Chapter 22: Chapter 17 – Trending

As school ended, I made my way to the upper gym's locker room. At first there were other girls there but as they finished changing, it soon emptied out and became eerily quiet. It made me more nervous than it should have. I blamed my love for scary movies. Pictures of psycho killers played in my head as I quickly changed into the spandex shorts and crop top that I used for my workouts. Once dressed, I went to the taekwondo gym. When I walked in, Carl was shifting around props. I hadn't expected anything much less several small crates, a chair from a classroom, and a box filled with small blocks. “I see that you’ve been busy,” I said as I took it all in.

“Well, I wanted to get as much done today as I could because I didn’t think you’d model for me again.” He didn’t stop moving as he replied. Instead, he just continued to set up the video camera and lights before waving me into position. As I did, he picked up a regular camera and said, “Ok, to start I just need you to walk from this point to that piece of tape.” He pointed to a spot on the floor and there was indeed a piece of tape I hadn't noticed. “In the game, you are a bad ass, so try to walk like you're going to kill somebody.”

I nodded, stood in the spot, and thought about it. Did I ever want to kill somebody? One of my mom’s bosses immediately came to mind. He had tried forcing her. I found her crying at home, her clothing torn, and I was halfway out the door to crush his skull before my mom pulled me back and started pleading with me to not do anything stupid. I imagined he was at piece of tape. He was my target, and my eyes grew cold. I heard the shutter clicking rapidly as I walked over. My muscles were taunt, my weight distributed so I could pounce on my target at any time, and my hands clenched and unclenched as if I was trying to decide on strangling or punching my target.

“That’s perfect, but can you do it again while holding this?” He rummaged through the box and took out a block of wood that was shaped like a gun handle, but it was missing the top section. The only purpose I could think of for it was to force my hand into the right position.

I gripped the polished wood and imagined it was the spot was the door to his office and walked over. My arm holding the fake gun was ready to pull and fire if he stepped out. Once Carl was happy with my performance, he gave me a wooden sword hilt and had me repeat the process. But it wasn’t just walking. I had to dash, roll, and jump while he clicked away. His "Good", "That's perfect", That's the look I want!" filled the room as I followed his orders. He let me rest as he pulled the crates to where he wanted them. They were sturdy enough that they could hold my ninety pounds and after climbing up he started issuing orders again.

I had to leap from crate to crate, crate to floor, and pose as if I was going to leap onto somebody below. Then he had me use the chair. From sitting on it in different ways to using it like a perch, with my knee on it as if I was going to snipe somebody. He wasn’t idle either and moved around to take pictures of me at different angles. Between all that, I used my knowledge of boxing, taekwondo, and street fights to simulate fighting actions.

The only problem I ran into was during the final picture. He had me laying on the floor “dying” and staring lovingly at a green ball he had suspended using a tripod and stick. The problem was I've never been in love and couldn't seem to make the right face. He tried helping by saying things like, "Imagine the ball as the boy you like" and "Do you have a favorite actor? Imagine the ball is him" but without having anything to draw on his advice fell on deaf ears.

I think he finally gave up, because he finally said, "Ok, this picture will do" after my last attempt. But while he was happy with the results, I felt like an idiot. Seriously, having anybody look lovingly at an inanimate object is just weird. At least it was over. It had taken over two hours before we were finally done. And except for the final picture, he praised me during the photoshoot. It wasn't just once or twice either. But instead of reassuring me, he just made me feel awkward and when he finally said he was done, I almost ran out of the room. I wanted to leave that badly.

I went to get my backpack from my locker. I didn’t plan on changing since I was going to run back. But as I walked in, my steps echoed through the empty room. I didn’t like how quiet it was and grabbed my stuff as quickly as I could. Relieved, and with my bag in hand I headed out. But I only took a few steps when I heard a click and the door to the office that separated the two locker rooms opened. I heard Mr. Rodgers’ voice before I saw him, “Stephanie, can we talk?”

