“Trinity!”
I cringed when the old bitch called out my name. I slowly lifted me head from the desk, knowing full well that she was yelling at me for sleeping. Damned old hag. I thought to myself, hoping she would stop at merely shouting me awake. But the gods were determined to make my life miserable this morning, and she continued by saying, with as much disdainful arrogance as she could seem to muster, “If you can’t manage to stay awake during class, then get off your ass and go stand up in the back.”
I made a quick revision to my earlier statement, Foul mouthed damned old hag.
“Yes, Ms. Cazan.” I picked up my books and headed to the back of the small classroom. I set my books down on the ground next to me and resumed with my earlier lack of attention for the old devil’s lecture, still managing to fall in and out of sleep while leaning against the back wall. This was all starting to get old. Only Cazan ever ragged on me for sleeping during class. Hell, she was the only one who really ever got on me for anything! The rest of the teachers simply ignored me like they did most of the student body, only ever paying attention to their favorites. But Cazan seemed to have singled me out; she always seemed out to get me. I couldn’t prove anything mind you, but I’ve never heard her scold anyone else, and yet I never seem to hear the end of it from her. Of course, you’re probably thinking that I’m just saying that to cover up my unabashed delinquency, and you might just be right.
But, delinquent or not, Cazan didn’t hate me for falling asleep in her class. No, she only got on me for sleeping because she hated me. A chicken or the egg situation at best, but I still say that Cazan hated me not for my delinquency but because of my parents.
Allow me to explain.
The motivation behind what was, in my mind at least, a visceral hatred of my very existence (okay, that might be a little exaggerated), was that my father was the head priest for a very vocal and famous church to the Gods of the Pantheon in the center district of the city. And with the old devil being a literal devil, her blazing red hair and jet black horns had drawn a large target on her and the other devils, demons, and monsters for the fresh and readily available hatred and racism that many of the churches of all faiths had recently been dealing out. It certainly didn’t help that my mother was a radiant angel my father had summoned down from the higher planes. Angels and devils were natural enemies, for obvious reasons. I still remember the parent-teacher conference between the two of them last year. In less than five minutes they’d been ready to tear each other’s throats out. It had been hilarious to see my mother so full of anger. I’d never thought it was possible to see an angel that pissed off. But Cazan always brought out the worst in people, especially those who came even so far as the good side of neutral on the alignment scale.
I found myself laughing at the memory of the conference, apparently a little too loudly, as I got a withering glare across the room from Cazan. Trying to act as unphased as I could, I made a face at her as she started to turn around, trying to visually communicate the word Bitch across the room. I know I would have caught hell for it if she’d seen it, but fuck it, I’m fairly certain that at that point, she knew I hated her.
Cazan finished her lecture, acting as if nothing had happened, then sat down at her desk and set the rest of us to work on a torturously long homework assignment. She informed me, rather condescendingly, that I could sit back down at my desk, but first I had to make a quick trip to the bathroom. I didn’t really need to go, I just wanted to splash some water on my face to try and wake myself up. I came back from the bathroom to find a classroom of absolute silence, everyone staring studiously at their books lest they incur the wrath of Cazan the dictator.
I was halfway back to my seat to join the silent herd of terrified students when I got a nasty little gift from the gods. I caught my foot on the back leg of someone’s desk and I tripped, falling hard against the desk of the next person in the row and knocking all of their books to the floor. The rest of the class burst out laughing, everyone except me and the girl I’d damn near slammed into. I was beyond embarrassed; my face was a darker red than I’d ever care to admit and I was going through a steady string of cursed in my head. I tried not to look at her as I picked her books off the ground and bumbled out an apology. I just wanted to get back to my desk without any more embarrassment. But I couldn’t help but pay attention when I heard her whisper under her breath: “Retarded angel.”
Fucking devils.I knew who it was, even before I looked at her. I didn’t know her name, but she was the only other devil in the class; anyone else would have left the angel out of the statement. She’d said it just loud enough that I’d hear her, so I dropped her books on her desk with an audible thud, then, before I went back to my desk, whispered a quick and quiet, “Fuck you.”
I sat back down at my desk and went to work on the night’s assignment till the bell rang a few minutes later. As soon as I heard its wonderful, ringing tones of freedom, I picked up my books and started to head out of the room, when I heard from behind me the words I’d been dreading. “Trinity! Stay back, I need to talk to you.” I did a prompt about-face, and went back to one of the seats set across form her desk, the feeling of dread making my stomach churn as I sat down, and waited for her to join me. Cazan had walked out into the hallway to yell after another student. “Lucy! You too, come back in here!” I looked over my shoulder at the person who’d be joining us, hoping my scolding would be at least a little relaxed with two of us here. But as soon as Lucy came through the door, I felt the knot in my stomach jerk tighter and heard whatever luck I might have had left fall straight through the floor. Following Cazan was a tall, skinny girl with blazing red hair and the stubs of black horns that reflected the light from the ceiling.
Well, I guess I found out her name.
As the two of them sat down, Lucy in the chair next to mine and Cazan across from us, I was starting to get a little worried. I mean, Cazan was bad enough by herself, gods knew what two of them could do to me!
As soon as the though crossed my mind, I realized how horribly racist it sounded. Oh god, that sounded just like my parents. I looked over at Lucy sitting next to me and felt a sharp pang of guilt. Not every devil was Ms. Cazan.
Cazan made a show of organizing some papers before starting. “Now initially, I wasn’t going to talk to either of you today, but recently you two have begun to get a little out of hand.” Of course, she had to look right at me when she said that. I knew the angry glare that Lucy gave me was coming before it hit; she was going to blame me for this. I let out a sigh, nothing I could do now but let it happen.
Cazan started in on Lucy first. “Lucy, you haven’t turned in a bit of homework for almost two weeks now. It’s starting to affect your grade, and I’m not going to have you bringing down the class average just because you want to be lazy.” In spite of what I’d said earlier, I still had to laugh at that; it was refreshing to see Cazan berate someone other than me.
A sharp pain in my leg broke off the giggle and made me jump. I looked down to see Lucy digging her claw-like fingernails into the bare skin under my skirt.
What the fuck!?
