Tony's (not so) Little Girl

6: Worried Friends

As I'm sitting there against that wall, really thinking that I should be moving, that I should be trying to help get everyone away, visions of every time I had saved my sisters or my family started to run through my mind, causing me to grimace and squeeze my eyes closed. I curled up in on myself as I saw myself curling up around my sister Heather, the car flipping down the hill. I wished I was anywhere else but there as the memory of me getting hit by a car as I pull my sister Mikayla out of the way swept across my mind. I felt like throwing up as I relived helping to usher as many people out of a burning house as I could, burns running down my back. I shivered and burried my head between my knees as I could still feel the electricity from the lightening strike travel through my friend and into myself, frying my nerve endings. I bit my lip and tried not to let any tears slip past my closed eyelids as I pulled my cousin back and off of the train tracks. But that fire that engulfed the house stayed with me. I had lost so many, so many...

I jumped and let out a loud squeel as a hand fell onto my knee. My eyes flew open and I scrambled back, completely taken by surprise. I could feel how uneven my breathing was, my chest heaving with the effort of holding back sobs. My eyes slowly focussed on the teacher who crouched in front of me and looked at me with pity and concern. I curled back in on myself, as tightly as possible, my people mask had officially been torn from my body, stomped on by a giant, and then drowned in the depths of the ocean. Tears began to leak from my eyes and I could see the teacher trying to talk to me, but it took me a while to realise what she was saying.

"Lil, Lilith, hey, Lilith," the teacher called lightly "Earth to Lilith, are you okay?"

I shook my head, my arms circling my knees and squeezing tight. My head felt like someone had bottled the sun, cut open my head, replaced my brain with the sun, and then gone at it with a jack hammer for good measure. My stomach was still twisting in knots, and even with my glasses everything had a slightly blury edge. I twisted my head around and watched silently as two police officers detained and cuffed the bitch, standing her next to my media teacher who was also in handcuffs and had a tired frown on her face. The bitch was just scowling, her eyes were narrowed and her whole face was scrunched up. Two SES people were walking into the still smoke filled room, and a paramedic was taking a look at Declan. I overheard something about smoke inhilation and winced in empathy for the kid.

"Others?" I croaked at the teacher in front of me before breaking out into another coughing fit "Where, where are they?"
"We've called their parents and sent them all home. We've seen the tapes. You were so nice to help those people even after they were mean to you and your friend," the teacher explained, a smile that was intermingled with stress lining her lips
"Not, not my, m, my friend. Cousin's," I croaked

The teacher just nodded and stood up, walking over to a group of adults that I hadn't seen before. Stark, Rogers, Banner, Black Widow and Hawkeye all stood gathered together. A small group of teenagers stood with them, and I was tempted to smile when I recognised them. Will, Emily and Jamie all stood, looking in awe of the Avengers, with various items of food in their hands. I decided that it must have been lunch time, and my stomach grumbled in agreeance. When they caught me looking, my group of friends started walking over. Emily jogged over whilst Jamie and Will walked over as fast as they could. I smiled and went to say something, anything, when a voice echoed down the corridor.

"Remus!" Anna called, worry coating her tone "Lils?"

I didn't know how far into lunch it was but it must have been a fair way, as Anna went to the other highschool and it sat all the way on the other side of town. Anna dashed over to me just as Jamie handed me my book from earlier. I took the book and my eyes welled with tears when I saw how banged up and damaged it was. I craddled it to my chest and finally let the sobs come to the surface. I hung my head, but from where my eyes were lowered I could see a head of blond hair fall to her knees on the ground in front of me. I could hear her knees hit the floor, but that was but a moment before her arms wrapped around me in a hug. I placed the book down and wrapped my arms around the back of the girl in front of me, burrying my head in her shoulder.

"You scared me, girl!" Anna exclaimed with a bit of a laugh "Jeeeeesus.."
"Yeah, you need to stop almost dying every other day," the deep voice of Will added in

I laughed a little at that and pulled away from Anna. I let my fingers fall down against the cover of the book, my finger tips running over each groove and nick in the old, worn cover. I looked up at my friends and swiped my tears away with the sleeves of my jumper. By now I had ditched the gloves. But I did have a question plaguing my mind.

"What... why are you all here?" I murmured coarsely, my throat still sore
"Because you scared us. We said that," Emily stated with a roll of her eyes

I smiled up at them greatfully, about to open my mouth to say something when the bell rang. My head fell forwards to hit my knees and I groaned, my friends all looked annoyed when I looked up at them, too.

"Just go," I demanded with a shake of my head "You too, gir, An, girl, Sirius, gi, girl. We need to get to class. I'm, I'm fine."