Fire and Rain

Three

“Alright, everyone out of the bus!” Mrs. Dunston herded the students. After our little trip to Anchorville Museum, we went to a couple more historical sites, before going back to school.

“This is, by far, the most boring field trip I’ve ever had,” Maria complained, making sure that Baron heard it from a few rows behind us. She was right, though.

“You can all go home, but remember to pass a reflection paper about the trip by Monday. It will be graded,” Mrs. Dunston said, then proceeded to scold one of the students who previously teased, “Mr. Fart-en is going home to his mommy, boo hoo,” when Mr. Farden excused himself in the middle of the trip, saying his parents have an emergency. He didn’t join us in the bus after that.

“Ugh, and now we have to write a paper about it,” Maria whispered, as soon as we were out of the bus and out of Mrs. Dunston's earshot.

“It’s due Monday, Maria. Before that,” Fin told her with a smile, “we have Halloween to look forward to tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah!” Maria realized. She turned to me with a mischievous grin.

“No,” I sternly said, “no more pranks this year, guys. I mean it!”

“You got her good last time, Fin!” she snickered, then gave Fin a high five.

“I literally painted your locker red!” Fin laughed.

“You painted me and the insides of my locker red!” I exclaimed, but they just laughed.

For around a decade now, Carden Academy students have a tradition of setting up pranks on or before Halloween night. Some students don’t partake, including myself, because I find it silly. These two, however, live for it. They literally spend a month planning on pranking me and each other. Last year, Maria did the old “I cut my hand off!” while Fin decided to put a paint bomb in my locker, which he blew up once I opened it. The teachers know of the said tradition, and they don’t care much for it as long as no one gets hurt.

“You just don’t like it, Dana, because you suck at pranks,” Fin teased.

That, sadly, was also true.

“Ooh,” Maria whistled, “this year’s is gonna be fun! I guarantee it.”

My watch buzzed, notifying me that Thena was ready to pick me up. “I gotta go,” I narrowed my eyes at them, “but I’m telling you two now. No pranks, you hear me? None!”

Maria and Fin simultaneously smiled and nodded. I swear, these two barely agree, except when it comes to messing with me. I bid them goodbye and walked towards the car. When I glanced back, I saw the two of them hunched over something while snickering. I was 90% sure they were up to no good.

Just in time, Gareth's maroon car parked behind ours, and the rest of the Stupid Pack jogged towards it. When they saw me opening the door, the three simultaneously bowed. Gareth, on the other hand, rolled down the driver's window, glanced at me and then told them to hurry up. They sneered and giggled under my glare, but proceeded to get in the car.

As soon as they drove away, I entered with a sigh.

“How was your field trip?” Thena asked, looking at me through the rear-view mirror.

I stared out of the window. “Uneventful,” I muttered.

“Your brother is coming home today,” she let me know.

“Really?” I asked with a wide smile, leaning forward to Thena’s seat. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He says he tried to call you, but your comm link was off.”

I immediately checked my watch, and true enough, it said that I had three missed calls from Martin. “Dang it. It’s true. They made us turn off our comm links in the museum.”

When I arrived home, I was greeted by two of our housemaids—Donna and Tim. They informed me that my parents and Martin will be home for dinner at 7, which was in a few hours. This was a rare occasion, since my parents’ works usually kept them until at least 9 in the evening, and Martin only visited during breaks. Family meals were often limited to once every few months.

I went inside my room and started on the reflection paper for the field trip. After that, I also began drafting my campaign for Student Council. I was more than hyped up, especially since I was running against Gareth. I knew I couldn’t lose face.

I was elbow-deep in my work when I heard a few cars pull up in the driveway. Excitedly, I ran to my room’s balcony and peeked outside. Out stepped my family’s head of security, Donovan, with a handful of burly bodyguards from one car. Then, my parents in the next—both talking into each of their comm links as they stepped inside. From the third car came Martin, with his backpack and books, looking the same as how he did the last time I had seen him.

I hurriedly ran out of my room and down the stairs, just in time as he was entering the house.

“Martin!” I exclaimed as soon as I saw him. I ran up to him and gave him a big hug.

“Kiddo!” he greeted back with a grin, hugging me back and lifting me up for a second. “Is it just me or do you keep getting taller?”

I took a step back and made a face at him. “As if!” I grumbled, “Maria and Fin are way taller than me now. I feel like I stopped growing when I finished sophomore year.”

Martin chuckled at my woes and tapped the top of my head. “Good news for me then,” he teased, “at least you won’t grow taller than me!” He picked up his bag then we walked to his room, which was just across from mine. “How are Maria and Fin anyway? And how’s school?” he asked.

