Organized chaos, a combination of words that could never more accurately describe the mess called Lemon's room. Rock posters from dozens of different bands covered her lime green walls in odd angles, not one of them showing even an attempt to keep them from being crooked. An overflowing clothes hamper sat in a corner next to the door, articles of dirty clothing ranging from socks to shirt forming a kind of mote around it. A ceiling fan spun lazily at the room's middle like a sad windmill in the middle of a dead silent field. Tucked into a far corner opposite the door was a messy queen-sized bed with a thick red comforter and pillow, the room's sole occupant curled so tightly under the covers that only a tuft of two-toned green hair could be sean near the pillow. Thick black curtains hung over her headboard shielded her from the first rays of dawn that wanted to bust through her window to ruin her rest. To the left of her bed was the only island of order in the sea of sloppiness, an antique mahogany work desk, complete with several shelves and drawers that housed everything she needed to keep her standing among the Elites. The only mar to the desk's order being a silver laptop set on the main desk portion of it, said device covered with so many band stickers, that it was nearly impossible to see its silver frame. In the wall opposite of it was a set of sliding mirror doors covered with fingerprints and a few rocker bumper stickers in the corners.
A peaceful silence ruled the room, soft snores the only sign of life. A silence that was brutally shattered by a loud blast of music from Lemon's desk. Dull groans and rustling came from the bed before an amaranth hand drunkenly reached out of the fortress of blanket and yanked a green cellphone off of the desk. Lemon groggily sat up and turned off her alarm. She dropped it back onto her desk and yawned, arms pulled up over her head in a lazy stretch. Smacking her lips, she looked around as her brain slowly started to wake up. A rumbling in her stomach helped speed that process along, the teen bitterly grumbling to herself as she staggered out of bed.
The oversized white t-shirt and gray sweatpants she wore hung loosely on her as she dragged herself towards her closet. When she reached towards the door to open it, she caught sight of her reflection and paused. Her eyes were red and puffy with trails of tried tears moving across her face. A deep frown marred her face a she slid the door open, a whole wrack of fresh uniforms greeting her from their hangers.
I'm fine, she thought, pulling a uniform from the closet. Nothing's wrong. I'm not crying. Everything's fine.
A gentle hand, a warm smile, and a kind pair of voices whose words left her mind long before she could recognize them.
"I'm fine!" she snapped, almost slamming her closet shut. "I'm....fine."
She took a shaky breath, fighting back whatever tears she hadn't shed in her sleep. Slowly, the grief receded, allowing her to regain some control of herself. Letting out a sigh, she made her way out of her room to get ready for the day, entering a plain white hall with a few framed family photos serving as the only means of decoration.
She scoffed at her sister's sense of decoration, rolling her eyes over the dozen or so memories she had of fights she had with her over it. Sometimes, she wondered how the two of them could be related, let alone sisters of all things with how opposite they were. If she hadn't, at least, allowed her to have her room as she saw fit, Lemon was sure she would've lost her mind.
A small, genuine smile crept onto her lips when she passed her sister's room, the bedroom door half open. At the heart of the orderly and spartan room stood a large KIng-sized bed. Sprawled out on the left side of the bed was an absolute unit of a man, his hulking blue form barely being held back by his white tank-top, his short black hair cut down to a buzz.
"Good morning Will," she whispered, carefully closing the door for him.
Iron Will just continued to snore, oblivious to the teen's kindness. Lemon just shook her head, a small chuckle adding to her smile as she closed in on the bathroom. As she flipped on the light and closed the door, she muttered the same question to herself that she had every other morning.
"Dude, like, where the hell did you find a guy like that, Harshwhinny?"
***
Properly dressed and sporting a bored frown, Lemon sat at the island table in her sister's kitchen eating a bowl of cereal.
Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was immaculate.
