The next day, people were talking about it. Everywhere Gail walked she heard whispers of how her crazy sister had tried to take over a poor misters body and want psycho. Gail had to remind herself not to punch them out every single time. At lunch, she sat alone. Raze was stuck in counseling and she didn't want to see anybody or talk to anybody. She had nothing to say to the people around her who wanted some sort of explanation she wouldn't give.
When she was finished eating, she had to go to her general math class. She considered skipping to avoide sitting near Chide but her grades were dropping and she couldn't miss the new material. She slammed a fist on the table and people around her jumped, critically aware that at any second she might decide it was time to rip someone's head off. "Dammit," She muttered to herself, doing her best to keep from sobbing in frustration. She shoved the rest of her sandwich in her face and shoved her chair away from the table, scooping up her tray and dumping it in the tray return.
In general math, though, Chide wasn't there. His seat in front of her was empty. She spent most of the class with her head on her desk, barely listening. The only thing playing through her mind was "I wasn't watching. I wasn't watching her wavelength. I always watch Raze's wavelength." As those thoughts looped through her head, she hated Chide Wellington even more. He was just another stupid distraction. She shouldn't have let herself get carried away and agry. It was stupid, so stupid to get worked up just because his stupid meister brother had told her off. Maybe Raze was right, maybe she should have just tried to trust the douche bag. But Gail was already sinking low, and she couldn't let herself believe that teaming up with those jerks would have been the right decision. She just couldn't. But no matter what angle she looked at the situation, she felt wrong. Especially when she remembered the way Argos had gathered her sister off the ground yesterday. The image was burned into her mind of someone else holding her sister up and supporting her and asking her if she was ok. She couldn't take it.
She excused herself to the bathroom and managed to hold the angry tears back until she'd efficiently locked herself in the very last stall.
***
After a her counseling appointment, Raze couldn't bring herself to go to class. Instead she was sitting outside, rocking back and forth on a swing set in a local park. Nobody was around to hound her for answers about what had happened yesterday. She was glad, because she didn't have any answers for them. None. She had no idea what had happened herself. She didn't even ry to hold back her blatant sobs. Tears plopped down on her dirty white hand-me-down jeans and she tried to wipe at them but just smeared the dust around and made the stain worse.
Raze sat like that for a while, she didn't know how long and she didn't care. She vaguely remembered that her sister would start to worry.
Gravel crunched behind her and she straighter up and quieted herself. She was still sniffling when she saw Chide strolling by, leisurely. he hadn't noticed her yet, but she could see the bruise on his jaw from where she sat, right where gail had socked him earlier. If she slouched, she thought, maybe he wouldn't notice her. She pulled her jacket up over her face but the kid was already walking toward the swing set. She peeked out from her collar and he still was't shouting or running away or closer or pestering her or yelling. Maybe he would just assume she was some punk from town if she kept her head down.
He sat down on the swing next to her. She tried to hide her lingering sniffles and hitched breathing.
"Do you want to talk," he asked, not looking at her. He awkwardly scuffed at the wood chips beneath his swing and added, "or something." He sounded so scared, but also Raze could hear genuine worry in his voice. He probably just wanted to know what was up, but was worried about getting beat up in the process of finding out. Good, he had instinct.
"I'm fine," She said, her voice cracked and then he looked up, startled.
"Raze, are you crying?" He asked, the fear was gone. he hopped off his swing and walked over and knelt down in front of her trying to look at her face. He made of move like he wanted to push her hair out of her face but Raze flinched away.
"Don't touch me," she snapped. "Don't ever touch me." Chide retracted his hand.
"Ok, I won't. Hands behind my back, see?" He clasped his hands behind his back, just like he'd said, but made no move to leave. "Look, Raze, I know we got off to a really bad start, like really bad." He let go of his own hand and scratched at the back of his head thinking. "Really bad, I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered it under his breath but Raze still caught it. "But seriously, what happened yesterday wasn't your fault. The whole not in sync thing happens, you know, it's ok. It's that way for a reason, yeah? So that only a few people can make the strong connection that you need to be a fighting unit. Don't blame yourself for things that are bound to happen. Hell, Argos tried to wield his friend Helix and nearly dislocated his shoulder."
