School Days:
Lucy woke up with her head spinning inside. The past week had been a blur. Today is her first day in an American school and she hoped that the students there would take to her better than the ones she left behind at Kuromokuzai.
She went into the bathroom to get herself ready for the big day; this was before anybody else had even awakened from their slumber. Lucy looked at herself in the mirror to see her own messy frame. Her hair that extends to her waist is stringy and greasy and the scars that dominate her arms and legs are a complete eyesore.
"What if…?" Lucy began to ask herself before cutting off as she wondered about how people would accept her demon like red eyes.
Lucy splashed water onto her face to keep her tired eyes open and to refresh herself. She looked into the mirror again to wonder how she would be accepted by fellow students at Belmont Elementary based on her looks. As she looked into the mirror, something did not seem right. Her reflection looked back at her wearing a dark smile. Lucy was not smiling. She felt like screaming, but her mind told her not to.
Lucy put on her school uniform, a smart white t-shirt with buttons on the collar complete with a diagonal striped black and maroon coloured tie tucked under the collar to her hip.
She also wore a black jacket with Belmont Elementary's logo, depicting the beach and sea, a lighthouse and seagulls, emblazoned on the left side of the chest area.
Lucy was also wearing traditional smart black school trousers, white socks and black Velcro shoes.
Lucy looked in the mirror again, now it was showing her proper reflection and her facial expression screwed up when she looked at her hair, all stringy and greasy against the smart outlook of her clothing.
"I'm not tying my hair back." She muttered to herself and neglected to look at the mirror again.
Lucy proceeded to the kitchen to make her breakfast, retrieved a bowl from the large cupboard beside it and the cereal from a smaller cupboard beside it. After she had finished preparing it and fished a spoon from the cutlery draw, Lucy went on into the lounge and sat down on the floor beside the television. She began to hungrily consume it and wiped her mouth on her arm once she had finished about five minutes later.
By now, the rest of the apartment had come back from dreamland. Yutaka and Mia both emerged from their bedrooms.
"Lucy?" Yutaka asked bluntly.
"I'm ready for school!" Lucy replied with a smile.
Yutaka was amazed at Lucy getting ready before the rest had even got up.
Mia emerged from the bathroom wearing identical clothing to Lucy although unlike Lucy, her hair was as tidy as her clothing.
Yutaka wore a tuxedo with a white mask over his head and face to conceal his identity.
Hideo and Mia helped Louis get sorted for school and he wore very similar clothing to Lucy and Mia, albeit in a smaller size.
"We seem to be keen on school today." Hideo said as he came out of his bedroom wearing his Black Mamba clan ninja suit still. Lucy and Mia smiled at him as they stood next to each other.
Syiren was the last to emerge from her bedroom, wearing her red encrusted black dragon t-shirt and camouflage trousers.
"Looks like we're all set." Yutaka declared. Lucy and Mia smiled excitedly and laughed as they exited the apartment again followed by the rest.
They ran noisily down the steps and onto the pavement outside the musty apartment complex. When the others joined up with them, they trudged slowly but excitedly in Belmont Elementary's direction.
When they reached the crossing of the road, Lucy's smile evaporated when she saw a baby crawl down an alleyway. It looked just like her doll that she called Alissa.
After she noticed this, a giggle echoed inside her head. It was her own laughter, but Lucy was not laughing.
Lucy's excitement had diminished completely, replaced by an aura of fear.
Mia looked at her.
"What's wrong, Lucy?" She asked with sudden concern.
Lucy stood there silently for a moment. Then she looked Mia in the eye and spoke softly.
"Nothing." Lucy lied. Mia thought it was weird but thought it was best not to quiz her sister over it.
After they had crossed the road they headed in the direction of the school, now visible in the distance to the right of them.
"There it is!" Mia exclaimed in anticipation. Louis pointed at it as Yutaka carried him in his arms.
They had finally reached the school gates a whole five minutes later. The sky was still in its early morning stage with the low sun, orange clouds and bright blue sky. Many students bid farewell to their parents outside the gates until later.
A sudden flush of nervousness coursed through Lucy and quickly boiled to a head as she looked at the school that would house her for the next six and a half hours, her dark, messy hair swayed gently in the morning breeze.
"Come on, Lucy!" Mia exclaimed from the staircase into the building as she waited.
Lucy turned around and hugged Yutaka tightly.
"I love you." She whispered quietly to him with a soft smile.
Yutaka smiled back.
"I love you too." He whispered back to her.
"It's time. I'll see you later." He continued.
Lucy let go of the hug and pecked Yutaka on the cheek before facing the school again. She turned around once more.
"Bye." She said to Yutaka and waved to him, Hideo and Syiren.
Yutaka rubbed his cheek with a smile, knowing how solid his and Lucy's connection with each other had grown.
Lucy faced the school again. It seemed daunting to her after so many years. She did not want to make Mia and Louis wait any longer though and finally walked up the steps to rejoin them.
They all waved Yutaka, Hideo and Syiren goodbye before they headed inside.
The corridor was crammed with children of various ages doing various things. Some were running around chasing each other, others were looking in their lockers or talking to each other in groups. The only similarity between them all was the uniform.
"So you must be the Colvin-Carrington siblings." A voice bellowed from behind Lucy, Mia and Louis, making them jolt when he began.
The three of them turned around to see a tall, short brown haired man wearing a grey business suit glaring at each of them simultaneously.
Mia stepped forward.
"Yes we are." She replied with a smile.
"Right you are, come with me." The man instructed. The three of them followed him down the corridor. Lucy was getting some odd looks from a number of students, most presumably due to the length of her hair or her red eyes she thought.
The man stopped outside a classroom door and looked at Louis.
"This is your class." He stated with a smile and an outstretched arm opening the door for young Louis.
"Goodbye, little bro! See you later!" Mia said excitedly as she waved at Louis who had by now entered his class's room that was filled with four or five year old children. Lucy looked at the children with a soft smile and waved at Louis who had in turn waved back.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, girls." The man apologised.
"It's not a problem, Mister er….." Mia replied before she got stumped. The man chuckled.
"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself did I. I am Mr White and I'm a supply teacher here at Belmont Elementary." The man explained with a resigned yet friendly smile.
"It's OK, sir." Mia replied while smiling back.
Mr White chuckled again and brushed the dust off his suit with his right hand.
They stopped outside a much larger classroom filled with rowdy eleven year olds.
"This is your class." Mr White explained to Mia. She smiled.
"I'll speak to you in a bit, Lucy." Mia said as she gave Lucy a quick hug. Lucy nodded although she was nervous about knowing nobody in her class.
Mia entered her classroom to be introduced to her new class by the young female teacher. Lucy watched by the doorway for a brief moment.