I immediately smacked Lucy’s hand away and pressed my hand down over the bright red scratches carved into my leg. I glared over at Lucy, trying to fight the overwhelming urge to just reach over and smack her. She glared right back at me as Cazan droned on about homework and possible detention. I saw her lips move, and I swear to the gods she mouthed, Serves you right. I was very tempted to do something really stupid right then. I mean, I barely knew this girl, and yet she was already acting like she hated me! I guess angels and devils really do hate each other naturally.
I lost complete track of what Cazan was saying as I focused my death glare on the devil sitting next to me. It didn’t seem to have much of an effect on her, especially since her own glare was trained right back at me, but I gained a small bit of satisfaction from trying to make her burst into flames.
My attention was forced back to Cazan as she practically yelled out my name, “Trinity! For the gods’ sake at least pretend like you’re paying attention!” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to turn the death glare off fast enough, as that was quickly followed by, “And don’t you look at me like that, young lady!” I heard Lucy giggle and my face went red with no small amount of embarrassment and a hell of a lot more anger. “You need to stop falling asleep and acting up during class. Today was hardly the first time I’ve had to say something to you.” I almost spat out something along the lines of That’s cause you’re out to get me you evil witch! except perhaps a little more vulgar. I managed to hold back that rebellious response and simply stayed quiet; knowing that if I opened my mouth I’d say something I’d regret. “Since the two of you have been giving me so many issues lately, I’m giving you both detention after school today.”
Goddamnit! Mom’s going to kill me!
My parents never took it very well when I got detention. It did always help a little bit that it was always Ms. Cazan that gave it to me, since neither of the were big fans of her, as you could imagine, but it never stopped my mother from grounding me for it nonetheless.
“And for your detention, the two of you will be cleaning classrooms after school.”
I should’ve seen that one coming. Most teachers just keep you after class and make you work on your homework. But that didn’t appeal to Cazan’s twisted nature; she liked to work people. That was bad news. Not because we’d be working, I’d cleaned for Cazan before, I could survive one more time. It was bad because it meant I was going to have to spend time after school with Lucy, alone.
Cazan moved some more papers around before continuing, “That means that as soon as the final bell rings, both of you better come straight back here and get to work, got it?” After Lucy mumbled yes, and I nodded, she finished with, “Then get the hell out of her before you’re late for your next class!”
Both of us shot out an automatic, “Yes, Ms. Cazan.”, then we were shooed out of the classroom. As soon as the door shut and Cazan could no longer see us, I grabbed Lucy by the shoulder and let out the angry question I’d been holding in. “What the hell was that about!?”
Lucy clearly hadn’t been expecting me to say anything, let alone confront her so directly. She proved herself to be an adaptive bitch, however, and the look of surprise on her face quickly changed back to arrogance, as she said, “What did you expect? If you hadn’t fallen asleep in class, none of this would have happened.”
I knew she was going to blame me.
Despite the fact that I’d seen it coming, I didn’t really have a response for the accusation, not a reasonable one anyways. I wanted to call her a bitch, I wanted to smack her, I wanted to say something, some sort of decent response that might have saved me a little dignity, might have embarrassed her even a little bit, given her a taste of some of her own medicine, but, in a monumental effort to control my anger and avoid going ballistic on her out in the open, all I managed was a restrained, harsh whisper. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Lucy didn’t even deign to respond. She grabbed my hand and roughly threw it off her shoulder, then turned around and walked off down the hallway. She muttered something to herself as she left, and I managed to catch, “Pretentious little…”, which only served to make my anger skyrocket. I was seriously contemplating going after her and tackling her when my rather violent train of thought was derailed by the ringing sounds of the bell, announcing to all and sundry that I was late for class.
I rushed down the hallway, not bothering to stop at my locker, and nearly crashing into half a dozen people as I ran. I glanced off of a large stone statue that one of the clubs was using as a golem, nearly knocking it over in the process and earning myself several shouts of anger from the club members and a very sharp pain in my elbow. Then I nearly bowled over an elf who, despite being taller than I was, was so skinny that If I’d hit him, it probably would’ve broken half the bones in his body, the poor guy. I finally made it to my next classroom to find the door still open. Maybe the teacher wasn’t in the room! Maybe just maybe I wouldn’t be noticed!
But life’s never that easy, is it?
The teacher was already starting his lecture when I walked in, and he clearly did not enjoy being interrupted by a latecomer. I took my seat as meekly as I could, fully aware I’d be scolded for it later. Thankfully enough, my seat was in the back of the class, so I was able to sink back into my chair and avoid any more attention. As it turned out though, I didn’t have to worry about being the center of attention for very long. Not even a minute after I’d sat down, Lucy came running through the door, breathless, and clearly aware of the entire class’s eyes on the second latecomer. I wondered for a moment how I’d made it here before her, but when I saw the books she was carrying, I realized that she must have taken the time to stop at her locker. I couldn’t help but laugh. After the crap she’d just given me back in Cazan’s classroom, it was great to see karma work on Lucy that quickly. Unfortunately, my righteous laughter was cut off by the gods reminding me, rather rudely, that Lucy sat right next to me this period.
The menacing gaze that she gave me for laughing at her only caused me to laugh even harder. If it was even possible, I saw her already dark and angry expression grow even worse, if only to tell me that I was going to pay for my enjoyment later. Thoughts of that later part of the day worried me, especially since I was going to be alone with the person I was laughing at, but I didn’t stop laughing until Lucy gave me a painful kick to the shin. And of course the teacher was writing on the chalkboard at the time, so he didn’t see a thing. I tried kicking her back while the teacher was still writing, but of course I missed and stubbed myself on the leg of the desk. It hurt like a bitch, so I didn’t try again. Instead I just pretended to listen to the teacher’s lecture and tried my best to ignore Lucy’s laughter.
Karma seems to be working incredibly fast today.
After a few minutes of trying to keep myself from constantly glancing over at Lucy to see if she was still laughing, I decided to just put my head on the desk and pretend to sleep so as to hide my embarrassment. That didn’t last long, however, as I got another nasty kick from Lucy the second my head hit the desk. Once again, the teacher saw nothing.
I leaned closer to make sure I wouldn’t be heard, “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“You sleeping in class has already gotten me in trouble once today; you don’t honestly think I’m going to let it happen again, do you?”
She’s fucking crazy.
