My father already left when I got up, probably off to his odd little office job of keeping books for an annoying factory that he hated. A small note greeted me from the fridge.
Hey girl! Left for work as usual. Might be a little late getting home, checking out a theatre to try and get back in the show biz. Maybe come by if you want. You could sign up to be part of the crew in their production, since I know you don't like being on stage. Address is here:
A complicated address followed, and I took a picture of it with my phone. My dad the acting nerd always managed to seek out a place to pursue his passion wherever we went, so I honestly wasn't too surprised that he'd found one. As much as I really hated acting myself, I loved supporting him and watching shows. He once played in a show called Deer Camp that had us both rolling with laugher for months afterward; the whole plot revolves around four drunken men holed up in the mountains while hunting.
I threw the note away and readjusted the backpack on my shoulders. I had a habit of never leaving my room in the morning until I absolutely had to. I felt prepared to get on that bus and endure another day of confusion.
I soon found myself inside the school hallways. As I got back into this crazy game, I started to pick out the things that everyone wore to identify their characters' species. Sparkling wings, odd contacts, articles of clothing, even ways of talking served as labeling badges for different people.
"Fey!" Leighton drew my attention, bounding over to me at a full-on run. "You won't believe it," He said breathlessly when he'd reached my side, having to stop and heave for air.
"What? Someone found the gem?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I still had no idea where it could be.
"No, but Rowdy and I went out to the Catholic Church near here because we thought it fit. Turns out, it wasn't there either." The boy murmured, shaking his head. "That's not what I'm talking about though. Look at this." He showed me the screen of his phone, which held what looked like a bar graph with five columns and digits above and below them. "The bottom number is overall points for teams. The top is how many they've gained or lost in the past 24 hours."
I looked at the top numbers, where he was pointing, and only two of the numbers had changed. The Badgers had gained 100 points, and Syndicate had lost 100.
"There was a point transfer last night." The bovine creature scrolled down the list and showed a detailed list of gains and transfers. The first words showed in green letters; Ezekiel Flynn received 100 pts, and then, Jules Krieger transferred 100 pts.
"I don't have any idea what happened last night, but Arthur is beyond pissed. He got into a fistfight with Zeke this morning; both of them have in-school suspension for the day. In other words, they've vanished from Larimore until they return." Leighton bit his lip, looking around at the kids giving suspicious glances towards each other. "No one knows what happened. Arthur and Zeke didn't tell anyone, and if anyone else knows, they aren't saying a word."
I finally took a better intake of my surroundings. All of the kids looked stressed out and suspicious of each other. Something happened, and no one that knew wanted to talk about it. Next to Leighton, the nearest locker door stood open. When the kid operating it slammed shut, we looked over to see a badly injured student.
"Oh, Jesus! Jules, what happened to you?" Leighton exclaimed as he scrutinized their appearance.
"I'm fine, Leighton. Thank you for your concern." They grumbled irritably. Almost half of their face blossomed into a deep navy and swirls of purple, a huge bruise coating the base of their cheekbone and jaw. Stitches crossed across their nose, along with bandages and some gauze. They definitely looked worse for wear. Leighton didn't feel concern all by himself.
"You don't look very fine! What's your name? Is there anything we can do to help?" I murmured, hands wringing together.
"Jules. It's a pleasure. I'm fine, and you can't help." They scrunched their eyebrows together, answering my questions faster than a Gatling gun. This show stopped almost immediately afterward due to a grimace of pain. "Syndicate, official cyborg." They watched me with a significant amount of silence before I realized that they wanted me to say something else. I took note of their odd clockwork contacts before understanding what they wanted me to say.
"I'm from Copper Phoenix, I'm a Harpy. My name's Fey." I smiled, and they nodded. Something told me they probably would have returned the smile if it wouldn't have hurt their face.
"Nice to meet you, Fey." Jules answered, grabbing a book from their locker and wincing at the pain that soared across their shoulders blade. "Sorry, still hurts from where they had to put it back where it goes." A nervous laugh bubbled from their throat.
"Wait, so your nose was broken, your face is all bruised, and someone dislocated your shoulder, but you don't want to talk about that?" I felt the surprise and worry in my voice raise. "Did someone you know really well do it?"
"My parents didn't do it, and I don't have a significant other, if that's what you're asking." Jules shook their head. "I just got into a fight. It's over, really." They slammed the locker door with their good arm, and took off down the hall, ending the conversation without another word. My heart dropped into my stomach. Didn't they say they were in Bronzed Syndicate? Is this what Arthur and Zeke got into a fight about? My head swam, interrupted only by the bell sounding above and dragging me to that first class that I wouldn't be able to focus in anyway.
