Chapter One: Guardian of Senshi
It was impossible not to notice the tall, elegant girl from where she sat, stubbornly ignoring the teacher while writing away furiously on a pad of paper. No one was sitting at the desks surrounding her, despite the fact that she clearly had an ideal spot. She was right near the windows, not too close to the front that she'd be right in the teacher's eye-line, or too far to the back that she'd be a target for extra supervision. In fact where she had placed herself was perfect positioning, leaving her constantly bathed in sunlight, yet the places in front, behind and to the side were all completely empty. Yet she didn't seem to either notice it, either that or she didn't care, seeming perfectly content where she was in the silent room. Scribbling away in her book, bathing in the sunlight that only further illuminated the golden-brown ringlets that shone brightly from where they were thrown in a hastily done high ponytail.
Her brow was furrowed in concentration as she tapped away with her foot against the table leg to a distinct tune, popping her small, pink lips on occasion to go with the song. Biting on the end of her pen habitually, with straight white teeth as she tried to figure out what came next in her composition. Seeming to have worked it out after a moment, her overlarge, sapphire eyes lighting up in realisation, she dotted out some notes on the blank music bars imprinted on the paper. She seemed to be on a roll when all of a sudden, someone interrupted her thoughts.
'Miss Franklin,' barked a voice.
The girl made a face at the book before looking up innocently, 'Yes Miss Aristra?' she replied easily, like she hadn't been doing anything wrong in the slightest, her clear irratance at being interrupted displayed all too clearly.
Her math's teacher was far from buying the innocent act though as she snapped, 'What are you doing? I was explaining the equation necessary to do this unit, it's a new topic; you need to be paying attention-'
'So when were you getting around to explaining that the answer to that is- three hundred and sixty eight point nine four six,' she sighed leaning around the teacher to barely glance at the board before responding.
The teacher looked between her, the board, and then the sheet of paper with her answers scrawled on it, 'How did you...?'
'She's a bitchy know it all that's how,' drawled a voice from the other side of the room.
'Enough Mr. Brown,' the teacher insisted before turning back to the girl, 'Miss Franklin, you are a very bright girl, but your work ethic is what is letting you down. What are you even doing?' she said scooping the book off her table.
'Composing,' she said lightly, 'and why should I pay attention when I'm topping the class without having to listen to you ramble about things that we will never use?'
'This will be in your exam Miss Franklin.'
'Interesting, what could we use it for after the exam is over?' she sighed boredly and as the teacher struggled to respond she asked innocently, 'Well? Can't you think of anything?... No? Well then, I guess you can give me my book back.'
'I don't have to call your brother to discuss your attitude again, do I Miss Franklin?' the teacher growled through her teeth.
This was met by a long, exasperated sigh followed by a simple, 'No Miss Aristra, I'll pay attention for your sake.'
With a patronising smile she pulled the book out of the teachers hand and sat up with mock attentiveness. But within five minutes she'd gone back to writing musical notes across her page. The teacher could only sigh and attempt to ignore her; the sounds of her scribbling away in her book, occasionally starting to tap out rhythms with her foot or pen against the table echoing through the otherwise silent classroom. But the moment the bell went, she was the first out the door, physically shoving the other students out the way, and continuing to force a path through the masses until she got out of the school gates.
She looked around for a few seconds and almost instantly was met with a call of, 'Lyra!'
A man stood nearby, around twenty, just over six feet tall and seeing as he was the only one who'd noticed her, it was clear he was the one to call out to her. He was slim with definite muscles and broad shoulders. A strong jaw, straight nose, thin mouth and ocean blue eyes made up his rather strikingly attractive face. He seemed to exhibit a dark persona in general, which seemed to match the sunglasses sticking out of his pocket, the aura of grim humour almost radiating from him. Yet at the same time he was smiling easily at the girl, which somehow changing him from stern and imposing, to handsome and carefree by something as simple as the grin that lit up his face.
A beam crossed the girl's expression as she turned and ran to hug the elder boy, 'Darien,' she giggled into his chest, before looking up at him smirking, 'Class as painful as ever?'
'I had a mildly interesting lecture today as much of a shock that must be,' he replied chuckling softly, 'And now I've got fifteen minutes to get you home before work, so move it sis, I can't be late again, I'll get murdered and my boss hates me enough as it is.'
