Jessi Smith's Story

I barged out of the front doors to the school. There was early morning practice for the drama club today and I was some what glad to be out in the fresh air instead of the stuffy auditorium.
"Jess, why the rush?!" Tall lanky fellow, one of my friends from drama, came running up to me grinning wildly. I rolled my eyes, he was lucky I found him attractive.
"I want to sip my morning coffee out side and watch the freshmen make fools of themselves." Not true I just wanted to drink my coffee and watch people, understand how they work and interact with each other, find out about their characters. It was a good practice I came up with while I was taking acting lessons.
"Well then Mr. Sophisticated, I am going to sit with you and point and laugh at the people I hate... That happens to be everyone." I sat down on one of the tables that the school offered around the front entrance and sipped my coffee and watched the people soon enough other people from my drama group joined up with us. One of the girls tossed me a cinnamon bun.
"Don't worry there aren't any raisins in it. Every one here knows you hate them." This girl was someone I made friends with the beginning of grade 9, she had been my best friend ever sense. Her name was Emily.
"Thanks, you know me too well Emily... What I would like to know is how you knew I didn't have breakfast yet?" I raised a brow at her.
"Are you kidding, I have known you for the last 3 years, and every time there is a morning practice you don't eat breakfast." I almost spit out my coffee. If she knew about that what else did she pick up on. Had she found out my secret? No, no she couldn't have found out.
"Hey, look the freak is here."the blond fellow nodded his head motioning toward Helena, I sighed. Helena didn't grow out of our childhood, one I had to let go a long time ago, because of this we fell out of our friend ship. I blocked out everyone for a while, then my parents got me into therapy and acting lesson as per request of said therapist.

Helena opened up the bag she carried, carefully moving her toy out of the way and taking out something old, worn and faded. A large refill paper book that looked to have been far overused.

She shifted the battered looking chunk of old copypaper, held together with duct tape and bulldog clips at the time. Plenty of people had tried to grab it off her as a means to upset her, but while she often came across as a bit clumsy in her hideous multicoloured sweater so was surprisingly fast. No-one had managed to get hold of the ratty notebook.

And it was just as well from Helena's point of view.

The book was her Field Guide. Of sorts. It contained all the notes she'd made on the corrupted Otherworld. Diagrams, maps, lists. Sketches of the creatures and plants, what could help you and what could tear you to pieces, from years of personal experience. It was downright necessary, when so much of the OW was based around obscure rules and childish logic. It'd saved her more times than she could count. She could give them copies of this to help matters along.

Lena looked round and her gaze set on her first target, that of Jessi, who was standing with sme of his friends, who were already looking at her with some degree of disdain. She was pretty used to it. She had, for as long as she could remember, been some form of social pariah, picked last for any team going, generally at a loss when students were asked to find a partner and usually placed with someone who accepted very grudgingly and interacted the minimal possible, and those were the people that didn't really strongly dislike her. It was the being picked on that was more of an issue. She'd taken a million hits to the face in dodgeball, had her drink or lunch emptied over her head more times than she could count, and had been shoved fully clothed into the swimming pool to the amusement of most of the class at least a dozen times.

Lena was an individual who came across as sufficiently offputting that no-one really seemed to feel sorry for her, or at least if they did they kept it very much to themselves, and Lena herself had never reported any incidences to the school itself...well..Lena had her doubts they'd take her seriously even if she had wanted to do that. Most of the teachers were convinced she must have been some kind of druggie, and 'random' locker searches always seemed to end up at hers. She'd once been dragged up before the pincipal and her parents called in to confront her with a packet in her bag...which'd turned out to be some basil her cousin, who went to a different school, had taken from her garden to give Lena for home economics. Her parents were pretty wealthy and fairly influential, and hadn't really appreciated getting dragged up in the middle of the day to scrutinize their daughter's seasoning choices, and they'd caused enough of a fuss that the heat was off her for a little while. Still, she was aware that if she wanted any adult intervention in matters at schools he was pretty much ut of luck.

