Two

I got a shocker today. The school shrink has decided that since I’m writing in a journal, I should let her read it. Normally I would tell Miss Hans (the shrink) that she could go to, well, anyways I can’t because of the new monitoring going into place because of that dumbass Sam. I’m sorry Sam. Not. As for the journal, I started giving a brief sort of sketch of everything on the machine. But I will never willingly show any of it to anyone.

Actually, I don’t have a choice because the tighter security is watching me due to my connection with Maddi. Have I mentioned that I am going to rip her stupid little perfect Barbie-Blonde head off AND castrate that pathetic excuse for a boyfriend of hers? I swear, it was hard enough convincing Mercy that I was innocent while talking. How can I convince her through my actions? I rule over the girls, and that’s bound to show.

I almost forgot to mention what I’m ‘innocent’ of.

Good old Sammy thought that it would be a good idea to smuggle our ‘soup’ out of the cafeteria to set up one of the infamous Twin Traps for the janitors, who were getting suspicious from the long (three day) stretch of peace. Of course the boys couldn’t pass up an invitation to be idiots. Will kept watch as Sam, Maddi, and a mysterious third figure accidentally (on purpose) replaced as much of the cleaning supplies as possible with our vaguely soup-like meals. We –THEY- managed to adulterate almost twelve full bottle of window washer before getting the signal to leave. I only know this all through Maddi, who told me everything about an hour ago, three hours after the little stunt and the security kicked in. Now I have a guard at my door.

Oh, well. I got better off than the Twins; neither of them is allowed to leave their shared rooms. Better than that, Maddi has dish duty for two months. Lets wait and see if her precious manicure can endure that. Stupid doll-girl. She is a doll-girl. Perfect face, perfect body, even had perfect parents until they got themselves perfectly assassinated. A governor’s daughter in a place like this. If I didn’t know how rude and hurtful she is, I would never have believed it. That’s Maddi for you- perfect on the outside, ruined on the inside. Of course, I’m even worse.

Someone just knocked on my door. To answer or not to answer. Decisions, decisions. I guess I’ll answer. Looking around my room as I move off the small single bed in the northeast corner. Bookshelves ring the lower half of all wall except the one my bed is pressed against. My collection has come a long way in the past few years. I now have nearly two thousand books, courtesy of our school outings every other Saturday, and our meager allowances (plus whatever I can filch from people on the street). The desk at the end of my bed, lovely walnut, with some paper and pens on it, along with my new lamp (egg-shaped, dull forest green- excellent to read by) and school books. Never mix business with pleasure.

Another knock, and I’m halfway through the room. The only thing left to look at, besides the door to my personal bathroom, would be my wardrobe, the first set of clothing I bought still inside. The tall wooden doors seem to sag with age. Maybe it’s finally time to buy a new one.

A third rushed knock. Whoever it is sure gets impatient fast. All right, hand on the lock. Turning it. This may actually be interesting, just opening the door. There are so many steps, so many actions. It’s open.

And Maddi is staring at me waiting to speak. Speak. I guess that that would be the right thing to do. But if I don’t speak will she? I might as well just blurt something out like the genius I am.

“What do you want?” Smooth, Midnight, real smooth. Why not ask her what color underwear she’s wearing? I think I said that out loud. Damn, here comes the weird look.

“Middi?” I hate that nickname. Maddi thinks it’s cute because together we’re ‘Mid-Mad’. I’ve heard that some of the girls call us the DiTwins. I don’t get it, but I guess they see it as we both would end in ‘di’ and we’re the female equivalent of the Twins. “Are you going to answer me?” Thank God she keeps talking, or else I’d always be thinking about something else. Like now.

“Of course I’m going to answer, but I have yet to hear a real question.” I hate snapping at her, but it honestly is hilarious to see her face because she is so used to getting everything her way, no contradictions or complaints.

“Middi, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You have one weird way of talking.” Stupid girl, this is the way everyone is taught to speak proper English.

“And as I have said before: What are you talking about?”

