Morning has dawned once more on the Aurora household, but today the family has a new visitor joining them for breakfast. Little Maria Whiter has been making more frequent trips up to Sancturia to spend time with her mama, including spending the night before school days.
Thus has the family had to adopt new routines to account for her time here. Auris has accepted Kairi as the new lunch maker, Shina helps keep Maria's backpack neat and organized, and Kairi has helped her learn how to clean herself and perform good hygiene.
Today after getting up bright and early and having breakfast, Kairi frantically worked on preparing lunches for the two of them as time was running short on them to get to class.
Maria hustled to the door with backpack swung over her shoulders, running in place and doing the occasional hop to see her mama perform in the kitchen.
Kairi's hair was flying every which way as she sprinted around the kitchen sacking the lunches in paper bags. Nearly slipping on the floor on the way out, she brushed her loose hairs back in one hand and tossed Maria her lunch in the other, then went back to pick up hers.
"C'MON MARIA HUSTLE HUSTLE!" Kairi said, working up a sweat.
"Buy you two, have fun at school today!" Said Auris, waving from the couch.
Shina slid down the stair rail, grunting slightly in pain as she landed.
Kairi turned and said, "You've got to stop doing that, seriously!"
"N-No way!" Shina replied with a hand on her aching back.
Kairi patted Maria on the back to hurry her out the door and Shina followed, shouting in a humored tone for all to hear, "Hey! Maybe you ought to be having this baby, sis!"
Kairi spun around and shouted back with red cheeks, "W-What are you saying that for?! And...in your dreams, Shina!"
Shina chuckled and Kairi turned around, gently pushing Maria to run one more time. Maria didn't understand any of this, as no one wants to tell her why Shina's been puffing up like a balloon lately.
It was a mad dash through Sancturia to get to school. As classmates from all grades horded towards the entrance, there was one guy who personally exempted himself from the halls of learning.
"Papa!" Shouted Maria to the brown-haired man standing around between them and the entrance.
"Mornin' you two!" Mew hollered and waved his hand as they pass by.
The two waved their hands but suddenly Mew remarked, "Ah!"
And Kairi turned and froze in place, running there with a frantic look in her eyes, "W-What is it, Mew we don't have time for any-"
Mew closed his eyes with a wily smile that turned to a smirk, then gestured his hand up to summon an apple from out-of-nowhere.
"You forgot this in her lunch bag again, 'mama'."
"D'oh!" Kairi grunted and caught the flung apple above her head, throwing it into Maria's backpack in seconds.
"Remember, an apple a day keeps the doc-"
"Bye, Mew!" Kairi bluntly proclaimed, racing for the door.
Maria looked back and whispered "Bye, papa!" as she looked over her shoulder.
The two shoved their way through the front doors and Kairi dashed to her side of the school on the turn of a dime, throwing her hand up behind her to say farewell.
The school bells were ringing down the halls as Maria ran towards her class. She'd gotten used to the size of this place. It wasn't so oppressive now. And classes and homework? Not so bad when mama's and auntie Shina are so smart.
Suddenly she heard a whipcrack and froze in place, as something tightened around her right leg and hoisted her off the ground. She went from looking at the ceiling to staring down at the floor as her body dangled around in mid-air by an aura rope.
A few feet away were her fellow classmates all lined up outside the classroom for the teacher to take their attendance. And standing out among the rest was that big bad meanie, Kris.
Kris...the most vile, vicious 5th grader this side of Sancturia's School system, feared by many for her ability to sit on little kids' faces with her big fat ugly butt. She's got a mean streak as big as her belly and is wanted for crimes of fart ballooning, gluing butts to chairs, and throwing boogers into mashed potatoes.
And this rope wrasslin' event was just another of her many jokes aimed at her newest prey.
Kris pointed her piggish fingers up at Maria and started laughing, "Nice underwear, polka dots!"
Most of Maria's classmates and some of the students from other classes laughed, and laughed, and laughed as Maria felt very red in the face and shoved her floral skirt up trying to cover her polka dotted bloomers.
All the while she squirmed, and felt terrible, "I chose the wrong time to wear a skirt..."
Eventually her teacher wandered out of the classroom and her assessment of the rioting laughter was to stare at her with a disapproving glance and shake her head.
"Oh, Maria..."
