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Description

"Oh, boy, got so hot I forgot

What I should have thought of before

Sure ain't easy for you to let

Go of the rules 'cause they're so much fun~"

Unknown Brain ~ DEAD (ft. KAZHI)

CONTINUE READING FOR A SNEAK PEEK OF THE EPISODE:

It's a rainy, cloudy morning at Pineshadow Middle School. Thunder lightly booms, and drops of cooling liquid drop from the sky, washing against the glass and bricks and nourishing the flora and fauna with the much-needed spring rain.

But it's about to become an eventful day at PMS, rainy weather or clear skies...

It was landscape day in Mr. Alann's third period art class, and the class had spent thirty minutes analyzing how to draw basic landscapes, from mountains with thin creeks to forests with rushing rivers and luscious flowers, and now, it was their turn to refine their abilities and create the picturesque Washington environment they lived amongst on large sheets of manila paper.

An unchallenging enough task for Evie and Mya and their friends, Evelin and Sarah, who were furiously at work sketching, drawing, and putting pencil and colored pencil to paper.

"Gads, my hand is cramping," Mya uttered, her right hand wobbling as she colored in trees with a dark green colored pencil, and momentarily releasing her hold on it, she shook it out and blew on it as if it was smoking. The smoke lingered.

"Take a break, Mya. You don't need to break your wrist trying to impress Alann," Evie assured, her eyes on her mountain landscape, where she carefully colored around marked white patches, her snow.

"I would, but Bob Ross never took breaks. And his art is, like... the epitome of art!" Instantly, Mya became supercharged with an array of inspiration and happy accidents and went straight to work, intensively coloring and straining her wrist and making it smoke like a hibachi grill, but in seconds, she had creatively numbed the pain, and her trees were looking prepossessing.

A talented lass she is, Evie thought to herself, unable to stop herself from staring, and blush formed on her cheeks - a blush that the Rafiq sisters noticed and chuckled at.

"Aside from the fact that, y'know, you two are... doing your thing," Evelin noted, her tone teasing, but vague and in a whisper on purpose, "you've never changed."

"Oh, we've changed, Evelin. It's not noticable at first glance, but... Mya and I realized what we feel toward each other was something more than friend- what we used to have." The love in Evie's tone faded, and she looked back at her paper, inwardly frustrated that she couldn't say the beautiful, the most special, the most defining, part out loud.

Mya was bummed about it and felt her heart ache. Evelin and Sarah pitied them and their friends.

Talk about queer relationships used to be the norm at PMS - but thanks to their new principal, the eccentric, so-called radical, and red-head with an attitude Shetani - had been effectively banned.

She had banned talk of politics and despoiled some of the fun out of the classroom code entirely, roping into a massive claim that distractions could not be in the hands of students after what Daniela had almost gotten away with weeks prior. The things they cherished, wiped off the slate. Shetani had locked it away and wielded power now - and her word was law.

There had been outrage and uproar, pandemonium which Shetani had controlled with her signature pride and eloquence. By radical, she hadn't lied, but she was open to discussion and hearing out complaints. There had to be a method to this madness somewhere.

But right now, Evie, Mya, and their friends had no method. They were running on the suitable time to process this news, adapt to this peculiar and censuring new norm, and feint around the bullets and get through. There was a light at the end of this tunnel, and with the end of the year a month away, they had to rely on their strengths and band together.

Shetani was only getting started, and they had to be prepared for whatever she could enact next. She was a principal of many personalities already - and a complicated puzzle to piece out. However, she was new, and there were a bundle of chances that she lacked comprehension of what was around her...

"I'm not sure if it's just me and the girls, but I haven't crossed out the possibility Shetani's misjudged the school's foundations," Evie said aloud, thoughtfully resting her drawing hand and facing Evelin and Sarah, who's eyes glazed over to formulate a reply to her words.

Sarah was the first to fire away. "Our parents think she's slightly uncalibrated. I mean..." She lowerered her voice and leaned across her river landscape. "This school is predominantly people of color. A lot of races."

"Washington's also a state where there's a majority Asian population. You're part Asian yourself, Evie!" Evelin whispered.

