𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖑𝖊𝖘𝖘 - 𝖂𝖊𝖉𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖉𝖆𝖞 𝕬𝖉𝖉𝖆𝖒𝖘

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

"I dwell in possibility." - Emily Dickinson

I walk into fencing class, hearing people grunt. This morning had been horrible, Zella overslept so I needed to somehow wake her up, that made us late to class and led us to almost getting detention.

I really enjoy fencing, my father has taught me, since I was six years old.

My fencing opponent is Xavier, we are good friends. We both share a love for art.

We stand in position to start the round. "En garde," the Coach exclaims. Xavier immediately starts attacking, making me need to back away. I swing the sword at him, he quickly takes a couple steps backwards, now I am attacking. My sword hits him right in the chest.

"Point to Lilith," Xavier seems disappointed. He could never beat me, he never has. He's extremely competitive. We were about to begin the second round, when Wednesday walked between us.

"Coach, coach, she tripped me," Rowan yells to the Coach out of breath.

"It was a clean strike, Rowan," he always tries to find excuses so he can win, it always backfires on him.

"Maybe if you whined less and practiced more, you wouldn't suck," Bianca scolds. "Seriously, Coach, when am I gonna get real competition? Anyone else want to challenge me?" she demands. She thinks she is the best at fencing. The one time I went up against her I won, to say nicely she wasn't to thrilled about that.

"I do," Wednesday chimes in. I walk over to stand next to Xavier. Bianca and Wednesday are arguing about something, I can't bother to listen.

"Who do you think will win?" I ask him. I already know what he's answer is going to be.

"Bianca, you?" he admits. I think Wednesday would win maybe I am wrong but I think she could.

"Wednesday, of course. I put five bucks on Wednesday," I immediately make it a bet.

"Okay, prepare to lose your five bucks," He tells me confidently. First point ended up going to Wednesday and the other point to Bianca. They were even.

"For the final point, I would like to invoke a military challenge. No masks. No tips," She pauses for a minute. "Winner draws first blood," I don't expect anything less of her. I am still confident she is going to win, I am not going to lose my five bucks. Not today.

They start the last round. Wednesday was doing really good until I could smell blood, Wednesday's.

"Your face finally got that splash of color it so desperately needed," Bianca grins. I lost my five bucks.

"Five bucks," Xavier laughs. When I lose a bet he always laughs about it. "I'll give you your five bucks later," I say annoyed.

★★★

After changing out of my fencing gear and putting on my uniform. I was gonna go on a walk. I can see Wednesday from where I am standing. She starts looking up at something and I can hear stone scraping, one of the gargoyles is falling and she just keeps standing there.

I quickly run over to her pushing her out of the way of the falling gargoyle. She looks unconscious. I pick her up and carry her bridal style to the infirmary.

I pass Xavier on the way to the infirmary and ask him for help. He is sitting by Wednesday's bed. While I am outside to grabbing some water for her.

"The last thing I remember I was walking outside feeling a mixture of rage, pity and self-disgust. I never felt that way before," I can hear her talking to Xavier while I walk back into the infirmary. Her voice is for some reason so soothing to me, so calming.

"Losing to Bianca has that effect on people," I chime in. She quickly looks up to meet my eyes. "Some water," I hand her the plastic cup filled with water. Her hands felt cold and a shiver goes down my spine by her touch. No one has ever had that effect on me before, her touch feels different than anyone else's.

"Thank you. Then I looked up and saw that gargoyle coming down and I thought, at least I'll have an imaginative death. Then you tackled me out of the way. Why?" she is confused by my actions. Why I don't know, did she want that thing to kill her?

"Because you could have died," I explain.

"I didn't want to be rescued," she is extremely stubborn. I didn't know if she could, save herself in that situation, she was just standing there looking up, while the gargoyle was falling down.

"I will take note of that," Xavier scoffs at our conversation.

"Good to see you haven't changed. Xavier Thorpe? You probably don't remember me. Last time we met, I was about two feet shorter, 40 pounds heavier," She has no clue what he is talking about.

"What happened?" she asks him trying to remember the time she met him. Xavier exhales.

"Puberty, I guess," does he really think she was talking about that?

"She didn't mean what happened to you, idiot," sometimes he is the smartest person I know, most of the time he is an idiot.

"Oh. Uh. Yeah, it... it was my godmother's funeral. She was friends with your grandmother, and they spent their twenties in Europe, swindling the rich and notorious. I don't know, but we were ten, and we were bored, decided to play hide and seek. I had the inspired idea to hide in her casket. I got stuck as it was headed to the crematorium."

"I'd heard muffled screams. I just figured your godmother had cheated death and was trying to claw her way out," I can see a smile on Wednesday's face. She never smiles. She always just stays emotionless. It is nice seeing her smile.

"Either way, you hit the big red stop button and saved me from being flame-broiled. So... now we're even," Xavier continues telling his story.

"Wow, very moving story," I say sarcastically, nodding my head. "Oh yeah, here's your five bucks," I rememberer I lost the bet, sadly. Xavier laughs while snatching the five dollar bill out of my hand. Wednesday looks confused.

"Did you guys have a bet?" she asks us still confused on why I gave him five bucks.

"Ya, we bet on who would win the little fencing competition you had with Bianca," Xavier states. Immediately Wednesday looks at me, she knows I lost it because I thought she would win. Her eyes meet mine for a split second. Hers have a little sparkle in them. I can feel myself fiddling with my rings, it's one of my habits. Her looking at me in the eyes made me nervous? I needed to keep myself from reading her mind, I'm just so curious what she's thinking while looking me in the eyes. What would I want her think? She quickly gets up, drinking all the water and walking out the infirmary without saying a word.