Part 12
By the end of her second week Genesis found herself alone. Pandora had run off with Drayton. Amber had abandoned her totally and was hanging out with a completely new set of people. Ellen was annoyed, felt snubbed and the rumour mill had it that some huge party had been cancelled. The socialists were most upset.
Not that any of this really had any effect on Genesis whatsoever. She had been dropped in the middle of someone's drama on arriving and was snow shoved up the sidelines. Not that she cared, Genesis told herself. As her family moved so often, she rarely had time to get attached to people, knowing she could be leaving at any time and would never see them again.
But still, Genesis sighed as she stared down at the words in her history text book, trying to concentrate on the 2nd World War Pearl Harbour lecture, it would be nice to settle down somewhere and have some real friends, be like everybody else instead of the slightly weird but pretty girl who always seemed to watch from the sidelines.
Genesis was bored of listening to the interesting things happening in other people's lives. She wanted something to happen in her own, something just for her, to give her meaning and purpose instead of just drifting pointlessly from one day to the next.
"She said she'd be arriving in two days," a dark skinned girl with shoulder length platinum-blonde hair was whispering to the pale skinned brunette in the seat beside her. Both girls were a row ahead of Genesis, and it was hard /not/ to listen.
"Why should we care?" the brunette whispered back.
Her friend shrugged. "I was just sayin'."
"Why would Mercedes want to come to this dump?"
"Something about disposing of a new girl."
The teacher glared in their direction and the two girls stopped talking as he continued with the lecture, but Genesis wanted to hear more. Disposing of a new girl? She was still classed as a 'new' girl. Why would someone want to kill her? As far as she knew, she hadn't made any enemies. Apart from Amber who seemed to blame her break up with Drayton on her for some unknown reason, when it was obvious he had dumped her for Pandora. But was Amber really crazy enough to /kill/ her?
Genesis didn't want to think so. When the lecture ended she tried to catch up with the two girls, but their conversation had changed to who was sexier - Ja Rule or Ice Cube? Genesis had no idea who they were talking about.
"Are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Genesis hadn't seen Pandora come up behind her. "Oh fine," she lied. "Do you know who they are?" She pointed discreetly at the two girls.
"The blonde is Devine Rosewood, the brunette is Foresta Windchime. Why?"
Genesis didn't know how to answer. Could she tell Pandora what she had overheard? Then again, Pandora, of course, was new too. Maybe Devine and Foresta had been talking about her. Either way, hearing people talk about disposing of a new girl was not something good.
"Just something I heard them talking about was kind of freaky," she said finally.
Pandora snorted. "Typical. What was it?"
"They said something about someone called Mercedes coming and disposing of someone." There. She'd said it. Maybe not exactly what she'd heard but close enough. She needed a little more to go on before she decided what, if anything, she was going to do next,
"Lamias and Midnight witches thinking they can get away with anything," Pandora murmured. "Probably all talk." Her smile brightened as she saw Drayton coming down the hall. "I'll see you round." She waved and walked off, a bounce in her step.
"See ya," Genesis sighed hollowly.
Her mind was still processing something Pandora had said. Lamias and Midnight witches? Was she /serious/? What was a lamia, anyway? She vaguely remembered the term from a fantasy novel she had read once where a lamia had been a shape changing woman/snake creature. Something told her that wasn't what Pandora had been referring to. Thinking about it Genesis realised she'd heard the word lamia muttered before, often in companion with mentions of witches, Daybreakers, Night People.
Hearing things others didn't was one of the benefits of being shoved to the sidelines. You got to hear interesting things. Interesting...or in this case just plain weird.
Genesis was certain there was some meaning to all this. For instance a large population of these students here were all startlingly attractive, and a lot of them had fancy sounding names. Like Devine Rosewood, Foresta Windchime. /Pandora/ Jensen. She heard a lot of natural sounding names too, names of plants, trees, flowers, crystals, gods and goddesses from various religions.
Her own name Genesis was a biblical name, the first book of the bible. Her parents had chosen the name as she was their first born daughter.
All this talk of odd creatures and strange names and unusually beautiful people, disturbingly easy and casual conversations about ending someone's life. It all added up to something.
