(Jake's POV)

Aright, first hour, Earth History, Mrs. Smith's class. Room F16. I entered the doorway just as the bell rang. Sweet. Without drawing too much attention to myself, I found a desk to sit at in the back of the room. I looked around at my classmates, a variety of humans, dragons, elves, golems, and I even spotted a cyclops. As I did another sweep of the room, my gaze locked with the piercing violet eyes of a woman sitting in the row beside and three seats ahead of me. She had beautiful sun-kissed skin, a delicate face, gorgeous hazel color hair, and... Woah, what am I thinking? I absolutely can not be falling for a girl. She smiled at me, which sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.

Okay. Stop. You are not infatuated with this human. That'd be weird, you're a hybrid.

Why would that be weird?

She's human.

I'm part human.

You're also part Vampire.

...So?

I snapped out of my mental argument when the intercom buzzed to life.

"All students and staff, please report to the back field. Repeat, all students and staff, report to the field behind the school. Now." Confused and slightly worried, all students of all grades in all classes massed and headed outdoors, where a large stage had been set up. Once every teacher took attendance, our principal walked onto the stage, holding up a hand for silence. When all was deathly silent, he looked to the sky and cried out "Now!" All at once, eight flashes lit the stage, and when the light died, eight Skylanders appeared. The crowd went wild for Jet-Vac, Bash, Blast Zone, Stealth Elf, Spyro, Bouncer, Roller Brawl, and Snap Shot. The roaring lasted for a full ten minutes before Spyro came up to the mic. He held up a paw, and everything went silent again. Even the wind seemed to die down.

"Greetings, students of Edison High," the legendary purple dragon started, "we are here today with some exciting news. We have been studying schools on Earth and Skylands, trying to figure out which schools have the highest Elemental signature. Edison High is the number one school on Earth." This announcement was met by a huge cheer, and the roar didn't die down until Bouncer shot a rocket off into the air, the sound of the explosion deafening.

"Thank you Bouncer. As I was saying, we have narrowed down the top five most Elementally potent schools on Earth and in Skylands. The reason we have done this is so we can survey the students and staff, to see who deserves a scholarship to the Skylanders Academy, where said student or staff member will, obviously, train to become a Skylander!" Everyone was so shocked that not a word was spoken. A scholarship? To the Academy? To become a Skylander? There was no way this was real. No way at all. Was he saying I could become a Skylander? Skylanders were defenders of worlds, slayers of armies, topplers of governments. Skylanders were heroes. Not a bunch of highschool kids. And, wait a minute, why are they recruiting anyway? There are hundreds of Skylanders in service, including that SuperCharger group. What's going on? I decided to keep my questions to myself, hoping I could get alone with one of the Skylanders later.

"So, the way we're going to do this is; everyone split up into groups of their Element. You will then form an orderly line and walk past the Skylander that corresponds with your Element. If we feel like there's something special about you, we'll memorize your face, and contact you later. But please remember that you can't get a scholarship if your grades are poor. Now, split up!" And with that the Skylanders separated, and the students and staff separated into their groups. We all started shuffling past the Skylanders. I was wedged between two over-perky Elf girls who WOULD NOT SHUT UP! As I got closer and closer to Roller Brawl, I started panicking a little. I knew this was going to end badly. Like, very badly. When the girls in front of me walked past her little table, she seemed bored and disinterested. As soon as her eyes landed on me though, they lit up with interest, then confusion, then recognition and finally, shock. I locked eyes with her. I could tell she knew me, though we had never met.

"Jake? J-Jake Messer?" She whispered, her voice hoarse. I winced slightly at my real name.

"No ma'am, the name's Jake Ramus." I lied straight through my teeth. She frowned, a bit ticked off, and I dashed off so I wouldn't hold up the line any more. She knows. We've never met but she knows. How does she know me? My real name? Not even Tony knows my real name. I was officially freaking out. The students were then shuffled back inside the school and back to class. Each grade was called to the auditorium one by one to be addressed by the Skylanders. I nearly had a heart attack when the juniors were called down. I tried to keep my face neutral and regulate my breathing, but I was tense. Very, very tense.

"Dude, what's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost. A bad ghost." Tony said, concern evident on his face.

"Look, there's some things I haven't told you. A lot of things. Everything I told you about my past, my parents working too much to be with me, running away from home, it was a lie. All of it. My past, what happened before I moved to Earth, I'm lucky I'm still alive," I said. "And now, somehow, Roller Brawl knows. Somehow, Roller Brawl knows everything about me. It was like she just looked at me, and she knew. She knows who I am. What really happened to my parents. She knows my real name. I'm scared dude. Like, scared out of my mind. I'm going to lose it."

