Ch 8 Twoleg Town, First Time in Awhile
Autumnlily took charge, as usual, guiding us away from the school and any vampires in the immediate area. We started east, but Flowerleaf sensed that something bad would happen if we kept going that way, so we switched to north. We found what we thought would be the perfect town: small, neat, easy to run from, and plenty of hiding spots, if needed. I was perfectly fine with staying outside at night, but the others hadn't figured out the secret to bug repellent, so we went to the motel. We rented a room, careful to find the best deal because we didn't have all that much money. We did odd jobs around town when we needed extra cash-we refused to steal-and did pretty well in school.
In school, we registered ourselves. We did get lucky when they did not ask for a parent signature. I found that a little disturbing, but I didn't complain. I just left myself a note to watch the principal closely. We all ended up in most of the same classes, so we could watch out for each other.
Food wise, we were set. We might have been able to change into giant cats, according to the book, but we didn't feel like eating deer, so we just went to the supermarket. (Plus, we hadn't exactly figured that out yet.) We got a grill and LOTS of meat. We had a different type of meat for every meal and always packed our lunches. Lunch was always the same. We went in, sat down by ourselves, and no one bothered us.
Since we could hear them we knew what they all thought of us, and let me say, it was very colorful, and not at all pleasant. It was bad enough that I wished, for the first time, that I was a normal Twoleg. It was normally a very peaceful way to live. I was just annoyed at how many Twolegs were total jerks to anyone a little different who preferred to stick to themselves. You'd think we threatened them with a gun for StarClan's sake! (StarClan-Warrior ancestors who watch over the Clans from Silverpelt, Silverpelt-The Milky Way.) I finally figured out how to tune them out completely, but it took several moons. (Moon-month) During that time, we were all annoyed. We were determined to stick to ourselves and not hurt anyone, but these morons were not making it easy on us.
We did reasonably well in school itself, I was never any good at math, but apparently Warrior brains work faster than Twoleg brains. The teacher said one thing and I was six steps ahead within seconds.
One thing we had to watch out for was we couldn't be seen moving faster than Twoleg speed, and on top of that, we couldn't let them see us teleporting. Most of the classrooms had bathrooms right down the hall, so we would slip into one of them, leave the door unlocked, teleport, and get to class faster.
This was also a bonus because some of the Twolegs who considered themselves 'tougher' than us tried multiple times to beat us up. Most of the teachers were scared of them, so we were on our own all together. That was annoying because it seemed like everyone just let them do whatever. I told the other SunClan girls that, as far as I was concerned, if they tried to beat me up, I was going to fight back.
"I'll let them throw the first punch, and I won't seriously hurt them, but I'll give them a few bruises to remember me by." I practically snarled at our bus stop one Friday. Flowerleaf instantly started arguing.
"Cloudfire, the teachers are too scared to argue with them. You'll get in trouble, not those mouse-brained, fish-faced, snake-hearted badgers, although if anyone deserves that Lily Academy, it's them." She said quickly, trying to talk me out of standing by what I'd said. (FYI She failed.)
The bus came then, and we sat in our normal space, the first two seats. The bus driver was really nice and let us all sit together. I thought it was because she could see how much everyone else disliked us. It was as obvious as the fact that we weren't normal. I liked the bus rides more than any part of the day because we had someone to talk to, outside of our Clan, who wasn't too scared of the jerks to actually be nice.
As we got off the bus, I could tell something was wrong. I glanced at my Clanmates and saw they were adjusting their movements microscopically towards defense. I followed their example and we darted to our class, feeling sick with worry. I saw the jerks around, they kept sliding closer, looking ready to attack, which creeped me out. I stood by what I had said at the bus stop, I would defend myself, and my Clanmates. They made their move in Social Studies.
I was listening to the teacher, as always, but I was also keeping tabs on the idiots' movements. Finally, one stood. He was their leader and the stupidest one of all. He thought he was so tough it wasn't even funny. We'd actually seen him trying to punch his way through a cement block. I was thinking Hate to tell you this, man, but we could do that in our sleep. He looked at the teacher, who froze, looking terrified. Then the teacher stepped over and pulled the fire alarm. I was momentarily stunned. Everyone else got out of their seats, looking at me like I was the corpse in a funeral. Then I understood. He was getting everyone outside so he could beat me up! I got up, completely calm, and joined the line.
Everyone else knew what was going on, and formed a giant circle out on the lawn. I joined my Clanmates, and told them in whispers what was going on. He'd picked a good time; we'd been in separate classrooms. What he hadn't been counting on was Warrior skill. He wanted to deal with us one by one, but we found each other too fast for him to make a move. I could see his face out of the corner of my eye and almost burst out laughing. He looked like a 6-year-old who hadn't gotten their own way! I gave the other Warrior girls the signal to look one-by-one. They all barely kept from laughing too.
When he had everyone's attention, he started. He went on and on in circles about how he was the toughest guy in town, how he was in charge and how everyone had to obey him, no matter what. Then he told us that we seemed like the type of girls who needed taught a lesson in these fields. I quickly glanced at the others. Their expressions mirrored my thoughts. NO WAY ARE WE TAKING THIS LYING DOWN! He called his muscle guys forward and told them to get us. I did the stupid thing.
