June 24th, 2010
*Headmaster's office
My entire life. In a file folder. These high school floors are going to be missing the soles of my sneakers. Just as much as the soles of my sneakers will miss these floors. Today was a particularly dim day for me, as anyone leaving behind everything they grew up with behind as if I was just going a mere vacation. The school, was nothing like my old one I use to attend in New Mexico about five years prior to coming to Saint Louistown high in the fall of 2007. The school was more like home, much bigger and I had more friends as well. Saint Louiston high was more of a "Ghost school" you could say, with less than eleven students per classroom.
It was hard not to know everyone's face in the school, from the small group of band nerds that founded their clan in the back of the cafeteria until the school board finally found a teacher who suitable enough to teach the band class. Or let them teach them themselves. Then the jocks and cheerleader who I bounded up in one group of boring kids who as in every teen movie cliche found it their job to judge from their thrones of footballs and pom-poms.
The possers- oh we just don't talk about them if we can help it. And then the nerds. Probably the chillest in every school hierarchy that is looked down upon. And me. A mix between the chill nerd emo kid who kept a high GPA and had the good reputation, debunking almost every myth about emos being aggressive.
"You know, I could have become anything, doctor, screenwriter, anything."
Obsidian never stopped sniffing at the lockers leading to the headmaster's office. I could see the panther but no one else on the school grounds could. I knew that she would say the same thing to me or nothing at all. You see, Obsidian was my Guardian and would be until I had fulfilled the family promise.
She didn't like this place. To her, the air smelt filtered and unnatural. The floors were human-made and nothing matched her natural habitat. I watched her take another sniff at the doors that kept her from getting the only thing that was close to nature. Leather book covers. All the ones back at the family estate she had gnawed on. A dictionary, a ancient looking king James bible and some other one that was obliterated so terrible that I couldn't figure out what it was.
"Yes, you could have, but you know what will happen, you will just add another link to the endless cycle, you can end this, Lace."
That's the only thing she would say when I asked why I had to leave my normal teenage life to serve as an exchange more than two thousand miles away on the isles of Great Britain. Secret islands that only a few select families know about. Families who have Guardians like Obsidian. Girls who had the same chance of winning over the prince as I did. Well, I would have the same chance if my family wasn't close to bankruptcy. Most of them would come in riding in golden carriages with strong shire horses leading and adorned in fine apparel as all the running chosen females before me had, which was the reason we went broke in the first place.
I was fine with the idea of going simple, anything to maybe build up the family's financial status and reputation because our family never has struck the luck of having the chosen girl. Everytime, we had either came last or some other problem that wasn't easy to bounce back from.
"I know that, but no one ever once considered the way that I felt about departing North Carolina. This whole time it's been about what everyone else agreed to."
"Life isn't always about you, Lace and you know that but each step you take towards the headmaster's office only proves how weak-minded that you've become."
My teeth bit down on my lip, the tang of blood filling my mouth, still, it's not enough to stop the anger. Weak-minded? I have been putting up with her since day one. She was much like an annoying aunt who's nagging always pushed me to the edge. Making life harder than it had to be. But I loved her and I couldn't imagine a realm where she wasn't repeating rules and regulations right after encouraging me to just "Do my best, because the world is never fair."
"Let's put this in terms that you can understand, Obsidian, it's not called weak-minded, it's called I want to live my life without your muzzle stuck to my trail twenty-four seven and without knowing that before my final year I'll be far away from home!"
I definitely lied on the second half.
"Mmm.", I can hear it in her voice, trying to avoid sinking her claws into me by nodding. I knew she was conserving a scolding for me after school for telling her how I felt. She has a long run with my family over the decades. They also can see her, being the family guardian, passed down for generations and only appearing once she is needed.
If it wasn't money or leadership history being one of the biggest factors playing in the choosing of a future leader, I guess having a powerful guardian would be my advantage in courting. Depending on the competition. Power was one thing that either added to the chances of being chosen or lessened.
