"Really?" I asked, finally finding my voice. "You got knocked in the nose too?"
"No, I was at the beach in California," he said. "Your basic family vacation and, being me, I was out in the water. A powerful wave pulled me under, and I blacked out before I resurfaced. When I woke up a day and a half later the hospital was in an uproar. All the doctors swore I had been dead only minutes ago, my mom burst into tears, and most of the nurses passed out. Once everyone got their heads on, they rushed me to do x-rays and found my lungs completely empty. They tried to keep me so that they could study me - I was a medical miracle. That's when the sink in the room exploded. Finally, one of the doctors had some sense and realized there were other patients that needed their attention. He told me to go home and I booked it out of there."
"A day and a half?" I asked. "No wonder they thought you were dead."
"Think about it, Lira Anne," he said. "How long were you out?"
"A day and a - and a half," I said, stunned.
"That's how long it takes for Nereida to claim us," he explained.
"Claim us?"
"Talk the higher beings into letting us live," he said. "She claims us as her children because she has to fight for each and every one of our souls. After that day and a half we're hers - body and spirit."
"How does that even work?" I asked. "I'm Lira Anne Kay. My parents are Tia and Jansen Kay. How can I be her child?"
"I don't exactly understand it," he said - I flashed back to the annoying doctors. "I've just been figuring this out by myself."
"But you said she told you to go to the pool party. Hasn't she filled you in at all?"
"I heard her voice in my head," he said simply. "It was calm and clear, like a vast smooth lake. I was thinking about the party and it just said, 'Go, you'll see her there. You'll be alone no longer.' I had no idea who she was talking about until I got there and saw you in the water. I knew it was you because of how the water just responded aware. . .of the water. Like I'm connected to it."
"Okay," I said. "Well then who is this Nereida lady? You say her name like I should already know her."
"Lady Nereida," he said. "Lady. Don't forget the title or things could get messy. How much do you know about mythology?"
"Not much," I admitted.
"Lady Nereida is a water elemental," he said. He must have seen how confused I was because he just kept explaining. "Elementals are spirit that inhabit the elements - Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. They're made up of them and can bend them to their will. Lady Nereida is kind of the most powerful water elemental there has been, ever. Since she is our life force it would definitely be best to refer to her as Lady. The spirits can make you life miserable if you annoy them in just the right way."
I looked up and saw that we were knack to the front of the school. I didn't want to be rude, but Destin was really freaking me out - I don't even know how he made his story seem so plausible. I was suddenly asking myself why I was walking with this kid. I remembered my first conclusion: he's crazy.
"Okay, well, thank you, Destin," I said, "but I've really got to get going."
"You don't believe me," he said.
"Lira Anne," he said desperately, "you've got to believe me! I'm not crazy, I promise. I tried to convince myself I was, but there is another explanation."
"I'm sure it would have worked for you," I said, really just fighting to get away and back to the sane world. "I've heard enough crazy explanations for the day though, thanks."
"Lira Anne," I heard his desperate voice mutter behind me. It sounded like a trickling creek forcing its way up a small hill.
Stop it, I told myself. No more thinking about water. That Destin kid is crazy, okay?
He's not the one talking to himself, said that stupid, snide, little voice in my head. I told it to shut up and ran for the cafeteria, determined to make an appearance as a living soul before class began again. I made my way through the thick crowd, and turned into the hallway right off the main cafeteria. There wasn't even a door or anything but the noise level dropped about ten decibels as soon as I did. I walked a couple more feet and turned as if I was headed into one of the English classrooms. The wall indented so that students could get to the classes, and it was just wide enough for me and my friends to sit and enjoy each other's company - without having to yell to have a conversation.
They were in the middle of a pretty urgent one when I arrived, though.
"We've gotta go visit her, as soon as school gets out," Kayla said.
"Yeah, I can't believe that happened you guys," Trevon replied, seeming extremely downcast.
"It's just Lira Anne's luck," muttered Kyle, and I knew they were discussing my accident.
"What's just my luck?" I asked, sitting down between Kayla and Kyle.
"What are you doing here?" Kayla asked, pretty harshly.
"Um, sitting down for lunch," I said slowly; almost offended. "I can leave if you want me too. . ."
"My mom told me you were in CRITICAL condition!" she cried. "What the heck are you doing here?"
