3. How Much Can She Eat?

*Elentari*

I got to class just before the professor closed the door and locked it. He was strict about being on time. I missed a test that way. If I had missed this one I would have failed. That would have been awful. Serenity came forward as soon as the test was in hand. I watched through my eyes as my body did things without prompting. She understood things so much more than I did. It was almost as if she had years and years of math behind her.  Sometimes I still feel awkward about it though. 

The test was done and turned in and I made my way to my English class. I needed to go turn in my paper and I’d be free of that class too. On my way there, one of the hellspawn came into view. I disliked my step-siblings almost as much as they disliked me. I didn’t bother using their names to address them the majority of the time, normally just calling them hellspawn or the terror twins. I paid him no mind, but one of the shadows took over and nimbly moved me around him. He had tried to “accidentally” bump into me. It didn’t work and he fell over from the lack of resistance. I laughed a bit. The shadow's voice growled, “Serves him right.” And disappears to the back of my mind. I keep going like nothing happened. 

I drop my paper in the drop box on the professor's desk, initialing next to my name on the paper on the wall. Turning back to the hallway, I took a deep breath. Lunch, then culinary final. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. I saw little blue lines coming from people. Not everyone, just some. A few of them were connected to the person next to them. The ones that didn’t have one seemed to be all older people at the college. 

“Is this real? Am I hallucinating?” I asked myself in a half whisper and jumped when Serenity answered. I still get startled by her from time to time. She made herself known when I started high school. “Yes, we’re seeing it. It’s real. It will be explained tomorrow, on our birthday.”

“I mean, I get you are all part of me, but you say ‘our’ birthday as if you’ve been here since my conception.” I wasn’t sure why that’s what I thought of the beginning of the “being there” but it was. I felt her smile. 

“We have been.” At least 3 voices said at once. I jumped, completely taken aback. 

“Well, don’t all speak at once…” I mumbled, slightly annoyed. This was it, the last day. Last lunch period. Then, the last final. Of course, I have lunch before I have to go cook. I ate a normal-sized lunch today because I knew this meal would take longer to make and I would be hungry again. 

“Yo! Silk!” A girl about my height calls out and waves at me. “Got a spot for you over here, girl.” She’s the pep to my goth. Bouncy blonde with a stripe of teal in her hair. Her eyes were bright green, like gemstones. She had a slim build but was muscular like a gymnast. She’s a terror when she’s mad though; her mood swings are like the color contrast in our wardrobes. 

“Hey, Audra!” I said as I sat down. She never gave me a choice if I wanted to be her friend or not, she simply came in like a hurricane and demanded attention, almost like an overgrown puppy. It was hard not to like her. “You look like you’ve got enough food for the whole football team…” I looked at her lunch, eyes wide. I don’t know how she does it. 

“Oh, this is an appetizer, I’m coming to your culinary final and gonna sample the world cuisine there. Gotta keep my energy up.” She laughs. 

“You’d have to ask Chef about that.” I reminded her. He doesn’t always appreciate her barging in. She fake pouted at me with a pathetic statement of how it was the last day and he wouldn’t be so cruel. 

I swear she sniffs the air and growls. I looked around. When I see her do those things someone we don’t like is usually about, but I didn’t see anyone. “Did you just growl?” I asked her. 

“No, but my stomach did,” she started to play it off like always. “I am looking forward to the homemade cuisine!” She gets up and starts to clean up the table. 

“Even my headmates said you growled,” I said as we started to leave the cafeteria. 

“You’re still calling them headmates?” She asked me with a quizzical glance.

“Well, yea. Don’t know what else I would call them. I have DID, it’s a bit more acceptable to say headmates than the aliens living in my mind…” I sigh, “People already think I’m strange enough as is. I don’t need to give them more reasons. Saying I’m the overload of a collective might get me that 5150 status, the step-witch keeps threatening me with.”

“How many do you got up there anyway?” She asks. If it was someone else I might punch them out for asking, but it’s Audra. She’s my bestie. 

“Aren’t you curious today? Well, it started out as one full being. I’m at one full being, three shadows I can’t distinguish, and more mists than I can count.”

She tilts her head as if she was debating Einstein's theory of relativity. “That’s odd…” she says to herself, shrugging a bit. “Okay, well we can keep discussing how odd you are later. Right now it’s time for your last final and for me to get a free meal after you sweet talk Chef!” She exclaimed excitedly, taking my arm as we walked into the building.

Fragrant smells fill the air, I breathe them in. I swear I see Audra sniffing like a dog again. “Or a wolf..” one of the shadows pops into my head indignantly, as if I had insulted it. I placed my school bag at my station and walked up to Chef. I was one of his favorites, that’s why Audra wanted me to ask him about her being there. “Hey, Chef. The food thief wants permission to be here today. She wanted a free meal… or four.” I knew how much she ate. 

“Yea, that’s fine…” he said as his voice trailed off. He seemed a bit absent-minded today. I looked at him, studying him. The door to the classroom opened and I turned to look, realizing my eyes were following a blue line; it seemed thicker than most of them that I'd seen today. The one from Chef went to the lady standing at the door. She called for one of the boys in my class and said they needed to go home because of an emergency. Her eyes landed on Chef and she looked scared. He looked terrified. She dragged her son out quickly and Chef’s whole mood changed. He seemed crestfallen. I feel like I’m watching a sad rom-com and returning to my seat. Audra looks at Chef and seems to know more than me. She walks up and says something, watching quietly at him. After that, he calls the office and asks for a sub to proctor the cooking portion of the final and once the sub gets there he takes off as if he had to go put out a fire.