Shattered (The Academy)

Chapter 22: Lost In Time, Again.

Sang's point of view.
Years before.

I'm six years old and I run downstairs showing the draw of the constelations I made to mom and dad. I saw it in the abandoned book from dad's college in a box I am currently reading. It's all about the stars and skies, and now that I'm starting writing it looks like a dream.
Dad looks at it for a second over his shoulders, gives me a too small and too fast smile, and goes to his room. I watch his back as he dissapears upstairs. Then I go to mom and show it to her. She plays Barbies with Marie, and when she sees me, frowns and tores my drawn away from me.
"What is this supposed to be?" She says .
"It's the constelation, mom!"
"Where did you copy it from?"
"I'm reading a book about it!" I say proudly.
She gives me a look.
"No, you're not. You don't know how to read"
"But I do! I'm reading that book that was in the box-"
She slaps me. I land in the floor, stunned.
"Stop lying Sang! You don't know how to read, Marie took a year to learn and you just begun!" She yells, standing up, taking Marie's hand "You are such a liar! I never educated you this way! YOU ARE NOT MY CHILD IF THIS IS HOW YOU BEHAVE!"
Mom lets go of Marie's hand and takes my hair, dragging me to the basement and then downstairs.
And then, while she ties me up in the corner, she says something that moved something deep inside of me. But I never knew what.
"You will never be smart" She hisses "You'll always be helpless and dumb. Stupid"

Jojo's point of view.

The first thing I see for the very first time is a woman's feet going upstairs. Mother's. And I hear her voice echoing in my head.
"You'll never be smart"
For a moment is all I can hear, until I hear another voice.
"What's your name?"
It's a whisper.
"Jojo" I tell her. I feel the presence, somehow. Almost like it was a ghost, talking to me, watching me.
"My name is Elizabeth" She says "Welcome"

Elizabeth's point of view.
Time after.

While the rest of us grow up, Jojo does it a thousand times better and faster. She knew all her math class by reading books, she learned a high level on spanish and catalan before us in class, she read a lot. She even read more than Sang. And here is the thing: If Sang had so little timw out there, Jojo had less. And somehow, she learned more, better, faster. She was the best of us.
And yet, the worst. Lonely, awkward, not reachable, moody.
She was the weaker of us. While we grew up and the rest found empty life purposes like Lake's dream of being a rich house wife, or Shannon's dream of giving her life to god in church. Simple things like that, nothing too intense, nothing that made them stay. And then there were the rest: Kaylan, who was afraid of living and Jojo herself, who only desire was to learn as much as possible to prove Mother wrong. She was wounded forever, and somewhere in the road she became emotionless and cold. I was always there when she was out, but she gave a shit if she was out or not: She learned through one of us and didn't let go of the information.
Sometimes we forgot she was even there. And I think she forgot we were there too. So yeah, she was the weakest. Along with Amanda.

Shannon's poing of view.

"Hi" I say to her while she's out there, reading a book. Like always; Or at least when I see her being out there.
She doesn't answers me.
"What are you reading?" I ask her quietly.
"Criminal Psychology" She finally says.
"Interesting. Is that your favorite book? Mine is the bible. Have you read it?"
She stops a moment then looks up, as if trying to see me.
"Why would I have?"
I'm feeling a little bit confussed.
"What do you mean?"
"God is not real"
There is a silence after that where I feel not nice inside of me. Then I hear the echo of Lake's laughter. Then it's gone.
"Excuse me?"
"God is not real" She repeats, as if talking to a six year old who doesn't understand "There are many studies that confirms that. And the thought of God creating the universe is nice, but it has been here long before he supposedly came around. Besides, magic doesn't exist"
I'm indignated.
"Magic? It was no magic! It was God who did it all before Jesus came to earth!"
"The fact of someone coming alive three days after dying is the biggest lie there can be. Impossible. The human heart cannot do that in any possible way. God is a myth. And Mary being impregnated without sex is not only beyond impossible, but ridiculous. Should I go on?"
I never talked to her again.
She is the best person to introduce when you want not to talk. Or to people not to talk to you at all.

Mina's point of view.

When I first knew of her I wanted to kill her. Kill her if she turned out to be depressed like Kaylan, bossy like Elizabeth or annoying like Lake. Or the rest.But I can barely notice her. Once she read all about cleaning a crime scene to get away with yours.
I like her.

Lake's point of view.

She is so boring. I can never convince her to try a pretty skirt or nail polish. She's all about books!
I stopped trying to dress her up and giving her advices to make friends when she gave me a lecture about how I am the way I am for my need of attention. Good thing I had Amanda to play with.

Kaylan's point of view.

She makes me nervous. She doesn't seem to like anybody so I don't try to talk to her. I never realized she knew I was there all along until she wrote for me a whole OCD information file and left it at the desk for me. It looked sweet. I thanked her, but she just said it was practical. Then we barely speak. Yeah, she makes me a little nervous, being that smart and reserved. But I think she's nice.