Chapter Five: Normal
Na-Na: Don't own Sky High. Anyway, to more important matters. I'm still sort of confused as to who Tenni will be with in the end. I mean, Will and Zach have been eliminated from the running. You guys have made it clear to me it would just be way too weird if she ended with Will because a) They're cousins/brother-and-sister, and that's creepy incest and b) Will's meant to be with Layla(Which I agree with, but you never know). Zach is gone because he's got Maj. So it is Lash or Warren or no one and she dies alone. Not that she'd die any time soon or anything. Well, read on.
We were heading to school again, for another normal day I figured. Crazy as it may seem, I was rather pleased that I'd be going back. After last night, I needed something else to focus on. The conversation Will and Dad had made me sad afterwards. Dad had felt so disappointed and Will had been so heartbroken. It hurt just listening to them talk about it. When Will had acted like it had never happened this morning, it shocked me. I had expected him to still be choked up about it, but he was smiling again. I think it broke my heart more seeing him cover it up with a smile than seeing him sad.
Today, I was sitting next to Magenta. It was a change up from the usual seating arrangements I'd have since I'd regularly sit next to only Layla, Will, or Zach. I remembered about Zach telling me about how he had a crush on Magenta. I had suspected he had had a crush on her since the first day of school yet I didn't know whether or not to trust my gut feeling on that. Once, Layla had been under the impression Zach and I had crushes on each other during 8th grade just because we enjoyed hanging out together. She is so weird. So is Zach, so that was why I didn't jump to any conclusions about his love life. Appearances aren't always what they let on. I, of all people, know that the best.
Now I was here. In the seat next to Magenta thinking about how I should start conversation with her. Even though I acknowledged her as a friend, we still didn't talk much. Ethan and I conversed more than she and I did. It was probably because we were more comfortable sitting near each other without any real conversing going on. But I really wanted to know more about the girl who caught my friend's eye and heart.
"So, uh Magenta…" I started getting her attention.
"Yeah?" Magenta said in a borderline bored tone waiting for what I was going to say.
"What school did you go to before Sky High?" I asked just using that as the starting topic.
"Middleview Junior High school," She answered, "Ethan went there as well so we've known each other for a while. So, since we're on the topic, which school did you go to?" I think I had her roped into this conversation. As long as I had her attention, that was good. Magenta surprisingly had a short attention span (much like my own), so you wouldn't want to try boring her.
"Thornton Junior High school. Layla, Will, and Zach went there with me as well." I just barely caught the twitch Magenta's eye did at the mention of Zach's name. My eyebrow rose for a second before I resumed talking. "When did you first power up?" Magenta's eyes lit up at that.
"It must've been some time during the summer. Anyway, I was in Hot Topic looking for some things that were cool looking when some weirdo came up to me and tried hitting on me. Well, I finally went to the dressing room because he had ticked me off enough by following me wherever I went. I got so angry, I actually shape-shifted in the dressing room by accident. I wasn't too freaked out about it since my mom has powers and warned me to expect them soon. So I spent a while experimenting with the changing back and forth in there before deciding to take revenge on the guy who was bothering me. Bit his ankle hard enough to make him scream. It was so much fun." I stared at Magenta for a long time.
"What?" she asked.
"That was the most you've said to me at all in the whole week I've known you." I said in disbelief. It was true. Magenta began to laugh.
"Yeah, you're right," she said before laughing again. Her laughter was infectious, because soon I found myself laughing with her.
"We should talk more," I said, laughter finally starting to subside.
"Yeah. So, how often do you go to the mall?" she asked me.
"Not often," I said, "Most of the stuff I have my Mom buys for me. I never actually pick it out."
"You're kidding!" she said, "Jeeze, I go to the mall weekly. Mostly only to Hot Topic, but you get the idea. You should really go more often. Add more flair to your wardrobe, blue fits you but gray seems too dull of a color to wear, and you wear a lot of it." Magenta had a good point. I really had no fashion sense at all. But it was because I was trying to not give my outfit flair.
"What should I do then?" I asked Magenta. I really sucked when it came to girl stuff, and I was one myself.
"Well, I think you should go shopping," Magenta stated simply.
"Shopping?" I asked dumbly.
"Yes shopping Tenni. You know, going somwhere, namely a mall, exchanging money for clothing. That sort of thing. How about you come with me and Layla on Friday?"
"I…uh…um…"
"Never mind about answering. You have no say in the matter. You're coming with us whether you like it or not." She said with a "No way out" tone. I decided to accept the shopping threat and just talk about other things.
We continued idly chatting until the bus finally reached Sky High. As soon as the door opened, a long arm stretched in and snatched the hat Ron had been wearing. Ron dashed off out of the bus to try and retrieve his hat. Will and I had immediately taken off to go help the poor bus driver get the hat back. To our displeasure, it happened to be Lash and Speed who had taken the hat. Not much of a surprise.