"There wasn't anything wrong with me," I said. "The guy just knocked me out."
"Lira Anne," said Kyle slowly, "you were out for a day and a half."
This just reminded me about that Destin had said. "Yeah, don't remind me," I muttered. "I woke up and the doctor said I was good to go."
I really hoped they would just take it. I didn't want to have to explain my conversation with Destin - or discuss any more of the oddities of my life for that matter.
"Why'd you go to that party?" Trevon asked, throwing me a bone. "We told you it wouldn't be fun!"
"It was fun until I got knocked out," I said. They all just started at me pointedly, not satisfied with my answer. "I really don't know, you guys. I just kind of felt like I should go."
Great, I thought. I felt like I should go? Really? I just totally played into Destin's crazy story. I tried to come up with the real reason to why I'd gone - no matter how hard I thought - I could only come up with the feeling. I shook this thought out of my head though. I'm not crazy, I told myself.
Yeah, right, said that snide voice in my head.
It'd be a lot easier for me to convince myself if you'd shut up, I told it.
I could have sworn it laughed.
"Really?" Kayla asked, and I knew I had it coming. "You felt like you should go? Did it change your life, Lira Anne? Do you feel like a new person because of that party?"
If only I'd known.
"No, I don't. I feel like an idiot okay?" I said. "You know me and pools though. I just love the water."
"Yeah, yeah," she said.
"Sorry, guys," I said. "I didn't mean to freak you out."
"It's okay," they all muttered. "Just don't do it again."
I nodded, hoping I could keep that promise.
My only class of the day was English. I love English, I really do. I read more than what would be considered healthy - anyone will vouch for me. My English teacher, though, is crazy. Granted, all of the glorified writers of the time period we're studying were on some kind of drug - so that might have had something to do with it, but I wasn't too sure. I mean, first of all, why would we emphasize that in schools? 'This guy was awesome. He is one of the best poets this world has ever seen and guess what! He was on drugs the ENTIRE time!' I don't know what the teachers get out of a statement like that, but this is what we students hear: 'If you ever want to write anything worth reading, get high off of some drug and see what you get.' Is that really what we need to be teaching this generation, people? Anyway, the only way I get through that class is sarcasm. Most of the people, teacher included, don't understand what I'm saying half the time, so it works pretty well for me.
Today we were discussing Beowulf. We'd been reading through excerpts in class for the past week, which is another thing I just didn't understand. Why, when it is a famous epic poem that each student could get their hands on easily, aren't we reading the whole story? Isn't that kind of the point of reading these ancient texts - actually reading the texts, I mean.
"Lira Anne," the teacher called me out of my mental ranting. I looked up. "Will you read the next part aloud?"
"Sure," I said, grateful it hadn't been a more complicated question seeing as I hadn't been paying attention.
I read of the epic struggle between hero and villain where Beowulf ends up with the advantage because he disarmed Grendle. I broke off laughing - disarmed him? Ha, see this is why I love these old stories, the authors always seemed to fit in some kind of ridiculous pun. Granted, I was usually the only one to pick up on them. Guessing by the questioning look my teacher was giving me, this was one of those times.
"See, Beowulf disarmed Grendle, you know, took away his weapon," I tried to explain. "Grendle's weapon was his arms - so he literally disarmed him."
I shot a thankful expression to the girl on my table, who understood what I was getting at and cracked up. The teacher, however, just shook her head and asked someone else to continue reading. For some unknown reason, I was instantly angry. An English teacher that doesn't understand puns? What was this world coming to? Suddenly, the teacher's Diet Coke can began to shake violently on her desk. My anger disappeared - though my heart kept beating as the soda can rocked back and forth, moving across the desk, closer and closer to me. I looked around the room, was anyone else seeing this? Of course not, they were all 'studiously' reading along with a text they obviously didn't understand - so, when the can exploded, bathing me in Diet Coke, it looked like I'd finally snapped and gone all crazy with the soda can.
The teacher glared down at me but I really didn't care.
"Can I run to the bathroom, please?" I asked as though the soda wasn't dripping from my hair.
The teacher just nodded and turned back to the class. I grabbed my backpack and booked it out of the room - not really headed toward the bathroom. I needed to get out of here and think and there was a park right next to campus that would fit my purposes well.
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