BatIM Steps of the Survivor

Chapter Twenty-Two

Even days after the talk with Joey, Jade couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of total unease about what had gone on that fateful day, which in turn, drove her to stay out longer with her friends in the studio to train, practice on an instrument... anything other than have the time to ponder Joey's words or have it flash through her mind again. It kept her up at night, prompting her to sit outside on the giant boulder in the front yard and stare up at the stars, almost longing to be as free and far away from this place she was forced to call home as they were.

What resulted was her looking and feeling progressively more exhausted, and her mother almost seeming more desperate to have Jade around to do things together with, but her exhaustion made her bitterness toward Susie all the more present.

Why should I bother wasting my time with her? There's much more pressing matters at hand than spending time with someone I still can't forgive for breaking her promises and lying. She kept this opinion silent as Susie said something about Jade and her needing to do something since summer was already almost over, and highschool was about to begin.

Boris, on the other hand, seemed completely fine with the idea of taking a break from the constant training, which sure didn't help Jade feel any better.

"You're working yourself really hard and you barely rest. I'm not an expert on humans or anything, but you seem really tense lately. You really should take some time and relax"

"I'm fine, I promise," she replied, hating how accurate the assessment was about her wellbeing. "We've just got to keep pushing on, and taking breaks is only gonna prolong the process."

"But if you don't rest, you're going to hurt yourself, Jade"

"We won't get as much free time during the school year as we do during the summer, we need to take advantage of it as much as we can." She refused to admit that she felt terribly exhausted every night and sore in the mornings after her intense bouts of training, but it was worth it to see how much progress she had made. Whenever she changed and got ready for the day, she could see the tone in her arms and core, and her legs looked sculpted. She looked ready for highschool sports, to be a student athlete, but that was not her goal, and she certainly wasn't ready to take on Joey, nowhere close, as the older man's strength was much more pronounced than the teen's.

Right near the end of July, on a particularly sickeningly hot, bright day, right before Jade and Boris could make their usual slip out to the studio, Susie blocked the doorway.

"Don't you go anywhere Jade, I've got plans for us for today." She seemed unusually excited about this.

"What is it now? If we're just going out for the heck of it again, I'm not interested." Jade herself was already done with this conversation. She wanted this day's round of over exhausting herself just to prepare to take down the town's greatest threat to be over with, to start the walk through the scorching sun.

"We're headed to play some laser tag, it'll be fun, I remember you used to enjoy it when you were younger."

Well this is already a horrible idea... my eyes glow in the darkness. Everyone's gonna see me. She felt a little bitter about the idea, one she could never experience the same way ever again, since she couldn't just turn off her ability when she wanted. "Do we have to?"

"Come on now, don't be like that," she half-heartedly scolded with a slight smile. "We'll be having fun before you know it."

Jade sighed, but it wasn't like her protests would change Susie's mind, she'd been wanting to do this for a while it seemed like. Heading out to get into the car, the music on the radio sounded much more unpleasant being in the car with someone she didn't like that much.