Congrats to those who guessed correctly. Bella is indeed Bluestar while Spottedleaf preoccupies the space of Sienna. And the bonus point: bear = badger. Tee hee hee! ^-^
Ha ha ha, now you, my dearest reader, have a little fluff to look out for this chapter :) If that's a good thing, I'm not sure. Those on Team Ashfur should be happy. Actually, I've noticed that Team Ashfur is not unlike Team Jacob from Twilight, and Team Brambleclaw is the equivalent of Team Edward. Huh. Yes? No? Yes…? No…? *awkward moment* Okay… I guess not… I'll just, y'know… um, go now… '-_-
'"What can I do?" Finlay's voice drifted out from along the corridor. My ears pricked, and I pressed against the wall as I listened. "Sylvia and Lena will come prying any time from now, and so will Sandy… No one can know what will happen…"
Who was he talking to? As far as I knew, he was alone.
"…Nobody would be able to trust one another. Please. I need answers." I could hear the stress in Finlay's voice, and I sweat dropped when I heard whom he was addressing.
"Bella."'
I clenched my hands in and out of fists, fighting the urge to rip out my own hair. Finlay… Dad… had… had this way of irritating me so badly, and then making me feel bad for getting angry. Had some 'kind' fairy blessed him when he was born, giving him that gift or something? If it was a gift, anyway… why couldn't I do that? It wasn't fair! I know that I was being childish, but so what? Couldn't all people have an immature side to them?
"Is he paranoid or something," I mumbled under my breath. "Maybe he knew I was there, and started pretending to talk to Bella to make me feel guilty." Who knew?
"Um, Sylvie?"
I whirled around, shoulders as lifted as high as my chin, but I relaxed when I saw that it was only Lena. Then suddenly I tensed again. She was still mad at me, right? For calling her thick. I hadn't meant to!
"Yeah?" I asked wearily, scrubbing the toe of my shoe into the ground. The only noise was the lazy squeak, squeak, squeak echoing around the hallway. A faint blush spread across my face, for no good reason at all. Just another part of being nothing but human.
"You should see Coralie." Lena sounded just as awkward as me. I scoffed, totally forgetting that I was meant to apologize, and try to fix things. But again (and not for the last time), my temper blew and I lost it.
"Yeah, right. I just got scratched, Lena! Why would I want to visit the school nurse? Get you facts right! Oh my gosh, why does everyone think that I'm a little kid? And!" I shot at her. "I'm older than you."
"She's a doctor, not a pathetic nurse." Lena's voice had gone dangerously quiet again. "And you may be older physically, but even others agree that I'm the eldest maturity-wise."
My jaw dropped.
"What does that even mean? Please!" I snorted. "Save your planned speech for somewhere else!" I turned my back on my sister, but instead of backing down as she usually would, she grabbed the collar of my shirt and shoved her face right up into mine. It was a little disorienting, the way her movements were so rough and brusque, yet her expression was calm and peaceful, if not darkness painted across it.
"Our community accepts none of this, Sylvia Fire. You must be living your life in a dream, because you assume big if you assume that others will let your tongue continue to move after the comments that you choose to spit. You're arrogant and think yourself above others. Wake up."
With a shove, far rougher than anything that Lena had ever done, she knocked me backwards, so that I stumbled slightly before regaining my balance, and watched her move away swiftly.
At first, I didn't comprehend what she had said. Or maybe I was just blind to the truth, and didn't want to accept that she was right. I felt blank and empty, as though I had indeed been screened from the real world, and the barrier had finally been moved away. It was like I was seeing the world, and its complete and total vastness, the pain, the cruelty, the raging love that truly did exist.
A door clicked shut behind me, and I jumped out of my epiphany. With a harsh grimace, I stomped away down the corridor, trying to figure out why I felt so moody suddenly. No real reason, I guess. I tried to let some of the weight that had settled onto my shoulders up, however I felt too stressed to let anything go.
With a tiny shrug of my shoulders, I headed off to my dorm to let off some invisible steam.
