Blood Feather

Welcome

Feather bends down and picks up the flower, balancing it on her flat palm. "How nostalgic. It was only yesterday that something like this happened." And it changed her world.

"Any ideas who it's from?" Feather turns to Doe, who frowns at the origami daisy. She leans towards it and sniffs gingerly, and wrinkles her nose.

"Smells disgusting."

"Meaning?"

"It's Moose."

"That's some grudge you have against him. Er-" Feather quickly changes the conversation at Doe's glare. "So do you think he knows everything?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. He's taunting us." She growls and stares Feather down. "I'll handle him, and whatever you do, stay away from him."

"Why do you hate him so much?" Somewhere deep down, Feather could see sadness lurking behind the hatred.

"He's poison. That's all you need to know." She shoves the flower at Feather and strides quickly away down the hall, disappearing quickly.

Feather sighs, upset with herself for not watching her words more carefully. She sets the daisy on the bed, and now that her hair is dry, she puts her spare uniform on. Then she carefully picks the contact off the daisy and heads down the hall in the opposite direction, to the girl's shower room.

The water rushes down with the sound of a small waterfall in the large sink, splashing onto Feather's hands as she rinses the soap off. Then she takes her foot off the bar and the stream stops, so she can disinfect her contact by rubbing it between her palms with a few drops of with the contact cleaning solution, underneath her bed with the rest of the school supplies. It's actually quite frightening how they knew about her contact lens, but if Doe's right, then they've might have known her for quite a while, but for how long? Five years? A decade? Since before she was even born? She looks up into the ornamental oval mirror and stares at herself, looking at every feather, even inch of her face. Especially at her own startling violet eyes. She usually never look so directly in her detested, odd eye colour, but now they hold a different meaning for her. She leans in closer to the mirror for a better look at all the details of her eyes, at the strangely captivating eyes that looked like they belong to a stranger, but suddenly notices someone else being reflected in the mirror.

Startled, she whips around with a pounding heart and sees Moose leaning against the door with his arms crossed and a wayward grin on his face.

"Hi there, it's been a while." He greets.

Feather rushes to cover up her eyes, but stops halfway with the thought, he's already seen them. She glares at him fiercely, but he doesn't shrink away or show any signs of backing off. They hold a staring contest for a moment, but then he sighs, holding up his hands in a peaceful gesture.

"Calm down, I'm not here to fight you."

Feather pops the contacts into her eyes, blinking rapidly to set them in. "Then what do you want?" She asks, extremely annoyed and frustrated with herself for being discovered so quickly.

"A date." He grins, dimples showing.

"Not happening." She scoffs, rubbing her eyebrow to make her eye feel more comfortable with the contact, and then slips the contact cleaner into her skirt pocket.

"Okay then." He shrugs and takes a deep breath and begins to shout. "Hey everyone!! There's a new student from the local community who has purple-"

Feather wildly dashes forward, tackling Moose and covering her mouth with her hand as he falls back on the door.

He grins and his eyes crinkle with smiling wrinkles. Something warm, wet and hard slithers on her palm.

"Ew!!" Feather shrieks, immediately wiping the disgusting spit on her skirt while her face twists in disgust.

"So about the date-" He begins.

"Fine! Whatever keeps your mouth shut!" Feather rants desperately, silently apologising to Doe over and over again in her head and praying that she won't be locked out of their bedroom tonight.

"Great!" A brilliant smile nearly blinds Feather as he drags her along and down the hallway in the opposite direction of where Doe went. He opens the nearest window and picks Feather up. She struggles to get out, arms and legs flapping wildly, fearing what is about to happen next.

"It's the freaking third floor! If you jump, you might kill both of us!!!" She shrieks.

"You worry too much." He laughs freely as he climbs on to the ledge, and takes a leap.

Feather desperately clings to his neck, her voice refusing to even come out due to her terror. Her entire body could feel the full force of falling, and did she ever mention that she has acrophobia and a fear of falling? Her stomach takes a few flips and somersaults, until they finally land on the ground a few seconds later. Seconds that lasted for far too long.eyed boy rubs her back, in an attempt to help and it does. She eventually does calm down and her body stops trying to empty her stomach of the breakfast she had that morning. She takes a deep breath in and out, and stands up to brush herself off.

"Better now?" Moose asks with genuine concern on his face, or perhaps it's acting disguised well as realism.

"In one way." She replies, looking around at the dark area, shadowed by the forest on the opposite side of the entrance of the dorm. What did he take me here for? She thinks suspiciously.

"That's great!" He laughs in relief and takes her hand, pulling her to the path facing away from the front of the dorms.

"Woah- hey- slow down!!" She cries as he pulls her along, laughing carelessly as the wind begins to pick up. He keeps pulling her along until they reach a stone wall that separates the school from the outside.

"Okay, let's jump." Moose crouches down, his eyes stare at the top of the wall as he readies himself to jump.

"Excuse me!?" Feather stares at him in disbelief. "You can't possibly expect me to jump over that thing!" She point her index finger at the twelve feet tall stone wall.

He straightens up and smiles brightly at her, and she immediately responds by backing away.

"What are you doing? Stay away!" He quickly scoops her up and leaps over the wall with her shrieking in his ear.

He lands and quickly drops her against the wall. Feather leans against the wall for support while putting her hand on her rapidly beating heart.

"What the heck was that?" She lashes out while panicking. "That- that wasn't even humanely possible! You'd have to be training for the Olympics or something to pull off that stunt and- are you training for the Olympics?"

He shakes his head and her mouth drops open. "What- that-how-" she sputters.

Moose laughs and runs his hand through his messy hair. "This is a place where people dispel their disbeliefs and welcome a new world. Just accept it for what it is, Miss Mystery Fanatic." he grins and spreads his arms wide.

"Ah that's right, I almost forgot. Welcome to Michael Junior High." The wind rustles through the fluttering leaves on their branches growing on the trees lining the road.

Feather blinks, uncertain of how to react. Slowly, hesitantly, but surely, a smile creeps across her face. "Yes, I guess I am really here."

At this strange, dreamlike place.