The Sheenite

Welcome to Paris✓

I ran into someone's grip, it was my dad.

He held me tightly around my waist, so I won't be able to escape his grip.

"Let go of me!? Let go!" I yelled as tears dropped from my eyes continuously.

"Sapphire stop it, you are hurting yourself." Brenda said as she covered her mouth to stop her cries.

Everyone at the backstage stood watching the drama. They wouldn't need a soothsayer to tell them that Sapphire has been through a lot in the past. She sang with so much pain In her heart, and here she was totally broken.

I fell to the ground but still that didn't loosen my dad's grip.

"Uncle JoJo!! Uncle JoJo!!" Was the only name I could call. Maybe he would come and take me disappear, come and take me away so we could go to his world together, my heart was so heavy.

The word 'UNCLE' rang a bell In Jeffrey's head.

Could it be that same uncle that Evan told him about after he burnt her box? The same uncle that all their memories where in that box yet, he burnt it? It was obviously the uncle because the same pain she had on her face when he burnt the box was what she had all over her now. He felt so guilty and evil for doing that to her. For the first time in his life, he felt he was a beast, a person with no heart, for the first time, he regretted.

Evan froze as he watched Sapphire, he knew that pain, the same pain his mother always goes through each and everytime, or maybe this her pain was worse. His eyes glistened, someone he loved was in pain and he hated it and at same time, couldn't do anything but watch as always."

"Uncle JoJo!!" I screamed as all the memories of us flashed in my head again with full force. My head was heavy and I felt drowsy. My vision blurred and then, I blacked out.

••••••

I woke up on a bed, I held my head as it throbbed in pain as I tried to sit up. A hand pushed me down gently.

"Just relax Sapphire." The voice said gently. My vision cleared and I noticed it was my mom. I turned to my side to see my dad sitting and Mrs Walter standing besides him.

"How are you feeling baby?" Davis asked.

"I'm fine dad, what am I doing here?"

"You fainted, but you are at the right place to be taken care of." Mrs Walter answered before anyone could.

"What about.. what.. "

"You need not to worry Sapphire, the competition is over and V.S Galaxy came first again beating the point mark exact 30points. You surpassed all other competitors by eight marks and you are the first in the music competition history to have done that. Congratulations."

"Thank you Mrs Walter."

"Don't, you deserve it. You stole everyone's heart back there. I beg to take my leave now, I'm glad you're okay."

"Thank you so much." Brenda said while she nodded leaving the door.

Sapphire took off the drip and applied pressure on the spot, getting up from her bed.

"Sapphire what are you doing?" Brenda asked trying to stop her.

"Getting out of here."

"Sapphire, you are in no condition." Davis added.

"You know how much uncle JoJo hated me coming here. I don't know the reason why, but I also grew to hate hospitals." I said putting on my shoes. I was fine, I had mystically healed myself. I didn't need any hospital treatments.

"Okay okay, we'll leave." My dad agreed trying to ease the tension.

"We'll go home." He added. I breathed down and nodded.

"Come on Brenda." He beckoned and she stood up holding me around my waist so I could lean on her. I was fine but I tried to act like I was not so fine to erase any suspicion.

•••••

Edville High.

I met Gabe Williams as I walked into school.

"Hey.. hi!" He said.

"Hi." I replied.

"How are you doing?" He asked.

"Fine, I'm good." I answered.

"You were amazing yesterday.. but you were also sad. Why?"

"Um.. I stopped singing because of the death of my uncle, it just brought back memories. Long story cut short."

"Oh.. I'm sorry."

"Thanks."

"By the way, don't stop singing, the world needs to hear that voice."

I nodded while he walked passed me.

I got to my locker and took some books.

I turned around to go to class when someone wrapped his arms around me. This has been happening to me recently I thought. I tried to release myself from this person's grip, but It was too strong. It was Evan. Everyone kept staring at us, Evan is embracing Sapphire! Was the expression I could see on their faces. I stood still until he let go of me.

"How are you? How are you feeling? Are you hurt anywhere?" He asked as he scrutinized her.

