Cinderella's Ghost

Chapter 15: Warning

Chapter 15

"Let me see."

I slowly brought my hand down from my nose. The grimace on Jarell's face said it all: the bruise on my nose definitely looked bad. The cause of it? Lilla Lyson. Even Jarell was caught off guard, not expecting something like this to happen. I was walking to the classroom when the door came at my face, hitting my nose full-on. Even my gums were cut a little. Lucky for her, the few classmates who always came early had been too busy talking about their weekends to have noticed. Not like they would involve themselves in the matter if they saw it happening.

Speaking of weekends, I was right about Carrie. She didn't let me off the hook once, deciding to spend the whole of Saturday and Sunday supervising me. You'd think she was my babysitter, hovering around, watching me clean, watching me study. I had little to no conversation with Jarell, because my room's door had to be left open all the time.

But in the times that we did manage to sneak in some conversations (mostly at night), we spoke about how we could deal with the twins. Jarell had definitely made good use of his time on Friday night, and I agreed it was a good plan to have him use whatever supernatural powers he had to scare them away. The thing was, how were we going to do it if he wasn't allowed to touch everything except the floor and chairs? After another round of deep thinking on Saturday night, Jarell had an epiphany: he had to be so worked up over something that he was allowed to use whatever powers he had. I didn't know if it were possible though, but seeing as how he was so sure about it because he had an older brother who loved horror shows, I decided to check it up on Google, and there it was. The tricky part was that the twins had to be present when something impactful happens, or better yet, that they made it happen. The problem was the timing. They had to do something before Jarell's time was up.

"They've really gone too far this time," Jarell said angrily. Amidst all that, I could see the concern in his eyes.

I sighed. "The faster they do something terribly wrong, the better. Anyway, any ideas on what they could possibly do to make you worked up?" It felt good to be discussing like this so openly... even though I was in pain. There was no Carrie around to control me now, and the twins preferred to stay with their friends as much as possible.

He got slightly flustered as he thought of what he was going to say next, but he didn't look away this time. "If their 'pranks' continue to get out of hand, I could just explode one of these days. They're starting to make me mad."

I smiled gratefully at him.

"And clearly," he said more confidently, "I'm not the only one. Do you see their table?"

I looked past him to look at them sitting a number of tables away, right in the centre of the bustling canteen. I nodded.

"Have you realised something?"

I shifted my chair a little out of my little corner. I frowned, tilting my head a little as I scrutinised their table. Then it hit me. "There are fewer people," I said breathlessly, in disbelief and awe.

"Exactly. Which means our group of friends over there are starting to mature." He scoffed. "About time too. It's been more than half a year since we started school here."

I nodded slowly, still thinking how impossible this was, and yet it had happened right in front of me. The transition from secondary school to junior college might have been a little slow for them, but it was finally happening.

I surveyed the canteen, then I saw them, all huddled at another table not too far away from mine. There was the girl who gave me the cup of dragonfruit juice mixed with soya sauce, along with others who had dumped my lecture notes into the bin, knocked into me while I was carrying my food on a tray and put a mealworm in my hair. They were all there, sitting separately from the twins. There were only four of them out of the original number of nine, not including Jarell, but that was nearly half. Taking another look at the group in the centre of the canteen made me realise one thing: the numbers would continue to dwindle. Other than the twins and Simon, the other two didn't seem very keen on engaging. About what, I wouldn't know, but it was definitely something making them uncomfortable, because they kept sneaking glances at the other group. I didn't think the main members of the gang were aware though. Typical.

"When did you notice this?"

"Last week. They left together, probably had a secret meeting of their own to make it happen." He turned to look behind, watched them a little, before turning back front. "They don't look like they want anything to do with you though."

I smiled. "Them leaving is good enough for me."

Jarell's eyes widened in shock and admiration. "Even if they don't try to defend you?"

I nodded. "Don't you think it took them a lot of courage to leave? They knew it was the right thing to do, but anyone can tell they were afraid to leave when they left in a group. It's highly doubtful anyone will leave if only one of them feels that way."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then he nodded slowly.

"What do you reckon?"

Jarell pondered, stood up, and walked towards the group of them, leaving me speechless as I bit down on another spoonful of rice and tofu. Usually, I wouldn't agree on the idea of eavesdropping, but since the people involved are those out to get me, I didn't think it applied to them.

Jarell returned with a stoned expression. "They're talking about you, apparently."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"It's a good thing if you look at it: they left because they didn't want to bully you anymore."

"That's obvious. But why the sudden change?"

His gaze darkened. "I have a feeling it's because of how horrible the pranks have gotten. The mood is completely different from when I was there with them last, like they haven't been talking about anything but you since I left."

I frowned. "What do you guys talk about if it's not about me?"

He shrugged. "Things like teachers and where we should go that night, but that's not important right now," he spoke in a rush, and monotonously. "What is, is that they seem to be planning something even worse than what they've done to you today, and I don't like it one bit."

I wanted to laugh. "What more will they do? Kill me? Lock me up in some janitor's room?

He cringed. "Not kill you, but something along the lines of locking you up somewhere. We don't know if they'll really carry it out though."

"Oh."My appetite was suddenly gone. "But I have you, right?"

Jarell gave a small smile. "Yes, you do. There's no guarantee that my services will work all the time though, so you better watch out for yourself too."

I held back a chuckle. "Services?"

"I don't look out for people often."

"And you're doing me a... service?"

He shrugged.

"Huh. I thought it was more of a favour. It'll help you in getting back to your body, you know."

"That's why I say it's a service."

I rolled my eyes and continued eating my lunch.

~*

I went straight back home after school that day even though I didn't want to. After getting caught by Carrie, I'd gained a new form of strength. But that didn't mean I had lost my capability of rationalising.

What this new strength told me to do was to defy Carrie even more, and it constantly encouraged me to go to Madam Clar's everyday. The things stopping me were the transport fare, and my studies. Plus, if I were to up and go every other day, Carrie would find out. So we had to tread carefully. We didn't know for sure, but we thought it would be best to pick a day that was in the middle of the week. And for the first week, it went well. I wasn't caught again. Carrie probably thought I had learnt my lesson well after threatening me, too. The pranks, too, had remained stagnant, to the point where Jarell was able to tell me before all of them could happen, even without going ahead to keep a look-out first. The twins and Simon looked really riled up by how I was able to avoid everything, but they couldn't do any more than that in school, or it would give them away. I thanked the heavens every time when I went home and found myself alone though, because I had half-expected them to appear in front of me now that they could hardly catch me in their traps.

It was all good, better than before, and I'd very nearly forgotten all about Jarell's warning, until it happened.

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I'm finding myself trying to rush this. Hope to finish it by next week!