Nearly Witches

Chapter Four

Alysanne almost cursed as just missed walking into one of the school’s cheerleaders; a girl named Rosalie White, along with twin Rebecca and Alice Lee. The two twins had dyed their hair blonde, not that Alysanne cared, it wasn’t like it was her hair and it was their life and their bodies. All of them were wearing their cheer uniforms, they must have had practice in the morning, while Alysanne was still thinking about Tribe’s words and Death itself.

If she didn’t say anything, they’ll get bored with her and annoy something else; did she believe the stereotype that cheerleaders were blonde and air-headed? No, since the school had a policy that stopped people with grades lower than a C from joining any sports team. So no, she didn’t think they were dumb.

But like most teenagers, she knew they would be petty. She knew that she could be petty, but empty headed? That stereotype was a stereotype that belonged in movies, some might pretend to fit because it was easier to blend in during high school than stand out; Alysanne had stood out since kindergarten and had stopped caring during elementary.

Nor could she find it in herself to really care to waste her precious hours of sleep to do something about her appearance, which she knew was funny, since she was willing to spend forty-five minutes cooking breakfast; but that was for her and no one else.

“History nerd,” Rebecca told her.

“Sure,” Alysanne replied.

“Geek,” Alice said.

“You were are only good at art,” Alysanne told them without thinking, they were good at it, but if they were trying to get into fine art, they’ll be shocked, there’s a reason must artists were called starving artists.

Alysanne had seen better street art than what was in some museums, including everything she had brought from Etsy and Red Bubble.

“Have fun trying to get into the blood pit that’s called the world of Fine Art,” she told them. “I’ll be happy with my carrier in the health or crime sector.”  

With her abilities? It made sense, the only thing that made sense in her life, either becoming a nurse or police officer. Even if she didn’t think she had the right headspace for being a police officer, she spend most of her nights breaking the law.

Even through would be stressful, it was a job that would suit her and something she could study; she wouldn’t get paid as a superhero and she doubted that CIA would want her. Rosalie just nodded at her, before walking away from her, while Rebecca and Alice just followed her without another word.

Alysanne didn’t know what made people popular, there were many reasons, some kids were popular for their sexuality, s*x life, along with their weight, appearance, gender and other things that she didn’t care to think about it.

Alysanne just couldn’t stand people and she hated the public-school system.

“Suck it up Byrnes,” she whispered to herself as she made it to her locker, picking up her English books and her book. “After this, there’s only a senior year and then you can go anywhere that’ll accept you.”

She would have to investigate, because there’s no way she would leave Ghost or Nymeria behind for anything short of murder. It was hard to take dogs that more wolf-like, it was the reason she called them her wolves. It might be harder to do so; she would look up the laws on that before going to any universities.

She would also have to find a rental with an area large enough to for them to run around in; along with their daily walks, maybe even a town that didn’t have such high rights of crime, so she wasn’t in so much pain.

Alysanne wasn’t going to going to leave her best friends and partners behind; she’d sooner just here and work three jobs for the rest of her than do that. Cutting her arm would be last painful, she didn’t want it to come to that.

If it did, then she’ll just have to live with it.

She had English first and when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She opened it and saw that her father had texted her good morning, but she didn’t know where he was and didn’t know what to reply with.

The next text was, rainy in London.

London was about five hours in front of them, a small smile on her face as she texted back; good afternoon. His texts were rare, and each one tore her in half. She didn’t know if she wanted him to text at all, or to make some more effect and text her when he landed.

They still made her smile and she wouldn’t say anything about his texts to him; she didn’t want him to feel guilty about it. She didn’t think that would be her goal, better than to talk about it and just let him think she was neutral about the whole thing.

“Hey,” Rosalie said as she stood next to Alysanne’s locker, books in her hand and she spotted the book on top of the stack. Keys to the Kingdom; Mister Monday by Garth Nix. “Sorry about Alice and Rebecca.”

“It’s fine, they didn’t mention the eyes,” Alysanne told her.

“They shouldn’t make fun of for enjoying history,” Rosalie told her.

“I made fun of them,” Alysanne told her.

“You did, but situations aren’t black and white,” Rosalie told her, and that made Alysanne blink since it was something she had told Captain Justice Saturday night and it was coming back to bit her for a different reason.

“We were all in the wrong,” Alysanne told her, she wasn’t an i***t. She was sure both twins had strengths outside of art, that if they loved something enough they would put all their soul into it and become successful. “Just tell them to look at Red Bubble, it’ll help get their name into the art world at the very least.” 

“I’ll let them know,” Rosalie told her. “Did you hear about the failed robbery? Tribe said Artemis had been watching the guy for over an hour.”

“And?” Alysanne asked, so she had watched him swear at a door. She didn’t think it was a crime, even if it was, her methods were more on the violent side than Tribe’s and Captain Justice’s and she was ready to admit that.

“It means that Artemis isn’t some man hater like her namesake,” Rosalie said.

