Chapter 6

Karma

Her head still pounding the next day, Vanessa trudged over to her locker to grab her English books. Aria had met up with Derek outside. She has not spotted any of her other friends yet, not that she made the effort. Vanessa really had no desire to talk to anyone about her potion incident, especially her boyfriend.

"Hey," came the voice from that very person.

Vanessa shut her locker and took in a breath, repeating, "Hey."

"How are you feeling?" Walter asked, softly, looking concerned.

Vanessa shrugged, looking downward. "Better." Her eyes moved up to him, pleadingly. "Can we please talk about something else, anything else?"

Walter sighed, taking a step towards her. "I really think we need to talk about this, Vanessa."

"Look, if you are going to lecture me, don't bother because Kendal already beat you to it," Vanessa vented. "Last night, she called to ask how I was and then ended up shouting at me for being careless."

Walter let out a brief chuckle. "I think that's just her way of showing she cares."

Vanessa snorted. "Yeah, well she can show it a little less for my sanity."

Walter then took in a deep breath and asked, "Why did you do it, Vanessa?"

She huffed, in no need of an explanation on what Walter meant by it. "To be smarter."

"Yeah, I got that, but why?" Walter pressed on. "Why is it so important to you?"

"I don't know, Walter," Vanessa mumbled, her head falling downward. "I just thought…"

Walter looked down into her eyes. "Just thought what?"

"I just thought that you would maybe eventually get bored with me since I'm not smart," Vanessa finally forced out.

For a moment, Walter just stared at her, startled by her response, but then replied, softly, "Vanessa, how can you possibly think that? I would never get bored with you. Besides, I never even thought of you as not being smart."

Vanessa raised her eyebrow and even let out a chuckle. "Seriously? I'm barely able to scrape by all my classes with a passing grade and I need help with pretty much all our homework."

"It's just because you're not particularly interested in our classes," Walter pointed out. "That's the main reason I study, because I really am interested in what we're learning, but you're not and that's okay. We all have different interest and skills."

Vanessa sighed and looked back up at him and smiled. "I guess I never really thought about it that way."

Walter grinned and added, "We really should try to talk about these things more. It could save your life."

Vanessa laughed and nudged him. "Okay, but we are never mentioning this particular incident again."

Walter chuckled too and nodded in agreement, as the two hugged.

As they pulled apart, Vanessa added, "You know, I always admired how smart you are, ever since we first met. It was one of the first things I noticed about you."

Throughout her career, Vanessa had only actually gone to the school library three times and they were all with the class to do research for a school project. She was not exactly keen on the idea of going there now, especially to work on homework, but it beat cheerleading practice. Vanessa doubted she would miss much anyway. It would likely be another session of bickering and squabbling over who would be where in the routines. Also, there was Kendal and Marcy's battle for power. Marcy seemed to think she would be captain and when Kendal was selected instead, she never let it go. Marcy was extremely bossy and had no patience for mistakes. She shouted at one poor girl, for nearly ten minutes, just because she did not get her leg up as high as everyone else. If Marcy had been made captain, Vanessa would have quit after day one.

Vanessa pushed open the door to the library to look for Aria's friend. She had seen Walter in school, even though they did not share any classes, so she at least knew what he looked like. Vanessa just hoped he was as nice as Aria said. She was aware her best friend rarely said anything bad about anyone, though Marcy would be an interesting challenge for her.

She spotted Walter sitting at a table off to the side, reading. He did not appear quite as intimidating as Vanessa imagined. She was not sure what to expect when Aria said he was a genius.

She approached his table and greeted, "Hi, I'm Vanessa, Aria's friend."

He looked up from his book, readjusted his glasses, and smiled. "Hi, I'm Walter."

Vanessa set her bag on the table and sat down, unsure of what to say next.

"So Aria told me you needed help with homework?" Walter offered for her.

"Right!" Vanessa pulled her Science book and homework sheet out of her bag. "It's mainly science. It seems we went over like a hundred facts about plants I didn't even know what half the words meant. I looked at our homework and saw that the first like ten questions were about photosynthesis. I still don't even know what that is!"

