It was a bright morning in San Francisco  when a young 7 year old half Asian girl with long dark brown hair was woken up by her alarm clock. She turns the alarm clock off and she gets out of bed yawning. Going to the bathroom, the girl gets ready for the day, including taking her medication.

Downstairs the girl’s father was cooking eggs for breakfast. The girl walked into the kitchen and sat down next to her brother and sister. The girl’s mother walked over to her and put the cup down for her.

“Good morning, sweetie,”

“Good morning, mom,”

The girl’s father walked over the table holding the plates for all three kids.

“Alright, here we go, kiddos. Fresh fruit, bacon and eggs,”

He put the first plate down in front of the oldest boy, who was a 12 year old blonde hair boy with green eyes who wore a white button up shirt.

“Thank you, dad,”

The dad goes over to the youngest girl, who also had dark brown hair but unlike the 7 year old, the 5 year old girl had her hair tied into pigtails and wore a dark grey shirt with the word "Nope" in the center.

“Bacon and fresh toast with eggs,”

The dad put the plate down in front of her. The young girl cheered.

The father goes to the main girl.

“And eggs, fresh toast, and fresh fruit,”

He put the plate down.

“Thank you, dad,” the girl said softly.

The three kids begin to eat for a few minutes. The main girl looks at her younger sister.

“Um… Lil… could you pass the milk?” she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Her sister clearly heard her but smirked evilly, leaning over and dramatically putting her hand to her ear.

“What Tabs?” she asks, feigning ignorance.

“Uh, can you please pass the milk?”

“Yeah, I still didn’t catch that, Tabitha. You’re gonna have to speak. Up,”

Tabitha whimpered, shrinking down into the chair.

The older brother pushed the milk carton towards Tabitha.

“Milk. She has the same drink almost every morning. You know that Lillian,”

Lil scowled at him.

“She’s gotta stop being such a weakling, and she’s never going to learn anything with you babying her all the time, Benjamin,”

“Uh… guys? Please don’t-” Tabs had seen this way too many times before, she really didn't want to be the cause of another fight between her siblings.

“Shut up, Tabs!,” Lil snapped.

“That is no way to talk to your sister!,” Ben scolded.

“Alright kids, that’s enough,” the mom scolded. “You guys better get ready, you’re going to be late,”

The three kids get up and leave the kitchen for the living room. As the kids leave, their mom, Janice, turned to her husband, Donathon.

“I’ll drive Ben to school, can you take the girls?”

“Yes ma’am. I’ll see you at work,”

Jan walked into the living room where the kids were getting ready for school.

“Come on Ben, I don’t want to be late for your first day back,”

Ben put his backpack on and followed his mom to the door.

“You bet. I heard the sixth grade teachers are the best,”

He turns back towards the girls.

“You guys behave,”

“Ok,” “No,” Tabs and Lil say at the same time.

Tabs and Ben both give Lil a look.

“I’ll see you guys after school,” Ben said as he walks out.

Don joined the girls who were now ready.

“Alright, Tabby, you got your inhaler?”

Tabs unzipped her backpack and pulled out the inhaler.

“Yes,”

“Great! What about you, Lil? Are you ready to start kindergarten?”

Lil shrugged. “Eh…,”

Don drove the girls to their school, Pine Elementary.

Tabs and Lil put their backpacks on as they exit the car.

“Thank you, dad,” Tabs said.

“See you after school, dad,” Lil added.

"By you two! Don't forget Tabs, you have a doctor's appointment after school! Make sure to get your homework done" Don called back to the kids.

Tabs opened the door and slowly started trying to put her leg down on the pavement. Lil got impatient in the 5 seconds she's been waiting and shoves her out of the car. Tabs stumbled around trying to regain her balance. She succeeded but it caused an asthma attack. Tabs grabs her inhaler and used it. She took a breath of relief. Lil walked past Tabs, grabbing her and dragging her along.

Inside the school, the two girls watch as their fellow schoolmates scramble through the hallway trying to find their classes. Lil turned to Tabs.

“Alright, while we’re here, I don’t know you. Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. Don’t even breathe in my general direction,” Lil grabbed Tabs’s shirt and pulled her closer. “You got that?”

Tabs puts her hands up in surrender and nodded. Lil rolled her eyes and walked towards her classroom. Tabs does the same. On her way, several of her classmates go out of their way to hit her only for her to be the one to apologize. One classmate shoves her to the ground.

“Pardon me,” Tabs whimpered.

“Tabs!” a voice called.

