Decisions Ch. 12

Yet, there was something else too...

"Mr. Norman," I said. "I transferred because I had a dream about a world. A world where what species you are doesn't matter. A world where no prejudice exists and all men and women are given the same opportunities. A world where it doesn't matter who you call your friends or the love of your life. A world where everyone is equal and you're not judged by your species, but by your character. A world where there's no species... but the man and woman. That world was Belcourt High School."

"Thank you." Mr. Norman said as the supporters in royal blue cheered. "I have no more questions. Does anyone else have one?"

"I have a comment," Mrs. Webb said.

"The board recognizes Mrs. Dawn Webb."

"Recognized," The clerk said sullenly.

"I just wanted to say," Mrs. Webb said. "That as the mother of three children, I cannot imagine the pain they would go through if I suddenly told them that they were forced to live in their room until they move out of my home, god forbid the time when that happens. Let it be known to the San Francisco Bay Area School District that I will be voting no on the motion to pass this bill."

"Noted, Mrs. Webb." Brendan nodded. "Anything else from the Board?" The board members all shook their head. "Very well. I hereby call this board meeting concluded. Thank you all for coming, have a safe drive home." He banged his broken gavel on the table (softly this time). The crowd broke into chatter as they all began to pack up and head out.

Stasi and I walked back to our empty seats, but we were intercepted by Mr. Norman, who had quickly hopped out of his seat.

"Christopher! Anastasia! A quick word, please." He said, gesturing for us to come to him.

"How can we help you?" Stasi asked protectively as we walked over to him. Her words were practically laced with venom. Her naturally protective and possessive vampiric instincts had kicked in a long time ago. She knew that I was tired and that my head hurt and that I wanted nothing more than to go home.

"You don't recognize me?" He asked.

"We do," I said. "You were at our hockey game... with your two kids and wife. Stephanie, Nancy, and Charlie."

"Excellent memory," He noted. "But, before all that. You don't recognize me, then?"

"No sir." I shook my head.

"I'm glad. My appearance at the excellent game you played at the SAP Center would've been spoiled had you known."

"Do you mind just telling us where you're from, sir?" Stasi asked coldly. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. Her walls had come up. The Ice Queen persona. The frosty and stoic demeanor. The mask that she wore in public to ward off strangers and only took off when we were in private with our friends and family. I squeezed her hand softly and the tension abated as she deflated. "Sorry, that came out a bit more rude than I expected. Long day."

"It's no problem at all, Anna. May I call you Anna?"

"You may." She said briskly.

"Anna it is. Well, I've known you both before that game of hockey. My name is Charles Norman. One cold evening in San Francisco, I was with my family attending a Pro-DTOSA Rally when a large counter demonstration broke out. It quickly grew violent and I tried to get my family out of the area when we hit a traffic jam. We were quickly surrounded by looters until three good samaritans came out and saved us. Do you recognize me now?"

We gasped. "You were in the car?!"

The look he gave us confirmed it. When Stasi and I found out that Jazz snuck out to join the demonstrations since she knew a bit about first aid, Stasi, Vik, Ricky, and I snuck out to go get her in a mission we dubbed 'Saving Private Jazz'. Naturally, things didn't go the way we planned it, with Ricky volunteering to stay behind to look after Jazz, seeing that she wasn't coming with us. Stasi, Viktor, and I nearly made it out of the city until we hit a situation.

We saw Belcourt students trying to break into a car with a family of DTOSA supporters inside. Naturally, I ran into the conflict and fought the students with Stasi and Viktor by my side. We fought them off and made sure the family was okay before we left. I hadn't that moment in a long time. I repressed it, hoping that it would never come up ever again, because what we did wasn't exactly legal.

"I was in the car," He continued. "And that moment changed everything. I grew disillusioned with the DTOSA and what it stood for. I work every day trying to fix what I instilled in my children. I take them to Belcourt's games and events. Charlie is growing up and he has already set his sights on playing for the Minotaurs, even if he is human."

"What you two did that day spoke wonders about what you believe in. History will remember the two of you for not what you did, but what you two will accomplish in the future, especially when you talk down Governor Lawson. I pledge to you two, that I will do all I can to make sure that this racist and terrible bill does not pass."

Chapter 3:

"Move it to the left," I called, squinting as I held my hands out in front of me. Lumbering footsteps announced that Ricky was moving it. "No, no! No, dude! The left, not the right!"