"I know! Shetani is trying, she conveyed that with haste. I don't want to think she's trying to supress minorities, unintentional or, at worse, not. But the backlash has gone on for a week and nothing's changed."

Mya, finally releasing her pencil and cradling her red, irritated wrist, secretly slipped her hand to Evie's and held it, letting the warmth flow into her bloodstream. Shetani couldn't stop her from expressing the simpliest of affections, relishing the contact and embracing their love.

She could take their voice, but never limit their physical mobility.

"I thought she'd react, put a public statement out. She's biding her time... everywhere we go, there's complaining. No one at this school is satisfied with her!"

"That Shetani is stubborn... or she's waiting to see if this dies down. It won't. She better fix this, because some people like us... they call us horrible names," Sarah muttered, her orange-brown eyes bitter and worn, and she rested on her drawing. Evelin, crossing her arms, slunk back into her chair, exhausted from the past week.

Oh, Rafiq sisters... you're not alone in your pain. We're all in pain... I hope you've taken notice, Shetani, Evie scowled internally, her hold on Mya's palm tightening out of anxiety, but she composed herself and inhaled, cooling off. No need to get heated right now when Shetani hadn't advanced her plans.

Remain observant, be cool.

"Shetani will reverse this, girls, so don't deflate too much. The people of color here aren't going to let Shetani scurry by with this quietly."

"If we keep being loud and approach her, we can be ourselves. I promise. We're in this together!" Mya whispered, and the girls, smiling with their reassurance, put their hands in a pile with theirs. They had to approach this with cautious optimism - Shetani was one person, but the school was a legion.

Shetani wouldn't punish them to extremes and take away their freedoms as long as they were a team.

Changing the subject away from the root-and-branch redhead principal, Mya brought a necessary calm between the girls and twitched her fingers, her wrist throbbing with the joy of drawing. "Winter's been doing alright after the calamity last week. She's still pissed... but more at ease."

Evelin snorted. "There is no altering her temper. Sometimes I'm afraid to talk to her knowing that even the slightest inconvenience could make her flip."

"Evelin, I've reassured you before, Winter isn't always aggressive. She's really docile and sweet on the inside... and if you want her pacified, just mention anything she likes, and she'll be rambling for another lightyear."

"Longer than a lightyear, Ev," Mya pointed out, jabbing her in the shoulder, and oh, the soft look and charm in her eyes made Evie almost fling her lips onto hers, pull her into her, burrow into her t-shirt and rest there, never letting go... almost...

She could have done this if Rex was principal, even if Daniela interrupted and plotted. She couldn't now, and the aftertaste was burned earth underneath her tongue.

Poor Evie... Sarah, noticing her predicament, also threw in her own round of calming chat into the ring.

"Hey, didn't you guys meet this new girl recently? What was her name? I think it was, like, Amira?"

Evie and Mya's eyes shimmered, their memories no longer so foggy and bogged by the thought of Shetani's rule. The Rafiq sisters had caught onto their friendship with Amira - not new, but recently renewed and stronger than ever, and it got them thinking of their time outside school, where they could mingle with her and see her light up like the stars in the night...

"Amira's been our friend since December, actually. Her appearances aren't that spontaneous," Mya commented.

"She's shy, but really compassionate. She and Winter bonded incredibly fast. When we do get the chance to see her, the day's bound to be graded an A on average," Evie added with hazy green eyes.

Outside, the rain pattered the windows harder, drops thunking and sliding down the glass. Lightning flashed in thin, bright streaks outside, and as the winds howled, thunder roared.

Bam!

Mya and Sarah jumped in their seats, pencils rattling and rolling on the table, and Mya began scratching her shoulders, a self-conscious habit when she was occassionally startled.

"Guess we're going home in the rain today," Evelin murmured, and Evie shrugged. Rain was harmless in comparison to the pitfalls of school.

With the conversations reaching their conclusions, the girls returned to work, having fifteen minutes left in class to put on some touches and call it quits for the day. The patter of the rain against the glass and soothing atmosphere of the art classroom had put their souls at ease, and their thoughts had almost drifted away from Shetani... almost.

