Chapter 22

Wednesday, 5th of December, 2035

(Mandy)

I woke up feeling refreshed, the tiredness and aching of my muscles gone. I got myself ready for the day ahead and then wolfed down my breakfast. I packed my bag and was out the door as soon as D turned up. For some reason I felt very happy to be going back to school, I was practically skipping along. Maybe it was because I knew at least one of my enemies was no longer there to torment me, but it was also the fact that I could see my friends again.

"So how was your job?" asked D.

"Good, bit tiring but OK," I said.

"What did you have to do?"

"Mostly loading dishwashers, pretty straight forward really but hard work I guess."

"Hmm, do they pay you well?"

"Not that well but every little helps. Hopefully I can make enough to contribute to the food bill each week. Since I eat a load more than Gwen does it seems only fair, plus it's the easiest area I can contribute to without Gwen spotting it. If I use my money to buy the food I cook, she won't notice that I'm helping."

"Sneaky. Does she object to you helping out with the money then?"

"A little. I think she feels she should be the only one that has to work."

"I suppose it's a pride thing. I hope your new career will mean you have time to see your friends."

"Yeah I don't want to miss out on seeing you and Jane. I'm only going to be working during the week and only till seven."

"Hey what about the club? You quitting before you've even joined?"

"No, I asked and the manager, Angela, said I could have Monday afternoon off. So I can go to this mysterious club."

"Well it won't stay mysterious much longer, they are having a session at lunch time Thursday. So you can see what it's all about after P.E. tomorrow."

"Cool. Was there much fuss at school yesterday?"

"A fair amount, they've started a witch hunt for the other kids involved in beating you up. With all the media attention they don't want to look like they are going easy on anyone."

"I guess that's a good thing, if it helps stop other kids getting bullied."

"Yeah, if it lasts."

At this point we were reaching the gates and all of a sudden I was tackled by a red headed blur.

"Tish!" Jane squealed hugging me like she was attempting to crush the life out of me, "You should have said you were coming back today. I've been really worried about you, are you OK?"

"I'm good, having a little trouble breathing, but that maybe your grip," I said with a smile.

"Oh sorry," said Jane relaxing her rib crushing hold on me, "So you all better, I didn't expect to see you back for weeks."

"Yeah I'm all healed up with a clean bill of health, I heal pretty quick these days. Oh that reminds me I need to drop off my clear to return to school chit at the office."

As we walked into the school proper Jane took my hand seemingly not wanting to let me go as if I was going to run off.

"Tell her about your job," said D.

"Oh, yeah I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant after school," I said.

"Cool you're like a working girl now," said Jane which caused D to burst out laughing, "What?"

"I don't think you meant that," said D grinning.

Jane looked confused then her eyes went wide, "Oh, yeah I didn't mean you were a tart!"

"Not likely, I could make way more in that line of work," I said examining my talons with a haughty expression.

Which caused us all to break down in giggles, we continued laughing all the way to the office. Right up until Mrs Donnal cast her beady eyes on us.

"YOU!" she exclaimed, "I knew you were faking! You ought to be ashamed of yourself framing a good little girl like Stacy," she then muttered something under her breath that sounded like 'Filthy animal'

Her shouting roused Mrs Thomas, "What this racket? Amanda!" she said a little surprised to see me, "Well I wasn't expecting you back so soon. Come in, you two wait here."

She waved me into the office and shut the door behind me. I sat down and waited for her to take her seat. Once she had collected herself she said, "Well you caused quite a stir, the media coverage put me in a very awkward position."

"I didn't mean to. I was surprised as anyone about the news thing."

"I think it's your friend Dorothy's Mother raising hell, for someone so quiet and unimposing she seems to know an awful lot about how to rally support for a cause. Still I would guess you were too far out of things to have anything to do with that."

"Yeah, I spent most of the time sleeping as I repaired myself."

