(no subject)
So Ms. O'Kelly is running the same short story competition as last year, only this time she increased the maximum word limit by 500 words so I wouldn't have to cut anything again XD Entries don't have to be in til the end of February but I decided to use half term to get some writing done. Here's my entry, ya think it'll win me first place again?
Daughter of Gaia
He didn't look anything like she expected. His aura was so vibrant, so practically fizzing with his life energy that she had felt his presence from an impressive distance. She'd followed the trail, charging down unfamiliar corridors with a determination unbecoming of a new student and found her way into the library. Tucked away in the foreign language section, she had found him. He was bent over a desk and was impossibly plain.
Average height for his age. Thin but not fashionably so. Limp, slightly greasy chestnut hair styled in an utterly bland fashion. A smattering of zits across the lower half of his face. Dull, boring, average, and yet when she tuned her eye to his aura it was as empowered as she'd sensed her whole way there.
Taking in these details in a few seconds she nonetheless persevered with her plan to speak with the only individual she'd met thus far at this dreary establishment with more than one Chakra opened.
“Hi!” She exclaimed happily, a positive tone and attitude would certainly help in the forming of a friendship.
He looked up from his notes lethargically, blinking heavily before he replied, “Hello.” He didn't appear to have drawn any conclusions from her cheerful greeting, his voice was as neutral as Switzerland.
“I'm Mira,” She presented her name as an offering of friendship after a few moments of awkward silence.
He blinked again. His eyes, Mira noted, were brown like his hair but of a slightly darker shade; more like mud than chestnuts, “Do I know you?”
“Um, not exactly,” Mira replied, put off by his defensive position, “But see, I tell you my name and you tell me yours and then we will know each other. It's this amazing new development called social interaction.”
His attention returned once more to his notes but he still answered, “They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”
“Better the lowest form of wit than none at all.” The accusation was made to Mira a lot so she had a ready reply.
“You aren't going to go away are you?” He still wasn't looking up but Mira noticed his grip on the pencil had tightened.
“If you tell me your name I might,” She answered, settling a hand to the table and tapping an irritating rhythm on it with her nails.
“I'm Daniel, it's a pleasure to meet you.” While the sentiment was politely phrased the fact that it came through grit teeth suggested it was insincerely worded, “Will you go away now?”
“I said I might go away, that wasn't a promise.”
Mira started to hum along to the tapping of her nails. Daniel's grip on his pencil had tightened even further, after a few seconds of the humming he threw it down, “What do you want?”
Glad to be getting somewhere Mira stopped the tapping, “How long have you been aligned?”
She'd anticipated reluctance, but Daniel's response to her question was closer to hostile. The thin eyebrows atop his muddy eyes narrowed into a suspicious glare, but Mira was paying closer attention to his third eye; energy was flowing from across his body to that Chakra until it was totally aglow.
“You're a witch,” Daniel concluded.
“Well that's a little harsh,” Mira admonished, leaning away from the table to adopt a more defensive posture. She twirled a strand of hair between her fingers for a few seconds before carrying on, “My people prefer to be known as Daughters of Gaia; but if you want to use that slanderous term, yes. I'm a witch.”
“I assume I don't need to introduce myself to you?” Daniel challenged.
Mira took a moment to recalculate her view of him, there were a number of small clues but the small copper cross around his neck was all she really needed to identify him, “You're from the Circle.”
“Right,” Daniel nodded his agreement to her conclusion, “Which makes me wonder why you're here talking to me.”
“It's a free world isn't it?” Mira spread her arms to acknowledge the bookshelves around them and the world that spread beyond them, “Beside, aren't you supposed to be all accepting and stuff?”
In response Daniel snapped shut his notebook, packed it and the rest of his belongings into a satchel and left. Mira waited all of three seconds to follow him.
“Dan!” Mira called after the retreating form ahead of her in the hall. A number of people turned to watch either her or Daniel but he didn't look back, “Dan. Daniel. Danny-Boy!”
