In this chapter, we are introduced to Tsumé Mondiale

Frustrated by her father's inability to separate family from business, Tsumé, on her last night as a minor, decides that from this day forward she decides her own destiny...

Note from the Author:
This is actually my first real attempt at a story solely focused on family drama, with a sad/uplifting atmosphere to it, so please let me know how I did here as despite how short it is, I worked quite a while on this ^^;
This will be Tsumé's origin story in the Sentinels series!

Guest Character: Obsidian Kimoyama, property of  projectx
Tsumé and cameo character, Pavan, property of myself

SENTINELS: Timeline (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46298025/)

Preview below!
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High School is never easy for anyone, regardless of birth.
At least, this is the usual argument teachers and parents tell their children, to try and help them cope with the stress. Even in her youth, Tsumé understood how false this really was; not everyone struggled in school. Some took advantage of this to lord over the students who were less fortunate than themselves. Those who had trouble fitting in, those who were different...
Or sometimes, just the guy that everyone decided was too 'happy' all the time.
She watched as Pavan was thrown into the lockers by Todd, while his two girlfriends Joyce and Linda cheered him on, and threw insults in the poor boy's face. Todd was a huge anthropomorphic reptilian – a beaded lizard, born to a Mexican immigrant family but raised in Canada
Todd was a brute, and his girlfriends took full advantage of the fact. Pavan was hardly half the boy's size and on top of that, Todd was quite fit; he played for the school basketball team, and was also part of the athletics club. Even his teammates were leery of him but he was so good at the game they tolerated him just because he was one of their best chances of winning every season. He had nothing to prove against someone like Pavan who was simply a guy who loved music, hip hop dancing, running and socializing.
But apparently Joyce and Linda, after being upstaged by Pavan during the school talent show, had taken it personally. The judges had been more partial to their contempary ballet dance – the first female duo to attempt such at the school rather than the usual man and woman team - scoring them above Pavan, but that wasn't enough for them; they wanted the attention too. When they didn't get it, they of course complained to Todd, and he decided to 'defend their honour'.
“You think your punk hip hop is worth anything?” Linda, a scrawny gecko girl with green scales and yellow undertones, threw at him. “You think your crappy techno shit is better than our classical?”
“Hey, she asked you a question, freak!” Todd shouted, without ever really giving the light-brown avian time to answer, a hint of his parental accent in his voice.
“Well, not really?” Pavan asked with a helpless smile and a shrug to match. “I mean, I didn't score too high in the show, to my recollection.”
“Then why the hell are you so happy about it?” Joyce, another reptilian – a brown anole, added. “Missing the point, happy-go-lucky boy; your whole performance was a fucking joke, and yet the entire audience ate it up! Do you know how hard we worked on ours?”
For the second time, Pavan shrugged. “Again, not really. I just did my own thing for the fun of it; I lost, but that's not why I did it.”
“Oh listen to this little twerp!” Linda groaned, rolling her eyes. “Still doesn't get it!”
“Should I knock some sense into him then, ladies?” Todd asked, punching his right hand into his left fist.
“Oh hell yes. Maybe bust him up so he can't dance again; that'll teach him!”
“I doubt it, but it'll still be worth it to watch.”
Pavan tried to move out from his position against the locker but the two girls flanked him, and suddenly he was cornered as Todd moved in.
“Hey! Asshole!” A voice piped up from around the corner; Tsumé decided she'd seen enough of this poor spectacle, and that it was time to step in.
The three turned in her direction, eyeing her with disgust as she came up the hallway toward them, her brown eyes glowering at them. “The hell do you want, Mondiale? We're busy.”
“Busy with your own insecurities anyway.” Tsumé returned spitefully, grabbing Linda by her shoulder and forcefully pulling her out of Pavan's path. “Come on, Pavan.”
“Hey, cunt! No one asked you!” Linda spat, pushing Tsumé back – although the wingless avian female barely moved in response to the push. “Go back to your prissy mansion while we 'commoners' deal with our own problems.”
“Touch me again, and I will hurt you,” Tsumé warned, glaring sharply at Linda.
“Oh, is that so? Going to get your chauffeur to come slap my wrist, hu-?” She moved to push Tsumé again, but her words drowned in a shriek of surprise as her legs were swept out from under her and she fell, heavily, to the floor.
“I said hands to yourself.”
“Hey!” Todd growled, lunging at Tsumé and pushing her roughly; unlike with Linda, Tsumé didn't have the height to resist this huge lizard, and she flew hard into the lockers, catching herself. “Nobody does that to my girl, not even some upper class princess!”
