Friday, January 28, 2011
Looking at the surprisingly elegant building Taylor tried to calm herself. "It will be easy, Brain," the Varga told her reassuringly, making her nod very slightly, although she still found herself petrified. Facing half a dozen idiots with machine guns was positively relaxing compared to this. She might have to go and find some later to get over it.
Danny squeezed her hand, picking up on her mood, and smiled at her wide eyes when she turned to look at him. "I know you can do this and I'm sure your enormous friend just told you the same thing, dear. Just relax, go in there and take the tests, pass them like I know you will, and I'll pick you up in a few hours. We can go out for a nice meal afterward if you want."
He looked at the school as well. "It certainly looks a lot cleaner and safer than Winslow. That's a good sign."
Taking a deep breath, more nervous at this than walking around in public as Saurial, she nodded firmly. Letting some of the confidence her alternate forms seemed to give her bleed through she deliberately relaxed as much as she could, feeling her racing heartbeat slow. "It's only a test," she muttered to herself. "No pressure."
Danny chuckled. "Exactly. Go and prove how smart you are, make all of us proud."
Taylor let out a long breath then nodded one final time, quickly leaning over and giving her father a peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad. See you later."
Opening the door she swung herself out, using her tail to keep her balance when she moved a little too fast with an instinctive ease she didn't even think about now, made sure she had the relevant documents in the small backpack she was carrying, then closed the door. He watched her as she walked into the school past the crowds of teenagers, a few of who watched her then exchanged a few words with each other before going about their business. Reaching the front doors she looked over her shoulder, waved, and went inside, hearing his car start and drive away.
Inside she looked around, raising an impressed eyebrow. There was none of the dirt and general lived in look of Winslow, no graffiti or gang tags, and no surly youths hanging around in threatening groups. Most importantly, there were no Three Bitches. Smiling to herself she tried to work out where she needed to go.
"Excuse me," she said, catching the eye of a tallish pretty short-haired brunette girl in an expensive-looking outfit a year or so older than she was. The girl stopped in her tracks and turned to look her over, running a practiced eye over her clothes in a manner that Taylor caught but that the girl probably didn't even consciously notice. In an attempt to make a good impression, she was wearing Varga-created copies of some nice pants with a silk top, loose but not excessively so, with good high end sneakers and a decent jacket over it. She didn't feel the cold as much as she used to so the coat wasn't necessary but it did give her somewhere to put her phones. She thought that overall it looked fashionable but not ostentatious, and importantly was a complete break from her old style, the result of trying desperately to blend into the background.
"Hi," the girl said. "New girl? I don't recall seeing you around here before." She held out her well-manicured hand. "I'm Mandy. Are you lost?"
"I'm looking for the school secretaries' office?" Taylor shook hands then checked her documents, removing them from her backpack which she swung off her shoulder. "I'm here to take some acceptance tests, I'm transferring in from Winslow."
Mandy delicately wrinkled her nose. "Winslow? Is that place as bad as I've heard it is?"
"It's probably worse," Taylor replied darkly. "A seething cesspit of villainous scum. The sort of place that would be massively improved by being buried under a thousand tons of raw sewage. It's so bad that an Endbringer would vomit if you showed it to them. Some say that..."
Mandy held up a hand, giggling. "I get it. You don't like it."
Grinning, Taylor shook her head. "Not a lot."
"I'll show you where it is," the girl offered, turning and walking away. "Come with me." Taylor followed, listening to Mandy tell her about various areas of the school. "Cafeteria," the other brunette indicated with a hand as they walked past. "The food is actually pretty good. I usually eat there."
"I had to bring my own food at Winslow," Taylor noted. "Aside from anything else I'd probably have ended up with dysentery if I'd eaten the stuff that passed as edible there. Not to mention the company."
"A little cliquey, was it?" Mandy asked, smiling and apparently interested.
"You could put it like that. Gangy and smelly as well, to be honest," Taylor laughed. "I only saw three knife fights in the place last year but I'm not sure they got all the blood off the floor afterward."
Mandy stopped and stared in horror. "Oh my god," she said, faintly. "You're joking!"
