Kami Cursed (Dragon and Phoenix) (7 page)

I shifted the
bat in my hands.  “Intent?”  I just wanted to get this over with and go home. 
The thing was giving me a headache with all its babbling and hissing.

“Sure.  You had
a lot of emotion connected to that book.  You hated it.  It cost you years of
your life.  Maybe you need to feel that passionately about destroying the
object for it to work?”

“Okay.”

He sighed.  “I’d
really feel better about this if Ryuu were here.  His presence may offer some
protection…”

Screw Ryuu.  I
lifted the bat and thought about how much I wanted that coin to shut up. 
Spinning, I brought the bat down with a crack.  The coin yelled at me.  There
was some sort of angry backlash and the bat bounced back.  Right into the glass
case containing Fumio’s scrolls.

The monk
straightened his clothes and stepped away from the door, where he had been
pressed back out of the way.  Shaking his head, he glanced at the glass
littering the floor.  “Next time, bring Ryuu.” 

*****

I slipped into
my seat at the back of the classroom just as the final bell rang.  The teacher wasn’t
there yet, so groups of kids were still clustered around, and their chatter
filled the room.  I had a sneaking suspicion I had somehow made the stupid coin
stronger again.  On top of that, I’d been scolded by the monks; this time for
being too loud.  Apparently, I had let out a yell at some point.  Like I was
supposed to take the kickback from a cursed object a little more quietly. 
Excuuuuus
 me. 
I stared down at my unopened book, wondering what new torture the day
held for me.

A loud laugh
drew my attention and I looked up to see a pretty, blond girl staring at me. 
She averted her big, wide-set blue eyes and continued talking to the other
girls that had gathered around her desk, her hand reaching up to touch the old
locket she wore around her neck.  Vanessa and her friends were acidic. 
Corrosive.  Today they were all in matching uniforms- long sleeved shirts and
absurdly short pleated skirts.  A babbling flock of cheerleaders.  I turned my
attention back to my book, pretending that they weren’t laughing at me.  Even
though I was pretty much one hundred percent sure they were.

I recognized
several of the girls from the Ryuu fan club table at lunch.  I was surprised
that they were in my class, but then I reminded myself that they were probably
a year or two younger than me.  I could feel eyes on me now and then.  I
shifted uncomfortably in my seat, staring at my notebook, but not really seeing
anything written there.  I was actually relieved when class finally started.

After class, I
stuffed my things into my bag and slid out of my seat, wanting to get out of
there and meet up with Ryuu, even if he was bound to still be sulky over the
whole Wyatt thing.  One of the girls stuck out her foot as I passed and I
narrowly avoided falling on my can.

“Thanks,” I
muttered sarcastically as I passed. 

I kept moving,
but I heard the word
crazy
.  It barely bothered me anymore.  I’d heard
that word so much that it really didn’t have much meaning to me.  But my palms
were sweaty, and my shoulders ached.

Andrea was
standing at her locker as I walked by.  She waved me over with a smile that
seemed genuine enough.  Apparently, my spilling to her yesterday had cemented
our bond.  I changed course and headed over to meet her.  She closed her locker
and gestured down the hall.  “Want to walk together?”

“Sure.”  I
wasn’t sure how to react.  After my hour spent with the acid squad, I was
convinced that I would never be able to interact with another human being ever
again.

Andrea nudged my
shoulder, and I was reminded of the times we had spent together when we were
kids.  “What’s up?”

I shrugged.  Vanessa
tossed her honey colored hair and snickered as she passed us.  I clenched my
teeth and kept my eyes forward, pretending I hadn’t heard her.

Andrea glared. 
“They’re still at it?”

I sighed.  “It’s
not like I didn’t expect to get teased.”

“Still, to keep
it going this long….”  I was surprised at how mad she seemed.  “I don’t get
it,” she said finally.  “I mean, I know people change, but Vanessa’s like a
totally different person this year.”

I looked at her
in surprise.  “You mean she hasn’t always been a pain in the butt?”

Andrea laughed. 
“Well, okay, maybe a little.  But she’s way worse now.  She used to be okay, no
worse than the rest of the sheep.”  She waved her hand dismissively.  “But this
year she’s so…I don’t know…”

“Mean?” I
suggested.  “Snide?  Petty?  Acidic?”

