The Girl with the Cast Iron Stare

A New Year, A New Side of Lannie

       Lannie walked up the side walk in her sullen, awkward walk she's always had. Emotionally shut off from everyone else, emotionally tormented by everyone else.
It was the the last month of senior year, and nothing new had happened for Lannie Crighton. Well, maybe the fact that she gained only one friend this year, Barbra Lankton.
Barbra Lankton was a straight-A student and a very admired student by her teachers. I guess you could call her your classic teacher's pet, but in a good way.
And as for Lannie, her top scores were always B's and C's, and she was never called on by her teachers. This troubled the teachers a bit, but hey, what are you going to do when the student doesn't want to answer a simple question?
As anyone could tell, nothing had ever gone the way Lannie wanted, not even if she asked her own mother for something, like going shopping, and hanging out with friends, not that she had any. But Lannie wished that once, just once, she could have the one thing in life she desperately wanted. The trouble was, she just didn't know what it was, not yet anyway.

As Lannie walked into the locker room for her first period of the day, Phys-Ed, she slowly reached her locker and began changing out into her swim gear. Today's physical education was pool-volleyball.  Lannie had always kept to herself when she was in the locker room. She didn't know if it would be a day where everyone throws volleyballs at her and laughs at her as a "joke", if you can even call the a joke, or if it was going be a day where no one bothered to talk to her. Unfortunately, she would later find out that today would be another day of relentless torment from her classmates.

After getting dressed, Lannie slowly walked out of the locker room through the second entrance and lead herself to the drenched edge of the indoor pool. She stared at her reflection in the water, repulsed and disgusted by the image she saw. Suddenly, another face appeared in the reflection behind her. She felt a strong arm harshly nudge her, and her reflection was interrupted when she crashed into the water.
Trish Stevenson laughed, and the shrill sound pierced the air, drawing the attention of her classmates. They all joined in laughing as they, too, climbed into the pool for water volleyball. Lannie stayed back in the corner as usual, she never participated in the physical academics, she was never a part of group activities. She simply watched, observing her surroundings, learning the patterns and mannerisms of her classmates.
As Kathryn Tellman tossed the ball into the air and whacked it over the net, Lannie watched as it was tossed a served over the net for two straight rounds. Then, when it was round three, Ruth Crell served the ball over the net as Casey Drake whacked it back over as Lannie looked up and the ball landed smack into her face and she was knocked backwards and fell into the water. As she struggled to get back up, Ms. Chamberlain grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet. As Lannie slowly looked her head up, a steady stream of blood began to run from her nose, down her face and into the water.
As the girls looked at her, Trish began to laugh and said,"Looks like someone's havin a face period!" As Lannie stared at her hands as she saw droplets of blood mixing with the water on her hands and seeping into the creases in her skin. She began to develop a hysterically frightened feeling and suddenly shrieked out loud and it echoed through the now silent room. She began to crazily move around pleading for help as she wailed,"HELP ME I'M DYING!!"
The girls began hysterically laughing at her as she yelled,"Help Me, HELP ME!!!!" Ms. Chamberlain began to try to calm Lannie down as she was grabbing her arm and and yelling,"Lannie its ok it's just a bloody nose! Lannie! LANNIE!!" Lannie began to grab at Ms. Chamberlain's pastel blue gym shorts as her gore-streaked hands stained them with her bloodied handprints. As one last attempt to calm her down, Ms. Chamberlain swung her hand and smacked Lannie across the face as her head whipped up towards the ceiling and something strange happened. As she looked up from impact, Lannie saw a large light on the ceiling and suddenly her vision shifted its focus until the light grew brighter and then fizzled out as the glass broke and shards plummeted into the water.
Suddenly, everyone's laughter came to a crashing halt, flabbergasted by what they had just witnessed.
Ms. Chamberlain grabbed Lannie by the waist and helped her out of the water and said,"Here lets go get you cleaned up", but as Lannie looked at her angrily, her vision shifted its focus again and Ms. Chamberlain, too, began to bleed from her nose. Seeing this shocked Lannie as she ran out and Ms. Chamberlain dismissed the class. Ms. Chamberlain then went to the bathroom in the locker room and stuffed her nose full of tissues to stop her nose bleed.