From the polished marble floor and counter tiles to the equally shiny wooden cabinets and drawers, everything was maintained to an almost military standard. A standard that almost the whole house was kept in, thanks to her sister's organized obsession. Every wall was painted white, every floor was either polished tile or wood, and aside from family photos or musical instruments, only the most needed technology was allowed in the house. There wasn't even a TV in the living room, said luxury taking a permanent vacation in a storage shed down town the second both sisters obtained cell phones and laptops. The only space spared her sister's obsession was Lemon's own room, the teen forcing the woman into a battle of wills that came out with her the victor in the end. At least, so long as she maintained her position as a Crystal Prep Elite.
It helped that Iron Will kept her sister balanced, the man's boisterous attitude and stubborn streak more than a match for her anal sibling's seemingly uncompromising temperament.
Kind'a reminds me of Petal and Twilight, she mused, lazily eating a spoonful of her breakfast. I wonder if sis would've been less of a pain if she met Will earlier.
As if pulled by some kind of arcane summoning, a dark orange blond woman staggered into the kitchen towards the coffee maker. She wore a white dress shirt partially hidden by a dark purple blazer, both ironed to near perfection. A matching business skirt and black dress shoes completed the professional look her sister wore every week day. All of it added to her full hourglass figure, something she was proud to have kept even as she entered the tail end of her thirties. The only true imperfection to said presentation being the tired slouch in her posture and her still messy medium length hair. The woman watched the coffeemaker spring to life with a pitter scowl.
"Morning sis," Lemon smiled.
Harshwhinny aimed a pair of irritable sky blue eyes at her, before letting out a sigh and a small smile.
"Good morning Lemon," she responded, her tone a clumsy mix of prim and winded. "Did you sleep well?"
"Like a rock," she shrugged, then sported a worried frown as she added, "Looks like you didn't though."
"Yes," Harshwhinny frowned, back to glaring at the coffeemaker. "There was an incident at the school a few weeks ago and it has affected most of the students under my care."
"How bad are we talking?" Lemon pressed.
Finally satisfied with the amount of life giving liquid the machine had produced, Harshwhinny fished a plain white mug out of a cabinet and poured herself a cup.
"Very," she coldly stated, taking a seat at the table and taking a sip of her brew.
After a few more sips and stiff silence, the older woman straightened her posture as she continued.
"I can't go into too many details, but some students decided to start a smear campaign against one of their peers. It almost pushed that student into doing something... irreversible."
"Oh," Lemon frowned. "was the student-"
"I do not wish to say anymore on the matter," Harshwhinny coldly stated, her face unreadable as she took a sip of her coffee. "Just know that the situation has been dealt with and leave it at that."
"Got it," Lemon nodded, instantly dropping the topic.
Harshwhinny's eyes ran up and down her sister, small hints of worry slipping past her professional mask. Years of teaching experience and raising her sister had taught her everything she needed to know to tell when something was wrong. The girl looked drained, like something was slowly leeching her energy away right before her eyes. Her smile was so forced it hurt, a far cry from the bright curve her little troublemaker sister usually wore. There was a heavy tension in her movements, making her normal mannerisms look robotically scripted.
It all reminded her what time of the year it was and just what kind of painful traditions both of them were going to have to look forward to for the next few days.
Harshwhinny let her mask fall away, a soft smile forming across her lips as she rested a hand on Lemon's own on the table. Lemon held her false smile, a frustrated spike shooting through her at the sight of her sister's true face. The same look Indigo and Sugar gave her ever since she told them why this time of the year affected her.
"You know you can talk to me about it, correct?" she asked, a pleading edge chasing her words.
"No idea what you're talking about sis," Lemon chuckled, almost jerking her hand out of her sister's grip. "I'm totally fine."
"Lemon-," Harshwhinny started.
She was cut off by a firm, "I'm fine," from her younger sibling, an angry flare catching the end of her tone.
The two locked eyes for a long moment, a heavy silence quickly settling between them like a cold wet blanket. Without her mask, Lemon could see the concern her sister had for her, a fact that only added to the frustration boiling behind her forced nonchalance. At the same time, Harshwhinny sadly noted her sister's behavior as the the start of their annual traditions.
Knowing where this could go if she pressed, she picked up her mug and walked towards the kitchen exit.
She stopped just short of it, dawning her professional mask as she looked over her shoulder and said, "The offer is still there. Same as always and always will be."
