Don't make a sound,
Don't say a word.
Splicer's comin' by,
He thinks you're a bird.
Big Sister's here to stay,
She'll stay right by you.
And if you close your eyes real tight,
Maybe it'll all come true.
Thumps resounded amongst the halls as she breathed heavily from exertion. Fear spiked through her as she heard a sound vaguely reminiscent of a whale's call.
But this was no Whale's call. No, it was something infinitely worse.
She scrambled down another hallway, a screech blasting her eardrums from the area ahead of her. There were no side passages to these tunnels. There was no way out.
She scrambled to find a way out, knowing the effort was useless, and then tried to find a way to create a trap of some sort, one where she wasn't going to end up dead.
A second screech blasted her ears to near deafness. The thumps and moans were louder and quicker. Time was running out.
Wild eyes tore across the nearby scenery, the only thing she saw of note were the fishes watching her in interest, perhaps hunger.
A third screech blasted her from behind, right before something long and sharp and infintessimally small stabbed her though the back and out her chest, leaving her helpless as she watched the lumbering behemoth plod down the hall straight towards her. Through the pain, a final fact pierced her mind as surely as the thing had pierced her back. She was finished.
The creature behind her raised her up higher for the approaching behemoth as it glared from his one glowing eye, lifted up his drill, and plunged the sharp and heavy tool straight into her chest before the screaming of the motor filled her ears and very being as it spun in her chest and the pain consumed her. She screamed.
Rachel Dodge shot up in bed, a scream clawing it's way out of her throat before she clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to breath, tears running down her cheeks. She didn't want to wake up her neighbors. Didn't want to worry them. They were such nice people. They shouldn't have to deal with this.
She slowly arose from her nicely made yet inexpensive bed and stepped over to her shower in the bathroom attached to the bedroom. She didn't mind that she was usually a late sleeper, partly because she didn't usually take showers in the morning, or really much care of herself at all beyond eating and sleeping this past week, and she liked having her showers - well, she didn't really wanna call the temperature "lukewarm", but definitely cooler than your average hot shower without being cold beyond the slightest chill. It reminded her of the ocean just to the east of her apartment.
Though, now those happy memories with her dad, the skipper of a boat, were slightly tarnished by nightmares under that same sea.
As she left the bathroom, dripping wet and towel-less while caught between being lethargic after such a long extended and fitful "rest" and energetic after the shower, she pondered what to do with her life. She just didn't know.
A snap was heard as she stumbled to the ground, a hand over her suddenly fluttering heart as it seemed to try to stop as a sharp drive of pain flooded that area of her chest, flaring up with the slightest breath or movement and keeping her paralyzed in fear with her eyes wide and her body unable to move without extreme pain. Shallow breaths filled and fell from her lungs for a few painful, fearful minutes before the pain began to subside and her heart began to behave normally again. For a moment, she thought she caught the smell of the sea on her nose, but she must have imagined it. A moment later saw her on her feet and moving normally, though paranoid that the painful feeling would suddenly come back.
That was her first sign that she'd be in pain at all. It came completely by surprise, caught her very off-guard.
She did not like it, not at all.
The hands of the clock catching her notice, her eyes widened; She really needed to get moving if she wanted to get to class on time. Instead of taking the time to make herself breakfast like usual, she just grabbed a can of premade pasta and a plastic fork and before throwing on a red shirt and a pair of tan cargo pants, skipping underwear for expediency but taking her leather jacket; she didn't want to deal with Spring's cold spats without protection just yet. She ran out the door as she pulled the top off of the can and began to eat it as she ran towards her destination: College.
True, being an Art Major with a few extra miscellaneous courses meant things were fairly relaxed, at least in her opinion, she still did not want to be late and ruin her otherwise perfect reputation. When she was finished with her 'breakfast', she threw away the can in a nearby garbage bin and hoped that her memory was correct in that her art supplies were still in her car, a weatherbeaten white convertable from the 90's that was rather dependable which she had, if memory served, left here for the weekend. She hadn't had any travelling plans, and life had followed suit. Mostly.
On checking the passenger side of her car she found her backpack, much to her happiness, and pulled it (and the art supplies inside) out and ran for her first class of the day. Normally, she'd be looking forward to it, as it was usually just them sketching live nudes, but she wasn't sure it'd work out well today. She wasn't feeling her best, and all she wanted right now was to get that thing out of her head.
She sat herself down in her usual spot, set up a canvas on the easel in front of her, and began to sketch. It was a scene that appeared in her memory that was trying it's absolute best to haunt her. She wouldn't let it beat her, that's all there was to it.
