No. 6: Strange Friends, but an even Stranger Encounter

No. 6: Strange Friends, but an even Stranger Encounter

Venn skirted around the edges of the room and left through the door, avoiding looks from the other kids still lingering in the classroom.
It had been two days already, but it still felt like the first time stepping into the room.
The teachers were polite, but they always had a look on their face when ever they looked at one of the triplets.

Venn threw his bag onto his back viciously and shoved his way through the crowd. People usually let him pass pretty easily, but there was always those few who just stopped and starred.
He just sighed and pushed harder.
Finally, he came to a part of the mansion that was mostly always deserted.
Pausing at the entry way, he exhaled deeply and slowed his steps. He liked it here best, away from prying eye.
His ADHD kicked in as he walked slowly down the hall. He groaned at his twitching hands. He hadn't worked on anything for too long. When they had first met Kaleigh in what they had nicked named the VW, for virtual world, most of his time had been taken up with making a friend out of her, and then also worrying over Christie when she caught the flu.

Thinking of Christie made him stop cold in his tracks. His twitching hands grew into fists, and with out thinking he looking for something to punch.
It was then that something changed.
It was quiet at first, but steadily got louder.
He stopped what he was doing and listened for a moment, his sharp ears trying to figure out what it was. His feet started to move towards the sound with out his conscious consent, but he didn't stop them either.

The noise got louder, until he was finally able to figure out what it was. It was music. Getting closer still he found that it was piano music. And whoever was playing, was really good.
Intrigued, he continued to follow the sound, until he came to a door way.
Inside, a girl was playing on a shiny black, grand piano.

The room use to be the music room, apparently a while back. Other tables or instruments were covered by large white sheets. Even most of the piano was covered, save for the front of it.
The girl started to sing the words that accompanied the tune, and Venn found himself hypnotized.
Her voice was soft and gentle, like a slow creak. She, evidently, had had lots of practice with her voice. It flowed up and down the scale flawlessly, and with seemingly effortless grace.
"We are the light of the world,
We are the city on the hill.
We are the light of the world,
And we got to let the light shine."
She stopped singing, but the music continued on.
"So...are you going to stand there and gawk all day, or are you going to come here so you can introduce yourself properly."
Venn jumped when she addressed him.
"Well get over here then. Hasn't your mom ever taught you manners?" The girl called.
Venn sighed and moved into the room.
She didn't move, she didn't turn. He starred at her strait back that held perfect posture. She had long black hair, like Kaleigh, only hers was longer.
When Venn stopped behind her, she dropped her hands gracefully onto her lap.
"I'm Venn. I'm sorry I intruded. I was just passing by and heard you...play....ing..."
There was something terribly wrong.
She had turned around fully, and tucked her hair behind her ear. Showing the silver haze that covered her eyes. Not white like a usual blind person, no they were silver.
But that only took him by surprise for a moment.
"If you're unable to see, how on earth can you play the piano so well?" He blurted out.
The strange girl laughed.
"I see you're one to get to the point. You introduced yourself, so I do believe it is my turn."
She held out her hand. He was surprised by how close she was to actually being able to guess where he was standing.
"I'm Terra. Nice to meet you Venn."
He shook her hand, his almost twice the size, and hers tiny and dainty.
"Nice to meet you as well."
"As for you question," she turned back to the piano and ran a hand along the white and black keys.
"Playing the piano is all about memory. It's easy to learn, and if you're gifted with it, some people can become amazing."
"Yeah but only girls play piano." That was a grave mistake.
Terra placed her hand on her hip and laughed at him.
"Oh is that so?" She challenged. "Beethoven played piano." She countered.
"Yes but Beethoven also wore tights."
Her eyebrows rose into her wispy bangs.
"Okay, well then if you want recent, most people who play an instrument learn with piano. It's the basic, even Justin Bieber plays piano. Greyson Chance does too. Not to mention numerous Christian artists like Casting Crowns, and -"
"Alright, alright! You made your point. But I do not have the fingers to play piano."
Terra gave him a small smile.
"Let me see your hand." She requested, holding out her own again.
Venn really had no idea why he was still arguing about the stupid piano. But he gave her his hand anyway.
Terra held it carefully in her own hands, gently as if she didn't want to hurt him. Slowly she ran her fingers across his palm, her touch as light as a breeze. Her lips moved as she talked silently to herself.
"Your fingers actually are the perfect length to play. And...I can tell you're most likely going to be a banger."
She decided after a moment of her carrying on like she was. She let go of his hand, but was still smiling.
"What do you mean? A banger?" He asked, taking his hand back and scowling at his fingers. Of course they just had to be the perfect length! He thought grumpily.
"Your fingers are strong. Which means you will probably bang on the keys..." She was silent for a minute, somehow sensed his confusion and beckoned to him as she turned back around.
"Here like this." She said. Terra's fingers grazed the top of the keys and finally came to land on a key in middle of the keys.
"I play lightly, I don't press to hard," She began to play a soft tune. "See?" He slid into the bench next to her, careful to keep a safe distance away. But when he watched her, he was again hypnotized.
"But if you played you would probably do this," Her soft tune suddenly turned into a loud forte with lots of banging.
"That's...not exactly lovely." Venn said after she was done.
"Well that depends on what you are playing. My little sister plays like that and it's rather annoying."
"Huh...well this has been very educational but I don't see how this is going to help me get to class."
"No it probably wont. Come back here tomorrow at three o'clock sharp." She fingered around for her books.
"Here," Venn stacked her books up neatly and gently guided her wrist to the stack.
"Thank you. Three o'clock. Sharp." Terra stated, pointing a finger at him. "You had better be here."
"But I -"
She just smiled at him and then left.
"What the heck was that all about?" Venn muttered to himself, starring blindly at the piano keys. Before they were something that could create any sound imaginable. But now, they looked just like black and white lines on a newspaper.

