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This is where Reese is putting her new book.

It isn't all typed yet, but I must post this now, or I'll forget.


UPDATE (10/03/07): Seven Chapters written. Two parts despised and needing to be rewritten. Five Chapters typed. Two Chapters posted.



I kept my eyes closed, drinking in the beauty of the dark Alone. Alone didn’t whisper cruelly behind my back. Alone didn’t stare with wide, pitying or accusing eyes. Alone just was.

But if I tried to stay with Alone much longer, it would leave, and I would be surrounded.

Slipping silently from under my blanket, I tip-toed toward the attic door. A clicking on the wooden floor reminded me I wasn’t really alone. I allowed the border collie puppy to pass me and head down the stairs. Grabbing my bag and closing the door quietly behind me, I crept down the stairs. No one else would be awake or expect me to be awake for another fifteen minutes. Having dressed (a long-sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, and pants – all black) and packed my bag the night before, I had made my departure as noiseless and quick as possible. Had it not been for Bill needing to be let out lest he bark and wake the household, I would have climbed down a conveniently placed ladder outside my window.

The second floor was quiet, as was the main floor. Sunlight streamed through curtainless windows, allowing me to see better than I had upstairs where I’d moved by memory more than sight. In the refrigerator I grabbed the brown paper bag with my name on it. I ‘d written it myself rather than bother to spell it for someone else. For some reason, “Ræya” was a difficult thing to understand. Even my parents had had trouble remembering, and they’d named me.

Taking Bill’s leash from the counter, I started for the front door. I shoved my converses onto my feet, clipped the leash on, and slipped out the door. Hooking the leash to a chain connected to the house, I whispered to Bill, “Much as I would loved to see you bite one of them when they come out, or at least frightened them a bit, Ms. Grimke might make me get rid of you if you do, and…”

I paused. Bill couldn’t understand or talk back, but it was still hard. Too hard.

I settled for “That wouldn’t be all that great. You belong with me now.”

I straightened from my crouch. A light flicked on on the second story. I ran. I may have had to spend a school day with these people, but a morning as well was too much.

The school was a ten minute walk from Grimke house, a fact that had likely been taken into consideration when Ms. Grimke volunteered to be the primary boarding house for out of town transfers. I was glad for it, for I’d no car, and I refused to travel with other people. I knew small towns, knew they gossiped like festering vultures. Luckily not many people were out this early in the morning, and those who were were too tired to notice anything outside their own worlds.

My mind remained wonderfully blank until the school came into view. It was smaller than my old one and brighter. The siding was sea foam green, the thatched roof spray painted black. The sign out front by the road read “Liberty Rose Private Jr./Sr. High School: Educationg children since 2020.” That meant the school was nearly fifty years old. I wondered what this Liberty Rose had done to get them to name a school after her.

I walked in to a shock. It was only 7:15, forty-five minutes until homeroom actually started. Yet what I knew to be over half the student body was already there. Don’t these people know they aren’t supposed to be here for another twenty minutes, at least? I wondered. It completely ruined my plan to slip in unnoticed and find a hiding place to read in undisturbed until the bell rang.

I’d just have to make do. First stop, the library. From my experience, no teenager who wanted to be even semi-cool hung out in the library. The only kids who I’d meet in there would be geeks, who wouldn’t speak to me anyway. Besides, I was almost done my current book, and I wanted to know what this place could offer me.

Once again the students of Liberty Rose defied everything I knew about the modern teen. Not only were there a dozen or so kids already packed in the room, more were headed for it and coming out when I arrived. What kind of mental academics were these people? Sure, it was a private school, so many kids, like me, were here on scholarships, but it was the only school in town; surely a lot of kids simply paid to go here.

Plan B, then, I decided. The bathroom.

As I moved toward it I pulled a sheet of paper and some tape from my bag. Finally I was in luck. The bathroom was deserted. I went to the last stall and taped up my sing. Then I went in and locked the door. Tossing my pack on the tank behind the toilet bowl, I settled cross-legged on the seat and began to read.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been there when the squeak of the door broke my concentration. A pair of neon green heels appeared, followed by a pair of neon yellow. They stopped in front of my stall.

“‘Out of order,’” the green shoes read. “Well, that sucks. That’s favorite stall.”