The young woman trotted up to the group.
"Jessi." she spoke, adopting a sort of tone as if she were about to broker a business deal, which did not really follow into what she said after that.
""They say that you need to come back to Otherworld. I've been trying to sort things out by myself but it isn't working. I'm willing to put everything behind us if you and the others come back and help me. Archer is being extremely difficult and I'm having some serious trouble with the Sentinel recently..."

I almost, almost, bashed my head against the table. I wanted to leave my childhood behind be not go back. Yeah sure the therapist suggested that I revisit my childhood on occasion, but that didn't mean "Pretend everything my imagination created was real". I gave a look to my friends saying that I would be back and that they shouldn't get involved, and that I could deal with Helena. I stood, coffee in one hand, and garbed one of Helena's arms and stormed off to a slightly more privet part of the school entrance.
"Look, Helena, I know our childhood means a lot to you, but sometimes..." That is when I saw River, an other childhood friend. I glared at the group of teens tossing around her medication. I glared. If there was one thing I didn't like it was picking on people, no matter how messed in the head they may be. Then again that might be because I was a little messed up for a while my self. I pointed to ward River "If you don't mind I am going to do something about that first, then we can talk." I know I was in no place to play hero, but if I didn't stop it then who would. I walked up to the group and easily caught the meds they where tossing around, I read the label. These where anti-depressants, they worked not only for depression, but anxiety as well.
"Hey man, want to join in the fun?" A junior with far to much hair product in his hair to be remotely attractive gave me a cocky grin. I scoffed and handed them back to River. I then proceeded to glare at them.
"Do you know who I am? I am Jessi, the president of the Drama council and one of the most popular kids in school, if I, or any of my friends see you picking on anyone again I will make sure that you and your little gang of wannabes never make it to the top in this school ever. In fact you will be even lower then Helena over there, and that isn't a nice reputation to have. Now, A little education for all of you, those meds you where tossing around are of anxiety, strong enough to make all of you lucid for a while, so before I decide to shove a few down your throat, I suggest you scram." I stayed very calm threw out my little rant, I didn't raise my voice, nor did I act mad. This for the most part scares teens more then a yelling person, and to my success, they ran. I sighed, that was good, now I didn't have to fight. I turned back to River. "You okay?"

"I did hear that y'know. I am standing right here." Helena announced her arms folded.

She could handle being brushed off gracefully enough. It happened so often that she could react to it like a natural. However when someone, someone who was supposed to have been her friend, was using her as some example to scare people like she was some kind of lesser species, she kinda took issue about it.

"So it's not okay for them to pick on her, but fine for you to say stuff like that about me? I mean....I know pretty much everyone in the school likes to have a go, and no-one ever objects to it....but I thought you might at least have the class to only say that kind of thing to your friends behind my back..." a notable tinge of bitterness had soaked into her tone.

She was bitter. She couldn't help it. She wanted to try and put all of that behind her and start things on a positive note, but this was not making it easy. Not when the already considerable trouble brought about by the forsaking of the world was componded by the disdain for her for remaining. When she didn't have a choice.

Clip-clop.

A noise.

Helena snapped round, looking behind her, getting some sense of something, some tall, spindly figure moving off in the edge of her vision, striding among the parked cars, easily avoiding them with its long limbs, metal hooves sounding on the asphalt.

Clip clop.

There was nothing there though. Just some cars and a few students who were dragging their feet about going in. Evenso the event left her unsettled, and she reached over to the stuffed toy, a white wolf that peeked out of her pack, and squeezed it.

I patted River on the back lightly and faced Helena. She was clutching a very familiar toy, she looked frightened. I walked over to her. "if it makes you feel better, thous wannabes are most likely going to bully someone else and make their way to the bottom of the charts." Now I was standing two feet away from her now. "And I am more then sure that if you where the one having their meds tossed around then I would help and most likely say the same thing because it is fact Helena. I am also sure that if I saw anyone do something to you I would have done something about it, but it seams you pretty good at handling your self and some how nothing other then words come out of peoples mouths when they are around me." I huffed and crossed my arms in front of my own chest. "As for what I wanted to say earlier, I know our childhood means a lot to you, but sometimes you have to let go. Helena, we are old enough not to rely on something that isn't real. Why can't you grow up?" I probably sounded like a huge dick, but I didn't want to be reminded of my childhood, I didn't want to remember. I clenched my jaw, and if that meant I had to cast out the people that decided they wanted to remind me, then so be it.