"So many questions at once I wouldn't know which to answer."

"Say anything please."

"I'm fine." I said releasing a smile.

"I thought.. I was.. I."

"I know.. " I said and took his hand into mine.

"I'm fine."

Evan couldn't control himself anymore, he leaned down and pressed his lips against Sapphire's, he felt she wanted to go away so he immediately wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her in more. Sapphire clinged tightly to his shirt and she just froze. Everyone stared at them in surprise, some were taking photos. Zoey fainted when she saw them.

"Evan.. Evan are you okay?" Sapphire asked shaking him slightly.

Evan came back to reality and looked around. No one was taking pictures and there was no Zoey, he just imagined things. He looked down at Sapphire's worried face, with a sad look.

"You seemed lost."

"Um.. well yeah.. I'm good. I was just worried about you."

"Okay. I'm fine as I said. I'm going to Mr Matthew's office, he sent for me."

"Sure.. sure." He answered nodding. Sapphire left while his eyes followed her.

For some reason he was angry his imaginations weren't true.

Evan entered their palace class to meet his friends.

"How is teacher doing?" Aiden asked.

"Teacher?" Evan repeated.

"Yeah.. I mean Sapphire, I call her teacher."

"She's fine."

Jeffrey heaved a sigh as though he was relieved

"You love her don't you?" Zoey asked.

Evan looked at her as he took a seat.

"I saw you two this morning, hugging again."

Evan took his phone and began pinging.

"And if I said yes, would it make you stop seeing Jason?"

Zoey grimaced as Evan called the name Jason. She wondered how he knew him.

"Why, did I hurt a nerve?" Evan said and stood up.

"Excuse me." He said and left the class with his backpack.

"I'll take my leave too." Aiden added and left the class with his drum sticks.

Jeffrey just left the class without uttering a word.

"That Sapphire needs to be taught a lesson." Stacy said.

"She messed with the wrong girls." Tatiana added.

Sapphire came out of her gift class when she met Vanessa.

"Who is the girl who got thirty points." Vanessa said and we both locked in a embrace.

"Everyone has been talking about you on the students page." She added as we eased off.

"Yeah I checked."

Vanessa kept smiling at me.

"Why are you smiling."

"You've broken through Sapphire. I thought I lost you after Uncle JoJo died, you changed, you turned abstract. But back there on that stage, I saw you, the real Sapphire, welcome back."

"I wouldn't have done it without you." I said.

"I'm sure uncle JoJo will be happy wherever he is."

"I guess he would."

Suddenly we noticed the students all moving to the notice board and we followed.

"Edville Olympics? It's coming up already?" I asked.

"And the finals of the music competition has been postponed?"

"This session has been pretty disastrous so far." We haven't finished our music competition, yet we are jumping into the Olympics?"

"The good news is we are gonna rest a little and relax more before the finals." Vanessa replied.

"That's right."

Kathleen and Karen ran before us.

"Amazing students of Edville and our top celebrities, we honor you?" They both shrieked as they poured glitters all over us.

"Really? Kathleen and Karen? This?" Vanessa asked as she wiped the glitter off.

"Sorry, we are just so happy that our stars would be going on the Olympics trip, which means you'll beat Stacy's team again! Too bad!" They both shrieked.

"Olympics trip?" I and Vanessa chorused as we looked at ourselves.

The Olympics trip was made for specific chosen people, people who would participate in the sports and those rich students who their parents paved way for them, with some outstanding students chosen by the school. The trip was meant for preparations of the participants In the sports.

"You are both going on the Olympics trip."

"We? We are not participating in sports?"

"But the school picked you as one of the outstanding students!" Karen answered.

"And how do you know that?" Vanessa asked and crossed her hand across her chest.

"We have our ways!" Kathleen answered.

"Good luck superstars!" They both chorused and walked away.

I and Vanessa stared at ourselves before we ran to the Olympia board to confirm if there was a list of names. That was just when a teacher came and pinned the list to the board. We went through it and saw our names.

"Sapphire and Vanessa!! We are both going! As far as we are going together there is no problem?" Vanessa said excited.