She laughed and nodded. 
“Yeah, that.  She’s always looking down on people.  Like she’s suddenly too
good for everyone.  She’s always telling people how her dad buys her stuff, and
if someone in her little crowd doesn’t worship her, then they get shunned.”

“Mmm…weird.”  I
tried.  But really, I couldn’t care less about the snotty little rich girl.  I
had enough crap of my own to deal with. 

Andrea nodded,
all wide-eyed, like she’d just shared a conspiracy with me.  “Well, I gotta
go.”  She looked down at her feet for a minute, hesitating.  “Um… hey, we
should go do something together sometime!”  Then she waved at me and went to
stand in line with her friends.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I looked
around and saw Ryuu sitting in the corner brooding over some moldy old book. 
One of the cheerleader girls from the fan club pranced over and stood next to
him, twirling her hair and blushing while she babbled at the speed of light.  I
rolled my eyes and took a lunch tray, wishing I hadn’t overslept this morning. 
I hated school lunches.  I watched the little drama while I waited in line. 

All of the
girl’s friends pretended they weren’t watching her, but it was obvious they
were hanging on her every word.  Ryuu kept staring at his book.  He flipped a
page and kept reading, not even acknowledging that she was there, and I smiled
at her expense.  Finally, he pulled his eyes away from the book and looked up
at her.  He seemed surprised to find her standing there.  She smiled
tentatively, the expression melting into anger in response to whatever he  said
to her. 

By the time I
got my institutional square of pizza and went to sit by Ryuu, the girl was
gone.  I slipped my tray onto the table and glanced at the book.  “What are you
reading now?”

He looked up
immediately, smiling.  “Hey Kit.  Just some old stories.”  He slid the book
toward me, leaning over to show me the title. 
Cursed Objects.

I raised my
eyebrows.  “So that’s why you were ignoring the cheerleader.”

He frowned at
me.  “What?  Oh, that
girl
.”  He said the word like you’d say sweaty gym
sock.  He looked at her table and she put her nose in the air and pretended to
ignore him.  “The sound of her voice was giving me a headache.”

He went back to
reading and I braced myself and took a bite of the pizza.  It wasn’t too bad, I
suppose… if you didn’t mind cardboard as a meal replacer.  I washed it down
with apple juice, feeling like a little kid with my juice box. 

“So, other
people see these objects?”  I was surprised that there was actually a whole
book devoted to the subject.

Ryuu shook his
head, his dark eyes regarding me seriously.  “No.  Not the same way I do.  But
you’d be surprised how many things are just accepted as cursed.”

“Huh.”  I
abandoned the pizza for my apple.

“Look,”   he
scooted closer, pushing my tray out of the way, and showed me the table of
contents.  “The Hope diamond, the Koh-i-Noor diamond, the Delphi purple
sapphire, the Crying Boy painting- that one’s really creepy, the mummy that
sank the Titanic…”

“Wait- a mummy
sank the Titanic?”  I shook my head.

Ryuu shrugged. 
“Who knows?”

I flipped
through the book, glancing at the pictures.  “So, all these things just
randomly cause bad stuff to happen?”

He brushed his
dark hair out his eyes and I swear one to the girls at the next table sighed. 
I narrowed my eyes at them but they all seemed to be studying their food.  It
was all I could do not to laugh.  It was seriously ridiculous.

“Well, I don’t
know.”  He said, oblivious as usual.  “But what I think happens is that somewhere
along the way some kind of negative energy attaches itself to the thing- a
Kami, or something like that- then something bad happens and the object gets
passed on to a different owner.  Every time some misfortune happens around the
thing, it picks up more negative energy.”

He picked up my
pizza and took a bite, then frowned and dropped it back on my tray.  “Next
thing you know, you’ve got people committing suicide, or going crazy- doing
things that aren’t like them at all.”  He shrugged.  “Who knows, maybe once the
thing gets tainted enough, it even attracts bad people.  Then you’ve got
someone who’s already got a lot of negative energy now being influenced by this
evil object.”

