La Dolce Vita
By Seniya
D is for Discipline
Part One
Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another.
George Washington
Cornelia Elizabeth Hale was not what you could call average. This, of course, was no secret – all you had to do was to take one look (if you could only manage one) at Ms. Hale and you would recognize that she was a bona-fide model of superiority.
At sixteen Cornelia had already accomplished much more than others do in their entire lifetime. An aspiring actress and model, she had spent the summer in California attending an acting workshop where she had gained the praise of her teacher, who called her a "Cameron Diaz in the making". She landed two national commercials (both speaking parts), one was for McDonalds and the other – K-Mart. On top of that, she had modelled shoes for Forever 21 last spring. She was an accomplished tennis player who'd represented North Carolina at the Junior State Championships two years in a row. And you couldn't forget to note that she had a lovely singing voice.
Not to mention that she was physically flawless, with skin like rich cream, eyes like the summer skies and silky blonde hair. She was, quite literally, the golden girl of Heatherfield.
Still, those things don't really matter in High School – what did matter however, was that her Daddy was the heir to a small part of a toothpaste fortune and had bought her a cherry red Ford Fiesta convertible for her last birthday. This was considered by all of Heatherfield's under-21 population, to be her single greatest achievement. It was also why on the first day back to school, there was a throng of ass kissers flooding the parking lot waiting for her to arrive.
Irma Maria Lair refused to be one of those ass kissers, although she was a part a desperate minority. Irma, considered herself just as (if not more) accomplished as Cornelia – but she was in the minority for that one as well. She'd known the blonde almost of her life and had decided since the tender age of three, to hate her for all eternity. She hadn't changed her mind yet.
Irma had been feeling quite optimistic about the new school year until she'd actually gone to school. Right then, even the feeling of her new Nikes and extra cute top couldn't rescue her from the feeling of dread.
"Is the whole school out here?" She hissed, shoving two clueless boys out of her path as she pushed her way towards the front door. To her absolute dismay, she noted some teachers craning their necks for a glimpse as well.
"Did you see her on the McDonalds commercial? I heard she got a lifetime supply of Big Macs ..." Irma could overhear. "Oh please," she snapped loudly, not caring that the person hadn't been talking to her in the first place, "as if she eats."
Not many persons could really understand Irma's feelings – because on top of everything else. That bitch Cornelia, was nice, or at least, used every one of those expensive acting lessons pretending to be.
By the time Irma had finally managed to make her way to her locker, her mood was positively foul. It wasn't jealousy (or so Irma would swear until her dying day) it was actually frustration. What? She asked herself for the umpteenth time, what does she have that I don't?
Will was late. In a hypothetical future narration of her life story, the biographer would probably add on an "as usual" to that sentence but for right now, Will wasn't taking the fall for being late. After all, it wasn't her idea to have early morning sword practice on the first day of school! Her arms were sore, as well as her fingers, shoulders, back and throat – the latter came from yelling witty (in her opinion) comebacks at her anal retentive, jerk-wad, douche-bag of a teacher. Now, her legs were bound to be pained up because of the three hundred metre sprint she was forced to undertake in order to make it to class (hopefully) before the first period –
The high piercing toll of the school bell told her all prayers were futile. From her spot, a good few hundred feet away from the school door, Will watched helplessly as the security guard pulled the heavy metal doors shut. The graffiti and rows of posters on the exterior of the school glared smugly at her as she struggled for breath before finally giving up.
"Aw, shit!" Well, it made no sense running now. Will managed to ease the desperation out of her legs and finally stop her run before she bent, hands on her knees, and gasped for breath. Late was late, her dad had always told her – five minutes or fifteen didn't make any difference.
God, why did she have to be late on the first day? It was bad enough being the red headed new girl. But she had hoped that if she'd played her cards right she could have blended in and maybe even gone unnoticed at least until winter break.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a gruff voice behind her, "why aren't you in school young lady?"
Will jumped before turning around, "Are you blind or something?" Will hadn't been in a good mood since she'd been pulled from her bed at four o'clock this morning, "I'm getting there."
The man questioning her wore a policeman's uniform – not from Heatherfield, but from North Carolina. The state? Will frowned but didn't ask any of the questions now tumbling around in her mind. He however, didn't feel the need to be silent, "not from around here are you?" He was referring to her thick Texas accent – rude, Will decided, when his country drawl was nothing better.
