I hope you all like chapter 2 and that it lived up to what I tried to make it out to be. I really like this particular chapter. It kinda goes into who she is more, just as a person. You get to relearn some stuff from the first chapter but you also get to learn more into it.
Playlist link is in the external link section.
And this chapter's song is the Beat of My Heart by Hilary Duff.
(sorry hilary duff haters out there. I know you are huffing and puffing now but the message goes.)
This picture is April.
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Chapter 3
New Life
I was wearing red leather pants with buckles up the sides that sealed completely. My polyester tank top was the same shade of red and was held closed in the back with buckles matching those on the pants. My boots were black, and leather jacket was too. I sported a chocker with a cross on the front that Jackie had given me, it had been her favorite. Of course my belt was black with the cross buckle, but that only added to the perfection of the coordination. I even sat in front of my make-up bag for a half an hour deliberating actually applying it.
If it was done right, it looked nice. But I never did it right, and it took so long, that I never saw the point. I gave it one last evil glare before turning hopelessly to my hair. I tried every exotic style I knew, but settled with a pony tail high atop the back of my head. I shoved a bottle of lotion into my purse, nestling it next to a stake, then hobbled downstairs, my feet still aching.
"Coffee?" my mother asked as I wandered into the kitchen.
I shook my head. She knew that I didn't like coffee and that I didn't do well with caffeine, but she always asked every morning like she was hoping that I would someday accept. I opened the cupboard and stared at the food, but felt only nauseated by the site of it. I made a disgusted noise as I slammed the door.
Kaylee raised her eyebrows, but didn't make a sound. If I was in a mood, she would back off and wait for it to expire, they always did.
"Love you," I mumbled as I slipped out the door.
"You too!" she called.
I referred to her as Kaylee when she was acting more like a friend than a parent or a teacher. When she shied away from my moods she was Kaylee. My mother would press the subject for what was wrong and Ms. Millon would scold me.
I mounted the bike and stared uselessly at the speedometer, as if I thought that it would suddenly shoot upwards as it did when I was riding it. With a sigh I put on the helmet and started the engine.
Why my mother had to live so far away from the town, I did not understand, but she did. So I had to leave home earlier than other students in order to arrive on time. Not too early, however; I wasn't known for respecting traffic laws too well.
So, going seventy by the time I was about three hundred yards from the house, I sped down the road, leaning forward, embracing the wind. I reluctantly brought it back down to forty when I was within eye sight of the school, and shot into the library parking lot like a bullet, slamming down the break so hard it left skid marks on the pavement. I mentally apologized.
"Nice entrance!" a male voice called from behind me.
Oh please don't let it be Thai, I begged. I cannot deal with him right now. I'm out of it as it is.
"Hey! It's Thai! Yeah. Remember me?" he demanded as I slowly eased off the helmet and turned to look at him. I couldn't feel what expression I was giving him, but from his, I could tell it wasn't what he had expected. "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice more concerned now.
"Nothing," I muttered and climbed off, pulling my bag with me.
"Hmm. You seem upset. Anyways, since you don't want to go on a motorcycle ride, how about I take you to a movie?" he inquired.
"I am flattered. Really, Thai, I am. But, no thank you. I am going to have to pass this time," I tried to ease him down carefully, praying he wouldn't get angry.
"Alright," he said clearly unmoved. "Maybe next time."
I didn't answer. I wasn't ready to give him the wrong idea.
I found myself once again in Film. Mr. Iltnew was shuffling papers on his desk. I felt the eyes of the students that were already in the classroom crawl to me and I wondered if they heard about my exploit with the motorcycle yesterday. I slipped into my seat in the back and turned to April who was rereading the critique we were supposed to analyze last night. She glanced up when I set down and laughed when she saw my pained expression.
"Your feet still hurt?" she asked.
"If calluses, cracks, sores, and bandages that will not stay on are the equivalent to hurting, then yes, I do believe they still hurt."
"I'm still a little dizzy, so I guess we both aren't cured. Are you using lotion?"
I leaned down and pulled the bottle out of my bag. "This was brand new when I first opened it last night," I laughed. The bottle of lotion was only half way full.
