Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 19: Sting

An hour later...

The others came back from their respective stuff, and now we're all just mutually shocked as I tell them about my trip.

"You? A hybrid?" Divya questions in shock while she nibbles on the delicious quesadillas. Vinnie wasn't kidding when she said Vaibhav makes good quesadillas. These are delicious.

"Yeah, apparently. It's why I look so birdlike even though the ABG says I'm a werewolf," I explain unsurely.

"But that doesn't make any sense. Your ABG said that you were a werewolf both times. How could you possibly be a hybrid?" Vaibhav wonders. 

"I was just thinking that. Wouldn't the test specifically say that you're two creatures at one time? I mean, hybrids are really common," Tusharika adds on, giving Naishal a cute smile as she thanks him for giving her some of his extra queso. And yup, he's blushing like a tomato.

"ABGs actually can't detect if someone is a hybrid or not, turns out. Sometimes, creatures have very different pH levels, and in that case, if a pair of creatures with different pH levels have a kid, they can't just level out and form a pH level in the middle of the parents' ranges," Vinnie starts out as she stands to throw her plate in the sink.

"Like for example, if a werewolf with a 1.3 pH has a kid with a 20.5 pH harpy, they can't have a child with a pH of 11. It'll make the kid really sick. So, the body naturally adjusts to this by taking the pH of one parent and slightly increasing or decreasing its number." The others look at each other in confusion for a second before they suddenly all understand what Vinnie is trying to say.

"Estella is half-griffin, half-samjoko, but her ABG only reads "griffin" because her range falls into the griffin's range. But her older brother's ABG says he's only a samjoko because his pH falls into a samjoko's range. They're both definitely hybrids, though. There's just no actual indication that someone is a hybrid in an ABG."

"Ohhhh, so that's why it's like that. Ryan is also a hybrid, but his ABG always tells him that he's a werewolf. None of my coaches believes him when he says he's half-faerie. Guess I know why now," Divya explains while Vinnie nods her head to show that Divya is on the same wavelength.

"To be fair, Ryan looks nothing like a faerie. Faeries are delicate and beautiful, and Ryan... well... looks a little scary," Naishal pokes fun to which Divya turns and raises an eyebrow at him. "Oh, stop. Just because he has piercings like you, he's scary?"

"Hey, I only have earrings. He has earrings, a nose piercing, and a lip piercing. Oh, and piercing eyes. He's scary-looking." He shudders a bit, Divya's eyes burning slits into him.

"Wait, Vinnie's boss thinks your parents are from here, right?" Abhi asks me to make sure, and I nod my head. "Do you have a picture of them?"

"Yeah, I do. One second, I'll pull up the one I showed Ms. Jeong." I do the same thing I did earlier at the office and show Abhi the picture.

To say that he's shocked is an understatement.

"These are your PARENTS?! What the fuck, they don't look like parents at all!" He freaks out while Sam looks over. She does a double take, zooming on their individual faces. "Yeah, your parents are definitely from here." Great, Sam too?

Guess I can't argue now.

The others look at the picture too, all surprised at how my parents look 20 years younger than their actual age. "I'm sorry, Vani, but your parents are fine as hell. Especially your mom. She looks like a model," Divya gushes, her eyes glinting in admiration. "How tall are they, by the way? You look shorter than them even with your heels on."