1 Month Later
Autumn walked into the orchestral room with a sense of eager anticipation. In the past month, she had gone from a novice guitarist to a competent musician. Her vocal training had also enjoyed an accelerated rate of accomplishment. While she was nowhere near the ethereal level of haunting beauty exhibited by Heidi's voice, she was on par with some of the best singers in the high school.
Miss Devons had taken a leave of absence for undisclosed personal reasons the day after Autumn had met her but had left explicit instructions with the substitute that Autumn and Heidi be allowed access to the classroom after hours. Autumn had expected Miss Devons to return after a few weeks, but she was beginning to worry that she wouldn't see her for the rest of the year.
The substitute teacher was always curt and made it clear that he wasn't pleased with the after-hours arrangement. Considering he didn't even have to stay with them, Autumn felt he was acting a little childish. One of the other teachers always stopped by and locked up when they were done.
Heidi had not exhibited any supernatural abilities since supercharging Autumn's equilibrium on the balance beam a month ago. Autumn had almost convinced herself that she had imagined the anomalous incidents. There were enough small reminders that Heidi was extraordinary throughout their daily interactions that Autumn knew she hadn't imagined anything.
In their earth science class, Mr. Lawson had explained the theory of plate tectonics and subduction zones, showing how the continents fit together like puzzle pieces. Autumn had been fascinated by the revelation, but Mr. Lawson had noticed Heidi was slowly shaking her head with a frown.
"Did you have something to add, Miss Rockwell?" Mr. Lawson had asked with a raised eyebrow.
Heidi's head did the classic tilt as she regarded him, much like a bird eyeing a worm. "How do you explain the fact that the plates fit together like a puzzle on the pacific side as well, if Pangea was a concatenation of landmasses between the Atlantic divide?"
"While there are similarities, they clearly do not fit together on the pacific side," Mr. Lawson replied with a shrug.
"Not at the current size of the planet," Heidi agreed with a nod. "When the planet was smaller, the land masses were connected on both sides."
"Are you suggesting the planet is growing?" Mr. Lawson asked politely, with a puzzled crease to his brows.
"All celestial objects are growing," Heidi answered, looking slightly sad at their obvious lack of comprehension. "The energy grid has to maintain a constant increase in extrusion in order to maintain three-dimensional spatial balance. That's why there are overlapping stretch marks on the surface of celestial objects. The evidence is obvious, even in the primitive satellite imagery currently available to scientists."
"Don't believe everything you read on the internet," Mr. Lawson replied after a moment of uncomfortable silence. He proceeded to present the dynamics of continental drift, making an obvious effort to avoid Heidi's gaze.
The event would have been odd enough, given the verbal content of the exchange. The really weird part was the sense of how right it seemed when Heidi spoke of the planets and moons growing. There was something in her voice, a confidence, that made it almost impossible to doubt her.
There was also the incident a week ago with the didgeridoo. The two of them had visited some of the local restaurants that hosted live music. A band had been playing at a pizza shop, with the didgeridoo used as the starring instrument in most of the songs. Heidi had asked Autumn why they were using a medical device for entertainment. When Autumn had asked what she meant, she had clammed up and refused to talk about it anymore, though her eyes stayed fixed on the didgeridoo throughout the hour they spent watching the band play.
After the performance, Heidi had asked the guy playing the didgeridoo if she could try it. He obviously thought he was humoring a young teenybopper as he handed it over with a confident grin. The grin had vanished when Heidi began playing a series of staccato tones that set all of the glass in the building to vibrating, producing an overtone of crystalline harmonics. The air seemed to hum in waves around Heidi as she played it, and Autumn felt like her bones were being slowly liquefied. Heidi abruptly stopped playing and handed it back to the now white-faced young man and told him it was two inches too short and half an inch too wide.
"Are you ready to rock?" Heidi asked as Autumn entered the classroom. It could be a little disorienting, the way Heidi could switch from ultra-mature to excited teenager from one second to the next.
"Ready and willing," Autumn replied with an eager smile.
"Good, I've got a new track laid out that needs a vocalist," Heidi told her, leading her into the recording studio.