April shook her head then asked, "Do you understand any of this?" She pointed to the sheet of magazine.
"Yes. Would you like some assistance?" I asked pulling out my copy.
"Would you?" she begged, pushing her desk closer to mine desperately.
"Of course I would," I murmured and began to explain the portion she was having trouble with.
* * *
"Aerie!" Sillyte screamed at me in a whisper.
"Yes?" I turned to her, glancing at the teacher, not wanting to be in trouble in my first week.
"I'm going to the lake this Saturday for a kayaking trip, do you want to come?" her face was excited, her brown eyes soft. She was wearing a turtle neck sweater, Carharts, hiking boots, and a ball cap without a logo-all brown. Her book bag was brown also, as were her hair ties. Her red locks were in a single braid jutting out of the gap in the band of her hat. She had braided in a brown ribbon, and I wondered where you could find one that long without buying a complete roll.
"That sounds great," I said, and it was the truth. I had never realized how much I missed her, and now it hit me. She was always so happy and cheerful. That was the type of person I needed around. She wasn't nosey either. She knew whose business was whose.
I was glad she didn't hold prejudices like Ari had. But I couldn't blame Ari for anything. I had expected everyone to react the way she did. I was a very lucky girl to have gotten what I had.
"What lake?" I added, making mindless conversation.
"Triangle Lake."
"Where is that?"
She thought about it for a moment. "Uh...Lane County? It is only about 25 miles from here. It seems a lot farther, though. That's just because the road is so curvy. Is that alright?" she suddenly sounded unsure.
"Absolutely. I cannot wait," I grinned at her and she beamed back.
We filled the rest of that hour with chit chat about the lake. When it ended I hobbled out of the classroom with a vision Sillyte had painted in my mind of a beautiful, tranquil place that you have to see to really appreciate.
At last I slumped into a chair next to April in the cafeteria. She laughed and asked, "I take it you will never go hiking with me again?"
"Hiking, walking on any unpaved surface..." I moaned.
"You are going to hate Triangle Lake."
I looked at her, surprised she knew about that. "You are still going, right? It was all Sillyte could talk about She would be crushed if you didn't."
"No, I am. I just did not know that you had heard about that already. My friends are spread out across the globe, so word spreads slowly," I explained.
"Oh. Where? If you don't mind me asking."
"Not at all. I have one friend who lives in London named Taylor, another in Egypt named Aliyyah, one friend in New York named Jackie, and one in Garberville named Fairy. They all know each other, but they do not talk daily."
"Wow. Have you been to all of those places? London, Egypt, New York, and Garberville?"
"London, New York, and Garberville, but not Egypt. Aliyyah was visiting Jackie when I met her," I reveled in the memory. It was a good one, and a bad one. Good because I had met Aliyyah, bad because it was the only time I had gotten distracted and missed a kill.
"How long have you known Jackie for?" April asked while fiddling mindlessly with the stem of an apple.
"I first met her right after my fifteenth birthday, and I will be seventeen in four months..." I mentally calculated out loud. That was a problem with me. If I got too comfortable with people, I started thinking out loud, and my dictation became less clear, and sported more slang. "So, a year and eight months. I met her the day after I moved in with my aunt in New York."
"Really? That's great. How old is she?" April asked as she offered me a small bowl of cherries she didn't want.
"She turned twenty five a month ago," I answered while taking the cherries.
"She's quite older than you."
"Yes, but, she has been a combination of a friend and a teacher to me. I model myself considerably after her. She was my mentor, I guess," I wondered if I was saying too much. I didn't want to have to lie. I wouldn't be able to put on enough of an act for that. I would blush, and get edgy. I could not handle that happening.
"What did she teach you?" April pressed. She was asking too much. I didn't know what to say as an answer to that. I improvised, hoping it would work.
"She helped me train physically. She used to have me run twenty miles a day then she instructed my kickboxing, karate, and yoga lessons. She taught me about my blood heritage, and helped me shape who I am. She is a great teacher, and an even greater friend. I do not know where I would right now if I had never met her," this all was true and it did not reveal the slayer genetics in me. I prayed she was done prying.
