RockScars

Monday evening…Vengeance’s office.

While he sat as his desk looking over applications for new students, Lark walked through the door of Vengeance’s office. She stepped in front of the two chairs and set her doll down in one and climbed onto the other. When she was seated comfortably, she looked up at him and smiled.

“I have a pointment.”

Vengeance smiled and folded his hands together on his desk. “You do huh? So what is the nature of your appointment, young lady?”

Lark straightened up in her seat and fixed her doll too. “I want to go to school like the big girls.”

Vengeance smiled at her and leaned forward a little bit so she didn’t have to strain so hard looking up over his desk to see him. “Your turn to go to school will come. Right now you have to learn at home.”

“But I’m a big girl. I wanna go now.”

“How about a compromise?”

Lark’s eyes grew wide. “What does that mean?”

“How about you come with me tonight and be my helper?”

Lark giggled. “Ok.”

“Good. Now I believe your appointment is just about over and I think I deserve a kiss.”

Lark got off the chair and grabbed her doll before she walked around to the other side of Vengeance’s desk. He bent forward in his chair and Lark kissed his cheek. “Why thank you,” he smiled. “Now why don’t you go get something to eat and I’ll come get you when it’s time ok?”

“Oooo K!” Lark ran out of his office and Vengeance sat back and smiled to himself.

********

Later that night, Mr. Gates Class

One by one the students began to file in and Gates sat in his chair waiting for class to settle down. When Twyla walked in to the class she walked right into one of the desks. Gates was out of his chair and beside her in seconds. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just didn’t see it.” The desk was there plain as day, Twyla

“Go sit, we’ll talk at home.”

“Ok,” she nodded. Truth is, Twyla hadn’t been feeling well since she woke up, but as stubborn as she was, she wouldn’t dare tell anyone.

Gates returned to his desk and sat down ready to get started with the lesson when one last student walked through the door. “Sorry I’m late, Mr. Gates. I forgot my home work and had to run home and get it.”

“It’s alright, Daisy, have a seat.”

Daisy opened her backpack and took out an orange and set it down on his desk before walking over to her own desk and sitting down. One of the other girls snickered under her breath. “It’s supposed to be an apple. Stupid, country bumpkin” It was low, but loud enough for Daisy to hear. Twyla turned and shot the girl a nasty look and the girl drew back cowering in her seat.

While Gates began speaking with the class, he picked up the orange and started to peel it. He had engaged the class in a conversation about the vampires in history and what the media has made them out to be. They laughed about television shows like ‘True Blood’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and deeply discussed how the entertainment industry portrays them as cold-blooded blood sucking killers.

The class was in the midst of a debate between who the actual first vampire was. No one really knew for sure. Some believed it was Cain and some actually believe it was Dracula, but as the debate progressed, the door to Gates’s classroom was opened.

Lark shyly walked over to Gates who swiveled in his chair to turn and face her. “What are you doing here?” he asked her when she walked up to him and stood between his legs.

“I’m Zacky’s helper,” she whispered. “I’m supposed to give you these.” She handed him a stack of flyers to hand out to the class about the upcoming holiday weekend.

“Would you like to hand them out to the class for me?”

Lark nodded and blushed a little bit. Everyone in the manor knew she had a little girl crush on Gates. She went to each desk and gave each student one of the flyers and stopped at her sister’s desk. “Hi Twyla,” she whispered.

“Hi, bug. You having fun?”

“Yeah,” she nodded and gave her sister a flyer.

“Thank you. You’re doing a great job. I’ll see you at home ok?”

“Ok,” Lark nodded and set her hand on top of Twyla’s hand. “It’s gonna be ok, I promise.” Lark walked away leaving Twyla to wonder how she knew something was wrong.

“Bye,” she said waiving at Gates.

“Bye, Lark, Thank you.” Lark turned and waived at the class before running out of the classroom.

Gates laughed when the whole class waived back and said goodbye to the little girl. “Ok, now where were we?” His eyes went to Daisy as one of the other students started up the debate again. She was looking at a dictionary, most likely looking up a few of the big words in the textbook that she didn’t understand. You could have just offered to help her instead of making her feel stupid, you big idiot.

The debate went on for the rest of the class and Gates had to actually stop it so he could dismiss his students. “As much as I love class participation, the bell is about to ring. Don’t forget to bring your essays tomorrow, you’ll be reading them aloud in front of the class.

The students collected their belongings and when the bell rang they all took off and headed on to their next class. Twyla was walking down the hallway when the pain in her head started to get worse. She leaned against a wall and waited for all of the other students to enter their classrooms. When the hallway was clear, Twyla fell to her knees and clutched her head in her hands.