.:+++:.

Lunch was when things got a bit more interesting.
Venn, Cliff, and Kaleigh found their way to the back of the lunch line. Kaleigh had had a very hard day of math and had a pile of homework that needed to be done. She had started mumbling to herself absented mindedly.
"Hey." Someone tapped her shoulder from behind. A shock of electricity zapped through her body, making her jump and spin around in surprise.
There was a spitting noise
"Geez, don't choke me." A deep voice said. Kale grabbed her hair in her hand and pulled it around her shoulder, pulling what ever hair was in the boys mouth, out.
"Thank you."
She turned around fully and got a decent look at the guy behind her. His short dark hair was spiked up in the front, a baseball cap (a real one) was perched on his head facing backwards, covering up the rest of his hair. He had on a blue long sleeve with a sweatshirt over top, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His skinny jeans were dirty, and had grass stains so she made a fair guess that he was an athlete. But she couldn't help but smile when she spotted the tan, high top converse.
His eyes caught hers immediately.
Kaleigh's breath caught when she saw that his stormy blue eyes were lined with silver.
The boy's eyebrows furled in surprise as he cocked his head.
He must have noticed the silver in her own eyes too.
After a moment, he shrugged and shook his head.
"Did you want something specifically?" Kaleigh asked.
He grew a wicked grin that made her shift slightly.
"Watch this."