She was. "Hey, did Thai ask you out again?" she was staring at the bubbles in her bottle of Coke.
"Yes. He gave up on me doing anything, and decided to make it an easy movie outing. He, once again, was denied," when I finished I plopped a cherry into my mouth.
April looked up and said in a bored tone, "Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear."
I glanced up. Sure enough, here came Thai with a look on his face that was too happy for his own good. I wondered if anyone would miss him if he happened to suddenly disappear. "Great," I moaned.
"Aerie! April!" he cried as he sat down. "How's your day been?"
"Marvelous, Thai. And how has rejection been treating you?" April asked in an all too perky voice for the particular question.
"Oh it's not too bad. Aerie, since you aren't interested in a movie-"
"No. Thank you," I cut him off.
He frowned and took a bite of his sandwich. "You didn't even hear my offer," he scowled.
"I did not need to. I do want to date right now. I apologize."
He grumbled something I couldn't understand.
"Would it help any if I said that I am not allowed to date either? I lose certain things I do not wish to lose if I choose to date," I made a face and popped another cherry into my mouth.
"Like what?"
"Leather," I said plaintively.
"Really?" April giggled. "Teacher's daughter."
"Really. And sadly," I sighed.
Thai frowned again, but cheered up when Jason showed up.
The rest of the hour was filled with ecstatic questions and giggling after Sillyte sat down and April informed her of my leather restrictions. I left for my next class very embarrassed.
I then had to face Ari. She sat as far from me as possible, but shot me uneven glances every two minutes. I doodled pictures of a slayer fighter sequence on a piece of paper. I would finish a drawing and look up in time to see her look at me then turn away.
When class was over I realized that if I cut it out, I would have a flip book. Interesting. A flip book of a fight. Monday's fight to be exact; me and Aterious in the alley. I stashed it in my bag, not wanting anyone to see it, then rushed to talk to Ari.
"So are you still mad?" I asked from behind her. She had been hurrying to get outside before I could catch her. "I know I deserve you to be, and I do not mean to pry, I just want to know."
She sighed, then turned around, very uncomposed. "Aerie, I was scared. I was so scared. Not one phone call, visit. Not one sign that you were okay. I had no clue and I was scared. I didn't know what to do. I even went over to your house looking for you, but your mother said you wouldn't come out of your room. I didn't know had happened to you and why you were acting the way you were. Now you come back and you're a biker babe? That's not who you are-were-what ever. I don't know you and I'm still hurt. I'm sorry, Ariel, I have to say, 'yes, I am still mad.' And that I'm sorry and I'm not ready for this." She wasn't mad. She was sad. When she turned around all I could see was pain on her face. When she said that she went to my house she started crying. I had too, but I couldn't remember when.
With tears running down my cheeks, I moped into P.E.
I didn't bother to change into the tennis shoes that I brought. I didn't care. I sat on the ground in the gym for role in a heap, without even going into the locker room. My backpack was on my back, my face was wet, and my eyes were swollen. I was as ready for P.E. as ever.
Coach Conifer ignored me. He marked me present, but that was all the attention I got. He decided he didn't want the lap show again, so we played basketball. I wasn't as good at that. I didn't know how to play, so that was a downer. I had excellent aim, speed, coordination, and aggression, but when I didn't know what to do, I proved to be very helpful.
Halfway through class I figured it out. I was still mopey, but decided that I should be angry instead. Angry was more prominent and would assist in the game. I was mad at myself, so I had a target. But I took anger out on the ball instead. I scored eight baskets in five minutes, blocked every shot the other team made, and then cried some more when I went into the locker room with nothing else to beat up.
Jordin harassed me again. She figured that one of my jumps was at a record breaking height. I just sat there and stared at her blankly as she rattled on about how I needed to stop taking whatever drug I was. I had to try really hard not to knock her nose in.
Muttering, I found myself on my bike, flying towards the coast line. I didn't even make it to Waldport when I caught wind of a vampire. How Tidewater, a town that was even more of a nowheresville than Alsea, managed to get a vampire, I would never understand, but it did. I found it behind the post office, cowering in a trashcan.