The authorities were none the wiser to Kris' antics. She was a chameleon with two chins, a liar, a thief, and a meanie.
And if the law could not take matters into their own hands, then an outlaw, could. A storm's abrewin' in the OK Corral, and what happens next...ain't gonna be pretty.
Chapter 58: Maria vs. The Bully
The first few hours of school went by without any further incident. Maria sat down, learned, and then went to the cafeteria for lunch.
Her backpack had gotten thrown around, bruising her apple and crushing her potato chips. Fortunately the sandwich mama made had been protected by a plastic container.
So after sprinkling her dusted chips into the sandwich she went to take her first bite only for a friendly face to slide on in next to her.
"Hey, Maria!" Shouted Nikolas, the first and only friend she'd made her in school.
He had brought his own bagged lunch with mac and cheese, tuna fish and crackers, and an orange juice. As he took the items out one-by-one he pointed at her meal and asked, "Oooo you brought an apple!"
He picked his orange juice up and shook it around, "Trade ya!"
The two casually exchanged food and Nikolas chomped down on the apple with a grin, "Mmmmrrr, yer papa shure does make a gfood apple!"
He's so sloppy but he does it with so much enthusiasm that Maria can't help but smile at him. But it only lasted a moment, for she then stared down at her sandwich with a forlorn glance and sighed.
Nikolas stopped stuffing his cheeks and set the apple down quickly to say, "You still agonizing about what that bully Kris did to you this morning?"
Maria softly nodded back.
He stood and slapped the table so hard it banged like a drum, "Well then just sock her in the face like you did before! I'm tellin' ya, she'll get the message this time!"
She shook her head and remarked, "I don't think so..."
"Then you just gonna let her walk over you?!"
She stood up and furiously arched her brows at him, "No! She's a mean ol' butt face!"
"Then you gotta pay her back somehow!"
Maria felt empowered by the prompting her friend gave, but quickly cowered her fists towards her gut and said, "I could easily beat her up, but we're not allowed to fight outside of class..."
"Yeah, your right..." Though Nikolas' enthusiasm deflated he wrapped his arms against his chest and tapped his toes on the ground, "Gotta pay her back without making it obvious to the teachers..."
Maria echoed his stance and hummed loudly, "Gotta pay her back..."
They snapped their fingers and faced each other in perfect unison to shout their ideas.
"We should prank her back!" Said Nikolas.
"We should steal her money!" Said Maria.
Nikolas' arms recoiled back and he stuttered, "W-Whoa settle down there, Maria! Don't ya think that's a bit too soon?"
Maria flinched while Nikolas waved the back of his fingers out at her, "That can be Plan C!"
She perked up with a nod and said, "You're right! Your plan is much, much better!"
The two clapped their hands together up high and shouted "Yeah!" as a confident call of their victory. They then went back to their lunch in high spirits...Perhaps too high of 'em.
"Ughhh..."
The two rubbed their sore bellies on the way out of the cafeteria, having eaten faster than a hummingbird on a Dragon's Beard flower.
"Augh, I'm gonna be feeling this in the bathroom later..." Nikolas groaned, Maria nodding sympathetically in approval.
She then bobbed her head up and saw her mama standing by at the door, clearly moving towards her the moment she herself locked eyes with her.
"Maria, there you are..." She said softly, her eyelids sinking in concern.
"Oh hey there, Ms. Kairi!" Nikolas replied, proceeding to dart along ahead while waving back at Maria, "I'll see you after class with some notes written up!"
Kairi followed his departure with mild interest, turning to look across her shoulder at Maria to ask, "Notes? Do you have a test coming up?"
"Ummm, yeah!" Maria quickly nodded, knowing it'd keep her face from giving anything away.
Then Kairi's solemn expression returned, and she turned towards the door in a floaty manner, "Can I walk with you for a bit, Maria?"
Maria hesitated to stick by her mama's side as they walked through the student filled halls. So much unintelligible chatter was going on around her that it made it easier to focus on what mama had to say.
Kairi was having trouble looking Maria in the eye, which wasn't too unusual. Papa's always saying that mama's learning how to communicate with people again, and the toughest part for her is being honest with her emotions.
She's having that struggle right now, saying one word and then clamping her mouth shut, just to say another word and start over again.
It was a long walk back to class but not "infinite" long.
So Maria decided to be a good little girl and give her mama a little helpful nudge, "What's wrong, mama, cat got your tongue?"
