the day my life changed

The Day My Life Changed

"You scared me; I wasn’t expecting you to come flying back through the front door." Anne said laughing.

"What did you think I was doing?"

"I had no idea; I was just looking to see if that guy came back while you were up stairs. You changed your clothes."

I frowned at her and flapped my wings lightly, "Hello, you think I wanted to ruin my dress?"

She laughed at how she could miss something so simple. I turned and started walking back into the living room where Anne had left her pizza. As I went by, she reached out and touched my wing.

"Do you mind?" I asked shaking the goose bumps off. I had never had someone touch my them before.

"What? They’re soft."

"Eat your pizza. I’m going to change, I’ll be right back."

I went up stairs and got back into my white dress. I was about to put my sword back in its rack, then thought otherwise. I came back down carrying it in my left hand. Anne was sitting with her feet up on the coffee table with the open pizza box sitting next to her.

I placed the sword down on the coffee table, I didn’t know if the creepy guy would be back or not. But having the old sword close made me feel better.

"What’s the deal with that?" Anne asked with a mouthful of pizza.

"What, my sword?"

"Yeah." she said swallowing the bite.

"An old friend." I said musing at the it.

"It looks really old, where’d you get it?" she asked.

I sighed at the memory, "During the American Revolution. It belonged to a colonel. He commanded the Twentieth Dragoons."

"What’s that?"

"A type of cavalry."

"You mean like horse and all that?"

"Yes." I said.

"Wow. It’s hard to comprehending that."

"What, being alive so long?"

"Yeah.

I thought about that for a moment, "I don’t really think about it in truth."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"So did he give it to you?"

I laughed, "Not exactly. The Twentieth Dragoons were sacking a town that I was staying in; I don’t remember the name of it now. But anyways, the Twentieth were known for their brutality.

"They were killing and raping and burning things. The noise was what woke me up, it was right before dawn. I looked out into the street and saw them; I was indifferent about the war. I just wanted them to leave me alone.

"So I came downstairs and was going through the back door when this colonel grabbed me," I shook my head at the silliness of it, "When he grabbed me I almost laughed, I thought you got to be kidding me. I just threw him through a wall and went out into the alley behind the house.

"Well he didn’t think he got a far shake in the deal so he came after me with that sword drawn," I said nodding at it, "He hacked at me like a mad man, I moved out of the way and broke his neck."

"You killed him?"

"I did, I took his scabbard and his sword and left."

"Where’d you go?"

"I traveled west over the Appalachian Mountains onto the Plains."

"Weren’t there Indians out there?"

"Oh yeah, they were there. I’ll have to tell you about that sometime, my time with the Indians. I spent quite a bit of time with them, I miss it sometimes."

"You do?"

"It was simple; the people were really loving and loyal. My time with them was also where I learned to fight."

"You fought them?"

"Oh yeah. Different tribes fought all the time. They fought for food, land and slaves. You done with your pizza?" I asked looking at the half empty box.

"Yeah." Anne said closing it.

I took the box from her and put it in the refrigerator. When I came back Anne had the sword in her hand looking at it, she pulled it a few inches out of its scabbard.

"Careful, it’s very sharp." I said.

Anne pushed it back in and laid it on her lap looking at it, "It’s so old."

"You want to see something?" I asked.

"Sure."

I took my sword back from Anne and led her upstairs to my room. I returned my sword to its rack with a smile, and touched it for a second. Anne sat on my bed while I went to my closet; I grabbed a case that I had on the top shelf. I came back and sat on the bed with her.

I laid the case between us and I opened it. Inside were two objects that were very dear to me. One was a crude looking knife; the other was an old tomahawk.

"These were given to me by the Pawnee Indians. The knife has a bone handle from a buffalo, the tomahawk’s handle I’ve replaced over the years."

"They’re really pretty." Anne said handling them.

"They are, but that wasn’t their purpose." I smiled at Anne as she placed them back in their case. I picked it up and put them back.

"Anne hun, I’m going to take a quick shower and get ready for bed. Would you like to watch a movie or something?"

"That would be good."

"While I’m in the shower, why don’t you pick something, I have an online site you can pick anything you want. Just use the remote."

