Battle of The Whimms. (will be revised soon. Multiple errors)
“What the-?” Crow Whimms shot straight up in bed as Seek and Destroy by Metallica suddenly blared through five speakers set out in her dark bedroom. She reached up to rub at her eyes, and realized the veil she had worn for last nights party was still on. She groaned and unclipped the veil from her black tresses.
She dropped it on her nightstand as she rolled off the top of her bed. She groped in the dark until she found her lamp, and then flinched as the light clicked on. She shuffled through papers and moved the half-full ash tray to find her stereo remote. She found it and turned the music up. Crow grinned as she remembered her newly sound-proofed walls. Her parents had made her put them in, as they were tired of her music suddenly blasting at any time, day or night.
“Ffffllluck.” She said as she looked down at herself. She was still wearing her black lace long sleeve shirt and her beat up black mini skirt, and her Doc Martens. Last night she and her friends went to a party to mourn the end of summer, and celebrate the beginning of their senior year. The glow-in-the-dark necklaces she had put around the ankles of her boots still faintly glowed.
She unzipped the boots as she hopped to her bathroom door. She dropped them just outside the door. She opened the door and flinched as she saw the pale pink door of her twin sisters bedroom door. Crow scrunched her nose as she thought of Stacia, her polar opposite, and identical twin. Course they weren’t identical anymore. Crow had dyed her hair black; Stacia had lightened hers to an almost blonde. Crow had a snake bite, three eyebrow piercings, a multitude of ear piercings, and a crooked nose from getting into fights. And there was the nape piercing, the corset piercing on her left forearm. And Crow had a double naval piercing, while Stacia just had her belly button piercing to show off, as she was a cheerleader.
She turned on the shower to let it heat up and started unzipping her clothing. She pressed her ear to Stacia’s door to see if she could hear if her sister was up yet. Hearing nothing, she turned and stepped into the warm shower.
Ten minutes later, there was a pounding on the shower door. “Hurry up and get out! I need to go meet my friends.”
Crow turned off the water and slid the door open, reaching for her towel. “Yes that is such an incentive. I end a warm shower so you can meet all your preppy little friends. Yippee.” Crow grabbed a smaller towel and started drying her hair.
“Well, it worked didn’t it?” Stacia replied as she turned back on the water.
“No. My boyfriend is coming to pick me up. Is yours? Oh, no, wait. He dumped you. My bad.” Crow shrugged and went back to her hair.
Stacia gasped. “Oh my effing god, I cannot believe you just said that! Get out, Courtney!” She tried sneered as she said the name.
Crow whirled and faced her sister. “My name is Crow. Call me that again, and I’ll beat you like I did that fat idiot everyone loves!”
“That ‘fat idiot’ was the school’s star player. You cost us a game! And Courtney is your name.” They were nose-to-nose now, shouting.
“He broke my nose, and if I could beat him up, he shouldn’t be qualified to be the ‘star player’! And it’s been Crow for four years!” Crow turned and opened the door to her room.
“Drop-out druggie failure!”
“Barbie-doll cheerleader clone!” She slammed the door shut behind her and turned up her music. She let Cradle of Filth wash over her. She loved this song, and she knew the video for Temptation so well, she could mentally watch it.
“I hate my sister.”
>*<
There was a high-pitched squeal of protest as Damen slammed down on the brake of his old mustang. “She called you a drop-out?! A drop-out!” Damen said loudly.
There was a groan from the backseat. “Quiet. If anyone cares to remember the girl in the backseat, she’s hung-over. So hush it up.” Crow twisted in the seat to look at Morri, sprawled across the small seat.
“Whatever.” Damen said, louder. “How can she call you a drop-out? I’m the drop-out!” Morri laughed from the backseat.
“Yeah, completely DayDay. A drop-out who got his GED when he was fifteen. Oh, totally.”
Damen glared at her in the rear-view mirror. Crow twisted again as she grinned. “Shhhhh, Morri!” She mock whispered. “The nineteen year-old, supposed drop-out pothead doesn’t like to talk about the fact that he could actually get a job, and be….” She glanced, wide-eyed at her boyfriend. “Respectable.” She coked her eyebrow a Morri and began to laugh.