I choked back my anger before I started shouting obscenities at her, satisfying myself with repeating them in my head. Psycho fucking bitch.
I did my best to pay attention to the teacher, or at make Lucy think that I was, when I got a poke in the back and a note passed up from the desk behind me. I knew who sat behind me, but I still had to fight the urge to look back over my shoulder; it would have been a dead giveaway to the teacher.
Can you help out at the store after school? -Asha
She hadn’t needed to put her name on it, I would’ve known who it was without it. I’d known Asha since third grade, and ever since we were in middle school, Asha had been helping work at her father’s small grocery store downtown. Asha’s father worked her and her sisters like slaves, so I tried to help out whenever I could. I quickly wrote down, I can’t, I got detention with Cazan today. and handed the note back behind me. I got a quick reply back, Can you come over after that? We really need some help. Even after detention, I could still help for a few hours. Sure. Anything to put off having to deal with my mother for another few hours. She was going to be pissed when she found out I got detention.
The bell rang a few minutes later and you could feel the mood in the room lighten; it was time for lunch. I grabbed my books and left as quickly as I could, with Asha following right behind me. It was always rather hit or miss on whether we’d get to the cafeteria before the line to get food grew to the point of uselessness; lunch would be over before you could even get it. So we’d taken to running there as quickly as we could each day, just to make absolutely certain we’d get there. Thankfully enough, today was one of the better days; the line was almost non-existent when we got there. It took longer to find a table to sit at than to get food. We sat down at a small table well in the back corner of the lunchroom after getting waved there by another one of my friends, a short, skinny little guy in a red mage’s cloak that seemed to nearly swallow him whole.
“Hey Nate, what’s going on?” I said, as I set my tray down on the table.
He took a second to adjust the overly-large cloak before he tried to answer. But whatever he was about to say was cut off by Asha practically screaming, “What the hell happened to your arm?”
He tried to pull his sleeve down over his left arm before I could see it, but I grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm out on top of the table. Nate was a weak little guy, so he wasn’t able to put up much resistance. He had a bandage wrapped around his forearm, but whoever had put it on clearly didn’t know what he was doing, as it was already coming unwound. Underneath the bandage, Nate’s arm looked like it was burned, with a single trail of dried blood running down from his elbow. “Good Gods Nate? How the fuck did you manage this!”
He wrenched his arm away from me before answering. “Now, hold on, damn it, let me explain.” He tried to fix his bandages and pulled the sleeve of the cloak back down over it before continuing, “We were working on the pyrene solution for the golem out in the hallway,” I wasn’t going to even pretend to know what the hell that was, “When I cut my arm open on the base of the statue.” How the hell did he manage that? “As it turns out, blood and pyrene don’t mix very well. It started a reaction and the whole damn thing went up and caught my arm with it.”
I honestly couldn’t believe it. Nate accidently set himself on fire, and yet he seemed more embarrassed by us pointing it out than worried about the injury. But that’s the way it always seemed to be with mages. They had at least one lab every day, and someone almost always got hurt. It had gotten to the point where, as long as your life wasn’t in danger, they wouldn’t even bother sending them to the nurse. The mages never seemed to mind, so long as they could keep experimenting. Besides, as Nate put it, the explosions were the most exciting part of the lab.
It took a little bit of conversational acrobatics on Nate’s part to move past the injury, but eventually Asha let it go and we settled down to eat.
“You two are going to clean all the classrooms in the west hallway. Make sure to pick up the trash and clean the boards. Then when you’re done with that, get a dust broom and sweep out the gym, and make sure to take the trash out to the dumpster. Don’t you dare come back until you’re finished with all of it!”
“Yes, Ms. Cazan.” we both said almost simultaneously before being ushered out the door to clean.
I was surprised at how quiet Lucy was being. I thought I’d had her at least somewhat figured out by now, and I’d expected her to be using this time to complain at the least, or spend it insulting me at the worst. It was puzzling at first, but, deciding not to question what appeared to be a good thing, I ignored it, and continued to clean in what seemed at first to be serene quiet. We’d made it about halfway through the classrooms before I realized that the silence was actually starting to bug me. I know this sounds weird, you’d think that I’d be overjoyed to hear the wonderful silence. Yet I’d already come to expect some sort of argument, and it kept itching at me that she wasn’t saying anything. The more it dragged on, the more awkward the silence felt, and the more irritated I was getting.
Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided that I had to get her to say something. Of course, I couldn’t do anything as simple as talking to her first. No, that would be way too awkward, besides, my stubborn pride wouldn’t allow anything like that.
Thinking back on it, it may have only served to make me out to be just as much of a bitch as she was. Maybe it was my small way of getting back at her for earlier, or maybe I was just turning into a sadist. Either way, I decided that the only way was to get her to do anything was to bug the living crap out of her until she snapped. Yeah, that really doesn’t sound good in retrospect.
Regardless, I started by ‘accidentally’ brushing against her as I walked over to get the broom, almost pushing her out of my way as I went. I had expected that to elicit a Get the hell off me! or a Stay away from me! at the least. Instead I just saw a split second’s worth of a dark glare flash across her face before she moved on. The dark glare brought a small amount of satisfaction, but the lack of a vocalized response only served to irritate me even more.
I tried the same trick again, to the same effect, only with added annoyance. I decided I had to up the ante a little to get any action out of her. After I’d pronounced this classroom done, and we both had turned to head out the door, I came around a desk right before her, and slid my foot forward till it caught hers. I felt a guilty sense of enjoyment as she stumbled out the doorway. Of course, this quickly changed to an intense version of fear as, when she tried to catch herself, her foot slipped and she fell flat on her face.
“Shit!” I yelled, crouching down to help her up. “Are you okay?”
I felt really kind of bad as she gave me exactly what I’d been looking for. As I pulled her off the ground, she threw my arm away from her and yelled, “Get the hell off me, jackass!”
The jackass part of the sentence told me she knew, or at the very least suspected, that I’d tripped her on purpose. For a split second I was scared out of my pants that she’d find some way to get me in trouble for it, maybe even going so far as to tell Cazan. But she just kept moving on into the next classroom, and it occurred to me how ridiculous that sounded. I mean, I know she’s been acting like a bitch, but that seemed a little excessive, even for her.
