Birth Rights

Chapter 5

Morning. I groaned. I bet princesses didn't have to get up this early. But, with more willpower than it took to creep away from two grown men (possibly with superpowers as yet undiscovered- I meant, what was with Adam's eyes?), I got up. I was almost excited for school after my strange weekend. Although, my excitement had faded a bit since I spent 3 hours last night doing homework I had neglected all weekend.

I put on my uniform after brushing my teeth and whatnot. My stomach was grumbling, so I tramped downstairs to the kitchen, where my mother was just laying out two Weetabix for me to eat. Yes, my family were health nuts. Get it? Health nuts? Nuts are healthy? Yeah, I'm hilarious.

My father rubbed my hair as he passed, then Ma immediately swooped in and fixed it. I just didn't raise my head from my bowl. I was hungry, however boring the meal was.

My dad was dropping me to school. I normally walked, as it was only 7 or 8 minutes away walking, but after the scare my parents kind of felt like babying me.

"Phillip, your tie!" my mother exclaimed.

"What? What's wrong with it?" My dad looked down at his canary yellow monstrosity.

"It's got a stain." My mother half shrieked, half hissed. As if the neighbours were going to hear. I surreptitiously glanced at his tie, I couldn't see anything.

"It'll be fine Theresa. Now, where are my keys?" But before my dad could move, my ma had him pinned as she had me moments before. She licked her thumb (ew) and began to scrub viciously at an invisible stain near the top of the tie. My dad went to move, but with inhuman strength she held him down until she was satisfied.

I found myself laughing at their antics, but when my mother looked up I quickly shoved a spoon of mush inside my mouth. Didn't want her starting on me.

When my ma finally released Dad from captivity, he whisked me out of there before she could produce a comb for his moustache. My mother may have been small, but she could be scary when she wanted.

When we arrived at the school, it was two minutes til the bell rang. My dad barely waited til I had got out of the car before speeding away. He was probably late.

I went in, and sorted out my books just in time for the first bell. I rushed for my first class of the day, art. I was so happy that my favourite class was first thing on a Monday morning. It really set me up for the day, you know?

We were working with charcoals, and the teacher let us draw what we wanted as we had covered technique and stuff the week before. My hand flew across the page, and by the time the class was over I had a beautiful (if I say so myself) drawing of a figure at a bridge. The person wasn't starting onto the bridge, but neither was it shying away from it. It seemed.. curious. How apt for my situation.

Next class was the bane of my existence, maths. Luckily, I had my friend Alice to relieve the boredom. We talked and joked throughout the class, albeit quietly. I guess you could say she was my best friend. She was another person I was tempted to tell.

She knew something was up. "G, if you don't tell me what's going on inside that head of yours I'll have to open it up to see for myself." Alice threatened. She could get like that sometimes, but really she was all bark and no bite. I was going to tell her about my weekend, the question was, how much?

"I had a pretty eventful weekend. I was out hiking when the storm hit." I said as evasively as I could. Fortunately, she didn't read too much into it.

"Oh no! When did you get in?" Alice exclaimed. I stuck to the story I had told my parents. As Alice questioned me I heaved an internal sigh of relief. However, I found myself slightly disappointed. It would have been nice to tell somebody.

The day passed by in a blur, and I found myself in the last class of the day, P.E. I normally liked P.E., and found myself getting as competitive as most of the boys.

When I emerged from the changing room with a group of girls (sadly, Alice wasn't in this class) I found the guys doing warm ups and tossing rugby balls to each other.

"Alright. As you might have guessed, we'll be playing rugby today." A chorus of "yes"s bounced off the walls of the gym. The teacher began to explain the strict safety rules involved with rugby.

We began with warm ups, and twenty minutes into the class the teacher split us up into two teams for the real game. I found myself getting excited. I was small, but I could run pretty quickly and years of hiking had given me stamina.

I found myself on the good team. Only the most competitive guy in the class, James, and a few other athletes were on the opposite team. I was feeling confident enough that we would win.

I got into the game, and as I had predicted we were wiping the floor with them. When the score was 8-2, I was passed the ball. I ran with it, dodging a few half hearted attempts to catch me. The other team was losing spirit.

I saw James running at me with a determined look in his eyes. However, I felt safe because one of the rules was that boys couldn't tackle girls and vice versa. Next thing I knew I was on the ground and James was running with the ball. The teacher hadn't seen. I was shaking with anger.

"Good, James! The score is 8-3!" The teacher called.

A girl I was friendly with, Sarah, helped me up. "Are you OK?" she asked. "That looked pret- oh my God, Regina! Your eyes are all red!" she looked pretty freaked out. I was feeling pretty freaked out myself, although for a different reason. An image flashed before my eyes- Adam's eyes turning red after Michael punched him. I smiled reassuringly.

"It's fine Sarah. I'm sure it's a trick of the light." I soothed. She didn't look convinced, and I didn't blame her. My eyes were normally icy blue. She shrugged and turned back to the game.

I turned as well and saw James high-fiving a member of his team. That sparked my anger all over again, and I was pretty sure my eyes were red again. I was passed the ball to start the play and I ran. James grinned, clearly thinking he could do it again.

He ran straight at me, and I ran straight at him. He looked surprised when I didn't try to dodge him, but not worried. That was unsurprising, considering the guy towered over me. I ploughed through him, and scored the try. When I turned around James was on the ground clutching his nose.

"What the hell!" he shouted. The bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. I could faintly hear James complaining- with me or at me, I wasn't sure. I bolted.