Are they worth it?

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee raised his head groggily, blinking in the bright sunlight all around him. Kira sat beside him, dangling her bare, skinny legs quite happily from the top of the climbing frame.
"You look awful, Lee-Lee," she chirped; her sweet voice bubbling like a river running over rocks. "Real bad. Did Sean spit choo' again?"
"Spit me?" Lee asked her, frowning. "I don't... think so..."
Suddenly, there was a cry of outrage from the patio below them, and Sean's plump, rosy face popped up from nowhere, looking quite put out.
"I did spit you," he told Lee imploringly- seeming almost affronted. "I did. A big wet one."
"Boys are gross," Kira decided, and then took a deep breath, and sent a big water glob of spittle flying with perfect aim into Sean's fat, confused face.
Lee laughed and high-fived her, and their gleaming faces appeared in front of Sean's stunned, angry one.
"That's whatcha get for messing with my cousin," Kira giggled, jerking her thumb at Lee.
All the while, Eric, the tall, trembly boy from the cul-de-sac, sat nearby, his pale eyes appearing nervously over the covers of his book, darting reproachfully between the three friends.
"Oh, Eric," Kira said sweetly, catching his silent glance. "He deserved it. He did. Look at him. Smelly fat boy, aintcha?"
Eric's eyebrows shot up, and Kira sighed, going over to him and settling herself beside him for another of their many whispered conversations.
Lee watched them for a couple of disjointed seconds, feeling a strange feeling swirl in his stomach. "I don't like Eric."
"I know," Sean said jovially, rubbing at his face. "Only Kira does. But Kira's weird like that."
"Yeah," Lee murmured, but his eyes didn't leave the whispering pair, nor did they miss the wide grin on Eric's face only Kira ever managed to place there. "Still don't like him though."
"Oi! You two!" Sean yelled rudely, making them both jump about a foot in the air. "Mam's gonna be coming home soon. You coming out to the street?"
"Yes, Sean," Kira replied sweetly, taking Eric's skinny hand as though he was a little lost puppy and guiding him behind Lee and Sean.
The second the four of them stepped out, Marli, the deaf girl, and the twins appeared from nowhere.
"Hello," Caitlin and Conner said in unison, smiling perfectly.
Lee smiled back. The twins weren't really that intune with each other- but they'd been practicing because they knew it scared Eric. He looked quite terrified as he backed out of the little circle of his fellow 8 year olds and settled himself away on a curb far away.
Marli watched him blankly for a few moments, the wind ruffling her long red plaits strangely. Lee whirled around, his eyes locking on them.
"How'd you do that?"
Marli met his eyes, and frowned, moving her hands in that funny sign language she liked so much to show she didn't understand.
"She doesn't understand you," Conner and Caitlyn translated, again, perfect unison, after exchanging a few suspicious whispers. "She can't hear. Remember?"
"Turn it up," Lee said loudly and clearly.
Marli sighed, and her hands moving to her hearing aid. "There," she said, her soft voice tired. "Now what?"
"Your hair," Lee pointed, so as to make his point quite clear. "Those dips and stuff. Like it's been woven. How'd you do that?"
"My plaits?" Marli said, puzzled.
"Plaits!" giggled Caitlyn. "Oh, Lee, you're so- ouch!" Conner had given her a sharp tug on one of her own yellow pigtails.
"Good job, idiot," he reprimanded her, then looked at. "Plaits, like Caitlyn said. Ain't you never seen plaits before?"
"I don't remember," Lee confessed. "Kira? Have I?"
"Eric looks lonely," Kira said softly.
"Kira!"
"No. I don't do silly things with my hair. No offence, Marli."
"I can't hear you anyway."
"Oh, good," Kira smiled. "That's good."
"No, that's bad!" Sean frowned at her. "Gosh, you're thick."
"Watch it, Sean," Lee cut in angrily, glaring at him. "That's not like you."
"Can't help it," Sean shrugged, his fiery eyes now fixed on Kira. "She's thick. Thick, thick, thick. Especially if she hangs out with a kid like that Deron."
Lee froze. "What?"
"He's from Cardsdale, isn't he?" Marli said slowly, her eyes now boring into Kira's. "Oh goodness, Kira. Why would you do that? He's just so... so... different."
Kira's jaw clenched. "And why's that a problem?"
"Riff-raff," Caitlyn sang.
"Street-rat," Conner sang back.
"Well I don't buy that!" Kira growled, rounding on the twins, who were grinning like a pair of yellow-topped Cheschire cats. "We're all the same in the end."
"Or not," Marli shrugged. "I mean... Kira, why are you fighting for him?"
"I love him."
"You do?"
"Ugh, why?"
"Because... because!" Kira exploded. "I do!"
"He's not really worth it though, is he, Kira?"
"So... different from us... why would you fight for his right to hang out with us, then?"
"Prof. Hoodham," Kira replied smoothly.
All of the kids burst into peals of laughter at that. Lee found himself starting to feel strangely sick; looking back and forth wildly between the kids and Kira. Suddenly, something strange was happening. The sky was beginning to rumble and darken, its clouds moving with a frightening speed as they began to fill with blood-red swirls- the colour of Marli's plaits.