Wham!

The girls shot up straight in their seats at that noise. A thump against the lockers - but what?

"Something's going on outside!" Mya exclaimed, alerting Mr. Alann, who got up from his teacher's desk and faced the door.

"Students surely can't be horseplaying around when Shetani threatened harsher punishment in her welcome speech... it doesn't make any sense." He scratched his short, bearded chin in confusion.

"We'll check, Mr. Alann," Evie offered, getting up with Mya and the Rafiq sisters.

"Crack the door open and don't go out. Just check and report back."

Nodding, Evie took the lead and propped the door open, air from the colder hallway flowing in, and head peeking past the corner, her eyes caught a sight so unnerving, so bizarre, so unexpected, that she nearly gasped and hit her head against the doorframe.

In the hallway, her white dress whisked behind her and zipped extra-tight, was Shetani, glaring with inquisitive blue eyes at a student neither of the girls had seen before - and that student, who was clutching the edges of her stomach, looked terrified.

"What is she doing?" Mya whispered, but Evie hushed her.

Shetani's blue eyes didn't just look curious, but they were also intimidating. Was she aware of her own strength, glaring at this kid with this amount of intensity?

"What are you doing out of your class, young pupil?" she demanded, tapping her boot heel and requiring an explanation. She was at play enforcing her "no loitering" rule - which she herself had expanded to prohibit loitering before and after school.

The student shook her head, her hands making symbols in the air. Her skin was a rich shade of black, and her hair was done up in a thick, curled ponytail tied together with a multi-colored band. Her eyes, a frightened, dilated yellow, were locked onto Shetani, and the girl was in a shutdown state of paralyzing terror.

"We've never seen her before," Evie acknowledged in the faintest whisper she could muster.

"Shetani's terrifying her!" Mya also whispered, her voice a bit higher-pitched. The Rafiq sisters bunched together.

"What's she doing to that kid? I'm sure she wasn't attempting to loiter!" Evelin questioned.

The new student gazed up at Shetani blankly, again waving with her hands, and baffled, Shetani raised an eyebrow. Her blue eyes became more questioning, more demanding of her answer.

"Child, speak up to me. Why are you not in class?" she demanded again, and again went the student, waving her hands and drawing symbols and making shapes.

All of a sudden, Mya gasped. That student... Shetani didn't know, but those shapes, those symbols... they meant something! They were words!

She's communicating!

"Child!" Shetani barked, her vexations looming in the creases of her forehead, and she rubbed them with shocking amounts of force. "If you keep waving your hands around at me, I'm interpreting nothing! Speak up where I can hear you!"

Mya's heart folded in on itself and hollered. Shetani was yelling at someone who communicated in her own language. A language that was her backbone!

Something had to be done before things tumbled down in a landslide. Mr. Alann instructed them to stay put, but the auburn-haired child had saw fire and had to extinguish it.

Before anyone could hold her back, Mya went charging out into the hall, speeding onto the scene so fast that Shetani or the student couldn't see her coming until a screeeech and a flash of auburn had captivated Shetani's strict attention, and her mouth flew open.

"Principal Shetani! Hold on a minute!"

"Miss Heartley, what are you doing out of class? And why are you running in the halls? Safety first and foremost!" Shetani asked and chastised, both of her eyebrows raised with shock and puzzlement, but Mya ignored the warning. Rules came last when an innocent student was being borderline antagonized!

She held her ground. Intervention was achieved, but it was time to neutralize this unstable surface.

"That's a new student! She hasn't been here before and has likely gotten lost trying to find her classes... she's trying to tell you that in ASL!"

"ASL? That's sign language, right?"

Mya's eyelid was tempted to twitch. Do you know what ASL is??? Oh, I'll give her assumed innocence...

"You bet, Principal Shetani!"

The new student was stunned at this stranger's appearance. She and Mya hadn't known each other, but from what she could infer, this student was helping her communicate through her voice, a voice she hadn't had much in her life. The situation and air had already felt so much calmer, and she managed to take a few, stremulous breaths, leaning up against the lockers.

