Control

Freaky Eyes

When I woke up in the morning, the sunlight was already streaming through my window. I blinked. When I checked the time, I saw that it was 7:00 am, the sun had already been up for two hours! See, that's the thing with London. Early light doesn't wake anyone - or maybe that's just me, sleeping in. I stood up and walked downstairs. Opening the fridge door in the kitchen, I immediately saw my favourite breakfast. I grabbed out a frying pan, and started to cook myself some bacon and eggs. While breakfast was cooking, I stood there, brooding. Hagrid hadn't come. Was this all a joke? Was I hallucinating? Perhaps I was in a coma and I was dreaming about today and yesterday. I turned the stove off and put my bacon and eggs on the plate. I went and sat at the table while thinking about everything that had happened yesterday. I kept hoping that this Hagrid person would show up, but no one came. I stabbed a piece of bacon moodily. Once I had finished my breakfast, I put my plate in the sink and then went back up to my room. I didn't know what to do. Technically, today was a school day because it was Tuesday, but I had been expelled. Then I had an idea. 

"Bet she has freaky eyes," I remembered Bailey saying. Oh, I was going to give him a good scare. I put on a pair of faded blue jeans with a black jumper. I looked in the mirror. My eyes were glowing even brighter today, and they were a vivid shade of green. This, I was used to. My eye colour changed almost every day - another reason I hardly showed anyone my face. I grabbed my set of spare keys and my bus pass. Sure, I could just walk, but it takes fifteen minutes to walk and it only takes five minutes by bus. Plus it is a lot less suspicious to have a hoodie covering your face on a bus than it is walking around in public. I raced out the front door eagerly, and saw a bus just about to leave from the curb. I sprinted towards it, and the driver opened the doors for me.

"Thanks," I puffed as I took my seat near the front of the bus. The driver pulled away from the curb and started to drive around London. I checked my watch; it was 8:00 am. I was a bit worried that this Hagrid guy could come while I was out, but I wouldn't take too long. School started at nine, and if the bus got me there quickly I would be able to scare Bailey good enough to leave him shaken for the day. After five minutes, I could see the school coming up. At the next stop, I got off the bus, thanking the driver while I did so, and walked casually towards the school. I plopped a piece of gum into my mouth and chewed it. It was my luck. Just as I got there, a big fancy car drove up, and Bailey stepped out of it. As soon as the car drove away I made a beeline towards him. I grabbed his wrist tightly. He whirled around.

"Get your hands off me!" he looked at me closer, and his eyes widened "No way. Ellie Bayards? This is too good to be true. You don't come to this school anymore. I can beat you to a pulp now." I gave a wicked smile. I was glad he couldn't see my face.

"Come with me. I'd like to talk to you." I said.

"As long as it's an apology," he said. I nodded, and let go of his wrist. I started walking down the path, and he hurried to keep up. When we were about thirty metres from the school gates, I stopped and so did he. 

"I didn't come to apologise at all," I said "But yesterday, you said you bet that I had freaky eyes. I wanted to show you them so you could go and tell everyone how freaky I am." I could see him get excited. This was more than he'd ever hoped for. I slowly pulled the hood off of my face and shoved my hair away so he could see my glowing eyes. He grinned.

"That is WICKED creepy!" he said, "I can't wait to tell everyone!" But then I decided to show him my real secret. I had been working on this since the age of six. My eyes started to flicker. Then the light died out, and Bailey frowned. Suddenly my eyes lit back up again, brighter than before, and started to change colours. It went to blue, then grey, then black, then blood red. I projected some light onto the ground, but then my magic took over. It formed a circle of light around him, but it was a red light, and it solidified, starting to close in on him. I panicked and changed my eyes back to silver. The circle was still around him, though, and getting tighter. He struggled for air.

"No..." I mumbled, shocked. I imagined my horse again, my horse made of the magic inside of me. I called all my magic into forming this horse, but it was bigger than last time. There was more magic in me, I thought to myself. I concentrated on gripping the reins of the horse and pulling back. I asked the horse to pull the magic away from my eyes, and slowly but surely, visible particles started to float into the horse and join it. When I opened my eyes again, they were no longer glowing, and the circle had disappeared from Bailey. He gasped for air and stared at me like I was a monster. I lowered my gaze to the ground.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I didn't mean to hurt you." He stared at me, but unlike every time he had ever beaten me up, he wasn't glaring at me. There was no hatred in his stare, or anger. Just shock, and wonder. 

"I'll see you around, won't I, Ellie?" he asked suddenly. I felt shocked but nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, you probably will," I mumbled. I put my hood back on and started to walk to the corner, where I could get the bus. Just as I got there, Bailey called out

"You shouldn't hide your eyes. They're really pretty." Then he turned around and walked away. Huh. Under his rough, bully exterior ... maybe there really was a kind person in there. A kind Bailey Laposay. What a weird thing to imagine. The bus came, and I stepped on to it, ready to go home.