Thanks again to the reviewers. I love you!
Chapter 4 (Chapitre Quatre)
"Hello?"
"Mother." Riot replied steadily. Her grip on the phone was making her knuckles turn white and her fingers cramp. She forced her hand to relax before she spoke again. "I just heard the most interesting thing."
"Oh?" Even over the phone her mother sounded disinterested.
"Why, yes." Riot replied. "Tyler and the rest of the Sons of Ipswich trouping off to have lunch with the Sims."
There was silence for a moment, and then her mother spoke, voice slightly strained. "You'll have to see him soon anyway."
"I'll see him at school." Riot snarled. "And I don't particularly care whether or not you and your husband want me there to show off. You can stay the fuck away from me and my life."
"Language!" Her mother half shrieked. "And he's your father, not just my husband. Where did you learn such insolence?"
"Around the time I learned to have my own life and make my own desicions!" Riot ripped back. "As soon as I turn eighteen, I'm out of here, and you'll never hear from me again. I'll make sure of it."
She snapped the phone shut and began to unpack more of her equipment.
----
"Ain't ever gonna be daddy's little girl, not in my life and not in this world."
The words were accompanied by a soft accoustic guitar as they floated down the quiet hall at Spencer. It was Asa singing, for the most part. Riot sat on the floor infront of the bed, one of her guitars across her lap, strumming chords and occasionally singing along.
"Always gonna be second to one, and no one understands, so I run..."
Now the guitar picked up and Riot came in. "And I say, woah-oh, woah-oh, and who wants to be alone?"
They'd left the door open. The music could be heard all down the hall, and many left their doors open to listen.
"Alone, alone, woah-oh."(1)
The music drifted down the stairwell, and could be heard in the lounge below. The four boys sitting there exchanged glances.
"That's Riot." Caleb commented. "I think."
"It is." Cass replied from the door, startling the boys. Today she wore a black tank top and a pair of washed out jeans. Her piercings were the regular surgical steel that she normally wore, and her hair was tied in a side ponytail over one shoulder. She sat on the end of one couch. "She and Asa used to do this all the time at home. They'd get together with a bunch of people from our building and sing. Not just songs that they wrote either. Whatever was popular at the time, some older songs. Everything, you know."
"You didn't sing with them?" Pogue asked, staring at the girl.
Cass shook her head. "I'm not so musical. I take pictures."
"So Riot wrote this?" Tyler asked.
"Yup." Cass replied proudly. "Her and Asa. They wrote it about...well, about their families, I guess." She ran her fingers through her ponytail. "Neither of them are close with their families. Riot hasn't seen her family for years, and Asa ran away from home when she was fourteen." She shook her head. "It was a hard year."
Seeing all the boys staring at her oddly, she stood, offering them a crooked smile. "Well, I'd better get up there. Riot's boyfriend will be wanting pictures faster then I can send them." She disappeared upstairs.
"Weird." Reid muttered.
----
By the time the night ended, Riot and Asa had moved out into the hallway, with around twenty people who wanted to listen or sing along. Some had brought their guitars along, and worked out some of the more popular songs with the others.
"When you see my face, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell. When you walk my way, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell."
Riot was smiling, still playing her favorite acoustic, singing along. Cass stood off to the side, a video camera in one hand and a digital camera hanging from her wrist. Asa was in the middle of a group of singers across the hall.
"When you hear this song and you sing along, well you'll never tell, then you're the fool I'm just as well, hope it gives you hell."
A few people had come over to introduce themselves, and more yet (mostly guys) to offer their help if any of the three needed anything. They took each offer and introduction with a nod and a smile, and soon had a base list of names and faces to draw on.
"When you hear this song I hope that it will give you hell, you can sing along, I hope that it puts you through hell."(2)
"Alright, guys." Riot called. "That's enough for tonight." She held up her hands. "My fingers are gonna start bleeding soon." She leaned her guitar against the wall and let one of the guys she'd met pull her upright. The group broke up, with many moans and wishes to do it again sometime.
Cass and Asa came to stand next to her as people wished them goodnight and trailed off down the corridor.
"So, that went well." Cass commented. Asa hummed in agreement. Cass held up her camera. "I have lots of pictures to send to Pierre."
Riot cheered. Grabbing the camera, she ran to her room, flicking on the computer.
"That girl is nuts." Asa muttered.
"Yup." Cass agreed happily.
----
The next day passed in a blur. The three girls unpacked more at their appartment, which had a base layout of two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room, plus a small bathroom, and spent the rest of the day either sleeping or talking. They went to the schools breakfast in the morning, sitting with the group of goths that Cass had met at Nicki's. They added more names to their base list, expanding details and relationships to go with the names and faces they already remembered. That night, a group of guitarists met in the lobby, breaking off earlier than the night before, to get some sleep for the next day of classes. While Cass and Asa made no attempts to befriend the Sons of Ipswich, they didn't ignore them. Riot avoided the four at all costs.
----
The first class of monday morning, Riot decided, should begin at lunch. It would be much easier on the students. She had history, with a focus on the medieval. Cass was in Spanish, expanding her knowledge of languages. Asa had P.E.
"Riot Au...Au...." The teacher called, drawing Riot to the present, where she stood near the door to the risered classroom.
