Chapter 7

Wednesday, 28th of November, 2035

Mandy

I woke for school the next day sure that someone was playing with the clocks, as it seemed like only a few minutes since I had gone to sleep. I got ready and had a large breakfast, hoping the extra food would give me the energy to maintain my disguise longer. The day before had been very draining. Keeping my mask on for most of the school day was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I got my stuff together and with a quick goodbye, was out the door, waiting when D showed up a few minutes later. We walked into school together, chatting about the day ahead. I was less apprehensive than before, the school day being something of a known quantity, so we moved to more important subjects, like TV programs.

"Did you catch that Violet Dawn show last night?" asked D.

"No, I was way too tired to do much more than get my homework done. I was spark out after that." I replied.

"You should see if it's on the on demand channels. It had a fire elemental like you in it, and it had some pretty cool effects! Well I think they were effects, could have been they paid someone to make illusions, or even a real fire elemental."

"They use a lot of MORFS survivors on that show?"

"That's one of the only reason I watch it, it's hardly high drama, but it's nice to see real MORFS people in the media. I feel like I'm helping to further our cause by watching."

"We have a cause?"

"Well ... you know what I mean! If I watch, and the ratings for the show are higher, they can employ more people like us. It's helping other kids like us to get a foot in the entertainment industry."

"That makes a certain amount of sense. Still, the parts aren't exactly BAFTA material, comic book heroes and pop-up villains with crappy costumes."

"No I guess not, it's a start though."

D was quiet for a while then said, "You going to do the whole mask thing again?"

"Yeah."

"I wish you wouldn't. You practically collapsed after school. I don't want to see you hurt yourself to avoid the chance someone might hurt you. People will find out sooner or later, anyway."

"I can handle it, I just wasn't prepared yesterday. I'm sure I'll have fewer problems today."

"Well it's your decision; I'm only concerned for you as a friend."

I smiled at her; I knew she didn't completely understand what it was like. She didn't look completely normal by any stretch of the imagination, but she was close enough not to attract most attention. She was also strong and tough, which allowed her to deal with any trouble. In my natural state I couldn't pass for normal, everything about me screamed freak. Much as this new life had brought me some measure of happiness, with friendship and freedom, it was at the cost of forever looking in the mirror and seeing the twisted body I wore. If people saw me for what I was, they would hunt me. I had already seen it with others at this very school. I would have to hide myself away in the library, run from lesson to lesson trying to avoid the bullies. I could run and I could hide, but knew I couldn't fight. I had some power, but it was not useful unless I wanted to burn the school down, something that would get me expelled or worse, just like the other girl I had heard about.

While I suppose in practice, my current state of hiding away in the library recuperating was not that different that what would happen if I wore no mask. With it on, I could walk the halls with relative impunity and get through lessons without being taunted and feared.

As we approached the gates, I checked to make sure the coast was clear, and then switched on my blue eyed Mandy disguise. We met Jane as we entered school grounds, and headed up to our form room. People greeted Jane and D, and I got the occasional hello. If my classmates were anything like me, they had already forgotten my name.

We sat at the back of the room and waited, chatting about this and that, till Mr Griffiths walked in. He took the register briskly, then it was off to the first lesson of the day, which was double combined science. This lesson I shared with Jane and D, most of the time. I think certain bits were divided by ability, so sometimes Jane and I were partnered, as she was also in the top set for science.

Chemistry was quite interesting. My old school had no real facilities for any science so we just learnt the theory. To get to actually do experiments and see for myself how things worked was a lot of fun. I partnered with D for experiments testing evaporation point of water and other liquids.

In a lapse in concentration, as I was removing a beaker of liquid from over the Bunsen burner, I got distracted and didn't notice I was holding my hand in the flame for an extended period of time while noting down some results.

I was surprised when the teacher, Mrs Murphy, shouted my name, "Amanda, watch that flame! You'll burn yourself!"

"Huh," I said, then looking down seeing the flames curling around my hand added, "Oh."

I removed my hand perhaps a little too swiftly, then carried on with what I was doing, but Mrs Murphy, who had obviously seen my hand in the fire and assumed my swift removal was down to a burn, rushed over.

"Let me see how bad the burn is, we need to get it under some cold water quickly," she said worriedly.

"I'm fine," I said, showing her my untouched hand.

"I don't understand. It looked like your hand was in the flame. That burns at a thousand degrees, you should have been badly burnt," she said as she snatched my hand to examine it.

"Must have been a trick of the light Miss. It didn't look like her hand was anywhere near the fire to me," said D, trying to cover for me.

