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She looked up at the reaper, her fierce, defiant eyes glaring at her. "Ita won't die easily. He's above suicide. Don't you ever doubt my brother!" she hissed. She stepped towards her body, reaching a ghostly hand through the vines and into her own chest.
"I may be dead, but my soul is intact... I should be able to..." Her eyes lit up as she pulled a black stone out from her chest. "He'll know what it is..." She lifted the stone to her lips, kissing it. "Don't ever give up, Ita. Live for me," she whispered into the gem, then set it down on the vines over her chest. The reaper needn't know that beings as themselves could manifest their hearts and souls into the form of a gem. Kay's gem had been black, showing that her body was dead. But it was still her heart. She slowly stepped back, staring at the gem on her cold, lifeless body. "I'll go..." she whispered, turning to look at the reaper. "I'll go, but you won't be able to keep me for long. Our souls rely on each other. As long as he lives, I live." |
"Why, I never said that he would commit suicide. Though it's odd that your mind turned to that right away." the reaper replied as the girl walked toward her body. Adalia watched with curiosity as the girl unexpectedly stuck her hand though the vines and her own still chest and pulled some sort of dark stone out.
"Interesting..." Adalia mumbled, "...so you're no normal human either..." The reaper watched intently at the actions of the other. Even though she had seen a lot of things in her life as a reaper, she had never seen anything quite like this. When Kay finished she stepped back from the stone and agreed to go with the reaper, but Adalia couldn't help but feel that the girl may have felt some animosity toward her. The reaper couldn't help but smile at the girl's words. "If I had known you were this interesting, I would have agreed to deliver you message. "Adalia paused for a moment, but then offered her hand out to Kayaray Ishtar. "But fate works in mysterious ways. Well then, shall we go?" ((These guys powers actually do sound interesting. I have to go to sleep now, so bye.)) |
"We're Soldiers. Of course we're not humans. But this world makes me more sickly than the old world did..." She sighed and hung her head. "You can't take me where you take humans... You have to take my soul back to Egypt, where I belong."
((Alright. Night.)) |
Several students turned in their chairs to one another. Whispers of, "Dude, he's from Egypt!" and, "That's so cool!" circled around for a moment or two. One girl nervously shushed them all before a discussion about The Mummy movies could start. Through all this, Brodie felt slightly awkward being one of the only people not getting excited over this fact. He merely sat with the slight satisfaction that he knew Shozii's race. The fact that he'd been called 'slightly amusing' for thinking Shozii was Arabian sort of annoyed him.
"Mr. Marez," one girl asked, "Did you teach in Egypt as well?" |
"I taught for about a decade back in Egypt when I was younger. Then I moved to the United States to be with a friend that had moved here, and I took on another profession. I'm mainly just a substitute teacher in my spare time these days," he answered honestly, though he kept his usual air about him.
A boy raised his hand, speaking when he was nodded to. "Have you ever been in a pyramid?" the boy asked excitedly; half of the class groaned and rolled their eyes. "Yes, actually, I have. Though it's something you can't really explain or describe; you really have to experience it for yourself," Shozii replied. "Mr. Marez...?" a girl asked fearfully. "Why does your name sound like you're Hispanic?" He couldn't help but laugh a little; something that thrilled some students, while terrifying others. "I'm not Hispanic. My name is my name, that's all it is." |
Brodie went back to drumming his finger on his desk, this time more out of mild boredom than agitation. He didn't really have any questions at the moment that he could ask in front of the rest of the class. So, he just listened, gathering little bits of information which he probably wouldn't have gotten if not for the class's discussion. He did laugh lightly when the boy asked about pyramids, 'Knowing Shozii, he was probably there to see the things built.'
Another girl stood, blushing slightly, "Um, you said you left Egypt for a friend, so....are you married, then?" The thought sort of disheartened a few girls in the class. Brodie tried not to smile too obviously. |
"No, I'm not married. As I said, I moved here to be with a friend. A very close childhood friend of mine, and being without him just didn't feel right. I guess you could say that we're like brothers."
"So you have a brother?" a girl asked excitedly, hoping against hope for a second man sharing Mr. Marez's attractive looks to visit the classroom. "I did." "Do you have any kids?" another girl asked. "No. I've raised a child before, but none of my own." |
"You did have a brother?" Brodie didn't look up from his hand as it drummed a little faster on his desk. He asked the question slowly, as if he were thinking through each word carefully. "Where's he now?"
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"Dead, where else?" he replied coldly, his eyes falling on Brodie. The class fell silent, feeling a little uncomfortable by the exchange.
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Brodie looked up, slightly surprised. Not so much because of Shozii's answer- he pretty much knew it anyway- but because of the sudden disappearance of Shozii's nice, teacher-like voice or indifference. After about twenty seconds of him just looking at Shozii with the same expression that was given to him the bell rang.
Brodie breathed an inward sight of relief. He knew he wouldn't have been able to come up with a response. He almost got up and left with the rest of the class, but remembered about the note. This time he sighed out loud, waiting for a few seconds while the rest of the class filed out before he got up and walked to the front desk. |
Tessan nodded, following him into the apartment. She hung back from going into his brother's room, standing outside the doorway, swaying back and forth.