When I heard him, everything we did that night came rushing back and I relived all the pain I felt, all the humiliating things I did, and I took a step back. Logically, I knew it wasn't his fault, but I still judged my chances of making it to the exit as if at any moment he'd attack me. I stood frozen, unsure if I should bolt or not. My mind knew he was harmless, but my body wanted to get as far away from him as possible. It was such a random reaction that I simply froze in place as he watched me being a fool. He didn't step out of the office but said, “Look Steph, about that night. I’m sorry but you were on ‘Bliss’. If I hadn’t done what I did, you would have ended up in a coma or worse. It doesn’t make it right and I'm not making excuses, but I can see you're upset. Although I can’t give you much of an option, I can switch classes for you if you want.”

I nodded before even thinking about it. Then cursed myself for being weak. I was tougher than this! I forced myself to calm down only to realize he had stepped back into the room while I was spacing out. Taking the opportunity, I inched toward the exit but that meant being closer to the office. I made it four steps before he came back out and his sudden reappearance made me jump.

“I called in a favor with Ms. Mirth, and you are now signed up for dance. I know you already took it, but she told me she’d teach you different ones from last time, so you won’t get bored.” He didn’t step any closer and when he saw I was listening continued, “It’s in room 341 and you’ll need a leotard and shorts like last time.”

He didn’t wait for my reply, not that I was going to make one, but stepped back and closed the door. Having the door as a barrier seemed to help but I still ran out of the room while staying as far from it as I could. I know I was being a coward but as I ran down the stairs and outside, I felt much better. The air felt fresher. After glancing behind me to make sure I was alone, I set the pace for my jog home. As I jogged by the high school sign, I saw the two delinquents, that attacked me before, stepping out from behind it. “Ah, if it isn’t the little mouse that ran away.” Like last time, the one with bright red hair started talking first. His snide comment seemed to set me off. I needed an outlet and these two just volunteered.

I smiled and mockingly said, “if it isn’t the rainbow squad. You boys lost or looking for trouble?” and then as quietly as I could, I cast ‘Puppeteer’. But being quiet didn’t mean they were blind. It just gave me a head start because once they saw me cast, they followed suit.

The red-haired kid did the same spell as last time and his skin became metal. It was the other one with the long festive purple hair that had a new trick. I conjured a dozen strings and attached them to the purple haired boy before I heard him say "vertigo" and my world wobbled. I couldn’t tell what was up or down and knew I was in trouble. I mentally controlled the strings as I tried getting out of the way of the kid, I knew was coming at me. My order for the purpled haired youth to turn around broke his spell but not in time for me to dodge the fist that slammed into my chest. I hit the asphalt as I heard the purple haired boy yelling, “I can’t move. I can’t see her to focus my spells. Did you get her?”

I felt a sting my flesh hit the rough pavement and felt the spell I was holding weaken. Still, my world stabilized, and I saw the red-haired boy smiled down at me as he replied, “Yeah, smacked her like a bitch.”

I wheezed out my next spell and shot a bolt of fire into his smiling face. He let a shocked “Ayyyy” and covered his eyes. I didn’t think it’d hurt him but while he was blinded, I rolled to the side and tried to catch my breath. I didn’t think anything was broken. That surprised me since I just got hit by a steel fist. I maintained the puppet spell but just kept him locked in place. The ‘Puppeteer’ spell felt too fragile as if any order that moved him would cause the strings to break apart. I knew it was me. That I wasn’t good enough to give him orders while fighting another person.

Metal boy lowered his hands. I was right. It didn’t hurt him but left black burn marks around his eyes that made it look like he was wearing makeup. I chuckled and said, “That’s a good look for you.” I shouldn’t have wasted my breath on taunting him. I could have cast something but where’s the fun in that. Instead, I repositioned myself into the shadows ready to run if he had another trick up his sleeve. He didn’t. He charged me like a bull. What an idiot. I waited for as long as I could and then stepped into the shadow. When I stepped out, I heard a clang as blue light flashed behind me. He had run full speed into the rock I had been standing by so I could use its shadow. Because it was holding up the school sign, it was under the protection grid, and he suffered the retaliation as if he had intentionally attacked it.

He wasn’t knocked out, but he was on the ground shaking his head. I took this time to rush up behind the boy I was holding in place and started hitting him in areas I knew would hurt. I hit the softer areas because I knew this body didn't have the strength my old one did. Even so, I wailed on his kidneys and tailbone hoping to cause him the maximum amount of pain I could. His cries as I landed blow after blow told me my aim was true. I worked his lower back like I was hitting a punching bag. I vented out my anger and feelings of helplessness that I had forced deep inside me. With a roar (more like a girly shriek), I kicked the back of his knee sending him sprawling. Even when he fell, I made sure I was always in his blind spot so he couldn’t use his powers.

