Disclaimer: I own all OC characters. I do not own Maximum Ride. Not exactly rocket science.
Jenny wasn't in to the party scene.
She was a good girl. Jiminy Crickets, what did it take to get some respect around here?!
"I've already told you, Harmony, I don't want to go."
"Why not? Other nice kids are going. Like Rebecca, you know, from science class? And Austin. Austin is pretty nice."
Jenny frowned at the mention of the two kids she vaguely knew from around school. She'd only ever saw them in passing. She guessed they were okay, but still. She had a very bad feeling about tonight.
Jenny had never told anyone about her omniscient feelings before, but she knew enough to trust them. If she went to this party tonight, at the most popular girl's house, something very bad would happen.
But Harmony was staring at her with these big wide eyes. She couldn't let Harmony go alone. That was asking for disaster.
Jenny sighed and pulled on her blue jean miniskirt.
"Harmony, let's go!" Jenny wailed. It had been a bad idea to come tonight, she knew it. She'd followed the crowd of people down the street after a complete idiot of a girl had suggested the party-goers graffiti the old Health Clinic.
Geez, who suggested that kind of thing, anyway?
Harmony had been more than a little tipsy at the time and had shot out the door shouting "Where is everyone ggooiinnngg?!"
So of course Jenny chased after her the entire way.
Now the party-goers were completely trashing the old building, and Jenny just knew the cops were going to show up any minute.
The worst trouble Jenny had been in recently was when she forgot to put her plate in the dishwasher, and her mother gently reminded her with a wink and, "Jenny, dear, the dishwasher, remember? Silly."
"I don't think-" Harmony was starting to say, when the doors of the Health Clinic burst open.
Jenny screamed loudly. The men pouring out of there were twice the size of regular men, with disgusting faces and muscles bigger around than she was. Harmony gasped, and both of them made to turn around, but their arms were grabbed roughly as soon as they did.
They were ushered down a hallway and into an elevator. Another boy and girl had been caught as well; a tall, attractive blond boy with cloudy eyes and lip gloss smeared across his mouth, and the stupid girl that had started this in the first place.
Serves you right, Jenny thought. Then she felt bad. The girl must be as scared as she was.
The elevator doors dinged, and their guards let out growls every now and then.
The smell of antiseptic made her sick, and she couldn't figure out why.
Beside her, Harmony began to sob. The reality of the situation sank in.
The bad feeling was back, and it was here to stay. She somehow knew she wasn't getting out of this.
Jenny burst into tears.
She hadn't meant to she hadn't meant to she hadn't meant to!
There had been a gun, a gun pointed at Harmony, and she'd seen it before it'd been pointed, she'd seen it and she'd done that weird thing with the blue light and they'd seen her do it and now and now and now and now-
She's been placed inside a cage, in a semi-dark room. There are bleeding things surrounding her. This is clearly the room the failed ones are put in to die so why is she here?
What happened to Harmony?
Why is she in a cage? She's not an animal, not even half an animal like these people so why is she here?
She wants to go home. She just wants to go home. She still has to do the dishwasher.
Across from her, the thing with the million oozing sores all over its body and the inside out eyelids grins at her, blood gushing from its mouth. It's a horror she's never seen before, and there is a high-pitched keening sound coming from somewhere in her throat that she has no control over.
She still hasn't quit sobbing.
"Welcome to hell," the thing rasps out, giving one more wicked grin.
Then it stops breathing, stops moving, and Jenny begins screaming.
They don't keep her in the cage indefinitely. She is a human, after all, if only barely. They put her in a long, lab-like hospital room without curtains. The multiple IV cords tie her down to the bed. Her ankles and elbows are almost always restrained.
She floats in an iridescent land of drugs. She can never tell when she's dreaming and when she's awake, because she lives in a constant haze, and her vision is never entirely clear.
Sometimes, she dreams of a plane with Asian lettering taking off into a clear night sky.
She wonders if it's coming or going.
She wonders if she's on it.
She meets Anastasia first, although meet is probably a light word. Anastasia isn't from this town, or even this country. She's been imported from somewhere. Sweden, maybe, by the sound of her accent.
Anastasia is everything Jenny isn't.
Anastasia is older; a real teenager, not a silly little fourteen year old like Jenny.
Anastasia is tall.
Anastasia is blonde.
Anastasia is drop-dead gorgeous.
Anastasia is powerful.
And Anastasia is lethal.
Jenny watches through the drugs as Anastasia takes down two of the burly men-guard people with a flash of blue light. She watches as Anastasia squints her eyes a certain way and the men curl their fingers around their heads, screaming in agony.
Anastasia has the metal locks on the door opened in two seconds, and is halfway through it when the door at the opposite end of the room opens, and a tranquilizer takes Anastasia down.
Clearly, Anastasia has been at this awhile.
Jenny isn't sure how much time passes after that, because the drugs slip her easily through time for a long while, but when she becomes vaguely aware of her surroundings again, Anastasia is awake and sitting up in her bed, looking bored.
Jenny blinks. Jenny can't remember the last time she felt bored. She can't remember the last time she felt anything.
A burly man guard passes through, sparing them a few glances and leering at Anastasia. She snarls, and uses her powers to snatch the wrapped stick of gum out of his hands. He growls, and she knocks him out with a flash of light that makes Jenny's skin tingle.
She unwraps the gum with slow precision, and folds it into her mouth as though the action is an art form.
Jenny watches as Anastasia reclines back against the hospital bed, easily slipping her IV back into her arm.
She catches Jenny's wince, and winks. She puts a finger to her lips, then mouths the words three, two, one.
The doors burst open and in come the scientists with energy level monitors and puzzled expressions.
Anastasia's gaze turns vacant like Jenny's. Her jaw goes slack, and Jenny wonders idly where she put the gum.
When the scientists leave a few moments later, Anastasia's gaze turns focused again, and she slips the IV back out. She pops her gum a moment later. Then blows a bubble with it.
Jenny knows that Anastasia knows she's being stared at.
Jenny doesn't know how she knows Anastasia's name.
"Hi," Jenny croaks. It's the first word she's said in a long time.
Anastasia scans her over and smirks. It's a bitter, resentful, utterly cynical smirk. But it's the first relation of a smile Jenny has seen in a long time. "No," Anastasia says, "you can't have a piece."
I've decided to start giving you some Jenny back-story, and eventually Ballad back-story as well, piece by piece. You guys only got to see a little bit of them in the main saga, and they both will be featured quite frequently from now on.
What do you think, hm? Review and let me know!