"Okay." Anne said reaching back and grabbing the control. I smile and grabbed a long satin green nightgown and went into the bathroom and shut the door. I quickly pulled my hair up and frowned when I saw the broken shower door.

"Damn," I grumbled.

I washed quickly, dried off and got into my nightgown. Anne had changed too;

she was wearing a little white spaghetti strap tank-top and was sitting against the head board with the blankets up to her waist.

"That’s cute." she said.

"Thank you. I know it’s not a risky outfit." I said getting embarrassed.

Anne laughed, "It doesn’t need to be."

She said pulling the blankets back; I nervously got into bed next to her. I pulled the blankets up and snuggled up to Anne and she hit play on the movie.

To my surprise it was an action movie. Anne was completely engrossed in the ridiculous movie. I didn’t care, I was with her and she was happy, so that was good enough for me.

It was late by the time the movie went off. I felt as if I could sleep right there where I was, but then the anxiety of what was going to happen over whelmed me. My heart started pounding in my chest and my breath came in small gasps.

As I slid down the pillow to lie flat, Anne leaned over me. She look deeply into my eyes, there was a burning behind them.

"I love you." Anne said and took my breath away.

The next morning I awoke in a sea of ecstasy. Last night was a night of magic, never in all of my years had I experienced what I had with Anne. In the moment of climax, my wings blew out and sent one of the bedside tables flying. Anne and I laughed and loved into the night. I slept in such bliss, when my alarm went off at seven I didn’t even mind. It was more time I could lay with Anne in passion’s oblivion.

I was lying on my back with Anne snuggled up to my side. She had her head lying on my chest, her gentle breathing sounded relaxed. I held her tightly with both my arms and my wings. I figured after almost breaking the furniture it was just safer to leave them out. I lightly chuckled at the thought.

"What’s funny?" Anne asked.

"I still have my wings out."

"They’re very warm, and safe."

"Safe?"

"Yes, I feel safe here."

"How are you this morning?" I asked, I needed to know if Anne felt the way that

I did.

"Amazing, not wanting to get up."

"I know. But we have a quiz today remember, and I’m also getting back my history paper."

"Let’s not go to school today, let’s just lie here all day today and forget the rest of the world."

"Sounds tempting, but can you imagine what your roommate would say if you weren’t home all weekend and then you didn’t come to school, nor I?"

"Good point. Blah, I hate responsibilities."

I pulled Anne tighter, and she snuggled closer. As much as I hated to get up, I was starting to feel how stiff I had become lying in such an unnatural position.

"I need a shower, would you like to join me?" I asked hoping to lure Anne out of bed.

"Oh yes, I’m a mess."

We laughed and started to get up. Once I was standing I really stretched, I stood on my tippy-toes and stretched my arms up over my head. My wings instinctively stretch out to my right and left, as I relaxed they fluttered a few times; I folded them up and rested them on the outside of my back. I wasn’t worried about putting them away; Anne had seen them plenty of times now. So I wasn’t self-conscious about it anymore.

"Wow." Anne said from behind me.

"Wow what?" I asked turning red.

"Your wings, I never realized how long they were."

I smiled and headed into the bathroom, as I brushed my teeth Anne started the shower, "Don’t forget to call someone to fix the shower door."

"Oh yeah." I said not wanting to remember what happened to it.

Anne finished showering before I did; it took a little longer to wash my hair and wings. I spent twenty minutes drying my hair. After I came out of the bathroom, Anne was already dressed. She was wearing some khaki peddle pusher and a cute light pink zip-up hoody sweatshirt.

I went into my closet and decided I wasn’t going to wear my normal school outfit. I grabbed a pair of black thick stitch jeans that were boot cut. I put them

on and dropped my towel on the closet floor; Anne leaned against the closet door frame as I searched for a shirt.

"That’s pretty hot." she said looking at me.

"What?" I said looking at her.

"You."

I looked at myself and understood what she was referring too. I was standing topless with just my jeans on. I started feeling warm from the embarrassment; I wasn’t used to someone ogling at me. I stretched my wing out to block myself from Anne’s view.

"Oh don’t be that way." Anne said playfully.

"Hush." I said and reached out and tried to shut the door with my wing.

Anne laughed as she stopped the door from closing on her.