It took minutes for her to read their lips, and Shetani had dipped her head in sympathy and regard.

"Hmm... this was a frightful misunderstanding," she admitted, but she clenched a fist. "It will not happen again. Thank you for... correcting me, Miss Heartley."

Mya felt an itch well behind her neck. Uh... why do you sound like you're forcing that out of your gut?

Shetani flicked her hair back and stood up higher. "Take this student to her class, if you may. You have the superior understanding of ASL. Try not to run in the halls, please."

Uh... okay? Like I would cause a scene? Mya shrugged and put a smile clean on her face.

"Absolutely!"

Shetani gave a nod of approval and walked away, back in the direction of the office, her boot heels clacking against the floors until the sound had ceased altogether. Mya smiled at the new student, and she smiled back, and the thoughts of Shetani making an unnecessary ruckus were erased.

She's sweet... Shetani not so much.

Readying her own knowledge of ASL, she penned to the student, Sorry about that, our principal is new and she can be... quirky? Wacko? I don't know how else to describe it.

It's fine, she gave me the picture. Freaked me out!

You're alright. I'm Mya, by the way. You?

Cassandra! But you can call me Cassie. I'm looking for my science period?

Mya pointed to the main stairwell and made a few more gestures with her hands. Your class is near the side stairwell on the right hallway. Good luck!

"T-Thank you," the student spoke quietly in her deaf voice, a high-pitched squeal, and yellow eyes alight with gratitude and peace, she headed off and away.

Now that Shetani wasn't around or lurking, Mya ran back down the hall and into the art room, where she met up with Evie and the Rafiq sisters... and a pale-faced Mr. Alann.

"Goodness gracious, Mya Heartley! You almost gave me a heart attack running out to confront Shetani like that!"

"I'm fi-"

"Mya!" Evie greeted in jolly interruption, pulling her girlfriend in for a tight, tight, extra tight hug. "You're such a mad man and a dorky idiot... and I love you for it... don't report me to Shetani, Alann."

"No offense taken, Miss Ly."

Mya put a hand on her cheek and shut the door, chuckling at her girlfriend's humorous praise of her comedian blood. "Ev, I'm not going to let a new principal drag me beneath the floor and up through the ceiling. That student, Cassie, communicates through ASL... Shetani can't communicate. It was a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding? Shetani scared Cassie half to death! With that tone, I'd be purged of my appetite!" Sarah squealed, and Mya's happiness fell short of the finish line.

The younger Rafiq sister had observed Shetani's tone, and she wasn't wrong in the slightest. Shetani was rather demanding for someone so new... maybe Shetani didn't think she was new?

Yet she was penning frantically... Cassandra got shocked out of her wits.

"Yeah, Sarah, her tone definitely was... past prodding. For a new principal, Shetani's just in so... deep."

Evie had lapsed into her thoughts as well. She and the girls swore to give Shetani chances, swore that she was new and getting the hang of it, that she was putting too much control and strain and would eventually recede her power when the backlash reached its peak...

But this small interaction, where Shetani had to be physically interrupted by a student to check herself, and had gotten so unnecessarily harsh, made her worry. Worry, worming its way into her, eating her insides...

"Ev? Everything okay upstairs?" Mya prompted gingerly, staring deep into the rapidly-troubled eyes of her lover, and the Rafiq sisters grew apprehensive.

The look in Evie's eyes was tedious.

"A principal should know her own strength. To know when a student has special needs, communicates different... and what we heard wasn't pretty."

The girls clammed silent, the worry in Evie jumping to them, a contagious plague that made them grow queasy. That light in the end of the tunnel looked faux. So dim, so misleading...

"Girls..." Evie started, trailing off, and she hid her hands in her letterman pockets, the shadows of doubt cast over her.

"We've seen this play out before. Someone here has too much power in their hands... but the stakes are higher. It isn't a student this time, it's our principal..."

The girls crowded behind her, fear lodged in each of their throats, and the tunnel's light was snuffed.

"And if Shetani continues playing with the rules and exercising a grip this inviolable... everything she's working to save is going to turn to dust in her hands."

