Eri, the Monster Sealer

~ Episode Twelve ~

Hollyhock Flow:

The Girl Who Changed Everything

“Whaaaat?!” shrieked Mackenzie out over the National Anthem. “You have a date? With Shinji?!”

“It’s not a date!” Eri flopped down at her desk, late that morning after seeing Nana Ferguson off to the airport. She scanned the far side of the room, expecting Ms. Youse to be staring stone-cold death at her. But the teacher’s work station was strangely unattended. “He just wants to fill me in on Monster stuff. Where’s Ms. Youse?”

“You and Shinji alone on a Sunday? Sounds like a date to me.” Mackenzie giggled at the thought, excited. “Anyway who cares? Youse wasn’t here when the bell rang. Looks like Shinji hasn’t shown up yet, either. Maybe he’s nervous to see y—”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore!” Eri snapped at her. “Ugh … Anyway, do you think we’re getting a substitute?”

“Pfft. Don’t hold your breath. I doubt Youse’s been sick a day in her life. She’s like a Terminator or something. But it’d be pretty sweet if she were sick today. Instant holiday, and after a night like last night…”

“Yeah. Last night was crazy.” Eri’s thoughts wandered back to the incident with her brother—instead of the encounters with Cloria and Zorfus, like Mackenzie was referring to. She could still feel his clutch tight on her shoulders.

What were you doing, huh?

Who’d you go fooling around with, huh?

The guy who gave you that necklace?

Eri shuddered and pushed the memories out of her mind the best she could, despite a dull ache that knotted up in her neck muscles. She glanced in the direction of Shinji’s still-empty desk and caressed at the tightness in one of her shoulders. “Um, anyway—if Ms. Youse is sick, I hope we get a regular today. I hate it when new substitutes say my name wrong.”

Mackenzie laughed. “Oh, yeah. ‘Eerie’ Seruma!”

“It’s not funny! Drives me up the wall.” Eri frowned. “Especially, Evan! Feels like every time someone calls me ‘Eerie’, he busts a gut so hard it’s like he’s going to die from lack of oxygen.”

“Goes with the vampire motif, at least.” Mackenzie giggled, hovering an index finger before Eri’s apple-red irises. “Eerie.”

“Ugh. Don’t even.” She swatted away Mackenzie’s hand behind a dark glare. “My name’s not that hard to say: ‘Air. Ree.’ Maybe I should just change it. Something like Annie, or Cassie—”

“Or Ursula.”

Eri shuddered. “Stop.”

“I love your name.” Mackenzie gazed at her with a cheek cupped in one hand. “It sounds pretty and looks nice on paper. Eddi-chan. Don’t change it, ever. Okay?”

“Thanks.” Eri blushed. “I like my name, too. It’s just annoying when people can’t say it right. Hey, why do you pronounce it that way, anyhow? With the D-sounds?”

“Heh.” Mackenzie smiled at her with sleepy warmth behind lidded eyes. “I’m a purist, I guess. The Japanese don't really have a letter like 'R' in their alphabet, so names and words we would say with that letter are pronounced differently.”

Eri wrinkled her nose, rooting around in her messy desk for her school agenda. “And you say I'm a nerd.”

“BE QUIET!!”

Silence immediately spilled over the noisy room. Ms. Youse stood just inside the door frame with fists clenched at her sides. Disbelieving rage seeped from her pores. Outside, another classroom’s door swung shut to block out the oncoming of a perfect storm.

Ms. Youse snapped fingers at a number of kids sitting atop their desks. “You! Get into your seats—now!” She stormed to the center of the room and went off on everyone: “Just because I’m not here when you arrive, does not mean you have free reign over my classroom. You stand quietly during National Anthem. You sit down and remain quiet during prayer and morning announcements. If by that point I am still not here, you do silent reading or study. This is grade eight, boys and girls—when I walk in here after the morning bell rings, I expect to see respectful examples to the rest of this school. Do I make myself clear?”

A unanimous mumble acknowledged her order.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page now.” Ms. Youse kept a thin frown as she spoke. “We have a new student today, all the way from Vancouver, British Columbia—”

Eri perked at the announcement.

Mackenzie yawned. “New student?”

“—As ambassadors, I expect you to welcome her with open arms.” Ms. Youse headed back to the door and poked her head into the hallway. “I’m sorry about that. You can come in now.”

