It's been way too long! Sorry about that, life has been a rollercoaster ride and a huge struggle. But, I am back and ready to get in the groove and my editor will be joining me sometime soon. Unfortunately, school is starting soon sooooo you'll have to be patient with us. I appreciate all of you and your patience so far.
This chapter is call You Are Enough, I got inspired by the song by Sleeping At Last, give them a listen a lot of their songs inspiring me. Enjoy!
Here it is. Try number two. Wasn't the saying, "third time's the charm"? Serena doesn't want there to be a third time. A new school with new people is scary enough already. There is an upside though. Her mother will be nearby. She got a job teaching history at the school, so she'll be much closer.
But again: new school, new people.
Clair and Lance will be there, but Serena still feels awkward around them. They're so close, she feels as if she's breaking into something by hanging out with them. Or worse, what if she loses control again and hurts them and her mom? She'll be all alone, as she should be.
Every day after moving in, her mother worked with her meditating and practicing until it was time to go in for school. Hours were spent sitting up straight, breathing slowly and concentrating on control. Serena is powerful, that much she recognizes, and each day she's getting stronger.
It's been awhile since she's heard the voice, but her dreams are distorted and confusing.
Things are already bad enough, voice or no voice. Her back is throbbing, and she can't think straight. Her scars line her spine and hit to the base of her neck, disrupting any kind of movement she makes. Taking deep breaths, she peels off her shirt and tries to peer at them from the mirror in her bathroom.
Her eyes bulge as she sees the blotchy red marks along her back. Tears brim her eyes as she covers her front and runs out of the room and down the hallway to her parent's bedroom.
"Mom!" she hits the door and struggles turning the handle in her fright.
"What's wrong?" Rowan pulls the door open dressed and ready to teach. Her eyes widen at the sight of her hysterical daughter. "Come here." Serena almost collapses into her mother's arms while blubbering about her back. Her father comes up then and lifts her up to place her face down on their bed. "Go get the cream. Serena, it's going to be okay."
Serena turns her face to the side and watches her father leave the room to grab the medicine the doctor gave them when she left the hospital a year ago. It's been so long since her scars have hurt, they haven't had to use it in months. She's glad that her mother keeps track of important things long past their intended use.
"What does it feel like?" Rowan questions as she steps into her own bathroom to wet a rag. "Do they burn?"
"No, but they feel warm. I feel like I'm being stung a thousand times by a Beedrill," Serena explains.
"It's going to be okay," her mother repeats once more before dabbing her scars with the softest touches.
Serena tenses and relaxes with each touch. The cool water soothes the warmth, but the initial touch intensifies the throbbing pain. Her father comes back moments later carrying the tube of soothing cream. He hands it to her mother and takes a seat next to her on the bed.
"Feel better?" he questions with a raised brow.
"A little," she mumbles in reply and then hisses when Rowan presses her fingers to the marks.
"I'm sorry, baby, just a little more."
Aaron smoothes his daughter's clenched fist as Rowan finishes up rubbing the cream all over her back. Neither of them look happy at the jagged scars, but keep neutral faces for Serena. Once she's finished, Rowan returns to getting ready as the cream dries.
"I still have to go to school?" she turns her head to stare at her parents with disbelief.
"Sorry, honey. But the pain is going away, right?" Rowan glances back from her vanity across the room.
Serena hates to admit it, but the cream always worked. It masked the pain and cooled her back down. With a grumble, she presses her shirt to her chest and slides off the bed. Her feet drag on the floor as she crosses the room and opens the door.
"Serena, it will be okay!" Rowan calls after her, a hint of laughter in her voice.
Back in her bathroom, Serena glares at her back. The pain is always temporary and never has lasting effects on her. Though there are times when they will randomly act up as if in response to something before cooling off again. It's around those times that she usually loses control and something goes flying across the room, or she hears a few minds from down the block.
"Stupid scars, do not ruin my first of school. Or any other day, for that matter!" she jabs a finger at them in the mirror before getting ready. She's downstairs in twenty minutes, hanging out with Ty and eating breakfast while she waits for her mother. Her mind blanks out. Thinking of school is just too much for her.