As we entered the auditorium, my eyes shot to the stage. I let out a sigh of relief as I noticed that Roller Brawl was missing. But I tensed up again as I realized Spyro was absent too. Great, the one who knows my real name and past, is off somewhere with the leader of the Skylanders. Fantastic. I sat in the back of the auditorium, with my back to the door that led to all the techy stuff and the lights. The room was shaped a bit like a triangle, with a curving back wall and sides that gradually angled towards each other. There was an exit in each of the four corners, two doors on either side of the stage, and the tech room. I kept my eyes peeled and continuously scanned the room, expecting Spyro or Roller Brawl to pop out at me. I felt Tony nudge me.

"I know a lot about you too. You had those nightmares when we first moved in, and I could hear you talking in your sleep. I know your parents were murdered, and you ran away because you were being hunted. But by what, I could never piece together. All I knew was it was in the Underworld. Why do you think I hate using those Shortcuts so much? I'm always afraid that something's going to grab you, and I know i'm useless in a fight, but it'd be even worse down there. The only things I don't know are what killed your parents, and your real last name." I was shocked at how much he knew. Do I really talk in my sleep?

"Why didn't you bring this up before?"

"I knew it'd be a sore subject. Plus, I didn't know if you'd have to kill me because I know or something."

"That's stupid, I wouldn't kill you... Maybe rip out your vocal cords, or cut off your tongue, but I wouldn't kill you." Tony whimpered and leaned away from me, but I just laughed.

"That's not even funny man. You know I hate blood, even the thought of it."

"Why? I love blood." I taunted, and flashed my fangs at him before retracting them again. He yelped and moved two seats down, making me laugh. He frowned at me and flipped me off. I returned the gesture, then started paying attention to Jet-Vac.

"There will be competitions throughout the school periodically. These may include trivia competitions, Elemental competitions, and maybe even a bit of sparring," He said with a devilish smirk. Sparring? Beautiful... I can fight, and fight well, but there's still the fact that I don't want anyone to know my origins, so I can't fight with vampiric skill.

"We will be observing you throughout these tests, which will go along with your regular classes. Those who do phenomenally well will receive scholarships. Those who don't, won't." He said with a shrug. "Any questions?"

One guy up front raised his hand and asked "Why are the Skylanders recruiting? Aren't you guys like a couple hundred strong by now? Why do you need more?"

Jet-Vac looked uncomfortable. "I, err, I mean we, um..." Snap Shot took the mic.

"There's an uprising of... Crime... In Skylands. So much that our forces are spread thin, and we can't respond to every single emergency. So, we need more Skylanders." I didn't really think that was true. I mean, I know the Skylanders are heroes, and they don't lie, but I couldn't really believe they were giving away scholarships because 'Crime is on the rise.' It didn't make sense. I suddenly felt a very strange, very cold sensation at my throat. I didn't move as my eyes scanned the stage again. Yep, Stealth Elf isn't up there. So this is probably her blade at my throat. I looked down and saw her golden half-circle knife. I stood up slowly and stepped backwards over the chair. The closest person was three rows in front of me. That meant they had Tony too.

"Just come quietly, please. We need your help." Stealth Elf whispered. My help? What could they possibly want with me? I nodded very slowly, and she took the knife away. She started walking away, and I followed her. We eventually wound up in the science wing, and she held the door to a classroom open. I walked in slowly. All the desks were gone, and I saw Spyro standing with Roller Brawl across the room. Stealth Elf closed the door and stood guard outside. Roller Brawl paced towards me as I stood in the middle of the room, then started circling me. I could already tell this was an interrogation.

"Who are you?" She asked, voice flat.

"I already told you, My name is Jake Ramus." I replied, not making eye contact.

"You're lying. To a Skylander. That's refusal to cooperate, and holding back an investigation. That's a criminal offense" Great, so she can tell when i'm lying, and i'll probably go to jail for this.

"Who do you think I am? You said something about a Jake Messer earlier, who's he?" I replied, trying to play the innocent kid card on her. I could tell it wasn't working.

"We know that you're Jake Messer, a human-vampire hybrid, orphaned at the age of 14. We know who killed your parents. They're back, and targeting Portal Masters now. We need your help, so stop lying to us!" She yelled, and swung her fist at me. On instinct, I grabbed her fist with my left hand, punched her throat with my right, and pivoted behind her, twisting her arm in the process. Then I kicked the backs of her knees and as she fell, I placed my left knee between her shoulder blades, and my right arm across the back of her neck. Spyro growled, but she held up a hand, silencing him. I hadn't meant to do any of that. I guess that's the end of playing innocent.

