Daytonville High #0
By Black_Fairy 11 Comments
"Today is my first day of regular people school. I'm pretty sure my mother is just trying to keep a closer eye on me considering the Academy or any other school like it was out of the equation. Still, I'm going to try my best to show her, and I can make it at a regular school."
My hands gently trace over the "send" option, thinking if this is something I want people to see. Eventually, I decided to save it as a draft and brush my hair for the first day. I usually don't care for things like the first day of school, what I look like, or what I'm going to wear, but I do now.
My mom signed with International Superhero Marketing Group Selebrity. I'm still not entirely sure what made her do it, though I'm sure it had something to do with shrimp. Most of her interests revolve around shrimp. Anyways, Samson Starr added me on IG, and suddenly I wasn't invisible. I got 80K likes in two days, slightly more once I established my mom's social network. Things I previously had no interest in consumed my time. The easiest thing to learn was how to do my hair; the most challenging thing was learning how to apply make-up; my mother is not a very patient teacher.
I finish doing my hair before grabbing my teal butterfly bag; I'm headed toward the door when I just so happen to glance in my mother's room, and she's sound asleep. Usually, the fact that she's sleeping was a good thing, but considering I typically sleep in her bed. She hadn't noticed I got up, lets me know she was up late in her feelings about something.
Tip-Toeing out the door to not wake her, I step into the elevator and ride it down to the lobby. It's as active as ever. The receptionist is so busy that she doesn't greet me. She typically does but is seemed as if she were overwhelmed by the surge of activity in the lobby.
Before I get to the rotating doors, I slip on my NEM fashion mirrored sunglasses before pushing through the rotating doors. The moment I'm outside, Fareeha Island comes to life through my senses. I can smell fresh bread, coffee, the salty sea, and personal body order all in one disgusting smell. It's the only Island where every culture intermingles, and it's the Island with the least amount of rules. I once got thrown in jail on K'ac for not fully covering my body; my mother had a field day breaking me out.
The school is about three blocks from where I live, So I walk it; if I'm giving this normal thing a try, I could walk to school. I don't want to develop bad habits, like hoarding an invisible jet although I can fly AND teleport.
As I get closer to the school, I can feel little bumps along my forearm. 'What's going on' I think to myself, stopping to collect myself. I'm nervous. My body is shaking; I quickly unzip the smallest pocket of my bookbag and remove my cigarettes.
I fumble around with the pack before placing one between my fingers and sparking it with my free hand. I inhale, hold, then exhale slowly so I can get the feel of the nicotine.
On the first day of school, the Academy attacked us with weird robots that could adapt. I barely remember. I do remember overexerting myself and nearly leveling a bunch of my teammates' classmates. That was fun.
The cigarette helps me put things back into focus. I'm not at the Academy; this is a regular school with regular people; I won't get attacked on the first day. I take another quick puff of the cigarette before flicking the cherry and continuing my stroll.
As I get closer, I immediately pull my schedule from my bookbag. I finished 9th grade with my adoptive parents in Cali, so here I can start as a Sophmore, so my first class is World History. I don't mind history, it's pretty cool when I'm awake, but I can't help but wonder how different this will be than in the States.
I walk up to the school's front and glance at the school sign in massive blue and orange letters. 'Dayontville High,' our mascot, of course, is something we don't have on the Island--a tiger. Technically, 40 out of the 50 Islands have a "Dayontville High" we're all the same school; we have different mascots. There was a massive fight at the Quidditch game last year between the Tigers and Wildcats. I can't get over the idea of people fist-fighting about who won a game where you run around on a broomstick chasing a man painted in gold, but I've seen stranger things.
I take a deep breath, and then I enter the school. The school is naturally lit; most of the actual lights aren't on. The sun pierces through each window, saturating the halls with a beautiful orange mixture.
I run my hands into my pockets to remove a slip of paper with my locker number 322; it's on the third floor. Your locker changes every year, so next year I should have 222 provided I don't, you know, fail.
Making my way up the steps, I can feel people looking at me, although I'm not sure why. For the time being, I think nothing of it; there's no reason for me to get alarmed yet, most of these kids know each other. I'm the new girl entering the den for the very first time. I stroll right up to my locker an input the combination 12, 21, 35; I pull down on the lock pull open my door, but as it's opening, a hand came over my shoulder and forced it closed.