Deciding it’d be best at this point not to say anything more, I followed Lucy into the next room. I grabbed the broom she’d set against the wall and started sweeping the floor. I had almost finished the length of the room when I saw Lucy digging through the drawers in the back of the classroom.
“Lucy, what are doing?” I asked, sounding more accusing than I’d meant to.
She pointed over at the tables by the wall, “I’m looking for a rag to clean up some of this dust.” She stopped her rummaging as I moved over next to her and pulled something out, holding it at arm’s length, “What the hell is this?”
We both stared at the small black object Lucy held between her fingers. I felt a gnawing sense of remembrance at the sight; I knew I’d seen the thing before, I just couldn’t place it. It took some digging before I finally came up with the right memory. It was something Nate had shown me once, he called it a snapdragon, and even though I couldn’t remember what it did, I could very reasonably infer that if Nate had shown it to me, then it was probably something that Lucy shouldn’t be holding. I was torn for a second on whether I should tell her to put it back or let her find out what the thing was for, but I realized I’d already gotten this girl hurt once today, twice would most likely make me a worse person than her. I started to say something along the lines of putting it away and looking for a rag somewhere else, but my words were cut off by a flash of light that burst off of it.
My skin went white as a fucking ghost. That flash of light had brought back the memory of what the damned thing did, and if Lucy didn’t let go of it in the next three seconds, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
I didn’t waste time trying to say anything. I snatched the small bauble out of Lucy’s hand and threw it back into the drawer. I slammed the drawer shut and threw my weight against it.
“Hey! What the fuck was that ab-”
As it turns out, even my weight against it wasn’t enough to hold the drawer shut when the damn thing exploded. The blast sent me flying straight into Lucy, and we both went toppling over to the ground.
It took a minute for my senses to come back to me. When they finally did, my ears were ringing and my vision was blurred. It took me a moment to realize, as I was trying to pull myself up off the floor, that I hadn’t actually landed on the ground. As soon as I heard the groan come from under me, I knew this was going to be bad. I tried to push myself up and get off of her as quickly as I could, but then I felt something soft squish beneath my hand.
I knew by the way Lucy stopped trying to force me off her, that she’d felt my hand on her tit.
I jumped up as fast as I could, attempting to stutter out some form of apology through the haze of dizziness that erupted from getting up far too quickly. My face had grown astonishingly red by this point, and my eyes were dropped to the ground as Lucy got off the floor. I did my best to force the fraction of an apology and pittance of an explanation into a coherent sentence, but I was cut short when I looked back up at Lucy.
She was absolutely livid.
Her face was as red as mine was, though a very notable difference being that hers was from anger vice shame as mine was I backed up a few steps as she started walking toward me. She had her arms crossed over her breasts, very self-consciously aware of where I’d accidentally grabbed her. I was honestly scared at the thought of what she was going to say; I knew accusations involving various forms of the word pervert were very likely at this point. But I was horrified that she might go as far as reporting me for it. It was an honest accident, but all it would take was one talk with Cazan for me to get in serious trouble, my words to the contrary or a lack of proof notwithstanding.
“Now, wait a minute Lucy, before you say anything, that was a complete accident!” I yelled nervously, trying to defend myself.
“I don’t care if it was an accident, you idiot, that hurt like hell!” she yelled, practically foaming at the mouth with anger, “Whether you look it or not, you’re heavy as a goddamn whale!”
Now this pissed me off. “What the hell!? If it wasn’t for me that damn thing would have taken off your fingers!”
“You know what the hell that damn thing was?” she asked, confused, but still just as angry.
I relaxed the tiniest bit, hoping against hope that this could be my way to calm her down enough to not get Cazan involved. “It’s called a snapdragon. It’s a kind of firework that the mages make during labs. One of my friends showed me one a couple years ago.” I left out the fact that it was probably the same guy who’d left this one here.
I was just starting to believe I’d managed to get out of this one when I heard the voice that I’m sure the both of us had been dreading.
“What the hell happened in here?”
If Lucy was angry, then Cazan was furious.
Lucy hung her head down, hoping a constant gaze at the floor would keep her from getting into any more trouble. I guess that means it’s my turn. Thankfully enough, an angry Cazan lands square on my side of the field. Unlike Lucy, I held my head up and clearly and quietly told Cazan what happened, it was an honest accident after all.
“Someone” I took great care to stress that it wasn’t either of us, “left a snapdragon in one of the drawers, and got set off by accident while we were cleaning.”
Cazan always seemed more annoyed by the blatant honesty I used in these situations than the white lies that almost every students used. Today proved to be no exception, as a twitch of displeasure crossed her face. “Fine, just make sure it gets cleaned up.”
We almost get dismembered, and all you care about is that it gets cleaned up? Well, fuck you too.
Cazan turned and left, and I heard Lucy let out an audible sigh of relief. I waited till she was all the way out the door before I started to clean up the mess left over by an idiot mages idea of a prank. While I started picking up the shattered pieces of the drawers, Lucy grabbed the broom up from against the wall and started sweeping up the fine layer of fresh sawdust that had covered the floor.
I grabbed the dustpan and threw the dust and splinters of wood into the trash. I saw Lucy take the broom back to the closet in the hallway, to go grab the larger dust mop to sweep the gym. I followed after her to put away the dustpan. She opened the large janitor’s closet and flipped the light switch.
“Damn, light’s gone out.”
She shrugged her shoulder in indifference and headed in anyways, running one hand along the wall, trying to find the dust mop without tripping over something. I followed in, looking on the other side of the large closet. This involved a lot more groping around than I’d originally thought. Somehow, I’d actually managed to run into the wall at the back of the closet, and I’ll just say that concrete is not a good cure for an already painful headache. Rubbing at the pain to try and dissipate some of it, I let out a string of curses when I turned around and ran into a set of metal shelves.
“Clumsy dumbass.” Lucy whispered under her breath.
“Bitch.” I responded. I would’ve been more pissed off at her if I hadn’t felt like a dumbass myself.
I heard Lucy from the other side of the closet. “I found the broom, make sure you grab some trash bags for the garbage.”