"See," she said, "you've been trained to fight vampires. Your parents were smart people, they knew the covens would be back one day, and they would be hunting you. They taught you as much combat and magic as they could, while they still had time." I let her up without saying a word. Once she got back on her feet (er, wheels), I decided on what to do next.

"First off, i'm not confirming anything you just accused me of. Secondly, i'll make you a deal. You tell me why you're recruiting Skylanders, and I'll tell you anything you want to know. Sound fair?" She nodded and took a deep breath.

"There have been multiple assassination attempts on Portal Masters, some of them... Successful..." She paused, trying to hold back tears. "All of the deceased had vampiric bite marks on them, and the survivors claimed that the assassins were using Undead magic against them. We have reason to believe that the two most ancient witch covens in the Underworld, that have been at war for centuries, have finally made peace and united. So we set out to recruit more Skylanders for the upcoming war, and find anybody we could that had any experience with these covens. We have records of a legally married couple, the Messers, that tell us that the man and wife belonged to separate covens, thus making their marriage forbidden. One night, we received a call reporting that the covens were to battle. A detachment of Undead Skylanders was immediately sent to investigate, me included, but when we arrived, the battle had already ended. All that was left was bloody carnage. The corpses, or what was left of them, were unidentifiable. An entire village had been destroyed during the fight. The only survivor was a young boy. When we started after him, he performed some sort of teleportation magic that none of us had seen before, and we never saw him afterwards. We all just assumed he had been killed." Roller Brawl finished, tears forming in her eyes. Spyro pulled up chairs for us silently. We sat across from eachother, and she took her hand in mine. "Jake," she choked out, "why did you run? Where did you run?" I just accepted my fate and decided to tell the truth.

"My dad was a human, from the Bloodmancer Coven. My mother was a vampire, from Marrowcliff, and belonged to the local coven. My parents met one Halloween in the Necropolis, and instantly fell in love. They dated for three months before they finally realized they were from warring covens. But by that time, my mother was already pregnant with me. So they decided to get married in secret. When I was born, they knew I would be hunted. So they started teaching me basic necromancy, along with blood and bone magic. I specialized in blood magic, and eventually I learned how to create Shortcuts through the Underworld, along with gateways between the Underworld and the Overworld. I also learned the best techniques to fight vampires with, and the best defense against the fighting styles. One night, I saw the two covens coming at each other with swords and spears. My parents told me to stay inside, and then they went out to try and keep the peace. I ran outside just in time to see my parents decapitated. After that, I lost control; it was like I saw what I was doing, but I couldn't control my body. I drew Undead energy from the environment around me, and forced everyone's blood to boil. I made their bones shatter. I ripped their flesh apart with only my mind. I caused their bodies to explode, and the shockwave of Undead energy that I had used leveled and killed the entire village of Skullmoore, Then I blacked out. After I regained consciousness, and I looked at what I did, I could only sit there and cry. I must've sat there for at least half an hour before you guys arrived. I ran because I didn't want to hurt you, I didn't want to kill anyone else. I ran for at least six months, practicing my skills on those who served the Darkness, training myself to survive. I knew that the covens, once restored, would be after me. So, once I figured out that I could hide my fangs, I headed to the Overworld. I took on a new name, stole some money from a small-town gang, and made arrangments to move to Earth. There I found a highschool, pretended to be a human, and eventually met Tony, and now we rent an apartment together. One day he caught me with my fangs out, but he was cool about it all. I lied to him and told him I ran away from home. Since that day, a few years ago, nothing else major happened."

Roller Brawl's expression was one of complete and utter sorrow. The tears flowed freely from her eyes. I looked over, and noticed that even Spyro seemed depressed. Out of nowhere, Roller Brawl hugged me tight. Her hair smelled like bubble gum, and sobs wracked her entire body. I felt extremely guilty, and wanted more than anything to see her smile. Wait, no. I'm DEFINITELY not falling for Roller Brawl. NO! I couldn't help myself though; I wrapped my arms around her.

"I can't believe you had to go through that!" She sobbed.

"Hey, shh, don't cry. I'm fine." I said, trying to comfort her and mentally kick myself at the same time. Just then, Stealth Elf opened the door.

"C'mon Brawl, Spyro, time for the last meeting." She stated. I could've sworn I heard her voice shaking a bit.

So, that's the most tragic backstory i've ever come up with. As you've probably guessed, this story will not take place 100% in the school. I simply cannot write highschool drama. But there will be a few more chapter in school, building up Jake's relationships with Brawl and that strange woman with the violet eyes. I swear to Eon I wasn't going to make Roller Brawl a love interest originally, it just happened. Anyway, I appreciate the views, and I love reviews, so leave a review and I'll give you a cookie (XD). Bye!

-DeadPortal