"Well, photosynthesis is the process of light energy into chemical energy and storing it in bonds of sugar," Walter explained.

Vanessa just stared at him, blankly.

"Look at it this way," Walter tried again, grabbing a sheet of paper and pencil. "The light is the actual energy the plants absorb…"

He drew out a picture of the light energy and the plants as he finished explaining.

"Oh…" Vanessa studied the picture. "Well, that makes a lot more sense. You should teach our class. I might actually learn something."

Walter chuckled.

"Actually," Vanessa went on, "what you should do is go on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. You could win and then you'll never have to work another day in your life."

Walter laughed again but said, "I'm not sure a million dollars will get you as far these days."

"Yeah, you're right." Vanessa sighed as she thought more. "I got it! You go on the show and win, and then use the money to start your own show, Who Wants to be a Billionaire. Then, you would be set for life."

They both laughed and continued to chat for the next for the next forty-five minutes. Somehow, their conversation led to facts verses myths.

"You know I haven't stepped on a sidewalk crack in three years," Vanessa said as she set her pencil down.

"Why not?" Walter asked, looking at her curiously.

"Because it's bad luck," Vanessa answered, eying him. "Don't you know that?"

"Really?" Walter raised his eyebrow as he reviewed, "Just like opening a black umbrella inside, or walking under a ladder, or seeing a black cat, and what did you say happens when pepper is spilt?"

"You have a serious argument with a friend," Vanessa answered, "and let me tell you, every single time I've spilt pepper Kendal and I get into a heated argument, though that seems to happen when I do anything that causes bad luck."

Walter laughed and then wondered aloud, "Do you think we can manage to be friends? We don't seem to agree on anything."

Vanessa thought for a moment and then smiled. "I think we can pull it off. I mean, Kendal and I don't agree anything either and she's one of my best friends." She then stood up and started to repack her bag. "We'll I guess I should go. Both Kendal and karma are probably going to get back at me for purposely ditching cheerleading practice."

Walter could not help but grin. "So you believe in karma, too?"

As Vanessa started to walk away, she turned around and added, "Don't even get me started on karma."

xXx

"So Myrtle didn't say anything about why she was leaving?" Vanessa asked, sitting across the table from Aria.

Aria shook her head. "No, she refused to tell me. She claimed it has nothing to do with Galatia anyway."

"If it has nothing to do with your land then why does she have to go?" Vanessa inquired on, as she took a bite of her ham sandwich.

Aria shrugged. "I guess it's a fairy thing. I have a feeling Verna is the main reason she is going, or at least that's what Myrtle made it sound like. Verna isn't exactly the kind of person you can just say no to."

"She sounds like Kendal," Vanessa replied with a snort. "I swear, if Kendal tried going a whole day without telling someone what to do, her head would probably explode."

"You would be the expert on ways to explode your head," Kendal's voice came from behind her, and then she set her lunch tray down next to Aria. "So now you're talking about me behind my back?"

"No," Vanessa defended, as the three guys joined their table, Walter sitting beside her. "I was just talking about bossy people in general."

"You did mention her name," Aria reminded her while Derek chuckled.

Kendal rolled her eyes but said, "Fine, but you know, if you had listened to me about the potions the other day, you could have avoided your near death experience yesterday."

"Okay first, you told Ian not to touch them, not me," Vanessa argued, "and second, that near death experience was meant to happen."

"Why would you say that?" Walter asked, just after he swallowed his bite.

"Karma," Vanessa answered, simply.

Sitting on the other side of Kendal, Ian looked at her, startled. "Wait, karma can kill you?"

"Sometimes," Vanessa replied to him.

Again, Kendal rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Karma's not even real. It's just a superstition."

"Oh, karma is real, trust me," Vanessa insisted. "What happened is proof. I tested fate by becoming smarter and that's why I almost died."

"That doesn't even make sense," Kendal argued back. "Do you have any other evidence?"

