Fighting With Fear-KOTLC Fanfic

Stinging Punishments

"And I was like, 'Bro, eat a snickers.' And the he's like-"

"Thom," I cut the redhead off. "You tell this story every time we go to lunch."

"Oh. I do?"

"Yeah. You tell it at least three times a day," Kayla says, staring at her hot pink nails. She looks up and she rolls her sky-blue eyes.

"You know, you're going to have to take that nail polish off before we go off on our next mission. We don't want the enemy knowing who you are," Jacob says. He shakes his shaggy black hair away from his indigo eyes and winks at me. Gosh, I hope I'm not blushing. He's really cute but he's two years older than I am. Kayla flips her blonde hair and sighs.

"I know that Jake. It's stupid though. Like, why can't my already pretty nails be even more pretty with nail polish on them? Who's going to look at my hands and say, 'Oh that's Kayla, let's go kill her.' "

Kayla lives up to the 'dumb blonde' stereotype. She's nice when you get to know her, though. Her and Jacob (aka Jake) are dating. I've got to admit, I wish they weren't. We get our trays and stack random food on it, still talking. I look around the school cafeteria to find a place to sit. My eyes land on Aimer, a tall lean blonde elf. He waves me over and I start to where he's sitting, gesturing to my friends to follow. Aimer is also super cute but he's Kayla's twin. Dating my friend's brother is kind of awkward. I slide onto the bench next to Aimer and smile at him.

"Any fun pranks planned for today? If so, count me in," I say, grabbing an indigoober. 

"Well, yeah. I was plan-

Kayla interrupts him. "Aimer, no. Mom said no more pranks. Remember your last one?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot to congratulate you on that. So, congratulations. You finally made that vein pop out of Gethen's neck." I high five him.

"When are you guys going to stop playing pranks on people? Really they're getting kind of old," Jake asks us.

"I'll stop when you kiss me. So that'll be...never," I answer. Jake an I joke around a lot about kissing ever since we were five. He tried to kiss me on our way to our living quarters and I punched him. We laugh about it ever since. Snapping back to the present I see Jake blush. Well, that's a first. Jake never blushes when we talk about kissing. I shoot him a questioning look but he looks away.

"Guys," Thom starts, "I've got this really funny story that I-" he was cut off by Dame Aluna, my mom.

"Rowan Ann Jensen! Please report to my office. Immediately," she says over the speaker. The others look at me.

"What did you do this time?" Thom whispers.

"I don't know." I get up to leave the table. I give one last glance at my friends before I walk out of the cafeteria. I make my way down the long dark hallways. Torches that burned blue flames provided light. I pass the living quarters, the kitchen, training area, multiple classrooms, and weapon room when I finally reach my mom's office. I take a deep breath before opening the door.

I walk in to find Mom pacing the room, holding a piece of paper in her hand. She stops in front of the large bookshelf and turns to face me. That's when I realize my Dad is with her too. Dad's the head of the battle training, so he's a buff dude. And someone you don't want to make angry. Which I've succeeded to do many times.

"Really Rowan? Another prank? And this time you target Gethen, one of the most successful agents we have. When are you going to stop?" Dad asks me, his voice dripping with anger. I take a step back. What is he talking about? I never pulled a prank on Gethen. Not yet, anyway. And I told Dad and Mom just that, minus the last part.

"Rowan, don't lie to us. We know you put that elixir into his drink. The one that makes him poop twenty-four seven," Dad continues.

Realization dawns on me. Dad's talking about Aimer's prank. I cover my laugh with a cough, but Dad's doesn't buy it. He lunges for me and grabs my wrists and my laughter dies away in my throat, replaced with fear.

"You will have to face the consequences for your actions." With that Dad slaps me in the face. I shriek and fall to my knees, holding my stinging cheek. I hear Mom gasp.

"Don, maybe you're overreacting. Maybe-" she stops when she sees the fury in her husband's eyes.

"I have had enough with Rowan's childish games. She is an adult and she will have  an adult punishment." He turns back to me and raises his hand again but I scramble to my feet. I fling the door open and sprint out of the office, away from Dad's punishment. I hear him yell after me but I don't stop, instead I raise my pathfinder up to the light. I have no idea where I'm going but I don't care. I pray to God that it's somewhere safe. Then I step into the beam of light.