"It's time for you to see your new class." Mr White explained to Lucy. Lucy looked at him and nodded nervously as they trudged onwards down the large corridor. It was past nine o' clock, the time that lessons are meant to begin.
Mr White stopped at a third classroom and knocked at the door. A young female voice could be heard.
"Come in." She said with a warm smile.
"This is Mrs Lambert, your new tutor." Mr White explained to Lucy before she nodded. Mr White approached Mrs Lambert.
"This here is your new student, Lucy Colvin-Carrington." He explained. Mrs Lambert nodded in understanding.
"I'll leave you to it." Mr White said as he let himself out, closing the door as he did so.
Lucy was standing next to Mrs Lambert and facing her new class and filled with nervous thoughts. What if? Kind of thoughts, such as what if I'm a freak to them and what if they dislike me? All will be revealed soon enough to her.
Some of the class looked up at Lucy, presumably puzzled as their eyes gazed her up and down. Other students were concentrating on their work and thus had their heads down, completely oblivious to Lucy's presence.
Lucy meanwhile was looking around the room, the walls were littered in the students' work, the windows pointed upon the main school field and many desks, holding one student each along with the teacher's larger desk perched atop a bright blue carpet. There was also a whiteboard behind the teacher's desk on the wall smothered with various mathematical equations written via a red marker pen.
Lucy saw only one desk remained unused among the thirty three other desks occupied by a student. She knew this desk would be her desk.
"OK, class may I have your attention for a few minutes." Mrs Lambert began, clapping her hands loudly to get every student's attention within the room. The students not looking up already did so without any delay.
"Thank you. You may be wondering what is going on and who this is. Well, I'll tell you……" She continued before being rudely interrupted by a blonde haired boy wearing glasses over his blue eyes at the back of the class.
"Get to the point already, I want to get on with my work." He groaned unsympathetically.
"Matthew, shut up! You can carry on when I've finished. As I was saying, you may be wondering who this is. Her name is Lucy Colvin-Carrington and this is her first day at Belmont Elementary so please make her feel welcome." Mrs Lambert finally explained.
She handed Lucy four sheets of plain A4 paper.
"We're sketching our favourite musical artists today." Mrs Lambert explained softly to Lucy. Lucy looked at her and nodded.
She turned back towards the class and finally was able to walk to her desk.
Lucy did so quickly and she felt relief on her legs when she sat down on the grey plastic chair behind her desk as they felt like boulders for a while.
Lucy put the paper atop her desk once it felt less weird to her being among a large number of other children and took out her pencil case from her bag, her favourite bag, her All That Remains bag which she then placed underneath her desk.
She looked behind her, two rows back to see Matthew was giving her a dirty look.
Lucy just shunned it by ignoring him from now on so it does not affect her emotions, given how sensitive she is.
Lucy turned her attention to the girl sitting to the left of her. This girl had brown hair that lengthened to her upper torso and like Lucy and every other girl in the school wore the same school uniform. She was giving Lucy an odd look but shuddered and shied away when Lucy's red eyes fell upon her.
Lucy simply shook her head in partial disgust as she sat back on her chair and began to put pencil to paper and draw.
She began to receive even more weird looks from the students around her when they saw what she was drawing.
Lucy had drawn a detailed depiction of the All That Remains logo along the top, having her sheet of paper in a landscape stance, and one by one the five members showed up on this sheet of paper directly from her handiwork. They were all beside their instruments and microphones and Lucy had drawn them as if they were performing a song at a gig.
She was the third student to complete her artwork in the class.
As instructed by Mrs Lambert, Lucy rose from her chair and proceeded to the front of the class, handing it to her teacher when she did so.
"Thank you, Lucy." Mrs Lambert said as she put it on the top of the drawings that perched on her desk.
Lucy looked at her and gave off a light hearted smile.
While she did this and when she walked back to her desk, she garnered more strange looks from the same students.
Lucy ignored them but deep inside she was becoming mildly annoyed because it felt as if she was a zoo animal for all the children to stop and stare at.
Lucy sat back down on the chair at her desk and waited for the students who had not finished drawing to do exactly that. While she waited, she rested her head on her desk, which was not exactly the same comfortable feeling she gets from Yutaka's shoulder, but it would do for now.
Lucy had to wait a full, slow going ten minutes before all the students had completed their artwork and handed them to the teacher.
Mrs Lambert then, one by one, held a drawing aloft above her head and the student that was responsible for the artwork would in turn raise their hand.
Eventually the teacher came down to Lucy's artwork, funnily enough it was the last to be shown. Lucy's drawing appeared to be far more detailed than everything that had come before it.
"All That Remains. That must be yours, Lucy." Mrs Lambert remarked as she held it in the air above her head.
Lucy nodded at her in agreement, allowing herself a wry smile, though most of the students around Lucy gave her more strange looks. This was annoying Lucy more and more inside, particularly the girl sitting to the left of her.
"Who are All That Remains, Lucy?" Mrs Lambert asked with every student's eyes glaring at Lucy.
Lucy took out The Fall of Ideals, the latest album the band had done and the one that Syiren had bought for her only two days before.
Conveniently there was a stereo perched on a window ledge near the back of the class.
Lucy opened the CD compartment of the stereo and calmly slipped the disk in. As usual, the same students stared at her like she was an alien.
Despite this, Lucy was not deterred and with a tap of the play button, she revelled in the most explosive introduction that Belmont Elementary had ever known.
Once Six had began, Lucy went berserk, as if she forgot who she herself was.
Lucy began by head banging, throwing her long, unkempt hair about uncontrollably to much eyeballing and shock from her fellow class students.
She then added screaming out the lyrics to the mix in a surprisingly almost faithful interpretation of the vocals being ground out in the actual song itself.
Eventually as the song went on, Lucy sat down on her desk, head banging wildly, singing/screaming the lyrics and gesturing the devil horn hand signature.
The class then realised that this was the beginning of her very own signature move, as she stood proudly on her desk still flinging and flailing wildly to the music, completely forgetting where she actually is. She even managed a maniacal laugh.
As all good things do, the song finally drew to a close. Lucy froze on the spot, receiving rapturous applauds from most of the class and the teacher, barring only the usual suspects.
Lucy's face came over in a flush of red in sheer embarrassment. She retrieved the CD from the stereo and put it back in its case and slipping it back into her bag.
It would most probably be the talking point of the day among the other students, no doubt with a variety of opinions.
Lucy sat back down on her desk's chair and buried her face into the desk, spreading her stringy hair across the desk in such a way that it completely concealed her embarrassed face from the class.
It certainly created a buzz within the class however and that secretly pleased Lucy deep inside.
