Where Ya' Rowing, Rowan North?

Chapter Fifteen: From This Point on, it Just Gets Weird. Enjoy.

“Hey, Rowan?” I felt someone nudge me gently. Muttering irritably to myself, I rolled over again and buried my face in my pillow. The voice snarled again, this time giving me a good, hard kick in the ribs. “Rowan, wake up!”

“What?” I snapped, jumping to my feet and being instantly dragged down by the weight of my exhaustion. I plopped back down on the couch, glaring up at the Luna, who was smiling brightly. Little Dragon stood at her side, clinging to a tall glass of water filled to the brim with ice.

“Its okay, she’s up, Dragon. I don’t think thats necessary.” Dragon shrugged, looking disappointed, and stalked over to the other side of the room to talk to Jynx. I couldn’t help noticing both girls had several cuts running down their arms and faces.

I grimaced, remembering Lily’s escape the night before, and Jynx’s transformation hardly an hour later. It was probably thanks to Lily and Little Dragon that me and Luna were still alive. “Tough night for those two, then?” I asked, having the feeling that I, having just woken up and all, may be a little bit behind news-wise.

Luna nodded. “And we’re all packing.” With an evil mastermind smile, she added calmly, “Katie’s furious.” With that sentiment, my friend bounced off, giving Lily a hand shoving a fire extinguisher (stolen, no doubt) into a large backpack.

Smiling, and in much better spirits than I had been when I woke up, I clambered to my feet, my shoulders burning with soreness; I was still no expert at flying. The whole tiny hotel room was in chaos, which is what I prefer that early in the morning. If its too quiet, I just fall back asleep.

Katie was screaming bloody-murder and waving a fresh newspaper in the face of any living thing that would hold still long enough. Harmony was bouncing around, smiling like a maniac, and pouring her morning Five-Hour Energy into a cup of coffee. Jynx was pummeling the crap out of a trunk full of black tank tops and spiked collars, and several feet away, Lily, Little Dragon, and Luna were still hard at work smuggling away anything else they could get their hands on.

“WHAT IS THIS!?!” Katie shrieked, suddenly standing in front of me, eyes flashing and teeth bared. She gestured wildly to the newspaper headline: Angels and Demons: A String of Most Unusual Sightings Late Last Night. My heart fell into my stomach as I glanced at the pictures underneath the headline. The first was blurry, the work of an amateur, and of a dark, silhouetted shape. It appeared to be human, except for the fact that two unusually large wings had sprouted from its back, and the creature was gliding a good ten feet above several treetops. I winced and blushed, my eyes moving on to the next picture, slightly more clear, detailing a slender, snakelike shape that was coiling upward through the air. I blinked up at Katie.

“You wouldn’t possible think any of us had anything to do with it, would you?” I said, my voice unconvincingly innocent.

“Oh no, not at all.” Katie spat, rolling her steely blue eyes. “I think there’s another flying girl and dragon within a ten mile radius around here. What on earth were you thinking, idiot? Going out all by yourself, surrounded by humans!”

“I wasn’t by myself! Me and Dragon just wanted to-”

“Its Dragon and I, Rowan!” Katie snapped, though we both knew good and well she couldn’t care less about my grammar; she just wanted another reason to yell at me. She bit her lip and muttered under her breath. I swear to God, I could see steam pouring out of her ears. “Just- just get packed. We’ve got to get out of this town, and fast.”

I nodded quickly and rushed off, although all of my stuff was already packed. Being a new student back at the school, I had very few possessions and had only brought a few t-shirts and pairs of jeans along on the trip.

Sauntering over to where Little Dragon was trying, to no avail, to liberate a mirror from the wall, I leaned against a bed and gave her a mischievous grin. “Did you see that newspaper?”

Little Dragon gave me a small laugh. “I think pretty much everyone saw that newspaper, Rowan.”

“Man, is Katie on the warpath or what?” I grinned.

“Don’t say that while she’s around.” Jynx’s anxious voice warned from behind me. I whipped around, wincing. It was obvious who had won last night’s fight. While Little Dragon’s arms had a few minor scrapes, Jynx looked a bit like she had just escaped from a thorn bush after sleeping in it. A long cut ran from her lips, which were currently thin with irritation, down to her jaw, her forehead was covered in long, deep-looking claw marks, and her hair, normally smooth now that she had dropped the Mohawk, was sticking up in every direction. I winced sympathetically, but my friend just sort of shrugged. “Its nowhere near as bad as it looks.” She assured me.

I nodded slowly, thinking. “What was up with Lily last night?”

Jynx and Little Dragon exchanged looks. “Remember what that woman said last night? That crap about us all being bad influences?” I nodded. “Lily took that real seriously. Tried to run away, because she thought she was a danger to the rest of us.

“What?” I spat irritably. “That woman was stupid! Why on earth would she listen to a word she said?” My friends just shrugged and looked away. Jynx grit her teeth, and Dragon transformed into her tabby cat form and slunk away. The conversation was most definitely over.

About ten minutes later, everybody finished packing and we all plopped down on the beds while Katie paced back and forth, going over our schedule as though she wasn’t the one who had put it off in the first place. “Alright, girls. We lost a lot of time yesterday, and we’re gonna have to make it up today. So here’s what I’m thinking; we’ll have one stop for breakfast, and one for lunch, but they’ll be short, less than thirty minutes, I think. I’ll keep driving for as long as I can, but when I get too tired, we’ll just pull over at the cheapest motel we can find.” She winced, as though in pain. “This trip has really taxed my wallet.” I couldn’t help thinking that most of the money spent so far had come from the pockets of us kids, not Katie. “And if we just keep driving tomorrow, with no stops, I have a feeling we’ll be in Kentucky by the third day of this trip.” Smiling, she slumped into a chair. “Its almost over.” Katie sighed, her voice misty.

As though remembering where she was, she leaped to her feet. “So, march! To the car! The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we’re done!”

With that, she she shepherded us out of the room, checked out very quickly downstairs, and led us out into the parking lot, her eyes sharp and irritable. None of us, not even oblivious little Harmony, dared speak a word until we had all piled into the van.

“So,” Lily muttered, breaking the silence. Sitting shotgun, she pulled a crumpled up map out of the glove department. “Where are we heading first, exactly?”

“We’re looking for a gas station. Keep your eyes out.” Katie said sharply, pulling out onto an abandon road. I checked my watch and noticed that it was only a little bit past seven o’ clock AM, and it happened to be Sunday. That being said, hardly anyone was on the road. I yawned and leaned against the window.

“Not enough sleep?” Jynx asked quietly from the seat in front of the van. For a moment I wondered why the dark-haired girl’s voice sounded amused, almost mocking, and then I remembered: while I had been stargazing and trying to fall asleep, she had been fighting for her life.

I straightened up in my seat, not wanting to look like a wuss. “I’m absolutely fine. I can go without sleep.” I said, my voice sharper than I had intended. Jynx whipped around, her already narrow eyes turned to furious slits. I couldn’t help remembering how Jynx had snapped a tree like a toothpick last night, and shrugged.

Jynx moved to punch another window, then sighed and dug her hands deep into her pockets. Several minutes past in early-morning silence, broken by a blast of music from Katie’s i-Pad, which quickly vanished as she plugged in the headphones. Next to me, Luna shook her head.

“Guys, I can’t take this anymore. I have a plan.”