Somehow Oregon managed to get sun in the middle of winter, a seemingly impossible feat I prized. So all I had to do was drag the trashcan three feet and the already weaken vampire was in the damaging UV rays. I opened the lid and it gasped. "Shhh," I lulled. "You wouldn't want to reveal yourself, would you?"
"A slayer?" he snarled.
"Not a slayer, the best of all slayers."
"NO?" he cried.
"Yes, and you made it all too easy." I pushed the trashcan over and he fell out. Grinning, I realized I had found my replacement basketball. I dove at the poor vampire before it had a chance to do that to me. The moment my skin touched his, I felt a flood of understanding. I saw the last moments of every person he had killed. I felt the strength blood gave him and weakness sun brought upon him. I understood how much this particular vampire feared the more powerful ones and how much he, strangely, missed being human. He remembered what it felt like to feel guilty and to live and wished he could do that. He remembered how joyous he felt when he looked into his baby son's face the day it was born and the happiness he had been filled with the day he got married. He was a very different vampire.
"You liked being human, Alex?" I asked as I wrapped the crossed around his neck and pressed my belt buckle into his arm. I was sprawled on top of him trying to stake him and torture him at the same time. Poor Alex, I thought feeling a little guilty myself as I drove the stake into his heart.
He had given up without a fight. He knew he was a goner. There was no point in making it hurt worse. His cold body stung my skin and I swung off as I let the lighter catch at his chin.
"Yes," he whispered as he burned. And then he was dead.
I felt a little shameful as I went home. I was pitying vampires, pathetic. Very, very low and pathetic. But something about Alex made me think against about how not all vampires are heartless. Soulless yes, but not heartless. He didn't want to be soulless, but he had no chance. He had no option. The one thing I hated about being a slayer was the odd power I had to understand the most vital aspects of a vampire's being when I touched one.
Every slayer had it, but I knew I felt more that I was supposed to. Slayers weren't supposed to feel, only see, hear, and understand. I felt the way a vampire felt when they killed and when they looked down at the dead body. I felt the way he felt about his existence and what he felt in regards to losing his soul. I felt the most vital emotions he had ever felt. I understood more that way. I understood that they were beings too. I tried to ignore it because slayers were supposed to kill vampires, not pity them, but sometimes it got the better of me.
I had told Jackie after my first kill and she didn't know what to tell me. I was different. I was special. Those were her creations, her ingenious explanations. No offense, I loved Jackie, but the fact that I was different was obvious and the fact that I was special was too. Although special in a different sense that what Jackie was referring to.
It was more than just that however. Whenever I was near a slayer I could feel her emotions too. I didn't have to touch like I did with vampires though, just be in a certain proximity of her. I hadn't seen any slayers in a while though, so I wasn't able to use it often.
That became a bit of a schedule for that week. I would be asked out by Thai, then I would chat with April, then with Sillyte, then both while again rejecting Thai, draw a flip book, cry over the look on Ari's face, do well in games in P.E. that I don't know how to play, the find some vampire in some town to pity. All that week that was my schedule.
I continued to avoid my usual all-black attire and I tried to stay calm and not go nuts when someone shrieked or gasped, but it was hard. Thai invited me to do everything but go to the Chapel of Love in Vegas and say our vows, probably only because he knew I would clobber his ears and wrench out his eyeballs. Sillyte was nearly bouncing out of her clothes all week in preparation of the kayaking trip. Apparently April has a fear of boats and won't go with her.
Ari never said anything to me anymore, but looked at me every two minutes in class. As the days went the looks progressed into glares and her anger flared. My tears got heavier. It hurt but became pretty quotidian. I started recognizing faces and being addressed in class and in passing by people. I could name the names of every person in every class I have and tell you whether or not they hate me and where most of them they live. I found that when you are bored, if you bring a phone book with you, the biology teacher will think you are memorizing cell structure not addresses.
