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“I thought the
Oni
was acting like he
knew you,” she said once she was situated back against her pillows,
“But I couldn’t figure out why.”

“It’s over and done with,” I said. No need to
tell her that I still got nightmares from it, which had only been
complicated due to the rather unique way that the Oni had been
dealt with. Maria seemed to understand the unspoken part of my
sentence and her face softened as she reached out and laid a hand
over one of mine.

“I still think that all of this is somehow
Akira’s fault,” I said in an effort to try and distract Maria from
her dark thoughts. It worked, because her eyes immediately took on
that speculative gleam that I knew oh so well.

“Speaking of tall, Japanese and handsome,
with wings, I might add, what exactly is going on between you two?”
she asked, her voice sly.

“There is absolutely nothing going on between
Akira and myself,” I said. “So you can get that match making gleam
out of your eyes right now.”

“Really? There’s really nothing going on
between you two, hmm?” Maria asked, that particular gleam glowing
even brighter and she began to grin. “Really, really?”

“Really, absolutely nothing.”

“Huh, surprising. He was pretty insistent on
hanging onto you the other night, even shielded you several times
with his wings so that neither Deller or I could see or hear what
was going on. And I’ve never known you to just randomly hold
someone’s hand for long periods of time.”

“He was hurting,” I said defensively. “It was
the least I could do when the poor guy was suffering. That’s reason
enough, right?”

“Mmm, hmm,” Maria hummed. “Let’s see, he
saved your life and stayed with you until you had calmed down
enough to deal with everything that you had been thrown into in a
rational manner at great risk to himself. You did rip out a handful
of his feathers, you know.”

I winced at that reminder as the memory of
those beautiful blue-black feathers, crumpled and broken in my
hand, flashed through my mind.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” I argued. “I
was out of control and that was the only way to keep me from
hurting myself or anyone else in the vicinity. I hate to think
about what could have happened if I had gotten into my car and
driven off.”

“And denial is a river in Egypt,” Maria
snorted. “It’s obvious that the guy is totally taken with you.”

“Taken?” I queried with a raised eyebrow.

“Smitten. Intrigued. Attracted. Interested.
Do I have to spell it out?”

“Oh please do, I’m utterly riveted,” I
drawled.

“The way he looks at you when you’re not
paying attention makes me want to curl up with several ice packs,”
Maria said bluntly and I stared at her, my eyebrows somewhere
around the vicinity of my hairline. “And you respond to it, no
matter what you say. I’ve seen you watching him, and I’ve NEVER
seen you stay in physical contact with anyone the way you did with
him that night. It was almost like you thought you might vanish if
you let go.”

“You’re letting all those romance novels
you’ve read go to your head,” I scoffed. “Yeah, I held onto him. I
kind of had to, he wasn’t about to let me go and hurt anyone since
I wasn’t exactly sane, you know. And if he looks at me in any way
when I’m not looking it’s probably because he’s irritated with me.
Besides, there’s no way I’m going to become one of his fangirls.
You know how annoying they are.”

“Oh please, you’re no fangirl,” Maria
snorted, and I smiled at her until she added, “You’re far more
special to him than that.”

“Ugh, I am not,” I moaned. “I’m just his
project partner and friend, and that’s about it. Oh yeah, and
fangirl repellant, too.”

“Why do you say that?” she asked, her voice
sly.

I rolled my eyes and proceeded to tell her
what Kat said about me becoming some kind of swashbuckling hero in
the school because of what happened, and how Akira was building up
my blood thirsty reputation in an effort to get his fanclub to stop
harassing him. By the time I was done with my tale of woe, Maria
had doubled over and was laughing so hard she had given herself the
hiccups.

“I’m glad you find it amusing,” I muttered.
“I’m the one who’s going to have to face it all tomorrow morning.
Hopefully it won’t be too bad.”

“I just wonder what Jessica is thinking about
all of this,” Maria said between hiccups. “Probably ‘the Ten of
Swords speaks of great battles to be fought while the Wheel of
Fortune signals an important change of events!’ or something like
that.”

