Chapter 2: Pep Rally
by Ms. Kinnikufan
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here.
Kitten was 5 years old and walking on a dark path through some intimidating forrest.
Naturally, Kitten quickened her pace. She wanted to get the hell out of this place.
Suddenly, Killer Moth, The Teen Titans, her fellow students at the H.I.V.E., her fellow students at her old high school and that girl who always used to pull her hair surrounded her on all sides.
The only words she could make out were "Bitch," Loser" "Worthless" and "Powerless".
The words and harsh laughter pounded Kitten like hammers and she went into the fetal position.
Out of nowhere, he mother appeared. Somehow her voice rose above the dim and she began to scream "Don't Listen! Don't Listen! Don't Listen! Don't Listen!"
"What! Don't Listen to what mommy?" Kitten tried to make mommy listen to her.
A swarm of moths descended upon Kitten and they began to bite her.
"Stop! It hurts!" Kitten screamed as she awoke.
She then realized that she back in her room at the H.I.V.E.
She had been here only 5 days, and that was the fourth nightmare she had since arriving.
"God. Just a nightmare. Just a stupid nightmare." She muttered to herself. She was sweating unattractively.
It obviously had been a nightmare. It had been 11 years since she had been 5 years old and eight years since she had last seen her mother alive.
Why did she always have nightmares? Why couldn't she have another dream about the girl with eyes like purple sapphires? Those were usually nicer dreams.
Tried as she might that night, she couldn't get back to sleep.
Kitten ended up sleeping through classes. The instructors didn't seem to care as long as she left the class when it was over. Kitten also slept through her lunch period. It wasn't a loss, because the lunch was always crappy. It had been the third lunch Kitten skipped in the past 5 days. This time, she didn't get any nightmares.
Kitten didn't pay much attention in "Faking Identification 101" until Gizmo starting throwing spitballs at her. She tried so hard to ignore them, but they kept increasing in size. Finally she felt an unpleasant wet glob in her hair.
Discreetly, and with an almost sort of elegance, she threw an eraser in Gizmo's direction.
Emphasizes on direction. It hit some student called Harm instead. In retaliation, Harm threw a stapler in Kitten's direction. It ended up hitting a girl named Arrowette instead. She too threw something in retaliation. It escalated into a war.
A veteran of many school supplies fights, Kitten took to the ground. These were very good opportunities to steal school supplies that fell on the floor.
Soon the school supplies fight escalated into a brawl.
Pr. Trblemaker, hated his job and didn't give a damn. He lit a a cigarette and poured himself some Jim Beam.
Finally two class periods later (2 groups of students intended for their respective "Faking Identification 101" classes ending up joining the brawl) before everyone had just worn themselves out.
Then a voice came from the loudspeaker.
"Last period is canceled for a P ep Rally. Everyone head towards gymnasium 3A."
The class cheered and school supplies once again filled the air.
The class emptied the room, Pr. Trblemaker stumbling about a bit. Kitten was careful not to rush out with the first students out of the room, choosing to discreetly bring up the rear. She had gotten a great haul. Who would have thought so many of the H.I.V.E. students would love expensive gel pens?
Gymnasium 3A was a surpassingly normal looking gymnasium, not unlike the one at her old high school.
At the teacher's bleachers, she noticed Pr. Wintergreen, the de facto guidance counselor. He didn't seem too interested in the pep rally. He was listening to a Ipod and reading a book and tried to ignore the drunk Pr. Trblmaker.
Then a podium rose out of the floor. A strange man dressed in robes was at it. He looked at little like that Ra al Ghul villain Kitten had once seen on the TV.
"Hello students and instructors." He greeted.
Instantly almost every student and instructor went quiet and still. Almost zombie-like quiet and still. Kitten felt a pain in her head.
"It's good to see you all again!"
"It's good to see you too, Brother Blood!" almost every student responded in almost military-like unison.
There was something unnerving about their tone. It was monotone and sounded almost like they were being mind-controlled or hypnotized. But that couldn't be pos-owww!
Kitten's head was even hurting worse. Kitten looked around the gymnasium. She saw that other people were clutching their heads in pain. Most noticeably Pr. Wintergreen and Pr. Trblemaker (though that may have just been the Jim Beam).
Bumblebee played along with the crowd. Bumblebee didn't know why she was resistant to hypnosis from males (but apparently not from females), but she was glad. Bumblebee's eyes discreetly scanned the room. A noticeable amount of students and instructors were clutching their heads in pain, a little known, but very common sign of hypnosis resistance. Bumblebee didn't know why she had headache-free hypnosis resistance, but she was grateful that she did. Some of the people looked like they were in agonizing pain.
"Students with everyday we come closer to our goal-" with every word Brother Blood spoke, her head began to pound even more intensely.
Suddenly her mother's warning from Kitten's nightmare came back-"Don't listen! Don't listen! Don't Listen!"
"Soon all shall-" Brother Blood's voice became even more passionate.
Kitten felt an atomic bomb go off in her head. She screamed, as did others.
The gymnasium became black.
Kitten was 5 years old and the circus with her best friend in the whole wide world, Karen. Kitten was really, really, glad her dad wasn't here. He would just embarrass her in front of Karen and Tim (a little boy she and Karen had met on the elephant ride).
The three chatted animatedly about the upcoming acrobat act.
"I like the lion tamers better. They rock!" Karen said.
"I think the trapezee artists are the best!" commented Kitten.
"So do I, so we win!" declared Tim.
"I'm gonna be an acrobat when I grow up!" Kitten turned a cartwheel.
"Well, I'm gonna be a detective. They do all sorts of cool things like break down doors and-"
Karen interrupted Tim.
"Shut up you guys, the show is starting!" Karen made a shush face.
