Chapter 3 - Water, Fire, Metal, Blood and Masks

chapter two: Water, Fire, Metal, Blood and Masks

Beep! Beep! Beep! Jazmyn lifted up her head to look at Chii's alarm clock. It read 7:55. "Aww damn!" She jumped up went to her closet. "Chii-chan! wake up! We're gonna be late."

"Hm! Hm!" Laughed the girl in her sleep. "Yes I would love some fried tofu... You love my yukata, too Gaara-sama...?"

"CHII-CHAN!!" Jazmyn snapped. The girl jutted up and looked groggily at the girl. "Get up! Now!"

* * *

Their classes were together and most of the first year students were late. So Jazmyn was relieved that she wasn't in trouble. They stood in their gym uniforms as the coach began to speak. "This is intro to swim. Here you will learn how to kick, stroke, break correctly and other things. If anyone has a problem, please speak now." Jazmyn, like a few other girls, raised her hand. "What is it Miss Lun?"

"I can't swim." she replied. Everyone in class looked at her funny, or snickered. "I sink immediantly to the bottom."

The coach turned back to the class. He spoke clearly to them. "Is there anyone else who can't swim?" Two other girls raised their hands. One of them was Envi.

"Miss Lun, please step forward and stand here. " he pointed to a spot next to the pool. She walked out of line and did as she was told. "In this class. You will learn all the basics. Including..." He grabbed the collar of Jazmyn's gym shirt. "How to float." He tossed her in the deep end.

The girl screamed and in a large splash went in. After a few seconds, everyone noticed she hadn't surfaced. The bubbles stopped coming to the top of the water.

* * *

Jazmyn's head felt like it was going to explode. She felt her eyes burn when the chlorinated water pushed on her. Her arms flapped wildly bust she didn't move from the bottom of the pool. There was no more air in her lungs, and her body was pulling itself apart, tying to fin more oxygen.

Her eyes closed slowly. And she was out of it. Darkness, cold and painful. Then this overwhelming loneliness wripped into her. "Mama?! Where are you mama?! MAMA--?!!"

Her eyes opened and she was on the tiles breathing. She coughed up all the water in her lungs, Lying on her side for a few seconds. A blonde girl was in the pool. She looked at Jazmyn with relief, her blue eyes showing sincerety.

Envi knelt beside her, after making sure the girl was alright, She glared a the teacher. "She told you she'd sink!" she shouted. "What part of 'I can't swim, I sink immediantly' don't you understand?!"

"To the principals office! Both of you!" he snapped back.

"Fine. I hate this damn class anyways." said Envi, without a second thought. She turned to the blonde girl. "Thanks Els. I would've dived in myself, but you know."

"No prob." Els replied. She pushed off the wall and dove under the water. As she did, Jazmyn saw the girl's azul and pink mermaid tail. Envi pulled Jazmyn up.

"Come on." Envi glared at the teacher, mumbling vulgar words towards him.

* * *

"You okay?" asked Envi.

"I'm alive." Jazmyn replied.

They looked at the door, then entered. A secretary sat the desk typing away at a computer and looking over files. The woman looked up at them. "Ms. Dormotte will see you in a moment."

The small intercom on the secretary's desk turned on. "Who is it Fiona?"

"Rodunn and Lun, Ma'am." Fiona replied.

"Send them in." The Secretary waved them into the Dean's office. "So what did my little duckies do so early into the year?"

"The coach pushed Jazmyn into the pool, after she told him she couldn't swim." said Envi.

The Dean looked at Jazmyn. She was soaking wet in her gym uniform, her hair clinging to her body. She pressed the intercom button. "Fiona bring me a dry towel for Miss Lun please."

"Right away ma'am." A few minutes later the woman came in and handed the girl a school towel.

"And he laughed when she didn't surface." said Envi. "Was there any reason he'd resent her so much, that Coach Witeger would try and kill her?"

"Huh!" The Dean chewed on the end of her pencil. "Yeah, he hates your kind..." She looked at their quizzical looks. "Did you two not read the welcoming letter?" They shook their heads. "Ugh!" She reached in a folder and rummaged through the papers. She found Jazmyn Lun's welcoming letter. "Hello students. We are here by recognizing you as a student at Mercedes' Academy. We also see that your special gift and blood line lead you into a special class. This class is called the Shadow Division, and you have the choice of becoming a full fledged member of it. Look at the following attachment to look at your information." The Dean handed Envi then Jazmyn their letters. They flipped to the second pages and read on.

"Lun, Jazmyn. Age 15. Class: Nosfuratu." she read out loud. "I'm... a vampire?"

"I already know what I am." said Envi, crumpling up the letter and shoving it in her pocket. "That doesn't tell us why the coach hates us."

