3-3: Without Eyes
Of course Sissy has to be the first one to get hurt. It's inevitable, especially after the horrible thing she just did to my alter-ego! So if there are any Sissy-sympathizers out there, I have one thing to say to you: HA!
(((-3-)))
Sissy snickered. At least her cousin's reputation was ruined (if she ever had one) and Ulrich wouldn't even think about being alone with Janika again. Ah, life was good!
With a swagger, she bounced into the teacher's lounge and went up to the Xerox machine. If only Ulrich had read the paper he would have gone looking for someone to lean on and she had intended to be right there with a waiting shoulder, but—no!—he just stomped off!
She pulled Janika's bookbag out from behind the copier. Sissy had never imagined her cousin would have so much to complain about. It was like a goldmine for blackmail just waiting to happen!
All she needed now was a little something extra to spice up the flavor of her rumor-pastry. Ah, yes. This humiliating confession would be the final clincher that would decimate her cousin and make her the laughingstock of the entire town! Revenge truly was sweet as Krispy Kremes.
Sissy didn't notice a thin misty cloud fade into the machine. She didn't bother to lower the hood as she held the diary face-down even though her father had always warned that it was bad for her eyesight. Pfft! That was just a stupid myth like alligators living in the sewers and escalators eating little kids.
As she pressed the print button, something strange happened inside the copier. The light bar that scanned the pages seemed to intensify and slice into her eyes. The teenager shrilled and stumbled away.
Tamiya and Millie happened to be walking past (still steaming about Janika's comment on them being nosy and untrustworthy) when they heard Sissy scream. The pair of girls ran into the teacher's lounge and saw her kneeling on the floor, covering her eyes.
"Sissy? What's wrong?"
But they couldn't get a clear answer out of her. She continued to weep and wail for her father. More people were attracted to the noise, and during the confusion, nobody noticed a thin tendril of smoke waft away and vanish into the electrical socket.
(V)
Odd was coaxing the snack machine with a little brute force when he overheard Millie. "I mean, she just kept screaming. She wouldn't quit crying and her hands were covering her eyes. We couldn't get her to talk any sense."
"Yeah," Tamiya agreed. "We took her to the nurse and she sent us away, so that means it's definitely serious."
He approached the gaggle of kids surrounding the newscasters. "What happened?"
They rolled their eyes together and sighed intolerantly. "Weren't you listening? Sissy can't see. She was in the teacher's lounge when she freaked out. Who knows how it happened? We're going to investigate it. Now where were we? Oh, yeah! And so then Nurse Dorothy said..."
Odd quit listening. The teacher's lounge.
It was quiet inside with no adults around. All chairs were pushed in, the refrigerator was closed, the TV was dark, and the tables were clean. What would Sissy have been doing here? As he was casually meandering over to the fridge, Odd caught sight of a copy machine in the corner beside a large desk. He wondered if there were any test scores among the papers there.
With utmost care, the blonde boy started shuffling through the papers. They were mostly essays from one of the Literature classes. A small bookbag attracted his eye. It looked familiar.
"Isn't that Janika's?"
Indeed, the girl's homework and books were all there. He happened to look over at the copy machine and see a conspicuous 1990s 'My Little Pony' diary laying face-down. Odd picked it up and saw that something had been printed out. Curiously, he turned over the sheet of paper and a strange black symbol stared straight at him.
He grabbed everything and ran, calling Ulrich's phone. His friend answered on the third ring. "We have a little problem, Ulrich. Did you hear about Sissy?"
"Sort of. Someone saw her being placed in an ambulance five minutes ago."
"Well, she's blind, and I have a pretty good idea of how it happened. You know the teacher's lounge, right? That's where she was when Millie and Tamiya said she started screaming. Sissy was messing around with the Xerox machine and it printed out The Symbol."
"You're not joking with me, are you?"
"Why would I joke? Sissy's in the hospital and you think I'm trying to be funny?" He mounted the steps to the dorms and headed inside. "I need to find Kiwi and warn Janika. She really needs to get a cell. Where are you?"
"At the corner store just down the street from campus. Do you want me and Jeremy to meet you somewhere?"
"Nah. I'm at the room now." Odd unlocked his door and reached up to flip on the light. "I just don't understand why X.A.N.A. was messing with a Xerox mach—aaaaaahhhh!"
I would like to thank everyone who replied to my other 2 stories for their excellent feedback, especially Half-Kittie-Half-Human for her offer to combine chars.