Growing Up – Part One
Middle School - Year One

They sat silently on the bus, and Eric felt a strange dread based on the fact that everything had reverted back to how their first day together had been. He feared that this new school had shot down everything he and Flick had worked towards; she refused to be called Felicia now, and her command was absolute.

The bus was much more crowded and louder than the elementary bus had been, and he could see the distress on Flick’s face from this; she hated crowds and loud noises because it made it near impossible for her to keep a control on everything. He didn’t like it because it made her distressed and that made him on edge.

The entire bus trip was like that; and it was a long bus trip, the school was almost an hour away from them and they had to make at least twenty different stops along the way. The only thing that made it bearable was the fact that he could feel her mentally clinging to him to keep herself calm, and this didn’t bother him a bit; even if he was finally able to admit to himself that he’d much rather she actually cling to him.

He also knew the bus ride wasn’t the only thing putting her in a sour mood; this morning she had discovered that she was shorter than he was, for the first time ever she felt short. He had shot up to five foot six over the summer that year; and she had stayed at four foot eight. She also discovered that morning that no matter how badly she desired it, she couldn’t do a thing to chance physical appearances, and he had found this quite cute to watch her try and do.

“Hey, Flick.” He muttered to her; her head was down in her lap, her hands over her ears. He spoke just as the bus pulled into the school driveway. It was larger than their elementary school, but still tiny and insignificant next to the high school across the street.

She muttered something back that he was oddly glad he couldn’t understand; it was probably some profanity he didn’t even know she knew.

“We’re here Flick; you’ve got to get up now.” He sighed to himself, holding back the urge to tell her just how down cute she was when they stood up together, her only at his shoulder now if not a tiny bit shorter. Her face was flushed with anger, which only made her that much cuter.

They climbed after the bus left; and Eric saw clearly that she desired the bus driver to make everyone shut up and sit down next time because he felt his blanket stretch to cover the fat old lady as they walked by her and saw the look in her eyes, the desire to bend to Flick’s will no matter what. He managed to get her off the bus before making any unfixable changes.

They stood there on the extremely crowded side walk for a few moments together, Flick scanning obviously unhappily at her schedule. This was the first year Eric and she wouldn’t have any of the same classes; except for lunch, and that wouldn’t come soon enough. This was also a new school, with no Dean, and therefore no story to keep people away from her.

Eric couldn’t help but admire the way she was dressed; she was wearing low cut blue jeans that rested lightly on her hips and a slightly tight white t-shirt with a pink heart across her chest. She wasn’t quiet womanly yet, but this was the first year she had to wear a bra, and having known her almost all her life he could tell. Her long black hair had grown some over the summer, and she kept it tied back from her face.

“We’re going to be late if we keep standing here like this.” She spoke calmly, only to him, her voice more mature now; if possible. She could easily pass as a twenty year old by speaking, and he somehow knew this was the oldest it was ever going to sound. He adored it more than he adored any other sound on the planet at this moment in his life, and he couldn’t help but laugh; since she was the one he was waiting for.

“Well, then I guess we have to split here. Our homerooms are on opposite sides of the grounds.” He listened to his own voice more than happily; it had dropped an octave over the summer as well; making him sound more like a man than any other boy his age he knew. He hated the idea of leaving her though, and could feel the dread in his voice; and knew she could as well.

“I know.” Her voice was hard, and it shocked him. She very possibly didn’t like the idea of leaving him even more than he did. He couldn’t believe it, but her voice screamed at him. This was going to kill her somehow and she didn’t know how to handle it. He could understand why; since her older brother he was the only one she could really trust; besides Pegasus.

Neither of them could say a word before the warning bell rang and they were forced apart. He stood there and watched her walk away towards her homeroom until she disappeared from his sight before he took off towards his own homeroom. This first day was going to be hell, and she knew this better than he did; and even he knew hell was on its way.

Her homeroom bored her; and she was forced to listen to this group of girls talk about how awesome their summer was. She groaned unhappily to herself as she learned that none of the girls knew each other, but where now suddenly ‘BFF!’ and even had plans for this weekend. The teacher was an older female whom she never attempted to learn the name of, and the only student she found herself talking to was a boy her age whose name was Chris. They had all their classes together, and neither of them enjoyed this strange new environment.

Chris had an older cousin in the eighth grade that also went to this school. His name was Kuro and even though his father, Chris’s uncle, was American his mother was Asian. Chris showed her a picture of his family, and Kuro’s picture caught her eyes; he had the most beautiful pale blue eyes, and the softest perfect features. He looked like a prince.