Description

"Oh, boy, got so hot I forgot

What I should have thought of before

Sure ain't easy for you to let

Go of the rules 'cause they're so much fun~"

Unknown Brain ~ DEAD (ft. KAZHI)

CONTINUE READING FOR A SNEAK PEEK OF THE EPISODE:

It's a rainy, cloudy morning at Pineshadow Middle School. Thunder lightly booms, and drops of cooling liquid drop from the sky, washing against the glass and bricks and nourishing the flora and fauna with the much-needed spring rain.

But it's about to become an eventful day at PMS, rainy weather or clear skies...

It was landscape day in Mr. Alann's third period art class, and the class had spent thirty minutes analyzing how to draw basic landscapes, from mountains with thin creeks to forests with rushing rivers and luscious flowers, and now, it was their turn to refine their abilities and create the picturesque Washington environment they lived amongst on large sheets of manila paper.

An unchallenging enough task for Evie and Mya and their friends, Evelin and Sarah, who were furiously at work sketching, drawing, and putting pencil and colored pencil to paper.

"Gads, my hand is cramping," Mya uttered, her right hand wobbling as she colored in trees with a dark green colored pencil, and momentarily releasing her hold on it, she shook it out and blew on it as if it was smoking. The smoke lingered.

"Take a break, Mya. You don't need to break your wrist trying to impress Alann," Evie assured, her eyes on her mountain landscape, where she carefully colored around marked white patches, her snow.

"I would, but Bob Ross never took breaks. And his art is, like... the epitome of art!" Instantly, Mya became supercharged with an array of inspiration and happy accidents and went straight to work, intensively coloring and straining her wrist and making it smoke like a hibachi grill, but in seconds, she had creatively numbed the pain, and her trees were looking prepossessing.

A talented lass she is, Evie thought to herself, unable to stop herself from staring, and blush formed on her cheeks - a blush that the Rafiq sisters noticed and chuckled at.

"Aside from the fact that, y'know, you two are... doing your thing," Evelin noted, her tone teasing, but vague and in a whisper on purpose, "you've never changed."

"Oh, we've changed, Evelin. It's not noticable at first glance, but... Mya and I realized what we feel toward each other was something more than friend- what we used to have." The love in Evie's tone faded, and she looked back at her paper, inwardly frustrated that she couldn't say the beautiful, the most special, the most defining, part out loud.

Mya was bummed about it and felt her heart ache. Evelin and Sarah pitied them and their friends.

Talk about queer relationships used to be the norm at PMS - but thanks to their new principal, the eccentric, so-called radical, and red-head with an attitude Shetani - had been effectively banned.

She had banned talk of politics and despoiled some of the fun out of the classroom code entirely, roping into a massive claim that distractions could not be in the hands of students after what Daniela had almost gotten away with weeks prior. The things they cherished, wiped off the slate. Shetani had locked it away and wielded power now - and her word was law.

There had been outrage and uproar, pandemonium which Shetani had controlled with her signature pride and eloquence. By radical, she hadn't lied, but she was open to discussion and hearing out complaints. There had to be a method to this madness somewhere.

But right now, Evie, Mya, and their friends had no method. They were running on the suitable time to process this news, adapt to this peculiar and censuring new norm, and feint around the bullets and get through. There was a light at the end of this tunnel, and with the end of the year a month away, they had to rely on their strengths and band together.

Shetani was only getting started, and they had to be prepared for whatever she could enact next. She was a principal of many personalities already - and a complicated puzzle to piece out. However, she was new, and there were a bundle of chances that she lacked comprehension of what was around her...

"I'm not sure if it's just me and the girls, but I haven't crossed out the possibility Shetani's misjudged the school's foundations," Evie said aloud, thoughtfully resting her drawing hand and facing Evelin and Sarah, who's eyes glazed over to formulate a reply to her words.

Sarah was the first to fire away. "Our parents think she's slightly uncalibrated. I mean..." She lowerered her voice and leaned across her river landscape. "This school is predominantly people of color. A lot of races."

"Washington's also a state where there's a majority Asian population. You're part Asian yourself, Evie!" Evelin whispered.