I whip around angrily, but as I do so, I make eye-contact with the Platinum Assassin--X. Now everyone's eyes are on us, but as I look upon her, I can see she's tuned them out; in her cerulean eyes, I can see she's honed in squarely on me.
"Are you here to poison everyone with darkness again?" She asks, but her tone is hard to make out; I can't tell if she's serious or not. I shake my head no before maneuvering out of her arms reach, but I get the sense that she simply allowed me.
"Good, because I rather enjoy this place. It's...warm," She said coldly before turning around and disappearing into the vast sea of students.
X and I were in the Academy together, we didn't talk at all, but I always thought she was a sociopath. On the outside, she seems so innocent and carefree, but I can tell there's a shark in her mind, and the moment she smells blood, she'll attack.
'I wonder what she's doing here,' my thoughts personify in confusion laced across my face. To my knowledge, X has no family, so how did she manage to get from the United States to Daytonville?
The bell rings. Now I'm late, I dash down the hall and into my classroom just seconds before the teacher closes the door--providing her with the opportunity to introduce me to the class.
"Oh! perfect timing!" She says gleefully. She's not speaking English though; my mind Is translating Farsi to English, even still I'm stuck like a deer in headlights.
"Class, this is Maricela Delgado, she's our newest student from the United States." No sooner than the words left her mouth, I can make out my classmates' verbal protest. Great, first couple of minutes, and everyone hates me. "Maricela, tell us about yourself?" I take a deep breath, my mouth opens, but before any sound can come out, one of my classmates screams at me, pointing in my direction.
"That's Catalina Liafador's daughter! Your mom's a bitch!" I resist the urge to clap back, only because he's not exactly wrong. My mom once watched a group of arsonists burn down a religious monument. To make the situation worse, she got caught on camera, encouraging them to spread the gasoline around evenly.
"Y-Yes, Catalina Liafador is my mother," I say, using the moment the teacher lashes out at the boy to take the nearest seat. I don't say anything else, but the stares from my classmates are still there. This was worst than the first day of the Academy. I'd take Alex talking about his powers over people gawking at me any day.
I can feel a slight rumble under my seat; it's someone's feet on the basket underneath; I casually turn around to see X smiling at me. She's weird; I don't know what the smiles mean; she could genuinely be happy, or thinking of ways to attack me. "Hello, Maricela Delgado, my name is Cassia Strong!" She continued in a singsong manner.
We share an awkward stare before my attention is taken by the teacher unveiling three banners in front of the chalkboard.
"As Sophomores, many you are now eligible to join the school's exclusives organizations" again. A collective depleted sigh from the class as if the teacher was somehow beating a dead horse.
Most Order of Excellence students have gone to become famous musicians, Artist, and chefs; very few make it to Hollywood. The Order of Excellence has a high acceptance rate, but also a high drop out rate.
My eyes gradually look over the three different clubs; I can't shake the fact that I've heard the Order of Malta somewhere before. I would be able to focus if X--I mean Cassia wasn't shaking her legs relentlessly on the back of my seat. "I've heard of the Order of Malta before..." I say with a cocked brow.
"Of course you have...they run the world!" Cassia shouts out again. I cannot tell if this girl is playing a game or if she's batshit crazy.
"Excuse Me, ma'am, you've left out one more group!" One of my classmates called out. Her insistence drew an eye-roll from the teacher; I get the notion that this is going to be the girl who raises her hand to answer all the questions. Our teacher says nothing, instead allowed the girl to come front and center.
Good Morning, everyone, my name is Akilah, over the summer, we founded a brand new order. The Order of Luna was founded by me this year, and it's a group for an outcast to come together and grow and comradery!
"NERD!" Cassia yells out from behind me that I legitimately have to use my powers to stop laughing. As the stifled laughter subsides, I immediatly feel bad for Akilah. I don't need to see her face to know that she's embarrassed. "How many members does your club have?" Our teacher asks, but I feel like she already knows the answer.