"My left or your left?!" Ricky asked. "Jesus, my arms are getting tired."

"My left! Of course my left!" I yelled. "It's your left too! We're facing the same direction, dude!" He moved the decoration again and I held up my hands. "Woah, woah, woah! Okay, stop! There we go! That's perfect. Now hold that there for fifteen minutes while I go buy some tape."

"WHAT?!" He cried.

"Kidding. Lucy, can you-..." I asked.

"On it, Chris." Lucy immediately skittered over to the decor, firing off a silky strand of web to connect the tapestry to the wall. Why were we using her webbing and not something a 'normal' school would use, like duct tape? Well, her webbing was extremely strong and durable. The decoration was certainly not going to go anywhere because Lucy's webbing was magical. Lucy's webbing was god-like. Lucy's webbing should be worshipped.

She looked down at me. "How's that?"

"Perfect, you can come down now." I flashed them a thumbs up and Lucy immediately clambered down from the wall, walking over to the both of us. Ricky let go of the tapestry, rubbing his biceps. I tilted my head apologetically towards him. "Sorry for yelling at you."

"No problemo amigo." He laughed. "Humans have always been trodding on my race."

I gave him a look.

He coughed awkwardly. "I'll go... I'll go polish off that box of pizza."

"You do that," Lucy advised before patting me on the head. "It's like he never even showed up at the board meeting. Anyways, all of this decoration looks really good. You and Ms. Euthixie did a really good job."

"Don't sell yourself short, Lucy." I said. "Pretty much half the decorations were your ideas."

"Yeah well," She looked wistfully at the decked out ballroom. "I regret not buying a ticket."

"You do?" I asked, trying not to smile too hard.

Little did she know that she already had one. Stasi, Jazz, Ricky, Elena, Viktor, and I combined money to get her a ticket. Remember when I said we were dragging her to prom whether she liked it or not? Well, I guess it's going to be the 'liked it' part. Conveniently enough, the ticket was all we needed to get her. Kirby was making her the dress which Stasi and I were going to pick up later.

"I do." She nodded sadly. "I wish I let you and Annie convince me. Hell, even Elena is going and she isn't even an upperclassman."

"I'm sorry. I bent the rules a little when it came to grade levels," I said, patting her thick carapace. "We should've tried harder to convince you."

"It's fine. You guys did the best you could. I was just too damn stubborn and scared that I'd waste my mom's money." She mumbled sadly, before looking back at the tables, where Ricky was going nuts on a cheese pizza. Not a slice of it, either. He was downing the entire damn thing. "Did you guys go shopping for a dress and a tuxedo?"

"Stasi and Elena did with Yulia. They didn't let me come." I said, making a face. "Kirby said he still has my sizes, so he'll design and tailor something to Stasi's specifications."

"Of course," Lucy giggled. "If there's anything Annie is good at, it's biology and fashion. Anyways, it's bad luck to see the dress before it's worn."

"Isn't that just for weddings?"

"No, it's for all occasions. Anyways, we'll have to make up for it somehow though. One last party or get-together before we all go our separate ways."

"Hey, I don't know about you, but nobody's going separate anywhere." I laughed. "We're all going to be staying in contact, I promise you that. That group chat we have is going to stay as active as the volcano at Yellowstone."

"The volcano at Yellowstone is dormant." She pointed out.

"It is?" I asked. "Then what the hell are all those conspiracy theorists saying?"

"Oh. Right. Good old Chris Williams sarcasm. I get your point," She giggled before looking at me with all eight of her eyes. "I still wish I was going to prom, though. You have to promise me you're going to have a grand time with your soulmate."

I felt a heat spread within my cheeks. "Hey, enough of that." I rapped my knuckles on her carapace. "Remember what I always say when stuff doesn't go your way?"

"Everything ends up working itself out?" She guessed glumly.

"Exactly."

"But I really don't see how this will work itself out," Lucy said exasperated, throwing her hands up in frustration. "I don't have a ticket or a dress. It's too late to do anything. I'm going to spend prom night by myself."

"It'll all end up working out," I insisted. I wish I could've told her more, but I couldn't. I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Everyone would kill me. "I promise. You just have to believe it will."

