Obeying the Zodiac

I went into Math class and sat down. My teacher raised his eyebrows but said nothing; he just shrugged his shoulders. As others started entering and sitting down though he came over to me.

“Rayvn,” he started in a disapproving voice.

It was different for Mr. Vends. He didn’t by the cheap innocence stuff like Ms. Karla. So I gave him one of my death glares I’ve been saving up. “Yes?” I asked in a half annoyed, half angry voice.

He hesitated and then said stiffly, “Very well then.” He cleared his throat. “If there’s something you don’t quite understand yet, I’ll let you stay this one time.” He walked away muttering to himself.

He was wrong. I understood everything. This class was probably the easiest one here at St. Lines High School. I stared at the board up front where the teacher spoke, but my eyes were unfocused, my mind a thousand miles away.

I thought, and as I thought, I daydreamed. Daydreamed of a place where I could be friends with anyone and everyone. I could be friends with even the Libra and Aries. I once knew a girl who was an Aries. Her name was Evranyn.

I met her about three years ago; I was fourteen years old. It was just a normal day. And quite boring at that.

I lay under a tree in the shade, reading one of my favorite novels written by a young Cancer like me. It was my favorite book. This had to have been the fifth time I was reading it. It was about a girl who made friends with all the people who hated her. She insisted to her mother, after she’d come home with burn marks, bruises, and bloody noses, that she wasn’t angry at the kids who did that to her.

“Now if this ever happens again,” her mother would say, “I want you to tell an adult straight away.”

The next day the bullies gained up on her again. The leader of the group, Sharlyn, was holding her up by the collar of her shirt, her feet off the ground.

“You going to go crying to mommy now, Naoti?” she would ask and her buddies behind would laugh.

“Sharlyn,” Naoti said in a strong and brave voice, “you must know that I do not hate you, or strongly dislike you. I just simply misunderstand your inner self perspective on life.”

After that, Sharlyn didn’t bother her for a while and one day, they actually became friends.

That part was my favorite. The girl befriends her worst enemy. As I was reading it though, it was suddenly snatched out of my hands. I looked up and saw Evranyn of the Aries holding my book in her hand. She threw it into the air and then caught it again.

“Reading again, Von Shryker?” She never called me by my first name, only my last. She looked down at me and grinned evilly.

“It’s my favorite book, Evranyn,” I said quietly.

“Really now?”

“Yes, I’ve read it more than twice.” I smiled happily.

She smirked and received a wicked gleam in her eyes. “Well, then it’s time has come.” She held the book in the air with one hand and the other one under it next to the corner. She snapped her fingers quickly a couple times, making fire spark near the pages, taunting me.

“Evranyn, what are you going to do?” I asked worriedly because I already knew the answer.

“Time to get a new book,” she said. “Besides, you know what they say about reading to much—you’ll just end up getting burned.” Then she snapped her fingers one more time and started the whole book on fire.

Thinking quickly, I remembered that there was a river just down this hill. I put my hands up in the air as Evranyn laughed, pleased with her destruction.

“Well, you know what they say about playing with fire too much.”

Her laughter cut off and she glared. “What?”

“You get wet.” And then I brought my hands down in front of me and to my sides, like I was slamming something down. I heard and saw the huge wave that moved around me and then attacked Evranyn. It knocked her down to the ground and also put the flames out on my book. I quickly ran over and picked it up. I flipped through the pages, looking at the damage she did.

She was all wet and coughing. She spit up some water and glared at me again. She slowly stood up and I backed away a little. “Von Shryker,” she growled. Her hands were like claws at her side. She grinded her teeth together and then startled throwing fire at me.

Thankfully I blocked all her throws with a water shield. Though her flames caught on one of my hands and burned it.

“Ow!” I shrieked. I lost my focus and all the water surrounding me splashed to the ground. I held my hand and forced back the tears.

Evranyn stopped throwing fire and I could almost feel her smugness radiating off of her. I wondered what Naoti would do then. Maybe I could befriend this Aries like Naoti did with her enemy.

“Evranyn,” I started but my voice wasn’t as strong as Naoti’s had been. Mine was stiff with pain.

“You’re not going to fight back anymore? I bet you hatred for me is raging inside right now.” She seemed to like the idea of that.

“Evranyn, you must know that I do not hate you, or strongly dislike you. I just simply misunderstand your inner self perspective on life,” I quoted Naoti’s words exactly.

She raised her eyebrows for a moment and then burst out into laughter. “What the heck is that suppose to mean?”

I shrugged. “Beats me.” I smiled and she laughed some more.

“Well, though you sound smart, you still have no idea what you’re talking about.” She stopped laughing and just smiled.

“I read it from that book. It sort of made sense.”

