Wings

Ch. 03: Another Piece of Trouble

A new day and it was only now the second day of school. Jasper ignored three of her five alarms in an attempt to try sleeping in, but knew she had to get up anyways and only now had less time to get ready. She quickly threw on a nice summer to fall dress of beautiful orange shades, threw up her hair in a rushed braid that broke into a ponytail near the base of her scalp, and rushed downstairs to eat her breakfast and drive to school.

"There's more business later on tonight, Jasper. The committee wants more of our family's input on the updating of regulations, so we all have to attend the summonings tonight," Adrian voiced as Jasper went to grab a light sweater and her keys from the living room. "Good," Jasper replied, "I know this will be a good time for me to make suggestions on the idea of introducing more people. I really do want to make our community more aware of our diversity and introduce ways to coexist."

"I know, I know. We can talk about this more on the way there. As soon as I pick you up from school, I'll be bringing you by the house so you can get dressed and then we'll head out. Don't take too long getting ready though," Adrian concluded as Jasper stepped into the BMW and left the house. As soon as Jasper arrived at school, she knew something was different. There was a new electrical charge to the air.

Once Jasper parked her car, she sat still and waited, trying to figure out what she felt. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly, poking around her mind. She stretched her fingers across the leather of her steering wheel and touched the electricity of the air. It was thick; thicker than anything normal. "WHAT THE-" she screamed at the sound of Cass slamming her hands on the hood of the BMW.

All of Jasper's concentration was lost as she got out of the car and walked over to Cass. "Don't do that to me! I was scared to death!" Cass only laughed, not knowing what she had interrupted. "Oh well, maybe next time I'll just let you continue sleeping and miss our first class," Cass teased. Jasper let out a small chuckle, but stopped short of a laugh as her eyes landed on a girl with purple hair and her fingers felt charged with electricity.

"Hey, do you mind catching up later, there's someone I need to go talk to," Jasper quietly voiced as she began slowly following the new girl. Jasper kept her footsteps slow as she put up a mind block--in case this new girl knew how to dig around people's minds--and put her hands in the pockets of her sweater and gold and silver flicks of energy came about while she tried her best to depict what creature this new girl was. Jasper's eyes furrowed and she was having trouble and she began getting slightly nervous.

New creatures were common around this part of the southern United States, but in a small town like this, there were hardly ever stronger powers like this moving in without notifying other councils. If this new girl had notified any of the councils within this side of the state, Jasper would have heard in yesterday's meeting. The more she thought about it, the more worried she got. That was, until she found it, the one trace of who this girl was--a special brand of energy identifying her kind of power as some kind of angel.

Jasper stopped suddenly. 'This girl isn't pure or she wouldn't have purple hair,' she thought. And then, Jasper heard the sounds of human pain. Jasper rushed forward, worried at first, but only found a dirty male holding his stomach as the new girl walked off and he cursed her under his breath. Jasper let out a breath. She knew to be wary, but so far this girl wasn't a huge threat.

The girl ducked into the school's office and Jasper walked cautiously towards the entrance to listen for a name. "Efah Collins," the girl said loudly to the desk attendant. After Jasper gained her name, she turned around and walked back towards the main doors to the school. She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her mother.

'There's an update to the committee report tonight. A dark haired angel has spawned in town.'

As soon as the text sent, Jasper turned around to see Efah leaving the office. Quickly, Jasper slid her phone in her pocket and made her approach to Efah. "Hi, are you new?" She asked to no reply. "I'm Jasper," she tried again, trying to seem normal and the least suspicious--as if she hadn't just been tailing the girl like a stalker.

Jasper gave a small smile and reached her hand out for a handshake to which Efah glanced down upon and ignored. "Efah," she replied curtly and she kept her chin high and her stride fast. "So, are you new here?" Jasper asked to which she already knew the answer. Without even sparing Jasper a glance, Efah replied with a 'yes'.

'Not so much of a people person,' Jasper thought to herself. "Cool. Where are you from?" Jasper asked. She desperately needed something to identify this girl more. A name alone might not be enough. "Look, I don't like questions, so stop," Efah said as an end to the discussion as she finally looked Jasper in her eyes.

Jasper relented and took a glance at Efah's schedule and found something she could use to her advantage, a class with the girl. "Hey, we have history together. Come on, I'll show you the way," Jasper said excitedly as she gave her best smile. Efah looked somewhat annoyed, but followed Jasper regardless. It wasn't until they reached the room that Efah stopped dead in her tracks. Jasper stopped with her as she realized there was now another problem.

Five feet ahead of both the girls was Cas Adams--the only documented angels on this side of the state for the past five years. Cas was a light angel and as soon as Jasper saw the looks upon both the angels faces and their rises in power after recognizing each other as angels, Jasper did a dumb thing; she stepped in between them with her body facing Cas.

Jasper slowly shook her head, but Cas only cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow as his power levels went down and he acted as if he didn't know what Jasper thought was going to happen between the two angels. He then turned around and walked to his seat, seemingly without any cares of the new girl, but the stir of his power told Jasper otherwise. He might not be ready to kill Efah, but he was surely interested in the new angel.

Relieved she didn't just die, Jasper sighed as her whole body untensed and she moved to find a seat near Efah. She found herself in the row to the right of Efah and three seats behind her. She ducked her head down into her arms and breathed. A new level of difficulty just found itself weighing down on Jasper and her goals of making new proposals to the committee today. So caught up in her thoughts and troubles for tonight's summonings, Jasper didn't even notice Mr. Haslam's mention of angels as he discussed old stories of the past. It wasn't until she heard the word angel that her head shot up, unaware of how to react next and tense with not knowing what could happen with two opposing angels in the room.