Damen rolled his eyes, as they turned a corner and he grinned. He stuck his head out the window and shouted, “Vampire Alert! Fear for your lives people! Get your garlic!” His grin grew as a black-garbed, black-and-white-haired figure started toward the car. “Hey Vamp.”
“I can’t believe you’re going to do that this year too.” Vamp said in his deep, quiet voice as Morri moved and he slid in beside her. “You do know that the old lady across the street from me actually grows garlic now, and puts it everywhere. She carries it around with her too. And I’m pretty sure she has crosses carved into the sides of her house.”
Damen looked back at him. “Seriously? I did that!? Sweetness.”
Morri kissed Vamps’ check, leaving a faint red print of her lips. “Foolish to fear a vampire. If I were her, I’d fear the ravens, and the crows.”
“You just want people to fear Morrigan.” Vamp replied, raising a brow.
“We’d prefer the term respect, Fiacha and I.”
“How is Fiacha?” Crow asked before Vamp and Morri got into it again.
“My little raven is currently making a nest of sparklies in a corner of my room. I believe he finds it very enjoyable.” She smiled like a proud mama.
“I still don’t see why an innocent little bird would want to stay with you,” Damen said, as he often did.
Morri hit the back of his head. “Ravens are followers of the goddess Morrigan. They can feel that I honor and respect her as my patron goddess, and come to me.”
Vamp snorted. Everyone in the car knew that that was her customary response, when she was feeling spiritual, or when she was annoyed. Not just because she didn’t want to admit that she had an obsession with ravens, crows, and the Celtic goddess of war and death, Morrigan.
“Yeah, that’s why we call you Morri, Meagan.” Morri jerked and punched Vamps’ arm, hard. “OUCH!”
“Morri. Shut up. I’m still hung-over. Using you as a bed, Channing.” Morri lay on the seat and laid her head on Vamps’ lap, closing her eyes.
“I suppose I deserved the punch. And the use of that name…” He gave his hand to Morri, who took it curled around it, so his arm was draped over her body.
Crow watched a faint blush appear in Vamps’ checks as she turned to face Damen, grinning. Damen looked at her, and glanced back at Vamp and Morri’s innocent pose. He turned and looked head. “Look-in’ ah- kind of comfy back there, you two,” he said offhandedly. Morri’s heavy combat boots came forward and kicked the back of Damens’' seat. “Hey!!! Old, delicate car being your only means of transportation, be nice.”
“Technically, we all have our licenses.” Vamp said.
“None of us have a car besides Damen. So be nice to my boyfriend and his car.” Crow said. “Now shut it and look for Juvie and Nariko.”
“Yeah, my seats are delicate woman! The car is old as fuck, and you damage it, you pay to get it fixed.” Vamp laughed.
“Juvie has his motorcycle. And you wish. You always say when you get money you’re gunna get your car fixed, but nope. You spend it on concert tickets for you and Crow. Or stuff for Crow. Which is acceptable.”
“Good to know my girlfriend of two years best friends still approve of me.’ Damen said sarcastically.
“Never said I approve.” Morris grumbled.
“There they are.” Crow said, interrupting what Damen was going to say.
“Damn you DayDay. You get us to school faster then when we walk.”
“Poor Morri. But if you walked to school when would you sleep?” Damen asked her teasingly. She grumbled and curled tighter against Vamp as Damen pulled into a spot next to one with two kids occupying it, with a motorcycle.
The girl was watching the clouds move. She was wearing a hot pink mini-tutu with matching leggings and a black long sleeve shirt and knee high combat boots. Her platinum blonde hair was in it’s usual pig-tails. The other was a young man wearing dirt-stained jeans and a hooded vest. The hood was up, covering his eyes, and a scar, but the open vest was showing off rippled abs and muscled arms, and the tattooed fire across the right side of his body.