Vanessa looked up to think. "Well, there was last semester when I got popular for about a month it and then it backfired." She glanced at Kendal. "I had pretty much wished that kind of thing to happen to you but it happened to me instead. There was also one time I took Walter's Biology homework to use it to help me and then the next day I lost my Biology book with the homework in it…"

"You did what?" Walter interjected, clearly unaware of this.

"Don't worry about it. Karma already got me back for that," Vanessa said to him and then looked back to Kendal. "Anyway, I still can't find the book."

Kendal raised her eyebrow. "So that's the real reason you lost your book, karma? It had nothing to do with you being incredibly disorganized?"

"Yes, exactly," Vanessa insisted, turning to her boyfriend. "Come on, even you can't argue with that, Walter."

Walter let out a sigh and suggested, "Vanessa, I think in your case, you might subconsciously self inflict some of these things due to a guilty conscious."

Vanessa gawked at him. "Seriously?"

"Now, that I could believe," Kendal agreed with him, but then tilted her head in thought. "Except it would mean Vanessa would actually have a guilty conscious."

Now, it became Vanessa's turn to roll her eyes.

xXx

After school, Vanessa dug around in her gym locker and grumbled, "Dang, I can't find my knee socks anywhere."

Natalie, one of the girls on the volleyball team, stood by the exit. "I seriously doubt they are going to turn up at this point. We should head on to practice now. You can just buy new ones sometime before the next game."

Vanessa sighed. "I suppose you're right. Let's go."

Just as the two girls started to make their way out, the heard giggling from the other side of the row of lockers. Natalie tiptoed over next to the lockers to hear them better.

Vanessa walked closer to her and mouthed, "What are you doing?"

"It's the cheerleading squad," Natalie whispered. "They always have the best gossip."

Vanessa rolled her eyes but otherwise did not protest. The first voice she recognized was Marcy's.

"I still can't believe Ian actually took Kendal back after she dumped him for that Edmund guy," Marcy gossiped on.

"I thought Ian was the one that dumped her," another girl pointed out.

"Oh, please. You don't actually believe that. He wouldn't dump anyone," Marcy went on, snottily. "That boy has such low standards. He actually dated Vanessa Cooper of all people, remember? Vanessa Cooper!"

"That bitch," Vanessa uttered, while Natalie put her finger on her mouth and waved her hand to shush her.

"What's wrong with her?" Another girl asked.

"Don't even get me started. Just be glad you weren't in our middle school for eight grade cheerleading," Marcy said, and then her tone got lower. "Anyway, the reason I brought you three here is because we need to do something about Kendal. She's going way too easy on those freshman cheerleaders and it's causing the whole squad to suffer. With her as captain, we are never going to win the competition this spring. We need a new captain."

"I suppose you are referring to yourself, Marcy," a girl commented. "Besides what can we do? Most of the other girls like Kendal as captain. Its not like we can overthrow her or anything."

"You're right, Stephanie," Marcy agreed, in a hushed tone. "That's why we have to be more sneaky about getting rid of her."

"What are you suggesting?" Stephanie asked, apprehensively.

"Today at practice, when we lift her up, we drop her," Marcy plotted. "We make it look like an accident, of course, but we drop her on her side and hopefully she'll dislocate her shoulder and be out for a most of the year."

Both Vanessa's and Natalie's jaws dropped.

"Are you sure about this, Marcy?" the other girl asked.

"Yes," Marcy said, firmly. "It's the only way we will have a chance at winning anything. Now, are you with me?"

Vanessa didn't hear any verbal agreement, but she imagined the other girls silently nodding. She then heard the footsteps on the other side gradually grow softer and softer. Within moments, she heard the door to the outside shut, meaning they were gone.

"Wow," Natalie commented. "That was crazy."

"I know. Cheerleaders are evil," Vanessa added.

"Well, we should probably get to practice," Natalie said, walking towards the door. "The others are likely wondering where the heck we are."

"Yeah," Vanessa mumbled, starting to follow, but then her feet forced a halt. "Wait, I should go warn Kendal first."

Natalie looked at her, bewildered. "Why?"

