Chapter 31

Friday 26th February 1999

It was a weary Friday morning, and Melody was sat on a table.

“Why are you up there…?” I asked her groggily as I took my seat. It felt too early in the day for this kind of behaviour…

“Why not?” she replied with a characteristic smirk. Pavlovian conditioning made her smirk feel like an attack on me… … or maybe, somehow, it was one…

“Because chairs are for sitting on…”

“Such narrow thinking.”

And she put her feet on her chair to drive her point home.

“Yeah, this is so radical,” I quipped. “No one’s ever thought of sitting on a table before.”

“I’ll find something ridiculous to sit on, just for you,” she said condescendingly. “Maybe Mr Davies’ head or something?”

“Sure, knock yourself out, just don’t pin it on me.”

With that, I slumped onto my desk, letting out a tired groan.

“Dunno why you’re being so uptight,” the girl continued on. “I thought you’d finally seen some action? You should be more laidback about stuff.”

… suddenly, that room got very hot.

“D’you mind not talking about my sex life…?” I implored her with zero intimidation.

“Only you would get uncomfortable about the fact you have had sex…”

“I’m uncomfortable with you talking about me having had sex…”

(On that subject, by the by: yes yes yes yes yes YES!)

“Melody,” Mr Davies spoke up with that authorial teacher tone, “get off the table, please.”

Evidently, he’d only just noticed.

“Yes sir!” she chirped, immediately withdrawing and returning to her seat almost in a single movement. Why is everyone so energetic in the morning…? Surely I’m not the weird one for feeling so tired? The mere thought made me yawn.

“Okay, listen up everyone,” our form tutor addressed us all with purpose. “Some of you may have heard about this already, but a patient escaped from Ashdown in the early hours of this morning.”

That didn’t sound good at all… Ashdown is a secure psychiatric hospital in the next town over.

“If any of you see anything suspicious while you’re out and about, contact the police. And please do your best to stay safe. Hopefully he’ll be found soon enough, and there’s no saying that he’ll even show up here, but it’s best to stay alert.”

“They should throw away the keys when they lock up psychos,” Will spoke up with a tone of disgust. “Shame they can’t just kill them…”

“Charming,” Melody scoffed back.

“Sorry, didn’t know you were in favour of giving lunatics the chance to get out and do I don’t even know what kind of shit…”

“Yeah, keep the crazy people where they belong…” someone else spoke up in Will’s favour.

“I’m getting a real humanitarian vibe from everyone today,” Melody quipped with such a disappointed tone. Maybe condescending, if you took it that way.

It was clearly enough to rile Will up.

“Yeah, well, sorry for caring more about normal people being safe than letting freaks live the life of Riley.”

“Freaks… are they all freaks?”

So she asked.

“The rapists and murderers, sure, I can get that. Not that every rapist or murderer is psychologically abnormal… but all of them? Kleptomaniacs? Anorexics? People with OCD?”

“The hell are you getting all militant for?” Will scowled across the room.

“Keep it civil…” Mr Davies warned, otherwise keeping vigil over the discussion from his table.

“I’m interested in where you draw the line. What if people in this room had mental disorders?”

“Well they don’t, so we’re good.”

“How do you know? What’re the signs?”

I felt so glad I couldn’t see her expression at that moment… knowing her, the glare she was likely giving Will would be so imposing that I’d get beaten down by it collaterally.

“I dunno,” Will relented with an emphatic shrug. He looked done with the topic; after all, Melody had dragged him into this debate. “You just know when someone’s got mental issues.”

“Ah.”

Like a detective catching the culprit out.

“I’ll keep an eye out for them, then… tell them not to go your way.”

She stopped looking at him, and stretched. The conversation was over, on her terms. If she were a lioness, she’d be licking her paws clean right about now, content with herself.

I couldn’t tell you where that all came from, on her part. Whether it was all just for the sake of debate, like conversational sparring, or she was genuinely bothered by Will’s attitude.

…

Somehow – and I’ve still not received a clear answer on how – Melody and Harmony wound up joining the rest of us at the skate park.

