Do As I Say

Chapter Two

On her way to school Cree passed exactly sixteen rats, thirteen tires, and eleven people. Counting the things she saw as she walked helped Cree forget about the absolute annoyance she would have to put up with from her other classmates.

They're only children, she told herself that grim, cloudy morning, they don't realize how screwed up Finn's Drop is, so they concern themselves with trivial things.

The moment she stepped in the schoolyard Cree wanted to go home. All eighteen kids from her class scrambled to the gate to see who it was.

"Well, if it isn't Freaky Creaky! Where're your filthy Ghoul friends? Huh?" Opal Grasswarper sneered at Cree, her fat nose nearly poking Cree's forehead.

"Screw off, Opal." Cree muttered and brushed past the beefy girl.

"Not my fault you're friends with them monsters!" Opal shouted after her, face twisting with a repulsing grin.

Cree stopped, fists curling into balls. No one had ever annoyed Cree as much as Opal Grasswarper. The way she swaggered around the schoolyard with her too-big head and puffy nose whilst kicking at all the littler kids' heels drove Cree mad. How could she act so egotistical living in the ruins they all lived in? No one should be above each other here; at least that's what Cree believed.

She turned and stared blankly at Opal, eyes narrowing into slits. "Not all of them are monsters."

Opal fake gasped and the kids around her tittered with snickers, "Oh jeepers! Freaky Creaky's talking! It's too bad you're standing up for the beasts that killed you're stupid mum."

The cool façade Cree had worked so hard to maintain cracked, just for a moment, and instead of lashing out and beating Opal until her thick skin shined red something very peculiar happened.

A sudden calming and yet unnerving chill swept over Cree and she spoke slowly, quietly.

"Don't you ever...ever talk dirt about my family again." She whispered, her voice sounded different. She was speaking swiftly, smoother than ever before.

Opal's eyes were narrowed but a split second after the words left Cree's mouth she stood still, eyes unfocused. The kids around the big bully gawped, why wasn't their leader snarling back? But instead of charging at Cree and shoving her gawky and reedy body to the ground Opal shut her mouth and looked confusingly at Cree. She opened her mouth, as if about to say something, then didn't. Instead, she shook her head and turned away, leading her posse away from Cree.

As confused as Opal, Cree turned too, her eyebrows burrowed. What had just happened? Opal had never shut her mouth when she started bruising Cree with cruel words; she would just go on and on until Cree fled.

The day wore on and Cree received exactly fifty-nine puzzled looks from her classmates. That included multiple looks from everyone from first grade to grade twelve, plus the nine teachers that somehow ran the school. Finally, the last period arrived: physical education.

As the eighteen fourteen year olds shuffled outside, Cree blended into the middle of the group, staying as far away from Opal's crew - who lined the outside of the huddle - as she could. The class's heavy boots clomped against the grainy gravel as they marched to the other school in their city. The Mortal School didn't have a gymnasium due to budget cuts, and only the Ghoul's school had a gym. Thus, unless the teachers wanted to have dozens of scraped knees and bruised elbows, the school decided to send the children (in their individual classes) to the Ghoul School for gym instead of having it in the cement playground.

This was Cree's only enjoyable part of her days. Between caring for her ill grandmother and being beaten up by Opal Grasswarper, she got to visit her few friends in Ghoul School. This, having Ghoul friends, gave Opal a whole new reason to hate Cree. All of the other kids were taught to hate the Ghouls on a very deep and vicious level. They had, after all, taken the Mortal's world from them and spun it around.