Sunday, May 6, 2007

Tabula Rasa

Chapter 7

“We do this so long that you understand why you’re here.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damn Malice.

Well the red ocean didn’t do me any harm but the landing on a cold white marble floor certainly did.

I slowly get up and am immediately blinded by a bright white light.

“So you’re Malice’s rookie?”

“Yeah, one I have a name and two turn down the light a little I can’t see!”

The light turns down. Now I can see that front of me is a white cat.

A talking white cat.

“Sorry, that happens a lot.”

“Blinding people?”

“Yeah.”

I rub my eyes a little.

“So my name is” she says a long and complicated word “and I’m here to guide you through your test.”

“How about I just call you Po?”

“Okay. But remember, I’m here to GUIDE you, NOT to fight for you.”

“I HAVE TO FIGHT?!” Panic time.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

That doesn’t comfort me at all.

“Well we should get going now. Get up and through that door over there.”

I get up and notice the door Po was talking about.

A big white door with a lot of detail carved on it.

I open the door and go in with Po right behind me.

~*~*~*~*~

“-and so we come to the conclusion that a²+b²=c².”

Oh my-

“Yes, that’s your old class right there.”

“Po. I’m not a complete idiot, I can see that.”

I let my eyes swipe over the classroom.

Oh yes. There she-or should I say I am.

The girl in the back.

Whispering with another girl next to her.

What was her name again...oh yes. Jenna.

The bell rings.

“And for your homework exercises 478-490.” Desperate moaning from the class. “Now hurry along before I have to start giving you even more homework!”

Oh yes, our math teacher was a strict case.

I follow myself and Jenna down the hallway.

“So how was your weekend?”

“Had a hole-party on Saturday so just working.”

“Hole-party?”

“Funeral, Anya.”

“Oh. Right.”

“You?”

Anya shrugs. “Nothing special really.”

It’s really weird to see yourself doing the things you always used to do.

I don’t even remember how long it’s been since I had that conversation…

“So have you heard the news?”

“What is it?”

“We’ll be having a new student in our class.”

“Is it good or bad?”

Jenna shrugs. “I dunno, never seen the girl before.”

As I and Jenna walk along I can’t keep walking. My legs just stop. And everything goes black for a second.

“Any idea what we’ll be doing here?” I almost forgot about Po.

“Don’t tell me-”

“-that we’re going to dig through your past? Bingo.”

The world goes back to normal. We’re in a classroom.

Next to our homeroom teacher is a girl. She has brown curly hair and big dark eyes. She’s pale which makes her look a bit scary. She’s also thin and looks a bit fragile.

“Class, I’d like to introduce your new classmate Dinah Willows. Dinah, you can go sit there next to Anya.” The teacher points at the seat next to me.

She doesn’t say anything, just gos to the back and sits next to me.

Jenna tries to start a conversation.

“Mm, hi.”

No response.

“I’m Jenna.”

No response.

“So did your family move here recently or something?”

Finally she raises her head.

“What family?”

“Surely you have a family.”

“No, we don’t.”

“We? You have siblings?”

“No. We don’t have siblings.”

“Why do you say we?”

She looks straight at Jenna.

“We are we. That’s all.”

Jenna gives up.

~*~*~*~*~

“What’s her problem?”

Jenna, Anya, me and Po are on the yard. It’s lunch hour.

“She’s not we.”

As if that was some sort of call we see Dinah walking towards us.

“What now? Can’t she play all by themselves?” Jenna says sarcastically.

Dinah arrives. She just stands next to Jenna and Anya. Her eyes look weird.

“What’s your name?”

“I already told you-”

“Not you.” She looks at me. “You.”

“Anya Wales.”

“You were sitting next to us in the classroom.”

“Yeah, what’s it to you?”

Dinah turns to look at Jenna and starts speaking in the most malicious voice I’ve ever heard:

“We’re still not talking to you. If you don’t have anything intelligent to say, we suggest you leave. We have no business with the likes of you.”

Jenna gasps. Then she picks up her bag.

“Fine you freak, I’ll go. Anya, you coming?”

Before she can answer Dinah is talking again.

“No, she’s not coming with you. We have something to talk about.”

Jenna glares at Dinah and walks off. Dinah sits right where Jenna was just a while ago.

“So what do you want to talk about?”

“I think you’re cute.”

“What?”

Dinah just stares at her.

“Are you lesbian?”

“No.”

“Bi?”

“No. I’m straight.”

“If you’re straight you-”

“I’m a guy.”

“No Dinah you’re a girl.”

“Oh. I’m not Dinah. I’m Jonathan.”

Jonathan?

Dinah is still staring at her.

“But I still think you’re cute.”

“Erm, listen...Jonathan, I-”

“Yes?”

She’s still staring at Anya.

“I gotta go now.”

“No you don’t.” She grabs Anya’s hand when she tries to stand up.

“The lunch hour isn’t over yet.”

“I have to catch Jenna-”

“Oh that girl?” She lets out a laugh. “You don’t need her.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We’re enough.”

“We?”