“I still don’t know how you came up with DayDay, or why I let you guys keep using it.” Vamp was getting out as Morri leaned forward and kissed Damens’ check.
“Deep down DayDay, you know you love it.” And she followed Vamp out. “Hey Nariko, Juvie. Vamp, could you sit down?” she looked hopefully at him.
He sighed and sat straight-legged in the space that was universally known as ‘The Emos Spot’. Which, they all knew was a stupid name, but it kept the worst of the preps away. And they knew what each other meant when they said, “Meet at the The Spot.”
Morri grinned and sat beside him huddling against his side as he put is arm around her.
Juvie tilted his head and looked at them. “Damn Vamp, you’re as whipped as Damen.” He said in his deep, calm voice. Damen, who was leaning against the side of his car, arms wrapped around Crow who was leaning back on him, said, “Since when was being whipped a bad thing. Ever. From my perspective, whipped is a damn good thing.”
“I still don’t get why you two aren’t together,” said Nariko, her quiet voice softer then Vamps’. “I told you almost three years ago that your being together is in the cards.”
“Sheesh Sarah, not everyone follows ‘the cards and the stars’ like you.” Juvie told his sister.
“I do not get why. But not everyone disregards the tellings of the cards and the stars, Michael.”
Juvie heaved a long-suffering sigh. Sarah and Michael, known as Nariko and Juvie to everyone but themselves, had to be the oddest set of brother sister. Juvie was raised by his father, a drunk gambler. Nariko, Japanese for gentle child, was so named by a neighbor when Sarah was nine. The neighbor, Starsa, had taken Sarah under her wing when she realized Sarah had a despondent mother, and a mess of a father. Starsa taught Sarah how to read the stars, and tarot cards, and a whole manner of fortune tellings and magics.
But that was before their father got himself killed. Juvie had been following his father, making sure he got his drunk-self home. He had been fifteen, Nariko had been eleven. Juvie had attacked the man who killed his father, and he had a nasty scar around his right eye to prove it.
They were put in the foster system, but no one would take them; Nariko was so eerily silent, except for the premonitions she made, and she was always looking at the sky, and she looked eerie; with her platinum hair and deep gray eyes that seemed to be able to see inside a person. People had wanted Juvie even less, because of the fresh scar and the ferocious scowl had accompanied it. Because without the scowl and the scar, people could tell he was a handsome boy, blonde hair to match his sisters, but in untamable curls, and his grey eyes were lighter, flecked with green and blue. But the scowl and the scar warned them off.
Starsa found them after a few months and took them both in. She had home-schooled both of them, until Juvie could look at people without glaring at them, and Nariko could talk about something other then stars and tarot readings.
Then when he turned eighteen, Juvie asked Starsa if he could file for custody of Nariko. She said he could, and he took custody of his sister and moved them here.
“Any one got a lighter?” Damen asked, interrupting Crow’s thoughts.
Morri from her huddle laughed. “Thought you said you were gunna quit.” She tossed the lighter she kept in the buckle of her boot at him.
“You’ve all said you were going to quit. You said you were going to stop drinking, Vamp said he was going to stop growing and selling, Damen and Crow said they were gunna stop smoking. Sarah never does anything, and I have to keep clean till Sarah turns eighteen.” Juvie said. He was twenty-three, old enough to do everything they did, but legally.
“I never said I’d stop drinking.”
“Yes you did.” Four voices rang out.
Morri grumbled incoherently. Vamp caught the lighter Damen tossed after he lit a half-burned cigarette.
The school bell rang, signaling the start of classes. Crow stepped away from Damen as Vamp, Morri and Juvie got up.
“I’m picking you guys up?” Damen asked Crow, holding on to her hand. He put out the cigarette and crushed it on the asphalt. He drew her back into his arms, waiting for her answer. She kissed him, and shook her head.
“Just me. Juvie is taking Nariko, and Vamp and Morri are going to her place for whatever start of school thing they’ve done since fifth.” She smiled at him devilishly. “Just me.”
He grinned. “That mean you’re gunna come to my place, then?” He held her tightly against him as the rest of their friends started toward their classes.