"Ladies and Gentleman, we are proud to present to you...The Flying Graysons!" The ringleaders announced with relish.
The three youngsters watched in excitement as the Flying Graysons...fell to the ground?
"Oh my God! I think they're dead! Not TV dead! But dead-dead!" Little Tim strained not to wet his pants in front of the girls.
"Mommy!" Kitten went to cling her mother's skirts for comfort.
Her mother slumped forward from her seat and wasn't moving.
"Mommy? Mommy!" Kitten shook her mother.
"Mommy please don't be dead like those other people!"
Karen touched her shoulder.
"Kitten! Wake up! Wake up!"
Kitten woke up to Pr. Wintergreen's concerned face.
"A nightmare." Kitten gasped and tried to steady her breathing.
"That's right. It was a nightmare. You're back in the real world. Whatever happened in the nightmare isn't happening here." Pr. Wintergreen tried to comfort Kitten while holding a cold compress to his head.
"Where am I?" Kitten asked, trying to shake off the rest of her nightmare.
"We're in the infirmary. Quite a few people came down with severe migraines during the pep rally."
Kitten noticed she was on a cot, surrounded by many people also on cots.
"Oh my head. It feels like that freak Larry dropped another anvil on it." a student named Johnny Rancid moaned.
"It feels like the time dada let me have a sip of his Vodka." groaned a foriegn-exchange student named Geo-Force.
"Pr. Wintergreen, we found your Ipod. Unfortunately it was not in one piece." The nurse handed him several broken chunks of metal and plastic.
"Oh Slade..." Pr. Wintergreen muttered.
"You named your Ipod?"
"No...no it was the name of the person who gave me the Ipod. Oh well, nothing that creepy guy who lives under the junkyard can't fix." Pr. Wintergreen falsely cheered up.
"How long have I been out?" Kitten asked the nurse.
"Everyone in the infirmary has been out about 7 to 9 hours. All students and instructors in the infirmary have been excused from classes for medical testing."
"Medical testing?"
'Don't worry. It's mostly just head scans."
Meanwhile, during classes:
"Hey, weren't there more people here yesterday?" Mammoth scratched his head.
"The students who got headaches during the pep rally yesterday got excused for medical testing. Some of the teachers were excused too, like Pr. Wintergreen and Pr. Trblemaker. Though i't's rumored that Pr. Trblemaker just had a hangover again." Jinx provided.
"I here they're checking them for meningitis." Gizmo added.
"What's manny-getis?" asked Mammoth.
Gizmo grinned internally. He just loved messing with Mammoth's mind.
"Meningitis is when meningetis bugs sneack into your head and eat your brains. However, meningitis victims often don't notice until it's too late and they drop dead. Also Australians who eat large amounts of beef products tend to be the most common victims of meningitis."
Mammoth began to sweat profusely. He was an Australian who ate a lot of beef products. He could get it!
"Ummm, how does one prevent manny-getis?"
"Hmmm...if my memory proves correct, one must bath in peanut butter and jelly. Not just jelly or peanut butter. A mixture of both. Apricot jelly is the best because Meningitis bugs hate apricot jelly. Also chewing newspapers. Newspapers from Thursdays work best. But all this must be done at 3:15 a.m. on Tuesdays, otherwise it won't work."
"Where am I gonna get enough apricot jelly to bathe in?" Mammoth pondered out loud.
Jinx didn't find herself surprised by Mammoth's gullibility very often, but this damn well took the cake! Oh well, better to sit back and late the chaos unfold.
That night several different people recorded their thoughts:
Dear Diary,
Well, you're not actually much of a diary. You're really a a tablet I stole from that Goth girl with pink hair. What her name? Jinx? Yeah, Jinx. Jinx should know that pink hair so clashes with the goth look! Pink hair with gothic clothes and make up? Total fashion disaster! If she had dark magenta hair, it might work. But not bubble gum pink hair. It's a shame really, she look so great if she took "the shoujo anime" look. I also stole this lovely silver-sky blue pen from her during yesterday's school supplies fight. I had two nightmares yesterday. They both included mom. I wish she was still alive, she wouldn't have sent me here. I hate it here. Also, I'm totally convinced that Johnny Rancid is totally gay. I saw him check out Geo-Force's ass. Will bitch to you some more tomorrow. love, Kitten.
Dear Diary: Someone stole my favorite pen yesterday. When I found out who, heads will roll! Jinx.
Log entry D722: Today was pretty damn awesome. I got to mess with Mammoth's head again. However it wasn't as awesome as yesterday (I detailed that in log entry D721) Yesterday there was a school supplies fight and a bunch of people totally lost it during the pep rally. Also that girl I sort of like, Kitten, tried to throw an eraser at me yesterday. Could she be my first reciprocated crush?" End Log entry 7D22.
Log of W.R. Wintergreen # E4E73: Today was not a productive day. I spent most of the day doing medical testing. On the positive side, I don't have meningitis or a brain tumor.
The Ipod I got from Slade broke. I wish I could forget him. He didn't treat me very well before his final days. He didn't treat Terra very well either. Poor girl.
You know, I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to burn that barrel of stuff he gave me. Anyway. sometime I have to that creepy Fixit guy to get my Ipod fixed. His monotone manner and glowing blue eyes scare me, but he can really fix anything and accepts pet supplies as payment (probably because he has so many damn cats). Also I am 99.9 sure Pr. Trblemaker is a raging alcoholic. Note to self: Bring handgun in case Brother Blood tries to get touchy-feely again. End Log entry # E4E73
Deer Dar Dear dary, daerry, diary: I reely reli really suk suck at riting writing. But my teecher teacher said to me today :"Mammerth Mammoth, yoy you must imporbe improve your writing skilz skills. Alt At leest least you can't mak make fun of me. That's all I haff have to sae say todae today. Goodnight.