"OK, class it is break time. Please calm down when you come back later." Mrs Lambert announced.
Lucy's head rose from the desk slowly and cleared her hair away from her face with her hand. The class were pushing each other out of the door playfully in their boisterous mood.
Lucy was still perched on the chair at her desk and Mrs Lambert looked at her.
"I'm sorry the class is so noisy today." Mrs Lambert said apologetically.
"It's OK." Lucy replied in her deep little girl's voice, speaking her first words since she arrived at Belmont Elementary.
"Lucy, is it OK if I ask you something?" Mrs Lambert asked unsure of whether to do so as she crouched down to Lucy's height.
"Yeah." Lucy replied hesitantly, as if she to was unsure, again brushing her dark hair away from her face with her hand.
"OK. Please don't take it personally. All I want to know is, are you the little girl that went missing for many years?" Mrs Lambert asked softly but nervously, not wanting to offend Lucy.
Lucy nodded as her red eyes looked the teacher in the eye, neglecting the need to speak.
Lucy got up and made for the door with her back turned to Mrs Lambert, her All That Remains backpack hoisted to her shoulder.
"I'm glad you're OK." Mrs Lambert said calmly with a smile.
Lucy looked back at her momentarily without smiling before she walked out of the classroom door, leaving Mrs Lambert alone to lock the door.
"Hey, Lucy!" Mia called out to Lucy. Lucy turned around to see the unmistakable curled blonde hair of her older sister. Mia had two people, one on either side of her, with her.
"You have friends already?" Lucy asked her quietly.
"Yeah, my class is great." Mia answered instantly.
Lucy looked down at her shoes. She felt hurt that her school hoodoo is continuing from her Kuromokuzai days.
"What's the matter, Lucy?" Mia asked gently, getting Lucy to look at her.
Lucy looked upset as she faced her sister.
"I hate school." Lucy replied faintly.
"Oh come on, Lucy. Don't worry, you'll be fine." Mia said, trying to encourage Lucy while stroking Lucy's messy hair repeatedly with her left hand to further try and calm Lucy down.
"Nobody ever likes me." Lucy remarked, sounding as if she was harshly criticising herself. This caused her eyes to overflow with tears as they began to crawl down her pale cheeks.
"Lucy please don't cry. You'll be OK." Mia said trying to convince her upset sister otherwise.
Mia turned to her friends, one a blonde haired male and the other a girl with dark brown hair.
"Could I meet you in the cafeteria in five minutes? I need to have a bit of privacy with my sister." Mia asked and explained.
"Sure. It's fine." The boy replied before they made their way to the cafeteria a long way across the main school building.
The two sisters shared a hug in the corridor, embracing it tightly in each other's arms.
"Lucy, just believe in yourself." Mia advised her gently.
"It's difficult for me." Lucy replied plainly.
"I know. I know, but the more confidence you instil in yourself, the better." Mia encouraged her gently still.
They turned ninety degrees as they hugged and Lucy looked with horror to see her mother Francine in the doorway that forms the corridor's primary exit.
"One more chance, Lucy." She whispered and as Lucy blinked, Francine vanished.
Mia noticed Lucy's wide eyed shock.
"Lucy, why are you scared?" She asked, genuinely concerned for her sister while she began to shake, frightened in that concern.
Lucy screamed and shoved Mia aside and began to run down the corridor.
She passed many students on the way, before a stray foot knocked Lucy off her own feet and land with a thud on her stomach. This knocked the air out of Lucy, winding her temporarily.
Lucy regained her senses and sat up on the corridor's pale yellow carpet to be greeted by a trio of giggling girls. One of them sat next to Lucy in class. The one with the long brown hair that extended to her upper torso.
"Did I do that?" She asked herself and her friends with a giggle.
Lucy looked up at her with anger building inside herself, though she left it for now.
"Maybe you should watch where you're going." The girl giggled again as she looked back at Lucy alongside her two friends, both female. One had long blonde hair and the other had even longer jet black hair.
"Let's leave her here, Emily and contemplate on who we should annoy next." The blonde haired girl chirped, still with a giggle.
Lucy noted Emily's name just as Emily and her friends had drifted off down the corridor.
Lucy brushed herself off and got back to her feet again.
As she turned to face the corridor's other main exit, she was greeted with the sight of her father Nick.
"One more chance, Lucy." He whispered, echoing what Francine had said only a few minutes ago.
Lucy was once again wide eyed with shock and fell back onto her backside again. She slid back across the carpet until she backed into a table. By now Nick had disappeared. Lucy just sat there and continued to cry into her hands.
"Lucy!" Mia exclaimed when she found Lucy in the corner of the corridor, backed against a table.
Lucy removed her hands from her face and looked at Mia with tears pouring down her cheeks.
"What is the matter, little sis?" Mia asked Lucy again.
"I saw mommy and daddy." Lucy replied with an upset tone in her voice.
Mia stood back in shock.
"How could you? They're dead." Mia asked while also stating the obvious.
"I……I don't know." Lucy lied, stuttering as she sniffled from her crying.
The school bell rang loud and clear, signalling the start of the next lesson.
"Oh, I'll see you later, Lucy." Mia said, wandering off moments later.
Lucy looked at her timetable to see Physical Education was her next lesson, which she was exempted from for this week. She headed to the changing rooms regardless.
When she got there, she waited outside the girls' changing room just as the teacher arrived.
"You must be the new girl." She said to Lucy who stood with her back against the wall.
Lucy simply nodded and looked at her.
"I am Miss Taylor; please remind me who you are." The teacher said with a light smile.
"Lucy Colvin-Carrington." Lucy replied instantly.
"OK, Lucy could you carry these cones to the sports field and place your bag in the rack?" Miss Taylor instructed as if she was asking a question.
Lucy nodded again and held her hands out to embrace the cones that were politely placed in them by the teacher, who in turn placed Lucy's tattered backpack in the nearby bag rack.
Lucy headed outside the building, wandering towards the sports field with the cones in hand, balancing them within her arms and against her chest. They were moderately heavy.
When she eventually got there, she set down the cones on top of the moist grass. It had been raining during the first lesson and it turned the field into a slip worthy mud bath.
Every time Lucy took a step, the moist soil and grass squelched under her formerly shiny school shoes.
After another ten minutes, the teacher and the rest of Lucy's class emerged from the changing rooms.
Miss Taylor looked in Lucy's direction.
"Thank you, Lucy." She said, appreciating Lucy's help with the cones and began setting them out according to her lesson plans. Lucy bowed her head quickly in acknowledgment.
"What a freak!" Emily yelled as she and her two friends began snorting with laughter along with Matthew.
