v2.0 C8.1

Sorry this took so long to get posted.

Anyway, Ruth Vaughn is now Lynn Briare. (I hope you like your new name, Boonny.)

-

Chapter 8 – Beginnings

-

Coach Reynolds is extremely irritating. First he tells me off for bringing Erin and Cara to the dojo five minutes late, then he turns to Katherine and demands why she’s there. Demands. In that nasal voice he reserves for talking to kids. I tried to explain to him what happened, but did he listen at all? No. And he actually had the cheek to ask Katherine to join his other classes. Thank goodness she just told him that she’d consider.

If only Coach Takada didn’t retire… Perhaps I won’t need to deal with that creep. I’m sure Erin and Cara would have liked him much better.

-

Katherine keeps surprising me.

For one, her cell phone’s five years old. It’s about the same age as Erin, for heaven’s sake. I don’t know how she lives with that.

*

The snow was fresh, white and inviting. Clad in bright blue gear, the child fiddled with the straps on her snowboard. She seemed unperturbed by the presence of the stranger beside her.

“You have to tighten the straps, like so,” the man instructed, bending down.

The child pulled the straps in a good imitation of the man’s, but lost her balance and fell backwards into the snow with a plop. As she picked herself up, she caught sight of a slight movement in her peripheral vision. There was somebody crouching in the undergrowth in the nearby forest, she felt sure of that. Or perhaps it was an animal; the thing looked vaguely like a pile of rags. But she couldn’t see anything through her snow goggles. They tended to make everything look greyish-blue.

The man beside her noticed her looking at the copse of trees.

“What are you looking at?” He asked, blue eyes twinkling as he smiled.

“Nothing,” she murmured, never once taking her eyes off the spot where she’d seen the movement.

“Come now. You can tell me.”

The girl cocked her head to one side. Then the pile of rags moved. Her mouth opened in a small “o” as something grey rose from the snow.

The grey man.

I woke up to Bro’s horrendous wailing in the bathroom. Blearily, I turned to look at my alarm clock. It was still early. I groaned, turning over to face the wall. Grey… Something grey had made me wake up. What was it again?

The more I struggled to remember, the less I could recall. It was deeply frustrating, and I gave up after a while.

*

Oh. Holy… I stared into the dark space in my locker. It seemed as if a small tornado had ravaged the space. Someone had sprayed ink all over the locker and my books were all soaked.

“Hey, Katherine, guess what? I…” Erica stopped abruptly as she saw the inside of my locker.

“Oh my god. What happened?”

“Someone did this… I have a good idea who.” I closed the locker and locked it, changing the combination. Curse Geoff. I felt like banging my hand into the locker beside mine, then though the better of it. First off, it would hurt quite a lot, and secondly, there was no point in damaging Alison Baker’s locker. Besides venting my anger, that is.

“Who?” Erica dogged my steps as I walked to the Physics block, where Ms Daniels’s classroom was located.

“Don’t you have Theatre to go to?” I asked, pointedly ignoring her question.

“Don’t change the topic. I asked you…”

“Erica! We’re going to be late for Theatre!” Someone yelled from behind me. I turned to see Sharron clutching a ridiculously feathery hat and hauling a big bag full of props. She flashed me a cheery grin.

“Sorry, Katherine, gotta go!” She grabbed hold of Erica’s arm and started pulling her along the corridor. Erica stood her ground, however. “You’re going to tell…”

“Please, Erica, Mr Slocan will skewer me if I’m late again.”

Erica frowned, shrugging. “Later, Katherine.”

I heaved a sigh of relief as the duo disappeared down the corridor.

*

“So, are you goofy?”

Goofy? “I beg your pardon?” I frowned as Anne sighed, exasperated.

“Ugh. You are in Snowboarding, oui ou non?”

“Oui,” I replied.

“Bien. At least I’m not talking to the wrong person.” Her hazel eyes narrowed. “So do you ride with your left or right leg in front?”

“I forgot.”

“You what?” She spluttered.

“Hey, take it easy on her.” A senior came over and sat on my desk. “Are you a freshman?”

She seemed friendly enough, or at least, she was smiling really widely. Her dark brown hair fell over her shoulders in a messy heap. She was wearing something quite distinctive. A black T-shirt with the slogan “Take the Mickey outta me!” imprinted on the front contrasted sharply with the colour of her skin.

I wondered why anyone would want to wear that shirt. “No,” I replied. “Do I look like a Freshman?” I enquired mildly.

“She’s in my year, Yelena,” Anne provided, rolling her eyes.

“Oh. Uh, sorry,” the tall, extremely pale girl muttered sheepishly. Then she brightened, saying, “Hey, so you were saying that you forgot whether you’re goofy or not?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. Do you feel more comfortable riding with your right foot in front?”

“I don’t know.”

Anne sighed at my reply, rolling her eyes at Yelena. The latter jumped off the table, motioning for me to get to my feet as well.

“Come.” She strode towards the door, looking back at me.

Frowning, I followed.

She grinned. “Now slide towards me.”

“What do you mean, slide towards you?”

“Just slide.”

“Which leg first?”

She banged her forehead with the back of her hand. “You weren’t supposed to ask that.”

“Oh.”

“It’s alright, I saw her take her first step with her right leg.” Another senior strode towards me. At least he looked like a senior, being rather tall.

“Oh yeah, Danvers? Yesterday, in AP Art, she took her first step with her left leg. She’s goofy,” Anne countered, crossing her long arms casually.

