"So, you really think that someone was in your room last night?" Jasmine
asked worriedly as she slipped her bag's strap over her shoulder. Blaze
nodded, pushing her locker shut and added, "Yea...It was weird, all my
clocks...were...flipped ovah"
A girl with light blonde hair stopped immediately when she heard that comment and turned, as in thought, or deep concentration.
"Well, that's rather odd..." Jasmine admitted while nodding her head thoughtfully and placed her hand on Blaze's shoulder in a concerned way. She furrowed her brow, trying to remember if she accidentally knocked one of Blaze's clocks over.
A girl with dark hair and bright green eyes quickly joined the blonde girl and stared hard at the other two girls who stood on the opposite side of the hall. "Get anything...?" The blonde asked worriedly and clutched her books tighter to her chest. "Nothing...yet..." the green-eyed girl admitted and clenched her fist that held a cello case, nearly cracking its hard surface. "Serena, concentrate, she said her clocks were turned around, that only means that there must have been followers in her room." The blonde informed in a concerned motherly voice. Serena clicked the metal barbell on her tongue and probed the mind of the Black girl again, plunging deeper into the girl's inner thoughts.
Blaze suddenly felt as if cold hands were caressing her brain tissue, and shook her head rapidly, trying to rid her head of the unpleasant sensation. Her sudden movement must have startled Jasmine, who backed away a bit with her eyes wide. As if cold barriers were broken, she felt as if her temples had exploded and jerked away from Jasmines face, rubbing her forehead with a sweaty palm. Jasmine gasped and placed both hands on Blaze's shoulders to steady the swooning girl.
"Vanessa, I think...I got...something..." Serena announced and hastily retreated from the inner depths of the black girl's mind, rubbing her own temples. She watched as the girl, whose name was Blaze, stood firmly from her slouched position and scan the hallways as if evil itself was lurking nearby. Serena wondered if she should hack into the other girl's mind, but she seemed to ditsy and vulnerable, not the type for a daughter of the moon.
"Damn," Blaze cursed and tapped the side of her head as if she was trying to knock water out of her ear, "Mus' have gotten a brief migraine or somethin'..." Jasmine nodded, full of understanding, and made a quick gesture with her head that they should leave. Blaze nodded and shut her locker door. The two walked out of the building as if nothing happened, but in their minds, they were full of cluttered thoughts, whirling around about a million miles per hour.
"'Ey, Jay, I got company ovah, hope you don't mind!" Blaze screamed between cupped hands and jumped onto her Futon (a gift from her deceased grandmother) Jasmine took a seat next to Blaze and leafed through her book bag to find the project the two had been assigned in Drama Class. Blaze listened for a bit to hear her brother's curt response, but there was no reply. She figured that he must still be trapped in college, and shrugged as she heard Jasmine explain the project. "Say's here," She began, "You need to pick out five random songs..." Blaze nodded in deep thought, trying to pull out the weirdest songs she knew. "Moja Gra! Polish Rap, Baby! That's random" She laughed clutching her gut and wrote down the title of the song on a slot on the paper that read "Number one"
Jasmine chewed the top of her pen cap and scanned the room, "Oh you are good, um, let's have She Works Hard for the Money." Before Blaze could agree, the title of the song was written down in neat cursive on slot number two. As time passed, their list of songs read as, "Moja Gra, She Works Hard For the Money, I feel pretty, Take it off, and Shoop Prodigy." The two girls were hysterical over the list, and then flipped the page of their packet to find out why they had to choose five random songs. Their laughs died down when the directions called for them to make a musical from those songs and they looked back at each other, thinking that they should change a few songs. "I highly doubt anyone could rap in Polish, and it translates to be very suggestive..." Blaze gulped.
Jasmine waved her hand around as in dismissal and chuckled, "What they don't know can't hurt them..." Blaze nodded and grinned evilly, thinking of the wonders it would be if their play was selected to be preformed in front of the school. Each group in their class had the same assignment, and the teacher would select the best work to be preformed to the entire school on an Assembly Day. Jasmine catapulted from the Futon to the computer and switched it on to begin their work.
By the time they finished their report, Romero and Shioban Peters, Blaze's mother and father, stumbled through the door with both their arms stocked with papers from their work. Both of them were reporters for the newspaper, and usually worked late when there was a new murder case or high- speed chase that took place that day, and by the looks of it, they just dealt with a different paparazzi gold mine. Jay had also come home late because his college professor held him back for an extra hour to go over quantum physics. The sun slowly set and the moon began to rise by the time Jasmine retired to her home after a hearty dinner with the Peters Family.
