Dangerous Testimonals (Other POV)

I follow Lydia at a distance. The weirdo goes off on her own basically every day and it finally grabbed my interest.

The strange girl walks into a small clearing as I hide behind a tree. She looks around the immediate area for a moment. Did she spot me? After what feels like quite sometime, Lydia sits down and closes her eyes. Is that it? She just sits there and naps?

Before I am about to walk away I see Darren and his buds walk into the clearing. Something is gonna happen now.

“Well well look who it is!”, Darren says as he puts a hand on his hip.

“What do you want?”, Lydia asks the boy. “I’m not really in the mood for playing right now.”, She adds as she stands up to her feet.

“What do you even do out here?”, Cosmos questions the weird girl as he stands up straight.

“Something weird probably.”, Quince mutters loudly enough that even I hear him. Darren walks over to Lydia as Cosmos and Quince begin to circle around her.

“You gonna tell me what you want with me?”, Lydia ask the three once again.

“We’ve been wondering what you were up to.”, Darren finally answers as he walks up to Lydia with an expression of annoyance. I am not sure why, she just sits there. I think it is boring not annoying.

“I’ve been training.”, The girl answers with an annoyed expression of her own. Darren does not say anything and pushes Lydia into Quince. Who then pushes her into Cosmos who then pushes her back to Darren.

This goes on for a short time before Quince once again tries to push her but she does not budge. Without a word Lydia grabs Quince and tosses him with ease into Cosmos, knocking the two out! She leaps over to Darren and punches him in the face, knocking him on his back. Instead of walking away, the girl sits on his chest and begins to just continuously punch his face.

“What are you doing Arlene?”, Zinna asks me before she sees the others in the clearing. Lydia grabs the necklace around her neck and raises it up looking like she is about to stab Darren in the face.

“Lydia!?”, The caretaker yells as she runs over to the girl and picks her up by her arm pits. “What are you doing!?”, Zinna continues as Lydia begins to kick wildly.

“Gods above Lydia!”, Dandelion exclaims as she runs over and splashes a bucket of water on the crazed girl.

Lydia shakes her head as she opens her eyes wide, as if she had no idea where she is or what she just did.

“I-”, Dandelion begins as she leans down and a bright light appears in her hands as she covers Darren’s bloody head with the light.

“Let me go!”, Lydia yells, “I need to help Dandelion!” What? Who tries to help the people they just beat up and nearly killed?

“You’ve done enough Lydia!”, Zinna responds sternly to the crazed girl.

-- -- --

I understand why Zinna and Dandelion are in the headmistress’s tiny office with Lydia. But why am I here?

“Darren will recover thanks to Zinna and Dandelion’s intervention.”, The headmistress says as she looks at the four of us. “But what happened to lead to that?”, She questions as her stern gaze lands on Lydia in the small chair.

“I was doing what I always do outside.”, Lydia begins sounding oddly confident. Why is she not trembling in fear right now? I did not do anything wrong and I am scared!

“Ah yes.”, The headmistress interrupts the weird girl, “Your training.”

“Right.”, Lydia confirms as she nods. “I don’t know how long after but Darren and his little followers interrupted me.”, She continues. “Then they started to push me around. Everything went gold and the next thing I know I’m having water splashed on me and I’m being grappled.”, Lydia finishes.

She really did not know what was happening while she nearly killed another kid!? And what does she mean, everything became gold?

“The phrase is I started to see red.”, Dandelion interjects for no reason. Gardenia simply moves her gaze to Dandelion as if to say that was not helpful to the young caretaker.

“Zinna and Dandelion?”, The headmistress asks the two young caretakers.

“We were coming back from getting water when I spotted Arlene standing behind a tree.”, Zinna begins. “That’s when I saw Lydia sitting on an unconscious Darren’s chest and about to stab him with that giant tooth she has!”, Zinna continues horrified at the memory. “I ran over to her and lifted her off of the poor unconscious boy.”, She finishes.

“That’s when I reached the clearing and tossed a bucket of water on Lydia.”, Dandelion says as a continuation of Zinna’s story. “I quickly went to healing Darren’s injuries after that.”, The caretaker adds. A silence begins to fill the room.

“I see.”, The headmistress responds to the tale, breaking the silence. Another moment passes before she looks at me and asks, “What about you Arlene?”

I have to give my story!? That’s why I am here? I gulp in fear before I finally gather the courage to speak.

“I was curious what Lydia does so I followed her.”, I begin slowly as I look at my feet. “She just sits there. I guess she trains for something?”, I say as I look up at them all and shrug in confusion. “I was about to leave when Darren, Cosmos, and Quince came up to Lydia. They started saying stuff to clearly upset her. But when that didn’t work they began to push her around for a bit.”, I continue as I look at the headmistress. I look at Lydia as I share, “That’s until she somehow stood still as Quince tried to push her. Then she tossed him into Cosmos and leapt to Darren.” I pause in shock at the memory showing in my mind.

“It’s alright. Darren will recover.”, The headmistress gently reminds me to coax me to continue. I take a breath to collect myself.

“She punched him in the nose and he fell over.”, I continue as I look at Lydia with wide eyes, “That’s when she sat on his chest and just began to punch him over and over.” My vision begins to blur from tears as I finish, “Until she apparently got the idea to just stab Darren and grabbed that necklace of hers and raise it over her head.”

Silence fills the room again as I begin to cry.

“And that’s when Zinna and Dandelion came by.”, The headmistress finishes for me as I begin to sob. This is so scary and then I had to tell the headmistress about the horrifying sight too!

“It’s alright Arlene.”, Zinna says to me as she puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re safe and so are the boys.”, She adds as she hugs me.

“Bu-but!”, I stammer between sobs, “Ly-Lydia!”

The other girl looks at me with a raised brow as my vision clears a bit.

“Well you may go now Arlene.”, The headmistress directs me with a hand raised towards the door.