Her eyes grew wide as she watch the strange boy move out of the line and up towards the front.
She quickly scanned the front of the line and tried to stifle a gasp. He was headed right towards the gang of football jocks.
"Oh dear." She whispered.
"Kale? You okay?"
She nodded absent mindedly to her brother. But her gaze was still on the strange boy.
She saw him slip something out of his sweater pocket and palm it.
"What is he...?" She muttered.
The boy tripped on his feet and rammed into the quarterback. He had been a pain to Cliff all week, and once she saw what the boy was doing, she couldn't help but smile. He had it coming.
The boy made his apologizes, but Kaleigh was watching his hand that hovered over the quarterback's tray of food for only a minute.
"Watch where you're going Flyte!" The quarterback snapped at the boy. He put his hands back into his pockets and gave him a smile.
"My bad, sorry. It wont happen again."
"You bet it wont." The quarterback muttered as he left the line and headed over to the cheerleader posse.
The boy came back, struggling to hide a grin. Kaleigh ducked her head and put several jell-os onto her tray and a big bowl of macaroni and cheese.
"You know, you look extremely guilty with that big grin on your face." She informed the boy when he came back into the line next to her. "You're making it too easy."
The boy scoffed. and picked up a jell-o.
"Like you could do better?"
Kaleigh gave him a look, then turned and followed her brothers, desperately trying to hide the smile that spread across her face.
"Boys, everything is a challenge with them."
Kale was jolted out of her thoughts when a girl spoke to her from next to her.
Cliff and Venn had chosen a seat with a girl, she was blind, but Kaleigh didn't let that bother her.
"Yeah they always have to prove that they're better." Kale agreed, sitting down next to the girl.
"Hi, I'm Terra. You must be Kaleigh, Venn's sister right?"
Kaleigh smiled and shook Terra's hand.
"That's me. And I'm not sure if you've met my other brother, but this is Cliff."
Cliff shook Terra's hand as well before sitting down next to his brother.
"Nice to meet you all. And this is Brandon." She reached up and pulled the boy down onto the bench on her other side.
He met Kaleigh's gaze first, the two of them exchanged smug smiles before she went back to her mac and cheese.
"You can ignore him though, he's completely immature." Terra continued to say.
"Hey! That's not fair!"
Kaleigh laughed with Terra.
"I'll agree with you on that one Terra." She said.
"Oh so you've met him already."
"Yeah, and he's going to be in such huge trouble in the next couple of seconds." I was watching the quarterback as he spooned up his mac and cheese.
Terra turned to the boy next to her. She might not have her sight, but she had a killer glare.
"What did you do?!" She demanded.
"Nothing!" Brandon countered. "I didn't -"
His words were cut off by the sounds of a low pitched howl of pain.
"Told you." Kaleigh muttered.
Venn and Cliff chuckled, and looked at Brandon with approval. Kale smashed her foot into Cliff's.
"Ow! What the heck was that for?"
"Don't encourage him. Goodness gracious you three are like a bunch of three year olds."
"Hey, what did I do?" Venn, protested. Kaleigh silenced him with a single look.
The quarterback was now guzzling down his bottled water as if there was no tomorrow. Once that was through, he ran over to the water fountain.
"Dude, what did you put in his food?" Venn asked.
Brandon grinned and pulled out a small vile of red powder, which was now half empty.
"Jalapeño powder."
The boys laughed and exchanged high fives. Terra and Kaleigh groaned.
"Well it looks like they'll be getting along just fine." Terra muttered.
"Which means that we have to stick together from now on because handling my brothers is one thing, handling them plus a prankster is a whole other entirely." Kaleigh decreed.
"It's a deal." Terra grinned.
The boys were still giving congratulations when the quarterback had gotten enough water.
"You're not out of the worst yet." Kaleigh warned. The boys grew quiet as they saw the big jock barrel his way towards them.
"Aw shoot." Brandon muttered. "Catch." He told.
Kaleigh's eyes grew wide as he tossed her the small vile. She knew her reflexes had been fast in the virtual world, but she was very happy to know that they were still that way when she caught the small little vile with one hand and quickly shoved it in her pocket.
"Flyte!!"
Brandon shot the three of them a look that said 'watch this'.
Kaleigh groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Here we go." Terra whispered under her breath.

Brandon turned around and looked up at the quarterback with a cocky grin.
"Hey Josh, I didn't think you'd ever let your little posse see you here with me. Nice to know you care so much."
Josh's face grew hot red. Kaleigh groaned and let her head fall into the crock of her arm on the table.
"I'm going to kill you Flyte. Do you hear me? Kill you!"
"Why is it that you never make good on those threats?"
"Brandon." Terra said in a low warning tone. Brandon brushed her arm in a reassuring way, but his gaze was still on the jock looming over him.
The jock's eyes grew wide and his nostrils flared.
"You are dead." The jock yanked on the front of Brandon's shirt, hauling him up off the seat 'til he was on his feet.
At the same moment Cliff and Venn rose to their feet. Kaleigh watched as their muscles tensed and their gaze fall hard on Josh.
Josh noticed them, but also noticed that his posse had come to back him out.
"Wow, got new momma's to make sure you don't get hurt Flyte?" Josh taunted.
He gave a head nod to the guys behind him. They fanned out 'til their entire table was surrounded.
"Guys, honestly." Terra cried. "At least take it outside."
Josh looked down at her and looked like he was about to say something rude, but I gave him a glare and placed a protective hand on Terra's shoulder.
"Yeah come on, if you want to kill me the least you can do is get original about it." Brandon said, quickly claiming Josh's attention again.
"I mean the cafeteria? Really?"
Josh didn't say anything but just gave another head shake.
Several of the other jocks grabbed Kaleigh's brothers by their shirts as well, then followed Josh out the door into the back field that surrounded the school.
Kaleigh groaned.
"Come on Terra, we can't let them kill each other." She said. Terra nodded, and didn't shake off Kaleigh's grip when she took her hand and ran towards the door, dodging gaping students who had just watched the showdown in silence.
Great. This is just great. Haven't even been here a week, and already we're on the hit list. She thought gloomily.



