The Girl With Metal Claws

Delinquents

ELLIOTT

One name that was familiar to him was that of Meraki Knight. It was true that she had anger issues but he saw it in her eyes that day.

She couldn't control herself and after she got thrown out of Sandra's group, her social status got worse. And that was enough to build up a resentment inside her, Elliott thought.

Because for someone who was in the spotlight for all these years, suddenly getting boycotted wasn't so good.

The Phoenix didn't act up again. It felt like she was giving everyone a break before making another outrageous comeback.

The next person Elliott had his eyes on was Isis Blaire. Another girl with a rumoured and hated social status in the school but had a lot of potential in his eyes.

She almost got rusticated from the school the previous year for breaking into the school at night and stealing question papers. That was an act no one had ever pulled off because of the strong school security.

After that, she decided to sell the papers but got outed by one of the buyers. Luckily, she just ended up getting suspended for just two weeks.

Isis had also said later on that she had no regrets and that she was able to live quite luxuriously with all the money she got before she got caught.

Those were some skills Elliott needed.

The third name was that of Nish Wilson. She was one of the school toppers with scholarship and had great communicative skills which made her deserving.

But she had quite the low social status like everyone else including Elliott himself. Almost a year ago, Nish had gathered up her courage and confessed her love to Harold Stevens in front of the whole cafeteria.

Harold, being the douche he was, had blown her off insulting her badly. After that, people used that incident against Nish and let Harold get away with it because he was quite the popular guy.

Even after being an excellent student, she never got off that trauma and neither people stopped talking about it.

That made her, along with the other two girls, deserving and desperate enough to change their social statuses in return for joining Elliott.

Elliott has been everything but surrounded by people all his life. It wasn't like he didn't want friends or people who'd be nice to him.

He.. just couldn't and there was no explanation for it.

His childhood was a series of forgotten memories that made him look at people as phases.

1st phase, parents.

2nd phase, Keith.

3rd phase, the Glendell detective agency.

Maybe he was right, maybe people were just mere phases.

~

Isis Blaire was weirder than Elliott thought she'd be.

As they had their maths class together, Elliott observed her. She had been moving her feet in the rhythm of the chalk striking the blackboard for the last 35 minutes. She was occasionally writing something down on the desk or her hand. He didn't see her note down a thing that was being taught, neither did he. He was too busy analyzing Isis.

After a few minutes, the teacher had to leave the class for some urgent matter no one cared about. He decided to talk to Isis.

He walked up to her. She was staring blankly at the wall beside her.

She had light brown hair and hazel eyes. Her outfit was more on the effortless and basic side and she was bopping her head every now and then as if listening to music.

"Hi. I'm Elliott." He said. His voice came out shrilly and he didn't know what he was trying to do.

The first way was by touching the potion. This way was supposed to be the easiest one but it had given Elliott enough stress for the past hour.

Isis didn't answer, she just looked up and nodded at him. Like Elliott was supposed to know what she was trying to say.

"Do you do drugs?" Elliott said, directly. Isis's head shot up, wondering.

"Nah." She said after taking quite some time to think. "Where'd you get that from?"

"Around." He said, knowing the conversation was working. "Do you... wanna smoke?"

Elliott just had to keep the conversation going. The second way of the potion would only work if the person 'willingly' touched the potion. But he was prepared. He had some plants that looked exactly like weed. But even if they were fake, it was enough to at least get Isis to touch it.

Rumours about Isis Blaire were very exaggerated and strong because of her rebel attitude. So believing them, Elliott had just this way to lure her in.

"I don't smoke." She said, her voice calm. "Why would I want to smoke with the weird kid anyway?"

Her voice hinted at a smile. Elliott had quite the reputation, he thought.

"Well technically, aren't you the weird kid yourself?" Elliott said, with a small smile.

"Ah s**t, you're right," Isis replied, giving him a tight-lipped smile.

The return of the maths teacher forced Elliott to leave his task and topple back to his seat. As the lessons started again, he saw Isis turn back and lock eyes with him.

Her brows were a little furrowed but her lips had a smile. She looked like she was trying to decode why Elliott started a conversation with her.

