Persona (5 page)

Chapter Three

By the time Moira is dressed in a pair of grey drawstring fitted athletic pants and a plain black tee shirt, she still has to wait for class to start. When she finally gets herded out into the gym with the other girls, the instructor informs them that they are running laps outside with the guys. Usually this type of thing would annoy Moira, but not today. Today, she looks forward to letting go and running. She’s always been a faster runner than other people, and relishes in the thought of actually being good at something.

In a single file line, Moira follows her classmates through the empty gymnasium and is practically bouncing on the tips of her toes, she’s so excited. The gym is your average size athletic room, with bleachers lining two of the walls. On the back wall opposite the locker rooms and hall entrance, is the door to the football field and track. Stepping outside, she doesn’t mind the midmorning chill, and spies the guys that are already warming up on the grass.

Most of the girls in her class are separated into two groups now, the ones that pretend to know how to warm up and are really just showing off to the guys. To the other ones that are winning about having to run, when they plan on jogging and then walking. Moira is neither group though, and finds a clear patch of grass. She doesn’t bother sitting down, since the grass still has dew on it, and stretches her arms and legs. As she does, she looks around to see if she’ll have any competition. There are at least ten other girls, and none of them seem very athletic. The guys on the other hand, look like they could keep up. There are at least fifteen of them, ranging in height and weight. One guy though, catches her eye.

He’s currently stretching his arms out, surrounded by a couple of girls across the field. Even from the distance between them, Moira can see how good looking he is. He’s tall and looks lean in his tight shirt, not muscular though. His hair is short in a military type preference, and is a pale honey brown. As he squints in the sun, smiling at a blonde girl, she notices that his eyes are a bright sky blue. He turns to talk to another guy and Moira notices how long and firm his legs are. If there were ever a perfect male form for running, he’d be it.

The instructor blows a whistle, and Moira joins the class as they group together near the starting line of the track. No one really picks a line up order or anything, so she stands off to the side with no one in front of her. They are told that they are doing a one mile pace, which is at least three times around the ring easy. Moira can feel her adrenaline already pumping, and leans forward a bit. Her focus narrows down, to just the track before her, and everyone else evaporates. When a whistle is blown again, she shoots forward in a sprint.

Right away the wind blows her hair out behind her, as she pushes herself faster. Moira can sense the other students around her, but she ignores then as she speeds down the track and it doesn’t take her long to make the first lap. She doesn’t feel anything, except for the feeling of her feet hitting the pavement and the burn in her calves. Evening out her breathing she picks up speed as she’s pressing on the second lap. Someone is closing in on her left, and she pushes herself a little harder, and easily loses them.

Her body is going numb, so that she just feels the sweat from excursion running down her face, but she doesn’t slow down. This is her favorite part, when you lose the feeling in your muscles so that you get your second wind. She feels the light tingling sensation of her persona then, and lets her eyes change so that her vision gets sharper. She’s closing in on the finish line, and her feet are moving in a steady pace that she feels like she’s flying. Just before she gets to the starting point where the two teachers are, she stamps down her persona so that her eyes shift to normal.

Moira breezes past the edge of the track and comes to a stop. She can hear some people cheering for her, but she just leans her hands on her knees and takes deep breaths. Slowly feeling comes back into her body, and she knows she’ll pay later for pushing herself so hard. It’s totally worth it though, as she needed the thrill. Some of the other students join her along the edges of the track to cool down, and Moira looks up as the instructors comes rushing over to her.

Noticing them for the first time, Moira thinks that they are perfect imitations of what gym teachers should look like. They both wear sweat outfits and baseball caps, and come off very manly. Even the woman, whose name she can’t remember. Moira gets nervous for a second, thinking they saw her eyes. But as they approach her, that are all smiles, and she relaxes instantly.

“Nice time. Your Warner right?” The man asks as he holds up a stop watch.

“Yes. Thank you.” She gushes out, still trying to catch her breath.

