This is a work of fanfiction set in the Whateley universe. It doesn't follow canon, and I didn't create it in any way shape or form. I'm only playing in their sandbox.
Teri flew into Dr. Bellows office thirty minutes before class started. “Hey Doc, so as per your request, I met Ruth yesterday for our first tutoring session,” she said.
“Thank you Teri, how did it go?”
“I want a raise! She's a nice girl, but I had nightmares last night. How am I suppose to keep looking so beautiful if I can't get my beauty sleep.”
“We don't pay you,” he said.
“I know, so it will be very easy to give me a raise. You can always get more than nothing,” she explained.
He ignored that, and went to his next question. “How's Rona?”
“I discovered that when she blushes she gets a very pretty cherry red tint on her skin. But other than that I got nothing. She doesn't like me very much, she thinks I talk to much.”
“I can't imagine why she'd think that,” Dr. Bellows said dryly.
Teri stuck her tongue out at that crack. “I'm going to slowly lay off asking her to model with me. I didn't know what happened to her, or I wouldn't have started asking in the first place. But I don't want her to think I've been nosy or anything, and maybe I can get her hooked up with Miriam. I think those two would like each other and they won't have to listen to me all the time. Ok, I have to go get ready for class now. Just wanted to let you know that Ruth wasn't looking like she was going to rip anyone's head off or anything. She did her work, talked and fell asleep. And I invited her to eat with me and Em, and Splits sometimes, we're planning on having her becoming our mechanic when we begin our overthrow of Whateley. Bye bye.”
**
Ruth sat in her independent math class, going over the questions quietly. The Survival class had gone well she thought. Rona, Splits and some other Poe students were in the class and had let her sit beside them. Learning what to do when kidnapped had been useful, even though she realized that she didn't have a chance to do most of them under Sadist, if she'd been captured by someone not quite so paranoid or smart the lessons would have been practical.
Now she was alone, but the math was interesting. She'd seen math like this while doing her research, getting to work with it first hand was actually fun. The first twenty minutes had been spent trying to understand the formulas, she'd hesitantly asked the teacher for help a few times, gaining more confidence when she wasn't hit or insulted for not knowing. Now she was slowly but steadily working through the questions, confident that everything was right.
“Hey, are you really an ultraviolent?” a boy asked suddenly, causing her to jump in fear.
“What?” Ruth gasped. She saw that the teacher was in deep discussion with a student across the room.
“Are you an ultraviolent?” the boy asked.
“Yes.”
“Cool! You don't see many of your kind in math class. I'm Regen, like regenerator, because I can regenerate flesh and bone on someone, as much as I want,” the boy who was very normal looking said proudly.
She leaned away from him. How could anyone find violence cool? “I have to finish this work,” she whispered, turning away.
“That's cool. I Understand. But how many people have you fought?” he demanded, a sickening grin on his face.
“Three.”
His face fell. “Just three?! What did you do, kill them?”
“No. I don't want to talk about it.” She reached into her bag for her panic diary as her hands started to shake.
“What can you do?”
“Devisor, gadgeteer,” she answered, opening her book to a fresh page.
“What's that?” he asked, leaning over her shoulder as she wrote.
She didn't answer, focusing everything onto the sane words and repetitive action, letting her panic at how gleefully the boy seemed to find violence, and the questions he was asking. He grabbed her pen, leaving a long ink stain across the page.
Grabbing the edges of her desk, Ruth tried to keep from being overpowered by the panic, riding with it even as her safety line was ripped away.
“Hey. Hey! Pay attention to me,” he hissed.
Unwillingly her eyes focused on him.
“Can you fight? Are you some awesome fighter? Is that why they made you a UV?”
His words turned to gibberish, her chest ached, and she hunched down knowing she was going to be hit, all she could do was wait for it. The entire desk was shaking, the longer it took, the more certain she was that the punishment would be even worse. She wanted to scream at him to get it over with, but she could barely breathe. Her heart beat so quickly it was like a jackhammer hurting her ribs.
Very slowly the pain faded away, she could breathe again. Her blouse stuck to her body from sweat, her diary and notebook were wet, like they'd been rained on. The teacher, Dr. Winslow was sitting in front of her, Regen was on the other side of the room.
“Here,” Dr. Winslow said softly, seeing that she was capable of focusing again, handing her a box of tissue.
Taking it she started wiping her face, getting the stinging sweat away from her eyes. “Thank you, sir.”
“Are you ok now? Do you need to see Dr. Bellows?”
She shook her head. “Just a panic attack, sir. I am used to them.”
“You need to get cleaned up,” he said as gently as possible. “Go to your dorm and get a new shirt, class is almost over, it will be ok.”
Ruth looked at the clock and saw that the attack had lasted almost twenty minutes. Not exactly a record, but longer than usual. “Thank you, sir.”
Collecting her things, she hurried out, hunched over and holding her bag in front of her like a shield. She never noticed Regen smiling at her back.
**
After a much more successful independent math class Ruth walked to Crystal Hall trying her best to avoid the rush, by walking slowly and following the smaller paths that still had a little bit of snow on them.
Stepping inside, she took a few seconds to get a handle on the large crowd. Then she walked towards the food. She would do what Teri had recommended the night before, and take one item that one person took, and another item that someone else took. That way she had some variety.