In that moment, Eri’s world froze to a complete halt when a girl with waist-length hair like flowing hollyhocks hedged into the classroom.

She was tall, maybe five-foot-seven, and wore a baggy Ramones T-shirt over ripped jeans and grass-scuffed converse sneakers. She nudged back scarlet locks over one shoulder, revealing a number of hair ties wound within the two side fringes that cupped her long and slender face. Her feline-shaped eyes, outlined in perfectly-applied eyeliner, scanned the class with a steely gaze guarded by unruly bangs. Her mouth, applied in a faint bubblegum pink lipstick that blended flawlessly with her ghost-like complexion, tightened into a flat, unreadable expression.

“Whoa.” Mackenzie righted in her seat to get a better look from where she and Eri sat at the back corner of the class. She looked over at her best friend for a reaction and blinked. “Eddi-chan?”

“Huh?” Eri jolted alert. Without realizing it, she’d been transfixed completely by the presence of Class 208-B’s latest addition. Eri felt it in her chest—a strange tightness that constricted her lungs, like caught air. With it, a swell of nervous warmth she’d never felt before…

“That girl looks like bad news,” said Mackenzie. “Why would she transfer so late into the school year, anyway? Grad’s only in, like, a couple of months…”

Eri didn’t have an answer, but instead let out a slow breath she had forgotten to exhale.

“Please welcome Isabella Keitel,” said Ms. Youse. “Go ahead and introduce yourself, Isabella.”

“...Hi,” mumbled the transfer student. “I'm ... Isa.”

She said nothing else.

Awkward silence remained on the air. Somebody snickered.

“Okay—well, thanks—Isabella.” Ms. Youse cleared her throat and took a gander over the tightly-arranged classroom. “Let’s see. We’ll have to get a desk for you, but today you can sit over there.” She pointed out Shinji’s empty spot between Josh Hamilton and Evan.

Without another word, Isa shifted a single binder tucked under her arm and headed over to the row of desks by the door that faced inward off the corner where Eri and Mackenzie sat. She plunked down with a heavy thud and promptly ignored Evan’s patented ear-to-ear grin.

“Is Shinji not coming today?” Mackenzie wondered aloud.

“All right, class,” Ms. Youse started right off the bat after she sent away the attendance sheet with Dana Gardner. “Shorebrooke’s been selected to take part in a community event to raise money for the Walk for a Cure, hosted by the Canadian Kids With Cancer Foundation. It’s not happening until next month, but, it’s important we get sign-ups going immediately.”

She lifted a clipboard with two sheets attached to it.

“The first page here is for donations. The second is for students interested in participating. I expect to see the donation page filled with all of your names by the time this clipboard makes it back to me. Even if you don’t want to participate in the actual walk, there’s no reason you can’t convince your parents to donate. Cancer is a serious illness that effects us all.”

She handed the clipboard off to Evan. He signed the first page, passed it to Isa, who promptly passed it to Josh Hamilton without even a glance.

When the clipboard made it to the back of the class, Mackenzie nosily read all the names written down so far on both pages. She sighed, jotted her name down on the donations page, and tossed the thing unceremoniously onto Eri’s desk. “Getting money from my mom will be fun.”

The slap of the landing clipboard startled Eri. She shook away the tendrils of Isa Keitel sitting at Shinji Izuma’s desk that clenched around her lungs, and signed her name on both pages without a second thought before sending the clipboard on its way with Suzie Arnold, beside her.

Eri’s gaze lingered back to the new girl, now busy doodling in her binder.

She was at a loss for what, but there was something about Isa…

Something that made her feel … so weird…

Eri took in a deep breath. The swell of warmth in her lungs returned.

“All right, class…” Ms. Youse turned to the blackboard behind her. “Who here can tell me what Confederation is?”

“Hey!” Mackenzie sent a hard shove against Eri’s shoulder. “What do you keep staring at?”

“Aah! Mackenzie!!”

Ms. Youse raised her voice. “Miss Seruma, would you like to inform the rest of the class who Sir John A. MacDonald is?”

Eri blushed. “I … I don’t…”

“Exactly. You don’t know. Quit yakking and pay attention, or I’ll have to separate both you and Miss Thompson. Again. I don’t understand how you girls have so much trouble focusing in my class!”

“Sorry, Ms. Youse,” Mackenzie piped up. “I asked Eri a question.”

Isa looked up in their direction.

Eri froze. For a split second, their eyes met.

It was a split second that completely stole her breath away.