“What the hell?” The Rev looked at Shadows and the two of them ran over to her. Shadows grabbed her by the shoulders, but she couldn’t lift her head.

“It hurts,” She cried.

“Come on, let’s get you to the infirmary.”

“No,” she cried. “I can’t get up, it hurts so bad.”

Shadows looked at The Rev. “Go get Vengeance.” The Rev took off in the direction of Vengeance’s office and Shadows lifted Twyla up in his arms and carried her down the hall towards the infirmary. “It’s gonna be ok, I promise.” That was the second time that night that she heard someone say that.

Shadows set her down on one of the tables in the infirmary just as Vengeance got there. “Go to your class, I’ll stay with her.”

Shadows nodded and left Twyla with Vengeance. “Zacky, it hurts so bad,” she cried.

“I know, honey,” he said as he moved her hair away from her face. “Just close your eyes and the pain will be over soon.”

Vengeance nodded towards the nurse and she came over and gave Twyla a shot in her arm. Within minutes, Twyla was asleep.

*********

Fight Class

Shadows stood watching his students spar in the gym all the while wondering how things were going with Twyla. He never noticed the little distraction that had half the class stopping what they were doing. When he did finally turn to see what they were all looking at, Lark waived and ran over to him.

He knelt down in front of her and she stood there trying to be quiet, but she’d already interrupted his class. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“I know,” she whispered and the class laughed. “I came to tell you that I’m going home with Jimmy now.”

“Ok,” he smiled. “You behave. Two cookies and then off to bed ok?”

“I promise.” She said and crossed her heart with her finger.

“That’s my girl,” he said with a smile. “Now, go. Don’t keep Jimmy waiting.”

Lark leaned forward and whispered loudly. “You’re supposed to kiss me goodnight, silly.”

The whole class gave a mixture of light chuckles and awes and Shadows laughed himself. He hugged the little girl and kissed her cheek and then she was off and running towards The Rev, who was waiting at the door for her.

He stood and looked over his class. The boys were standing there with their arms folded and each one had a huge smirk on their face and the girls were looking at him sweetly. “OK, Yes! She’s mine and yes, my world revolves around her. As you can see, she turns me to mush and melts my cold un-beating heart. Lastly, I may be a big softy when it comes to that little girl, but I can still kick the hell out of every one of you so get back to your lesson.”

While class went on, Shadows could hear the girls whispering. It slightly amused him that they were wondering what his wife looked like. The fact that they thought he even had a wife gave him the hope that they would stop batting their eyelashes at him. Highly doubtful, take a look at yourself, stud.

An hour later, Shadows had checked on Lark who was sleeping peacefully in her princess bed at the guesthouse and went back to the manor leaving her in The Rev’s care. Vengeance was sitting in the living room waiting for him to get there.

“Are you ready?”

“I guess,” Shadows said with his hands in his pockets. “Honestly, I thought I’d have more time.”

“Me too,” Vengeance nodded.

Shadows paced back and forth making a pattern across the rug. “Where is she now?”

“Sleeping in her room.”

Shadows nodded. “So, do you think it will happen tonight?”

Vengeance shrugged. “I’m not sure, I suppose, but either way, it’s happening and I need to know if you’re really ready for this because if you aren’t I’ll need to step in and handle it myself.”

“No,” Shadows shook his head. “I’ll do it. She may not see things my way and she may hate my guts, but Twyla needs me. She just doesn’t know it yet.”

“Good,” Vengeance nodded and stood up. “I’m gonna go order some take out. I guess you should get comfortable, it’s going to be a long night.”

****

“Nice night for a swim.”

Daisy was sitting on her knees in front of the pool and turned her head to see Gates approaching. “Oh, Mr. Gates, I don’t swim.”

“Why not?” He asked sitting down beside her and letting his feet hang over the edge into the water.

Daisy looked back at the water. “I can’t”

“You can’t swim?”

She shook her head and continued to stare at the water. “I never learned how. Guess where ever it is I come from, they don’t have swimming pools.”

Gates bit back a laugh and got into the pool. “Come on,” he said as he held out his arms.

“Oh, Mr. Gates,” Daisy shook her head. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Besides, I aint even wearin’ a suit.”

“So what. There’s no rule that says you can’t wear shorts in the pool. Come on.” Daisy looked pretty nervous and Gates held out his arms again. “I’ll teach you.”

She lifted her hand and just as she placed it on his arm, a loud, blood-curdling scream came from the house. “Shit,” Gates said as he leapt out of the pool and ran back towards the house. Daisy followed after him hoping everything was all right, but by the sound of the screams that kept getting louder with every step she took, it was obvious that something was terribly wrong.