Taking a tray, she saw skinny girl take three hamburgers, and did the same. Walking over to the vegetables, a boy took mashed potatoes, she did the same. Another person who looked like a humanoid rock, grabbed a plate of steamed broccoli, she took the same. Her eyes latched onto a student going to the salad bar, she followed him and took a fruit salad just like him. A girl with crystal hair caught her attention, Ruth followed her back to the meat section and got a hot dog. The tray was starting to get heavy. Walking towards the checkout, she found herself following a werewolf and getting a plate of vegetarian lasagna. People were starting to look at her, she didn't notice them, walking behind a group of students, watching them to see what they would pick up.
The heavy tray was suddenly taken from her.
“Wow Ruth! You must be really hungry,” Teri said, holding the tray that was piled down with food.
Rona was there a few seconds later. “Let's put some of this back, ok.”
Ruth just nodded dumbly, watching a disembodied eye and hand flying away.
A minute later she had a hotdog, mashed potatoes and the fruit salad. “Who do you want to sit with? Me or Teri?” Rona asked.
“I've got to eat and run,” Teri said. “It's a club meeting with a possible sponsor, so you two have fun. But we can have supper together. Ok?”
“Ok,” she said. “Have fun at your meeting.”
“So how was your first morning of regular classes?” Rona asked, leading her to a table where Steph and Mandy were eating.
“They were mostly good. I like the teachers, and the work.”
“Hi Ruth!” Mandy said. “Did you stay out of trouble today?”
She nodded, before ducking her head to start eating her hot dog. She thought that Rona gave the orange haired girl a dirty look but couldn't be sure. The conversation, once more largely bypassed her, they were talking about classes, teachers, and school gossip. But they told her a bit about the teachers she'd met so far, and some of the more unique students they saw walking to and from the cafeteria. The blind devisor with sickening clothes choices, and his scary looking friends got special attention.
“Crap!” Mandy said. “We've got the UV wannabes coming up, and they're looking for trouble.”
Ruth looked behind her and saw Regen coming over with three boys, one of them a cat like kid with long razor like claws, and two girls, one of which was covered in spines. They were looking right at her.
She got up to go, when Rona grabbed her arm. “If you run, they'll just go after you and you'll be alone. Here we've got a lot of strong guys who will step in,” her friend whispered.
Nodding, Ruth reached into her pocket, grabbing three PFG's and slid them to the other girls. She activated her own.
Steph stood up and glared at the new group. Despite having the appearance of what Sadist would call a ditzy blonde, the girl looked intimidating. “What do you guys want?”
“We heard about the newest member of the UV club, and really wanted to get to know her,” cat boy said. “Regen met her already and wasn't impressed. We're worried they might be slipping in losers who will detract from our reputation.”
Ruth realized that most of them had UV bands. They were just like Sadist.
“She's just a devisor, and they took away her weapons, Lynx,” Rona said. “You won't get much of a fight out of her, as you can see she wouldn't hurt a fly like this.”
Her hand gripped the plastic food tray.
“Ruth, put it down!” Mandy ordered.
Her hand pulled back from the tray, even as her eyes moved looking for a better weapon, Rona's hair might work.
“I think you're wrong. She just needs the right incentive,” Lynx said, watching her with amusement. “Rumour has it she beat the shit out of Beltane. That's pretty impressive. What did Belle do? Play a prank? Make someone dress naked on stage again?”
“Let's just beat the shit out of everyone here, until she entertains us,” the spiny girl said.
“There's a good idea, Quill. Would that get you fighting?”
There was some commotion from the direction of the stairs, and Ruth saw out of the corner of her eye, three large guys and three GSD girls coming towards them. The girls looked like demons, and the boys each had a UV band. She tried to guess who would be the best target to go after first, wishing she had a weapon.
“You assholes,” the largest newcomer said pointing at Lynx and his friends, “beat it now!”
To emphasize the point, the gargoyle like girl shot a burst of flame into the air, while the others cracked their knuckles or bared claws in the case of the winged girl.
“What the hell are you guys defending these losers for, Tee-Kay?” Regen demanded.
“None of your business. But you fuck with them, you're going to have TNT and the Furies beating your asses into the ground, and for once the Chief is going to thank us,” Tee-Kay said.
“Hey Tee-Kay, that would be funny to see. Let's just fuck em over right now,” said the most normal looking one of the newcomers. Little explosions filled the air behind him.
The demon woman leaned in close and whispered something about detention spoiling date night, and the explosions stopped.
The doors burst open and a large group of security officers came in. “You guys!” a young woman shouted. “You're done lunch, get somewhere else now or you're seeing the Chief.”
Lynx smirked at Ruth, “We'll see you around.” With that he motioned for his followers to leave.
“You guys to,” the woman said, looking at TNT and the Furies.
“Actually, they were helping us, Ma'am,” Mandy said.
That got a look of disbelief. “Is that right Tee-Kay?”
“We're not going to make a habit of it, but yeah, this time we were helping,” the UV replied.
“Alright, go back to your lunch, and thanks for not escalating it.”
“You girls,” Tee-Kay said pointing at Ruth and the others, “be sure to tell that crazy fairy we helped out, and we expect our girls to be front and center of the Valentines Calendar.”
“Yeah sure! We'll tell her!” Rona said quickly.
With the situation settled, security left with a warning to be careful.
“Did I hear that right? The Furies are going to be in a calendar, for Valentines Day?” Steph asked, looking a little green.
“You did. The boys were REALLY excited about it,” Mandy confirmed, looking like she was going to throw up.
“I could see it,” Rona said, watching the girls climb the stairs.
“The English are strange,” Ruth muttered to herself, rapidly calming down since there hadn't been any violence.