2 | Catalysis

NO EYES SEEMED to meet her. Nobody even seemed to notice her enter the room. She shuffled to her seat, making sure to keep her head down and her limp as discreet as possible so nobody would ask. She kept to herself and sat down, waiting the assumed 2 or so minutes until Mr Greenwald, the Economics teacher would enter and start the class.

Unexpectedly, Mr Greenwald wasn't the one to walk into the room a couple of minutes later. Instead, a small, skinny man walked in. A wiry pair of glasses sat ungraciously upon his crooked nose and his straw-like hairs made Iris wince and scrunch her nose in pity. She didn't know this man, but she knew what he signified. Mr Greenwald wasn't going to be attending this class today. She knew of this temporary teacher's impending doom. He would get absolute torture from the students. She watched silently, observing him as he dawdled pitifully into the room, placing his brown briefcase on the desk.

"Good morning, students!" He called but his feeble voice couldn't be heard over the chatter bubbling around the room.

"Settle down now!" He tried once again to subdue the class.

Iris watched him sigh in defeat. She wished she could do something to help but the most she could do to help calm a crowd of rowdy teenagers was whisper 'please, be quiet' softly into their ears.

She looked into the solemn eyes of the supply teacher, her gaze penetrating deeper than the surface. Her vision began to fade and she was immediately hit with a wave of hopelessness and depression. She was sitting at a desk in a bank, and a strange man was sitting opposite. He looked important, almost regal. His face was mildly sad and somewhat uncomfortable. Like he knew of the unfortunate event but was secretly unsympathetic.

"I'm sorry, Johnathan," the man said, "but I'm going to have to let you go."

"What? No, I... I need this job, Peter. You can't just let me go... I have a family, kids! How will I look after them?" The supply, Johnathan, stuttered. He leaned forward desperately hoping his pleas would grant him second chance.

"Again, I don't know what else I can say. I can refer you to a job center; maybe I can see if any of my connections have a free placement?"

"You know what? Shove it where the sun doesn't shine. I don't want your pity," Johnathan stood up and stormed out of the office, scrambling around, maybe he could at least leave with some final shreds of dignity.

Iris was back in the classroom again. Even though the man didn't want pity, she couldn't help but feel perpetually sorry for him. She wanted to help, she really did. She knew what she could do: nothing at all. To the rest of her classmates, Iris was fairly insignificant and for the most part, this was perfectly fine by her. Now, though, she wished she had a voice.

She was slowly getting annoyed by the fact that everybody around her was being so openly rude and not really caring. Johnathan really didn't need this. He could be in bigger and better places than in a room full of rowdy teens at this lousy high school.

She wished they would just all be quiet. She was tired of just sitting and watching people patronise and take advantage of others who really shouldn't have to take their nonsense.

Even the cops that turned up at the apartment; she really didn't need to worry about them at the moment. Would they even have sympathy for her? What would they have done had they found her - a seventeen-year-old girl in an abandoned apartment with hardly any food or clothes? No matter how hard she wished it wasn't, it was their job to go to social services. With that thought, another wave of panic and hopelessness washed through her. Her head began to throb steadily as if it was readily preparing to burst at the seams - threatening to scatter all her worries and fears on the desk in front of her.

The chatter of the class she had unknowingly blocked out now sounded amplified. She was drowning in her own thoughts and those of her classmates. She felt overwhelmed by mixed emotions: depression, excitement, terror and anticipation. Iris squeezed her eyes shut, trying to rebuild her crumbled mental wall. She was slowly becoming emotionally drained. It was all too much.

She exploded, "Shut up! Just shut up!"

Suddenly, the room that was once highly active became silent. Iris' head was still pounding, she still felt dizzy but the silence was now helping her. Her eyes fluttered open slowly. She could feel the orbs across the room staring at her and she felt extremely self-conscious. Her gaze flickered to the front of the room where Johnathan stood, a small grateful smile adorning his tired features.

"Thank you," he muttered quietly, but Iris heard him loud and clear. She returned with a small nod before trying harder to shrink as low into her seat as possible.

