Ashley Stuff: So, this is an alternate universe. Um. TsunTsunSama keeps calling it AU. So, that. It's about Maka, focusing on her in a sort of real world high school, going through her parents divorce. I wrote a similar story a while back, but... well. There wasn't any Soul, and I quit after a few pages. It got too depressing. But, a lot of this is, um, a little painfully autobiographical. Edited, as always, by Tsun. And by edited, I mean she replaces all my crappy writing with her awesome writing. Seriously. I can't do it. I try and write like she does and it comes out a mess... But she also complains bitterly that I can do better "mainstream" writing. Like, check out her stories. They're all so trippy... and I haven't even finished one... But don't make Tsun feel left out... she's the reason I'm here and she's basically the one who rewrites everything. I know she would hit me for writing this, but I'm going to say check out her stuff too, okay guys? (Sorry Rosie Sempai! I'll buy you a cookie or something...) Anyway, please, review, we both love to have them.
"This time will be better sweetie." My mama told me as we finished packing. "I know you don't want to leave, but your father and I have decided things aren't working here." She tried to smile, but it came out tight lipped, cutting her face like a razor. I attempted to smile back.
"Yeah. It's fine. I'll be okay." It wasn't like I had any say in the matter. We moved every year, always to a new job, usually in a new state. And always it was in an attempt to stop the fighting.
"Are you two done?" Papa called from down the stairs.
"We put off Maka's stuff until last. It might take a few more minutes."
"Dammit, we're going to be late!" Spirit growled.
"Honey, I'm sorry, we still need to pack Maka's stuff!" It went downhill from there. I pulled out earbuds and started playing something, tuning the two out.
"Always taking your fucking sweet-" The volume went up and the voices went out. I hummed and tapped out the rhythm as I folded clothes and stuffed them into boxes. By that point mama had left the room, downstairs to scream at her husband. I finished three songs in the time it took to finish the room. Ten minutes. They had started a fight over ten minutes. My face felt wet, and almost absently I noticed the salty drops falling on the boxes as I took them downstairs. But it didn't go any further than my eyes. Always keep a brave face. The first rule I had learned.
-scream-
It hardly seemed like any time before I was being shaken awake for the start of my new school.
"First day being a junior! Wake up!" Mama murmured, rubbing my shoulder.
"Mhmm." I yawned, stretched, and stood up, shambling around my room to look for real clothes.
"Is oatmeal okay?" Mama asks from the kitchen.
"Mhmm." I pulled on a white t-shirt and red plaid skirt with black pantyhose underneath, and pulled my ash blonde hair into a pair of thin long pigtails that hung down the sides of my face. Then I ghosted out the door and to the table for the oatmeal. Minutes later I had on shoes and my backpack.
"Work hard today!" Mama called after me.
"Always." I murmur, then slip out. The bus arrives soon after. A double row of faces each turned to give me a quick glance. Girl. Skinny. New. Boring. Then they all went back to being kids on a bus at seven in the morning. I sat down alone in the back and watched the trees as they whipped by.
-solitude-
The school was large, made of faded red bricks that change into graffiti at the bottom, so thick that it seemed more like a mass of paint than a wall. I walked in nervously, looking around at hundreds of teeming people. All strange, all new. I walked into the office.
"I'm, um, Maka? Maka Albarn?" I muttered to the woman behind the desk, so quiet that I was almost whispering. "I need my schedule, please."
"Sweetie, why didn't you get one earlier?" The woman replied. Like it was my fault I had just moved in yesterday, that I had never been here before.
"I'm sorry." Is how I answered. "But please, I don't know what classes I have." That provoked an irritated sigh, but moments later I was handed a warm, freshly printed schedule. I scurried out, scanning it quickly. PE first. But... where was it... I walked quickly outside, looking for a gym.
There was a likely suspect; a large wooden structure that looked almost like a barn. I headed for it, following a small stream of students doing the same thing. When I got in, I could see a group of students, all wearing athletic clothes, clustered around a middle aged guy. He was tall, and wore a lab coat, with greasy grey hair that fell almost to his shoulders. The bell rung just as I set my bookbag on the bleachers and joined the group.
