FicWad

Chapter Three

Kara

Waking up to pain is the worst. It sears across your sleepy muscles, making the initial stretch of them post-waking impossible. Other than that, there’s the fact that all you want to do is scream with your groggy throat. And you’re already disoriented, so when you wake up to see Alex’s face right there, you’re already speeding heart rate doubles.
I bite my tongue and a body-shaking moan escapes me. Alex’s head snaps down to look at me just as we step through a doorway that I can’t identify. “Kara? Don’t pass out again; everything’s going to be okay –”
“Holy Mother Nature!” The secretary screams. “Tania! Ms. Chambers!” Her purple lips open in surprise as the little ogre woman takes several quick breaths. The world fizzes in and out.
“Alex,” I whisper, eyes drooping.
“Yeah?” His worried gold irises meet mine. I smile.
“Don’t try lying to me.” The world goes black again.

I’m floating, drifting, body finally free of all of the agonizing pain. I laugh at my Jell-o limbs, wiggling my limbs and I’m finally at ease. Who cares is Nadine ruined any chance of a normal life? Who cares that Alex knows that I like him? Who cares about school?
Am I dead? Is this some sort of Limbo? I ponder the idea, not entirely hating the thought of it. I’d never have to deal with all of those silly human decisions every again. I could just float here for eternity and be happy. The after-life would be like a permanent spa day.
“What’s this?” Tania Chambers, my headmistress, asks. Her face wavers in my view; extremely wrinkled face, ashy gray hair, and bottomless black eyes. Her kind voice caresses me and I close my eyes, suddenly very sleepy.
“Nadine put some sort of wish upon her; she’s feeling all of the pain that Nadine believes she deserves; she passed out in pain. We don’t know what to do!” My eyes snap open at the sound of Alex’s voice. I smile, letting his concern wash over me in comforting waves.
“Please Headmistress,” Mira begs, “make her better again!” It’s like a slap across the face. I know I have to go back, if not just to comfort my friends.
But the comforting lull of this place is so addicting, I don’t know if I can; or even if I truly want to.
“I know just what she needs.” Ms. Chambers sounds sure of herself. I should believe her. Right? This place makes my mind mush.
Instead of a dark abyss, I am now floating in fluorescent yellow; it’s so bright I must close my eyes. The temperature drops, and I squirm to curl into a fetal position for optimal warmth. My mouth jerks open unwillingly, and I’m choking, choking,
coughing
and sputtering
and gasping for breath…

“Holy shit!” I sit bolt upright, taking a ragged breath in. I lean into Alex subcons-ciously, grateful for the strength of his arms around me. The Headmistress clicks a cabinet at the other end of the room open, sliding a very familiar colored yellow vial into it before locking it shut.
Mira and Jake are pacing in front of her desk, deep in thought. They each shimmer in and out of were-dom, and occasionally I see a tail fly. Ms. Chambers speaks.
“Are you feeling better now, Kara?”
Clearing my throat a few times, I say, “Hell, no. That was terrible. Nadine –”
“Will be punished shortly,” Ms. Chambers cuts me off, giving me a back-off sort of look. I squirm on the couch, uncomfortable under her glare. She’s the one person on the staff who has yet to adore me, and she’s the one that matters most.
Settling down at her desk, perching a pair of spectacles on her nose, Headmistress Chambers folds her hands on the table and asks, “What I’d like to know is the why. Why is it that Miss Nadine went after you? Obviously you must have done something fairly horrible for half the gym to be burned and for her to curse you.”
I shrink against Alex under her cold gaze. His hold on me tightens. “I – I – you see, that’s really the thing – I didn’t do anything.” My hand is shaking as I pull out the note and pass it to her. With a snap of her fingers it flies to her and she reads it quickly. “That’s pretty much it,” I whisper.
It goes away into one of Ms. Chambers’ many drawers. She starts scratching away at a pile of papers on her desk with her quill. When we don’t leave, she looks up and shoos at us with her hands. “That is all. You are dismissed.”
Mira ceases pacing to turn on the Headmistress. “That’s bullshit! What about Nadine? Where’s the justice?”
Gazing at her steadily with those black eyes, Ms. Chambers nods slowly. “Yes. Punishment must be dealt.”
“Damn right!”
A piece of paper appears in everyone’s hands. “Kara, yours is for causing a disturbance; Alex, yours is for destroying the gym; Mira, yours is for backtalk; Jake, yours is for aiding and abetting. They’re detention slips,” she adds, as if that wasn’t obvious.
“What about Nadine?” Jake demands, glaring at Ms. Chambers.
“I will deal with her on my own. That is not of your concern. Now all of you; go off to class. I have much work to do, and as do you.”