Johnathan began to mutter a few more words but she ignored them. People were still staring. She could feel her pale cheeks flushing as she tried not to meet the eyes of any of her peers. One by one everybody turned their eyes back to Johnathan until Iris was once again hidden. She sighed in relief.

She never really had outbursts like that. She would usually get control of her powers before anything of that sort of amplitude would have the chance to happen. As she pondered how she managed to overload on the thoughts of everybody in the room, she realised something that didn't occur to her earlier. Johnathan and Iris were one and the same. The same hopelessness and panic that Johnathan was feeling matched the emotions of which she was trying her hardest to keep surfaced.

Iris did what she felt best in this situation and forced all of her feelings under the metaphorical carpet. The dull pounding in her skull didn't seem like it was willing to fade so clearing her head was the aim. For most of the day, she got through it. When the time came for her to leave school, she was just plain tired. It had already been a long day, even though it was nowhere near finished.

As the aches from her head and her still damaged ankle made her want to collapse from exhaustion, Iris threw her books back in her locker. Subconsciously, she sighed and took a moment to collect herself. Never had she had a day where the thought of work at Payton's pained her so much. But she was safe at the café and she needed to distract herself from the morning's events - even for a little while.

Iris left the school building after the tsunami of pupils and dawdled to the bus stop. The ride was unpleasant and uncomfortable as always. She couldn't count the amount of times she felt sudden urges to stab herself repeatedly in the eyes.

She arrived ten minutes before her shift started. Weaving around the tables she headed towards the back of the restaurant to find Payton.

"You look like death personified," Payton laughed. Iris just sighed in response, offering a small smile to her friend.

"I've never had a worse day, Payton."

"Well put on your uniform and you can tell me all about it," with a pat on the back, Payton sent Iris off into the staff room, following on slowly behind.

When they arrived Mark was already there, dressed in his white double-breasted jacket and his chequered pants. He was tying up his dirty blonde shoulder-length hair when he turned around to face them.

"Good morning, boss... Iris," he nodded while moving his hands comfortably into his pockets, stray locks of hair escaping the hold of his hands as he moved them away. Iris and Payton returned a jovial greeting causing Mark to grin excitedly. For a while, the three colleagues stood in the room awkwardly, catching each other's stares with small smiles. At last, Payton cleared her throat.

"Mark - girl talk," was all she said. The chef's eyes widened in recognition before he hurried out of the room in a fluster of apologies.

"He likes you," Iris smiled meekly.

"This is not about me; it's about you. Now, tell me what happened," Payton sat down on the bench and Iris slowly sat down next to her.

With a sigh, Iris tried to keep her explanation brief. "I've injured my ankle because I had to jump out of a window about 60 feet of the ground. I also realised that if I don't have enough control over my powers, I could make my own brain explode."

"Whoa," Payton stared wide-eyed at her pretend niece and deciphered her current feelings through her solemn expression. "Do you have your things? Do you want to stay with me? I could call your school and get you a couple days off?"

"No, Payton. It's fine. To be really honest, I just want to maintain as much normalcy as possible."

"So you still want to work today?" Payton placed a soothing hand on Iris' shoulder.

"Yes, please," Iris nodded, releasing a sigh of relief. Payton's company was comforting for her. All she really needed was a friend. "My limp will slow me down but I'll try."

"I was hoping you'd say that. I'm short staffed." Payton stood and stretched before straightening her uniform and looking back to her younger friend. "Remember, I'm always here if you need me, Iris. Just let me know and you'll have a key."

"I know, Payton. Thank you so much - for everything. I mean, you're possibly in a lot of danger for helping me."

"Eh, what are fake aunties for?" Payton chuckled and Iris stood up to receive a warm hug. "Now get dressed and get to work."

Payton left the staff room and Iris fished into the backpack she had forgotten she was carrying. Pulling out the key, she shoved it into her locker and twisted it, yanking the creaky door open. Her pale yellow polo shirt tumbled out and she caught it just before it fell to the ground. Draping it over her shoulder, she threw her backpack into her locker and slammed it shut.