I nodded
slowly.  “So you think it snowballs?”

He tapped the
book.  “It seems to.  A lot of these stories get worse over time.”

I flipped
through the book.  “So if you saw these things in real life- not just a
picture- you could tell if all this stuff is real?”  It was an intriguing idea.

Ryuu jiggled his
legs under the table.  “I think so.”  His expression was excited and a bit
panicked at the same time.  “The Hope is in Washington D.C.”

I stared at
him.  “Where we take our senior trips.”

He grinned. 
“Yep.”

I
settled into my
seat and pulled out my history book with a heavy, resigned feeling.  As usual,
I felt like everyone was watching me.  It was mostly paranoia, I think.  But
the group of girls behind me kept giggling.  I usually sat in the way back, but
I’d been too late today and a group of Vanessa-ites had taken up residence
there.  There was a particularly loud burst of poorly disguised laughter and I
gritted my teeth, staring at my notebook.

It’s sick how
relieved I was when class actually started and the drone of the teacher’s voice
blotted out the whispers.  I still felt scrutinized, and I felt a tug on my
hair once, but I ignored it and focused furiously on class.  Science and math
were hard for me, but history I could do.  It was all like an elaborate novel,
filled with kings and wars and natural disasters.

When the bell
finally rang, I stood and hurried out of the room, wanting to get away from the
back row.  They followed me out the door at a distance, but I continued to
pretend to ignore them.  As I reached the door, one of the boys from class
rushed by me.  He reached out and ruffled my hair in passing, tangling it and
messing it up. 

“Hey!”

 The acid squad
laughed, and I grumbled to myself as I made my way out into the hallway.  I
reached up to straighten my hair, only to feel the unmistakable sensation of
gum mashed into the strands.  I stopped in the middle of the hallway, fuming. 
My fingers felt around the back of my head, finding a complete rat’s nest.  The
boy probably hadn’t put the gum there, but he made sure it wasn’t coming out.

Other kids in
the hallway had started to stare.  I turned and glared at the girls behind me
and they walked on by as if they had no idea what I was mad about, though I saw
Vanessa smirk as she passed.  People were pointing and murmuring by this time,
half of them laughing, and half of them looking like they pitied the poor crazy
girl. 

Suddenly it was
just all too much to handle.  My ears rang with anger, but tears cascaded down
my cheeks.  I felt surrounded by people, all of them hostile or uncaring.  I
kept my head down as I ran to the bathroom, my cheeks flaming.  Once I was in
the bathroom, I threw my bag on the floor and stood in front of the mirror,
staring at my red face and ruined hair through a watery veil of tears.  I
closed my eyes, wishing with all my heart that when I opened them I would be
fourteen again.  That this whole mess would prove to be just a dream.

It wasn’t a
dream.  The door creaked open and a noisy bunch of girls came in.  They got
quiet when they saw me standing there.  They did their thing and left in a
chattering herd, darting glances my way as I tried to pick the huge wad of gum
out of my hair.  The long strands were a knotted mess, and all I seemed to be
doing was making it worse.  I kept at it, anger and tears warring for dominance,
my scalp stinging from the angry, ruthless force with which I was tugging on my
hair.  I couldn’t spend the rest of the day like this.  It wasn’t just one
little piece of gum.  All of my long hair was knotted up in the back, sticking
out in gooey spikes.  God what had they done, chewed up a whole pack?

The door creaked
open again and I clenched my teeth, refusing to look at whoever had come to
gawk at me now.  My eyes widened in the mirror as I glanced into it and saw a
boy standing there next to me.

“Ryuu, you can’t
just come strolling into the girl’s bathroom whenever you feel like it.”  My
voice held no heat.  I couldn’t care less, really.

I watched his dark
eyes in the mirror as they studied the mess, a pained look on his face.  “Your
pretty hair…” he sighed and held out his hooded sweatshirt.  “You can borrow
this until school gets out.  Then maybe Dawn can help you.”

I took the
sweatshirt.  “Thanks.” 

The door creaked
open again and a couple of girls stopped just inside, staring at Ryuu.  “Uh…
maybe you should leave.”  I stooped to pick up my bag.  “Thanks for the
sweatshirt.”