“She did so with her right two days ago in Biology.” Chris appeared beside me, handing me some papers. “Some forms from Ms Daniels. She always likes to know a bit about each student.”

I stared at the four of them, my mouth agape.

“Close your mouth before I stop resisting the urge to throw something into it,” Anne snapped.

“You’ve been spying on me these past few days?”

“Obviously.” Anne rolled her eyes.

“Because we’ve not not been spying on you. Duh.” The tall girl shrugged.

“Oh, stop doing that, Yelena.” Anne shot her an exasperated look.

“What? I’m not doing anything!” Yelena protested with a completely straight face.

“Excusez-moi? You’ve been…”

“Stop, guys.” Danvers said. “Um, gals.” He amended at Anne’s cocked eyebrow.

“What’s goofy?” I finally managed to ask.

“Good question.” Anne rolled her eyes. “I have one too: are you sure you’ve done snowboarding before?”

“A goofy-footed rider is someone who rides with their left leg behind. The rest are so-called “regular”, they ride with their right leg – their dominant leg – behind,” Chris answered.

“I still think she’s regular.” Danvers frowned at Anne.

“No way! She’s not…”

Yelena grimaced. “Let’s scram before things get more fiery.” She led me over to the desk I’d been sitting at.

“Fiery?” I muttered absent-mindedly as I scanned through the forms Chris had handed me. There was an entire page dedicated to what my favourite food, drink, colour, etc., was. I scanned through the page briefly. She wanted to know what my favourite cloud formation was? Did I hear Chris say that Ms Daniels wanted to know a bit about every student?

“They’re a fiery couple.”

“Really?”

“Anne’s French. Of course she’s fiery.”

I chuckled, rummaging in my bag for a pen.

I heard someone place a something on the desk. I glanced up to see Yelena grinning at me.

“Thanks.” I picked up the pen and started writing.

“Don’t thank me, thank Bethany.”

“Bethany? Oh.” I looked up to see her handing forms to some Freshmen a few tables away. She turned and winked at me.

“Bethany’s in snowboarding?”

“No, actually. She’s a skier.”

“Is Geoff in Winter sports too?” I cast my gaze around. He didn’t seem to be anywhere around.

“Uh huh.” She didn’t notice my frown. “And Ms Daniels’s here.” Yelena took the seat on my left.

I looked up to see a teacher with an athletic build walking towards the teacher’s table. Her light golden hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

“All right, people!”

I decided right then that I liked Ms Daniels. She had a voice that managed to make me think of fun, joy and laughter.

“We’re going to go through some safety precautions you’ll all have to take on the trips we’re organising this year. I know this’ll be boring for most of you, but please try not to speak too loud for the next five minutes.”

“She says that every year.” Chris dropped into the seat next to mine.

“Does she?” I returned the forms to him.

“Thanks.” He smiled.

“You’re welcome.”

“Anyway, we’re going on an unofficial trip to Summit Central this weekend. I know it’s a bit too early, there most probably won’t be too much snow, but it’s for newbies like you,” Anne announced, sitting on my desk.

“Yep. It’ll probably last the whole Saturday, though,” Danvers added.

“Andre? Anne? Are you bugging Ms Brown?” Ms Daniels called from the front of the classroom.

“It’s Danvers, Ms Daniels.” Danvers replied.

“No, we weren’t…” Anne began.

“She hasn’t heard my pep-talk before, unlike you, Anne.” Ms Daniels pointed out. “And Andre, you’re supposed to be President. Don’t distract Ms Brown.”

“Yes, Ms Daniels,” Danvers replied through gritted teeth.

*

“You’re going for the trip, right?” Yelena caught up to me as I reached the school gates.

“I don’t know…” I frowned.

“Well, we’ll be looking at some boards first, you know, buy some equipment. I hear Danvers found some cool stuff on sale or something. You have a board, right?” She peered down at me.

“Actually, no.”

“No?” She exploded. “How can you not? Snowboarding’s so fun! It’s…”

I missed out the last bit as something hit my back hard, knocking me forwards a few paces. It also forced my breath out of me.

“Ouch.” Yelena winced, supporting me and shooting a dark look over her shoulder.

“Sorry!” Someone hollered.

I turned to see a girl running towards us. Her long ponytail bobbed along as her feet pounded against the concrete ground. Was that Lynn playing baseball?

“I’m so so sorry. My friend told me to throw the ball a bit further, but I never thought it’d come this far. I’m… Katherine? Did it hurt? I’m so sorry!”

Yelena regarded the new arrival with raised eyebrows.

“Um, Yelena, this is Lynn Briare. She’s in my Art and US History class. Lynn, Yelena Devenish, from Winter Sports.”

“Pleased to meet you, Yelena.”

“And I, you.” Yelena’s lips curled up slightly at the corners. “Hey, are you playing baseball?”

Lynn flashed the ball that she’d been sent to retrieve in front of Yelena’s face. “Yep.”

“Count me in! Oh, um, maybe not today. Are you playing tomorrow?”

Lynn shook her head. “Every Tuesday afternoon. We play on Wednesdays sometimes. But it’s getting cold, so maybe we’ll stop for a while.”

“That’s great! Now I’ve gotta go, my bus’s coming!” Yelena dragged me out of the school.

“See you, Katherine, Yelena!” The girl waved, baseball in the air.

“Bye!”

-
I really hope you like your new name better. Does it beat Opal (Valona)?