April came around, eventually… The snow had melted, the weather got milder, Foxxy was pregnant. Jusuf had obviously knocked her up sometime in December. Mom found out that she was sterile some time in January, her ovaries were damaged, but she didn’t bother to get it fixed. It was most likely caused by some impalement I witnessed some time ago…
Kitty had obviously gotten some strange ideas from mom. She wanted me to go to school with her, and she had been nagging since February… I finally broke late in March, so Kitty arranged with the principal and her teachers to give me a trial week, just to see how bad I really was. Star, Jool and Careen backed her up on this, so did mom and dad…
I met Kitty outside of her house, early in the morning. Star didn’t come along because she had some trouble with her back. “Isn’t this going to be exciting?” Kitty obviously saw school from another perspective than I did. “Not really…” I took her hand, held it tight. Hoped that I wouldn’t have to see my life repeat itself… “A bit nervous, huh?” I just nodded. “There’s nothing to be worried about… You should hear what people are saying about you,” “I bet I should…”
Five minutes from Kitty’s, we met up with Jool and Careen. Jool had been strangely silent lately, didn’t even argue as much with Careen as she used to. The girls chit-chatted all the rest of the way. 30 minutes total walking-time and we were there. The huge building gazed down on us, but I braved on with Kitty by my side. Jool and Careen vanished their own ways in the crowded halls, but Kitty led me into a classroom. There were plenty of looks that came my direction when Kitty pulled me in. She seated herself at a desk that she had been drawing on with a permanent marker, it clearly stated “Kitty” in one corner and there were some hearts scattered about with my name in one of them… “Hey, lookit…” I noticed one of the guys say to another and pointed at me. They laughed soon after. Kitty took my hand. “Just ignore them, those guys are nothing but jerks…” She pointed to the desk next to her. “Just sit there… It’s Star’s desk,”
Everybody started taking their seats when a relatively short, elderly female entered the room. “Good morning, quiet down, we’ve got lots of things to do today…” She sounded a bit stressed. But who wouldn’t when approximately 20 youths are talking to one another. The teacher looked up and down from her desk. “Is Star absent…?” “She’s sick,” Kitty said aloud. Then she noticed me and looked down at her papers and back at me. “You must be Star’s brother… Come up and introduce yourself to the class,”
I did as told, nervous as hell… I took a brief look at the class, swallowed, and came up with a pathetic “Hi…” The teacher noticed I was nervous and out of words. “Hello, what’s your name?” “Joon Fredrik Storm,” I said into the classroom, though it didn’t seem like too many really cared… “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Storm. My name is Gaia Mour, and we’re thrilled to have a new classmate. Isn’t that right class?” Barely half of the sleepy-headed students opened their mouth, but Kitty had a broad smile on her face and nodded eagerly. “Good… Good… Take a seat Mr. Storm,”
I got back down; I hated being the centre of attention. The class was immediately interrogated. Only a few raised their hands and spilled their guts about literature history, they were also the type that even looked like they knew just about everything… Right after that, we were supposed to read some historical text. I moved my chair over to Kitty and read together with her. “The baker…” Kitty whispered the title.
I started reading. “The morning-sun rose upon the newly erected silo.” Kitty nudged me and pointed at my crotch and snickered. “The baker was already up, kneading his wife’s buns,” She nudged me again and fondled her breasts jokingly, I almost broke into laughter. “…getting them ready to be put up for sale before the customers come to satisfy their daily needs.” “She’s a prostitute!” Kitty whispered and started laughing out loud. So did I.