"Come on Ron," Lash taunted as Speed raced around with his hat, "Hey big boy, where's your hat? Hey, where's your hat?"
"Come on!" Ron said frustrated, "If you're not gonna respect me, at least respect the hat!"
"Oh please," Lash scoffed.
"Guys. Guys, come on. Give Ron back his hat." Will said as we walked up to Ron.
"You guys are so rude and immature. Just grow up already." I said angrily at them.
"All right, you Sidekick Wannabe. Give him his hat back." Lash said, and he threw the hat.
I watched as the hat started falling in the direction of a mud puddle. Quickly, I shot my left arm out to freeze the puddle just before the hat hit it. Safe. The hat landed on the frozen mud without any dirt on it. With a flick of my wrist upwards, I shot a stream of water at Lash and Speed, soaking them to the bone. People started laughing at the two wet bullies. Speed cursed as he sped off. Lash stopped and glared at me, and I smiled smugly since I had managed to thwart his bullying attempt. He stalked off angrily, probably going to go find some freshman to pick on with Speed. Losers. Will bent down to pick up the hat and then handed it to Ron. Ron took it and thanked us gratefully before going back to his bus.
"That was cool, what you did back there Tenni," Ethan said to me, "Saving Ron's hat from Lash and Speed. No one ever stands up to them."
"Well, I just dislike people like that," I said to him, "They shouldn't get pleasure out of tormenting other students."
"Yeeah!" Zach exclaimed from behind us, "You're a real hero already Ten. I mean, when other people try and pick on others, BAM! You're there defending them."
"He's right," Layla said, "There should be more people like you trying to help others." I stared at Layla like she was crazy.
"More people like me?" I asked her incredulously.
"Yeah!" she said gleefully.
God, she was serious. This world didn't need more of me running around. I was mentally challenged, though I hid that little fact from people well. I kept my maniacal tendencies to myself. I can barely even hide it from my friends, though. I mean, for Pete's sake! Most of them don't even know what I look like, or anything about my life before I moved in with the Strongholds. Did I forget to mention I was insane? No? Good.
"Uh…Okay." I finally forced out. It was so hard agreeing with something that I didn't believe to be true.
Sighing, I took off for school letting my friends have to catch up with me. Zach was the first to get over to me. Darn him, having long legs and being so tall compared to short old me. He tapped me on the shoulder. I gave him a questioning look before he gave me a mischievous one.
"What?" Stating to get annoyed by the way he was acting.
"Lover boy's watching." Zach said in a sing song voice.
Something must've died in my brain because after he said that, I couldn't move. Nope. I wasn't moving. Tried willing my legs to walk, my hands to curl (not so gently) around Zach's throat, and make the blood stop rushing to my face.
Apparently, my will wasn't going to help.
I was rooted to the spot, my eyes trained blankly on the door of Sky High. I couldn't walk at all. In my mind, I was screaming at myself to lunge at Zach and kill him before he could get away. But I couldn't. All that was going through my mind was awareness at the fact that there were people staring at namely a certain guy I had a crush on. I was also over aware of the fact that there was the biggest, reddest blush on my face at the very moment. It was so embarrassing! Okay, I had to calm myself down. This wasn't the end of the world. Just the end of Zach. He was a good friend when he was around, but he just over stepped the boundaries and he needed to pay for it.
If only I could stop the damn blushing!
When everyone finally realized there was something wrong, I still couldn't move. I knew he was still staring at me, because I was still overly aware of anything alive in the seventy-foot perimeter. And he seemed to stand out most from the entirety of all the people here. My eye twitched. Wait, my eye twitched? Yes! My motor skill functions were coming back. Wiggle your big toe! Wiggle your big toe! Oops. That's Kill Bill. Anyway, two minutes later I could move and Layla and Will were shaking me silly worrying like mother hens. It seemed normal coming from Layla, but from Will, it was pretty funny. He was worrying circles around me.
The death intent I had towards Zach instantaneously melted away. I could really never put up with doing anything to make Will upset. He meant so much to me, and I wasn't sure I could let go of that attachment anytime soon. Will knew me. He knew about everything, and loved me regardless, unaware of how much that love saved me everyday he gave me a smile. Those smiles meant more to me than anything. Ever since the first day I met Will, those hugs and smiles he gave me slowly helped me get over what was going on in my life.
I believed because of the happiness I felt when Will was there for me, that I needed to be like that too. Every day I would smile for people so that they could know there was someone who didn't care who they were or what they had done with their lives. There could never be sin in a true smile, and everyone needed to have one person smile for them without any fear or hateful feelings for them, unconditionally.