Kairi grimaced and spurned her wilder side to the surface for a moment, "N-No! Its just...!"
She grit her teeth and finally mustered up the words she wanted following a sigh, "I-I heard...about the bullying."
Maria pressed her chin against her chest and frowned. Kairi immediately asked, "Why didn't you say anything?"
"..." Maria didn't know what to say.
"...How long has this been going on for?" Kairi asked in a docile tone.
"Since the first day of school." She said very much under her breath.
"That long?" Yet Kairi not only heard it, but was outraged by it. So much so that they risked being late to class by stopping then and there, "Maria..."
Maria looked her mama in the eye and stood her ground, "I'm fine! I can take care of myself!"
"You...!" Kairi flinched and then bent down, putting one hand comfortably on her shoulder as she whispered, "You're a tough girl, I know that. But this is completely new for you. You don't know how to handle a bully."
"And you do?" Maria said, scornfully looking away from her mama.
"Yes. I do." Kairi replied firmly, her assured voice lulling Maria's gaze back against her will.
"I faced a lot of mockery when I was a few years younger. My classmates, even the teachers, their insults burrowed into my head and made me so, SO mad..." It seemed just thinking about it was enough to make Kairi's teeth shake. She took a deep breath and relaxed, looking Maria in the eyes.
"And I responded in kind with violence. I BEAT up whoever I could get my hands on. And it felt good. Really good."
Maria gazed into her mama's eyes and started to remark, "So I should-"
"No!" Kairi was suddenly raising her voice and shaking her head, pleading to her with all her heart, "Don't you ever, EVER think violence is the answer to insults. If that bully ever physically hurts you then fine, fight back. But you'll never be able to take back the blood you draw onto your knuckles..."
The bell rang through a thick air of tension between them, and the sorrow that resounded in Kairi's voice gave way to a dull, emotionless tone as she stood up and said, "I'm sorry, Maria...We can talk more about this later..."
She turned and stared down at Maria the whole while, then sprinted for her class, leaving her daughter to grip her arms against her chest and feel a tightness in her heart.
"You're wrong, mama," Sowed the seeds of rebellion in her young, developing mind, "The only way I'm gonna stop a meanie like her is beating her at her own game."
With a narrow stare she walked back to class, planning, plotting, for the start of her payback...
When she got out of school she went back home with Nikolas to "spend some time studying", which wasn't really a lie. They were studying. Studying REVENGE!
Nikolas had drawn up a crude outline of the school's layout during class and used it to point out where that mean ol' Kris tended to go.
"So first she goes to her locker, then she'll..." As Nikolas expertly crafted their plan, Maria chewed down his mom's delicious, chewy cookies with a nod and a smile.
Their plotting went on like this over the weekend since they wanted to make sure that their plans were foolproof. Maria got all giddy just thinking about the humiliation on Kris' piggy face once she's been got.
Then the next week rolled around, and this time it was papa's turn to take her to school. After going through the not-so scary dark corridor and arriving outside the schoolhouse, Maria waved her papa goodbye and was prepared to head in for class when...
"Hooooold it young lady." He kept her held back, much to her surprise.
He gently turned her around and bent down to look her in the eye with a knowing smile, "What's in the bag?"
She peeked over her shoulder and then gripped the straps of her backpack tight, trying to look away from papa's eyes, "I-I-Itching powder...?"
Mew's face lit up and then he remarked firmly, "And who's the itching powder for?"
"I'm...trying to stop a bully." She whispered under her breath.
Mew suddenly went and patted her gently on the shoulder, giving his nod of approval forthright, "Atta girl, way to stand up for yourself!"
After mama's lecture she knew she could count on papa to understand her side of things. He rose to his feet and told her "Good luck!", giving her a lift in spirits that made her sprint into school like she was light as a feather.
She met up with Nikolas at the doors and in his hand was a plastic bag full of deflated balloons. He snickered and sneered, pinching the bag between his hands with pride.
"You brought the itching powder?" He whispered.
"Mmm hmm!" Maria pulled her backpack off and pulled out a plastic bottle of itching powder she'd gotten cheap at the store with her allowance.
"Perfect! Now, remember what the plan is..."
A few minutes later the two slammed a locker door shut and hardly contained their giggles as they hid behind the row of lockers, waiting for their prey to spring their trap.
