1.24 - Winter Festival

Collin's visit had given Erika a new confidence.  At least he didn't think she looked like a monster.  She still wasn't ready to go back to school and face the merciless hordes yet, but she was ready to focus on herself again.  And the first course of action was to start working out again.  She'd gained nearly two pounds since she stopped watching what she ate and needed to burn those off stat.  She was just grateful that she hadn't had much of an appetite so even though she'd been eating unhealthy things she hadn't been eating them in that great of a quantity.  Otherwise she would have gotten seriously fat.

She was even willing to venture outside again.  Although she picked the middle of the day on a school day so that she could be sure she wouldn't run into anyone she knew.  As planned, the park was deserted which allowed Erika to react.  She was surprised to see that winter had come with a vengeance while she'd been cooped up at home.  She'd need to make sure to watch in the future for snow days so that she wouldn't accidentally run into anyone that way when she wasn't ready to.

And soon it was Snow Day.  "Nielson and Belisama are hosting a Snow Day party at their house.  Would you like to go?" Danisha asked her daughter over her breakfast plate.  Even though it was a holiday, Erika was taking advantage of her free time to get some of her make-up work for school done.

"And spend the holiday around a newborn and a toddler?  No thank you," Erika retorted.  Only a few days ago they'd gotten a letter from her brother that he and his wife had welcomed a healthy baby boy named Travis into the world.  Danisha had gone to visit them, but Erika had declined.  She wasn't that close to her brother to begin with and hardly had any interest in a child whose only claim to her was a dubious 'nephew' connection.

"Well, we could invite some friends here and host a party of our own," Danisha offered instead.

"I'll pass, thanks," Erika replied immediately.

Silence fell over the table again as Danisha resumed eating and Erika continued her work.  It was Erika who finished first and got up from the table, but her mother followed soon after.  "It doesn't have to be a party, but why don't we go to the winter festival together?" Danisha prompted, gazing hopefully at Erika.

"Why?  I'm sure you have other things to spend a rare holiday break on than keeping me company," Erika replied with a shrug.  She saw her mother's expression fall, although she wasn't sure why, but she quickly covered it up.

"If you're worried about running into people, there probably won't be many people there.  Most of the city will be attending parties all day, after all," Danisha assured, not giving up so easily.

"Why are you so determined to get me to do something with you...?" Erika asked, trying to hide her annoyance.

"Because I'm tired of seeing you sulking around the house.  I thought you'd improved since that young man came to visit, but you still have been keeping to yourself nearly constantly.  You haven't gone to school since the incident.  You only go outside when you know no one will be around and even then you don't stay out long.  It isn't healthy.  I don't like seeing you like this," Danisha replied.

The first thing that Erika felt was irritation.  How dare her mother imply weakness in her!  She wasn't being weak, she was acting in self-defense.  Humanity was cruel.  Someone with defects like her would be an easy target.  She knew she wouldn't hesitate to make fun of herself if she was in there place, so it wasn't like she blamed them.  This was just self-defense.

But she also felt like maybe she was hiding.  So what if other people thought she looked horrible?  She wasn't above ruthlessly getting back at someone for making fun of her.  Collin would have her back, she knew.  Maybe she shouldn't let other people keep her locked up in her own home, just like her mother said.

And Danisha was also right about it being likely the festival would have few people there today.  Everyone would have their own parties to be at...

"All right, fine," Erika agreed grudgingly.

"Great.  Let's get dressed and head downstairs.  We can take the patrol car," Danisha replied enthusiastically.  Erika sighed and did as told, waiting by the elevator for her mother.

"Aren't you going to be cold in that...?" Danisha asked uncertainly when she joined her daughter.

"I have a jacket with me," Erika replied with a shrug.

Danisha decided it would be best not to push things anymore.  It was a miracle Erika had agreed to come with her in the first place so she shouldn't question her daughter unnecessarily.  In fact, the entire way there she half-expected Erika to change her mind, and couldn't help but get excited when they did arrive.