Outside, the three boys were facing down a group of jocks that out numbered them two to one.
"It's not looking good is it?" Terra asked. Kale had almost forgotten the poor girl was blind.
"No it's not. Three against ten. Not good at all."
"Should we even the odds?"
"What can we do? No offense, but we'd probably end up just in the way."
Terra sighed.
"Sometimes I really hate being delicate and feminine."
Kaleigh couldn't help but laugh at her remark.
"I know exactly what you mean Terra. Exactly."
"We can't just sit by and let them beat each other up though." She protested.
Kaleigh shook her head.
"No we can't but..." She didn't want to be thought of as a snitch if she went and got a teacher. That wouldn't do her any good, but then again she knew this could end up ugly.

It happened to soon, the boys on either side of the invisible line suddenly attacked each other. There was too many of the jocks, the three boys got beaten down almost as soon as the sides clashed. But somehow they kept getting back up. But what caught Kaleigh by surprise was the fact that Brandon was faster then her eyes going catch. He would dodge blows by dancing to the side in a tight circle. Once he actually used someone else's back to jump off of to kick another, taller, jock in the nose.
"Holly cow!" She cried as she tried to pick him out.
"Yeah...he's got light feet." Terra said, crossing her arms over her chest.
The fight went on like this, Cliff and Venn had boxing and mixed martial arts before, but it took a strain on their bodies, which weren't use to using the muscles required for certain moves. So they were slower, and got more hits that way.
Kaleigh found herself taking steps closer and closer to the fight slowly, wanting to help but not sure how. It was chaos!
Finally, Josh had caught Brandon by his hair.
"Now you really are going to die Flyte." He growled.
Kaleigh knew rationally he wouldn't, but her mind wasn't being rational at the moment.
She took a daring move and ran strait through the fight.
Josh and Brandon were on the far side, while his goons held Venn and Cliff at bay. But none of them expected a girl to jump in the middle of the fight, so this took them by surprise, long enough she could run past.
She watched as Josh pulled his arm back into his pocket and pull out a glint of steel.
Her eyes grew wide, and she almost stopped dead. One of the other jocks tried to grab her, touching her waist. The shock of the touch reeled her back into motion, she clasped her hands together in a fist and rammed her left elbow back, catching the guy's gut hard.
He let out a cry of surprise and doubled over, she took the opportunity and jumped over him and to Josh who was about to drive the knife into Brandon's side. Brandon wasn't paying attention, he didn't see the foul play, but it was a good thing Kaleigh had good eye sight.

Kale finally came up to Josh and before he could see her, she pivoted on her left foot and swung out with her right, her foot catching his vulnerable side. He gasped and Brandon's eyes snapped to her. But she wasn't finished.
She moved into Josh 'til her side was pressed up against hers. Something stirred in side her, she didn't know what. A feeling from deep inside her, it felt like something dangerous. It crackled up her veins, 'til she was sure she would explode from it, but she didn't let it stop her. Kaleigh slammed her forearm into his throat, then kneed him hard. Not letting him breath, she yanked the knife out of his hand and kicked his other that still had a grip on his hair. Where ever she touched Josh sparks flew, but not the kind she thought would happen when someone kissed someone, they were sparks of pure energy, pure anger, and pure instinct to protect.
The feeling was foreign to her, but she went with it.

Josh fell back in a heap on the grass, stunned and in horror that a girl had just beaten him.
Brandon picked up his baseball cap from the ground and put it back onto his head.
"Man when did you learn to do that?" He asked.
Kaleigh dropped her hands and shook her head.
"I have no idea." She admitted.
He looked at her for a minute, his eyes glancing over her, 'til they rested on her eyes. His eyebrows pinched together, but it was soon gone as he shook his head.
"Well your brothers have nothing to worry about when it comes to whether you can defend yourself or not." He stated.
Kaleigh smiled and nodded.
"I guess."
"What is the meaning of this?!"
Everyone on the lawn froze.
"Oh we're in for it now..." Brandon groaned quietly.