"Come on! Let's go pick the house we belong." Vanessa added and pulled me.

We both joined the queue of all Edville students, it was an eternal line. Everyone was meant to pick a paper and whatever house was written on the paper was were they belonged. We had two houses, the blue house and the green house. While Kreisten high had two houses too. Red house and pink house. Whatever house you picked, you will be given a Jersey with that color. Standing on such a long queue, I knew we would leave school In the evening. I looked besides me to see Jeffrey, Aiden and Evan talking. Those people were special. They always chose any house they wanted to join without picking any paper and they don't get to stand in queues they just had to go to the special spot to pick any jersey they like, whichever color they picked becomes the house they belong. Students who already had their Jerseys stood waiting for them to pick to check if they were lucky to be in their houses.

"Lucky them." I muttered.

"No, they are not." Vanessa replied irritated.

"You can take my spot." A girl in front of us said and stood behind us.

"Okay thank you." I said wondering why she would sacrifice her spot to stay behind, that is something I may not do.

"Please if you both give me your autograph, you can take my spot." Another one said before us.

"Sure!" I and Vanessa chorused bringing out a pen from our pockets and signed on her book.

That's how we kept on moving until we were the next to pick.

"It's good to be famous." Vanessa said nodding with satisfaction.

"I agree." I answered with a smile.

I put my hand into the large glass jar and picked a paper. I opened it to see blue. I showed it to the guardian and she gave me a blue jersey. Vanessa picked a paper and it was green, she took her Jersey and we both walked out.

"Why weren't we in the same house?" Vanessa mumbled.

"It's still fine, as far as I get to go to the trip with you, I'm satisfied."

"Yeah that actually sounds satisfying."

We heard the shrieks of some girls before us, we looked to see that Jeffrey and his other friends picked the blue jersey, so they were in the blue house the same house with me!

"Uh.. oh." Vanessa muttered on seeing which house they picked.

"This is easy to solve." I said and took Vanessa's green jersey and handed her my blue jersey. "You are now in the blue house!" I said to Vanessa and walked away with her green jersey.

"But our names are already registered into our houses already." Vanessa

"No one will know, it's not written or registered on our face, is it?"

"Nope."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

"Teacher!" Someone called from behind for some reason I turned.

"Teacher? Was Aiden referring to you as teacher?" Vanessa asked.

"I guess so, he's been calling me that ever since I beat the three witches."

"You beat the three witches? When?! How come I don't know?!"

"I don't wanna stress you with their boring talk." I said when Aiden finally got to me.

"Master how are you?"

"I'm fine."

"I see you are coming for the trip.." He said looking at the shirt in my hand. "And you are in the green team."

"Yeah.. I am."

"You'll teach me some skills when we get there."

"I.. guess.." I answered shrugging my shoulders.

All the while Aiden spoke, he kept moving at his spot like a little kid, he couldn't stand still, making me wonder if he was shy. But why would he be shy? Just then, I realized Aiden was as fragile as he claimed to be strong. He was living with a pain, a pain he was used to, so he shut everyone out, bullied them, just to maybe relieve the pain but that didn't mean he wasn't a friendly or loving person.

"By the way, you killed Avril Lavigne's song yesterday. You were awesome"

"Thanks."

Evan walked to us and placed his arm around Aiden's shoulders.

"Hey dude!.. What are you doing here." He asked clenching his teeth trying to whisper to Aiden.

"I was just saying hi to my teacher, is that a bad thing to do?"

"No.. let's just go somewhere else.' Evan said pulling him away.

"Bye teacher!" Aiden said as they pulled him away.

"Why did it feel like Evan was jealous of Aiden talking to you?"

"Really? I didn't notice."

"You never notice anything Sapphire." Vanessa answered disappointed and she walked faster.

"Come on Vanessa, it's not my fault that I'm not talented in that area?" I said trying to catch up.

"I wonder if there is still any human like you In this century."

We sat on a bench when we caught sight of Gabe sitting at distance away from us pressing his laptop.