Satisfied with the basics of the sketch, she cleaned up the edges and began to color. She never noticed when her fellow students or her teacher walked in because she was so focused on beating it.
She was pulled from her focus when she heard a gasp behind her. She pulled her attention from the canvas before her and the colored pencils in her hands to look behind her at her teacher. Her look of concentration melted into a sorrowful expression at her teacher's horror. "Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to be done with this before class, but I guess I lost track of time."
"Why would you create such a thing?!" Mrs. Kelsen asked, horror and disgust flooding through her normally pleasant airy voice.
Rachel sighed, a tired expression on her face. Her teacher's dread and dismay was understandable. It was a fairly accurate depiction of a dead body on the floor, his guts spilling out before him, while a whale floated by in the background. "I'm not asking you to understand, Mrs. Kelsen. See-" She cut herself off, trying to find words to explain something she didn't fully understand herself. Finally, she settled on, "You know how, for some people, if you write down what's in your head and what's bothering you, the negative emotions will just flow out of you and into whatever it was that you put your thoughts onto, letting you just move on." At the artist's tentative nod, she continued. "Well, that's what I'm trying to do here. I can't get this picture out of my head, and I thought that if I drew it in detail, I'd be able to deal with it, like it would finally leave my head. Does that make any sense?" She asked finally, a little sheepish and afraid of the possible answer.
Mrs. Kelsen looked unsure for a moment, then sighed. "If that is what you think is best, then you have my blessing to try. I know how bad it can be to experience trauma and need to get past it. It's why I'm an art teacher, after all."
Rachel smiled a tired smile at her teacher. "Thank you."
"Just, don't submit it for an assignment or for an art contest, okay?" Mrs. Kelsen advised worriedly.
"Oh, don't worry about that. I know better." Rachel assured her. "I'm just using this to move on. For the assignment you gave us over break, however," She paused to reach down into her backpack and pull a poster tube out, which she handed to Mrs. Kelsen. "I saw a performance like you asked and made this based off of a scene in it."
Cautiously, understandable due to the picture in front of Rachel, which she had turned back to to see if she could deal with whatever demon had caused the picture, Mrs. Sandra Kelsen (which was, incidentally, her maiden name) pulled the piece of canvas from the tube and unrolled it, gasping at the sight of it. "Rachel, this is, this is beautiful!" It was a scene of several people in masquerade masks, some in black leotards with red masks, some in white, billowing clothes with blue masks, with lightning pulsing from the hands of the white ones and fireballs flying from those in black, beautifully rendered on a stage that had an oceanic seafloor as a backdrop behind floor-to-ceiling glass with numerous examples of seabed flora and fauna, the strangeness of the plants and the presence of a sperm whale in the background making it all the more ethereal and impossibly beautiful. "When did you make this?"
"Over the weekend after." Rachel said absentmindedly. "Sander Cohen may have been a complete psycho, but nobody could ever disagree that he was something of a genius when it came to the stage. A harsh and twisted genius, but brilliant nonetheless." She added in an impression of white wings around the dead body by lightening the colors near the shoulders of the man on her easel. He was dead, after all, so why not?
"What do you mean, twisted?"
"He once-" Rachel's eyes went wide as she cut herself off, a pensive look coming over her as she tried to keep herself from continuing, her pastels stilling. She hoped that Mrs. Kelsen wouldn't notice or would just take the hint and move on, but she got no such luck.
"He once what?"
Rachel bit her lip, prevaricating on whether or not to continue. Finally, she decided to go with a "baby explanation". "Some of his performances were a little more realistic than they should've been." She said carefully as she finished a shadowy tan-colored figure in the background of her "self-therapy", adding in a beam of yellow light coming from the "head". "If this picture is too much for you, then I really shouldn't continue." Her eyes slid closed as a soundless yawn escaped barely parted lips before she shook herself awake again. When they closed again almost immediately after, she sighed and mechanically took down the picture on the easel, rolling it up and putting it into her oversized backpack to deal with later. "I'm sorry Mrs. Kelsen, but I'm really tired. Didn't get much rest last night."
"I understand Rachel." Sandra said as she patted Rachel's shoulder. "There are times when I don't feel safe in my own home, and I keep a cot here for those nights and days when I need it. It's in my office, and you can use it for today."
Rachel's tired smile showed her heart on her sleeve. "Thank you, professor."
