The Soulless One

By: The Dragon Mistress

Hello, none of the IY characters are mine, neither is Kinryou. Not a lot else to put on here except that I hope this try at Sen's history is a lot better than the last one I took down. Without further delay, the story.

Sen's life was almost the life of a normal child. Almost. Every other student at the middle school Sen went to seem to think school was a tortures activity. Sen did not, it wasn't that she enjoyed it, no it was boring, but she always got good grades. Sen couldn't really understand it though, her peers seemed to think that several of the basic concepts were hard to understand. Take today for instance:

Mrs. Marshall, Sen's history teacher was lecturing about how the pilgrims moved into America and forced the Native Americans out. She went on to explain that is had started when Columbus came to America, thinking that it was India. Mrs. Marshall would strike the map, which was stapled onto the billboard, every so often to emphasize her point. Sen had stopped listening at this point because they had already gone over all of this in elementary school. Mrs. Marshall must have notice Sen's lack of concentration, so she suddenly stopped her lecture and snapped a question at Sen. "Why was Columbus's trip considered so dangerous at the time?" Sen looked back at Mrs. Marshall and wondered why she was asking such a simple question. Sen turned her guard up, suspecting a logic trap and replied cautiously "Back then people thought the world flat, and assumed any ship sailing to the edge would fall off." Mrs. Marshall must have mistaken Sen's caution for not knowing, and assumed Sen was just guessing because she glared at Sen for a while before she moved off and questioned another student.

Sen's peers didn't seem to think ahead all that much either, like in the pre test in math a few days ago:

Mr. Holt, the math teacher had just passed out the pre-tests to all the kids, and the students were staring hard at the tests to try and come up with answers. Well all the students except two, one was Ted, he pretended to be cool, and was ripping his test, to make it the proper shape for a paper airplane. The other was Sen who was scribbling in answers, and was already half way through when she heard a moan behind her. "Why do they have us take pre-tests anyway...not like it counts, how am I supposed to answer this? 8b 6c -10b 2c." Sen glanced at the problem the girl behind her was working on, the first problem. Sen had long since passed it, but she reviewed her method again and could find no flaws in her work. For the girl behind her, and herself, Sen wished the girl, Jane thought that if you changed a one to a negative one the values change and you have to switch signs. As it happened the girl didn't think about it, didn't even get the correct answer, and instead of blaming herself for not being prepared she blamed Sen. All through the next week Sen heard not so quiet whispers of 'how long do you think the nerd studied for the pre-test?' 'Who would study for a stupid test?' 'Bet she is nocturnal and studies through the night' 'Guess that's why she dozes during class'

Sen's life at school wasn't always enjoyable, especially after a test, but the students stuck to words, and Sen could ignore those. Sen had an interesting private/home life. Most of it was spent baby-sitting her brother Todd:

Her mom was going out, again. She always went out to look for jobs since Sen's dad left, leaving Todd in Sen's care. Todd had wandered into the sand pit out back. Well they called it a sand pit, but most of the sand was gone and a lot of mud had found its way in. Todd was shoveling the sand into a bucket Sen had used to water the flowers. Todd gave the sand a final smack with his trowel and tipped the bucket over, unfortunately the sand came out in a lump, not a castle tower as Todd had meant it to be. With a sigh Sen gathered up her homework that she had spread out on the porch and went over to help Todd, who had started screaming.

Sen built four towers and walls connecting them, leaving Todd to do the moat. Once he was happily doing that, Sen went back to work on her math homework. Several problems later Todd was happily sending his toy dragon on a rampage through the castle. Tumbling several portions of the walls down into the moat forming a bridge, letting the dragon's legions the cows, horses, and pigs of the land into the castle to help with the rampage. Once the castle was satisfyingly smashed into lumps of sand Sen's mother got home.

She looked little like Sen. Her hair was a dark brown, unlike Sen's silver. Sen's mother's face usually looked dismal with a few bruises and a down turned mouth, but tonight her face was set in an angry scowl and she smelled like she had gone to try and work at a fish and chips shop. Sen didn't even attempt to greet her mom, but instead let her storm into the house, nearly breaking the door off its hinges. The effect of Todd's mother on him was startling. He changed from a happy four year old crushing a castle, to a scared little kid trying to hide behind a lump of sand.

Quickly Sen got up to help Todd, thinking it would be a good time to put him to sleep. "It is all right Todd, come here and we'll go upstairs." Gently Sen picked up Todd and carried him upstairs to his cot. It was a little worn, with a few patches sown into his blanket, but it was still warm at night. After singing him a lullaby Todd was sleeping soundly, and Sen quietly tip toed out of his room, went outside and gathered up her homework. Beginning her homework again, though this time snuggled in her bed, Sen proceeded to trudge through math, history, and science.

Sen woke up to the sound of the car door slamming and the screech of tires, as her mom drove out to find work again. Sen hurriedly Sen got up, quickly changing out of her starry pajamas and into her school uniform. The uniform was blue, with a dark blue border. It consisted of a short-sleeved shirt and a skirt. Rushing to the kitchen Sen pulled out a box of Kixs and poured herself a bowl of cereal. Going to the old refrigerator Sen pulled out the last of the milk, and began to eat her cereal. Looking up at the only clock in the house, the kitchen clock, Sen saw the time 5:00 AM. Sen stopped gulping down her cereal, she hadn't slept in as she had first thought. Instead her mom had gotten up early, things must really be getting bad.

Since Sen's school starts at 7:45, Sen took her time getting ready. First however she needed to get Todd something to eat while she was in school, for no one would be home and her mom wouldn't hire a baby sitter. Sen heated up some soup and put it in the blue and white thermos so it would stay hot until Todd got up. She also set out a glass for him so he could get himself some water or juice.

Once Sen made sure Todd wouldn't starve she started to work on a History project about George Washington, which was due in a few weeks. Sen worked until 6:45 then she gathered up her books and stuffed them into her backpack, she had to use safety pins to keep it closed since the zipper had long since broken. Sen walked outside and got on her purple bike, but when she started to ride it she realized the front tire had gone completely flat. Sen hadn't realized it before since her mom had been leaving late, and she managed to hitch a ride with her to school. Sen got out the pump and proceeded to inflate the tire. Then Sen biked down her driveway, carefully avoiding all of the cracks along the way and onto the road toward school.

At school the day wasn't so bad. During math there was only a few snickers when she came in, and none during the class. Sen learned about different equations, and managed to enjoy herself for a while. During history the teacher droned on and on about the effect Columbus had on the Native Americans or Indians. The history teacher did try to drill Sen a few times with a few questions, but Sen got them right. Lunch was where Sen had the worst time of things, since there was no teacher there that would stop the teasing. Sen sat quietly through it all and ate the lunch she had made herself, a turkey sandwich with juice to drink. After lunch she had gym in which she was the prime target for the game, dodge ball, Sen did remarkable well considering the odds. Then there was quire, which Sen tried to stay in the background in, because her voice definitely wasn't one of the best. She ended the day with French this was something Sen did well in because she was good at memorizing the different words and how they are pronounced.

At the end of the day Sen biked home, making a mental list of what her homework was for tomorrow. When Sen reached her driveway she began to walk her bike to the top, then tie it to a tree in the back yard. Then she went inside to help Todd get a snack. She found Todd in her room looking at one of her History books. Gently Sen took the book from Todd, because he hadn't even begun the concept of reading, and took out The Lion and the Mouse and began to read that to him.

Then it happened....

To be continued.

Sen: A cliff hanger well kinda, but any way hope you like the story, sorry it is a little dull, but the next chapter and the ones following will have a lot more action, and I will try to add some humor. Please review.