Adanic: Chapter 10

Our group at lunch that day included Topaz. I was distant, though still in touch with the conversation, because I didn’t want to attract more attention than my new skin needed. I continued to receive various comments about it throughout the day, and being one who does not indulge herself in vanity often, prefered to ignore it.
“Wasn’t that fire drill this morning weird, April?” Taylor asked me.
“It was”, I answered distantly.
“I heard that it was lit in the girl’s bathroom by an arsonist. Probably as a prank by the seniors”, Courtney said, munching on some Sun Chips.
“It’s rare that fires ever do happen on this campus. Usually, someone just pulls the fire alarm or it’s a regular drill”, reasoned Ella. Ella was another of my good friends.
“That’s true. But at least we got out of class for a while”, brightly agreed Diana.
Topaz had been silent the whole time. She finally spoke in the middle of various theories. “Really, girls, I think that you’re over-thinking it. Fire drills really aren’t that big of a deal; and besides, if it were something serious I’m sure we would have heard by now and been evacuated. It was probably just a harmless prank”, she said quietly.
With that making perfectly logical sense, the group returned to regular conversation. Questions stopped relating to my appearance and drifted closer to the topic of Topaz Cinada, the newest, most outstanding student in every possible subject.
“You’re so pretty”, said Diana in complete admiration.
Topaz blushed. “Thank you, but I’m really not that pretty”.
“No, you really are. You’re really pretty this morning, too, April. What did you do overnight? You can’t tell me that you didn’t do anything. Stop persisting that these are natural changes.”
“But they are”, I insisted. Everyone still looked unconvinced, which wasn’t a surprise. “How can my height have changed like this otherwise?” I stood next to Diana, who was just barely shorter than me now. We were about equal height.
“I’ve heard of strange changes like this before”, Topaz added suddenly in her clear voice. I knew that she hadn’t, but it was nice of someone to back me up, anyway. “Teenagers typically get them because they’re growing. When you’re in your teens as a human, your body has no definite shape. It could be one way one day and another the next.”
No one could counter against that. Topaz had a talent of ending things that should be ended. For the first time since I’d met her, I was actually grateful for her presence.