Rachel moaned as she settled into her seat. She had woken up five minutes ago at Mrs. Kelsen's prodding, her airy voice reminding her that she had other classes to attend today, and Landscapes was one of them. She glanced at the whiteboard at the head of the class and groaned as she figured that it didn't matter at all whether or not she actually participated today. She let her head slump down onto her forearms, wishing for a low sound to lull her to sleep. She didn't need the aggravation of the daylight. She just felt tired and worn out. To be honest, she hadn't gotten much more rest on Mrs. Kelsen's cot than she had last night.
"Well hello to you too." A bright and familiar voice said to her left. She flipped them the bird before settling down to try and sleep. The girl scoffed. "Looks like someone got out on the wrong side of bed." She noted scornfully.
"More like the wrong side of Rapture." Rachel mumbled to herself grumpily before she raised her head to look at the girl. Stylishly cut red t-shirt, almost knee-length black skirt (relatively conservatively cut), and black heels to go with a couple of silvery bangles per wrist, a hip-height shiny tanned leather purse hanging from her shoulder and amethyst earrings to complement her updid shorter black hair and semi-regal face (with tastefully applied makeup around brown eyes and lips appropriate for her face, rather than poofy or pouty) made up the image of a friend of hers, Sophie. How they'd stayed friends since Kindergarten with how they'd changed, especially since Sofie was rich and into fashion while Rachel was not, was more than a little beyond her.
Of course, Sofie didn't know just how much she had changed. Not yet.
After all, how much could one person change in just one week?
"I'm sorry Soph, I'm just grumpy." She said, trying to mean the apology, but not summoning up quite enough energy to do so. "Tired too." She added sleepily as she set her head down again. "Have been all week." She muttered the last bit into her sleeve, hiding a yawn.
With that, she was oblivious to the rest of the world. She was still awake - she hadn't slept right in awhile, and especially not last night or earlier today - but she was finally getting some rest. Maybe she just needed some daylight, or other light, to sleep.
Her eyes snapped open some time later. Her nostrils flared as she tried to identify the smell that had shaken her to awareness. It was... salty - no, briney. Brine. Not all. She sniffed again, nobody noticing because her head was still surrounded by her arms and everyone else really only paid attention to themselves. Umm, chocolate. chocolate mixed with... cigar smoke, which had only a touch of nicotene. Then comes the slight smell of blood and decay, mixed with a smell she could only describe as innocence.
No way.
No fucking way.
Not possible.
Not in the least.
Dimly, she heard Mrs. Robinson, her Landscapes teacher who only happened to teach art when she wasn't teaching advanced math courses and also happened to care for her students a great deal, say, "Well, class, we have a new student to welcome. She recently transferred from another college to broaden her horizons. I hope that you will give a warm welcome to Elizabeth Silversterson."
"Actually, it's Silvesterson, like the son of the Looney Toons cat Silvester." Musical tones coming from a teenaged mouth electrified her spine. There was absolutely no way in which this was remotely possible, and yet there was no possible way she could be anyone else. Rachel lifted her head as "Elizabeth" began to speak again. "But since we're all going to be friends, you can just call me-"
"Lizzy!" Before she knew it, Rachel was right in front of the blue-eyed blonde and hugging her closely.
The other girl gasped for a second before returning the hug viciously. "Oh, Songbird! I missed you!"
The world seemed to stop moving completely as she held the younger girl in her arms. All of a sudden, everything was right in the world.
Unfortunately, Reality had to rear it's ugly face. Again.
"I take it you two know each other." Mrs. Robinson said dryly.
A blush formed on Rachel's face, but she was loathe to end the hug. She finally had a little peace, and the person she'd been missing was in her arms once again, safe and sound. She didn't want to let go.
"Yeah, she saved my butt so many times while we were-" Lizzy paused before she sighed sadly. "While in a bad part of town that neither of us wanted to be in. It wasn't a happy time."
Rachel snorted and nodded before curling in closer, cuddling her head with Lizzy's neck. That was an understatement.
Lizzy made to pull away and, reluctantly, Rachel acquiesced to the silent request. Lizzy smiled at her before something made her frown. Instantly, Rachel really wanted to shoot whatever it was that had caused that.
"You haven't been sleeping." Lizzy stated.
Oh. Well, that she kinda can't shoot, but oh well. At least Lizzy was still safe.
Rachel shrugged. "I'm alright."
"No, you're not." Lizzy insisted. "The last time you looked like this you almost passed out on me because you wouldn't admit that you needed to sleep! You are going back into your seat, closing your eyes, and sleeping, you hear me?"