The man had a thick brown moustache that covered his entire upper lip. Maybe he had intended for the facial hair to age him – but it did nothing to distract from the dozens of acne scars across his cheeks. "Look little lady, we've had some disappearances around here the last few weeks and we ain't taking any more chances. If you're supposed to be in school – you should be there, not be getting there."
Will smiled, "much obliged officer." She drawled, "now I'll just mosey on over to the school yard and gets to learning my 'rithmetic."
It was a good of an impression as any, but he wasn't amused. "You'll come with me."
He latched onto her upper arm and began to pull her towards the school gate, but not before he removed a walkie-talkie from his hip and mumbled some vague directions into the microphone.
"They still use those?" Will asked out loud. She wasn't answered, merely tugged along inside, past another four policemen.
The increased security was all the talk of the tenth grade home room class. Many students whispered excitedly to each other about having walked through a metal detector for the first time in their lives. Less than half of them had never left the city border – much less the state – and this was almost alien to them.
"He took my daddy's penknife!" Uriah James whined for the thousandth time.
"You should never have had a penknife in the first place, Uriah! We've been telling you that for years!" The homeroom teacher, Mrs. Watson, was a tiny, mouse-like lady with a deep, masculine voice that never ceased to disturb anyone who she spoke to. She did have a lovely tenor voice however, and enjoyed singing in the church choir on weekends. What she didn't like, was teaching – and it showed.
"Now sit down! All of you! It's late enough as it is! You waste so much time in here, it's no wonder half of you never amount to anything!"
"Oh, public school," Cornelia whispered to her best friend Elyon, "how do I love thee."
"Ms. Hale! Would you and Ms. Brown like to explain what you're muttering in the corner about?"
"Just how much I love homeroom ma'am." Cornelia smiled, while some others in the back snickered.
Elyon shyly put in, "h-how much w-we all do."
Before Watson could manage to issue a detention to the entire class (because she was a firm believer in the "Peter paid for Paul" method of education), the classroom door was pushed open and in walked in a police officer with a squirming girl in his arms.
"Sorry to interrupt ma'am," the officer drawled before he hooked his thumb in his waist and posed with his feet wide apart. "I found this girl wandering around outside and the principal says she'll be belonging to this class."
Mrs. Watson took one look at the sweaty, unruly red head, who looked almost as venomous as a rattlesnake, and made a low noise of disapproval. "Playing hookey already, eh?"
Will rolled her eyes.
"The rudeness of this generation will not be overlooked by our lord and saviour Jesus Christ! Fire and brimstone!" She said, in a voice as low and discomforting as thunder. Someone in the back squealed and shook before tumbling off their chair – the entire class burst out laughing.
"Detention!" Mrs. Watson boomed, and then seemed to recall she had detention duty this week and decided against it. "Actually a thousand lines for all of you, "I must respect my elders." By tomorrow!" The students groaned and she smiled with smug satisfaction. "Thank you officer, I am used to these delinquents and I'll take it from here."
The officer nodded briefly before finally releasing his grip on Will's arm and sauntering outside.
"Now, who are you?"
Will stared at this mousy little woman, who she, even at 5 foot 2 inches, towered over, "I'm Will."
"Will?" She turned up her nose in disgust. "That's a boy's name!"
"You shouldn't ask questions you don't want answers for." Will snapped.
Someone in the class giggled at that, while the others sat spellbound, eagerly watching the confrontation. "It's the clash of the little people!" Uriah hollered and nearly everyone started whooping in delight.
"Yo, I'm betting five on the red head!"
"No man, Watson's a beast!"
"Silence!" Mrs. Watson snapped and obedience was immediate. "What's your full name?"
"Wilhemina Vandom."
"Yuck! That's the girl who attacked my grandma with a sword!" whispered Cornelia, "Actually, I think my great-great-grandmother was a Wilhelmina – and it was a grandma name back then too." Elyon dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"Yes, I've been expecting you. Well, Ms. Vandom, I won't ask you anything else. Do, honour us and tell the class a little about yourself."
Will squirmed on the inside because she hated public speaking. She managed to look nonchalant as she spoke, "I'm Will. I'm in tenth grade. I have red hair." The first roar of laughter was all it took for Watson to snap. "Find yourself a seat! And you can thank Ms. Vandom class, you now have two thousand lines for tomorrow!"
Will tugged her knapsack a little higher on her sore shoulder and moved quickly down the aisles, eyeing a vacant seat behind a thin blonde girl near to a window.
