by Kate A. Fox
She glared at me sternly but there was an annoying amusement in her eyes that told me she got a kick out of ordering me around.
Urgh. Why me? Why was it always me?
“Hop to it!” she snapped and then gestured for the other girls to head off to the changing rooms.
I groaned once more as I got up from the bench. After all the running around my body felt as though I had been run over by a cement truck. Yes, I was out of shape and a half hour game of volleyball about did me in. Did I mention I ran five laps around the track beforehand?
I quickly found myself alone in the gym, wrapping up the nets. But when I turned to take them to the cupboard at the other end of the hall, I found that Debbie hadn’t left. Instead she shrugged at me and said, “I thought you could use some help?”
“Thanks.” I said begrudgingly. A part of me just wanted to be left alone but it was kind of her to offer.
Together we wheeled the stand-alone net posts back to where they were kept next to the cupboard. By the time we had finished Debbie was sweating and looked as though she had just run a marathon. Turns out I’m not the only one who’s out of shape.
She shoved her hand into her pocket and produced an inhaler. No wonder she looked like she was about to drop dead - she was asthmatic. I, on the other hand, had no excuses.
“Are you okay?” I asked, concerned. The last thing I needed right now was to handle a girl having an asthma attack.
“Sure. Just a little out of breath.” Debbie responded, shaking the inhaler before taking a couple of quick puffs.
“Let’s go and get showered or we’ll miss first break.” I suggested.
At least if she dropped unconscious in there I could run to the PE teachers’ offices for help.
Debbie offered me a skittish smile and hurried after me as I headed out the doors and down the hall to the changing rooms.
Luckily for us, most of the other girls had already showered and changed so we weren’t stuck waiting for a cubicle.
I grabbed my towel and showergel from my gym bag where I’d left it hanging on one of the three dozen pegs in the changing area and headed into the shower room.
The room was steamed up to hell just as it always was when class let out. Teenage girls seem to love having long skin-peeling hot showers.
I, on the other hand, loved lukewarm showers that left me feeling refreshed rather than damn near boiled.
Lathering up my body and rinsing away the layer of sweat I’d accumulated during class, I began to hum. I’d never been very musically talented and I imagine I sounded way off key to anyone who might be listening, but the truth was I didn’t much care.
That was until I heard the sniggering laughter that came from the other side of the shower curtain.
Even before I heard her voice I knew who it was. Lola.
“You hear that girls? That’s the sound of a dead bird.” she chuckled.
I could hear the Lola-bots chuckling even over the roaring of the shower.
Just what I needed - an audience while I showered.
I rinsed off the soap and switched off the shower, grabbing my towel where it hung over the side of the cubicle.
What else was I supposed to do? Hide in the shower and hope that she just went away.
I could never be so lucky.
I wrapped my towel around myself and tucked it under my armpit before I pulled back the curtain to find Lola and her minions circling. She was sat on the countertop beside the sink with one leg bent at the knee on the side, perching as though she was an eagle eyeing her prey.
“What do you want, Lola?” I glowered at her, crossing my arms over my chest as I began to feel self-conscious. If only I had her huge boobs to hold up my towel, I might not feel that way. No wonder Peter liked her. Even I was drawn to them.
“We never got to finish our chat this morning.” Lola glared back at me, her green eyes seeming to darken with malicious intent.
I opened my mouth to give some witty retort but was cut short when she slipped off the counter and came to stand in front of me. Her heeled boots clicked on the tiled floor and even the sound made me feel nauseous. I hated everything about her.
She was so close now that the tip of her nose almost touched my own. Had she not been taller than me, I might not have felt so threatened. As it stood I felt the urge to shove her backwards and make a run for it.
“How many times do I have to tell you?” I said, “I am not interested in Peter.”
Lola laughed almost hysterically and glanced over her shoulder at the Lola-bots.
“I don’t believe her. Do you?” she asked them and both girls began to shake their bleached blonde heads.
Oh how I would love to rip those terribly bleached roots from their heads just for agreeing with her. Maybe I’d even be doing them a favour. They’d both look better bald than they did now, trying to be something they weren’t.
“Only a lesbian wouldn’t be interested in someone like Peter. Are you a lesbian, Red? Is that what you are trying to tell me?”
I let Peter get away with calling me Red all the time but there’s no way in hell I’m going to let her do it too. With him it was a stupid pet name. Sure I hated it. But coming from her lips it was an obvious insult and I could feel my hands tightening into fists.
I wasn’t a lesbian but so what if I was? Either way she was still a hag.
“You should teach her a lesson.” Kelly, the one of the Lola-bots who was always more vocal during their leaders attacks, said.
She glared at me over Lola’s shoulder but I could see a barely veiled uncertainty in her eyes that said she only went along with Lola because she was frightened of her.
“I think you are right, Kel.” Lola chuckled and the noise grated against my eardrums until I was forced to cringe.
Again I felt that tingling sensation beginning in my chest and radiating outwards until it consumed my entire body.
