Principal Wiley sat behind her desk watching the surveillance feed for the third consecutive time, still unable to believe that an experienced martial artist, let alone a fourteen-year old girl could do the things she was watching on her computer screen. She knew that three of the girls who were on the cheerleading squad competed in martial arts tournaments, and one of them had even won several regional medals.
Principal Wiley walked over and opened the door to the waiting room. Heidi, the center of the evening's trouble, sat patiently in one of the chairs with a serene expression on her tan face. "Heidi, can you come in here please?"
Heidi nodded and rose gracefully to follow her back into the office. Principal Wiley relaxed back into her chair and studied the youthful girl thoughtfully. She certainly didn't look like the type of girl that attracted trouble. As she met the young woman's eyes, her breath caught in her throat for a moment. She did not feel like she was looking into an adolescent girl's eyes—she felt like she was staring at the wisest woman she had ever known, her grandmother. Heidi's eyes had an ageless quality, like she had seen everything, both good and bad.
Principal Wiley cleared her throat, trying to regain her sense of the moment. "So would you like to explain what all of the brawling was about? I usually deal with that nonsense from the football team, but I expect a slightly different standard from the young women of this school."
"I don't care what age this is," Heidi told her flatly, her patient eyes flashing with anger. "I will never tolerate bigotry of any kind while I stand by and do nothing."
"Bigotry?" Principal Wiley frowned, sitting up straighter. "What do you mean?"
"I mean a gang of bullies picking on a girl because of her sexuality," Heidi replied, her eyes radiating disapproval. "While I would hardly call this world civilized, I would hope that a girl could go to school and not be tormented based on her sexual orientation."
"Tell me exactly what happened," Principal Wiley said, feeling her own ire rise at the thought that such mindless stupidity could be taking place under her nose in her own school.
Principal Wiley's frown deepened as Heidi repeated back verbatim the exchange that had taken place. When Heidi finished, Principal Wiley let out a deep sigh of frustration. "For the love of light, it's 2010, I thought we were past this nonsense."
Heidi watched her thoughtfully, those ageless eyes making her feel like the child. "I'm glad this is an important issue for you."
Principal Wiley felt her face redden slightly at the unspoken knowledge Heidi's gaze portrayed. Damn, It's like she sees right into your mind.
"I want to thank you for so courageously standing up for Aria," Principal Wiley said, mostly to move past the uncomfortable feeling of a fourteen-year old looking into her soul. "Where did you learn how to fight like that?"
A clouded look crossed Heidi's gaze, and the room seemed to grow colder in response. "That's the wrong question to ask, but I understand what you mean. There have been many times and many places in the cycle of life where learning to defend oneself is necessary. None of the children involved in the conflict today were physically harmed. They just experienced a lot of pain."
She refers to them as children, Principal Wiley noted to herself in bemusement. All of them were several years older than her and she refers to them as children.
Her phone rang, and she absently answered it. "Principal Wiley."
"Her parents are here," her secretary informer her.
"Send them in, please," Principal Wiley said, hanging up the phone.
Heidi's parent's faces were filled with apprehension when they came in—it was even evident on Colonel Rockwell's normally stoic face. There was a tightness of worry to his eyes as she gestured for them to take a seat with Heidi.
"Was anyone hurt?" Mrs. Rockwell asked anxiously, not even looking at Heidi. Somehow, they had already known Heidi would not be hurt and were even terrified that she had done something drastic to the other students.
"No," Principal Wiley replied slowly. "Just their egos for the most part."
The tension seemed to deflate out of the couple as both of them sank back into their chairs in relief. Interesting.
"I want to congratulate both of you on raising such a brave daughter," Principal Wiley told them smoothly. "From what the school counselor has told me, your daughter may have just saved the life of one of our students tonight. The girl she protected has apparently suffered from increasingly frequent suicidal tendencies for the past several months as a result of the harassment she has been subjected to since the beginning of the school year. This afternoon may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, had your daughter not intervened."
"What happened?" Colonel Rockwell asked briskly.
Principal Wiley briefed the Rockwell's on the incident, noting the look of concern on Colonel Rockwell's face when she mentioned the surveillance video. As she concluded, the Colonel stood up and made a slight head motion to his wife. She immediately stood up as well, taking Heidi by the hand and leaving the room.
"I would see it as a courtesy if you would allow me to remove the surveillance footage from your system, or at least see that it is properly destroyed," Colonel Rockwell told her curtly.
Principal Wiley frowned as she stared back at him cautiously. He hadn't even seen the footage, and he already wanted it destroyed. She felt like she was being pulled into some kind of crazy government conspiracy as she replayed the evening's events in her head. Was Heidi in some kind of military black project? Is that where she had learned to fight? She weighed the options in front of her. Getting on the bad side of the second in command of the local base, let alone a battle with the U.S. military, wasn't a smart move, she was sure.
"The Superintendent may wish to review the video after we file the report," she finally replied after a moment of silence.