Rachel opened her mouth to protest but Mrs. Robinson beat her to the punch. "Not while in class."
Lizzy turned to the teacher. "Okay, firstly, this is art. To my knowledge, no one does anything important here, unless you count catching up with friends. Secondly, I'm pretty sure she already knows what you're gonna teach today. And thirdly," She gestured towards Rachel. "Can't you see she's dead on her feet? A little slip in her grades is acceptable compared to losing so much sleep that you can barely stand. She needs her rest." She opened her mouth to continue, but then stopped herself, closed her eyes, and took a deep, calming breath. When she opened her eyes, they were much calmer. "Look, I'm sorry about snapping at you, but we're a little too protective of each other to just take an attack of any type calmly. And while I'm sure you didn't mean to, you did insult her."
"No she didn't." Rachel said firmly. "She just stated a school rule."
Lizzy gave her a slightly arch look, those baby blues boring into her as Rachel made sure to confirm her suspicion. Yep, colored contacts. "I heard an insult there. Like you weren't good enough to be able to-"
Rachel cut her off with a hand to the shoulder. "Liz, it's okay. You don't have to do this for me."
"You have taken too much pain protecting me for me to simply stand idly while you are getting attacked in a way that I can stop." She gave Rachel a look. "Besides, you were singing a different tune the last time someone touched me."
"Yeah, well, the last time someone touched you, they were gonna kill you and had almost killed me. And that's a separate subject anyway." Rachel pointed out reasonably.
"I-"
Mrs. Robinson interrupted yet again. Rattled though she was, she was still the ultimate authority in the classroom. "If you are so sure that she knows what I will teach, then I will allow her to sleep if she can answer one advanced math question."
"Just one?" Lizzy asked skeptically.
"Yes, just one." The teacher said with a soft smile. "I'm not a heartless witch, no matter what my exes say."
Rachel nodded in acceptance and held out her hand. Mrs. Robinson was actually kinda famous for her single questions which were handed out from time to time. If you got chosen to answer it and could do so correctly before the end of class, then you were exempt from the day's homework, though it was still encouraged for extra credit and further understanding, and you might get an exceptional treat sometime in the near future. It goes for anyone, even other teachers and the principal, though there were consequences if the adults failed to answer correctly within 24 hours. Those varied from person to person, like the difference between when Mr. Patterson failed to answer right and got slapped in the face in front of the class with a dispassionate look on Mrs. Robinson's face to the time that that lech of a pedophile stalker pretending to be a teacher named Mr. Devrinson was pulled out to the front of an assembly and got some royal justice laid on his ass, ending with abused testicles, several bruises, and a broken rib or two before delivery to the police along with incriminating photos the man had taken and stored in his own home. Thankfully, the 'man' was still in prison, and not enjoying it.
Mrs. Robinson handed Rachel a paper with a single line of numbers and symbols on it. She squinted at it, made a moue with her mouth as she worked it out in her head, and ran it through her head again before handing it back with the answer on her tongue. "Three-fourths of Pi."
Mrs. Robinson looked down at the paper, a shocked expression on her face as she noticed the lack of pencil marks. "Um, how exactly did you do that Rachel?"
Rachel shrugged, not seeing the big deal. "I just did it in my head, like Lizzy showed me." She turned to move back to her seat before pausing, something being odd in her mind. She looked back at the equation in her hand, and was filled with surprised comprehension. She turned to Mrs. Robinson with an understanding 'glare' on her face. "That was an engineering question." She stated near-flatly before she smirked appreciatively at the woman. "Dirty cheat." She said softly with her smile plain to see, having enjoyed the way the woman had cheated, as she'd just figured out. She patted her teacher on the shoulder with a friendly "Thanks" and moved back to her seat, Lizzy following her. When she sat down, Lizzy sat in the empty seat directly in front of her and Rachel simply watched her, smiling. She didn't even realize it when her head fell off her palm and she fell asleep.
Lizzy smiled as she looked over at the sleeping girl behind her. For a moment, she imagined bubbles rising up from underneath her and lifting her to the sky.
As she always did, Rachel looked so peaceful a-slumbering. She'd grown out her lovely raven hair, which was now splayed all over her desk, hands and shoulders, framing that beautiful face. While their time together hadn't been the kindest time, and thus a hardness had begun to make an appearance, there was still enough softness to her face that her cheekbones weren't sharply defined as they sat high on her face. Her lips and eyes were unadorned with any makeup and her face, it looked so small.