Fuming silently to myself about something along the lines of being told what to do by a devil, I fumbled through the items on the shelves, trying to feel for the plastic garbage bags. I found a box full of them on a low set of shelves in the middle of the middle of the room, but, when I reached down to get it, I ended up knocking it down off the shelf. I reactively jumped forward to try and catch the falling piece of cursed cardboard, and then instantly flinched backward when the palm of my hand came into contact with the worst possible thing, considering my already awkward situation.
This is when I realized that the gods must hate me.
Much to my misfortune and discontent, it seemed that the fleeting touch had not gone unnoticed. Lucy jumped and turned on me, “Did you just touch my ass!!?”
I started trying to fumble and stutter my way through some sort of apology and explanation, but realizing how well that worked last time, I threw up my hands and said, fuck it. At this point, I’d already said it was an accident, but after happening twice, I knew I was going to be in for it with this one, no amount of explanation would be enough to keep me from getting labeled as the pervert that I must have looked like to her. At this point all I could do was hope to the Pantheon that she wouldn’t report me. If she went to Cazan, or any other teacher for that matter, I’d be in a veritable shitload of trouble.
Lucy walked around the shelf to stand in front of me, deliberately taking her time, seeming to enjoy the small build in tension this created, trying to drive up my anxiety, making me feel nervous. She came right up close to me and glared at me, which of course had the desired effect of making my heart rate soar up so high I’m fairly certain that she was able to hear it. Despite my effort not to show any of my discomfort and uneasiness, I was practically shaking when she stopped and started in on me.
With an expression that implied that she was going to destroy my soul and send me down to the very hell the devils had been brought from, she said, very slowly and precisely, “Listen here you angelic bitch.” I cringed as she moved even closer to me with that last word, “I don’t care if that one was an accident, because right now I’m incredibly inclined to believe that this and the stunt you pulled with the firework were done very much on purpose.” she paused for a moment, to allow the inherent threat implied with that statement to sink in. “Whether or not it’s true? I don’t think anyone’s going to care about that. Now I don’t care if you’re into girls, or if you just have some sort of fetish for devils. You try anything like this again, I’m going to make sure that the whole school knows how the sex-charged deviant of an angel couldn’t keep her hands off the innocent little devil.” She put her hands to her chest after this statement, trying to make herself look innocent and convincing as possible, which struck through the fear as ironically odd coming from a devil, especially her. “I’m not going to take any chances on what your motivations might be. From now on, if you so much as catch my eye anymore, I’m going to make sure that this comes back to haunt you, understand?”
I felt a little ashamed at my rather meek nod of acceptance, but right now Lucy’s ultimatum was pretty much my only way out of the awkward situation that accident-induced chance and my own ridiculously timed clumsiness had put me in with this nerve-wearing she-bitch of a devil.
Lucy turned around and started to walk out of the closet, only to stop before the door to grab the dust mop and throw it back at me. “And go clean the gym yourself, pervert.”
Much to my further embarrassment the handle from the broom hit me square on the forehead. I was honestly struck speechless by Lucy’s little rant. It was more at relief of not getting in any actual trouble than pissing of another devil, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered was that while I wasn’t in trouble, I’d just given Lucy something she could hold over me as long as she wanted.
It took a lot longer cleaning the gym than it should have, since I was down one bitchy devil. I managed to finish before the sun set thankfully, since I really didn’t want to have to walk to Asha’s in the dark. . I put the broom away in the closet, then went to find Cazan and tell her I was done, but it seemed that before I’d finished, Cazan had grown bored of waiting and had gone home. I couldn’t really blame her, none of us had really wanted to be here at all.
Not wanting to stay any longer than I had to myself, I headed straight out the front doors, realizing only as the doors shut, that I’d forgotten to grab my backpack. Of course, I tried to get back in, but with all the bad luck I’d been having, fate decided to top it off with one more hasty insult. I pulled at the doors, but to no avail, as they’d locked behind me. I shrugged and turned around, Guess that means no homework tonight, I thought to myself, using the occurrence to slack off in typical teenager fashion.
I made out the classic ding-dong of the entry bell among the other multitude of noises as I drifted into the store. I was trying my best to take my time, because as soon as Asha or her father noticed me, I’d be worked just as hard as everyone else. I know that they needed my help, but I just couldn’t help but trying to procrastinate when faced with such work, it’s almost second nature.
I was actually surprised by how many people were in the store today. The small, family-owned grocery store had always had its assemblage of regular customers, but today the store was, relatively anyways, packed full. It didn’t take long to figure out why, as behind a large cluster of shoppers was a bright, almost neon colored sign advertising a fifty percent off sale. The crowd must have been the city’s penny pinchers and misers, come to reap the benefits of such a barter.
I wasn’t able to find Asha behind all of the shoppers, but I did catch a glimpse of her older sister Serra moving through the crowd. I waved at her to get her attention. “Serra!”
She set the box that she was carrying down and waved back at me as I pushed my way through the crowd toward her. “Trin! You haven’t come down here in weeks! What brings you over?”
As I finally made my way over to her, I saw what she’d been trying to do, and it struck me as a little absurd. Here was Serra, the slight little elf that she was, who, despite being the oldest sibling, was even smaller than her sisters, trying to haul a box that looked to have weighed a ton across the store. I let out a small sigh for my friends needless pain and hefted the box up myself. “Apparently, I came to help.” I said, trying my best not to make it sound like I was complaining, even if I really kind of was.
“Thank the gods for you, Trin, that thing was far too heavy for me.” Serra complained, relieved to have the weight taken from her. “We’ve been working like this all day, dad had me skip school today for this, and I’ve been working non-stop since before the store opened.”
Asha wasn’t kidding, they really did need help. I made a sarcastic comment about her father being akin to a slave driver, which always got prompted a laugh from any of the sisters. “It’s actually gotten a lot better.” she said, showing me where to put the box, “We hired a couple new people last week, someone to work mornings and someone for afternoons, and it’s been a lot of help.” she told me, but then added, with a sarcastic tint, “But of course if figures that today of all days the afternoon girl would be late. Dad sent her to the back to load boxes as punishment.”
