Chapter 7
The lunch hour has begun. So far this morning has been nothing but strenuous hell. Falling from a plane, running a mile, going through an obstacle course, shooting at a firing range. It's all some James Bond sounding shit. Raven smacks her food tray on the table and begins to devour whatever she put on it during her lack of food high.
Garfield's tray slaps onto the opposite side of the table. He begins his usual smooth talk. "Hey Rave, how's it goin'? She gives no reply, just her usual 'fuck off' glare and a mouth full of food. "So turns out my codename is 'Beast'. Pretty cool huh." Garfield continues while shoving a large stalk of broccoli in his mouth.
Raven delivers a monotonous reply. "More like Beast 'Boy'." Completely missing the whole point behind her tone Garfield ponders for a second. "Hmm…Both tough and marketable to children. I like it." Raven rolls her eyes at his stupidity. The corner of her eyes catches something. She looks over and sees Jinx sitting across from Victor. Apparently having a very entertaining conversation involving googley eyes.
Garfield is paying attention to them also. Thinking it might be the time to make a move he goes to says something only to be interrupted by the school bell ringing. Raven is grabbed by Jinx and pulled off. She is taken back into their room. She finds a light brown uniform folded and sitting on her bed. "What's this?" She asks. Jinx informs her, "it's your school uniform. You have to where this to attend class."
"and If I don't?"
"You have to run five miles and then put it on. It's not an option. Though I recommend showering first."
Taking what Jinx said seriously Raven pulls her shirt off to get into the shower. Jinx first notices her surprisingly good looking body she hides beneath her clothing. "Jeez girl, you mind sharing some of those boobs." Raven looks back at her a little confused. "They're not that big. Only a C. " Raven explains. Jinx replies with "Well in case you haven't noticed…" She pulls her shirt tight around her chest to emphasize her lack of bust.
Raven shrugs off the conversation. She starts to pull her pants down when Jinx asks, "What's that one tattoo say on your back? The one by the bird." Raven starts reciting the poem engraved in her skin. "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before…"
The days turned into weeks. It's hard to imagine people getting used to something as grueling as their daily routine. Wake up, jump out of and airplane, mile run, obstacle course, mile run, shooting range, then education. It wears them down. Only the strongest, be it of will or physical prowess, can shine through. Garfield unfortunately can't take it all. He lags behind everyday and is the last to finish the course. He grades certainly haven't improved.
At the end of the obstacle one morning he is addressed by Slade himself. "Beast." Garfield is almost collapsed from exhaustion. "that's not my.."
"It's your name while your here. Instead of going to class I want you to come to my office after lunch." Slade walks away after that rather discouraging statement. He sits at lunch without an appetite just picking his fork at his food. He glances over across the cafeteria at Raven. Normally he would go over their and attempt to make her smile, but not today. Victor, who is sitting across from him, takes note of the way he's acting. "Yo man, whats the deal? Why don't you go make a move like you always do."
"I'm just tired today. What about the pink haired girl your hooking up with?"
"We're not hooked up. At least for now. We're just talking."
"At least you guys are talking. I can't even get her to look at me."
"She's just not a people person. I've never seen her talking with anybody in class." Victor Gestures over to a blonde girl a few tables back. "Why don't you try talking to her." She looks away when Garfield checks over his shoulder. "She stares at you everyday." The lunch bell rings before Victor can continue his encouragement. Garfield ducks out of the cafeteria and heads to Slades office.
He enters assuming the worse. The tiny little manic depressive nymph that lives in his mind head was working on overdrive. Spewing back every single disconcerting notion it could. The longer he had to sit their waiting the stronger his heart would pump. What he wouldn't give to be trailing behind he group on the mile run.
He shown into his office by the secretary. He takes a seat in a chair, hunched over and twiddling his thumbs. Slade doesn't say anything for a moment. He only observes the person in front of him who's clearly still a child. He might have the age of a young man, but he appears to take on no real responsibility. Nothing that's made him very tough. He might not be suitable for this program. Yet again it's too late to consider otherwise.
"Beast." Slade addresses him with his codename. Garfield replies with, "but my name is-" "Here your name is Beast. Your are supposed to address everyone at this academy by their code name. No exceptions."
"Yes sir." he says with his head down.
"I've called you here because of your poor performance. Your dead last everyday during the physical training, and are barely hanging on in academics." He continues. Garfield's head slumps even further. "If you continue this way, then unfortunately we will have to get rid of you. However." That last word causes his ears to shoot up. His attention immediately back to Slades face, which has never strayed from staring at Garfield. "I have one irreversible option. It will likely change your life and who you are forever. But, the question is not wether or not you want this, but do you understand what it means for you."
"Raven! Raven!" Jinx shouts at her new roomy.
In her trademark monotone 'fuck off' voice Raven replies with, "What?…"
"Are you coming to the concert tonight or not?"
"I wasn't planning on it."
"Oh. So you're just going to stay here and be boring." Jinx says with a slight bitch to her tone. Raven just glares at her insult. Jinx Walks over to her and grabs her wrist. "I've made up your mind. You're coming."
Raven moans out, "Why am I going?" whilst being dragged down the hall.
"It's my duty as your handler / new and possibly only friend to help you get a life."
They stop at another room. Jinx opens the door and a blast off heavy metal or some very angry sounding music blares out. A blond girl in a red shirt, blue jeans, and boots sits on her bed doing something on her computer. Jinx get's her attention.
"Hey Cassie you ready to go?"
"Yeah. Ready as I'll ever be."
"Oh but real quick, do you have any spare boots for Rave here. I'm not letting her wear those tonight."
"Sure…she can use my older ones." Without turning her attention to the girls, Cassie reaches down and throws a pair of dark navy blue rocker boots over to them. Raven watches them land. She then asks, "what's wrong with my shoes? and where are we going?"