Her snug maroon shirt covered her arms in a way that said that it hadn't been chosen with her musculature in mind, so it was one she'd owned before meeting her. Lizzy knew from past looks that Rachel's body was rather athletic. Maybe once it had been thin and stick-y, but time in a heavy full-body suit and carrying weapons of war all day long every day had toned that body, given it strength and a look to match. Her steady gait had an assurance that implied either power or danger with a smoothness she shared with predators like Tigers and Jaguars and Leopards and other jungle cats. And while she hadn't actually had a proper chance to look, she had a good guess that her pants hugged her in a similar way.
The class had gone smoothly and quietly. She hadn't been called on to answer any of the questions, so she'd been left in peace to watch over Rachel as she slept. She hadn't looked so in peace in a long time to her recollection. Admittedly that was a little spotty, but the girl looked happy and was actually in restful sleep. No nightmares, no worrying about her, just sleep.
A finger tapped her on the shoulder and she tensed for a moment while she looked over to the irritant. She relaxed a second before she saw another girl's face, remembering she didn't have to worry about the addicts before she noticed the other girl's face, and then the way she was dressed, held herself, and looked at her. Rich, a little detatched, but concerned about something, maybe angry. Definitely would've fit in with the elite. "Can I help you?" She asked casually.
"Yeah, what the hell is going on with you?" She asked angrily.
Lizzy blinked, confusion filling her face. "I'm, sorry? Um, what are you talking about?"
"That thing at the beginning of class. What the hell was that?" The girl hissed.
Lizzy's eyes narrowed a little. Anger and threatening. Wonder what that's about. "I missed her. It's been awhile since the last time we saw each other, so it's understandable why we would've hugged. Or so says her memory of having a good family. I never really got that chance."
"Then who the hell are you?"
Lizzy's eyes narrowed considerably at the hostility currently sent in her direction. What was this girl's problem? "I'm Lizzy, like I said earlier. Rachel kept me safe, and now it's my turn to return the favor." She said a little frostily. "Since I've answered that question, why not tell me who you are?"
"I am her friend." If it weren't for the fact that they were whispering at each other, the other girl would be yelling right now. As it was, she was nearly at a normal speaking voice, so this needed to be cut short soon. "I have been her best friend since our days in kindergarten!"
"Then back the hell off!" Lizzy hissed back. "I'm trying to watch out for her, like I've tried to do for so long, and just because you have prior claim does not mean that you get to just attack me outright for hugging her in front of the class!" That seemed to surprise her and pull her down a peg, so Lizzy counted that a win and pressed on, less intense now that she knew she was getting through. "Besides, I want her to stay asleep. If she does not get at least an hour's sleep today then I will be pissed at whoever woke her up. Besides, you saw her. She was exhausted, dead on her feet even with the adrenaline caused by seeing me. If I hadn't told her to go to sleep, demanded it, she would've passed out, and that wouldn't get her nearly enough sleep. You get me?"
Still shocked, the girl nodded and Lizzy turned back to Rachel, dismissing the girl as a threat while making sure that Rachel was still asleep, giving out a sigh of relief when she saw the girl was still slumbering quietly.
Though, Lizzy couldn't really call her a girl. Not really. Not since the first time a splicer came after the two of them.
Then she sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. We're just getting off on the wrong foot. Neither of us are perfect, and it's kinda obvious just how territorial we both are when it comes to her, so let's just start over, shall we?" Lizzy asked the girl, her words and expression as she looked the rich girl in the eye offering an olive branch and a wish for peace between them. "My name is Elizabeth, though my Christian name is Anna Adelle DeWitt. I am the daughter of a rough, working class gumshoe who left me orphaned after he pissed off the wrong people. After that, I was noticed, and thus taken to one of those places, I believe it was called 'Frank Fontaine's Little Sister Orphanage'. The place took it's toll on me, though it was probably the worst on me and a kidnapped girl named Eleanor. I called her Ellie, and we were quick friends with each other and this boy named Amir. We three were the smartest people in the entire building with the strongest wills and the strongest intellects, ones that would've placed us up near the top if we hadn't been orphaned."
"Wait, she was kidnapped?" the girl asked, somewhat aghast.
