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My name is Luna. I used to think it was Luna Draconis. Now I know better. I'm a fourteen-year-old dragon. A lot of people call me a scaredy cat. I guess that's sort of true. I'm afraid of a lot of things, even though I'm fourteen. Boogeymen, the dark, spiders. I don't have a lot of survival skills, and I'm not that strong. But my family, or what I used to think was my family, makes up one of the greatest super-hero organizations of all time.
Everyone has heard of my cousin Krepta. My Uncle Draco is famous too. So are my Uncles Sol and Viro. My Aunts April and Cori are less famous, and barely anyone has heard of my Aunt Avanthea, but they help out in their own little ways.
There was a time when I dreamt of growing up and fighting crime with my brother Vidar and my sister Axelle. Even after they told me I was kind of sort of adopted, I still thought of them as my brother and sister. I still wanted to fight crime, like the rest of my family. That was before I knew who I was…. And everything changed.
~~~~~
"Vidar! Wait up!" Luna cried, running along after her brother. The gangily teen wasn't in the mood to wait for her though. Their first day of public high school, and they had missed the bus. Axelle dropped back and waited for Luna with a kind smile. Luna grinned at her in thanks.
"Isn't this exciting?" Luna grinned breathlessly, trotting along. Vidar snorted, his long legs carrying him at a faster pace then Luna could have hoped to match.
"Yeah. Fun. Sure." He replied sarcastically. Luna sighed. Vidar was cranky…that bode ill for his future classmates. She just hoped that none of the bullies were stupid enough to try and mess with him. Having some kids in the hospital on the first day would be a bad start to the school year indeed.
The school loomed up in front of them, ominous and foreboding, or so Luna felt. Axelle and Vidar didn't seem to mind it though, so she kept her observation to herself. Vidar already thought she was a scaredy cat anyway. She swallowed surreptitiously, licking her lips nervously. The great glass eyes of the school glowered down at her as the doors of it's maw opened wide to great her.
"Luna? What's wrong? You stopped…" Axelle paused to look back at Luna, frozen in front of the doors. Luna shook it off, smiling at her concerned sister.
"It's nothing. Just thinking. Sorry!" She exclaimed, running in after them. Her imagination playing tricks on her, of course! Still, as she stepped into the main hall she turned her gray eyes to the ground.
"I've got classroom 23" Axelle's voice interceded upon Luna's thoughts. Luna looked up in dismay. They didn't have the same starting class? She looked across to Vidar, who checked out his own class schedule.
"102" He said with a shrug and a wave over his shoulder. Axelle smiled at Luna, who was staring at her own little slip of paper. 1300. All the way across the school from her siblings.
"Don't worry. You'll be fine. The students wont eat you alive or anything." Axelle smiled. Luna nodded, putting a brave smile on for her sister, though she felt like sitting down in the middle of the hallway and crying.
"Yeah. See you at lunch." She nodded, smiling. Axelle gave her a last warm smile before starting off for her own classroom. Luna was alone. She took a deep breath and started down the school. The numbers increased farther down the hallway. She followed the main one to the stairs and climbed them to the second floor, looking around at the numbered hallways. 1300 hallway. Her class should be the first one in the hall, then. She hurried in and located the first door, stepping in and scurrying over to the first unoccupied seat she saw. Not too far in the back, not too far in the front.
Class started a few moments later. The teacher started calling roll. The long, monotonous list of names rolled by slowly.
"Zimmer. Is there anyone who's name I did not call?" the teacher looked up from his sheet and asked. Luna tremulously raised her hand.
"Bring me your schedule." He said. He wore a bored look on his face. Luna wondered how many times he had done this before. She got up shyly, walking carefully through the isle of seats. Someone stuck their foot out and tripped her. She stumbled, but caught herself, blushing brightly as titters scattered through the class.
"Hmm." The teacher mumbled, taking her schedule as she held it out to him. He read it slowly, leaving her to stand there nervously at the front of the class, before his great, ancient looking desk. Luna thought idly it looked like it had been constructed out of plywood three centuries ago, and picked apart slowly by kindergarteners for two of those centuries. K + E forever someone had carved in it. She wondered who K and E where.
The laughter was what caught her attention. She looked up swiftly at the teacher, who was gazing at her over his iron-framed glasses. He looked like he was expecting an answer.
"I'm sorry?" She asked in a soft whisper, cringing.