“You even did better than our star runner.” The woman turns and points to the guy she was ogling earlier and says, “Spencer there has been in the lead for months. But, you just broke his record, nice job.”

Hearing his name, he turns to them and starts over. The front of his shirt is covered in sweat, and Moira feels her cheeks burning when he gives her a smile as he gets closer.

“I thought I had you back there, but you breezed by me easy.” He says with a light baritone voice, and has to tilt his head down a little to get a good look at her.

The adrenaline of the race is fading, and now all Moira feels is embarrassment and maybe a little flattered.

“Convince her to join the team Davis.” The male teacher says as both instructors head off across the field to pull apart two guys arguing.

Spencer doesn’t make any move to leave, and gives her a bright smile.

“I have to say, I’m impressed with the way you move. Any experience on track?” He asks.

“No actually, I’m just naturally talented.” She says, and then her eyes go wide as she realizes what she said.

Spencer chuckles and touches her shoulder lightly.

“No need to be embarrassed, not with how good you are. The coach is right. We could use you on the team.”

Before she says anything, Moira thinks back to her father advising her to keep a low profile. She knows just by showing off today, that she didn’t exactly follow protocol. As much as she’d love to run track all the time, she can’t risk getting caught. Who knew what would have happened if anyone saw her eye change. With a feeling of disappointment, she knows she is going to have to turn him down.

“I’d like to really, but my parents don’t really like me to be distracted. From school work I mean.” Moira mentally kicks herself, what a dork she is.

With a frown, Spencer says, “That’s too bad. I would have loved to see if I could have caught up to you. Maybe another time?”

With another smile and a wink, he walks away to a group of guys across the field. Moira stands alone, and wishes she could take back her answer. She thinks that he might have been flirting a little bit with her and it makes her cheeks flame up again. Shaking her head, she tries to tell herself that the last thing she needs is a crush on some guy. But she can’t stop her pulse from racing, as she remembers the way his fingers felt on her shoulder. Tossing aside bad thoughts, Moira joins the class as they do cool down exercises for the rest of class.

After gym, Moira gets to lunch still feeling the afterglow of running outside. Thankful of bringing her own lunch, she can avoid the long lines at the door. Making her way to the table in the back of the room, she notices Daisy and Ray is already sitting down. Their heads are bent close together, and seem to be talking about something important.

“Hey guys, what going on?” Moira asks as she sits across from them.

They both look up with the same worried expression, which makes her blood run cold. Raven and Marty aren’t anywhere to be seen and that makes he think something happened to them. Then she remembers Marty acting weird earlier, and can’t believe that she forgot about it.

“What happened?” She asks again.

Sighing, Daisy looks to Ray, so he says, “Marty got into a fight this morning, defending Raven. He used his persona and before he could jump the jock, a teacher stopped him.”

“He and Raven both have detention for the next week. The guys that were teasing her just got a warning.” Daisy finishes for Ray.

Moira can’t believe it, actually she can. Marty is a little touchy. It makes her feel good that he stood up for Raven, but it’s not fair they both got into trouble.

“That’s not right. They shouldn’t have been the only ones to get into trouble.” Moira says in surprise.

“Yeah well, the rules for us aren’t exactly fair.” Daisy says quietly.

Daisy looks down at the table, and pushes her meatloaf around on her tray. Ray puts his arms around her, and Moira can see tears in her eyes. She’s about to ask her if she is alright, when someone walks into the cafeteria that catches her eye. It’s Spencer. Now he’s wearing fitted jeans and white tee shirt, Moira thinks he looks better sweaty. She follows him across the room her eyes, and just about jumps out of her seat when she sees where he is going.

Straight into the skinny arms of the blonde demon Quinn, there goes that crush.

