Souxie Lafayette
“I heard Maggie almost made a fool of herself.”
I looked up from my food to see Clementine Harold standing over our table like an ultra-bright figure wearing all white from head to toe.
She wanted everyone to know she was of Legacy status with a single glance.
Her short curls hovered just above her shoulder and her raised chin and nose was so high in the air, you’d think she was giving Harvey and I a peek inside her brain.
It was a late night with barely ten people left lingering in the dining hall after it was closed.
Harvey and I were the last to get the provided meals before they closed up the kitchen for the night.
The second and third dining hall were already closed down, so they usually left this open for cleaning up and another option for study hall.
Aside from the floating banners of the different organizations, and clubs, they were in the process of decorating the school in preparation for the games.
When Harvey told me this is where he comes to learn information about the school before it happens, I decided to tag along to see exactly what he meant.
“Hello to you too, Clementine,” I greeted as her eyes immediately focused on Harvey. He was wolfing down his beef stew when he looked up, adjusted his frames and stared back at her, unmoved. “She didn’t make a fool of herself at all.”
“So what is this?”
She tossed a crumbled-up piece of paper my way with an attitude that was misguided. She was jealous of Harvey being this close and knowing him, he picked up on it almost instantly and grinned.
“She’s one of yours?” He asked with a mouth full.
“Hush, Harvey,” I muttered as I flatted the paper out. When I saw the animated loop of Maggie with wild white squiggly hair, red eyes, and cartoonish fangs poking out of her mouth as she attacked the poor witch boy to the ground, I shook my head. “Nothing of the sort happened like that.”
“They’re literally trying to do a witch hunt on her. What the fuck is her deal and why is she not answering her phone?”
“She’s in Legacy Park, you should go see her,” I said.
“Where is the fish with the locs in all of this? Did she not turn into King Kong and defend the woman in white?” She pressed. Harvey turned his head to let out a sneeze that sounded strangely more like a suppressed laugh.
“Clementine?” I let out.
“I’m just saying! This is not a good look for her, for the Betas, for anybody! You need to tell her to get it together because if I get a hold of her, I’m going to hurt her feelings. You know how sensitive she can be while pretending not to be.”
Without another word, she turned and walked away like a president with no team or group behind her for once. Harvey reached for the paper to see as his eyes blackened for a brief moment behind the frames.
“This school is going to make her want to leave,” he said.
“Why do you say that?”
“The last standing First Family member that we know of? The other one is locked up waiting trial? Years and years of people worshipping and fearing The First Family and now…people feel the reverse is happening. They think this is some sort of liberation or freedom from the oppressor bullshit when in reality, it’s about to be chaos.
You need fear. You need control, and power in a society where equality doesn’t work the same way it does for above. ”
“That’s not necessarily true,” I defended. “And she has a brother, and a few cousins left.”
“Where are they then? They’re not stepping up and showing themselves.”
“She’s not either. She just happens to have white hair.”
“Which makes her a target of people’s hatred towards that family.
Unfortunate but that’s the reality,” He pushed his glasses up.
“I grew up hearing about the First Family. This almighty powerful family that was rumored to eat people and drink their blood. She is a nightmare and bedtime story come true for a lot of us you know.”
“Are you afraid of her?” I asked softly as I began picking over my food.
When I looked up, his eyes were blacked out, a swirling mass of darkness just staring back at me as I smiled.
I knew he’d be offended by the question.
He wasn’t going to entertain nor answer me.
Instead, I looked up at the floating banners as I watched them all suddenly change to the school colors with our trojan mascot head on the front and back.
The paintings and wall art decorating the walls began to transition into snap shots of athletes as early as the first games ever held.
Something that started out behind a local church as a way to mimic our own Olympics and field day. A way to release that animal predator hormone, get together, and rejoice as a community. It honored the fundamentals of our society. Community, tradition, education, and prosperity.”
“They’re getting it ready,” Harvey said as some of the wall art began playing loops of videos in black and white.
You could see the girls lining up in a row with the letters D C on the front of their sweaters cheering on the men as they took to the field.
The sound of the doors bursting open caught us off guard as I turned to see the dean strut into the dining hall with her assistant behind her.
She was taking notes as the dean stood in the center looking around at the change of decor and colors.
Harvey pulled my chair closer to his as the legs scraped the floor.
“Anything regarding the First Family needs to be removed,” I heard her say. I looked at Harvey who watched her carefully, analyzing and taking in information like a sponge. He would occasionally look up at the floating banners once more before looking around.