"Ready?" Rowan beams at Serena as she enters the kitchen. She's dressed up for class looking no different than she did as a professor in a university. She watches her daughter smooth Ty's head instead of answering. "Honey, you can't bring him. Besides, you'll be just fine."
"Okay," Serena sighs, planting a kiss on Ty's head. "Have fun."
"Ah, yes," Aaron slinks into the kitchen, his hands rubbing together. "He's gotten big enough for training, so we will have fun!"
Ty whimpers and leaps into Serena's arms. She catches him and glares at her father. "Stop it!"
He laughs and opens his hands for the pokemon. "I'm sorry, we'll go easy today. Have a good day at school."
"Is that a joke?" Serena gripes, straightening the scarf around her neck.
"You'll be fine, we promise," Rowan says, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Let's go."
"Bye, my girls!"
The school is about a five-minute walk from their home. Many of the other kids have already started their walk over. Since it's her first day, Rowan suggested Serena dress up. But considering her experience with first days, Serena slipped on a black long sleeved shirt, a bright blue scarf, dark jeans and black boots. The scarf is for her upper back and part of her neck. Her scars are slightly visible, and after this morning's scare, she doesn't want even an inch to show.
Blackthorn's school is large enough to house all the grades. There's a main building and a two others set in a diagonal from it. The buildings are old, made of brick, and held up by pillars depicting ancient serpent dragons mostly faded by years of wear. The front grounds are large with fountains, tall blackthorn trees, and other shrubs for decoration. There are battle grounds behind it where the much older kids learn about dragon types and get their hands-on experience there.
Many kids are running around playing with their friends before the first bell, their laughter floating all over the courtyard as Serena trudges through next to her mother.
"Let's get you checked in, and then I have to head to the teacher's lounge," her mother leads her to the front office.
Inside the building, the floors were marble and the walls were white. Everything was clean and shiny as it always is the first month of school. Serena could sense that the building was much larger than she originally guessed. She wasn't sure how, but her mind assured her it was true.
She trembles as her mother opens the glass door to the office and enters with a work smile plastered to her face.
"Hello, I'm here to check in myself and my daughter," she speaks in a warm tone to the office workers.
They greet the two as if they were long time friends and gather the appropriate papers for them to sign. Serena gets through it fast enough and waits as her mother finishes up talking with the other woman. Outside the office, a few kids run by, laughing and calling each other's names as they go, Serena watches them with a faint ache in her chest.
"Let's go," Rowan mutters under her breath, ushering her daughter from the office with haste. They make it back outside where Rowan takes a right and leads Serena to another door. Once there, she stops and turns around. She lays two hands on Serena's shoulders, her eyes looking serious as she speaks. "Listen to me. There are going to be kids that don't want to talk to you, some of them will be outright mean to you, but you must ignore them. I'm sorry that you have to endure this, honey. Until certain things happen between your father, the Elders, and myself, this is how it will have to be. Keep your head up, and don't let any of them be mean to you."
"O-okay?" Serena frowns, she's heard this talk before, but she hadn't ever taken it seriously. Now, in the moment she had been warned about, it seems too weird.
Rowan offers a bitter smile before kissing her forehead. "Lance and Clair should be here any second... Oh, look! They're coming in."
Serena whips her head around to see the two cousins stepping into the courtyard, her heart leaps up for just a second. Behind her, her mother wishes her luck and disappears into the building.
Left to fend for herself, Serena makes her way towards the two she knows will accept her regardless of her parent's past. As she approaches, a sudden swarm of students rush up to the two, many of them greeting them like old friends with hugs and punches to the shoulder. Her heart runs cold, and she nearly trips as she reaches the gate. Remembering her mother's words, she continues her approach and clears her throat.
The crowd of kids calm down and turn to her, and that's when she realizes her mother was right. Their faces go from elation to something akin to hatred in Serena's eyes. Not all of them. Some question who she is, but the older ones, those that know Lance and are around his age, glare at her.
"What do you want?" one of them sneers.
