Unforeseen¹

Chapter 19- Kicking ass

January 18th, 2015

It was a typical, monotonous afternoon in New York, and Jayden mindlessly peered at the murky city through the rain-streaked window. The luminescence of street lights, advertisements, and buildings blurred together through the raindrops that decorated the frigid and misty glass.

She turned her attention to above, where the sky was a dreary grey, lifeless and insipid. Any buoyant colour that tried to bloom against the achromic plane was quickly snuffed out before it could even begin to blossom. 

Today, there was no hope for any bright hues to prevail, as even the blazing sun was shrouded away. In some way, she thought it reflected the city's mood itself, as not many people enjoyed January. It was cold, miserable, and wet; the holidays had passed like a wave, washing all the excitement of Christmas and the New Year away to unreachable depths.

She sighed and gripped her red school bag tighter to her chest; its rough material was wet and cold against her body, but she didn't take much notice. It was the only way she could contain her excitement. Contradictory to the gloomy weather that cursed the day, she was rather blithesome about getting home. Tony had finally given in to her persistent begging to join her as Iron Man in training to use his new practice holograms.

Her health was finally as it should be. Doctor Doirs had finally given her the all-clear: her weight was the same as any other snotty-nosed child, she was fully up to date with vaccinations, and for what felt like the first time in her life, the benefits of having a second heart had finally come out to shine. Her heightened strength and speed appeared so suddenly that it gave her and her classmates a bit of a shock when she bested the school's obstacle course record by almost a minute.

It wasn't just her body's performance. She felt like she had a firmer hand on her abilities than ever before; the force field that once exhausted her to the point of giving up was now as easy to keep up as it was to run. All it took was thinking of a powerful memory or feeling, and it was stronger than bulletproof glass.

Her improvements made her Conjuncta jealous, to where he actively sought to be part of her training sessions. Without realising it, he started to improve too, as now he could switch forms swifter and hold larger forms like Sully for longer than ten seconds.

Unfortunately, not everything could be good news. Nightmares had become much more rampant, and she would wake up at least twice a night with a tortured cry on her lips. It became so bad that she hadn't had a night in weeks where she didn't have Tony or Pepper stay with her until she drifted into an unsettling sleep.

Some were about the EPE room, others were about FN, but most were about Curls. The guilt of having a happy, unspoiled life without her had taken the form of a devouring monster and wouldn't leave her alone. In vain, she tried to battle against it by continuing to learn dance. It was hard, and progress was painfully slow, but it distracted her for a short time, and she had a small peace of mind that she was keeping her promise.

Blaring honks from a few cars behind made her jump in her seat; happy, in the driver's seat, cursed under his breath, and Theo, in what Jayden liked to call his baby seat, scowled with irritation.

"Stupid afternoon traffic."

"Shush, Thee-baby, it's only noise," Jayden cooed as a smirk wormed its way onto her face. "How about a lullaby?"

Using his Fluffball tail, he whacked her, hitting her in the face. She spluttered as some of his fur ended up in her mouth.

"Uncalled for," she scowled before angrily opening her bag and retrieving her reading book. "Now, shush, and let me read."