I found people to talk to in every class but Spanish, where I doodled and cried, and P.E. where I found things to beat up. In English I commenced discussion with April, in biology when the phone book proved to be boring I chatted with my lab partner Nicolica, in third I was lectured further on the beauty of Triangle Lake by Sillyte, and it turned out that Thai is in my fourth period class so that hour was also painful. He was also in biology with me, but assigned seating saved me. April was also a junior but she was still taking algebra 2, as was the rest of my class, excusing Sillyte. I was with seniors the whole period. Biology was full of freshmen, and English was the juniors only. However, Sillyte was in the journalism with Ari, and Thai and Jason were in the sophomore. American history had only sophomores, but the ones I knew weren't taking history this year. Ins
"School is quite annoying and I think I hate it. Really, I do." These were the words I found myself telling Fairy Thursday afternoon while lying on the bed with the phone on speaker. All she did was laugh at me and said, "Suck it up!"
The people a nice, for people, I guess. I couldn't really relate to them though. I couldn't tell them of my pains or really comprehend theirs. I couldn't reach out and touch them and feel their strongest emotions and relive their greatest and worst moments. I couldn't. Slayers were the most I had in the end. I could tell them how I feel about everything, but still, they can't actually understand every bit of my pain of emotions nor can I with theirs. I think that might be why I enjoy slaying so much; I understand where the vampires come from so easily. But people aren't vampires so I have to try so much harder. And it pains me.
I don't understand Ari's pain. I have never been betrayed. I can sympathize and try, but empathy is the best when you can't get in their head. However, neither are things I can do. She doesn't understand why I'm balling in class, either. So it is only harder. I try to read her emotions but they are so confusing. There are her emotions towards her pain, but there are also those towards mine and I am unable to decipher.
April doesn't really care about her parents. She thinks they are horrible people but she loves them. That leaves her lost and having to decide whether to be on their side or not. She chooses to take their approach and not care, but she still loves them and misses them. From how much I can understand of her, I concluded that if they died, she wouldn't grieve any more than she is now. There are dead to her already. But all of that is a heartfelt guess.
I don't understand Sillyte however. At all. She always happy and cheerful and I remember her being the same before. I also remember her parents and they weren't ever there for her emotionally. They gave her want she wanted that could be bought with money, but she never had anyone to talk to. She doesn't care, though. Or she doesn't show it. She seems unaffected. I find it very odd but I will never know the true workings of her mind; I can only dream.
There is Thai however, who seems to have nothing going on in his head at all. He is oblivious and unobservant. I gave up on trying to see the way his mind worked as soon as he asked me out the second time. At that point, I realized it was useless.
That was it. That was my new life. There's also Coach Conifer who just absolutely hated me and I had no intention in understanding him. I didn't care. My other teachers I had no special connection with and so they didn't bother me in particular. Jordin continued, everyday, to be that bully she so succeeded at being but I would just stare at her and resist the burning temptation to knock her nose in.
Wednesday I learned that April had a crush on Allen, the boy who sat next to Thai at lunch. I encouraged her to ask him out but some flare of shyness I wasn't aware she had shown at the idea. Finally I got her to go ask him after lunch. I waited nearby, close enough to hear but not be seen. She thanked me for being there and held her breath the whole time.
He said yes and she came running back to me glowing. I patted her on the back and congratulated her. She gave me a hug then ran off the tell Sillyte.
Thursday I found out that they were going to a movie in Albany. I hoped that it worked out for them. She read the school's special event schedule during English instead of listening to a bogus sermon on how the author of Night may have changed some of the events for dramatization. I helped April find the closest dance and then designed a dress with her instead of yelling at Mr. Iltnew that maybe the characters were just suffering and not crazy. I didn't want detention or the equivalent to that.
We showed Sillyte the design before Allen arrived at the table. She said it was pretty and asked if she could make color scheme suggestions. Personally I thought that April should get through the first date first, so that she didn't get her hopes up about the dance and then have him turn her down or dump her. I didn't voice my opinions though, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feeling.
Even though I liked Sillyte and April, I didn't like school and the week dragged by all too slowly. At last, I was going to bed Thursday night. I turned out the light, secretly delighted for the coming of Friday.