“Duh. Just make sure Darrel isn’t there with his friends.” Darrel was the true druggie, and he was worse with his friends.
“Done.” He kissed her forehead. “See you later. Get to class, babe.” He let her go and turned her around. She started away from him, smiling. Just before she passed the gate into school she turned and saw him standing there, exactly as he had been, watching her. She waved as she turned and continued to her class.
>*<
Stacia had watched the exchange through narrowed eyes. “Why does she have the perfect fucking boyfriend? Seriously, I mean how does she even deserve to have friends?” She asked as she watched her sisters’ boyfriend drive away.
She turned to her friends, all watching the car retreat. They turned to her. She had normal friends, she thought. There was Monica, with her dark brown soft wavy hair and exotic-looking eyes, who looked like she could be a model. There was Candice, who had wide blue eyes and golden hair that reached her hips, whose body, Stacia was sure, graced the dreams of many boys. And there was Sadie and Katie, with identical hazel eyes, and reddish-blonde hair, Sadie’s curly; Katie’s straight, both had slim bodies.
Why did her sister, who refuses to be called by her name, who smokes, drinks, and is pierced everywhere, and has a complete disregard for rules, have a perfect boyfriend? Granted, he’s over-age, and smokes, drinks, and probably does drugs, but her sisters boyfriend was sweet and he got things for Courtney, and picked her up on time, and hugged her. And he didn’t grope her.
“Stace? You listening or not?” Stacia looked up, and found Candice and Monica staring at her. Sadie and Katie were gone, most likely due to their obsession with being on time. “You’ve been staring at the driveway for more then five minutes, and we’re already late for class. You okay?” There was concern in Monica’s voice.
Stacia nodded. “Yeah… Just thinking….”
“About your sister and her boyfriend? And Crieg? He was an stupid, sadist, jerk. Don’t think about him, just stop.” Candice wrapped her arms around Stacia, and Monica brushed back her hair and framed her face.
“Besides,” Monica added as she kissed Stacia’s check, “You’re a shoe-in for Cheer Captain this year. Look forward to that. Senior year, cheer captain, honestly what else could be better?”
Stacia shrugged as her two best friends walked her to class. Better would be not having the memories of your boyfriend trying to rape you. Better would be having someone who actually loved you.
>*<
Three hours later, after lunch, Crow walked into the gym for PE. And groaned. Stacia was in her class. She had been hoping she was free of her sister in all classes, but this was the worst possible class to share with her sister. The cheerleader. Peppy and athletic.
She kept looking, and almost groaned again. None of her friends were in this class. Well, there was Juvie. But he worked at the school, as an all-around helper; janitor/teacher assistant, to keep a closer eye on Nariko. He was there, helping Mr. Tweats (called Sweats by most of the student body), set up whatever new student bonding exercise he had come up with during the summer.
She prayed she wasn’t going to be partnered with her sister. Some teachers, hearing of their on-going, ever-lasting fight, attempt to bring them together during ‘bonding exercises’ whenever they had a class together. The class usually ended up with them yelling at each other, and occasionally hitting, resulting in their being sent to the principal, then home. Those were the only time Stacia was in the office. Crow, however, was in there was so often, she was on first name basis with everyone in the building.
And even worse, Crow thought, her friends were with her. She started winding up her earphones, watching them as they glanced at her, rolled their eyes and turned around. Crow smirked, and walked over to her habitual corner. She leaned against the wall, and slid down, and crossed her legs. She watched people, raising a bow when anybody looked at her. And tried not to laugh as they hurriedly turned away. She narrowed her eyes as she saw her sisters friends, Candice, and Monica, walk toward her- model style, in their heels.
“What? Am I so low on my dear sister Stacia’s list that she sends you two pretty goons to have at me?” Crow weaved her fingers together and braced her elbows on her knees to place her head upon her hands. “How sweet of her.”
They glanced at each other, and sank down. Which was pretty impressive, as they were wearing painted-on skinny jeans, and an equally painted-on mini skirt. “We need to talk to you.”