Chris went on to talk about his home life, and she was happy to sit there and listen to him; while his voice wasn’t as perfect to her as Pegasus’s and wasn’t as decent to her as Eric’s it wasn’t as painful and horrid as the other student’s in this class. His emotions were also calm, and that helped to keep her relax. Chris was also perfectly happy just talking, and didn’t seem to mind the fact she was much happier just listening.

The teacher made them fill out papers, and she was the only one who got away with not having to get them signed; no one else seemed to notice or care. Then the teacher showed them school videos; videos about the rules, the different clubs, and the different sports. She watched half-mindedly, not really caring at all. She had no desire to join anything, and didn’t exactly need the ‘extras’ in her college application anyway.

Her first period was boring, she knew everything and just pretended to listen around, and then she pretended to groan when the teacher assigned them homework. It was a funny groan, and even Chris looked at her funny, since it came out as more of a mocking the class than actual disappointment, she found this a great new game; and decided to actually mock the class the next time something like this happened.

Her second period was the same, only the teacher dressed in funny clothes and believed strongly and openly in mythical creatures. She became an instant favorite, and even seemed to notice Flick. Mary May, she called herself, and the students called her Mrs. Double M. She was supposed to teach creative writing, but ended up spending most of the time talking about her beliefs; Chris was surprised to see just how much Flick paid attention; jotting down certain names to take to Pegasus later.

Her second period was the longest, since it took them right into lunch, and just before lunch Mrs. Double M got caught up in a rant about Flick’s most favorite mythical creature, the Pegasus.

“Pegasus, ah, the most handsome of all the mythical creatures, the great horse who served the Gods!” She locked eyes with Flick, and Flick held her eyes right back, the words locked in her mind. She agreed; her Pegasus was the most handsome of all.

“Pegasus, the mythical steed with wings, the horse of pure angelic white with feathery white angel wings spread from his back.” Her voice got quiet, and she began again, slowly, her eyes finally forcing themselves away from Flick’s perfect blue ones.

“The horse that will never truly exist, its anatomy is all wrong, but the horse millions have sworn to have seen. How come so many people wish to believe in this creature when everyone knows it is nothing more than a fairy tale? Is it because it has a more romantic and darker side than the vampire, but only to those who know?” A grin pushed into her lips, and her thin face and short dirty blond hair gained an almost ghostly appearance.

At that moment the bell rang, and half the class jumped at its sound. Pegasus, a creature darker and more romantic than the vampire, that thought was absurd. Flick sighed to herself and waited until the teacher was seated behind her desk before she stood. She stood with Chris, laughed at something he muttered to her, and left the classroom with him. She would get to see Eric now, and that was all she cared about. She almost didn’t even notice Mrs. Double M’s eyes on her as she left, if only.

She met up with Eric in the hall, and for the first time in four years embraced him tightly before he could even say anything, this left poor Chris awkwardly behind her. Eric hugged her back gently, and as the embrace broke turned towards Chris, who was watching still awkwardly.

Flick smiled at the both of them, and cleared her throat to make the introductions.

“Chris, this is my best friend; Eric, Eric this is my new friend Chris.” As she spoke she pointed back and forth between them, watching their reactions carefully, for the first time ever Eric didn’t even hint at being jealous.

Eric smiled happily at Chris, waved slightly towards him, and was in fact not the slightest bit jealous. Chris kept Flick calm, and that was all he could have hoped for, she also seemed to be far too distracted by this new human side of life to even test her power on Chris, so his safety blanket was still tightly kept to himself only. Either that or it was just too early in the day to tell how Flick’s mood would hold.

The three of them ate their food happily together that day in lunch, their meal made up of cheese pizza and chocolate milk. Chris and Eric both had to return to line to load up on about three more meals before either of them were full, and Flick watched this with amusement. They ate like cows, and neither of their bodies gave away to this.

After lunch they went on their way, and as Eric watched Chris and Flick walk together, Flick smiling happily, he felt the first ping of jealousy towards Chris since meeting him. He sighed, forced the thought from his mind, and went on to class without a second thought towards the two new friends.

Third period was just as boring as fourth, fifth, and sixth periods were, and when the day was finally up Flick had learned nothing besides the names of people she would never actually speak to. She dreaded what was coming next, as was Eric; she could feel his dread before they even met up in the hall to head to the gym.

Up next, and the final thing of the day was something the school liked to call ‘Meet the Kiddies’, all the upper classmen would file into the gymnasium, sit in the bleachers, and laugh to themselves as each one of the new kids took a turn speaking about themselves, alone, up on a stage in front of everyone.

