Chương 51: Chapter 34.1: Old School

ONE DAY: Leanne leaped in front of the ball and grabbed it right out of the air. She took one second to get her bearings, appraise her opponents, and set her feet, and then hurled the ball right back in the direction it had come from. The arcing shot sailed right over the heads of her scrimmage opponents before bouncing off their goal. Nobody at practice even bothered calling the point.

She'd only been here a few weeks, but the other players had resigned themselves to one simple truth: If Leanne got her hands on the ball, she was going to score. Except that one time.

"You need to put more spin on it if you want to stop me," Leanne said confidently. Though her intro was boisterous and loud, the word that came afterwards was barely a whisper, spoken under her breath.

"Again."

"Sorry, what was that?" Naomi said. She held a hand to her ear in an exaggerated gesture.

"Could you repeat that? Louder?" Leanne rolled her eyes with a smile on her face.

"Again," she said, louder this time.

'That's more like it," Naomi said.

"Lest our audience forget, that I, Naomi Merezkho, am the only human being to successfully block a shot from the mighty Leanne Mikkola!"

"You know they're going to forget this anyway, right?" Leanne said.

"Wait, what?" Elijah asked.

"Don't worry about it, handsome," Naomi said.

"Don't flirt with my boyfriend," Leanne said.

"You've got your own."

"That I do," Naomi said.

"And he's prettier than yours."

"Hey." Any potential offense on Elijah's part was cut short by a violent wave shooting across the campus' shoreline. The wave became a tsunami, and a massive fin pushed through the water, belying the presence of some massive creature lurking beneath the water, and the organized practice became a chaotic mob as all but two students started to panic.

"Hmm. Looks like our cue," Naomi said.

"Nah, that looks normal, I'm sure it's fine," Leanne said. Naomi slapped her on the shoulder.

"Kidding. Fucking marine biologists. You go grab Dom, I'll scope it out."

"Sounds like a plan," Naomi said.

"See you soon, partner!"

"Not if I fix it without your help," Leanne said. She started sprinting in the direction of today's apocalypse.

"Try to keep up, 'partner'!"

"You'll have to try harder than that to get rid of me!" TODAY: Leanne ate her breakfast in silence while Lee, Harley and Vell chatted around her. Lee was filling them all in on some schedule changes that would be happening as they got closer and closer to the end of the school year. They still had a few months, but thanks to being an RA, Lee could give them an advance warning about anything weird. But not quite enough of a warning, it turned out.

"What's up, you gaggle of fucking weirdos! Is that a new kid I see?"

"Oh dear," Lee said under her breath. Lee looked up from her binder to see Naomi cutting a path through the dining hall, with Dominic quick on her heels, both of them wearing matching Burrows Tech jackets. Everyone at the table froze in their seats, except for Vell, who had no idea who these people were. Undeterred by their shock and/or ignorance, Naomi walked right up to the table and put one hand on Lee's shoulder.

"So I take it from the fact you didn't save us a seat this is the first loop, right? Am I right?"

"Well, yes."

"Well then I won't bother asking who this kid is," Naomi said, pointing at Vell.

"Since I'm not going to fucking remember. Let me grab as much food as I can carry and then-" The subtle creak of bending metal cut her off mid-sentence. Vell turned to the source of the noise and saw the Leanne had clenched her fist so tight she had crushed her fork in her bare hands.

Vell had (quite often) seen Leanne look annoyed, aggravated, and even angry, but Vell had never seen her look as absolutely fucking furious as she did in this moment, and all of that barely-restrained primal fury was focused directly at Naomi.

"Hey Leanne," Naomi said flatly. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, treating Leanne's rage like it was a mild annoyance.

"You have something to say?" Leanne continued staring. Vell could feel a palpable heat rising from her now. He tried to scoot slightly further away without making it obvious.

"If that stare is your mime bullshit way of asking if I have something to say, the answer is no, I don't," Naomi said. Leanne stood, and Vell nearly ducked for cover, but Leanne simply turned and stomped away in a huff, taking her aura of rage with her. Naomi watched her go. Leanne was barely around the corner when Dominic took her seat and scooted it closer to Harley. Harley scooted slightly closer to Lee in response.

"What was that about?" Vell asked.

"Leanne's still got sand in her pussy about something that happened years ago," Naomi said.

"I was sort of hoping she'd gotten over it, we used to be thick as thieves."

"Oh. So you're why she doesn't talk," Vell said.

"Is she still fucking doing that?" Naomi said.

