Chapter 4- Devil Eyes

As the day went by, Darren couldn't take his mind off Athena. Kyle had had to nudge him several times or repeatedly call his name to get his attention. Even the voices in his head sounded so far away.

"Athena..."Darren thought with a mental sigh. She really did look like a Greek goddess.

If only there was a way to make time go faster...

"Mr. Shaw?" A quiet voice called, cutting off Darren's thoughts.

Darren shook his head slightly and brought his attention back to his history teacher, Professor Stein.

"Yes sir." He answered.

Professor Stein had been watching the boy from the beginning of his class and the young man had been spacing out for a while. The professor wondered if he was also feeling what had made him so jumpy earlier.

"I don't mean to embarrass you before your peers but would you mind bringing your attention back to my class? You only have 15 more minutes to endure it." Professor Stein said with a warm smile.

"Oh. Of course sir. I'm sorry." Darren rushed out and slightly shook his head again before picking up his pen and using it to poke himself. He needed to get his act together.

Professor Stein nodded and went back to what he was saying.

"You're thinking about Athena aren't you?" Kyle whispered with a smirk.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Darren responded and Kyle just laughed softly before going back to taking notes.

***

"He's been so out of it since that girl showed up..." Regina thought as she tried to focus on what Professor Stein to no avail.

After how many years of trying to get him to notice her, some girl pops up out of nowhere with definitely fake red hair, contacts, dressed like she's heading to a party after school and he loses his focus for the rest of the day?!

Regina was sure the girl had no idea Darren was hers and that was why she'd been laughing with him and leaning into him during their Calculus class like some roadside prostitute. Yes. That was definitely the reason, so she was going to have to tell the redheaded witch herself that Darren was off limits.

A snap drew her attention away from the slut and she looked down to find the tip of her pencil broken. She smiled as she pushed the broken tip of her new pencil around on her notepad. If new girl wasn't careful or ignored her warning, she was eventually going to end up like this.

***

Moira knew the ball had been set in motion and as much as she wanted to tell Athena about it, she couldn't. Her strength was barely restored from her last battle and she needed more time to heal. She just hoped she recovered in time. The strain on her energy every time she took control of Rainbow's body was reducing so Moira thought that was a good sign.

"It has to be." She said with a sigh.

"What has to be?" Rainbow asked sensing Moira's distress.

"The reason you're still single." Moira said easily and yawned.

"What?" Rainbow was suddenly confused.

"The reason you're still single has to be related to the suffocating amount of perfume you wear and your earsplitting voice." Moira said and blocked the link between them. She could almost hear the "What's that supposed to mean???!!!!" Rainbow would have yelled. Sharing a mind with such a loud girl was probably slowing down her recovery.

***

"I'm single because I want to be." Rainbow said in a low voice.

How could that old geezer say she was single because her perfume was suffocating? Rainbow didn't exactly know Moira's age but with the way she was always nagging and saying annoying things, she was sure the woman was older than her grandmother.

"That's probably why she's so bitter." Rainbow thought.

Her and her newest best friend, Athena Hall, were currently seated in an art class. The fact that the said best friend didn't know they were best friends didn't really matter. Athena would figure it out in time.

Rainbow had really never seen anyone so pretty. The art teacher Mr. Kim kept talking about capturing the essence of whatever they were creating on their canvas and Rainbow wondered how one could capture an essence they didn't know. So instead of painting Athena like she had planned, Rainbow decided to paint her cat.

She had found Serena injured on the side of the road one evening on her way back from school and had instantly fallen in love with her. It had taken Serena sometime but she had also fallen in love with her and Rainbow knew it. Although Rainbow had noticed a lot of weird things lately.

Serena had started sitting by the window as if she was waiting for someone. One afternoon, Rainbow had seen a gray cat sneaking into her backyard but before she'd been able to get to it, Serena had gotten to the window facing the back of the house.

Rainbow had been so happy, she'd laughed and taken a picture of Serena with her head sticking out the window. Pet love was so cute.

She glanced at Athena, noticed the look of concentration on her face and smiled. They both loved art and music. She couldn't see what could possibly stop them from becoming sisters.

***

Athena was trying to paint the woman that kept appearing in her dreams. If there was anything she wanted to capture clearly, it was her.

She was certain the woman had been speaking Irish but Athena didn't really know anyone from there. She'd been there on vacation but she hadn't made any friend so the woman couldn't have been someone she'd met before. Besides, with features like hers, Athena was sure she would have remembered if she'd seen her somewhere before.

Her full hair was so white and unnaturally beautiful, her eyes were so light they looked like glass but they was something sinister about the glint in them. Then her lips were painted black and the colour of her lips only made her pale skin really stand out. She was beautiful in the horror movie kind of way and she gave Athena the chills.

What was this woman looking for in her dreams? Athena thought with each brush stroke. If she were human she would have thought that the dreams she'd been having were merely because of her wild imagination but as a supernatural being, she knew better. She was going to have to think about what the woman had been saying all the months she'd appeared in her dreams.

"Extra stress" were the two words that came to Athena's mind and she groaned inwardly.

***

Three hours later the bell went off just as Athena was finishing her painting.