“Ohmigosh!You want to talk to me!? I love you so MUCH.” Crow smirked. “Now et the hell away.’
She dropped it on her nightstand as she rolled off the top of her bed. She groped in the dark until she found her lamp, and then flinched as the light clicked on. She shuffled through papers and moved the half-full ash tray to find her stereo remote. She found it and turned the music up. Crow grinned as she remembered her newly sound-proofed walls. Her parents had made her put them in, as they were tired of her music suddenly blasting at any time, day or night.
“Ffffllluck.” She said as she looked down at herself. She was still wearing her black lace long sleeve shirt and her beat up black mini skirt, and her Doc Martens. Last night she and her friends went to a party to mourn the end of summer, and celebrate the beginning of their senior year. The glow-in-the-dark necklaces she had put around the ankles of her boots still faintly glowed.
She unzipped the boots as she hopped to her bathroom door. She dropped them just outside the door. She opened the door and flinched as she saw the pale pink door of her twin sisters bedroom door. Crow scrunched her nose as she thought of Stacia, her polar opposite, and identical twin. Course they weren’t identical anymore. Crow had dyed her hair black; Stacia had lightened hers to an almost blonde. Crow had a snake bite, three eyebrow piercings, a multitude of ear piercings, and a crooked nose from getting into fights. And there was the nape piercing, the corset piercing on her left forearm. And Crow had a double naval piercing, while Stacia just had her belly button piercing to show off, as she was a cheerleader.
She turned on the shower to let it heat up and started unzipping her clothing. She pressed her ear to Stacia’s door to see if she could hear if her sister was up yet. Hearing nothing, she turned and stepped into the warm shower.
Ten minutes later, there was a pounding on the shower door. “Hurry up and get out! I need to go meet my friends.”
Crow turned off the water and slid the door open, reaching for her towel. “Yes that is such an incentive. I end a warm shower so you can meet all your preppy little friends. Yippee.” Crow grabbed a smaller towel and started drying her hair.
“Well, it worked didn’t it?” Stacia replied as she turned back on the water.
“No. My boyfriend is coming to pick me up. Is yours? Oh, no, wait. He dumped you. My bad.” Crow shrugged and went back to her hair.
Stacia gasped. “Oh my effing god, I cannot believe you just said that! Get out, Courtney!” She tried sneered as she said the name.
Crow whirled and faced her sister. “My name is Crow. Call me that again, and I’ll beat you like I did that fat idiot everyone loves!”
“That ‘fat idiot’ was the school’s star player. You cost us a game! And Courtney is your name.” They were nose-to-nose now, shouting.
“He broke my nose, and if I could beat him up, he shouldn’t be qualified to be the ‘star player’! And it’s been Crow for four years!” Crow turned and opened the door to her room.
“Drop-out druggie failure!”
“Barbie-doll cheerleader clone!” She slammed the door shut behind her and turned up her music. She let Cradle of Filth wash over her. She loved this song, and she knew the video for Temptation so well, she could mentally watch it.
“I hate my sister.”
>*<
There was a high-pitched squeal of protest as Damen slammed down on the brake of his old mustang. “She called you a drop-out?! A drop-out!” Damen said loudly.
There was a groan from the backseat. “Quiet. If anyone cares to remember the girl in the backseat, she’s hung-over. So hush it up.” Crow twisted in the seat to look at Morri, sprawled across the small seat.
“Whatever.” Damen said, louder. “How can she call you a drop-out? I’m the drop-out!” Morri laughed from the backseat.
“Yeah, completely DayDay. A drop-out who got his GED when he was fifteen. Oh, totally.”
Damen glared at her in the rear-view mirror. Crow twisted again as she grinned. “Shhhhh, Morri!” She mock whispered. “The nineteen year-old, supposed drop-out pothead doesn’t like to talk about the fact that he could actually get a job, and be….” She glanced, wide-eyed at her boyfriend. “Respectable.” She coked her eyebrow a Morri and began to laugh.