'Just to make it easier on you, we can go straight to your work and I'll just walk over to the crown, chill with Andrew for a while,' she smirked as she accepted the helmet he was holding out to her.
'Which I'm assuming is code for annoy him for an hour or two, while pinching free drinks and helping yourself to the food behind the counter? You practically live there, you might as well start paying board,' Darien retaliated, climbing onto the motorcycle.
She just laughed before jumping up behind him and noticing a group of other students staring at her, as per usual, with cruel leers lighting their expressions. Not seeming shaken in the slight she mock saluted them boredly slinging on her helmet, nudging Darien to let him know she was ready to go. He smiled at her softly; glad as per usual she wasn't letting the creeps at her school get to her like most teenagers would have. And hearing Lyra already clicking her tongue impatiently, he flipped down the visor on his helmet, cracked his neck and revved the engine, as they disappeared from the school parking lot.
…
It had been an hour or two since Darien had dropped Lyra off at the arcade, and she'd long run out of productive things to do. She'd done all of her homework begrudgingly, hinting it with as many shots at the teacher as possible, annoyed Andrew, tripped him three times, taken milkshakes off trays as the staff walked past and helped herself to food. And with all of that out of the way she was currently back to composing. She'd had a tune in her head that entire math's lesson and it had been driving her mad trying to figure out what the notes were, because it was a little hard to pinpoint. The fact she didn't even know what instrument was playing in her head was not making it any easier. She was singing the tune under her breath, adding some more notes to the page when she felt her phone vibrate against her hip; sighing to herself she fished it out of her pocket:
M: My parents are freaking out over nothing again, I get home fifteen minutes laterthan they expected and suddenly I must be doing drugs like the "little rebel" girls do. Just because I was giggling and jumpy when I get home does not mean I'm high. Thanks for the trust vote mum and dad.
Lyra snorted with laughter as she read the e-mail, she knew her best friend back to front and really couldn't understand why her parents could have hit that conclusion over something this small. They should have known by now that their daughter had no concept of time. Besides anything that looked like she might be high to a stranger, was her typical sugar-rushed state. One drop of caffeine or sugar, and she'd be starting a sing-a-long with strangers on the bus ride home.
She'd been living in England for the last year and a half, and despite the fact Lyra had barely known her before she'd left, they'd started talking to each other online though. And somehow, they'd grown closer with each other than they were with anyone else. They would often end up staying up to ungodly hours e-mailing each other and skyping constantly because the time zones weren't exactly corresponding with one another. Not that they minded too much about the loss of sleep, it just made it obvious how much it meant to be able to talk to each other.
She went to reply to her e-mail, a smirk coming to her face, when suddenly she felt someone standing over her, and she looked up boredly, meeting the extremely dark eyes of Toby Brown which glinted with detest as he loomed over her as per usual, 'Got a problem Nudnik?'
'Just observing the beast in her natural habitat,' he growled softly.
Lyra suppressed an eye roll and a sigh, Toby was the golden boy at Shiba Kōen, he was that one guy who couldn't do anything wrong. He had this effortlessly messy, yet somehow styled black hair, that all of the guys in the school tried to recreate and failed. He was tall, well-muscled with a signature charm smile that could get him out of any situation so he never got pulled up on his ritual mistreatment and bullying of other students. He was smart, athletic, artistic, rich and good looking, so he ticked the boxes on every girl's wish list and he knew it all too well. He only seemed to have one little problem in his life. A problem which he would constantly try and fail to eradicate. And that problem was Lyra.
She blinked up at him, completely unfazed by his attempt to intimidate her, already bored by the situation, 'Wow, come up with that one all by yourself huh? Or is it something you heard from the animal planet crew when they were filming you and your girlfriend's morning make out session near the school gates? Something so obscene and animalistic clearly belongs on the discovery channel,' she drawled in response.
He glared at her, intense hatred burning in his eyes; one thing that he hated about her more than anything else, was no matter how witty or smart an insult he threw at her, she always had response that would trump his. And it didn't have to take a second for her to think of it. She was the girl who said what everyone else was thinking but would have never had the guts to say. She was the one who said in the right moment, all the things you would have thought of after the argument was over. That was the only real way to describe Lyra, and that made her a pain in the ass to Toby.
'What do you want Nudnik?' Lyra sighed again as he glared at her, habitually slipping into her usual mocking name for him.