“Ms. Koru and Mr. Storm, would you mind telling us what you find so amusing with the text?” Mrs. Mour sounded a bit cross. “The baker’s wife’s a prostitute!” Kitty burst out and laughed harder, making me laugh harder and most of the class joining us. Mrs. Mour was furious… “How dare you say something like that?! Nobody has the right to make fun of Jonah D’Argyl’s literary works!” I managed to cap my laughter, and said something I obviously shouldn’t: “I know Jonah D’Argyl. Last time I saw him was in December,” Mrs. Mour’s face was boiling. “Are you mocking Jonah D’Argyl?! These texts are from the first century, young man, and nobody lives more than 200 years!” Some wiz-kid then said: “What about Rhahl?” Mrs. Mour just ignored him. “Then you wouldn’t mind telling me HOW he at all can live about 4 lifetimes,” She looked like she was about to snap… I braved an answer, anyway. “His nemesis, Arkady, placed a ring on his finger, then he got warped to Noo’Rahd and turned into this bird-guy, and he can’t die and…” “Just go to the principal’s office, NOW… You too, Ms. Koru,” Mrs. Mour said, in a calm way. She was definitely going to burst… Kitty took my hand and led me out into the empty halls. “Gee… I’ve never seen her get that pissed before! I’ve never EVER seen her pissed!” She giggled and led me down the halls. “Everybody loves a newcomer, huh?” I smiled back at her.
Kitty knocked on the door labeled “Principal Stone”. “Come on in,” The voice sounded familiar. Upon entering, I saw that it was Jool’s dad who sat behind the desk. He chuckled a bit. “I never thought of you two as troublemakers… But I gotta congratulate you in getting Gaia THAT mad. Please, take a seat,”
We sat down in some relatively comfy chairs. “Great to see that you’re trying to adapt, Joon… Sorry that you got such a cruddy first impression,” “So… How many demerits are we getting?” Kitty asked slightly nervous. Mr. Stone just laughed. “NONE! Hell, a joke is a joke… Now, I know you were expecting a reprimand, but in this case it’s just unnecessary,” Kitty seemed relieved. “But, just to draw out some time; how’re things going?” “Great,” Kitty answered. Mr. Stone nodded a bit. “You see, I’ve been a bit worried about Jool lately… She’s just so… Well, she’s not exactly herself,” Kitty nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed,” “And being a concerned parent, I just wonder if you kids know anything about it,”
Kitty shook her head. Mr. Stone sighed. “Oh well. Let’s just hope things take a turn for the better… But how about you, young Joon? How’s it feel to be at our school?” “Okay, I guess…” “I checked your records from your previous school, and you seem to be a kid above average… And taking in consideration why you got expelled, you sure as hell are everything BUT average,” He smiled cleverly and looked down into a folder. “I’ll do anything to keep things “survivable” for you kids, just be sure to keep a smile on my face and everything will go just fine… You’re free to go now, any last questions?” We stood up and walked towards the door. Kitty suddenly turned and asked: “What are going to do in gym today?” “I thought maybe something fun… But don’t tell Gaia that I let you off without consequences, just act sad in front of her…” Mr. Stone smiled and began flipping through some papers.
“Kinda cool that Jool’s dad’s the principal, huh?” Kitty seemed quite happy. I nodded and let her lead the way back. All the halls looked the same to me…
Kitty really enjoyed having me by her side. Most of the day was boring and seemed to never end, but we could at least seek comfort in each other’s eyes… I was of course afraid that something would happen, but more afraid of how I could react to it. Kitty was there, though… Put me on other, better thoughts.
Last class for the day was gym. Kitty forgot to mention that I was to bring some gym-clothes. She led me to an open field behind the school and went to change. Mr. Stone came around after a short while, with a clipboard and whistle and dressed in a less stiff suit of clothes. “Hey, Joon. Forget your stuff at home?” “Kitty forgot to tell me,” “Oh… Alright. Maybe you’d still like to participate. I was thinking of CTF today, so you should wear something tough, like jeans,” “CTF?” “Capture The Flag… A team-game. Two teams who…” “Yeah, I got the idea of how it works,”
I had played some CTF with the girls in VR. Though I doubted there would be guns involved in this case…
“Good… I could take your coat and your sweater, if you want to play that is,” “Maybe…” Some guys started to arrive at the scene, and girls took a bit longer time. Jool was the first to show up, though. Wearing a black outfit with skulls and flames, she stood out from the crowd. “Hey there, Joon,” She walked up to me and Mr. Stone. “So what’s up for today, dad?” “CTF,” Mr. Stone checked off some list while looking at the clustered students. “YES!” Jool burst out and had an almost scary grin on her face. “God, I’m gonna bust up Guppy something fierce…” She rubbed her hands eagerly, staring at one of the groups of people. Kitty came out together with a group of other girls. “Looks like everyone’s here… Except Star…” Mr. Stone put the whistle to his lips. “Star’s got some problems with her back,” Mr. Stone nodded and blew the whistle. “Alright, gather ‘round, people!”
