Chapter 128

On the ride back, Valkyrie took some deep breaths and took some dangerous routes to scout ahead and double back on the car repeatedly. It was unnecessary – Mrs Keena and Mr Vinay seemed to have given up for the time being. But the more she stewed on it in her head, the more irritated she got at the mess of a fight that had been. She got the gates open and followed the car through, glancing in her mirror to make sure no one slipped in. They didn't. She was just feeling a little paranoid.

Valkyrie opened the car door and Nadia jumped into her arms.

"Hey, it's alright," Valkyrie soothed, gently nudging Nadia into the house. The men sat in the living room and Tanith's smile faded from where she was waiting for them. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Nadia sniffed and discretely wiped her eyes. "I'm fine. I just can't believe they did that."

"I mean, they did come here," Valkyrie said, and then regretted it when she got an offended look. "Well, they did."

Nadia pouted. "I know. I just didn't think they'd try and get me where people could see."

"They're getting desperate," Anton said from his place of the sofa next to Tanith.

"What happened exactly?" Solomon frowned.

Valkyrie and her family took the next ten minutes explaining some of the more specific things he had missed concerning Nadia and her parents. He listened carefully.

"I see," he said slowly. "How many more days until they leave?"

"They didn't say an exact day," Nadia said, sounding much calmer. "But I imagine it's within a week, maybe just a few days."

"Hmm," Solomon thought. "Perhaps it might not be utterly appropriate to suggest considering how upsetting this must have been for you, but you may want to think about retrieving your possessions from your parents' home if you plan on living at Valkyrie's home. If they plan on leaving with you, they may choose to ship everything to India in advance, or else throw it away so they don't have to bring it to the new house."

Nadia sunk into the sofa. "What if it's already gone?"

"Then I'm certain Valkyrie can deal with that," he said with a smirk, looking at Valkyrie. Valkyrie blushed. "However, it may be best to try if you have anything you desperately want to keep. You likely can't retrieve everything but you could get what's most important."

"They have my passport," she said after a moment, looking up at Valkyrie.

"We'll go get it, don't worry," Valkyrie smiled comfortingly. "What time is it?"

"Just gone five," Tanith supplied.

"Alright. Look, it's been a long day. Let's get your stuff tomorrow. I'm sure Saracen can help us, right?"

"Sure," he shrugged.

"It'll be a breeze. What really matters right now is what are we having for dinner?"

"Don't care," Tanith said, giving them free rein.

"I vote Nadia cooks!" Erskine said, shooting a hand in the air. "Who thinks Nadia should cook?"

All the men and Tanith, except Solomon, put their hands in the air.

"Nadia makes good food," Dexter grinned, giving Nadia a wink.

"Fine, fine," Nadia smiled back, a blush on her face. "But Valkyrie has to help."

The two girls went through into the kitchen alone. At first, Nadia went around finding all the things she wanted to use for her dish, and when she was ready, she sighed and leaned on the counter.

Smiling, Valkyrie went to her and pulled her into a hug. "How are you now?"

"Sad," she muttered into Valkyrie shoulder. Valkyrie picked her up and put her on the side which put their heads almost level and Nadia's legs around her waist. Nadia smiled. "They were really mad at me."

"They'll get over it. They just think they're protecting you," Valkyrie said, kissing her cheek softly. "In a few years when all this is over, they'll see you made the right choice."

"I know, it's just hard."

"Hey, in the fight, when you zapped that guy?"

"I Shocked him," Nadia corrected. "A strand of energy throwing they taught me at boarding school."

"Yeah, that. Why didn't you use it when that guy was dragging you to the car?"

Nadia rolled her eyes. "I can only use it when I'm concentrating. I only learnt it within the last month at school and I didn't really pay attention in lesson…"

"Why's that?" Valkyrie asked, taking her opportunity.

Nadia hesitated. "I just felt really upset and down. I didn't want to be at the school anymore, but I almost kind of didn't want to go home. I felt stuck, I guess. And the school was threatening to send me home, but my parents were saying I couldn't come home or I'd be in trouble."

"The school said you were sick…?"

"Yeah. My mum told you that, didn't she?"

"Your dad was there too."

"Yeah, but they didn't really listen when I told them why I was sick," Nadia whispered. "I told them it was just stress and not liking being there, but they didn't care."

"Is that why you're so thin?" Valkyrie asked, plunging right into the core of what she'd wanted to talk about.

Nadia shrugged. "I know I'm too thin. I just don't feel hungry when I get upset or stressed, that's all. And I get physically sick from the anxiety. I'm not doing it on purpose like my parents seem to think."

"So you'll eat as long as you're here?"

"Of course," she smiled, her dark eyes shining gratefully at Valkyrie. "I like being here. I've been a lot happier being here, even when you're out working I'm happy just being in the house. It's nice."

"I'm glad," Valkyrie smiled, pecking Nadia's lips. "Will you tell me more about your time at that school?"

"I guess. What do you want to know?"

Valkyrie thought about it, going between the two things she wanted to know. "How about the people? You said you had these 'kind-of-friends' and your roommates?"

"We should cook and talk," Nadia suggested, and Valkyrie put her down on the floor. "I'm not a child."

