Armageddon

Chapter 3

'Cause It's Already Showing

Kairi sighed and unceremoniously dumped her bookbag onto the floor of her front hall.

"Hi, sweetie!" her mother called from the kitchen. "How was your first day of school?"

Kairi frowned. How was her first day of school? It had been fine, generally speaking. All of her teachers had been kind(ish), not getting angry if she was late, since it was her first day. The other students in her classes had helped her out and Selphie was such a good tour guide that Kairi practically knew her entire way around the school. Unfortunately, any pride Kairi had about knowing her way already and any relief she'd felt at late excuses were chased out of her head with an anxiety that weighed down upon her heavily.

Kairi couldn't shake the thought of what might happen to her tomorrow from her head. Everyone she had befriended in school that day said she was going to get it tomorrow. Usually, Kairi was the sort of person who always found the silver lining, (she had to, really, with her parents being the way they were) and she tried to tell herself that Sora couldn't really be that bad. But part of knew that teenagers could be pretty nasty when it came down to it. She'd gone to several schools, and she had seen just what they were capable of.

Kairi wrinkled up her nose. But how could someone who had supposedly missed his afternnon nap the day before be so bad, really? Sora seemed more like a little kid than a bully. Kairi wondered how the other people in the school had failed to notice this. Maybe he really is extra mean... Kairi sighed. Not that she really cared. If Sora was a bully, so be it. She would take it in stride like she always did. And if it got out of hand, she would do something about it. Kairi inwardly giggled. How bad could it be? Sora wouldn't have time to bully her- he'd be too busy napping! This time, Kairi giggled aloud.

"Fine, Mom!" she called to her mother, who was now coming in to the entryway.

Kairi had just begun thinking that maybe it wasn't so bad to have moved here when she saw the look that crossed her mother's face upon seeing her.

"Oh, Kairi!" she gasped. "What happened to you?"

Kairi looked down to survey herself. From her view, she looked the same as she had this morning. She was wearing the same white tank top with the same purple-lavendar skirt that she thought didn't really apply to the school dress code, and the same white sneakers were on her feet. She looked up and stepped backward as her mother leaped forward to grab her arm.

"Oh, come, come! We have to get you cleaned up!"

Kairi let her mother pull her into the bathroom, expecting her to shove her in the shower and turn on the cold water. Surprisingly, though, her mother told her to stay put, rushing from the room, and babbling to herself, about, "Dear Lord, he really is here!" Kairi stood awkwardly on the bathmat, waiting for her frantic's mother return, and when it happened, she was horrified to find that her mother had brought a bottle of Holy water with her. She now found her original fear occuring as well, as her mother ushered her into the shower with her clothes still on, and turned it on quickly, paying no mind to whether or not she was turning on the warm water.

Kairi shivered but did not argue. When her parents got like this, there was nothing that could be done to stop them. Kairi pursed her lips as her mother began pouring Holy water on her, still not speaking up. Finally, after the cold water had drenched her through and through, and her teeth were chattering loudly, even above the noise of the falling water beating against the sides of the shower, she had to know what was going on.

"Mother... What are you doing?"

"Cleaning of all this... This... Blood!"

Kairi looked at her feet where hte water was swirling into the drain, clear and without a tint of red. There was no blood. There was not even any food colouring. If she had thought her mother was messed up before, she had now confirmed her as totally, undeniably loopy.

"Mother, please. There is no blood on me."

Her mother looked up at her skeptically. "Oh, gosh, sweetie. Maybe not to your eye. But you haven't been gifted with Sight."

Kairi felt her lip curl in disgust. Did she have Sight? No.

Common sense? Yes.

Unlike someone, obviously, she thought as her mother continued to scrub.

Finally it was over and Kairi was allowed to get changed into some dry clothes. Her mother insisted that she join her in the kitchen immediately after.

"Honey," her mother said, ripping a small piece of paper in her hands.

She always did that when she was nervous.

"Did you notice anyone... suspicious, today? That you might have gotten near."

Kairi scoffed. Well her math teacher, who was hairless on his head, but monkey everywhere else, had been rather odd. His outrageous german swearing- though she didn't actually know it was swearing, since she didn't speak german, but she'd recognized a word or two, allowing her to identify the language- had certainly been what really made him so odd, though. Craaazzzzy, Kairi had thought when he threw a ruler at one student's head, pointing furiously at the question on the board and swearing thoroughly.

Kairi had been fairly positive he was about to have a coronary.

"No, Mom," she drawled tiredly. "No one out of sorts."

"No one?"

"No."

Her mother frowned and stopped fidgeting with the paper.

"Maybe I just passed Crazy Evil Man on the street. Do ya think?"

Her mother considered this.

"Oh, I suppose it's possible."

"Oh, good, I can go then."

Kairi leaped from her chair and headed to her room.

She paused in the doorway at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Kairi, you know... you know I just want my little girl to be safe, right?"

Kairi sighed. Some days she wanted to hate her parents. Some days she knew they loved her, and she knew that she loved them back... despite it all.

"Yeah, Mom... I know."