"Right now it's just two of us, myself and Amir" She points to a sickly boy in the back of the room who looks just as embarrassed as she did. "Maricela, you're welcome to join. It would be a great way for you to meet new people."
'Absolutely forking not' I think, but it's...not what I say. "Yeah, sure I'd love to" My hands immediatly cup my mouth; why did I say that. Akilah and I make eye contact, and I can see her embarrassment transform into joy.
"You need to be a little more discreet with your thoughts!" Cassia called out again in singsong. Did she manipulate me? I don't know, I don't care. I want to ball my fist up and knock her out, but Akilah interrupts, handing me a cafeteria layout.
"We can go over the details at lunch. We sit right here," She explains before heading back to her seat. I glare at Cassia; she's not the only bitch in this school with powers. Mark my words, I will get her back.
Hours Later Lunchtime
I reluctantly trot to the lunchroom, my first two classes were brutal. A theory says intelligence is genetic; my parents are clearly idiots as I didn't understand anything. My mind is stuck in a bog of information, and my stomach is protesting in agony. I slide through the European lunch counter, snag a few German Brats, a salad, and some bubbled water. I take my tray to find somewhere to sit, but I can hear Akilah screaming for my attention in the distance.
'goddess give me strength,' I think, making a B-line for her direction. Our table is on the far side of the cafeteria. I had to walk past the Order of Malta, The Order of Veritas, and the Order of Excellence en route to the table designated for the Order of Luna. The other groups look precisely like they sounded. Many smug rich kids were congregating amongst each other; my table is quite pathetic.
Amir, the boy from my class, is watching some sort of anime on his phone; beside him is Akilah scribbling in a journal. I snag a seat across from the both of them, forcing myself to smile at them. What I figured was harmless apparently wasn't because Amir saw me quickly gathered his things and immediatly darted out of the cafeteria.
"Amir is from K'ac Island, he's not used to western girls. I think you might've given him how you say hard-on."
'Oh wow,' I think, tracing his path with a bit of a smirk on my face. "So, what made you form this group?" I ask, trying to feign interest.
"Well, I created this club as an F-U to the other groups. They have ridiculous standards. They believe they are better because they have money and power. We will show them they aren't."
'Oh! Insurgency I like. Oh, fork...was that inappropriate' "You're our third member, so you will have to take one of our positions for us to be an official group."
The news just gets worse, I try not to show my displeasure, but it's almost as if she can sense it. "A position doing what?" I ask, hoping it has something to do with absolutely nothing.
"You will have to recruit at least one person. That will allow us to participate in Club events." Akilah explains; she looks at me, hoping she hasn't said something that will turn me off. The position isn't great, mostly since I'm new, but now I know how to get Cassia back. "I can do it," I say confidently. It's too bad Alex and Ozzy aren't around. I could show them a tit or something and have them signed before the end of lunch.
"Did you hear me? I can do it," I say, realizing the entire cafeteria has gone silent, and Akilah froze. I turn around and dear goddess.
No, No, no, no! I turn to see my mother strolling across the cafeteria, heading this way. She's not the most popular hero here in the city; as a matter of fact, there's a guy who can talk to inanimate objects--he was named the official hero of Dayotonville . Yeah, that bad.
My mother strolls through a plethora of jeers and boo's flicking off the entire student body until she arrived at our table. "Hey babe, I just came to check on you. How's school?" She asks, now I really have to watch what I think because she's a mind-reader with no sense of privacy. "School...is great... I met some pretty cool people already. MOM!" I manage to squeak out. Almost on cue, Amir returned just long enough to see my mother grab his groin and run off again. "They most certainly aren't cool," My mom openly insults, washing her eyes over Akilah.
"MOM!" I hissed. Akilah didn't seem to mind; in fact, she thought the whole thing was funny--I'm glad someone does. "I'm going to be out of town for a couple of days. Ashley and I are continuing our investigation; I've arranged someone to watch you while I'm gone. You better not give her a hard time, NO BOYS in my house, you got it?"
My head hangs low. I can see people from the other table eavesdropping. Akilah is laughing; for however long I'm at this school, my mom pretty much made sure I'd sit at this table. "Mari, repeat after me."
