The Sky Demons Part One: Journey

Chapter Two- In which the focus is on hats and spice girls

Senka- In which the focus is on hats and spice girls

Serefk’na came out of her room ready for school this morning and I nearly choked on my tea- she was wearing a grey Animal baseball cap perched precariously on the top of her head for no fathomable reason.

Tigre glanced up from her breakfast; “Baseball caps don’t exactly go with school uniform you know.”

Serefk’na shrugged her shoulders and sat down between us, not particularly caring about our opinions on fashion. I didn’t blame her; none of us were particularly interested in it, although I think the teachers at school would be more than interested in her disregard for school uniform rules. Rules that Serefk’na usually paid close attention to.

“So” said Tigre, attempting a casual tone as she tried to hide her concern, though her eyes lingered on the hat, “feeling better?”

Serefk’na looked at her questioningly, “Why, was I ill?”

“You tell me, you were the one that was found kneeling on the street, gagging like you were being choked yesterday.

“Oh, that” Serefk’na commented, hitching up the collar of her blazer as if it was irritating her, she saw me looking and moved her hand to her forehead, slipping it under her hat and rubbing at her head. “The doctors said it wasn’t asthma or anything, I’m fine. Except for a headache.”

“What do you mean ‘oh that’? You were found sitting outside looking half-dead, gasping for air! And now you seem to have developed an urge to wear baseball caps with school uniform! Are you sure when you fell down you didn’t hit your head?"

Serefk’na moved her hand away from her head, “I didn’t realise that an interest in headwear was considered a sign of brain damage,” she moved her hand back to her head, adjusting the cap slightly, “and what’s wrong with it anyway? This is a nice cap.”

Tigre ground her teeth with exasperation, “that’s not my point, don’t change the subject.”

“But that was the subject” said Serefk’na with equal frustration.

“What I mean to ask is: what happened to you the other day?”

Serefk’na’s only reply to this was “Finished breakfast, time for school.” She then rushed to brush her teeth, leaving Tigre and I to stare helplessly at each other. It was ten minutes later that we were ready for school, but after looking around we realised that she’d set off without us. We left for school in a pair that day as opposed to the usual group of three.

***

On arriving at school the first thing I did was try to find Serefk’na in the form room, failing that I gave up and glared silently at my timetable, wishing I’d had a second cup of tea or perhaps a coffee before setting off to school. My very first lesson was my least favourite- English, the most boring lesson in the world, in my opinion at least.

I packed my bag with the correct folders and slumped into my chair with a sigh, sitting in quiet contemplation for a short while before deciding to unzip my bag once more to retrieve my sketch book, a pencil and a rubber and set about drawing some new pictures.

The classroom door opened a number of times with students coming and going from our form room. I switched out from the movements of others within the class as I turned my concentration to my work, so I didn’t notice when Serefk’na finally wandered in. She slid into the seat next to mine and dropped her own bag to the floor with a thunk. I glanced at her as she pulled the latest fantasy book she happened to be reading from her shoulder bag and flicked through the pages until it fell open to the part she had reached in the story. She was still wearing the hat. I sighed and decided to ignore it, I had things that I’d rather be thinking other about than her headgear, if she wanted to talk to us she would.