~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

The Skywalk

{Kiara}

They walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to lecture them with his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like "The pig says oink."

Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket and putting them together, like he had to keep his hands busy at all times.

Kiara felt the need to fiddle around with something, too, so her hands instantly went to the rings on her fingers she hadn't noticed she was wearing before. She stopped and took a moment to actually look at what she was wearing. In addition to her clothes and rings, she wore half a dozen necklaces and tons of small hoop earrings on both her ears.

When she focused back on the group, some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan and snickering. Kiara figured these girls were the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and
pink tops and some of them would actually look pretty if they weren't wearing enough makeup for a Halloween party.

One of them said, "Hey, Piper, does your tribe run this place? Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"

The other girls laughed. Even Piper's so-called partner Dylan suppressed a smile. Piper's snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but Kiara knew she was clenching her fists.

"My dad's Cherokee," Piper said. "Not Hualapai. 'Course, you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."

Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction. "Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."

Kiara wanted to punch the girl in the middle of her stupid face. It looked like Piper had the same idea, since she charged her, but before a fight could start, Coach Hedge barked, "Enough back there! Set a good example or I'll break out my baseball bat!"

The group shuffled on to the next exhibit, but the girls kept calling out little comments to Piper.

"Good to be back on the rez?" one asked in a sweet voice.

"Dad's probably too drunk to work," another said with fake sympathy. "That's why she turned klepto."

Kiara felt her fingers go numb from the way she had been clenching her fists. She opened her hands and inspected them. Her skin was fair, almost pale. Her fingers were long and gracious, like a pianist's, but they were calloused, and covered in silver rings either with gemstones or skull motifs. And in the middle of her palms were thin red lines where her nails had dug in.

In front of her, Leo and Jason were speaking. Jason kept saying stuff like "I don't know" or "I don't remember". Kiara didn't say anything or join the conversation. She got the feeling she didn't really like humans, but she didn't know why she felt that way.

They finally reached the far end of the exhibit hall, where some big glass doors led out to a terrace. "All right, cupcakes," Coach Hedge announced. "You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. The skywalk can hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there. If possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork."

Kiara doubted the coach was a qualified teacher, but she didn't know much about schools. It felt like it had been a really long time since she went to some kind of school, despite what Leo had said on the bus.

The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread before them, live and in person. Extending over the edge was a horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so you could see right through it.