The students started to gather around. “Three letters: CTF,” Most of the guys look thrilled, most of the girls just shook their heads. “Those who don’t want to play know what to do. Two volunteers,” Mr. Stone looked across the raised hands briefly, then reached into his pocket. “Red, Blue,” He threw two balls to some guys who started jogging off to the nearby forest. Almost everybody started walking after them, the rest went inside of the school. “What were those balls?” I asked Mr. Stone. “Game beacons… Some neat little gadgets I got from those humans. Come along,” I followed after him and Jool and Kitty sidled over to me and took my hand.
In a clearing in the forest, everybody waited. Something flare-like shot into the sky and looked like colored beams stretching towards the sky, red and blue. The volunteers came around. “Let’s get the teams sorted,” Mr. Stone said and put on a strange glove. He laid a hand on the students and said “Red” or “Blue” and the fur changed accordingly. Kitty was blue, Jool was red. Mr. Stone looked at me, I was still undecided. “Are you game?” Kitty nodded and smiled at me. “Sure…” I answered him. “Blue” He said and touched me. “Just let me watch your coat and sweater, they look a bit fragile,” I peeled off my outer clothes and gave them to him. “Just ask Kitty if you need to know something,” He patted my back and shoved me on my way. “Spread out!”
“What now?” I asked Kitty and followed the other blues. “We go to our bases and wait for the signal to start,” We headed towards the blue beam.
At the base, there was a little holder holding a glowing, blue rod. “See that, blue thing?” Kitty pointed. “That’s the flag we’re supposed to guard. Reds are going to steal it, and opposite for the red flag. Almost like in VR, minus the guns…” She smiled and looked at the blue rod. It started flashing a bit, then it buzzed loudly. “Okay, that was the signal,” Everybody scattered about. One of the guys tapped my shoulder. “Wanna join me in an offense?” “Sure…” “New player?” I nodded. “Just run towards the red and tackle everyone, and try to make a grab at the flag as well,” He smiled and started jogging towards the red. I followed by his side. After running a bit, he stopped me. There were many reds straight ahead. “Flank it,” He started running to the right of them, I went left. I got past the many reds, and there were nobody in sight. All was quiet. Then suddenly Jool comes on top of me, from out of a bush, I think… She had a grin, but it faded. She held me pinned to the ground, started to lean down to my muzzle. Her eyes looked so innocent, and then she kissed me… She quickly let go off me and helped me up, and looked quite remorseful. “Just go…” I could hear in her voice that she was about to cry. “Jool…?” “GO GET THE FLAG!” She snapped at me and hid behind some trees.
The game went on for about half an hour, I even scored once… But I didn’t see Jool before after Mr. Stone started announcing the scores. The colors faded, and Kitty went to change. I waited in front of the building for her. She met me there, along with Jool. Kitty told me about how good I was, and stuff like that. But I couldn’t help but think of Jool. She didn’t look sad on the way home, but I knew well it was nothing but a mask. I had worn masks like that myself…
My pants were messed up from sliding about in the dirt and grass. I locked myself in, and found that mom had left a note on the fridge. “At Doc with Star. Mom” Star had been whining about her back this morning, I just hoped it was nothing serious.
I slipped out of my pants and into a clean pair, the dirty one ended in the laundry hamper. I had a strange feeling about Star. And Jool for that matter… It wasn’t exactly hard to imagine that Jool had the hots for me, not after “tackling” me like she did.
