entire time, and only after Primrose towed him out of the staff room did he thank her: "I owe you big time for this one! Otherwise Ms. Langley would've reamed me out and called my mom in."

Primrose waited until no one was around, then seized Nathan by the collar and hissed: "Those photos are all real, aren't they? I've seen you with Wren plenty of times myself. You chased Isolde for so long—I always figured you weren't good enough for Isolde, but I respected the effort and the sincerity; not just anyone can stick with training that long. And then you pull this!... Who'd have thought—a guy who looks honest and simple, and he's a two-timing player!"

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Nathan froze for a second, then asked anyway: "Then why cover for me? Why lie to Ms. Langley?"

Primrose's face was exceptionally ugly, and she said coldly: "I've got my own reasons, obviously. Why should I tell you? Just remember—stay away from Isolde from now on, or I'll blow this whole thing wide open and ruin your reputation!"

Nathan rubbed his nose and said, low: "Wren is my half-sister! Same dad, different moms!"

Nathan had finally decided to just tell a lie—after all, that was worlds simpler than explaining that he and Wren were both bloodborn and hung out together for, basically, ethnic-community reasons.

Every expression on Primrose's small face locked up—as awkward as awkward gets. She hemmed and hawed for a good long while before whispering: "You're telling the truth?"

Nathan shrugged. "You know I'm from a single-parent family."

Nathan didn't try hard to prove he was telling the truth—but using one true statement to spark the corresponding association and letting people auto-fill the rest of the story in their heads was a pretty smart play.

Primrose, face scarlet, apologized: "I'm sorry—I didn't mean to pry into your family's private business. I was too rash about this..." The class rep was so mortified she actually stammered a little—on Primrose, that was rare in the extreme.

Nathan scratched his head. "I don't want more people knowing about this! Can you tell me—who actually gave the teacher those photos?"

Primrose hesitated briefly, but quickly sold out the hand behind it all, whispering: "It was Leopold! You know he likes Isolde too, so he can't stand you. He tailed you two for ages in secret and took a ton of photos."

Nathan couldn't stand Leopold either, but he'd never dreamed the guy could stoop to something this low-down. If Primrose hadn't covered for him, who knows how he'd have gotten past homeroom teacher Ms. Langley this time.

Nathan smiled and asked one more thing: "Why did you help me? I know it can't be for Isolde's sake—you'd love nothing more than to see me strike out with her."

Primrose bit her lip, then said quietly: "I'm the captain of our school basketball team's cheer squad. Did you really not know that?"

Nathan blinked, taken aback. He actually did know that—it just had never registered. He'd never have guessed Primrose helped him on account of the school basketball team.

Primrose clenched her fists and said softly: "I'll keep this secret for you! And—you'd better give it everything for the basketball team. Our school has never made the nationals! I thought once the senior starters retired, we had no shot left."

Nathan raised a fist and tapped it gently against Primrose's, grinning: "With me around? No problem!"

He said it with total confidence!

That was purely down to strength—unless he ran into some other bloodborn kid, Nathan simply had no rivals in his age bracket.

Primrose had never much liked Nathan, but in that instant the chubby boy suddenly seemed to blaze with light, and her heart pounded.

"Huh... this little chubby guy is kind of adorable."

Nathan had no idea his image had just shot up tall in Primrose's eyes.