Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 5 (Wednesday)

Ripple pulled the arms-length blade from her sash, grimacing slightly and shaking her head.

She eyed the target fifty meters to her right, the row of ten other students directly in front of her merely a niggling awareness. Their instructor held a button. Once he pressed the button--thumb descending in a quiver of motion--it would trigger a signal, radiating outwards, until it switched something in the control panel on the wall. Then a stream of electricity would fly up through the wires, illuminate the magenta light, and set the bell to ringing.

Señor Acao's elbow twitched. She threw the hiltless sword and the bell rang. She blinked, focusing on the flying blade, siphoning off its minute quivers and each vibration from the air pressing against the wicked edge. She channeled the vibrations forward instead. Her flying blade blurred through the air.

The target exploded. Fragments shot across the gym, but Ripple didn't bother with those. Let the buzzing clattering energy annoy someone else. Like Ribbon. She smiled. Señor Acao did not. Ripple hesitated, glancing between Maro and Vizz and Treble. Maro slowly shook his head. Ripple frowned, her vision going spotty. Who...who was...

"Rimira," Ripple flinched at the name, "this was not the point of the exercise. The point was to hit the target as many times in the time limit," Señor Acao paused, his deep brown eyes settling on her hand. "Rimira, did you even have another dagger to throw?"

Ripple ignored him, strolling towards the exit. Her deep indigo sash fluttered behind her where it trailed.

"Rimira," he said forcefully. Ribbon stopped. Ripple blinked; Ribbon was mostly in control, not her.

"Yes?" Ribbon turned and smiled at him.

He glanced at her other arm. The one hidden by her half cloak. The connection dawned in his eyes, flickering between his angled chin and his cropped white hair and settling somewhere between his large, floppy ears. "Weapons aren't allowed outside the training room," he pointed at the wall.

Ripple growled, trying to concentrate. She, or maybe Ribbon, approached the section of padded wall, which flipped sideways, revealing an array of weapons each placed neatly in the dark foam. She lifted her right hand and set the half-blade in the empty pocket. It curled around the offering, holding it in place. "So boring," Ribbon muttered. It wasn't like they were going to hurt anyone with it. Honest.

"Enre," Señor Acao barked. "You're up next." Señor Acao waved his hand about, and the shattered target remelded in the center of the open wood floor. Ribbon sighed.

***

"It wasn't like I was going to hurt anyone with it," Ripple sighed.

Bea lifted a single, sharp eyebrow behind her perfectly square-rimmed glasses. Ripple waited, but Bea didn't say anything. Just sat next to her desk with that tacky clipboard.

Ripple fidgeted with her own clipboard. Not that she had a pencil. The cracked remains lay somewhere under her black shoe.

Ripple glared at the magnified gaze in the pair of glasses. "Honest!"

Bea pursed her lips. "Aren't you part of anyone, Ripple?" she paused. "It is Ripple fronting right now, right?"

Ripple glared. Like she couldn't tell. "Of course I am. I wasn't going to do anything with it."

Bea tapped the desk with a violet fingernail. "Was Ribbon?"

She stared down at her feet. Ground the pencil slivers harder into the ground. "How should I know?" she sulked.

Bea set her clipboard aside, fingernail tapping falling quiet. "Ribbon was co-conscious with you, wasn't she? She usually is when the knives come out."

"That doesn't mean I get what she's thinking!" Ripple exclaimed. She bit her tongue. She hated when Bea tricked her like that.

"But you can probably guess," Bea leaned back into her squishy chair.

Ripple leaned back into her hard-backed one. "That doesn't mean I know," she muttered, glaring at the blank paper on her clipboard.

Bea pursed her lips. Her old analog clock ticked for silent seconds.

"How's your roommate?" Ripple's counselor asked.

Her gaze shot to Bea's face. "You mean the crazy one?"

"Crazy doesn't mean anything if we're all crazy," Bea quipped.

Ripple snorted. The only thing crazy about her counselor was the way her hair always matched her outfit. Yellow checkered blouse in need of a friend? Enter yellow-and-white streaked hair.

Ripple shrugged her shoulders. "She's fine, I guess."

"You get along okay?"

Ripple shrugged again, twisting the material of her jet black jeans in her fingers. "Sure."

Bea paused. Her lips moved, silently, then she inhaled slowly. "How about during the nights? Does she ever wake you up?"

Another presence in her mind pushed up next to hers, and Ripple fought to keep a straight face. Ani? Or Co...no, that was Ani.

She uncontrollably burst out laughing. She tried pushing Ani away, but Ani just slid in control further.

"Wake me up?" That was mostly Ani talking. "I can't fall asleep around her!"

Ripple's control completely slipped.

Ani laughed again. "Her parents should've shortened her name to Addle! Addle, she who can't fall asleep without everything in her head spilling out," Ani got to her feet, prancing around Bea's office. "Last night Ribbon was busy working on our homework and Addle fell asleep. Next thing I knew I was out in the body and there was a purple train speeding me down--"

Ripple felt ill. She wasn't...Ani had...

Ripple blinked repeatedly. She couldn't see out of the body anymore. There weren't any lights. She gulped, swallowing her fear, and put a shaking hand out. It was dark here. She didn't know if she'd been to this part of the inner world before. Wait...had she? "Cory!" she called. "Mina!"

No reply.

Ripple swung her hand about, a deep blue sash furling behind her. "Winnie?"

Still no reply. She carefully stepped forward, shoes rasping over stone.