"I know! Shetani is trying, she conveyed that with haste. I don't want to think she's trying to supress minorities, unintentional or, at worse, not. But the backlash has gone on for a week and nothing's changed."

Mya, finally releasing her pencil and cradling her red, irritated wrist, secretly slipped her hand to Evie's and held it, letting the warmth flow into her bloodstream. Shetani couldn't stop her from expressing the simpliest of affections, relishing the contact and embracing their love.

She could take their voice, but never limit their physical mobility.

"I thought she'd react, put a public statement out. She's biding her time... everywhere we go, there's complaining. No one at this school is satisfied with her!"

"That Shetani is stubborn... or she's waiting to see if this dies down. It won't. She better fix this, because some people like us... they call us horrible names," Sarah muttered, her orange-brown eyes bitter and worn, and she rested on her drawing. Evelin, crossing her arms, slunk back into her chair, exhausted from the past week.

Oh, Rafiq sisters... you're not alone in your pain. We're all in pain... I hope you've taken notice, Shetani, Evie scowled internally, her hold on Mya's palm tightening out of anxiety, but she composed herself and inhaled, cooling off. No need to get heated right now when Shetani hadn't advanced her plans.

Remain observant, be cool.

"Shetani will reverse this, girls, so don't deflate too much. The people of color here aren't going to let Shetani scurry by with this quietly."

"If we keep being loud and approach her, we can be ourselves. I promise. We're in this together!" Mya whispered, and the girls, smiling with their reassurance, put their hands in a pile with theirs. They had to approach this with cautious optimism - Shetani was one person, but the school was a legion.

Shetani wouldn't punish them to extremes and take away their freedoms as long as they were a team.

Changing the subject away from the root-and-branch redhead principal, Mya brought a necessary calm between the girls and twitched her fingers, her wrist throbbing with the joy of drawing. "Winter's been doing alright after the calamity last week. She's still pissed... but more at ease."

Evelin snorted. "There is no altering her temper. Sometimes I'm afraid to talk to her knowing that even the slightest inconvenience could make her flip."

"Evelin, I've reassured you before, Winter isn't always aggressive. She's really docile and sweet on the inside... and if you want her pacified, just mention anything she likes, and she'll be rambling for another lightyear."

"Longer than a lightyear, Ev," Mya pointed out, jabbing her in the shoulder, and oh, the soft look and charm in her eyes made Evie almost fling her lips onto hers, pull her into her, burrow into her t-shirt and rest there, never letting go... almost...

She could have done this if Rex was principal, even if Daniela interrupted and plotted. She couldn't now, and the aftertaste was burned earth underneath her tongue.

Poor Evie... Sarah, noticing her predicament, also threw in her own round of calming chat into the ring.

"Hey, didn't you guys meet this new girl recently? What was her name? I think it was, like, Amira?"

Evie and Mya's eyes shimmered, their memories no longer so foggy and bogged by the thought of Shetani's rule. The Rafiq sisters had caught onto their friendship with Amira - not new, but recently renewed and stronger than ever, and it got them thinking of their time outside school, where they could mingle with her and see her light up like the stars in the night...

"Amira's been our friend since December, actually. Her appearances aren't that spontaneous," Mya commented.

"She's shy, but really compassionate. She and Winter bonded incredibly fast. When we do get the chance to see her, the day's bound to be graded an A on average," Evie added with hazy green eyes.

Outside, the rain pattered the windows harder, drops thunking and sliding down the glass. Lightning flashed in thin, bright streaks outside, and as the winds howled, thunder roared.

Bam!

Mya and Sarah jumped in their seats, pencils rattling and rolling on the table, and Mya began scratching her shoulders, a self-conscious habit when she was occassionally startled.

"Guess we're going home in the rain today," Evelin murmured, and Evie shrugged. Rain was harmless in comparison to the pitfalls of school.

With the conversations reaching their conclusions, the girls returned to work, having fifteen minutes left in class to put on some touches and call it quits for the day. The patter of the rain against the glass and soothing atmosphere of the art classroom had put their souls at ease, and their thoughts had almost drifted away from Shetani... almost.