“Maria and Fin are the same as usual, like an old married couple bickering about everything under the sun. Just this morning, they were debating about Carden,” I informed him, leaning against the doorway as he started unpacking his bag. “You know, I think they’re gonna get together at some point. Like how opposites attract or something.”

“I don’t think so,” Martin said as he hung his clothes.

“Why not?”

“Well, I saw Fin—” he stopped and hesitated. “I mean, the opposites attract thing doesn’t ring true for everyone. How about you, are you dating anyone? Is there anyone you like in Carden?”

“No,” I grimaced. “I don’t think I’d ever date anyone. Ever. I’ll just live alone until I die, and maybe pester you and your girlfriend Gina from time to time. I’ll be your future children’s best, cool aunt! Where is she right now, anyway?”

Martin glanced at me, as if he was about to say something, when we heard the bell ring—specifically the one to call us down for dinner.

“I’ll go change,” Martin said, “you go ahead first.”

I couldn’t tell what it was, but it felt as if he was acting strange. But I nodded and headed down to the dining room.

My parents were already seated at each end of the table, both busy answering emails, that they didn’t even notice that I came in until I pulled a chair.

“Oh, hello, honey,” mom greeted, finally looking up at me from behind her spectacles. As soon as she had seen what I was wearing, she arched an eyebrow. “What in God’s name are you wearing, Dana? Don’t tell me you wore that to your field trip today?”

Oops. I forgot to change my clothes.

I took a seat and drank some water. We both knew the answer to her question.

“Dana,” dad called, shutting off his comm link. “I heard that Gareth Winds proclaimed he is running against you. Is this true?”

We hadn’t even started dinner and they were already going on about school and clothes. Not even one “how are you, Dana?” when I hadn’t sat down with them for dinner in over a month. Thankfully, my brother walked into the scene. He gave mom a kiss on the cheek—ever momma's favorite, dashing boy—then took a seat in front of me. And suddenly, all eyes were on him. There were times when I used to be jealous of the attention our parents gave him—even though I knew it was not really his fault—but as time passed, I realized that one of the perks of having a perfect overachiever older brother was that his mere presence steered the spotlight away from me.

They were talking about Martin's coursework when the servers came in with our food. I quietly ate as I watched and listened to them yap. It had really been a while since I last ate with any family member in the dining room. Usually, I found myself grabbing a sandwich and eating it on the way to school, or having dinner with Donna, Tim and Thena—all of whom I had been seeing much more than my actual parents.

“How about you, Dana? The applications are about to start for Anchorville University,” dad said. “Have you prepared your essays?”

“Actually, dad, mom,” I gulped. “I have been meaning to talk to you about this, but we’ve never really seen each other in a while…”

“What is it, honey?” mom asked, looking worried. The three of them looked at me expectantly, and with a deep breath to gather my courage, I finally said, “I don’t want to go to Anchorville.”

I felt the weight on my heart lighten as I finally said it out loud. “What university do you want to go to, then? The one in Sweden? I hear it’s a bit tough to get accepted there, but I’m sure you stand a chance with your portfolio. Your mom and I can talk to some—”

“I want to go to Kors,” I blurted out.

There were only two ways I knew this would go. One, my parents would uncharacteristically be empathetic and realize that I should do whatever it is that makes me happy. And two… well, let’s just say expectation number two was what happened.

“The Art School?” dad asked in bewilderment.

“Dana Maverick! What are you talking about?” mom bellowed. “We didn’t fund your education just so you can go to—to an art school!” she said the last part as if it was something so unthinkably disgusting.

“A full Therian becoming an artist?” my dad piled on. “There is a reason why you don’t see full Therians painting or going into show business. It’s because entertaining is a job for people like halflings and commoners.”

That made my eyebrowa shoot up. In front of me, I saw that Martin had the same reaction to my dad's statement. “Dad,” he called out before I could even say anything. “That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Your father’s right,” mom said, “you have no future as an artist. Just look at your brother, Dana, and all the job offers he has right now. Anchorville will give you a stable future—one that is right for you.”

“You mean, one that’s right for you?” I spat out. I couldn’t help but raise my voice. “There is no law that says a commoner can’t be a lawmaker, nor one that says a full therian can’t be an artist, mom! Everyone should be free to be whoever they wanna be!”

“Dana, mind your manners and sit back down,” dad scolded. I didn’t even realize that I had stood up in my anger.