***

November 2013

Peter Fletcher stands on the opposite side of a two way mirror, and watches Moira interact with her father. She is two years old now, but the way she acts you’d think she was a five year old. Her father has been coming to visit more often these days. He had finally gotten clearance to do so, much to Peter’s dismay. He watches them now, with a sick fascination.

Moira holding her father’s hand shows him around her small room and points out all her favorite toys. After two laps, he convinces her to sit and read with him. To his surprise though, she ends up reading to him. They spend an hour re-reading a story called goodnight moon, and Peter can see tears in the other man’s eyes.

Peter knows he should feel something at this sight, remorse, jealousy, pity. But all he can feel is disappointment, which she is not turning out like he’d hoped. She is still showing no signs of infection, even though she has been getting monthly doses of serum now. He has been meeting with his business partner Dixon recently, and he told him if she doesn’t show signs soon, they will have to return her to her father. That is something he doesn’t want to do, and he hopes she will do something soon.

***

September 2028

That Friday after school, Moira finally had a chance to catch up with her father. He has been so busy lately that he is never home, so her step mother Caroline made a special meal for him. Moira did her best to help, but mostly got stuck buttering rolls to bake. Which is fine, she had never been an expert in the kitchen. With a pot roast with vegetables and rolls, they all get to sit at the table for the first meal together in the new house.

Her father sits patiently listening to everyone’s stories, and offers smiles when needed. Moira can’t help but to notice how raged he looks, since the move. She knows it has to be hard on him to be back here, because it is for her. She thinks about her mother constantly, wondering if she went places that she frequented.

After dinner, her dad went off to be alone in his study, and rather than help cleaning up, she joins him. Caroline and Annie have no problem picking up the kitchen, they usually prefer to do things just the two of them. And Damon didn’t even stick around to know what anyone was doing, he left with some new friends he made. Not that Moira cares, he never asked about her friends either.

Knocking on the closed study door, Moira pushes it open not waiting for a response. Her dad looks up at her from behind his computer.

“Hey kiddo, is everything alright?” He asks her, as she walks over to the couch he has along the wall in front of his desk.

“I guess so. I just wanted to see how you were doing, if work was going good?” Sitting down on the couch, Moira leans her head back and closes her eyes.

Ever since she was young, she always loved hiding out in her dad’s study. It felt so private and secluded inside, and was the perfect hiding spot from her siblings. She used to always fall asleep on this sofa, and then later wake in her bed in the middle of the night. It would scare her at first, thinking it was magic that moved her, but later realized her dad would move her. As she got older, she still would hide out and fall asleep, but then wake up to have the blanket on the back of the couch draped over her.

“Working is going about as well as can be expected. The rights bill should be getting voted on in about a month. Hopefully all goes well.” He says distractedly, as he types away at the keyboard.

“A month? That’s really fast isn’t it? I would have thought it’d take longer.”

“I’d like to say it’s a good thing, but I think it’s getting pushed so no one has to deal with it for long. I went to the facility the other day.” The typing stopped, and Moira knows her dad is watching her for a response.

“Oh? What was is like?” She says nonchalantly.

“The same hollow shell of a place. Doctor Fletcher was there, and he was asking about you.”

This gets her attention, and she opens her eyes and glares at her father.

“What the heck did he want?” She asks with venom in her words.

“Just wanted to know how you were doing, he wasn’t very subtle though. He mentioned that he’d like to see you, but I told him you’re busy with school.” He reassures her.

Sighing she says, “Thank goodness, the last thing I want is to see that guy. He still gives me the creeps even in my dreams.” She stifles a shiver.

“I know sweetie, I’m keeping him at bay for as long as I can. But listen, next month some government officials are coming into town for a meeting. So I won’t be reachable most days.”

Closing her eyes again, she just nods her head. She understands how busy he can get. It was like that when they moved to Rhode Island when she was young. It’s understandable that with the bill, things would be hectic here too. She’s used to fending for herself at home. Her step mother isn’t much help. After sitting in silence for a while, Moira eventually leaves her father to his work.