"Mr Walter, do you want to come up to the board and solve this equation?" The teacher said, his voice hoarse.

"I cannot -," Elliott started but he got cut off in between.

"I'll do it," Isis said, standing up. The whole class stared at her including the teacher, surprised.

She walked up to the boards, taking the chalk from the teacher's hands. Isis had a bad reputation even among the teachers.

In a minute, the equation was solved and Isis put her answer in a box. Then she backed away and took a good look at the board as if she was proud.

"I haven't taught you to solve it that way," the teacher said, frowning. He looked a little taken aback.

"Is the answer correct?" Isis asked.

"Yes but -", the teacher said.

"That's it," Isis replied, tucking the chalk back into the teacher's hands, and walking back to her seat through the sea of glancing pairs of eyes.

After the period ended, Elliott thought about what he could do. The fake weed plan didn't work. He looked at Isis to find her sitting comfortably in her seat.

"I heard she stole money from a local shop. Everyone in the school knows about it." A girl said. She was near Isis, making sure she could hear what they were talking about.

"Such a cheapskate. She dares to prove that she's something more than that." The other girl laughed.

"Like father like daughter." They said, giggling.

Elliott could sense the tension between them as a look passed on Isis's face. He predicted that she would haul those girls through the corridor by their hair but instead, Isis stood up.

With her bag, she started walking out of the class. Before leaving, she gave Elliott a brief look and then left. He knew what that meant. He got up and left the class too.

After following Isis through the crowd, when they reached somewhere empty, she turned to face him.

"Give me some of that." She said.

"What?" He replied.

"Weed. You said you had it." She replied with curious eyes.

"But.. you said you didn't smoke," Elliott replied, digging through his bag for the fake weed packets. "It's fake though."

She took the packets from him and turned them over to take a good look.

"That's perfect. You're coming with me." She said. At that moment Elliott knew he should've just spilt three drops on the packet but he didn't.

"What about class?" He said.

"Bunk it. No one would care, we're invisible people." She replied exactly as the bell rang.

The second way of the potion was tougher than Elliott thought. It won't work if he applied it to any of Isis's belongings. It won't work if Isis touches it accidentally or with no motive in mind. It was complicated.

The potion was trying to take people's consent without actually taking it.

After the class had started, Elliott and Isis entered the empty locker area. She had the two packets in her hand and she was moving precisely, without being caught.

"Look out for people. If someone approaches, alert me." Isis said. She stood Infront of a locker and out of nowhere, a lock picking tool slid into her hand. She moved it inside the lock and focused on opening it.

Once it was done, Elliott would've had no chance of interaction with Isis again. So he took the risk and called out to her in a low voice.

"Someone's coming. Hide." He lied. Isis got alerted, threw the weed packets to Elliot and entered the janitor room beside the lockers, hiding. That was the chance.

Elliott took out the potion and spilt three drops of it on the packet. The drops dried almost instantly and he carefully held the packet, to avoid touching it.

After a pause, Elliott called Isis back. He threw the packets to her and she caught it, touching the potion too. She jumped back into action as she hurried and opened the lock and planted the fake weed inside the locker.

Then she unlocked the locker beside that and planted the other packet of fake weed inside. Then after fixing their locks, she and Elliott escaped.

"You just.. who's locker was that?" Elliott said, surprised.

"Those two girls who were talking s**t. We used to be friends but now.. so I thought it'd be nice pranking them a little." Isis mused.

Elliott thought a little. They'd know it isn't weed very soon but it'd scare the two girls and also might get them suspended for a day or two.

"This might also get you in trouble if we get caught." She said, after a pause.

"That's okay," Elliott replied.

Isis gave him a brief, confused look. Then just like that, she left.

Elliott stood there for a few more seconds wondering what kind of a person Isis really was. She wasn't really the tough hard shell people saw her as, neither was she much of a delinquent.

She was more.. misunderstood.

He shook his head at how messed up the people in his school were. But he couldn't help but be curious. Without losing much time in his hand, he moved on to the next girl.

Meraki Knight.