"Seriously?"

"She talks to Vell sometimes," Harley noted.

"Hah, probably just because you're the only person here who never met me," Naomi said. She grabbed a chair of her own and pulled it up to the table next to her boyfriend, who paid her absolutely no attention in favor of keeping an eye on Harley.

"Leanne's that kind of bitch." Naomi clapped her hands together and then appraised the table before gesturing in the direction of the food.

"Anyway, like I said, I'm not going to remember shit today so I'm not going to waste time talking to you guys. I'm going to go stuff my face," she said.

"Dom, I assume you're going to stay here and try to nail Harley?"

"Oh I'm not going to try," Dominic said. Harley tried not to let disgust show on her face.

"Cool, let me know if you talk her into a threesome." Naomi walked away. As soon as she was gone, Harley scooted even further away from Dominic.

"So," he said, ignoring her clear signs of disdain.

"You said we couldn't sleep together while we were teammates, but now…"

"Hold that thought," Harley said.

"Vell, bud, do you happen to have those summoning runes on you?"

"Yeah, uh, I do, why?"

"Can I have one of them?" Vell obliged, and handed over the runestone that was linked to one of his three revolvers. Harley gave it the final touch that activated the summoning spell and grabbed the gun as it appeared in midair. With the pistol held loosely in her grip, she pointed it directly down between Dominic's legs.

"Leave me alone right now or I shoot your dick off," Harley said. Dominic stared at the pistol, then glanced down at his "pistol".

"You're bluffing."

"I am absolutely not," Harley said. Dominic decided that he had no reason to risk it and quickly sprinted off in Naomi's direction. Vell took his gun back and tucked it away out of sight.

"For the record, I was totally bluffing," Harley said.

"I figured," Lee said. Not only was Harley not the type for ballistic castration, they both knew that Vell didn't keep the revolvers loaded. He had an ammo pouch linked to a different rune for when he needed to shoot something.

"What was up with those two?" Vell asked.

"Were they those loopers who graduated last year?"

"Quite so," Lee said.

"As you can see, there's a reason we don't talk about them much."

"Makes sense."

"They must be here for recruitment," Lee said.

"Companies often send any alumni in their employ to recruit old classmates as they graduate." The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Wait, so the jackets-""Yes." Lee said.

"They work for my father."

"Okay, he visited last year too, right? They met him?" Vell asked.

"They did."

"And they work for him? Like, willingly?"

"The money's good and they came with Lee's 'recommendation'," Harley said, throwing up very heavy air quotes.

"It's a pretty sweet gig for them. Lot's of other sociopaths to play with. It's like a doggy day care for horrible people!"

"And more importantly, it keeps them out of Leanne's hair," Lee said.

"Naomi and Leanne are from the same town in Finland. My father offered them a job in Germany. They've relocated, and now when Leanne goes home, she can do so in peace."

"I'm sure she appreciates that," Vell said. Lee nodded. Leanne had actually said "thank you" out loud when Lee had proposed the plan. One of a handful of times Leanne had said anything at all to her. Vell looked across the dining hall at Naomi and Dominic, who were currently stacking serving trays high with all the food they could carry.

"What happened, anyway? It sounds like Naomi and Leanne got along, once."

"They were practically sisters at one point, apparently," Lee said sadly.

"I've only heard Naomi's version of events, obviously, but she claims Leanne is upset with her because, and I quote, 'she got herself into a mess and then got mad at me for not getting her out of it'."

"And do you believe that?"

"I don't believe Naomi is 'lying', per say, but only because she has a very distorted perception of the events as they truly happened."

"And Leanne sure as shit isn't going to tell us," Harley said.

"I don't think she'd even tell you, Vell."

"Sure is a shame we can't look back in perfect detail and find out exactly what happened," Vell said.

"It would be nice, wouldn't it," Lee said.

"Sadly, I don't think we'll ever know what happened that day." THAT DAY:"If you two are done making googley eyes, the world is still ending," Leanne scolded. She pushed Dominic away from Naomi, in hopes that it would make them focus. It didn't.

"The world'll be fine," Naomi insisted. Leanne grabbed her by the back of the head and directed her gaze beyond the island's shore, towards the massive supervolcano that was now tearing the planet apart with sheer seismic force.

"Oh that's happened before," Naomi said.

"And to make sure it happens again, we need to stop it from happening now," Leanne insisted. They were still on the tail of the misguided student whose experiment had started all this, but Naomi barely seemed to care. She and her boyfriend had gotten incredibly casual about the end of the world over the past year.