Finally, the lines of dull brown and grey lockers on white walls leading to an oakwood door standing between me and the headmaster came to a end. Between me and my future. I ought to turn around in the middle of the hallway and head back to drama class, without saying a word to Obsidian. The next thing I know, the folder slid from out of my hand, papers flying out. It so sudden that I didn't have time to catch anything.
Important papers, I'm sure. School identification, birth certificate copy, social security number, and medical forms. And I didn't care. My once strong embrace on the papers was gone, slipped right through my fingers.
Reminding me of the last school I disappeared from like a phantom from my small group of emo poser friends who listened to one falling in reverse song that came on the boombox they had hidden behind the junior high school where we hung out and decided that Ronnie Radke was their emo lord or something. I still kept the lighter that the leader of our small group gave me as a welcome present even though I strictly avoided cigarettes due to their smell which made nauseous.
I can't do it. Too heart wrenching to stand at this door. My aunt told me to do this. She offered to join me when I finally made the final significant goodbye to school. Everyone knows that high school is supposed to be that one place that every kid hates. It's just the natural flow of things. This time, this was the place I wanted to spend the rest of my fragile teen years.
Obsidian stares at me blankly but says nothing. It's clear that she understands, not fully comprehending the human emotions but she knew. She memorized every human she'd shared guardianship with, none of them, she claimed was annoying as me. I was never exactly fond of her when she first climbed out the bushes, a look of relief, not a lick of fear from my aunt when she parted her jaws and spoke for the first time.
Three days into the partnership was all if it took for me to start to admire her features and personality more and more each time we interacted. From her beautiful silky black pelt, to the way she nearly dwarfed me in size at the time. Muscles ripped under her pelt above giant paws like hammers. We connected more on a deeper level the more time went by, she was like the equivalent of a dedicated metalcore fan and a middle aged woman all placed in the body of a panther.
"Headmaster Adams is coming, I advise you get ready, this is something that only you alone can do."
"What?" I snap "You made me do this and now you chicken out all of a sudden, is that how this little thing called "Guardianship" works?"
She focuses her green eyes on my face, pressing her ears back against her head in annoyance, "Congrats on making yourself look like an idiot, Headmaster Adam is behind you.", The sarcasm in her voice is way more arresting than any bark order could possibly be. If she wasn't a panther, she would have become an amazing general for the royalleaf tribes down in the African Sahara.
"Who are you talking to Lace, a ghost?", Headmaster Adam taps me on the shoulder, pointing in the direction on where my eyes had once been trained on my guardian. A soft thread of amusement took his voice, but it sounded genuinely worried as if I'd lost my mind. My cheeks burned red with embarrassment.
"Er, no one, I was just talking to myself before knocking...and..", My words form in my mouth but fail to come forward. How could anyone without a pull fledged excuse get out of talking to thin air.
Headmaster Adam was one of the identifiable men in the entire town. His face had been pasted on almost every newspaper in this town and the local news channel in the last few years since he graduated college. Charities and food pantries. Heroic things. Light blond hair almost completely covered his left eye, leaving one brown eye to actually see. Kinda young to be headmaster, he got the position right after four years of college, studying to become a mathematics major but was ushered into a better job upon his father's retirement.
He had been engaged twice but both crashed and burned due to rumors of disloyalty that floated around the school from guidance counselor to janitor to lunch lady to teacher to teacher's son to every student in a 200-mile perimeter. From the gossip, Headmaster Adams was engaged to "American history" teacher, Ms. Watts who was already married to a man in Canada who was a missionary for the local church. The second was just a complete mess, so much so that it would be hard for me to explain it and get eighty percent of the pieced together drama right.
A grin crossed his face, "Don't patronize me, I know why you are here and not in class as you should be, Ms. Greenwood."
"Only a true fool would patronize the headmaster of Saint Louistown high and it's not quite a shocker when my whole entire record is scattered across the floor, sir."