She examined my hand and then got a strange look on her face and ran her finger along the surface of my hand. I realised she was feeling my scales, so I snatched my hand back. I had to fight the instinctual reaction that was telling me to vanish and run. She stared at me a bit; suspicion floating round her mind, then went back to her desk.

As we carried on for the rest of the double lesson, the teacher kept giving me looks. I was a bit worried about what she was going to do. By the end of the lesson, I was feeling tired again, and keen to get out and rest up. I also wanted to get away from the teacher's stares.

The bell went and I scrambled to get everything in to my bag so I could leave, but Mrs Murphy walked over and said, "I want to see you two, so don't go anywhere."

She went and stood by the door, I guess to stop us escaping, the urge to vanish and make a break for it flared again. It was made even worse by the fact that I was running out of energy to conceal myself.

The room emptied, Jane tried to stay too but the teacher turfed her out, then shut the door.

"Now what is going on? I saw you burn yourself and your hand feels like you've damaged it in some way. What are you hiding?" she asked, I could feel her anger.

Pain was lancing through me from the strain of holding the illusion "I'm not hiding anything," I tried. But she wasn't convinced.

"Show me your hand again!" she said.

I had dropped the hand part of my disguise to conserve energy, I dug deep and re-established it on my left hand. The pain in my head was getting worse, she examined my hand the strain was getting to me, I was close to my limit.

"Show me the other one," she said.

I struggled to establish the illusion over my other hand as well, she was still holding on to the left hand so I had to do both. I managed it but I was starting to lose it, the pain was terrible, and I was getting tunnel vision. As I brought my other hand up, I felt the world fade out, and I fainted.

I came to a while later to find I was cradled in D's lap, and she was looking down at me a very worried expression on her face. "She's coming round," she said. "Are you OK, Tish?"

"I think so," I replied.

I looked down and found my camouflage was now off, I panicked a bit looking around to see who was watching. I stifled the urge to try and re-establish my mask, knowing that would probably knock me out again. I looked up to see Mrs Murphy also looking down at me concerned and just a touch annoyed.

"Why didn't you say something?" she said.

"I didn't know how," I said almost in tears.

"Now then there's no need for that. I was worried you were hiding an injury. I could get into a lot of trouble if a student is injured and I don't report it. I guess your scales make you more fire resistant," she said

"Well possibly, but that's not the main thing. You see, I'm a fire elemental," I said.

"Oh. You're fire proof?" Mrs Murphy said.

"Yeah, I once sat in the middle a big lit bonfire and I was fine," I replied.

"That sounds like a very dangerous game, you shouldn't do things to test yourself like that. You could have been badly hurt!" she said, looking stern.

"It wasn't a game," said D in a cold voice, "Some nutters tried to burn Tish alive. At the time neither they, nor she, knew it wouldn't be fatal."

"What! Who did that?" Mrs Murphy exclaimed.

"My parents! They went to prison or something for it. I live with my sister now," I said, wishing I hadn't brought it up.

"They tried to burn you!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, because of this," I said gesturing to my face. She still looked incredulous, so I added more detail, "Well I suppose first they tried to shoot me, but missed and shot off one of my hands, which is growing back," I wiggled the fingerlets on my mostly regrown hand, "Then I escaped, went on the run living rough till D here rescued me, and her mum gave me a place to stay. But they caught me again and tried to burn me at the stake. Luckily, I was fireproof and I survived, the police carted them off. My sister, the only member of my family who didn't want me dead, became my legal guardian. Then I came here."

She was spluttering and completely agog from this barrage of information.

D took the initiative saying, "Anyway, we should be off to our next lesson."

She helped me up and pulled my hood up over my head, hiding my face. We headed for the door and began to open it.

This seemed to galvanise Mrs Murphy, snapping her out of what ever surprised state she was in. "Now wait just a minute, I assume the school is aware that all this has happened?".

"I think so, my sister handled that sort of stuff," I answered.

"Well I'll check with Mrs Thomas just to be certain. Now as for what happened, I understand why you are hiding yourself, but it clearly is harming you, and effecting your concentration in lessons. I want you to stop doing it," she said.

"But..." I started.

"No buts. Amanda, this will come out sooner or later, anyway. It could have happened in a lesson, then you could have hurt yourself and others by passing out like that. Even if no one was hurt, your secret would be out. It only takes one blabber mouth to spread anything around the school. Better you choose the terms. Besides, with you distracted you are wasting your chance to learn, and by all accounts you are reasonably bright, so you are wasting your chance to get a good education. Now I'm not going to say anything, but by next week, I want you to have stopped this. If not, then I'll have to have a talk with Mrs Thomas."