"I'll walk you home, Jasmine..." Blaze began to offer, but Jasmine stuck her hand up in the air just in front of Blaze's smooth rounded nose and announced, "Remember the last time you walked me, you were attacked by someone?" Blaze bit her rounded lip and chewed, remembering the feel of cold lips pressed against her and the chill of a hand caressing her cheek. "Yes," then the memory of setting the pervert on fire fueled her reasons to escort Jasmine home, "but also, who has the f-i-r-e-p-o-w-e-r-s here?" Jasmine sighed and nodded, knowing full well that a body guard with control over fire was better than walking the streets of Los Angeles alone.
"Salve!" Blaze bid farewell in Latin and walked away from Jasmine's ten story apartment that was painted a horrible yellow. The paint was a horrible brand anyway because it was peeling off to the side, showing the graffiti that was on the walls before that abandoned building became a home to many families.
Blaze kicked an empty can to the side of the sidewalk and continued home with her hands neatly tucked into her pockets and her head hanging low as if she was a mourner in a line to view the deceased. In her mind, she hummed the tune to "I feel pretty" because it was the damn most annoying song in the world, and the fact that it was stuck in her hand. The path ahead suddenly became abnormally dark and she looked up to see a streetlight fighting to keep its bulb burning. The other streetlights were doing the same thing, as if they were in a chorus line. The air grew static and prickled the raven strands on the back of Blaze's neck. "Oh...frig...." She choked out and began to quicken and lengthen her striding walk. The lights then completely blanked out, and the static level rose, creating little sparks in the air. Blaze pretended to take out a lighter and hold it up. She lit the ends of her fingertips to scan the area around her, just in case if anyone was watching.
She heard the clacking of heels behind her. Blaze, still pretending to hold a lighter, "dropped it" by snuffing out her own flames, and tore down the sidewalk at full speed. Her lean and long limbs that she inherited from her mother proved useful, because the pursuer fell further behind and stopped. "Why are these Mo' Fo's ovah me alluva sudden?" She hissed in between clenched teeth, and stumbled over a fallen trashcan. "Shit" she cursed and kicked at the can angrily as soon as she was on her feet again. Biting her lip, she made up her mind, whoever was following her just seriously pissed her off, and was going to pay. As she backed away, she heard the footsteps again, this time; there was more than one set, perhaps four.
Blaze shrank from her spot and backed away a few seconds. "AWRIGHT, YOUS ABOUT TO DIE!" she bellowed and let a stream of fire slice through the air at the pack of people who were approaching her. When she heard the stumbling of feet, she turned and fled the area with her arms pumping by her sides. She thought angrily that she should have joined track this semester because she probably would have been faster. Her father's saying, "Do now, whine later" quickly followed the thought. Blaze nodded, and blindly ran off of the sidewalk and into an alleyway. She lit her fingertip and searched for a fire escape frantically. She found one dangling about two feet above her head and jumped. She contracted her abs to swing her feet over her head, and with the propelling motion, flipped like she was on the bars that those fancy gymnasts did at the Olympics. She steadied herself on the bottom step and climbed madly up the flight of stairs until she found herself standing on a narrow roof of another apartment building.
Blaze clenched her fists and spat at the corner of her mouth in anguish. She looked back up at the moon pleadingly; "If someone is out there..." she began before she heard someone call her name. She turned towards that voice with a fiery fist. She heard her name be repeated as she walked slowly towards the edge of the building. Casually peering down the ledge, she saw a familiar face sticking his head out of a window with a bewildered expression. "Miles!" she exclaimed, and tried to restrain herself from jumping off the ledge to greet him.
"You crazy chick, what are you doing up there?" He scolded, casting a sideways glance up at Blaze who was still peering over the rooftop as if she was Batman. He stuck his head back in from the window and remerged on his balcony. He was just in a set of boxers and his hair was all frizzed, the sight made Blaze blush instantly and turn away. "OOH, I AM SO JEALOUS, JASMINE!" she screamed in the back of her mind, and turned back towards Miles, recollecting herself.
Miles had an unusually calm smile on his face, and asked again with a patient tone, "Can you please tell me why you are on our apartment roof?" Blaze suddenly became aware of her surroundings and why she was up there. She quickly turned and saw someone standing in the shadows about twenty feet from her. "Someone is up here with me...!" she cried out, and paused, thinking how utterly childish she just sounded. "I mean, someone was chasing me...and NOW HE'S UP ON THE ROOF!"