Damen rolled his eyes, as they turned a corner and he grinned. He stuck his head out the window and shouted, “Vampire Alert! Fear for your lives people! Get your garlic!” His grin grew as a black-garbed, black-and-white-haired figure started toward the car. “Hey Vamp.”
“I can’t believe you’re going to do that this year too.” Vamp said in his deep, quiet voice as Morri moved and he slid in beside her. “You do know that the old lady across the street from me actually grows garlic now, and puts it everywhere. She carries it around with her too. And I’m pretty sure she has crosses carved into the sides of her house.”
Damen looked back at him. “Seriously? I did that!? Sweetness.”
Morri kissed Vamps’ check, leaving a faint red print of her lips. “Foolish to fear a vampire. If I were her, I’d fear the ravens, and the crows.”
“You just want people to fear Morrigan.” Vamp replied, raising a brow.
“We’d prefer the term respect, Fiacha and I.”
“How is Fiacha?” Crow asked before Vamp and Morri got into it again.
“My little raven is currently making a nest of sparklies in a corner of my room. I believe he finds it very enjoyable.” She smiled like a proud mama.
“I still don’t see why an innocent little bird would want to stay with you,” Damen said, as he often did.
Morri hit the back of his head. “Ravens are followers of the goddess Morrigan. They can feel that I honor and respect her as my patron goddess, and come to me.”
Vamp snorted. Everyone in the car knew that that was her customary response, when she was feeling spiritual, or when she was annoyed. Not just because she didn’t want to admit that she had an obsession with ravens, crows, and the Celtic goddess of war and death, Morrigan.
“Yeah, that’s why we call you Morri, Meagan.” Morri jerked and punched Vamps’ arm, hard. “OUCH!”
“Morri. Shut up. I’m still hung-over. Using you as a bed, Channing.” Morri lay on the seat and laid her head on Vamps’ lap, closing her eyes.
“I suppose I deserved the punch. And the use of that name…” He gave his hand to Morri, who took it curled around it, so his arm was draped over her body.
Crow watched a faint blush appear in Vamps’ checks as she turned to face Damen, grinning. Damen looked at her, and glanced back at Vamp and Morri’s innocent pose. He turned and looked head. “Look-in’ ah- kind of comfy back there, you two,” he said offhandedly. Morri’s heavy combat boots came forward and kicked the back of Damens’' seat. “Hey!!! Old, delicate car being your only means of transportation, be nice.”
“Technically, we all have our licenses.” Vamp said.
“None of us have a car besides Damen. So be nice to my boyfriend and his car.” Crow said. “Now shut it and look for Juvie and Nariko.”
“Yeah, my seats are delicate woman! The car is old as fuck, and you damage it, you pay to get it fixed.” Vamp laughed.
“Juvie has his motorcycle. And you wish. You always say when you get money you’re gunna get your car fixed, but nope. You spend it on concert tickets for you and Crow. Or stuff for Crow. Which is acceptable.”
“Good to know my girlfriend of two years best friends still approve of me.’ Damen said sarcastically.
“Never said I approve.” Morris grumbled.
“There they are.” Crow said, interrupting what Damen was going to say.
“Damn you DayDay. You get us to school faster then when we walk.”
“Poor Morri. But if you walked to school when would you sleep?” Damen asked her teasingly. She grumbled and curled tighter against Vamp as Damen pulled into a spot next to one with two kids occupying it, with a motorcycle.
The girl was watching the clouds move. She was wearing a hot pink mini-tutu with matching leggings and a black long sleeve shirt and knee high combat boots. Her platinum blonde hair was in it’s usual pig-tails. The other was a young man wearing dirt-stained jeans and a hooded vest. The hood was up, covering his eyes, and a scar, but the open vest was showing off rippled abs and muscled arms, and the tattooed fire across the right side of his body.
“I still don’t know how you came up with DayDay, or why I let you guys keep using it.” Vamp was getting out as Morri leaned forward and kissed Damens’ check.