“It sounds like a good book. Err…sorry for destroying it.” She bent down and picked up a couple of pages that had fallen out. She smiled, a little embarrassed, as she handed them to me.

“That’s okay. Like you said, I should get a new book. I’ve read that one too much. Besides, if I really wanted to read it again, I could just read it from my brain. I bet I have the whole book memorized by now.”

She rocked back on her heals with her hands now in her pockets. “Well, I got to go now. Maybe…I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

And with one last smile she walked away, down the hill and to the town.

I was friends with her for quite some time until her mom found out that she was hanging out with a Cancer. She was forced to leave Surver all together. Like I said, if you want to stay on Surver, you’ll have to obey the rules. I heard that she moved to Mars—Aries home planet. My mom would have shipped me off to the Moon once she found out, but she didn’t want to lose another child so she told me to just keep mum about it as would she.

Suddenly the bell rang and I jumped a little.

Mr. Vends walked over to me as I picked up my books. “Do you now understand what you didn’t before, Rayvn?” he asked.

I just nodded and left to go to Biology.

When I got to the class and sat down I realized that there were a couple of Libras and Aries. Uh oh—not good. Mrs. Moor stepped into the classroom and looked at her students; she was checking to make sure everyone would be aloud to participate in her class today. No Aquarius with Scorpio, Virgo with Gemini, Cancer with Libra or Aries.

Her eyes locked with mine and I knew what would happen next.

“Rayvn Von Shryker, I’m sorry but you’ll have to leave this classroom now. You must obey the Zodiac. Besides, I seem to remember you already taking this class.” She walked over to her desk and pulled out a file with my name on it. “Let’s see…what class have you not taken yet…?” she said to herself. “Ah—Miss Von Shryker, please excuse yourself from my class and head of to Earth Gym now.”

I suppressed a groan and left the room.

“Stupid necklace,” I muttered under my breath. “Stupid Zodiac. Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I hated Earth Gym—which is why I haven’t taken it yet. I’ve taken Surver Gym though. There’s a difference between the two. There are many different sports here on Surver that we learn in Gym that are not common among the Earth scum.

I opened the gym door and walked to the lockers trying to avoid the strange Earth games that were going on; some kind of activity with an odd shaped brown ball that was shaped like a giant lemon.

I was so distracted by the abnormal sport that I didn’t see what hit me in the head at full speed. I fell to the ground and the whole world went black for a while.

I was suddenly surrounded by snow—I think that’s what it was at least—it was all white everywhere. That’s all I saw. It was cold and wet. Then out of nowhere I saw a dark shadow approach me. The figure was blurry but it looked like a human.

“Rayvn…” I recognized the voice right away.

“Lilac?” I choked. She reached out to me, as did I. I thought she was going to take my hand but instead she slapped me in the face. I gasped. I grabbed my cheek and looked at Lilac with confusion. Her expression was blank.

“What—?” I tried to ask but was interrupted by other voices.

“She’s not waking up.”

“Slap her again.”

“No, don’t. Here…”

Lilac walked closer to me and threw a snowball at my face. It was cold and wet. I was so confused. What the heck is going on?

Just then Lilac started to disappear.

“Wait!” I called to her but it was too late.

The snow started to disappear along with Lilac.

I opened my eyes slowly to see many kids standing over me. I felt water on my face. Oh. That must explain the extra wet snowball Lilac threw at me. Some of them chuckled. Mostly guys.

“Hey, you alright there?” someone asked. Oh my gosh, I thought to myself when I saw the boy who was talking. He was gorgeous! He stood over me, his ice blue eyes worried.

“Um…” It was then that the pain came to my head. Ouch! What happened?

“Sorry ‘bout that,” the boy said. “Next time I’ll try being more careful during football.” He stuck out his hand and I acted on reflex reactions. I took his hand and shook it. He laughed loudly and gripped my hand. I didn’t understand until he pulled me to my feet. Everyone went back to their game seeing that I was fine.

“I’m Oris of the Aquarius, by the way,” he said and ran his hand through his strawberry blond hair casually.

I smiled. “Rayvn.”

“Rayvn,” he repeated and smiled back. “Of…?”

My smile faded. I touched my necklace through my shirt. Thank goodness it wasn’t out for him to see. In a snap decision, I decided to lie.

“Rayvn of Libra,” I said. I would have to make sure to keep my necklace tucked into my shirt at all times so he wouldn’t see.

“Oh.” He sounded shocked. “Nice to meet you then, Ray.” I giggled stupidly when he gave me a nickname. He turned and left to the other side of the gym where everyone else was playing “football.”

In the locker room after I got dressed I studied the red bump on my forehead. I grimaced and rubbed uselessly at it as if my hand was an eraser.