Evelyn and Vanessa
II
'You don't even want to know how difficult it was to get dressed,' Evelyn glared as her sister walked back into their room, running her hands through her light red hair, cut into a cute pixie-style.
'Why didn't you just wear a skirt or a dress or something?' Vanessa asked, picking up her own – significantly lighter – backpack.
'Because, oh I don't know, maybe those sorts of outfits aren't so great for a girl who keeps floating off the ground?' Evelyn replied, glaring at her twin. 'Mum hates your hair, by the way,' she added, watching her sister style it with some gel, 'I'm surprised she hasn't guess, about you know… considering how much time you spend with Mallory,' Evelyn grinned. 'And that new look certainly doesn't help.' Vanessa stopped and turned to her sister, trying to glare but looking rather anxious.
'But she still doesn't know? They both don't… right?'
'Who knows? Maybe I'll feel compelled to tell them. Or maybe I have…' Evelyn fiddled with a strap on her bag.
Vanessa threw her deodorant at her laughing sister, narrowly missing her head. 'You're just saying that because I forgot to bring you breakfast!'
Evelyn shrugged and pushed herself off her bed using every ounce of strength in her body to remain upright. She walked out of the room and down the hall towards the front door where their mother was waiting for them, holding her keys and tapping her foot impatiently.
'Evelyn, I spoke to your school specifically so that you didn't have to carry that many books around, you know how your bones are!' she fussed trying to pry the bag off her daughter.
'It's only for a few days! They've just piled a lot of homework on us!' Vanessa pushed them outside the house, closing the door behind them.
'Then why does your bag look a lot lighter than your sister's, Vanessa?' their mother paused as she unlocked the car.
'She left them at Mallory's,' Evelyn smiled at her sister as they got into the car, receiving a hard punch on her arm as the car reversed out of their driveway.
'See you tonight girls!' their mum waved goodbye after they stumbled out of the car – though it was more like after having Vanessa pull Evelyn out. They stood at the gate and sighed.
'Can you hear them talking now?' Evelyn asked, looking up at the trees with birds sitting in them.
'Yep,' Vanessa replied, looking at them too.
'How did you control it?'
'I didn't; I always listened. When we turned seven, I realised it wasn't normal so I stopped listening. It came back this morning,' she replied, looking annoyed.
'Put us together, and we're a human-bird,' Evelyn tried to joke, but it was hard to laugh when her back was screaming with agony.
'Gosh Evelyn, you're so lame,' someone slapped her on the back of her head, 'you talk about the weirdest things sometimes.'
'Hey Mallory,' said Vanessa, her face lighting up as a short, dark-skinned girl joined their conversation.
'Why did you get rid of the blue?' Evelyn asked, pointing to Mallory's jet-black hair.
'My mum threatened to kick me out of the house when I got home,' she sighed, 'but that's alright… I left some in underneath.' Mallory flipped her head over so they could both see the midnight-blue streaks.
'My mum can be the biggest spaz sometimes,' she shrugged, eyeing Evelyn's bag.
'Yeah, she's had lots of homework…which is why she's going to the library,' Vanessa pushed Evelyn through the school and towards a medium sized demountable. Evelyn rolled her eyes and staggered to the small building, trying her best to keep her balance.
x
'Daniels! Take off that bag, get into your sports gear and get going!' Evelyn's gym teacher yelled from across the auditorium. They were meant to be outside playing football, but the slightly muddy conditions had almost every female student recoiling in horror, much to the amusement of all the boys. Instead, they were inside where a number of mini games of basketball, jump-rope, dodge ball and a strange combination of golf and hockey had erupted all over the place.
Evelyn had managed to make an excuse in all her classes all week for having to carry her bag around all day, and found ways to remain seated without much trouble. Still, she pretended she hadn't heard her teacher, and returned to completing her French homework.
'Daniels, this is the third time this week that you've skipped gym. If you don't get out there, I'm going to have to give you detention,' he stepped through the raging crowds and stood over her.
'I don't feel well…' Evelyn muttered, keeping her voice down.
'Let me guess, it's the remnants of that bout of food poisoning you had on Tuesday? Or the cramps on Monday?'
Evelyn must have spent a little too long thinking of a reply, because the next thing she knew their teacher had blown his whistle and everyone stopped to face him.
'We're going outside,' he announced, waving his hands to the looks of disgust thrown in his direction. Evelyn repacked her bag and slung the straps over her shoulders, but before she could stand up, her teacher stood in her way.
'You can leave your bag here.'
Evelyn watched as he walked out of the hall, hauling a massive bag of assorted balls behind him.
'I could just not go…' she thought out loud, wondering if it was worth the detention. She was just about to sit down, when she glanced over to a small group of students that had finished collecting their own sports equipment and were moving out. Josh was there. Evelyn giggled a little as he looked over. Not wanting to look silly, Evelyn swallowed hard and pushed her backpack off her shoulders, clutching the bleachers she was sitting on.
'This isn't so bad,' she murmured, not feeling as if she was going to float away. She slowly stood up and walked over to the doors leading to the small grassy lot, holding to anything bolted to the ground – just in case, cursing herself for not making the effort to befriend anyone in this particular class, her friends being in all her other classes but this.
She knew she would have to let go of the door handle eventually and move into the open area, but she couldn't prize her fingers from the bar.
'Oh no,' she moaned watching a student jog over. 'Anyone but him!'
'Hey Evelyn, Coach told me to get you,' Josh said, looking at her strangely. Or, that's what she assumed he had said – she was too preoccupied imagining him running over to her in slow motion, arms reaching out to her, his wavy, long blonde hair flowing in the breeze, sun beaming down…
'Um?' he stood awkwardly, looking back to his friends playing football longingly.
'Sorry,' she said – possibly in her head, or out loud, she really couldn't tell.
'Are you alright?' he asked, noticing that she hadn't moved, and that she was clutching onto the door handle rather tightly.
Evelyn was straining her arm to hold herself down on the ground. Thankfully Josh hadn't noticed that her feet were hovering an inch above the ground.
'I'm fine,' she giggled slightly, instinctively raising her hand to her mouth in embarrassment.
'Whoa!' Josh exclaimed stepping back in shock. Unfortunately, Evelyn had raised her right hand – the one holding onto the door, and was slowly rising in the air.
'Uh,' Evelyn looked around wildly, trying to find something to blame this on – a sudden gust of wind? A broken helium canister? Anything!
Josh didn't say anything as he backed away slowly, mouth and eyes opened in shock watching as she rose higher, bumping her head on the door frame.
'Wait! Um… could you help!' she called out before he could get any further. Josh looked conflicted, but ran back. 'What do you want me to do?' he asked, his voice rising.
'Could you uh, bring my bag over?' she cringed as he ran over to the bleaches, and dragged her heavy backpack on the ground. He pulled her down by her leg and she was able to grab hold of the bag and slip the straps over her shoulders. Josh blinked, shook his head and ran to his friends without looking back.
Evelyn stood up, feeling rather disillusioned at her prince charming, steadied herself and ran out of the gym, only intending on stopping once she got home.
AN: Thanks for the reviews - they're keeping this going! Keep it up! :D
