Chapter Thirteen: Moriko & Diana Meet

“I did not need you to rescue me,” Moriko said. She had felt no menace from the stupid girls. Just anger. But she would get back at some of them at least. She really looked forward to Soccer practice at the end of the day.

“That’s okay,” Diana said, “I know what it’s like to be the kid with the smelly lunch. Ya know?”

Moriko laughed. She liked the cleverness she saw in Diana’s brown eyes. She had a bit of a puppy dog look, with her long brown hair and large eyes. But she was quite tall, a hand’s breadth higher than Moriko at least.

“Yes,” Moriko said, “it’s not the first time, though. Poppa insists on some things.” She shouldn’t offer too much information. Changing the subject, she finally put her passion for soccer over her insecurity. “You are Diana Roman, right?”

Diana looked skeptically at Moriko, “How do you know that?”

“I play soccer,” Moriko brightened. “I saw your picture in the display case by the principal’s office.” She couldn’t keep the note of disdain from her voice when she mentioned the principal.

“Oh,” Diana replied. She looked to Moriko as if she were remembering something a long time ago. She looked sad. Not knowing what else to do, Moriko carried on. “It is very awesome that you came in 3^rd in the region. You must be excited.”

Diana looked relieved. “Oh, that,” she said. “It seems like a long time ago. Hey, class is starting soon. Why don’t you come have lunch with me today, my treat?”

Moriko was surprised and wary of this invitation, but she did need a new lunch. “Yes,” she said hesitantly. “Thank you.” She noticed the hinting edges of a horrible scar on Diana’s shoulder. She would ask about it later. Hadn’t the principal been enough? You are sick, she thought to herself. You see monsters everywhere. But it was how she’d been raised. She could not remember a time when her toys had not been made of steel. 

The first bell rang, signaling five minutes to get to class. Diana knelt to get into her own locker, but Moriko noted, all Diana did was put the soccer ball inside.

“I have math first period,” Diana said. “Do you know where you need to go?”

Moriko finished putting her wet lunch containers, wrapped in paper towels, into her locker. Seeing Moriko’s empty locker, Diana remembered that she’d forgotten to bring any decorations for her locker. She usually personalized it as quickly as possible, mostly with movie posters. She also put her art tube in the locker. She was still armed, and thankfully this school did not have metal detectors. But she hated to leave her new blade behind. But she must be wise. She closed her locker.

“I think so,” said Moriko with hesitation. But she pulled out a half sheet with her school schedule on it. She showed it to Diana.

Diana brushed her hair back over her right ear. The hall had emptied around them, Katrina Vandenberg leaving with a glare that neither Moriko nor Diana paid attention to. 

“You have biology class. That’s right next door to where I’m going. Come on. I’ll show you.”

Moriko nodded, smiling slightly, and fell into step beside Diana. “Did you grow up here?” Moriko asked. 

“Yeah,” Diana replied, “but I went to Catholic school up to 8^th grade. When I came here as a freshman, they all knew each other already.” Moriko knew Diana meant the girls who’d been teasing her. She even recognized some of them from the soccer team photo.

“I am always the new girl,” Moriko complained. “We move around a lot.”

“You’re the teacher’s assistant second period for Japanese? Is your dad the new teacher? Mr. Hatsunaka?”

“Yes, he is.” Moriko maintained a neutral tone regarding her father. 

“I have that. I hope he’s nice. I’m afraid I’ll be terrible at it. It will be my first foreign language. I mean, I know some Italian, but that doesn’t seem foreign to me.” Diana thought she was rambling. It had been so long since she’d talked to anyone her own age about anything.

“My papa is not… nice. But he will teach you well. I will help.” Moriko offered. 

“Thanks! There’s your class.” Diana indicated an orange door with the number T4 above it in brass. “Hey, are you any good?” Diana  inquired. 

Moriko, caught off guard, said, “What do you mean? I am much better at Japanese than English, though I am working on it.”

Diana grinned, and Moriko saw the gawky little girl Diana felt like. Moriko smiled despite herself. “No, silly. I mean at soccer.”

“Oh,” said Moriko, “thank you for showing me the class.” She backed away toward her first class. The bell would ring any second. “As far as soccer…” She smiled. “You’ll see.” She left Diana, and walked into biology class.