"Yes." Taylor giggled as the girl put her hands on her hips and stared at her. She paused for effect. "It was only two knife fights. The third one was a baseball bat."
Sighing in amusement, Mandy shook her head, clearly not believing her companion. Taylor was privately snickering about the fact it was actually true. Resuming walking, they soon reached the administrative section of the school. "There you go, Taylor," Mandy said. "The Vice Principal's office is on that side, the Principal's is on the other side, and the school secretary is at the end. Good luck. If you're still around at half past twelve, I'll be in the cafeteria. Come by and let me know how it went."
She smiled, then looked at the clock on the wall nearest them. "Oh, shit, I need to run or I'll be late for class." The teenager waved then rapidly walked away, almost running.
"She seemed to be a decent person," the Varga noted approvingly.
'Yes, I think I like her so far,' Taylor agreed. 'It's a good sign to meet someone nice right at the beginning like that, don't you think?'
"I believe it is. Now, let's see about these tests." The suggestion was a sensible one, so she headed for the door at the end of the corridor, knocking firmly.
"Come in!" a voice from the other side immediately called quite loudly. Opening the door she looked in. "Don't just stand there, young lady, come on in and close the door, you're letting all the heat out," a good-natured older woman's voice with a distinct Californian accent said. Following instructions she found herself standing in front of a busy desk, a computer to one side and three telephones stacked next to each other on the other, the remaining space filled with paperwork which looked like it was arranged in some system although from a quick look she had no idea what it was.
Behind the desk a remarkably short, yet very healthy looking woman of at least sixty was smiling at her. "What can I help you with today, dear?" she asked happily. "I don't recognize you. New, are you? It's a bit late in the year to be starting, or perhaps a little early."
Smiling back at the rapidfire commentary, Taylor held out her letter of transfer. "I'm Taylor Hebert, I'm here to take some acceptance and grading tests. I'm transferring in from Winslow."
"Hebert… Hebert… I remember that name," the woman muttered, searching through her paperwork, coming up a moment later with a file folder. "Aha! Here we are! Let's see… Yes, it all looks in order. You'll be taking the tests with Mrs Adil in room 906. Here's a map of the school, and a pass for the cafeteria. The first round will be from nine to twelve, then the second one is from one through to three." She looked up from her folder, smiling widely. "A long day but hopefully a successful one. We have your junior high records here, you were doing exceptionally well there. How on earth did you end up in Winslow?"
"It… was something of a mistake," Taylor admitted, not wanting to go into details. The secretary nodded, a sympathetic expression on her face.
"I've heard it has problems, my dear. Hopefully you can leave those behind and enjoy yourself here." She glanced at her watch. "Now run along, you need to be there in twenty minutes and it's on the other side of the school. You've got time to get there but you shouldn't dawdle." The woman handed Taylor an envelope with some paperwork in it. "Please give this to Mrs Adil when you get there. Don't forget your pass and map." These were also handed over. "I've marked the right room on the map for you."
More than slightly impressed by the efficiency of the elderly woman, Taylor accepted everything with a smile and a nod, putting everything but the map away. "Thank you very much, Mrs…?"
"Call me Meg, dear, everyone does. Now go, before you're late." Meg flapped a hand at her. "Go, go, run along. I have work to do." Taylor laughed slightly, then left the room, feeling a little overwhelmed. It was pretty obvious that Meg enjoyed her work and had a somewhat… unique… personality.
Outside she wandered slowly along for a moment inspecting the map until she worked out where she was, then plotted a good route to the destination in her head. Satisfied, she sped up to a brisk walk, her footsteps echoing in the now-empty corridors.
Arriving at room 906 just before nine, she tapped on the door then opened it, to find a good looking middle-aged woman of apparent Middle Eastern appearance looking up from a textbook. "Mrs Adil?" she inquired. The woman nodded with a small smile.
"And you must be Taylor Hebert, I assume."
"That's me."
"Come in, Taylor. Take a seat." Shortly she was sitting at one of the desks in the otherwise empty schoolroom, finding it a little awkward with her tail, but not unmanageable. She'd whacked the end of it into another desk while she slid into the chair, making it scrape across the floor quite loudly, but the teacher simply ignored it causing her to smile a little to herself. The cloaking technique was still working well.