"I know," Lemon sighed, staring into her bowl.
Nodding, the woman left to finish getting ready for the day.
Lemon's hands turned into trembling fists, her emotions just barely staying under her control as she let her sister's words loop in her head.
What the hell is there to talk about? Nothing's wrong! Everything's fine!
A gentle hand, a warm smile, and a kind pair of voices whose words left her mind long before she could recognize them.
She clenched her teeth as tears threatened to form, a burning anger filling her chest as she glared at the kitchen door.
"At least you got to know them," she spat, forcing herself to finish her breakfast.
***
Lemon sported a small smile as she tried to get her club room into some semblance of order, the club president seriously considering giving her club mates an earful tomorrow. In spite of that, the girl hummed a happy tune to herself, finally starting to feel a bit like herself as she started sorting through her equipment.
"I should totally use the reinforced mics," she quietly mumbled to herself, pulling said mics out of a small storage shed-like container in the back of the room. "Don't want to risk her blowing a speaker like Twilight almost did. This junks expensive!"
Once she got the desired equipment set up, she quickly went about adjusting the settings and running tests. As she did so, her mind wandered to her sister and how she reacted when she said she wanted to be a rocker. A light giggle made it past her lips when she remembered all of the fights they had over it, how the older woman told her not to get so invested into a passing phase. What had possibly started out as that, quickly turned into a challenge that evolved further into a passion. Now, the little girl who couldn't hold a cord was just a step away from being an expert, both in regards to the instrumental and technical sides of her craft.
"Showed her," she chuckled, hooking one of the amps up to her acid green electric guitar.
Grabbing her pick and closing her eyes, she slowly struck the cords. A sharp zing of energy shot through her, like small sparks filling her heart with each long roar that shot out of the amp. Not letting the rush take her too far away from her task, she listened carefully to how each string sounded through the amp, adjusting her instrument or the device accordingly.
Satisfied with the settings, she set the guitar down and started working on the mic, fiddling with the stand and checking to make sure the device's cord was in top condition. When that met her standards, she walked over to the teacher's desk and pulled her laptop out of her backpack. As it booted up, she pulled out a set of recording equipment as well as a few adapter cords that she planed to hook up to the two instruments. With practiced ease, she hooked everything together, the devices coming together in an elegantly intricate web of cords with her laptop sitting at its heart. The different audio sensors blinked green like Christmas lights all throughout the web as over a dozen meters flashed across the computer screen.
"All right, all set," Lemon beamed, hands resting on her hips in pride.
"Looks like it," a rough female voice snorted, said voice setting off the sensors.
Lemon's smile grew as she turned to face its source.
Petal let her in with her usual swagger, a crooked smile decorating her face as she gave the room a long once-over.
"I almost thought I was walking into Sparkle's lab for a second there," she snorted, staring at the teacher's desk.
"Nah," Lemon chuckled, crossing her arms. "I don't think I'm even close to One's level."
"I don't know," she mused, studying the readings. "You might give her a run for her money. Hell, I think you're more organized than she is here."
As she said that, she pointed at the wire web then the way all of the cords were neatly arranged on the ground.
"That's my sister's fault," Lemon frowned, rolling her eyes. "She's cool and all, but man, she can be so annal half the time."
"Sounds like 'fun'," Petal smirked, giving the girl her full attention.
"Loads," Lemon groaned, face-palming.
"Wonder what it's like," Petal mused, her smile taking on a sadder tint.
"Huh?" Lemon asked.
"Having a sister," Petal clarified, crossing her arms. "Or any siblings really."
"You don't have any?" she blinked.
"None that I know of," she shrugged. "My family isn't exactly in the picture right now."
"They aren't?" Lemon asked, a somber note entering her tone. "Dude, what happened?"
"It's a...long story," Petal sighed. "How's about we drop it and get to the music lessons."
"Right," Lemon nodded, already guiding her friend towards the mic. "Hey, where is Twilight? I thought you guys were coming together for this."
"We were, but apparently Indigo needed her for something," she shrugged. "She dragged her off before I could find out what the fuck was up."
