Night's Children: Cetera Desunt
AN: Last chapter! Meant to be crazy short. Enjoy, and the epilogue/preview thing will be up soon!
Chapter Fourteen: Revelation: Back to School
Two days later…
Aria tried desperately to quell the feelings of anxiety as she patiently stood in line to go through the weapons detector. As the teens waiting scuffled along, she stared at the ground and began to twist the edges on the bell sleeves of her white peasant shirt. Her heart was thudding violently against her chest and she had to remind herself to keep her breathing even.
The past two days had been both living hell and a somewhat relief. The day after consulting with Jimena and bringing back her teammates from the brink of soullessness had resulted terribly when Aria was caught sneaking in at about eight in the morning, halfway through the window of the Anderson-Moore's kitchen. Tianna, teary eyed and grasping Aria's amulet in her hand tightly, had given the teenager the biggest scolding of her life, followed by the more passive but still threatening reprimand from her father, who was apparently 'in' on the whole Goddess thing too.
When met with her parents' ruthless interrogation as to why she had disappeared in the middle of the night, Aria had failed to provide an adequate response, only scooping up the necklace from Tianna's hand and securing it firmly around her neck. The look of admiration coming from her mother, and a stern demand that she 'show them her personal freak show' from her father had given a huge sensation of tranquility within Aria. She found comfort in the fact that her family supported her, as it was something most of her fellow Daughters didn't have.
Aria hadn't been in contact with Carlos the past few days, which was understandable, seeing as he and his mother had tons to catch up on. It still unnerved her slightly, as she wanted to hear from the surfer bum more than ever, and it was strange how deep of a bond the teens had acquired in such a short amount of time. Who ever thought that being held at gunpoint by a couple of homicidal spirits from Hell would bring two people together? Throw that in, of course, with the inescapable destiny to vanquish evil hopelessness.
She had been more fortunate talking with the other Daughters of the Moon. Even though Riley had still been hospitalized, Imy had exuberantly kept Aria updated on her status, and Tessa had practically harassed Aria into telling the three goddesses about why they were in comas to begin with. Even Gordon had called home a few times to catch up with her, even if it felt like Aria was being interrogated the entire time she talked to him.
It was amazing how a few days and one incredibly insane night had shifted everything Aria thought she knew. A week ago, she would have hung up had any of those people attempted to call her, and there would be no reservations or guilt about it either. Now, she felt oddly connected to the teenaged deities, as well as a new relationship with her parents and her mentor.
Especially with her mentor.
…Aria wondered how Jimena would feel when she discovered that her most reluctant charge had a rather massive crush on her (e)strange(d) son.
"Aria! You're holding up the line!" Came a cry from beyond the metal detector.
Startled, Aria's head darted up and she immediately recognized the source of the call. By the entryway stood Yvette, flanked on her right by Amanda. Across the quad, she could see Ian, who was smiling at her. She tensed when she saw the handsome blond, and she felt an odd tugging on her chest. Was it guilt? Or something else? He gave a cheerful wave to her which she awkwardly mimicked, before walking up to the guards.
Shaking her head, she set her bag down on the table for a security personnel to rifle through it, and stepped through the metal detectors, shouldering her purse as soon as she made her way through. Hesitantly, she approached the pair who used to be the most important people in her life.
"Where have you been all weekend?" Demanded Yvette, a look of irritation crossing her perfect features as she crossed her arms over her chest and rose an eyebrow.
"We've been trying to get a hold of you for hours," Whined Amanda, gesturing with her sidekick-esque phone for emphasis.
Aria stared and passively evaluated her two…best friends. Yvette was waiting haughtily and arrogant, her dark eyes trained on Aria and waiting instantly for a reply, while Amanda stood there, deciding to fish out some lip gloss from her purse and reapply yet another coat on her rather heavily-made up face. For once, Aria was staring at the two from an outsider's perspective, and she had to wonder why exactly she was friends with these two in the first place. Sighing to herself, she offered a rather fake smile.
"Sorry, I was grounded this weekend," It wasn't necessarily untrue. Tianna was still rather livid about the attempted runaway scheme.
Yvette's eyes widened, "Oooh, what did you do?"
Aria shrugged, still trying to play the nonchalant card even though she desperately wanted to go to class- an extremely odd occurrence for her, "Got caught sneaking back in."
Amanda stared at her, blinking owlishly, "Where did you go?"
"More importantly, where did you go without us?" Yvette added, grinning rather devilishly, "Out with Ian?"
Aria grimaced slightly, something that didn't go totally unnoticed by her two friends, "Not exactly." She mumbled, she paused when she saw Ian heading towards them in her peripheral vision, "I better get going, or I'm going to be late for math." She continued, carefully shoving passed the two teens who stood there gaping at her retreating back.