I bowed my head in defeat, "But I've seen what happens to people like me here, I don't want to be bullied and beaten up all the time."

"I won't let that happen," said D.

"You can't be there all the time, and it's not fair to expect you to be!"

"Nonsense! You're my friend, it's what friends do for each other," D said with a smile.

"If anyone bullies you, then just report it to the teachers and they'll sort the culprits out," said Mrs Murphy, showing great faith, both in other teachers and punishment to discourage the bullies.

I tried not to cry, things had been going so well, now this slip up had ruined everything.

"We had better get going," said D.

"Right, now next week I want to see you, Amanda, not some disguise, I'd prefer you to drop the charade before our next lesson Friday, but I'll give you a week," Mrs Murphy said. "Off you go then."

I pulled my hood up tight and stuck my hands deep in my pockets. Outside, we met a very worried looking Jane, who had been waiting just out of sight for us to reappear for quite some time.

"What happened, what took you so long?" she asked.

"Miss saw Tish with her hand in the flame and had a fit about it. She was checking her hand for damage and then felt Tish's scales, that's why she made us stay behind. Tish was too tired to maintain the disguise and passed out while she was grilling us," D explained.

"She's making me drop the disguise, or she'll go to the headmistress," I said dejectedly.

"Ouch," said Jane. "That's a bit harsh."

We wandered out of the science block. There wasn't much left of morning break, so we headed straight for our next lesson. On the way over to French, the day took another turn for the worse. I was distracted by the events in science and not completely paying attention to where I was going. I didn't see the group of girls storming forward as if everyone should move out of their way. When I didn't move, one of them walked right into me. Worst of all, it was Stacy Smith.

"Look where you're going..." she said, her eyes going down to where I was tumbled on the floor, my hood had fallen back and I had my hands splayed out to stop my fall, so they too were in plain view, "YOU!!!!" she screamed.

I picked myself up and tried to get away, but she grabbed my arm. "Let go of me!" I said.

"What are you doing here, freak? They shouldn't let your kind in this place, especially one with a history of attacking people like you," she spat, hate boiling off her.

I was now surrounded by this group of girls that seemed to be Stacy's extended gang. I saw the girl Becky, whom I had encountered the previous time, but the 5 or 6 others were new. All of them were just as hostile as Stacy.

"Leave me alone," I said.

"Or what? You can't attack me again! This time I've got witnesses, and reliable ones that won't side with you. You can't do anything," she stared at me a bit, then her eyes narrowed, "That was you the other day with the blue eyes. I thought you looked familiar. Disguising yourself as a real human rather than the animal you are, so you can attack more people without getting caught?"

I looked around frantically for D and Jane, but they were nowhere to be seen. They must have gone right past the group and carried on not hearing the commotion. I thought about trying to disappear but I was still too worn-out, just thinking of using my illusion powers gave me a splitting headache. I tried mentally calling Jane. If she was still reasonably close there was a chance she would pick me up with her telepathy.

JANE! I called JANE! HELP!

Nothing, the group was pressing closer, poking me, and shoving me, making comments.

"It's disgusting, how can anyone go out in public looking like that," one girl said.

"They shouldn't allow animals like that in schools, they're filthy and spread diseases," said another.

"We should mark it," said Becky with an evil grin. "So it can't try to pass itself off as human."

"Good idea," said Stacy. "Hold it I've got a compass in my bag, we'll use the point."

This was getting nasty, I briefly considered setting a few of them on fire, but I couldn't control it well enough to limit it. I would likely burn everything to ash within a few meters of me, and I don't think I'd get away with that. I struggled with the girls. I was stronger than them, but there were a lot of them, and I was still weak from passing out. I couldn't break free!

I tried my last gambit, I focused on Jane, and sent a message in emotions. A raw packet of feelings broadcast with all the power I could put behind it. I couldn't send thoughts, but I could transmit emotions. They weren't so good for communication but they were all I had. This last act drained what little strength I had left and my feeble struggles failed to even move the girls now.

Stacy had pulled out a compass and was walking towards me intent on scratching some sort of message onto me. I might heal from it, I didn't know the extent of my regenerative capabilities, but even then it would hurt, and take months to heal. The group was surrounded by a quite a few students who had a sort of dazed 'I can't believe this is happening' sort of look. I wished one of them had called for a teacher, or some kind of help.

