from ashes , isaac lahey (ON HOLD)

004 | unblessed with humanity

CHAPTER FOUR : unblessed with humanity

( ice pick )

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     THE WORST PART ABOUT being injured, Shannon discovers, is the complete and utter boredom. While the rest of her peers are having fun scaling the rock-climbing wall in gym class, she's laying on her back on the floor because her dad decided to make her sit out on the activity. She's the only person in the room not wearing athletic gear — decked out in a pair of ill-fitting jeans and a t-shirt that's cropped just enough that the edge of the bandage stuck to her waist is ever-so-slightly visible. The doctors had removed her stitches the day before, after school, and said she was free to keep the bandages off, but she still decided to keep her abdomen covered for just a little longer — just in case. It was the worst of her multitude of injuries, after all.

     Danny's sitting, legs crisscrossed, on the ground next to Shannon, the two talking about absolutely nothing while they watch pair after pair try to tackle the wall. He and Jackson had been the first duo to climb, both of them making it up and back in record time due to their athletic prowess. Now, it's Scott and Allison's turn, and, as a shock to absolutely nobody, they're flirting more than actually working. That is, until, Scott suddenly shoots halfway up the wall and Allison promptly kicks his leg off its perch, making the boy fall to the ground. He only avoids landing flat on his back and winding himself because his harness stops him just in time. The class, including Shannon and the coach, burst into laughter, only amplified when Scott's harness gives out and he drops the extra foot down onto the mat below him.

     Through his giggles, the coach sits down on the edge of the plush mat to get closer to the teenage boy. "McCall, I don't know why, but your pain gives me a special kind of joy... Right?" He bursts into laughter again. "All right, next two! Julien, Erica, let's go! The wall."

     For a moment, there's no movement in the crowd, until Erica, a messy-haired blonde, slowly steps forward. Now that she's approaching the wall, Julien also begins to move towards it. It's in this moment that Shannon realises she really hasn't paid that much attention to her classmates outside of her regular group of friends, because she didn't even know that her lab partner, Jules, is actually a Julien.

     The girls both start their attempt at the wall. While Jules' try is shaky, she actually manages to make it up and back down the climbing frame pretty quickly, while in the same amount of time, Erica only makes it about a quarter of the way. The blonde grips the hand-holds tightly, loudly hyperventilating, all the while, Jules is releasing herself from her harness.

     "Oh, please—" Erica manages out through broken sobs.

     The class crowds around the edge of the mat as the coach clambers over to the base of the wall. Danny jumps to his feet and offers his hand to Shannon to help her up.