I let time fly in my room, in front of the TV. Some time in the evening I heard someone came home. Mom met me in the hall, told me that Star was drugged down so that she at least could get some sleep. I felt compelled to have a look at her and made my way up to her room. Dad was there, Star was lying with her back up. There were two relatively large bumps below her shoulders. “I think she’s getting her wings, Fredrik,” I thought I had moved silently, but dad suddenly turns around. Star breathes through her mouth and looks relatively lifeless. “So how was it when you started getting them?” “It was hell…” Old memories started ripping a way out of hiding. “You got them almost instantly. I guess your surroundings gave you no other choice than to grow stronger and faster than your enemies,” Dad walked over to me and hugged me tight. “I’m so fucking sorry that I wasn’t there for you…” His voice was sad and furious; it kind of rubbed off on me and made me feel a bit sad as well. I knew well why we were kept apart, so did he, but I guess we both regret that we never got to know each other as well as we should have. Star started snoring… Dad let go of me and quickly wiped his eyes. “It hurt, didn’t it?” He looked over at Star. “Yeah,” I thought back to the day when I killed the 5 SGs, tried to imagine how it must have felt to be stripped clean to the bone. I wanted to get away…
I didn’t go to school the next day. Partially because I had to look after Star and help her take some drugs if things got too bad. But mostly, I just didn’t feel safe in that environment; the crowded rooms and the potential of being pointed out as a sort of freak… And Jool would probably be there.
Star threw up a few times, the poor girl. It was a side-effect of the drugs from last night. I stayed with her in her room, talked to her about stuff we had missed out on in our separate worlds.
The phone rang some time before
What was I going to say? What if Jool would try something funny? What if I ended up hurting her? Sadly, there was only one way to find that out…
I made sure that Star had what she needed for a little while, and told her I was just going over to Jool’s. She wondered why, but I gave her no real answer…
I zoomed off on my bike. The engine vibrated quite heavily at times. In no time at all I was outside her house. It took a little while after I rang the doorbell before she opened. She was wearing her black sweatpants and ripped top, and her mood wasn’t good. “What the fuck do you want?” I quickly thought up a brilliant lie. “Just heard from Kitty and Careen that you weren’t in school… and I didn’t have anything better to do… so…” She frowned a bit but let me in. “Let me guess; Bubblebrain and Sissy sent you to do their dirty work, because they’re too afraid to confront me,” “No… I just came by to see if we could do something together. Things got a bit boring,” I was pretty sure she could smell the lie. “Heh… Alright then. What did you have in mind?” Jool stood facing the other direction, but her tail was slowly wagging. “I dunno. I just got tired of doing stuff alone,”
Jool’s head drops a bit. “You wanna know why I kissed you yesterday, huh?” She turns around and looks quite bummed out, looking down at the floor with her arms crossed on top of her breasts. I didn’t find any words to squeeze in. “I’m so fucking jealous of you and Sissy! That’s why!”
It felt a bit like a punch in the face, but I was still standing. Jool started pacing about and gesticulating furiously. “I just don’t understand what you see in her! Something so frail and weak,” “Jool…” I tried interrupting her, as I felt a hatred building up in her. She suddenly turns to me and looks me straight in the eyes. “Why her?! Why not ME?” She was on the brink of tears, I started to understand she didn’t go to school for the same reason I didn’t. “Jool…” I tried approaching her, but it seemingly was a step in the wrong direction. Everything went black all of a sudden and felt very distant.
My left cheek was all puffed up and aching like hell when I came to my senses. Jool must have heard my moans and suddenly hung over me, teary eyed. “A-a-are you okay?” She quickly wiped her eyes and sat down next to me on the couch I was lying on. The sunlight from the windows stung, and any movement of my head hurt, but I nodded. She was so full of remorse that she barely knew what to do… “I’m so damn sorry, Joon… I-I-I didn’t mean to hit you that hard… I didn’t even think of punching you…”
This was the first time I saw Jool act like this. She would have defined herself as weak and open for attacks. But I kind of liked the softer side of her… “Try to imagine what I keep telling myself every day…” I felt like sharing some pain. “Do you think that I really wanted to take those 6 lives?” Jool was mute as a rock, just stared at me with her moist eyes. It was almost scary to see her in such a state.
Her silence lasted for about 2 minutes, and then she started fumbling about for words. My cheek was a whole lot better, and was only a bit numb.
“I love you…” She stuttered the three words… The world had stopped moving so much that I could manage to sit up and think up something clever to say. I settled with: “Oh fuck…” and buried my face in my hands.