My movement returned to me without many problems. Will and Layla were still in worry mode, asking me what was wrong and if I was okay and if I needed to sit down or get something to drink. I chuckled be for putting them at ease. Will looked a bit skeptical about it and asked me again to be sure. He was so sweet. I reassured him everything was all right. Finally, he ceased his silly worrying and smiled again. I felt happier already because of that. Linking arms with Will and Layla, the rest of us went inside the school, forgetting our problems.
But I didn't forget to send a quick smile to the person watching me from afar. I'd be the person to smile for him everyday.
As we were heading through the hall, someone tapping me on the shoulder caught my attention. Turning my head to look behind me, I saw it was Zach. He looked kind of upset. I slipped my arms out of Will's and Layla's and walked beside Zach a few feet behind them waiting for whatever Zach was going to say to me.
"Sorry about teasing you earlier," Zach said apologetically.
"It's okay. I over reacted anyway. He always watches me. It's just weird if it's brought to my attention so suddenly," I said forgiving him. I didn't feel all too angry, since Will had made me feel better.
"Are you sure? I mean, it's okay to be mad at me you know. I was being a real jerk out there," he said. Was he trying to make me mad at him?
"Yeah I'm sure. It's totally fine Zach. Besides, I'm kind of in too good of a mood to be angry at you," I said while smiling at him to prove at my point. His look turned from expectant to disappointed.
"Okay. But you need to get angry one of these days." I stopped and stared at him for a second with an utterly confused look on my face.
"Wha…?"
"You're too passive, Ten. The most angry you ever get is when I call you Ten, and even then, all you do is glare and tell me stop," Zach said exasperatedly, "You need to be more expressive, you know? Act out more. Over react. Throw a fit. Make threats. Something."
Wow. That was something I would've never imagined to come out of Zach's mouth. He really should try and be more serious all of the time, not just with me. I didn't know if I should've been offended or grateful at the…was it advice? I didn't have time to voice my confusion because Zach had wandered off to talk to Magenta and Ethan and leave me to toil within my own thoughts. Why had Zach told me that? Not getting angry and expressing it was a good thing wasn't it? Layla had always told me that keeping negative emotions in check was a good thing, so why was Zach trying to tell me otherwise? It didn't make sense. And I couldn't decide which friend I should listen to more.
Anger was a destructive emotion. It caused pain and problems, but if pent up, could become far worse than if let out at a controlled rate. So what was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to act? I really didn't know, and I couldn't stop to think about it at this moment because the bell had just rung. I bid farewell to my friends and set off to my Hero classes, feeling too confused at the moment to think properly.
RING!
The bell had finally rung signaling the end of fifth period Basic Hero Skills class. I said a quick and muffled good bye to the teacher, Mr. Reynolds, the crazy, vulgar teacher who taught the class. He gave a reply that sounded something like, "Get the hell out and have a nice day," before using his power, aerokinesis, to push me out of the room and slam the door shut right behind me. Yup, he was definitely my favorite teacher (No sarcasm intended. The guy is cool!). Mr. Reynolds was on about the same maturity level as the teenagers he taught. But when he wasn't acting like a large kid, he was actually a very smart guy, and I enjoyed having serious conversations with him.
I had almost made it to the cafeteria when I thought about what Zach had said to me earlier. I started to feel unsure about going in there and having to talk to him again. He could've been joking but…I was taking him seriously, and now my head was starting its now daily headache because of it. It was twice now in the course of less than a whole school day Zach had caused me to feel upset about something that was completely irrational. I was beginning to get annoyed by the constant occurrence. So I ended up just standing near the entrance of the cafeteria, not going any further so as not to have to see the hyperactive Zach.
Suddenly, a hand was laid on my shoulder. I turned to see it was Layla looking at me with a worried look.
"Are you okay?" she asked me putting her other hand on my other shoulder. I didn't no how to answer that. I didn't really feel okay at the minute.
"Not really Layla," I answered truthfully, instead of just lying and toughing it out, "My head hurts, and I just don't want to be here right now. I just, I just want to be alone somewhere, get away from the noise, it just makes my head hurt more and more. I'm so confused and stressed and…I don't know anymore. Can I go somewhere quiet, please?"
"Oh Tenni," Layla said pulling me into a hug, "You don't need to ask. How about you go to the library? It'll be quiet there. I understand. It's been hard for you and Will, ever since school started." I pulled away and gave Layla a grateful smile. I really love this girl. Platonicly.
"Thank you Layla," I said, "For understanding."
"It's okay. Just go. You'll feel better once you have a little time to settle your thoughts," Layla said, giving me a little push in the right direction.
"Okay," I said starting to walk off, "But can you come get me in like, 15 minutes so I can come and get my lunch then?" She nodded her answer and I took off down the halls at a brisk pace. The closer I got to my destination, the quieter the school seemed to get. My headache seemed to ebb away with the decrease in sound and I felt so happy about it. I finally reached the set of orange double doors with the word, "Library" painted across it in large neat, aqua blue colored letters. Pulling one of the doors open, I entered slowly.
