| Chapter 8: ...Home... |
| Tanja sighed as she tossed herself down on her bed, laying face down for a while. Teren was a sweet man, and so was Dirk, just as Talia's stories had claimed, but Teren droned on and on for nearly two candlemarks about their classes and teachers and yearmates. She groaned as her aching legs began complaining again. And I feel and smell like something the cat dragged in. I didn't know it would take that long to get our classes and leave again. She pushed herself upright again and stood as she heard a timid tapping at her door. "It's Sheila," the familiar voice called out. "Do you want to wash up and get something to eat before you fall over dead?" Tanja walked to the door and opened it, nodding gently. "That would be nice." She then noticed Sophi standing behind Sheila. She side stepped beside Sheila and threw a bundle of cloth at Tanja, grinning from ear to ear. "Good! Now hold onto your Grays and let's go get washed up! I smell like Ezra." Sophi wrinkled her nose and blinked, her face flushing with embarrassment. Tanja assumed Ezra was giving her an earful. "Alright then, I probably smell the same. We wouldn't want people to edge away and pass out when we walk past." Tanja shut her door quietly and gestured for Sheila to lead the way. Tanja had already given up trying to memorize the halls, it was just a matter of time before she learned them all so why rush it? As they followed Sheila into the 'public' bathhouse, loud chattering and splashes were heard. Four other girls were sunk up to their shoulders in steaming water, making their figures seem misty. "--And over here are the towels," Sheila was showing Sophi around now, Tanja had already missed most of the tour so she'd just tag along with Sophi later on until she figured it all out. "Hey-la!" A girl called over from the streaming tub, waving an arm up over her head. Tanja raised her eyebrows and gave her a strange look before walking over to the side of the tub. The girls looked up to her, all other conversation stopped for now. Tanja suddenly wished she hadn't put that deep green streak in her hair, realizing how odd it must look. A girl with pale skin and light, wispy dirty blonde hair had called her over, immediately striking a conversation up about nothing really. Tanja answered her questions in a sort of monotone voice, not really interested in talking at this moment, especially to a strange girl in the middle of a bathhouse. "Making new friends already?" Sophi called out, walking up beside the gathering. "I feel shunned!" She set a hand to her chest and gasped, a horrid expression on her face. Tanja smiled and shook her head. "No, I was called over so I decided to make a bit of conversation while you were fussing over towels." "Oh really?" Sophi raised a brow, poorly. "And who would this oh-so-special li'l lady be?" She looked down into the tub, her eyes falling on each of the girls. "I believe I'm the one she's talking about," the blonde spoke up. "She was looking more than lost so I decided to ask her over for a bit of a chat." She shot off a charming smile. Sophi gave them her own sort of smile, making it polite but not her famously infectious grin. "And who might you be?" She prompted in a well hidden patronizing voice. "Chelsa," she answered, flipping a strand of hair over her shoulder. "And this is Sina, Tavan and Tam. "She gestured to the three other darker-haired figures beside her. They each nodded or gave a small wave in hello. Tanja nodded and Sophi gestured to herself. "Well, I'm Sophi and this is my partner-in-crime, Tanja." Tanja nodded again in greeting. "And I'm sorry to say that I smell like a Companion and old dirt so I'm off to wash, if you'd excuse me." She then excused herself. Tanja looked back to the four girls as one of them--Tam?--asked her another question, trying to strike up another conversation. By the end of the candlemark, Tanja had found out a number of things. The time period was around the time of Ancar's attacks, Elspeth hadn't left though so Falconsbane and Nyara weren't even known, yet. Tanja had found that these four were one of the better sources of information, known to be horrible gossips, which explained their urge to speak with a new Gray. She kept her mouth closed about her own past, saying little about where she was from, not even what they had told to Sheila. It was pretty obvious that if she had told them, it would have been all around the Collegium and back by tomorrow. This could be useful, though, if one wanted something to be known. Once changed into her Grays and washing all of the old dirt and horse-smell from her, she found them a bit less comfortable than her old clothing from Home. Then again, what did she expect? This wasn't even Earth, it was Gaia, things wouldn't be the same. So as Sophi, Sheila and herself walked to the mess hall for their dinner, it must've been only a couple candlemarks from midnight, but it was still humming with activity. The hall was still relatively empty, which she thanked the Goddess for. It was far too late to go through that whole being polite ordeal again. ::Tired?:: Sophi's own weary 'voice' called out to her. ::Very. Those girls in the bathhouse were too nosy for my tastes, especially when we don't have our story straight yet.:: She sighed and looked around at the food, and frowned. ::And aren't any of these people vegetarian?!:: She