Not What She Seems

Yaeman's National District Schools Fighting Competition Round IV

  "You don't want them to see the drawings. Then, they'll think you're weird. You don't want them to think that....do you?" the woman asked her daughter. Her daughter shook her head no.
"Then if you want to fight, here. Wear these. That way, they won't be able to see the drawings on your hands, beautiful." the woman said to her daughter. The daughter took the gloves and tried them on. She smiled and hugged the mother as to say "thanks". She dashed down the hallways, eager to use them.
"Be careful, beautiful. Don't get yourself hurt. I love you too much to see that happen." the woman said.

*****

S
  "Avarra, please, don't!" I exclaim, laughing.
  "Die." she says jokingly.
  "No!" I exclaim, still laughing.
  "Fine, but I'm gonna do it." Avarra says.
  "Okay then." I say.
  "Distant." Avarra states.
  "Huh?" I ask.
  "Why do you seem so distant? Is something bothering you?" Avarra asks.
  "Yeah. Sorta." I answer.
  "What?" Avarra asks again.
  "Well, um....two days ago, Yavara, well......asked me if I'm her real mother." I state.
  "What'd you say......" Avarra questions.
  "No. But I may or may not of hesitated a little bit." I answer again. Avarra sighs.
  "Maybe we should just tell her." Avarra suggests.
  "No. Absolutely not." I state.
  "Why?" Avarra ponders.
  "I overheard them. She already knows she and Maj are siblings. If we tell her, then there'll be the question of why did I give them up? And honestly, let's be truthful. How in the world you do expect me to explain to them that if I didn't, they would've been with their father? That they would've been stuck with him until they go to college? Avarra, it doesn't sound as bad if you don't know him. Don't know how he acts." I reason.
  "Oh. That's true." Avarra says.
  "Why is this so complicated?" I sigh.
  "I don't know.....but Mavaro, she's like you. Not just in behavior, but in.......you know....." Avarra says, trailing off.
  "I know. Have you seen her change?" I ask.
  "Yes. But not fully. It was a while back, she was practicing fighting. While she was practicing, her eyes turned blue. An icy blue. I've never seen her change before besides that, though." Avarra informs me.
  "I have too. Just once. It happened within my last month. She got scared and her eyes turned blue." I inform her.
  "Hmm....I'm interested in something." Avarra says.
****Yavara
  "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to round four of eight in Apermae Academy's Fighting Competition! By now, I'm pretty sure everyone knows the rules by now, so let's hop straight on to the match! Last time in the competition, there were 125 fighters left, now there are 63! Almost there, folks! Can I please have Yavara Cyvaira and Audree Mauvhound come to the arena please!" the referee says. I change and wore my fighting outfit: which was all white.
  "Fighters, shake hands please." the referee commands. We shake hands and return back to our sides.
  "And......FIGHT!!!" the referee exclaims, jumping out of the ring. Quick and easy, Yavara. Quick and easy. Thinking that, I knee her in the thigh to stun her and straight kick her. She hits the floor.
"1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10! And she's down! Wow! That's GOT to be the fastest fight in Apermae Academy's fighting history! 10 seconds without the countdown and 20 seconds with it! Yavara Cyvaira has broken the record for fastest time in a match, beating it with a whopping 25 seconds!" the referee shouts. Audree must've overtrained herself in preparation for this fight. She was too easy to beat. It was good, though. She's a very skilled fighter. Audree gets up off the floor and shakes hands with me. As I shake her hand, I can tell she's analyzing me. The way I behave. The way I fight. Everything.
"Nice kick there. Totally caught me off guard." Audree says cheerfully.
"Thanks. Good luck." I say before walking towards my dressing room and changing. I walk out of the changing room to see Relvin and Verlynn talking.
"Hey, guys!" I exclaim happily.
"Nice fight out there, you made it look so easy!" Verlynn exclaims. It might've looked that way, but my knee says otherwise....
"Thanks! I don't know, though.....Audree is usually quite strong, it was too easy for me to beat her. Maybe she overtrained?" I suggest.
"Maybe. But she just handed you a spot in the top 50." Relvin says, giving me a high-five. I smile. I hope Verlynn, Relvin, Maj, and me make it to the top 4 so we end up being a team. That'd be great. Very, very great. Wonderful, even.
The whole time as I watch the fights go on, I'm more focused on the little girl I saw in my vision. Who is she? Wait a minute...she was trapped in a lab, meaning there has to be a scientist. Is she apart of my family? If so.....let's assume that this WAS the past. Father's parents weren't scientists. The only person who it could possibly be is Varvel. (basing this off of the fact that I've never heard of grandma) I can almost absolutely assure you that it's not Verlynn's mother from the way she acts and the way the argument between her and my mother went down....or maybe she could be doing it to protect her? No, she doesn't look like she's been experimented on. She doesn't act like it, either. So now we're left with two people—Mavaro and mother. Mavaro has been gone for quite a while....considering I've never seen her before the hidden hallway. Also, if my memory serves me correctly, she said she was dead (which doesn't make any sense) or gone, so we can't trust the fact that she was the little girl in the vision because we don't know how long she was gone for. So once I eliminate her from the list......it leaves....mom? On no no no no, I must be mental. There is no way on earth that cute, sweet, adorable-looking girl is mom. She doesn't even look an ounce like mother. I mean, sure she has the same hazel eyes as mother and the same beautiful caramel skin as her........and maybe even—man.....that little girl actually could've been mother. But....she was so innocent looking. She looked like she was full of life and joy.....and mom now, I've never seen her say that she's happy or she's excited or anything involving emotions, really, so how can she be mother? Did something change her? Could what changed her of been the claw marks? Since she got them from her mother, something must've happened, and it must've been bad if I've never heard anyone talk about grandma besides that one sentence, maybe that was what changed her like that. Who knows.