'Nothing,' he said bluntly and turned back to the booth which was overflowing with his friends.
'I thought you were going to make her to move so we can have another booth,' said the nasally whine of his girlfriend Rose.
Toby's response was quiet and relaxed, 'Relax babe, don't worry about it, like we want something that she's contaminated,' he said with a smarmy grin, before kissing Rose passionately.
Lyra rolled her eyes, making a retching sound, why did he have to insist on so much PDA? It was disgusting. He'd had at least six other girlfriends that were the exact same as this current one. They were all either dancers or fashionistas whose emotions could be controlled by jewellery. The bitchy, slutty, petty, superior, needy, snobby gold-digger thing seemed to be a reoccurring factor that came almost like a brand name with them. Each during their time dating Toby would gain a taste for targeting Lyra and kept it even after they eventually broke up. So Lyra had now ended up with a whole group of people whose existences were seemingly dedicated to tormenting her.
Lyra had arrived at Shiba Kōen two and a half years ago, and the moment she arrived somehow she and Toby had ended up at each other's throats. The fact that the moment she'd shown up, the first thing she'd done was correct him, did not help this in the slightest. The one thing that they were more ultra-competitive than anything else was debating. Each year the school would hold a debating competition, and both of them would enter purely to try to one up the other. She'd won all three competitions, though one of them purely because she'd gotten so annoyed at him she'd knocked him out. He wasn't conscious so he couldn't accept the award, thus she'd won by default.
She smirked slightly at the memory before turning back to her phone and e-mailing one of the very few people that she considered worth her time:
L: Oh honey, when will they learn? Seriously, they moved away practically due to your request to get you away from the bastards at school who no doubt do that sort of stuff.
The response from her friend was almost instant and annoyingly knowing:
M: They probably won't get it for a long time… You just had another run in with Toby? Didn't you? I can practically feel you fuming from here.
Lyra rolled her eyes and wrote out a few more notes onto the page, her ringtone having reminding her of the tune, before she replied:
L: Still don't know how you can always tell. And don't judge me for being pissed after talking to him. You're the one who used to be his best friend hun, you know how much of a bastard he can be, and I'm his favourite target remember?
She knew she would have shut her up for now, and turned to go back to her composition, barely picking up the book before she met with someone putting two cans of drink down on her table, 'Break time,' Andrew laughed sitting down across from her.
'You get breaks? I thought they couldn't keep the place standing for longer than two minutes without you fussing over every last detail,' she said with a pestering smirk lighting her face.
'I know, I've been sitting down for a whole ten seconds and there hasn't been a fire yet!' Andrew exclaimed jokingly, making both of them laugh.
She'd known Andrew for years, he was Darien's best friend after all, and although Darien was in college now, Andrew hadn't gone. Insisting that he would prefer to work in the family arcade/café till he had enough money to not juggle both when he eventually figured out what he wanted to do. He treated her just as much of a little sister as Darien did, well ever since she forced him to ask out his now steady girlfriend Rita. His sister Lizzie was the same age as Lyra as well as being one of her few friends, which made for a lot of fun when both pairs of siblings ended up playing cards for hours at a time. It wasn't hard for him to guess what was on Lyra's mind though now that they weren't playing poker, as he could see the furrow of irritation in her brows.
'Those little creeps annoying you again Lyra? I could kick them out if you wanted me to,' he offered.
'You'd need a lot more meat on your bones to accomplish that one Andrew,' she replied teasingly.
Andrew faked offence, sighing as he gripping her hand gently for comfort before tapping her book to see if he could have a look, and when she nodded he slid it across the table and started looking at the piece, '…This is pretty elaborate Lyra, using it for your half yearly?'
'Na, probably not. That's ages away; I just had it in my head and needed to get it down on paper before I forgot it. Still haven't entirely figure out instruments this would be in… or the tempo. Guess it's kind of a bit random at the moment.'
Andrew just laughed, shaking his head at her. He'd done music through high school, and had gotten pretty high marks for it. Darien had done drama despite being in a firm "I don't talk to people" phase through most of his schooling life. Their friendship had started when they'd been forced to collaborate on the school's musical. Dealing with the superficial snobs had made them vent to each other, which along the way turned them into pretty great friends.
'Instruments and tempo are missing huh? The things of common folk are all irrelevancies to your genius aren't they?' he grinned, 'Still don't know how you do it, I had to compose things in high school, but I definitely couldn't do anything to this extent.'
