Chapter 68: The Black Sheep of the Blackmoons
[Scene: Biology class. Esmeraude Blackmoon has swiped a picture from Zoi]
Mr. Tomoe: Esmeraude! get in back in your seat!
[Laughs like a madwoman as she stuffs the picture down the front of her dress]
Esmeraude: Sure. No problem.
[She tried to saunter back to her table, but Zoi grabs her arm]
Zoi: Give that back!
Esmeraude: Get your hand off me, retard! [Pushes his hand away] I can't wait to show this photo to my sweet prince.
Zoi: Yeah? Well I'll bet your sweet prince goes around telling everyone his brother is a much better kisser then you are.
[Esmeraude's lip quivers, since the truth hurts,, but she quickly recovers her composure.]
Esmeraude: You may have Demande and Uncle Billy fooled into thinking you are so sweet and innocent. But you're not sweet or innocent at all, are you? You're nothing but a conniving bitch!
Mr Tomoe: Zoi, Emeraude! Stop disrupting the class or I'm sending you both to the principal's.
Zoi: [snarls] Give me back my picture or I'm going in there after it!
Esmeraude: [snarls back] You wouldn't dare!
Zoi: [evil giggle] Oh, don't worry. There is only one thing you've got in there that's of any interest to me.
[Neffy looks over, his blue eyes big with alarm]
Neffy: Hey! Cut that out you two.
[Neffy drifts over with Motoki close behind him and Motoki whispers in Zoi's ear]
Motoki: Zo, I wouldn't argue with Esmeraude if I were you. She's eeking-fray ikotic-say.
Esmeraude: [claws at Motokis eyes] Maybe so but I'm not so crazy that I don't know pig latin! [resumes her evil cackle]
[Zoi takes advantage of the melee to stick his finger in her neckline and peek down. Esmeraude screams and clutches at her chest before she snarls and grabs him by the ponytail.]
Esmeraulde: Nobody's allowed to peek down my bodice except for one man, and he certainly isn't you! [screams with laughter] Let's see how much he likes looking at you once I've snatched you bald!
[Zoi grabs two fistfuls of Esmeraude's green hair. But now the entire class is watching in morbid interest.]
Mr Tomoe: Last warning! All four of you get back in your seats!
[Zoi and Emerauide are too busy with their savage tug of war to pay any attention until Motoki grabs Esmeraude by the waist and Neffy grabs Zoi by the waist and pulls them apart.]
Tomoe: Esmeraulde and Zoi, that's it! I'm sending you right to the principal's office.
[Esmeraude continues to kick toward Zoi and screams with rages while Zoi just gives her a catty smile from under Neffy arm]
Neffy: Ladies, I demand you stop this catfighting this very instant.
Mr Tomoe: Esmeraude! Principal's office! Now!
Esmeraude: [sooths her hair back into place] Fine, I'm going. I'm going.
[Neffy sets Zoi down and walks off as Esmeraude saunters to her lab table. She pretends like she's going for her purse, but instead she pounces onto the table like a cat and screams out her madwoman cackles. She tosses her hair back then stikes a pose as bolts of dark lightning build between her hands.]
[The class is backing away, uncertain of what to make of this.]
Esmeraude: TIME FOR YOU TO DIE!
[The class screams and hides under their tables as she hurls a ball of green energy at Zoi, who is too stunned to duck out of the way. The class is screaming in earnest now. Zoi can only cringe a little as the crackling green glow fills his vision and makes his skin and hair sting like nettles as it approaches like a meteor of pure energy.]
[A moment before impact, a silhouette comes hurling impossibly fast ahead of the glowing ball of energy and and sweeps Zoi's feet out from under him, causing the ball of glowing green energy to barely miss him, taking out a large chunk of the wall behind where he had been standing just an instant before. The fire alarm goes off, but the class is too terrified to evacuate and instead have all taken cover.]
[For a few seconds Zoi can only lay there with the wind knocked out of him. Then he turns his head to see who his savior is. A man in a sportcoat with long reddish-brown hair gives him a bemused look as he lies doubled over like he has a massive stomach cramp.]
Zoi: Neffy?
[Neffy gives him a "yeah, whatever" wave of the hand.]
Esmeraude: What the hell? Shitennou, you're not allowed to interfere!
Neffy: [through gritted teeth] Yeah. Tell me about it.
Esmeraude: [builds up another bolt] He needs to die! He's brought nothing but trouble since the moment he came here! The world would be a much better place without him in it!
[Neffy groans but despite his obvious pain he leaps to his feet and yanks Zoi by the arm out of the way of the second blast]
Neffy: Kid get behind me.
