Here is chapter 3 sorry it took so long, just stressing on exams, the usual boring stuff in life, rather than fighting monsters as a secret super hero like Jame Lake Jr.
P.E. was as you would expect. There were four kinds of students in P.E.; those who could do it because needed to, those who did it to show off, those who did it quickly to get free time to gossip and them there was Toby.
Toby was at the moment trying to climb up the rope with Jim cheering him on. Aliyah was waiting patiently alongside him, waiting for Toby to finish so that she could use it.
"Come Tobes. You can do this." Jim cheered. As Toby climbed the rope, millimetre by millimetre. Aliyah watched as the chubby boy's face strained with the amount energy he was exerting in his arms.
Needless to say Toby did not even manage to climb higher than Jim's head before falling back to the ground. As if waiting to shame Tobias, Coach Lawrence immediately appeared just in time to bash on Toby for his failure.
Aliyah meanwhile had noticed that Jim's eyes were slowly trailing away from Tobias and leading to an all too familiar Hispanic girl, Clair Nuñez. Aliyah playfully jabbed Jim's shoulder. The teen in question looked at her with a dubious look.
"What?" Jim asked.
"Don't what me." Aliyah told him, before punching him in the shoulder again.
"If you like her so much then talk to her." She told him.
"But.." Jim said only to be cut off by him.
"I'll just be honest with you now, you keep staring like that with talking to her, and she will most likely think you're stalking her." Aliyah said, smirking at the boy. Jim looked at her as if ready to argue, but no words came.
"You sound like " he murmured before taking a deep breath and walking over to Claire.
Surprisingly it had only taken Aliyah a few minutes after he left to realize what he murmured. "Hey!" She yelled, gaining the attention of the entire class. Everyone stared at her as if she had grown a second head. "Um," she said nervously as all eyes were focused on her. Her eyes trailed around quickly looking for anything to subvert their attention.
Fortunately she found something, unfortunately that something was Tobias. 'Sorry Tobes' she thought, before pointing at him. "Look a piñata." She yelled as she pointed to the chubby boy still hanging upside down. Immediately, most people turned their attention to Toby, who was struggling to lose his foot from the rope. A couple of students started to tease and jeer at the boy, much to his discomfort. Aliyah didn't miss the hurtful expression on his face as he looked at her. She mouthed 'I am sorry' but she knew she would need to do more to make it up.
While everyone was laughing at the chubby teen, another raven haired teen was slowly making it the top.
"Almost there." The teen said as nearly reached the bell. With one last burst of effort he climbed a little further, the bell just within his grasp. As he was about to grab the bell, a loud rumble came from the air vents. The boy turned his head to see what was the source of the sound. When he looked at the vents his body froze at the creature he saw; green skin, bright yellow eyes, tube like limbs and a large fangs. The creature snarled at him and the boy release his grip on the rope. The next thing the boy knew was that he was falling and then it stopped and someone one screamed in pain.
"Ouch!" A girl screamed. The boy looked down to see that he had landed on Aliyah, who was at the moment looking really ticked off at him, but then again anyone would be mad at a total stranger for landing on them. If he had paid more attention he would have noticed her eyes narrow as if they became slits before dilating back to normal.
"Get off me." The girl said, as she pushed him off of her. Aliyah winced in pain as she did so.
"Aahh!" Aliyah groaned, grabbing her left arm.
The coach was the first to arrive on the scene. When he realized something was wrong with Aliyah's shoulder, he immediately sent both of them to the nurse's office for treatment.
The two of them were sitting patiently in the nurse's office waiting for the nurse to arrive. Aliyah was still clutching her left arm, trying to keep it in place. The boy's eyes were trailing all over the room, trying to distract him from the girl sitting next to him, whom he had injured.
He was about to say something to break the silence but then held his tongue least it be something stupid.
"Of all the people, you had to land on me." Aliyah said to him.
"Yeah. Sorry about that." He replied with nervous laugh, absentmindedly scratching the back of his head.
"It's alright. I've been through worse." She told him.
"Oh. So, no hard feelings?" He asked.
"No hard feelings..." Aliyah's voice trailed off. "Just be on your guard." She told him in a sing song voice.
"On guard? Guard for what?" He asked nervously.
"Pay back." Aliyah said, "No hard feelings though right. I mean you did kind of damage my shoulder, and probably affect my ability to do metalwork for Mr. Chelb."
The boy gulped before subconsciously grabbing his own shoulder. Aliyah noticed this and giggled a little. "Relax. I am kidding." She told him. "Lighten up will yuh." She responded as she continued to laugh. The boy didn't know how to respond to this and did the most logical thing any boy would have done, laugh along with her.
The two were interrupted when the door closed to the office. The injured pair looked to see that a short elderly woman was standing there in a nurse's outfit holding a notepad. The woman's name tag read Nurse Ramsey and it was at that moment both patients knew they were in for quite a treatment. The nurse wasted no time in inspecting the boy. When she had finished she wrote down a few words on the note pad and showed it to the boy. Nurse Ramsey was very soft spoken woman, so soft that whatever she said was hardly ever heard and she had learnt long ago that writing was much faster than having to let people try and figure out what she said.