I nodded, not really paying attention, only trying to get the box where it was supposed to go and get the mass of foodstuffs off my shoulder. I did manage to catch the part about the new people, which surprised me a little. Asha’s father had always been adamant about not hiring anyone but family, making a speech every time I asked about how it was their business and their business only, but really it had only been because he was a cheapskate. I’d figured with the increase of traffic through the store in the last month, he’d have to hire someone new eventually, but I didn’t know if the slave driver would actually do it, or just work Asha and her siblings to the bone even more.
When we made it to the aisle at the back of the store where the product in the box was supposed to go, I helped Serra put the stuff on the shelves and asked what else I could do to help. She told me she really didn’t know what else needed done, so I left to find Asha’s father. I found him stocking shelves at the front, and, after a bone-crushing hug for a welcome, he asked me to help with the registers up front. I really felt like I’d put myself in a corner with this one. I hated working the register, but since I’d agreed to help, it’d look pretty bad if I refused.
But, thankfully enough, with so many people coming through, time seemed to fly by as I worked, and before I knew it, I was helping Asha’s father lock up the store.
“So, young one, beloved friend of my daughter, let me ask you something.”
I groaned to myself when he started. Asha’s father only talked like this when he wanted something. Normally this was how he asked for me to help out in the store, but since I’d already volunteered my services for the day, only the old man himself knew what it could be that he wanted.
“As I’m sure one of my dearest daughters have already told you, the store had been getting a lot more business these last few months, and I’ve already had to hire some new people.”
I had a good idea where this conversation was headed, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear the rest or not. “Yeah…”
“You’ve helped us a lot in the past, Trinity, and it would be incredibly remiss of me to not offer you a place here as well.”
He was offering me a job, and truth be told, I couldn’t tell if I was excited about the offer or not. On the one hand, despite my parents being practically celebrities, my strict witch of a mother refused to give me much of an allowance, if any at all some weeks, so even the meager cash from an after-school job would help immensely. On the other hand though, working at the store would eat up what little free time that I had. But that was kind of a moot point when I really thought about it. I mean, what did I spend all that free time on anyways? What time I had that wasn’t spent helping my parents with the church, or being dragged into my older brother’s demented schemes of rebellion, was divided between homework, helping out here at the store, what little time I could manage to keep to myself, and trying to keep Nate from killing himself with his thrice-damned experiments. So, going by that logic, I spent a fair fraction of my time here anyways, plus, working here would give me a great excuse to not to have to deal with my family. Nate would just have to fend for himself. Hopefully he’d learn from it if he hurts himself again. Once again in typical teenaged fashion, my thoughts never really dwelled on school or homework, I’d worry about that later, if at all.
Of course, there was still one other issue that bugged me. Judging just by the way he said it, it was as if he felt obligated to offer the job to me because I was a friend of the family. As much as I loved Asha’s family, it just wouldn’t feel right; like I was practically forcing the work out of them.
“Mr. Tenn,” I began, slightly hesitant, not knowing quite how to phrase it. “You don’t have to give me a job if you don’t-”
His laughter was all the answer I needed. “Don’t get me wrong girl, I’m not doing this because you’re a friend, though that is why I’m offering it to you instead of putting out another want ad; No I’m doing this because I’m in dire need of good, strong workers, and I don’t want to pay for full time wages.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. I knew it would eventually come back to being cheap. “In that case, Mr. Tenn, you’ve got a deal.”
“Good! Great! Incredible!” he shouted, jumping right back to his usual level of excitement and pulling me into another bone-crushing hug. “Now that you’re officially a part of the family, come to the back and we’ll celebrate.”
Now that was what I’d wanted to hear! The Tenn’s were a very old fashioned elf family, which meant that every celebration involved some form of alcohol, normally in the form of wine. It was never very much, but elfin wine was very strong, so it was more than enough to make an already good time better.
We headed toward the storehouse in the back, and as we came through the door, he said, “Oh, and I should introduce you to the new people as well. Alfren only works in the morning, but I asked him to stay late today what with the sale and all. The other one goes to your school, so the two of you will be working the same schedule. She’s been here for a couple days. If you had ever bothered to stop in at all this week, you would have seen her by now.”
As the door shut behind us, I saw Asha and her sisters sitting in a circle atop some of the package crates. The new guy, Alfren was with them, and I had to admit, he was kind of cute. He had the classic look of a college dropout; tall and skinny with longer hair than mine and a scruff of a beard decorating his face. He gave me a smile when he saw me, and I lost track of what I was doing for a second.
Asha was standing behind him, and she must have seen what was going on, because, the next thing I knew, she’d smacked him on the back of the head. They must have gotten along pretty well, because even after I heard her call him a creep, he still just smiled at her. Or maybe he was just being creepy, who knows?
Mr. Tenn didn’t seem to have seen anything, or at least was pretending it didn’t happen, which I was thankful for. He introduced Alfren, then made the announcement, or at least started to. He was interrupted by the doors in the back of the room opening. Everyone I knew was already here, so it had to be the new girl Mr. Tenn hired to work afternoons. I was still a little distracted by Alfren smiling at me, so I wasn’t paying the most attention when she walked into the room, but when I finally did notice, I got one hell of a surprise.
It really should have occurred to me who it was when I heard Serra say that she was late today. The concept of Murphy’s Law ran through my mind as a storm tore through my thoughts in an attempt to come to grips with it before my face showed any emotion and I gave away the worry, annoyance, anger and plain out dislike for the pale, red-haired, skinny, irritating, and antagonizing devil that sat in front of me.
That’s right people, you guessed it!
Lucy, for what it’s worth, managed to keep to a menacing, Why the hell are you here? kind of look. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep the sneer of derision off of my face, prompting some confused looks from Asha and Mr. Tenn. I opened my mouth to say something, but I was cut off when Mr. Tenn quickly yanked me back out through the doors.
As soon as the doors shut behind us, he turned on me. “This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”
The biting question caught me off guard, and it took a moment’s sputter for me to come up with an answer,
“O-Of course not, Mr. Tenn.”
“Then what was with that glare, Trinity? I’ve known you since you were a little girl, and not once have I heard of you giving into the same kind of racism against the devils that your parents have.”
It was the harsh use of the word racism that signaled to me how big an issue this had the potential to become. Those indifferent to it called it nothing more than a squabble of religious nuts; those that were trying to stay out of the conversation entirely called it nothing more than theological differences; only those that chose a side in the argument, and even then, only those who wanted the fight to end, who realized that it was a dispute with no real reason behind it and a whole range of violence under its bearing called it what it really was, racism.