By now, three weeks after she'd first found herself with it, she was so accustomed to her tail she barely thought about it any more, but she was still less than enthused about people knowing about it, really only because of the possibility of causing her father problems more than anything else. Dismissing the thought as Mrs Adil cleared her throat, she sat up attentively and waited.
"All right, Taylor, the process is quite straightforward. I will be giving you a series of written tests to evaluate where you are on the academic scale, which we'll use to determine your placement level relative to classes here at Arcadia and any either remedial or advanced classes you might require. You have half an hour for each test, with a five minute break between each one. If you finish before the time limit you can elect to immediately move on to the next test if you want, or take a longer break instead."
"There's some bottles of water over there in the corner, and if it becomes necessary for you to visit the bathroom I'm afraid I have to accompany you there and back." She looked apologetic. "It's a standard anti cheating precaution, although I will say I don't have any reason at all to suspect you of cheating or wanting to cheat. We just have to follow the procedures."
"That's OK, Mrs Adil, I understand," Taylor replied, smiling.
"Good. Now, the first test is basic mathematics." The teacher handed her a sealed envelope and a freshly sharpened pencil. "You can open it and begin now." Starting a timer on her desk the woman sat down again and picked up a book. "Don't mind me, I'll just be here reading. If you need anything, just say so and we'll pause the clock."
With a nod Taylor slid her finger under the flap, extracting the test paper and several blank sheets. She read the enclosed instructions carefully, then quickly filled her name out at the top of the blank where indicated. Shortly she was engaged in long division, making her work as neat as possible.
The time passed surprisingly quickly. She completed the basic math in only ten minutes, taking that long only because she wanted to be absolutely sure she'd made no silly mistakes. Electing to continue as fast as she could she did the next one, advanced math, then the next, algebra, all within the first hour. Mrs Adil seemed both pleased and slightly impressed, handing her the next envelope with an approving nod.
"Well done, dear, but don't overstretch yourself. Take a break now and then."
"I'm fine, thanks, Mrs Adil," she assured the woman as she opened the calculus test and glanced over the instructions, seeing they were the same as the previous one. Soon she was deep into a rather complicated equation, tapping her pencil on her nose while she thought.
That one took nearly the full half hour. She was fairly sure she'd got everything right, though.
Taking a short break she stretched, then got a bottle of water and drank half of it. Mrs Adil was marking the tests using the relevant key sheets, a small frown of concentration furrowing her brow. "You are doing well, Brain, as I knew you would," the Varga encouraged her.
'So far it's all mathematics, which is one of my best subjects,' she mentally sighed back to him. 'I'm not too worried about these ones. It's going to be geography and history, things like that, where it all goes wrong.'
"You have spend over a week studying all those subjects for nearly twelve hours a day, I don't expect you to have too many problems," the demon chuckled.
"Will you give me the answers if I forget them?' she asked.
"If you insist, yes, but I suggest that this is a test of your knowledge and skills, not mine." His tone was very gently chiding, making her smile to herself.
'I know. Just checking.'
"Of course, Brain. Of course." The demon was laughing a little again.
Telling the teacher she was ready she received the next one, basic chemistry. That proved fairly straightforward although she had some initial problems converting moles to grams, having to stare at the formula for nearly a minute before she suddenly worked out where she was going wrong. After that it was smooth sailing.
By the time lunch rolled around she had completed both chemistry and physics, and was more than halfway through the geography test, which to her surprise she was finding fairly easy. The studying had obviously paid off. Eventually putting her pencil down she stretched widely. "I'm done with this one as well, Mrs Adil."
"Excellent, Taylor," the woman congratulated her. "So far you seem to be doing well." She looked at the clock on the wall for a moment as she stopped her timer, three minutes early. "You're ahead of schedule. There's only ten minutes left until lunch, so you may as well run along now. Be back here by five to one, please."
"OK, Mrs Adil," she agreed easily, standing and picking up her bag, slinging it over he shoulder. "Thank you. I'll see you soon."
Leaving the room she wandered toward the cafeteria, the bell ringing just before she got there, as it had been doing at intervals throughout the morning. Pushing the door to the cafeteria open she looked around, then picked up a tray and headed for the food, just ahead of a flood of students that poured into the large room behind her, laughing and talking. Suddenly it was extremely busy.
