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I wake up, like usual, to the sound of the universe shouting in my ear. Sitting up in bed, I try to clear my mind of everything. Well. That seemed to do the trick; now only my bedroom is overwhelming me. A vast improvement, to be sure. Certainly better than when I still needed an alarm clock.
A quick trip to the bathroom leaves me feeling chipper, or at least as close to it as I ever get in the normal run of things. I wonder if anyone noticed that I just took an 8.9 second shower...and stepped out of the bathroom dry. Not likely. The 'rents are both downstairs by now, busy getting ready for work, and the day that Quinn gets up before 7:30 is the day I join the Pep Squad.
Well, that grasping sensation in my skull tells me that Jane is awake, too. The phrase What a way to start the morning, huh? seeps up from my subconscious. Yup, must be why we do it every day, I think back.
If this is as wierd as the day gets today, we'll be pretty well off.
As it happens, it turns out to be a typically boring morning. By the time lunch rolls around I'm actually eager to talk about the stranger things in life with Jane.
"So, Tommy's been kinda quiet, right?"
A sour look crosses her face. "Yeah. I'm hoping he's gone for good this time, but with my luck he'll show up again eventually."
"Hey, it's not like you meant to kill him or anything. You didn't know what you were doing. I mean, its not like he deserved to die, but he didn't really deserve to live, either."
"Thanks, Daria, that cheers me up so." Her expression gets meaner.
"Let's not dwell on it. I still want to know what we should do about Brittany."
She sighs. "Listen, I know you said that her aura..."
"I didn't say aura. I hate that word, it sounds like something my mother would have said when she and dad were cutting college classes."
"...like I was saying, that her aura was the only one around here that was like mine."
"No, I said that it was the only one except yours that was stronger than everyone else's, except maybe mine." Unlike Jane, I haven't learned how to look at myself without a mirror.
"Right. And that makes you think that she might have some of these wierd psychic powers that we've got."
"I dunno. It isn't like we know much about this. I mean, odd things have always happened to both of us...like how I knew not to eat the psychedelic berries, or how I always just happened to catch," my voice lowers a bit, "Beavis and Butthead just when I could embarrass them most. Or how you can always tell when something was about to fall apart. But its only been since the Tommy Sherman thing that its gotten so obvious."
"OK, but what does that have to do with Princess Glitter over..." she pauses to look around, "...where is she, anyway?"
"Don't ask me. The point I'm making - in case you missed it the first five times - is that this kind of power in the hands of someone that stupid could make Lawndale look like the ending of Carrie."
"And that would be a bad thing?" she said, grinning.
"You may have a point. The problem is, I have one of those feelings that its going to happen very soon. We should at least be ready for..."
Suddenly, there was a lot of noise from outside in the hall, and half the cafeteria crowd started heading for the door. It seems it was little too late for being prepared.
After about five minutes, the crowd around the door sort of congeals as people realize that pushing won't get things moving faster. Jane starts to get up, but I wave her down.
"Don't bother. School security will be breaking it up soon anyway." No sooner had I said that, than the kids at the door start filtering back in, mumbling and pissed off. "I'm sure they'll have an announcement about it in a few minutes."
Well, its was about ten minutes, but sure enough Ms. Li's voice came over the intercomm. "Students of Lawndale, your attention please. It is my sad duty to inform you that, due to a terrible accident in the gymnasium, classes will be cancelled for the rest of the day. We ask that you remain in your classrooms for the next twenty minutes so that an ambulance crew can come in to help the injured teacher."
Jane suddenly looked pale. "That's bullshit," she said in too loud a voice. "Someone's dead and they don't want us to see what happened..." she turned even paler, suddenly, as she realised that several of the others were staring at her. "What are you looking at?" she growled.
Then the chair she was sitting on fell apart.
"Shit!" she shouted. Everyone in the room looked in our direction. "NOTHING TO LOOK AT, FOLKS! Move along quietly!" I say to the gawkers. Then, once their attention was elsewhere, I said to her, "Uh, so why didn't know that was coming?"
"Who knows? Damn, that hurt.", she said, sitting back down on another chair. It broke, too.
"YOOOWW!" she cried. You know, I don't think I've ever since her this angry before.
"Hey, Janey, puttin' on some weight there? I can help you get some exercise, if you know what I mean...rrrwr!"
"DROP..." "Jane, no!" I shouted, interrupting her. The last thing she needs is another corpse on her hands. Once again, everyone is looking at us, and I'm too distracted by now to stop her from kicking Upchuck in the nuts.
To be honest, I'd almost say that the look on his face right then was worth catching hell for. Almost, except that the campus guards were already really edgy, and one of them rushes in and starts waving a Maglite in our faces.
"Okay, which of you started this?!?!"
All in all, a rotten day...
[Introduction] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Story Notes]