"Lee, do you honestly think Major Hoodham of all people is worth your cousin's life?" Sean had turned to Lee now, his eyes steely grey slits. "I mean- really! He's making you fight for the chance to talk to a bunch of half-breeds? A bunch of half-wits? Please!"
"We thought you were better than that," the twins told him quietly. "We did. We thought you saw sense."
"You're smart, Lee," Marli piped up, and as Lee looked at her, she seemed to morph before his eyes.
Suddenly, the street around them was disappearing into flames, and the 8 year old Lee was gone. In his place, at 16 years old, Lee stood tall, a new marching barrier of army officers between him and Kira. His friends had undergone profound changes in the past eight years... strange, awful changes.
Caitlyn and Conner were tall and gaunt- both's once bouncy, blonde curls were now lank and greasy. Caitlyn's bottom lip was trembling, as though on the verge of tears, and Conner's arms were around her, hugging her desperately close.
Sean had lost his rosy, boyhood complexion, and he too had lost weight. Somehow, it didn't suit him, and he seemed somewhat smaller, and weaker without it. His head was bowed, his hands cupped as if in prayer...
And there she was. Still staring at him as though nothing had changed. Her long, crimson locks had broke free of her plaits; tumbling down her front and back. She'd grown pretty- so pretty; an Irish rose in contrast to his other three, gaunt friends. Yet, there it was- in a pair of distinctly different, yet gloriously familiar wide, chocolate eyes- the mark of suffering.
"Your eyes are blue," he told her clearly, half-shouting over the loud footfalls of the army barrier.
She blinked, and the brown eyes disappeared. "Lee, listen to me! You have to listen!"
The army was shuddering to a halt down; robotically crazy, they whipped around in him, raising their arms in salute. Kira stood to attention beside Lee; her army uniform glimmering a strange, ghostly green...
"No," she hissed venemously, her blue eyes snapping to him. "No, you don't listen."
"Oh, God, Lee- PLEASE!" Marli was suddenly screaming at him, her arms waving wildly. "LEE- LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT US! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US! WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS! YOU CAN'T... you can't..."
"I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Lee screamed back, suddenly quite terrified. He tried to move forward, but the saluting army officers stood firm, and unmoving. He threw himself at them; but they stood like marble, no matter how much he screamed and screamed at them to move.
"Stop it, Lee."
A man stood behind him now, his eyes narrowed angrily. He wasn't old, exactly, but the greying hairs there were unmistakable. His eyes were like ice as he through Lee's broken childhood- staring out at the flames of the houses as they licked around him.
"Help them," Lee said imploringly, finally recognising the man. "Professor Hoodham. Help them..."
"They made their choice," the headmaster replied, his eyes snapping to Lee. "And you've made your's."
Kira approached him slowly, her hands outstretched in offering. Coldly, robotically, Lee lifted the strange, metal object from her hands, studying it blankly.
"Kira...?"
She smiled at him encouragingly, and Marli's pleads only increased in volume.
"LEE- LEE, YOU DON'T-"
"It's okay," Kira replied smoothly, embracing Lee briefly. "This is for Deron. This is for them all. So that makes it okay."
"Are they worth it?" he asked her hollowly, his hand stroking the gun's trigger automatically.
"LEE! DON'T DO THIS- DON'T DO THIS FOR SOMEONE YOU BARELY KNOW-"
"Of course it is!" laughed Kira. "Don't be silly, Lee."
"THE WORLD DOESN'T WORK LIKE THIS, LEE! YOU CAN'T FIGHT FOR A CAUSE NO-ONE WANTS-"
"Shut up!" Kira spat at Marli, silencing her instantaneously.
Lee stared back at Marli, his blue eyes bearing into her once again dark eyes. "Kira..."
"You know what you have to do," she told him clearly. "You knew it'd come to this."
Slowly, Lee raised the gun.
Marli blinked, and her eyes suddenly filled with scarlet tears. "Me first, Lee?"
"You knew it'd come to this," he echoed Kira's words, his voice strangely distant.
Marli blinked, and the barrier parted as if on cue. Lee's hand did not tremble once as the gun pointed directly at Marli's chest. She opened her arms wide, like an invitation.
"Go ahead," she whispered. "Kill me for them. As if they'll ever be grateful. As if they won't ruin it the first chance they get."
The gun fired.

* * *

His eyes snapped open, and suddenly, Lee was back in his Dorm, standing by the window with his arm outstretching as though pointing at something. The lights flickered on, and Lee became aware he was shaking- yet covered in a horribly familiar cold sweat.
Brian swore loudly from behind him. "Lee? What the hell?"
"What time is it?" Lee asked him quietly.
"3 am. Get back to bed, you idiot."
"3 am," Lee echoed dully, his arms dropping to his side. "Right."
"You okay, Lee? You look like hell."
"I feel like hell, Brian," Lee replied softly, heading back to his bed, knowing that once more, he was in for another sleepless night.