Miles' face remained neutral, as if he was replaying the explanation in his head. Blaze looked over her shoulder again, and saw that the figure vanished. She sighed and looked back down, to see Miles missing. She gave a small gasp and whipped around again to see if the figure was back, which it wasn't. She plunged from her spot, and landed painfully on Miles' balcony, which was about eight feet from where she was standing, (he lives on the top floor) She then tried to open the sliding balcony doors but found them locked. She pounded on them, "MILES!" she called over, assuming that whoever was following her kidnapped him. "God, Jasmine's gunna kill me if she finds out I got her boyfriend kidnapped!" she panicked, and looked around her.
"Okay, I went up here to get you, now how did you get on my balcony?" Miles called from over her head. Blaze wanted to jump from her spot and hug him, but restrained herself again from doing such an act. Miles ordered, "Okay, stay there, I am coming to get you, no more balcony hopping or nothing'" He then vanished from the roof.
Blaze held a sigh of relief and leaned against the balcony's fence, wondering how stupid and strange she must seem to him now. A minute passed, and Miles had not returned. Blaze nibbled the bottom of her lip, wondering what was taking Miles so long. Another few passed before her nerves started dancing frantically around her skin. She was sweating before she heard the door rattle and Miles stood before her, with a shirt on. "I forgot that I was just in boxers and I threw on one of my shirts before coming out to get you..." he explained quickly, and peered over Blaze's shoulder, before ushering inside and shut the door firmly behind him.
"You had someone chasing you...now...right?" Miles repeated and handed Blaze a mug of tea. His eyes seemed hollow in the dimmed light, hollow in almost trance-like. Blaze nodded and gorged herself, if that was even possible with liquids, and placed the mug on the table. Miles smiled, and refilled her cup until Blaze settled down enough to explain her whole story. Miles nodded in all the right places, and kept perfect eye contact. Blaze stopped for a minute, were his hazel eyes swirling, or were hers. Miles looked up abruptly and announced frantically in a higher voice, "Oh man, you're exhausted...want to stay here the night, or do you want me to walk you home?"
Blaze rubbed her eyes, and shook her head, "What will Jasmine say if I stay here the night, or if she catches you walkin' me home?" Miles sighed, "I think she will understand the circumstances..."
She nodded and stood to make her way to the door. "I'll walk my way home..." she moaned groggily and swung the apartment door open, to be greeted by a strong breeze on the other side of the door. She yawned and cast a half- opened eye in Mile's direction. He stood frozen, as if he saw a ghost. Blaze waved cheerfully and walked forward, only to bump into a firm chest. "Goddess...we finally meet..." she heard someone snicker over her before she felt a pressure behind her neck and completely blacked out.
A girl with light blonde hair stopped immediately when she heard that comment and turned, as in thought, or deep concentration.
"Well, that's rather odd..." Jasmine admitted while nodding her head thoughtfully and placed her hand on Blaze's shoulder in a concerned way. She furrowed her brow, trying to remember if she accidentally knocked one of Blaze's clocks over.
A girl with dark hair and bright green eyes quickly joined the blonde girl and stared hard at the other two girls who stood on the opposite side of the hall. "Get anything...?" The blonde asked worriedly and clutched her books tighter to her chest. "Nothing...yet..." the green-eyed girl admitted and clenched her fist that held a cello case, nearly cracking its hard surface. "Serena, concentrate, she said her clocks were turned around, that only means that there must have been followers in her room." The blonde informed in a concerned motherly voice. Serena clicked the metal barbell on her tongue and probed the mind of the Black girl again, plunging deeper into the girl's inner thoughts.
Blaze suddenly felt as if cold hands were caressing her brain tissue, and shook her head rapidly, trying to rid her head of the unpleasant sensation. Her sudden movement must have startled Jasmine, who backed away a bit with her eyes wide. As if cold barriers were broken, she felt as if her temples had exploded and jerked away from Jasmines face, rubbing her forehead with a sweaty palm. Jasmine gasped and placed both hands on Blaze's shoulders to steady the swooning girl.
"Vanessa, I think...I got...something..." Serena announced and hastily retreated from the inner depths of the black girl's mind, rubbing her own temples. She watched as the girl, whose name was Blaze, stood firmly from her slouched position and scan the hallways as if evil itself was lurking nearby. Serena wondered if she should hack into the other girl's mind, but she seemed to ditsy and vulnerable, not the type for a daughter of the moon.
"Damn," Blaze cursed and tapped the side of her head as if she was trying to knock water out of her ear, "Mus' have gotten a brief migraine or somethin'..." Jasmine nodded, full of understanding, and made a quick gesture with her head that they should leave. Blaze nodded and shut her locker door. The two walked out of the building as if nothing happened, but in their minds, they were full of cluttered thoughts, whirling around about a million miles per hour.