Slightly nervous, Taylor looked around again, relaxing slightly when no one seemed to be plotting against her. Shaking her head at the automatic reflex action, and straightening up from the almost instinctive slouch she'd started to fall into when in a large crowd of her peers, she sighed, then started selecting various items from the hot and cold counters. At one point a boy behind her stepped on the end of her tail, causing her to reflexively pull it out from under his shoe and making him stumble, but he promptly turned around and shoved the boy behind him, starting a fairly good natured scuffle that died out in seconds.
Smirking a little to herself she finished making her selection. Showing the woman at the end who was watching over her domain with a gimlet eye the pass she'd been given, she received a nod, then started looking for a table.
Finding an empty one, she sat down and started eating slowly, savoring the burger and fries which were, as Mandy had said, pretty good. She took a sip of her water and looked around curiously, now that the initial rush had died down.
She could instantly see the various cliques in the room, the cheerleader area, the football jocks, the science geeks, and so on, just like in Winslow. However it was apparent that these tribal lines were surprisingly flexible, people moving between them regularly and no obvious signs of potential conflict present.
There was certainly the odd prank going on, but in a room with some three hundred teenagers present she'd have been more surprised if there wasn't. However, she saw none of the bullying and general nastiness that characterized Winslow, and certainly none of the obvious gang activities. There were no surreptitious deals going on in the corners, no ABB and E88 members glaring at each other and posturing, no imminent violence. It was almost unnervingly calm.
'I think there must be something wrong with me,' she snickered to the Varga. 'The lack of a threat is making me feel a little threatened.'
"It's not surprising, you have conditioned reflexes and a lack of trust for any but a very small number of people at the moment. Understandable, all things considered. It will get better as time goes on in such an environment, I expect," he replied, sounding both amused and pleased.
'Small number,' she snorted. 'I'll say it's a small number. Two. You and Dad.'
"Thank you, Brain," he chuckled. "I think it will eventually grow."
She noticed a tall blonde, very beautiful, who was in the midst of a group of nearly as pretty girls in the section that seemed to be reserved for them, with a comparatively rather mousy brunette near her, looking a little uncomfortable, her nose in a book. It was with a slight shock she recognized Victoria Dallon, or Glory Girl in her cape persona, holding court and laughing about something one of the other girls had just said.
The shorter, plainer brunette looked up, sighed, then went back to her book, shaking her head a little. Taylor realized after a moment that she was probably Amy Dallon, the sister of Victoria and the famous healer Panacea. Casually studying them she memorized their features, then looked around some more.
Off to one side a couple of tables away a lively looking red headed boy was in the middle of telling a bad and slightly obscene joke to his two friends, who looked a mix of amused and resigned. Reaching the punchline, which was 'so the penguin says, No, honest, it's ice cream,' the boy who looked about sixteen or so laughed. One of his companions groaned, shaking his head, while the other one grinned. Taylor, who had heard the entire thing and thought it was actually sort of amusing, hid a smile.
"Dennis, that was terrible," the groaning boy said, pinching the bridge of his nose. The redhead, or Dennis, shrugged, still grinning.
"I thought it was funny."
"You always think your jokes are funny," the taller boy sighed. He looked Hispanic and was quite handsome, Taylor thought as she kept them in view in the corner of her eye. "Trust me when I say that they're usually not."
"You obviously have a defective sense of humor, Carlos," Dennis snickered. He turned to the boy on his other side, who was listening while reading some sort of engineering journal. "Can you build him a new one, Chris?"
The brown-haired boy shook his head, smiling. "No, I can't get the spare parts for that model any more, it's obsolete," he chuckled. Carlos looked irritated while Dennis burst out laughing again.
"You're both idiots," the Hispanic boy sighed. This had no effect on the laughter.
Smiling a little to herself at the byplay, Taylor continued looking around. A scent she'd encountered recently wafted past, making her turn her head to see Mandy and another girl, a Chinese one with long black hair, standing a few feet away looking about for a table. "Hey, Mandy," she called, causing the girl to look over, smile, then lead her friend over.