Dislocated his shoulder? If he'd been hurt, why had he tried to haul her up like that, it didn't make sense. She refused to answer Chide. Mostly because she was afraid she'd start crying again.
"Look, I just wanted to tell you that it wasn't your fault. I know they put you in some kind of counseling or watch thing, but they just do that so everybody can work through it. It'll be over when you find a partner, ok? They just want you to succeed, I guess."
She wanted to tell him to shut the fuck up, but he just kept rambling. She wondered if it hurt him to talk so much with that bruised jaw.
"Anyway, it'll blow over ok? if people ask Argos about it just because he was there, expecting a story or some blown up bullshit, trust me he won't say anything. He's not like that, so you don't have to worry." He was steadying himself and getting up. He looked ready to leave and Raze was praying he would. She couldn't take much more of his stupid good Samaritan bullshit, not when she knew full well he was terrified of her and wanted nothing to do with her. He scuffed he's shoes around in the wood chips for a minute before saying one more thing. "Oh, I forgot."He paused for so lng that she looked up at him. The eye contact scared her, he was looking right at her face, expression;less and almost stone cold. She couldn't look away. "Really wicked weapon form." With that, he gave a small half smile and a little salute and spun on his heel and walked away.
Raze was stunned. She was alone again and for the second time that night she was crying into her palms on a children's swing set, damning Chide and Argos to hell.
***
Chide flopped on his bed, frustrated. "She didn't even say one word, Argos, not one." He slammed his head into a pillow. "I don't understand girls, I really don't. She probably still wants to beat my head in and now i just look like a big idiot poking my nose where it wasn't welcomee. I'm such an idiot!"
"Relax," Argos said, bring to wriggle out of his t-shirt without aggravating his wrenched shoulder. "I'm sure she was just taken by surprise or something. I feel bad for her."
"You still haven't seen her in all her weirdness, dude. I bet she's doing voodoo to have some norse god come and kill me because I, Like an idiot, accidentally touched one strand of her Grudge hair." Argos snorted. He managed to get the shirt off and chide didn't watch as his brother turned his back to him to find another one. He sighed. "Bro, I don't think that girl is good news for you. I really don't. Her wavelength yesterday - "
"Just like you said Chide," Argos interrupted, shuffling a shirt on and covering the scar that made his brother flinch, "Wasn't her fault."
"Yeah about that, it kind of was her fault and you know it."
"She's strong."
"Maybe too strong?"
Argos narrowed his eyes. "What are you implying, shrimp."
Chide retreated back under the pillow. "Just saying. What if the same thing happened to you. I'm not sitting back and waiting for her to gobble up your soul and have a nice little snack."
Argos just shrugged. "She's got a cool weapon form." Chide laughed. Of course his brother would think of that. Thats all he cared about, and Chide new it. He just wanted to be different, he didn't want some mediocre sword or gun. He had to have something nobody else would even imagine.
"Yeah, but weigh the pros and cons dude!"
"Chide," Argos was getting short, "You're the one that talked to her today. You said she was crying?"
"Well, yeah, she was."
"Which means?"
"She was…PMSing?"
Argos actually looked ready to smack his brother. "She felt bad."
"Oh. Well obviously she feels bad. But how do you know its not for herself."
"That's exactly what I think she feels bad for, stupid."
"Oh." Chide was confused. "And why is that a good thing?"
Argos shook his head. "You're such an idiot sometimes. I'm talking to the meister tomorrow. You, however, might not want to. Lots of animostisty toward a particular brother of mine in her wavelength."
"She knows River?" Chide asked.
"Ha ha. No let's get some sleep. We'll talk about it more tomorrow."