"I can mostly promise that Dominic will still be around to do... stuff with, after we save the world."

"Maybe. Or I could bang him now," Naomi said with a chuckle.

"We really got to get you laid, Leanne. You'd get it." Naomi said that a lot. Leanne had blushed at the line a few times, and even giggled once or twice. It had stopped being funny around the time Leanne had realized it wasn't a joke. She gave Naomi a shove in the direction of the disaster.

"We'll talk about that later," Leanne said.

"Right now, world saving time." At Leanne's continued insistence, the trio set out, heading in the direction of the rapidly widening chasm. The earth trembled underfoot even as they sought out the source of the disturbance. The rumbling did, at the very least, compel Naomi and Dominic to move a little faster, though not as fast as they should've been. The two had lost all sense of urgency when it came to the daily apocalypses.

Their sluggishness bit them in the ass, as it often did, when the earth-splitting chasm started to widen. The single crack in the surface started to branch off in every direction, including the direction of the loopers.

"Fuck," Leanne said, as the crack in the earth passed right between her feet. The world quite literally started to fall apart beneath their feet. On the bright side, Dominic and Naomi started to run faster. Not fast enough, but still. Naomi and Leanne managed to make it to the other side of the rapidly widening chasm, while Dominic lagged behind on the far side. Those two steps made all the difference.

Leanne felt the skin on her back flash-fry as a massive surge of geothermal heat swept up from the fissure in the earth. She heard the hiss of water flash-boiling and took an instinctive step away from the chasm, dragging Naomi with her. Ocean water from the sides of the shattered coast around them surged in from either side of the fissure, crashing across the exposed molten rock and creating a surge of volcanic steam.

While intense, the violent reaction was brief, as shifting magma and stone created a new barrier against the oceanic flow. Leanne gave the steam some time to settle and then peered over the edge of the newly formed cliff. Between the two broken shards of the coastline, a massive chasm of obsidian was still cooling. The sudden and violent transition had caused it to form as a valley of jagged knives, with sharp blades of volcanic stone jutting from every surface.

And on the other side of the all-consuming chasm of blades was another completely normal chunk of coastline. Dominic waved at them from the other side.

"Little help?" He shouted.

"We really shouldn't-" Naomi started. She didn't get to finish her sentence before Leanne made a running jump to the other side. While the chasm between them was deep, it was fairly narrow, and Leanne could cross with with ease. Dominic was going to be the real trouble. She grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and the waistband of his pants and gave a tug.

"You need to have a running start if I'm going to toss you ever there," she commanded.

"And I mean running. As fast as you can. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am," Dominic said. Now that his life was more directly on the line, Dominic was far more compliant. He started sprinting as soon as Leanne prodded him forward. Their brief moment of seismic stability was running out, and the earth was already trembling again as Leanne hefted Dominic into the air and hurled him across the chasm. In spite of Leanne's warning, he hadn't really been pulling his weight.

Leanne had to put a little extra oopmh into getting him across, and she did so by taking a few steps closer to the edge than she would've liked. A few pebbles came out from under her feet as she teetered precariously close to the edge. Precarious became fully carious as another tremor rocked the island. Leanne felt herself losing balance and decided to make a leap of faith.

She made a wobbly, uneven jump, and it was a testament to her sheer athleticism that she would've landed safely, had the thing she was trying to land on not moved. The tremor split the chasm wider, and the safety of the other side slipped away. Leanne did catch herself on something solid, at least. The solid black wall of obsidian, only recently cooled. The heat of the stone very slightly dulled the pain as one of the jagged blades of obsidian went right through the palm of her hand.

She said every curse word possible and tried to be glad that the pain in her palm was at least distracting her from the equally sharp stones stabbing into her feet.

"Fuck," Leanne shouted.

"Dom! Naomi! A little help?" The two of them peered over the edge. Leanne was within arms reach of the ledge -assuming one wasn't impaled on an obsidian spike. Leanne couldn't reach them, but they could easily reach her.

"I don't know what we can do," Naomi said.

"Just need a hand," Leanne said through gritted teeth.

"Literally, could use a spare hand." She nodded towards the hand that still had a rock jutting through it. She tried to make it a joke. Nobody was laughing.

"Just fall and try to land on your head," Dom said.

"Hey, Dom, great advice, thanks for contributing. On the other hand: I've never really tried falling headfirst into a canyon made entirely of volcanic knives, but I feel like it would suck."