Kris walked up not long after and grabbed a hold of her locker door. The two little schemers' laughter nearly gave them away and made them retreat further behind the lockers.
When they poked their heads out again Kris had begun to open the door, where four inflated balloons floated out to greet her.
Her confusion was immense, and in that moment she tried to poke one of them. Nikolas whispered "Now!" and Maria thrust her hand out with joy.
The gas she had contained within the balloons expanded and caused them to pop. Kris screamed for a moment as elastic scraps and a whole lot of white powder was showered all over her body.
Kris started spinning around in place, scraping her arms up and down to try and throw the powder off. But her body was already being thrown into an itching fit with no end in sight, and her continued spinning tripped her up and made her fall onto her back.
"Alright! Who did this?! Come out and show yourselves!" She was spinning on her back, trying to open her eyes only for the itching powder to irritate them.
"Ah my eyes!"
Nikolas and Maria pulled out and threw their hands up to clap, "We did it!"
"I recognize that voice!" Kris shouted bitterly.
The two masterminds flinched and turned to run away to class, while Kris spewed venom like a feral cat, "You little shits! This isn't over!"
Maria enjoyed class immensely after that. Kris eventually got cleaned off and returned to class looking irritated as all get out.
As lunch time rolled around Maria went to pick up her backpack and noticed it suddenly felt a lot heavier. Nevertheless she put it onto her back, only to hear a soft, sticky sound coming from there.
Her body began to get dragged down backwards and when her backpack hit the ground she was left bobbing back and forth like a helpless turtle.
She struggled to stand, but the backpack was stuck to her and refused to let go.
"Nnn...! NNN...!"
The class had mostly vacated so the embarrassment could've been worse. But that wasn't important. Kris was hovering over her looking upside-down thanks to Maria's current predicament.
"That's a nice look for you, freckle face," Kris smirked and then spit on her face, walking away full of laughter, "Later loser!"
"You pig faced meanie!" Maria tried to take a swing but that just kept her body teeter-tottering away.
She freed herself eventually with some clever use of her aura and dumped the heavy books out, but now her backpack was in bad shape and once again, her lunch had paid a terrible price.
At the cafeteria she stared at a crushed paper bag and dully pulled out her dead sandwich and mushed apple.
"Haaaa..." She was forced to eat this if she wanted to survive.
"Hey, Maria," Nikolas nonchalantly came walking up, his underwear somehow pulled up to the back of his skull, "She got you back too?"
Maria softly nodded and after snapping his underwear painfully back into his pants, Nikolas sat down and pulled out his relatively intact lunch.
"I reckon the plan wasn't very effective after all..." He said with a sigh.
"Uh-huh." She nodded again.
Nikolas turned and pumped her fist excitedly, "That's A-OK! That was just Phase 1!"
Maria turned and shouted "Yeah!" leading to Nikolas declaring, "She won't see the next one coming! Literally!"
The two huddled together and Nikolas whispered in her ear, "Ok, so after class Kris likes to..."
The rest of the day was as tense as ever, as the air of anticipation was thick in the classrooms between the three schemers. Kris eyed Maria and Nikolas, Nikolas pointed at his eyes and then to her. All of this going under the teacher's notice.
When the class was over Nikolas signaled Maria that he was going to run on ahead to prepare, and to "act" when he gave the signal.
Maria cautiously examined her backpack for anymore sabotage and put it on comfortably. With a heavy sigh she tried to act natural walking out of the classroom, with Kris having gone on ahead, just as planned.
She had a particular route she liked to take that wasn't a straight line to the doors. Maria snuck up on her tippy toes and reached into her backpack's pocket to pull out a pair of scissors she picked up in the classroom.
As the moment crept closer Maria saw Nikolas' hair poking out from behind a corner separating Kris from the exit out. There were other students heading out. A perfect crowd for the perfect act of mischief.
Suddenly Nikolas stampeded out from behind cover and leaped through the air, throwing up both his middle fingers while shouting, "FLASH DRIVE!"
A bright flash of light exploded from his bracelet and completely overwhelmed Kris and all the other students. Maria squeezed her eyes shut and dashed ahead, using her aura senses to keep track of Kris.
Her ability to see was underdeveloped and blurry, but she was positive she had found her target when she started rapidly snipping the scissors up the back of their shirt.