"Do you remember how that turned out the last time you tried to shut a door on me?"

"Don’t remind me." I said grabbing something off a hanger.

I also grabbed a black lace corset out of a drawer and walked pasted Anne out into the bedroom.

"What do you think?" I asked Anne after I was dressed.

The shirt I grabbed a form fitting turquoise, with a deep V-necked button up that had French cuffs and had a large collar. I tucked it in and left the top button undone so that the top of my black corset was showing.

"Wow, what shoes are you going to wear?"

"Black heels."

"Wow, you’re going to be a little over dressed for school, but I really like it. What gives with the change?"

"I figured the hell with it. I’ll give Tammy something to really gossip about."

"Oh Pip, please to change to show up Tammy."

"I’m not. I’m doing it because I want to look nice for you."

"Thank you," she said coming over and giving me a kiss, "But you don’t have too."

"I know, but I want too. Let’s get to school."

I led Anne down into the garage; I figured there was no reason to go to school all

dressed up if we were going to go in my ratty old truck. I pulled the sheet off my other car in the garage.

"Wow." was all Anne could say when she saw my Mercedes SLSC AMG.

Anne gasped as I pull open the driver’s door; I don’t think she had ever see doors that lift up instead of out.

"Get in." I said sitting down.

As Anne got in I handed her my backpack, I fired up the engine as I opened the garage door.

"This car is amazing."

"Thank you." I said as I pulled out and went down the drive way.

As we pulled into the student parking lot, we were getting some strange looks from the students. Because we had an early class, I was able to get a spot near the front. I chuckled to myself as I shut the engine off.

"What?" Anne asked.

"Look who’s waiting for you." It took about a half a second for Anne to spot Tammy waiting on a bench by the front door.

"Great."

"Come on." I said swing open my door.

As we walked towards the door Tammy seemed surprised to see Anne walking with me. It was obvious she didn’t recognize me, I smile at the thought. I couldn’t wait to hear what she asked Anne when we got to math class.

"Hey Anne." Tammy said with surprise as she took me in.

"Hey Tammy." Anne said lifelessly.

"I’ll see you later Anne." I said walking passed Tammy without even acknowledging her.

"Who’s that?" I heard her ask Anne rudely as I walked by her.

"Don’t worry about it." she replied.

"What ever happened to serial killer girl?" I heard Tammy say as the door closed behind me.

"B***h." I said to myself. One of these days that girl is going to push me too far and I’m going to beat the brakes off of her.

As I walked to my class I could feel the looks of the other students watching me.

I should have never dressed like this today I thought to myself.

As I pushed open my classroom door I was glad to see there was hardly anyone there. My teach Mr. Oliver eyes widen when he took my change in.

"Good morning, can I help you?" he asked.

I shook my head; it wasn’t my change he was looking at. It was me, he didn’t recognize me.

"Mr. Oliver it’s me Pip." I said sitting down in my normal seat.

"Good gracious me, hello Miss Alexander. What’s with the change this morning, do you have a job interview after class today?"

"No," I said with a smile, "I had a good weekend and decided celebrate it today by dress up."

"Well I’m glad to hear it. If I may be so bold, you look really nice this morning."

"Thank you Mr. Oliver.

Just then, Anne came in looking annoyed. She saw me and sat down hard in the chair next to me.

"Hey."

"I’m telling you…" Anne said without finishing her sentence. She didn’t need too; I could tell she was fed up with Tammy.

"What’d she say?"

"Wanted to know who you were, what happened this weekend. Why I didn’t come home and all that."

"Was she waiting for you out there to ask that?"

"Yeah. I’m so ready to move out of there and tell her never to talk to me again. I’m so tired of her crap. You need a roommate?" she asked half jokingly.

"Sure, you want to move your stuff after school?"

"Are you serious?"

Before I could tell her I was, Mr. Oliver called the class to order and started handing out our test.

"Okay everyone; please clear off your desks, all but scrap paper, calculator and something to right with. Please don’t for get to put your name on your paper. I’m going to have sixty tests to grade today and I’m in no mood to guess whose paper is whose."

"Keep your eyes on your own paper today Miss Taylor." he said to Anne after giving us our tests. Anne stuck her tongue out at Mr. Oliver as he went by.