Eventually he stopped and allowed her to catch up, his whole body was tensed and he didn't turn to look at her when he spoke, “Why are you following me?”
“Because you left in the middle of our conversation,” Mira shot back instantly.
“Normally when someone does that it means they're trying to end the conversation.” His voice was severely strained.
“Only normally?” Latching upon a chance at a clause, Mira inquired, “What if this is an abnormal situation?”
“The abnormal situation involves you being extremely irritating and I'm leaving because I don't want to see you ever again.” Point made, Daniel began to march off once more.
“Hey, Dan, wait up!” Jogging to catch up to her opponent Mira launched another line of attack, “Why can't we be friends?”
“I don't want to be friends,” Daniel snapped in reply, speeding up to try and pull ahead of her.
“You can't always get what you want.”
“I don't want a friend.”
“You look like you need a friend.”
“I've got friends!”
“None of them will be as good a friend as me.”
“Great,” Daniel sighed heavily and pulled to a stop, “Arrogance, another charming personality trait to add to your already exhaustive list.”
“They say sarcasm is the lowest from of wit,” Mira snarked in return.
Seeing that Daniel might be on the very precipice of being able to stand her existence, the girl steeled herself and performed a spectacular faceplant on the linoleum. A passing group of sophomores cheered. From above Daniel looked down at her with clear concern, “Why did you just do that?”
Mira sat up, rubbing at her ankle for a few seconds before awkwardly pulling herself to her feet, “Pride. Fall. Can we be friends now?”
Bemusement replaced concern on Daniel's face, “You should see the nurse.”
“I'll be fine,” Mira tried to insist, but her wince when she put weight onto her sprained ankle made it less than convincing, “Right, Nurse.” She managed to hobble a few feet before realizing and turning back to face Daniel, “Where would the Nurse's office be, exactly?”
He closed his eyes and began indicating each direction with a gesture of his hand, “You head to the end of this corridor, then turn left...”
“Can't you just take me?” Mira inquired, hobbling back over and resting on his shoulder, “Come on Daniel, be the Good Samaritan.”
Opening his eyes specifically to roll them in her direction, Daniel placed an arm round Mira to keep her steady as he escorted her.
The trip to the Nurse's office passed in silence but Mira had to acknowledge it did more for their possible friendship than any of their discussion had. Inside, they had to hover at the doorway for a few minutes before the Nurse made her way over to them; “Yes, dear?” The Nurse wasn't very old, but her tired and overly polite demeanour made her appear a whole generation older than she actually was.
“I think I sprained my ankle,” Mira offered hesitantly.
“Right, take a seat then and I'll get you an icepack.” The Nurse turned away and Mira gratefully sat down.
“Do you need me to stick around, or..?” Daniel used an empty gesture to end the question.
“I have a lesson next period,” Mira replied, digging through her pockets for the timetable she'd been given that morning, “Room 213,” She added once she'd found it, “It'd be useful to have a guide.”
“Okay,” Daniel settled down beside her and the two resumed silence until the Nurse returned and handed Mira the icepack.
“I'll just need your name for the accident log,” The Nurse prompted.
“Oh, I'm the new girl,” Mira supplied, then reluctantly gave her full name when all she got was an expectant look, “Miracle. Miracle Laurie.”
“Your name's Miracle?” Daniel asked once the Nurse had taken note and left to deal with a nauseous freshman.
“I go by Mira,” She reminded him in reply, “Mostly to keep my Indian grandparents happy, but also because there's only so many times you can put up with being asked to part the Red Sea before it stops being funny.”
Daniel smiled and opened his mouth to say something else when he paused. Mira registered a sudden fluctuation in his energy, focusing she could see it pouring into his heart Chakra until it was radiant, far more so than when he had read her back in the library.
Looking around for what had sparked the change in his aura she noticed a small gang of their classmates hovering in the doorway; an athletic girl with close-cropped ginger hair was holding a wad of tissues to her bloody nose, but Mira's gaze travelled over her to the boy behind her. He was a muscular, jock-ish type with hair the colour of tar and bags under his eyes. What she noticed on top of these superficial details was that his aura was perfectly aligned.