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"You're going to stay an hour after school," Shozii said, closing the door once he and Brodie were alone in the room. He turned to face him, a serious look on his face. "I won't write it down as detention, so you shouldn't get in trouble at home. If your parents ask you why you're late, make something up."
"I'm too tired to drive," he said tiredly, rolling over to face away from Amani. "Then I'll leave my bike here and drive your car," he said, nudging Zaitsu. "Come on. Let's go home..." "Alright," he sighed, slowly sitting up and blinking. His wings had long since retracted back into his body. "Let me get dressed." "Okay," Amani replied, getting up and stepping out of the room. |
"What?" Brodie looked at him, confused. He stood where he was, only turning his head to watch Shozii around the room.
Staying after school wasn't so bad. He could just say he was walking around town, which he did often enough lately, but he was more concerned with Shozii's presence in his high school. "Aren't you going to tell me why you're here?" he thought for a second, suddenly suspicious, "And what did you do with Mr. Nickerson?" |
"Mr. Nickerson is fine. I didn't do anything to him. Just called in a favor, that's all. I think it should be obvious why I'm here," he said, watching Brodie closely. "I'm here to make sure nothing bad happens to you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to while you're in your next class." He turned and opened the door.
"But if you don't come back to this room and stay after school, I will write it down as a detention, and you will get in trouble for skipping it," he warned, glancing back at Brodie over his shoulder. He left the room and headed for the front office. |
Brodie rolled his eyes, it wasn't as if there were anything dangerous about school. He didn't see why he had to be followed around like that. Even if it did let him learn a bit more about Shozii, and let him actually relax a bit with his classmates. 'It wasn't all that bad, anyway,' he thought he might tell this to Shozii, but then noticed that he'd left the room. That sort of thing seemed to be happening to him a lot in the last twenty-four hours.
"Oh well," he said to the door as he walked up and opened it. About three hours later, the bell rang and the students were let out to lunch. He didn't know why, but Brodie seemed to be in a good mood. Well, a better mood than he'd been in lately, which wasn't saying much, but he still found it easier to smile and wave at people in the halls as they all went in the direction of the lunch room. Brodie sat down at a table, the plastic chair squeaking slightly as he pushed it back. |
Shozii walked into the lunch room, an orange soft-cooler lunch box hanging at his side from it's shoulder strap. A short girl with ginger hair and rich blue eyes spotting him, a smirk forming on her lips. She hurried over to Brodie, staring at him with a cocky grin.
"There you are!" she exclaimed, as though she and Brodie were good friends. She grabbed him and placed a firm kiss on his lips. "I've been looking for you all day!" she declared after breaking the kiss. "What, no hugs before school? Are you too good for me now?" she demanded, making sure her voice was loud enough to catch Shozii's attention. Shozii rolled his eyes and shook his head a little, knowing full well what the girl was up to. |
Brodie looked up, noticing someone was approaching. He looked at her strangely as she started talking, he knew of her and probably had some class with her last year or something, but he didn't know her well enough for her to be so familiar with him. 'Maybe she mistook me for some else,' he thought as he feebly held up his hands.
"I'm sorry? I don't think I- Hey! Wait a- wha-Hhrmph!" He hardly knew what happened before she'd kissed him. He hardly knew that it'd ended until he found he was able to look away. All the students seemed to be staring at them, she certainly did call enough attention to herself, talking so loudly like that. The sides of his nose were the first to turn red, then it spread sideways to his ears. "I-I'm....what?" was all he could say as he looked at her. |
"Come on Electra. Don't assault the poor boy," Shozii sighed, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and tugging her off. "That counts as sexual harassment, you know."
"I know!" she said happily. "But I just had to test it. You said you'd kill any man you caught me with." "That's not a man, it's an emo boy," Shozii muttered, pulling the girl to an empty table by the window and making her sit down. He took a seat next to her and put his lunch box down, leaning back in the chair and sighing again. "I thought you said you'd never sub here," Electra said, crossing her arms and watching Shozii with an amused look on her face. |
Brodie watched the two walk away. His face was burning as he tried to sit and act as if that hadn't just happened. 'Shozii,' he thought annoyed, 'Of course that had something to do with him.' He knew, of course, that Shozii really wouldn't care enough to make something like that happen, but that wasn't the point at the moment. He needed some one to be mad at.
"It would be really great if someone could explain things once in a while," he said to himself as he got back into his chair. Brodie realized how quiet the room had gotten when everyone started talking again. Some resumed their previous conversations while others asked what that was or how she knew the dashing new substitute teacher. Brodie glared into his tuna sandwich. |
"Some things can't be helped. Now go over there and apologize to him and go sit with your friends."
