Chapter 2: Identities Revealed


Wet.  Sopping wet.  Dripping wet.  Wetter than a fish.  Absolutely, positively wet.  To be wet, or not to be wet?  We already know the answer: wet.  Wet, wet, wet.  Just wet.  Really, really, really fucking wet.
Leon went through a multitude of phrases that might possibly describe just how soaked he had become since it started raining.  It wasn’t until he found one with a curse word that he felt thoroughly satisfied with himself.  Even so, a mere phrase he had conjured up inside his head could not give the full imagery of how drenched Leon really was.
His normally spiky hair had been weighed down with rain water, causing brown clumps of hair to stick to the sides of his face and the back of his neck.  His face was literally dripping wet, with small streams of water sliding down his face and drops of water dripping for his nose, chin, and pretty much the rest of his face.  His vision had become blurry due to the constant rain dripping from his eyelashes.  This ultimately caused him to squint, and from the unpleasant expression on his face, could have been mistaken for actually crying.  Of course this was too preposterous to even be considered due to the fact that Leon was not exactly the crying type.
Looking at the rest of his body, it was obvious to see that he was completely soaked through.  His light blue, baggy short-sleeve now partially stuck to his torso, making him shiver from the cold.  Due to all the water it had absorbed, his body felt weighed down even more-so and caused his back to become slightly more hunched than it normally was.  His jeans had become so heavy with water that his belt could no longer hold them up and Leon was forced to resort to holding them up by his own two hands as he ran through the pouring rain.  His white sneakers were now completely drenched for the water had soaked through his sneakers, his socks, and even through his skin for Leon could feel the bottom of his feet becoming pruney.  As his feet pounded against the pavement, a slight sloshing sound could be heard, but was quickly drowned out by the loud crashing of thunder and lightning.  His book bag was weighed down because of all the water that had sunk through it.  The rain had even gone so far as reach his belongings that lay dormant within.  His papers that were left without a folder or a notebook to protect them had disintegrated and the rest of his stuff was damp and probably unusable at this point.  This especially aggravated Leon due to the fact that his newest was in there and he had worked particularly hard on it.
Leon tilted his head up toward the sky as he let a cry of frustration erupt from his throat.  The thunder yelled back just as loudly, if not louder, as if to retort back at Leon’s insolent shouting.  Without thinking, Leon glared up at the storm clouds that seemed to stalk him, only to have a giant raindrop fall right in his left eye.  Leon’s head immediately went back down as he put his hand up to over his eye, which had begun to sting.  Vocalizing his dismay, he spat out, “Jesus FUCKING Christ, man!  What the hell?  What the hell?!  Where the fuck did this freaking rain come from?!  It was supposed to be nice today!  God damn weatherman…fucking LIED to me!”
He shook his head, which, like a wet dog, sent little drops of water spiraling everywhere.  He gasped for breath, his breath coming out in snowy white puffs, and he felt his legs starting to numb from running for so long.  He was only a few blocks away from the school and he debated whether there was even a point in going to school when he was this soaked.  Of course, if the schools here in the Big Apple were anything like the ones in Delaware they’d probably call Jean and inform her about him cutting.  Now one would think that for all her optimism, Jean would be a pretty laid back parent when it came to this sort of thing.  It is that foolish assumption that got Leon in trouble so many times.  Jean did not lack in providing discipline for her foster son, and was very keen on grounding him whenever he became out of line.  Back in Delaware, punishment for Leon meant not being able to hang out with Vincent for a few weeks (which caused him major discomfort since Vincent was his only friend).  But, seeing as they were no longer in Delaware and rather in New York City where Leon had no friends, her methods had changed.  Now it meant no PS3, no Wii, no computer, and no new sketchbooks for a month.  The Playstation3, Wii, and computer were his only forms of entertainment at this point, and because he loved to draw so much he went through sketchbooks so quickly that he needed a new one every two weeks.
Leon continued on the path to school.
Groggily, he raised his head to face the giant being that lay ahead of him.  On a huge city block, about two blocks away from Leon’s current position, sat his new high school.  Spelt out on the front of the school building, in big, gaudy silver letters, were the words “Manhattan School of Fine Arts”.  The building was made of brown bricks and the entrance doors were made of bronze with matching bronze handles.  To observers passing by, it looked like a tall and proud guardian that held something sacred inside.  To Leon, it looked like an obtuse brick monster whose bronze doors swallowed up innocent high schoolers (aka: Leon) and dragged them into its bowels, thrusting them into what he pictured hell was like.  
