DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY OCs.
Chapter: 6
Tori was nervous. She was returning to school for the first time since coming back to Gotham. Right now she was crammed in between Cameron and Ali. Ali was fixing her makeup while Cameron was waving his action figure around in her face,
"What do you have there buddy" she asked, smiling,
"Batman!" he yelled excitedly, "Daddy got me him for Christmas!" Tori smiled and looked at the 'batman' in his hand. Suddenly the pain in her head was back, she heard the screeching of bats echoing around… somewhere…and black rock. She blinked and it was gone,
"T-that's cool Cam," she said,
"You okay back there honey? If you don't want to go I can take you right back home," Jess said looking in the review mirror,
"No, I want to. I've been cooped up in that house for too long," she said, "I need to spread my wings," her head ached again. She saw a flash of red and black wings before the colors disappeared. The memory flashes have been happening more often. Some including her life before she met Tim and Stephanie, some memories of things she couldn't understand or describe…things that made sense to her past self that remembered them but that she couldn't understand right then. It was confusing and caused her head to feel like an overripe tomato. She was remembering her family…but not everything. There was something they were hiding and something Tim and Stephanie were hiding. Sighing she stared out the windshield to the traffic of the city. Her laptop hadn't been much help, she read every document she ever written and every article about her parents…but nothing really clicked, and there were no hidden messages to herself for in case she got amnesia…note to self: do that for any possible future amnesia attacks, Tori thought,
"Are you going to try out for gymnastics again?" Liam asked from the front seat, "Junior year is when everything really counts,"
"Well I'm glad I'm not a junior yet then. I'm only doing tennis and Tori usually does at least three sports," Ali said, examining her nails. Her silver blond hair plaited with no hair out of place,
"What?" Tori asked,
"The gymnastics team…you used to be on it,"
"And the winter track team and the soccer team in the spring,"
"I don't think I could even do a cartwheel now," Tori said, frowning, "I don't remember how,"
"It's like riding a bike, once you try it again, it's like you never stopped riding," Liam said,
"Don't you go making her do something that could get her hurt on her first day Liam!" Jess cautioned, "Let her ease into it. If she remembers doing it, then fine, but we can't let her do anything too strenuous yet,"
"Okay, geez," Liam muttered,
"Alright you guys out. Ali make sure Cameron is in his classroom before you leave," Jess said as she pulled up to the towering brick building of Gotham Academy,
"Yeah, yeah, whatever,"
"Alison Crowne look at me. Take him to his classroom or I will tell Maud who broke that priceless vase last year," Jess said dangerously serious,
"I will I will!" Ali said, grabbing her bag and Cameron's hand, guiding him…more like dragging him, to the elementary school building,
"Liam, make sure she goes to her class too. I don't trust her since the last time she was caught skipping," Jess said, Liam nodded and went after his younger siblings,
"She skips?" Tori asked, slowly getting out of the car,
"Yeah, was caught last year…she used to be such a sweet girl then everything changed and she's only in seventh grade,"
"It's my fault," Tori said,
"No Tori, it's not your fault," she said,
"Yes it is…I just feel like it is. I worried everyone and it turned out I wasn't even dead,"
"Things were tough when…what happened happened…something like what happened to you changes people. We buried you, Ali saw her sister out six feet in the ground. Maud and Max erased everything about you but your room. Tried to pretend you never existed,"
"Is that why Grant called them liars?"
"In a way," Jess said, "…They were lying to themselves, they thought it would help but it didn't," Tori sighed, "Call me if you feel like trying out for gymnastics again and I'll come by at five instead of two fifteen, 'kay?"
"Okay," Tori said, taking a deep breath and walking over to the high school building.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The minute she stepped through the doors all eyes were on her. Whispers started to filter through the air, people craned their necks to get a better look a her,
"Wasn't she shorter?"
"Doesn't she have amnesia or something?"
"Didn't she die?" Tori held her head high and started to walk down the hall, trying to seem like she had an idea of where she was going, but really she didn't have a clue where she should be going. The people in the hallway parted for her like she was Moses splitting the sea in half. She bit her lip, trying not to show that their stares and whispers got to her. Halfway down the hallway she debated turning and fleeing back to Jess in the car, but she internally shook her head stubbornly. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction,
"Hey! Tori!" a voice called, she turned to see the brown haired and red haired girl from the first picture of friends walking down the hallway towards her. They wore matching head bands and seemed to be smirking even though they were trying to be friendly, "It's not like you to go walking away from your best friends," the red head said, "I'm Olivia by the way, in case you really don't have any memories,"
"And I'm Zoe," the brown haired girl said slowly, as if Tori couldn't understand. Tori clenched her hands,
"I know who you are," she said, total bluff, but she didn't care,
"Oh you do do you?" Zoe said, "Is it true you faked your death just to joy-ride to New York City?"
"Or did the car that hit you drag you all the way there?" Olivia asked, before the two laughed,
"No, I just hitchhiked to gain some distance from you and your bitchiness," Tori said crossing her arms to hide her hands that were now shaking in rage,
"That was rude," Zoe said, "How could you talk to your friends like that?" everyone was watching,
"I'm not your friend. For all I know it was you who hit me that night when you were black out drunk just to get attention from daddy and mommy dearest," Tori said, Zoe and Olivia glared at Tori in absolute rage, unable to respond. The bell finally rings, but everyone is still frozen in place,
"Tori! C'mon we're going to be late," Stephanie said, walking past Zoe and Olivia still standing like idiots in the middle of the hallway and grabbing Tori by the arm,
"Late for what?"
