No Fear

Saphire fidgeted nervously in the front car seat as her dad drove her to school. At the moment they were still going through the small town at the bottom of the hill which they'd just came from, but Saphire hardly noticed the stores whizzing by the window as she stared blankly ahead at the huge high school that had suddenly loomed into view through the morning mist. She gulped. It was a lot bigger than her old school.

Her dad seemed to notice her worried look. ''Relax, Saphire, you'll be fine.'' He told her.

Saphire glanced at him. ''Easy for you to say.'' She said, not grateful for his reassurance at all.

Soon after, her dad pulled into an empty parking space outside the school gates and killed the engine. Saphire sighed, but didn't get out of the car.

''Well, they're waiting for you.'' Her dad said cheerfully.

Saphire shot him an ungrateful look, but opened the door and got out, picking her school bag up from the backseat.

''Don't worry, you'll be fine.'' Her dad reassured her as she swung the strap of her messenger bag over her shoulder.

''Yeah, I guess...'' Saphire trailed off, daring a glance in the direction of the school gates.

A bunch of girls were standing around outside, just talking in amongst themselves. Saphire gulped. To get inside, she'd have to go past them. What if she did something stupid and they laughed at her? What if they just laughed at her for no reason, like the other kids in her old school had? Saphire shook her head, trying to block these negative thoughts out.

''Well, it's for today, Saph.'' Her dad told her, bringing her back to reality.

She turned around to look at him and nodded. ''Um, yeah. See ya later.''

Then she closed the car door and made her way towards the school gates, her dad pulling out of the empty space behind her. She turned around and walked backwards to watch him leave.

''Well, no turning back now I guess...'' She muttered under her breath.

''Hey, watch where you're going!'' A voice behind her yelled.

Saphire spun round in surprise and immediately went a shade of crimson. She'd bumped into one of the girls at the gate. All her friends were staring at her and the girl she'd bumped into was fixing her a dirty look.

''Oh, I'm s-sorry, I didn't see you, I mean...'' Saphire stuttered nervously.

The girl raised an eyebrow at her. ''Huh? What did you say?'' She said, pretending to be deaf.

Saphire just wanted to disappear at that moment. ''I said I'm sorry...'' She repeated.

The girl's friends giggled as Saphire's face went even redder. Deciding not to make any more of a fool of herself, she walked quickly past them as they continued to giggle. Saphire closed her eyes in frustration. Why did it always have to happen to her?

***

''Yeah! This rocks!'' Raven yelled as she turned cartwheels in the air, Lauri flying nervously below her.

He'd taken to flying underneath her when he'd seen one of the branches she'd decided to bounce on snap as soon as she was in the air again. He'd panicked and caught hold of her when she'd lost her wing beat and almost went tumbling towards the forest floor below.

''Raven, can't you just fly like a normal Crow for once?'' Lauri called up to her as she turned another cartwheel.

''I would if I could, dear brother, but I'm not an ordinary Crow! My wings are bigger for a start and I don't eat worms.'' Raven replied happily.

''You know what I mean!''

''What, you mean fly like you? All slow and boring?''

''At least I'm not in danger of crash landing and killing myself!''

''What are you doing down there anyway?''

''Nothing...''

Raven rolled her eyes. ''Lare, I'm not likely to fall, I do have wings, I'm not a kid anymore.''

Lauri groaned. Sometimes he wondered if she was actually only a year younger than him.

***

''Ok, you can do this.'' Saphire told herself as she entered the main building in amongst the crowd of other kids. ''What's the worst thing that could happen?''

She stopped dead in the school hallway. There were two sets of stairs on either side of the room and she had no idea which way to go to get to her classroom. Well, this sucked.

''Hello, are you Saphire Night?''

Saphire looked in the direction of the voice and her eyes fell on a lady with glasses who was carrying a clipboard.

''Um, yes.'' Saphire said.

The lady smiled at her. ''Hi, my name's Mrs. Holmes. I'm the principle here.''

''Oh, nice to meet you.'' Saphire said politely.

''Right, if you could follow me, I'll take you to your classroom.'' Mrs. Holmes told her, heading for the set of stairs on the left side of the room.

Saphire followed her. Ok, so she didn't seem so bad, maybe her teacher would be ok too.

''So, Saphire, you nervous?'' Mrs. Holmes asked her as they climbed the second set of stairs to the third floor.

Saphire shrugged. ''Kind of.''

''Don't be, I'm sure you'll do fine. I've seen your report from your other school and your record seems pretty clean.''

Yeah, the studying part of school she got on with fine, it was the kids in the class Saphire was worried about. Well, whatever they have in store for her can't be worse than her old school.

''Well, this is it.'' Mrs. Holmes told her when they'd reached the third floor. ''Right, you just go down that corridor and it's the last door on your right, ok?''

Saphire nodded. ''Ok, thank you.''

''Your welcome. Well, I'll see you around, Saphire. Hope you enjoy your first day.''

''I hope so too. Bye!'' Saphire said, as she went down the corridor.

As long as the kids didn't give her any grief, she was sure she'd be fine.
Saphire stopped outside the last door to her right. I small sign that said ''nº10'' had been stuck on the wall above the blue door that led to the classroom. She gulped. This was it. No turning back now. She took a deep breath, gathering up what guts she had left and knocked on the door.
After a moments pause, a voice from inside said ''Come in!''

''Ok, here we go.'' Saphire muttered, opening the door.