"That's Indigo for ya'," she chuckled, detaching the mic from its stand and handing it to Petal. "Now, show me what ya've got!"
The two girls sported a pair of wicked grins as the Wraith took the offered mic.
***
Twilight nervously rubbed her pendant, the tension in the gym room air thick enough to cut with a knife. Indigo and Sugar were equally nervous, the former pacing in frustration while the latter stared blankly at the ground. A part of her wanted to ask them what this was about, but something told her to wait. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to obey that feeling, her worry for Lemon making her more antsy by the second.
A light sigh from Sugar made her jump, the faint sound more than enough to spring her tense nerves.
"We need to talk," Sugar stated, locking eyes with Twilight. "It's about Lemon."
"Right," Twilight frowned, still rubbing her gem. "What is going on? Did Petal or I do something?"
"Nah," Indigo sighed, stopping her pacing at Sugar's left, staring at the ceiling. "She's always been like this."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
Sugar let a small frown slip past her mask.
"Every year around this time, she starts acting like this. When we were all little, we tried to figure out what was wrong, but she wouldn't tell us anything."
"All she'd tell us is that she's fine and nothing was wrong," Indigo frowned, glaring at the ground.
"Right," Sugar said, eyes faintly narrowing. "After about a week, she was back to normal, but we still wanted to know what was wrong. She...didn't take it well."
"Pretty big understatement," Indigo huffed, crossing her arms and finally meeting Twilight's gaze. "She totally blew up on us, screaming that nothing was wrong and to drop the whole thing."
Sugar nodded, a somber aura surrounding the girl as her glare faded away.
"We let her have her way, thinking that she would work whatever it was out eventually."
"It....didn't help, did it?" Twilight asked, already guessing the answer as a cold stone fell into her gut.
"No," Indigo sighed, letting her arms fall limply to her sides. "A year later, she suddenly started avoiding us. If we tried to talk to her, she'd get all evasive and take any kind of excuse to get the hell away from us. A week later, she was back to her usual happy self."
"I see," Twilight frowned. "How long has this been going on, exactly?"
"Since about the third grade," Sugar sighed. "Though, I have a feeling it has been happening since before that, as well."
"What makes you say that?" Twilight asked.
"Her actions were far too well rehearsed for it to have been a recent thing at the time," Sugar stated, her tone more mechanical than usual.
"It was really creepy!" Indigo shuddered. "Like I was talking to a living doll or something."
"Does it always come so suddenly?" Twilight pressed.
"Yeah," Indigo sighed. "It gets really bad around saturday. Around then, she completely shuts down and won't talk no matter what you do."
"That's not true," Sugar sighed. "It's hard to hear, but she always mutters something under her breath."
"Like what?" Twilight gulped.
"I don't know," Sugar helplessly shrugged. "I can hear her well enough to know that she says something at that phase, but that's it."
The worry from before turned into a jagged stone in her gut, her fingers rubbing her pendant with more pressure as her mind wondered towards Lemon and Petal. As she did, she felt a faint tingling in her chest, like a tiny electric spark just behind her heart. Seconds later, a sharp pain shot through her ears followed by a loud ringing that brought her to her knees. Tears rolled down her cheeks, her hands covering her agonized ears as she waded through the pain. She heard the panicked muffles of her friends, the two girls standing over her with frantic gestures. While they panicked, Lemon's voice echoed in her head with the force of a thunderclap, three words shaking her skull from the inside out with frantic rage. Three words that made Twilight drag herself to her feet and run drunkenly out of the gym room towards the school's main building.
***
Petal and Lemon fell over laughing on the floor, the two girls barely able to catch their breath in the face of Petal's pitiful attempt at singing. As it turned out, Petal wasn't exaggerating just how bad she was at the skill. She couldn't carry a tune to save her life, nor harmonize with any song Lemon presented her. Even with lyrics put in front of her, she couldn't sing her way out of a wet paper bag.
"Dude, what the heck?!" Lemon gasped, wiping a happy tear out of her eye.
"Told ya' I sucked," chuckled, handing her the mic.