As Leon’s cynical mind wandered to the subject of school, it also reminded him of the unpleasantness he would experience later on this morning, not that the rest of his morning hadn’t been just as unpleasant.  He groaned as he painfully anticipated the confrontation that would soon occur between himself and Mr. Cain, the calculus teacher that dominated the math section of his high school hell.  As if calculus wasn’t difficult enough, they give him the crazy, anal retentive, meatball of a teacher who was destined to hate the laidback, sarcastic, and constantly late Leon.  
Leon was snapped out of his thoughts as the crash of thunder and lightning echoed throughout the air again.  The noise caught Leon of-guard and caused him to jump in the midst of sprint turned slow jog.  He was a few feet away from the school’s entrance now and he sighed a sigh of relief.  His jog slowed to a fast-paced walk as he finally burst through the front doors.  Leon bent over, allowing his book bag to drop to the floor, and letting out a loud gasp.  He clutched both his knees, panting rapidly like some sort of animal, and desperately hoping to catch some breath in his chest.  His heart pounded so fiercely and so quickly that Leon felt as if his heart was literally going to jump out of his chest.  It felt like his lungs were on fire and it hurt when he moved or even breathed.  Even so, he stood up to force himself from becoming completely immobile.  He shook his head and then the rest of his body, blinking his fog-gray eyes a few times to clear his vision.  Leon looked back down at the floor for a moment, very tempted to just pass out on it, but resisted the urge and merely noticed that he had left a large puddle right at the entrance of the school for people to slip and fall on.   Clutching one of the straps of his book bag, Leon proceeded to drag it along as he shuffled to the closest staircase.  As he opened the door to the stairs, he muttered one last cynical sentence.  “It’s gonna be a long day….”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Ms. Triviony, I do not tolerate tardiness, so please try not to be late agai-”
The door to the classroom burst open, cutting Mr. Cain’s sentence short.  Standing in the entrance was Leon, dripping wet and shivering from the coldness of the room.  The class snickered and gazed at him with a sick sort of amusement derived from other people’s suffering.  Leon glared intensely at them, but quickly directed his attention back Mr. Cain, whose cheeks had flushed red with anger.  The chubby little man tapped his tiny foot with increasing speed.  His fat arms crossed over his bulging chest and stomach, and his thick brown whiskers moved slightly with his twitching mouth.  His brown eyes were magnified in size as they stared behind his giant, thick round spectacles that oddly resembled his body as a whole.  His bald head shone under the classroom light, and he looked greasy from all the sweat that was sliding down the sides of his face.  He wore a brown checkered sweater and green slacks, making him resemble an old nerd who desperately needed to get laid, or a checkered meatball.
Leon gulped and suddenly felt very, very nervous.  Why was he so afraid of the tiny, fat man?  The reason quickly revealed itself the moment Mr. Cain opened his mouth to speak.  “Mr. Ackart…how many times do I have to tell you not to be late to my class?”
Leon gulped again and answered timidly, “Well, um, Mr. Cain, they do say that repetition is the best way to teach children….”
Mr. Cain’s face became even redder as the snickering in the class increased at Leon’s smart comment.  The enraged teacher stormed over to his student and glared up at the taller boy who backed up against the wall.  “I will not tolerate that type of back talk, Ackart!  I don’t know what the hell they taught you back in Delaware, but in my class you are to respect me and come in on time!  So tomorrow morning wake up on time and maybe you’ll finally catch the short bus that all the special children take!  ALRIGHT!?”
Leon winced at Mr. Cain’s harsh words and quietly nodded his head.  Mr. Cain breathed out slowly to calm himself down, and then turned back to the other student he had been talking to prior to Leon’s entrance.  “As I was saying; Leon sit down.”
Leon’s face became pink with embarrassment as he shuffled along to his seat in the back.  His head faced the floor as he walked along for staring at the floor was easier when it wasn’t laughing at you.  When he finally sat down, Mr. Cain coughed a little to draw everyone’s attention back to the front of the classroom.  With a small grin, he continued, “I’m happy to announce that we have a new transfer student from Alaska.  It’s her first day, so please be nice to her.  Introduce yourself, dear.”
The girl took a step forward, her violet eyes blank as well as her expression.  Her straight, black hair fell down her back neatly and framed her face perfectly as well as her side bangs.  Her skin was pale and she looked eerily similar to the girl Leon had run into before.  Leon was too tired to make any connections to the girl until she spoke.  Gazing directly at Leon, she said in a haunting voice, “Priya Triviony.”
Leon’s eyes widened in shock.  No way.  There was no way this was happening.  It just wasn’t possible.  But it was.  Not only was she the girl that he met this morning, that wasn’t the half of it.
Her body, her face, her name.  Priya Triviony wasn’t just some transfer student from Alaska.  Priya Triviony was from another planet, the one he always saw aflame in his dreams.