After he passed out them all out, he headed towards the door to leave, "You’ll have the whole class to do it, I recommend some of you to use that time to work on it, some of your homework has been horrible."

With that, he left. Class was an hour and twenty minutes long. I didn’t ever bother with scrap paper, math was easy for me. It took me about twenty minutes to breeze though the test.

"I’ll wait for you down stairs." I said to Anne.

She nodded without looking up from her test. I dropped it off at the front and headed down stairs to the student lounge. When I got down there, Tammy was sitting with her current boyfriend. They were looking gooey and were talking closely to one another.

When I got my cup of coffee I tried not to notice the looks from the other students. I just walked to the back and sat with my back to everyone. I pulled out my history book and snickered at some of the historical inaccuracy.

After a bit Anne finally joined me. She sat down in a heap and sighed, "I hate math. Were you serious earlier?"

"Yeah. We’ll go back to my place after school, get my truck, load your stuff up and that will be that."

Anne frowned, "Baby what’s wrong?" I asked.

"What if you get tired of me?"

"Why in the world would I get tired of you?" I asked.

"Because it won’t be like last night every night."

"I know that. But I know what I want, I want you. So why would I become bored with something I want?"

"Because right now I’m new and exciting. I don’t have nice things, nice cars, or even nice clothes. So what do I have to offer?"

"That’s simple."

"What?"

"You, you goose."

Anne smiled, but she didn’t look convinced, "I don’t know."

"You want to stay with Tammy?"

"No."

"Would you like to stay with me?"

"I would love too."

"Then what’s to worry about?"

"How about, what happens when I get old?"

"There’s ways around that if you’re worried about it. But I wouldn’t recommend it."

It took a second for it to sink in what I meant, "You mean?"

"Yes."

Anne thought about that for a moment, "Why wouldn’t you recommend it?"

"Well for one, there’s no way to tell if we could coexist."

"What do you mean?" Anne asked looking troubled.

"My kind tends not to play well with others. We could end up become territorial with one another. It could turn into a fight. And if it did, it would be to the death."

"Come on Pip, I doubt that."

"So do I, but would you want to risk it?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"After a while you still wanted me or not."

"I don’t think that’ll change anytime soon." I said with a smile.

"Great." Anne said looking over my shoulder.

I turned to see Tammy walking over to us, "I wonder what she wants?" I asked quietly.

"Hey Anne, who’s your friend? I don’t think I know you." she said looking for gossip obviously.

"Do you make it a habit coming over and interrupting conversations that don’t include you?" I asked rudely.

"Excuse me?" Tammy said angrily.

"You’re not excused; you’re annoying and using up my clean air. So go away."

"

Whatever!" Tammy said rolling her eyes and storming away. We heard a few snicker from around the lounge, I guess people heard our little exchange.

"After school sounds great." Anne said with a smile.

As we waited for history class, I pulled out my phone and called the contractor that built my house to see if he could come and fix the door in my shower. We talked for a bit and I hung up.

"Great news. He can fit me in tomorrow at lunch. He said the door is a standard one, so he can go and pick one up and put it in tomorrow."

"That’s cool. Good thing we don’t have school tomorrow. I’m surprised he’s able to fix it so quickly."

"I’m a priority client. He’ll drop whatever he’s doing for me."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, he made himself building that house. He hasn’t forgotten."

"Plus I’m sure he has the hots for you."

"That’s probably true, but I don’t care as long as he fixes the door. Look, I have to go to class. When I get out I’ll get the truck and come find you."

"Okay."

"I’ll see you after a bit."

"Love ya."

"Love ya too."

As I walked to class I tried not to notice Tammy sitting with her boyfriend.

"B***h." She mumbled at me as I walked by

I smiled, as much as she hated it; she knew I was out of her league. She knew that whatever her station in life aloud, it was nowhere near mine. I figured it was going to be an interesting history class.

As I walked into class I noticed my teacher take a double take at me, "Hey Mr. Corbin." I said taking my normal seat. It took him a second to put two and two together to get me.

"Morning Pip." He said and went back to the stack of papers he was looking over.

After a few minutes I could see Tammy outside the door with her boyfriend. They were saying they’re good-byes and looking completely disgusting in the process. I shook my head as she finally said good-bye and came into the classroom.