“Oh, oh, tell them about the time we all went cycling!” Harmony urged her sister with her distinctive energy.

“Come on, you’ve had me do all the talking so far… you tell them,” Melody sighed with a light smile.

“But you’re soooo good at telling stories!”

The same smile remained on Melody’s face as she lightly shook her head in amusement.

“Fine, fine. We were visiting Didcot a couple of years ago-”

“Because sometimes we do these little weekend family outings,” Harmony clarified.

“Dad decided we should rent some bikes and go cycling around the area-”

“Yeah, and then we spent, like, an hour trying to find a bike place…”

“Do you want to tell this story?!”

This whole situation was really unusual. Hearing Melody being so breezy and entertaining… wasn’t too out-there, considering it’s how she tended to be with people, but it was certainly not the norm to experience it outside of school. Hearing Dakota, Bao and Harriet all laugh at the skit was almost a little disconcerting. At least Zahid’s response was to lower his eyebrows, unimpressed.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m annoyed at them for being amused…

… okay, maybe a bit… but let’s put that idiocy aside…

It’s more in the uncertainty I have over whether Melody’s always being fake with everybody else, putting on the smiles and charm… or whether she’s always fake with me. That, for whatever reason, she’s singling me out and tormenting me.

If it’s the former, then she’s got my friends in the palm of her hand.

If it’s the latter…

“Baaaasically,” Harmony sung, “there was this huuuuge muddy puddle and it was way deeper than we thought, so we all got stuck and had to wade out of it.”

“Please tell me you got the bikes out,” Dakota chuckled with a bright smile.

Oh, right! We went to the gig (concert? Show?) last Saturday. It was the first time either of us had gone to one, and it was absolutely spectacular. Such a good show. I’ll be honest, I’d not paid much attention to The Corrs before meeting Dakota, but she introduced me to both of their albums and they’ve got some great stuff. Of course, she’s a way bigger fan than me and she could barely sleep that night for the high she was on. It took her a few days to come down from it.

Okay, I’ll stick with the conversation from now on…

“After about fifteen minutes,” Melody nodded, almost seeming pained at the memory. “Then Dad was worrying that we’d have to clean them before we took them back or they’d charge us more…”

“This is why they need to invent hoverbikes,” Bao proclaimed casually. “Then you could’ve just flown straight over the puddle.”

“Putting aside that we weren’t on Endor…”

Wow. A Star Wars reference from Melody.

“Inventing them now wouldn’t have helped us then.”

Still, said with such charisma.

“Right, yeah. This is why they should’ve already invented hoverbikes.”

“Nice save, Bao,” I applauded him with tongue in cheek; he flashed me two fingers in equally-jesting response.

I heard Kendal cheering nearby, and turned in time to see Lucy competently boarding up and down a ramp. While the rest of us had either given up quickly or not even bothered trying, Lucy had stuck with it and that dedication seemed to be paying off.

“Alex?”

Harmony’s voice caught my attention, and I turned back to find everyone looking at me.

“Huh? What did I miss?”

“If you had to sleep with any other girl here besides Dakota, who would it be and why?”

“What does this have to do with hoverbikes?!”

“I chose Harmony,” Bao said instead of providing an explanation. “Not like Dakota’s not attractive! But, y’know, we’re friends, so-”

“Wait, does that mean I can’t choose Harmony?” I asked, panicked, under pressure out of nowhere to answer a question that meant absolutely nothing.

“Do you want to choose Harmony?” Harriet offered up just to throw me further off.

“I mean it’s not like I want to choose anyone-”

“Say you had to,” Melody insisted, a predatory look on her face. Damn that look. (Damn the fact it suddenly felt like a more sadistic version of Dakota’s sexy smirks.)

“Err… uhm…”

I felt like my eyes were swirling. My friend’s girlfriend, the ex-crush I now had a not-so-glowing opinion of, or maybe the ex-crush’s identical twin depending on the rules of this stupid game…

“One night. No betrayal. No consequences. No refusing. Who do you choose?”

Seriously. That face. It was stirring very peculiar feelings in me.