Mira

But – !” I begin to protest, but the next thing we know, we’ve been plopped down on the floor in the middle of the halls on our butts. Jake’s the first to scramble up, severely cussing under his breath. I stand up next, mouth agape. Shocked by the forced exit, I proclaims towards the direction of the office, “That hag!”
Slowly, Alex and Kara stand. She looks deep in thought as she says back slowly, “She’s not a hag. Probably stressed or something; the gym practically blew up for Pete’s sake!” Alex diminishes the ball of fire he’s been tossing, ashamed.
“One thing’s for sure,” I say, conviction sure throughout me. “I’m sure as hell not staying here. And you, Kara, are absolutely not staying. You’ve been be-fairied! No way that you’re fit for schoolwork!”
“You’re kidding, right?” Kara looks panicked. “We can’t cut class! I can’t skip! I’m…I’m… I’m incapable!” Alex is looking like he’s feeling the same way. Oh, nerds; how I love them so!
So I grab her and start dragging her towards the front doors of the school. “Are you insane?” She hisses – and I thought I was supposed to be the cat here – struggling to get free.
“Most likely; I’ve yet to be tested.” With a final yank, I have her out of the school and into the parking lot.
She’s really squirming now. Alex looks like he wants to drag her away, but is hesitating on whether or not he’ll hurt her, which I sure as hell know he doesn’t want. Jake’s hanging back, watching this all go down with a bemused expression on his face.
I start patting down her pockets. She hits me on the arm, hard. “What the heck, Mir?”
“The the fuck are your keys?” I ask, finding her pockets empty. She smiles triumphantly.
“In my backpack. Which is still in the school!”
Before I can call out to Jake to go fetch, he’s already gone, off to grab it. I smirk down at Kara, whose gone pale. Like, as pale as Alex, who some people consider one of the walking dead; which is totally false by the way! Vampires are very much alive; they just can’t produce their own blood anymore, so they have to take the blood of another to make up for it. Their bodies make better use of the blood to, knowing how to use it more cautiously.
The source in which I obtained all of this information begins talking. “Mira, I feel nauseous doing this. I just have a feeling that if we go through with this something bad will happen.” Kara’s bubbly green eyes are stony serious now as she rubs her arms as if to warm them, although it’s pretty damn warm outside already.
Alex wraps his arms around my best friend once again, and I suddenly feel very lonely. For a split second, I miss my ex-boyfriend, but the feeling quickly evaporates. He was such an ass, and although he acted like he really cared about my feelings, all he wanted was for the physical part of the relationship to speed up. I, on the other hand, wanted to takes things slow and really get to know the guy before we did anything beyond kissing.
Relationships in my life always suck.

