The Time Capsule

Chapter 5: Ace of Spades

Chapter 5: Ace of Spades

Angelica slammed her locker door shut, not bothering to turn the lock as she stormed back down the hallway to homeroom, but couldn't concentrate the whole day on classes. How was the school still going on with the disappearances that the police simply couldn't ignore as a coincidence anymore? Not when her mother had been hurt and Grayson Smith had disappeared right under their noses. A blonde head made its way through the wave of high schoolers, a most unpleasant place to be, like a fish crossing upstream. Angelica fought her way through the crowd of sweaty, developing humans until she finally collapsed in front of Jillian, dropping her books when she was run into on all four sides at once, the people around her stopping to laugh. She had already gained quite a reputation from having a crush on Levi, and not a good one. 

"Oh, hilarious!" Angelica snarled. "The school crazy girl, why not take a look at the news! We're on the brink of a disaster here!

Jillian hissed softly and pulled Angelica behind a locker, back in her normal scientist lab coat, her hair pulled back neatly in a ponytail and her makeup carefully applied. What the hell had Angelica seen last night? Had she really been hallucinating after all? There was no way her friend could cuss and dress like that anyway...was there?

"Angelica?" Jillian snapped her fingers in front of her best friend's face to wake her up. "Angelica, I asked why you were screaming in front of everyone about the disappearances. That's *asking* for trouble." 

"Nightwing," Angelica said sleepily, and Jillian did a double take. 

"What!?" Jillian burst out, nearly dropping *her* books. 

"Nothing, I meant- nothing," Angelica cleared her throat and looked for a distraction to cover her mistake. "Just...alerting the general public that there's a killer shadow on the loose, isn't that the polite thing to do?" 

"No, it certainly *isn't*," Jillian sighed as they started down the hallway. "Don't you realize the repercussions of this immensely stupid decision?" 

"Don't you realize how much you annoy me when you talk like that?" Angelica rolled her eyes. "Go on, then. Tell me what's so bad about it." 

"Angelica?" Jillian snapped her fingers in front of her friend's face to wake her up. "ANgelica, I asked why you were screaming in front of everyone about the disappearances. That's *asking* for trouble."

"Logically speaking, if people see you screaming about creatures and the forest and disappearances, the dull human mind will automatically link *you* to the source of those disappearances, and they'll report you to the police, and eventually blame me, and it will end in complete and total disaster!" Jillian started waving her hands in nervousness, and Angelica couldn't help but snicker. 

"My mother's probably alerted them already," Angelica rolled her eyes. 

"Your mother is in the *hospital*, Angelica," Jillian snapped. 

"Yeah, but you know her," Angelica said. 

"I do, and now you mention it, the extra police by the forest this morning did seem odd." 

"Are you done?" she hugged her best friend even though she hated hugs. "You worry too much. I'm sure the police are on the case and everything's going to be fine." 

She waited until they were halfway back on their walk from school before bringing up the subject that was hanging like a dark storm cloud over her head. How would she word this? And *why* wasn't there an agony aunt for when your best friend suddenly turned into a fantastical creature?

"Jillian...you know if you had any kind of secret, you could tell me, right?" Angelica nudged her best friend, starting the conversation playfully. 

"Of course I do," Jillian gave a light smile. "I do not trust anyone in the world so much as I trust in you."