"Hello, Taylor. How did your tests go?"
"Pretty well," she replied with satisfaction. "I got seven done before lunch and Mrs Adil says there are four more afterward. English, History, Computer Studies, and Biology. With any luck I'll be done by half past two."
"Not bad. That's an awful lot of tests to take in one day, though." Mandy sat down, putting her tray full of sushi rolls on the table and motioning to a chair when her friend looked a little uncertain. "This is Lucy, my best friend. Lucy, Taylor Hebert. She'd transferring in from Winslow. Apparently it's as bad as they say it is."
"Hi, Taylor," Lucy said shyly. "It's nice to meet you."
"And you," Taylor smiled. Going back to Mandy, she said, "The tests are pretty simple, they're not like end of year ones. These are just to assess my current knowledge. Apparently Winslow has a different curriculum, which doesn't surprise me at all. Not to mention that I had… issues… there, which made learning a little difficult. I've been studying like crazy for over a week for this."
"Did it help?" Lucy asked quietly, looking interested while she took the lid off what seemed to be a cold chicken salad.
Taylor nodded. "I think so. So far I haven't had any real problems. I think I'm fine with mathematics, not bad with physics and chemistry, and not as bad as I thought I'd be with geography. I should be OK with English as well, my mother was a professor of English at the university."
"Was?" Mandy asked.
Taylor sighed. "She died a few years ago."
"I'm sorry, Taylor," the brunette said with a wince.
"Don't worry about it," she replied, waving a fork. "It's not your fault."
A burst of laughter from where Victoria Dallon was still talking rapidly, about some sort of fashion Taylor couldn't understand the point of, made all three of them look over. "Vicky's in full flow again," Mandy giggled.
"You know her?"
"Everyone knows Vicky Dallon," Lucy told her with a serene smile. "She is… not subtle. Or shy."
"I can see that," Taylor smirked, watching the girl suddenly float six inches into the air, apparently without noticing. One of the other girls poked her in the ribs and she settled down again looking mildly embarrassed for a second or two. Mandy laughed.
"She's always doing that. She forgets, floats around, and the teachers start glaring at her. No flying in the school. Not since the great coleslaw explosion of 2010, anyway."
She giggled as Taylor looked oddly at her, then related a story which had all three of them laughing manically. "The entire cafeteria was coated in the stuff," Mandy gasped, heaving with giggles. "Two of the cafeteria staff quit and one needed therapy for a month. Apparently he still can't look at a cabbage without going pale."
"That can't be true," Taylor snorted, shaking her head.
"It is, I swear," the brunette replied, holding up her hand solemnly. "Honest to god."
"She's actually a nice person," Lucy giggled, "but she doesn't know when to quit. Or how to. So things like that sometimes happen. Apparently she's even worse when she's running around as Glory Girl, she'll dive into a fight without thinking it through at all. Luckily she's tough enough to survive the results so far, but it can be a little… expensive."
"Did you hear what happened with Über and Leet a couple of weeks or so ago?" Mandy asked with amusement.
"I saw it, actually," Taylor grinned. "I was out with my Dad and we had front row seats to the whole thing. It was pretty funny." She glanced at Vicky, who was listening to something her sister was saying and shaking her head. "She walked right into it. Über played her like a drum."
"I love his voice," Lucy smiled. "Some of the things he and Leet do are kind of mean but a lot of them are really funny."
"And illegal," Mandy put in.
"Still funny."
At their table, Dennis and Chris were now needling Carlos about something he'd done which he seemed to regret telling them about, judging by the look on his face. The redheaded boy laughed loudly, making Mandy look over. "Those boys. Dennis is funny but he never stops. It can get irritating sometimes."
Following her gaze, Lucy asked, "Where's the other one? Dean? Normally those four are inseparable."
Mandy looked around then pointed. "There he is. He's heading for Vicky, he just came in."
They watched as the fairly tall young man walked over and motioned to the blonde, who excused herself and went to talk to him in a low voice. Taylor noticed that her sister was also watching, looking annoyed for some reason. With a sniff the girl looked away, meeting Taylor's eyes for a moment, then dropping her own, going back to her book.
