CHAPTER ONE - "THE FIRST DAY"
EDITED 30/03/12
Hello, everybody. My name is Tessa Desmond, and I moved here from Alberta. That’s in Canada, you know? Pretty far away. I don’t really know anyone here yet, and I’m bound to get lost a million times during my first couple of days here. Still, I hope we can get along well, and if any of you know anything about horses, even better.
That’s what I meant to say during my first class of my first day at Rockwell High School. Instead, all that came out was a barely audible “Uh…hi.”
Okay, so maybe first impressions aren’t my thing. Still, I thought I’d be able to get out a little more than that. I guess that’s what I get for being the new kid in town. The stares from the other students in the class didn’t exactly help me either. They were like…what did they remind me of? Wolves? Hawks? Whatever they were, they were some kind of predator, staring down the fresh meat.
Well, I had heard somewhere that Rockwell High has an unusually high bullying rate. It didn’t matter in the end, though. I had been offered a place here as soon as my parents, my dog and I moved down here to Denver, Colorado. We couldn’t figure out exactly what the sudden offer was about, but my parents didn’t seem to care. RHS is known as one of the most prestigious high schools in the United States, and as far as my mom had heard, the students here were perfect angels. I, on the other hand, heard otherwise. I heard that this place was full of bullies, spoiled rotten by their rich parents.
And something about the smirks those kids gave me told me that my assumptions were correct.
“Thank you, Miss Desmond. You can sit down right in front of Max.” My English teacher, Mrs. Stone, pointed to an empty seat as she instructed me. Of course, it was the only empty seat in the room. Set up just for me, the prey in the circle of predators.
As soon as I sat down, class started as usual. I stared intently at the blackboard, scribbling notes as quickly and effectively as I could. Maybe if I finished my work sooner, the class would end sooner as well. The excitement for the new day I had woken up to this morning was long gone, replaced with an awful ache in my stomach that told me to get the heck out of there. But I had already brought enough attention to myself, and walking out in the middle of class would certainly give me all of the attention I really didn’t need.
Of course I made the mistake of looking somewhere other than the board. My head turned very slightly to look out the window, to observe the silent beauty of a snowy winter day. But instead of a window, my eyes met those of a boy. I recognized him instantly as one of the boys who had been staring at me in the most annoying way. I tried to look away, but for some reason, I couldn’t. There was something about those eyes…those green eyes, almost identical to mine, specked with crimson.
Don’t stare. You might make him feel awkward. I had to tell myself as I looked back at the board. This wasn’t like me. I didn’t normally stare at people for something as insignificant as their eye color. Sure, his eyes weren’t exactly common, but I had seen similar eyes before. It was a strange eye condition that had been discovered quite some time ago. A century ago, maybe. It was just a genetic defect, like a more common type of albino. Back home in Alberta, there were a couple of pseudo-albinos that I knew, so I should have been more than used to them.
Although I looked away, the boy didn’t. What was his problem? Probably checking out the new kid, thinking of ways to prank her, tease her, and humiliate her. That’s what they always did with the new kids in school, right?
“What do you want?” I hissed at the boy before I could even think about what to say or do. What he did next wasn’t a prank, or a tease. It was just pure humiliation. He raised his eyebrows, puckered his lips as if waiting for a kiss, and made it pretty obvious that he was eyeing my chest. My face heated up in an instant. Not out of flattery, or mutual attraction, but out of pure rage. And before I knew what I was doing, I was out of my seat, storming towards his, and smacking him across the face.
“Don’t even think about it, moron!” I screamed at the boy, who now had a huge red mark on his cheek from where I slapped him. His eyes were widened in what I hoped was fear, until I heard a voice from the front of the classroom say, “Miss Desmond, go back to your seat! And I’ll speak to you after class, young lady!”
It was at that moment that I realized that slapping a student in front of the teacher on my first day at a new school was probably not the smartest idea. I gave a quick glare to the idiot boy who succeeded in getting the best of me, and stormed back to my seat, red with anger and embarrassment. Just a second later, I felt something light hit the back of my head. I flinched and didn’t dare look back. The last thing I needed was to over-react to one of those immature boys again. I felt it again. And ignored it again.
And just when I thought I was going to explode from frustration, the bell finally rang for first period to end. I sighed in relief, forgetting for a minute that I still needed to talk to the teacher about my behavior. It actually didn’t go too badly. Since it was not only my first offence, but my first day, she let me off with a warning and reminded me that the boy…what was his name? Mitch White. Mitch White was always playing the role of the class clown, and apparently that was his way of welcoming girls to the school. Not that I cared. Whatever his intention was, he still looked and acted like a pig.
Going back to my desk to pick up my bag, I saw what must have been the things that were hitting my head earlier. Two wads of paper, sitting at the foot of my desk. I rolled my eyes. Back in Alberta, people stopped throwing paper at each other in middle school. Looking closer at the paper, I realized there was writing on it. Passing notes normally stopped in middle school too. Still, what harm would there be in reading them? Whoever wrote the notes were probably out of class by now anyway, and even if I did feel tempted to strangle them, I wouldn’t really know who they are anyway. I carefully opened the first wad of paper and read:
Great job sticking up to that jerk! Keep it up and I think we could be good friends, girlie!
-Max
The realization that the note had positive things to say about me was a bit of a shock, but it did leave a smile on my face. But the question remained: Who was this Max person? I took a second look at the note. It was written with some pretty messy handwriting, much like how most boys would write. But at the end of the note, a giant smiley face was drawn beside a small heart. That seemed like a pretty girly signature to me. Not to mention the fact that Max is a unisex name. I read the second note, hoping it would give me some clues. This time I read the note out loud, realizing that I was hearing not just my own voice, but someone else’s.
“You look pretty lonely, so why don’t we hang out today? I could show you all over town and the campus, and protect you from any jerks that try to hit on you!” The two voices said in unison. I heard the second voice from behind me, and turned around. The boy who sits behind me was smiling brightly at me. Oh, that’s right! Mrs. Stone had said when she seated me that I would be sitting in front of Max.
“I’m assuming you’re Max.” I said as the boy nodded excitedly. He didn’t look like the other boys in the class. He seemed a lot less cruel and a lot more energetic. His big brown eyes were free of red specks, his shaggy brown hair framing his face, his grin bringing out the freckles on his nose. To put it simply, he was absolutely adorable.
“Yep, that’s me! I’m Max! Well, I’m actually Maximilian Jonathan Fleming, but that name’s icky! So just call me Max! And you’re Tina, right? No, Tessa! You’re Tessa!” Max cried as he jumped out from his seat, patting my head. “And you’re new here! So you don’t know much, right? That’s cool, because-“
“Max, breathe!” I pressed my hand over his mouth to stop him from talking for just a moment. He continued to mumble desperately through my mouth. I sighed. Where did that boy get so much energy? Or so much air, for that matter? “Look, I appreciate your offer, and I accept it. But please, I’m too tired today to listen to things properly, so maybe try to tone it down? Just a tiny bit?
I slowly, hesitantly, removed my hand from his mouth, as he took a deep breath and replied, “Aw, that’s no fun…”
I tried to smile a little, just for him. “Hey, come on. We’re still hanging out today, right?”
“Oh, right!” Max smiled and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the classroom.
“Uh, Max? Where are we going!?”
“On an adventure, silly!” Max turned back to me and grinned, continuing to run. Something about that grin, that careless expression, told me that Max and I were going to get along pretty well. Still, going on an “adventure” would be a pretty bad idea right now. For one reason and one reason only.
“Uh, Max? We still have school, right? Hey! Stop!”
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