Flick dreaded this, and Eric knew perfectly why. With her strange blanket how could something not go wrong? She stood in line with Eric, having left Chris behind on purpose, and clung mentally to him as she watched each student go up and speak; one almost threw up, which would have been hilarious under any other circumstance. Her great first day was about to go to hell.

The minutes felt like hours, and the hours like lifetimes when finally after two lifetimes it was Eric’s turn. Eric went up slowly, spoke quietly and too quickly and ran off the stage. She was now alone, and as she walked slowly towards the stage she could feel everyone’s eyes on her; she could even pick out some of the whispers.

‘That’s her, so-and-so talked about her, look at her eyes.’ And each whisper held the same context, in one day she had already become the famous freak at the school, perfect.

She could also feel everyone’s sudden tension, and the entire gym went silent as she climbed slowly up the three steps towards the stage and the single, lonely microphone. Everyone was waiting to hear her voice, it was third grade all over again; only with a much bigger audience. She could even almost imagine an older, fattier, much uglier Dean pestering her; and that was when she felt the air grow heavy and swallowed silently as she felt a specific set of four eyes lock onto her, and a specific set of eyes that almost tried to calm her down.

She felt herself searching for that last pair of eyes as she stood on the stage staring out at the older kids, and when she found them she felt her heart drop. There, staring intently back at her was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, his pale blue eyes locked in hers; his cheek bones high and his face smooth and perfect, his shoulder length blond hair tucked behind his hair. He looked feminine, yet powerful and strong, like a prince.

That was when she heard the mental commands, felt them almost. It was a single older female giving commands to two others, the three other sets of eyes. She was telling them to shut up and watch that this might not be her. They was talking about her, and this sent shivers down her side as she saw the blue-eyed male turn away from her to scan the crowd…he had heard the mental commands as well.

She cleared her voice softly, and began to speak, unable to control the power lacing each word, even though she tried desperately too.

“Um… My name is Flick.” There was no laughing, no joking…it was as if they all accepted her name to be Flick, after all…why wouldn’t they, yet she also felt clearly four blind spots in her blanket of control, and knew then that those four knew exactly who she was.

“I’m 11 years old…and my favorite color is blue.” She heard a voice, not her own, mentally correct her, it is pink. She pushed it aside, and ignored it, trying desperately to continue to the end without anything happening.

“..And don’t ever call me Felicia, thank you. Goodbye!” She rushed through the final sentence, unaware of the command she had given until she was half way off the stage and she felt the sensation from every person in the gym that yes, they understood, and no, they would never argue the fact.

The three blank spots in her blanket disappeared, and she felt fear crawl up her spine as she darted down the stairs towards the exit door, where Eric and a new face watched her. The new face was the same one she had stared at in the crowd of people, he looked desperate to have her over there, and Eric appeared to be shivering.

She got to them, and before she was able to say anything the older boy had his hand around her left wrist and was running with her, and Eric, towards the forest away from the school. His flesh was oddly warm against her wrist, inhumanly so, his grip was too strong and the fact that he wasn’t panting at this point like both she and Eric were only solidified that fact in her mind. Eric didn’t give any hints of being worried about this stranger, so he must have explained everything to him, especially since jealous was wrapped around him; almost like a barrier, if it wasn’t for the current situation Flick would find this slightly amusing.

The dropped down into the woods, and ran to a clearing not far from the street, but far enough to not be noticed from the road on either sides. The older one pulled Flick against his chest and dropped to his knees on the ground, ignoring Eric’s obvious glares. She rested in her arms, not arguing, he was too warm and felt too protective to argue against.

“Why in the hell did you mutter that last part?” His voice wasn’t cruel, in fact it was quite the opposite, and now she had no doubts in her mind as to who this was; now she was just dumbfounded as to how he was actually here.

“How are you here!?” Her voice, on the other hand, bit back at him, and his face recoiled in confusion at the sudden anger, he stared down at her, she stared back at him, both their striking blue eyes locked within each other. He still had his arms protectively around her, and Eric still glared, his glare more confused now than jealous.

“Um…what’s going on?” Eric’s voice came up slowly, his eyes never leaving their glaring spot on the older ones head; if he had been able to burn a hole with his eyes everyone knew that his head would have burst into flames a while ago.

Both Flick and the older boy turned to look at him now, and he felt his heart stop as both of their perfect beautiful faces turn to him; he felt oddly tiny and insignificant sitting here now. He also knew that unless Flick was just as madly in love with him as he was her, he didn’t stand a chance.