Wham!

The girls shot up straight in their seats at that noise. A thump against the lockers - but what?

"Something's going on outside!" Mya exclaimed, alerting Mr. Alann, who got up from his teacher's desk and faced the door.

"Students surely can't be horseplaying around when Shetani threatened harsher punishment in her welcome speech... it doesn't make any sense." He scratched his short, bearded chin in confusion.

"We'll check, Mr. Alann," Evie offered, getting up with Mya and the Rafiq sisters.

"Crack the door open and don't go out. Just check and report back."

Nodding, Evie took the lead and propped the door open, air from the colder hallway flowing in, and head peeking past the corner, her eyes caught a sight so unnerving, so bizarre, so unexpected, that she nearly gasped and hit her head against the doorframe.

In the hallway, her white dress whisked behind her and zipped extra-tight, was Shetani, glaring with inquisitive blue eyes at a student neither of the girls had seen before - and that student, who was clutching the edges of her stomach, looked terrified.

"What is she doing?" Mya whispered, but Evie hushed her.

Shetani's blue eyes didn't just look curious, but they were also intimidating. Was she aware of her own strength, glaring at this kid with this amount of intensity?

"What are you doing out of your class, young pupil?" she demanded, tapping her boot heel and requiring an explanation. She was at play enforcing her "no loitering" rule - which she herself had expanded to prohibit loitering before and after school.

The student shook her head, her hands making symbols in the air. Her skin was a rich shade of black, and her hair was done up in a thick, curled ponytail tied together with a multi-colored band. Her eyes, a frightened, dilated yellow, were locked onto Shetani, and the girl was in a shutdown state of paralyzing terror.

"We've never seen her before," Evie acknowledged in the faintest whisper she could muster.

"Shetani's terrifying her!" Mya also whispered, her voice a bit higher-pitched. The Rafiq sisters bunched together.

"What's she doing to that kid? I'm sure she wasn't attempting to loiter!" Evelin questioned.

The new student gazed up at Shetani blankly, again waving with her hands, and baffled, Shetani raised an eyebrow. Her blue eyes became more questioning, more demanding of her answer.

"Child, speak up to me. Why are you not in class?" she demanded again, and again went the student, waving her hands and drawing symbols and making shapes.

All of a sudden, Mya gasped. That student... Shetani didn't know, but those shapes, those symbols... they meant something! They were words!

She's communicating!

"Child!" Shetani barked, her vexations looming in the creases of her forehead, and she rubbed them with shocking amounts of force. "If you keep waving your hands around at me, I'm interpreting nothing! Speak up where I can hear you!"

Mya's heart folded in on itself and hollered. Shetani was yelling at someone who communicated in her own language. A language that was her backbone!

Something had to be done before things tumbled down in a landslide. Mr. Alann instructed them to stay put, but the auburn-haired child had saw fire and had to extinguish it.

Before anyone could hold her back, Mya went charging out into the hall, speeding onto the scene so fast that Shetani or the student couldn't see her coming until a screeeech and a flash of auburn had captivated Shetani's strict attention, and her mouth flew open.

"Principal Shetani! Hold on a minute!"

"Miss Heartley, what are you doing out of class? And why are you running in the halls? Safety first and foremost!" Shetani asked and chastised, both of her eyebrows raised with shock and puzzlement, but Mya ignored the warning. Rules came last when an innocent student was being borderline antagonized!

She held her ground. Intervention was achieved, but it was time to neutralize this unstable surface.

"That's a new student! She hasn't been here before and has likely gotten lost trying to find her classes... she's trying to tell you that in ASL!"

"ASL? That's sign language, right?"

Mya's eyelid was tempted to twitch. Do you know what ASL is??? Oh, I'll give her assumed innocence...

"You bet, Principal Shetani!"

The new student was stunned at this stranger's appearance. She and Mya hadn't known each other, but from what she could infer, this student was helping her communicate through her voice, a voice she hadn't had much in her life. The situation and air had already felt so much calmer, and she managed to take a few, stremulous breaths, leaning up against the lockers.