Tabs looks over to see a young african american girl with light brown puffy hair and a purple shirt with a star on it waving to her, standing next to a young white boy with spiky raven hair and a yellow shirt with the red strip in the middle.

“Over here!” the girl called.

Tabs gasped and got up, joining the two other kids.

“Hey guys,” Tabs said as the three friends hug.

“How was your trip, Adam?” Tabs asked.

“Oh it was great! Lots of cool stuff to see in Alaska. I lost count of how many new sketchbooks I bought from the gift shop. I kept filling them up,” Adam gushed.

“‘Oh don’t over do it, Mac’ ‘You’re so over the top, Mac’. You don’t see me working on vacation, do you?” Mac said, annoyed.

Adam turns to her. “See now, the difference is I actually know what I’m doing with my life. And I know I’ll be awesome at it cause we'll I'm already awesome at everything else,” Adam gloated.

Before the conversation could continue, three bikes came speeding down the hallway. The trio pinned themselves to the lockers as the bikes passed, with a trio of girls riding them.

“Watch it, losers!” the main blonde hair girl sneered.

Adam rolled his eyes. “Ugh! Karen hasn’t changed,”

“Did you really think she would’ve? She’s been the same for three years now,” Tabs said.

“Yeah but-,”

Just then, the first warning bell went off. Mac grabbed both her friends by the arms. “Come on guys, we’re gonna be late!” Mac exclaimed, dragging them down the hallway.

In the classroom, the teacher was starting to take attendance.

“Hello there, children. My name is Mrs. Dutka. We’re going to be having a very fun year. But first, let’s start off by getting to know each other. When I call your name, I want you to just say here,”

And so she took attendance, when she reached Tabs’s name, she had a hard time hearing the girl given how quiet her voice was. Right when attendance ended, there was a knock at the classroom door. Mrs. Dutka went over to the door and opened it.

“Actually, we’re getting another student added to our class,” Mrs. Dutka said warmly. “Why don’t you introduce yourself to our class?,” she invited.

A young redhead girl with the blue bow shyly came into the classroom.

“Uh…hi. My name is Fiona. Me and my brother have been moving around foster home to foster home and now we live here,”

Under her breath, the class could hear Karen making fun of Fiona for not having parents. Mrs. Dutka scolded her before instructing Fiona to take the empty seat near Tabs.

“Now we’re gonna start today with a little history lesson on the origins of the…,” Mrs. Dutka shuddered. “Crossbreeds,” Mrs. Dutka recovered by clearing her throat and began drawing on the chalkboard to describe what she was saying. “Thousands of years ago, when humankind was still very young, there were tribes that lived in the natural environments the world had to offer. The tropical rainforest, the temperate forest, the desert, the tundra, the taiga, the grassland, the savannah, the fresh water, the marine. Humans lived without technology or industrialism. Just them and nature. Each day was a struggle for everyone. But one day, something happened. A meteor entered our atmosphere and broke off sending a piece near a camp in each of these biomes. A mist that scientists still don’t understand admitted from it, affecting the nearby humans. Over centuries of exposure, these select camps developed powers. They were able to transform into large humanoid versions of the animals that surrounded them. These people branched off into a completely different species, that is now called the Crossbreeds. Their senses became several times stronger than ours, they became stronger than us, faster, more durable, and in many cases, more violent. Many of these Crossbreeds would go out of their way to kill and eat us, especially the babies. And so we needed to protect ourselves. We developed weapons specifically made to work on them. We ran them out of our villages anytime they got close. We fought wars. Now every human city is broken off between human settlements and Crossbreed settlements. We have a forest village here in San Francisco, and since the only way we can tell a human from a Crossbreed is by exposing them to the light of a fire, there could be a crossbreed in our midst today, just waiting to kill us all,”

Turning back to her class, Mrs. Dutka was met with a range of horrified expressions from the kids.

“Oh don’t worry. You’re all very safe here. We make sure to not let any exposed crossbreeds stay in our city. Anyway, now that history is over, let’s move onto some math,” she tried to comfort.

The rest of the morning classes moved by in a blur. The kids didn’t talk to each other until it was time for lunch. Tabs, Adam, and Mac, were sitting at their own table.

“What Karen said in class about that new kid… awful,” Tab said sadly.

“She’s always awful to everyone, all the time,” Adam said.

“I’m sure she’ll be ok, she seems like a tough cookie,” Mac comforted.

“By the way, aren’t your mom and dad taking you to get your eyes and lungs fixed by that doctor tonight?” Adam asked excitedly.