Ms. Chamberlain finished taking care of herself and went to help Lannie when she found her sitting on a bench in the locker room crying and still bleeding, but it seemed to have lowered its amount of blood flow. She went to the corner and grabbed some tissues from a dispenser and went to sit next to Lannie to take care off her bloody nose.
"Lannie", Ms. Chamberlain said,"I'm sorry I slapped you. That was a bad misjudgment on my part and I shouldn't have done that. But you know, just because your nose starts bleeding doesn't mean you're going to die, it just means you been hit pretty hard or it's "dry-season"." Ms. Chamberlain chuckled to herself at that one. Lannie had begun to look up at Ms. Chamberlain when she saw the tissues in her nose and slightly chuckled and then asked,"What's a nose bleed?" Ms. Chamberlain chuckled uncomfortably. "Let's get you to the nurse," she said, gently leading Lannie by the hand.
When they entered the nurses office, Ms. Chamberlain said," Mrs. Kelly, could we get some first aide for Lannie here?". " Sure thing," Mrs. Kelly replied, standing up and leading Lannie by the hand, Ms. Chamberlain following behind, to a room with cabinets, a large hard-top counter, and one of those large plastic padded beds. Mrs. Kelly sat Lannie down on the bed and walked over to one of the cabinets and took out a small first aide kit. She took out a handful of a special tissue paper and helped Lannie stop her now crusting bloody nose.
After getting situated and taken care of, Ms. Chamberlain took Lannie to the principals office to solve the problem at hand. As she slowly walked into the room, Lannie caught sight of two chairs in front of the principal's desk, with the principal himself, Mr. DeLeon, sitting in front of her, and she sat in the left hand chair without thought as to why. "So, what can I do for you ladies today?", Mr. DeLeon asked considerately. "I need a dismissal slip for Lannie Crighton," Ms. Chamberlain replied firmly. Me. DeLeon reached to his left and opened a drawer to take out a stack of standard yellow sticky notes, but there were none. He pressed the button on his desk as a strange beep jumped from it, and Mr. DeLeon said,"Mrs. Levy, can I get an early dismissal pass for Haley Blyton please." "It's Lannie Crighton," Ms. Chamberlain corrected him. Mr. DeLeon looked at Lannie and saw the dried up blood stain from her nose going down to her chin and down her neck. He looked at her hands and saw one off the blood-stained palms, and then asked,"What happened?" "She was hit in the face by a volleyball during water volleyball," Ms. Chamberlain replied. "The same happen to you?", Mr. DeLeon asked, chuckling a little, seeing the tissues in her nose, half of one completely stained in blood. "You know, I really don't know. I was helping Lannie out of the pool and as soon as she looked at my nose started to bleed. It's either dry-season or just coincidence?" Mr. DeLeon looked at Lannie and she seemed to be sad and moping. "Is everything alright, Lannie?" "The girls were laughing at her", Ms. Chamberlain stated in a very firm tone."Why did they do that?", asked Mr. DeLeon, now seeming very concerned. Ms. Chamberlain began to reply sadly "Well, she thought she was dying. She began to scream help me and waved her arms around all frantic like." Ms. Chamberlain lifted her hand and brought her index finger in toward herself twice, gesturing for Mr. DeLeon to come to her. He raised an eyebrow and got up out of his chair and walked over to her and bent down towards Ms. Chamberlain as she whispered,"She didn't know what a nosebleed was." As Lannie looked over, slightly hearing what Ms. Chamberlain was whispering to Mr. DeLeon, she was slightly worried that Mr. DeLeon would take it the wrong way, so she looked her eyes around the room trying to ward off the thought. She then spotted a snow dome on Mr. DeLeon's desk. It was a large snow dome, with a Detroit Zoo theme inside, and the base had a label that read: Detroit Zoo 1961. The liquid inside the dome had become sad, old, and slightly rotten and moldy, the glass dome had a green tarnish, and the base was now rusted and somewhat starting to crack. She grew a grotesque feeling towards it, but just looking at it somehow helped her calm down. Still, she had a terrible feeling.
Mr. DeLeon stood up fully and walked back to his desk and sat down in his chair. Mrs. Levy walked in with a yellow early dismissal pass and handed it to Mr. DeLeon. He grabbed a pen and wrote on it and handed it to Lannie. "Here you go, Lacey."' Mr. DeLeon said. "It's Lannie", Lannie stated, frustrated. As she replied, her vision began to ever so slowly shift its focus and the snow dome began to shake and rattle on the desk. "Listen, I'm going to make sure that the girls who made fun of you get their punishment," Mr. DeLeon began to say as Ms. Chamberlain reached a handed over and patted her back twice. "Sweetie, we're all really sorry about this incident, Lassie", Mr. DeLeon finished his sentence. Lannie became very angry and shot her head up towards him and shouted," IT'S LANNIE!" Suddenly her vision shifted its focus again and the snow dome shot sideways of the desk as it smashed against the wall and shattered into a million peaces as they feel onto the carpet and bounced once and became lifeless, with the liquid from the dome following behind and seeping into the fabric floor. All being shocked by seeing something like this happen right in front of them with no explanation, Lannie quickly hurried out and headed out through the front doors , down the steps and headed for home.