The library was a fairly large building. Though, it wasn't as big as the gym, being only half the size at most, it certainly was impressive. There were rows upon rows of shelves that all reached to the ceiling and were all filled with books, new or old. It was also well ventilated and air-conditioned, so the air was cool and the scent of old books wasn't overly dominant. Though, I wouldn't have minded too much if the library smelled of old books. The scent was nice in my opinion, which was why I preferred reading older books compared to newer smaller ones. They were far more soothing.
This was the first time though, I had been to the library just to be here. Usually, I'd only be here to check out something for an assignment, but now…I was just here. The environment was calming, there actually seemed to be no one in here. I might be wrong, but it truly was silent and peaceful. There wasn't screaming, yelling, people, or thoughts here. It was just silence, books and me. I felt at ease, more so than I had ever been in the whole time I was here at Sky High. I wandered down the rows of books until I found a seating area somewhere in the middle.
When I sat down, I let myself go. My eyes shut and I let my mind wander as free as it would. I wasn't asleep, just drifting. Nothing mattered for this moment. Not Zach or Lash, or even Will or Warren. I was in my own world where no one lese could be and it felt wonderful. I imagined that I was alone, surrounded by water. It wasn't deep because I was lying in it but my face was still above water and my backside was against the ground. The water was cool and soothing. But something literally shook me out of the calmed state. My eyes snapped open and my head twisted this way and that to look for what had caused me to come out of my daydream.
It was Layla.
She looked frantic. Her hair was a bit mussed up from the ponytail it had neatly been pulled back in when I had last talked to her. Currently, she was bent over and trying to catch her breath. Had she run here from the cafeteria? It seemed likely from how out of breath she was. She immediately straightened herself out and grabbed my arm, and pulled at me.
"What's the matter Layla?" I asked feeling concerned as to why she was tugging at my arm.
"I haven't got much time to explain," she said pulling me out of my seat, "But it's important that you come with me now." And she commenced dragging me like a rag doll out of the library and down the halls. I was still confused as to why she was doing this, and I felt as though I deserved a bit of a better answer.
"Where are we going?" I asked, running at the same pace she was while trying to not trip on the mass of my long skirt. She glanced at me fearfully. The look in her eyes seemed to scare me as well.
"To the cafeteria," she said quickening her pace. I started to hear the sound of faint yelling coming from ahead of us, "Tenni it's…"
"It's what?" I asked, not knowing whether I would like it.
"It's Will, he's in trouble Tenni. He tripped and accidentally dropped his food on Warren and...might have said something to Warren that got him really mad, and now…and now…Warren's attacking Will, and…he…"
Layla couldn't continue. She sounded so scared. But I was starting to see red. I had never imagined that Warren could do in such a thing. Well, I did but that didn't mean I really thought he would. I mean, I had listened to all the rumors about him before, but I never believed the bad ones, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I felt so betrayed. I had trusted in him, someone that I barely knew and now my brother was going to be hurt because of this person. My crush for Warren was starting to dim, and had begun to replace itself with feelings of intense, raging anger.
I ripped my arm from Layla's gasp and took off at a break neck speed. She cried out to me, but I had already gotten too far ahead to be able to hear what she said. My hair fluttered behind me as I ran forward. The shouting and yelling and sounds of destruction were echoing forth from the cafeteria up ahead seemed to increase my anger. The air got a whole lot colder around me. When I reached the cafeteria, there were people crowding the way inside. I growled angrily.
"MOVE!" I commanded, the air getting colder and colder. People turned to look at me, but no one moved.
"I SAID MOVE!"
My arm lashed out and a torrent of water surged out divided the crowd and threw a couple of people back. I charged forth through the path I had just created. I saw Will trying to dodge and defend himself from the fireballs Warren was throwing at him, but he was thrown back and knocked to the floor by a fireball. Warren let his arms come up above his head forming a monster fireball to throw at Will. I panicked. Will wouldn't be able to dodge it from where he was lying. The blast looked large enough to be fatal. I kept running towards Will while Warren was still strengthening the fire.
"Rrrrraaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Warren roared hurling the massive flame at Will.
"WILLLLLLLLLL!" I screamed throwing myself in between him and the fire just before it made contact.
People like me do stupid things when they're scared.
Na-Na: Ooh, I love the next chapter. I didn't like this one very much but I guess I'm not perfect. See you guys later!
SmithysTrivia: Thankees for the compliment. I hope this one was good enough to fit your request.
Nelle07: Yeah, I think so too. I'm planning something big for Zach soon. Don't worry.
Tenni: By good things, I didn't mean bad things. Just don't annoy me during math. It's already bad enough. Just keep reading.
sheik101: Wow. Glad to see your so enthusiastic! It makes me proud of my baby.
Next Update: Detention
Thursday, January 26