“But, dad!” I contested, but he changed his arm into that of a large tiger's and slammed it on the table. The cutlery and plates jumped, mom sighed, and Martin looked at me with worried eyes but remained silent. I didn’t know what I was expecting, really.

I sat down in defeat, feeling my face heat up as tears threatened to form. I ate a mouthful of steak, just to stop myself from getting emotional.

“Dana,” mom softly said, as the tension the room slowly died down. “Anchorville is one of the top universities worldwide, that make successful people like your father, brother and I. Do you really want to be the only Maverick who went into art school to achieve nothing?”

I couldn’t understand how her tone of voice seemed so gentle, and yet her words were plenty cruel.

“Kors,” dad scornfully said, “no kid of mine is going to art school. How did that idea get into your head anyway? It’s probably from that halfling girl and mediocre therian boy you hang out with. I don’t know why you don’t get better friends.”

“Fin and Maria are good kids, dad,” Martin piped in, obviously pissed as well. I shot him an appreciative look.

Mom put a hand up to dismiss him, and told me, “Dana, what happened to that Daniel boy? Why don’t you hang out with him instead?”

“Because he’s an a—” but I managed to stop myself before I could say a word that would ground me for a week.

“Invite him over to dinner next time, will you?” mom said. “Speaking of which, Martin, where’s Gina? I told you to bring her with you.”

Martin poked at his food. “We, um,” he awkwardly smiled up at the three of us. “We broke up.”

“That’s too bad. I liked that girl,” dad said, which I found weird since he had never even talked to her. “Her mother runs a well-managed hotel business and I wanted to talk to her.”

Ah, so that’s why.

“What happened, Martin?” mom worriedly asked, putting a hand over his.

“We just didn’t work out.” He shrugged. “There’s no hard feelings whatsoever.”

“Honey, you should be trying to be in more stable relationships. You’re not getting any younger,” mom shook her head disappointingly. “Once you graduate from university, you’ll be so busy with work you won’t be able to focus on making a family.”

Martin didn’t bother to respond and only smiled at mom. But his discomfort was obvious.

I didn’t know why I got so excited about our family dinner, when I knew that Martin and I always end up feeling bad afterwards. Thankfully, this particular meal didn’t last too long because dad had to take a call. Soon after he turned on his comm link, mom followed suit, and Martin and I quietly finished our meals then headed up.

“How long are you staying?’ I asked once I had opened the door to my room.

“Just for a week,” he sadly replied, “I have some work to catch up on.”

I sighed and nodded. “How are you, by the way? With the whole break up?” I asked, since our parents failed to do so.

“I’m fine, kiddo. Really,” he smiled at me. “Now don’t get too sad with the Kors thing, alright? I’ll try to talk to mom and dad about it.”

“Thanks, Martin. You’re the best.”

“I know, right?” he joked with an exaggerated wink.

“I take it back,” I said with a chuckle and an eye roll, then we went into our separate rooms. I meant it when I said Martin was the best. Not only was he the best as a student and athlete, but also as an older brother. He would always try to soften our parents' criticisms of me, and even though it also got him into trouble, he often stands up for me.

I let myself fall onto my canopy bed, feeling the weight of the evening. I put on my comm link and called Maria, but she didn’t answer. Then I tried Fin, but he wasn’t answering as well. I found this quite unsettling, since they were usually by their comm links at this time of day. So, I called Maria's younger sister, who, thankfully, picked up.

“Hi, Dana,” Mary greeted, “you looking for Maria?”

“Actually, yeah. She’s not picking up. Any idea where she is?”

“Oh,” muttered Mary, “I thought she’d be with you. Fin picked her up just a few minutes ago, saying something about how you guys were gonna meet in school for a paper.” I sat up on my bed.

What the hell? I wanted to say that that was a lie, but I didn’t want Maria to get into trouble, so I settled on saying, “Oh, right! I forgot about that. Thanks, Mary!” and with that, I hung up.

Maria and Fin. I knew what those two were up to. And given a choice between staying at home to sulk and catching my two best friends in the act of preparing a prank for me, I obviously chose the latter. I slowly opened my bedroom door and heard my parents busy yapping about work. So, I hung up a sign on my door, saying “do not disturb, writing essays" which had always proved effective in keeping people out. Then, I sat on the edge of the bed and closed my eyes.

I took a deep breath, channeling all of my energy like how I had been taught in advanced Therian classes. Slowly, I felt my form change and shrink, and when I opened my eyes, I looked at the small paws that used to be my hands.

“Awesome,” I said, but it came out as a purr. I jumped off my bed, then ran out to my balcony into the night.