"Woah." Mr. Kim said from behind her as he studied his newest student's work. The only person that had been able to get a "woah" from him had been Rainbow May with the painting of a rainbow over a waterfall but this potrait stunned him.

How could anyone so young capture quiet darkness? The woman in the painting looked like an angel at first glance but after a closer look, you could almost see the devil in her eyes. He certainly hoped she wasn't real.

"Athena Hall. This is simply marvelous." Mr. Kim said as he turned to face Athena who was still looking at her finished work.

"Thank you sir." She answered absentmindedly.

"You're very welcome." He said and patted her shoulder before walking to the front of the class as students started packing up their things.

"Your works will be set in the drying room and you can pick them up at the end of the day. Nice work everyone." Mr Kim said and left the class bit not before glancing at Athena who was now talking to Rainbow. He hoped she was okay.

***

"I can't believe you got a "woah" from Mr. Kim!" Rainbow said, or more like shrieked, and clapped her hands while bouncing in her seat beside Athena.

"What's so special about a "woah"?" Athena asked already getting a headache from Rainbow's constant shrieking.

"I really don't know but when I came newly and I got it after he saw my first painting, our mates said he'd never given a "woah" to anyone before." Rainbow said. "This really means we're sisters!!" Athena did not see the hug coming and winced when she felt something about to crack as Rainbow was squeezing the life out of her.

"Can't. Breath." Athena managed to gasp out and Rainbow immediately released her with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry..." she said and giggled.

"It's okay." Athena said as she tried to get air into her lungs.

"Oh! I didn't introduce you to my painting!" Rainbow exclaimed and drew Athena to her easel to show her Serena.

"This is your cat?" Athena asked as she studied the pristine white feline with colorful bow around her neck licking her paw and looking like she was the queen of the world.

Rainbow nodded and sighed. "She's really prettier in person though. Her name's Serena."

The name drew Athena's eyes away from the painting and to Rainbow's face. Could it really be the same Serena?

"What?" Rainbow asked when she saw Athena looking at her.

"Have you been seeing any gray cat around your house lately?" Athena asked but she had a feeling she knew the answer already.

"Yes!" Rainbow shouted and Athena winced cursing her supernatural hearing.

"Serena started waiting by the window recently and then one day I saw a gray cat with dark eyes...were they dark?" She asked herself, thinking back to that day.

"I'm not really sure...but I think they were dark..." She shook her head and continued.

"...and then Serena stuck her head out the kitchen window when he entered our backyard. I even took a picture." Rainbow said as she brought out her phone to look for the picture.

Athena already knew it was Bruce she'd seen and she also knew he would probably scratch her eyes out if she didn't "put in a good word" for him. And besides, if Rainbow was living in their neighborhood then she...

Athena stopped as she realized something.

Rainbow was living in her neighborhood.

As if hearing her voice in school wasn't enough, she just had to be Athena's neighbour?

"Ah! Here it is." Rainbow said and she turned to screen of her phone to Athena who groaned in her head when she saw Bruce standing in a yard littered with weird decorations and ornaments looking up at a really pretty and really white cat with an orange bow around her neck whose head was sticking out of a half open window.

"Serena's usually not like this." Rainbow said as she looked at the picture with Athena.

Athena lifted her head from the screen and asked "What do you mean?"

"I mean Serena's really feisty, especially if someone else hangs out in her yard but with this gray cat, it's almost as if she's...shy." Rainbow said thoughtfully.

"Like, you know how we all imagine we'll be if we were to meet Chris Hemsworth?" Rainbow asked.

"No, I don't but go ahead." Athena said. Personally, she found the guy pretty basic.

"Well, that's how it is when Serena's with the gray cat. I've never seen his owner and I don't even know if he lives in the neighborhood. He could even be a stray! Oh why didn't I ever think of that? He could have been hungry all the time he came to see Serena!" Rainbow suddenly felt like a mean person. How could she have been so clueless?

Athena couldn't hold it in any longer and she let out the laugh she'd been holding immediately she saw the guilty look on Rainbow's face.

She was definitely going to tell Bruce that someone thought he was homeless and hungry. At least that would put a hitch in his prance.

"Rainbow, that cat's name is Bruce and he's definitely not homeless." Athena said after she had laughed enough.

"He's yours?" Rainbow asked.

"Yup." Athena answered and gave Rainbow a reassuring smile.

After a second of quiet, Rainbow squealed and hugged Athena.

"Oh! So we're neighbors, sisters, best friends and soon we'll be cat-in-laws! Oh this is so coooolll!!!" Rainbow couldn't believe her luck.

Neither could Athena. How had she ended up living this life?

"Rain- Rainbow?" Athena squeaked out.

"Hmm?" Rainbow asked.

"Air."

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm just so excited." Rainbow said and released Athena.

"Oh dear! It's lunchtime already?" Rainbow asked as the second bell went off.

Athena was already gathering her things and heading for the door.

"Wait! We're going home together right?" Rainbow called after Athena.

"Sure, I'll give you a ride." Athena said as she made her way to the door.

"Yay! See you later!" Rainbow said and waved at Athena.

Athena let out a breath as soon as she got outside.

Humans were naturally stressful but Rainbow was downright exhausting.

I'll give you a ride? What the hell had made her say that?

Athena sighed and made her way to the admin office. She was going to cross that bridge when she got there.