"You aren't dressed out." The man in the lab coat told me disinterestedly. "Do better next time. Athletic clothes, remember." I looked down at myself and blushed. Skirt, pantyhose, slip on shoes. The only thing I hadn't messed up was the shirt.
"Fuckin idiot." Someone muttered. The teacher didn't seem to notice.
"My name is Professor Stein, and I'm only here as a sub while Coach Sid is out." He tilted his head oddly. "Five laps. Go." I took off, jogging awkwardly in my shoes. I had to move weird, almost like a quicker march, but at least I managed to keep up. For a little while. Suddenly I hit someone's leg, sending us both to the floor. My chin cracked on the floor and I tasted blood in my mouth.
"You little bitch!" Someone exclaimed from in front of me. I had tripped one of the absolute biggest guys I had ever seen, a big blonde hulk in a muscle shirt, a rim of unshaven stubble on his jawline. "Gonna have a damn black eye for my date!" He stood up, brushing off a pair of expensive, spotless jeans. "Get the fuck up." He commanded. Meekly, I obeyed. Surely Professor Stein wouldn't let anything bad happen, right? It was going to be just like dealing with papa. Just stand there, take it, and nod until the screaming stopped.
The fist, when it came, caught me completely off guard. I toppled back over, my nose spouting twin red fountains. I tried to push myself up, but my arms were shaking badly. The Professor had seen that, right? Barely, I managed to get my feet under me, and looked up pitifully at the towering boy.
"Please don't..." My voice shook as badly as the rest of me. I was close to tears.
"Shoulda thought of that before the eye." The guy growled. "I'm gonna find you, girlie, after class." I was so afraid that I didn't notice a pair of strange red eyes boring into my face from over the boy's shoulder.
-sob-
I tried to run, after PE. But, of course, that didn't work. The guy and a pair of equally massive friends were waiting for me outside the doors.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, little bitch?" He demanded, shoving me against the wall. I wanted to scream for help, to cry, something. Instead I was still, unmoving, a statue in a plaid skirt.
"'Dis little cunt gave you 'da eye, Tony? Damn." Sniggered one of the cronies.
"Shut the fuck up, Dashawn." Tony growled. "Besides, that's why she's getting payback." He raised his hand to hit me and I cowered, huddling in on myself.
"Shit, Tony, cut it the fuck out!" Dashawn suddenly exclaimed. Tony paused.
"She asked for-" He started to reply.
"Tony! Stop, man!" This time it's his other friend.
"Okay, what has gotten you guys-" Tony began, then gurgled, the words dying in his throat. I looked up. Tony had an arm around his neck, a tanned, muscular arm that was choking him like a steel vise. It belonged to a boy, tall, but not very, with a shock of white spiky hair.
"Man, you're on your own!" Dashawn yelled from a good twenty feet away, the other friend close on his heels as they ran off. "I ain't dealing with the Eater!" Tony gasped and wheezed as the arm tightened, his face going from bright red to purple.
"Please, stop!" I burst out, almost involuntarily. No matter what he was going to do, I didn't want to see Tony hurt like this. The tanned arm snaked away, and Tony fell over, gasping and panting. In two seconds flat he managed to stagger to his feet, choking and coughing and jogging away as fast as he could manage. I was face to face with the guy who had rescued me. His eyes are strange, red, like an albino, and his hair is a snowy white, but his body is tanned.
I nodded gratefully, standing back up to my full height. "Thank you so much, um..." I trailed off. Who was he?
"Eater." The guy murmured, his voice a rough bass. It sounded like he hadn't used it in a while. "My name is Eater."
-savior-
Tsun Stuff: We abused the thesaurus on this one. Ashley read a fanfic where they did something like this and wanted to try it, though I'm not sure how long we can keep using 's'. Oh well, it's a challenge.