The Girl With the Orange Eyes

Chapter 4

It was seventh hour. Thank goodness for that. I only had to last one more class hour before I could get away from all of these people who hated me. Only one more class hour. Then, I would luckily only have to be at home for a few hours before I could go to Jane's house for the night. I smiled at the thought. I could go stay over at Jane's house whenever her parents allowed me to. I didn't have to ask Grandma, she didn't care how I spent my life. If I disappeared for a month I doubt she would notice or care. I sighed. Sometimes I was so jealous of Jane. She had a wonderful family who loved her with all their hearts and wanted to know wherever she was going. She thought they were too overprotective, but I thought they were perfect. I wished Grandma was like that. When I couldn't sleep at night I would imagine it. My parents would be with me too. They would be just like Jane's parents, overprotective, loving, and caring. I would fall asleep and they would come back in my dreams. It seemed so real, that when I would wake up in the morning, I would run downstairs to where my mom would be cooking breakfast and my dad would be reading the newspaper. They were never there. Instead I would be met with a cold glare from my grandma, as she sat in front of the T.V. They never came no matter how much I dreamed about them.

"Kim? Kim!" I was startled out of my thoughts by my science teacher, Mr. Smith calling my name. I looked around, everyone was staring at me.

"Oh crap." I thought. 

"Yes?" I said out loud.

"Answer the question, Kim." was his reply.

"Could you repeat the question?"

"No."

"Well I don't know how I am supposed to answer the question, when I have no idea whatsoever what it is."

"If you had been paying attention then you would know the answer." He had a point there. "What is the answer, Kim?" A surge of anger flowed through my veins. I opened my mouth to give him a sarcastic retort when I felt it starting. The burning sensation was starting.

"I don't know." I clenched my teeth against the pain.

"Well, we're all going to sit here until you figure it out." I decided to use this moment as an excuse to get out of there.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I knew he knew why I needed to go. All the teachers had been warned about my "disease".

"Not until you answer the question." He smiled at me smugly.

No. I thought. I need to go or it will explode out of me, I need to leave. I stared at him horrified. He had no idea what he was doing. He thought I would probably just use the garbage can to puke. He had no idea what was going to happen. If I couldn't leave then I would possibly kill everyone in this room. I won't be able to stop it. I won't be able to help them. I can't stop it, I realized in a second. I had to get out of here. The pain had reached my waist.

"I need to leave."

"Answer the question."

"No! I will not stay here!" I screamed at him. The pain had reached my chest. Get out of here now! My mind screamed at me. I stood up and sprinted past him and out the door. I could hear him screaming at me as I sprinted down the hall. I realized suddenly that there was no way I could reach the locker room. I would have to go to the girl's bathroom instead. I prayed that no one would be in there as I shoved the bathroom door open. I ran to one of the sinks and bent over it. I was about to send the flames shooting out when I heard a noise behind me. I looked up in the mirror and saw that Mizu was standing behind me, staring at me in shock.

No, was the only thing I could think before the first flames flew from my fingertips. I tried to hold it in.  I tried to stop it. I couldn't. I could call it at will but when it built up and needed out, I couldn't stop it. I could control where it moved to, but I could not stop it. My eyes filled with tears at the pain and the terror of someone knowing what I was.

Suddenly a beautiful coolness washed over me. I could feel it fighting with the fire that burned in me. I could feel the fire fighting back but the coolness won and the flames were quenched. The flames shooting out of my hands subsided and I looked up in shock. In the mirror I could see Mizu standing behind me, her eyes closed with a look of concentration on her face. The last of the pain inside me disappeared, and she opened her eyes. I had not noticed them before, I was not sure how it was possible but I hadn't. They were a shocking sapphire that shone. 

"What, how did you do that?" I asked surprised.

"I can control water. I used my water to quench your flames. I had a friend in my old school that was like you. She had the power of fire. I would do it for her whenever it built up inside of her." She looked at me fearfully.

"Why are you scared of me?" I asked curiously. She looked down at the tiled bathroom floor.

"I cannot tell you."

"Okay. Thank you, for helping me, I mean." I said. She smiled."My name is Kim. Kim Johnson." I held out a hand. She smiled at me and took it.

"I would tell you my last name but it is Japanese and you would probably say it wrong and it is very long. So just call me Mizu." We both laughed and walked out  the door together. We talked as we walked down the hall to our separate classrooms. I smiled one last time at her, and she returned it, as I opened the door to my Science classroom. I walked in the room and was shocked at the absolute silence that met me. Everyone in the room was frozen, staring at me as if I had yellow fever. The only person not staring was Mr. Smith, who stood at the front of the room and glared at me. If  looks could kill, I thought, as I walked to my seat at the front of the classroom, if looks could kill.