She smiled at him before saying mockingly, 'Well you're not the protégée now are you?' Andrew laughed, knowing she was joking, and they continued to tease each other back and forth for several moments.
Though all of a sudden a strange feeling swept over Lyra, like someone had turned the lights out suddenly, 'Lyra… are you okay? You've gone a bit pale,' Andrew asked in concern, but his voice sounded very far away.
She choked on air, as weird gold pulses swept through her vision, she gripped the table hard, panicking as she heard Andrew's cry of alarm, 'Lyra!?'
But she couldn't respond, she had to get out of there, she never knew what was going to happen when it started, and it usually wasn't good. She blindly fumbled her way into the bathroom, trying to block it off for just long enough for her to hide in a stall, somehow she managed to get in and lock the door before she completely collapsed on the floor. She was leaning against the wall, back aching as all of a sudden the vision took over, in a voice so booming and loud that it nearly made her brain explode:
Tonight. It shall begin Lyrana.
She vaguely could feel her internal-self protesting, as she flailed on the ground like she was having a seizure, unable to stop herself from spasming.
The Negaverse shall attack on that night. Tonight Lyrana.
She gave a scream of anguish, the pain too much as she knew she must have been ramming continuously against the walls of the cubicle, unable to control her thrashing.
You must find them Lyrana. You must find them. Find them or let the world be forever obliterated. The choice is yours. The warrior of the moon is approaching, it is time.
She screamed one last time, as the noise rang through her head, making her feel like she was about to vomit and internally combust. She screeched in pain, curling into a little ball, knowing that the vision was over, but having no idea what she could do, tears in her eyes as she shakily forced herself to breathe.
'Lyra, Lyra!'
'Shut up,' she hissed through her teeth.
'Come on, open your eyes, relax, it's all okay, let me look at you,' came the voice again, but in a quiet, soothing tone.
She vaguely opened her eyes and realized she wasn't in a stall anymore; in fact she was in the middle of the bathroom floor which she felt a surge of relief upon realizing that it was at least kept pretty clean. But that was when she noticed that there were chunks of wood all around her, and she realized that no one had pulled her out of the stall; she'd broken through the door while flailing around. She could see girls surrounding her, and boys' craning their necks to see what was going on from the bathroom door, and she realized then and there how much of a scene she'd just made.
'Um...' she said hesitantly.
'Lyra, look at me,' she turned realising that Andrew was crouching there, looking over her, the concern lighting his face in the extreme, 'Are you okay? What happened?'
She looked at him, and realized that if she shook it off like she usually did, she would seem like she'd done this all for attention, and that she wasn't going to let happen, 'I-I... I don't know... I...' she trailed off and let some of the stray tears that had built up because the pain she'd managed to cause herself.
Andrew's face grew heavier in concern, and he looked around to the bunch of school kids at the door, 'Someone run down the road and go get her brother from the music store round the corner, ask for Darien, please, she needs him.'
Lyra didn't even bother to see who went, but she could hear someone running off, as she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them, not wanting to meet the eyes of those surrounding her. Before lightly reaching up to touch her forehead, suddenly relieved for the way she grew her fringe, knowing that without it, everyone would have seen the way the symbol would have been glowing on her forehead. After a few minutes, she looked up and saw that Andrew was still fussing over her like a mother hen, and that everyone was still staring at her.
'Sorry about the door Andrew,' she murmured.
Andrew gave a weak laugh of relief before saying, 'it's okay Lyra, now come on, are you hurt?'
'Few scratches, bruises, there's nothing to be worry about,' she said through her teeth, as she looked at the cuts on her arms, knowing how horrible it looked.
'Are you sure? You did hit your head pretty hard, and you did have a fit. You need to go see a doctor, get yourself tested for-'
'I'm okay Andrew, really, relax, just… just make them stop staring at me,' she said awkwardly, knowing that this wasn't any medical problem.
'Okay everyone, give her some space-' Andrew began before suddenly charging through the door came one person no one would ever expect to see in the girl's bathroom, or in such a heavily frantic state.
'Lyra, what happened? Are you okay? What do you-?' Darien exclaimed.
'Calm down smother hen,' she said shoving him away weakly.
'We are taking you to a doctor right now,' he insisted.