"'Ey, Jay, I got company ovah, hope you don't mind!" Blaze screamed between cupped hands and jumped onto her Futon (a gift from her deceased grandmother) Jasmine took a seat next to Blaze and leafed through her book bag to find the project the two had been assigned in Drama Class. Blaze listened for a bit to hear her brother's curt response, but there was no reply. She figured that he must still be trapped in college, and shrugged as she heard Jasmine explain the project. "Say's here," She began, "You need to pick out five random songs..." Blaze nodded in deep thought, trying to pull out the weirdest songs she knew. "Moja Gra! Polish Rap, Baby! That's random" She laughed clutching her gut and wrote down the title of the song on a slot on the paper that read "Number one"
Jasmine chewed the top of her pen cap and scanned the room, "Oh you are good, um, let's have She Works Hard for the Money." Before Blaze could agree, the title of the song was written down in neat cursive on slot number two. As time passed, their list of songs read as, "Moja Gra, She Works Hard For the Money, I feel pretty, Take it off, and Shoop Prodigy." The two girls were hysterical over the list, and then flipped the page of their packet to find out why they had to choose five random songs. Their laughs died down when the directions called for them to make a musical from those songs and they looked back at each other, thinking that they should change a few songs. "I highly doubt anyone could rap in Polish, and it translates to be very suggestive..." Blaze gulped.
Jasmine waved her hand around as in dismissal and chuckled, "What they don't know can't hurt them..." Blaze nodded and grinned evilly, thinking of the wonders it would be if their play was selected to be preformed in front of the school. Each group in their class had the same assignment, and the teacher would select the best work to be preformed to the entire school on an Assembly Day. Jasmine catapulted from the Futon to the computer and switched it on to begin their work.
By the time they finished their report, Romero and Shioban Peters, Blaze's mother and father, stumbled through the door with both their arms stocked with papers from their work. Both of them were reporters for the newspaper, and usually worked late when there was a new murder case or high- speed chase that took place that day, and by the looks of it, they just dealt with a different paparazzi gold mine. Jay had also come home late because his college professor held him back for an extra hour to go over quantum physics. The sun slowly set and the moon began to rise by the time Jasmine retired to her home after a hearty dinner with the Peters Family.
"I'll walk you home, Jasmine..." Blaze began to offer, but Jasmine stuck her hand up in the air just in front of Blaze's smooth rounded nose and announced, "Remember the last time you walked me, you were attacked by someone?" Blaze bit her rounded lip and chewed, remembering the feel of cold lips pressed against her and the chill of a hand caressing her cheek. "Yes," then the memory of setting the pervert on fire fueled her reasons to escort Jasmine home, "but also, who has the f-i-r-e-p-o-w-e-r-s here?" Jasmine sighed and nodded, knowing full well that a body guard with control over fire was better than walking the streets of Los Angeles alone.
"Salve!" Blaze bid farewell in Latin and walked away from Jasmine's ten story apartment that was painted a horrible yellow. The paint was a horrible brand anyway because it was peeling off to the side, showing the graffiti that was on the walls before that abandoned building became a home to many families.
Blaze kicked an empty can to the side of the sidewalk and continued home with her hands neatly tucked into her pockets and her head hanging low as if she was a mourner in a line to view the deceased. In her mind, she hummed the tune to "I feel pretty" because it was the damn most annoying song in the world, and the fact that it was stuck in her hand. The path ahead suddenly became abnormally dark and she looked up to see a streetlight fighting to keep its bulb burning. The other streetlights were doing the same thing, as if they were in a chorus line. The air grew static and prickled the raven strands on the back of Blaze's neck. "Oh...frig...." She choked out and began to quicken and lengthen her striding walk. The lights then completely blanked out, and the static level rose, creating little sparks in the air. Blaze pretended to take out a lighter and hold it up. She lit the ends of her fingertips to scan the area around her, just in case if anyone was watching.
She heard the clacking of heels behind her. Blaze, still pretending to hold a lighter, "dropped it" by snuffing out her own flames, and tore down the sidewalk at full speed. Her lean and long limbs that she inherited from her mother proved useful, because the pursuer fell further behind and stopped. "Why are these Mo' Fo's ovah me alluva sudden?" She hissed in between clenched teeth, and stumbled over a fallen trashcan. "Shit" she cursed and kicked at the can angrily as soon as she was on her feet again. Biting her lip, she made up her mind, whoever was following her just seriously pissed her off, and was going to pay. As she backed away, she heard the footsteps again, this time; there was more than one set, perhaps four.
