"PIPPALIN! GET YOUR DAMN BUTT OUT OF BED!"
"Go away Cess-pool. It's too early…"
I guess it wasn't too strange having Cecily standing over my bed and yelling at me to get up, but then again… Normally it was Jane, or Syrus who braved the trip in my room. They were the ones who weren't afraid of me pummeling them. By then I managed to get a good look at the clock beside my bed. 6am. Too early for normal human beings, and way too early for me. It was ungodly, and should be considered cruel and unusual punishment for the mer mention of waking someone up at 6am. Unfortunately, Cecily didn't get the point.
"Too early for what exactly?"
"Your high pitched squawking. Buzz off."
It was obvious that Cecily was about to explode. She hated the nickname that we, as her friends had just randomly decided to give her. Cess-pool? Sure, her hair just happened to be an unnatural shade of green… so maybe that was the reason everyone called her Cess-pool. It wasn't like SHE was the judge or the jury… Ok, no one listened to her or asked for her opinions. Guilty, as charged. Ever. In fact, all that we ever asked her to do was the dirty work. Like today for example: it was apparently her duty to wake me at 6 am for whatever hellish reason James wanted us out at the island for. So, here she was, attempting to wake me at 6 am, which was NOT working.
In truth, Cecily and I could possibly pass for sisters, despite our year distance of age. We are both unusually pale and have the same loose wavy hair. And that would be the end of our similarities, the rest of our physical beings are completely different. Cecily is small and short for her age, but since she hit puberty she is beginning to fill out. It was obvious she was going to end up as a boy magnet in her teenage years, despite the green hair. Her hair and eyes made her look exotic, like my sister. All my differences just made me look weird.
"Pippa, please, stop bitching and get up."
"Fine… I'll meet you outside as soon as I'm dressed."
Cecily gave me a dirty look as she swung out my window. So that was how she got in and out without waking Papa and Jane. I would compliment her on her sneaky approach, but instead I guess I'll get up. Oh goody. The cold morning air was a shock after my nice warm bed. You know, I could just fake getting up, since Cess-pool was already out my window… No, I had to get up. The next person they sent to get me up would probably be a lot nastier. And possibly armed with water balloons. Oh joy.
There are a few things that you should probably know about me while I get dressed. I'm tall for my age, and whipcord lean. I'm not anorexic, but thin. Unusually thin. There isn't a lot to my body, lets just leave it at that. I take being white to a new level and I have never been able to tan. I am also the proud owner of a head full of crimson curls that are currently everywhere, but still happen to frame my pale face. As if a nearly primary hair color wasn't enough, my eyes happen to be blue. Not some wimpy grayish blue, but the blue of the center of the sky. And that would be one of the reasons I never wear yellow, I look enough like a freak as is. Syrus and James have assured me in their own "manly" way that I rank up in the 'pretty' caption of girls. I still think I'm a freak of nature.
A few minutes later I was standing out in the semi-light of pre-dawn. You know, that time between 4 am and the time the sun rises where the light grow just enough to see by without the moon. Mist blanketed the streets and houses around us, and if Cess and I weren't careful a whole slew of accidents could befall us. And trust me, neither of us are particularly graceful. It was while we were picking our way across the shoreline that runs behind my house, that Cecily asked me the most particular question ever.
"Pip, do you think we'll always be here like this?"
I can't say that I wasn't surprised. Sure, Cecily was always coming up with the psychological questions and answers, but that was just a little too far from her character. Maybe it was her hopeful and wistful tone that made it seem so weird, Cecily always embraced change, not dreaded the change. I honestly didn't know what to say. So I decided to sidestep the matter. Besides, I hate being called Pip.
"Cess-pool, what brought that? You love change."
"I know, but its Audry… she keeps telling me that something terrible is going to happen."
Ahhh, so it was Audry who brought on the questions. I have nothing against the poor girl; she's as sweet as can be and more. Audry doesn't have a single bit of darkness anywhere in her body. To do anything mean or evil is entirely impossible for the girl. That doesn't mean she's brilliant though, she doesn't have an ounce of sense in her body either. Audry gets these things our parents like to call hunches; we call it paranoia.
"Audry's paranoid, Cess."
"And I know that, but yesterday I caught James staring out at the ocean like he wanted to, I dunno, fly over it. And then I found Syrus beating up a tree with his sword."
"Well, that's normal."
She stopped in her tracks and I had to stop to keep from loosing her in the fog. Despite the thin veil of white between us, I could see her eyes, but instead of the normal intense green I was used to, they seemed tricolored, light green around her pupils, jade green in the center and emerald around the edges. She seemed unearthly, and desperate to get me to understand.
"Pippa, Syrus didn't challenge me to a duel. And neither of them could give me an explanation of why they were acting that way. James keeps muttering to himself under his breath, and when I asked him what he was saying, he said 'reciting magical theory.' Reciting Magical theory!"
"Cecily, please calm down. They're teenage boys, don't expect them to make sense."
"Then there's you Pippa, you're always so cold and distant. No matter what you're always mature and calm and know exactly what we want to hear."
I could hardly breathe. She seemed to have me pegged so well, besides my rather violent temper. She forgot about my fatal flaw.
"I think that you are all delusional. Nothings going to happen, not today, and not for a long time. Besides, if we don't hurry up James is going to lay a James-egg. And we'll have to take care of a bunch of little Jamesies."
I said, turning around and walking the last 5 feet to my boat, Cecily following me, derailed for the moment. Boy, I didn't know how wrong I was. The shit was about to hit the fan, literally.
--
Our island is actually three separate islands connected by a bunch of wooden structures. None of us are quite sure how long the islands have been there like this, but it really doesn't matter. Us kids have become the unofficial guardians of the place, and we keep up on the repairs to all the wooden structures that lace the two sides of the three sides of the main island, all of the large island, and half of the little island. We met up with the others on the large wooden platform that graces the smaller island and connects it to the main island. The only larger areas on the islands are the beaches that have stayed mostly free of wood, and the big island's surface. Audry was the first up to greet us as we walked up, fervently hugging us in her bright bubbly manner. I wish I was that much of a morning person. Syrus had gotten up and followed her like a big black and tan puppy dog. Poor Syrus is obsessed with Audry, but the girl seems no more aware of it than she is of James's attachment to a particular stick. In fact… James is still holding that damn stick. Figures, I guess it would be my turn to brake him out of his reverie. As I walked up to him and waved my hand in front of his face, he blinked his big blue eyes as if he was waking from a dream.
"Oh good, we're all here." He said in his distracted voice. That was out cue to take our normal positions. Cecily, Syrus and Audry took up positions seated on buckets and the ground nearby. I took my place on the railing; James just stood up and waited for us to stop shuffling.
"Alright James, enlighten me to as why I found Cecily trying to wake me up this morning."
"Well, your part of the group, and we need to make a group decision together."
"Uh-huh, And that means we have a 6 am meeting why?"
"Because I have a proposition."
"This isn't going to be like the last time you lectured us on the importance of not staying in the secret cove too long, is it?" Audry chimed in. James took six hours during that speech, and by the end of it, he was still going strong. We all had to get up and walk off before he stopped.
"No, it is not Audry. It is vastly more important, wonderfully more exhilarating…"
"Dude, just spit it out already." Syrus grumbled.
"I say we leave the Destiny Isles."
We stared. The four of us just stared at James. No one could have come up with something more radical. Cecily was looking greener than usual, Syrus had gone pale, but Audry was recovering fast. And by hell she was looking excited too. So I did the only thing I could do without trying to kill one of them.
I got up and left.