"Are you so scared of us that you won't even fight us yourself?" I yelled, giving his tiny brain a major workout, there was no way he could back down without looking like a coward. His answer was delayed by the normal kids stunned chattering.
Then he decided not to answer. He whispered to 8 of his muscle guys and they came towards us, splitting up so they were two for every girl. Flowerleaf dodged with incredible ease, Autumnlily punched one in the face and dodged him while his buddy tripped over him, Silverfire moved slower, but with strategy, Waterlight was a blur, and there was no Twoleg on this earth who could've stopped her. The leader decided to deal with me himself. I kept my gaze steady as he stepped towards me. I was determined to not throw the first punch. As he came within arm's length, I maneuvered away, just to annoy him. He stepped after me quickly, but I dodged again. Finally, he swung, moving at Twoleg speed, of course. It was easy to see the blow coming in time to dodge. I ducked, then whipped up and punched him in the same microsecond. I didn't hurt him more than stunning him for a few seconds. Then he started going all-out. He tried punching, kicking, and every dirty trick in the book, but I was way ahead of him. I saw his moves and everything that was wrong with them.
Then Flowerleaf screamed. I gave him one last punch and darted to her side, careful to go top Twoleg speed and no more. She was looking at the people across the field. I could see from here the pale white skin of vampires. I quickly signaled the other girls who looked up in nanoseconds, followed my glance, and took off in the direction of the motel. I followed, running faster than any Twoleg could even see. At the precise moment, all I was worried about was getting out of the state. We all packed in microseconds, said bye to the motel owners and thanked them for their kindness. Then we bolted. We didn't stop for at least 20 minutes and considering how fast we were going, I'd venture a guess we ran around the world a few times.
When we finally slowed, we found a large city. I pulled out the minicomputer for the first time since I left Lily Wilderness Academy and handed it to Autumnlily. She instantly got to work, programming it so no one could find it. Then I looked up a GPS. Everyone else was tense. I easily found us on the map. My brain stopped working for at least 7 seconds when I saw where we were. CHINA?! I hadn't seen a drop of water and yet we crossed the ocean? I quickly pushed the thought from my mind. We focused on the U.S. and flashed there easily. Suddenly, I thought of something I really should have thought of before.
"Uh…girls? I just thought of something, most of us have siblings, what if they're Warriors too? Plus, we got lucky at the other place; they had uniforms, what do we do if the next school doesn't? Just wear camo all the time? We need to get regular outfits. We can flash to our old places with a buddy, check on our siblings, and get regular street clothes. Everyone cool with that?" I asked quickly. Flowerleaf turned pale. She had three siblings. I was worried about my younger sister, and I didn't know about the others. "Okay, Silverfire, you come with me, Flowerleaf, Autumnlily, and Waterlight go you three go together, and everyone, grab any cash you have saved up. Do not steal from your parents or siblings, but grab what you can." Everyone nodded quickly and we were flashing in a heartbeat.
We went to Silverfire's place first. She grabbed clothes and the little bit of cash she had, and we slipped off, flashing quickly to my house. I slipped into my room effortlessly, gathered clothes that were casual and the few dollars I had. I kept the combat boots, but I grabbed sneakers too. I slid downstairs silently, following my sister's scent. I found her with my fake mom, who was teaching her all about vampires! I was totally silent, and could have heard everything they were saying if I wanted to, but I tuned them out. Kristin turned halfway and I thought she looked a little paler than she should. I took a half step forward, meaning to say something, but she opened her mouth to ask a question and I saw her sharp, venomous, little fangs. I froze for a half a microsecond, and then took off at Warrior speed. I met Silverfire, but refused to mention Kristin.
When the others met up with us, they all had similar stories. Their siblings were vamps and their parents were the teachers. I said about the fangs, Flowerleaf nodded miserably, her siblings were a deathly vampire pale, and had actually chased her and Autumnlily out of the house.
Luckily, the other girls were better with money than I was, so when we put it all together we had about $100. I quickly thought about how in StarClan's name we were going to survive on a hundred bucks. Get a job, was the obvious answer. I was hesitant to bring that up though.
We took off in a totally random direction, stopping at the first town that we came to. We decided not to stay, knowing that the vamps would be on our trail, now that they were sure we were alive. We bought some meat, paying cash of course, and left town on the next bus. We got off at the last stop, a national park. It was pretty cool actually. We all managed to land jobs in a few short days and were star employees. We made enough money that we could each buy a tent and basic supplies to share so we just stayed away from the actual camping areas of the park. We started saving since we were wary of banks. A Warrior's protection was better than any vault by far. All the other girls were happy in the park, and
I couldn't blame them. The trees were huge and apparently a SunClan Warrior's skill set included climbing. It was as easy as running and just as exhilarating. The trees were a hundred feet tall minimum with plenty of branches and brush to hide in.
I don't know why, but we enjoyed spying on hikes. We'd pack up our stuff, climb a tree, and jump from branch to branch as we followed them. They never looked up which made things so easy, it was almost boring. The best part by far was the fact that the park was hundreds of miles long and wide. We figured that any vampire would have a while to look before they found us. We found out that this was not true a few seasons later. (season-year)