With a final stomp on his back, I turned back to the red-haired boy and started casting ‘Herculean Strength’. It, like ‘Puppeteer’, took a lot longer to cast than the level one and two spells I had. It was why I hadn’t cast it after the puppet spell. With both boys sprawled on the ground, I now had time. It was just that they were helpless. Even the kid in metal had a dent near his temple, showing how hard he hit the rock. I looked at their bettered forms and couldn't bring myself to attack them. I stopped casting and turned to leave with a threat of, “Whatever, stop bothering me or I will peel away that metal skin of yours like you're a grape.”

They were still laying there as I started jogging home. I got a few blocks before I even realized I was bleeding. As the adrenaline faded, my leg began to sting and when I looked down, I saw that a patch of skin on my knee was missing. It had to have when I fell.

I wasn’t upset. Instead, I happily went to the side and cast ‘Mending’. Beating up two hoodlums had lightened my mood and I wanted to see what a level one healing spell could do. As I finished, the area I was focusing on glowed white, and my healing accelerated. It was like I was watching a time lapse film and new skin grew back in an instant. It was just that what grew back wasn’t the same color. It was paler from not being exposed to the sun and was easy to notice. Still, for a level one spell it worked well; it was just limited to closing wounds. Anything internal couldn’t be fixed by it.

I cast some of the spells I normally didn't cast as I made my way home. I had realized since I baby sat, that the more I used my spells the more powerful they became. Because I used 'Dynamic Neogenesis' every day, I could now produce two needles on any of my fingers. It drew more magic but worked twice as fast. 'Dynamic Neogenesis' upgrading made me realize that while sparring might help me use the spells better, I was still fumbling my way through casting my spells and that most of them still manifested in their most basic form. But if continuous casting worked for one spell, it should work for others. The one advantage I had in this world was that I seemed to have unlimited energy, so I might as well use it to become stronger and maybe some of the more useless spells would show their might. Otherwise, I couldn't imagine how creating a gallon or two of water would help me stay alive.

With that in mind I decided to adjust my workout routine. I cast ‘Herculean Strength’ and then 'Stone Skin'. Unlike the other times I cast it, my skin looked smooth, making me resemble a moving marble statue compared to a girl that fell in the mud. I just wasn't sure if that was because of the rocks I stuffed into my backpack's side pocket or getting the same spell twice.

I maintained those two spells as I jogged through the streets. While running I kept alternating between Create Water, Generate Air, and Water Shield spells. It was the first time I cast Generate Air and Water Shield, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. Water shield created a shield that attached to my left arm, its thickness seemed to vary on how much water was in the area. It didn't look practical the way it jiggled every time my feet hit the ground though. The 'Generate Air' just reduced my need to breathe.

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For now, continuous casting should be enough, but I hadn't forgotten what my mom said about sparring. I had part of a plan for that. I had twelve spells now, but only two did damage. If I didn’t cast ‘Herculean Strength’ or ‘Fire Bolt’ perhaps I could find a sparring partner. There had to be people like my mom that specialized in non-attack spells. The trick would be to find somebody with similar strength. I should have thought of it earlier. My day was looking up and I was humming happily as I walked into our apartment. My victory had made me realize I wasn't helpless anymore.

My mom was eating at the table and looked up as I walked in. She went to get up to get me a plate, but I hurriedly stopped her, “No, I can get it. You’ve worked all day.”

“You seem happy. Did your photo shoot go well then?”

“It was a lot more involved than I thought it would be but yeah, it went well.” I didn’t tell her about the bullies. Why worry her over trash? I grabbed a plate and sat down, and we talked about our day. I think we both left out all the bad things. I know I did. We both ate dinner while enjoyed time together. It wasn’t until we were cleaning up that I received texts from Victoria.

Victoria: [OMG, check Twitter. You’re on the hot search!]

I quickly finished cleaning up and went to my room before replying. Me: [I’m going on now. What happened?] I was worried as images of all the bad things I’ve done since I got here flashed through my head.