She then grabbed the back of their pants and pulled them down, running ahead to help Nikolas up so they could hide and watch the magic unfold.
The flash faded and the moment Kris tried to move she tripped over her own pants and fell towards the ground. She was still half-blinded and was madly swinging her head around looking for her aggressors.
"Where are you?! I know you're out there!"
Nikolas and Maria were in a giggling fit as Kris unknowingly stood up and her shirt slid off at the sleeves, leaving her in only her underwear and a training bra.
The rest of the students turned and gasped, their eyes alit with shock. Kris swung her head around and eventually noticed the cause of their sudden laughter. Turning pink in the cheeks, picked up her clothes, crossed her arms over her chest, and ran the other way to the bathroom.
Maria and Nikolas fell over and teeter-tottered from the sheer laughter they were experiencing.
"I can't...I can't even...Breathe!" Nikolas was losing it the most.
"That'll show her!" Maria exclaimed confidently.
Oh, but if only it were that easy...
The next day the two mischief makers were off to gym class. Today they were going to be practicing dodging projectiles by playing a game of dodgeball.
The students had all gathered inside ready to play. Nikolas and Maria got to be on the same team against Kris, who didn't look too upset after yesterday's antics.
"I think we got her!" Nikolas whispered in delight as he picked up one of the balls and prepared to play.
"Uh huh!" Maria remarked merrily.
The two teams of students lined up in a row to face each other down. But Kris, however, remained stuck to the wall behind her team crossing her arms with a smile.
The gym teacher blew the whistle before anyone could remark. A second of paying attention could've averted disaster just now.
"YAHOO!" Shouted Nikolas as he began to run to throw the ball.
His legs suddenly started spinning around out of control and he toppled over onto his back, sliding around like a hockey puck.
"Nikolas!" Maria paid more attention to her surprise than common sense and ran after her friend, only to start pedaling her feet against the ground and falling flat on her face when she tried to move.
This started a domino effect of other students moving and slipping on the ground, and even the teacher wound up suffering the same fate. Everyone was slip sliding around, bumping into each other and continuing to cycle around the room for a good five minutes.
All the while Maria tried to look at Kris, only to find the bully hooking her right eye duct down and sticking her tongue out.
Eventually after more teachers came in to stop the chaos, a few students were sent to the nurse's office to mend injuries but no one could determine who the culprit was...somehow.
Nikolas and Maria went off to lunch with a hand supporting their sore backs. They stretched before sitting down at the tables. Fortunately, their lunch had survived the day.
"Augh, if that went on any longer I'd be walking with a cane before my grandpa!" Nikolas groaned.
"My butt's sooooore..." Maria groaned.
After arching his back with a groan himself Nikolas shook his head and remarked, "So maybe she didn't get it yet..."
"You think?" Maria snapped at him briefly.
"Its ok!" Nikolas had his spirits still high and confident, "We still got Phase 3 to look forward to!"
"Phase 3!" Maria was really excited for that one.
Nikolas shiftily looked around and then leaned in towards her, whispering in her ear, "Ok so I already put powdered laxatives in Kris' mashed potatoes. So all we got to do now is..."
A short time after finishing their lunches up, Nikolas and Maria rushed to the girl's restroom. He was forced to stand outside while she put in all the work inside.
They then hurried up and hid inside a nearby locker waiting for Kris to come running in. She did so a few moments later clutching her stomach and her innards audibly gurgling.
"Ugh, I ate too many potatoes...!" Kris hurried on her way into the bathroom and, nearly exposing themselves with laughter, Maria and Nikolas snuck out and glanced into the bathroom.
"Which one did she go in?" Nikolas whispered.
"I dunno, I can't tell," Maria shook her head, "But I put one in every toilet, so..."
"Well whaddya waiting for?!" Nikolas shouted, "Blow 'em all up!"
Maria thrust her hand out and concentrated on the gas balls she'd stuffed down each toilet pipe. With a little bit of science she picked up from Catherine's blabbering she's learned how to turn them into miniature bombs.
The pipes exploded, water shooting out like geysers as Kris suddenly wailed in shock.
"AAAAAAA!"
She got blown out of the restroom covered in fecal matter and pee, which was quickly filling the room and painting the ceilings.
The two masterminds stood and clapped their hands together in celebration, "YEAH!"