Lucy rolled her eyes, all eight of them. "Why is this advice deliberately confusing? Don't getgive me wrong, your advice is good and sound, but you're always so like Annie when it comes to advice: blunt and straight to the point. Except now. Why is that you're trying to deliberately make it sage-like this time like you're Yoda?"

I was silent for a moment, then...

"Is that a crack on my height?"

******

After we departed from the ballroom, Ricky brought Lucy home and I drove to Stasi's house to pick her up. We were heading over to the Pacific Mall to do a final review of Lucy's dress and take it home. I parked on the curb outside of her house and put the car in park, turning the ignition off. I opened the car door, stepping out onto the street, and closed it.

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Yet, as it was with regular San Francisco weather, there was just a hint of chill. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket, staggering tiredly up to Stasi's doorstep and ringing the doorbell.

There was some noise on the other side from the door unlocking and it opened, revealing Stasi. She immediately smiled brightly upon seeing me, throwing her arms around my neck and planting a passionate kiss on my lips.

"Hey," She whispered shyly after pulling away.

"Hi." I replied, equally as quiet, revelling in the feeling of her skin around my neck.

"I missed you." We both said at the same time before looking at each other funny and bursting into laughter.

"Okay, I really missed you. Sorry I couldn't help set up this time for prom." She said, sounding genuinely apologetic.

"Why are you sorry? I was the one made you stay home." I laughed, kissing her on the chin.

"Yeah but..."

"But?"

Stasi had forgotten to take her medication the previous day, resulting in her lying awake all night. When she called me that evening hoping that my voice would coax her to go against her nature and sleep, I didn't want her to feel bored and lonely so I stayed awake with her. We whispered and talked on the phone for a few hours before we just broke out the XBox and played co-op on this zombie game. We managed to survive for a few hours together but a lack of awareness on Stasi's part and lapse of judgement on my part nearly made us hurl our respective remotes into our respective TV's.

Naturally, pulling an all-nighter on a school night (even though it was getting to the part of the year where we were getting lackadaisical) was not a very smart choice, but I managed to get by chugging about two liters of coffee, much to the surprise of my parents. When I went to go pick Stasi, Elena, and Viktor up for school and saw her shuffling like a zombie out of her house, driven to exhaustion by the Sun's rays, I promptly locked the car doors and told her to go inside and go back to sleep...

No matter how much it hurt to see her walk back into the house.

The phrase absence makes the heart grow fonder rang in my ears the entire day. Her absence left a void in my heart that nobody could fill. I missed Stasi. I missed the way we always softly touched each other throughout the day, as if reassuring ourselves that we were still at each other's side. I missed the conversations we'd have in Russian just to confuse everybody. I missed the sticky notes she'd hide in my locker for the day, or the way we'd finished each other's sentences. I didn't just miss the love of my life. I missed my best friend.

She struggled to say more. "Ya do sikh por sozhaleyu."

"Ya znayu." I said sympathetically. "Do you feel better after your nap, though?"

"Yes," She said happily. "Much better."

"Alright, let's go then."

"Let me just get my shoes on," She said, sitting down on the chair beside the door. I stepped into the darkened house and stood next to the door, looking down at Stasi as she slid on her boots. She looked beautiful in her chic outfit: a light blue sweater dress that hugged her curves accompanied by black leggings that looked practically painted on her as well as her royal blue baseball cap and large sunglasses. Her long and wavy raven hair was tied back in a loose ponytail.

Zipping up her boots, she patted her lap and stood up.

"Ready to go?" I yawned.

She narrowed her eyes. "Just one second..." She muttered, inspecting me. Then, she crouched down in front of me, feeling for my thighs and nearly making me jump ten feet in the air.

"Stasi-... Stasi, what are you doing?" I gasped.

"Keys." She said mischievously.

"What?"

"Car keys. Klyuchi. I want them." She purred seductively, patting down my back pockets and taking the time to feel me up. "Maybe something else too..."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want my keys?"

"So I can drive." She said, peering up at me, her face dangerously close to my growing erection. "You are most definitely not driving sleepy. You're going to lay in the passenger seat and-.."

"WHAT IN TARNATION AM I WITNESSING!?" Elena shrieked, absolutely bewildered. She had her head poked into the hallway, stepping out from behind the kitchen. Stasi immediately jumped to her feet, bumping her head against mine. My head exploded in pain as we both reeled away from each other, clutching our heads.

"Elena!" Stasi cried, her face as red as a tomato. "What are you doing?"

