Within Reach

By melissaeverlasting

CHAPTER TWO: Limitless

Ariel's encounter with the owner of the dog had been hanging over her head since it happened. She still couldn't figure out why the woman was interested in her, or why she felt like she knew her, or the dog, or why the woman thought she should know the dog...

Ugh. Her head hurt.

"Miss Jones! Are you paying attention?" The sharp voice of Ariel's least favorite teacher, Mrs. Rollins, broke through her thoughts. When Ariel looked up, her stern face held a look of such intense hatred it made Ariel flinch. She didn't know why everyone here despised her.

"Uh, yes. Sorry," Ariel lied, twirling one of her curls around her finger.

"Oh, really. Well, kindly tell us what the answer was to the question I just asked," said Mrs. Rollins as vaguely and sadistically as possible.

Ariel bit back her snide response at the injustice of it all, but was equally determined to give her teacher the right answer. She looked right at the horrible old woman and concentrated hard. She concentrated so hard that it scared her, wanted to know more than she had ever wanted anything.

It came to her perfectly, all there, unlike anything she had ever done. It was like... mind-reading. She heard every word of the answer in Mrs. Rollins' memory, perfectly clear. Not foggy like before. She took one moment away from rejoicing to wonder what on earth was happening to her life -- first the dog, the woman, and now this.

But at least she could finally show that horrible Mrs. Rollins.

"I believe that the answer was the square root of 895, or about 29.92," said Ariel in her iciest, most sarcastic tone. "This number was achieved by adding up both coordinates and multiplying them by themselves, and then adding them together and finding the square root." She smiled, happy that she had finally put Mrs. Rollins and her classmates in their place.

Or maybe not.

Rather than looking defeated, Mrs. Rollins became extremely angry, her face slowly turning red.

"Go to the headmaster's office! Now! For goodness' sake, get OUT of my classroom!"

Ariel had a feeling Mrs. Rollins wasn't going to breathe until she left, her face was so red. So she left, near tears herself. Why was it that one day could come along and change everything? Why did nothing make sense anymore? She would have given anything at that moment, as she stood blinking back tears with her back flat against the classroom door, just to know -- know who she had been and how on earth she ended up here. Who the woman was and if her dreams were just dreams, or something more. Who Ariel herself was even at this moment.

But Ariel never allowed herself to fall apart. She had a difficult life. That was it. She told herself to get a grip, and to keep on going. There was nowhere else to go, anyway.

Ariel slowly walked away from the door. She wiped her eyes and took deep breaths, and then tried to figure out where to hide out for the rest of the period. She definitely wasn't going to go to the headmaster's office. She hadn't done anything wrong, and besides, she didn't want to give Mrs. Rollins the satisfaction.

Back when Ariel had first arrived here, at six years old, she never stayed in a classroom for more than ten minutes at the most. She would either run out screaming or try to slip out the door quietly; whichever it was, she seemed to have a deathly fear of classrooms. It had taken, basically, threats to get her to stay in class like a normal student. Mr. Pruitt had told her that she would be dumped out on the streets to live alone if she didn't learn to behave like a normal child. Looking back, she wasn't sure he really would have done that, but at the time she was positive of it.

Anyway, the few times she had been able to escape unnoticed, she had gone outside to the grounds to the most secluded corner, where there was a huge tree that could hide absolutely anyone.

Ariel never felt she had grown up. Sure, her voice was deeper, hair longer; she was taller and knew more things. But in her mind, she was still six years old, still searching for her past and a way out of this mean, cold place.

So she ran.

She ran and ran, tears stinging her face in the cold air. This was the only way it felt good to her; the only way it felt like she was doing something.

But as with all good things, it had to end. When Ariel had reached her hideaway (an old, tall Maple) she bent down and held her chest, trying to catch her breath. She wasn't ready to give up yet and look at the tree.

When she finally did, she saw that there was someone sitting in back of it. Leaning against the trunk with her face turned skyward, just like Ariel herself had so often done, was the woman with the dog.

"Oh," she said quietly, turning red. "I'm sorry."

The woman smiled again. "It's okay. I need to talk to you anyway."

Pure astonishment crossed Ariel's face. "Who are you?" she demanded, not caring if she was rude.

"You can call me Max," she said. "Mean anything to you?"

"No," Ariel lied, although her head was spinning again. "Should it?"

The woman -- Max -- smiled again, a little wistfully but mostly determined. Ariel still was getting nothing from her whatsoever.

"There's so much I need to tell you," she said, "but I can't right now. It'll all make sense, I promise."

Ariel's mouth hung open for a couple of seconds, unsure of what words it would let pass. Finally she stammered, "H-how much do you know about me?"

"More than you know about yourself, to be honest," she replied. "But that's not what I'm here to tell you. Right now I need to confuse you. That's really important. Are you confused?" she asked very slowly.

"W-well... Yeah! I – You're joking," Ariel realized. She made a 'not amused' face.

Max grinned. "Good," she said. "You didn't even need to read my mind for that. Now were getting somewhere!"

"But I am confused!"

"Yeah. Sorry. But there's a lot I don't think I can tell you right now. I have to ask you something," she said quickly, as if to throw away the other subject, "Do you ever feel like you were meant for something more? Like, beyond this place?"

The correct answer was "Only all the time," but Ariel held her tongue. She was paranoid, untrusting, and finally a little scared. This person knew what she could do. She wouldn't tell her anything. Maybe she had come to take it away?

"I don't want to tell you," she said stubbornly.

Max smiled again. Even though she seemed to be doing it a lot, Ariel got the feeling she hadn't done smiling before now.

"Good answer."

Author's Note: Hey! I told some people that this would be up... uh... like two days ago, and I'm sorry for that. I wasn't exactly busy or anything, just kind of unmotivated. Anyway, it's up now, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please review! =)