Chapter 32: Reality Check.

When Skyla and her two students returned to the Academy they found that Camille, Jade and Slam were still in the kitchen. Jade looked up and smiled at them.

"Is everything okay?" She queried as Angelica sank down next to her and stole the last dregs of her second cup of hot chocolate.

Skyla nodded as she looked around the kitchen.

"We only told them that everything is as it should be." She said distracted. "I'll go back tomorrow to make the official statement. The people are pretty shaken up and rumors are circling like wild-fire." She rubbed her brow. "I don't want mass panic as this stage. Where's Joanie?"

Slam shrugged. "I think she went to her room." He said. "She left about ten minutes ago. No more than that."
Jade smiled slightly. "I think she's exhausted." She pointed out. "I mean, we woke her up at seven."

Skyla smiled as she rested her tired body against the table.

"I don't think any of us expected this for Christmas." She said and shivered. "Who left the back door open?"
Breeze moved away from his place next to Angelica and crossed the room to close the door.

Jade watched him before she turned to Skyla. Her face turned serious.

"What are you going to do about Joanie?" She inquired. "I mean she can't..."

"Dame Skyla." Breeze interrupted her. "Sorry Jade... Come here quickly."
Her immediately reaction was one of complete panic as Skyla jumped up to reach the door. The initial surge of adrenaline quickly disappeared as she saw what Breeze pointed at.

The back door of the kitchen opened up on a small private ground not usually used by the students, as it was the 'entrance' to Dame Skyla's more personal living area. There was a large old pine tree and just beyond it a small path that led to Skyla's cottage.

Motioning for Breeze to say by the door. Skyla took an old coat from behind the door, slipped her hands into her sleeves and approached the bench underneath the tree.

"Joanie-Ellen, what are you doing?"
The girl startled up and blinked at her.
She sniffed and gave the woman a slight smile before she looked at her hands and sat back.

"Getting a reality check." She said softly and gave Skyla a sideways look, her voice shaking with cold shivers.
Skyla blinked.

"Well, can't you get it inside?" She queried. "It's freezing out here."
Joanie smiled dolefully and shook her head.

"Out here is the reality check." She pointed out in the same, amused distracted tone. "In there is... Not real."
Skyla frowned slight and sat down. "Okay." She intoned quietly. "Care to tell me what that means?"
Joanie turned to smile at her again. There was a sad, clear light in her eyes that belied wisdom beyond her years.

"I've been lying to you." She stated in a sure, slow tone. "I have been, since the moment I met you. I don't think I told you a single truth." She looked up and tucked her legs in underneath her. "I don't have any parents. I don't have a family. I don't have a home. I don't have a last name and I don't even have a decent education. I stopped going to school when I was in Grade three or four. I can't really remember." She sniffed. "It was just before I ran away the first time anyway so that's... Long ago. The only thing I do have is an attitude problem and a knack for getting into more trouble than I can usually handle." She chuckled bitterly at some private joke. "The day we met I was running away from a youth gang because I had painted over their wall – for another gang. They have these little childish 'wars' on each other. I don't normally bother with them but, things haven't been going well and I needed the money. That's the only reason I'll do something... If there's something in stow for me. You understand?"

Skyla nodded but didn't say anything. She sensed that Joanie wasn't finished.
The girl sniffed and shifted so that she could kick the snow.

"This is what's waiting for me." She said bitterly. "Whether I leave tomorrow, or whether I run after Social comes. There's no warm world for me."

Skyla reached out to touch her but hesitated.

"You don't have to run Joanie." She said quietly.
The girl's eyes narrowed slightly as she shook her head. "I always run." She said. "I'm not going to go back to foster care. Anyway, I've run away so many times I doubt whether they'll give me that "chance" again. There's a 'government orphanage' stamp in my file for sure."

The woman raised an eyebrow and shifted so that her arms could be underneath the coat. "Aren't you underestimating yourself and what they know of you a bit?"

Joanie shook her head. "Nah, I've read my file... You're not a real foster case if you haven't done it at least twice." The latter was said with a wicked grin before she sobered up. "And, I know myself Dame Skyla. I... Didn't help you for their sake. Nor would I have done what you did."

