Wolfbound

Chapter 4: Tia

Chapter 4

Green, yellow and white blotches clouded Tia’s vision as she began to open her eyes. Slowly the bright white light seeped through her eyelashes. As she took in the room, she froze. How did she get there? What on earth had just happened?

Finally, her eyes found the guy sitting in the corner, arms and ankles crossed, looking intently at her. He noticed her coming to and became suddenly fixated on a smudge on the window. Tia looked around, absorbing the room. There was old wallpaper covering the walls and tattered, miss-matched blankets on the bed across from her. The room was small. Even though the boy slouched in a chair as far away from Tia that the confines of the room would allow, he was just sitting by her feet… silently.

“What happened?” Tia asked, crushing the room’s heavy silence.

“My badminton skills were too much for you.” The boy’s lips twitched into a faint smirk, arrogantly.

“Oh.”

“I probably should have gone easy on you,” he said, gazing out the window; anywhere but directly at her.

“Probably,” Tia muttered as she rolled onto her side. She noticed for the first time the blanket that was carefully draped over her but most of all, the aching pain on the right side of her skull. “Ouch!”

“Careful…” He finally shot her a concerned look. There were those bright green eyes again.

“What-“

“You hit your head.”

Tia sighed. That was a great way to start her first day. Hitting her head in gym and waking up in the nurse’s room.

“What a loser,” she mumbled to herself. “As if people weren’t mocking me enough this morning… I thought they’d get over. Not now.”

The boy unfolded his arms and leaned forward. “Yeah, you’ve really made a grand introduction for yourself, haven’t you?”

“I’m afraid so. I was hoping to blend into the shadows.”

“That’s my job.”

The door opened and the school nurse walked in. “How are you, sweetie?”

“Sore,” Tia answered, still watching the boy.

“Weren’t you lucky to have such a handsome and strong young man to carry you here?”

Tia started. He carried her? That was… nice? “Ah…” was all she managed to force out.

“Thank you, Zane.” The nurse smiled at him. Zane. That was his name.

“Yeah,” the boy, Zane, grunted slightly, eyes fixed on Tia. He hadn’t even looked up to acknowledge the nurse and she’d been in the room for a minute or two.

The nurse wasn’t the prettiest of people. Her skin was worn and drooping. She wore a floral skirt and plain purple, unflattering blouse. It wasn’t her best look. However, she did seem sweet.

“It’s almost lunchtime,” she said.

“How long was I out?”

“About an hour,” she answered. What a boring hour that must have been for Zane.

The nurse did a series of short “tests”-she called them- before clearing Tia to go to lunch. It was a little early. The lunchtime bell hadn’t gone and outside, the school grounds were void of students.

“Zane, I trust you to keep your eye on this girl. I mean it. Don’t let her out of your sight,” the lady said, with a stern eye before turning to Tia. Her face softened and she continued, “Take it easy. You may be concussed. In which case, you’ll need to make sure you don’t go to sleep unless there is someone who will wake you every couple of hours to check on you. Got it?”

“Got it,” Tia nodded carefully.

“Right, out you go,” she replied as she opened the door. The sun instantly found Tia’s face and she walked out into its full view. Zane followed slowly, hesitantly.

Tia started making her way over to the Oak tree when she was startled by the nurse’s voice calling out the window. “Oi!” Tia spun on her heels to see the lady hanging out the open window, eyebrows knitted together in frustration, and Zane heading in the opposite direction to me. He was startled too. He turned to see what the matter was. “I told you not to let her out of your sight. Now, do it.”

Zane looked to Tia. What looked like frustration, guilt, irritation and guilt again crossed his face. Then finally he made his way towards Tia. She turned and continued on to the Oak tree. She didn’t know if he would even follow her as soon as he was out of the nurse’s sight but sure enough, soon after she had rested her head against the tree he was right there sitting next to her.

They didn’t speak. But the silence was airy, pleasant even. That was until Tia glanced over at his face. His lips were knotted together, forehead sporting harsh pulsing creases. It was almost as if he was squinting into the distance but Tia knew better. That was anger. She’d seen it before in her father’s features during a fight with her mum. She was used to it. But even so, it frightened her. His vibrant green eyes seemed so much darker in that moment. They were no longer bright, no longer beautiful.

She forced it from her mind and closed her eyes. Whatever had him bothered, she was too afraid to ask.

It was maybe half and hour later that Tia opened her eyes again. She would have had them shut, possibly forever, if it hadn’t been for someone calling her “New Girl”. When she focused on the blur in front of her, she recognized her tormenter from earlier that morning and a few other girls that clung to her shadow, leeching off her popularity.

Tia restrained herself from slapping the girl and instead she ‘used her words’ like all primary school teachers had enforced. “What do you want?” Her tone was so cold, her words felt as though they froze the air around her. But it was the sun that had gone behind a cloud, leaving only the slight cold breeze.

“I want you out of my school,” the girl said. She flipped her bleach blonde waves and looked to her minions for encouragement. They smirked and shot Tia harsh looks.

Were they out of their minds? What kind of request is that? Though she found it insane, she couldn’t help but hear the threat behind those words. “Or what?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

“What’s your problem?” Tia couldn’t help but ask.

“You,” the girl answered.

“What have I done?”

Tia had her there. She looked to her minions for support. As far as Tia could tell she had done nothing to these girls.

“You’re simply not welcome here,” the girl nearly snarled. She obviously didn’t tolerate being counterattacked. She must have expected Tia to just sit back and cower.

Tia sneered. She wasn’t scared of these silly, little girls.

“Consider this your… friendly warning,” the girl said before pulling out a sour smile.

Then they were gone; just as ghostly as they had arrived.

Tia closed her eyes again. She reflected on her day so far. She had hit her head in gym, passed out and just now she had been given a “friendly warning” to leave the school. It couldn’t get much worse than that. Surely that meant things could only get better from then on, right?

Wrong.