Schaeffer Heights High: A Totally Normal School

Chapter 17: I'm Not Going to Let You Make Me Bleed My Own Blood

Chapter 17: I'm not going to let you make me bleed my own blood

The Winter Ball was still weeks away but Danielle made it feel like the time could be measured in minutes. She seemed incapable of coherent thought before consuming an unhealthy quantity of iced coffee in the mornings and from the time school ended until the completely arbitrary time his mother might demand he be home on a given day, Danielle was at his side. She complained almost continuously about almost everything. How he was dressed, how he stood, how fast he walked, and even his vocabulary, "Are you like, paid by the syllable when you talk?" were all targets for scorn.

After a week of this treatment Thurston felt like he was about to flip out and snapped, "Look, I feel like I'm here trying to help you out!"

"Ohhh. Ohh, honey. You have needed help since the second Fatima Chandirimani set you aside to make her daddy happy. Now let's go to your place so we can sell this 'relationship'" was Danielle's reply.

She wasn't wrong. Thurston felt more confident in his Power and in general, but he felt his goal of finding answers was meaningless in the face of his failure to create his own House or even just make some normal friends.

More than a little peeved by her treatment Thurston retorted, "Look, I need a night off. We can take the bus together so people see us leaving, but I need some time to think."
Danielle wasn't really surprised, lots of guys just couldn't handle how real she could be, but she needed Thurston for the short term so cut him loose and spent the night at home.
After getting home, Thurston felt as though someone had stolen a chance for him to assume some control over his whole situation. Having a Power was cool, but he felt trapped and liberated by it. Just having a Power came with so much baggage. He needed to join a House, he didn't just need friends, he needed allies, and not just allies that could support him, but allies with Power that they could use to protect themselves.
The more time he spent with Danielle, the more he was sure that he didn't want to be a member of her House. Mortal Desires would be nothing more than avoiding the responsibility he felt his Power demanded.

He had seen how Beef did things in the House of Resurgence and he was almost positive he'd never be able to see the guy as anything other than a monster. He had never really spoken to anyone from the House of Coming Darkness, at least not as far as he knew. He had a feeling that their "coming darkness" might have something to do with the Student Council and whatever was responsible for Articulation. Maybe Articulation was an effort to prevent that darkness, maybe it was some scared kid's power.

Although they apparently had someone that could see the future, so maybe he could talk to her about it. That last thought was what ushered him into sleep and he made a note to ask Danielle more about her when he got the chance.

Danielle arrived at his house at 11:30am on Saturday. She stormed in with her preposterously sized iced coffee in one hand and a large green canvas bag in the other. Gold bands rattled around her wrists and her dark hair was coiled up on top of her head in an up-do that screamed "shut up, I just got out of bed and haven't had my coffee." A shredded tank top knotted in the back struggled to hide her torso behind its Laser Unicorns logo. A pair of ice blue denim shorts left most of her legs showing down to the ankle where an impractical pair of high heeled wedge sandals propelled her forward.

For the first time Thurston could see all the ink Danielle had and he was blown away. The lines were minimalist, they curled around her form, spiraling tightly around joints and points of contact. Here and there they were tied into cursive script spelling out words like Power, Strength, Speed, Ferocity, and Truth before continuing on to the next joint or intersection. He got the sense a powerful varying line drawing was the centerpiece of the work on her back. Only able to see the bottom third, he thought he could make out tiger stripes.