She had lost her somewhere. "What do you mean?" Dame Skyla asked puzzled.

Joanie sniffed and tucked her legs back underneath her body.

"Give the stone to him for my safety." She explained, now almost in a timid voice. "I mean, I'm not worth that. You could have..."
She trailed off as she sensed that Skyla wanted to say something.

The woman smiled at her, for a moment a queen instead of a teacher.

"I couldn't have done anything but that." She said softly and looked out to the forest. "Someone once told me that..." She hesitated and smiled slightly. "That you should be willing to sacrifice anything for your kingdom, your people and you throne. Anything, except another's life. You as ruler must be able to sacrifice anything, but you can't expect of someone else to sacrifice something for you." She smiled at the kid. "And, after what you did for me, how could I do that to you?"
A turmoil of emotions flickered over the girl's face.

"But, after how I treated you..." She began slowly. "I mean I... Didn't deserve it."

The woman's musical laugh startled the young girl.

"It's not about that Joanie-Ellen." She said with a small smile. "You're here for a reality check? Well, let me give you one." She stood up gracefully and draped the coat over Joanie's small shivering body. She went down on one knee before the startled child and tucked the corners around her for warmth.

"I saved you for more reasons than just honoring a lesson my husband had taught me years ago. I saved you because I would never have forgiven myself if he had hurt you more than he already did." She reached up to gently touch the bruise on the side of Joanie's face. The girl flinched but didn't draw away. "You are right when you say you didn't deserve it Joanie-Ellen. I don't think you deserved your life, your past and the future you think that's in store for you. You are special. You have a great talent for music and rhythm. You are smart, nice... When it suites you anyway and, above all you braver than I think anyone will ever you credit for."

Joanie was shaking underneath her touch but not because of the cold. "That's not true." She tried to tell the woman but Skyla hushed her.

"It is." She said sincerely. "And if I have to spend the rest of my life trying to make you see it..." She smiled and waited for Joanie to catch the hint.
The bewildered look in her eyes told Skyla that she hadn't missed the hidden suggestion. The young girl sat very still as she stared at the woman.

"They won't let you." She whispered, almost terrified. "You're not..."
The woman shook her head with a laugh. "Then I will just have to make them." She said. "If that is what you want." She sobered up a bit and took her hand from the girl's cheek so that she could touch her hands.

"Joanie, I won't try if you don't want me to. I realize that you've had more than your share of broken homes, or broken promises. I won't even offer you a family if that's not what you want. You can just stay here as a student. Talent like yours, it shouldn't be out on the street. Nor should your spirit."

The girl was staring at her, breathing deeply.

"Don't let me get my hopes up." She begged. "They won't let you adopt me. I know the criteria. The woman who wanted to teach me to play the piano? She did exist. She was the mother of one of my foster mothers. She took me over weekends sometimes when the boys got too much for the woman to handle and I got in the way. She wanted to take me but..."

Skyla smiled and squeezed her hands. "Then I'll just hide you in the wingdom until they let me adopt you." She said with a smile but Joanie could see that she was serious.

Shivering the girl slowly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the woman's neck. A tearful whisper drifted to her ear.

"Then I want my own pair of wings for I never want to fall again."

AN: To ponywalker (and Gem as well) – Hmm... Maybe I should start reading the fine print.... No, actually – I am aware of the rule. I do the long AN thing a lot but I delete them after I'm sure everybody has read them This way I save space in the long run. I'm hoping that The Powers That Be turns a blind eye. (They haven't complained yet...) (LITTLE REMINDER TO TPTB: I DO DELETE THESE! Oh great and mighty ones...) But, I have taken it into considerations that maybe this on the sideline conversation has become too conspicuous. As we are all account holders I think we should be careful and scale it down a tad.

Sigh.

If you want to discuss anything further about cartoons – horses – or just life in general you two can feel free to e-mail me okay? Just – don't send any illegal stuff (pron, viruses, weed... -Okay, maybe that-, to my box.) And, I solemnly swear not to do anything nasty with your emails.

I don't have the time for it! :P