"No, boys, mom," I repeat, feeling a fit of inexplicable anger swelling in my bosom. "Ms. Liafador, Maricela, has joined Luna's order; we will need somewhere to meet and discuss ideas for our club. Will you not even make an exception for Amir?"
My mom pointed in the direction that Amir ran off in an immediately caved. "Oh yeah, he's fine; if he manages to get either of your milkshakes, I'll be surprised. He doesn't seem like he's following the straightest path if you know what I mean."
"MOM!"
I gather, she sensed that I'd had enough of her intrusion because she leaned over the table, grazed my forehead with her lips, and prepared to depart. "Um. Ms. Liafador," Akilah called out, and I swear I nearly smacked her.
"If you're going to be away, perhaps you could leave Mari some money to help us set up the clubhouse?" My mom looks at Akilah, her pencil-like eyebrow at maximum height before opening her phone and transferring me 15000 credits. 'Holy shit!' I think turning to Akilah, wondering how the hell she managed to do that.
"What everyone knows that if someone else asks parents for something, they're more likely to say yes." She says, shrugging her shoulders. 'I think I like Akilah.' "So, we're good to meet at your house later?" She asks. I nod out of selfishness. I don't want to go to Amir's house, and judging from Akilah's insistence that we do it at my home, she's trying to keep me from her space--for a reason.
"Sure, give me a few to figure out who's watching me before you guys come through. Let's shoot for 5?"
"I can't let's shoot for sometime after night time prayer?" I fix my lips to ask what time that is, but I never get an answer as the bell rings and we're on our way to the next class. That's when it hit me, I never touched my food.
End of the Day
Luckily the first day is more admin stuff than anything, save for history and math. I'm able to push through the last couple of hours of classes to go home and pig out, but that's when I remembered Cassia.
I stormed up to her locker, slammed it closed just as she had done mine. Instead of the deer in the headlights look, she looked rather soulless, as if she wasn't spiritually here. "Hello, Order of Luna," She calls out, cracking a lifeless smile.
"I know it was you," I say. "I can't read minds, Mari." She says, trying to break from my forearm as I did earlier, only she can't. I've enhanced myself with magic. "Whatever, tomorrow, you and I will fight," I say it, and it's like a lightbulb goes off in her head. Here's the emotion, the sly grin, the devious intentions showing behind her cerulean eyes. "Ohhh, I do have new knives I've been wishing to use."
"Tomorrow on the roof, before school starts, you and me. If I win, you have to join the Order of Luna, but..." I open my mouth, but she beats me to it. "If I win, you have to grant me a fairy promise." It takes me off guard; how the hell does she know that?
The only person I ever told about a fairy promise is Alex, but he wouldn't have said anything to her. I'm curious about her reasons, but I simply nod. Every time I think I figured her out, she merely one more step ahead of me.
My thoughts are consumed by what a girl like her could want with a fairy promise, thoughts that followed me all the way home. A fairy promise is my most potent form of magic, so powerful I'm a slave to it. Once I agree to a Fairy Promise, I cannot back out of it, even if that means killing someone. Now I'm a bit scared; X was one of the only people who expertly hid her abilities well in the Academy. If I went too powerful, I could kill her--If I underestimated her, she could beat me.
I give a depleted wave to the receptionist as I lethargically enter our complex; I'm so exhausted I no longer care to wait for the elevator. I dip into a pool of darkness and appear in my room, dropping my bags on the floor before plopping on my bed.
The smell of smoke forces me back up and into the kitchen. I see my Aunt trying her hardest to burn down the damn building. "What are you doing here?" The moment I ask, I remembered my conversation with my mother. "Oh good lord," at this moment, I'm defeated not because my Aunt nearly burned down our home; but because a robot of my Aunt almost burned down our house.
Like my grandfather, my Aunt retreated to the world beyond. I haven't actually seen her in some time, but the fact that she created a robot to be my sitter is insulting.
"Pancakes, Mari, Pancakes!" The robot called out, as pissed as I am; it still brought a smile to my face. This thing was programmed to take care of me, but most importantly...listen."Will your friend be eating too?" Robo-Maya asks. I assume she's defective, but she seems to be on point as another woman enters my view.