After quickly putting on her uniform, she left the staffroom. She picked up the dog-eared notebook and removed the pencil from the spiral binding before surveying Payton's Café. Iris thought it was completely empty until she spotted a back she'd seen many times; she saw the same dishevelled black hair, the same black and white letterman jacket. An instant wave of nervousness flushed over her. She took a deep breath and made her way to the booth at the front of the café. She tried to keep her limp as discreet as possible and she walked slowly towards this boy. Hopelessly, she tried to maintain a steady heart rate and stop her palms from sweating as she got closer to her target.

He turned around quickly, hearing her footsteps and met her eyes suddenly. She was shocked at his daring gaze, grey eyes staring her down with bright pink lips pulled into a welcoming smile.

"Hi," he greeted, shuffling around to face her. "I'm Joey."

"I know," Iris said too quietly to be discerned.

"What did you say?" Joey's eyebrows creased and his nose crinkled as he strained to hear her nervous whispers.

"I said I know," said Iris more clearly. She could feel her hands shaking so she gripped tighter on the pencil and notepad. She couldn't meet his eyes, so she studied the rest of his face - a face adorned with tanned skin and chiselled cheek bones. She watched his lips stretch further into a grin and his sparkling white teeth dazzled her.

Finally, Iris looked into his eyes trying to see what he was really thinking. Although she'd had a bad experience with her powers that very morning, it didn't discourage her enough to never use them again, especially when the opportunity to see into the mind of Joey Marino had arisen. No matter how hard she tried, she came up blank. This boy was either an alien or he had found out a way to put up a very strong mental wall. This was totally unexpected coming from Marston High's soccer team captain. The stereotype he was supposed to fit in would have made it as easy as pie for Iris to slip into his thoughts and take a gander.

Shaking her head, Iris returned her mind to her current task. Joey was watching her with a confused and somewhat amused expression. She coughed nervously to clear her throat before saying, "What can I get you?"

"Can I just get a banana milkshake?" he said and she nodded, scribbling it down and slipping the pencil behind her ear. She spun on her heels and headed behind the counter, where Mark stood, cooking bacon on the grill.

"Does Payton know you're using the café's bacon again?" She asked and Mark jumped, not expecting to be caught in the act.

"I won't tell her if you don't," he said, raising a finger to his lips, before placing his bacon on a slice of bread which sat on a plate prepared beforehand.

Iris shook her head and laughed. "Just make me a banana milkshake, Mark."

"Coming right up!" Mark whipped out two bananas from the refrigerator, chopped them into a blender and added ice, sugar and milk. He flicked the switch, and Iris watched the concoction spin quickly inside the blender, turning into a soft, pastel yellow-colored liquid. Mark poured the blended mixture into a sundae glass and handed it to Iris.

"Now don't disturb me unless there's another customer," he grinned, picking up his plate and pulling up a nearby stool.

Iris dipped a straw into the milkshake and placed the sundae glass on a small tray. Practice had definitely made perfect and she could balance the tray on her left hand without losing half of the order on her journey. Although, her limp caused a little turbulence and she watched cautiously as the banana milkshake sloshed about the glass. Sighing in relief as she neared Joey's table, she took the glass from the tray, not losing concentration until it was safely sat before the striker.

Iris smiled politely at Joey, before turning to wait for the next customer. With her back turned she still heard a small mumble, saying,"Thank you, Iris."

Iris paused. "How do you know my name?"

"One time at soccer practice, I saw you. Your gym class were doing track and Coach Carver yelled at you to run faster. You looked so tired, I felt sorry for you," Joey said.

Iris spun around, wincing at the throbbing in her ankle again. She leaned on the table for support as she waited for the pain to subside. Joey put his hand lightly on her own, asking, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"Sit down," he said, standing and helping her into the seat across from his. "Have you hurt your ankle?"

"No... Well, yes but I'll be fine. I have to get back to work," Iris began to stand but Joey rested a hand on her shoulder. She shuddered in response before thinking and Joey pulled back his hand and reclaimed his seat opposite her.

"There's nobody in the shop, and I could really do with the company."

Iris stared at the dark, handsome athlete. She stared with a longing confusion and she stared in silence until he tilted his head to the side and stared back with the same confusion in his brown eyes. She studied him again, entering his details into the search engine of her mind. Soon, Joey's lips lifted lightly into a mischievous smile before leaning back in his seat.

"So, how was your day today?"