CHAPTER 2: Out of Hand (or leaf, as the case may be)

Hehe... left you hanging didn't I? XD Anyways, there's a lot of violence in here, so yeah... brace yourselves! Continuing where we left off...

"What is it?" my mother asked.

"See this?" I showed my parents all of my scars, cuts and bruises.

"I actually wasn't being careless on the swings, and I didn't get my leaves and roots pinched inside my locker. This was caused by..." I trailed off nervously.

"Caused by what?" my father asked sharply, earning a nudge from my mother. "Is it that boy I told you not to hang out with? Because if it's him . . . oh, what's his name ―"

"Don't even say that wretched name in front of me!" I muttered.

"Back to the point! What's happening?" my mother said, giving my father the evil eye.

"It's... I've been getting bullied ever since first grade. Everyone thought I was weird, especially now because I'm in a gifted class, I got good marks on every test, and that I could..." I trailed off yet again.

"And that you could do what? Show us." my mother implored.

"Please don't let it be . . ." my father prayed.

I sighed as I gathered my thoughts. I swept my right leaf in a circle, and I created a storm of crystals. I sent them hurtling towards the wall and they disappeared, leaving tiny holes.

"S-sorry! It's just . . . I'm cursed with this magic!" I cried, bursting into tears.

My father shook his head.

"We're doomed. It got out."

My mother started yelling at my father. "I can't believe that our daughter has been lying for six straight years! I'm surprised and grateful that she didn't need to go to the hospital or something!" she yelled.

"SIIILEEEENCE!" Aunt Mary swept inside, with a cigarette with smoke daintily curling from it in one leaf.

I did my best not to barf at the ugly Plantern's appearance. No wonder she looked like a seedy swine, and her light looked as if it would go out.

"No wonder why I thought you were out of the usual run of things since the day I saw your ugly face!" she sneered.

I suppressed a gasp, and my mother ran over to her. "Mary! You shouldn't say such things to my daughter!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, sure I can! Have you seen what she has done?" Aunt Mary sniffed.

I was about to rebuff when I felt the same surging feeling of white hot anger. I could feel my instincts taking over, and before I knew it, I had sent a bluish jet swirling out of my right leaf and it hit my not-so-darling aunt squarely in the face. My father gasped, and my mother looked plain terrified. I shrunk back in fear, realizing that I let my emotions get the better of me for the second time that day. Aunt Mary howled in pain as she held her nose, with blood slowly spreading onto her leaves. My parents, meanwhile, had lost it.

"ELYSSIA! IN YOUR ROOM! NOW!" my father roared.

I let out an exasperated scream that I knew could be heard all the way up Haimer Avenue.

"WHY IS MY LIFE LIKE THIS?! SENSIBLE PARENTS WOULDN'T GROUND ME FOR THESE KINDS OF THINGS!" I shouted as I stomped up the stairs and into my room.

Once inside, I slammed the door so hard that it shook the room. Next, I started making a mess. I threw around my books, I lit a match and tossed it into my crabby, ugly neighbour's yard, and I screamed. I tore the curtains off from the windows, and I punched holes in the walls. I didn't care if my allowance was shelved for a year to pay for all these damages. For once, I wanted to be bad, to let my feelings fly free. I sent jets of ice flying around, smashing the windows. I screamed as loud as my throat would permit me to. I exercised my powers and let them wreak as much havoc as they could. As I glanced around, I saw that my room was a hot mess, and that the fire department had been called in because the dimwitted Chomper we had as a neighbour had noticed the blaze, which looked big enough to incinerate all of Rexdale. Despite the fact that I'd be in more trouble than a criminal charged for first, second and third-degree murder, I didn't give a crap. I just gave myself the privilege of an unprecedented temper tantrum. I even climbed onto my bed and decided to swing from the chandelier in my room, screaming all the way through. Just then, the door had been flung open, and my mother entered.

"Elyssia! What are you doing?" she asked in a worried tone.

I swung off the light fixture, sending it crashing down to the ground, and I grabbed one of my many Honour Roll medallions and tossed it at my mother, who ducked.

"WHAT KINDA STUPID QUESTION DO YOU THINK YOU'RE ASKING?!" I roared as I punched more holes in the wall, and I punched my mirror, reopening some of the cuts that I got today from the beating that Ellen's gang had given me.

But, like I said, I didn't care. Being bad had never felt so good, and worrying my parents made it even better.

"Elyssia, I'm sorry if you got sent up to your room! You need to calm down!" my mother protested.

"I . . . DON'T . . . HAVE . . . TO . . . LISTEN . . . IF . . . I . . . DON'T . . . WANT . . . TO!" I screamed as I tossed what used to be my mirror out the window, and I stomped on the splinters that used to be my chandelier, cutting the bottoms of my roots.

"Elyssia, enough is enough! Stop NOW!" my father bellowed from the doorway.

I didn't stop. I just allowed myself to go mad. I simply let everything I did become a white-hot, angry blur. That eventually took its toll for the worst when I hit my head against another window and I became unconscious. All I could remember was that I felt my own blood running down my face from the huge gash created by the shards of window glass . . .

"What the hell happened?" I groaned as I woke up on the living room couch, with bandages all over my body.

The most shocking thing was that I had a huge roll of cloth on top of my head, and I could tell that it was still red with my blood.

"Elyssia, why did you just get up and have a fit of temper up there? We thought that you were dying!" my father exclaimed.

"I . . . I'll never be able control my emotions. Just leave it at that!" I cried as tears spilled over my eyes and created salty rivers on my face.

My mother rubbed my stem, and I winced in slight pain as she touched the spots where I had gotten hit the hardest. Finally, she spoke.

"Elyssia, if this bullying incident has gone on for nearly a decade, then we have to come with you to school."

"W-what?" I squeaked, taking into account the potential embarrassment that I'd earn.

"Yes, we will come marching over to the school with you. If going to school wasn't a law in Canada, we would've pulled you outta that so-called Catholic school! Honestly, we need to talk to the principal and ask him why the teachers haven't been paying our daughter any mind!" my father growled.

I sighed as my mother removed the cloth on my head. She then proceeded to move her leaves around the way I was taught way back in the third grade in order to heal others. I flinched in pain as my mother closed the wound with a flourish.

"Feel better now?" she asked.

I shrugged, and stared at the wall.

"I don't know what to feel now. I just feel as if I've been emptied of all meaning." I replied.

My mother and my father kissed my cheek.

"We love you so much, Elyssia. I just sent you to your room to keep you safe from Mary's wrath. She said that she wanted to stuff poison down your throat, and that she wanted to ram a knife into your stem. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad about yourself. I just didn't want Mary to harm you." my father whispered.

"Wouldn't I have beaten the living crap outta her before she could kill me, thanks to my powers?" I asked.

"Language, Elyssia. Watch the language. And in any case, you would have been grounded for injuring a family member!" my mother answered.

I sighed. "My life is crazy . . ." I muttered as I hobbled up the stairs, feeling tired and stressed.

My life is crazy. It's as crazy as it can get.

Whoa, I had no idea that this chapter would be super awesome XD! I'm so proud of myself!