Clay - Chapter Two

The next morning when I woke up in my bed, I was so comfy I thought that Maki dying was just a bad dream. But when I looked at her bed, I knew it hadn’t been a dream. 1

I’ll work on my magic to get my mind off of it, I thought, getting up and walking over to my desk. 2

There was a problem with my magic. My emotions were getting to me and when I tried to do a simple little fire spell, I made my magic book blow up. 3

“What the hell was that?” Sensei asked, coming into the room. 4

I sighed. “My emotions,” I admitted. “A stupid spell went wrong.” 5

“I think you should stop with the magic for a while, Aria, before you hurt someone, most likely yourself.” 6

“Hearing that coming from the twenty-two year old Sensei is like me telling you not to teach me defence tactics anymore.” Looking at him quickly, I said, “I didn’t mean that!” I smacked my head onto my desk. 7

Maki, I’m sorry, I thought. 8

“It’s fine. Are you going to Maki’s funeral?” 9

I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I’ll just go crazy and yell, ‘Please kill me, too’.” 10

Sensei tensed up. “Now, why would you do that? I mean, I know Maki was your best friend, but…” 11

“Have you ever had someone so close to you taken away?” I asked, picking up my drawing book. “It feels like someone saying to me that Maki was nothing but a crappy piece of art. That’d also sting badly.” I sighed. “Everything is different now. I want to run from everything… Anything. I’m completely stressed out about everything.” 12

“Prove it.” 13

I flipped through the book and came to a page where there were X’s over messed up drawings. “I usually get the drawings perfect the first time. And the messing up of my drawings are making me want to hurt myself!” 14

“But you’re not hurting yourself, right?” Sensei asked quickly.15

“No,” I said, sighing, and putting the book away. 16

“Hey, Aria!” Sakura said, sticking her head into my open window. 17

“And I’ll be leaving now,” Sensei said, getting up and leaving. 18

“Oh, hi, Sakura,” I said. 19

“I’m sorry about Maki. She was your best friend,” Sakura said. 20

Sakura had pink hair with ribbons, pink eyes and she was wearing a pink and black jumpsuit. 21

“Yeah,” I muttered, biting on my thumbnail. “She told me to be nice to you. She never did tell me why… Maybe it’s because I’m three years older than you.” 22

Sakura was listening very closely. “Ah,” she said. “Say, do you want to go somewhere to get your mind off of it?” 23

I shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’m really stressed out.” 24

Sakura jumped into the room. “How so, blue-eyes?” 25

I passed her my drawing book. “Last page.” 26

“Oooh…”27

“Yep.” 28

“What are you going to do now?” Sakura asked. “Surely you can’t stay here.” 29

“I don’t know… I mean, if that thing that attacked Maki attacks Sensei and I’m not here, I don’t know what I’ll do. I mean, Maki was the strongest student here and look what that thing did to her! She was almost strong as Sensei…” 30

“Don’t worry, Aria, I’m sure *Ichigo-sensei would be fine if you left for a while to get a breather. Besides, if you did leave, he’d have Naruto and me.” 31

I sighed. “Right. Sure. But…I’d never be able to live with myself if Sensei died too…” 32

“Why do you only call Ichigo-sensei ‘sensei’ and not ‘Ichigo-sensei’ like all the others?” 33

I shrugged. “I don’t know really. Maybe it’s because I like calling him Sensei more than Ichigo-sensei?” 34

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I crawled under my blanket to pretend I was dead, but then I was starting to lose oxygen, so I immediately came out. My emotions were going crazy. I couldn’t control my powers when I started freaking out and destroying my room. It took Sensei and two other employees of the dojo to calm me down. 36

“Aria, look what you did to your room!” Sensei said, annoyed and pointing into the door of my room. There were black marks all over the walls. My dresser, my bed, my desk, my bookshelf and my door were all burnt. I had no books left except for my drawing book, my paint set and my bag. 37

“Friggin’ great,” I muttered. 38

“What came over you, Aria?” Sensei asked. 39

“My emotions; that’s what came over me!” 40

“Look, I know you miss Maki, but really, Aria, you need to learn to control your emotions! You’re going to end up killing someone one day!” 41

I crossed my arms and looked down the hall. 42

“We think you should take a break from this place for a few years,” Sensei said. “Go somewhere else for two years and then come back when you’ve learned to control those emotions of yours.” 43

“But…!” I started. 44

“No buts, Aria.” 45

“What if that thing—?” 46

“Don’t worry about it! If you keep worrying about it, you’ll end up getting killed by it too!” 47

“Then maybe I’ll go after it!” 48

“Don’t do that. You’re four times weaker than Maki was.” 49

“Thanks, that’s encouraging!” I said. 50

Sensei sighed. “Stop fighting with me. Tomorrow you’re leaving for two years,” he told me. 51

“Oh, my gosh, Sensei, you’re saying it like you don’t want me to be here!” 52

“Aria, it’s not that I don’t want you here, okay? I want you to be here but if your emotions keep up like this you’re going to end up killing someone; most likely yourself.” 53

“Okay, you know what, I’m never telling you anything ever again,” I said in a promising tone. 54

“Aria,” Sensei said. 55

I glared at him, making my blue eyes turn red. I usually did that to emphasize that I was upset. “You know, maybe you should’ve just left me on the porch when you found me.” 56

“I was four. I didn’t know what I was doing, Aria.” 57

“Uh-huh, right…”58

“Listen, I want you to be here and be safe, Aria,” Sensei told me. “But maybe it would be good for you to get out of here for a while. You know, broaden your, um…perspective? Believe me, okay?” 59

“Fine. I’ll leave,” I muttered. 60

“Just tell me when you’re leaving.” 61

*Ichigo=strawberry. 62