The boy read the words 'Try 100 push-ups a day to get the upper body strength.' To which he groaned for having to do the exercise. Needless to say this was met with the nurse hitting him in the arm with her notepad, another perk of having to right stuff done; you could actually inflict pain with your words.
Aliyah giggled slightly at the boy's misfortune before promptly zipping her lips when the elder lady glared at her. Nurse Ramsey then grabbed the boy by the ear and escorted him out of the room.
The nurse examined Aliyah's arm and began writing on her note pad. Aliyah read the note: 'You have a dislocated shoulder and what I could infer as several cracks in your arm. Tell me. Did you get a drink of the potion before class?'
Now it was Aliyah's turn to reply nervously.
"Um yes." She answered. The nurse immediately tapped her on her head.
"Ow." Aliyah said wincing in pain.
The nurse quickly wrote down another note on her pad. This read ' That explains why you have more injuries than you should. How could you forget that after drinking the potions your bones become fragile? You have been doing this for a longer time than I could remember.' Aliyah crumpled the note and threw it in a trash can.
"Look, I know I made a mistake, but it won't happen again." She told the elder. The elder's expression told all what she wanted to say. 'It better not.'
"So how long before I'm all healed?" Aliyah asked.
The Nurse smirked while tossing Aliyah a pillow, while cracking her knuckles. Ramsey then motioned for Aliyah to bite down on the pillow as she did and proceeded to go and reposition the girl's shoulder. Needless to say Aliyah's eyes turned to bright yellow slits eyes as she bit down into the pillow trying to muffle her scream. When the nurse finished, she proceeded to remove the pillow only to discover that Aliyah had made holes in it with her teeth.
When the nurse looked at Aliyah she could see the girl flash a guilty smile, revealing fangs having formed in her mouth.
The nurse wrote in her notepad. 'You shoulder is back in place, but the cracks in your arm need time to heal. If you stay off the potion you could heal faster, say a day, maybe two.'
"And if I stay with the potion?" Aliyah asked
'A week or two.' Ramsey scribbled. The old lady then went into her cabinets and searched for something. When she returned she handed Aliyah a long piece of cloth.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" The girl asked. Ramsey just rolled her eyes. She took the cloth and fastened it onto Aliyah's arm as a cast, and then took another and made a sling.
"Ooh." Aliyah said.
Ramsey continued to write. 'Whether you stay of the potion or not; I'd recommend wearing the cast and sling for a week. At least in public places or with those, who don't know the real you, just to avoid suspicion.'
Aliyah tried moving her arm a little testing the cast. "What about my classes?" She asked, to which Ramsey promptly handed her a note. When Aliyah read it, she discovered it was a doctor's note, excusing her from her classes.
"Thanks Rams." Aliyah replied, only to be immediately whacked on the head with the notepad, by the nurse.
"What was that for?" Aliyah yelled, holding her head with her right hand.
The elder didn't wait to scribble a reply. 'That's Nurse Rams, to you.' She wrote, then added 'You're welcome.'
"Okay, well if that's all then I'm off." Aliyah said as walked out door. She stopped before leaving turning back to face the nurse. "Thanks again Rams." She said and immediately shut the door. She knew she heard the distinct sound of the notepad hitting the door as she closed it.
Aliyah stopped by Mr. Chelb first to show the note and explain why she couldn't do any more metal work. Mr. Chelb as one could imagine, very well understood that a girl wouldn't be able to smith hot metal with one good arm. The teacher did however lend her the history book she had been sketching in earlier, to photocopy.
"Just remember, once yuh copy the designs, erase 'em from the book and do so ever so neatly. Alright lass." He told her.
"Yes sir." She responded.
"And one more thing," took a marker and signed the cast. "Can't have any of my students thinking I don't care." He told her.
"Thanks." Aliyah responded, as she took the book.
It took a while for Aliyah to track down Eli, but apparently he had a run in with Steve and wounded up in locker. Luckily for him, James and Toby were passing and helped him out. Although from what Aliyah heard, it sounded like James had put himself in the position for a beating by Steve.
"So I take it we'll have to skip investigating the site, seeing as you're...you know." Eli said motioning to the cast. Aliyah merely cast him a stern look.
"How about…. No." Aliyah responded, "If one of those monsters did turn to stone and break in the storm drain then we need to go now. If the rain falls during the night or heaven forbid the sewers open, then those rocky remains are going to get washed away." She told him.
"Are you sure?" Eli asked.
"Relax, we're just picking up some rocks how bad good it be." Aliyah told him.
"I guess you right." Eli responded, "Let's go."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Didn't see the broken arm, did you. I figured i would try to avoid any usual trope and have the main character break a bone or two to start things off. I figured it show that she was vulnerable just like others and will not be so protected by plot armor. How did you all like the trope avoidance, was it worth it or not?
That being said two new characters have been introduced and we still have to get to good action scene, so who once to figure out what character Nurse Ramsey is based off. Hint: the name is original but the behavior is not.
To answer some previous question, Aliyah is not a changeling, i gave those characteristics to help cause confusion in the story. If anyone can guess what she is, please PM me. I wouldn't want you all to spoil it for the others.