"Hey Gabe!" I waved.

"Hey!" He waved back.

"When did you start talking to him?" Vanessa whispered

"Long story."

"You've been surprising me recently."

"Come over here!" He beckoned. We went over and sat besides him.

"Look here, I uploaded the video of the competition last night, and so far it's had five billion views."

"Five billion?!" I and Vanessa chorused.

"Yeah cool right?"

"Yes, super cool!" We chorused again nodding our heads.

"I see you are in the green house, we are both in the same team." Gabe said to Sapphire lifting up his shirt.

"Yeah.. we are in the same team." Sapphire replied smiling looking at Vanessa who smiled back.

"So, were you girls picked for the trip?" He asked.

"Yeah! We were." Vanessa answered. She wanted to make him aware that she was there, because all the while, his attention was on Sapphire.

"Oh! Vanessa! I almost forgot you were here."

"I know. And I think we should take our leave now, since we were picked for the trip, we need to go home and prepare for it, don't you think so?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Excuse us." Vanessa said and stood up taking me by hand.

"Let's go friend." She said and we left.

"Was I invisible back there?"

I laughed.

"It's not funny Sapphire."

"Sorry, sorry. Come on! He didn't mean to." I said.

"Whatever." She said and took her phone dialing a number.

"Please come pick me up." She said and ended the call.

Some students were already leaving already.

"Your driver?" I asked.

"Hmm.. "

We sat and waited until her driver came.

"Bye." I said and waved to her.

"Bye." She waved back and entered her car winding down.

"Don't be late tomorrow." She said.

"I won't." I replied and her car moved.

I smiled and watched her car move.

••••

I arrived home, my parents weren't home. I went to my room and changed into my home clothes and began packing my stuffs into my suitcase. I picked the toy alarm on my drawer, it was the only thing I had left of Uncle JoJo. I put into my bag . I put my special hood into the suitcase, Jeffrey could do something stupid that would need saving. I closed the suitcase and kept it besides my bed. I fell on my bed, I felt so drowsy, I hadn't had good sleep in days. At least I could sleep since it was morning. Even if I had a bad dream, it wouldn't be so scary. I thanked my school for fixing Olympia trip and sending us home. My eyes shut and I slept off.

I woke up In the night. I came downstairs to see my mom had already prepared dinner.

"Hello sweetheart, that was the first time I saw you sleeping so peacefully."

"And it was a long sleep." Davis added.

"Yes.. I have never slept so well for long." I said and took a chair. "And I'm hungry." I added rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand yawning.

"I know sweetie." Brenda said and filled Sapphire's plate.

I literally swallowed the food, I've never felt so hungry in my life. In a few minutes, the whole plates were empty.

"You need more?" Davis asked.

"No. I'm good."

"You really had an appetite." Brenda added.

"I know." I said and drank some juice.

"Mom, Dad, I was picked to go on the Olympics trip, you know we have Olympics competition every year in our school."

"Are you participating in any sports?! Oh Davis, our daughter amazes us on a daily basis. She is participating in sports too!" Brenda shrieked.

"Mom, I'm not participating, I was just picked by the school to go on the trip because I was outstanding."

"Really? Well, I won't be sad, because when you get there, you must participate." My mom said.

"So when are you going?" Davis asked.

"Tomorrow."

"What? So fast?"

"Yes mom, we don't have much time. We have less than three weeks to prepare before the Olympics."

"Okay. So have you packed?" Brenda asked.

"Hmm.. "

"I'll check your bag, see what you are missing." She added.

"Mom don't worry, I packed everything I needed, I said and came down from my seat heading towards the door.

" Were are you going?" Davis asked.

"I wanna water my plants."

"Okay." He nodded and smiled while I left.

I sat on by my reading table searching on Google for Sheenite, but there was nothing there. I stood up and got my books to read. At least it would keep me up, sleeping was something I wasn't planning to venture into, especially at night.

••••

In the morning, my parents drove me to the airport. I waved them bye and ran to Vanessa who standing with Valerie. We locked in an embrace.