“Me, Dinah and Kate.”

“Who’s Kate?”

“You’ll meet her too.”

“Dinah, this isn’t funny, let me go!”

“I told you, I’m not Dinah.”

Anya pulls her hand away.

“See you in class Dinah.”

She walks away. Dinah just sits and stares after her.

~*~*~*~*~

“Class. I have something I have to tell you all. It’s about Dinah.”

The whole class is sitting quietly. Dinah left school during the last lesson.

“Some of you might have noticed her rather...strange behaviour.” The whole class starts nodding and whispering.

“Well the reason for that is that Dinah has a multiple personality disorder.” The whole class stirs.

“What!”

“Why’s someone like her in our class?”

“In a normal class in general. She should be in some institute or something!”

“Now students, calm down. The staff has been informed about this, and her...illness doesn’t affect her studies or other abilities. If something notable does happen, you have to inform the closest staff member. This also is not a reason to start closing her out or anything and as you all know I won’t tolerate bullying. Is this all clear?” The class mumbles something close to a yes.

“Fine. Now take out your math books and turn page 159...”

Jenna leans closer to Anya.

“I knew there was something weird about her. What did she want to talk to you about anyway?”

“School stuff. The usual.”

“You suck at lying, Anya.”

“Stop asking, okay? I don’t wan to talk about it.”

Jenna goes back to her math book and so does Anya. The world goes black again.

~*~*~*~*~

“Okay, Po, what does that have to do with anything?”

Po walks around my feet.

“PO!”

Po stops.

“Oh sorry. I can’t tell you that.”

“What’s the point in all this?”

“You’ll see.”

I can’t ask anymore questions because the world goes back to normal again.

~*~*~*~*~

We’re in someone’s house.

“Sara, this was not one of your best ideas…”

Sound of someone throwing up.

“That’s it, just get it all out.”

More throwing up.

“Anya...”

“I think that’s it.”

“Anya, I’m sorry...”

“It’s okay. Just try to get to the couch.”

Someone flushes the toilet and a pale girl comes to the living room. She falls on the couch.

Anya walks in a bit after her.

“Sara, we’ve been over this haven’t we?”

“Yeah...” Sara sounds weak.

“When you feel like "that", you...?”

“Call you.”

“Right.”

“I couldn’t find my cell...”

Anya sighs.

“Sara-”

“I tried Anya, I really did! But I can’t keep going anymore!”

“Sara calm down.”

“No I’m not calming down! Tomorrow that bastard comes back and-and-”

“Taking an overdose of depression medication is not a solution to your problems-”

“THE FUCK YOU KNOW ABOUT MY PROBLEMS!”

Silence.

“You should go.”

“Sara-”

“Just go. And don’t tell anybody, okay? We had a deal.”

“I know. But this is getting out of hand and-”

“Go Anya. Just go.”

Anya gives up and gets up from the couch. Then she goes to the door.

The world goes black again.

~*~*~*~*~

“Remember what happened afterwards?”

Yes. I remember.

“I can’t read minds Anya. What happened to Sara after you left?”

“...she cut her wrists open.”

“Right.”

“Why are we doing this?!”

I’m almost crying. Sara wasn’t even the worst that happened to me.

“So that you understand why you didn’t go to Heaven nor Hell.”

“What-”

“Your life is the answer. It always is.”

“...how many memories do we have to go through?”

“We do this so long that you understand why you’re here.”

“That didn’t tell me anything.”

“Not my problem.”

~*~*~*~*~

“-and now let’s have a quiet moment to respect Sara Andresson, our dear classmate and-”

We’re in the class. The whole class is quiet for a minute. Then everybody goes back to gossiping and all the normal things.

“Who was she?” Dinah is looking at Anya with her big eyes.

“Your friend?”

“...yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You didn’t know her.”

Dinah is quiet for a while.

“Would you like to come to my house today?”

“Huh?”

Dinah nods.

“To my house after school. Would you like to?”

Anya nods. She doesn’t have anything to do at home anyway.

Dinah smiles.

“Great.”

~*~*~*~*~

Dinah’s house is big. We enter her room which is white and has nothing on the walls.

“So what do you think?”

“It’s nice.” Anya looks at the bed. There are tens of stuffed toys on it.

“Oh those are Kate’s. She likes to play with them.”

“How old is she?”

“Six.”

“And how old is Jonathan?”

Dinah shrugs and looks out the window.

“A year or two older than we are.”

Then she looks at Anya again.

“He really likes you. He thinks you’re nice.”

“Oh really.”

“Really. Would you like to have some tea?”

“Sure.”

“Anything particular you’d like?”

“Darjeeling. It’s my favorite.”

“Coming right up.”

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A/N: Oooh evil cliffhanger! I'm sooo evil. lol
No it'll be continued in the next chapter.

It might seem weird to read, but I wasn't sure if I should talk about the past Anya as I or her since the present Anya was there too. And this is from Anya's POV. Complicated. @.@

And the word monttubileet (hole-party) is a word my friend uses.

Until the next chapter!


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