“I don’t even think the Greek Goddess was some man hater either, she liked Orion well enough and there was another hunter that Aphrodite got killed,” Alysanne told her. “She just wasn’t interested and didn’t like it when a guy saw her naked, otherwise she left them well enough alone and it was her father that stuffed around with humanity more than she did.”

“You really like Greek Myths,” Rosalie told her.

“Mythology in general, why?” Alysanne asked her.

“Just need to look up a Death God, Hades?” Rosalie asked her.

“Hades wasn’t a death god, he was in charge of the underworld and riches, same with Pluto his roman counterpart,” Alysanne told her, Hades wasn’t Satan and wasn’t as evil as people thought it was. Sure, he might have kidnapped Persephone -which was a big no-no in today’s time- but that was normal back in Ancient Greece. “You’re thinking Thanatos or Mors as his known as in Roman Mythology.”

“Any more death deities?”

“You want a list?”

“That many?”

“Ever culture that has exited has a death deity.”

“That’s a lot,” Rosalie said as they made their way to English class. “Anyone of them older than the underworld.”

“Anubis is older than Osiris and Izanami is seen as the first person to die in Japanese Mythology, why are you so interested?” Alysanne asked her.

“My sister and had an argument about Death Gods, but I guess she won this round,” Rosalie told her.

“Hades,” Alysanne said.

“And Hermes,” Rosalie said.

“What about Hermes?”

“Rosemarie said he was also an underworld god.”

“He is, Hermes’ is a workaholic.”

“Isn’t he just a messenger god?”

“Irish was also a messenger goddess,” Alysanne shot back. “Hermes was a jack of all trades, the sign we use for medical is his, not Apollon’s.”

“Apollon?” Rosalie asked.

“Apollon is his Greek name; Apollo is his Roman.”

“I thought Apollo was the sun god.”

“Only became that when the Titan Helios refused to do it; his son had been killed because he had allowed him to drive it.”

“Drama.”

“Welcome to Mythology. Indian, African and Egyptian  Mythology is just as interesting,” Alysanne told her. “I think I found some Dream time stories and Native American ones, but if you’re not into Mythology, it’ll just be boring to you.”

“You know a lot,” Rosalie commented.

“Did a lot of research,” Alysanne told her, since Friday night and when she had free time, she looked up a list of Death Gods around the world. Wikipedia had one, now she just had to go through said list and hope for the best.

If she finished her homework early, she could go back to doing that and hope that no saw her doing it. It was a strange research topic, dear Hermes, she didn’t even know if meant a death god and if he didn’t, then she was screwed.

The amount of gods that were older than the god of the underworld was large, Hel was Loki’s daughter and thus everyone born before she was counted; which was most of them and there were at least two generation before Hades, she didn’t even want to think about the Egyptian pantheon, because that just made her want to cry.  

--

Alysanne was glad, happy and wanted to shoot something. English class was almost over, this was a subject, she got and didn’t get, it was like Math. She saw the point of the lessons, to an extent and the rest seemed meaningless to her. When would they need Shakespeare, couldn’t they leave that to the theatre class and worry about more modern and said something about the world they lived in now.

Not about the sixteenth century and sexism that was dealt with in the fifties, about arrange marriages to older man that was against the law. Classics, in her mind, belonged in a literature class, not in an English class.

She’d sooner want to read Anne Frank’s Diary than Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. Leave the classics for those who want to read them, not push them onto students who could barely stand to read something from the 2000’s because they thought it was old.

“Alright everyone, team for a group assessment,” Mrs Black said as she clapped her hands together to bring attention to her and Alysanne was tempted to go back to her questions about Romeo and Juliet just to spite her, she wasn’t a dog or a pet for Hermes’ sake.

And even then, she wouldn’t clap at Nymeria or Ghost to get their attention; saying their names worked. They knew what their names worked, cats just didn’t want to answer, and she was fine with that. Since they seemed to know some of the best hiding spots, and some of them she had used to get away from someone.

All cats wanted from her were pets and to tell them where the nearest food source was, dogs were miniature wolves and cats were miniature lions. Anyone could fight her on it, but that was how she saw them, then again, she hadn’t told anyone, and she doubted that she would any time soon.

“You’ll do in pairs, pairs that I’ve chosen; some student have been doing group project on their own and others have been doing it with their friends,” Mrs Black told them before everyone groaned, while looking at their friend. Alysanne knew that Mrs Black wouldn’t be putting friends together, telling them that they wouldn’t be working with people they liked all the time and they had to get used to it. “I’ll give you a slip with your partners name on it, sit near them and I’ll give your assessment.”

Mrs Black handed her a piece of paper, she knew she wasn’t going to be happy to like whoever she ended up with, usually she could talk to Mrs Black into letting her do it on her own and allow another group to have three people on it.

“Looks like we’re partners,” Rosalie told her as she sat down in front of her, a piece of paper being placed in front of them.