However, they were suddenly hoisted up by the collar of their shirts by the burly lady janitor, who stared at them with vein-y eyes and muttered, "Ooooh you little troublemakers are gonna get it now."
Nikolas and Maria stared at each other and gulped.
A few minutes later they, along with a drying Kris, found themselves in the Principal's Office as the grumpy old man stood over his table and shouted at them all.
"Detonating the toilets! Running around half-naked! Fiddling with the cafeteria food! Your terrorizing antics are getting way out of hand you three!"
"B-But-!" Kris tried to raise an objection only for the principal to slap his hand on the table while taking a seat.
"Not a word out of you, Chrysanthemum." The principal picked up some papers and slammed them on the table. He then huffed out a sigh and leaned back into his chair looking very wrinkly in the face.
"You're all suspended for two days and I'll be contacting your parents after school. This is not up for debate."
There were no words to say for the three defeated schemers as they waddled out of the principal's office shaking in fear.
Nikolas dug his fingertips in his hair and grunted, "Ugh this SUCKS! My mom's gonna kill me!"
He turned and watched Kris wander down the south hall, then cupped his hands around his mouth to yell, "Hey! This is all your fault your big pig! I hope you're proud of yourself!"
She didn't respond with even the smallest biting remark.
"Hmph!" Nikolas threw his hands down to his hips and said, "This isn't over..."
He then looked Maria in the eye and said, "Well I gotta head home and deal with my parents. See you tomorrow at my place?"
Maria gave a dull nod and Nikolas ran off the opposite way. Maria, unfortunately, had no choice but to go the same way Kris was to go pick up her backpack.
The bully was looking down at the ground and seemed shaken by something. Maria's natural pace caught her up to the sluggish meanie so she could overhear her talking to herself.
"N-No, no...I can't be suspended...What'll they say? What'll they DO?" Her words were full of fear but none of which Maria herself cared about.
In fact she wallowed in the misery that meanie was suffering from now more than ever, and stood by her side to say bluntly, "You deserved this you jerk."
As Kris froze and slowly panned her head to face her, Maria closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, "Maybe this'll teach you not to pick on other people."
Silence turned to calm. Calm turned to ire. Ire...turned to burning rage.
The next thing Maria knew Kris was lunging at her and had her pinned to the locker with her arm against her chest. Maria coughed loudly and stared into Kris' now feral eyes.
"This is all YOUR fault! You got me in trouble!"
Maria impatiently glared back and remarked, "Y-You were picking on me! I never did anything to you!"
"Liar! Stupid headed...JERK!" Kris shoved her arm against Maria's chest again and it felt horrible on her lungs.
"Augh...!" She moaned in pain.
"Stop looking down on me you dot-faced LOSER!"
The kid gloves were off. Maria's fight or flight response made her heart boil over in rage, and she responded to the bully's aggression by summoning a giant gas fist and smashing it against the lockers beside her.
Kris froze, watching as the fist reeled back and unveiled a huge dent in the metal.
"Y-You..."
"Get..." Maria pressed her tiny feet against the locker behind her with all her strength and pushed Kris' stunned body forward, "OFF OF ME!"
The two fell towards the ground where they grabbed and rolled around, alternating who was top and bottom. Maria grabbed Kris' hair and pulled hard while Kris fought through screams just to tear the braids off Maria's pigtails.
Kris grounded Maria and tried to throw a punch, only for her to roll far out of the way and get to her feet.
Maria then lobbed a huge gas fist into Kris' body, blowing her a dozen feet through the air. But Kris landed on her feet and snarled, acting more primal than human. And with a strength unfitting her size, she grabbed hold of one of the nearby locker door and TORE it right off, throwing it at Maria.
Maria ran and slid under it just barely, then rose and kept on running. She winded her real fist back, blood curling in rage and leaving her as blind as a bull.
The next moment was like a blur, through which all Maria heard was a loud "Crack!" before Kris went crashing down to the floor on her hip.
Maria stumbled a couple steps forward and then gripped her knees tight, raising her head and panting tiredly. Kris stayed down, barely supported by her elbow.
Maria walked one step forward, spit on her foe's body, and then left her in her wake.
It only took a few more steps beyond for her to hear whimpering from behind. She looked over her shoulder and saw Kris placing her hands on the floor and tears dropping to the floor along with drops of blood from her nose.