I was caught now… I knew very well that my next words could have great consequences for both our lives, and I had no idea what I was supposed to say… Her brown eyes looked innocent for once. The raging flames that drove her were gone. All she had left were her gorgeous, physical attributes and the piercing eyes seeking an answer in me… I had none…
I wanted to run away, but I didn’t want to leave someone hurt behind. I leant forward and hugged her. Whispered to her“I don’t know if there’s anything in us… I already see my future with Kitty,”
Jool started to sob and put her arms around me. She understood well that I had Kitty. She was so vulnerable at this point that I dared not leave her alone. I did everything to at least try to comfort her, but it had little effect.
After about an hour, Star sent me a message; “Ouch, help,”
“Star needs me…” I told Jool and let go of her hand. “Do you wanna come over to our house?” Jool stared at me with her teary eyes and eventually shook her head. My departure was a bit reluctant, as I knew that Jool could need a friend in such times…
Star was wracked in pain. The bandages wrapped around her were soaked, and the bulges on her back were warm and throbbing. It felt as if she was burning up, literally… While administering a shot of sedatives I made a quick call to Uncle Zaz and asked him to send over Aunt Eve. I had a feeling that extra care would be a must. Eve arrived soon after I was done changing the bandages. The first thing she told me was to go to Jool, immediately. This came after she had had one quick look into my eyes… She could be eerie at times, I admit to that.
I raced over to Jool’s, the engine of my
bike vibrated very heavily. I rang the doorbell several times, without any
answer. The time was around
Time suddenly stood still when I stood in the doorway. Jool was sitting by the table, with her head resting on it. Underneath her was a puddle of blood, with a trail from the counter where a knife lay in plain sight.
Before I knew it, I was over her. “Jool!” She didn’t respond, but I could almost hear her breathing. She had cut her wrist, but was still alive. I took a quick look around for something I could use. There was a box of plastic wrapper on the counter. Just what I needed to stop the bleeding…
I wrapped her wrist tightly with the plastic, and pressed with my hand. The bleeding was minimal; only a few drops came out from her fur. I raised her arm and tried to communicate with her, without luck.
How I knew what to do was beyond me, but I’m glad I did what I did… Things were still looking bad, and I called the hospital. The woman on the other end said an ambulance was on its way, and asked me if I’d compressed the wound and such, which I had. There was no more help from her and I hung up. Then it suddenly hit me… Something I had done once before… Still holding Jool’s arm, I managed to stretch over to the knife. I grabbed it by the blade, cut my hand and let go of it again. It felt like a gamble, but I took a deep breath and unwrapped the plastic and put my bleeding hand in its place. By this time; fear had finally had time to reach my mind.
My hand felt dry, no blood dripped, but I didn’t dare to release my grip.
Time stood still. Everything was fear. Nothing seemed real…
A paramedic came, eventually. “She’s in here!” I yelled as I heard him set foot inside. He came quickly, already holding a special compression-unit. “Remove your hand,” He ordered me, catching his breath from sprinting. As I removed my hand, he just stared at her wrist. “What the fuck?”
As I took a look at where the cut should have been, I found that it was gone. “You better not tell me this is a joke, boy…” He looked confused at me. I shook my head. “No, I just… My blood sealed the cut…” “Who the hell do you think you are?” The paramedic seemed a bit cross as he checked Jool’s pulse. “Joon Fredrik Storm, sir…” He stopped up for a brief moment, as if he had realized something. “Nuff said, kid… She looks a bit weak, so we’d better get her to a doc,”
I helped her into the ambulance. The ambulance was just another salvaged APC from Sky-Tech, but it was fast enough. I followed on my bike; found that my 20-13 had been doing something with the engine, as it crawled out of the turbine when I got on. It ran smoother at least…
Nick met us at the emergency-entrance, and didn’t waste time on anything. He wore a white pair of gloves with some metallic studs on the fingertips, which he used to touch certain vital organs. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but the cute nurse jotted it down. I stopped as they entered a surgery-room, but Nick just turned around and told me to come with them.
