Disclaimer: I do not own Thundercats or any of the characters in it; I am merely exploring an alternate story. All rights of the show and it's characters belong to their respective owners.
Oh yeah, for those of you that want to know where I got the idea for this, I suggest that you read "I Belong" by SNOffourier, but I also won't make any of you read the story that I mentioned if you don't want to. It's your choice after all, and I won't influence what you want to read.
Third person POV...
A body slammed against a wall of lockers, the sound echoing in the hallway. The person that had been shoved forcefully against the lockers gritted her teeth, but otherwise didn't make a sound.
She knew very well that no one other than her older brother would dare to help her, since they didn't want to deal with her tormentors wrath. After all, who else would dare to anger the most popular girl in the school?
"Where did you think you were going in such a rush?!" Speaking of her tormentor, a second girl with dark brown hair came into the first girl's line of vision. Her piercing, brown eyes were as sharp as a killer whale's teeth that seemed to bit into the soul of the person they were directed to; which was the girl against the locker. "Did you really think I would allow you to get away that easily, Tiana?!"
The padlock of the locker that Tiana was currently pressed against dug harshly into her back, but she didn't care about that right now. Tiana frowned, using her peripheral to study the witch standing inches away from her.
She had one hand firmly planted on her hip, which was jutting out to the side, and standing with tall posture, as stick-straight as her ballerina thin body, while her other arm gripped a dark blue binder. She wore a violet t-shirt dress with black buttons, a white belt that that hugged her already tiny waist, and violet high heels.
She leaned over Tiana like a tiger ready to pounce on it's prey. Tiana, who was wincing slightly from the bruise starting to form on her back, looked as the very opposite. Tiana herself had long, wavy red hair that was up in a side ponytail, and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, the collar done up with a line of black buttons. She had black tights underneath a knee-length black skirt. The outfit was completed with black boots.
"I have nothing to say to you, Karina! Besides, even if I did, why should I waste my time with you?!" Tiana snapped, not in the mood to deal with her tormentor today. She's already had a bad day, so it was understandable why she didn't want to deal with Karina.
"What'd you say to me?!" Karina shouted, getting closer in Tiana's face. Her brown curls whipped against Tiana's cheeks, and she filched back a bit. "You normally know better than to speak back to me like that. What, did all that time in the library rot your brain or something?"
Tiana's cheeks flushed in response, and she stared down the hallway, praying for an escape. She gulped hard, feeling her throat grow dry.
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" she said.
"You need someone to give you, ahem, motivation every once in a while. After all, you're brother won't always be around to help you." Karina said with a dark smile. She lifted the hand clasping her waist and grasped Tiana's collar. Shoving the sixteen-year-old deeper into the locker, their eyes remained on each other, having a silent staring contest.
Finally, Karina grinned an let go of Tiana with a sharp snap of her wrist. Tiana's head banged against the locker, and her eyes went blurry from dizziness and tears. She did her best to blink them away, but Karina still managed to see it, and her smile widened. "Aw, is the goth girl going to cry? Typical. See you tomorrow, Nerdette!"
Karina walked away, obviously pleased about Tiana's misery. Speaking of Tiana, a wave of nausea swept through her, and she gripped her stomach, feeling it ripple and intensify the gut-wrenching feeling.
She hurried into the bathroom and doubled over the sink. Taking deep, slow breaths, Tiana finally allowed the tears to fall, not caring they were streaming down her face and trickling down and hitting her arms and hands. She lifted her head, forcing herself to stare at her blotchy face in the mirror.
Tiana's red hair clung to her wet face. Her bloodshot eyes overpowered her normally blue irises. Tiana was so focused on staring at her reflection, that she ended up jumping seven feet in the air when the bell finally rang.
Footsteps filled the hallway, and she heard some heading her way. Tiana hurried into the handicap stall, locked and sat down on the toilet. She lifted her feet up so no one could see them, but after a few moments they started to tremble from pain.
Herds of girls stomped into the bathroom, giggling and chatting incoherently about their lives. Tiana rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes, wishing those girls would go away so that she could leave.
After almost twelve minutes, the echoes of voices, flushes, and water ceased completely. The only thing that penetrated the silence was a leaky faucet and her heavy breathing.
Tiana cautiously opened the stall, peeking around to see if any stragglers were left behind. Seeing the coast was clear, she hurried out of the bathroom and down the hall. Constantly looking over her shoulder, she picked up speed.
At the entrance to the school, she paused at a large tree to lean against it and catch her breath. She would never say it, but she was slightly glad that she decided to help her brother out in training for the track team last year. A honk sounded in front of her, and Tiana looked up quickly at the car parked in front of her.
Seeing a red haired, blue eyed woman waving from the driver seat, Tiana gave a soft sigh of relief, knowing who the person was. Tiana also noticed her older brother sitting in the passenger seat, and she smiled warmly at him as she walked over to the car, opened the door, and slumped down into the back seat.
"So, how was school today, Tiana?" the woman said, causing Tiana's smile to vanish instantly at those words.
"What do you think?" Tiana scoffed in response, earning a frown from her older brother as she faced the window and crossed her arms. "Home school is starting to look more intriguing. At least then I wouldn't be teased all the time by the rest of my classmates for being smart."