'I'm fine-'
'You had a seizure Lyra, you are not fine,' Andrew insisted.
'Wait what?!' Darien demanded.
'Don't yell,' Lyra groaned hands over her ears, 'Just take me home.'
'Okay, okay,' Darien said gently before pulling the younger girl to her feet, cradling her under one arm slightly, before noticing the people still blocking the door and barking cruelly, 'Move out of our way half-wits, now!'
'Darien,' she groaned burying her head into his chest, 'Stop yelling.'
'Sorry lil one, now let's get you out of here.'
…
'Hey Andy, just thought I'd give you an update on what's going on, before your head explodes,' Darien said as his friend answered his call.
'My head or yours?'
Darien rolled his eyes, unimpressed with his friends comment before saying, 'Do you want to know what's happening or not?'
'Go straight ahead mother hen.'
'Shut up, she's the only family I have,' he laughed into the phone-line, 'I just took her to the local GP, he's giving her a check over now, but she wouldn't let me come in with her. Especially seeing as I forgot to bring that weird card thing that proves I'm her legal guardian.'
'Waiting outside freaking yourself out huh? How's she feeling?'
'You know Lyra, she's decided she's fine and no one can convince her otherwise,' Darien sighed impatiently, 'You could tell her she's terminal and she'd still insist it's a mild cold.'
'You turn into a wimp when you get sick so I guess someone has to be able to handle a sniffle or two.'
'Shut up Andrew-'Darien began, but that was when he felt something hit him on the head, 'I'll call you back.
He hung up the phone and scooped up the crumpled piece of paper from the ground, even as he noticed someone else running over, clearly having been the one to throw it. He scanned the paper and before the girl had even reached him he looked up with his most intimidating smirk on his face and said:
'A thirty huh? Admirable,' and before the girl could respond he tilted down his sunglasses to examine her and said, 'So are you stupid or just incredibly lazy?'
The short, petite girl stared up at him, anger spreading across her flushed face, 'Who asked your opinion jerk?' she snapped, snatching the paper from his hand.
He examined the girl boredly, and despite his general distaste he was already feeling towards her, even he had to admit she was remarkably pretty. Impossibly long blonde hair tied up in odangos, crystal blue eyes and a pretty face even when rippling with anger. She couldn't be much older than Lyra, around sixteen, even if she was much shorter and more petite. Though despite the air of innocence that seemed to waft in a halo around her, he just felt compelled to insult her, and he was in a bad enough mood to ignore his better nature.
'Calm your farm meatball head, why snap at me for making one comment when I'm sure your teacher does enough lecturing of her own on such a slug-brained student?' he shrugged insulting her calmly but mercilessly.
The younger girl looked offended and ready to do something drastic when all of a sudden a familiar voice spoke up, 'Darien, being worried about me does not give you permission to take it out on a stranger.'
Darien turned to face her, relief flooding through his system as he saw Lyra standing against the door looking somewhere between amused and exasperated, 'Lyra-'
'Ah-ah, no talking,' she said to him forcefully, pushing him away before turning to the girl, 'Sorry about my brother, are you okay?'
'It's fine… he's probably right about the grade anyway,' she said eyes welling up with tears which made Darien take at least six steps backwards not liking the look of this situation, 'Mum is going to murder me-'
Seeing the impending tantrum, Lyra intervened hastily, 'Sweetie, sweetie calm down, one failed test is nothing to worry about. Just put in the work and you'll do better next time.'
The girl brightened for a second as Lyra touched her shoulder in comfort gently, but even as the girl seemed to realise something and get more upset, Lyra's expression changed. A surprised look was crossing its way through her features as she noticed that spinning its way around her hand, invisible to anyone else, was a spinning twine of silver light. Lyra drew back her hand hastily, which would have been suspicious under any other circumstances except for it was exactly that moment the girl suddenly burst into heavy, wailing tears as she cried out:
'It's not just this test, it's all of them!' she exclaimed.
'Um… Okay, hey, come on, you need sugar,' Lyra said dragging her towards a café on the corner, lacking all tact and delicacy, but still feeling the need to handle the situation.
'Lyra, we don't know her, where are you going?-'Darien yelled.
'You made her cry! Now I have to deal with the consequences!'
…
'…Are you sure you don't want me to pay you back for this?' the girl asked hesitantly, sipping on the milkshake Lyra had bought her.