"You really shouldn't be back in school though despite what Mrs Donnal thinks I know you weren't faking. The paramedics made it very clear you had some quite severe injuries. Your enthusiasm is admirable but you should take more time off to get fully well."

"I'm all healed up, look," I said pulling my note out of my bag, "I have a doctor's note and everything."

"I don't understand."

"I heal fast, must be part of being able to re-grow limbs I guess. I spent most of Monday asleep or eating and by Tuesday I was right as rain."

"Well you have the necessary paperwork so I guess you are OK to be back, but please be careful and don't get yourself back in hospital again. There are a lot of Stacy's friends who would like to see you hurt for what happened."

"OK Miss I'll try and give them a wide berth. Are you going to be OK, I don't want to think that they'll fire you over what happened to me."

"Well that's sweet Amanda, I'm not sure what will happen to me, it's too early to tell what is going to happen, but don't worry yourself over that, I was probably living on borrowed time here anyway. Now run along to your lessons."

I nodded, grabbed my bag and was out the door. As Jane, D, and I made our way through the thronging campus to our classrooms I didn't get a lot of attention, I would guess most people had no idea which student had been hurt, by now it was some sort of semi-mythical figure. We were walking towards the English block when I was again tackled, this time around the hips by a little blur with wings, it was the girl Kitty.

"You're back!" she squeaked excitedly. "They said you were dying on the news, I was worried."

"They exaggerated it, I'm all better now," I said patting the girl on the head not sure what to do.

She broke away smiling, "I'm gonna go tell Clare, see you later," and she skipped off her wings doing little flaps as she ran.

"You got quite a fan there," said Jane who was watching Kitty's retreat with an amused expression.

"Yeah, maybe we should start a Tish fan club make some money out the little tikes," said D with a smirk.

I shook my head at both of them and began climbing the stairs to our classrooms, I was first in. I opened the door and walked in and was suddenly hit by a barrage of shock from the people in the room. It was so intense I staggered back a bit nearly falling over, luckily D who was behind me caught me and steadied me.

"I thought she was dead," said one boy.

The classroom erupted into chatter with loads of people asking me lots of questions at once, so much that I couldn't make out what was being said, just the tone of things. Some were curious, others hostile, some friendly, but mostly it was just a big noise and swirl of emotions hammering at me. I put my hands over my ears and tried to block it out. That deadened the noise a bit but did nothing for the emotions which continued to scream at me causing this horrible crushing pressure all around me.

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP NOW!" roared D.

Everyone stopped dead and looked at her, she helped me over to our usual seats.

Along the way a boy tried, "But what about..."

"If you don't shut your mouth and leave her alone, I'll shut it permanently," said D with menace. The boy gulped and kept quiet.

We sat quietly at the back, the interest from the people in the room was still focused on me, but D's threats kept people back. I slouched down trying to shut out the people's interest, their emotions hammering at me like blades cutting into me on all sides.

I knew they were mostly just curious but it was too much to deal with them all at once. Mr Griffiths came storming in after that and most of the interest faded back. He went through the motions of taking the register and he was briefly surprised when I answered him but made no comment.

After registration with Mr Griffiths it was time for science. We made our way over without incident, sat down and waited for the lesson to start. A blue haired elfin girl from our class came over to me despite D's glare.

"I just want to know about what happened, did Stacy really attack you?" she asked.

"Yes she did, well her and her gang that is," I said.

"You can't have been that badly hurt though being back so soon, they said you were in hospital it must have been exaggerated."

"No, I was in hospital but I heal faster than a normal person, it's part of my reptilian traits. I spent most of the day asleep or eating and by Tuesday I had healed up all the damage to my internal organs good as new."

"Wow, surely you could have wangled a few more days off?"

"I guess, but my friends are at school and I'd get pretty bored hanging round at home."

"You are a strange girl, but I guess you're OK. Good job hanging on to that piece of work Stacy she'll have a hard time wriggling out of this one."