***
Indigo moved through the crowded halls with ease. While everyone else was being pushed and shoved, Indigo was given a wide berth. She couldn't make out the whispers, but could make other voices out perfectly, the ones who didn't care if she heard, or those who wanted her to hear. Just like every other school day.
She found Morgan and Raven waiting by her locker, as usual. However, the expressions on their faces were not expected.
"Brad and his jock friends started another rumor," Morgan said before Indigo had even reached them.
"And a good morning to you, too," Indigo replied, twirling the combination on her locker.
"Where were you this morning?" Morgan demanded. "I tried to call but your mom said you'd already left."
Indigo shrugged. "I needed to do some shopping."
Morgan sighed. Raven sobbed, "Brad told about last night."
Indigo exchanged her books. "About how he tried to beat us up?"
"About the demon we summoned," Morgan answered bluntly.
Indigo dropped her books. "Excuse me?"
Morgan leaned against the lockers. "Word around the school is that Brad and his pals caught us trying to spell Karen 'again', and when they tried to stop us, we unleashed a demon."
"That's stupid!" Indigo cried. Some students stopped and turned towards the shout, only to hurry on when they saw the speaker. Indigo bent down to pick up her books. She slammed her locker. "Follow me."
Morgan and Raven followed their friend out of the school to a grove of trees where they had been sitting for lunch the past three years. Indigo turned back to her friends. "We don't summon demons."
"I know that," said Morgan, "and you know that, but Brad and his friends don't really care about the truth. They have it in for us."
Raven sat on the ground, smoothing out her skirt. "Why are they doing this to us?"
Indigo knelt down beside her friend. "We've dealt with this for a long time, Raven, and we'll get through this."
Morgan kicked aside a stray rock. "But I'm not too sure about the demon part."
Indigo stood up. "Morgan…"
Morgan faced her, her pale pink sunglasses falling down her nose. "I'm serious, Indigo, did you get a load of that guy. He came out of nowhere and he was not human."
Indigo pushed her own dark sunglasses up the bridge of her nose. "Raphael saved us. He's an angel, not a demon. I sensed…chaos, but not evil."
Morgan stared for a second, then smirked. "You've got the hots for him."
Indigo flipped her braid over her shoulder. "Oh, please, Morgan, that's ridiculous." Just then, the warning bell rang, saving her from the conversation. She picked Raven up and they hurried off to their first class.
Morgan followed after them, shaking her head. "Breeders."
***
Raphael was trying his very best to watch his temper. He knew an outburst would just give his questioning brother more to use against him. But soon, it became too much.
"Leave me alone, Mike, or I'm gonna stuff my sai where the sun don't shine."
Mike grinned. "We don't get sun down here, bro."
Raphael grumbled and tried to go back to watching TV.
But Mike was persistent. "Come on, dude, just tell me. Did she really kiss you?"
Raph threw him arms up. "It's no big deal!"
Mike stood with his mouth open. "No big deal? She kissed you! April's never even kissed us."
Raphael ran his hand down his face, remembering a few times April had indeed given them a quick smack on the cheek. "Look, if I tell you will you leave me alone?"
"Yes."
"Why do I not believe you?"
"Please, bro."
Raph left the couch and went over to Donnie's area. "Hey, Donnie, you got something in that junkpile that gets rid of annoying siblings?"
Donatello looked up from his latest project, something he'd taken apart and was now trying to put back together. "Nope, sorry."
Raph turned around and scowled at Mike's grinning face. "Look, I saved her and her friends from those jerks and gave her her book back. It was just a thank you."
Mike sighed. "I should have gone with you."
Don looked up again. "Raph, if she got close enough to kiss you, she may have noticed you weren't human."
Raph blinked. "I never thought of that. They didn't say anything. Ya think they'd scream and run."
Don shrugged. "Maybe they were too excited, or upset, to notice."
"Uh, huh." Raph headed back to his room. "I'm going for a walk."
"At this time of day?" Mike asked. It was rare for any of them to leave the lair before dark.
"I'll be careful."
***
Indigo waved as Morgan's car pulled away. She hiked her bag up and headed up the stairs.
"Ahem!" Someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned to a man wearing a bulky trenchcoat.
"Oh, it's you." She stepped back down to the sidewalk and faced Raphael.
"Hey," he smiled. "Told ya I'd see you around."
"Yeah."
Raphael frowned. She didn't seem too happy to see him. Did she know and was afraid of him? He growled. "Don't sound too enthusiastic."
"Huh?" Indigo blushed. "Oh, sorry, don't mind me, I've just had a very bad day." She sat down on the steps leading up to her house.
Raphael sat beside her. "More trouble with those jerks?" If they've hurt her…
"In a way. Except this time they threw words instead of punches."
"Insults?" Raph asked.
Indigo sighed. "Rumors. See, we aren't very popular at school. The latest story is that we; Morgan, Raven, and I, put some sort of curse of Karen McDaniel, the head cheerleader. She got caught last week with drugs and was suspended."
Raph thought for a second. "Did you?"
"No!" Indigo cried, looking at him like she'd been struck. "We never do curses!"
"Sorry," Raphael apologized. "So why are they saying you did?"
Indigo looked up at the cloudy sky. "Because they're just trying to hurt us. They don't like us because we're different and they don't understand. They want someone to blame, and I guess we're the scapegoats of choice."
Raphael looked at her face, trying to judge what she was thinking. Somehow her story got him thinking about how he and his brothers were treated.
"Anyway, Brad and his friends decide to come after us last night to 'teach us a lesson'. Then you showed up and scared them off."