Chapter Twelve: Diana Gets Dominant

Diana drove the Volkswagen to school in silence, absorbed in her fears and speculations.

She couldn’t bring herself to care about Vitto’s death, other than being still shocked (at least a bit) that her dreams had somehow come true. She knew what his death looked like. She’d killed him. Then she’d set his dogs free; to help blur the truth? She was confused about her motives in the other form. She looked at herself in the rearview mirror after parking in one of the last free spots in the lot. 

“I am not your bitch,” she declared to herself, though she immediately felt unsure about the response to that. 

When she parked, she grabbed her bag, which always had a few books in it, even during summer, and her soccer ball. It was a totem. She just kept it in her locker for luck, since the practices and games used equipment of the home team for the most part. She walked through the school with her head up for the first time, maybe ever. She could not summon the servitude to cower here. 

Inside the senior’s locker hall, Diana smelled fish. She passed other kids holding their noses as they walked out, complaining. A group of kids, mostly girls, were standing around, gawking at someone on the ground. Diana pushed her way to the front, something she never would have done last year. But now, making contact with others seemed to give her confidence. No surprise, many of the girls Diana dreaded seeing most were there. All of them in fact. Worst of all was Katrina Vandenberg, beauty queen. She was the head cheerleader and her mom was the coach. They practically were the cheerleading squad. Diana couldn’t have cared less, though. 

The girl in the center carefully replaced some pieces of fish from the floor, and mopping up rice and what looked like apple sauce, with a small pile of paper napkins from the restroom. No one could be bothered to help her, though someone had obviously helped her spill her lunch. This explained the smell of fish and apples. 

“Sorry teachers  don’t make enough to buy their kids clothes,” Katrina mocked. Diana didn’t understand at first, but she watched the girl with the spilled lunch. She had long, black hair in two pigtails at the back of her neck down to her shoulder blades. When she looked up, she had Asian features, with a flattish nose and bright black eyes that gazed cooly at Katrina. Her clothes were department store specials a few years out of date and a size too small for her. When she stood, her skirt came to her knees. Diana noticed her shoes were very good running shoes. New ones. But still, Katrina was making fun of her clothes. Really? Diana felt her cheeks flushing and her hands balling into fists. She squeezed the soccer ball. It felt like putty to her, but she was gentle. 

“Man, that’s gross. How could anyone eat that?” a boy complained loudly.

Diana could sense… dominance, an aura of power  coming from Katrina. But she smelled humiliation and anger from the girl with the glittering eyes, though she showed neither. The girl was trying to think of something to say. Finally she blurted out a string of Japanese (Diana thought she recognized it; she did want to take Japanese this year) and angrily resumed cleaning up the mess. This was met with tails of laughter from the girls standing around. Diana knew what it felt like to be this girl, teased and kept outside. She wasn’t pretty like Del’; too big and too bookish… ‘Diana Horseface’ they’d called her freshman year. These girls had already decided they didn’t want this new girl on their team and the first day of school hadn’t even started yet. She repressed a growl.

Diana tossed her ball. It took the boy (Trevor Young, she thought his name was) by surprise and bounced perfectly off his head and back into Diana’s arms. She caught it without looking and addressed the girls. “Nice,” she said. “So much for esprit decor, hospitality, or basic human decency. Good job team.” She’d realized most of these girls were her teammates on the soccer team. She had a picture somewhere of last years (almost) winning team. Katrina had tossed her a ball at the last second. The photographer, for whatever reason let it stand. Only Diana’s family had protested, but when he’d offered the opportunity to photograph the entire family for Del’s graduation for free, her dad had to accept. Right?

She saw surprise, recognition, and attitude light across their faces like christmas decorations blinking different colors. Katrina was a pro at the social game. She practically tackled Diana. “Di!” she squealed. “Goal-darn winner! How ya been, sistah?” Katrina had shining blonde locks and a perky personality that reminded Diana very uncomfortably of her sister Del.

“We need to talk,” Diana said. She smiled up at the rest of the team and onlookers, including the girl in the middle. Then Di swung Katrina up and pushed her back into the lockers with some force. 