I watch as Verlynn kicks someone and they fall down. The countdown begins. Then, the audience and referee reach ten. The match is over. Verlynn wins again. We're getting closer to my dream of us all being the representatives for Apermae Academy. Relvin already won his fight because his opponent never showed up. Relvin thinks he was probably too scared to fight, but I think otherwise. It doesn't really make any sense to forfeit now when he's already in round four. Who knows, maybe he slept in or something came up.
  "Okay folks! This rounds up round four of eight in Apermae Academy's fighting competition! Wow, I must say, very intense competition! But this competition is nearing the end, my friends. Now we are down to 32 people! Well, folks, I'll see you in nine days to see who makes it to the top 20 and sadly, who doesn't. Have fun and be good!" the referee announces. People start to file out of the gym and I join them. As I'm walking, I feel someone grab me by my shoulders and drag me off somewhere. I try to loosen their grip, but it's as hard as rock and won't budge and I'm too tired to push any further.
"Olivia, where were you? Don't you know how mad mother'd be if she found out you were doing this?" the person asks. He turns around and locks eyes with me. Awkward. I smile. It's a boy. One with bright blue eyes, light skin, and blonde hair. Besides the frustration in his voice, he sported a small smile and wore a white shirt with a black X across it with white shorts.
"I'm sorry, but I think you've mistaken me for someone else." I say sweetly, pointing out the obvious.
****Armon
This girl. She is the prettiest girl I've ever seen. She has these beautiful hazel eyes that you could even see little twinkles in. She has nice, silky red hair that is hard to identify without a light of some sort with a sort of mixed-caramel skin tone and had the sweetest smile that made me feel like I've won the lottery. She looks so much like Olivia that if you were to dye this girl's hair blonde and give her blue contacts, you're practically set, well, except for the fact that Olivia has a lighter skin tone but hey, you get what I'm saying. She wears a white t-shirt with white shorts and white shoes.
"Oh, you're not Olivia." I say, embarrassed. My face goes red.
"Yeah..." she responds.
"I-I'm so sorry, I thought you were someone else." I apologize.
"Who? Maybe I can help you find them." the girl asks cheerfully.
"O-Olivia, my twin sister. About your height, blonde hair, blue eyes, light-mixed sort of skin tone." I stutter, describing my sister.
"No.....I don't think I've seen—oh, well, there she is." the girl points out. I turn around and see Olivia appear behind me.
"Oh.....who's this?" Olivia asks, peeking at her from behind my shoulder.
"Yavara!" she says enthusiastically, extending her hand out to greet Olivia. Olivia comes from behind me and shakes her hand. I shake her hand too.
"Olivia." Olivia says back. Behind Olivia's strong facade, I manage to see it crack—if only for a second. Shock. She's shocked that she's seeing someone who looks so like her. It's either Yavara is very good in keeping a strong facade or she's oblivious to the fact that she's practically staring at her twin.
"Armon." I introduce.
"I've never seen you guys around here, are you new?" Yavara asks.
"We're going to be coming here next school year." Olivia informs her.
"Oh! You guys'll love it here. I bet you'll have a blast in your Sophomore year!" Yavara states. I glance at Olivia. She glances back. Something's not right here.....how did she know what grade we're going to?
"What? Is something wrong?" Yavara asks innocently.
"Huh? Oh, no. I bet it'll be fun in all our years here." I answer.
"Mmm, that's too bad." Yavara mutters. I raise an eyebrow.
"And why's that?" I question.
"If you had your 16th birthday here, they would've gave you a free birthday surprise lunch for the rest of the week and £50 to spend on whatever you'd like." Yavara answers.
"I'm interested. How do you know we're 16 and Sophomores when we didn't say anything?" Olivia asks.
"Just had a hunch. I'm pretty good at reading people like that. Just like I can tell Armon is going to try out for the basketball team and Olivia the skateboarding team." Yavara states. I freeze, shocked. That's absolutely correct, I do plan to try out for the basketball team and Olivia does love skateboarding, so she plans to join the team. This girl has skill.
"T-That's correct. Absolutely correct." I say.
"Yay! My......friend too skateboards and tries to get me to do it too. He also drags me around to his basketball practices and forces me to play with him." Yavara informs Olivia.
"Really? Cool." we both comment.
"So....what about you? What grade'll you be going to?" Olivia asks.
"Intermediate. They planned to start me on that type of stuff in the 4th quarter but never really got to it, but I was still considered an Intermediate." Yavara replies. That's kind of......shocking. She only looks 15 or 16 and she's an Intermediate? Hmm.......must be really smart. Yavara's phone buzzes.
"Oh, sorry but I gotta go. My friends are planning to get Subway and I don't wanna miss that. Oh....we can text if you guys want?" Yavara questions.
"Oh yeah, sure!" Olivia says enthusiastically. We exchange numbers and we wave goodbye as she leaves.
"She was super friendly." I state.
"Yeah......especially for the strongest person in school." Olivia adds. That's when I remember what the referee said. She IS the strongest person in school.
"Oh yeah! But.....friends? Armallah told me she was super antisocial." Olivia states, confused.
"Maybe she just appeared that way? Who knows. What I'm curious about is how she looks so much like you, Olivia. Her facial feature were just.....wait a minute....remember what mom always says? She says you have dad's face and his innocent personality, much like Yavara....." I say, trailing off.
"Do you think......she could be our sister?" Olivia asks.
My answer is Olivia's least favorite words: I don't know.