The door to his office was slightly open, revealing his messy pigsty of an office that set him completely apart from when it belonged to his father, Headmaster Scott. You'd always leave with a Mars bar and a water bottle after each chat. Now, you leave with a stack of manuscripts that he needs you to take to the janitor before he makes final trash pickup rounds before the dismissal bell.
"Ms. Greenwood, I think it would be better if you gather your transfer papers before you lose any important information and come to my office so that we can discuss your reasons for the sudden transition from Saint Louistown high."
"Yes, sir."
Immediately, I bent down, grabbing up the the files off the floor, including a copy of my drivers permit attached to a copy of my birth certificate by a paperclip. The words on the birth certificate were starting to disappear from the original document. It's place, filed up in the estate's basement with cold damp air, leaky pipes we couldn't afford to fix and rats close to the size of a house cat.
He took the papers into his hand, as soon as my feet touch the tiles of his office floor, the overwhelming scent of cinnamon sugar and apple from a flickering candle on a sconce in the shape of a the school's mascot, a cougar with a candle holder sticking out of from it's metal tarnishing mouth like some kind of bizarre mythical creature.
My heart surges to my throat and got stuck there while I avoided his gaze that flickered from me to the papers in his right hand. It's an expression on his face that's so unreadable. A thin smile, revealing teeth. His eyebrows were furrowed as if he was confused. Thumbing through what I guessed was the transfer paper.
The wooden chair placed in front of his oak desk was becoming more and more uncomfortable by each passing moment.
"Ms. Greenwood, you are undeniably one of my best scholars here at Saint Louistown, do you know how much potential you have and influence you have on our state?"
It wasn't the first time that I heard such a response from Headmaster Adams or any of the teachers. It was not my intended purpose to surpass most of the students in my grade when it comes to SAT scores and overall GPA. My goal was "Not to stand out", just play it normal.
I was pretty confident that my "smarts" didn't have anything to do with Obsidian or my powers.
"Well, I guess.", Shrugging my shoulder, I swallowed deep. Potential in the outside world meant nothing to royalleaves. The only potential that you needed was being the dominant lady. Learning how to be adequate and bold. Kind and yet powerful without letting the thornleaves know. Thornleaves is a term used for people who aren't royalleaves. In other terms, humans because we know of no other superhuman race. Maybe aliens somewhere out there, but they don't count because they haven't stepped up to claim their position.
"You guess, don't you know what impression you put on our county and even the state, it's not many students here that give a shit about their futures and our paychecks?"
The folder came crashing down on his desk, one among a couple of thousand more unorganized light brown folders. Fury flashed inside his eyes. The first time I had seen him this pissed off since the last cafeteria catastrophe that ended in a full-on food fight. I too would be ticked off if I watched my cash gain legs and walk away.
"No..I don't sir, this isn't my choice to leave but I have to, for personal reasons."
Just as I had repeated about twelve hundred times with my aunt. Act normal and don't give in.
The blondie falls back into his chair, face shifting again. This time, it's evident that he's upset about the situation of me moving. All the information was tearing him apart. I didn't think it would be this difficult for him to make copies of everything, maybe give me a hug and some encouraging words, not this. Headmaster Adams found a way to make me feel more guilty than I was supposed to.
"I'm not completely stupid, no one just up and leaves their home to go to great Brittian, you've only proved that my suspicions weren't wrong."
"Excuse me?", I gawk in amazement and fear. How could he possibly suspect that anything was off about me? The last thing I possibly needed was to allow him to close in on me and dig until he had a rumor to spread. One thing humans loved was gossip and this type was the dangerous kind. The rumor that could kill.
"You are apart of that stupid cult, you know, whatever they are, witches and warlocks, dungeon and dragonleaves. When you first showed up here, my father suspected that you were a goth from the way you carried yourself."
Royalleaves. That's what he meant. I can't let him think that I have any association with them. It would have been better if he thought I was tied up with a cult. Those are kinda normal-, right?
"No, but I am a chess player of sorts and my reasons for going to England is to expand my education if you don't mind."