"Hey, watch it!" Clair snaps at the older boy, her eyes turning to ice. "That's my friend."
The kid starts at the news and glances between the two of them. A murmur runs through the crowd.
Serena feels something clutch her throat as she watches these kids judge her based on something she doesn't understand. Coming to live in the clan meant doing things to make the clan look good, doing things so that the families in the clan could have a good name for the sake of saying so. She doesn't understand that it meant you were judged without being present or well known.
She hates this. She wants to go home or better, to disappear. These kids don't know her, and they already don't like her. What if they found out what she could do? Something would happen then, and she can't let it get to that.
Clair steps forward and wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Let me show you around the school and the classrooms. I know we're in the same class."
"Are you sure?" Serena whispers as the other kids begin to mumble again.
"Who cares about them? I'm not going to blindly follow orders like some people," she returns some glares before turning away and leading Serena inside. "Lance, you coming?"
Serena doesn't look back to see if he would, or to see him debate leaving his friends for her. Clair is taking a tremendous step, one that could cost her friends. Would he do the same?
"Wait up!"
Serena's eyes widen, and she holds back tears as Lance comes up on her left, hands shoved into his pockets and a goofy smile on his face. He and Clair share the grin before becoming tour guides within the building. Unable to believe the sudden upturn in her day, Serena forms a goofy grin of her own as she finds herself looking forward to the school year.
She is shown the east wing of the school which were for elementary kids and where she, Lance and Clair would spend their school year until they moved along the rest of the building like the older kids. Her mother would teach two fifth grade classes before doing one class for seniors and be the administrator for a test everyone in this school would take: the Dragon Test.
Serena doesn't know what it entails, but she knows that the admin had to be a strong tamer to administer the test.
The first bell reverberates around the school, startling Serena from Clair's explanation of the lunchroom. Kids begin rushing in from all over, heading towards their lockers and their classrooms. Serena tries to keep up with the two as they lead her back the way they came towards their lockers. She nearly hits the floor as she's shoved by students, jarring laughter hits her ears and she grimaces.
"Don't worry about them," Clair pulls her to her feet and keeps hold of her hand. "Let's go!"
The two wave off Lance as he heads to his classroom before entering their own.
Their teacher, Miss Aiko, was cheery and excited to see Serena. She wasn't sure if it was an act or not, but she returned the kindness either way. Clair took a spot next to Serena's desk near the front of the room. Classes began fast and Serena tried to pay attention, but she was worried. The entire day was tense for her, she barely ate food at lunch and didn't swing with Clair on the playground. Neither cousin pried nor did they draw attention to it, though Serena knew they were dying to know. Instead they comforted her.
But as they day draws towards the end, Serena can't help but stare at the clock and take deep, deliberate breaths.
"Are you okay?" Clair whispers as Aiko drones at the front of the classroom.
Serena hesitates for just a moment, but then realizes the amount of care Clair has shown her today. Their friendship is new and budding. They've met only once before, but something has drawn them together. It's a feeling Serena thinks she's felt before but isn't sure. It's addicting with its warmth and security. If the two cousins could stick their neck out against their clan for her, she can reveal something back.
"We moved here because something bad happened on my first day of school at my old school," she murmurs back. "I'm scared it will happen again."
"We have five minutes left," Clair assures her.
"It happened with two minutes left."
Clair tilts her head, wondering just what happened in two minutes that got Serena kicked out of school and put here. "Is that why you've been so worried all day?"
"Yes," she nods in reply, watching the clock tick once more.
Unsure of a way to comfort her friend, Clair scoots her desk a bit closer and leans in. "Well, if anything happens, I'll be right here, okay?"
If anything happens, she'd be the first to fly across the room, Serena thinks to herself. However, the gesture is kind and Serena is grateful. For the last four minutes of class, Serena glances more at the clock and less at the notes on the board. The scars on her back itch as sweat rolls down her neck from her scarf, but she refuses to remove it. When the final bell rings, Serena relaxes in her chair and beams at Clair.
She made it through her first day of school, and she wasn't alone.
