Destiny Rising

Chapter 7

That night as I slept I had the strangest dream that I’ve ever had. I dreamt I was back at my Grandma Tallulah’s house in Wallacetown, Ontario. As I looked around, it looked exactly the same as it had the last time I was there before she passed away. Hearing a noise to my right, I turned and saw a little girl in jean shorts and a red t-shirt running around with her short curly brown hair pulled into little pig-tails. She looked so familiar to me, but all I could see was her back. As soon as she ran up to an elderly woman and hugged the woman’s legs, the recognition hit me like a bucket of ice water, and I couldn’t help but let out a gasp of shock. As if the woman, my deceased Grandma, heard me, she looked up from the younger girl and smiled at me. She then leaned down and said a few words to the girl that I couldn’t hear, and the girl nodded before going over to the sandbox and plopped down to play. My Grandma walked over to where I was standing in the shadow of one of the trees that lined the side of the yard.

“Sapphire, my precious granddaughter. Oh, how you’ve grown into a beautiful young lady.” She said as she reached my side.

“Grandma! Is it really you? Where are we?” I asked, looking around once more.

“Oh Sapphire,” she chuckled, “you're still as curious as a kitten.”

“You’re still cryptic as well,” I replied dryly.

“It really is me, well mostly. As for where we are, we’re in a memory while your physical body is in a dream state of sleep. Almost like astral projection.” She said

‘Why are we here then?”

“Because you’re questioning many things about your life. Your past, present, and future. So, they sent me to answer those questions, to the extent that they will allow me.” She replied as a pair of chairs appeared and she took a seat.

“They?” I asked as I sat, still stunned, overseeing her for the first time since I was 13

“Angels of Destiny. Your particular destiny is very important, which is why they need you to understand and stay on course.”

“Wait, Angels of Destiny? My destiny? Okay, I’m going insane.”

“You most certainly are not; didn’t you ever wonder how your mother got pregnant with you? Despite being told by doctors that she would not be able to conceive any more children after complications when she was pregnant with Jayde.”

“I know I was a mistake. Crystal and Jayde were always reminding me about that little fact every chance they got.”

“You were not a mistake. Unplanned, yes, but mistake no. something happened, and destiny intervened.” She said in a very stern voice.

“Alright, alright. I wasn’t a mistake, but what could have happened to make destiny need me?” I asked while crossing my arms across my chest and slouching in my chair.

“I’m not allowed to say, but I can say it’s not just you. There are three others whose destinies are intertwined with yours.”

“How long have you known?”

“Since you were born. That’s why I was so careful with you, because, from a very early age, your sixth sense was very strong.”

“Why you?”

“They knew I would love and protect you. Also, they knew someone like you would need me for support until a certain age.”

“And your cancer, was that part of it?”

“No, unfortunately, the cancer was part of the poor choices I made on my own.”

“So, what now then? What do I do to get my life back?”

“You simply need to fulfill your destiny.”

“How?”

“I’m sorry, I cannot tell you. All I can say is find the wind. The wind knows all and can help you.”

“The wind? How the hell is that supposed to help any?”

“I’m sorry, that’s all they will allow me to say.” She said, looking at the sky “I must go now. Be safe Sapphire Rose.”

“Wait…” I started to say, but it was too late. She was already gone again, and the scene was dissolving around me. Then the next thing I knew, I was sitting up in my bed. Completely drenched in sweat yet shaking at the same time. Outside, the sun was shining after last night’s storm. But I had a feeling my storm had only truly begun. Glancing over at my clock, I saw it was already after 7 am. Rolling out of bed, I went to the bathroom. Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw a different girl than I was last night. Some things were the same, while others were different. Same long brown hair, always annoyingly in the way. I fiercely pulled it back, so I didn’t have to see it, I had wanted to cut it for so long, but Troy had liked it. long. But my eyes, it was my eyes that were so different, like they held more wisdom and saw more than I realized.

“Sapphire? Are you okay?” my mom called through the door.

“I’m fine,” I replied.

“Okay, well hurry up or you’ll be late.”

“Mhm,” I replied as my hand went to my hair and I bit my lip as I thought about what to do next. Dropping my hand as I heard my mom leave my room, I walked back into my room and grabbed my phone off its charger. Unlocking it, I scrolled through my contacts to the number I was looking for a hit call.

“Hey, Jas,” I said when she answered

“Hey, Sapphire. What’s up?” She asked.

“Could you cover for me this morning?”

“Of course, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just something I need to do.”

“Alright.” She said, not wanting to probe for details like Kiara would “See you at lunch?”

“On the stone benches in the quad,” I said. We always ate lunch together in the quad when it was nice out.

“See you later then.” She said with a smile in her voice.