“Who's that?” Mira whispered out the corner of her mouth.
“Andrew,” Daniel answered, Mira noted that the energy that had gathered in his Chakra was now dissipating swiftly.
“He's from Arrowhead, isn't he?”
Daniel turned to stare at her, “How did you know?”
Mira watched Andrew playfully slapped the ginger girl on the shoulder and her wallop him back, “Just a hunch.” Turning away she observed Daniel's uneasy stance, “You can go if you like. I know it must be difficult being near him. I'll find my own way to 213.” Daniel nodded his thanks and dashed to the door, squeezing between the gang blocking the way and vanishing into the hall beyond. As she watched him go Mira noted the rush of energy into the heart Chakras of both young men as Daniel passed.
As the Nurse made her way over to deal with the ginger girl's persistent nosebleed the group at the doorway thinned out somewhat and Andrew made his way over towards Mira, “I haven't seen you around,” He remarked, slouching with his hands tucked into the pockets of his denim jacket.
“I'm a friend of Daniel's,” Mira replied, keenly observing the rapid flow of energy to Andrew's heart, third eye and solar plexus Chakras.
“Daniel doesn't have any friends,” Andrew retorted sinking, uninvited, into the seat beside her.
“As his friend I do believe I'm the more reliable source,” Mira smiled thinly. This close she noticed some strands of Andrew's hair were slightly off-colour, she presumed they were the result of a UV sensitive dye. He seemed the clubbing type.
“Not possible,” Andrew dismissed, “I'm Ice. He's Fire. You're obviously Earth. We don't mix.”
Mira widened her eyes to intentionally comical extremes, “Are you flirting with me?”
“Funny,” Andrew stated, his flat tone showing exactly how unamused he was at her joke. Standing up again he swaggered back over to his friends and shot a final remark at her over his shoulder, “See ya around Muttley.”
*
The comforting ring of the bell and the smell of musk greeted Mira as she entered the store. The elderly woman behind the counter greeted her calmly, “How was your first day?”
“Meh.” To Mira school was school, different buildings but the same old dull subjects, “How was the store?”
“As you put it, meh,” Her grandmother replied wryly, “Business is slow, but it would be faster if you would help me unpack the stock.”
“Right,” Mira nodded and started backing towards the door that led to the upstairs apartment, “I just need to put my bag away first and then...”
“Now Mira!” Her grandmother instructed, tone fierce.
Mira sighed and shrugged her bag off, setting it down behind the counter; “Yes ma'am.”
Half an hour dragged by as Mira helped bring boxes up from the basement and set trinkets and crystals out on the shelves. While down in the basement opening up a new box Mira remembered her encounter with Daniel earlier that day.
“Grandmother, there was something that happened today,” Mira said while climbing the stairs with the box in her arms.
“Indeed?” Prompting her granddaughter to continue, the elderly woman continued sorting candles.
“There was a boy...”
“Oh Darling,” She turned away from the shelf to place the full effect of her scolding on Mira, “Do we have to have that talk again? You know the rules...”
“Not that kind of boy,” Mira rolled her eyes and pulled one of the charms out, “Where do you want these?”
“Over there, by the dream-catchers,” Her grandmother replied.
“It was a boy from the Circle,” Mira continued, heading to the directed shelf and starting to place the charms in place.
“Oh really?” With feigned interest the elderly woman continued the conversation, but with her concern abated she had returned to the candles.
“He was sweet,” Mira mumbled, toying with one of the charms in her hand for a moment, “A bit of a pain,” She added upon further consideration, “oh, and there's this boy from Arrowhead at school too. The two of them saw one another and they both tensed up, like they were going to fight. It must be really hard for them, being so close all the time.”
“Hm, yes. I suppose.”
Mira glared at her inattentive grandmother before turning back to set more charms on the shelf, when she realised the charm she was holding was in the shape of a guardian angel she smiled softly.