Each separate dormitory had two residents. I shared with Willandra, the blonde, sun-tanned, slim, super-sporty girl. She was 'the' definition of popular in my opinion, not even to mention the huge bonus point: Will wasn't one of those snobbish, I'm-better-than-those-nerds ones, but on the other hand was extremely friendly and, well, kind of high. (Wow, I just realized, Will sounds just like one of my friends! :P)
She wasn't around when I got to the dorm, probably outside on the ovals kicking a soccer ball or something. I quickly got inside the door and flopping against it, exhaled noisily.
The first place that I made for was the bathroom. Splashing water over my face to clear the grime and sweat, I finally gave in to a shower; my attempts were poorly.
After a full on wash, I dressed way more casual than before: I planned to hang around in bed for the rest of the day, catching up with homework, reading and sleeping. Faded dark blue trackies and a loose black-and-white sweater seemed the right clothes combination.
I cleared the jumble of washing from my bed and into my closet, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, drew the curtains and threw open the windows to let fresh air in. My view overlooked the lake out back, a fairly serene landscape. Yawning, I realized suddenly how sleepy I was, and made for my bed, rubbing my eyes. I was asleep before my head even made contact with the pillow.
I woke around late afternoon. I woke so peacefully, at the perfect time that I felt that I had neither over-slept nor under-slept.
Warm, so incredibly warm and comfortable… I mumbled something unintelligent under my breath as I slowly resurfaced, and then my eyes snapped open, breath hitched in my throat. A pair of dark blue eyes met mine immediately.
What the hell?!
I exclaimed and fell off my mattress, suddenly wide awake.
"Hey, careful," Asher said, grinning widely.
"What the BEEP(My story is only rated T, so insert the taboo word where 'beep' is) are you doing here?" I screamed, scrambling to my feet, and instead knocking my head extremely hard against the bedframe. "Argh!"
"You're a little crazy when you wake, aren't you?" He chose to say instead. He was sitting opposite me in the armchair by the window, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
"Creep! Creep! Creep!" I chanted, deciding that that word was extremely suitable for describing Asher.
"I'm not really a creep, considering the fact that I didn't come in without permission to watch you sleep, rather I came in on a certain somebody's orders to send you to Coralie. So, hey! It's time for you to go play doctor with Doctor Cinders."
I blinked, barely comprehending with I'd just been told. Something about watching me sleep, and Doctor Cinders, whoever the heck she or he was.
"Uh, excuse me?"
"The doctor? Visiting her?" Asher sounded worried, as though he thought that I was a little brainless. Maybe I was, but no way was I going there.
"Um… no…?" I started to crab-shuffle towards the door slowly, my stomach clenching. If I could just get outside, I was safe… Nobody could beat me in a sprint around the turning corners of the maze in this academy! If I had the element of surprise, that is… it was a little hard to ignore Asher's lean muscles. I slowly stood and stared at my feet for a moment, before grabbing a red-and-black tartan flannel shirt and denim jeans, feeling his amused gaze on me the whole time.
"I'm going to the bathroom." I turned to head out the door, but Asher pointed out, "you're bathroom's just here."
How the frick did Asher know where the bathroom was? When I'd first moved into this room, it had taken me all day to figure out where everything was. And that was only two years ago.
"Oh." I tried to act stupid, but I could tell that my efforts were pathetic, from Asher's raised eyebrow. "Well then, I'll just be off…" I turned quickly, took a step and face-planted into the door. I swore angrily, and blushed furiously when I felt Asher grab my hand just as I was getting ready to make a break for it.
Suddenly the door opened, narrowly missing my face again, and we were faced by Will and Sam, who had chosen this perfect moment to come in to drop off the soccer ball.
What was the sight like, I wonder? Me with my famous wild-cat green eyes staring straight at them desperately, posed as though ready to go on a kilometer sprint or something, with Asher, his expression equally surprised as mine, though eyes stormy blue rather than green, gripping my hand.
Silence. Awful silence. Then –
"I have to go!" I choked, humiliated, and dropped all self-pretense, freeing my wrist and shoving past the statues of Will and Sam, running, faster and faster, away from everything, away from the world, my hand burning.
So good? Bad? Let me know! And do not worry, I am not through with Squirrelflight and Ashfur yet! Heh heh heh! :D That was a quick update because I was eager to write, but the term break holidays are in a day or two, so I won't be updating for a few weeks. Sorry!
~Black Cat Widow~