"Leave her alone." A small boy retorted, his head topped with a very small amount of brown hair, thus making him a skinhead.
"Thank you, Joseph I was just about to say that." Miss Taylor grinned at the small boy.
After explaining the lesson plan involving much running and requiring high amounts of stamina, the girls, each wearing a white t-shirt and an assortment of navy blue or black tracksuit trousers, began the running lesson, part of the track marked out by cones.
Soon after, the boys, each wearing similar white t-shirts and black shorts, took to the same track, with each student jogging around it, some competitively, some not so.
Lucy watched on from the sidelines next to the teacher, still in her school uniform of course.
As Joseph jogged past, Lucy looked at him and gave him a warm smile, as if to say thanks. Joseph smiled back at her.
"So, Lucy, where did you move from?" Miss Taylor asked her.
"Kuromokuzai in Japan. It was a small village." Lucy replied when she looked up at the smiling teacher.
"Was it OK there?" Miss Taylor asked.
"No. I was bullied at school by everybody and my family abused me." Lucy answered instantly.
"Oh my god. Are you OK now?" Miss Taylor asked with her hand clasped to her mouth in deep concern.
"Yeah. I'd rather not talk about it." Lucy replied sternly.
"I'm sorry." The teacher apologised immediately.
Lucy nodded her head in acknowledgment.
"Are you Japanese at all. I mean you have a typical American accent." Miss Taylor asked yet another question, though now trying to change the subject.
"I have a small amount of Japanese blood in me. However, my family are originally from Sacramento, California but moved to Kuromokuzai before I was born because they hated the hustle and bustle and they wanted tradition and peace. Somebody told them about a village in Japan that was quiet and easy going, and traditional. That was Kuromokuzai. With that in mind, they moved there. Soon after, my life began." Lucy explained as she looked on at her class jogging around the track.
"Oh. That's…..unusual." Miss Taylor remarked as she struggled for what to say.
"I know." Lucy replied as her eyes remained glued to the jogging students.
"What family ties to you have that ensures that small amount of Japanese heritage inside you?" Miss Taylor asked.
"My cousin, Yutaka Keiji mostly." Lucy replied immediately.
"Do you live with him now?" Miss Taylor asked yet another question.
"Yes. We only moved here last week along with my brother Louis and my sister Mia who are also at this school today." Lucy replied once more.
The lesson was finally over and while the teacher stacked all the cones together, the students headed back to the changing rooms with soaked, mud covered shoes, shirts and tracksuit trousers or shorts.
Lucy caught up to Joseph and walked alongside him. She looked at him with a warming smile etched onto her face.
"Er…..hi." Joseph began, suddenly shy and nervous. He looked back at Lucy momentarily and then down at the floor where it remained as he was too embarrassed to look Lucy in the eye.
Lucy giggled as a way of covering up the fact that she was also shy, though her eyes remained fixed to Joseph.
"Hi." Was all she could muster for the moment before she giggled again.
They continued to walk side by side towards the changing rooms.
Lucy's nerves very nearly got the better of her but as they reached the building housing the changing rooms, she plucked up enough courage to say what was on her mind.
"Thank you for sticking up for me. Nobody ever does that." She said with an innocent tone in her voice.
"No problem." Joseph replied plainly before entering the boys' changing room.
Emily and her friends stepped into the building.
"You're weird and you're a freak." Emily taunted Lucy and used her shoulder to barge Lucy rudely out of her way, forcing Lucy back a few steps.
Emily giggled as she entered the girls' changing room.
Lucy was angry inside and almost said something that she would regret, holding it in at the last second.
"It was good talking to you." Miss Taylor said as she passed Lucy outside the changing rooms with the cones in her hands. Lucy simply smiled at her as she passed.
Lucy retrieved her tattered bag from the rack and hoisted it on her shoulder.
Then she finally made her way back outside, followed by none other than Emily and her two friends. Emily deliberately barged Lucy out of her way with her shoulder again and just as she turned around to look at Lucy and taunt her, Lucy utilised a backhanded slap, catching Emily violently across her cheek, leaving a large and angry looking red mark.
Lucy's fuse had finally blown, her anger past boiling point.
Emily fell to her hands and knees from the vicious impact and coughed a little.
She then got back to her feet and rubbed her cheek, standing immediately in front of Lucy and said:
"I expect to see you on the playing field in five minutes."
Lucy looked at her sternly before nodding her head.
Emily wandered away with her friends just as Lucy made her way to the school playing fields.
It was a damp patch of grass soaked in mud as a result of the earlier rainfall. Many children were playing and running amok on this field.
Lucy looked around the field for Emily but was stunned when a nasty backhanded slap caught Lucy across her mouth, causing her teeth to slice her tongue so violently that it opened a long and deep cut running vertically down the left side of her tongue.
Lucy soon fell to her hands and knees and saw her own blood dripping onto the grass.
"Two can play at that game." Emily taunted as she looked down at Lucy, her friends behind Emily.
A whole group of students surrounded both Lucy and Emily as if they were in an arena.
"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" Chanted the posse of students continuously while punching the air in delight.
Lucy got up, her blood drooling and dripping from her mouth and onto her shirt and tie.
Emily tripped Lucy up, Lucy fell to the floor sprawled on her back and coughed when blood began to enter her throat.
"Why is everybody so easy?" Emily asked herself as Lucy sat up on the grass to gather her bearings again. Lucy's clothes, both front and back were covered in mud as was a large amount of her stringy hair.
Lucy got up again only to be kicked harshly in the stomach, winding her and she fell back on her hands and knees. She coughed up blood onto the grass and began to get groggy.
Mia became curious about the gathered chanting children and rushed over to see what all the fuss was about.
She shoved her way through the crowd of students and was horrified by what she saw.
"Oh my god! Lucy!" Mia yelled in deep concern for her sister.
Lucy was sitting on the grass as blood dribbled and drooled from her mouth. She was also coughing and gurgling on more blood and she was clutching her stomach with both hands. She felt weak.
"Get up, jackass!" Emily demanded with outstretched arms as if she was begging to be hit.
Lucy got up slowly.
Emily attempted to kick Lucy maliciously again but Lucy grabbed her foot and pulled it up, causing Emily to slip over onto her back.
Lucy came over to Emily with her hair messily covering her face. Then the weakened Lucy sat on top of Emily to pin her down on the ground.
"Come on, you freak! I dare you!" Emily exclaimed wildly.
Lucy looked at her for a moment as if she was wondering what to do. Mia was concerned about Lucy and had tears falling from her cheeks as she looked at the large red patch on the grass, knowing that was her sister's blood.
"Hurry up, you coward I haven't got all day!" Emily taunted again. Lucy was really angry inside and could no longer keep it to herself.