I’m sure you’ll get over it.

My thoughts were echoed by the girl’s companion. “Just use another stall, moosehead, and do it fast. I will not be late for homeroom on the first day because you had to be a**l about where you peed.” [RR (stealing from Kirby here): I did not mean for that pun to be there. I realized it after I wrote it. xD]

Late? I peeked at my watch: 7:58. Stuffing my book back in my bag, I opened the door and walked out of the stall.

Grabbing the “Out of Order” sign off the door, I left, not even glancing back at the dumbstruck girls.

The door swung shut behind me to raucous laughter.



Reading in the bathroom behind an "Out of Order" sign is the funnest (that's right, funnest) thing ever. You must do it before you die. ^_^

Chapter Two: Alone

I located my homeroom and collapsed in a vacant seat in the back. I didn’t care about the stereotypes associated with those who sat there. Particularly kids like me, dressed completely in black. In the front I would attract attention. In the back the teachers would reprimand students who turned their eyes toward me. I needed the protected.

My seat was on the far side of the room from the windows, a trick I’d learned over the years. It was painfully obvious when a student turned their head 90˚ to stare outside. A small 45˚ twist went mostly unnoticed the view was not nearly as nice. The hiding of small paperbacks behind textbooks was more successful there too. The simple location of it made it practically impervious to observation.

The bell rang, and as though it had been some cosmic transpeorter, every single member of my new class filed in, though many of them hadn’t been in sight when I came in seconds before.

The two girls from the bathroom were among them. My camouflage failed as they spotted me instantly and made a beeline for the seats next to and in front of me.

“Ang’la, Poddy,” announced Green Heels, gesturing first to her friend, then to herself.

“You an S or R?” demanded Ang’la.

I didn’t have a clue what she was asking, not that I cared to answer. I was saved by the morning announcements.

“Welcome back, pupils of Liberty Rose,” said the disembodied male voice. “It’s great to see all your smiling faces again.” (Yeah, right. “Smiling”.) “Your homeroom teachers will be passing out handbooks, schedules, and locker assignments. We do have a couple new bodies and brains among us, so I’m counting on all you oldbies to show them around. After all, we wouldn’t want them to get lost in our hallway.”

There was a smattering of laughter from the rest of the room. I didn’t even feel a twinge. My old school had had one hall too, so what? Besides, was there anything I could laugh about now?

The teacher, a young man who seemed naïve and fresh out of college, stood in front of the calls, a sheaf of papers in his hands. “We’ll start at the end of the list, I think,” he declared, as though giving us all a special treat. “A nice change of pace, eh? Okay, so that means we start with…”

His eyes widened, a look of pure confusion crossed his face. I decided to show him a bit of mercy (or perhaps spare myself embarrassment) and stood up. I walked up to him and held out my hand.

“Ræya Zwirbila,” I muttered quietly, speaking slowly so I wouldn’t have to repeat myself.

“Welcome to Liberty Rose, Ræya. We hope you enjoy yourself here.” He gave me the top sheet and I went into the hall.

I located my locker approximately a third of the way down the hall. I had just gotten my combo correct and was emptying my bag of the pre-attained textbooks when I was joined by none other than the green shoed Poddy. “’S great when teachers get backwards ideas, eh?” (I’d begun to notice a fondness of the word “eh” around here…) “’Course, now I’ll have to be behind you, won’t I? Z is whatever it is you last name is does appear to be before the Y in Young. It is Z isn’t? Or are you another Y? You weren’t really talking loud enough for anyone but Mister Worble to hear. So what’s your first name, New Girl?”

I’d begun to wonder if Poddy was one of those people with the rare skill of being able to breathe in and out simultaneously. It was possible she did and had just decided to actually give me time to answer her questions. In that case, she had wasted a lapse of exhibition of skill. I had no intent of replying.

Poddy just gave an exasperated sigh at my silence. “Do you speak, House Girl?” Again I said nothing. She rolled her eyes. “In that case, best stick close to me and Ang’la. We’ll make sure no one wastes their breath.”

Not that she’d help me, just others.

She had finished with her locker; I was still working I glanced over before she slammed it closed and saw she had simply shoved everything in haphazardly wherever it would go. My locker was neat, my books orgainsed by subject, a pencil holder magnetized to the door. Instead of returning to the classroom as the others were doing, she leaned back and watched me, an amused look in her eyes.