-
The sound of a loud stapler hit my ears when I walked out of my last class for the day. Taylor precariously wobbled on their locked in place wheelchair with Rachel holding their waist so that they wouldn't fall as they stapled flyers up around the school message boards. Rachel caught my gaze and smiled, filling my chest with a familiar stinging and face with heat. Jeez, she looked so gorgeous every day.
The pixie waved at me, carefully using her other hand to hold Taylor in their higher position. Her eyes and smile lifted me out of the non-existent void. All right, yeah, maybe I thought a little bit cheesy, but she did make me feel a lot better. Something about my insecurities just seemed to melt away around her.
"Hey, Fey!" The girl helped Taylor back down to the ground, readjusting her two braids so that they fell behind her shoulders. She had on a different set of pixie ear cuffs today, but they were just as glamorous as the first set I saw her in. Taylor had a flower crown perched on their head, but also some odd necklace that I hadn't seen them wear before wrapped around their neck.
"Hi, Rachel!" I tried my best to smile my prettiest, to look as attractive as possible when I probably just looked like the biggest dunce. She laughed, though, so I decided to be positive and take it as a compliment. "Hi, Taylor."
"Hi, Fey. It's nice to see you doing well!" Taylor smiled, straightening the stack of papers in their hands. When I looked up at the flyer, a curiosity swam within me. It read something about the final event taking place inside the school itself, during Spring Break, and that the Badgers hosted it all. Rowdy said that they all hosted the event the past few years. Guilt passed across their face for a second, redness coming across as embarrassment. "I'm, uh, really, emphatically, sorry about what happened at your screening. Abigail can be crude to new people. Please forgive her on my behalf. She's really not that bad, I promise."
"It's okay," I smiled at them, accepting their apology. Mean as Abigail acted, Taylor did a fantastic job of smoothing her faults over and being the helpful person everyone wanted to be. They remained the oasis in the desert that was their team. My eyes flitted back to the odd symbol necklace. "Um, what's your necklace mean?"
"Oh, that's an Egyptian hieroglyph for life. It's called an ankh. I wear it because my character is a life demon." Taylor explained, looking at the symbol around their neck. "They have a cyborg leg, too, because of my prosthetic." They pointed to the elegantly painted prosthetic below their knee that looked almost exactly like the inter-workings of a robot. I thought about how different they seemed from anything remotely demonic, and then a curiosity about the plastic on their body got to me.
"What happened to your leg? That is, if you feel comfortable with me asking." I looked at them, trying to detect discomfort in their expression should I need to apologize. I knew the question somewhat overstepped my boundaries, but honestly, the question had been digging at me since I first met them.
"No worries, everyone asks. It doesn't bother me." True to their words, it didn't seem like the question had bothered the person. "My parents have to work a lot, so they're never home. I have to help take care of my younger siblings. Well, one day when I was about eleven, I tried to cook because we ran out of microwavable food and the younger kids told me they were hungry. I accidentally pulled the pot of boiling water off on myself, and it caught my entire left leg from the knee down." They smiled bitterly. "I didn't call my parents because I knew they'd be mad. So I waited. When my mother got home, she looked at it and decided that she could treat it at home so she wouldn't have to pay for the hospital bill. Weeks later, I had to be rushed to the hospital because I couldn't feel it." A long sigh exited their lungs. "We had to amputate the limb, so my parents got the cheapest prosthetic they could." Finally, a bit of sadness hit their gaze. "They didn't realize that the prosthetic was actually more expensive in the long run, considering the fact that I was still growing. They still complain about it to this day." A bitter laugh escaped their throat, but the emotions faded soon after, leaving us all with a happy, shiny Taylor on the surface. My heart went out to them, feeling a bit guilty at the thought that maybe they pretended to be happy.
"Hey, I'm sorry about that. I know we don't know each other really well, but if you want someone to talk to, I'd be glad to listen." I offered, a weak smile crossing my face.
"Thank you, Fey, but there's no need. I'm fine." Taylor smiled, blue eyes giving hope to all of those that needed it. "But I do appreciate your offer. Please, enjoy Dreamveil, and I hope you can join us for the announcement of the big event! I have to keep hanging up flyers, but it was nice talking to you. Bye!" They waved, and they headed down the hall, Rachel following after. She called goodbye after me, and I swore that I saw her wink. My heart slowly melted. I really thought it kind of her to help Taylor out, too, even though they came from a different team.
I readjusted my bag, and headed for the door. My dad wanted me to check out his theatre, so that's where my feet led me now. I hitched a ride on the bus and happily played a game on my handheld to pass the time as I went. After I had romped around in the underground of the game for a while, the riddle for the Ruby Gem of Valiance clamored back into my head because of some of the ruby colored spheres I mined. Finally, I had an idea of where it might actually be located.