"I thought you wouldn't come at some point!" Vanessa said.

"Sorry, my parents made me come late, they kept on double checking."

"I know, my mom did so too. You have to be with a sweater so you wouldn't get cold. Remember to take your drugs and all those stuffs." Vanessa said and I laughed.

"So who are we waiting for?" I asked as we walked to get my bag checked.

"I don't know, I guess it's the three witches, they haven't arrived yet."

"But the three demons are here?"

She nodded.

"That's strange."

After getting my bag checked, I took my bag and we headed to the plane, when we heard our names from behind.

"Vanessa and Sapphire!!"

We both turned to see it was Matilda.

"Matilda!!" We shrieked and the three of us locked in an embrace.

"How are you?" Vanessa asked as we let go of each other.

"I'm good, you can see."

"Yeah, I can see that." I added and we laughed.

"So are you the one we have been waiting for?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah I guess."

"But how did you get in?"

"I cried to my dad to get me to go on the trip with you girls when I found out you were going and he did."

"So how did you know we were going?"

"KK twins told me."

"That explains it." I said and we laughed as we walked into the plane.

Getting into the plane, everyone was already seated. We didn't seat together, I took two seats before Vanessa while Matilda sat before me. Evan sat besides Vanessa, Aiden sat adjacent to Matilda while Jeffrey was opposite me!

"Everyone strap in, the plane is about to take off." The pilot announced.

The plane started taking off, Vanessa shut her eyes, held her chair tightly and ceased her breath. She was always nervous whenever the plane takes off.

Evan looked besides him to see Vanessa struggling within herself with her hand clinging to the arm of her chair. He blinked severally looking down to the magazine he had to divert his attention when he began hearing Vanessa's tiny sobs. He turned to see nervousness all over Vanessa. He wondered why she was so nervous, someone like her who always travels on a regular basis should be used to this. He lifted his hand and placed it untop Vanessa's with his attention still on his magazine.

Vanessa breathed down and panted trying to catch her breath. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at her hand. It was Evan, it was Evan who held her. She leaned into her chair trying to calm her nerves, When the plane balanced in the air.

"Thank you." Vanessa whispered.

Evan just stood up and took the empty seat opposite him.

Vanessa grimaced. He made her feel disgusting. She just shoved the anger out of her head, she was on a plane and wouldn't want it to crash because of her anger.

After an hour on the air, I felt so drowsy I didn't sleep at all last night, so I knew why. I leaned down to my seat and slept off.

Jeffrey looked besides him to see Sapphire sleeping so soundly facing him. Her hair covered her face and it looked quite funny that he smiled. Suddenly he noticed Sapphire was struggling within herself. She was slightly shaking her head, panting and mumbling something to herself. What's wrong with her? Was she having a bad dream? He sat up watching her closely.

"Don't kill me.. please don't kill me." She kept muttering to herself sweating.

She is having a bad dream. He thought. He felt like going over to her to wake her up so she would stop suffering, but that would make him look lowly and not the almighty Jeffrey as he has always been. Still something kept pushing him and he didn't know why.

"Don't kill me.." She muttered and woke up only to realize it was a dream.

That red eyes beast, I thought. It was in my dreams, it tried to kill me. It was strangling me. I placed my hand on my neck panting just to confirm I wasn't dead. I wasn't. I looked besides me to see Jeffrey looking at me. He had this worried look on his face and I wondered why. He turned to his magazine as though it wasn't me he was looking at. I heard someone sneeze twice behind me, I turned around to confirm. It was Vanessa sneezing while asleep, She should be feeling cold. I wanted to get up to fetch a blanket when I saw Evan standing with a blanket moving towards her. I smiled knowing Vanessa was in safe hands and turned to sit properly.

Evan stood up with a blanket and placed it gently around Vanessa so not to wake her. He squatted and removed the hair on her face and gently stuck it behind her ear. He smiled as he watched her sleep. She was so peaceful and refused to wake up from her sleep despite she was cold. He noticed she was moving, she was about to wake, he hurried back to his chair. But she didn't wake, she just took another sleeping position, he smiled at his stupidity.