But what?
By the end of her second week Genesis found herself alone. Pandora had run off with Drayton. Amber had abandoned her totally and was hanging out with a completely new set of people. Ellen was annoyed, felt snubbed and the rumour mill had it that some huge party had been cancelled. The socialists were most upset.
Not that any of this really had any effect on Genesis whatsoever. She had been dropped in the middle of someone's drama on arriving and was snow shoved up the sidelines. Not that she cared, Genesis told herself. As her family moved so often, she rarely had time to get attached to people, knowing she could be leaving at any time and would never see them again.
But still, Genesis sighed as she stared down at the words in her history text book, trying to concentrate on the 2nd World War Pearl Harbour lecture, it would be nice to settle down somewhere and have some real friends, be like everybody else instead of the slightly weird but pretty girl who always seemed to watch from the sidelines.
Genesis was bored of listening to the interesting things happening in other people's lives. She wanted something to happen in her own, something just for her, to give her meaning and purpose instead of just drifting pointlessly from one day to the next.
"She said she'd be arriving in two days," a dark skinned girl with shoulder length platinum-blonde hair was whispering to the pale skinned brunette in the seat beside her. Both girls were a row ahead of Genesis, and it was hard /not/ to listen.
"Why should we care?" the brunette whispered back.
Her friend shrugged. "I was just sayin'."
"Why would Mercedes want to come to this dump?"
"Something about disposing of a new girl."
The teacher glared in their direction and the two girls stopped talking as he continued with the lecture, but Genesis wanted to hear more. Disposing of a new girl? She was still classed as a 'new' girl. Why would someone want to kill her? As far as she knew, she hadn't made any enemies. Apart from Amber who seemed to blame her break up with Drayton on her for some unknown reason, when it was obvious he had dumped her for Pandora. But was Amber really crazy enough to /kill/ her?
Genesis didn't want to think so. When the lecture ended she tried to catch up with the two girls, but their conversation had changed to who was sexier - Ja Rule or Ice Cube? Genesis had no idea who they were talking about.
"Are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Genesis hadn't seen Pandora come up behind her. "Oh fine," she lied. "Do you know who they are?" She pointed discreetly at the two girls.
"The blonde is Devine Rosewood, the brunette is Foresta Windchime. Why?"
Genesis didn't know how to answer. Could she tell Pandora what she had overheard? Then again, Pandora, of course, was new too. Maybe Devine and Foresta had been talking about her. Either way, hearing people talk about disposing of a new girl was not something good.
"Just something I heard them talking about was kind of freaky," she said finally.
Pandora snorted. "Typical. What was it?"
"They said something about someone called Mercedes coming and disposing of someone." There. She'd said it. Maybe not exactly what she'd heard but close enough. She needed a little more to go on before she decided what, if anything, she was going to do next,
"Lamias and Midnight witches thinking they can get away with anything," Pandora murmured. "Probably all talk." Her smile brightened as she saw Drayton coming down the hall. "I'll see you round." She waved and walked off, a bounce in her step.
"See ya," Genesis sighed hollowly.
Her mind was still processing something Pandora had said. Lamias and Midnight witches? Was she /serious/? What was a lamia, anyway? She vaguely remembered the term from a fantasy novel she had read once where a lamia had been a shape changing woman/snake creature. Something told her that wasn't what Pandora had been referring to. Thinking about it Genesis realised she'd heard the word lamia muttered before, often in companion with mentions of witches, Daybreakers, Night People.
Hearing things others didn't was one of the benefits of being shoved to the sidelines. You got to hear interesting things. Interesting...or in this case just plain weird.
Genesis was certain there was some meaning to all this. For instance a large population of these students here were all startlingly attractive, and a lot of them had fancy sounding names. Like Devine Rosewood, Foresta Windchime. /Pandora/ Jensen. She heard a lot of natural sounding names too, names of plants, trees, flowers, crystals, gods and goddesses from various religions.
Her own name Genesis was a biblical name, the first book of the bible. Her parents had chosen the name as she was their first born daughter.
All this talk of odd creatures and strange names and unusually beautiful people, disturbingly easy and casual conversations about ending someone's life. It all added up to something.
But what?