Alive
Chapter Six
“You know, Faith, you’re really lucky to have naturally black hair,” Elona said to Faith as she twisted
another strand of her dyed black hair and stuck a piece of wire into it. All around her head were pieces of hair
twisted into strange designs reminiscent of Medusa’s hair of snakes.“Am I?” Faith murmured.
“Very lucky. And pale skin, too. Very rare. Perfect for a Goth.”
“What color is your natural hair, Lona?” Faith asked.
“That’s my little secret.” Elona laughed as she sprayed nearly an entire can of hair spray over her hair.
“Do you like?”Faith looked at her friend’s hair. “Very... you,” she told her.
“Of course it’s me. Reminds you of Medusa, doesn’t it?”
“Very much so. Are you sure you can’t turn people to stone?” Faith smiled slightly, very briefly.
“Unfortunately I don’t have that power.” Elona sighed. “Too bad. There are quite a few people I’d like to
turn to stone.”“So you heard about today?” Faith asked.
“Of course, Fay. Is that what’s bugging you?”
“Yeah. It’s just hard for me to accept that someone who seems so nice would harbor such a prejudice and
not even listen to my explanations.”“People are not very accepting of things different from what they know. And besides, if he can’t even take
a few minutes to listen, then he can’t be all that wonderful. And not worth your time- either in love or hate.”“For all of your oddness, Lona, you’re pretty wise.”
“It’s because of my oddness that I am wise. You don’t live a life filled with strangeness and not become
wise. Unless, of course, you’re an idiot.” She turned to Faith. “Come now, we must prepare.”“Cat’ll be back around seven,” Faith said.
*~*~*
“Lance, you overreacted,” Justin told Lance as they sat in their dorm room, talking.
“She’s a witch. They’re commonly associated with the devil. What was I supposed to think?”
“You could have at least heard her out. Besides, haven’t you heard anything about Wicca? Have you ever
seen The Craft?”“With Neve Campbell? Yeah, I have. Oh,” Lance said, his eyes widening as he realized what Justin was
talking about. “So what if not all witches are bad, that doesn’t mean she’s a good one.”“Lance, you’re just stubborn.”
“I screwed up big time, didn’t I?”
Justin didn’t say anything.
Lance sighed. “I did.”
*~*~*
“You’re here,” Lance said, sitting down next to Faith Monday morning. He’d just arrived in the library.
“I happen to care about my grade. I’m not going to let anything interfere with it, even your closed-minded
prejudism.”“I’m sorry for what I said Saturday, it was just shocking.”
“Yeah, whatever, it doesn’t matter. Like I said, you get used to people looking down on you and bad
mouthing you because of your choice of religion or clothing.”“I really am sorry-”
“Can we just finish our presentation? I for one want an ‘A’ on it.”
“Ok, whatever you want,” Lance said.
After finishing up their presentation, Faith stayed in the library to catch up on some homework. Lance
was tempted to hang around, but with Faith’s attitude towards him right now, he didn’t think it would be smart.So he walked back to his car and drove to a nearby coffee shop to grab something for breakfast.
*~*~*
Catriona grabbed her backpack from the trunk of her car and slammed it closed. The grinning faces right
in front of her startled her, but she refused to let them see it.“Hi,” Wade Robson said. “I’m Wade Robson.”
“So the sheep leader has a name,” Catriona mocked. “I was wondering.”
“Hey, no need to be bitchy. I’m just trying to be friendly.”
“After your previous insults?” Catriona laughed. “Personally, I prefer the rudeness to your friendliness.”
She turned on her heel and walked away from them.“Why is that?” Wade asked, as he and the others with him followed her.
Catriona turned around but kept on walking. “Because I don’t want to be friends with sheep. I don’t want
to risk becoming one. So just continue to be mean, if you don’t mind.”The guys stopped following her.
“JC, dude, you better get her to fall in love with you. This has to work.”
*~*~*
“That was a wonderful presentation, you two. That’s what I want all of the presentations to be like,”
Professor Hiller told the class as Faith and Lance sat down after finishing their presentation. “Now I want Jennifer
Byrd and Chris Hartley to go.”“We probably got an ‘A’,” Lance whispered to Faith as the two people standing in front of the classroom
set up the things they had for their presentation.”Faith didn’t respond. Lance sighed, frustrated, wondering how he was going to get past the shields she
had.