WHEN THE DARKNESS COMES I NICK CLARK

Girl Versus Nature

Girl Versus Nature

Lourdes leaned her head against her hand, watching as her father held court, pacing in front of the blackboard like he was a rock-star onstage. But his words washed over her like rain, her attention wandering, taking her to places she didn't want to go. Nick had remained in the hospital, the doctors refusing to discharge him. Lourdes hadn't visited him last night with the others, unable to face him after what she had experienced at the church.

Instead Lourdes had hidden herself away in her room, mind in turmoil. Even as she ignored Tobias's texts, she had contemplated calling her mother, even Chris, before deciding against it, not wishing to drag them into her darkness. As she'd lain in bed, her arm slung across her forehead, Lourdes had now known how Nick felt; on the outside, looking in, envious of those ignorant of what stalked the shadows.

Today had been no better; with Madison still mad at her, Travis too, whilst Alicia was pale and withdrawn, snapping at Lourdes for so much as looking at her. She knew Alicia had hypocritically come back late last night, the slam of her bedroom door announcing her angry return, and this morning, she'd been glued to her cell, making calls nobody answered and sending texts that received no reply, the sleeve of her bomber jacket riding up each time, revealing a vividly black-inked vortex on her wrist.

All the signs pointed to there being trouble in paradise between Alicia and the boyfriend, not that Lourdes really cared. But even she had to admit she was surprised since Alicia and Matt seemed to have the textbook teen romance. They ruled the school social scene together, somehow succeeding at being popular and perfect without pissing people off, a world away from Lourdes's own isolation. But would happen to their relationship when Alicia left for UC Berkeley was anybody's guess, Lourdes only knowing she was going to be trailing after Alicia as always, the two of them having been accepted into the same college, making Lourdes pray the campus was big enough for both of them.

Madison thought it was wonderful they were going to be studying in the same place, something Lourdes and Alicia loudly and vocally disagreed with, but it was too late, the damage was done, with scholarships won and accommodation already arranged. Yet it kept ticcing in Lourdes's mind that there would be no college, no escape, no nothing. The world was coming to an end, and with it, everything she knew.

"Lourdes!"

She started violently, only to find herself face to face with her father, his eyebrows raised. "What is it?" she muttered, picking up her pen.

"Enlighten us," Travis said simply, straightening up, "and put it away Paul," he fired at a Hispanic boy by the window, "you're in class, not recess." Paul sighed dramatically before stowing his cell away, face mutinous.

Lourdes glanced around the classroom, taking in the empty chairs outnumbering her classmates, her gaze then falling upon the blackboard, barely seeing the words her father had scrawled upon its surface. How could he stand there, acting as if everything was alright, like life wasn't being literally ripped apart right in front of his eyes?

"It's about man versus nature," Lourdes said slowly, half remembering what Travis had been talking about; the call of the wild and the defiant act of building a fire, the meaning of its subliminal imagery. "Jack London's trying to teach us about how not to die," she continued, her voice gaining strength, involuntarily remembering Nick's pale face and wild eyes, "that even as natures wins, we have to endure against the odds."

Travis looked at her for a long moment, almost as though she were a stranger, before recovering himself. "Precisely," he said, before careering around the classroom once more, gesticulating wildly as he extolled the virtues of Jack London's soliloquy on survival, Lourdes watching him go, before sinking back into oblivion again.