"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes and standing up. She walked over to Brodie and bent slightly to be at eye level with him while he sat. "Hate ta break it to ya, kid, but you're not good enough for me. You were just a little pawn in an attempt to get a rise out of my uncle. It would've worked if you'd been more convincing, but I guess that's not an emo boy's strength, huh?" She grinned and stood up fully. "Later, pouty-face," she said, waving slightly as she walked off to go sit with her friends. The intercom let out a few beeps to get the students' attention before the voice spoke. "ATTENTION EVERYONE! REPORT TO YOUR HOME ROOM CLASSES IMMEDIATELY." All eyes were on the different intercom speakers throughout the school. "I REPEAT! RETURN TO YOUR HOME ROOM CLASSES IMMEDIATELY! ONCE THERE, LOCK THE DOORS. TEACHERS, STAND BY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION!" Everyone looked both confused and scared - this sort of thing only happened when there were bomb threats, right? Shozii, along with several other teachers stood up, demanding attention. "You heard them! Go ahead and take your lunches back to your home rooms. Things will be sorted out later!" Shozii yelled over the frightened chatter of the students. The other teachers nodded and echoed his words, ushering students up out of their seats and towards their home rooms. |
Brodie's mouth fell open slightly, the girl seemed to be a bit more like Shozii than he would have liked. A lot more than he would have liked, actually. Hell, the fact that they were related was annoying enough, and he thought these people were just now getting involved in his life. 'And what is with all this "emo boy" stuff?' He was so frustrated that he could've thrown his sandwich right at the back of her head.
He actually might have if the announcement hadn't gone up. The rest of the students were suddenly all pushing their way towards the exit, they were more frantic than usual. Sure, there'd been bomb threats and stuff in the past, all of which turned out to be pranks, but lock-downs usually went on while they were in class. The fact that they'd all have to relocate and wait for more information made them a bit frantic. Brodie left his lunch at the table, he wasn't sure why, but his first instinct was to find Shozii. He managed to push past a few student before the rest of them and some teachers pushed forward and took him with them into the hallway. 'Oh well, I'll have to wait for him at class.' |
Electra ducked into the room her uncle was substituting in, her eyes scanning quickly over the room for him. She refused to go back to her home room with him in the building, knowing that it was much safer to be in his presence than in the presence of the idiot school staff.
After keeping the order in the lunch room with a handful of other teachers, Shozii returned to the classroom and locked the door. He turned to face his class and quickly counted heads to make sure everyone was there, as all the teachers in all the other classrooms were doing at the exact moment. Another three beeps came from the intercom. "ATTENTION! THERE IS A STUDENT MISSING! ANYONE KNOWING THE WHEREABOUTS OF ELECTRA PADOFF, PLEASE REPORT!!" Shozii stepped over to the wall and pressed the button for the intercom. "Yes Mr. Marez?" the voice on the other end asked. "My class is all here, and Electra is in here as well," he said. "Alright. Thank you," the voice replied. The school-wide intercom beeped for a third time, announcing that Electra was safe. "How did you know her name?" a girl asked, hugging her lunch box to her chest. She, along with the rest of the class, was on edge. "She's my niece," Shozii replied, sitting down on the edge of the teacher's desk. |
Brodie looked around the room at all the frightened students. He was already a bit jumpy, but their fear made him feel like he should have been more afraid as well. And shouldn't he? After all, Shozii did tell him that Reapers would be trying to kill him, so shouldn't he be even more scared than any of them.
'No,' he thought quickly. He didn't want to get himself all worked up over this. He tried to tell himself that it was fine, and that they never even found anything during these bomb scares. But he could hear his heart beating faster, and the voice over the intercom sounded awfully urgent. He knew he was getting a little too anxious as he griped the sides of his chair firmly. "Shozii," he said shakily, "What's going on?" |
Surprise danced over the reaper's face at the mention of them being soldiers. Adalia wondered at just how the sickly girl in front of her could have ever been a soldier.
'Her speciality being to threaten the enemy with fear of infection.' Adalia stifled a chuckle from that thought with a cough. "Egypt? Oh, well that makes things a lot easier then." she replied in a sarcastic tone. "Keh," she muttered under her breath. "If I have to go somewhere farther I should get paid extra." Grabbing the girls hand she began to make her way toward egypt, only consoling herself in the thought that they wouldn't have to get there the same way as humans. --- Elizabeth forced herself to pay attention to the morning lessons, convinced that if she did then she would not remember that Terry was no longer with them. However, as she found herself getting more and more lost the more the teacher spoke, she couldn't help but find her thoughts drifting back to the subject she excelled in, Terry. ((OOC: ROFL, so corny!)) And with that thought she also was lead to remember her embarrassing encounter with his brother, her cheeks turning crimson at the thought. "Elizabeth?" the teacher called out in concern. "Are you all right, you look very flushed." "Ah no, I'm okay." she quickly replied as she buried her head behind the textbook in front of her. During lunch, Elizabeth went to find a quiet spot in the school to enjoy alone as she always did. However, as soon as she finished she heard an urgent announcement which had all the students return to their classroom. She packed her lunch up and returned to class, wondering what all the fuss was about. |
"Is...is he feeling better?" Tessan asked, somewhat awkwardly as she sidled over to stand beside Amani.
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