Chapter 3
Rachel
froze as she walked in the door, suddenly remembering where she was. This class wasn’t as talkative. There were
three or four groups of girls gathered in different areas of the classroom whispering
quietly amongst themselves. A lot of
students were at their desks thumbing through the class’s text. Few even glanced her way as she tentatively
found a seat. Her stomach gave a little
flutter as she looked at the black book sitting on her desktop. “Demonology” it read in bright red letters. Rachel felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t even want to look at the cursed
thing. She looked, instead, at the other
students. Most had flaming red hair with
electric blue eyes. Something about them
reminded Rachel of her brother. Though, he had sandy blonde hair with blue
eyes. It was something about the
intensity in their eyes that made her think of her prodigal older brother.
She took
a deep breath to calm herself, and then sat with her fingers folded neatly on
her desk, looking straight ahead, and waiting for the teacher to arrive. No one sat next to her, so there was no hope
of making a friend in this class. Rachel
was quite certain that she didn’t want any friends in this class, anyway.
The door flew open and a tall man
dressed all in black with a black cape came rushing in. He had flaming red hair, electric blue eyes,
and a miserable white face. The man was
followed by the most horrible spirit beast Rachel had ever seen. Most of the angel beasts in her gated
community were beautiful creatures. A
few were imposing, but still looked awe-inspiring. This beast, however, only made her feel
fear. It was a biped, but the legs were
those of a bull or goat with hooves for feet.
The body was that of a muscular man, and it held a vicious looking
battle axe in each gnarled hand. The
head was that off a bull with long curled horns.
When the man stopped behind the
podium at the front of the class, the minotaur spirit beast buckled the twin
axes to its belt and stood with its massive arms folded behind the man in
black. The man in black briefly glanced
around the room, and then he picked up a paper from his desk and glared at it.
“Beruga Lemonsworth,” he bellowed.
A young man from the back of the
class answered, “present.”
The man looked up, “Carol and
Brian’s boy?” The young man nodded his
head. “I’m pleased to teaching such a
renowned Demon Clan family member. I expect much of you.” The boy beamed with pride as the teacher
continued to call roll.
“And Rachel Sie,” the teacher’s expression
turned bitter. “Sie, as in Saul and
Claudia Sai?”
Rachel swallowed hard, “Ye… yes,
sir.” She didn’t want to look him in the
eye, but she sat straight up just the same, with her neck straight and her eyes
locked on the chalkboard behind the teacher.
“Your parents have been no end of
trouble for my clan, young lady,” the teacher said with a sneer. “It will be interesting to see what I can
teach you this year.” He smiled to
himself and continued to call roll.
Rachel was glad that he didn’t say
more, but she was worried at what he planned to teach her. She felt a need to explain that she did have a
demon spirit beast brother. She didn’t
know why, but she felt the need to justify her heritage to this man. She wasn’t even sure her brother had a demon
spirit beast, but as she looked at the hoofed creature standing behind her
teacher all she could picture her brother with was a similar horrible
monster.
The man in black was writing his
name on the board: Mr. Sharp. Afterward,
he began lecturing about how they would learn more in his class than in any
other in the school, and how the ill-gotten reputation of the Demon Clan was
not accurate. The bell rang, but nobody
dared move until Mr. Sharp excused them.
Mr. Sharp finished his rant, and then excused the class. Rachel stuffed her book into her backpack and
bolted out the door before the teacher could catch her. Her little ball of fur frantically bounced
after her, tripping another student in the process. The student cried out, but Rachel didn’t even
turn around to apologize. Be curtious, she remembered, but she was
already halfway down the hall by then.
She just had to warn David about Mr. Sharp.
David
wasn’t in the classroom. In fact, it was
empty. Mr. Sharp had held them after
class longer than Rachel had thought. She slumped against the wall, wondering if she
would ever make it through the year alive. Chants of, “Fight, Fight, Fight,” brought her
out of her sulking thoughts. Though she
abhorred violence, Rachel picked herself up and rushed down the hall. She might be able to help. At least that was what she convinced herself
as she rushed towards the circle of students.
