The Air Out Of [Wattys2018 shortlist]

35

This chapter has been heavily requested to answer the questions of why and how. Get a glimpse into the lives and history of your favorite characters that makes them who they are today. Emotional, and heartfelt.

WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, THIS WAS THE MOST AWKWARD ENCOUNTER SCAR HAD EVER FACED since his time in Covia. While they should've been debating on the teams' next move in tackling Avine, or yet the secrets that have managed to rise out of the blue since their supposed alliance, everyone was simply looking at the ground in a manner that suggested they didn't or had nothing to say.

All secrets would've been revealed in due time anyway, so why hold it in? Why not save the others the trouble and delay it may cause. But as always, everyone failed to see Scar's logic and continued to keep to themselves. Finally, he slammed his fists against the table, he was never the most patient for that matter, "Waste time, all you want. We're already one anklet down and basically, everyone can die in the next second, for all I care, but I'm going to do something useful with the time I have left."

"Scar," Louis said timidly, "Take a seat."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?"

"How about we spill the beans on why we were chosen as the outcasts." Ellie suggested, "I suppose it'll get the ball rolling."

"That's not the type of thing we need right now, Ellie."

"No, but it's trust we're building here. The only part of training Aspyn had skipped. It's not strength, nor smartness, it's what makes us a team." Jess noted, "And apparently, it's come down to this. Whether or not we're disoriented."

Aspyn nods from her chair. It's covered in twig-like patterns, but as a part of the royal furniture collection, it's pure oak. The expensive type. She lays a hand on its rest and leans in closer to the group as a form of emphasis. "Right, go on."

"I'll start," Jess sighed, shielding her face with as much her hand can cover, "Britney is the most racist fetus you will find, so besides my silver eyes, I get discriminated for being ten percent latina."

Ellie scoffs, "Ten percent latina. What about me, zero percent Caucasian."

"I didn't say you didn't go through anything. In fact, we're here to talk about the things we did go through."

"Well," Louis coughs dramatically to settle the tension, "I had my trademark nickname. Broke boy, it was."

Scar watched as Aspyn sucked in a breath, she knew nothing about what they had managed to undergo, and for the sake of fairness, it went vice versa. Their lives were so completely different, as were they from one another, but they had still managed to look at one another with equality.

Equality.

"I was 'unwanted child', I did have parents, I just was unplanned. And got thrown into the orphanage as soon as my existence was discovered." He didn't want the pity, "It's what makes up the defense mechanism in me."

"So your legal guardian showed up when all five of us were stuck at the police station?" Jess asked.

"I suppose." He noted, "But at eighteen, I am a legal adult, he simply showed up because he's the closest thing I had to a relative."

"Leo?"

"Scandals destroyed me. Besides that, I was pretty high up in the -what- preschool hierarchy. Then I went through the goth phase, then the rebellious one." Leo laughed as he pointed towards the green highlights at the tip of his hair, and the hole in his nose meant for a nose ring, which Scar had never seen him wear at all. "Gave that up a long time ago." he nodded, putting his arm around Jess' shoulder, "But you never come back from things like that. In fact, you have a permanent target on your back, and all your fake friends leave you."

The group stared at one another in silence. A newfound proximity amongst themselves, but Aspyn had other plans.

She cleared her throat, "Well, I was the insecure one." she laughed, "It's obvious, isn't it. I couldn't deal with myself. I'd cake on five layers of makeup a day to hide my flaws, to the point that I'd spent my entire night working on it. My clothes, too. There was a certain standard people expected from the royal, let alone the fact that she was supposed to be the heir and the delicate beauty, girls in Covia wanted to be. And that just makes me sound like some daddy's little girl, but with insecurity comes depression, and with depression comes the judgment."

"As humans, Covians, we all have flaws. It scars us. Like me, you all paint yourselves over, wear a mask. You gain a layer of protection. No one knows who you really are until they break the surface. So we fight." she paused. "I fight for who I love, and who I might lose, and you should too. Maybe Luphoria's death was a warning, something Avine used to scare us off, but we know deep down we want nothing more than to destroy him. So let's wrap this possibly the final session we'll be complete with a word of motivation." She nodded. "We are who we are."

No one spoke. Finally, Ellie decided to break the silence. "Aspyn," she whispered quietly, "That was beautiful." and at that moment, Scar felt alright, he felt that he had found the family he never had, the relatives he kept on searching for, the friends he always wanted, and their imperfect reality was no more a hinder than it was a blessing. At that moment, he was just like everybody else.

Aspyn put her hand in the middle and declared it was time for a chant. Scar was suddenly nervous about her extreme change of attitude but didn't think much about it. They were a team.

And one way or another, Avine was most definitely going down.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

We don't really get to see the much of Aspyn through the novel besides being the perfect and strict character, so I thought I'd delve into a more motivational side of things. Also for the record, people work better when they're doing it with a goal, so that's increasing the ability they'll have in future chapters.

Finally, as Waterworks approaches it's final few chapters, I just wanted to say that I've grown to love each and every character, and I hope you do too. I've got so much in store, so please keep this story in your libraries, or FOLLOW @sophvergeletti for more updates 

Thanks my lovelies,

Soph