Even though Heidi was writing all of the music and had a far better voice than Autumn, she had Autumn provide the vocal lead in over half of the compositions. She seemed to have no sense of self-importance or conceit. When Autumn had asked her why she didn't take the vocal lead in more of her songs, she had explained that it wasn't the kind of song that required her voice. She had even mentioned finding a third person to enlist, insisting they needed at least one more harmony for most of the songs.
They spent the next two hours putting the vocal tracks together with Heidi's latest arrangement. While Autumn had spent a month watching Heidi create an average of two songs a week, replete with dozens of orchestral instruments layered over hundreds of tracks, she was still in awe of the transcendent result. It was like seeing a modern-day Mozart on crack. Heidi would record each track with each instrument once and never have to redo the track. Her timing and technique were flawless.
Autumn sighed as Heidi put the computer to sleep, signaling an end to their recording session. Just like that, two hours was gone.
"So I get to meet your mom tonight," Heidi noted as they left the room.
Autumn smiled suddenly as she remembered that her mother would finally get to meet Heidi today. She was taking them both out shopping, since none of Autumn's clothes fit anymore. In just one month, Autumn had dropped by three sizes. Her mother had been impressed at first, then slightly worried at how quickly she was dropping the pounds. Her worry had been slightly assuaged when Autumn pointed out how healthy Heidi appeared to be after going through the same ordeal. Then there was the fact that Autumn felt healthier and more full of energy than she could ever remember feeling in her entire life. The new diet and exercise regime were only a part of it, according to Heidi. Having her head in the right place was the most important part. Having music as a channel for her inspiration was the driving force to keep her overall motivation levels in high gear. Heidi had told her that a diet without a cause was like a car without a driver.
As they left the building, Heidi's head swiveled to stare at a cluster of older girls several dozen feet away. It looked like the cheerleading squad, with Heidi's sister near the front of the mob. They were following a short red-haired girl, pushing her as they followed closely behind her.
"Nobody likes dykes, bitch," the lead cheerleader said caustically with another rough shove. "Go join the basketball team and see if they can't teach you how to be a girl."
"Yeah, lesbo," another cheerleader sneered. "Maybe if you tried somebody besides your dad you would actually like it."
Autumn cringed as she felt the flare of personality combust next to her. The demigoddess was back, and she was not happy.
Heidi marched over and stood between the cheerleaders and the red-haired girl, standing eye-to-eye with the lead cheerleader. "Touch her again and there will be... repercussions."
Lucinda, standing a few steps behind the leader, immediately turned and started walking away without looking back once. She obviously could learn.
"Look at this," the leader jeered to her friends, leering at Heidi. "Aria's girlfriend is here to protect her."
Heidi's unwavering gaze seemed to suck the light into a concentrated point as she stared silently back at the other young woman. An air of uncertainty rippled through the mob as some unknown sixth sense warned them of impending danger. The leader, trying to hide her sudden unease, barked a laugh and tried to shove Heidi to the ground. A split second later, she was the one on the ground at Heidi's feet. Autumn hadn't even seen Heidi move—just a brief blur of motion.
Taking their leaders example, the remaining mob decided to attack, obviously believing that strength was in numbers. Autumn watched in astonishment as Heidi tore through the dozen girls like a scythe through wheat. Bodies flew through the air, followed by agonized screams and pathetic moans as Heidi spun through the mob like an agent from the Matrix. When she was finished, over a dozen girls lay on the ground in various states of consciousness.
Several teachers came out of the nearest school doors, running toward the moaning pile of cheerleading wreckage in alarm.
"What happened?" One of the teachers asked her as Autumn stood watching the mess from several yards away.
"Um…" Autumn stammered, unsure of where to even begin. "Well, those cheerleaders attacked my friend, and she just defended herself."
The teacher looked over to where Heidi was holding the tearful red-haired girl in a gentle embrace. "Wait a minute," the teacher said with a frown. "Which girl was attacked?"
"Heidi," Autumn replied nodding toward her friend. "The one with the black hair."
"And you're saying she did this to all of these girls?" the teacher asked disbelievingly.
"Yep," Autumn nodded firmly. "All of them. She just told them to stop harassing the red-haired girl, and they attacked her."
"We'll see soon enough," the teacher said evenly. "It should all be on the surveillance system."