"I've waited for this for a long time, now I'm going to punish you for what you did to me, freak!" Stacy said.

She started to bring the point of the compass towards my face. My heart was pounding, I tried desperately to get away from that point, but I was too weak. Stacy's evil joy at hurting me radiated from her, she was revelling in torturing me by slowly bringing her implement to bear. I could also feel the emotions of the girls around me. Quite a few were having second thoughts, but a depressingly large number were still in gleeful joy at what was happening.

"Help! HELP!" I cried. Why wasn't someone helping me!

Stacy's eyes took on a maniacal gleam and in a quiet menacing voice she said, "No one is going to help you, freak! They see you for what you really are, a worthless animal. Scream all you want. No help is coming, it will only make cutting you more fun for me." She let out a sick laugh.

My world compressed to that glinting point inexorably approaching my face with Stacy's manic evil grin and malevolent emotions looming behind it. I was terrified a gibbering wreak.

Just as she was about to cut me I heard a shout from Becky, then heard D say in a flat menacing voice, "Put that down and let her go. Now!" My heart soared D had come to save me.

"Stay out of this, you big dumb animal," said Stacy.

I could have sworn D actually growled at that. A lot of the girls holding me were now extremely nervous. I guess harassing one hybrid who isn't putting up much of a fight, is very different from facing off with a 7ft tall girl who can snap you in half.

They began to loosen their grip edging away and then one of them said, "Teacher, run!"

They scattered, knocking me to the floor in the process. Stacy, now on her own, grabbed her bag and also legged it, saying, "I'll get you freak!"

I just lay there on the ground shaking, D came over and grabbed me, Helped me up, then held me close.

"Hey, it's alright I'm here, you're safe now," she said.

"S ... She wa ... s going to st ... ab my face," I sobbed clutching tight against D, my saviour once again. I didn't want to ever let go.

"There. There, it's alright," D said, gently stroking my head as I wept into her shoulder.

A teacher came running up, he took one look at me and D, I felt disgust radiate from him. "What's going on here? You been causing trouble again Newman?" he asked with a sneer.

"No sir," said D, somehow making the title sound like an insult, "Stacy Smith tried to attack my friend here with some sort of sharp object, a compass or something."

"Oh yeah likely story, Stacy Smith, a respected and well liked pupil would attack some random girl? She wouldn't demean herself by touching that fr ... your friend," he said disdainfully. "Now move along, before I put you both in detention for spreading these false rumours."

At this point Mrs Murphy came running up to see what was wrong.

"What's going on? Are you alright Amanda?" she said.

"She was a..." D started.

"Shut it, Newman! No more of your lies, or I'll have you and your friend, expelled," the male teacher shouted. Then turning to Mrs Murphy, he continued, "I've got this, it's just these two trouble makers making up stories."

"What stories?" Mrs Murphy asked.

"Never mind. They're just lying. Don't bother listening to their kind," He said.

"Their kind?!" exclaimed Mrs Murphy.

"Er ... liars obviously," he said, trying to catch himself. "Now get gone you two, before I see to it you are both sent home."

"Come on Tish, we'll take this to Mrs Thomas," said D with a cold glint in her eye.

"What did you say, Newman?" He asked.

"Nothing, Sir" D said, the 'Sir' sounding even more derisive than it had the first time.

She helped me walk off towards the office block. I was a bit unsteady on my feet. I still didn't seem to be able to stop shaking and I was still out of it from collapsing. I clung to D for support, I think at some points, maybe a little too hard, as my talons cut little holes in her coat.

"Where are you going," the teacher called after us. "Stop this instant!"

D didn't stop. She marched me to the headmistress office. When we entered the outer office Mrs Donnal gave us both a sneer. "What do you two want?"

"We want to see Mrs Thomas, now," D said.

"You can't. She's not in," said Mrs Donnal.

At which point the teacher and Mrs Murphy burst into the room.

"Out of here now! You are both going to be expelled for this," the male teacher said.

"I'm not leaving till I see Mrs Thomas," D replied.

"She's not in!" Mrs Donnal screeched. I sensed emotions coming from the door behind her, so she almost certainly was.

"Then we'll wait here till she comes back," said D.

The male teacher was now trying to pull D out of the room and was having no luck, as D was significantly stronger than he was. He moved over to me and tried to pull me away from D.

"Don't you touch her!" D shouted.

This commotion finally alerted Mrs Thomas to the fact that something was going on, and she flung open her door. "What is all this racket about?" she asked.

"Mrs Thomas..." D started.