“You pronounce every letter where you’re supposed to, no slang or anything. You’re just way formal and it’s really creepy.” Thanks. Blue eyes looking at me, expecting something. Oh, yeah- time to meet the Twins. For the past week Maddi has been dragging me along to her little dates with Sam in the middle of my hard earned evening breaks, although she doesn’t call them dates because of Will’s presence. I think she may be trying to pull some sort of double date, but it is obvious (at least to me) that Will is not interested in me.

“Are we going or not? I’m sure Sam’s waiting.” At least I can distract her from my earlier ‘question’ by bringing up her wonderful, perfect, ever-so-charming boyfriend. I know I have said the right thing from the scarily bright smile that just erupted over my friend. How she can be so beautiful is beyond me. I wonder if she thinks I’m ugly. If she says anything, I’ll just kick her rich little butt.

Right about now my carefully (not) hidden guard is debating whether or not to let me out. It’s funny because the woman is only about half my size, and barely a quarter of my intelligence. What can I say, I’m brilliant and I know it; I’m surprised that she really thinks that I can’t see her peeking out from the next door to my left. But no matter what, I know that word of this will eventually get back to Mercy. Of course, Maddi doesn’t really care.

She grabs my hand and is practically dragging me down the stairs to the courtyard. If I didn’t run so often on my own (despite the fat I carry), I’d probably be out of breath. Again, more running over to the fountain stationed in the center of our lovely little hellhole that the school board calls a courtyard. There’s not even any water in the fountain, so the little angel guys look a little creepy with their puckered lips.

“Pay attention Middi!” Squeals Maddi, turning me to face the guy half of the housing complex. I don’t know what she’s all excited about, all I can see is a bunch of shadows between the buildings. Two dark shapes just separated themselves from the main shadow.

Here come the Twins, Sam on the right and Will on the left.

I can’t help blushing right now, and no one can blame me. A small smile on Sam’s lips show his amusement at my coloring. I swear sometimes I can’t stand that boy, even if he does look like a dark angel.

“Hey, sweetie.” Says Maddi. That girl could not be any more enthusiastic about seeing Sam. I would call it pathetic if I weren’t afraid that she’d do something unnatural to me in the middle of the night. Sam doesn’t answer; instead he simply walked over and, for lack of a better word, melted into Maddi. This was normal, though, and would be over in a few minutes.

Will and I are stuck in a semi-awkward state for a few seconds before he decides to break up the couple. Thank-you, Will. Honestly, it’s like he knows what I’m thinking, or something. I don’t know whether or not to be scared by it, but there’s no denying that I think it’s kind of cool that he can be so sensitive, especially because he’s a human guy.

With some reluctance, Maddi and Sam broke apart. As usual, Sam led the way to the fence surrounding Stonebridge. No one but the four of us know this, but there’s a small hole in the fence that we can all (even me) fit through. Every time I get dragged along on these trips, I swear that hole shrinks as I am going through it. I know that I’ll get through, and that it will be snug and all, but the stupid wire doesn’t have to leave scratches. Here I am talking about the fence as though it is alive. Maybe Sam was right when he accused me of being insane yesterday.

We all head to the end of the alley on the other side of our beloved fence, and stroll (or in Sam’s case strut) onto Webster Street. On both sides of our group shops devour all but a little space left to the pedestrians.

Again, the usual routine kicks in as we head towards Moe’s, the closest bar. I heard that on some odd planets, there are drinking and driving ages, but that doesn’t hold true to the people of Fey. The only limits we have are that we can’t have more than three drinks each. This isn’t a problem for me because, as I have said before, I don’t drink. Unfortunately none of my companions share my opinions on alcohol, and so usually each take one of my drinks (which Maddi forces me to buy).

Tonight is a blur, with nothing new to speak of. Sam and Maddi both got drunk, Will drank half of the contents of each of his bottles, and I sat and watched as everyone’s favorite pair of twins began singing and dancing for anyone who would watch them.

That’s the one thing I don’t get. As far as I’ve heard, the Twins were sent to Stonebridge not only because of their orphan status, but also because of their ‘rowdy’ behavior in public. I don’t see why they would keep doing the one thing that could get them sent to prison if anyone at the bar would choose to report them. Oh, the mystery that is men.

The little outing ends within an hour as we all hurry back to our dorms for headcount. That reminds me that the Twins aren’t supposed to be out of their rooms. As I ask them how they escaped, they give each other a Look with a Smirk that was beyond me before breaking out laughing.

