Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 5

I absolutely love this chapter, even if it's very short. A bit of a cliffhanger at the end, but tell me what you think!

Chapter 5

That morning, unlike the last, was a terrible one. I woke up with an indescribable migraine, which didn’t get better with any amount of Paracetamol. I walked on the bus with an empty stomach, feeling like my head was about to fall off from my shoulders.

Jasmine was the only one waiting for me on the bus. She waved keenly at me, and then frowned as she saw my miserable face.

“What is it?” she asked.

“My head’s gone,” I muttered, slumping down beside her and immediately wishing I hadn’t, as a tiny electric shock exploded in my brain. I groaned loudly, lowering my head in my hands.

“Suzanne? Are you OK?” she asked anxiously as I groaned again.

“No.”

She tried something else. “Do you remember what happened yesterday?” she asked cautiously.

“Er … I went to your house with Zed. Where is  Zed, by the way?”

“I don’t know. And that wasn’t yesterday, it was the day before,” Jasmine pointed out.

“Yesterday … yesterday … was a normal day, I guess. Why, what happened?” I asked, more interested in trying not to keep my stomach in place than to remember what had happened yesterday.

She hesitated. “Not much,” she finally said. “Just … forgot a homework Miss Copper set us.”

Just as the bus started creeping forwards, Melanie and the Cockroaches jumped on board. They took up their usual spaces, chatting loudly to each other.

After a few stops I looked up for a moment and caught Melanie looking our way, an evil grin on her face. Why was she looking at us like that? Another explosion attacked my mind, and I gasped, nearly falling on the floor. If it hadn’t been for Zed, who had just come, I would have humiliated myself forever.

He looked at me, smiling. Then his smile vanished as I groaned and moaned to myself, holding my head and shaking it to try and get rid of the pain. He frowned deeply.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked Jasmine, laying me down on the seat. She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know! She just came on the bus like that, as if she had something in her head that was hurting her. I haven’t got a clue what it is …”

“What?” he asked her, having noticed the way she had trailed off.

“It’s just … could it have something to do with yesterday? She didn’t look too good when we left.” They were talking in hushed tones, but I heard all of it.

“What happened  yesterday?” I asked. “Why do you keep going on about it?” I didn’t quite manage to sound as demanding as I wanted to, as another tidal wave of torture overcame me.

Zed looked at Jasmine, looking surprised. “She doesn’t … ?”

Jasmine shook her head. “I asked her; she doesn’t remember anything. All she can remember is when you two came to my house, the day before yesterday.”

Zed whistled. “Now that is very  weird,” he commented.

“What is?” I asked again.

“Nothing,” they said.

But I heard them talking about it later, whispering and occasionally looking over their shoulders to check if I was listening. I pretended that I wasn’t, and it wasn’t too difficult to concentrate on my now agonized tummy, but I heard short snatches of words, like ‘hospital’, ‘her mum’, and ‘after school’.

Luckily, no one on the bus really noticed anything, except for a few girls gave me odd glances every now and then.

During tutor Mrs Hamilton strode past every desk, one by one, and stopped short next to mine. I had my face screwed up with pain, clutching my arm, which seemed to be falling apart.

“Suzanne! What on Earth is the matter with you?” she asked with a strange sense of alarm in her high-pitched voice.

“She … she fell from her bike,” stammered Jasmine uncertainly. I did my best to smile and look normal to not attract any attention.

“Oh, dear! Do be careful, darling; bicycles can be terribly dangerous at times.” She smiled at me sympathetically and walked back to the front of the class, announcing that we could go.

On my way to our first lesson, my legs were having a bit of a moment. They felt like jelly and steel at the same time. When I was just behind the Humanities building, they gave way and I crashed to the ground, startling half a dozen people. Zed came rushing and helped me to my feet again. Everyone was looking at me and whispering. Naturally, Melanie started giggling about how Zed had helped me up so anxiously, but today I couldn’t care less.

I had to clutch Zed and Jasmine’s arms quite a few times when going up the stairs as my legs kept deciding that they had had enough of walking.

Slumping down in my chair, I never thought I’d be more relieved to have a hard surface to sit on.

Whatever luck had helped me during tutor had deserted me now. Miss Gardener strolled elegantly around the classroom, checking everyone’s work, and stopped besides me. She peered at my blank page.

“Suzanne Levee! Could you explain to me why there is none of the information from the board on your sheet? Suzanne?” She asked the last part anxiously, having noticed how bent double I was. I was clutching my forearm and rocking back and forth, trying to ease the blades of pain shooting up and down my arm. My teeth were clenched and sweat dripped off my chin as I tried not to scream.

“Suzanne?” she asked uncertainly. “Are you alright?”

I nodded but, obviously, she wasn’t convinced. She gently unhooked my left arm from my right, and rolled the sleeve up.

I’m not too sure what happened at this point. There was a lot of screaming and a lot of gasping. But I didn’t focus on that; the exposure of my arm to the air was making me feel faint. So faint that my head dropped on the table, and I saw a black tidal wave advancing towards me. Then it came crashing on to my mind, and I passed out without a sound. The last thing I heard was Jasmine’s voice screaming my name