"Sucking would be a step up," Lemon smirked, staggering to her feet. "You're, like, level negative one."
"Ouch," Petal playfully snorted, using a nearby amp to help her pull herself up. "I thought Sugar was the mean one."
"Nah, she's just blunt," Lemon sighed, her smile turning melancholy. "Guess I have a few of her book's pages when it comes to this kind of stuff."
"Right," Petal frowned, taking a seat on the amp. "I'm guessing the three of you have been friends for a while."
"Since the third grade," she sighed, dropping her smile and taking a seat next to the disguised Wraith.
Petal nodded at that, a small frown gracing her lips as she stared at her friend. It had been faint at first, but now it was almost impossible for her to miss the cocktail of negative emotions sitting inside the rocker girl. The fact that Lemon wasn't hiding it very well was another tip. Anyone with even a beginner's level of reading body language could tell how forced her actions were.
She's like a shook-up bottle of soda, she thought, tightening her jaw. If she doesn't let it all out soon, she's gonna' blow.
Part of her wanted to feed off of her directly, but that wasn't really an option at the moment. To do that would mean assuming her true form and there was a long list of reasons why she couldn't do that. She could try to talk the girl into telling her what was wrong, but that might just make her bottle herself up even more.
"Any reason you've been avoiding them lately?" she asked, frantically wracking her brain to come up with a plan. "They've been pretty worried about you, you know?"
Petal barely stopped herself from flinching when a sudden red hot spike of anger flew out of the teen.
"No real reason," she shrugged, smiling in spite of her rage. "LIke I said, just wanted to get to know you two better, ya' know?"
"I got that," she smirked, playfully punching the teen in the shoulder. "Just seemed a little weird to me, is all."
"It's fine," Lemon shrugged, then shakily whispered, "I'm fine," under her breath.
The anger melded into the emotional cocktail within the rocker, adding to Petal's dread.
Okay, so Sugar and Indigo are red buttons; got it. Obviously, she's using Twilight and I as distractions for something. What the fuck that is? Still a total fucking mystery! So now what?!
She laid back on the speaker the two of them were using as a couch, hiding her frustration behind a blank mask. At the same time, Lemon was silently fuming. Why was it that everyone kept trying to stick their noses in her business? Didn't they get it? This was her problem. Not her sister's. Not Sugar's. Not Indigo's. Hers! Why couldn't everyone get that through their thick skulls that she didn't need any help or want to talk about it?!
Petal sensed the emotional pressure start to build in Lemon and more frantic frustration ran through her own mind.
FUCK! She's like, two steps away from snapping! What the fuck do I do?! Should I knock her out, try to direct feed off of her? No, that'd just make things more complicated later! Feeding vines?! Shit, no, I'd have to drop my human form to do that and I think she'd just freak out even more! FUCK! WHAT HE FUCK DO I DO?!
Her mind suddenly jumped to her memories of Twilight, specifically, the night they had their big fight. In that moment, Twilight was in much the same state that Lemon was now. When she finally let out all of the frustration, screamed her most hidden thoughts, she remembered just how raw her friend's rage felt to her. That, and how empty the teen's heart felt when she finally let it all out. How easy it was for that emptiness to be filled with much more positive emotions not long after.
It was then, like a bolt of lightning, that a plan came to her. It was a stupid plan, probably the dumbest plan that anyone could've possibly come up with. A plan that she knew she was going to hate herself for later, but if it helped Lemon work through this, than she could live with it.
Rabia, please let this work.
With a quick down-swing of her legs, Petal flung herself into sitting up. Her fake smile switched places with a legitimate concerned frown and locked eyes with Lemon. The rocker blinked in shock, reeling back from the sudden shift in Petal's demeanor.
"Alright, spill," Petal gently demanded. "What's eating at you?"
A stiff smile formed on Lemon's lips as she said, ""What do you m-"
"Don't bullshit me," Petal snipped, crossing her arms. "Sparkles and I can tell somethings up. Hell, you're avoiding two of your friends over whatever the hell this is. So I'll ask again; what's eating at you?"