"I could say the same for you!" She replied immediately. "What in the world were you two doing?"

"I was getting his keys." Stasi said defensively, brushing her raven hair out of her face.

"Getting his keys, huh?" Elena asked impishly, signifying that she didn't believe us one bit.

"Yes, she was getting my keys." I said, fishing my car keys out of my pocket and handing it to Stasi. "Hey, Elena."

"Hi, Chris!"

"Did you get your prom ticket?"

She immediately gasped. "Yes! Of course. Ohmygod, thankyousomuch!"

"Yearbook has to take pictures," I shrugged. "What better way for the school to get pictures than for you to show up?"

"And so we can keep an eye on you too." Stasi said sharply. "Are you studying for your final?"

"Yes," Elena replied, sticking out her tongue. "I came down to get a bite to eat and didn't come out until I heard Chris's voice. Where are you two going?"

"None of your business," Stasi said. "We're going out."

Elena pouted. "Chris, can you tell me?"

"Sorry," I laughed. "Whatever Stasi says goes."

Elena rolled her eyes, stamping her foot. "Fine then. Be that way. I guess I'll just 'head' on back to the kitchen since I'm not appreciated enough to know your deepest, darkest secrets."

"You're appreciated, little squirt." I chuckled. "I promise I'll tell you later."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Only if you study and blitz that history final."

Elena gave a cheer and departed to her room, being the endless ball of energy and sunshine that she was. Stasi folded her arms, rolling her eyes at me. "You spoil her."

"She's like my little sister," I said. "I can't not spoil her."

She examined me for a second, before shooting me a gorgeous fangy smile. "She isn't like your little sister. She is your little sister. She considers you her big brother. Viktor too. I'm pretty sure you already knew that though."

"I did." I said happily. "Ready to go?"

"Da. Let's go." She said, interlocking her hands with mine and stepping outside. She winced a bit and averted her eyes at the sunlight before adjusting her reflective sunglasses, pushing them up the bridge of her nose. We both stepped down the path and let go of each other's hands regretfully as we split to go to the different parts of my car; me to the passenger's seat, and her to the driver's seat.

She started the car, shifted the gears, and deftly maneuvered it onto the street. Keeping her eyes glued to the road, she began the drive to the Pacific Mall. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, watching me lean my head on the window as the car rocked gently back and forth... back and forth... back and for-...

"Sleep," She whispered in her velvety accent. "Take a nap, lyubov. I promise I'll be here when you wake up."

"'M fine." I murmured. "Really."

She brought her hand up to the back of my head and started rubbing it, massaging me from the back of my neck to the base of my skull.

"Idi spat..." She said.

She was so commanding, so persuasive, so beautiful, so mesmerizing. She was always taking care of me and watching my back, warding off the loneliness. I tried in vain to stay awake, but her icy hands kept rubbing at my perpetually sore neck, until I eventually decided that maybe, just maybe I was closing my eyes for one second. I was just going to blink... blink...

So mesmerizing.

Blink... blink...

Sleep.

*******

I'm awakened by the sounds of sirens... or rather, lots of sirens. I opened my eyes groggily. I opened my eyes groggily. I had just closed my eyes for only a second and promptly passed out. I was never going to pull an all-nighter ever again. I looked around, realizing that we were at the Pacific Mall. Well, not really. We were almost at the Pacific Mall but were stopped in bumper to bumper traffic just at the area with all the boutiques. Ahead of us, police were keeping traffic halted.

"What happened?" I mumbled, rubbing at my eyes.

"Traffic," Stasi replied. "We haven't moved for fifteen minutes."

"Huh," I mumbled, rolling down my tinted windows. I only got them tinted because of Stasi and her aversion to sunlight. "I wonder what's happening."

"I think there was a raid." Stasi said, craning her neck to look around at the giant SUV in front of us.

"Did I fall asleep?" I yawned, pushing the cobwebs out of my brain.

"You did." Stasi said.

"Doesn't feel like it." I admitted. A dreamless sleep. That's what it was.

"Feeling okay?" Stasi asked.

"Never better," I said, reaching for the door. "You said we haven't moved in fifteen minutes?"

"If we did it was only for a few inches," She said, still keeping her eyes glued to the front. She turned to face me, her eyes, obscured by her sunglasses, trailing down to my hand. "Wait, no! Don't even think about i-.."