"Gross!" She heard the blonde snicker to her equally blonde friend as she walked past, "apparently salvation army had a back to school sale!"
By lunch, news of the "homeless looking red-haired new girl" had spread around school like a wildfire. Not that the popularity caused Will to gain any friends. In fact, she was still a loner, sitting off in a corner of the cafeteria by herself, munching on mystery meat. It was just as well. Will was used to being alone.
She needed the time to think anyways. Caleb had drilled four new routines into her head earlier this morning and if they weren't perfect by tonight he'd whine about it for days. The concept of school had eluded him and Will didn't have the patience to explain.
In the few weeks since they'd found out they were guardians and then botched up a perfectly simple zombie attack, Yan Lin hadn't bothered to send Will nor her grand-daughter on any more missions. Now, their days were filled with training – which included anything from circuit training to potion brewing. She was still more than a little wary about the entire guardian idea but she'd been lectured more than a million times about her destiny and duty in the last few weeks.
Maybe it was guilt tying her to this idea. Guilt for the people who were in danger – girls like Lydia and those bug eyed cat people from Caleb's home – maybe she felt like she couldn't leave Hay Lin to fight this battle on her own. Even though the younger girl was sheltered, hyperactive and naive to a fault – Will appreciated her presence. In this case, she definitely didn't want to be alone. One thing was for certain, Will had finally begun to accept that she was a guardian of the veil – as well as everything that came along with the title.
"Hi!" Will's eyes snapped up from staring at her fork. She met the bright green eyes of curly haired brunette, whose top was too tight, too short and much too low cut for school but didn't seem to notice.
"Hello," Will mumbled, "are you lost?"
"No." The girl talked fast, "can I sit here?" She didn't wait for an answer, just slapped her tray on top of the table and began to dig into her salad. "I'm on a diet." She explained the answer to a question Will had never asked.
Then, with a mouth full of lettuce she said, "I'm Irma. You're Wilhelmina right? The new girl?"
"Obviously." She doubted the school was filled with new girls.
"Well, yeah," Irma giggled, "duh!" She smacked her forehead and continued munching. "I should've had a V8!"
Will stared.
In the next ten minutes, Will learned, without ever having asked a single question, that Irma was fifteen, anaemic, Mexican on her mother's side, had webbed toes and was going to be trying out for the lead in the school play next week.
"It's so many lines!" She sighed, she had finished off her salad but, still hungry, had dug out a Milky Way bar from her backpack and chomped it down in four bites. "And that cow Cornelia Hale is obviously gonna try out for it. Do you know her?"
"Um ... no ..."
"She's this blonde skank. She's in your class. I can't stand her but everyone else worships the frigging ground she walks on."
"Ok ..."
"She used to go to boarding school in Maine until last year. She came home because her parents said they missed her but puh-lease, she obviously got the clap or something."
Will realised then that she didn't really like Irma. Girls like Irma had gossiped about her for her entire life, about her Mom being gone, her grandparents being broke, her Dad being in prison. "You shouldn't say those kinds of this about people behind their backs." Irma stopped her rant and stared. Apparently she was surprised that Will could form complete sentences. "It's hateful, rude and makes you look insecure."
"I-I ..."
"Which, judging by your diets and that fact that your shirt does nothing to hide your breasts – you are."
Irma didn't bother to defend herself; instead she went right into self-righteous mode. "All I was doing was trying to be friends. You didn't have to – hey, where are you going?"
She was so tired of high school after a mere three hours, Will actually found herself missing potion lessons with Yan Lin. As she walked through the rows of tables, she heard the snickers and giggles before she felt someone push against her shoulders. "Hey, new girl." Will turned to see the thin blonde from home room.
"Don't touch me." Will snapped, and began to turn away.
"I just wanted to ask you something. Calm down." She smelled strongly like expensive perfume and although her face looked clean and simple, Will could tell that it was the end result of nearly an hour in the mirror.
Will frowned as the girl brushed her long blonde hair from her face, "that girl you were talking to – Irma. What was she telling you about me?"
"Are you serious?"
"She's always talking about me, that fat slob, she's so jealous. Just tell me what she said ... it'll make things easier for you."
"Easier?"
"If I like you, people will like you. And your high school life will be so much easier."
Rolling her eyes, Will turned on her heel and walked out of the cafeteria, leaving Cornelia, who had seldom heard "no" in her entire life, utterly shocked. "She is so over!"