“Deep down DayDay, you know you love it.” And she followed Vamp out. “Hey Nariko, Juvie. Vamp, could you sit down?” she looked hopefully at him.
He sighed and sat straight-legged in the space that was universally known as ‘The Emos Spot’. Which, they all knew was a stupid name, but it kept the worst of the preps away. And they knew what each other meant when they said, “Meet at the The Spot.”
Morri grinned and sat beside him huddling against his side as he put is arm around her.
Juvie tilted his head and looked at them. “Damn Vamp, you’re as whipped as Damen.” He said in his deep, calm voice. Damen, who was leaning against the side of his car, arms wrapped around Crow who was leaning back on him, said, “Since when was being whipped a bad thing. Ever. From my perspective, whipped is a damn good thing.”
“I still don’t get why you two aren’t together,” said Nariko, her quiet voice softer then Vamps’. “I told you almost three years ago that your being together is in the cards.”
“Sheesh Sarah, not everyone follows ‘the cards and the stars’ like you.” Juvie told his sister.
“I do not get why. But not everyone disregards the tellings of the cards and the stars, Michael.”
Juvie heaved a long-suffering sigh. Sarah and Michael, known as Nariko and Juvie to everyone but themselves, had to be the oddest set of brother sister. Juvie was raised by his father, a drunk gambler. Nariko, Japanese for gentle child, was so named by a neighbor when Sarah was nine. The neighbor, Starsa, had taken Sarah under her wing when she realized Sarah had a despondent mother, and a mess of a father. Starsa taught Sarah how to read the stars, and tarot cards, and a whole manner of fortune tellings and magics.
But that was before their father got himself killed. Juvie had been following his father, making sure he got his drunk-self home. He had been fifteen, Nariko had been eleven. Juvie had attacked the man who killed his father, and he had a nasty scar around his right eye to prove it.
They were put in the foster system, but no one would take them; Nariko was so eerily silent, except for the premonitions she made, and she was always looking at the sky, and she looked eerie; with her platinum hair and deep gray eyes that seemed to be able to see inside a person. People had wanted Juvie even less, because of the fresh scar and the ferocious scowl had accompanied it. Because without the scowl and the scar, people could tell he was a handsome boy, blonde hair to match his sisters, but in untamable curls, and his grey eyes were lighter, flecked with green and blue. But the scowl and the scar warned them off.
Starsa found them after a few months and took them both in. She had home-schooled both of them, until Juvie could look at people without glaring at them, and Nariko could talk about something other then stars and tarot readings.
Then when he turned eighteen, Juvie asked Starsa if he could file for custody of Nariko. She said he could, and he took custody of his sister and moved them here.
“Any one got a lighter?” Damen asked, interrupting Crow’s thoughts.
Morri from her huddle laughed. “Thought you said you were gunna quit.” She tossed the lighter she kept in the buckle of her boot at him.
“You’ve all said you were going to quit. You said you were going to stop drinking, Vamp said he was going to stop growing and selling, Damen and Crow said they were gunna stop smoking. Sarah never does anything, and I have to keep clean till Sarah turns eighteen.” Juvie said. He was twenty-three, old enough to do everything they did, but legally.
“I never said I’d stop drinking.”
“Yes you did.” Four voices rang out.
Morri grumbled incoherently. Vamp caught the lighter Damen tossed after he lit a half-burned cigarette.
The school bell rang, signaling the start of classes. Crow stepped away from Damen as Vamp, Morri and Juvie got up.
“I’m picking you guys up?” Damen asked Crow, holding on to her hand. He put out the cigarette and crushed it on the asphalt. He drew her back into his arms, waiting for her answer. She kissed him, and shook her head.
“Just me. Juvie is taking Nariko, and Vamp and Morri are going to her place for whatever start of school thing they’ve done since fifth.” She smiled at him devilishly. “Just me.”
He grinned. “That mean you’re gunna come to my place, then?” He held her tightly against him as the rest of their friends started toward their classes.
“Duh. Just make sure Darrel isn’t there with his friends.” Darrel was the true druggie, and he was worse with his friends.