"He despises the Shadow Division. And thinks they shouldn't be here, and disband the students in the group." But the Dean smiled. "We shouldn't judge those we want to know more about. Right?" She went through her drawers and took out a dollar. "While you're up, Miss Lun, could you get me a Diet Coke?"

* * *

“You did what?!” asked the Coach.

"When one of my students says she can't swim, you don't drop her in wholeheartly." The Dean sipped her Diet coke through her bendy straw. "You know better then that Devon." She spun around the chair once, then looked back at the coach. "I'm done. You can go now." She waved her hand for him to leave. Coach Witerger gave her an angry look, but left her to her work. She was happily drinking her beverage.

"That was odd." said Mr. Naight. inezmusic.com

"Raugh!" she cried out suprised. She whiped her nose with a tissue and looked at him. "That burned you know. And were you spying on us the entire time?"

"He wants to disband the Shadow Division." Naight said, sitting down. He stood up abruptly, and looked at the chair. There was a dark spot on it. Water. "Oh, that's nice Dreamer."

"Yeah. The Lun girl was here today. Seems Witerger threw her in the pool." Dreamer sipped her drink and looked over at Naight. "She sat there."

"So what are you going to do?" he asked, moving to the other chair. "We've been having trouble with a few of the students within the SD."

Dreamer finished the coke, and tossed the can in a recycling bin. "These girls have nowhere else to go, so what the hell do we do?" She brushed her hair away from her eyes a moment but her bangs just fell back into the way they were. "It's not their fault at what they are. You can't choose your parents." She looked at the clock. "Aren't you going to be late for you class, Seigi-kun?"


* * *

Elen, Kaj, Envi, Chii and Jazmyn were in the same class (finally!) and were all excited for it. "Dark Defense and Combat Training 101." The class was taught by a Mr. Ian Naight, Who, as far as any of the girls had known, was new to the school entirely. A knock at the door, and it opened to a someone whose arms were full of papers and folders. A paper fell, he stepped on it and he was on the ground. Papers flew everywhere, and some of the students laughed.

Others got out of the seats and helped the man himself up. "Good Morning ladies."

Everyone stood on end when he said this. For the teacher, whom they had never met, was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. "Goodmorning Sir."

"Welcome to Dark Defense and Combat Training 101." he smiled. He took up a piece of chalk and wrote on the board. "My name is Ian Naight." He look at all the students. "There's 27 of you?"

"Yes." the responded in unison.

"Hm..." Mr. Naight looked around the room again, then at the room itself". "There isn't enough room. We're going outside."

* * *

"Okay." He exclaimed, stretching out his arms to the sky. "You're first assignment... Is eachother."

The girls looked around at one another. A brunette with silver eyes raised her hand. "I don't understand."

"Combat Training." He smiled, his amber eyes a glow. "I've already paired you up with your polar opposites. It's like a pre-test. You and your partner are given 5 minutes, and whoever runs out of energy first gets the lower grade." Mr. Naight began reading off the list. "Ah-Fong vs. Kajinyo." Kaj stepped forward out of the line. Her opponent was Miran Ah-fong. The girls stood next to the lake, Miran with her back to it, and Kaj across from her. "Here are the rules: No aiming at the eyes, or face. No biting. No knee kicking, or kicking in elbows. You may use as much Chi, Chakra or energy as needed." He put a whistle to his lips, and blew.

All the girls sat at least twenty feet from them, Mr. Naight standing in front. His arms crossed over his chest he watched the two girls. Jazmyn looked up at him for a moment, then turned back to Kaj and Miran. The first one to move was Miran...

* * *

Her hands outstretched, Miran caused a huge wave of water splash of Kaj. "Come on little Kaji! Show us what the Shadow Students are made of!!" she laughed.

"Shut up!" A burst of fire came from her finger tips, turning the water to steam. A long stream of fire form into a whip, and Kaj ran for her. Miran dodged her move, spinning aside from the strike. Miran's open hands pulled the water, causing it to freeze. Spears of ice rained down on Kaj. The hydrokinetic smiled and began walking towards her class. "Where are you going, Miran-baka?!" Kaj pushed a path in the ice, and stepped out in a cloud of steam. "You Halfnorms are so stupid."

Kaj stepped up into the clearing and the steam blew away from her. Her uniform was torn and she was bleeding. She looked at her open arm, sparks jutted from the blood and healed seconds later. A gust of wind blew around them, flapping Kaj's brown-red hair around her face. She flipped her head back, and in a flare of fire and sparks, her looks changed.

Her long hair was now short, colored scarlet red and orange. Her left eye was blue and her right eye was red. Kaj's skin had gone lighter, not lighter as in paller. Her skin was a pigment of grey, almost white. And tatoos decorated her all over... No, stitches all over her skin. Going horizontally around her arms, legs, neck. Her nails were black and sharp. Her eyes blinked, clearing out the fog. Then in a flash, she came at Miran. In another cloud of steam and fire, Miran was thrown into the lake.

