The Girl With Metal Claws

Mistakes

NISH

What was she doing, Nish thought to herself, in a cafe alone with Keith Stefansson?

She watched him awkwardly bite off his burger while Nish nibbled at her food. Suddenly, she remembered what Rose used to say to her when they were friends.

"If he's nervous, he glances at you now and then, and he's a little hesitant at first, he's crushing on you." Rose had said. At the absurd thought, she shuddered.

"You okay, Nish?" Keith asked, leaning in a little. He did like those two words a lot. And she found it weirdly cute. Nish found herself sighing, her eyes planted to her untouched food. "You didn't even start eating?"

"If.. you have something to say, say it already," Nish let out, placing her hands on the table as she watched Keith frown.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that it doesn't make sense. You calling me, out of all people, to hang out with you," she asked, matter-of-factly. She expected a confession from Keith but in return, she found him chuckling.

"Wow, you really do set your expectations to the lowest, don't you?" He said, smiling. But instead of a smile that should assure Nish, he wore a smile of.. guilt.

"Am I wrong then?" Nish asked.

"Haha, yeah!" Keith's beaming smile was enough to convince her. She finally felt safe enough to pick up her burger and start devouring it. She felt a little squirmy under Keith's observatory eyes.

"How do you know me, then?" She asked after a few minutes of eating in silence.

"Through.. that incident. I didn't want to bring it up, I thought it'd make you uncomfortable," Keith was incredibly considering which put Nish in relief. He was the first person who hadn't made an absurd statement while mentioning the cafeteria incident.

"I see," she sipped on her coffee, trying to avoid his eye contact. His smile felt contagious.

"The whole school knows you by the way.. just not in the best way," Keith went on, trying to be generous with his words.

"Yeah."

"When I first saw you, I thought you were a little weird," Keith confessed. Hearing those words out loud, Nish kept on fidgeting her fingers under the table.

"Okay."

"But you seemed like a nice person," he smiled again. "You are a nice person, actually. People just judge others without thinking."

Nish kept nodding, anxiety building up inside her. She was not used to being talked about on her face.

"Thanks. You.. too," she said. They stared at each other. Keith cleared his throat and they looked away. The moment fed the butterflies in Nish's stomach.

"So.. people have been talking recently," he started speaking. His tone started sounding more specific.

"Recently?"

"I mean, since today," he cleared his throat again. A pit formed in Nish's stomach because his demeanour could only point to one result. Someone had seen her on the day of the school incident. "People have been talking about you and.. that girl Meraki. Suddenly, you're friends and everything. People love talking, you know right?"

Nish blinked at him, confused and scared. She could have been worldly-wise while dealing with him if he wasn't a popular jock or a guy.

"Why?" She asked.

"You two are friends, right? That's what they're saying."

Nish didn't have any intentions of inviting more questions because she was certain that she would mess up things for others.

"Y-yes. We are... friends." Nish hesitated before completing the sentence, knowing how unbelievable it would sound.

At that moment, Nish watched Keith as his eyes brightened up and he leaned in, beaming his signature smile.

She didn't know what his expression meant.

"Can I..", he said with wide and expectant eyes, "can I get her number?"

~

"Please? Come on! Give it to me!" Nish wailed. She was sitting with everyone in the basement and she knew she didn't have to do it now, but she was doing it. She was asking for it.

"I'm not gonna give you my number so that you'd gamble it with some rando," Meraki put out her statement loud and clear. It made Nish almost want to drop the idea.

"He's not a rando! He's popular, he's.. good looking, he has a nice.. smile." She trailed off the topic.

"You're in love with him," the remark came from Isis who was observing.

"What? Ew. Also, you don't get to have an opinion when you pretend like you're too good for us in school." Nish made another of her snarky comments. She wondered why they slept on her when she had to deal with a guy.

"If he wants my number, why isn't he asking it from me?" Meraki shrugged, trying to make sense out of the situation.

"Because, apparently, you're scary and unapproachable and you're a well-known bully. Also, recently, a hated hot topic." Nish explained.

"That's the dumbest sh*t I've ever heard," Meraki made a face.

"That's high school for you," Isis added.

Suddenly, a pair of hands clapped, dragging all the attention. Gabrielle sat with a grim expression and she forced a smile.

Since the day of the Westwood Central incident, things have changed for everyone. Elliott seemed distracted most of the time, Fred took it upon himself to treat Garry and Jack who were injured that day, Meraki had turned tamer like she had aged 10 years more in a day.

Isis sat, indifferent. A little worried.