'I'm sure,' Lyra said bluntly, picking at the pastry she'd brought herself.
'…Do you want to invite your brother inside? He's been there for half an hour now.'
'I told him to go home, it's his own damn fault if he wants to linger around,' Lyra snorted.
'… Would you-'
'Let it go honey, seriously, being nice to strangers is practically my specialty, knowing them properly is generally what ruins them for me,' Lyra sighed, '…But I wouldn't mind knowing your name, I'm Lyrana Franklin, but I tend to go by Lyra. Your turn sweetie.'
'Oh right, I'm Serena Tsukino… I'm sorry I've been such a bother.'
Lyra was still laughing internally off hearing the name even as she assured her, 'It's not a bother at all Serena, really, my brother can be a bit of an asshole; I'm used to this sort of thing. Besides I can understand the pressure to succeed-'
'Wait a second, that uniform, you go to that school only millionaires can afford!' Serena blabbed out completely cutting across her.
'The reputation of Shiba Kōen does sort of supersede itself, I'm not loaded Serena, really, I'm there on scholarship. They bring in a bunch of kids every year to up the school's average, and so that they get bragging rights if we end up successful,' Lyra explained hastily, hating how everyone assumed she was rich just off her uniform.
'So you're one of the brainiacs they call in!?' Serena asked in surprise.
'I guess,' Lyra shrugged but knew she couldn't leave it at that, she was supposed to be trying to making her feel better, but before she could say anything, Serena asked her something else.
'Then what do you mean about understanding pressure to succeed? You're a genius, why would you be under pressure?' Serena asked shyly.
Lyra hesitated before coming up with something, 'Well, I'm one definition for smart, and I know I need to grow in other ways. Here, look at this.'
Lyra stretched out her arm, where a thick bangle was clamped around her wrist. It was two lines of gold with a sun keeping them at a set distance from another, planets stretched out from it, slight engravings into them to match the surface of each planet, there was even a tiny moon circling the earth, and a ring around Saturn. They were all made out of gold except the one clearly made to represent Venus, which was a deep orange-yellow amber instead, forcing the attention to it.
Serena was fascinated as she stared at it, clearly intrigued, 'Wow, that's amazing, where did you get this?'
'Family heirloom,' Lyra lied easily, it was her constant cover story for it as she wasn't capable of removing it, 'But think about something for me, why is it considered valuable?'
'It's gold, of course it's valuable!' Serena exclaimed, not understanding the point.
'But why is gold valuable?' Lyra asked simply.
Serena's brow furrowed, 'I don't know what you mean, gold is so rare and-'
'It really isn't that rare, it's valuable because society has deemed it precious. In Ancient China they thought jade was far more valuable. What about countries where gold isn't found or was never dug up until last century? Clearly they thought something was valuable until society came to an agreement that gold was a precious metal,' Lyra said easily, smiling at her.
Serena looked confused still, 'Ah…'
'Society has deemed gold is precious. Just like they have deemed what I know as intelligence,' Lyra explained, but at Serena's look of uncertainty, she continued, 'You see, I have what's called an advanced eidetic memory, anything I read, hear, smell, see, I'll remember it, which is why I can do so well without trying when it comes to school work. I know exactly what the answer is. But that doesn't mean that I understand it on the same level that someone like you would. I mean when I saw your expression just before we came here, I recognized it as you being upset. On the other hand if you'd seen the expression on my face, or on one of your friends faces, you'd jump straight to why and try to figure out how to make them feel better, you wouldn't need to process the idea of "upset" first.'
Serena nodded vaguely, seeming to understand, 'I think I know what you're getting at…' she said awkwardly.
'I feel like sometimes this country, this society, puts far too much emphasis on book smarts. Creativity, street smarts, strategy, outside of the box thinking, people smarts; it all seems to be valued less, so they've decided which intelligence is valuable to them. That doesn't mean you're not smart, it means that you just have other talents, and you have to figure out how to play them to your own advantage,' Lyra said gently.
'Okay… Yeah, I think I get it, I mean, I may be useless at math, but the moment that someone is upset I know how to fix it, I may not be able to handle exam conditions, but I could tell you exactly where to find the best doughnuts or sweets in the city,' Serena said slowly, not sure how it was a good thing.
'Exactly, and I'm sure the doughnut trick helps you a lot, you know how to have a better relationship with people, but unfortunately the schooling system, they can't test that, but that doesn't mean you're any less smart,' Lyra said soothingly, seeming to have been relieved she'd helped her.