Jake

Once I heard Mira going on about needing keys, I already had it decided that I’d help her out. It’s not that I like her or anything – God, wouldn’t that be terrible; me with a cat – but I’m not in the mood to attend school. And Kara needs to rest. If this kind of stress keeps up, she’s going to get sick.
I grab Kara’s and Alex’s bags quickly enough, so I figure I might as well get mine too, which is…shit.
In Mr. Fedner’s room; otherwise known as the most hard-ass teacher around, which means I’m fucked. Unless…
When I arrive at the classroom, I pound loudly on the door three times; Mr. Fedner ignores me, continuing his lecture. However, one select student has chosen to peer cautiously at the door to see what’s going down: its Ginger, this hot pixie chick I’ve been talking to lately. I point behind her, motioning towards my backpack which is propped against the wall behind her. Quickly she looks over, sees it, and understands what I’m getting at. I grin at her once before morphing into a wolf and letting out a furiously loud growl and clawing at the door. This time Mr. Fedner’s head snaps up and he storms towards the door. When it opens I snap at him a few times before bolting down the stairs.
“Young man!” he yells angrily, charging after me. “Get back here this instant!”
So we go through this high speed chase through the school until I lose him long enough to dash back to his classroom. Thank God Ginger gets me, because my backpack is now sitting happily on the floor outside the classroom with a sticky note attached to it. It’s too late to read it now: I morph quickly and scoop it up, and making sure I have all the other backpacks; then I dash down a second staircase and burst out the front doors of the school. A human would be breathless, but since I’m not really human anymore, my breathing’s smooth and steady.
Mira pops up from her position of a casual lean against the side of the car. Kara remains stubbornly seated on the asphalt next to Alex, who is peering at me cautiously. “Why were you running?”
As if to answer him, Mr. Fedner comes bursting through the doors. I think I hear even Kara say “Oh fuck.” As if on some invisible cue, we all sprint into the car at the same moment, and I toss Kara the keys. She squeals us out of the parking space with a quick precision, barely missing Mr. Fedner. When we’re out of the lot, I grin hugely, with only four words to say: “Best escape made ever!”

Kara

Driving home, I have this massive headache that I immediately recognize as bad news. But I grit my teeth and plow on, trying to tune out everyone’s voices and thoughts, which only make it worse. In fact, they’re the cause of my pain. It’s not like it’s their fault though; it’s my powers’ fault. You see, since my powers rely on my mind power so much, they can but my brain into overdrive, giving me headaches that put migraines to shame. So – and this is going to sound totally hokey, but it’s the truth – I have to cleanse my mind with meditation every morning and night, for about fifteen minutes. In my nervousness this morning, I accidentally skipped. So now my vision going in dizzying circles and I feel as though there are a thousand hammers going at the inside of my head. Somehow I’m able to successfully get us home.
Everyone is looking at me in panic as I stumble out of the car like some drunken woman. I feel someone grab my arm, but I yank away. “Gotta get inside,” I spit out from a clenched jaw.
“Kara,” Mira grabs for me again, and this time I let her. “What’s wrong?”
“Forgot, this morning, my head…!”
Without any more warning, she tears up into the apartment building, rushing me up the stairs and only stopping for me to unlock the door. Then she drags me through the apartment and plops me onto my bed. “Stay and meditate,” she com-mands me, giving me her best motherly glare before clicking the door shut behind her.
Sometimes, I really wish I weren’t so helpless. It’s not like I want to be the girl that everyone has to keep an eye on like I’m a freaking pansy. But it’s just the way things are. I’m the girl that’s easy to annoy, pick on, and condescend, and because of that, I make sure that everyone knows that I’m smarter than them, hoping they’ll think that I’m stronger than I appear.
I give on last curse to being ordered around before closing my eyes and starting to meditate.

Mira

I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Jake says, raiding his fridge. “she just needs to chill out and do whatever hocus-pocus makes her feel better.”
Alex mumbles something. I turn to him. “What?”
“I said, don’t lie to her.” A smile is playing at the corner of his lips, like it’s a secret only he and Kara share; hell, as far as I know, it probably is.
Rolling my eyes at him, I turn my attention back to Jake, who’s making some weird-ass food concoction. “What the fuck is that?”
He grins at me hugely. “Lunch.”
“It’s not even noon yet!”
“So?” He proceeds to shove it down his throat. It looks like some weird mix of cheese, bread, and…oh God, was that movement coming from it?
“That looks like shit,” I inform him, wincing when he takes another bite.
“Mmm.”
“That’s it; I’m out of here.” I swing my backpack over my shoulder and start heading for the door. “When Kara wakes up, tell her she’s more than welcome to hide out at our place.”
As I reach for the door handle, the world seems to slow down. Alex stares at the center of the room, behind me, and somehow I know this without looking. I also know that when my hand touches the metal of the handle, a jolt of electricity shoots up my arm, and I scream, slowly, slowly. I fall backwards, and Jake drops his food, looking at me, looking at the center of the room, looking at Alex, looking back at me, worried. Then a huge light emanates from the center of the room and…
Flash! Bang! Sparkles! Sunshine!
Who the fuck is that woman standing in the center of the living room?