Lizzy nodded, her short and slightly poofy dirty-blonde hair brushing against her forehead as she did so. "Yeah, though we were kinda young to properly understand it. Mostly because it was never actually explained to us, but that's another sore story for another day. Anyway, me and Ellie were taken away for a project and put through a series of lessons to brainwash us in isolation, just like many other girls from the orphanage, but we kept in contact as best we could. Then one day they took her and gave her a friend, a man in a powerful suit to protect her, and then the very next day I got one too, and we were cut off from each other. He died pretty quickly, and I never liked him anyway. I got a few more, who also died very quickly before one day, I was running away from danger, all on my own, when I was pulled into an alleyway and a woman's voice echoed in my ears, willing me to calm down and not make a sound. By that time I had broken most of the reconditioning, though her voice, after a few days, was all that I needed to break the last of it almost completely. Then, after the danger left, I wanted something. It wasn't a feeling I'd ever really had before, but I wanted to be safe, and I wanted that woman's arms to be my safety, and for that safety to be safe by keeping the woman who owned those arms safe, and in that moment, I awakened something inside of me. Something I have never understood." She looked down at the floor, saddened by her lack of ability to explain before looking back up, happier. "And you know what? Because of that wish and whatever it was inside me, I pulled us back in time to right after Ellie got her protector. Then it was like we'd never been separated. We spent the next 10 years together, happy times and not so much." She thought about saying more, but then decided that what she'd said was a little much anyway.
"That," the girl began, a little shocked. "Sounds like it came right out of a book."
Lizzy smiled sadly. She was saddened, but unfortunately not surprised. "Yeah I'm, I'm working on it. Great beginning for a book, isn't it?" She lied, unable to keep her dejection out of her tone. "Truth is that I was just a smart kid. I never knew my parents, and I grew up in the orphanage. I was bullied often and the other kids never liked me. Then one day, when things were at their lowest and someone, a mugger I think, was chasing me around, Rachel showed up and saved me. Even took a bullet for me, though it didn't hit anything serious. I knew it hadn't because I'd read a few medical books and examined it for her because I didn't want the hassle that the hospital staff extend to me given to her as well. All it really took was a few strips of gauze front and back because it went straight through. Then last week, Rachel went back to home, and since I'd found out where she went to school, I requested a transfer. The headmaster of my school nodded imperiously at me because he understood orphanage life and wanted me to be able to have as many friends as possible, especially since he knew I didn't have any friends at all that went to the school I went to. Ellie had already graduated and eloped with Amir, so I had no one. But I did have Rachel, who protected me. Kept me safe and taught me a few things I hadn't known before. I wanted her, not anyone else. So I asked, he said yes, and now I'm here."
"Hunh." the girl nodded thoughtfully at her lie. It was close enough to the truth anyway, so it's not like she'd really get caught out in it. "Well, I wish I could say there was an impressive story behind me, but I'm a simple girl. Sophie Stepanak, rich granddaughter of a great admiral, met Rachel Dodge, daughter of a great Navy submarine Captain, a few years before Kindergarten, and we've been friends ever since. I liked her, so I sat next to her and never got out of the habit. She's great when it comes to fashion, even if she claims she has zero interest in it whatsoever, and she always gives good advice."
Lizzy's smile turned more genuine. Yeah, that's the Rachel she knew, other than the Sophie part. "Well, maybe it's actually because she doesn't care about fashion that she's so good at it. She doesn't care, so she looks at the whole picture. See, she explained to me that her view on clothes, other than functional - period - is not 'what is everyone else wearing?' but 'what does this say about me? Does it say who and what I am? Or does it say I'm a useless skank or something like that?'"
"Hunh." Sophie paused in thought as she considered the other girl's words. "That, actually makes sense."
"Well, yeah!" Lizzy said in a tone that said it should've been obvious. "Just because you don't care doesn't mean you don't notice. She just doesn't want you looking like a streetwalker, that's all."
"I, I guess so." Sophie paused, looking down at the floor, obviously deep in thought. Lizzy turned back to watching the woman who had watched over her for so many years.
"Have you ever noticed just how big her hands were?" She suddenly asked Rachel's friend. She didn't know where the question came from, but it was out there now.
Caught off guard by the question, Sophie fumbled for a moment before she answered truthfully. "Um, no, actually."
"They're kinda big, aren't they?" Lizzy mentioned rhetorically in an amazed and speculatory tone. She wasn't entirely sure why, but the idea kinda amazed her.
"Yeah, they kinda are." Sophie agreed. They sat there in silence, watching their mutual friend, both attempting to watch over the protector who had taken care of both of them.
And the two were silent for the rest of the hour-long class, and 20 minutes after that.
Sophie Stepanak was confused. The girls next to her were the source of her problems today. So far, Rachel had been so thoroughly grumpy and confusing that she couldn't get a single thing out of her and when she wasn't grumpy or asleep, she was so totally focused on that other girl, Lizzy, or Anna, or whoever she is, that she didn't see anything else.