[Omg you guys post so quick >.< I fell asleep, sorry!]



As she walked away from her crumbling mess of a castle, Zen felt a slight pull, something inside her, like a motherly instinct that made her feel like something was wrong. She looked back to her castle, which now cast a soft red glow around it's edgeds, like it had done many times before. The red glow happened often when River was upset or anxious - or anytime she felt any sort of emotion, but Zen had forgotten about River, or atleast, her name. Zenofora had felt this pang of motherly instinct many, many times before, and she was slowly coming to the realisation that it had sometihng to do with the child in the dream she keeps having, but currently she just shrugged it off as something superstitious.

Zen turned away to ignore the glow of her castle but she still felt the tugging at her chest, which began to annoy her, she wanted to know what the source of this feeling was so she could get rid of it and go about her day, but she only knew of the child in her dreams, and that was the only place she could ever see her. Regardless, Zeno fought through the tugging and pulling that was determined to take her back to her castle, and continued her walk along the dirt, above ground paths that lead the 'main central' where he once followers woudl gather whenever they were not hiding underground.

Though, when she got to the center, not one of her followers were here, not even her gaurds. Strange she thought there's usually someone willing to entertain me.. her thoughts trailed off as she looked around the surrounding area, watching out for any wildlings or anyone else that may have snuck into her realm. But alas, there was no-one here. Zen sighed. Then she looked up, and she saw in the distance, three faded figures. A wicked grin grew across her face as she quickly made her way over to them, but as she got closer, the figures began to dissolve, like a disappearing shadow. One by one they slipped away from her, as she held out her hand to touch the last one, it paused in it's fading process, and Zeno stared,examining it as her palm pressed lightly against it's forehead. The figure looked familiar to Zeno, like the child in her dreams, but now older. But before she could place it, the figure vanished, leaving nothing but a faint red glow in it's wake.

Rakim awoke in the living room at 6:13am. Another nightmare. Same one, had been for about a week now. It reminded him of when he was a Kid. Things were different then, his imagination was able to take him away, let him and his friends do whatever they wanted to do. Nowadays, he lived in the hood, and the only escape he could think of was death. And school, school's not bad.

John, his bestfriend, was awake sitting in the chair next to the door. "I'll watch the trap for now, go get a fuckin shower choppy, get your black ass to that school, and dont take my fuckin white ford, take your caddy".
Rakim went, grabbed a quick shower, loaded his backpack with what he'd need for the day. Some white, his 9, and a nice blunt for the drive into town, and another for the day at some point. He quickly tossed on a white beater, black jeans, and his favorite hat, it simply said "Choppy" in red and black lettering. He grabbed the keys to his black 86 cadillac coupe-deville, hopped in, and started her up. He loved his caddy. He had everything on it, pearlescent black paint, lowering kit, gold plated rims, gold plated handles, oak dash, and all the bells and whistles. As he was driving to the school, he realized this was his first day out into town in almost a month. He thought about why, and realised he didnt get 125 grand for going into town every day.

He was on the street beside the school when he saw her, and her friend. River. He remembered they used to be friends when they were kids, he had a crush on her then, and still does now. Of course, to everyone in town, Rakim was someone you didnt speak to unless told to do so. When Rakim got out of his caddy, he noticed some people throwing around something with River. Looked like they were picking on her. He decided to deal with it at a later time.

Rakim lit his blunt, was taking a nice cruise when he noticed one of the boys that puhsed with River that morning, he looked like he was heading to the school. Rakim followed. All the way back to the school. He opened the door, headed to the bathroom. Rakim followed, with his gun in his pants. The boy turned around and saw Rakim mid swing with his glock. *Crack* he busted the boys face open, knocked him on the ground. Rakim leaned into his ear and whispered "If I EVER see you fucking with that girl again, i'll ride on your block and kill your fucking family, got it?"

"yes y...yes...e...yes" The kid said through blood and sobs.

"Oh, and anyone asks, this never hapenned, you slipped and hit your face on a urinal."

"oooo.......o..ook"

then, just for accuracy of the story, he slammed the kids face on a urinal.