"Let me guess, Karina decided to make fun of you again?" Tiana's brother said, and his frowned deepened when Tiana nodded. "Remind me again why you won't let me teach her a lesson? I mean, she's the very reason that you went Goth in the first place!"
"Issac, how many times to I have to say it? I don't want you to get in trouble just because you're defending me!" Tiana replied, causing Issac to groan in response.
"Tiana..." her mother began to say, causing the siblings to fall silent. "Karina is only saying those harsh words because she's insecure. She and her friends are jealous of you."
"What exactly is there to be jealous of, Mom?" Tiana said, not even glancing away from the window. "Everyone at school thinks I'm a nerd due to how much I love to read, and they didn't even care that I went goth because of their bullying! You've never had to deal with what I'm going through. You don't understand; you'll never understand!"
Tiana's mother stared at her youngest child with stern concern. Tiana didn't even notice, due to her insistence of staring out the window.
"Tiana, I wish you could see yourself the way Isaac, you're father and I do. You are more beautiful than you think you are. Don't let those mean girls define who you are; what they have to say is wrong." she said. Her eyes brightened as a thought.
"Look on the bright side, tomorrow is officially your last day of school. That means Karina and her gang won't be able to tease you as much, since they never bug you during summer vacation!"
Tiana just sighed and leaned back slightly in her seat. "Can we just go home...please? I don't want to be here any longer than necessary."
Tiana and Issac's mother nodded, gripped the steering wheel, and pulled the car out of the school parking lot. Once they arrived at their home, Tiana hurried into the house and straight into her bedroom. She threw her black backpack on her bed and shuffled over to the full-length mirror propped in the corner of her room.
Tiana frowned at her reflection, though it wasn't her dark clothing she cared about. As she continued to grow up, Tiana had always felt as though there was a piece of her that was missing, but didn't know what it was.
It didn't help that back when she young elementary school student, Tiana had constantly been teased by the rest of her classmates, all because of how smart she happened to be. As she went through middle school and the first two years of high school, the bullying turned to complete torture.
Not a day goes by that voices yell and laugh at her, calling her and taunting her with the cruel nickname made for her to symbolize what she's bullied for, "Nerdette" However, they weren't stupid enough to tease her in front of her brother. No, they only did it whenever she was alone.
Tiana gave a frustrated groan before she threw a blanket over the mirror, blocking her image from her eyes. However, that didn't cause the feeling that she was missing a part of herself to go away, like she hoped it would. Tiana walked over to her desk and powered up her laptop, going straight to her favorite website.
Her fingers danced over the keyboard, and the click of the mouse was the beat. Tiana stuck her headphones in and pressed the play button, leaning forward excitedly in her chair.
Thunder, thunder, thunder, Thundercats HO!
Tiana allowed a real smile to appear on her face as she bobbed her head to the music, her feet tapping their own dance as the title sequence played on. Her favorite show of all time: Thundercats. When the world bombarded her with its cruel standards, she watched this show in order to escape from reality for a few hours.
As the song counted up, the main characters of the show appeared on screen- Lion-O, Tygra, Cheetara, Panthro, Wilykit, Wilykat and Snarf, as well as Mumm-Ra and the mutants.
Tiana's smile almost turned into a frown when she saw Mumm-Ra, since she had always hated his character for some unknown reason- at least until before the title of the show appeared in large, capitalized, letters.
A few hours later, the screen faded to black, and the ending credits appeared alongside the rocking credit song. Tears came into Tiana's eyes. Once the credits were finished rolling, the computer automatically took her back to the first episode, anxiously waiting for her to press the play button and live through the memories once more.
Despite having seen the series many times, the ending of it always made her an emotional wreck. Watching the Thundercats as they fought together, laughed together, and kept working together brought pain to the fifteen-year-old's heart. She kicked herself; she knew better than to long for a scenario that was simply impossible.
If only that world was real. Tiana leaned back in her chair and stared at her dimming computer screen as it began to display her reflection.
'Stop it, Tiana. You can't wish for something that will never happen. However, I would give anything to be a Thundercat. Surely, they would be more accepting of me. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but there are times where I wish I could actually have friends.' Tiana thought, sniffling and wiping her eyes. She turned her head, catching a glimpse of herself in the corner of her mirror that hadn't been covered.
Tiana removed her headphones and closed her laptop. She looked out her window, seeing the sun had completely disappeared past the horizon. She checked the time: 2:30 AM.
She had spent many hours watching her favorite cartoon, which she didn't mind, even though it meant she wouldn't get a good night's rest. She let out a sigh and walked over to her bed, flopping down and burying her head in her pillow.
'I know I thought it before, but I wish that I was a Thundercat.' Tiana thought. She reached up and held a necklace that once belonged to her mother: a simple star shaped locket. 'It would be nice to be apart of a team like that, especially if they cared.'
She closed her eyes as she finished that thought, her hand still grasping the necklace.
While Tiana slept, a light began to pulsate from her closed laptop. The same light peeked through her fingers that was gently grasping her necklace. After a few seconds of glowing, the light from the laptop and her necklace disappeared. Tiana smiled in her sleep, having nothing but good dreams.
Little did Tiana realize, her wish would be the start of an incredible adventure. Her wish would be granted, but at a price. What that price was...she'll soon find out.
Author's note: Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked my second story. I did try not to make it too similar to the fanfiction that inspired me, and the second chapter will be when things really start to change for Tiana.