She thought that she was cheering inwardly, but realized her mistake when Erika commented "You keep acting like that and I'll pretend I don't know you."

"Uh... yes... well, um... Why don't we go ice skating?" Danisha suggested, not willing to let Erika just go off on her own this time.

"Ice skating?" Erika repeated, looking dubious.

"Yes.  It's a lovely sport, after all.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it," Danisha insisted, not taking no for an answer and ushering her daughter over to the skating rink.  It had been a while since she'd been skating and so she was a little tentative as she inched out onto the ice, despite her confidence.  She just hoped she wouldn't fall.  As old as she is, she might break a hip or something.

Erika took her usual stance of if she was going to do something she was going to do it perfectly.  However, she found that despite her intentions of gliding gracefully out onto the ice she was much more wobbly than that.  It was rather irritating, to be honest.  She wanted to be perfect at something, even more so now that her appearance was less than perfect.  Her actions needed to make up for that, and they weren't.

As they both inched slowly around the ring, Danisha was starting to think that this might not have been a good idea after all.  Erika was only getting more and more irritated and frustrated.  Every time she almost fell she would growl angrily under her breath, and the fact that she had yet to actually fall didn't seem to be any comfort.

Danisha was just about to suggest that they get off when a couple other skaters joined them at the rink.  It seemed that some people had decided to spend the day at the festival as well.

This just made Erika feel all the more self-conscious as she stared down at her skates.  She was so focused on the ice that she nearly ran into the person who stopped in front of her.  She looked up to snap at them for being stupid enough to stop in the middle of the ring when she saw who it was and immediately looked down again.

Why, of all people, did she have to run into most-popular-girl-in-school and prom queen Katie?

"Hey, Erika," Katie greeted, and Erika braced herself for the snide comments that were sure to come while coming up with some insults of her own to hurl back.

"You haven't been at school for a while," Katie commented.  "We heard about what happened to you.  Although at this point the story is pretty ridiculous.  Apparently, according to the kids in school, you took down an entire crime syndicate by yourself but the mad scientist member of the group turned you into a lizard-monster as a dying revenge and that's why you haven't been back," she explained with a chuckle.

"So you came to laugh at the lizard monster?" Erika demanded sharply.

"Huh?  No... no, that's not what I meant!" Katie exclaimed hurriedly.  But Erika saw her eyes drift to her scar and then quickly look away.

"You don't have to pretend to be nice, you know.  If you want to laugh in my face, just do it," Erika insisted, not trusting her.  Being most popular girl in school meant that she also had to be the most ruthless.  Erika couldn't imagine that anyone could have gotten that title by being nice or a friendly person.

"I don't want to laugh in your face, Erika.  I thought we were friends?  Would a friend laugh over something like that?" Katie asked, and smiled at Erika.

This question took Erika aback.  Sure, they'd been friends.  But Erika had only ever viewed her as a friend in the fact that being friends with the most popular girl gave her social standing.  That's all she'd ever really cared about in Katie and she'd just assumed that Katie felt the same way.  Had she been wrong?

"Um... this is kind of awkward," Erika admitted, feeling like she had no idea what to do all of a sudden.  She's was feeling this way far too often lately, and she didn't like it.  "Why don't we get back to skating, so we're not in the way," Erika suggested.

"Okay," Katie agreed with a smile.  She didn't push Erika for anything more and seemed to sense that she was struggling with this internally.  Erika was glad for that.  She didn't really want to try to talk these feelings out with Katie.  Although she was grateful that having her 'friend' around had resulted in her mother giving her space.  She didn't really want to chat much with her mother right now either.