"I said, you have the wrong class. 1300 is across the hall." He repeated. Luna bit her lip in further dismay. The wrong class? How had she managed that?! He handed her her schedule back and she hurried out of the classroom, the laughter of the students aiding speed to her retreat.
The door slid shut behind her with a final click. Luna was blushing furiously. Tears of embarrassment pricked at the back of her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked at the numbers in the hall. 1300 was two doors up, on the other side of the hall. She gulped, hurrying over to the door. On her way over, a stern looking man with a receding hair line stopped her.
"Do you have a hall pass?" He asked in the same bored tone her teacher had used. She shook her head mutely, not sure what else to say. He scribbled something on a piece of paper.
"Name?" He asked.
"L-luna Draconis…" she whispered. He wrote that down too, but not after giving her an incredulous look over his glasses…like he couldn't believe someone had named her that.
"Well Luna . This is your first warning. Two more warnings and you have detention." He said, handing her a piece of paper and striding off. Luna whimpered in her throat and opened the door. Silence greeted her. She bit her lower lip anxiously, keeping her eyes on the floor.
"You must be Miss Draconis. We've been waiting for you." The teacher said in a cool voice. Luna tried not to cry.
"You're late. Please take a seat." The teacher said, pointing at the only open seat at the very front of this rough looking gang of students. Luna hurried over and sat down quietly, wincing with every creak and groan of the desk. It wobbled too. She bit her lip harder. By now the poor girl was blushing furiously. The teacher stared hard at her before turning to begin writing on the board.
"Look at her hair!" The girl beside and behind her whispers to her friend, looking at Luna out of the corner of her eye. Luna tried not to look back.
"I know! Do you think she dyes it that color?" The other girl laughed. Luna felt the tears p***k harder.
"Nah. It must be natural, no one in their right mind would dye their hair such an ugly shade of silver. She must be a mutant." The first girl pronounced. Luna caught the sneer in that last word.
Class ticked by slowly as Luna sat in exile, listening to the other students pass judgment on her hair color, style, and form. Everything about her, from her skin tone to choice of socks was ridiculed. She found no quarter. When the bell at last rang it was a blessed relief. She sprang to her feet and began to hurry out amid the crowd of other students, jabbed and shoved occasionally in the press.
"Miss Draconis?" The teacher asked. Luna stopped, looking over at the teacher with her eyes wide like a deer in the headlights.
"Y-yes ma'am?" Luna asked. The teacher handed her her second warning of the day. Luna took it and fled to the girl's bathroom.
She hurried into an occupied stall and sat down heavily upon the down turned seat, burying her face in her hands to stifle the rush of tears. She hated this already, and she hadn't even had two classes yet! Maybe the others would be better she dared to hope, drying her face with a bit of the cheap tissue paper.
The warning bell rang. Luna hurried out to find her next class, slipping into her seat just before the bell rang. This time she had checked and double-checked the number. She slumped in her desk, willing no one to notice her.
She got through roll just fine, raising her hand when her name was called. Thankfully no one made comment on her name. Five minutes into class the teacher spoke the words Luna had been dreading.
"Okay class, pair up." Luna shut her eyes and cringed deep inside. She opened them to find the students getting up and shuffling about. Everyone seemed to know someone. When it was over she was left sitting alone.
"Anyone not have a partner?" The science teacher asked. Luna shamefully raised her arm, seeing another student do the same. The boy, an awkward looking child with arms and legs too long for his skinny frame, looked just as ashamed as she did. The teacher smiled.
"Well there we go. You two go ahead and pair up." He said. Luna stared at the boy, who stared back. Quietly she got up and moved over to the front of the class, watching for outstretched feet and shifted backpacks on the way. Somehow she got there safely. Her new partner would not look at her. She toyed with the binding of her notebook. She looked up briefly, and the boy at the desk across from her was staring.
"What do you think you're doing in my school, mutie?" he asked bluntly. Luna looked around. The teacher was in the back of the class, paying no attention. No hope there.
"I-" she started.
"I saw your brother in my other class. Mutie. He's ugly. Not as ugly as you are though." The boy continued over her. Luna dropped her notebook, shocked. He just insulted her brother? She looked at him with wide eyes as he continued to criticize Vidar. She heard none of it, really, only saw his lips moving and the cruel look on his face.