Lucy dealt Emily two swift and violent punches around Emily's eyes, leaving sore red marks around her eyes.
"I can't see, you idiot!" Emily exclaimed harshly.
When Emily regained most of her vision, still partially blurred, she tried to force the palm of her left hand into Lucy's face, but Lucy got a firm grip on Emily's wrist with her right hand.
Blood was still drooling and dripping from Lucy's mouth and it began to stain Emily's shirt and tie which was already heavily stained in mud, much like Lucy's.
Lucy pressed her fingers against Emily's and with force she began to bend Emily's fingers back.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked in sudden panic.
Lucy did nothing but look at her as she continued bending back Emily's fingers.
Eventually Emily's fingers began to click loudly as Lucy was bending them back to far.
"Please stop!" Emily pleaded as a sudden sharp pain coursed through her left hand.
Lucy did not. Instead, she continued to force Emily's fingers back. Finally, a major clicking sound occurred in each of Emily's four fingers.
Emily screamed in pain. Lucy let go as Emily's fingers were in mangled, unusual positions. The fingers were fractured. The crowd of students gasped in shock.
Then finally, part of the broken bones in Emily's first and third fingers tore through her skin, exposing the blood soaked bone as more blood began to pour down her arm and onto the grass.
Emily screamed and cried even more. There were more gasps of shock from the crowd of students.
Lucy got up and ran a few inches away before falling to her hands and knees from feeling weak and then vomited onto the grass as she became sick from what she had done.
Emily sat up on the grass covered in mud like Lucy and could not look at her mangled fingers.
Mia rushed to Lucy's side and crouched beside her.
"Are you OK, Lucy?" Mia asked in her worried state. Blood and vomit trickled from Lucy's mouth.
"Just about." Lucy replied.
"Let's get you to the first aid room." Mia suggested. Lucy got up slowly and Mia put her arm around her sister to support her. They began to trudge off the field slowly, leaving Emily behind who was being tended to by a number of students.
"What happened, Lucy? How did it get this far?" Mia asked.
"She kept calling me names, tripping me up and shoulder barging me, so after she barged me again, I flipped and I hit her." Lucy replied. Then she began to cry and tears cascaded down her pale cheeks.
"Lucy, it's not your fault. If anything, that girl deserved it for what she did to you." Mia said trying to reassure Lucy.
Lucy was worried deep inside that others would see Emily as the victim and not her.
They continued to walk on the concrete pavement towards the first aid room and Lucy spat blood onto the floor to stop it clogging up the inside of her mouth and throat.
Joseph was wandering towards them and was shocked to see the state that Lucy was in as he knew nothing about what went about on the playing field.
"Why is she bleeding?" He asked in concern.
Mia looked at him and then at Lucy.
"Is he your friend?" Mia asked Lucy.
"Yeah." Lucy replied faintly.
"Do you want him to walk with us?" Mia asked.
"Yeah." Lucy replied identically to her last answer.
Joseph smiled and like Mia, put his arm around Lucy to support her. Or was it something else?
Lucy looked at him with blood still dripping from her mouth and smiled at him.
"Why are you bleeding?" Joseph asked again.
"Lucy is bleeding and covered in mud because she was in a fight with another girl." Mia answered for Lucy. Lucy nodded at him.
"I bet it was Emily." Joseph assumed immediately.
"Yeah." Lucy replied, confirming his assumption.
"Wait, how do you know that?" Mia asked demandingly.
"Emily Anderson is in the same class that me and Lucy are in. She is a bully, and an evil one at that. She is big headed, nasty to almost everybody apart from her friends Sophia and Ashleigh and she especially hates people who are completely different to her. She has been in a lot of fights in this school and has apparently never been defeated." Joseph explained. Lucy smiled at him again.
"You beat her?" Joseph asked excitedly.
"Yeah." Lucy replied in the same way again.
"Lucy broke Emily's fingers and gave her two black eyes." Mia explained.
"My best friend beat Emily!" Joseph exclaimed proudly.
Lucy smiled at him again.
They finally came across the first aid room, manned by the school doctor and was unoccupied by any student luckily.
The three of them proceeded to enter.
"Oh. I was expecting a quiet lunch break." The doctor remarked.
"Sorry. My sister was involved in a vicious fight with a girl named Emily Anderson." Mia explained.
Lucy did not like the smell of chemicals and medicine in the pure white first aid room and she covered her nose momentarily. The doctor noted this.
"I apologise about the smell, but I cannot change it unfortunately." He explained with a smile and then he looked over to Mia.
"Emily Anderson. Now there's a name I am familiar with around here." The doctor remarked.
"In what way?" Mia asked with interest.
"I've had so many students come in here with injuries received from fights with Emily. I've never seen an injury quite as bad as your sister's though." The doctor explained with concern as he looked at the spots of red blood on the otherwise clean white floor and then at Lucy's mouth which still dripped with blood.
"Lucy will be OK, won't she?" Joseph asked with concern.
"Yes, young man. Your friend will be just fine." The doctor replied with a smile.
"But you said that her injury is the worst injury you've ever seen here." Joseph remarked, still concerned.
"It doesn't mean I cannot deal with it." The doctor replied firmly.
"What do you think about Emily?" Mia asked.
"Well I'll be honest with you as long as you don't tell Blackwood what I said. I think Emily is a little shit and I do not know how she has managed to escape being expelled. Her parents obviously have no control over her and it's just crazy how she likes fighting with other students." The doctor replied as honestly as he could.
This stunned but pleased all of Lucy, Mia and Joseph.
"Excuse me, sir but what should we call you?" Joseph asked, unsure of how to say it.
"Call me Doctor Banfield." The doctor replied. He is of African-American descent and has platted black hair in the form of cornrows. He is wearing an all white doctor's suit.
"Lucy broke Emily's fingers on her left hand and gave her two black eyes." Mia explained with a smile.
"Good. Maybe it'll teach Emily a lesson that she needed." Banfield replied gruffly, though also with a smile.
He finally focussed his attention on Lucy and in particular her injury. He put white gloves on his hands to defect germs and diseases.
"Could you pull your hair back for me for a few minutes?" Banfield instructed. Mia moved Lucy's hair over Lucy's back, making Banfield's job a little easier.
"I don't think I've ever seen anybody with hair as long as yours." Banfield remarked, trying to strike up a conversation with Lucy. Lucy simply smiled at him.
"Open wide." He instructed. Lucy did so with no fuss and Banfield noted that all of Lucy's saliva within her mouth had become red with blood.
"Jesus. That is one bad cut." Banfield remarked with surprise.
Lucy rolled her red eyes, knowing that already.