"Yeah, I feel like you're right," Naomi said.

"But let us know next loop!" Naomi and Dom's head disappeared from view. Leanne forced a nervous chuckle from her lips.

"Okay, uh, really, can I get some help here?" One of the obsidian blades Leanne had precariously rested her foot on snapped. Leanne let out a new yelp of pain as the sudden motion caused a new round of stabbing pain to shoot through her hand and arm.

"Okay, okay," she said, taking deep breaths.

"This isn't funny anymore. Naomi, Dom, I really need your help here." Another tremor shook the earth, and Leanne had to dig her fingertips deep into a crack in the stone to keep from loosing her tenuous grip on life.

"Guys I understand if you're getting a fucking rope or something but please just talk to me, or shout, or something," Leanne said. As the rumbling continued, the blade stuck through Leanne's hand started to become the only thing holding her in place -and it started to fragment. Leanne watched a crack spread through it.

"Nao-" She didn't get to finish her shout, but Naomi wasn't around to hear it anyway. THAT DAY (AGAIN): Naomi woke, safe and comfortable, in her own bed. She then continued to be awake, unsafe and uncomfortable, as Leanne dragged her out of her bed and slammed her into the nearest wall. Leanne woke up before Naomi on a good day, and since this was a very bad day, she'd woken up especially early.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Leanne demanded.

"Oh hey Leanne," Naomi said.

"How'd the whole canyon of knives thing go for you?"

"It was the worst thing that's ever happened to me, thanks for asking," Leanne said. She had died in four-hundred twenty three and a half different ways, and yesterday's death ranked as the most unpleasant by far.

"Why the fuck didn't you help me?"

"You were going to die eventually anyway," Naomi said.

"So was your greaseball boyfriend, and I jumped over a fucking pit to save him," Leanne said.

"You can't even reach down and pick me up?"

"You had a big hole in your hand, you would've slowed us down."

"A ho- What the fuck are you talking about? I'd be more useful than you two with both my arms cut off! You and Dominic have done nothing but slack off and fuck each other all year!"

"Why are you such a prude about that?" Naomi said with a shrug.

"I'm serious, you and Elijah need to-""Shut up!" Leanne demanded.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Leanne loosed her grip on Naomi's shoulders and stepped away, shaking her fists as she repeated that one demand. She could still feel the phantom pain of a knife through her hand as she ranted.

"It's like you don't care about anything but that stupid guy anymore! You don't study, you barely practice, you drag your feet when it comes to saving the world, for fuck's sake! You're supposed to care about that stuff! You're supposed to care about school, and sports, and- and…" Leanne let the tension fall out of her body. She could forgive Naomi slacking off when it came to sports and school. But there was one thing she could not forgive.

"You're supposed to care about me."

"Leanne…" Naomi stepped forward and put a hand on Leanne's shoulder, finally thinking she understood what really troubled Leanne.

"Are you a lesbian?"

"What."

"It's fine, you can tell me. You know I'm okay with that sort of stuff."

"What?"

"Look, I get it," Naomi said.

"That's why you won't sleep with Elijah, and why you're so upset I'm spending time with Dominic."

"What!"

"I'm not that into girls, Leanne, but if you really want you can have a threesome with me and Dom." Leanne raised her hand, ready to slap Naomi in the face. She had barely lifted it when a single pang of phantom pain from the previous loop shot up through her fingertips. Leanne stopped, and her arm went limp. The brief moment of pain had made her realize what she really felt. It could barely even be called anger anymore. The anger absolutely still existed, boiling deep down in her heart, but it was buried.

More than anything, Leanne was exhausted. She stopped, sighed heavily, and stepped away from Naomi.

"Leanne?" She let her aching fists clench and then relax. A part of her still wanted to feed that impulse to slap Naomi right in her big, dumb immensely slappable face, but Leanne knew deep down that wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't make her any less angry, and it certainly wouldn't knock Naomi's brain back into place and get her to stop acting so damn stupid. She didn't know that anything could undo the ways Naomi had changed. Nothing she could do, at least, and certainly nothing she could say.

"Leanne, seriously, it's cool," Naomi said, still stuck on her incorrect theory of lesbianism.

"You can tell me." Leanne took a step back, away from Naomi. She almost said something. Almost.

"Seriously, nothing? Is it the silent treatment now?" It was. Leanne walked out of the room without another word. Naomi didn't know it yet, but she had heard her one-time best friend's voice for the last time.

"So are you a lesbian or what?" Naomi shouted at nothing.