Starbound

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Katia

It was my senior year.

Which meant late nights, more parties than I could stand, and in general, a whole lot of goofing off before having to make life decisions about my future.

Claudia and Harper excelled at all of the above. Claudia, our cheerleading squad captain, had skin that looked California tan all year, a Marilyn Monroe beauty mark, and ovaries the size of coconuts. She was not afraid to do or say whatever was on her mind, which quiet often was inappropriate and probably offensive to most.

I don't know why we were friends.

Harper was a blonde bombshell, smart and funny too. A triple threat, she had Hollywood written all over her. Harper wanted to see her name in lights, but that would never happen in small-town Vermillion.

Neither of my closest friends were anything like me-a nixie-nor did they know what I was. I liked to think of myself as more of Glenda the good nixie versus the other alternative. There were definitely both sides of the coin-black magick and white magick. I had never met anyone who practiced the latter. Never wanted to either.

Magick always had a way of balancing the scales, and I didn't want to test those boundaries. And honestly, I wasn't all that great at being a nixie. I kind of sucked at it. Unreal, I know. As far as skills went, mine were virtually useless.

If any of my friends thought I was something other than normal, they never said. I think the people of our small town were used to the strange. Vermillion had always been home to nixiecraft, and there was plenty of goddess blood in our school, including the jerkwad Seth.

At one time we all used to hang out and do magick. The five of us had been a full circle, but that was eons ago. Now we avoided each other like the bubonic plague and had gone our separate ways, or maybe it was just me that had left. Not that I stalked him or anything, but I was pretty sure Seth and the others were still friends, including the hoodrat Elena. She always had her hands on him.

Not that I cared or kept tabs...

Who was I kidding?

For reasons unbeknownst to me, I did care, even when I tried to convince myself I didn't. Being at the top of the social chain, I heard the rumors about Seth and the others. They didn't exactly try to blend as I had, or hide that they were different. Of course, it didn't help that some of them dressed like they were part of a cult. The freak Elena's entire wardrobe was black, and she wore enough eyeliner to rival Kiss.

I had refined the art of blending. The most rebellious thing I'd ever done was add pink highlights to my hair. It hadn't lasted long, but that didn't mean I was a good girl. Far from it. Lately, my life was spiraling into nothing but trouble. Sure, I looked like the good girl next door who got away with murder, but looks were deceiving. There was a price for being popular.

And I was tired of keeping up the charade. I was tired of being something I wasn't. I was tired of denying who I was.

In a way, I envied Seth and the others.

They hadn't lost who they were. They had stayed true to their gifts. I was the one who was lost.

Not that Seth wasn't trouble with a capital T.

He definitely looked dangerous, like someone you didn't want to mess with unless you were looking for a good ass beating, but he also had this endearing protective streak. He had a way of making the people he cared about feel safe.