Blaze shrank from her spot and backed away a few seconds. "AWRIGHT, YOUS ABOUT TO DIE!" she bellowed and let a stream of fire slice through the air at the pack of people who were approaching her. When she heard the stumbling of feet, she turned and fled the area with her arms pumping by her sides. She thought angrily that she should have joined track this semester because she probably would have been faster. Her father's saying, "Do now, whine later" quickly followed the thought. Blaze nodded, and blindly ran off of the sidewalk and into an alleyway. She lit her fingertip and searched for a fire escape frantically. She found one dangling about two feet above her head and jumped. She contracted her abs to swing her feet over her head, and with the propelling motion, flipped like she was on the bars that those fancy gymnasts did at the Olympics. She steadied herself on the bottom step and climbed madly up the flight of stairs until she found herself standing on a narrow roof of another apartment building.
Blaze clenched her fists and spat at the corner of her mouth in anguish. She looked back up at the moon pleadingly; "If someone is out there..." she began before she heard someone call her name. She turned towards that voice with a fiery fist. She heard her name be repeated as she walked slowly towards the edge of the building. Casually peering down the ledge, she saw a familiar face sticking his head out of a window with a bewildered expression. "Miles!" she exclaimed, and tried to restrain herself from jumping off the ledge to greet him.
"You crazy chick, what are you doing up there?" He scolded, casting a sideways glance up at Blaze who was still peering over the rooftop as if she was Batman. He stuck his head back in from the window and remerged on his balcony. He was just in a set of boxers and his hair was all frizzed, the sight made Blaze blush instantly and turn away. "OOH, I AM SO JEALOUS, JASMINE!" she screamed in the back of her mind, and turned back towards Miles, recollecting herself.
Miles had an unusually calm smile on his face, and asked again with a patient tone, "Can you please tell me why you are on our apartment roof?" Blaze suddenly became aware of her surroundings and why she was up there. She quickly turned and saw someone standing in the shadows about twenty feet from her. "Someone is up here with me...!" she cried out, and paused, thinking how utterly childish she just sounded. "I mean, someone was chasing me...and NOW HE'S UP ON THE ROOF!"
Miles' face remained neutral, as if he was replaying the explanation in his head. Blaze looked over her shoulder again, and saw that the figure vanished. She sighed and looked back down, to see Miles missing. She gave a small gasp and whipped around again to see if the figure was back, which it wasn't. She plunged from her spot, and landed painfully on Miles' balcony, which was about eight feet from where she was standing, (he lives on the top floor) She then tried to open the sliding balcony doors but found them locked. She pounded on them, "MILES!" she called over, assuming that whoever was following her kidnapped him. "God, Jasmine's gunna kill me if she finds out I got her boyfriend kidnapped!" she panicked, and looked around her.
"Okay, I went up here to get you, now how did you get on my balcony?" Miles called from over her head. Blaze wanted to jump from her spot and hug him, but restrained herself again from doing such an act. Miles ordered, "Okay, stay there, I am coming to get you, no more balcony hopping or nothing'" He then vanished from the roof.
Blaze held a sigh of relief and leaned against the balcony's fence, wondering how stupid and strange she must seem to him now. A minute passed, and Miles had not returned. Blaze nibbled the bottom of her lip, wondering what was taking Miles so long. Another few passed before her nerves started dancing frantically around her skin. She was sweating before she heard the door rattle and Miles stood before her, with a shirt on. "I forgot that I was just in boxers and I threw on one of my shirts before coming out to get you..." he explained quickly, and peered over Blaze's shoulder, before ushering inside and shut the door firmly behind him.
"You had someone chasing you...now...right?" Miles repeated and handed Blaze a mug of tea. His eyes seemed hollow in the dimmed light, hollow in almost trance-like. Blaze nodded and gorged herself, if that was even possible with liquids, and placed the mug on the table. Miles smiled, and refilled her cup until Blaze settled down enough to explain her whole story. Miles nodded in all the right places, and kept perfect eye contact. Blaze stopped for a minute, were his hazel eyes swirling, or were hers. Miles looked up abruptly and announced frantically in a higher voice, "Oh man, you're exhausted...want to stay here the night, or do you want me to walk you home?"
Blaze rubbed her eyes, and shook her head, "What will Jasmine say if I stay here the night, or if she catches you walkin' me home?" Miles sighed, "I think she will understand the circumstances..."
She nodded and stood to make her way to the door. "I'll walk my way home..." she moaned groggily and swung the apartment door open, to be greeted by a strong breeze on the other side of the door. She yawned and cast a half- opened eye in Mile's direction. He stood frozen, as if he saw a ghost. Blaze waved cheerfully and walked forward, only to bump into a firm chest. "Goddess...we finally meet..." she heard someone snicker over her before she felt a pressure behind her neck and completely blacked out.