"What is with her?" Amanda demanded waspishly.
Yvette snorted, "It's like she's a completely different-"
"Hey, where'd Aria go?" Questioned Ian innocently as he approached the two, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he watched her walk further away, entering the school building and disappearing.
Amanda turned on him, "Did you guys get into a fight or something?"
His mind rewound to the incident in the mall cafeteria a few days ago, "No, not really."
"What do you mean 'not really'?" Yvette pressed.
Ian tensed, the uneasy feeling he always got around those two resurfacing, "We didn't get in a fight, she just seems kind of stressed out lately-"
"Ugh, typical," Amanda cut him off, tossing her long hair over her shoulder and pointing at him, "You go talk to her then." She ordered.
Ian, thankful for the opportunity to get away from the harpies, nodded, "Sure." He said, hoisting his backpack over both his shoulders and heading towards the school as quickly as he could.
"Ask her if she wants to have lunch with us!" Cried Yvette to his back.
Ian rolled his eyes as he pressed open the door. Maybe it was just those two in particular, but he simply couldn't understand girls.
OoO
Aria gave a happy sigh of relief as she collected the last things she needed out of her locker before shutting it with her elbow. If she could make it until lunch without running into either Amanda, Yvette, or Ian she could count the day as a success.
Aria knew that Ian was a nice guy, and she supposed underneath the multiple layers of superficiality and mascara, Amanda and Yvette were good people too, but she just wasn't ready for a confrontation with any of them yet. She had spent almost the entire school year pretending to be something she wasn't, and now that she was beginning to accept her own destiny, she wasn't quite sure how to combine the two worlds. She couldn't truly be herself around Amanda and Yvette, and she couldn't face Ian without feeling a terrible amount of guilt. While they had never been actually dating, she couldn't help but think that her kissing Carlos was some mark of betrayal.
Not that she regretted kissing him. No, not at all. Carlos had something that Ian lacked, what it was, Aria wasn't quite certain, but she felt truly at ease around her mentor's son, whereas with Ian it continuously felt as if she were walking on tacks. As cheesy as it sounded, Aria simply connected on an entirely different level with Carlos than she had with Ian, but she didn't have the heart to tell Ian about him yet. At least, not until she could phrase the situation delicately, without Ian getting hurt.
"Spacing out again?" Came a voice directly over her shoulder.
Well, crap.
Aria exhaled slowly, "Hi, Ian."
She cautiously glanced at her side, where Ian had fallen into stride with her, and she tensed slightly, her fingers gripping her notebooks with a bit more intensity than usual. She didn't have the motivation, nor mental stability if she were honest with herself, at the moment to have the dreaded 'it's not you, well, kind of not you, it's mostly me and the new guy' talk.
He smiled at her, and the fluttering sensation that would grip her chest, while still present, was not nearly as strong as it used to be, "Feeling alright?"
She gave the hugest fake smile known to the history of man, "Yep! Never better!" She said, inching away from him slightly, walking directly alongside the wall.
Ian's warm brown eyes stared at her for a moment, before he tentatively asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Nope, I'm fine, well this is my class!" Aria spluttered, turning and heading into the nearest empty room, which was not in fact her class.
"Aria, wait," Ian called, grabbing her arm lightly, pulling her back from the doorway, "Did I do something wrong?"
Aria felt the crushing guilty feeling coming back as she stared at his bemused face, "No, why do you ask?"
"We have our first class together," He said flatly, his hand dropping away from her arm, "What's wrong with you Aria? Did something bad happen over the weekend or something?"
Aria's thoughts conjured up the mental images of being shot at, strangled, punched, clawed, and almost having her soul sucked out. "No, nothing bad." She coughed awkwardly, "I just got grounded."
Hurt was beginning to take over confusion in Ian's features, as he saw through her pathetic attempts at lying, "I see…" He trailed off before he gave a brilliantly fake grin of his own, "Well, I'm here when you want to talk." He paused, "And Yvette and Amanda want to know if you're going to lunch with them." He added lamely, not sure what to say to her.
Aria gnawed on her lower lip, regret filling her, but she didn't know how else to handle the situation, "I can't today, I have other plans." She responded, "I'm really sorry." She said sincerely, not referring to the lunch outing.
Ian failed to pick up on this, however, "I'm sure they'll get over it," He shrugged, giving another smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "I'll see you in math." He spoke softly, walking carefully passed her and down the hall.
Aria watched him go, trying to convince herself that she was doing the right thing.
OoO
The rest of the morning flew by incredibly fast, and when the bell for lunch sounded, Aria darted out of her classroom as if she were being pursued by rabid wolves. Well, perhaps not that fast.