“I sometimes feel like we should be sitting
in a silk tent with a crystal ball in the middle of the table
during lunch when those two get started. I’ve been tempted to ask
them how I’ll do on midterms just to see what they come up
with.”

“Kat always was a neat person. I’m glad you
got to meet her,” Maria said. “I hope I can return to school again
soon, I miss everyone.”

“I’m sure you will,” I said. “We’ll get you
back to school, and if we can’t do that in a timely manner, then
I’ll arrange a party here for your swift recovery!”

“Sounds like fun,” Maria grinned. “Now, back
to the subject of your relationship with Akira . . .”

“Whoa, is it really that late?” I broke in
after I glanced at my watch. “I’m so sorry, but I have to go! Mom
will have a fit if I’m not home in time for dinner!”

I gave her a quick hug and extracted a
promise out of her to not lose touch with me again, and then headed
out the door.

“Don’t think we’re finished discussing your
denial about your feelings in regards to Akira!” Maria yelled after
me.

“We are forever finished with that
discussion!” I yelled back as I clattered down the stairs. I paused
long enough to tell Mrs. Dupree, who was coming in the front door
as I was going out, good-bye. She hugged me and after a moment of
wondering just what to do I lightly patted her, and then I was back
in my car and backing down the driveway.

I hummed and bopped my head to the music the
whole way home, happy for the first time in a long while. Sure,
things were still topsy turvy and the unknown was looming over us
with the weight of an impending storm, but I had just spent several
hours with my best friend whom I thought no longer wanted me
around. As far as I was concerned, the world could bring it on, I
was ready to dish back what it could dish out.

Come Tuesday afternoon, though, and that
“bring it on” attitude had withered into a “get in my face and I’ll
break yours” mentality. Things had started out fine in the morning,
routine went smoothly, I was out the door at a good time and wasn’t
late to school. As soon as my foot hit the pavement of the parking
lot, though, everyone who was walking around, talking, and hanging
out in groups came to a dead stop and just stared at me as if I had
suddenly sprouted five heads and ten legs.

Murmurs started and gradually swelled up
until there was a dull roar of conversation and people started to
deliberately move out of my way as I walked towards the school
entrance. By the time I entered the main building people were no
longer simply moving out of my way, they were throwing themselves
out of my path. One guy jumped away from me so hard that he body
slammed himself into the row of lockers with a crashing clang. I
heard at least one person mutter something that sounded like
“Amazon Jane”, but when I turned to confront them they had either
moved on or faded back into the general student body that had
started to gather around.

“Jane!” a voice cried out, and the crowd
parted to allow Kat and Jessica through. The former ran up and
threw her arms around me in a huge bear hug that had my ribs
groaning as Jessica patted me on the shoulder.

“My reading this past week suggested you were
going to need the support of your friends,” Jessica said softly.
“The others couldn’t make it due to morning stuff, but Kat and I
were able to come welcome you back to school after your
ordeal.”

“Your reading?” I asked wryly as I extracted
myself from Kat’s bone crushing hug.

“It stated that a friend was going to need
support and bolstering from those closest to her, and you’re the
only one I knew who would probably have a hard time because of what
happened. Kat agreed and here we are.”

“Welcome back!” Kat exclaimed. “It’s so good
to see you! You’ve been missed; things just aren’t the same without
some of your sarcastic comments to brighten things up! Plus Akira’s
been almost impossible with you gone. It’s almost funny.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as we walked down
the hallway. I had to admit, with the two of them flanking me I
didn’t feel quite so bad about the fact that people were still
avoiding me like I had SARs or something.

“Well, you know how I told you he’s been
really ramping up the whole ‘Jane took on a guy five times her size
and won’ thing to try and keep the fangirls from bothering
him?”

“Yeah?” I asked. I had a really bad feeling
about where this line of conversation was going.

“Well, he’s got practically the entire female
population believing that you’re going to shave them bald if they
so much as try to touch his sleeve. The rumor is that you two are a
hot and heavy item and that you’re totally controlling and
possessive of him.”