“What the fuck?” Kat objected, trailing off at the end, rather than make a big scene about being tossed around by someone as uncool as Di.

“Why don’t you and the rest of the jackals help with the mess and treat our new friend with some respect?” Diana leaned on the locker looming over the smaller girl and pinning her in place without actually touching her. But she didn’t quite get it.

“Or what?” Katrina asked, then whispered, “Are you going to beat me up? You can’t even ask a guy to dance or…”

Diana leaned in conspiratorially, “I want to rip out the soft flesh of your belly and eat it. It’s going to be so fucking yummy.”

Katrina looked shocked. “You’re fucking sick, Di. Get off—“

Diana grabbed the other girl’s chin, still driven by anger. “Do it. Or I will rip you to fucking pieces. Mmkay?” She patted Kat on the cheek.

The girl looked stricken, as if she’d seen something awful in Diana’s eyes. Diana smiled a thin, cruel smile and let her go.

Katrina surged forward, “Come on, ladies, let’s get this taken care of. Di’s right. What a bunch of bitches.” There were some laughs, but the girls mostly helped or at least got out of the way.

Diana, afraid to stop moving forward because she might question every damn thing she’d just done, turned and fixed on the Japanese girl standing up and letting the other girls finish cleaning up. She stepped forward as the crowd dispersed. The first bell would ring any minute.

“Hi,” she said, “I’m Diana.” 

The girl looked up at her sullenly. “My name,” she said in quiet, well-formed English, “is Moriko.”

Chapter Eleven: Diana and her Mom

Diana dismissed the events of the night. It was the first day of school and she was not looking forward to it, but… she was. In spite of her fear of everyone’s pity over AJ and her horror at the thought of showering with some of those girls for another year, part of her was excited. She felt alive for the first time in months. That was good. Right?

She smelled her mom’s cooking from downstairs, but she paused at the top. This would be the first time that AJ wouldn’t be sitting in the kitchen on the first day of school. Some of her earliest memories were of AJ in his high chair making faces at her in response to the ones she made at him. More recently, as a teenager, he could be a real asshole sometimes, but still she loved him. She thought of her mom and headed downstairs to keep her company.

There were just two plates set at the table. So that’s how it would be from now on? Diana thought. Daddy never eats breakfast in the morning anymore; always working late. Delores is off at college majoring in cheerleading or communications or something. AJ was dead. Murdered. Now, it was just her and her mom.

Diana rounded the corner. Her mom kept very fit by working out at a local fitness club regularly. Her gorgeous, sandy blonde hair was up in a simple bun. She still wore her bathrobe. Diana smiled. But she noticed her mom had a grip on the counter at the sink. Her knuckles were white and her hands shook.

“Mom?” Diana said. It was as if the damn had broken and her mom choked back a sob, opening her arms. Diana rushed forward and hugged her mom. She cried, too. “I miss him so much, mommy.”

Her mom just nodded and held her daughter tight.

After a time, her mom let her go and dealt with her tears. She handed Diana a napkin. 

“There’s something else, Di.” Her mom said. 

“What?” Diana drank her orange juice but the food didn’t actually seem appealing. 

“Cousin Vitto,” her mom choked on the name, tears building in her eyes again. “He’s been murdered. Honey, I hate to be the one to tell you all this. Oh my god, Di, something happened and his dogs ate him. His guards found him. It’s so horrible.” Di shrank away from her mother, as if that could protect her from the truth of her dreams. She recalled the song of the moon and the fear and horror diminished. Regaining control of herself, Diana hugged her mom again. They’d been friends since before Delores was borne. The holidays wouldn’t be the same without him.

Vitto. Mm mm good.

Diana looked toward the dining area table, out of some reflex picked up by her mother. Or maybe the thought of sitting at the holiday dinner. 

AJ sat at his usual seat, right beside hers, on the window side of the table. He glared at her with baleful, black pits where his eyes should have been. “Diana, please,” he said, “I can’t hold out forever. Please, Di.”

Diana choked back something in her throat. Had she been about to growl at her brother? At the memory of Vitto? She put her hand over her mouth and backed away. “I gotta go mom,” she said. And fled out the door to the garage.