All the instruments and panels lining the walls, the man and woman in white, Jool lifeless in the middle; it was creepy. “Good job on stabilizing her, young man… All she needs now is a small amount of blood, and a good deal of rest. And…” He looked up from Jool and straight into my eyes. “I assume that you are willing to give a pint…? Seeing as Storm-blood is 100% compatible, and increases rate of recovery. And that this is your friend we’re talking about…” The nurse had already begun preparing some apparatus and stood ready to insert it into my arm. “Yeah, of course…” I told him, and the nurse was quick to roll up my sleeve and stick the needle-point of a tube into my right arm.
The tube went red and leads into a small box. The nurse stuck a similar tube into Jool’s left arm and connected it to the box. My arm went a bit numb after a bit. Jool looked so frail, lying on the stretcher with her mouth open. “You watch these kids, Lee. I’ve got some more patients to check up on…” Nick headed out the door, and was outside before the nurse could respond. “Yes, Dr. Nick…” She just sighed and checked that the transfusion went well. “How are you feeling?” She asked me. “Fine,” “That’s good… Because we’ve soon pumped all we need outta you,” She was silent for a bit, looked over at Jool who still was quite calm. “So you’re Beta Storm’s son, huh?” I nodded, looked down at the tube sucking life out of my veins and followed it to the rather lifeless Jool. The nurse giggled. “You know. I expected you to be totally different… If you ask me; you don’t even look like you would hurt a fly,” I couldn’t help but smile. Understandable that my reputation would make me look like a huge bruiser (even though I actually am one at times), but it just seemed funny to hear it.
Jool moaned grumpily, and tried sitting up. The nurse went over to her and told her to stay still. A green light blinked on the box and the nurse flipped a switch. “All done,” She gently pulled the needle out of my arm, and did the same with Jool. “Nothing more for you to do here, so… Do you perhaps need a little rest?” “No, I’m fine…” “Heh… You Storm’s sure can take it, huh?” She smiled and checked out Jool. I stepped closer so I could get a better view of Jool. Her eyes squinted up against the light. “What the fuck…?” She cursed lazily. “You’re in the hospital, miss. Your friend brought you in,” Jool just closed her eyes and tipped her head backwards while giving off a disappointed sigh. “Oh fuck…” “You feel okay?” “Yeah…” Jool sort of sighed and slowly sat up. “You’re lucky you’ve got this guy as your friend,” The nurse patted my shoulder and directed Jool’s attention towards me. She put her knees up and hid her muzzle between them. Her tail curled up. “Oh god… What am I gonna tell dad?” She sounded slightly scared. “Your parents doesn’t have to know, if you so wish,” “Really?” Jool looked up from her knees with a slight twinkle in her eyes. The nurse nodded. “Phew… Now that’s a relief…” Jool started to get down on the floor. She was a bit shaky and grabbed onto me.
The nurse said a few words before leading us to the exit, but she stopped us for a second at the front desk. She popped a lollipop in our mouths and giggled. “Have a nice day, and try not to come back too often, okay?”
Cute nurse, indeed… Outside; the sun shone and the weather was warm. I parked Jool on a bench to go get my bike, which was around the corner. Again; the 20-13 crawled out of the turbine. When I fired it up; there was almost no sound at all, but it went smoothly. Jool looked up at the sky, looking a bit pale somehow, when I came around. I helped her onto the bike and waited to make sure she was ready. “You’re not gonna tell dad, are you?” She asked me right in the ear. I twisted around and looked her. Her eyes looked very different, more innocent than what I was used to. I smiled at her, shook my head. “Nah… I’ll leave that to you,” She took the lollipop out of her mouth and pecked me on the cheek. “You’re an angel…” She put her arms around me and held on tight as I drove her home.
Jool was lucky that her father hadn’t come home yet, so she had time to get the bloodstains off the floor. She told me at some later time that she had to use a chisel to get some strange crystals off the floor, and that the smell was almost impossible to get rid of. But anyway, when I got home from having dropped her off, Eve sat downstairs watching TV. “You are such a good boy. You saved one of many lives today,” She turned and looked at me, knew what I was going to ask her and pointed at the TV and turned up the volume a bit.