The three o'clock rush was held up by the new security at the front doors. Now, instead of a steady outpouring of teenagers, there was a mere trickle, as everyone waited in line to be searched.
It was in that line Will came across Irma again. "Look," the brunette said, "I just wanted to apologize." She took Will's blank expression as encouragement and continued, "I'm not a terrible person ... I'm not. It's just that she's so ... urgh!" Irma clicked her tongue, "I know what it's like to have people talking behind your back and ... I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if my little rant bothered you. I ... guess I was just a little too eager to make friends."
Will nodded, honestly, she'd forgotten about the argument at lunch time, right now she was more consumed with remembering a missing step in a routine Caleb had shown her. "It's fine."
"So, hey ... you wanna hang out after school? We can go for ice cream ... or there's this really gross Chinese restaurant down the street but they give you a lot of food."
"I don't hang out."
"It's the first day. I seriously doubt that you're swimming in homework."
"I'm busy." And that was that.
Irma frowned and looked as though she wanted to say something else, but changed her mind and walked away. Will did feel a pang of sympathy when she saw the brunette's back retreating into the crowd – but pushed away the feeling immediately. Now wasn't the time to be playing girl-scout. She had too much on her plate for an extra serving of friends.
Those same thoughts were reinforced the minute Will escaped the end of school crowd and stepped onto the sidewalk. The smell of Olbas oil and Elmers Glue was what first alerted her to their presence – not that she could miss the Lin family. The pair bickered endlessly between two parked cars, dressed in startlingly white coats, topped off with thick yellow gloves and massive goggles.
"Oh geez ..." They looked like they had escaped from a Ghostbusters reunion. Quickly adjusting her hair so it covered some of her face, Will attempted to edge away from the pair but ... "Will!" Hay Lin had the eyes of a hawk.
Will sighed, but started to walk over – to her dismay, some of her classmates had already started to stare. That fact didn't hold her attention for long, "We have an emergency." Yan Lin said.
"Did you see Eric today?" Her grand-daughter asked Will eagerly.
"Who's Eric?"
"Never mind that!" Yan Lin snapped, "I said emergency! Have you forgotten what that word means!"
"It means shut up and listen." Hay Lin quoted, remembering last week's lesson.
"Exactly!" Yan Lin returned her attention to Will, "We have discovered the presence of two more guardians."
"Earth and water!"
"They go to your school – or so we figure – since they're teenage girls and this is the only high school in Heatherfield."
"Well, who are they?" Will lowered her voice to a whisper, "do you have names?"
"That was a bit fuzzy." Hay Lin looked sheepish, "we tried to cast a seeking spell ... but ..."
"A good set of bat ears are just so hard to find these days ..." Now, Yan Lin looked skittish.
"So ... you're saying you have no idea who they are." Will almost rolled her eyes, "haven't we always known they were other guardians here?"
"No. I mean that's true, but we weren't saying that." Hay Lin swallowed before she spoke again, "we're saying that we accidently released an evil Irish demon child onto Heatherfield."
"What?"
"Don't tell Lucia!" Yan Lin whispered frantically, "she'll never let me live this down!"
"Wait ... Are you guys serious?"
"Of course we're serious!" Yan Lin ran a palm across her wrinkled forehead, she stopped mid sentence when one of the car owners honked their horn impatiently, "look, let's just get to the restaurant to figure this out."
"I can't believe this."
"Neither can we. It took us three months to catch that demon the first time." Hay Lin took one last wistful glance at the crowd gathered in front of the school before she smiled brightly at Will. "I hope you don't have too much homework."
Author: Hay Lin is home schooled, although her grandma is in charge of her education so she doesn't learn much. Just wanted to make that clear. I plan on letting Hay Lin come to the school with the girls after a while, but for now, she's sitting out. So here we have Corny and Irmee. Irma is my favourite character in the entire series, and I know she and Cornelia are a lot of OC right now, but this story is about change and growth – good or bad, and when the girls start to interact with each other, I'll try to get their original characteristics back out.
Next chapter: Will, Hay Lin and Yan Lin go behind Lucia's and Caleb's back to track the demon. Also, the new guardians find out about their powers. And there's a bit of competition between the two new girls.
Reviews make my day! Thanks to all those who've been supporting me so far! I really love this idea and I'm glad that so many of you do as well.