“When the media arrives, we want to look like a neutral school with zero tolerance for predatory behavior,” she went on as she stepped into the second dining hall with the doors closing behind her. Without warning, Harvey glanced at his phone before suddenly packing up his things.
“Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
He didn’t respond, just grabbed my things along with his as we quickly made our way out of the Dining Hall and back onto the Grounds.
It was quiet for the most part. No band practice, no athletes running around, nothing but a few students heading to late night classes or back to their dorms for the night.
Yet as we walked further toward the traditional side of Drew Collins.
Where the dorms, commons, and other living facilities were, I could see the small crowd gathering.
It was nothing like Legacy Park or Legacy Row where students were a bit more focused, and independent.
Whereas here, community was at an all-time high.
I saw more of the flyers depicting Maggie as a monster scattered across the ground, chomping and biting away at the paper as it turned red before repeating itself.
It made me sick to think somebody had this much time on their hands.
“What is this?” I asked but Harvey grabbed my arm and pulled me in close as we came up on the first courtyard of dorms. There were students hanging their heads out the window looking down while the rest gathered around in clusters, listening to the few in the center speak.
I could barely see above the shoulders and backs of those before me, but Harvey moved us closer until I caught an opening.
It was a young woman wearing all black, down to the lipstick and eyeliner with multi-colored locs hanging freely as she spoke.
Harvey’s arm wrapped around my neck, keeping my body close.
“They say they want us to be the change we want to see!” She shouted, using her pointer finger to touch the side of her neck as her voice projected into the air. “But they never tell you how much blood is sacrificed!”
“Mmmm,” someone hummed. I gripped Harvey’s warm arm and laid my chin against it. When I felt him lean close to my ear for a whisper.
“She’s a true clairvoyant unlike some of these students that pretend to be on paper to get into this school.” I rolled my eyes until I felt him delicately kiss my ear.
“My people have been the change! We’ve been did that! They just didn’t like the shape it took! I come from hoodoo!” She shouted with a tap of her chest.
“Woo!” Someone let out while another clapped.
“Yass friend!”
“I come from hoodoo!” She repeated. “My hands, these hands, learned the land before they learned the law! We buried thoughts and prayers where no one thought to look!”
“Preaaach!”
I looked around seeing the crowd growing thicker as the woman looked up at the sky, feeling a renewed sense of magic and energy around her. She was most definitely a witch.
“They call the Underground fragile now,” she let out with a smirk as she rolled and curled her arms like snakes until her skin slowly transitioned into patterned scales where her hands formed the head of two snakes hissing at one another.
“Funny how our systems only feel fragile when the powerful, the almighty, the First of magic…suddenly feel threatened because the weak are finding out just how strong they are without them…”
“Yass!” Someone shouted.
“Yes ma’am!”
“I know that’s right!”
Her arms began to stretch as the snakes moved, wrapping around her body as her eyes closed and her mouth opened wide to show her own snake tongue.
“Control only works when the people at the bottom believe they belong there, but not anymore!”
Everyone began to get amped up at her words as Harvey mugged a man trying to slide towards me with an inviting smile. It wasn’t until he saw Harvey’s face standing directly behind me, that he continues moving until he was standing further back on the other side.
“So hear me when I say this! Not as a threat! Not as a promise!” She charged. “A war is coming! Not the kind with banners and armies but when earth chooses sides!”
Her arms suddenly took a shift back to her regular skin as the bangles draped down against her arms. She continued to look up at the sky, eyes rolling to the back of her head where you saw nothing but white space.
“Where the sun remembers what it’s supposed to restore, the moon remembers what they are, and the earth becomes what she’s meant to be! A war where balance will no longer ask for permission or wait for it to play out! The universe will reset itself, and when it’s over!?”
She let the pause linger as everyone hung to her every word. She lowered her head, eyes white as snow, lips black and shiny from the lip stain.
“Don’t ask who started it, looking to blame…
Ask who will be there in the end to see and remember it.
Thank you so much. My name is Kayla Montell.
Third year spiritual student with a concentration in world economics and a minor in prophetic literature!
That was my poem titled War is Coming! Thank you all so much for coming out and staying around to listen!
Please, if you want a copy of War is Coming, please stop by the library and pick it up and make sure you vote for best Open Mic on the Grounds performance!
I need everyone to go vote, Kayla Montell! Third year!”