'Thank you… that makes me feel… a lot better, I mean it's not going to help mum's reaction when she sees this grade, but at least I don't have to feel like an idiot about it,' Serena smiled.
'Exactly, and you know what…' Lyra hesitated dramatically, to lead up to what had been her entire intention of bringing her in here, making sure Serena stayed in regular contact with her, which would give Lyra the excuse to keep an eye on her, 'Why don't you tell your mother that you aren't going to have problems with this anymore? You've sorted it out yourself; I can make sure that you do some studying, rather than procrastinating the entire time.'
'Who said that I procrastinate-?' Serena began but she saw the smirk on Lyra' face and said, 'Okay, I just admitted it… So how would you make sure I study?'
'Simple, I'll tutor you,' Lyra said simply.
'…You'd do that?'
'Yes.'
'Willingly?'
'Yes.'
'I don't have to bribe you?'
'No.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yes! Seriously, pay me in food, I'll be one happy chappy,' Lyra shrugged, 'besides, it'll be fun. So what do you say?'
'Well okay then!' Serena said cheerfully, 'That would be great!'
'Here,' Lyra laughed before pulling a pen out of her pocket, and scribbling a string of numbers on her hand, 'Call me when you need some help. Now unfortunately, I've got to get going, can't leave Darien standing out there for much longer before he wonders off like a lost toddler.'
'Thanks so much Lyra, this means a lot to me,' Serena said sincerely.
'No problem sweetie, I'll see you around,' Lyra smiled, before putting down some money on the bill, and walking out, waving absent mindedly.
The moment Lyra got out of the café, Darien rushed to her instantly, 'What the hell was that?'
'I was trying to be nice,' Lyra said, raising an eyebrow, taking her satchel bag off him, tossing it over her shoulder.
'You? Since when? The only people your nice to without some kind of ulterior motive are small children- oh wait that explains it!' Darien exclaimed.
Lyra rolled her eyes heavily, 'She's in my grade Darien.'
'Doesn't mean she isn't childish-'
'Just because she hasn't had twisted things happen to her like you and me doesn't make her an unworthy fool,' Lyra snapped, 'she's nice enough-'
'And I'm sure plenty of people at your school are but you hate them all.'
Lyra turned to glare at her older brother, before saying sourly, 'Listen here Darien. I don't have many friends, no one at that school talks to me because they're rich, insufferable bitches and bastards who only think about themselves, hierarchy and what everyone else seems to think about them. I don't have many friends; I have two that are my own age, and one's not even in the country.'
'You have Lizzie-'
'I know that! But that's one person, you know what, stop questioning me; I don't need to explain trying to be human to an alien like you!' Lyra snapped forcefully, 'Really, I should be questioning you why you're so compelled to insult her. Aren't you the one who's usually trying to stop me doing that kind of thing?'
Darien gritted his teeth before changing the subject, knowing he'd lost this argument, 'What did the doctor say?'
'About what?'
'You had a seizure!' he exclaimed.
'It's nothing,' Lyra lied effortlessly, but she felt bad about having to do so, 'Look, I used to get stress induced epilepsy when I was a kid, he just told me to take it easy and if it happens again to come back, it's nothing to worry about.'
'Epilepsy… and you never mentioned this?!' he demanded.
'Didn't seem relevant, haven't had one in about three years,' Lyra sighed, still lying, wondering why it was just so easy for her to lie to the only family she had.
'Any other medical conditions you want to mention?' Darien responded clearly aggravated.
'Sort of, if I use the wrong shampoo my hair just turns into straw and-'
'Okay! That is enough!' Darien groaned.
'Thought so,' Lyra laughed, flicking through her bag, rolling her eyes, knowing that the moment she talked about something girly he'd stop listening, 'Darien... Where's my composition book?' she questioned.
'Oh ah... I must have left it at the crown... heh heh...'
'You. Did. WHAT!?'
This is the official reboot of my first fanfiction, Dawnlight, which I decided to give a big polish, redo parts of the storyline and upload once more with the quality writing ability I am capable of producing now. So readers both old and new give me your feedback, let me know what you think of my original characters, how I'm portraying characters from the original series, and anything you find interesting or note worthy in the unfolding chapters.
xxo
Princess Selina