Ryuu shrugged. 
“No problem.”  He turned a black glare on the girls as he made his way out. 
They looked scared and I suppressed a laugh.  Ryuu in that mode was
intimidating, no matter who you were.

I spent the last
hour of the day with my ruined hair hidden under the hood.  When the bell rang,
Ryuu was waiting for me at the exit.  We walked back to his house in silence. 
He was glowering, practically radiating bad mojo.

I sighed.  “It’s
just hair,” I said finally.  “Chill out.”

He turned that
black glare on me and I decided not to comment anymore.

Luckily, Dawn
was there when we got home.  “Oh no, honey!”  She was horrified when she saw
the damage.  She ran her fingers through the one untouched chunk of hair near
the front of my head, looking like someone had just kicked a kitten.

I sighed.  “Can
you help me get it out?”

She sat me down
in one of the kitchen chairs and went to work.  Ryuu settled in at the island
and surfed the internet on his laptop, throwing out suggestions from time to
time.  Otherwise he was silent.  Dawn tried peanut butter, cooking oil, and ice
to try to get it out, but it was just so tangled that it wasn’t working.  My
scalp was getting sore, and I was tired of sitting in the hard wooden chair
while she performed cooking experiments on my head.  Finally, I couldn’t take
it anymore.

 “Just cut it!”

Dawn looked
resigned.  “Are you sure?”

I nodded.  Ryuu
stood up and left the room.  I looked after him in surprise.  “What’s his
problem anyway?”

Dawn stared at
the doorway for a minute, a bit of a smile playing about the corner of her
lips.  “He’s just upset for you, that’s all.”

I rolled my
eyes.  “It’s just hair.”

She got the
scissors, then stood looking down at me uncertainly.  “Are you sure you want me
to do this?  You should probably go to the salon.”

I shook my head
emphatically.  “I don’t have money for that, and besides, I have to make dinner
and study tonight.  I don’t have time to waste on something so stupid.”  I
didn’t want to let them win- the girls that did this.

Surprisingly,
Dawn seemed to get it.  “How do you want me to cut it?”

I gestured
straight across.  “Just hack it off.  I’ll pin it back if it’s too ugly.”

Cutting my hair
was so much easier than sitting there picking at it had been.  Dawn was done in
a matter of minutes.  I glanced down at the long strands of hair lying on the
floor.  My hair had always been long ever since I could remember.  I hadn’t had
anything more than a trim before.  We washed what hair was left in the sink to
get the home remedies out, then dried it roughly with a fluffy towel.  I shook
my head, making my hair bounce around my shoulders.  It felt light.

Dawn grinned
down at me.  “You look really cute this way!  Really mature.  You should look
in the mirror.”

I shrugged and
pushed my hair back out of my eyes.  It felt odd when my fingers ran out of
hair much faster than usual.  “I’m sure it’s fine.”  I was tired of the whole
mess.

Ryuu was in the
living room looking sullen.  I leaned over the back of the couch, startling him
out of glaring at the TV.  The short tips of my hair swung forward and I blew
them out of my face.  “Hey.  Are you going to study with me today?”
He turned and looked at me and his eyes widened.  He looked so startled that I
laughed and put a hand to my hair.  “What?  Does it look that weird?”

Ryuu’s cheeks
took on the slightest hint of pink.  Then he started laughing.  I waited patiently
until he was done.  “If you’re just going to laugh at me, I’m going home.  I’ve
had enough of being laughed at for today.”

His expression
immediately sobered, but he just kept staring at me.  Exasperated, I went to
straighten up and leave.  Ryuu grabbed my arm, halting my motion.  I froze in
surprise when he turned to kneel on the couch, running his slender hands
through my hair.  “It’s really pretty.”  He gifted me with a soft, secret
smile, then disappeared into the kitchen to find a snack.  “Remind me to thank
Vanessa tomorrow,” he tossed over his shoulder.

I glared after
him.  “You’re an idiot.” 

Tires scrunched
as a car pulled into the driveway.  Dawn breezed through the living room. 
She’d changed her cloths and was fastening an earring.  She looked down at her
watch- a pink thing with lots of rhinestones.  “That’ll be George.  I need to
get going.” 