“You’re starting to sound like you want me to say you…” I told her. Like some kind of real-life pathetic fallacy, the clouds had moved to mask the sun, muting the light and colour of the area.

“I want you to say me if you want to say me,” she replied without missing a beat.

Welp, I only had one option left.

“Dakota… help…”

“Sorry, I’m curious now,” she smirked back at me. Great; caught between a rock and a hard place.

And man, it really did seem like it was getting dark…

“Alex, listen to me,” Zahid spoke clearly, like I was a lost child. “This conversation is meaningless. Say a name and we can all move on with our lives.”

“Maybe, but…” I whimpered.

“I’ll only be a little offended if you pick Harriet,” Bao assured me, while Harriet toyed with one of her braids lightly.

“If you’d want to pick me, go for it. It’s only a hypothetical.”

“Guh! Betrayal!” her boyfriend gasped dramatically.

… getting really, really dark…

I looked up at the sky, to find the sun obscured not by clouds but by some kind of dragon-like silhouette. There was no way of knowing just how far up it was… or how big it was… but it was keeping its place, seemingly not moving at all.

By the time I returned my attention back to the others, Dakota, Bao, Zahid and Harriet were all looking skywards too. By contrast, Melody and Harmony were looking at each other in confusion.

“What’s… what’s up, guys?” Harmony asked us with the sincerest confusion I think I’d ever heard.

Almost instantaneously, Dakota’s gaze snapped down to the twins.

“Nothing! Excuse me for a minute, guys… just keep chatting…”

She flashed me an apologetic look while getting to her feet, and then quickly dashed off towards Kendal and Lucy, both of whom were also focused on the monster whose shadow we were now beneath.

“Okaaaay…” the longer-haired twin spoke, while Dakota got Kendal’s attention and led her off. Which, admittedly, I could barely see with my eyes still adjusting to the sudden drop in light.

“So, Alex…”

I gulped.

“Yeah…?”

“Why don’t you just say Melody and get this over with?”

And again, so sincere you’d think she was born yesterday.

Melody said nothing. She just smiled that damn smug smile of hers.

I’m not sure how to spell my response, so I’ll just describe it as a short string of exasperated gibberish.

“I mean, you were gonna ask her out before, right?” Harmony pointed out.

“Things changed…” I managed to reply.

“N’awh, come on…”

She moved behind her sister, cupping her cheeks to present her in a positive light (or lack-of-light, as the case was). Melody’s continued smug expression countered the effect.

“You mean not even a single part of you is interested in my beautiful twin sister?”

“Doesn’t that count as a vain remark…?” Bao asked, looking between us all for someone to agree with him. Well, that’s what he appeared to be doing, in my peripheral vision. I was too busy staring at Melody like I could end this madness just by looking her into submission.

Or maybe I was searching deep down to see if there really was still anything there.

Putting aside Dakota… and putting aside how much Melody wound me up… maybe I still felt something for her? In some form?

It’s not like she wasn’t attractive…

An incredible burst of coloured light hit the corner of my eye, and I turned to see a gigantic pink arrow, entwined and tipped with green, soaring skywards at breakneck speed.

“Now what are you all looking at…?” Harmony asked in dismay; she even moved in front of the rest of us, snaking around in an attempt to follow our line of sight. Apparently, she couldn’t see the humongous projectile as it made a beeline for the shadow-casting behemoth in the sky.

“Leave it, Harmony,” her sister advised. “Guess it’s some weird thing they do as a group.”

“Yeah, it’s exactly that…” Harriet muttered, mere moments before Dakota and Kendal’s gigantic arrow struck the looming dragon.

What followed was a singular fantastic firework of an explosion. A truly gigantic burst of pink and green flooded the sky, spreading out in every direction, only for the immediate return of the sun to sear it all away within moments, leaving fleeting traces in the bright blue daylight.

We were the only ones to see it. Seven of us at best.

Now, it was over.

Harmony shrugged, and headed back to her seat.

“You should be careful. If you stare at the sun, you’ll go blind,” she reminded us.