After a few minutes of darting behind crowds in order to avoid Amanda and Yvette, Aria finally found herself outside, walking hesitantly between the rows of trees that framed the revered 'Smoker's Alley' of Turney High. While a few of the more…delinquent students gaped at her in shock, not used to seeing Ms. Queen of Turney walking amongst them mere commoners, they quickly scoffed and turned back to whatever they were doing. Aria rubbed her arms, feeling terribly self-conscious with all the stares she was receiving, but shook it off as she reached the end of the alley.
Turning to the other side of the trees, she could hear their voices sounding.
"That's mine!" Came an angry female voice, followed by some scuffling noises.
"You snooze, you loose," Replied a jeering tone, contributed with some chewing sounds.
"But that was the last spring roll!" Protested the earlier voice, pouting now.
"Both of you should really just learn to share," Contributed a monotone female in exasperation.
Aria exhaled slowly and turned towards a secluded section of school grounds, and she wasn't quite surprised at what she saw there.
Sitting on a checkered picnic blanket, were none other than Riley, Imy and Tessa. Currently, Tessa was holding a half-devoured spring roll with chopsticks to her mouth, while Imy watched, eyeing the bit of food with a comically intense longing. To the side, Riley was sprawled out serenely, arms folded beneath her head as she stared at the clouds in the sky.
Since she went unnoticed, Aria continued to observe them. Almost all the signs of the turmoil the three girls had gone through had vanished, excepting a few bandages peeping out from under the cover of Riley's oversized long john shirt. Tessa and Imy were back to their playful selves, now fighting over the remaining rice in an intense chop stick battle. It struck Aria harshly then just how much those three girls looked like sisters, like a family.
An even more intense feeling came when Aria realized that she now wanted to be included in that.
As if sensing Aria's emotional revelation, Riley's eyelids lazily flew open, "You're late," Was all she said calmly, "I'm afraid they may have eaten most of the food."
Hearing Riley's greeting, Imy paused her stabbing session and grinned happily, "Took you long enough!" She chirped, before she looked down at the carton and paled when she realized Tessa had snuck even more food away.
Aria carefully sat down, opposite of Tessa and next to Imy. "Sorry, I had to hide from Yvette and Amanda."
Tessa's angelic features twisted into disgust, "Erugh, I don't even go to this school and I can't stand them." She muttered, "It amazes me how you can."
The healer just gave an impish smirk and shrugged, "People grow on you."
Tessa gave her a knowing look before handing Aria a pair of chop sticks and a carton of noodles, "Yeah, I guess you're right." She muttered.
Aria graciously took the carton and gave her first real smile of the day.
Imy cleared her throat and stood up, "Alright, so, to celebrate the return of everyone from the hospital…" She trailed off, making her voice even more exaggerated like a professional announcer's, "I proclaim this delectable meal of second-rate oriental food free for all!" She declared with flourish, brandishing her chop sticks in the air.
The three of them eyed her for a few seconds before bursting out in laughter.
"You are such a dork," Tessa mumbled, snatching the carton of chow mein from Imy, who, having finally grown frustrated, pressed her hand against the picnic cloth and squinted in concentration. In a few seconds, the containers with food still in them vanished in a circle of white light before they all miraculously appeared on Imy's side.
"Cheater!" Proclaimed Tessa, reaching over and grabbing as many as she could.
Imy stuck out her tongue and began to rapidly inhale her food.
Yet again sighing, Riley turned her gaze to the only other sane one in the group, "Fortune cookie?" She asked bluntly, "It's probably all that'll be left in a few minutes."
Grinning, Aria picked one up, unwrapping it gingerly. She cracked the wafer precisely in the middle, and withdrew the slip of paper from within. Her eyes scanned the message and the corners of her mouth twitched into yet another smile.
"What's yours say?" Riley questioned.
Aria just shook her head and reclined into a languid position matching that of the maroon haired girl's, "Nothing."
The empath stared at her for a moment, before shrugging and lying back down. The two of them just vegging out and ignoring the epic battle going on between the blonde and brunette.
Aria relaxed, and all of her troubles and anxieties seemed to fly away in the calm breeze that floated through, much like a small slip of paper which read "You do not find happiness, happiness finds you."
Everything was going to get better.
Aria could feel it.
After all, she had her family.
OoO
And that's the end!
What goes on with Carlos and Jimena will be explained in the next book, a side story called Meliora which is in Jimena's point of view.
Preview thing (I really need a better name for that, don't I?) coming up! I'm doing it in a slightly different style than the one in Nox Noctis so I hope you like it!
Review and I'll love you forever!
!nym!