The realization of what it was being taken as struck me like a stone, and I scrambled to make up for it. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Tenn, I never meant anything like that.”
“Good. Because I don’t care if you two don’t like each other, the both of you will be working here from now on and I will not have you perpetuating stereotypes in my store.”
I couldn’t help but feel ashamed at being told off by the usually jolly old man. Despite what I told myself about it not being what he thought, I couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, my parent’s way of thinking had poisoned my own, even just a little. “Yes, Mr. Tenn.”
He seemed to take me for my word, and we walked back through the doors to make the announcement we’d gone back there to make in the first place. I made it a point to avoid Lucy’s stare, trying to keep anything from starting.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is my pleasure to announce that our small family of workers has gained itself a new member.” he said, pointing to me.
The scolding had been worth it just to see the look on Lucy’s face. Asha was joyous, her sisters seemed just as happy, but Lucy was astonished, if not horrified. She’d been surprised to see me here when I’d first walked in, probably from annoyance at having to deal with me at all, and knowing the small bit about Lucy that I did, I’d bet she wasn’t thrilled for anyone at school to see her working here. But for her to find out that I was going to be here nearly every day from now on, it was almost too much, I was only just able to hold the laugh that burst up to my lips.
It may have been inevitable, but it still took me off guard as I walked through the front door. No sooner had I shut the door than I heard my mother yelling at me from the other room, getting closer with every word.
“Trinity! Where in the Holy Pantheon have you been!?”
I had tried to plan out what I was going to say, but now that I was actually being yelled at, all the words I’d carefully planned suddenly vanished. It took me a minute to formulate a coherent sentence under the verbal assault from my mother.
“Mom! Would you stop yelling for ten seconds and listen!?” I said finally, exasperated at the lengthy lecture. I knew the yelling was only going to get worse when I said it, but it had to come out eventually, “I was late because I got detention.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, it occurred to me that I could have just said that I was with Asha the whole time, and the news of my newfound employment would have only served to verify the statement. But alas, I had to go yet again and screw myself over.
“You got detention? Again!”
I knew pretty much where this rant was going, so I tried to cut her off and tell her the good news I had in store in hopes it would derail the oncoming punishment.
“Before you start yelling, mom, something really good happened after I got out.”
My mother stopped her tirade and looked down on me with an impatient look. “This better be good, it’s after dark already. Even with detention, you should have been home hours ago.”
“I stopped by Mr. Tenn’s store to help Asha out for a while,” I said, hoping that helping others might earn me some brownie points, “And Mr. Tenn offered me a job at the store!” I couldn’t help some small amount of excitement creeping out when I said that. Despite all that had happened, I found myself looking forward to it.
“No.”
At first, I didn’t understand what she’d meant, but slowly it dawned on me how abominable that single word could be.
“What do you mean, no?” I asked, confused and suddenly angry about why I was being denied this seemingly beneficial and normally maturing situation. I mean, most parents are excited if their kid gets a job, right?
“I mean, you’re going to tell Mr. Tenn that you can’t take the job.”
“Why not!?”
“Because I’m your mother and I told you no.”
Okay, now I’m pretty sure she said that one just to make me mad.
“You’ve got to have a better reason than that!” I raved, growing angrier with each sentence.
“Fine, you want a real reason? You’ve got enough distractions already. You rarely spend any time with the family, if you’re not out with friends you’re locked up in your room, and your grades have been slipping as it is. Not to mention that you keep getting in trouble at school, so why should I let you do something like this now?”
“Mom, are you really arguing against something that’s going to help me?”
“Haven’t you been listening, dear? I don’t think this will help. From my viewpoint, you’re slipping right now, and I think a job taking up all your time will only make it worse. If you can‘t handle what‘s already on your plate, what makes you think you can take care of all of it and a
job?”
I wasn’t honestly sure what to do at this point. I hadn’t expected to have to argue over a point like this, so I really wasn’t sure what to say to win this one. There was always the ‘keep arguing about it till they finally give up’ tactic teenagers are usually so proud of, but my mother can be as stubborn as an ass most of the time, so I wasn’t likely to win that way. There was also the chance that I could talk to dad and have him try and convince her, but I didn’t even know if he was even home, and I didn’t want to let the argument rest for however long it may take him to get back, lest my mother think I was going to let this one go. Somewhere along the same line, I thought of possible having my older brother Ren argue my case for me if dad wasn’t home, but that was quickly discounted, since, in the eyes of my parents at least, he was a bigger troublemaker than me, so his word counted for a lot less than mine did.
After as much thought as I could give considering the situation, I settled on something that was probably going to get me in more trouble in the long run. I tried to lobby my cause for as long as I could, but I inevitably failed against the iron-clad wall of resistance that was my mother’s unwillingness to concede the point. So failing in any way, shape, or form to convince her, I opted to let her win the argument, and just show up at the store tomorrow anyways. I let the argument drop and watched her walk away, worrying more than a little bit on how much trouble I’d be in for tomorrow.
I headed back up to my room, intending to sulk over my lost argument, but I ran into Ren halfway up the stairs.
“Trin, there you are! Come with me, I need your help with something.” He grabbed my wrist and dragged me off toward his room before I could say anything.
“What the hell is it, Ren?” I asked as we burst into his room. I looked around to see what the problem was and was surprised to find my computer sitting on his desk. “Okay, why the hell do you have my computer?” I asked, already starting to get annoyed.
“I have an English project due tomorrow and Dad took mine last week.” he said, pointing to the flash drive sticking out the side, “I had to borrow yours so I could finish it.”
“Okay, Ren, this is the last time I’m going to say this. You need to ask before you use my computer.” Yeah, this happened a lot.
“I’m sorry, Trin, it was an emergency. You weren’t home yet and the damn things due tomorrow.”
“Alright, so what do you need me for?”
“Well first of all, you changed the password. I closed it halfway through and now I can’t get back on it.”
That’s what I get for leaving it open. “I changed it for exactly this reason, Ren.”
“Again, I’m sorry, but I have to get it done tonight.”
I sighed to myself and said, “Fine.” Before opening the computer and unlocking it for him.
