Nova Academy

The Allison Effect

"CONSENT!"

Connie groaned internally as her lovely headache throbbed. She was cranky and cramping had started to make itself known.

The stress from the riots and Stevens mental collapse had made her period concerningly late, almost 15 days so far. She'd also been spending time with Alex and tending to his injuries, mind still reeling from seeing Allison in person.

Connie was not an insecure person, not until she saw Allison. Granted, it was the last time she'd ever see Allison alive. If she so much as entertained the idea of trying again, his girlfriend had no qualms for pulling out the big guns.

But the woman was supermodel gorgeous, it could not be denied.

Her stomach cramped harder as Hylander started covering dynamics, relationship dynamics. Both good, and bad.

"The worst kind of dynamic is domestic violence. It's not always physical, either. Psychological damage is just as damaging as physical, and those scars heal uglier." Hylander paused and looked around the class, landing momentarily on Steven.

He hadn't been the same since he came back to school, not really. He was quieter, his shoulders were slumped and still somehow tense. He pulled Connie in for more kisses, sweeter kisses but when he moved away he looked solemn.

Everyone seemed different. There was just beginning to be a rise in personality at the school again. The kids who hadn't stayed felt guilty and out of the loop, and the ones who had resented them for it and collapsed in on themselves about what they'd experienced. It felt like it shouldn't have been such a huge deal, but standing against an angry mob who hates you just because you're you had been far more stressful and less victorious in the long run. People had originally thought Steven had betrayed them, but then news of his tragic story began to spread.

He had saved them, but at a cost they couldn't begin to understand. Not even Connie could feel the gravitas of Steven refusing Allison's request. Still they loved him all the same so when he was quiet, they often were too.

It was fairly apparent Steven was disassociating, not paying even a sliver of attention to the teacher. Hylander moved on though, switching topics to slightly more pleasant things.

She wrote down whatever he said, happy that today was a half day. It seemed the teachers meetings were becoming more frequent lately but they never informed the students on the topic. It made her uneasy, but she supposed she was far uneasier about other things.

There was nothing on Allison, nothing at all. Connie had spent hours researching and reverse looking up any information she could about her. Nothing ever came up. No social media. No articles. No criminal records. Nothing even on the census files she shouldn't have access to.

She was completely invisible.

Her eyes drifted to Stevens hair, back in an uncharacteristically perfect bun. She couldn't know if he truly aged like humans but the barely visible portion of his hair that had lost color and turned a silvery brown made it seem like he might. That was her only indication that Allison had in fact come here, that what she had witnessed was as true as the ocean was deep.

Dumpy. Connie had never been described that way in her life. She was awkward and nerdy and shy, but never dumpy. What did that even mean in the grand scheme of things? That she was ugly? That she wore frumpy clothes? That she was heavy? Plus sized women were gorgeous, skinny women were beautiful and there was nothing in between that wasn't attractive in her mind. But still...

"Class dismissed."

Her eyes fell shut in disappointment. She had zoned out for most of the class period and now those 45 minutes had amounted to nothing.