“Stop being jealous Eric!” Her voice was sharp, and he couldn’t help but drop his head and let his emotions calm, stupid power of control. She nodded slightly, and then spoke again. “And as for what is happening, I know about as well as you do Eric.” She turned back to the older boy, who held her still, but not quite as tightly.

“I’m Kuro.” He spoke calmly, his voice still angelic to both of their ears, hers and Eric’s; despite how badly Eric wished it not to be true. He stared down at Flick, his eyes all too knowing, the same ways hers were.

“No…you’re not…” She spoke quietly to herself, almost as if she was trying to convince herself that it was true, that there really was no way he could be here…but here he was, holding her against his chest…his eyes staring down into hers the same way they often did.

“In this world I am.” His voice was hard for the first time since speaking, and Eric had to raise his head to glance at his face to even guess at what emotion they were supposed to hold. His eyes were now gazing lovingly at Flick, and he was shocked not to feel any jealousy; stupid control.

Eric was also just now able to take in the full appearance of him. He was taller than both of them, easily around five foot six or seven, but he also didn’t look the way a teenager should, he looked too old for a 14 year old, as he was supposed to be; but he also didn’t look older. It was weird in a way, like he was stuck in time and chose the appearance that just fit him best at this moment in time. His blond hair was perfect, and so pale it was almost white, and hung neatly to his shoulders; it had fallen in front of his face while he was running, and his arms were too busy to push it back behind his ears.

He was also beautiful, this Kuro. He was far more beautiful than most girls Eric had seen, but he didn’t have anything on Flick, who was just amazingly, breathtakingly, beautiful. He could see how girls would drool all over him, but at the same time Kuro held himself above the average person. He saw this perfectly now, in how Kuro regarded Flick in regards to how he spoke to himself.

When Kuro was explaining to him that they must run, and run as fast and far as he took them the second Flick got to them, he never even glanced at him. He kept his head high, and expected Eric to follow without complaint, but in reality he didn’t care either way; but with Flick the concern was obvious and overflowing in just the way he watched her. The way he held her was just painful for Eric to watch; it was too close, as if he feared letting go of her.

“What were we running from?” Eric couldn’t take the silence anymore, and his voice was sharp and harsher than he meant it to be, and both of them snapped their eyes to his at the same time; as if they were mentally connected…which in all reality he knew they were, although he wasn’t sure how he knew.

“Those three back from the gym, they are the entire reason I am here. They picked up on Flick’s mental image a year ago and have showed up here. Didn’t Chris tell you that I just moved here?” He was looking back at Flick now, his eyes changed yet again. While he spoke at, not with but at, Eric his eyes were hard and cold, emotionless even, but the moment his eyes shifted to gaze at the beautiful creature in his arms they softened to an underlying love and deep emotional desire to please.

“Yeah…he might have told me something about that…I wasn’t really paying attention in all honesty.” She shrugged some, happy to be in his arms…obviously happy. She didn’t struggle, she didn’t fight, and she fit perfectly against his chest.

She and Eric had only hugged once, and that was at lunch this afternoon, and it wasn’t even a hug, it was an embrace for a few seconds. Watching this ‘Kuro’ hold his Flick after only knowing each other for moments, and the second that thought crossed his mind Kuro’s pale blue eyes were locked on his face, and his words were sharp and hard.

“I’m Pegasus, and she isn’t yours.”

Eric felt himself mentally recoil, almost screaming in his head. He shouldn’t have heard that, his thoughts should be locked deep inside himself and only for himself, but he had heard them obviously. Then dread clouded over his body as he noticed Flick nuzzling into Kuro/Pegasus’s chest, as if she had missed the sudden quick fight between the two males. Then more dread as he noticed exactly who this person was, and how deep their bond really was, and how there really was no way he could come between them. This was Pegasus.


The rest of the first year of middle school went on relatively the same. The three spots had disappeared off the face of Flick’s current life, and she had three of the best friends in the universe. Eric was her childhood friend as well as the boy who secretly loved her. Kuro was Pegasus and guardian, the man who would give his life for her without a second thought and who was also unaffected by her power of control. Chris was Kuro’s cousin and Eric’s best friend next to herself.

While only Eric, Kuro, and herself knew of the three spots and the other dangers that could very easily show up randomly one day, Chris kept them all based in reality, for with him around not a word was allowed to be spoken.

Then, every night as soon as everyone was asleep, Flick entered her dreams with Pegasus and spoke of the day; blissfully unaware of the dangers coming soon.