Luna felt her fingers tighten around her thick math book. Before she really thought about it she twitched, heaving the text into the face of the boy. He didn't have time to dodge, and it knocked him off of his stool, leaving him lying stunned on the ground. The teacher turned around to look at Luna with wide eyes. She stared back at him.
"I-it slipped." She stammered quickly, moving to help the boy up. He scrambled to his feet, looking like he might protest her lie, but her book hadn't even left a mark on him. The teacher looked at her dubiously, but the bell rang and she snatched up her book, running from the room.
Lunch time. Salvation. She ran through the halls. Vidar and Axelle where sitting at a table near the window. She slipped in beside them silently. They were talking animatedly about something…she wasn't very interested. Distracted and subdued she stared out the window at the woods outside, wishing dully that something, anything would make her wake up and find this was all a dream. Lunch passed far too quickly. Luna left her lunch uneaten on the table and trudged off slowly.
Now for the moment of her nightmares. Gym. It went just as horribly as she imagined. First they all had to change into regulation gym uniforms, ugly green shorts that made her legs look long and spindly, a baggy shirt that made her look twice as skinny as she was. She got hit in the face with the volley ball three times in the first minute. Finally she threw the damned thing back, and hit the student who was so cruelly aiming for her. The gym teacher called her aside and gave her her third warning.
"Detention, Miss Draconis. I don't know what your family has been teaching you, but you can't go around hitting people for accidents." He was saying.
"But-" she began, he ignored her shock and horror.
"I don't care who your family is, kid, but you're not high and mighty like you think you are. You can just march your butt up to the office and tell the principal how you got three warnings on your first day." He continued. Luna couldn't take anymore.
The tears spilt over her cheeks. She wanted to hit the teacher, but was afraid to. She wanted to go home, she wanted to go home right away. He was going on now, and all the other students were laughing at her tears. Her hands balled into fists.
"Shut up!" She screamed finally, "Just shut up damn it!" she continued, sobbing as she spoke the curse. Avanthea would have scolded her. She didn't care. The teacher growled, reaching out to grab her arm. She bit his hand. He yelled, and she ran, seeing his face turn purple with rage. She ran like she had only run when being chased by bloodthirsty monsters. At the moment, she was fully convinced a bloodthirsty monster was chasing her.
She broke into the woods on campus, breath rattling in her chest, tears still running down her cheeks. Distantly she could hear the teachers yelling, students roaring with laughter. They were following her. She sobbed and ran harder. Branches and leaves whipped at her face, scrapping her and tearing at her skin. They twinned in her hair, ripping it out as she tore free. Her cheeks stung, but she kept running until her own heart's beat was roaring in her ears.
Finally she stumbled to a stop, hands on her knees, half bent over and panting for every painful breath. She sniffed. They were probably calling Uncle Draco now. Telling him what she had done. He'd probably think it was all her fault…she had been acting out lately, giving in to the random spurts of rebelliousness. He'd be angry when she got home. She stumbled, taking a harsh seat between two sprawling tree roots. Her knees drew up to her chest, and her arms circled her legs.
She put her head down and sobbed. With all her heart, all she wanted was to get away . She didn't want to go home…she couldn't, didn't dare to go back to the school. She just wanted to be away, where everyone would leave her alone. A sudden silence filled the air. She looked up slowly, seeing a portal shimmering before her. Tears glimmered on her eyelashes like dew drops on spider webs.
"Wh-wha?" she stammered, rising disbelievingly to her knees. The portal was still there though. She looked around carefully, wondering where it had come from and who had brought it. No source presented itself, though. Slowly she got to her feet, hiccupping a little and wiping her cheek free of tears with the back of her hand. The place on the other side was beautiful. A wide, stretching plane, with a shimmering forest in the background. The sun was shining, and the sky was the purest shade of blue she had ever seen.
Luna took a stumbling step forward, reaching out to touch it. Her hand passed through, feeling warm summer air caress it. She pulled it back, biting her lip and staring. Had it come…for her? She blinked. Further back in the forest she heard the sounds of renewed pursuit. A bunch of people were crashing around loudly…. looking for her, no doubt. That decided her. She stepped through, passing through the portal. A sweep of tingling sensation washed over her. Then she was through, and a whole new, but familiar seeming world, stretched out before her.
"W-where am I?" She whispered in awe, eyes widening. It was…beautiful.
 Themascura · Wed Feb 06, 2008 @ 07:40am · 0 Comments |
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