She had come here, to this particular college, for two reasons: She wanted to become a leader in the fashion industry. And she wanted to keep an eye on, and stay close to, her best friend.
Now, when most people looked at the two of them, they made a big assumption: that they were far too different to possibly be friends. They also tended to doubt that The U.S. Navy actually even had a presence in their lives. It did, they just never really showed it. Rachel, with her airy hippy-like attitude, was the daughter of a powerful strategic mind and a great Navy Submarine commander, or Skipper as the term goes. Sophie however, fashion-obsessed princess that she admitted she was, got that man's engineman for a father, a disresptectful muscle-builder who actually had quite a few good qualities. He just never really let up on the sarcasm, making it so that only those who could handle him could ever really see what a good man he was. While not obvious, she had inherited his charm (and occaisional lack thereof), as well as his wish to keep her body in good shape.
She'd also inherited his ability to truly treasure any friends she made, and wished to see them all in good health and happy. Only thing is, she didn't know what had changed, didn't know what now hurt her best friend. If she knew, then maybe she could deal with it, maybe she could help, or at least know what had changed so that she would know how to change her own actions and reactions.
Instead, she was being shut out, and she did not like it.
Mrs. Robinson had dismissed the class from attendance, which Sophie had spent most of watching Rachel and Lizzy. Rachel seemed almost completely different in those few moments that she was awake for, and Lizzy was a complete unknown. She needed to know more. To understand what it was that bonded these two together.
So, after Lizzy gently shook Rachel awake, she sidled up to her friend while they were walking through the hall and asked, "Can I talk to you privately?"
Rachel gave her an odd look before she nodded. "We gotta get Lizzy to class first."
"Nah, don't bother." The dirty-blonde in question said. "I'll be fine. I spent last night sneaking around the school, so I know where everything is. I'll be safe."
Rachel gave Lizzy an odd look now before shaking her head. "Fine. Just be careful, okay?"
Lizzy smirked. "Of course I will. You just stay safe yourself!" Then she ran off to the next class, Rachel watching her with worry, which only frustrated Sophie even more with such a public display that she knew absolutely nothing of. She pulled her friend into the nearest girl's room and made sure they were alone before she refocused. Though, it might not have been as empty as she thought it was because she'd been distracted by the feel of Rachel's arm. Sure, the girl was strong, but she'd never been that strongly muscled, had she?
"Rachel, who is that girl?" Sophie asked her best friend, perhaps her only true friend, as she looked her in the eye in the bathroom.
Rachel gave her a wry look. "Lemme guess, she sold you some bull story about how she grew up in an orphanage before getting chased down by a mugger and was rescued by me, her knight in shining armor, and the two of us rode off into the sunset to be here, where we could be happy." Her surprise must've been obvious as Rachel snorted and shook her head. "She's playing you. Hell, it was one of the only stories she could ever really keep straight." She muttered with an exasperated smile. "Well, while she's told me too many lies about what her story was before I showed up for me to really tell you what's true and what's not, I can tell you this much: One day, I was just walking along when I, fell. Felt like I was falling into a manhole, except that the nearest manhole was in the middle of an intersection a block away while I was on the sidewalk in the middle of the crowd. Then the next part was confusing, but I apparently pissed someone off at some point because I got something gross and live shoved down my throat before my body was roughly manhandled into some sort of diving suit, made of some sort of canvas, I think, and then I was left out on the street to die. I think I was shot at some point in the middle there, but I still can't make sense of exactly what happened."
Then Rachel continued her story, seemingly unaware of Sophie's horrified look. "I had no idea what was going on, so I just wandered for a bit until I heard a scream. A little girl, couldn't be more than 10 years old, shot around the corner, and I did the first thing that popped into my head. I grabbed her and pulled her into an abandoned shop right next to us, hunkering down with the struggling girl in my arms, hand over her mouth to keep her quiet as a man's voice called out for her, or I assumed he was calling out for her. I noticed some graffiti on the wall, and that messed with my addled mind enough to try another stab at poetry. I'm still not entirely sure of what I said, but it worked and calmed her down enough that she didn't struggle or make a sound. A little while later, as I continued to hold her, there was a blinding flash and when I had my vision back, everything was shiny and new. The shop owner shoo-ed us out as he opened up the shop and I found a newspaper, which was fresh off the presses and said it was years before the old newspaper that I'd noticed out of the corner of my eye when the shop was dingy. Somehow, the two of us had traveled back in time. That was..."