Tsumé rolled her eyes. “Boy do I hate being called that,” she groaned.
“Oh? Prefer something else, your highness? Queen? Empress? Your ladyship?”
Tsumé stepped away from the lockers, ignoring his goading. “Same warning as your little groupie. Touch me again, and you're going to the nurse's office, so back off.”
Todd threw back his head and let out an obnoxious laugh. “Oh what the fuck are you going to do you, Frenchie – throw croissants at me?” He challenged as he moved to push her again.
Tsumé's movement was so sharp and sudden, Todd barely registered she had even ducked under his arm until he saw her in his peripheral, down on her hands and one leg in a low crouch, as her other came up and struck him across the back of his head, stumbling the off-balance reptile and sending him head-first into the lockers.
“Todd!” Joyce cried out.
Tsumé got back to her feet as Todd rolled over and put her foot on his chest, flashing a talon in front of his face which brought him to a halt as the deadly point hovered above his eye. “Be glad I had these curled in, Mexicain – next time I'll go full Comanche on you and pull your scalp off, comprende moi?”
Todd nodded slowly, never taking his eye off the sharp, black talon hovering above it until Tsumé lifted her foot from him. “Let's go, Pavan.” She said as she held her hand out to the male, taking his when he hesitated to accept it and led him away from the trio as Todd sat up.
Tsumé cast a look over her shoulder at the three. “And for the record, I don’t have a chauffeur – I drive myself,” she called to them before continuing to lead the way down the hall.
Tsumé looked back several times to make sure they weren't being followed, or that the two entitled girls hadn't run to find a teacher and rat her out with some one-sided story. When she was sure they were free, she led Pavan to the gymnasium; fortunately, it was empty, along with most of the school since it was long past home time and the talent show had ended an hour ago.
She released Pavan's hand, turning to him, seeing he wasn't even looking at her. He was still looking back at the school, wearing a curious expression. “You okay there, hip hop?” She asked.
“Huh, me?”
Tsumé arched a brow. “Who else?”
“Sorry. Just... don't get what they were so mad about. They beat me in the talent show – it's not like I got a trophy.”
“They're attention-whores; don't worry about it,” Tsumé stated plainly, waving her hand. “Only thing that bugged them is that you're more fun than they are.”
“R-Really?” Pavan asked, looking at her hopefully.
“That wasn't an invitation to ask me out on a date,” she stated before he could speak again.
“Aww...” Pavan moaned, disappointed.
Hardly the first time; Pavan had asked Tsumé out a few times, and once she had even humoured him and gone with him to a corner store during lunch break to split some dumplings. He'd run ahead of her several times on the trek, often trying to pull her along. To her he seemed constantly in a hurry, and when they got to the store, he had done nothing but shuffle about while waiting for the dumplings to be cooked by the store attendant. Tsumé had to buy a bottle of coke to keep him distracted until the food was ready.
His impatience had been annoying, and his constant need to move quickly just didn't sit well with her, feeling that he wouldn't wait for the relationship to progress if they were to go for an actual date and so she had to let him down easy by telling him she wasn't interested. He'd been disappointed, but they kept a positive relationship otherwise – they attended two of the same classes after all, and sometimes worked together, which Tsumé was okay with – as long as Pavan didn't make it awkward or at least reined in his hyperactivity to work on projects.
"So what're your plans tonight?" Pavan asked.
Tsumé shrugged. "Nothing important," she said. "Dad was going to host me a birthday dinner tonight which would have been great, but-"
"Wait, wait, wait; it's your birthday?" Pavan asked, cutting her off.
"Tomorrow, it is, yes," she replied. "Midnight tonight I'll be eighteen."
"Dang, wish I know! I'd have bought you an ice cream cake or something - if I wasn't broke," he added sheepishly, and then perked up. "Hey, hey I think my boombox is in here,” Pavan remarked as he made a dash for the men's locker room.
“Pavan, wai-” Tsumé started to say, but he had already dashed out of sight. 'God, he's fast.' She thought, shaking her head. “What do you even need your boombox for?”
“For music! Doi!” He called.
Tsumé slapped her forehead. “Not what I meant.”
Pavan emerged from the locker room a moment later, carrying a compact stereo with an MP3 player taped to the top, and plugged into the device with an auxiliary cable. Before Tsumé could ask, Pavan had already set it on the floor and scrambled to plug it in.
“Pavan... why did you bring that out?”
“Come on; you dance too, don't you?”
“I do Capoeira – technically yes, it's a dance, but it's more of a-”