My computer was booted, and I was logging into Twitter by the time she replied, [Click #TinyDoll_vs_Monster]

It was the six one down in the Explore tab, so it wasn’t hard to find. I clicked on it and several video boxes showed a snarling gargoyle coming through the top of our bus. Since it was frozen mid-snarl, it looked ferocious. Its sharp teeth and claws were outlined in blue from the protection shield making them stand out even more.

I clicked the first video and watched as the gargoyle came through, crashed, and me engaging it. From me hitting it, to me being slammed to the back, it played out like I remembered. It wasn’t until the very end that I saw something I didn't see before. Dozens of magical attacks rained down on its back. They came from the front of the bus, but it was hard to see who did what because the camera kept shaking. The second video was superior in quality. It was steady and captured everything in much better detail. Because of that, I saw that the attacks shot into the back of the gargoyle failed to penetrate its thick, stony hide.

I read through the comments and noticed that my name wasn’t mentioned, but #GreenValleyHigh was in the hashtags. I read a bunch of comments and was enjoying ones like ‘OMG #GirlBoss totally wrecked that thing’, ‘She’s like an action hero!’, and ‘She’s so brave. Hope she’s ok.’ But then the comments took a turn and ones like ‘Bro! that thing hit her like a freight train’, 'Did you see her distorted face when she was hit? too funny [Picture] [Picture]', ‘are the seniors so tiny now?’, ‘this is so fake! Look how tiny she is compared to that gargoyle’, and ‘It’s probably staged using dark illusion magic’.

The further down I read, the more negative the comments became until I finally closed Twitter, sent a message to Victoria, [Why are they so focused on my height? Ugh so angry!] and then began searching for information on what Mr. Rodgers had said today.

I searched for information on the drug known as Bliss. It wasn’t that I thought Mr. Rodgers was lying. His words and tone all showed he cared; it was just that he kept getting hard around me that made me think he might have had other options. What I did on the drug was something I was trying to ignore, and I wouldn’t have even looked if I didn’t have a half-used patch with the drug in it sitting in my closet.

What I found chilled me to the bones. The articles led off with pictures of mutilated women. Their skin was clawed to ribbons, eyes gouged out, and they looked withered. I read through the first article and found the main point; Bliss was a super charged aphrodisiac. It made the women who took it feel pure bliss. Even the most traumatic injuries could make them climax with ease. There were even pictures of women with missing limbs. They had somehow managed to cut off them off in their frenzied states. This was because if anybody abstained from sex, the effects of the drug would continue to grow until they either gave in or lost her mind trying to resist.

Because of that, it has become a preferred date rape drug for people that liked to cause others pain. Because of its horrible nature, the city has been cracking down. People caught with it would receive longer jail times and have their property seized. It had limited the supply so there were less cases but the ones that remained were horrifying. It was only after reading the articles that I knew how much trouble I had been in. It scared me. That man had been so brazen, as if he didn't have to worry about the police. To even have such a horrible drug showed he was a lowlife.

My phone dinged as Victoria’s reply of [don’t be mad. Look how famous you are!] came in and distracted me from my thoughts.

I quickly replied, [I’m too weak to be famous. What if someone tracks me down to prove themselves?]

[Lol, you watch too many movies. Besides you aren’t alone. You have us.]

I smiled and replied, [That’s true. You can be my bodyguard!]

[That’ll be fun ;) ]

I took out my homework as I sent her a message, [do you know anybody that had a decent selection of non-lethal spells? I want to spar]. Once I sent it, I focused on what I should be doing. It wasn’t early and I needed to get my homework done. My phone went off a few times while I was busy. When I finally finished, it was after ten. I glanced at my phone to see what Victoria replied but I saw Ann's text above Victoria's.

Ann, [I know it’s late, but I finally managed to get you a new charm. I’ll give it to you tomorrow]

Victoria, [I know a few that focus on defensive spells but I'm not sure how sparring using just them would work]

I replied to Ann with a simple [OK, see you tomorrow] and then sent Victoria, [Good point, I was thinking of something like the game 'TAG'] and then went to get ready for bed. I wasn't too worried about sparring but figured I might as well look. For now, I would work on my idea of strengthening my spells and adding what the school had taught me to them.

Happy, I got into bed and began my nightly routine of healing my skin and checking my body before falling asleep. My probing fingers didn't hit any barrier and so far, three days of using 'Dynamic Neogenesis' at double power had not caused my hymen to grow back.

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