Chapter 25

Iris By The Goo Goo Dolls

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
And you bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

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"You WHAT!"

Airah sighed and set down her Spork as Kayla exploded next to her.

"Look, I just wanted to leave, okay? It's not that big of a deal…"

"It is too! I thought you said that you weren't going to trust him alone anymore!" Kayla tapped her fingers on her crossed arm, and Airah sighed again.

"I had to leave, okay? I…something came up…"

"Such as…?" Kayla raised an eyebrow. Airah stared down at her foam tray and picked at it with long black nails.

"I…I can't tell you..."

"Why not? Is it too secret or something, too many people in h ere?"

"Uh, I guess…" Airah said, although that wasn't the reason. In order to tell Kayla the real reason, she'd have to tell her about the curse and…well, that was definitely out of the question…

Or was it…?

"Then you can tell me in gym, okay? We're pairing up for badminton anyways, and there's less chance of being overheard…"

"Yeah, that sounds…great…" Airah said faintly, twirling her Spork in her fingers absentmindedly.

How do you tell someone something like this…?

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Airah pulled on her shorts and black t-shirt uncomfortably as more girls flooded into the locker room. She checked the beads around her wrist and black opal necklace before slipping on black tennis shoes and turning to Kayla.

"Ready to go?"

"One sec…" Kayla muttered, tugging her blond hair one last time before turning to Airah. "There, what do you think?"

Airah's eyes widened comically.

"What's with the, erm, sailor moon style?"

"What, you don't like it?" Kayla pouted, and Airah quickly flustered.

"Ah, no no, it's just, er, unusual…never mind, let's just go…"

Kayla grinned

"You're just jealous because you cut your hair so short that you can't do anything with it."

"Only reason I cut it was for convenience." Airah muttered as they walked down the hallway and into the gym. The teacher and half the class already sat on one side of the gym. The rest were the slackers, who usually walked in about five minutes behind the rest. They sat down in their assigned spots, Airah twirling a piece of black hair around her finger. After the role call and everyone was given a racket (Airah grinned at the thought) and a birdie for each pair, they commenced thwacking.

"So…" Kayla said while flicking the birdie over without showing any effort. "Why did you have to come over here? It had to be something serious…"

Airah bit her lip, but whacked the birdie over nonetheless.

"It's…hard to explain…" Airah said anxiously "But…I guess It's better to just get it out…Kayla…" she drew in a deep breath. "My family is…cursed…"

Kayla let the birdie drop beside her.

"Cursed…Airah, are you joking..?"

Airah shook her head as her friend bent down to pick up the little yellow birdie.

"No…I…15 members of my family, including me, are cursed with a…very old curse…"

"But…it's just not possible…"Kayla whispered in a haunted manner. Airah sighed.

"Trust me, I thought that too, until I saw my own boyfriend transform in front of my very own eyes…"

"But…what do they transform into?"

"You know of the Chinese zodiac?" Kayla nodded an affirmative "Well, they transform into the different animals of the zodiac…"

But there's only twelve, and you said fifteen…"

"Well…" Airah tapped her racket against her heel "there's also the cat, the god and…me…"

"But who could you be? There's no one else in the story…"

"Except one that is never mentioned but, as I can prove, DOES exist: I am the mother of the twelve zodiacs, an angel…"

"So you get…wings..?" Kayla asked, and Airah nodded.

"But trust me; they're not all they're cracked up to be…"

Kayla stared at Airah, her expression unreadable, which caused Airah to become flustered once more.

"Look, y-you don't have to believe me…we-we can erase this…from your memory, if you want…"

Kayla stared into her eyes, but then shook her head confidently.

"No, I…it doesn't seem right, but I know you need my help in this, so…" she walked up to the net and grabbed Airah's hand comfortingly. Airah smiled at her, although a faint trace of a tear twinkled at the corner of her eyes.

"So, I'll come over to your house tonight, and we can talk about it, 'kay?"

"Oh, okay…" Airah said, her smile growing. "Thanks Kayla…"

"For what?"

"For not running away…"

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"Yuki, you're going to need to go to school sometime or you'll never graduate…"

Yuki rubbed his eyes before glaring at Haru, who had spoken.

"It's not me: Hatori-san told me to stay home this week, although it's like I'm on house arrest…he watches me all the time…."

"Maybe because last you, oh, I don't know, tried to kill yourself?"

"The fact that you can say that with a straight face…." Kyo muttered, and Haru shrugged. Yuki set down his bowl and stood up.

"I'm going back to bed…"

"Yuki-chan…"

He turned.

"Don't hurt yourself or anything, okay? She'll be back: trust me…"

Yuki grunted in reply, slamming the door to his room with a loud slam. Everyone stared at the door for a few minutes before Tohru's whisper broke the silence.

"We need to do something…I'm worried…."

Haru sighed "What can we do?"

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A/N: sigh…