“Well then come on; let's have some fun before we head home! I've still got energy to burn!”
“-Martial art...” Tsumé concluded, exasperated as the music started playing.
The first song on the track was a classical rock song, and Pavan was already dancing to its beat, his feet moving about in tandem with its flow and hips jerking side to side in response to the tempos. He bobbed his head, hummed along, all in all seemed to melt into the flow of the music.
“Pavan, I just said I wasn't going to date you,” Tsumé called over the music.
“Dancing doesn't have to be a date; can just do it for fun!” He replied.
After a moment or two longer of watching him, Tsumé eventually gave in, throwing out her arms and shaking her head. “What the hell.” She said, before she moved over to Pavan to join him.
It took her a moment to match his rhythm, but soon she was dancing in tandem with him, her hips swaying and arms held above her head as she swayed to the music, their feet carrying them both into twists and turns. Their movements were not the list bit in tandem; neither one was trying to do any specific dance. They simply enjoyed the music and the thrill of movement; as they got into it, Tsumé even let Pavan take her hands and dance with her.
They lost track of time dancing there in the gym, with the songs cycling from rock, to techno, to metal and back to rock several times before the opening of the gym doors interrupted them, and they saw the school custodian coming in to investigate the noise.
The middle-aged labrador looked at the two oddly as Pavan shut off the music. “What're ye kids still doing 'ere? Talent show ended three hours ago – school's gettin' locked up for the night.” the canid asked with a thick, Scottish accent.
“Sorry, Mr. McKee,” Tsumé apologized. “We lost track of time.”
“Well get ye goin' now,” he urged them.
“Can I put this back in my locker first?” Pavan asked, holding up the now unplugged boombox.
“Sure, ye can, just make sure ye actually head for the doors once ye 'ave.”
“Yes sir.”
The Labrador remained at the door as Pavan unplugged his stereo and ran back into the locker room with the item in tow; a moment later, a locker door slammed shut and a lock clicked before the avian came back out. With that, he fell into step with Tsumé as they left the gym, bidding goodnight to the janitor before they made their way to the main doors and left the school.
The sun was setting in the distant horizon, giving them a clue as to how late it really was, shocking both of them how they had lost track of time.
"Oh blimey, my dad is going to be home any minute!" Pavan exclaimed. "If I'm late for dinner he'll ground me for sure."
"You want a lift home?" Tsumé offered, pointing to her car in the parking lot.
"Appreciate it, but I'll probably get home faster if I fly," returned Pavan.
She grimaced; if there was anything Tsumé envied about her other avian kin is that they were capable of flight, but her kind were not – they were flightless and grounded, she'd never know the thrill of feeling the wind rushing over her feathers. But that was okay; she had abilities of her own that at least made up for it. Besides that, she loved her car, and loved having it.
"So, see you after the weekend?" Pavan asked.
Tsumé nodded, offering a more genuine smile this time. "Of course. Thanks for the dance, Pavan; I had fun."
"Think we can do it again sometime?" He asked.
"You're going to be late," she reminded him, dodging the question.
"Right, right! Going!" He squawked before he spread his wings and broke into a run. "Bye, Tsumé, and happy birthday!" He called as he began to ascend, beating his wings repeatedly to gain altitude until he flew over a house across the street.
She watched Pavan fly away for a moment until he was almost out of sight, and with a sigh she turned and made her way to her car. It was one of the only ones left in the parking lot, making it all too easy to spot, assisted by its garish green colour that would stand out even if she parked it on top of a grassy hill. The colour had not been her idea, but at least it was a model she liked; a Lotus sportscar, with an electric engine. Quiet, and beautiful to drive, though she might one day consider having it repainted. Maybe to a nice shade of blue.
Leaning on the side of the car, her lower back supported against her driver's side window, Tsumé picked her phone from her pocket and tapped a button to light up the screen; she wasn't that surprised to see that she had numerous messages waiting for her, but she had put her phone on silent to avoid causing a disturbance during the talent show. What made her roll her eyes however, were that the messages were from her family;  six unread messages were listed before her, three from her father, one from her mother and the last two from her sisters. 
"Come on, dad; you had the whole family checking up on me as if I'd answer any of them over you?" She asked aloud. "And you wonder why I keep my phone on silent mode."
She pocketed the phone without responding to any of the messages, but she was not looking forward to when she went home, knowing what would be waiting for her.