“Looks like,” Alysanne told her, looking at the piece of paper that said Rosalie White on it. “We should brainstorm and chose a prompt.”

“Anything that could be about mythology?” Rosalie asked her. “After what you’ve told me, I’m more interested; perfect time to do research.”

“We could write about similarities between different mythologies,” Alysanne said as she scanned the piece of paper. “We’ll just have to ask Mrs Black, it said we can do that.”

“I don’t see why she’d say no,” Rosalie agreed. “Most people don’t think I’ll be able to help or would agree with such a large prompt.”

“Just because you’re pretty, doesn’t mean there’s air between your ears,” Alysanne told her before writing something down. Such as nature deity, death deity and sun/moon deity. “And mythology is large, easy enough to get stuck down a rabbit hole; there’s a number of books about the subject in different genres. Such as Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan presents, we are not watching those pieces of trash they call movies.”

“I’ll just read them then,” Rosalie told her. 

“It’s a good series, long,” Alysanne warned her. “There’s Percy Jackson, then the heroes of Olympus, the Kane chronicles.”

“Is that all of them?”

“Nope, there’s Magnus Chase and the Apollon Series. Along with a cross over between Percy Jackson and the Kane chronicles, along with random books with information about the mythology of said books.”

“You’ve read them, haven’t you?”

“I started as a child, read them as soon as they come out.”

“I should have noticed you before,” Rosalie told her. “Your eyes are -”

“Freaky,” Alysanne said cutting her off.

“I was going to say pretty or unique,” Rosalie told her, before shacking her head while Alysanne just looked at her. “It’s creepy, but I just want to stare at them.”

“That’s a bit creepy, not going to lie,” Alysanne told her. “Besides, humans aren’t the most observant, if it isn’t going to kill, your brain isn’t going to pay attention it.”  

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Rosalie told her.

Alysanne shrugged, she didn’t know what to say to that. So, she just started writing down notes about the death gods she had looked up, they might as well stay even known mythologies such as Greek, Roman and Egyptian, maybe throw in a lesser known god or goddess, if only to throw off cheerful Mrs Black.

They should be able to pull this off and get a decent grade, Alysanne would be happy with a C, but she didn’t know which grade that Rosalie was used to getting, but she was it was in the high B’s or A’s.

“When can we do this, after school?” Rosalie asked her.

“I usually study during the breaks,” Alysanne told her. “You have cheer practice; I have my own after school activities that take most of my time. Unless you want to do it on the weekend; the sooner we get it done, the safer we’ll be. Even if it is due at the end of year.”

“If that’s the case, she’ll let us use some class time,” Rosalie agreed. “This weekend, Friday and Saturday. We can start.”

“I’ll bring my notes then,” Alysanne said. “My house or yours, public library?”

“Mum worries a lot, she’d prefer I didn’t go anywhere I haven’t before,” Rosalie admitted, before blinking and looking at her. “Go to people’s houses that I don’t know that well, I’m sure you’re fine, but I’ve never met your parents.”

“Parent, overexplained like a good Irishman,” Alysanne teased slightly. “Yours then, doesn’t make a difference were.”

“What about your parent?” Rosalie asked.

“It’s fine, he won’t even know about it. He’s in London at the moment, could be in Paris or Poland by Friday,” Alysanne told her, packing up her book before labelling her piece of paper, so she knew what she was looking at, at two in the morning and throw it had like her done back in Freshman year.

“What are you girls thinking of doing?” Mrs Black asked them, her clipboard in her hand as she smiled at them.

“We’re thinking of comparing different mythologies,” Rosalie told her, smiling as Mrs Black blinked at her. “And seeing what similar between them in myths that are available. Alysanne’s done most of the research, it should be easy to see what’s similar.”

“Of course, girls,” Mrs Black told them. “I’ll write that down, as long as it’s over two thousand words.”

“Easy,” Alysanne told her. “We’ll be able to do that; nature and the human conditioning have been found in most mythologies around the world.”

“Death gods,” Rosalie added.

“Along with the idea of the son overthrowing the father, allowing the next generation to take control,” Alysanne added. “Happened in both Greek and Egyptian Mythology, more so with Sun Gods in Egypt, the whole lot in Greek.”

“Interesting,” Mrs Black told them. “Can’t wait to read it at the end of the year, good luck girls.”

“Oh, how I hate her,” Alysanne muttered.

“She’s trying,” Rosalie said.

“If you say so,” Alysanne told her. “But this is going to be the best thing I’ve written, if only to throw her good luck in her face.”

Rosalie just looked at her, before smiling. “We can start at lunch then, start with Death Gods and Underworld Gods?”

“I think we’re in agreement then,” Alysanne told her, with a grin and shacking her head. “I’ve been researching them, so I have my notes already here, I’ll just need to remember them at lunch, along with the book I brought.”

“Lunch then,” Rosalie said.

“Lunch.”