"What is it, Doctor Banfield?" Joseph asked.
"It appears that your friend has a long, deep cut on her tongue, running lengthwise down the left side of it." Banfield explained.
"I guess that's where all the blood is coming from." Mia determined.
"Indeed it is, but I'm concerned about how much is coming out." Banfield remarked as he looked at the floor beneath Lucy, where now a small, irregularly shaped red pool lay.
"Is she going to need stitches?" Mia asked.
"It's a possibility, but I want to clean it out and leave it at that preferably." Banfield replied.
He grabbed a glass of water and some tissues.
He handed the water to Lucy.
"Drink this and move it around your mouth." Banfield instructed.
Lucy obeyed and held the glass to her mouth, taking in some water as some blood dribbled down the side of the glass.
She made sure that all of her mouth was freshened up with water and spat it out into the sink in a diluted red colour.
Banfield then dabbed some of the tissues against Lucy's cut on her tongue, making Lucy wince as the cold water stung her cut, wiping the remainder of the blood away as the cut seemingly shut itself down.
"It's stopped." Banfield confirmed to the relief of them all.
"I'm sorry." Lucy said apologetically as she pointed at the blood on the floor.
"Don't worry." Banfield reassured her.
Lucy's messy hair concealed part of her face once again.
She proceeded to give Joseph a tight, warming hug as a sign of friendship.
"You're my friend now." She whispered into Joseph's ear.
Joseph smiled and embraced Lucy, making Mia smile, knowing that through the long and winding road, her sister had finally gained herself a good friend.
"Come on, you two let's go." Mia said with a smile.
Lucy and Joseph let go of each other and they thanked Banfield for his work on patching Lucy up.
Joseph turned to Lucy.
"Is it still sore?" He asked about the cut on Lucy's tongue.
"Yeah." Lucy replied faintly.
"How sore?" Joseph asked again.
"Very, but its not bleeding so it's OK." Lucy answered immediately.
Joseph smiled in the knowledge that his new friend was perfectly OK.
Principle Blackwood happened to be walking past them at that moment with a concerned expression on his face.
He caught a glimpse of Lucy with Mia and Joseph and after he did a double take, he turned around, clearing his throat to get their attention.
"Lucy, I need to see you in my office urgently. Somebody else is here to see you as well." Blackwood began.
"Are we allowed to tag along?" Mia asked in hope.
"Of course. I can also get your account on the events that happened thirty-two minutes ago as apparently you were a witness." Blackwood replied with a gruff chuckle.
"OK thank you." Mia said gratefully.
The three of them were ushered hurriedly to Blackwood's office, passing many eagle eyed students knowing the event of the lunch break. They knew who Lucy is and gave her odd looks as her dark and unkempt hair almost completely covered her face. Mia looked at Lucy with worrying thoughts cast through her mind.
She could not see Lucy's face and felt the need to ask.
"Are you OK, Lucy?"
Lucy turned her head to face her, looking quite creepy and unsettling with her hair concealing her face almost completely.
"I'm fine." Lucy replied faintly.
They eventually came across Blackwood's office and promptly entered it, looking almost identical to the last time they had been here.
"Yutaka!" Lucy yelled suddenly as she saw him standing casually against a wall. Lucy then ran towards Yutaka and hugged him tightly.
Mia smiled at the sight.
"You're covered in mud, Lucy." Yutaka remarked with a gentle smile.
"I know and I'm sorry." Lucy replied with an innocent voice.
Yutaka continued to smile.
Blackwood sat at his pinewood desk and cleared his throat to get their attention again. It did the trick.
"Right. Well you all know why you're here." Blackwood began.
They all looked at each other and nodded.
"There was a fight earlier this lunchtime involving Lucy and a girl named Emily Anderson, correct?" He asked.
They all nodded in unison.
"Apparently, Lucy, you dealt her two black eyes and broke four of her fingers on her left hand." He continued, now solely concentrating on Lucy.
"Yes, sir." Lucy replied, her face enshrouded within a thick wall of her black hair.
Blackwood looked slightly annoyed at this.
"Lucy, could you pull your hair away from your face as I cannot see it at all." He instructed in an annoyed tone of voice.
Yutaka moved Lucy's hair away from her face so it could be seen clearly.
"Thank you. Anyway, people have also stated that Emily split open your tongue and kicked you full on in the stomach. Is that true?" Blackwood continued with his questioning.
"Yes." Lucy replied immediately and rubbed her stomach as it ached by coincidence.
"Well I have news that will probably make your stomach ache worse." Blackwood explained as if he was building to a crescendo.
"What is it?" Yutaka asked with quite some concern.
"Emily's parents, who I was on the phone to earlier, want to go to court over this matter." Blackwood revealed with a gloomy voice.
"What? But they can't. Lucy is just a child." Yutaka reacted angrily. This upset Lucy and she burst into tears.
Yutaka comforted her with a hug.
"I tried telling them for all it is worth that Emily was just as bigger part of this as Lucy, but they would not take it for an answer." Blackwood explained.
"Lucy told me that Emily started it all by tripping Lucy up in the corridor and barging Lucy out of the way with her shoulders. Lucy also told me that she fought back in self defence." Mia revealed with worry and with an angrier tone.
"That would make sense." Blackwood remarked.
"Emily should not be in this school anyway. All she does is fight anybody who is any different to her." Mia replied angrily.
"Who told you this?" Blackwood asked calmly in the midst of the now heated discussion.
"Joseph and Doctor Banfield, sir." Mia replied, slightly calmer now.
"I see. I guess Doctor Banfield was told by the students who came to him after the alleged fight. I must talk with him later on as nobody has told me this before." Blackwood revealed, much to the dismay of Yutaka.
This is unbelievable. You've let all these students be picked on and bullied by this monster." Yutaka reacted angrily.
"Mr Keiji, I offer my sincerest apologies." Blackwood tried apologising to no avail.
"No, I will not accept this. You should apologise to the parents of students that this fucking rat has been bullying and you should be keeping a close eye on what goes on around here!" Yutaka retorted in his sudden rage.
"Sir, will you please just calm down?" Blackwood asked as he tried defusing the situation.
"Why should I? My nine year old cousin, who I am now responsible for, is facing a court challenge and all you can do is tell me to calm down? Well I will not, not until you tell Emily's parents exactly what kind of monster she is!" Yutaka continued in pure anger.
"OK, OK. I will grant you that, and after I've finished making that call, I will tell Lucy. However I cannot guarantee that Emily's parents will change their minds." Blackwood explained as calmly as possible.
"Thank you. Anyway, I must go." Yutaka replied as he suddenly calmed down and hugged Lucy again.
The school bell rang out loud and clear.