Lola whirled on me then and before I even had a chance to react she shoved me backwards. My back caught on the edge of the shower cubicle painfully and I bit back a squeal of surprise.
“Show her who’s boss, Lo!” Kelly jeered her on and Lola raised her hands as though she was going to shove me again.
“I’ll let you have that first one but I swear if you shove me again, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.” I warned her.
Anger welled up inside me when I saw the enticed, almost excited expression on her face.
Maybe I should have just stayed quiet and taken the beating but that wasn’t me. I wasn’t a Dorky Debbie.
“Or what? What are you going to do? Ging!” Lola snarled back at me and not for the first time I realised how ugly she was when she wrinkled her nose like that. For a moment she reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.
When she shoved me again I grabbed for my towel, fearful that it was going to slip off my body.
A sudden wind whipped up, seeming to resonate from around me, and Lola squealed like a little pig as she was flung backwards by some kind of invisible force. She barely managed to catch herself with her hands on the countertop.
“What the hell?” she glowered at me, “Did you just do that?”
“I didn’t touch you.” I pointed out yet something inside me, something connected to that odd tingling sensation told me that whatever it was, it had come from me.
The tingling sensation had grown to a powerful throbbing. It thrummed all around me and I was sure that if I looked close enough I could see it, like a glowing silver shield all around me.
“Look...look at her eyes!” Kelly gasped.
My attention was instantly drawn to the mirror that hung over the sink behind Lola.
My heart jumped into my throat when I saw my face. I was a familiar stranger. My usually grey-blue eyes sparkled with dancing lilac specks that lit up my entire face and I could have sworn that there was wind whipping through my hair even though there was no open window.
At the sight of
myself, one word came to mind. Powerful.
“You’re a freak!” Lola yelled at me and I was only mildly satisfied as she began to back away, never looking away from me as though she was scared to do so.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kelly sounded breathless, her voice distant as though we weren’t even in the same room.
The pounding of blood in my ears was almost deafening.
I don’t know what came over me but I smiled, a sickening smile that felt wrong on my face, and all three girls turned white as ghosts.
“Let’s get out of here!” Erin, the sweet, silent Lola-bot whimpered. I mean, she actually whimpered, as though she was a frightened animal.
“I’m not finished!” Lola protested but her expression had become unsure.
“Boo!” I yelled, throwing my arms up, relieved that my towel didn’t fall down around my ankles.
The three girls practically jumped out of their skin, turned tail, and scurried right out of the showerroom.
I stood for just a moment, unable to move, as I felt the throbbing sensation beginning to subside.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to regain control.
What the hell just happened?
I walked on shaking legs to the counter and looked at myself more closely in the mirror. Leaning over the sink, I drew my face close to the reflective surface and examined my eyes more closely.
They had returned to their usual grey-blue.
Had I imagined the whole lilac specks thing? Was I hallucinating?
The reaction of the three girls told me that I wasn’t. Whatever had happened, I had no idea what the hell it was.
What I did know was that Lola and her minions would think twice before trying to threaten me again. That was a win in my book.
CHAPTER 3
BY THE TIME SCHOOL FINALLY LET OUT I HAD almost forgotten the incident in the showerroom. Almost.
The tarmacked front of the school was swimming with kids, all eager to escape for the evening. Everyone from year 7 right up to sixth form seemed to all have made a break for it at once.
I took a slow walk from the science block, in no hurry to get to the school buses that ran on a fifteen minute rotation to pick everyone up and deposit them in the centre of London.
Maybe, if I took my time, I wouldn't end up on the same bus as my little blonde nemesis.
I was just making my way past the fountain of our school mascot, Berty the Beaver, when I heard footsteps rushing up behind me.
"Hey Bri!"
I didn't need to look to know who it was. The chirpy little voice told me all I needed to know.
Polly, Peter's adorable eleven year old sister, stood behind me with her bookbag clutched to her chest. The sweetly innocent smile that she beamed at me caused me to smile back and ruffle her hair, "Hey kiddo!"
"Don't do that!" She scowled at me, taking a step back, "Petey does that and I hate it!"
She wrinkled her little button nose and her blonde hair, so much like her brother's, fell down around her chubby little face.
"And I'm not a kid anymore." She blew a strand of hair out of her mouth, "I'm in year 7!"
"And Red's in year 11. In our book that makes you a kid." Peter's amused voice made me jump out of my skin as he approached from the car park to the left.
We both turned to scowl at him - me because he'd called me Red yet again and her because he was insisting she was a kid.
"Would you stop giving me the dead eye and hurry up?" Peter snapped at his little sister, "I know mum said I have to give you a lift home but I have places to be."
By places to be I knew he really meant I have to go pick Lola up so we can make out in the back of my corsa.
Urgh. Yuck. I cringed just thinking about it.
"Maybe I don't want to ride with you." Polly stuck out her tongue, proving that she was, in fact, still a kid.
"How else are you going to get home?"
Peter crossed his arms over his chest and looked like he was one step away from beginning to tap his foot in frustration.