When I finished, she walked with me back the room. Outside the door she held up and hand. “I’ve taken to you, House Girl, so I’m going to do what I can for you. But not everyone is so nice as me. You’re gonna have to do more than this silent act and hiding to get by here. You don’t have to blab your life story to everyone. You don’t even have to stop wearing this goth look you got going on. I’m just saying, it might be easier to start with someone you can trust.”

I stared blankly at her for a second. Then I continued into class and sat down. I opened my paperback and read.



“I know it’s the first day and you’re all going to moan and go ‘aw’ at me, but I’m going to take this chance to assign you your first paper!” Ms. Engleton announced happily.

“Aw,” groaned the class. I thought they sounded quite half-hearted. I myself gave no reaction. What did it matter whether she gave a paper now, tomorrow, ten days from now, or never?

“Don’t worry. It’ll be an easy one. Ten pages on whatever topic you happen to pull out of this hat, due Friday.”

“Ten pages!” squawked a girl in front. “That’s not easy! And three days is totally unfair!”

“Nobody ever said life is fair or easy. Anybody who does lies.”

Everyone turned towards me. The voice had been mine.

“Ah, it speaks,” muttered Ang’la from my left. Poddy gave me a thumbs up. It was fifth period English, just before lunch, and this was the first words I’d uttered all day besides the whisper of my name to the teachers.

I continued on involuntarily, “There are worse things in life than some silly report.” Finally I got my mouth to shut up. What was I doing?

“Ræya has a point,” added Poddy, much to my relief (the science teacher, a balding elderly man who had more hair than hearing had forced me to practically yell my name, allowing her to learn it at last). “She could make us do twenty pages, or worse…” she paused for dramatic effect, “take away Donut Day.”

“Not that! Anything but that!” mocked a boy.

The class burst into laughter. Poddy winked. I couldn’t even bring myself to smile, but she knew I was grateful to her for taking the attention of me.

Ms. Engleton quieted the room. “Now, form a line and you can choose a topic.”

I waited until most everyone had returned to their seats before venturing forward. Poddy and Ang’la had positioned themselves behind and in front of me. Ang’la was first.

“Family?” she asked scornfully. “Which family would that be?”

“You decide,” replied Ms. Englton, smiling deviously.

Poddy slipped her hand over my shoulder into the hat. “Something new and different,” she read. “Oh, I know exactly what to do with that.” The sly look on her face was not at all reassuring.

Now it was me. Very few scraps of papers were left. I sent a small prayer up to the Heavens and plucked one out. I began to read it aloud for Ms. Engleton like everyone else had, but my voice caught in my throat.

“Ræya?” prompted the teacher.

“Sorry,” I choaked out, fighting to keep my voice bland. “A best friend.”

“Oh yes, you got my favorite! Though I admit, it’s more difficult in that you have to decide which friend is best and why. But, like all of the, you can play with it a bit and come up with some great stuff. That applies to all of you,” she continued, raising her voice. “Don’t stick rigidly to your topic. If your paper is boring, I won’t finish it. If I don’t finish it, you won’t get a very nice letter at the top of that first page. After all, this is Language Art. Create some art for me to read. It can be true, false, or even a mix. Just make me believe it.”

They didn’t understand. It wasn’t potential jealousy that made this hard. It was the hard truth that I didn’t have a best friend – that I didn’t have any friends.

And the even harder truth that I never would again.

I should totally review chapters two and three right now. ninja

But I won't. =D

Anyway, chapter one.

A. I still don't see why you called it Silence. I told you that should go later. Oh well, it can be changed. *More ninja -ness*

B.


C. I still love how you included the whole bathroom stall thing. It gives the reader a little bit of uplifting that they can return to if the rest of the story gets them too down. Though you do have a few funny parts mixed in.

D. Loved it before, love it now. Type up those other two chapters and write more! Now!

Lyssa: I'm not keeping it. I just can't think of another title right now.

Kirby: I is a thieving neen-jah. ninja

Buuuuut!

Nyuu. heart

quite obviously you have yet to see Elfen Lied.

Of course it's good! :3