A/N: Dedicated to my beta Azzie(Inkfire)! This is Melody's return to the ninja world. Sequel to my story 'A Goddess's Visit' and you definitely need to read that first! At least for the first part of this one to make sense. Here goes:
Learning to Shine:
Chapter One: Big Plans:
Sunlight filtered through the trees over the trail, the sound of the river and the song of the birds lost on the young teen racing along the trail, flying back to the bridge just ahead at a full-out sprint, legs flashing through the brush, hair flying back from her face, breath coming in short gasps. Pain flashed through her shoulder as her lungs cramped, desperately screaming for air, but she pushed on, only slowing once she passed her invisible finish line.
Throwing her arms up, she gulped in deep breaths of air, her whole body shaking from the effort. "Yeah Mel!" Alice called. "Best time yet!"
"Coach is going to be really proud of you. You've cut off a good two minutes since track season started!" Gabbie told her, smiling as she offered a bottle of Gatorade. Melody took it and gulped it down, her strawberry-blonde hair looking dark brown with red streaks as it stuck to her neck in a sweaty mess.
"I need a shower." she announced. Her teammates laughed. It felt good to be here, having a normal day and pretending to be a normal person, with nothing more to worry about than her recent breakup and her upcoming sweet sixteen. "Oh, yeah, can you guys come?" she asked.
"What? Your sweet sixteen?" Angel asked as she finished. "Wouldn't miss it for the world!"
"Thanks Ang." Melody replied, passing her friend another Gatorade. One by one, the rest of their team finished their practice and they all trooped up to the restaurant by the river to get breakfast before going home to deal with their lives.
As Melody finished off her stack of strawberry pancakes in record time, cementing her status as a legendary lover of strawberries, she checked her friend's phone and got up to leave. "Sorry guys, I have to be back to help plan things out for Sunday." Everyone nodded.
"Good luck!" Angel called as Melody left, putting her headphones back in. She jogged home, stripped, and jumped in the shower. Letting first cold, then hot water rush over her, the cool spray to cool down, and the warm to actually bathe in, she relaxed for the first time in weeks. High school was stressful even in the summer, what with her upcoming marching band trip to the national capital to perform for the country, summer homework assignment, and upcoming SATs and ACTs, two of the biggest tests for an American to take in their lives, which would determine her college and career paths.
Sighing, the girl pushed all stressful thoughts out of her head and relaxed, only feeling the warmth of the shower water against her skin. Pushing her hair back from her face, she heard her stepmother yelling up the stairs: "MELODY! GET OUT!"
"Coming!" she called back, letting her know she'd heard. She ducked her head under the water one more time and turned it off, catching the drips in her cupped hands and splashing them over her face to wake herself up some.
After dressing in a tank top and shorts, she slipped downstairs. "What?"
"I just said get out, not that I needed you." was the reply. Melody rolled her eyes and returned to her room. She turned on her laptop and checked her email. Since she didn't have a phone, the Internet was her main method of communication, besides actual in-person conversations.
She had a few messages, RSVPs to her sweet sixteen in two days. Almost everyone was coming. Except the jerk who'd dumped her just before she came of age. Shaking her head, she turned up her music, drowning out all painful thoughts, like the ones of how much she missed him. All of them, every single one that had ever broken her heart. Laying her head on her arms, she cried. She didn't fit in here and she knew it, but wasn't sure why. Only her teammates and a few friends truly accepted her as she was. And they couldn't be there for her all the time.
Sometimes she wondered if she was even related to her parents at all. But she looked like her aunt, and it wasn't like there had ever been a chance for her to be switched out without them noticing.
Sighing, she resigned herself to living another two years in this mess before she went off to college and got the fresh start she'd wanted since she was four years old.
