Chapter Three: Thunder
"Kagome! Oh! We were so worried for you!" The girls, her supposed friends, clustered around her and made her feel sickeningly claustrophobic.
They smiled smiles so oddly reminiscent of her masquerading dancers. A girl walked up with a long, sliding gait.
"Yeah, we're so glad you're back," said a girl.
"Hey! I've never met, you…well I'm new. It's a pleasure." She giggled self-consciously and daintily covered her mouth to stifle a yawn. "Sorry I'm out of sorts but I put off a term paper, and, well, you know how it is. I'm so tired!"
Smiling and allowing for Kagome's inspection, she seemed to be looking for something in her too. She was quite tall, Kagome guessed around five ten, and of obvious European descent. She had shining, coppery hair and dark eyes. She didn't have a graceful figure, more of an hourglass one, but she carried herself like a queen.
"Well, I'm Eleanor. A pleasure…"
"Kagome." She smiled for what seemed like the first time in a long while and took the proffered hand. "Nice to meet you too."
She did not see Eleanor until the next day. It was P.E., her second period, and drizzling, making the grass slippery and wet.
"Kagome! Wait up!" Eleanor was running, her long legs stretching in front of her and her mouth curving into a smile. "Hey! What's up?" At Kagome's blank stare, she elaborated, "Sorry, I forget one can't translate Japanese word for word. Here; how are you? Guess what? We're up for archery today!"
Her smile was infectious and Kagome could only smile with her.
"So what's America like?" Kagome asked, easing herself down onto the bleachers to wait for their teacher.
"I lived in Southern California, and well, it's nothing like Japan." She waved a base-ball knuckled hand towards the rolling green of the field. "It was very brown for one- we lived in a desert, close to the border of Mexico- and it got up to 110˚ in the summer. I like it here much better, at any rate."
Kagome nodded, and the teacher waved them over.
"Ever handled a bow? Any one of you?" Kagome felt her breath quicken for reasons unknown to her. "No? Okay. Volunteers to try?"
Kagome hesitantly raised her hand, although she could not fathom why. The teacher's eyes lighted on her.
"Ah, our quiet one! Kagome, why don't you come up?" Eleanor shot her a grin and cheered.
Kagome picked her way down the bleachers to stand before the teacher.
"Here, hold it like this, and pull the string- oh, you've got it! A natural!"
There was something missing from her back and she felt its loss more than ever as she pulled armguards up her forearm.
"May I?" She asked, gesturing to the pile of arrows at the teacher's feet.
"If you feel you've got it, go ahead." The teacher folded her arms and looked on curiously as Kagome chose three- I could fletch better than these- Kagome shook her head from side to side angrily.
She put them on the table before her and lined up with the target, listening to the whispers of the girls behind her. I hope I can do this! Why did I raise my hand? She thought despairingly.
She breathed in- the teacher said something but she could no longer hear her- there were the voices, whispering her into insanity but she only saw the target, only heard the wind…there was a shade upon the field.
It held up a hand beseechingly, wavering and then solidifying. It was herself, but it different clothing- such cold eyes!- beseeching her, humbling itself to beg that she not do- do- something…
An anger as she had never known consumed her mind-red!- she drew the string-the calluses!- in three graceless motions she fired off three shots in rapid secession.
There was a crack, like thunder, deafening screams and silence. No wind stirred the trees, but there was something underneath her shirt-that weight!- It was perfect, a joining…whole…
She reached under her shirt and pulled up the flawless gem to catch the light. She felt her tears fall, run down her jaw, from her chin, fall upon the stone.
Light…The bad thing about light is that when you look into it, you can never imagine there having been a dark.
Reviewer's Corner:
Agent-doo- I hope this chapter is up to your expectations. . And I'm really glad you share that opinion!
Yavi: . Now why would I give that away? Oh, and Fred and Jim weren't bad…they didn't molest her or anything. Got 2 go. Bye!