Inflorescence • Poison Ivy's Daughter

chapter two - seedlings

Calla was the kind of kid that didn't scare easy. But that day, eight years okay, she was almost nervous. Being surrounded by so many people her age, she quickly discovered she was different. And that the students of Gotham Academy were not a fan of different.

Hand gasped her, large hands, so big they wrapped fully around her thin arms, she fought against the older boys thrashing and struggling. But there were too many of them and she couldn't shake them as they dragged her further into the school's woods.

A hand whipped across her face, 'Stop moving freak.' a low voice spat. 'You're going to pay for taking my brother's scholarship, it should have been him who got in instead of you.'

A knee shot her in the gut and she doubled over, gasping as her lungs struggling to fill themselves with air.

'Hey! Don't you're being a little rough Josh, I mean she's just a kid.' another boy stepped forward.

'Shut it Kit unless you're wanting to take her place.'

The boy paled and looked away, 'No I don't Josh, but I'm not taking part in this.' He backed away from the group, heading back towards the school, hands shoved in his pockets.

'I'll remember this Kit, you better watch your back!' Josh yelled out at him as he disappeared between the dense trees. Josh turned back to Calla, 'Now look what you've done brat, first my brother now my friends.' a sinister grin spread across his face, 'I'm going to make your time here a living hell.'

A scarlet drop fell from her split cheek as a growl moved in her throat. She took in a deep breath, relax, don't lose it she told herself. She opened her electric green eyes, glaring at Josh dead in the eye. He yelped taking a step back and tripping over his feet landing with a thud onto the ground below, he gritted his teeth as a slight blush feel over his cheeks.

Calla scoffed, smirking, the rest of the group was frozen still, half in fear, half in confusion. she was still smirking when Josh sent his fist onto her jaw. She didn't cry out, didn't even flinch, not even when the rest of the boys joined in. She curled up into a ball, arms protecting her face as they sent kicks to her back, stomach, and head. She counted to ten in her head, remembering to breathe through her nose and mouth, it hadn't even been a day yet and already she was finding she didn't like people very much. Through the gap in her arms and the legs surrounding her, she spotted a plant. A small delicate plant, hardy 30cm tall, three thin stems sporting thin leaves which glowed a warm chartreuse at the suns rays hit them. Beautiful.

'Hey guys, whats happening?' A high voice chimed, the blows immediately halting. Calla peered above her arm seeing a boy, around her age, leaning against a nearby tree.

'Grayson?' breathed Josh, 'Go away kid this doesn't concern you.' the boy looked over at Calla then back to Josh.

'Sure thing Josh, I'll get out of your way.' he shrugged turning away. 'Just thought you should know I saw Ms. Jenson talking to your buddy Kit, wonder how long it will take till she decided to check out an eighth grader was doing the woods by himself. My guess would be maybe... ah, thirty seconds.'

The group exchanged glances as the boy caught Calla's eye winked at her. 'Shit,' Jarred hissed, 'Shit.' He ranked his fingers through his hair pacing back and forth, before turning to Calla and placing his heel on her throat, 'One word of this to anyone and you're dead.' Calla gave a slight nod and he removed his foot.

A snap sounded in this distance and the boys all perked up, glanced around the woods, turning their heads like startled deer. 'I'm getting outta here.' one of them said hurrying further away from the school, the rest of them following shortly behind him. Josh sent Calla one last threatening look before turning away, running after his friends.