He did things like this often, usually just to keep bullying down in the school and around town, but this was different, this was for someone. Someone he hadn't talked to in 8 or so years.

As much as it was nice not having to deal with people and their bullshit, it made it hard to approach girls. Thankfully, most of his boys werent around today, so he would quite possibly be able to sneak up to Helena and talk to her.
right around the time Rakim was thinking of some McD's, the opporotunity arose.

He started walking towards her, waived her to come here. She seemed quite nervous, but Rakim was used to people being nervous around him.

"Hey uh, who was that girl you were walking with this morning?"

"Why?"

"Uhh, well, i dont know, she was like, pretty cute I guess"

"River"

"Can you like, maybe, tell her to come talk to me someday or something?"

She then walked off very quickly.

"Fuck." he said to himself.

He saw the boy again after he got lunch, face stitched, two black eyes, and a very busted nose. the kid turned, looked at Rakim, Rakim winked, threw him a Jr chicken, and then he was on his way. Rakim was just heading to the Liquor store to meet his buddy Lamar, when he saw Helena, walking with River and some Jessi guy. He heard that Jessi was good people, and he trusted his sources. He caught Helena's eyes, and she motioned for him to walkover.

"I resent you implying that being like me is like the worst punishment you can dish out, and somehow assholes rank so far over me in this. I've never actually done anything." Helena responded defensively, her attention drawn back. She stuffed the toy down into the bag, not wanting to leave it pen to be grabbed.

"And just because I don't flip out it's okay for every student and half the staff here to pick on me?"
Yeah, you do get good at handling it when you've been doing it for ten years, she thought to herself, feeling bitter. It was fine to stand up for River, but it was all funny when someone shoved Helena in the swimming pool or tried to pull her skirt up or spat in her drink.

It was because, in her eyes, people seemed to feel she deserved it. That it was justified in some way.


She had to laugh at Jessi's comment. Not only because of the irony of it that he thought he was somehow doing her a favour, and the idea that she needed to grow up. She'd spent her night trying to fight off a hydra that had almost torn her arm out of its socket. She had seen creatures torn apart and sewn together as grotesque things by some depraved imaginary. She had faced the New Ruler and survived...just about. She wasn;t the one that had not grown up.

"This is going to happen, no matter what you say or do. I'm just giving you a chance to be ready for it. If you ignore me you;re still going to end up there one day, only I won't be around to help you. Your best bet is to listen to me and learn how to stop that happening before the Sentinel or Cadriel or Monarch gets to me and there's noone standing between you and the creatures....but I guess that's all on you people. It's just that I probably won't live to see the latter."

Rakim stood in the middle of the front entrance of the school for a moment, unsure of whether to walk over or stand there until one of the boys called him. Fuck it, what did he have to loose.

He walked over while trying desperately to put his gun in his bag without them noticing. he ended up just turning around for a moment, stuffed it in his bag, then walked over to her.

He walked for a minute with the three of them, wondering what to say. He nervously put his hand on her back, and spoke.

"Saw what happened this morning, those kids are idiots, I heard one of them fell face first into a urinal earlier."

She laughed, somewhat nervously, but it was a nervousness that he wasn't used to, one that seemed less, threatening.

"Yeah, you remember this? We must've been about 10 years old, we were playing in the woods and I fell off a tree, cut my face right up. The next day, this girl, she was makin fun of me, called me an ugly ni**er. Then you punched her in the face and Jessi chased her all the way home. So, i guess what I'm trying to say is, it happens to everyone. If you want, i'll make sure nobody ever does anything to you again. Just let me drive you home. I can give your other two friends a ride too, but it looks like their going to go do their own thing."

She couldn't help but laugh at the old memory of them.

Rakim thought back for a minute, he was a funny kid. one that did all kinds of stupid things. He had been in a different world lately, one that he wasn't allowed to be human in. He liked spending time with his old friends, even if they weren't popular or cool. It made him feel human, like he wasn't in the hood anymore. And then he realized it. There's two escapes from the hood, Death, and these three people. He vowed to himself, that even if River wasn't interested, he was going to watch her back. And make sure to take time out of his day to hangout with them. He might still be a hood kid, but he didn't have to be 24/7.