She put on a look of concentration for a moment as Sophie just gaped at the woman before her before Rachel brought her right hand up to massage at her face while still thinking. "Damn. Can't figure out how long ago that was. I need to start paying more attention. But I know it was years ago. After that, about a week or two ago, Lizzy showed me how that flash of light worked and brought me back to here. I ended up back home and didn't leave the apartment for the rest of the week. Then school came and you know the rest so far." She gave a huge yawn, showing off her teeth that seemed a lot sharper than they used to be. Sophie shivered at the sight. Rachel never did get into the habit of covering her mouth when she yawned, but it had never really seemed menacing to Sophie, not like this. Usually, it just seemed innocent. Rachel shook her head. "Man, I didn't know I was so tired."
"Then we should get you home to sleep." The words that came out of her mouth surprised both of them, but Sophie was surprised even more by the realization that she meant them and would stand by them. Her best friend was dead on her feet and it was obvious to anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention that she needed to sleep, maybe for an entire week without waking.
Rachel gave her a searching look before smiling tiredly. "Yeah, maybe I will. But only if you promise me that you and Lizzy will still be there when I wake up, ya hear?"
Sophie's brows furrowed at that. "I, I don't-" she began in confusion. She really didn't want to promise to something she didn't know about, especially because she knew so very little about the woman they were talking about.
Rachel interrupted her with a concerned look and a strong hand on her shoulder. "Promise me." She said intently.
Under that look, what else could she do? Sophie swallowed her pride and nodded. "I promise."
Rachel gave her a nod and a relieved and tired smile. "Good. Now let's get going. I wanna grab Lizzy before we head on to my apartment."
"Alright." Sophie agreed.
And they left for their target without another word.
That didn't mean that she simply stopped caring. All the way there, she shot her friend worried looks, and she kept on yawning the entire way there and-
Did she forget a bra this morning?! And given how tight her pants are, did she forget to put on anything there, or is she wearing a thong?
Sophie slapped herself, gaining a curious look from Rachel that went unexplained. She didn't need to be thinking such thoughts right now!
A soft thud distracted her and she looked over to see Rachel resting against the wall, yawning, struggling to stay on her feet. She scrubbed at her face, trying to get herself awake again. Sophie figured the thud had been Rachel bumping into the wall because she was tired, so she pulled her friend along towards their destination, which was wherever Lizzy was. She didn't want to break her promise, period.
The thought before that last one gave her pause for a second as she realized she didn't actually know where the other woman was. Then Rachel started pulling her forwards in what she assumed was the correct direction, so that problem was solved. Sophie gave her friend a quick and worried once-over of her general state and said, "You know, if I didn't know better I'd say you were pretty wasted."
Rachel snorted rather indelicately at that. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm just tired." They stopped moving. "She oughtta be in here, so if you, don-" Rachel slowed down in her speech to yawn, which didn't actually end with closing her jaw so much as falling face first on the floor, despite having first leaned backwards to a very alarming degree.
For a moment, Sophie just stood there and looked at her friend in astonishment. She knew the woman had been tired, but not this tired. Then she shook her head and got back into the game of life. She stuck her head into the class, completely disregarding whatever was going on in there, and shouted for Lizzy.
When the dirty blonde turned to see what the matter was, she said, "I need you to help me get Rachel home. She passed out on me."
"Alright." Lizzy said as she began to pack up. While she did so, Sophie went back to where she'd left Rachel and began to lift her. Well, actually, try to lift her. She was much too heavy for her. Then Lizzy showed up and together, they found they could lift her up by her shoulders enough to drag the girl out to Sophie's car (neither Sophie nor Rachel had ever really cared about the unconscious woman's car, but Sophie's was expensive. She didn't want to leave it behind), drape the large girl across the back seats of the SUV, and start heading to Rachel's apartment. This time, instead of dragging her, especially because there are a number of people who actually care about Rachel, and because she was way too heavy and big for either of them to bring in with a fireman's carry, Lizzy got Rachel by the armpits, at her insistence, and Rachel got her by the legs. Lizzy swayed tiredly a few times along the way, complimenting the yawns she'd pulled (as silently as possible, but still noticed by Sophie) during the car ride, which made Sophie even more glad that Rachel lived on the first floor, especially because she was starting to feel a little dizzy and unfocused, like she could use a little sleep herself.
After putting Rachel on her bed and slipping on a sports bra left behind on the floor, which is a little odd for the woman she knew, Sophie allowed Lizzy to stay with Rachel, as they were both too tired to really argue, and she ended up on the couch.