"Poor Amy," Mandy sighed. "She's so quiet. That girl needs some fun in her life. All she does is go to school or the hospital."
The young man talking to Vicky Dallon threw his hands in the air, looking exasperated, then reluctantly nodded, making the blonde smile brilliantly and kiss him on the cheek. Lucy, who was watching, giggled. "She talked him into something expensive again," she said in a low voice. "His family is rich and she's more than happy to help spend it."
The youth went and sat with his three friends, Dennis immediately starting in on him, making him reach out and slap the back of his head. The redhead looked hurt, sulking for a moment, but was telling yet another joke only ten seconds later.
"Like I said, he never stops," Mandy laughed.
"Hey, did you hear about that new cape?" Lucy suddenly asked, fiddling with her phone. "There's a new video of her up on YouTube."
"New cape?" Taylor asked curiously.
The other girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. She was spotted walking around on Tuesday night around ten or so, Downtown."
Taylor suddenly developed a feeling she knew what was coming next.
"Apparently her name is Saurial," Lucy went on.
'Knew it,' Taylor commented silently. Her companion chuckled.
"Look, she's a giant lizard," the girl added, turning the phone towards them and peering down over it to see the screen as well. "Scales and everything. Can you imagine what it must be like to have a huge tail like that following you around everywhere?"
'Yes,' Taylor laughed. 'You get used to it surprisingly fast.' The Varga emitted amusement. Both of them watched the video play, showing her in her lizard-girl form walking down the sidewalk, then going into the convenience shop.
"She's sort of pretty, actually," Mandy said when the short clip finished. "I'd like to see her in better light. I think those scales were blue, and were those feathers on her head?"
Lucy turned the phone around and looked carefully at the screen. "I thought it was hair."
"Lizards don't have hair," her friend said, shrugging.
"So it has to be feathers?"
"That's what it looks like to me," Mandy replied firmly.
"Me too," Taylor added with great inner amusement. She decided that Saurial should go for a wander during daylight hours soon.
Glancing at her watch, Mandy sighed. "Back to the grindstone, I guess. Ten to one." Slightly startled, the time had gone much faster than she expected with the surprisingly good company of her two new acquaintances, Taylor looked up at the clock on the far wall, seeing that was indeed the time. Hastily drinking the last of her water she jumped to her feet.
"Damn. I need to go to. It was nice meeting you, Lucy. And seeing you again, Mandy." Taylor had thoroughly enjoyed her lunch, she hadn't talked like that to other teenagers for years and hadn't really known how much she missed it. She waved and quickly walked out, going past the table at which the four boys were now talking about someone called Colin and how he needed to learn to laugh. She paused, sniffing discreetly, as she caught a familiar scent, one she didn't expect, glancing to the side to see Dean staring at her with his fork halfway to his mouth.
His eyes widened.
Hers narrowed.
After a long couple of seconds she resumed walking.
Dean Stansfield stared after the tall slim brunette as she made her way out of the cafeteria, weaving between the tables with a degree of grace that was impressive. It took Dennis snapping his fingers in his ear to make him twitch, answer the question he'd missed, then resume eating slowly, his thoughts troubled.
'Fuck it all,' Taylor thought furiously as she headed back to the testing room. 'That was Gallant. And I'm completely sure he recognized me, somehow, I could smell it.'
"We were aware that the Wards attend this school already, Brain," the Varga said calmly. "It was only a matter of time before you detected them. You only have to meet them once, after all, and their scent will give them away no matter what they're wearing. His detection of you is probably due to his emotional reading ability. I would assume that the emotional output of someone is much like a fingerprint to anyone with the power to sense it."
'What do we do?'
"Nothing. Yet. So far there is no threat given and if Vista's word is to believed, these Unwritten Rules of theirs will prevent him telling anyone what he suspects or knows."
'And if he does? Dad could be in danger.' Taylor was both worried and angry.
"And if he does… there is no trace of a body after it has been through the digestive system of a Varga. We do not require food in the way that humans do but that in no way says we can't handle it."
It was a good indicator of her mood that the suggestion was met with nothing but a thoughtful nod.
By the time she got back to room 906, she had calmed down to a sort of deadly cold determination. It seemed to help with her memory if nothing else.