“Later,” I said, and we both hung up. I tossed my phone on my bed and went back to the bathroom to shower. When I came out, I just pulled my hair back into a ponytail and dressed in black tights, a black skirt, a light blue tank top, and black ankle boots. I grabbed my light blue purse and made sure everything I needed was in it before I left. Locking the house behind me, I got in my car and drove to the hair salon I always went to. Parking the car, I sat in it for a moment before getting out and striding into Hair Masters.

“Sapphire! It’s great to see you.” Ashlee, my stylist, exclaimed as I came in.

“Ashlee, how are you?” I asked when she came over to me.

“I’m fabulous. But what about you? What brings you in today?” she asked and kissed both my cheeks

“I want you to make my hair different,” I said

“What, but your hair is so gorgeous!” She said in a shocked tone.

“I don’t want it like this anymore. Just make it different.” I replied with a serious face.

“Alright then, follow me.” She said, gesturing me to follow her to her station. An hour later, I walked out of the salon after paying for my visit. Since I still had time before lunch, I went and did some shopping and enjoyed the peace. It also gave me time to think about my dream last night. It seemed so real, but how could it have been? My grandmother is dead and gone. She’s never coming back. Also, what was she talking about? My destiny? I’m going insane, it was just a dream, not real. It was just my subconscious tapping into my desire to speak to my grandma again. Dreams aren’t real, plus she said to find the wind. How crazy is that? The wind is all around us and it is just air. I just need to forget everything from last night and just move on. By the time I finished my shopping, it was almost noon. I then headed to school to meet up with Jasmine. We ended up getting to our spot at the same time in opposite directions. Once she saw me, she just stared at me with a shocked expression in her wide eyes.

“OMG, what did you do?” She asked as she dropped to the bench in shock.

“Just got my hair trimmed,” I replied innocently.

“Trimmed? That’s not just a trim.” She said, taking in my new asymmetrical bob. Long in the front and shorter in the back with choppy layers and feathered ends, I had also gotten it colored black.

“Okay, okay. So, I got it chopped. But I needed it, I needed to look and feel different rights now.” I said as I sat beside her and shook my bottle of Arizona tea.

“What happened, sweetie?” She asked as she pulled out her garden salad from her tote bag.

“Troy and I broke up last night. This morning, I realized the only reason my hair was so long was because he liked it that way. So, I went and got it chopped.” I explained, then took a sip of my tea.

“Oh, Sapphire. What did he do?” she asked between bites of her salad.

“He was hooking up with other girls.” I said shrugging, “And I’m the one who broke up with him.”

“Okay. I know things will get better, especially after next month. Since he’ll be gone to college.” She said, leaning over and giving me a hug.

“I guess, but what’s new with you?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Well, the cheer squad is totally ready for this weekend’s national competition at Canada’s Wonderland. You're still coming too, right?” she asked.

“Of course, I’ll be there,” I replied, smiling at her.

“Awesome. Oh, and the Horticulture club’s vegetable and flower gardens are really starting to blossom and bud.” She went on and explained which plants were doing the best and which would need a little coaxing on the club’s behalf. I can’t help but smile when Jasmine’s around, she’s just so bubbly and energetic. She’s also completely devoted to her cheerleading and gardening. Jasmine had the ultimate green thumb. It’s like she can make anything grow, which has always been ironic considering she’s named after a flower. We chatted all throughout the lunchtime hour, right up until the bell rang and we had to go our separate ways for classes. I had business and Jasmine had gym. Our school was different from others. We had 2 semesters and six classes a semester. Six 1-hour classes a day, 3 morning classes, and 3 afternoons. Other schools do four 75-minute classes a day, but since our school is for high achievers, the school board has changed our schedules. I had business right after lunch, so I had to head across campus to one of the computer labs. I loved that our class was completely done on the computers. It made things so much easier since we could easily save any unfinished work on thumb drives and take it home to finish or complete it during spares where we have no actual classes and spend them in the library working. As I ran up the stairs of the John Wise Building that housed the computer labs, I ran into one of my classmates and friend, Mandy Lange.

“Hey, Sapphire.” She said when I caught up with her.

“Hey Mandy, what’s up?” I asked after catching my breath.

“Nothing much, but I can tell something’s up with you. I mean you look amazing.” She replied.

“Thanks.”

“What brought that on?”