"I believe it is time for your next lesson, children." Blackwood remarked.
Lucy, Mia and Joseph nodded in unison before they followed Yutaka out of the office.
"By the way, Lucy, I will come soon to tell you that news regarding Emily's parents." Blackwood called out.
Lucy nodded again and turned away, heading for her classroom.
As Mia reached her class, she and Lucy embraced each other with a hug.
"You are OK now, aren't you, Lucy?" She asked to make sure.
"I'm fine." Lucy replied insistently.
Mia turned to Joseph.
"You will look after her won't you?" She advised him like an order or demand.
"Of course I will." Joseph replied excitedly.
"Good." Mia replied with a smile before she entered her classroom of rowdy eleven year old children.
Lucy and Joseph continued onwards to their classroom as a number of students stared at Lucy. It seemed as though the brawl with Emily had made her into a bit of a celebrity among the school students.
They quietly approached their classroom and as Lucy's face appeared to the class, the majority of the students gave her rapturous applauds, save for the odd few such as Matthew.
Lucy took it all in and bowed to those applauding students.
Joseph smiled, knowing that his friend had won the respect of most of the class.
As the class continued to applaud, Lucy and Joseph took their seats at two desks that sat side by side.
Lucy sat at the desk that she was sitting at during the first lesson. Joseph however sat at Emily's desk, causing an uproar from those behind him.
"Move yourself and that mud monster friend of yours somewhere else." Matthew ordered cockily as he referred to Lucy's mud spattered uniform.
"Why should we move?" Joseph asked angrily as he turned around to face Matthew.
"Because I said so." Matthew replied pathetically.
"Ooh I'm so scared." Joseph taunted with a smile.
"Do you think you're tough because you have mud monster by your side?" Matthew asked Joseph while taunting Lucy again.
Lucy looked back at Matthew, her red eyes darkly taunting Matthew right back.
"What are you looking at, freak?" Matthew taunted Lucy.
Lucy did not say a thing, believing she would be wasting her breath. Joseph did however.
"Leave Lucy alone. Just because she hurt your pretend friend Emily and now she's not here, Lucy acted on self defence." Joseph lashed back verbally at Matthew.
Matthew rose to his feet and trudged angrily over to Joseph.
Lucy looked at Matthew again just as Matthew prepared to hit Joseph through pure frustration.
Lucy, through her powerful telekinesis, held Matthew's hand back whereupon it stopped inches from Joseph's face with the fist tightly clenched.
"What's going on?" Matthew asked with a freaked out expression drawn on his face.
"Punch me then if you're going to." Joseph taunted with a smile.
"I can't." Matthew replied with panic in his voice.
Matthew looked at Lucy who glared back at him with her blood red eyes and with her face crossed with the darkest of smiles, sending a shiver down Matthew's spine.
Then Joseph took Matthew by surprise when he punched him to the floor, catching Matthew on the nose as he did so.
Matthew's glasses fell to the floor with him and cracked slightly on one side.
His nose also began to bleed onto the floor.
Matthew rose to his knees slowly and put on his cracked glasses in his daze.
He rubbed his nose along his arm and to his horror saw a smear of his own blood staring back at him.
"Look what you did." Matthew remarked to Joseph, showing him the blood on his arm.
Joseph and Lucy both smiled in dark ways at him to show their satisfaction.
Mrs Lambert entered the room at that precise moment and reeled back in shock to see Matthew bleeding out from his nose and with a small patch of red on the carpet, signifying blood.
"What happened?" Mrs Lambert asked politely.
"Joseph punched me, Miss." Matthew replied, missing out most of the truth deliberately.
"Yeah, only because you were taunting and threatening me and Lucy." Joseph retorted with the rest of the truth in a nutshell.
"OK. Matthew, you clean yourself up at the first aid room and then you and Joseph will go and see the Principle." Mrs Lambert instructed.
"What? But Matthew provoked me, Miss." Joseph protested insistently.
"I'm not changing my mind, Joseph. Especially in the knowledge of that horrible fight that your friend Lucy was involved in." Mrs Lambert explained clearly.
"Fine!" Joseph answered back as he and Matthew wandered into the corridor bickering still.
Just as Mrs Lambert was preparing to begin her lesson as stated on the schedule, Principle Blackwood entered the room.
He approached the teacher and explained that he needed to speak to Lucy for a moment before he approached Lucy at her desk.
"I called Emily's parents to tell them about Emily's 'tactics' in this school but they would not change their minds. They say their daughter is well behaved and would not dream of hurting a soul." Blackwood explained as calmly to Lucy.
Tears of hurt and sadness fell from Lucy's pale cheeks as she despaired and buried her face in her arms on the table, sobbing loudly.
Lucy was convinced that she had done nothing wrong.
"I'm sorry, Lucy." Blackwood sympathised before he turned to leave the classroom, leaving Lucy in tears.
Lucy knew that Emily's parents were lying from under their rotten teeth.
"Lucy would you like a few minutes to compose yourself?" Mrs Lambert asked her thoughtfully.
Lucy looked up momentarily with her eyes pouring forth tears like thick falling rain and she nodded slowly with some nervous uncertainty before burying her face in her folded arms on the table, whereby she continued to sob.
Mrs Lambert went on to explain the lesson plan regardless. It was maths and the students were to learn about shapes, areas and perimeters.
Twenty minutes had passed by as if they never existed and Lucy tried to shrug off the impending court case in her head to start on her work.
A number of students kept looking up at Lucy as if she was weird and abnormal. Lucy ignored each one wisely, though with much annoyance.
Joseph and Matthew arrived back from the Principle's office still bickering with each other. Matthew's nose was no longer bleeding and the only evidence to suggest it had ever happened was the small red patch on the carpet.
Joseph sat at the desk next to Lucy again, much to the dismay of Matthew for the second time.
"Move, scum bucket. Nobody wants you there!" Matthew reacted angrily again.
"Lucy wants me here." Joseph replied just as angrily.
"Who cares about her?" Matthew asked in a mocking sarcastic tone while also making fun of Lucy's hair by grabbing his own and then illustrating by hand how long it is.
It made each of his friends around him laugh hysterically.
"Who cares about you?" Lucy asked quietly yet sternly while she looked at her work and never intended to look back at Matthew. Lucy knew that he was mocking her even though she never set her eyes on him.
"What did you say?" Matthew asked angrily though he knew full well what she said.
Lucy ignored him and continued on with her work, pretending Matthew never existed.
Matthew had risen up from his seat.
"I said what did you say?" He asked demandingly.
Lucy continued to ignore him.
"Matthew move to the front please." Mrs Lambert ordered as she lost patience with Matthew's temper.