She froze in the doorway as all the kids in the room stared at her. It looked like she was late, they were already all sat in their seats.

''Yes? Can I help you?'' A lady who was stood at the front of the class by the big blackboard asked, sounding pretty annoyed.

Saphire blinked at her, wondering how to respond. She looked like she must be the teacher. She didn't look very friendly...

''Um, hi, I'm Saphire Night.'' Saphire told her, hoping that that was enough.

''Yes, well, that may be all well and spiffing, but what do you want?'' The teacher snapped, seeming pretty ticked off at the fact Saphire had interrupted her class just to tell her her name.

The kids all giggled but after a quick and icy glare from the teacher, they fell silent again. Saphire flinched. This was already going badly and she hadn't even sat down yet.

''Well, um... I'm new here and Mrs. Holmes said this was my classroom.'' Saphire explained.

The teacher rolled her eyes. ''Well, why didn't you say so in the first place? Go find a place to sit.''

Saphire sighed in relief and headed to the last empty desk at the back of the classroom where she sat down. At least that part of Hell was over. When the teacher's back was turned to the class, the boy in front of her turned around in his seat to look at her.

''Hey um... a saphire is a rock, right? Just wondering.'' He said.

Saphire looked up at him. He was wearing a baseball cap and his face looked just slightly like a rat's.
Saphire frowned at his question. ''Um, yeah, I guess...''

''Wow, your parents must've loved you to bits, huh?'' He laughed.

Saphire laughed along with him, but she didn't find that funny at all. She liked her name, and saphires aren't just rocks, they're very special gems. But she kept that to herself. The boy turned around to face the teacher, leaving Saphire to hide her face in her arms on the table.

***

''Aw, come on, Lare. Let's keep going!'' Raven whined.

''No way, this isn't even our land anymore, Raven. You keep going if you want, but I'm not going any further.'' Lauri told her firmly, hovering in mid air.

Raven glared at him. ''Why do you always have to be such a daddy's boy?!''

''What? I am not!''

''Then don't act like it! Come on, let's go!''

Raven flapped her wings in a reverse beat so she was moving across the sky backwards so she could see if Lauri was following her, which he wasn't.

''No, Raven. It just doesn't feel right out here.''

Raven sighed in frustration. ''Fine.''

She flew over to him and Lauri sighed in relief. ''Ok then.''

He watched as she flew around him though and that was when she seized her chance. She grabbed at the only fake black feather that Lauri kept tied into his black spiky hair in amongst the actual real feathers and she yanked it out.

''Want your precious little fake feather back?'' She teased back as he spun around, trying to grab it back, but missing as she flew away.

He glared at her. ''Raven, give that back!'' He yelled, leaning forward to charge at her.

Raven dodged him and waved the black feather in the air so he could see it. ''Come get it then!'' She yelled, charging on in the other direction.

Lauri groaned. He knew what she was trying to do, but he needed that feather like he needed wings to fly, so he flew after her.
Why was it so important to him? That's where he stored all the black chaos he collected from the humans he and his dad visited at nighttime. Without it, he couldn't do squat to help anyone. Sure, he could just remove the black chaos from their hearts anyway, but he'd have nowhere to store it. Of course, Raven had no idea what he and their dad were doing every night because they never told anyone. Why? Because for some reason, their dad had sworn Lauri into secrecy the first day he'd let him come to one of the human's houses. Basically, what black chaos was would be negative emotions. You know, like, sadness, anger, hate... fear. Emotional chaos is what they'd called it, but Lauri thought black chaos sounded cooler, so he decided to call it that instead.

''Raven, if you drop that feather I swear I'll-''

''Relax, bird brain, nothing's gonna happen to your little feather!'' Raven called over her shoulder, her voice almost lost in the wind that was rushing past them as they sped across the morning sky.

Just then though, when Raven looked back in front of her, she had to swerve out of the way quickly as a flock of what looked like hawks came rushing towards her. She let out a yell when she swerved too late and hit one of the bigger ones. It thrashed around in mid air as Raven struggled to get past it and scratched at her arm. She let out a scream and accidentally dropped Lauri's feather in shock.

''No! Raven, you silly brat!'' Lauri yelled, diving down to attempt to catch it before it disappeared in amongst the treetops below.

''Oh, sure, I'm the one who's injured and he goes to save a feather that's not even his!'' Raven moaned, holding her arm as the cut oozed blood.

Unfortunately though, the feather had already disappeared through the trees and was now somewhere in the forest below.

Lauri let out a yell, trying to find an opening in the trees so he could see the floor below.

Raven sighed. ''Relax, Lare, there are more feathers in the world where that one came from, ya know. We can just find you another one.''

''You stupid girl, that wasn't just any feather!'' Lauri yelled at her, giving up on finding an opening in the trees. ''That was the feather that had all my black chaos in it! Now if someone finds it and picks it up, they're gonna feel like... like... I dunno, but committing suicide will be the least of their thoughts if all the black chaos in that feather gets to them!''

Raven blinked. ''Ok, say all that again, but in English.''

Lauri waved a hand in the air in her direction dismissively. ''Oh, you're just a kid, what would you know?''

Raven frowned and flew over to him. ''Wow, you're really ticked off about this, huh?''

Lauri found it extremely hard stopping himself from hitting his little sister at that moment in time.

''Never.'' He said sarcastically. He sighed. ''Ok, you stay here, I'm gonna go fetch the feather.''