Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Friendship Runs Thicker than Blood ❯ Return ( Chapter 3 )

CHAPTER THREE: RETURN

When Sira got to school on Monday morning, she did not expect to see Seda. She was right. She did, however, suppose that Seda would be in geometry. There, she was wrong. Seda did not show up for the class at all. Sira's anxiety levels, already elevated by her knowledge of Seda's problem, started to rise some more. When she didn't see Seda at the morning announcements, she was even more worried.

“Seda's not here,” she whispered to Leo, who was sitting next to her.

“I noticed,” he told her. “Look, neither is Mrs. Volind.” Sira looked behind her, where the teachers were sitting in their row of chairs. Seda's mother was indeed absent. “Seda probably has a doctor's appointment, or something,” Leo continued. “Calm down.”

“You sound like you're trying to convince yourself as well as me,” Sira remarked, then dropped the topic as she heard a shushing noise from behind her.

When neither Seda nor her mom had turned up by lunch, Sira's tightly contained worry started to reassert itself. She sat next to Anna at the lunch table.

“Seda's not here,” both girls observed at once.

“What happened?” Sira demanded in concern.

“You had classes with her,” Anna began.

“Not in any of them,” Sira told her. “Leo pointed out her mom's not here, either.”

“Maybe she's sick, then,” Anna said. This had not occurred to Sira.

“Yeah,” she said. “I hope that it's that, anyway, and not something worse.”

She went right on hoping that until the next morning's English class. Seda wasn't there. She wasn't at the morning announcements, or in history. The only thing that helped Sira keep her worry from overwhelming her was that Mrs. Volind was again also absent. If Seda had indeed been out sick on Monday, maybe she just had a really bad cold. Sira was distracted all day, worrying about her friend. The only thing she noticed was that Leo seemed to be as anxious as she. This observation gave Sira something else to think about: for the past few months, she'd suspected Leo of having a crush on Seda. However, Sira was too preoccupied to think about teasing the boy.

Wednesday passed agonizingly slowly. Sira had gone to school with high hopes of seeing Seda, but they were dashed when Seda wasn't in English. Mrs. Volind was still absent as well.

Sira wasn't the only one worried about Seda. Leo was more concerned than his blond friend, because he had been deeply shaken by Seda's revelation and was worried about the affects such a terrible secret could have on her. He also knew about Seda's other secret, and he did not like to think about the strain involved in keeping two such secrets.

Anna was worried, too—still by Seda's behavior of the week before, but just as pressingly by her long absence. Jason, Jerry, Alice, Meg—all Seda's friends, even those who had not quite noticed her strange behavior—were starting to worry.

Thursday morning, Sira had barely sat down next to Anna in their preferred hangout when she heard Seda's voice from behind her:

“So, did you miss me?” Sira and Anna whipped around to face her, speechless. Seda favored her left leg as she sat down next to Anna. Her right arm was in a sling, and large, dark bruised adorned her face, legs, and visible arm.

“What happened?” Anna demanded in concern when her voice returned.

“A car hit me when I was crossing a street,” Seda said. “I was in the hospital until yesterday morning, and my mom wouldn't bring me into school until today.”

“Poor you!” said Anna, leaning in to give her a hug. Seda looked at Sira over Anna's shoulder and mouthed, Lunch. She did not get a chance to say anything further, as Jason had arrived and demanded to know what had happened. Seda had to explain again every time another one of her friends arrived.

Seda seemed happier than she had for weeks. She had a big smile on her face; there were no longer circles under her eyes (well, except for the bruises); she was still thin, but now she seemed healthy rather than sickly.

In the first class of the day, Seda had two notes ready. She passed one to Sira during class and gave the other to Leo as he passed her on the way to his seat. Both notes told the recipient to meet in the same room they'd used last week during lunch. Neither could wait for lunch, but the morning passed slowly. Seda's friends had quickly noticed that she had trouble with her backpack because of her injuries. Leo offered to carry it to French for her. In turn, he got to ride in the elevator with her, because she couldn't easily walk up stairs with her bruised leg. Thereafter, one of her friends helped her with her stuff after each class and received a ride on the elevator.

None of Seda's teachers in her morning classes assigned her the class work she had missed. All she had to do was complete her homework assignments and get notes from a classmate. Seda was very happy not to have to do three days' worth of missed worksheets and such.

Finally, after what seemed like two days, lunch came. Both of Seda's friends showed up at the time and place appointed in Seda's note. Seda herself was gleeful.

“The last hospital stay reinstated my control!” she crowed the second the door was closed. “I don't have to watch myself every minute now!”

“But why haven't you healed yourself?” Leo asked. Seda beamed at him, too elated to not be smiling.

“I was hit by a car. If I healed myself, people would ask questions. I'm blocking the pain, but I'm naturally a slow healer. I don't want to blow my cover and give people any more reason to ask questions.” She started whirling around the room. “I'm in control, I'm in control!” she sang. Her lunchbox opened and various items of food started dancing along with her. Her friends couldn't help but laugh. Sira sobered at once when a thought occurred to her.

“Not to be a party pooper, but were the doctors startled by your brain scans again?” she asked. Seda stopped dancing.

“Yes,” she admitted. “I considered making them forget about it, but I wasn't sure how many of them knew, and I didn't want the monitors to go any more haywire. What can they do, though? I'm healing at a perfectly normal rate, and no one can touch me now! I'm out of the hospital. Okay, sorry to keep you from lunch. I just had to tell someone. Or two someones.” They all headed back downstairs and sat with their friends in the cafeteria. Everyone was relieved to have Seda back to normal again.

They had her on Friday, too. She was completely normal, complaints about early mornings and all. Her strange behavior was all but forgotten by most; those who recalled it did not bring it up, for fear of provoking another bout of Seda's withdrawn conduct. Seda was perfectly happy with this; she had no intentions of admitting her powers to anyone but Leo and Sira. Those two of her friends were still a little worried for her, but they did not say anything, either.

At times, Sira would look at her friend and see the happiness in her eyes. She was happy for Seda, that the constant worry of losing control and hurting someone was gone. Still, a nagging voice in the back of Sira's mind warned her that the abnormal brain patterns would cause trouble for Seda. She tried to ignore the voice.