Jinx replies like an older sister or a mother almost. At least that's how Raven took it. "those won't last two minutes where we're gonna be. And to answer your second question we're going somewhere called fun. So you can see it for yourself." Her tone is not lost on Raven. It's not worth the time to argue. Soon enough Raven has thrown on the boots but kept the rest of her outfit as standard. Black shirt, jeans. That's it. Jinx happens to be sporting a grey tank top over a purple bra, daisy dukes, striped purple and pink stockings and her fave punk boots with purple soul.
'Because she's so classy' Raven's inner monologue chimes. They all meet up outside the school. Raven, Jinx, Robin, Karen, Toni, Roy and Cassie. Victor pulls around front with his car. Robin, Raven, Jinx, and Karen hop in. Toni and Roy hop on Toni's bike.
Inside the car Raven has been given shotgun since Robin and Karen likely want to enjoy each others company. Victor has his subwoofers vibrating hard with dubstep. Though Raven doesn't exactly show it, Victor can tell she's getting annoyed so he turns it down. He catches a glance from her that he acknowledges as a thank you. She asks him, "So…you like the kind of band we're going to see?"
"Not really my taste, but you never know when your gonna make memories worth keeping. And based on this crew, something goods bound to happen." He looks back over his shoulder to spot Jinx given him a rather intense half lidded grin. Raven doesn't spot this. Her attention is on the passing urban area they're passing through.
Robin catches the exchange between Victor and Jinx. He pays no mind to it. Instead he's more interested in what Raven is doing here. "Hey Raven." Her head turns to his attention as he continues, "I'm kind of curious why you decided to join us." Raven glances down at the center console to concoct an answer. Jinx decides to answer for her. "I didn't give her any choice."
Robin turns to Jinx then back to Raven. Eyebrow cocked, "Really, she just dragged you along?"
"More or less." Raven responds without making any eye contact. Instead she glances away and notices the thigh high converse Karen is in. And the jeans. And the girly shirt she happens to be wearing. Ass length red hair done up in a massive braid. And the fact she's easily over 6ft tall. "Raven?" Robin voice breaks into her focus. "What?" she says recoiling. Victor interrupts, "So she decided to come along. Is it such a big deal?"
"No. I'm just a bit surprised. You never struck me as the hanging out type." Though his intention is merely trying to have a conversation with her, he doesn't realize how those comments cut into her. Everyone always says the same thing. She flips back around to her window. "I'm just different." She murmurs just enough to be heard. Robin goes to apologize but is interrupted by his tenor voice girlfriend. "Perhaps sometime this week you would like to come shopping? I've seen stuff at the store that, though I wouldn't be able to wear, would look most wonderful on-" "No" Ravens rasp cuts her off.
Karen doesn't react so well to someone being rude. She doesn't quite understand why someone would be negative in anyway. People in the world should always aim for happiness. But Raven is a mystery. Jinx comes in to break the tension. "So Karen, tell me you got some good herb."
"I most certainly do." She replies with a smile and pulls a small baggy of pre ground weed from her bra and hands it to Jinx. Jinx opens the baggy and takes a small with of the odor. Raven and Victor can easily smell it. "Hey man, put that away before you stink up my baby."
"Man that's good. Better take this easy when we're there." Jinx shoves the baggy back into Karens tits. She cops a feel. "Your boobs are nice." Karen at first surprised, decides to play. She reaches over and grabs what's barely a handful. "Your's are very, um, interesting."
"You mean small."
"Oh, no. I mean cute."
"Like I haven't hear that before. Cute implies little. Even Raven's got bigger hooters than me."
Raven interjects without looking away from the window. "If it's such a problem, get a boob job."
"I plan to. But It's not happening until I got enough money for a good one." The girls continue this discussion. Robin and Victor exchange glances in the rearview mirror.
They finally arrive at the destination. Robin and Victor endured a very insightful conversation. The whole gang meets up out of a small joint. it would seem to be the size of a closet by Raven's guess. They bump into Cassie, Roy, and Toni. When Raven inquired how Cassie arrived she simply said she got a ride with a friend.
Everyone waited on the curb outside. They all chatted except for Raven and Cassie. Those two just smoked cigarettes and watched the traffic pass. Cassie didn't realize how low she is on cigarettes and need to grab another pack before the show begins. She get's up and starts walking down the street. Robin suggests Raven goes with her. upon her expected rejection Jinx informs her that she will be writing a very detail behavior report at the end of each month, and if she doesn't show signs of 'normalcy' she'll have to see a shrink.
Knowing how unbearable that would be she agrees. Cassie and Raven walk down the sidewalk just after sunset. They both have new packs of cigarettes. Cassie looks over at Raven and asks an odd question. "Can you fly?" Raven is at first caught off guard, "What?"
"I said, 'can you fly?' "
"Yeah. Sorry odd question." They both lift off the ground. Raven thought she was the only one who could. They both float through the night sky towards the club. Raven has to ask her, "How is this possible?" Both of them stop in mid air.
"Didn't they explain anything to you at the school?"
"They just gave me some bullshit about being gifted and the school helping up developing our 'abilities' and shit"
"That's the same horse shit they tell all of us. The truth is that we're all just a fucking experiment. This shit isn't natural." She gestures which Raven reads as them flying. "If you're at THIS school then that means your mom knows what going on."
"I don't get it. What's going on?"
"Listen. You, me, us. All the shit we can do. It's all the result of some experiment. Some shit was given to our parents and now they want to see what's going on with us. Have you been strapped into a machine yet?"
"Nothing but all those scans they gave me when I first got here."
"Jesus. And you can already fucking fly!? When they strap you in, I hope they watch out."
"Strap me into what?"