Her eyes about shot of her head when she saw me in my normal seat. The right side of her lip curled up in a sneer the seemed to fit her face so well.

"Like my car tramp?" I asked as she walked passed me.

"Been a lesbian your whole life?" she asked in a sarcastic tone.

"All right people, let’s take are seats please." Mr. Corbin said sensing the tension in our little conversation.

I couldn’t believe after all the things I’ve been through in life I was having this petty thing with Tammy, what a waste of space she was.

"I have your papers everyone; I have to say some of them were very disappointing. On the other hand, some of them showed some real promise. If you don’t like your grade, well you should have spent more time on them." Mr. Corbin said passing out our papers.

When I got mine I was shocked, B minus, "What the hell is this?" I said holding my paper up.

"I believe it’s more then you deserve." Mr. Corbin said.

"There isn’t one single mistake in this paper." I said flipping through it to make sure.

"For one, you work’s cited page was incomplete. Second, none of your sources were verifiable." he countered.

"My sources were cited correctly according to the MLA book required in the syllabus."

"If you look," he said flipping open my paper to the work cited page, "You’re missing just about everything."

"And if you look at the date of the publishing

you’ll see that the books I used didn’t have half that stuff."

"Your work cited page isn’t really the issue here."

"Then what is?" I asked getting pissed.

"I googled your books, and could not find them, nor could I find them in any database."

"It’s not my fault that this school is too cheap to have decent databases."

"Miss Alexander, I’m not going to debate this endlessly with you. Either be quite, or leave. You are not the only one in this classroom who wants their paper

back."

"Someone’s going cry."

I whipped my head around and glared at Tammy.

"Tammy the class does not need your comments, so please keep them to yourself." Mr. Corbin said, Tammy just smiled at me.

"I shall take this up with the head of your department." I said getting up and storming out of the class.

This was going to be the last time I will ever go to school, I thought to myself. And that Tammy, she’ll regret running her mouth at me. I went down stairs and headed towards my car. With no surprise there were a handful of boys standing around looking at it.

Great.

I hit the panic button and they all jumped when the alarm went off. They saw me walking towards them and they started to move off. I shut the alarm off and got in and slammed my door shut.

I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down. I flipped on the CD player and put some relaxing classical on. After about an hour I was calm enough to go back into the school. I got out, leaving my bag in my car, I shut and locked it up and headed for the administrator’s office

"I need to see the department head for history." I said flatly trying not to blow my top.

"Okay." said the office secretary, "About?"

"For one I would like to file a complete against Mr. Corbin, and I would like to dispute a s****y grade he gave me."

"Calm down dear," she said, "Mr. Dean has office hours to see students on Thursday after three."

"Thanks." I said turning around to head back to my car.

I got halfway there and I had a better idea. Tammy needed a little lesson about not pissing off vampires. I knew that Tammy always went to the bathroom to check her make-up after each class, so I waited inside the closest one near Mr. Corbin’s classroom.

I could hear kids filling out into the halls; I felt my blood getting hot waiting for

her. When the door opened I about grabbed the first person that came through the door, but it wasn’t Tammy. The girl looked at me weird and went into the first stall.

A few seconds later the door opened again and Tammy walked in and I saw red. I grabbed her by the collar and swung her around to face me.

"What are you doing you crazy b***h?!" she shrieked.

I slammed her hard against the first stall door.

"Hey I’m in here!" yelled the girl inside.

"Let go of me you kook!"

Without saying a word I punched the door right by her head. The door broke open and banged into the girl sitting on the toilet.

"You listen to me and you listen to me good. You don’t speak to me, you don’t speak about me. Then next time you do, you see this dent?" I said turning her so she could see my knuckle prints in the door, "That will be your face. You understand?"

I shook her once trying to get a answer, but I let her go when I saw her eye well up and tears started rolling down her cheeks. As I turn to leave the bathroom, I could hear the girl sitting in the stall ask if Tammy was alright.

Whatever. Children.

I just went home, changed and got my truck. Unfortunately, being mean to Tammy didn’t have the liberating gratification I had hoped it would. Seeing her cry, kind of took the stream out of it. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to see her when I helped Anne move.