“Done.” He kissed her forehead. “See you later. Get to class, babe.” He let her go and turned her around. She started away from him, smiling. Just before she passed the gate into school she turned and saw him standing there, exactly as he had been, watching her. She waved as she turned and continued to her class.
>*<
Stacia had watched the exchange through narrowed eyes. “Why does she have the perfect fucking boyfriend? Seriously, I mean how does she even deserve to have friends?” She asked as she watched her sisters’ boyfriend drive away.
She turned to her friends, all watching the car retreat. They turned to her. She had normal friends, she thought. There was Monica, with her dark brown soft wavy hair and exotic-looking eyes, who looked like she could be a model. There was Candice, who had wide blue eyes and golden hair that reached her hips, whose body, Stacia was sure, graced the dreams of many boys. And there was Sadie and Katie, with identical hazel eyes, and reddish-blonde hair, Sadie’s curly; Katie’s straight, both had slim bodies.
Why did her sister, who refuses to be called by her name, who smokes, drinks, and is pierced everywhere, and has a complete disregard for rules, have a perfect boyfriend? Granted, he’s over-age, and smokes, drinks, and probably does drugs, but her sisters boyfriend was sweet and he got things for Courtney, and picked her up on time, and hugged her. And he didn’t grope her.
“Stace? You listening or not?” Stacia looked up, and found Candice and Monica staring at her. Sadie and Katie were gone, most likely due to their obsession with being on time. “You’ve been staring at the driveway for more then five minutes, and we’re already late for class. You okay?” There was concern in Monica’s voice.
Stacia nodded. “Yeah… Just thinking….”
“About your sister and her boyfriend? And Crieg? He was an stupid, sadist, jerk. Don’t think about him, just stop.” Candice wrapped her arms around Stacia, and Monica brushed back her hair and framed her face.
“Besides,” Monica added as she kissed Stacia’s check, “You’re a shoe-in for Cheer Captain this year. Look forward to that. Senior year, cheer captain, honestly what else could be better?”
Stacia shrugged as her two best friends walked her to class. Better would be not having the memories of your boyfriend trying to rape you. Better would be having someone who actually loved you.
>*<
Three hours later, after lunch, Crow walked into the gym for PE. And groaned. Stacia was in her class. She had been hoping she was free of her sister in all classes, but this was the worst possible class to share with her sister. The cheerleader. Peppy and athletic.
She kept looking, and almost groaned again. None of her friends were in this class. Well, there was Juvie. But he worked at the school, as an all-around helper; janitor/teacher assistant, to keep a closer eye on Nariko. He was there, helping Mr. Tweats (called Sweats by most of the student body), set up whatever new student bonding exercise he had come up with during the summer.
She prayed she wasn’t going to be partnered with her sister. Some teachers, hearing of their on-going, ever-lasting fight, attempt to bring them together during ‘bonding exercises’ whenever they had a class together. The class usually ended up with them yelling at each other, and occasionally hitting, resulting in their being sent to the principal, then home. Those were the only time Stacia was in the office. Crow, however, was in there was so often, she was on first name basis with everyone in the building.
And even worse, Crow thought, her friends were with her. She started winding up her earphones, watching them as they glanced at her, rolled their eyes and turned around. Crow smirked, and walked over to her habitual corner. She leaned against the wall, and slid down, and crossed her legs. She watched people, raising a bow when anybody looked at her. And tried not to laugh as they hurriedly turned away. She narrowed her eyes as she saw her sisters friends, Candice, and Monica, walk toward her- model style, in their heels.
“What? Am I so low on my dear sister Stacia’s list that she sends you two pretty goons to have at me?” Crow weaved her fingers together and braced her elbows on her knees to place her head upon her hands. “How sweet of her.”
They glanced at each other, and sank down. Which was pretty impressive, as they were wearing painted-on skinny jeans, and an equally painted-on mini skirt. “We need to talk to you.”
“Ohmigosh!You want to talk to me!? I love you so MUCH.” Crow smirked. “Now et the hell away.’