[Holds out his arms to shield Zoi.]
Esmeraude: What the hell! You can't interfere! It's against the laws of both our people!
Neffy: I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying. Especially how he needs to die and the world would be a better place without him. But you can't just attack him in front of me like this and expect me to do nothing about it.
Esmeraude: Why not! Why are you protecting him?
Neffy: Um…well… he's family.
Mr Tomoe: [remarkably unbothered by the general mayhem taking place in his classroom] Esmeraude Blackmoon! Stop this nonsense at once! You are looking at another expulsion!
[Esmeraude thinks a moment, then shrugs and leaps off her desk.]
Esmeraude: [sooths her hair back] Fine, you know what? You're right. He's not worth this sort of aggravation. I need to fix my hair anyway.
[Her voice is so lucid that the students peek out from under their tables to gather up their things and Neffy goes back to his seat.]
[Esmeraude grins as she digs through her purse as if looking for a brush and pulls out a switchblade. She advances toward Zoi with a crazy look in her eyes as a wicked looking blade flicks up.]
[Zoi didn't have time to do more than scream as she lunges at Zoi with the blade held high overhead]
Esmeraude: DIE BITCH!
[The blade comes stabbing down. He's vaguely aware of a shadow flickering into the periphery of his vision as he cowers and covers his face with his hands. He waits for impact but it doesn't come. Then he hears Esmeraude scream in hysterical terror.]
[Zoi: looks up and sees Neffy standing over him, as still as a statue, with Esmeraude Blackmoon's knife impaled completely through his hand.]
[Esmeraude is backing away in abject terror, shaking like a leaf.]
Esmeraude: NO! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!
[Esmeraude's clutching her forehead and screaming her head off, before running in circles and then dematerializing.]
[The rest of the class doesn't notice because they are to busy screaming and running for the door.]
[The fire alarm is still blaring. Zoi looks around and he sees they're alone. Everyone has already fled except for him and Neffy.]
Neffy: [grabs the handle of the knife] Damn Kunzite and damn his f'ing curses.
Zoi: Are you ok?
Neffy: Yeah, sure kid. I'm fine. I just have a knife through my hand.
[Neffy grits his teeth and pulls the knife out.]
Zoi: Do you need an ambulance?
[They watch as the hole closes up leaving a scar in his palm]
Neffy: No, kid. What I need is a drink.
[As they walk out of the class to the evacuation point, a flask appears in Neffy hand. He takes a long swallow and then offers it to Zoi, who shrugs it away.]
Zoi: Is the covenant broken?
Neffy: [laughs dismissively] No. Of course not. You heard her. It was an accident. [The flask vanishes] It was you she tried to kill. I just happened to get in her way.
Zoi: Thank you for saving me.
Neffy: Don't thank me, kid. It's not like I had a choice.
Zoi: What do you mean you didn't have a choice? Of course you had a choice.
Neffy: Yeah… no.
[Zoi gives Neffy a question look but Neffy just vanishes]
[Zoi goes outside to the assembly point where the students are waiting to be picked up by their parents]
Student 1: Does anyone know what happened?
Student 2: I heard an explosion. I think it was a bomb.
Student 3: I heard there was an accident in Mr. Tomoe's biology class. Someone mixed some chemicals together and caused an explosion.
Student 4: I heard Esmeraude Blackmoon was the one that caused it.
Student 5: I was there and she did it on purpose. She made a bomb in lab class and threw it at the wall because she was trying to blow the school up.
Student 2: She's going to get expelled again for sure.
Student 1: She does this sort of thing a lot. I wonder why she never goes to jail?
[Zoi feels a tug on the back of his shirt. He practically jumps out of his skin]
Umino: There you are, Zoi. We've been waiting for you. My parents' car is over there.
Zoi: [looks around for signs of Blackmoon] I'm not sure it's safe—
Umino: Of course it's not safe. That's why we have to get out of here.
[Zoi checks nervously over his shoulder. On the one hand he wants to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible. On the other hand, he saw Esmeraude vanish and he's nervous he might be followed. He'd hate to inflict something as foul as the Blackmoons upon Umino and his family, just for being kind enough to take him in for an evening.]
[Nevertheless he follows Umino to the waiting line of cars, sniffing the air for traces of Esmeraude Blackmoon's telltale jasmine perfume. He's too preoccupied with worry to give more than the most inattentive and mechanical of introductions to Umino's parents. It's only when they are in the car and Zoi looks back and sees nobody has followed them for several miles that he allows himself to look forward and breath a sigh of relief.]