Raph grinned. "Yeah, I did."
Indigo frowned. "And now they're saying we summoned a demon to protect us."
Raphael froze. "Oh, no…"
Indigo caught the expression on his face. "No, none of them saw you. Even if a human had shown up, they still would have cried demon."
"Oh…" Raphael lowered his hat. "So, you know."
"About what?" She asked, and he looked just in time to see her wink. It made him smile. "My lips are sealed, Raphael."
Raph stood up. "Yeah, I better get going or my bro's gonna have my shell, I mean," he looked down at Indigo and she nodded. "Okay, well, I'll catch ya later." He turned to go and turned back. "Hey, and Indigo."
She was already halfway up the stairs. "Yeah, Raphael?"
"You can just call my Raph."
Indigo smiled. "Sure, but I'm afraid I don't have a nickname."
Raph smirked. "I'll think up one."
Indigo chuckled as she climbed up the rest of the steps. She opened the door and looked around but Raph had left. After closing the door she waved a silent hello to her family, grabbed her mail, her latest issue of YM, and shot up more stairs to her bedroom. It used to be the attic, but she talked her mom into letting her move in after the last baby was born. Indigo rolled her eyes. At least she hoped it was the last, five siblings were more than enough.
She dumped her bag on her bed and pulled out her Book of Shadows. She also took out her quill pen and ink, the tools she always used to write in her BOS.
October 17th
The rumors are flying again, and I try to not let them get to me because I have to be strong. Raven and Morgan are both so upset.
I met a new friend today. Well, last night actually, he's the one who saved us. Raphael. Sounds like the name of a guardian angel. He could be for all I know, 'cause he's not human. I sense so much power from him, but it's very undisciplined. Maybe I could talk him into joining our circle, as a fourth.
Just then the doorbell rang and Indigo set her book on the desk to dry. She ran down to greet her friends and bring them upstairs.
"You'll never guess who I met today," Indigo said as she opened her door.
"Brad Pitt," Raven squealed.
Indigo gave her a look as she closed her BOS. "No, Raphael."
Morgan shrunched up her face. "That freak from last night?"
Indigo flicked Morgan's ear, making the hoops jingle together. "Don't say that like it's a bad thing," she said. "He was waiting for me when I got home."
"Stalker," Morgan coughed.
"Oh, he is not! We talked and he's really nice."
"For a non-human," Raven added, jumping on the bed.
Indigo sighed in defeat. "Uncle. Now, let's get on with the circle. First order of business…"
"We've been banned from the Halloween dance," Morgan said, grabbing Indigo's desk chair and sitting backwards in it. Indigo didn't respond. They'd been unofficially banned for the last three years, why should this year be any different? Or different from any other dance at that?
Raven perked up. "But they're having an open circle in the park."
Indigo nodded, although she'd known this ahead of time and had already signed up for a booth. "All good, but that's not what we need to discuss. We need to talk about last night."
Raven shivered. "I'd rather not."
"Wimp," Morgan chuckled.
Indigo silenced her with a glare. "It's important. We need to talk about this."
Morgan folded her arms on the back of the chair and leaned forward. "I say we do it, we can use the money."
Raven twirled a lock of black hair around her fingers. "We aren't suppose to accept money."
"We aren't supposed to be blackmailed either," Morgan snapped.
Indigo considered her friend's conflicting temperaments and reminded herself to remain a neutral balance. This was the hardest decision any of them had to face. Harder than deciding what college to go to in the fall. Harder than deciding to form their coven. They had to decide whether a man lived or died.
At first it had been easy. They'd all felt uncomfortable getting off the bus that night, and got even more so when they'd met their employer. Indigo had decided before hearing this person that she wasn't going to help. He was a mean looking man who spoke very little English. Luckily, one of his soldiers, Indigo assumed they were soldiers by the way they were dressed, spoke rather well. He told them that their master had been poisoned and they could do nothing for him medically. He demanded the girls use their skills to help.
"We can't," Indigo had said. "We don't have that kind of power."
The man only smiled. "You do. We were told that only you could help us. We are willing to pay generously."
Morgan stepped forward. "How much?"
"The amount will be decided when you agree."
"And if we don't?" Raven asked cautiously.
"You will die. You have twenty four hours to decide."
Then they were taken back outside where they lost Indigo's BOS and that whole other incident started.
Indigo blinked and looked back up at her friends. "We don't really have a choice. We refuse, we die, plus their master. It would be stupid to turn them down."
Both her friends lowered their heads and nodded solemnly.
***
Raphael returned home and tried to get back into his room without being noticed.
"Where have you been?"
So much for that idea. Raphael turned around to face Leo and his inevitable lecture.
"Do you know how dangerous it is to go out in broad daylight? What if someone saw you?"
"I had to do somethin', Leo, I'm fine."
"And what was that?"
"None 'a your damn business," Raphael snapped, retreating to the solitude of his room. While Mike and Don decided to share a room, although Don often fell asleep at the computer, Raph wanted someplace to be alone. He cleaned out an old ticket booth that was nearly as big as one of the cars, and claimed that as his own.
Leo stopped the door before it could slam shut. "I'm not through with you."
"Yeah? Well, I'm through with you."
Leo didn't budge. "Where'd you go Raph?"
"You ain't my keeper. Look, Don pointed something out to me and I had to see if it was true."
"Was it?"
"Yeah, but it ain't nothing to worry about. I took care of it." Raph rolled over with his shell towards Leo and went to sleep.
***