“What?” I asked softly. Jessica cautiously
removed her hand from my shoulder and took a step to the side,
effectively putting a little distance between us. I noticed in an
offhand way that when she stepped back, the rest of the students
that were milling around took another two steps away.

“Yep!” Kat continued on blithely. “So now
there’s this huge debate going on about whether or not the guys
consider a possessive girl hot or not, and the girls are all
arguing about whether or not it would be a good idea to try and
‘save’ Akira from you. Honestly, I don’t think he intended for this
to actually happen, and I don’t think he’s aware of just what is
being said behind his back because he’s been running the basketball
book club like a deranged tyrant, but I wanted to give you a little
heads up in case things get a little weird.”

I stared at Kat, filled my lungs with air,
and stormed off down the hallway. Really, getting a reputation as a
bad guy beating badass was one thing, but being labeled possessive
when we didn’t even have a relationship . . .
UGH
! I scanned
the crowd for a very familiar head that tended to tower a good four
inches above the rest of the student body. I actually snarled when
I located it and shifted course to intercept him. One of Akira’s
basketball buddies saw me coming, tapped Akira on the shoulder, and
jumped out of harm’s way as I thundered into his personal
space.

“Jane!” Akira cried when he saw me, his
entire face lighting up at the same time that my right fist took a
swing at him. “Whoa!”

He must have been expecting it despite his
surprise, because he leaned backwards just enough to miss my fist
and grabbed my wrist with his hand as it swished by his face. He
grabbed my left wrist when it swung, too, but he wasn’t able to
stop my toe from cracking into his shin. He yelped and hopped away
from me, his hands clutching what I knew was going to be a very
painful bruise as I planted my fists on my hips.

“What the hell were you doing while I was
gone?!” I shouted, even though I technically knew what he had been
up to. “You have everyone believing that we’re dating! Just so that
you weren’t followed around by other girls?! Are you crazy?!
Everyone has been leaping out of my way like I’m some kind of
contagious disease, and if that weren’t bad enough, I’m now
‘controlling’ and ‘possessive’ and probably the up coming target of
girls who think that by taking me out they’ll ‘save you’ from my
‘evil clutches’. You. Are. A. JERK!”

I took morbid pleasure in his stunned face as
I glared at him. I spun on my heel and stormed back in the
direction I had come from while Kat and Jessica stayed behind to
talk with Akira and do damage control (at least, that’s what I
figured) and I arrived at homeroom in record time.

My morning quiet was interrupted by my
teacher sending me to speak to the counselor (seems my outburst got
a little more attention than I had meant it to) to “get a start on
dealing with my post traumatic stress” from the attack. That
conversation wasn’t as awkward as I had initially thought it would
be, and when I left her office I readily agreed to meet up with her
again the next day to continue to work through what had happened. I
actually bounced a little until I returned to class.

My classmates either avoided my eyes or
stared at me, and more than once I informed some girl that I didn’t
care if she got down and licked the shoes Akira wore, we were not
dating and what he did was his business. I ignored the irritation
that shot through me whenever they brightened up when they heard
that, despite the rumor mill, we weren’t dating, and firmly
reiterated to myself that I really didn’t care what he did, it was
his business and none of mine. The continued barrage of girls ate
into my good mood and I lost the remainder of the earlier bounce to
my step.

I had worked up another head of steam by the
time lunch rolled around, so I erred on the side of caution and
holed up in the library. I decided if I were too volatile to hang
around with my friends I could at least put that energy to good use
and get some more research done on our joint project. I scribbled
notes all throughout my lunch period, and was rather pleased with
the work I had accomplished as I stretched my back.

I jumped when the bell rang signaling the end
of lunch, and as I gathered up all of my supplies I squeezed my
eyes shut when I remembered that Mr. Miller was after my next
class. I rushed to his class and was the first to arrive, so I
chose my usual seat, plopped down, and almost flipped my chair
backwards when Akira dropped down into the seat next to mine.