Kaj walked to her spot next to Envi and Chii. With a flip of her hair, she looked normal again. Her odd brown eyes and her deep red hair. She saw Jazmyn's confused look and shot her a charming smile. Jazmyn looked as the next girls go up and wondered to herself, when it came for her turn... what would she do?

* * *

"Um... Sir?" asked Jazmyn, looking around. Most of the girls had already done their turn. Except her. "If there are 27 of us... and I'm the 27th... who do I fight?"

Mr. Naight looked at her sitting on the grass. Then up behind the class. "Your partner will be here." He said calmly. "Ah, here he is now."

"HE?!!" everyone uproared.

There ws a tug on her ponytail. Jazmyn looked behind her. "WTF?!!! YOU?!!"

With a sneer Chase let go of her ponytail. "Get up." was all he said. With her mouth open, and her eyes almost as big as her mouth, Jazmyn looked at mr Naight.

"Please tell me you're lying!" she exclaimed. She stood up and walked over to Mr. Naight. "He's a boy! And-- And--" Jazmyn stumbled as she tried to find another reason.

Mr. Naight gentle tapped his clipboard on the top of her head. "Chase here is working off a detention, and your class is uneven." He tapped her two more times, then leaned over and spoke to her in her ear. "Besides, this'll be a piece of cake. Nothing but a lover's spat."

"EWAH?!!" she shouted. 'He freaking knows about the festival?!' Mr. Naight pushed her forward. Jazmyn rolled her eyes, and dusting of the grass from her skirt she moved to the spot near the lake. She got into a fighting stance. Jazmyn saw Chase didn't bother to, he just stood up straight with his arms across his chest. Before she could say anything to him, he made a kissy face at her.

Mr. Naight blew the whistle. Chase disappeared. Jazmyn stood her ground. Some of the girls asked where he went, others tried to follow him with their eagle like eyes. Chii and Kaj looked at her, standing almost perfectly still. Possibly looking like a fool.

"What is she doing?!" whispered Els. "She'll get slaughtered if she just stands there!"

"Maybe she's a terrakinetic and she needs to concentrate?" asked Chii.

"Vampire." said Kaj and Envi.

Envi spoke up first. "The Dean told her this morning."

"Well she hasn't even honed her senses." said Kaj.

"Hyaah!" Chase punched her and she flew into the clearing. Jazmyn quickly stood up and readied herself for his second attack. It didn't seem he was holding back, and it didn't seem she was trying to block either. Finally, after the forth shot, the girl tried. But failed, and was hit in the side. There was a loud crack from her ribs. "Come on little girl! I didn't request you especially just to have you fail because you won't try!"

Jazmyn stood up. She rubbed her head and looked over at him. Jazmyn reached for her hair band and pulled it off. Her midnight hair flowin around her head. "Fine. I'll try not to kill you." she smiled. In a blur, Jazmyn was infront of him. Her body turned, and she tried to kick him. Chase flipped backwards, dodging her. Now, something had clicked, and both of them were moving in blurs. There were claps, and crashed as they made contact. The girls had trouble keeping up.

"Byakugan!" Chii used her eyes to search the open field. She spotted them. "They're up there!" She pointed to the top of some pine trees.

In a barrage of punches and kicks they exchanged blows.

Chase came at her. "MONKEY STRIKE!"

"REPEL THE MONKEY!!" She evaded his attack, but fell out the tree. She landed on her feet. Just as they were about to go at again, Mr. Naight blew the whistle.

"Time's up!" he shouted. Naight scribbled something down on the clip board. "Come on back you two."

Chase stood next to her, then held out his hand. "You did well." he said. Jazmyn didn't move to shake his hand. "Oh, one more thing." Chase's hand went down and then quickly, flipping up her skirt. She screamed and he laughed. "Pink! Ha!" Jazmyn tried to punch him, but he caught her fist. "Can I go now?"

"Yeah. We're done here." said Naight still writing on the clipboard. "I'll tell Maniac you served your detention already."

* * *

"Where did you learn that?" asked Chase.

"Learn what?" Jazmyn snapped back. "I got a goddamn C because you went all out!"

"Repel the monkey?" he asked again, more annoyed. "Where did you learn it?"

"I don't know. You were going to hit me in the face. So I just did what I thought was right--" His hand grabbed her arm. "OW! Let go!"

"I'll ask you again, Lun. Where. Did. You. Learn. Repel. The. Monkey?!" Chase's orange eyes looked at her, something deep inside him made her shiver.

SLAP! That girl had just slapped him.

He let go of her arm. She turned and ran from him, away from the darkness she saw in his eyes alone. Jazmyn shivered. As he watched her go, Chase felt his cheek. Her nail had cut him and she had drawn blood. Chase smiled. He had made a very good choice. A very good choice indeed.

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