"AuNuit, sir." Riot supplied. The man gave her an offended look.
"AuNuit.*" He finished. "Welcome to Ancient History. You may sit wherever you like. However, should you become a problem in said place, you will be moved." He bent over his desk, writing on a piece of paper, a clear show that he was finished speaking to her.
Riot nodded. "C'est compris (3)." She stepped daintily up the stairs, purposely ignoring the inviting guestures Caleb Danvers was making from his seat near the back. Instead, she slid into a seat next to one of the goth boys near the middle of the class, a singer who had been with them both nights. His name was Michael, she remembered. The boy gave her a half hearted smile, and returned his head to the desk. Riot smiled back, propping her chin on her fist and settling in for the class.
The material they were going over she mostly knew already, from a class taken in Quebec. She sat by Michael in companiable silence for the rest of the class, taking notes occasionally. She never once glanced in the direction of Caleb.
----
Her next class was english. She shared this one with Asa. The teacher introduced them to the class briefly, before sending both of them to a seat at the top of the risers, almost directly across from where a tired looking Reid and a perky looking Tyler were sitting. Asa smiled slightly at them, meeting their eyes. Riot ignored the presense of both, and spent the class doodling idly on the corner of a page.
Halfway through, Asa nudged Riot in the ribs. Glancing up, the girl saw another student enter the classroom, and hand the teacher a note. The woman glanced at the note briefly, before making a note on her attendance list. When she stood straight again, she glanced briefly at Riot, then turned to the board and began her lecture where she had left off.
"That was....interessante(4)." Asa muttered to Riot under her breath.
"Mais, oui." Riot replied. "Why should our stay here be easy?"
----
"Ms. AuNuit." The teacher called. Riot stopped packing her books to briefly meet the teachers eyes.
"You are wanted in the Provosts office."
Riot nodded, and turned back to her bookbag, making a face as she did.
"You gonna go?" Asa asked.
Riot shook her head. "Not a chance. It's probably my parents."
The two made their way down the risers and out into the hallway, where they were accosted immediately by a somewhat more awake looking Reid, and Tyler.
"Hey."
Asa nodded to them, adjusting her bookbag strap.
"We didn't think you saw us." Tyler said, heaving his own bag farther up his shoulder.
"Sorry." Asa replied, keeping herself between the two boys and Riot, giving the other girl a chance to disappear into the crowded hallway. "A lot on my mind, you know? Trying to make sure I'm up to date in classes."
Tyler nodded. "Makes sense. Where'd Riot get to?" He asked suddenly, peering around Asa.
Asa shrugged. "You heard. She was called to the Provost's office. Now, if you boys will excuse me, I have to get to class." She stepped around them.
"What class do you have?" Reid asked, catching up with her.
Asa glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Riot, Cass and I have Ethics."
"Sweet." Reid replied.
Asa just looked at him, before switching her questioning gaze to Tyler.
"We have that class too." The younger boy explained. "Actually, so do Pogue and Caleb."
Asa offered him a half-hearted smile.
----
"Asa Lee*."
Asa waved slightly. The older man leaning on his desk near the board smiled at her.
"Tell us something about yourself, Asa."
The girl grimaced. "My name is Asa. It's norwegian. I was born in Norway, and moved here when I was little. I've lived in Québec, in Canada, since. I moved here with my roomates for the rest of the semestre."
The teacher smiled again. "Very good, dear. You can take a seat - near , there."
The blond girl stepped thankfully away from the door, moving gracefully across the open space to take a seat beside Reid. The teacher looked at the next name on the list of three new students.
"Cass Mius."
Cass stepped forward, smiling broadly to the man. "My name is Cass. I'm half Irish, half Native. I've lived my entire life dans la belle province, in Québec. I moved here with Riot and Asa, just for the rest of the semestre."
With that, she walked across the room and up the steps to sit beside Asa. The teacher looked at his list again.
"Ceilidh Sims."
----
Riot froze. The teacher looked down at his list, then up at her.
"Sorry." He said. "I always call my students by their full names, no matter if they prefer another."
Riot didn't look at him. Instead, she walked stiffly across the room and up the steps to sit beside Cass, completely ignoring the looks everyone else in the room were giving her - including the Sons of Ipswich.
"Ms. Sims." The teacher called. "Is there anything you would like to say about yourself?"
Riot shook her head. The teacher looked closely at her.
"We have another Sims in the room, Mr. Tyler. Any relation between you two?"
Even as Riot shook her head once again, another voice rang out across the room.
"Yes." Tyler replied. Riot's head snapped up and she glared at him. He met her eyes.
"Yes." He repeated. "She's my sister. My twin sister."
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Another chapter! I'm so proud of myself. Sorry if it's not spaced the way its supposed to be. My computer started double spacing by itself near the end, and I'm not sure how it'll show up. Once again, thanks for reading.
(1) This song is property of me, and was written exclusively for this story. Please don't use it without permission.
(2) Gives You Hell - The All American Rejects - I do not own any rights to this song.
(3) "It's understood." Translates loosely to "Understood."
(4) Interesting
* Just realised that I never explained the pronunciation of AuNuit. It's said like o-nwee. AuNuit.
**(Lee) as this name is norwegian, it is pronounced like lay.