It took minutes for her to read their lips, and Shetani had dipped her head in sympathy and regard.

"Hmm... this was a frightful misunderstanding," she admitted, but she clenched a fist. "It will not happen again. Thank you for... correcting me, Miss Heartley."

Mya felt an itch well behind her neck. Uh... why do you sound like you're forcing that out of your gut?

Shetani flicked her hair back and stood up higher. "Take this student to her class, if you may. You have the superior understanding of ASL. Try not to run in the halls, please."

Uh... okay? Like I would cause a scene? Mya shrugged and put a smile clean on her face.

"Absolutely!"

Shetani gave a nod of approval and walked away, back in the direction of the office, her boot heels clacking against the floors until the sound had ceased altogether. Mya smiled at the new student, and she smiled back, and the thoughts of Shetani making an unnecessary ruckus were erased.

She's sweet... Shetani not so much.

Readying her own knowledge of ASL, she penned to the student, Sorry about that, our principal is new and she can be... quirky? Wacko? I don't know how else to describe it.

It's fine, she gave me the picture. Freaked me out!

You're alright. I'm Mya, by the way. You?

Cassandra! But you can call me Cassie. I'm looking for my science period?

Mya pointed to the main stairwell and made a few more gestures with her hands. Your class is near the side stairwell on the right hallway. Good luck!

"T-Thank you," the student spoke quietly in her deaf voice, a high-pitched squeal, and yellow eyes alight with gratitude and peace, she headed off and away.

Now that Shetani wasn't around or lurking, Mya ran back down the hall and into the art room, where she met up with Evie and the Rafiq sisters... and a pale-faced Mr. Alann.

"Goodness gracious, Mya Heartley! You almost gave me a heart attack running out to confront Shetani like that!"

"I'm fi-"

"Mya!" Evie greeted in jolly interruption, pulling her girlfriend in for a tight, tight, extra tight hug. "You're such a mad man and a dorky idiot... and I love you for it... don't report me to Shetani, Alann."

"No offense taken, Miss Ly."

Mya put a hand on her cheek and shut the door, chuckling at her girlfriend's humorous praise of her comedian blood. "Ev, I'm not going to let a new principal drag me beneath the floor and up through the ceiling. That student, Cassie, communicates through ASL... Shetani can't communicate. It was a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding? Shetani scared Cassie half to death! With that tone, I'd be purged of my appetite!" Sarah squealed, and Mya's happiness fell short of the finish line.

The younger Rafiq sister had observed Shetani's tone, and she wasn't wrong in the slightest. Shetani was rather demanding for someone so new... maybe Shetani didn't think she was new?

Yet she was penning frantically... Cassandra got shocked out of her wits.

"Yeah, Sarah, her tone definitely was... past prodding. For a new principal, Shetani's just in so... deep."

Evie had lapsed into her thoughts as well. She and the girls swore to give Shetani chances, swore that she was new and getting the hang of it, that she was putting too much control and strain and would eventually recede her power when the backlash reached its peak...

But this small interaction, where Shetani had to be physically interrupted by a student to check herself, and had gotten so unnecessarily harsh, made her worry. Worry, worming its way into her, eating her insides...

"Ev? Everything okay upstairs?" Mya prompted gingerly, staring deep into the rapidly-troubled eyes of her lover, and the Rafiq sisters grew apprehensive.

The look in Evie's eyes was tedious.

"A principal should know her own strength. To know when a student has special needs, communicates different... and what we heard wasn't pretty."

The girls clammed silent, the worry in Evie jumping to them, a contagious plague that made them grow queasy. That light in the end of the tunnel looked faux. So dim, so misleading...

"Girls..." Evie started, trailing off, and she hid her hands in her letterman pockets, the shadows of doubt cast over her.

"We've seen this play out before. Someone here has too much power in their hands... but the stakes are higher. It isn't a student this time, it's our principal..."

The girls crowded behind her, fear lodged in each of their throats, and the tunnel's light was snuffed.

"And if Shetani continues playing with the rules and exercising a grip this inviolable... everything she's working to save is going to turn to dust in her hands."