9 - Fish face

“Sonny! Tam-son! Tamsyn!” Lucas yelled out as he banged on his best friend’s bedroom door. He was holding her new training suit in one hand while he knocks on the door with his other. “I got your uniform, jackass. Open the door or I’ll slide it under and let you explain to headmaster why his golden girl is covered is using her new training suit to sweep the floor,” Lucas threatened. He blew his blonde hair out of his face and continued to glare at the door but instantly smirked when he heard something crash onto the floor.

“Ouch! Fuck!” Tamsyn’s muffled voice came from the other side of the door. And then the door was almost ripped off its hinges and the Orisha spawn glared at her best friend of almost 20 years. “What the hell, Luke? Why are you standing at my door at … oh,” she mumbled and ran her hand across her face. Lucas chuckled at the brunette’s realization. Thankfully he decided come wake up his friend when he did because, based on the two naked women in her bed, he would have had to be the one to vouch for her absence this morning at training. Tamsyn grumbled and grabbed the black carbon suit from her smirking friend’s hands and grumbled under her breath as she pulled on her door and stomped all the way to Lucas’s room across the hallway. She didn’t even acknowledge her friend as she went into his shower. It wasn’t like this was the first time. In fact, it happened so often that they both stocked their other’s hair and body products in their own cabinets in case of impromptu sleepovers and their mutual laziness.

Lucas only chuckled and laid back on his bed, making sure to put on his favourite show on the projector screen. It was one of the few pieces of home that Tamsyn enjoyed. The holo-screen. It came from an inventor from near to when Tamsyn was born. She wasn’t that well known but it seemed like a nice thing of the headmaster to give the friend, more like siblings most of the time, on Tamsyn’s 18^th birthday. A special age in an Orisha’s life. It was when the spiritual realm was unlocked in an Orisha’s DNA and their connection to their collective Orisha legacy was no longer able to be ignored. Neither Lucas nor Tamsyn had much use for a holographic display most of the time, but the northern demi-god did find some enjoyment in the cooking channels. He also loved when people documented their different histories and cultural attire. Lucas loved to see how different regions styled their people. It used it as inspiration when he and Tamsyn messed around with their styles and costumed for various events. It was one of the main reasons he was sad about not joining Tamsyn, to begin with. It was the perfect costume opportunity but neither of them could fully take advantage of it.

“Ye ready for training, sleeping beauty?” Tamsyn kicked her friend’s leg and chuckled when the Norse demi-god jolted from the bed and almost fell off. He jumped up and glared at her. She was fully dressed and so was he, but she still managed to race ahead of him and raced the field without a hitch. Lucas was a fit young man and, but he was not the only descendant from a god that he knew. Tamsyn’s immortal father just so happened to possess all of the power and speed of a volcanic eruption.

“How wonderful of you two to finally show up for practice,” a red-haired boy with big yellow eyes said while glaring at his two instructors.

“Sorry, buck, I don’t talk to people under 60 centimetres,” Lucas dismissed the boy and placed prepared the equipment.

“Pipe it, squid. Good on you though for being here early,” she said and ruffled the boy’s hair. He beamed at the contact. Tamsyn was always kind to him, despite the fact that most of the school was afraid of her.

“So, are we gonna talk about it, sonny?” Lucas asked but Tamsyn glared at him and pushed him back towards the equipment rack. She had no desire to talk about anything or at all, but she had training, so perhaps a wee bit of talking was expected.

“Get your head out of business and focus on the training yeah. We have a bunch o’ seventh years that need to learn how to move the literal earth by the end of the term,” she said to him and knocked him upside his head. He punched her in the arm, and she retaliated. This went on until the rest of their students poured in over the field. Reah was used to the friends’ antics by now, so he sat crossed-legged on the grass and waited for class to start. Being the youngest in his year made him used to being quiet and observing everything around him.

“Two, Sun. Two. Don’t ever feel guilty for being so greedy?” Lucas huffed and Tamsyn rolled her eyes. She knew he was messing with her but the last thing she wanted to talk about was last night. She was just thankful that the girls were asleep when he came to the door. She’d never hear the end of it if he found out whom exactly, she’d bedded the night before.

“Oh, fuck off,” she said and kicked him in the shin. Lucas whined and moved to kick her but Tamsyn nudged him to stop him as she noticed their students started to walk onto the field.

“Hurry up! The sun is going to get here before you do!” she yelled at the students. Their tired eyes widened and they all rushed to scurry onto the field. Nobody wanted to anger the daughter of Aganjú first thing in the morning. Especially not when she was going to make them carry rocks up the hill for backchatting. “Get into position, you lot! I don’t have all day. Everyone east of the rock follows Lucas and the rest of you follow my instruction. We will synchronise in the end, okay?” Her instructions were met with mute and obedient nods and a choir of curt ‘yes ma’am’. She was happy that she did not have to repeat herself. They were very well behaved for a bunch of 15-year-olds. She did not have the energy for that today.

“So… ready to talk yet?” the blonde man asked his friend. Tamsyn bit her lip and glared at a boy that stepped out of sync. They had spent the better part of an hour teaching the class the routine and now they were just about ready to do it on their own. It was sort of ridiculous and their form was rubbish but at least some of them were actually moving rocks instead of dancing around like dandelions without stems. “What’s with the reformed hoe phase, kid?” he asked and chuckled at her. She clenched her jaw and then finally met her best friend’s mischievous blue eyes. His smirk turned into a tender frown when he noticed the defeated look on his best friend’s face. Despite the fact that she was a badass Orisha warrior, she was still like a younger sister to him and he never wanted to see her in pain. The class was finally getting to a close.

“Alright, losers, get a move on. Your faces are making me ill,” Lucas yelled out over the field and the seventh years rolled their eyes. They were used to Lucas’s banter well enough by now to know that the older man was not serious. Not like Tamsyn. She might actually melt them but Lucas. He was more like a ray of sunlight than a muddle of lightning. He was the son of Freyr for gods’ sake… aka, the bringer of ‘rain, sun and peace’. “Okay, the puke faces are off, ready to talk yet?” he nudged her.

“I um… I’m a bit fucked, mate. I don’t know how to ….” She was cut off by Lucas’s favourite voice sounded from above them. None other than Abigale Newman was waltzing their way in an obnoxiously deliberate fashion. It was pathetic how hard she kept trying to get his best friend’s attention. She was one of the post-grads as well and had grown up beside them since they were children. She was a siren and yet she was the least enticing person that Lucas had ever met.

“Fish face, heard of a breath mint, I bet they can smell you all the way from the south pacific,” Lucas quipped and Tamsyn rolled her eyes at her friend as if to tell him to insult her better.

“Hoi, Tammy,” Abigale said in a low voice.

Lucas mocked her right in front of her face and then looked at her with a condescending look. “Don’t you ever get tired of throwing yourself at my sister, fish face? How many ways does she have to tell you that she’s not interested in your scaly self?” he mocked the woman in front of them but Abigale smirked at him. That was new, she rolled her eyes. He looked at Tamsyn and she had a guilty look on her face. Oh no! Shit!

“See you later, sexy?” she said and played with Tamsyn’s hair and she walked past.

Without another word, Lucas punched Tamsyn in the stomach. The Orisha spawn keeled over and glared up at her friend.

“Oi, don’t look at me like that. You’re the one that fucked a fish,” he said and grimaced like he was going to be sick.

Yeah, they had a lot to talk about.