Dark as the Night

66

"Are you nervous about your first day?" Tai asked Odessa as they walked to school the following Thursday. The cloudy, muggy, late Spring day threatened to be definitively drizzly. It was not the most inspiring day to start school, but being June 1st, it was the first day of Camp McKenna's second trimester.

"A little," she admitted distractedly. She plucked at her blue plaid skirt, which was attacking her thighs with an epic case of static cling. "It's been a long time since I've been to school."

James glanced at her with piqued interest, but kept his voice neutral as he asked, "You remember going to school before this? Do you remember what it was like?" He hadn't told Tai and Odessa what he'd overheard the other day, preferring to file away any information that came his way.

Odessa, having just given up the fight with her clingy skirt with a frustrated growl, looked up at James and blinked slowly. "I-" she began then paused.

"I didn't realize I'd said that," she admitted, furrowing her brow. "I guess I hadn't really thought about when I was last at school, but it feels like it's been a few years." She paused walking as images and memories rose to the surface of her mind, like bubbles in carbonated water. Pop – uniforms. Pop – classroom lectures. Pop–reciting Latin poetry, pop pop pop–training in the gymnasium, walking to classes, eating lunch in silence.

"I can remember some things, just not a lot. The uniforms were different, and we had different ones for different activities. Each period was forty-five minutes long, with fifteen-minute breaks between them." She rattled the information off as it occurred to her, then paused again as she glanced down and saw that her blouse was askew, having also joined the cling parade. "Dear gods, what is up with this static??"

Tai took her bag from her shoulder and helped smooth down the back of her blouse. "It's this weather. The humidity makes everything stick. What classes did you have?"

She listed off the classes she could remember, as though reciting from a schedule. "Math, science, English, foreign language, social studies, culture, and training."

"No art?"

Odessa sighed as she finally managed to straighten the front of her blouse, then took her bag back from Tai with a grateful smile. She answered as they resumed their walk to school. "In culture class, we learned art history as well as music history and theory, but if we wanted to learn to draw or paint or play music or anything like that, then we could select it as an extra-curricular. We were required to have at least one E.C."

"What was 'training'?" This time the question came from James. He snuck a sideways look at her and saw a darker expression flash across her face, before she appeared thoughtful again. It was the briefest moment, and he didn't think he would have noticed it if he hadn't been watching specifically for her reaction. Her voice remained light, however.

"In the primary years, age four to eight, it was mostly gymnastics, with some martial arts thrown in. In the secondary years, from eight until fourteen, it was mostly martial arts."

"Mostly...?"

Odessa shook her head, frowning in consternation. "I don't remember many details about it. There was more, but it was specialized..." she trailed off as she tried to recall something more concrete than the gut-turning feeling of unease. Snippets of her dreams appeared and disappeared just as quickly. She lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. "But those memories haven't come back to me yet."

James dropped the subject. He got the feeling Odessa remembered at least a little more than she let on, but when she was ready, she'd eventually tell them the rest. James, more than anyone, knew what it was like to withhold information because you were just not able to process it yet.

Over her head, he caught Tai's eye. He wondered if his friend had the same line of thinking. By nonverbal agreement, they both let the conversation die for now.

---------------

Tai opened the door with a playful flourish and held it for Odessa. She grinned at him, grateful for his attempts to ease her nerves.

Odessa stepped into the classroom and looked around at the handful of kids clustered in two separate groups – girls on one side, boys on the other. She wiped her palms on her skirt, preempting the dreaded clammy hands while silently thanking whomever had started the bowing trend in Camp.

There was a firm nudge at her back, and she turned around to glare at James, who was grumbling about her blocking the entrance. She opened her mouth to say offer a retort, but when she locked onto his green eyes, she was startled to find them soft with kindness and understanding. Warmth flooded her chest and she put her hand on his shoulder and returned the shove. He removed her hand with a teasing smirk but gave it a little squeeze before turning her to face forward and walking around her.

Tai's fingers snaked into Odessa's and he leaned down to her ear. "You're more nervous than you let on, huh?" he whispered. His breath on her skin made her shiver, and she tried to hide it by smiling up at him with all the confidence she could muster.

"Why should I be nervous? I am beautiful and loveable."

She couldn't make her eyes reflect her false bravado, but he was too busy looking at her mouth with a new heat in his eyes as he breathed, "I can agree with that."

Odessa's heart skipped and her cheeks heated. Things had been a little different between her and Tai since he'd held her the other night, but his compliment still caught her off guard. Afraid that if she tried to speak, it would just come out as an embarrassing stammer, she ducked her head and looked away.

And just as she did, she was ambushed.