I felt sleepy again but I was scared of sleeping so I hummed a song, it was a song uncle JoJo always sang to me whenever I had a nightmare.

Jeffrey was lost in Sapphire's voice. All his bones felt as though they all crippled. His soul relaxed, her sound had a hidden power, a power that calmed him. The hum stopped, he turned around to see that Sapphire had slept, he was a little disappointed.

The plane finally landed, we all came down with our luggage.

"Welcome to Paris." Matilda muttered.

"A beautiful city." I replied.

"I will intentionally get lost here so I never leave it." Vanessa said as we all journeyed with our teachers and security who led and surrounded us.

We were driven to our hotel in a large bus, it was so exciting for most of us except Evan, Jeff and Aiden. They just had their earpiece blocking their ears. Valerie was also excited too, we were in Paris! We kept taking photos of beautiful sights and photos of ourselves. The bus drove into a manor, it was a beautiful place, the building, the beach, the trees, the huts, the flowers, trimmed into different shapes, it was so beautiful. Everywhere fell silent as everyone fed their eyes with the sight. The bus stopped and we all came down. I put on my beach hat.

"Sapphire in Paris." I muttered and raised my phone for a selfie

To my surprise the whole students entered for a photo, that not even all of them fit in the camera range.

"Paris!!" They all choused and I took the shot.

We looked at the photo and it was really beautiful.

"You have to send this photo to me!"

"Look Vanessa's dog even stroke a pose."

"Post the photo on our platform."

"That's right, I can take the photo from there." Comments kept coming and it was deafening.

"Okay! I'll post it on our platform." I said and they all took their phones when our chemistry teacher Mia Santiago clapped to get everyone's attention.

"Good day students."

"Good day miss Mia!" We chorused.

"Well, you all know why we are here, to prepare for the upcoming sports competition and to cheer ourselves up while doing that, so I hope we stick to that."

"Yes." We chorused

"There must be no fights, look out for yourselves and on no accounts should any if you leave this manor, if you must, seek for permission so we can tell a security personnel to accompany you understood?"

"Yes!"

"Good. So you'll all be given tags with your names, numbers and room numbers on them." She said and the other teachers distributed the tags to us. "Always have your tags on you so we can keep tabs on you, am I clear?"

"Yes!"

We took our tags and walked into the manor. Some students took pictures but I Vanessa and Matilda went searching for our room to see what it was like. I was room 445, Vanessa room 446, Matilda room 447. We were neighbors. I entered my room, it was beautiful although it had different colors with little touch of white, I still loved it, the interior designs, everything was perfect. I opened my window to see the bright blue sea, I breathed in the cool breeze. I looked besides me and saw Vanessa and Matilda and we all laughed.

"I can stay here to look at the sea forever." Matilda said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have asked for a better room."

"It's beautiful." Vanessa added.

"Over and out neighbors." I said and went inside and we all laughed.

I fell on my bed, it was so soft, welcoming and large enough to contain five people. I looked at the chandelier that dangled above me. I stood and walked into the bathroom, it was so big, the bath tub, a mini pool, rose petals, the fragrance, everything was perfect.

"I'm definitely going to get myself lost in Paris like Vanessa said she was, I'm not going back to America. This place is Amazing!" I muttered to myself.

I arranged my clothes into the closet and I got some rest when I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I said and Matilda and Vanessa barged in.

"What? Are you gonna stay in here forever?" Vanessa asked.

"We didn't come here to stay in our rooms, come on go get changed let's go out."

I stood up and took a clothe from my wardrobe and walked into my change room.

"Is Sapphire an angel or something?" Matilda asked."

"Why?" Vanessa asked.

"All her clothes are white!"

"White is her color, I asked her that same question when I didn't know.

"That's really funny."

I got changed and came out.

"Stop gossipping." I said.

"Whatever, if you are done, let's get outta here." Vanessa said and Matilda smiled.

"And if I say I'm not coming?" I asked.

"Then sorry friend, we are gonna do this the hard way." Matilda said.

*******