“Anything else?”
“Is there any way I can get you to proofread the assignment for me?” He said it with this hilarious kind of puppy-dog begging face. His eyes got big and he stuck out his bottom lip in a way that was just too funny to not laugh at.
“Alright, fine. I really can’t argue with that.”
He opened the file for me then left the room, saying he was going to go get some food. I started in on the project, which wasn’t what I’d expected. I thought it was going to be a research paper, but instead it was very odd kind of story that I could only assume that Ren wrote. It wasn’t that it was bad, it was just very odd. It wasn’t the first time I’d read something Ren had written for him, and there was a prevailing sort of theme to most of it. When you read it, it sounds initially like a bunch of abstract nonsense, like a children’s story trying to fit a mature plot, and yet by the end of it, or at least the ends of the ones he’s let me read, it all made sense in a kind of way that you wouldn’t expect. Language rotated from childish to complex, the plot relevance of any given item was an absolute mystery, and the resolution to the conflict usually came out of thin air. It was stuff that wasn’t supposed to make sense on its own, but most of it tied together to make a weirdly entertaining story.
They were normally really good, they just always made me worry a little bit, because, to be completely honest, I wasn’t sure that Ren was entirely all right,
psychologically speaking. It was the kind of thing that was hard to discern when you talked to him, but was more pronounced in the stuff he made. Don’t get me wrong, to the rest of the world he can at least act like a normal human being, but at home, and especially when mom and dad were gone, he was starting to act weirder. When our parents were home, he’d hole himself up in his room, deciding after several fights with both of them that it would be best to avoid them entirely. When he did deal with them, it inevitably ended in an argument, which left me as the only available go-between.
I knew what most of it stemmed from, anyone who knew the family did, but that didn’t make it any easier. Ren had been born before mom and dad were married, hell, before dad had even summoned mom down to this plane, it was that kind of thing. My father had always claimed that he was seduced by some young devil (not the literal kind here, just a somewhat racist metaphor, in fact, I’m pretty sure that it was an elf), and when he finally admitted this to me when I was back in middle school, he tried to use it as what I can only believe was a warning against premarital sex. Yeah, that was a really awkward conversation. It only got worse several months later when my father tried to use Ren to show the congregation that even the greatest of men can sin. I shouldn’t have to tell you that no one received that one well, especially Ren. My mother has been trying since they were married to gloss all of it over, but there are times, especially when Ren starts acting out, that the gloss starts to crack.
I told you my family was messed up.
“Trin!”
Oh goddamnit! I thought, feeling more overworked by the second, What the hell is it now Asha?
“We’re done back here, go up front and work the register.”
It took an effort not to let out a groan at that. It was only my first day working, and yet it didn’t even take two hours to see how much of a cheapskate Mr. Tenn actually was; there should have been at least four more people working here. There were always at least three of us working the register, but that left only five people to move the crates, stock the shelves, change prices, etc. Mr. Tenn was just lucky that he had four daughters to work, or else nothing would get done around here.
I hit the code to unlock the computer and opened the register. As soon as the light came on to signal the register was open, the line of customers for the other registers branched off and flooded mine. It took me a minute to get everything going and get the line moving faster, but it all settled out to a steady pace after about ten minutes.
I spent the next half-hour in a flurry of motion, trying to get through the massive torrent of customers as quickly as I could. Eventually, however, rush hour passed and the line slowed from a torrent to a river, then to a stream, until eventually it came to an almost complete stop. Since there was no longer a need for all three registers, Alfren shut his down and went to go help the others in the back. That left me and the other person working the register, who of course just had to be Lucy, staring across the walkway at each other.
In all reality it was a lot less staring and a lot more trying to avoid each other’s gazes. It seemed that the more you tried to avoid catching eyes, the more often it seemed to happen, which only made you try to avoid it more. It was one long and incredibly awkward kind of dance, both of us traipsing around the other, and both determined not to say anything. This went on for quite some time before I realized that it would be a hell of a lot easier to just grab a magazine off the rack and pretend to read it.
I didn’t actually read much of it, I got about halfway through the first page before I zoned out and let my thoughts wander. A customer would show up every few minutes, but for the most part I was alone with my thoughts. I found myself wondering why everything had happened this way, how I had ended up in this situation, trying desperately to avoid conversation with the person standing across from me, one of my new coworkers. It seemed simple on the surface, I had been dragged into this because Cazan had caught me sleeping in class. Lucy dragged herself into this by not doing homework, but, thanks to Cazan practically throwing this all at my feet, she blamed me for the whole thing. The only thing that didn’t make any sense about the whole thing, besides Lucy being a total bitch about it, was why she interpreted what had happened with the snapdragon and the accident in the closet so seriously. I had been an honest accident after all, hadn’t it? Yet Lucy had acted like I had been trying to molest her. It was awkward, to be sure, but no one else had been there, her reputation hadn’t been damaged. It’s not like I was going to tell anyone either, so why was she so pissed off it?
“Ahem.”
Oh crap. The customer had sneaked up on me like a fucking ninja. I tossed the magazine on the shelf behind me and immediately jumped to grab his things, which only ended badly when I dropped the first thing I picked up. I grabbed it up off the ground as quickly as I could, then started ringing up the rest of his items, hoping to get him out of here before he saw how embarrassed I was. Lucy was still laughing like an idiot when he finally left, which only furthered my shame. I wanted to pull the magazine back out and hide my blood red face behind it, but, in an effort to save myself some dignity, I made a sneering face at her, trying to tell her to Fuck off. I’m not sure how well it worked, but it made me feel a little better.
I was so grateful to Asha when she came around a few minutes later to tell us to start closing the store down. Despite having something to pretend to read, neither I nor Lucy seemed to have been able to keep our eyes down after the customer came through. The dance had been all the more awkward after that.
I shut down the register and went to go help everyone else lock up. It didn’t take very long to get everything shut down, but I was in no rush to get home. I had a pretty good idea how much trouble I would be in when I got back, so I was doing everything I could to waste time. It was already well past nine, but I was just sitting on a crate in the back, talking to Asha.
“So Asha, is there any possibility I could stay at your house tonight?” I really didn’t want to deal with my mother tonight. I wanted some time to think about what I was going to say.
“I’ll ask my dad
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