Lemon's smile shook, the worry in Petal's eyes slowly pushing her frustration to the surface. She tried to push it back, an odd mix of guilt and loss forming a wall against it. A wall that was barely holding.
Lemon broke eye contact and jumped off of the amp, her stiff smile still in place as she fumbled with the mic in her hands.
"I'm just going through some stuff right now," she nervously laughed, still facing away from Petal. "I'm fine. Really."
Petal sighed, sliding off of her seat and placing a comforting hand on Lemon's shoulder.
"I've seen Twilight at her worst, remember?" Petal frowned. "Just tell me what's going on. If I can do something to help you get through this, then I want to do it. Just let me in."
Lemon tightly gripped her mic, the knuckles turning arctic white as the Wraith's words finally pushed her frustration past her limits. Dropping her fake smile for a genuine glare she turned her head towards Petal. The second their eyes met, Petal found herself in an open field. Everything was in gray scale, as if she had stepped into an old photograph and near dead silent. At the center of the field stood Lemon, her back facing her and the only thing with color in the whole scene. Deep cracks covered her whole body, as if she were a marble statue. Two blurry gray figures stood before her, muffled voices coming off of them in gentle waves. Planted behind each of the figures was a withered gravestone.
"I am fine," Lemon flatly stated, a new crack forming on her body. "I can get over this. Nothings wrong. I am fine."
As soon as she said she was fine, another crack appeared on her body.
A blink later, she was back in the real world, staggering back as a furious Lemon slapped her hand off of her shoulder and pushed her back. Petal staggered for a second, both from the push and the sudden mental shift, but quickly regained her footing. She could feel the girl's anger start to skyrocket, finally reaching the point that it couldn't be contained anymore.
Look's like the caps off the soda bottle, she thought, bracing herself for what was to come. Come on Rocker Girl, don't hold back! I can take anything you can throw at me!
"I told you!" she growled, slowly bringing the mic up to her lips. "Nothing's wrong! I don't need any help with this!"
As she clicked the mic on, Petal felt something new start to stir within the girl. Something that put a chill through every cell in her body.
W-What the fuck is that? she thought, feeling herself break out into a cold sweat.
"I!"
She slowly brought the mic closer to her lips, a faint yellow aura starting to form around her.
No way, Petal thought with a gulp, Aether?
"AM!"
The glow brightened , the mic now just an inch away from her mouth.
I need to run! I need to get out of here!
Petal tried to make a break for it, but her body refused to listen to her.
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO! NOT LIKE THIS! FUCKING MOVE DAMN IT!
It was too late to escape.
"FINE!"
The second that word left Lemon's lips, several things happened.
First, the amp exploded, its guts flying to the front and back of the classroom with enough force to embed themselves into the walls and floor. The lights and widows all shattered, plunging the room into total darkness and filling it with the sounds of triggered car alarms from the school's parking lot.
For Petal, that second was an hour.
A yellow wave of sound slammed into her, the energy within it tearing away her human form and ripping into her like a million shards of glass. It was worse for her ears, the two organs feeling as if a pair of daggers were being rammed into them, before she heard a pop and nothing else. She felt like she screamed when she crashed through the door, along with her spine snapping and several large slivers of wood stabbing into her back. She laid there for a few seconds, before instinct took control. She forced her body to heal and ran for the school's door, her still damaged ears turning her run into a drunken series of stumbles. She slammed the front doors open with her shoulder, eyes franticly scanning the area for a place to hide.
A dark alley caught her eye.
Still running on her survival instincts, she ran into the alley, curling into the fetal position in the darkest shadow it could offer. She hugged herself tightly, tears rolling down her face in hiccuping sobs as she processed what had just happened. Slowly, she guided her Miasma into properly healing her wounds, sounds gradually coming back to her. Once that was done, she quickly reassumed her human form, a small part of her mind hoping no one saw her. At the same time, a single thought echoed through her shaken mind.
Lemon's a Gifted! Lemon will kill me! Lemon's a Gifted! Lemon will kill me.
"I-I don't want to die," she sniffled, tucking her forehead into her knees. "T-T-Twilight...please....H...Help."