Maria turned and continued to walk away, but the whimpering just wouldn't stop. It sounded like it was strenuous for her too.
She looked at her hand and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw blood smeared along her torn knuckles. All she heard after was the pounding sounds of her heartbeat against her chest, not from excitement, but fear...
She looked over her shoulder at Kris again and frowned.
Quickly sprinting along ahead to pick up her backpack, she carried it back to the fallen girl and bent down, pulling a tissue from her emergency supplies.
"Here." She whispered to get Kris' attention.
Kris raised her head and then quickly grabbed and stuffed the tissue to stop her bloody nose. Then she looked Maria in the eye and asked, "...Why?"
"I dunno." Maria dully replied.
Kris wiped her tears on her sleeve and muttered, "T-This doesn't change anything..."
So Maria looked her directly in the eyes and asked, "Why do you hate me so much?"
Kris grit her teeth and said, "You want to know why?"
"Yeah, that's why I asked." Maria replied.
Kris had a brief, unhinged fit of laughter and shook her head, "You're one of the Planetary Aurians, that's why."
Maria's eyes widened as what she took away from that is, "You believed what I said back them...?"
"Of course I did!" Kris shouted, "You guys are in all the Aurian history books, nobody would be dumb enough to claim they're one of them as a lie!"
This just raised further questions, "I-I don't understand...?"
"Of course you don't! You're so naive..." Kris lowered her head with a twitchy scowl, "You've gotten to be a big hero and go on big adventures. Everything in life comes easy to you while the rest of us can try our hardest, do everything we thinks right, and still be stuck on this dumb floating city!"
"You had to come and announce yourself like that to the whole class and look down on us like were nobodies!" Kris curled her fist and punched the floor, "And the grown-ups eat it all up cause you look so young and cute...!"
She punched the ground and screamed louder, "I try my best darn it! But I ain't that strong, I ain't that smart. But mom and dad keep telling me 'You're gonna be a star someday!', 'You'll get a great job and marry into wealth!', and 'You WILL keep doing your best dear!'"
"So I try, and I try, and I try, but its so hard, and nothing I'm gonna ever do will ever compare to the likes of you! You're just gonna breeze on by through school and leave the rest of us losers in the dust!"
"And it made me so, SO mad...!" She grit her teeth and growled right in Maria's face, "I HATE you!"
"I hate you I hate hate HATE you!" She repeated until her face was beet red.
Maria's heart felt tight and she looked Kris right in the face, knowing now that her tears were truly real. Yet as she saw her face reflected with scorn in the bully's eyes, Maria didn't feel a single shred of hate in her body.
She silently reached into her backpack and pulled out a few pieces of paper to hand off to Kris.
"W-What are these...?"
"My homework from last week," Maria pointed to the top, marked with a big red "C", "See this? Those're the kinds of grades I'm getting. A bunch of 'Cs' and 'B-'."
Kris grabbed the papers out of her hand and stared long and hard at them.
Maria patted her hands atop her knees and murmured, "School's really hard, isn't it?"
"You're not...a genius?" Kris stammered.
"Nuh-uh. That's Catherine's job," Maria remarked, "I was a floating ball of gas for two-thousand years."
Kris blinked a few times and Maria tilted her head, "That jerk Gravitus didn't put that in any history book, did he?"
Maria closed her eyes and remarked, "I don't know much about anything, but papa and mama and all my teachers are teaching me a lot. Every day I learn something new."
"I ain't ever felt special. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. But you sound like you've got dreams of your own, Kris...So why would you want to throw them all away by hurting other people?"
Kris turned away biting her lower lip into a firm pout, "I-I don't know...Mom and dad said I got to always be on top, so I thought..."
"Adults say really confusing things and I don't know why," Maria interjected, "My mama and papa especially say a lot of gibberish and fumble over their words when near each other."
"But I think...parents'll always have our best interests in mind, even if its hard to understand them. Your parents are like that, I think."
Kris got on her knees and looked straight at Maria's face with her wet eyes, "Then...when they're pushing me, its cause they love me?"
"Uh-huh!"
"And when they yell at me, its out of love too?"
"Yep!"
"So even when they paddle my butt, that's also out of love?"
"Uhhh..." Maria raised her head and rubbed her chin, "I don't know actually. But I can ask Granny Auris, she might know!"
No. It wasn't.