“That, dear Middi is for us to know and you to find out.” Answered Sam in his most sarcastic voice. I can’t believe he just called me Middi! I’ve already made it clear throughout the entire school that I will cripple anyone who even attempts to use the stupid nickname. I think Will may have seen murder in my eyes, because he quickly intervened.

“Midnight, you know how Sam can be, just drop it.” Of course, Sam can’t let Will be the good guy until he has finished being the bad guy.

“Yeah, Middi, drop it like all those extra pounds you toting around.” He is so going to die. Not even an angelic face with glowing eyes can stop me now. Did I just comment on Sam’s eyes? I suppose it would make sense, because the eyes are the only difference between the two brothers; where Sam has amber eyes that have a slightly demonic glow, Will has these awesome blue-green eyes that give off this calm feeling. But right now, I am feeling far from calm.

“Dearest Sammy,’ He paused at the tone I was using before continuing to laugh. I think Maddi is beginning to worry. Of course, she isn’t even a threat right now. Now Sam has all of my attention, “Do you have some problem with my size?”

“Middi, we don’t have time for this right now. What if Mercy shows up in our rooms-“

“Maddi, I love you bunches, but for right now- Shut up.” She did as I said. She learned during our little spat not to screw with me, and she also knew that that is what Sam had just done. Now she and Will were standing together silently as Sam and I faced each other just outside the fence. “Sam, you have ten seconds to apologize.” Of course, this caused even more laughter.

“Gee, Middi, you’re just too generous. A whole ten seconds!”

“Five.”

“Do you really think that I am going to apologize to you? How sorry can you get?” He just keeps laughing. Maybe Will is right, and I should just drop it. Then again, if I am lenient even once, it may cause me to appear weak. I take pride in being called heartless, and I won ‘t allow anyone to ruin that for me.

“Sammy, Sammy, Sammy. I gave you a chance, and you blew it. Do you know how lucky you are to have been given an opportunity to avoid my anger? Nearly two-thirds of the girls here would have bent backwards to even have a hope of that kind of gift. Now you’ll have to pay the consequences.” I take a step forward, putting my hand into a fist. I hate when I have to resort to violence, but it’s just so much easier than any alternative. And to think, Sam could have gotten out of this little spat with his nose intact. Oh, well, what can I do? I warned him.

The idiot has the audacity to laugh, and think that I’m joking. Maddi is chewing on her thumbnail now. She knows what is going to happen, and I think Will has finally caught on. But neither of them makes a move to stop me. Sam doesn’t even notice as I slip into a boxing stance that I learned on Zert.

Nobody moves for a second, and then I swing.

Sam is on the ground, gripping his nose and howling. I can’t help but feel a little satisfied as Will helps his brother to his feet. Maddi is still standing where she had been, temporarily numb to what was happening around her. Sam stumbles over to me and shouts in my face. I might respond if I can make out any words. The blood is really flowing now. I can’t help feeling a little detached, even if I just broke a Twin’s nose. It’s not that big of a deal; you do it once and you’ve done it a million times.

I think I may actually hear a word. What is it? Oh, yes: Bitch.

What can I say? I have been called a bitch so many times in the past couple years that I can honestly say that it doesn’t bug me. What does bug me is that Maddi is still out of it, standing in the same spot with the same vacant expression on her face. I should check on her, to see if she’s alright.

“Maddi? Mads? Are you OK?” I think that she can hear me, even if I’m whispering as Sam is shouting his lungs out. I’m surprised that the patrol has come over to investigate yet. Wait: Maddi is turning her head back towards me. What is that in her eyes? Fear? Confusion? Hatred. It’s hatred. Crap, how could I be so dumb as to break her boyfriend’s nose?

With an abrupt nod, my only friend turned and passed through the fence before running back to her dorm.

Sam is silent now, and Will is looking at me through squinted eyes. Great, now I’ve not only destroyed my first friendship, but I’ve also managed to obliterate any hope of ever getting together with Will. And here I thought tonight was going to be boring.

Way to prove myself wrong.

I know it’s horrible, and short, and weird, but aside from that what do you think? I’m dying for reviews. I am the New Shadow, Vivian LeFay.