"I'm going to take the bus with Bri." Polly insisted. Both of them turned to look at me. One with an expression begging me to agree and the other with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, don't look at me!" I threw my arms up in surrender, "I'm not getting in the middle of this."
"Please can I come with you, Bri?"
Polly practically fluttered her eyelashes.
"Don't make me go with him and listen to his awful rap music."
Her eyes continued to plead with me until I finally gave in. There was no way I could resist those huge round puppy dog eyes.
"Fine. I guess I do live right next door anyway."
Polly practically jumped for joy.
"If I get yelled at by mum and dad I am holding you accountable." Peter said sternly, glaring at me with an expression tinged by affection.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it." I rolled my eyes at him, "Be off with you."
For just a moment I could feel normal again, the kind of normal that I was before Peter and Lola began dating. I was just a girl taking her best friend's little sister home from school on the bus.
It didn't last very long.
Practically the moment that Peter hurried off to his car, Lola appeared from behind the nearest wall.
Spotting me, and most likely noticing the quickly retreating Peter, she glared at me across the tarmac as she and the Lola-bots melted into the crowd.
I watched for a moment, knowing full well that wouldn't be the end of it.
I was right.
The crowd parted as though it was the red sea and Lola was Moses.
She stormed through the gap they made, turning heads as she went.
Here we go again.
I had hoped that after what had happened in the showerroom she would have second thoughts about coming near me again.
I guess she must feel as though there was safety in numbers with half the school still waiting for the next bus.
"Hi, Lola." Polly greeted her with a sickly sweet voice but there was an edge to it and I heard her mutter under her breath, "Cow."
I barely managed to stop myself from chuckling as Lola squared up to me just as she had in the showerroom.
"Don't think I haven't forgotten what you did earlier." She hissed like an old tabby cat, ignoring Polly entirely.
"I'm not sure what you mean."
I shrugged and moved my body between her and Polly. She was much too innocent to get involved in all this crap.
When Lola remained silent, glaring at me, I turned and began to walk away.
"Come on, Polly."
Just like that I felt two hands planted square on my shoulder blades.
"Ahh!" I screamed as I was shoved forwards.
Completely unprepared, all I could do was put out my hands to break my fall. Big mistake.
I instantly wished that I hadn't when I heard the sickening crunch of bones in my left wrist.
Pain lanced up my arm and bile rose so violently in my throat that I almost spewed.
My gaze grew hazy but I could clearly make out the designer black leather heels that suddenly stepped into my otherwise grey view of the tarmac.
"Is there a problem here?" A strange but beautiful voice I'd never heard before, asked.
When I looked up I was astonished by the woman stood before me.
She was strikingly beautiful with thick locks of silky ash blonde hair that cascaded down her shoulders in waves. Her tanned skin seemed to radiate the sunlight, standing out even against her black trouser suit. Also designer.
Yet the most striking thing about her was her crystalline blue eyes that zeroed in on my face and held me there, frozen.
"Are you alright?" She asked me even as she dipped down into a crouch, still looming over me.
"Lola pushed her!" Polly exclaimed and even though I couldn't take my eyes away from the newcomer, I could tell she had thrown her index finger right at the bleached blonde barb
ie.
"Shut up, gremlin!" Lola snapped at her.
Finally the woman turned her attention from me to Lola. I heard a couple of shaky steps as she had the good sense to move back.
The woman radiated power and although her expression never once faltered, I could tell she was sizing Lola up.
"Be on your way before I take what I have witnessed to the headmaster's office." She warned and without another word, Lola and her followers rushed off to join the thinning crowd who were trying not to make it obvious that they had seen the entire affair.
"Sit up and let me take a look at that wrist." The woman said as soon as Lola was gone.
I did as she said, awkwardly repositioning myself onto my backside.
The pain in my wrist made me want to clutch it to my chest but instead I offered it to the woman.
Though I had no idea who she was, I got the sense that I was safe with her. Perhaps because she had just sent Lola and her crew scattering like frightened mice.
She reached out for my hand and when she touched it I cringed. Not only because my wrist hurt like hell and was already turning black and blue, but because I felt a shockwave of what I could describe as static, jolt through my fingertips.
"Don't move." The woman advised and holding my hand, she placed the other over my obviously broken wrist.
That's when she began to chant under her breath. Lilting words in a language I'd never heard before spilled from her plump, pink lips.
Once again I cringed at the hot sensation that suddenly erupted on my skin.
"Ouch!"
I gasped, almost sure I could feel the bones in my wrist moving. Yes I said it, moving.
"I said don't move!" The woman hissed and I realised I had tried to pull my hand away from her grip.
The warmth radiating from her hand seemed to seep into my skin, into my muscle, into my flesh. It buried itself deep inside my arm and I watched in amazement as the blackened bruising peeking out from beneath the woman's hand slowly turned purple, then blue, then green and yellow, and finally disappeared entirely.
"H...how did you do that?" I stuttered.
"Yeah. What she said!" Polly gasped.