The moment Maria relayed this information to Auris the tension in the Aurora household was thick to the point of suffocating.
Auris ended up stampeding out of the house on a one-way warpath to Kris' parents with Kairi and Shina following close behind to hold her back.
Maria heard only of the aftermath.
It was a tiresome, two-hour long confrontation involving much yelling, crying, hitting, more crying, more yelling, followed by even more hitting.
Apparently Kris' parents were left broken and drowning in tears and Kairi and Shina were completely pale in the face afterwards.
Ultimately it turned out Kris was getting verbally abused by her parents and the paddling thing was a very recent but frightening addition. Confronted with the consequences their actions were having on not just their daughter, but also the entire school, Kris' parents had a long talk with each other in front of Auris discussing their own pasts and the cycle of abuse they were passing on to their child.
So to nip that in the bud, Kris' parents agreed with Auris' suggestion to start going to therapy to try to be better parents.
And thus for Maria, a week passed by very quickly without much further incident...
She joined Nikolas at their usual lunch table where Nikolas pointed out to her, "Haven't heard hide or hair of that meanie Kris for a while now, have we?"
Maria slowly nodded her head as she pulled out her sandwich.
Nikolas crossed his arms proudly and proclaimed, "Guess we sure showed her after all! Ha ha! We'll never see her again!"
"Oh yeah?" Shouted Kris behind them.
Nikolas froze and sucked his lips in with a high-pitched squeak as Kris took her hand out and suddenly patted him on the back, then moved over to rustle Maria's hair.
"Hey squirts, what's up?" She went and wedge herself between the two with a tray of cafeteria food in her hands.
Nikolas shoved back against her shoulder and remarked, "Hey! This is for friends only!"
"Yeah well, I'm Maria's friend now!" Kris declared.
Nikolas nearly recoiled off his seat and shouted "WHAAAAA?!"
Maria leaned over and remarked, "Yeah, its true."
"When did this happen?!" Nikolas replied.
Kris wrapped her arm around Maria's back and shoved her close to her chest with a big grin, "Just last week, Nicky Boy!"
Maria struggled to get her voice out there, "W-We had a long talk..."
Nikolas settled back upright and crossed his arms in a huff, "W-Well just cause Maria's forgiven you doesn't mean I will!"
Kris responded by reaching into her backpack and tossing an apple at Nikolas, who caught it with a bit of fumbling around. He then raised his head up high and murmured, "Apology...accepted!"
As he started chomping down on the apple the other two ate into their lunch a bit, during which Kris poked her fork up and suggested, "Hey you know what these last few months've taught me?"
"The value of friendship?" Maria replied.
"That you gotta lose weight?" Nikolas remarked, receiving the blunt prodding of Kris' fork cause of it.
"You wanna get physical shrimp?!" She said with a fiery grin, then retracted the fork and remarked, "Nah to either of you! Its that pulling pranks is fun!"
Nikolas perked up and said, "Oh yeah, you're right!"
Kris glanced back and forth at the two and said, "So I got a proposition for you both! I'm saying we should work together and keep pulling pranks on the other students!"
"That sounds like fun!" Nikolas shouted, "Whaddya think, Maria?"
Maria didn't have to think much about it, "Sure! Just so long as we don't hurt anyone in the process."
"Boy you don't have to tell me twice," Nikolas shuddered, "I'd rather dunk my head in the toilet than hafta go to the principal's office again."
"That's fine! Hurting people is hurtful anyways!" Kris remarked.
"Actually," Maria spoke up, "I know somebody we could go and prank right now!"
The three huddled up as Maria whispered her newest scheme.
Meanwhile, Kairi calmly walked through the cafeteria to sit down and enjoy her lunch. She glanced across the room and saw Maria sitting happily with all her friends, bringing a smile to her face.
"I'm glad it all worked out..." She could sit down in peace...
"SPLRTT!" Only for her butt to meet with a thick, creamy fate.
She quickly rose and found a cream filled pie stuck to her butt, which slid off onto the ground in seconds. Suddenly there was a lot of laughter filling the room, starting with the giggles of a certain Maria and friends...
Kairi narrowly glared at them from across the room and then closed her eyes, patiently taking a breath as she sat back down and sighed.
"They're only kids, Kairi...They'll outgrow this eventually..."
Next Time: A Viral Shadow Lingers