All of these people were acting so strange.  Neither Katie nor Collin had had an expected reaction to her scarring.  Of course, Katie could simply be acting nice to her face.  Taking pity on the poor damaged girl.  That made the most sense.  More sense than Katie actually feeling sympathy for her and being nice because she wanted to be.  If she was honestly being nice it was probably because she felt pity for her or that she wanted to look better in other people's eyes by being nice to someone less fortunate.  Those were the only possibilities that made sense.  No one was nice simply because they wanted to be.  Except, maybe for Collin.  But Collin was perfect that way.  That's why she'd chosen him.

She was so busy thinking that she stopped paying attention to where she was skating.  She hit a rough patch of ice and yelped as she lost her balance.  "I've got you!" Katie called, trying to catch Erika, only to end up falling with her.

"Oops," Katie mumbled, and then laughed.  Erika laughed with her, if only to make light of the whole situation.  At least if they laughed together she wasn't being laughed at.  But this was just more proof that pure niceness got you nothing in return.  Nothing but some scraped up knees, at least.

Erika wasn't the least bit upset when Katie announced that she needed to go rejoin her family.  She also wasn't particularly interested in finding out where her mother had gotten to.  Although the spill on the ice had finally left her feeling cold.  So she put on her heavy winter coat that she'd brought with her and set off to find something else she could do.  The goggles that she'd picked up fortunately did not irritate her face and did help hide some of the scarring which was also nice.  Although right now she didn't want to be around anyone else.  Still, it did make her feel relaxed enough to smile again.

While wandering around the festival she came upon a ramp and noticed some snowboards propped against it.  She wasn't sure if she wanted to try this.  She'd never done any snowboarding before and after making herself look like an idiot with her imperfect ice skating she wasn't too keen on repeating that again with a different sport.  Still, there was nobody around at the moment.  One try couldn't hurt.  Just to get the experience.

As she pushed off from the top of the ramp she felt a thrill of exhilaration race through her.  This was so much better than ice skating.

 She wasn't perfect at it by any means of the word.  But she was definitely more of a natural than she'd been on the ice.  She could see in her mind the velocity needed to reach the top of the other side of the ramp and could push herself to reach it.  And as she gained comfort in her skills she even felt confident enough to try some tricks.  She was somewhat worried as she left the top of the ramp on her first attempt and started to spin that she'd fail spectacularly... but she ended up executing just what she wanted to, and perfectly.

She was finally having fun at this stupid festival.  She honestly never wanted to get off the board, and might not have if her phone hadn't started ringing.  She was tempted to just ignore it, but if it was her mother to ask where she was she'd never here the end of it.  So, reluctantly, she came to a stop down at the bottom of the ramp and answered her phone.   "Hello?" she asked, trying not to sound annoyed.  Which was how she felt.

"Hey, Erika, it's Collin," the voice on the other side replied and Erika immediately forgave him for interrupting her.  As fun as snowboarding was, she did like chatting with Collin better.

"Hi, Collin.  Happy Snow Day," she replied with a smile.

"Happy Snow Day to you too.  Are you having fun?  Is it just you and your mom, or are you spending the day with your brother too?" Collin asked cheerfully.

"Actually, I'm spending the day at the festival," Erika admitted.

"Really?  Aw, man.  If I'd know that, I would have come with you," Collin groaned over the phone, making Erika laugh.

"We'll have time.  The next winter festival we'll come together," Erika promised.  They had plenty of time to do these things in the future Erika had planned.  And despite what had happened, she still had perfect Collin in her life and knew herself well enough to know that she had the means to make her future perfect.  They'd have the perfect family, perfect kids, and she'd make this city that had ruined her into her perfect image.  And all of the Katie's laughing at her behind her back could be damned.


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This chapter took a remarkably long time to write for being just a filler chapter.  I should also point out that this marked the end of Generation 1 since Erika will become a young adult in the next chapter.  I feel bad because I should have focused more on Danisha this chapter, but Erika ended up taking over in the end anyway.  Hopefully this will still be a good lead-in chapter.  And I'll make sure to wrap up Danisha's story in the beginning of Generation 2.  I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for reading! ^^