“Who said that?!” Bao cried out, turning around with his eyes clenched shut. Harriet laughed softly at that, and took the opportunity to honk his nose.

“Now, Alex,” Zahid began, “give an answer and let’s get on with our lives…”

“Fine…” I sighed. “It’s a stupid game and it means nothing, so yeah. Melody.”

“That wasn’t hard, was it?” my tormentor smirked at me while tilting her head innocently.

“But.”

And I let that hang for a moment, for emphasis.

“Dakota is my whole world.”

“That sounds terrifying,” she responded immediately. “So, Zahid, who’d you choose?”

No, wait… don’t just move on after such a bold statement, Melody!

“Harmony.”

… admittedly, he’d had the time to mull it over with everything else that had gone on…

“Awh, shucks!” Harmony giggled. And then, she looked at me. “I’ll forgive you for not choosing me since you and Melody have history.”

Yeah… this wasn’t going to be dropped any time soon, was it?

…

“Hanging out with you guys is so the best,” Lucy enthused as we made our way back to Dakota’s, now minus the twins. “I learnt to skateboard and watched you take out a monster with one shot. Plus, you all get to have me around, so it’s a win-win!”

“Agreed!” Kendal cheered, wrapping her arm around my sister/her girlfriend. Still acclimatising. I’ll get there.

“And this monster-fighting is becoming a breeze!”

“The more we play around with Lokonessence, the easier it all gets…” Dakota observed, clearly concerned.

“Anyway, what were you potatoes talking about while Luce and I were getting our skate on?”

Was that even a saying…?

“Melody and Harmony told us anecdotes and asked us ridiculous questions,” Harriet recounted succinctly.

“Speaking of which… Zahid,” Dakota turned to him, “I’m sure you called Melody a trouble-maker when I first met you all. I know I’ve not interacted with her much, but I don’t see it.”

“Exactly. She’s sneaky. I’ve seen her get away with some crazy stuff, because she plays the innocent.”

He wasn’t wrong… though I’ve no idea what kind of “crazy stuff” she’d done…

“I’ll take your word for it,” my girlfriend nodded… and then she held her hand to my chest, stopping me in my tracks. Everyone else, except for the oblivious Kendal and Lucy, stopped immediately after, but she waved her free hand at them.

“Just wanna talk with my boyfriend for a moment. Go on ahead.”

I shouldn’t have felt quite so isolated as I did watching Bao, Zahid and Harriet head off down the pavement.

“I wanna get this out of the way,” Dakota told me softly. “I’m not mad, or jealous or anything like that. I know it was just a silly question.”

“Yeah, so-”

“But I have to ask, so it’s all out in the open. How do you feel about Melody? If you still have lingering feelings for her, that’s fine; let me know.”

Well, this was a complicated subject…

“I’m… not sure,” I told her awkwardly. “I think maybe there’s still something there, like an afterimage when you shut your eyes. The fact I felt that way means there’s still something. Enough where, if someone held a gun to my head and told me to sleep with her, Harmony or Harriet, yeah, I’d choose her. But… she really pisses me off, Dakota.”

It almost felt like a confession just to say it out loud.

“She’s always getting on my nerves in form and I swear she’s doing it on purpose. Like she’s trying to push my buttons and get a reaction out of me. But she’s so clever that I can’t win. No matter what we’re talking about, she always has the upper-hand. And she’s so smug and-”

“Okay, okay, point made!” Dakota laughed. “Guess I’ve gotta do my best to make that afterimage fade, huh?”

“You don’t even have to try,” I assured her warmly.

We shared a quick kiss before catching up with the others. Dakota’s place was just a few streets away.

“Bao, she’s not my girlfriend!” Zahid was growling as we reached earshot. “We’re just-”

“Just doing it, yeah,” Bao replied impishly. “Whatever, man! She’s still invited!”

“Sure,” our taller friend grunted dismissively.

“Are we talking about your birthday party, Bao?” Dakota enquired, to which Bao nodded enthusiastically.

“It’s gonna be a blast! I even invited Melody and Harmony earlier!”

… it was starting to feel like there was no getting away from her.