"I know," Valkyrie grinned, and patted her girlfriend on the head. "You're just tiny."

"I'm not telling you shit now."

"Aww, come on!"

Nadia instructed Valkyrie on what to chop up, and when she'd begun, she began telling her about how when she started at the school she had roommates that were already friends and weren't particularly concerned with making Nadia happy, welcome or included in their activities. After Christmas, however, two of the girls moved. "One was pulled from school because her brother went to prison and her parents were embarrassed and wanted to home school her because they thought she'd get bullied for what he did. It was funny, in the end, because no one ever found out what he did but there were rumours all about her because of it. And the other girl decided my room wasn't good enough once the first girl was gone, so she was able to move room. Another girl moved into my room after that and when she made friends with my roommates, they started to include me more."

"Were they better after that?"

"Well, they invited me places, and I was allowed to be a part of their activities, like going to parties and going shopping, gossiping, and all that fun stuff. It was nice because that new girl – her name is Rebecca by the way – tried really hard to include me. At first, the other girls didn't really care about me, but after a few weeks, they started to like me a bit too. To be fair, I think I am a bit harsh. I was feeling so bad about everything and was so stressed about schoolwork I never really said when they did something I didn't like or correct them on what they got wrong. I just wanted to get through living with them without them not talking to me again. And it helped, they would make me go to dinner, and I would eat with them, and I had more energy to do all my work, so it was good. I guess I was just grateful to have people to walk with and eat with. So they were my friends, they just have no idea that they kept making jokes that upset me."

Valkyrie nodded, turning the hob on and sticking the pot of vegetables and oil on it to heat. "Are you still talking to any of them?"

"Right now? No. But I promised I would," she trailed off, and looked at Valkyrie's smiling face. "I don't know if I want to baby. I just want to, I don't know, be happy here."

"But you said they're your friends. And now you can tell them you don't like their jokes and you'll have a better friendship. Rebecca sounds like she likes you, right?"

Nadia made an unconvinced sound. "Rebecca was nice at first. But she decided she didn't like me later."

"Why?"

Nadia hesitated. "Do you remember when I said I went on a few dates with someone else?"

Now she was getting to the good bits. "I do. I've kind of been wanting to know a bit more. Since you said that she wasn't nice in the end either."

"No, she wasn't, and the girl I dated is Rebecca's best friend. She never believed me when I said her friend was horrible, and she gossiped about me to the whole school."

"She sounds like a bitch."

"She was! She was really mean in the end. I mean, after I ignored her for two months everyone forgot about it and she started being nice like nothing happened and I did talk to her but I was thinking in my head how I didn't like her."

"Makes sense."

"And she continued being friends with Emily even after I said everything she did to me and I just can't believe she would do that."

"What did she do exactly?"

Nadia opened her mouth to say and snapped it shut at the last moment. She wasn't sure at first if she'd offended Nadia by asking, but after some time cooking in silence, Nadia tapped the wooden spoon clean of the vegetables stuck to it and wrapped her arms around Valkyrie. Valkyrie held her tightly. "She was just a bitch, Val. A really big, fat, horrible bitch."

"Am I better looking?"

Nadia smiled. "Yes."

"Am I stronger?"

"Yes."

"Am I cooler?"

"Yeah."

"Do you love me?"

She looked up at her. "Definitely."

"And you trust me?"

"Of course."

"Then you should know that you can tell me, and remember I will always love you and that this bitch Emily is nowhere near you, and if she does go near you, I'll slap her back to wherever she lives halfway around the world."

"She lives in America."

"I'll slap her back to America."

Nadia laughed a little and kissed Valkyrie. "She just would make me do things I didn't want to. It wasn't too much stuff, like, it wasn't really physical past hugging and kissing, and holding her hand in public, and wearing her jacket. But she was really controlling in every other way. I had to call her every few hours, even if I had a class, and I had to sneak out to see her every day after school, and I couldn't do schoolwork when I was with her, and when I stopped doing any of that because I decided not to date her, she was just really horrible. She sent me texts, letters, she told everyone I knew how awful I was, she said I was cheating on her and was breaking her heart. She somehow found my email and kept sending me messages like that! She only stopped when I came back to Ireland."

"How long was that?"

"Um, I met her in February, we went on a date in March, and I stopped dating her after a month, and then there was all the harassment until I left in May."

"She's definitely a bitch."

"I know. Can you put the boiling water in that pot?" Valkyrie went and did that, and then went back to hugging. "I love you Valkyrie. I'm really glad I live here."

"I know, I love you too. If I ever meet a bitch called Emily or Rebecca I'll put them in their place. But it would be nice to meet your other friends. I've never met any of your friends before. I promise to make them not make jokes."

"We'll see," Nadia smiled, kissing Valkyrie nose.

Woot, two in a day. Just.

I hope you're liking these shorter chapters, I realise they're not as fun as some meatier stuff but they're adding layers and stuff. And the names Rebecca and Emily are my friends, and I use them for basically all bad guys I make, like the good friend I am :) if they ever read this, they will give me angry texts, by which I mean, Rebecca will send me angry texts like a little angry hampster! I'm almost certain she won't read this message either so she won't know I called her an angry hampster mwahahaha!

Enjoy :)