She found it difficult to politely
nudge her way through the crowd. One of
the students outright shoved her backward. This definitely was not like her elementary
school. Elle had given Robby Bridges a
black eye once, but that was an almost unheard of occurrence. The whole incident actually caused a month
long scandal in her little gated community.
And
Elle still managed to get a Pegasus spirit beast, Rachel thought to
herself.
These kids acted like this rude
behavior was common-place. Perhaps Rachel
didn’t need to worry so much about what her thoughts or her minor infractions
of the Angel Guild’s “Be Attributes” would do to her spirit beast’s
evolution.
She picked herself up and harshly
shoved her way through the crowd. At
last she reached the inner circle. She stood on tiptoe, behind some taller kids,
and gasped, horrified. A small boy was
fighting a second year student. Getting beaten
up would a better way of putting it. The
boy was on the floor, on his back. His
face dotted with big, lurid, red spots where he’d been punched. His nose was bleeding. A muscular boy was on top of him, punching him
wildly. The crowd was chanting their
approval, but Rachel’s heart sank watching the massacre. She was used the angelic nature of the Angel
Clan. This was so… horrible. She needed to stop this now, right now.
She
leapt to action, shoving through the front circle of students around the two
boys. Without even thinking, Rachel
shoved the older boy off the small boy.
The older boy was so caught off guard that he fell easily to the ground,
and slid across the slick school floor into the feet of the gathered crowd.
“What are you doing,” he
exclaimed. When he looked up to see a
girl standing over the smaller boy he smirked. “Pretty girl wants to join the fight,
eh?”
Rachel felt like she had suddenly
woke up to what was happening. She felt
sick. She wanted to run, but her feet
weren’t listening to her. All she could
do is stand there and glare at the older boy as he stood up and slowly strutted
over to her with a cocky smile on his face.
A whimper escaped Rachel’s throat, though she did her best to hold it
in. The boys around the inner circle had
heard and began to laugh and poke fun at her.
The older boy looked around at his buddies and smiled triumphantly at
their jeers. He was only two feet away
from her, and before he turned his head back to her, Rachel felt her hand
soaring through the air.
----------
On the
cold bench in front of the Principals office, Rachel gazed at her fists; tiny delicate
fists, like the rest of her. They looked
quite fragile, actually. They didn’t
look like they could break a nose. Even
so, that boy was still in the nurses’ office, blabbering away, and bleeding all
over the place. Payback, Rachel thought.
Then she quickly repented. Be forgiving, be kind, be loving, she
thought, over and over.
She gazed at the boy on her right. He had his hands folded, looking down. Longish bangs of brown hair covered his face. Why did she help him? Why was he in a fight with a second year
student to begin with? Was it possible
that he had started the fight? What was
she thinking, leaping to action when it was a horrible sin to hit someone out
of anger? She hopped she’d have the
answers before she had to talk to the principal… She really hopped she’d have
the answers before she had to explain herself to her parents.
Rachel sniffed up the blood running
from her nose. Occasionally, it would
bleed again. There was already a dry,
red line all the way to her lips, though, so why bother? She didn’t remember getting hit, but somehow
she had a bloody nose, too.
“Why did you do it,” the boy asked
suddenly.
“What,” She asked innocently.
“Protect me. Why?”
Rachel looked down. She really didn’t have an answer. It all happened so fast. It was like instinct took over. Why was he concerned, anyway? Rachel was the one who had sinned. Rachel was the one who had hurt the other
boy. Her spirit beast would be the one
who would be affected by her rash behavior.
The boy was just laying there getting hit when Rachel arrived. He didn’t
look to be fighting back. He was the one
who acted angelic.
“You didn’t need to jump in,” the
boy yelled. “Who said I needed any help
at all!”
“And who said I was helping you,” Rachel
retorted, before she could get a hold of her emotions.
The boy looked up, shocked. Rachel could finally see his dark brown eyes. Despite all the red marks which were quickly
turning into bruises, he was rather cute.
His face was red with embarrassment.
Suddenly, Rachel realized why he was so mad… she had made him look bad
in front of the other boys.
“I’m sorry,” she said weakly as she
looked down at her petite fingers again.
A tear scrolled down her face, just
before the door to the Principal’s office opened.