“… high levels of toxic substances. Dr. Nick, what are the odds for these youths?” Dr. Nick was suddenly in the frame. “Well… to tell you the truth; slim to none. We’ve already lost 5 of them, and those who actually recover will have some permanent scars that can’t be bettered by any biological means,” “So, what are you saying? That those who survive will be able to lead normal lives by other means?” “Yes, with some minor mechanical implants I’m pretty sure that…” That cute nurse from earlier on whispered something in his ear, she looked terribly worried. Dr. Nick used some bad language and dashed through some doors, nurse followed close behind.
Eve sighed and shook her head. “Such a shame that lives go lost in the search for pleasure,” “How’s Star?” “Not too bad. She is just a bit unbalanced and not used to having so much energy inside of her,” “So… She’s kinda going through the same thing I went through?” Eve nodded. “Don’t think too much of Jool. She will be alright from now on. She will look at you with different eyes tomorrow,”
I retired to my cool, subterranean pit, where the sun didn’t shine. I took myself the time to reflect over what kinds of signals Jool had given me before she said she loved me… And I had thought she was only toying about. Just as I started to think whether I should tell anyone at all about what Jool had done, someone was at the door. Although not too surprising, it was Kitty. Her warming smile radiated from the door. “Hi,” I just sat up in my bed and smiled back at her. “Sitting here all alone, huh?” Her tail swayed gently from side to side as she approached me. I nodded. She stopped a few steps away from my bed and looked at me for a bit. “What?” I asked. She just broadened her smile and dropped down next to me on the bed. “Nothing… You just look so… thoughtful…” I slid closer to the wall so she wouldn’t fall on the floor too easily. “I guess that’s why I like you…” She moved closer. “Oh?” I asked wondrously. “It’s almost like there’s so much more to you than what any of us can see… You know… As if you’ve got a completely hidden world of secrets somewhere beyond your eyes,”
I didn’t want to comment that, mostly because it was true… A kiss put us both on different thoughts.
The next day, I didn’t go to school. Star was back on her feet, though a bit shaky. Her bed was a bloody mess, as it seemed that she had finally sprouted wings. Mom and dad were still not home… Obviously they were at some important seminary or something, but we had Eve to look after us. Even though we were over half a year away from adulthood, it was comforting to know that somebody was there to care for you.
The morning went by while eating, watching the news and cartoons from the human’s world. Strangely many resemblances to Noo’Rahdians in the characters… Star watched too, if she didn’t doze off. She looked pretty much like an angel where she sat. Wearing only some simple, blue clothes, wings spread out on the couch, and mouth wide open… If it hadn’t been for her snoring, the picture would have been perfect. Eve sat outside, soaking up the sun and looking a bit miserable as usual. She must have told Jool to go right on in, because she suddenly stood in the doorway to the living room. Her smile was shameful. “Hi…” She approached me, without noticing Star on the couch. Her snoring had doused down to annoyingly long breaths. Jool was almost teary-eyed, looking at me as if she wanted forgiveness, dressed in some tight, black clothes. She took my hand and asked me; “Can we go to your room?” “Sure…” I answered her and got out of the armchair. Either she still hadn’t seen Star or she just didn’t care, but we went past Star on the way down to my room without any reactions to her new look.
She rubbed my hand nervously and looked at me a little before finally starting to talk. “I’ve been such a jerk… Ever since you got here, you just kept…” She stopped and looked away, started chewing on her blunt claws. “Hey… What did I do?” I wanted to understand what she meant, and most of all help her. “You remind me so much of Chass…” She sniffed a little and continued chewing. We were both quite silent for a minute or so, until Jool finally turns around and faces me again. “I’m just so grateful to you…” She pressed her feminine curves up against me and put her arms around me. Her hair smelled sweet and clean. “Please don’t tell anyone about it…” In the corner of my eye I could see a tear building in the corner of her eye. I pulled an arm free and rubbed her back gently. “I promise… This’ll be between you and me,” I had a certain feeling of déj\xE0 vu right then and there. Something told me that her secret would one day see the light.
I only prayed that I would be able to hold my promise to her…