was getting far too frustrated. ::Everything here has a face!:: Sophi frowned and looked to Sheila, murmuring something softly to her. Sheila bit her lip and shrugged, vanishing into the back room. ::I asked her to ask the cook for anything without flesh in it.:: Tanja sighed and gave Sophi a sort of grateful look as she wandered off to pour herself something to drink. * * * Tanja had quite an ordeal with the cook, dodging carefully placed, almost-insults and receiving interesting glares, but dealing about as many awful looks. She had settled for a sort of odd pot-pie with vegetables and a thick butter sauce, raising a brow as the cook muttered under his breath. No matter now, though. She was back in her little room, clean, full and quite happy considering her stomach was being twisted around out of anxiety. But that word didn't really pin point the feeling, it wasn't really anxiety, more along the lines of apprehension, or maybe even excitement. It was all over tomorrow and what would happen. Whether the feeling was a good or bad one, she couldn't really tell. It was late, that was all that mattered, and she'd need a good night's rest to be able to drag her abused body up from her bed in the morning. She sighed and wearily clambered into bed, sinking gratefully down into the soft pillow as she closed her worn out eyes. As soon as she began to think she'd be able to ease her mind from the 'what ifs' of tomorrow, a loud thunderstorm broke outside, a flash of light and a short rumbling shook the window. Tanja groaned and pulled the sheets over her head, waiting for sleep to find her. Sophi sat up quietly as the night wore on. She took a moment to change into a sort of nightclothing left for her, nibbling on an even stranger sweet fruit she picked up in the kitchen while arguing with the cook over that pie for Tanja. The fruit was almost like a small mango, fruity in a sort of dulled down waxy taste, but surprisingly sweet in that way. Also it had a sort of pealing on it like a plum, dark in color and bitter to chew on, but it offset the sweet mango taste quite nicely, so she thought at least. A saddle bag, faintly resembling her own was propped up against her bed, neatly cleaned and polished up. It was hardly recognizable to her or anyone else for that matter, she imagined, but when she leaned over and opened it, all her old clothing and supplies were in it. Near the bottom she picked up two copper coins and her brush from Home. The plastic bristles had long ago lost most of their gray caps meant to keep from scratching the scalp, the silver paint on the handle was coming off in flecks of silver onto her hands each time she used it as well, but it hardly mattered to her. It was Home. A carefully made wooden chair was propped up against the wall, she pushed it over to the window with her foot as she ran the well worn brush through her hair once. She grimaced as she sat, running the brush through a knotted section of the mop on her head she called her hair. It was getting fairly long now, she'd always kept it long though. Whether that was out of like or habit didn't really matter, she didn't spend time thinking about her appearance, not when there could be other things to think of, like writing or where she could get her hands on a certain song she wanted. Or sleeping, sleep time was a lovely time for her, her only real escape from the insanity in her household, and even then it was interrupted mostly. Her siblings were always fighting, or her father wanted her to help him with something, or talk at her about something. That was the thing, her father never talked to her, but at her. Eventually you learned to just smile and nod until he stopped or got bored, and both options ended in him edging out the door uncertainly. He seemed to think that time spent sleeping could always be spent in a better way, even if there was nothing to do but sleep. She was always more of a night person anyway, not like she wouldn't have chosen to be a morning person, if she had the choice. Be able to work better hours and be able to get up without being in a poor mood, she envied her younger sister, who was most definitely an early riser. Whinny, another person from Home to think about. The corners of her mouth twitched downward a bit as she slowly combed her hair, thinking about her younger sister now. The Social Butterfly, The Artist, The Baby, The go-getter, there were a lot of nicknames for her, and they were all true. She was truly a gem to her parents, or so it seemed to Sophi at least. Her and her brother, Nat, were usually looked down on or ignored while Whinny was everyone's pride. She wished she could make them happy at times, but not like that, not the way Whinny did. Whinny was always easy to anger, but just as quick to forgive. She was artistic, a social butterfly, motivated and always cheery and sweet to everyone. It made Sophi sick to think about being that way. While Whinny was good humored and sweet as honey, Sophi was dry humored, goofy, hyper energetic at times and then sullen and sulking the next. She wanted to be left alone a lot, alone to think or write, whichever or both. She was quick witted and had a sharp tongue, which she never really learned how to use correctly. The only thing her and her sister had in common was their love to draw, and the only thing that actually showed they were of the same blood