"Then who is the panther that you were talking to in the hallway?"
A cold crippling silence cuts through the room. How could he possibly see Obsidian? Only Royalleaves could see her and humans under royalleaf influence. A smug grin crept across his face before I could notice that I was gaping at him. That could only mean that Headmaster was a domestic Royalleaf or worst, a Fireleaf in denial. He didn't have the dark heavy aura, it was light and clear like a human. Because he was human.
He made no advances, only took a pen from out of the school cup near his computer, before gliding the ballpoint tip across the bottom of the referral paper, calmer than when we first began, as if he hadn't been angry about me leaving or confused about me being a Royalleaf.
"By the way, remarkable Guardian, it's the first time I've actually gotten close to such a majestic uncaged wildcat, but we live and we discover."
An eerie feeling of disbelief takes over once the paper is pushed over to me, stained with blue ink across the black line. I shake my head, trying to decide if I should pretend to have no clue about what he's talking about or ask him how does he know about Royalleaves. Most of all, how did he know about Guardians.
But he's already there, those light brown eyes on me like twin lasers, tearing me into, "It must be hard being a Royalleaf lady at such a tender age."
"How do you know anything about my kind?", My attempt at sounding more confident failing under the crushing weight of my own racing thoughts.
"Simple, this world isn't big enough for secrets, especially considering that my mother was a runway royalleaf."
His cheeks pale as the word "Mother" passes through his lips. My instinct tells me to ask about her, to ask why grief grips at his throat when he speaks about her. It's much more than he's speaking. More than he'll ever tell and asking won't possibly work. He needs time, but time isn't on my side at this moment.
I reached over and touched his hand, the impulse to comfort a fellow Royalleaf. Still, I couldn't help but question why did he pretend that he didn't know I was a Royalleaf. Maybe, he knew I would deny my dealings with them at all costs but still didn't understand the peace between all Royalleaves.
"Lace, do you know what you are getting yourself into?"
My lips began to tremble as I remember those same words coming from my own blood. My aunt. Samantha. They all referred to as darkness because of her weary spirit and dead strange green eyes that strangely changed after losing her sister. It was her who gave the first warning. She warned me about my mother who she competed against for the British royalleaf's love. The thing that tore them apart. The truth was that the prince was dying from a strange sickness. He died and left them both broken. My mother was torn apart but that's where my father comes in, somewhat filling the hole in her broken heart. But then he left and left her in a slump with me.
I don't know where she went afterward, just left me with her sister. And a letter that I wasn't supposed to open until I made it to the kingdom grounds. And Samantha was the only sister who actually took care of me, even when she knew that managing her mixed personalities and me was hard. Samantha didn't want me to leave but it was the only thing that could keep the family safe.
"A lot more than I know."
Headmaster Adams pulled himself up from the chair, before yanking open his file cabinet, eyes wide open searching for something in its metal depts. It's something in those brown eyes that say more than I need to know. He's afraid.
He finally revealed a thin silver chain from the cabinet, a strange decoration dangling freely. A pointed white object. Animal tooth. Headmaster hesitated for a minute, eyes glued to the object gripped within his hand, the chain wrapped around his fingers.
Breathing in, the next thing I knew, he was standing beside me, dropping the necklace into my lap, his lips a thin pale line and eyes wide with anticipation, "Whatever you do, don't go anywhere without this necklace, it was my mother's before she...disappeared."
"I can't take this.."
Before I could reject the protective item, Headmaster was headed out of the door, my important papers clutched tight under his arm. As strange as the whole encounter was, I couldn't help but question if leaving the safety of my hometown was the safest thing to do. My mother and aunt were both aided by the family beast. My mother, assigned to Amber, an ancient gyrfalcon and my aunt, aided by a recently added beast, a coyote called claw. But still, why are these women disappearing?
I had seen first hand how dangerous these rivalries and thirsty power hungry royalleaves could be. And they weren't slacking up with time.
If anything, they were getting worst.