“Just decided it was time for a change. That’s all.” I said as I pulled open the door to the building. We both slipped into the hallway and headed for our class. Fortunately, she didn’t push what really brought on my haircut. The class was quiet today, Mr. Bee had us all working on our final projects. We were to create our own businesses with marketing plans, human resources, and financing. I was doing mine at a fashion store, where we would tailor clothing, sell some off the rack, or custom design it. Right now, I was muddling through the financing aspect, which was a lot of math equations and spreadsheets. While also keeping within the set budget, we were told our start-up funds would be. It was crazy hard. I glanced beside me and it seemed like Mandy was having just as much trouble as I was. Blowing out a breath, I turned back to my screen and focused on the current problem I needed to figure out.

“Wow, I thought that would never end,” I said, stretching when the bell rang at the end of the class.

“I feel ya. Business math is way more complicated than regular math.” Mandy replied, walking out to the hallway with me.

I couldn’t help but snort a laugh at that, “I don’t even like regular math.”

“I know, I did tutor you last semester in Mr. Barbon’s math class.” She reminded me

“Yes, because you’re a math nerd.” I joked.

“Not really. I suck at Trigonometry and business.” She shrugged.

“Math nerd.” I mouthed, and she just smiled and nudged my shoulder.

“Well, I gotta bounce. English awaits.” She said as we headed out of the building and she turned towards the building where the English department was housed.

“Fun, I have Tourism and Travel,” I said as we headed our separate ways to class. Luckily, we were just watching a show on cruise ships, so the class went by very quickly and I was able to get out of there. My last class of the day was Ancient Civilizations. Again, thankfully, it was another class that went by quickly. I spent the period in the library on my laptop working on my paper about Ancient Egypt. At the end of the day, I was standing at my locker shoving my books into my locker when Troy showed up, leaning against the locker beside mine as he normally did.

“What do you want, Troy?” I asked, pulling the books I needed to take home with me and bundling them in my arms while I went onto my tip-toes to peer onto the top shelf to find something.

“What I always wanted, you,” he said.

“Troy,” I said as I found the paper I was looking for and pulled it out. “We broke up. You can’t have me.”

“Ya, about that, maybe you were a bit too hasty about that.”

“I was not.” I replied, slamming my locker shut and turning to face him “You were cheating on me, so I dumped your worthless ass.”

“Come on babe, you don’t really mean that. You still want me, why else would you cut your hair if you didn’t want me to notice you?” He said in a silky voice as he leaned in and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, then trailed his finger down my cheek. His finger got under my chin and he clasped it to tilt my face up to his. Before he could kiss me though, I pushed him hard in the chest, so he had to stumble back or fall on his butt.

“Don’t ever touch me again,” I said darkly and stared at him.

“Come on Sapphire, don’t be a b***h. You're nothing without me and you know it.” He replied and shoved his hands into his shorts pocket.

“You’re wrong,” I said, keeping my calm.

“Oh ya?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in to whisper in my ear “What about that thing that happened last summer at your parents’ lake house?”

Gasping, I looked him in the eyes. “You wouldn’t really tell anyone. Would you?” I murmured back.

“Everyone. I would tell everyone about your choice of breaking up with me.” He said.

“Fine…” I started

“Alright babe, good choice.” He said, cutting me off.

“I got drunk and slept with Troy Hollis on my parents’ boat in the middle of the lake last summer.” I finished and glared at him “I’m not the virgin everyone thinks I am.” Troy couldn’t help but look around the crowded hallway as everyone stared at us. His gaze finally swung back to me, but I held my ground and glared at him. “Now,” I said, “Leave me alone.”

“What are you going to do about it if I don’t?” he asked.

“This,” I replied simply and balled my hand into a fist, which I pulled back and hit him right in the nose with the punch. The force caused him to stumble and fall to the floor in shock, while the other students looked on in shock over what had just happened. I had dropped my books after my fist connected with his nose because I had never punched anyone before. So, my hand felt like I had broken it, the pain shooting through it was so bad. But I held my head high and simply did my best to fake that I was fine. I stooped down and picked up my books before turning on my heel and strutting down the hall and out the door.

I thought I was in the clear of people I didn’t want to talk to. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Kiara was leaning against the hood of my car and as I got closer to her, the smell of smoke got stronger. “What do you want?” I asked and walked straight past her to my door.

“To talk.” She replied and hoisted her bag higher on her shoulder.

“About?” I demanded, unlocking my door and yanking it open.

“Yesterday at the café.” She answered, blowing out a breath and shoving a lock of her white bangs aside.

“What’s there to talk about? You made yourself perfectly clear yesterday.” I told her and tossed my books and bags onto the passenger seat.

“I’m sorry. You wanted to talk about something and I blew you off.” She responded quietly.

“You didn’t just blow me off, you were outright rude to me. Now, if you’ll please, move aside, I have somewhere to be.” I hissed as I got in my car and slammed to door shut. Shoving my key in the ignition and starting it, I put it in drive and then peeled out of the parking lot.