was their hair. Sophi looked at her reflection in the window, looking at her hair. We always had the same hair color, cut and style. Very long and straight, dull brown, and parted to the side. No bangs to speak of either. A bolt of lightning lit up the sky and made her hair shine. She took notice now that whatever they gave her for shampoo had given her usually dull and plain hair a slight shine. A smile flickered across her lips briefly as a quick flash of lightning lit up the sky once again. Maybe it was time for a change of style, this was a new place, a new time, a new life. Perhaps along with that her hair that she'd had since the beginning of her life should change with it. She'd almost cut it several times before, but each time she somehow talked herself out of it, saying that it was what she was known for. "The chick with the long hair", that's how she was known a lot as. Well, that and "The chick who looks like she's 12". She did look extremely young, who would've guessed that she was older than Tanja, if only by a few weeks. It was silly to think about things like this right now though, it was just making her listless and sullen about home and the past, like the past always had. The impression most people had of her was this bundle of energy that never worried or fretted about anything, the very opposite was true, she was just an extraordinary actress around people. Only two people had ever been able to look through her act and see her, though, and both of them were Home. Jordon...he would've loved it here. Such wonderful night sky, such lovely sunsets, such beautiful storms. She frowned and shook her head. This was exactly why she didn't want to think about the past, now she had upset herself. "Such a beautiful night," she murmured to nobody, wishing suddenly that she had someone to watch the storm with. Suddenly she realized that she would never see any of them again, most likely. What a horrible thought, but a realistic one at that. She ran the brush through the length of her hair again, watching another silver needle steak across the deep blue sky, it's tail flying behind it like silver thread made of light. I can hardly wait for the real storms to come, if these are normal, I wonder what magickal storms are like. Bound to be spectacular. She thought quietly for a moment or two about all the storms she's watched and all the people she watched them with. All the people, she always said that as soon as she got old enough she would leave this place behind and start over, somewhere where nobody would know her. It came sooner than she thought, and now she missed them. Well, not all of them, she disliked most people at her school, they were all so pretentious, so...So stupid. But she missed certain people, and all their little quirks. A small smile crawled onto her lips as she thought them over. Kari and her obsession with that Pop Band, her silly fanfictions about them. Such a sweet and wholesome girl, what will she do now that I'm not there to help her fight off all the jerks and encourage her? She'll have her sisters I suppose. Those two don't help her much though. I thought multiple birth children like the triplets were supposed to be close, but I guess I was wrong. What about Meegan, I always tried to listen to her when she had problems with her dad or with her current boyfriend, but she has other friends she can talk to, I'd suppose. She was so much fun to be around, a party girl through and through. Her eyes gazed through the window and the storm as she hit a dry spot, realizing that not that many people really relied on her, it didn't matter that greatly if she was there or not. Meegan had other people, perhaps it was best that Kari learn to stand up for herself and everyone else had someone, even Tanja had someone if she was gone and Tanja was still at Home. But Derek and Jordon, they are the only two that would really truly care. Derek, her boyfriend of nearly 3 years was back at Home. He would miss her, she knew it, and worried about it. What would he do now that she was gone?? And Jordon! Her closest and dearest friend in the entire world, and one of the only people who had ever seen through her act. To be honest he was the only, Derek had an unfair advantage to talking with her through e-mail and such for about 2 years beforehand. Jordon had to break through her actions and her entire full blown public act in school. What was this going to do to him now that she was gone? They had fought before, and he became depressed and withdrawn as it was, as did she. Now she was completely gone, without a trace. Perhaps she was being silly, she nodded to herself and laid her brush down in her lap, tying her hair back with a quick braid. No point in getting Homesick now, Stefen had said that it was taken care of, and she had no reason not to think that. They were at Home and she was here, that was all there was to it. "That doesn't mean I have to like it, though," she frowned bitterly and turned from the window, picking the brush from her lap and tossing it onto a table. She stared blankly at the wall a moment, then withdrew a notebook, just a small pad she had found earlier, and began to write. Just in case, just in case, she told herself. Just in case the Companions ever found her and Tanja out, she was not going to lose all she held dear for the past 17 years simply because of logical reasoning. |