She patted me on
the shoulder in passing.  “You’re new hair is really very cute.”  I watched her
smooth her own hair before she grabbed her purse and hurried out the door. 

Ryuu poked his
head out of the kitchen.  “Did Dawn go out?”

I went to join
him.  “Yeah.  With some George guy?”

Ryuu unloaded
his armful of random food items onto the counter.  “Oh, yeah.  He’s her
boyfriend.”

I hurried to
help him unload his haul, wondering just what the heck he was planning on doing
with it all.  I couldn’t believe how much he was eating lately- and I had no
idea where he put it all.  He was still just as scrawny as ever.

“Dawn has a
boyfriend now?”

Ryuu nodded and
started assembling things.  “Sure, he’s like the third or fourth one- though
he’s been around longer than the other ones.”  He rolled his eyes.  “You’re
lucky you weren’t around for them.” 

He shrugged.  “But
George isn’t bad.  We all have dinner together once a week or so.  She probably
thinks he’s a good influence on me or something.”  He gestured at the far
cabinet.  “Get out the strainer and open that pineapple, will you?”

I did as
instructed.  “You’re okay with that?  I mean, Dawn dating?”

Ryuu shrugged. 
“Sure.  I know she seems old, but Dawn’s only in her twenties.  It would be
pretty selfish of me to pout about it.”

I thought of my
dad and I felt guilty.  “Sure.”

I did as
instructed, then set the pineapple aside and watched with curiosity as Ryuu
opened a package of yeast and sprinkled it over a bowl of warm water.  “So,
what’s he like, this George guy?”

He tossed the
empty package aside and handed me a cutting board and knife.  I assumed he
wanted me to chop veggies, so I picked up a pepper at random.  “He’s an older
guy.  He runs some company that makes computers or something.”  His dark eyes
flicked my way.  “Smaller pieces.” 

I butchered
veggies then watched in awe as Ryuu made pizza crust from scratch.  “You’re
amazing,” I said absently as he wrangled the soft dough onto a pizza stone.

He looked up and
grinned.  “Thanks, I’m glad you finally noticed.”  A lock of shiny hair fell
forward across his forehead and he brushed it away, leaving behind a streak of
flour.

I dipped my
fingers in the flour left on the counter and ruffled them through his hair,
making him look like he was graying.  My laughter faded when I realized that he
was standing there patiently, just smiling, his eyes glowing golden brown.  My
breath caught in my chest and I went to wash the cutting board, suddenly
confused for no good reason.

Ryuu spoke
suddenly.  “So, you’re really going to go on a date with that jock?”

I almost dropped
heavy wooden cutting board.  Embarrassed by my fumbling, I raised my chin and
refused to meet his eyes.  “Sure.  Why not?”

He snorted.  “Do
you like him?  A guy like that?”

I narrowed my
eyes at Ryuu.  “Look, I’ve never had a boyfriend before.  I’ve never even been
on a date.  All of the other girls at school are always talking about that
stuff, and I… well, I just want to be normal okay?”

He was quiet for
a minute, and I thought he’d given up on the discussion.  But then he started
in again.  “That’s a stupid reason.  I don’t like him.”

I sighed.  “So?”

He slid the
pizza into the hot oven.  “You know, his crowd, they’re the kind of people that
tormented me when I was little.  They make your life miserable too.  They’re
all a bunch of shallow idiots.”

I glared.  “Wyatt’s
not like that.  He’s really nice to me.  And besides,” I added, not looking at
him.  “He’s cute.”

Ryuu made a
gagging sound and I left the room.  Why couldn’t he just be happy that I had a
life for once… that I was finally doing something that a girl my age
should
be doing?  Ryuu always supported me.  Now he was suddenly being a jerk.

He joined me a
few minutes later and we worked on homework in silence.  We ate in silence. 
Then I went home.  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, depressed.

Ryuu’s dark eyes
were flat.  “Sure.”

“Thanks for
dinner.  It was good.”

He shrugged.  “Sure.”

I left feeling
guilty for some reason, but not knowing why.