"Why me? What about Joseph or that…..thing over there?" Matthew asked as he mockingly referenced Lucy again.
"Get out, Matthew!" Mrs Lambert ordered as she pointed towards the classroom door.
"I'll be glad too!" Matthew replied angrily as he picked up his belongings and headed towards the door.
He looked back at Lucy and scowled as he exited the room.
Lucy simply sat there smiling at him.
"I'm sorry, Lucy. Matthew is a bit of an attention seeker at times." Mrs Lambert apologised.
Lucy looked at her and nodded in acceptance.
"Thank god he's gone." Joseph remarked.
Lucy gave him a mean look and Joseph noticed this.
"What's up?" Joseph asked her, sounding a bit worried.
Lucy then smiled at him calmly, leaned over to him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek, much to the pleasure of most of the class.
"Aww!" They chorused loudly.
Lucy became highly embarrassed as she went back to her table and blushed immensely, leaving her cheeks bright red.
Joseph blushed identically and rubbed his cheek from his shock and happiness with his hand after he felt Lucy's lips on his cheek and her hair brushed against his face as she performed this.
"That's very sweet, Lucy, but please try not to disrupt the class." Mrs Lambert warned calmly with a half smile.
Lucy nodded her head and covered her face with her hands from her sheer embarrassment.
Deep within however, it pleased her knowing that she had bravely plucked up the courage to do it.
Joseph looked at Lucy with a sweet, innocent smile as if he was begging for more.
Lucy looked back at him and smiled just as innocently.
"Come on, you two. Get your work done." Mrs Lambert instructed with a chuckle.
"Yes, Miss." Joseph replied excitedly.
Lucy giggled innocently after he said this and looked at him again. She then tried to finish her work again, to no avail as her mind was set on other things.
Finally, the school bell rang signalling the end of the school day.
"OK, class pack up your belongings and have a good weekend." Mrs Lambert instructed. Many students rushed out of the door, leaving Joseph and Lucy.
They were packing away their belongings and giggling cheekily to one another.
To Lucy this all felt weird and wonderful, especially stemming from somebody willing to be her friend and quite possibly more.
Once they had done, they headed outside the classroom after bidding farewell to Mrs Lambert.
Once out, they wandered down the corridor and could not stop looking at each other, doing so endlessly with dreamy smiles.
The majority of students thought it was strange as Lucy and Joseph giggled nervously like three year olds to one another.
They finally emerged from the exit to find Yutaka, Hideo and Syiren waiting for Lucy among numerous other chatting parents gathered outside the school premises.
Joseph took off to greet his parents and instantly and excitedly pointed in Lucy's direction.
Lucy, upon seeing Yutaka, immediately raced over to him for a hug, which she received instantly.
"How are you, Lucy?" Yutaka asked.
"Fine." Lucy replied bluntly.
Before Yutaka could ask about the court case, Joseph's parents came over to greet them.
"Hello, sir. I'm Joseph Manning's mother and this here is his father. Are you Lucy Colvin-Carrington's father as Lucy is all Joseph is talking about right now." Joseph's mother introduced herself and Joseph's father. She had short, curled black hair with large golden ear hoops protruding from her ears. She also had hazel coloured eyes and was wearing a high class red dress with high heeled shoes.
Joseph's father was an altogether scruffier man, with short, messy grey hair and blue eyes. He wore a blue ad white striped t-shirt usually reserved for golf courses, blur tracksuit trousers and muddy black trainers.
Yutaka turned around and put on a welcoming smile.
"Hi, I'm Yutaka Keiji and I'm Lucy's cousin and guardian." Yutaka greeted Joseph's parents with a handshake before he adjusted the white mask he was wearing that concealed his whole head apart from his eyes and mouth. He was still also wearing his black tuxedo.
Lucy emerged from behind Yutaka and Syiren.
"You must be Lucy I assume." Joseph's father determined.
Lucy nodded her head, while most of her face was hidden behind a thick wall of her long black hair.
"I apologise. Lucy is often shy when she meets new people which is why you cannot see her face and why she is not speaking." Yutaka explained apologetically.
"It's OK, Yutaka. I can understand that." Joseph's father reassured him as he scanned Lucy's mud spattered uniform with his eyes.
Joseph's mother asked Yutaka out of curiosity:
"Is there any reason you wear that mask?" Yutaka nodded and looked at her.
"I am a ninja and my code of honour is that I never reveal the appearance of my face. Even Lucy does not know my generic appearance." Yutaka explained.
"I see. That's unusual." Joseph's mother remarked, giving Yutaka a funny look.
Joseph interrupted on their conversation.
"Mommy am I allowed to go to Lucy's house?" He asked in serious hope as he glared at his mother with intent.
"Yes, sweetheart but you must promise to be good." His mother replied sincerely.
Joseph bounded up and down in sheer excitement.
"I will! This is going to be so much fun!" Joseph screamed as a result of his excitement that coursed through his body.
Lucy and Yutaka smiled at this as they stood beside one another.
Joseph's parents trawled off home after they had bid goodbye to Joseph, Lucy and Yutaka.
"Are you ready to go?" Yutaka asked them all.
"Yeah, sure." Mia replied quickly.
They began to walk home together. Lucy and Joseph were side by side, hand in hand as they left the school a distant landmark and passed a number of ram shackled, derelict buildings on the way.
They stopped at a road crossing, kept in check by a row of traffic lights that beamed brightly from their green lights.
A Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV) doused in black passed quickly in front of them.
Lucy looked up and standing across the road before her blood red eyes was her mother.
"Your powers will spiral into chaotic bloodletting." Francine uttered, her voice echoed and of a dark entity.
Francine's face was pale and her eyes a creepy shade of bright blue. Her dull grey shirt and jeans were torn in various places.
A large yellow truck flew past them and by the time it had passed, Francine had disappeared.
Lucy's face could not mask her feelings. Feelings of worry and fear crossed her mind carefully, but for Joseph's sake she did not freak out.
Yutaka however saw right through Lucy's masked emotions.
"What's wrong, Lucy?" He asked as the traffic lights changed over to red, enabling them to cross.
Lucy looked at him, Joseph looked at her.
"I saw my mommy." Lucy replied sheepishly as she also neglected to mention what Francine's apparition had stated.
Yutaka felt like quizzing Lucy over it, but due to the presence of Joseph he decided it would be best to try at another time.
Lucy looked at Joseph and smiled, tightening her grip as they held hands. Joseph smiled back warmly, hoping that Lucy's emotions are still in check.
Luckily for him, they were.
They finally approached the block of apartments that Syiren inhabits.
Yutaka was ready to embrace the block's inner odours with much disdain.
Lucy opened the door, waiting to go inside…..