Vanessa let out a breath and shrugged. "Well, she's kind of my friend, now."

"Wow, Kendal Lewis is your friend," Natalie replied in an awed tone. "After nearly two years of hearing you bitch about her, I never thought I'd hear you say that."

"Yeah, well, weird things happen," Vanessa muttered as she headed towards the outside door. "Tell the other girls I'll be right there."

Vanessa barely heard Natalie say 'ok,' as she pushed the door open and went outside to the field. Holding her hand up to block the sunlight, she spotted the cheerleading squad stretching by the football field. They would always practice outside on days when the football team didn't have practice. Vanessa saw Kendal had pulled Penny aside to talk. A couple other freshman girls stood close by.

As Vanessa got closer she heard Kendal saying, "Now Penny, we're not going to have any tears today, right? Remember, it's not a big deal if you don't pick up a move right away. You just have to keep practicing it at your own pace and you'll eventually get it. Okay?"

Penny started to nod, but then her eyes moved passed Kendal and she waved. "Hi Vanessa!"

Vanessa waved back, briefly, and smiled. "Hey, Penny."

Kendal turned around, startled. "Hey, Vanessa. Uh, what are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you," Vanessa stated, getting straight to the point.

"Does it have to be now?"

Vanessa shrugged. "Well, its probably better I tell you now than later."

Kendal huffed and turned to the other Penny and the other two freshmen. "Go ahead and start without me. I'll be there in a second." She then turned back to Vanessa. "What is it?"

As Vanessa leaned in closer and revealed Marcy's intentions, she noticed in the corner of her eye, Penny knelt down close by tying her shoe. She seriously doubted the young freshman cheerleader was listening so she didn't worry about it. Penny stood up and dashed down the small hill next to her friends for practice.

After Vanessa finished, Kendal just gawked at her in disbelief. "I don't think she's actually going to do anything. You remember what Marcy is like. She said stuff like that all the time."

"I don't know, she sounded pretty serious this time," Vanessa said. "Also, she actually convinced people to go along with her this time."

"Sure she did," Kendal muttered and began to turn around. "Was that it because I really need to get to practice now?"

Vanessa folded her arms. "You are not going to take me seriously, are you? Fine, I'll be sure to visit you in the hospital later to say 'I told you so.'"

Kendal rolled her eyes. "For god's sake, Vanessa. Marcy wouldn't actually dare…"

Her sentence was cut off but a loud screech, followed shortly by a thump on the ground and a wallow of pain. Both Vanessa and Kendal turned their heads to see Marcy lying on the ground, clutching her left shoulder in pain. Penny ran back up the hill towards them.

"Kendal!" Penny panted, her hand on her chest to catch her breath. "I heard what Vanessa said to you about Marcy's plan so I convinced a few of the girls to do it to her instead."

For a moment, Kendal gaped at her, at a loss for words but then managed to choke out, "You did WHAT?"

"Well…" Penny nervously fidgeted with the ends of her ponytail. "Its just that Vanessa gave me some good advice that, um, when someone is planning to do something to you, you should do it do them first before they have the chance. I didn't want Marcy to do it to you so I did it to her first."

Kendal looked back to Vanessa, for a moment and then to Penny and finally Marcy. Vanessa had a dreadful feeling she was going to hear more about her ill-witted advice to Penny later.

Kendal briefly put her hand on her head to get her thoughts together and then turned to Penny. "I'm going to call the ambulance. "Go tell the other girls not to move her and give her some air while we're waiting."

Penny nodded and darted back towards the group. Kendal pulled out her phone from her bag and called an ambulance.

"Well, that's karma," Vanessa commented as Kendal hung up. She then started to walk off, but turned to add, "Oh, and Walter can't say I sub-psychologically self inflicted this, or whatever he said, because this had nothing to do with me."

"Where are you going?" Kendal demanded.

"I have to get to volleyball practice," Vanessa said. "Like I said, this has nothing to do with me. It's a cheerleading problem."

With that, Vanessa walked away, leaving the chaos behind her, without looking back.