~

"Go stand there," Gabrielle said. While the others practised in the basement, Gabrielle and Nish stood on the footpath beside the main road.

It was still bright outside and cars passed now and then. Nish looked in front of her, at the decaying road.

"There?" She asked.

"There," Gabrielle held her head high.

Nish figured she didn't have much choice but to follow the instructions. She had agreed to it in the first place. Even if the reason she agreed was blurred in her mind, she went on with it.

She stepped forward, walking slowly towards the main road. She stood in the middle of the road and faced the way the cars were approaching.

"Concentrate.. I'll tell you when you're good to go," Gabrielle said, her voice having a hint of encouragement to it.

Nish had been practising whenever she could, in front of the mirror, even as far as using it in the school corridors. But no matter what, she just couldn't come to use it in front of people.

"What do I do?" She said as she stared straight ahead. No cars were approaching at that moment.

The order was to stand in the middle of the road and be invisible. And when a car approaches, if it stops or changes directions when it comes near Nish, she'd fail the test. It'd happen because she failed to stay invisible, making the driver aware of her existence.

She took a deep breath and relaxed her body. The only way that she could control her power was by letting herself go. She called it the "numbing" effect.

As her powers welled up, she could feel the response as she started losing the feeling of having a leg. It travelled up, numbing every part of her body like it never existed. She could feel not being seen. As Nish looked down, she could only see the empty ground.

Nish looked up, determined to keep that concentration in her mind. Suddenly, she spotted a black car approaching. She set her feet firmly on the ground and looked back at him, hoping the car would keep driving straight without noticing her.

The car was driving straight towards her. Nish planned that seconds before the car hit her, she'd move out of the way.

That's when, she felt a strong shooting pain in her chest, travelling up to her brain. She had felt a similar pain before when she tried too hard to control the powers. Her body started fluctuating, with no stability in being invisible.

But, Nish kept aiming to succeed in the test. She kept her feet firmly planted on the ground and her gaze fixed on the running car.

"MOVE! COME BACK!" Gabrielle started yelling at her, scared and anxious. "You'll get hit, you i***t. MOVE!"

Nish couldn't hear her anymore, couldn't stop herself from facing what was in front of her. The car was charging straight at her but she didn't move. She would succeed.

The car didn't change its direction, and neither Nish managed to get out of the car's way in nervousness. She should've listened. She should've listened.

Suddenly, the car stopped an inch away from hitting her. Nish could hear her shallow breaths in her ears and feel remorseful. She crouched down, getting back the hold of her body. She hadn't learnt how to control her body while being invisible yet and that was her drawback.

She looked up at the car. Her eyes went wide.

Jack drove the car, Fred sat beside him and Garry was at the back. They looked equally shocked at the bizarre but controlled incident.

"Old man George was right. We're all the same.." Jack remarked with a scowl, "..We are all suicidal freaks."

~

Ellesmore was back to normal. As the damage and destruction never happened. And there was Nish, in school, after another take-out sandwich.

She shook her head. Everything felt disappointing. Whether it was the test she failed or getting her hopes up about the pretentious cafe date with Keith. He ended up contradicting himself. He did have a motive behind trying to talk to her. Everything felt more uneasy, harder.

The classes passed too fast and it was difficult to concentrate.

She was heading to the cafeteria when she heard someone call out her name. At the unusual event, she turned around.

"Hey!" Keith, with his beaming smile, ran over to Nish. As he stood in front of her, all the eyes fell on them. Nish felt a little humiliated by how someone else's presence always raised her importance. Every time...

"Hi," she sighed.

"Why the long face? You okay?" He said, leaning in to scan her face. She felt herself leaning away from him.

"Yeah, what's up?" She asked, trying to look indifferent.

"Look, I might sound desperate but.. can you give it to me now?" Keith had a strange grin on his face and he almost looked like he was blushing. Maybe he was, Nish thought. "Actually, there's a new diner that has opened nearby so... I was hoping I'd ask Meraki out."

He smiled. Yes, Nish thought, he was definitely blushing.

She could've denied him, said she didn't have her number or didn't have anything to do with Meraki, she could've lashed out at Keith for using her as a mediator. But she found herself not wanting to crush his expectations or his gleaming eyes.

She shook her head and nodded.

"Your phone?" She took his phone from his hand and started typing in a number. Nish still didn't have Meraki's number. So she deliberately typed in Nish's number herself.

She watched Keith smile down at the number and looked up.

"Thanks," he nodded. He was about to leave when he turned back to her again. "Can I.. get your number too?"

Nish's eyes widened as she realised an undeniable fact. She had never met a guy as manipulative as him.