"Please refer any inquiries about the video straight to my office," Colonel Rockwell told her calmly. "Please let them know that the military will handle any other inquiries regarding this incident as well.".
Principal Wiley only hesitated a moment before nodding in acquiescence. She turned her monitor slightly so that he could see it and deleted the video file from the system. "It's done."
Colonel Rockwell's eyes relaxed slightly as he nodded. "I appreciate your help."
With another nod, he turned and left the room.
Principal Wiley let out an explosive breath as she sank back into her chair. What a mess. She slowly took her phone out and zoomed in on the copy of the video that she had made before they arrived. She had initially thought the bursts of light around Heidi during the short melee were just lighting artifacts, but as she looked closer it seemed to be more than lens flares. Small pulses of red and green light sparked around Heidi like a high-energy current was creating a localized auroral effect around the young woman.
She blanked her phone and let out another sigh. What the hell is going on? She had a suspicion that the Colonel was as clueless as she was in regard to that question, though it was obvious that he knew something was going on.
With a frown, she guiltily remembered that Wendy had emailed her about wanting to discuss a junior high student who had been visiting her classroom after hours. She had placed the email in her 'later' list, which unfortunately meant never these days. She pulled up the email again, wondering if it had anything to do with Heidi.
'Hi Jen,
I know you're busy, but I have a junior high student that's been visiting after hours to use the studio, and I really need to talk to you about her. You know what a skeptic I am about anything esoteric? Well, I'm feeling a little shaken right now.
Please let me know when we can talk.'
Principal Wiley tapped her table absently as she thought. Wendy had taken her mother to Europe for a cancer treatment that was not available in the USA. She hated to call her old friend about school stuff while she was on a leave of absence, but it sounded like Wendy might understand.
She picked up her mobile and called Wendy, hoping her friend had service in Europe.
"Jen?" Wendy's voice answered, sounding sleepy.
"Crap, sorry," Jen said lamely. "I forgot about the time difference."
"That's okay," Wendy replied, her voice becoming more alert. "What's up?"
"What's the name of the girl that was visiting your classroom after hours?" Jen asked, unconsciously holding her breath as she waited for the answer.
"Heidi," Wendy replied in a concerned tone. "Why, what happened?"
"In your email, you said she was making a mystic out of you," Jen asked, ignoring the question. "What did you mean? What happened?"
"Oh," Wendy replied after a moment of silence, sounding a little embarrassed. "I was probably just overreacting. I'm sure I imagined it."
"Imagined what?" Jen pushed.
"Well, I brought another girl to the classroom, hoping to offer her a friend," Wendy replied slowly. "She's kind of a genius, so I figured she could use a little grounding. She inspected the new girl, Autumn, in a rather strange manner. She stuck her ear next to Autumn's stomach and acted like she was listening to something. Then she did that at several other points until she reached her head. That part was pretty weird, but then she touched Autumn between the eyes with her finger, like she was placing something inside of her head. There was this dull booming noise that made my bones rattle, and Autumn seemed to undergo some kind of mental metamorphosis. It's kind of hard to explain. When you looked into Autumn's eyes before the boom, they were normal adolescent eyes. After the boom, they were much clearer, like a fog that you hadn't even noticed was there was suddenly gone. I'm pretty sure the boom was probably just a coincidental sonic boom from a jet near the base that happened at the same time."
"Interesting," Jen murmured, watching the surveillance video on her phone again. The auroral arcing was definitely not lighting artifacts.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Wendy asked pointedly. "Why are you suddenly asking about her?"
Jen quickly related the events of the evening, then told her about the strange lights dancing around Heidi in the melee.
Wendy was silent for several moments. "Thanks for messing up all of my previous justifications for everything that had happened. I was perfectly content being a skeptic."
Jen laughed, remembering what a Doubting Thomas Wendy had always been regarding all things mystical. In Wendy's view, there was a logical explanation for everything that happened in the universe. While Jen agreed with that view, she also believed those logical explanations could validate a lot of esoteric beliefs.
"How's your mom doing?" Jen asked quietly.
"Not good," Wendy replied with a heavy sigh. "We're still holding out some hope that the treatment will be more effective over time. She doesn't really like being away from her home. If we don't get better results in the next two months, we'll probably return and just try to enjoy what time she has left."
"I'm so sorry, Wendy," Jen said sympathetically. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Yeah, actually," Wendy replied, a small smile in her voice. "Keep an eye on my songbird. I honestly think she needs to skip a grade, if not two. If you get a chance, ask Stephanie about her discussion with Heidi on the pyramids."
"Oh?" Jen asked curiously.
"I don't know the details, but her friend, Autumn, told me that she disagreed with Stephanie about the age and purpose of the pyramids, suggesting they were some kind of power plants," Wendy answered, chuckling softly. "I wish I could have been there to see that exchange."
"I'll keep an eye on her," Jen promised—for her own reasons as well.