Tabs fidgeted in her seat, uncomfortable. “Babysitter’s taking me actually. And I’m still not sure it’s a good idea,”

Adam scoffs. “You'd rather struggle to breathe in gym?,”

“No but… I-I don’t know… The whole asthma and eyesight thing… My normal doctor says it can’t really be fixed. You know that,”

“Yeah I know. But if there’s any chance it can be helped-,” Adam started.

Mac noticed Fiona looking for a place to sit and going over to Karen’s table.

“Uh guys?,” Mac interrupted.

Fiona put her lunchbox on the edge of Karen’s table. Karen slid over and shoved it off the table. The box fell to the ground, spilling the food everywhere.

“Hey!” Fiona snapped.

“You shouldn’t have put your dirty poor food where it didn’t belong!” Karen sneered.

Fiona picked up the empty lunchbox glaring at the blonde and walked over to Tabs’ table, sitting down at the edge.

Tabs rummaged through her own lunchbox and pulled out a ziplock bag of baby carrots before passing it towards Fiona. Fiona caught it in the corner of her eye.

“No, no, I-I can’t take that, that’s yours,”

“It’s ok. My dad packed me plenty of food,”

“Are you sure?”

Tabs nodded and Fiona smiled at her moving closer.

“So how do you like it here so far?” Mac asked Fiona.

“It’s ok I guess. I’m really hoping me and my brother will get to stay here. He really needs to keep his doctors,”

“Why? Is he sick?,”

“Yeah he was born sick. Something's wrong with his heart, I think. My foster mom is usually working so I’m usually the one who goes to see him when he’s at the hospital and takes care of him at home,” Fiona glanced back at Karen and glared again.

“Don't worry about Karen. She’s always like that. Just ignore her. She’ll get bored and leave you alone for a while... Then she'll decide you're her new favorite target again and come back,” Adam advised..

“She’s like a rash,” Mac commented.

“Yes. Yes she is,”

…

After school the three kids dragged their feet to the parking lot, exhausted.

“I’m tired,” Adam moaned.

Lil ran up behind them knocking Tabs off her feet.

“Move!” Lil snapped.

Adam and Mac help Tabs to her feet.

“Yeah, I’m tired too,” Tabs moaned.

“Oh, maybe we can hang out this weekend. Ice cream’s on me!” Mac suggested.

“I’m ok with that!” Adam agreed.

Both girls gave Adam an amused look, given how he had the most money out of any of them.

“Are you sure, Mac?” Tabs asked.

“Yeah! Why not?”

Lil reopened her parents’ car door. “Tabs! Move your butt!” she yelled.

“Um… I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Tabs said and walked off to her car.

Mac waved her goodbye. “Bye Tabs!”

…

That night, the three kids were in the living room working on their homework when their parents walked in.

“Alright kids, we’re heading back to work. Rachel will be here in the evening to take you to the doctor, Tabby,” their dad said.

“Uh... the doctor’s appointment hasn't happened yet? It's... almost 7. The doctor's appointment is at night? What doctor’s appointment is at night?” Ben asked, suspicious.

“He's a specialist. And he said he was booked up til late. Trust me Ben, when a doctor comes to you and offers to cure your child’s asthma, you say yes!” Jan explained.

“We won’t be back until late. You three get your homework done and be in bed on time, alright?” their dad instructed.

“Yes, dad,”

“We will,”

“Whatever,”

The parents make their way out.

About an hour later, Rachel enters the house, eyes glued to her phone and sending a text.

“Ok, Tabs, are you ready to go?” Rachel asked distractedly.

“Oh, um, yes,” Tabs said.

She put the book to the side, hopped off the couch and went over to Rachel.

“Drive safe,” Ben told Rachel.

“Yeah yeah, if I’m not back by Lil’s bedtime, make sure she’s in bed,” Rachel said as she and Tabs left.

Once they were gone, Ben looked at Lil.

“Any chance you’ll cooperate with bedtime?” Ben asked her.

“Any chance you’ll stop being such a suck up?” Lil mocked.

Ben rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,”

…

Rachel pulled up to the “doctor’s office” where Tabs got a weird feeling. All she could see was a condemned, run down looking warehouse surrounded by trees on an unnamed road. Nothing about this place looked like a doctor's office.

“Um… Rachel? I’m sorry, but are you sure this is the right place?” Tabs asked sheepishly.

Rachel sighed, annoyed. “Tabs, I know where I’m going,” Rachel said, getting out of the car.

Tabs wasn’t sure, something didn’t feel right but Rachel was older, surely she knew what she was doing… right?