"For class, what else. What were you doing in the middle of the hallway?"
"Just chatting with Zoe and Olivia,"
"They are not you're friends, not since you met us…trust me, you don't want to know them," Steph said firmly,
"I believe you," Tori said, glaring daggers at the backs of the two girls hurrying away in the opposite direction.
Classes were so mundane to how her life had been the past two weeks. Her whole life a fill in the blank with no answers to really supply it. Sure she was remembering her childhood, but as much as she wanted to remember that part of her life she wanted to remember what happened the night she supposedly died, and she still had zilch and nada for that part,
"C'mon people. It's a story that's something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Stone…old, c'mon people…what is it? No one?" the teacher was saying. Tori had forgot which class she was in, but that didn't stop her,
"The Phaistos Disc," she said,
"Thank you—!" Tori didn't stop,
"Discovered by Italian archeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, the disc is made of fired clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent an unknown form of hieroglyphics. It is believed that it was designed sometime in the second millennium BC." she said it like she was reading it right in front of her…not knowing really why or how she knew that information,
"How could you know that?" The teacher asked,
"I…I don't know," Tori said,
"Okay smarty pants," the teacher said, "what region did people think the scripts were from?"
"Ancient Crete," she said. Tori blinked, how had she known that? People gave her shocked looks,
"What, did you read the entire textbook in the 'afterlife?'" the teacher joked,
"As a matter of fact they did have a giant bookshelf dedicated to all the textbooks on the world's mysteries for the dead to read," Tori joked, smirking slightly. Everyone laughed and the teacher went back to his lecture. Tori shakily jotted down notes…but her thoughts were racing at the incident that just happened. Tori didn't know how she knew all that, the answers just flew into her head. She needed those answers fast, something's wrong with her.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classes rolled by and she found the thing that happened before to happen more and more often, especially if she really wanted the answer. It was like she suddenly knew everything, she didn't need her calculator to do math, she knew every date in history class and each technique in art class. She was losing her mind, she had to be, no one could disappear and suddenly know everything they couldn't have known all of a sudden. Gym rolled around, Tori didn't mind it as much, as long as nothing weird happened. They were playing dodge-ball, which the guys were stoked about, the girls not so much. Tori stood in the back of the gym, watching the guys pelt each other with rubber red balls, suddenly someone shouted,
"Tori look out!" Tori turned her head to see red flying at her, she flinched arms out…and caught the ball. The guy who threw it stare at her shocked before stomping off the court grumbling under his breath,
"Nice catch," a guy said to her left, she smiled at him, "Are you going to throw it? 'Cause if you can't I understand,"
"What do you mean if I can't?"
"Well for one thing, you're a girl, another, you died for like one year,"
"I didn't die," she said getting angry,
"Yeah, well then where were you? Ran away because you couldn't handle life in this city? Or did you go to rehab?" he might've been teasing or joking, but that was rude nonetheless. Tori felt rage push through, gritting her teeth she gripped her rubber ball better. Others still whaling on each other oblivious to the two of them talking,
"Are you going through withdrawal Crowne? Throw the stupid ball!" the boy sneered, Tori saw red and before she knew what had happened, she had chucked the ball at him, hard. He flew into the nearby wall with a heavy crack resonating before landing, groaning, on the floor. The ball bounced back to her and she grabbed it, throwing at the boy again, it hit him in the face, he cried out, covering his face with his hands and cowering in fear,
"How's that for a runaway druggie?" she snarled, picking up the ball one last time,
"Crowne! That's enough!" the gym coach yelled, grabbing the ball from her, "Not only is he on your team but it's unnecessary roughness. Back on the bench until you cool down!" she said, helping the boy up. He had a bloody nose and was clutching his side,
"Crazy bitch," he snarled,
"Don't you say that. I saw everything and heard what you said to her. I have ears like a bat," the coach snarled at the boy, "but let's get you to the nurse. Someone take him," Tori took a deep breath, heading to the bleachers when she noticed that the boy had an imprint of the red rubber ball's design on his right cheek. She blinked, had she really thrown the ball that hard…had she?
Eventually the coach let her play again. Tori stayed in the back of the court, she didn't want to get angry again, she was scared to get angry. But the other team had other ideas. Apparently the boy she thrown the ball at had friends on the other team and were out for revenge. She dodge every ball thrown at her, even did a back hand spring to avoid two of them, shocking herself and the other team, but of course she wasn't so lucky after that. She got slammed in the face by a big red ball, she couldn't even stop herself as she fell backwards, her head slamming onto the hardwood floor with a loud crack. Tori dimly heard the whistle blow before she only saw blackness.
A/N: Hmm, something strange is going on with Tori. She's more of a brainiac than usual and the imprint on that dude's cheek is strange. Anyway here's the link for the info I got on the Phaistos Disc: lifestyle/arts-culture/photos/10-of-the-worlds-biggest-unsolved-mysteries/phaistos-disc
It also shows the Kryptos and Voynich manuscript mentioned in earlier chapters. Next time we'll be meeting a new character and this will be the last time three chapters are up in one day. There will be one chapter every three days though I may change that if I get some review ;) SO REVIEW!