Or so I thought. A cold breeze wakes me up, as my eyes open, I see it's
still dark, and I'm shivering. I look a t the window and realize it's open. Knowing that perhaps all my sleep will fade away, I reach out and close it, next I turn to my right side, and try to go back to sleep. I succeed, but not for long. I wake up another time from a loud, beeping noise. It must be time for school, but as I open my eyes again, it's still dark. I realize what's going on quite quickly; my phone alarm. It's in my bag, and I don't want to get it, so I try to go back to sleep hoping it would stop. You guessed it, it doesn't. You see, I had to be stupid enough to put it on snooze yesterday; when I set it to the time I had to wake up to get here. I woke up that day at 5:20 A.M so I guess it is around this time now. With a huge moan, I get up, open my bag, and shut my phone off as I remember I need an alarm for school. I notice one on the desk and set it to 7:30 A.M. That gives me about two hours of sleep. I place it at the edge of the desk, the part that sticks with the bed, decide to pull back the blanket, and crawl under it. I wake up the next time about half an hour later, for no particular reason, and spend another half hour trying to get to sleep. In what seemed like five minutes, the sound of the alarm wakes me up.
Yeah, so much for getting a good night's sleep. I raise my head from the pillow and replace their positions, trying as hard as I can to block that annoying noise. After I realize that's useless, I reach my hand out and somehow find the button to shut it off. Getting back to sleep will be pointless, I can't sleep when the sun's out, so I straighten up and sit on the bed. Just as I get up, my uncle bursts in to wake me up for school. To make long things short, I brush my teeth, eat scrambled eggs for breakfast, and quickly get my school books, change, pack my things, and head outside after taking a look at myself in the mirror.
I have to admit, I feel sort of embarrassed not telling you how I look till this point. Well, you already know I'm quite tall, taller than both my parents, I'm not sure if I like my height. Then I have dark red hair, so dark that it only flashes its color slightly when sun rays hit it, otherwise it looks almost pitch black with a hint of brown. I like that. My eyes are blue, dark blue, not like lapis lazuli, more like the ocean. I love it, it suits my hair. My lips are small, but very pink. My nose is just fine length and size. What I do like about myself for sure is my long neck and high cheekbones. Then I have something that I hate, my skin color. It's weird, to tell you the truth, it carries the color of sand, not the yellow sand you find on the beach, more like a cold yellow with a hint of gray, sort of like the sand foundation, the makeup, I mean. I have to deal with this for the rest of my life.
On my way out, I pass the tree and take a glance on it. It's tall, with branches all covered in leaves, I don't know how else to describe it, but I assure you, it's actually quite beautiful, creepy, spooky and awkward, but beautiful.
I reach to my pocket as I approach school; Steve already gave me the school map and schedule, so it saved me from going to the receptionist and all that. As I study the map, I notice something weird; there's the bookstore slash library slash museum I bought my books from, and there's the school four houses away, with two light brown lines cutting across the page , towards the bookstore. A tunnel, and it seems to be underground, hence its light brown color. That doesn't make any sense, is it secret? If so, why would they show it on the school's map they give out to their students? For what purpose does it exist anyways? Why is it connected to a school? For some kind of a teacher-escape-area? A project? My thoughts are interrupted by the sensation of pain shooting from my head, down my body as I hit the wall.
I swear as I cover the place I hit with my right palm and step back. Again, I bump into something, but – thankfully – something softer, and – not thankfully - something that can talk. "Usually people bump into other people," I turn around to face the guy, wanting to say something, but studying him instead. I see he's quite good-looking. Very good-looking. With his messy, dark brown hair, blue eyes, a bit brighter than mine, bronze-tanned skin, my height, long, wide neck, wide jaw-line, fine lips, he's just about everything a girl wants.
But I don't think that after seeing Leo, anyone will have this effect on me, "Didn't I just bump into you?" I ask.
"You bumped into the wall first," he replies, his voice a bit softer that Leo's.
I rub my forehead on the place I hit the wall with, "Gee, thanks."
"Alright, alright, I didn't mean to offend you,"
"Who said I'm offended?"
"Are you being serious right now?" he crosses his arms together.
I roll my eyes and say, "Whatever," as I look back at my map. I'm having trouble focusing, and I stupidly flip it upside-down and back, trying to make sense of it.
And then he speaks again, "Down the hall, turn left, fourth room on your right."
I pause and look up one more time, "Huh?"
"You're heading to English, right?"
"How do you people know everything around here?"
He shrugs and pulls out his right hand "Name's Yorke,"
There's a moment of silence as I study his face and name. Not as exotic as Leonel, but not as popular as Monica either. What can I say? It's a weird place.
I shake his hand and say "Monica,"
"I take it you're new here," he says, stopping but not releasing my hand, so I pull it back myself.
"Yeah," I say, "Arrived yesterday."
"Good, you still have plenty to learn,"
What's he talking about? I swear the more he talks the more confused I get, "Learn what?"
"You'll see," oh, so now he's trying to get me curious, too.
"Look," I start, "If this is some kind of a flirt method, then it's not working,"
He thrusts up his hands in defense as if I attacked him, "Alright, alright, take it easy, no need for the whole school to hear,"
"What are you-" I look around, and once again, every living face is staring right at me. Did I higher my voice? To this day, I do not know.
"Alright, I'm sure we can settle-"
I interrupt him, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Ugh… sure,"
I face him once more, "Who do you think you are?" in about a second, he opens his mouth to answer, but I beat him to it, "No, seriously, butting in, sticking your nose in none of your god damn business," this time, I realize my voice and rage getting higher with every word, proof to that is a rattling sound I always hear somewhere in the background when I'm angry.
"Oka-" he starts,
"And somehow," I do the quotation movement with my fingers at the word as the rattling gets louder, "finding out which class I have first-"
"Monica-" His eyes double their size as the look of shock gets clearer on his face,
"And coming to flirt with me," the rattling gets louder, my voice gets higher, "saying I've got a lot to learn," even louder, even angrier, " "In other words calling me a complete idiot-"
"Look," he holds me by my shoulders and presses down, hurting me, "Monica, you've got to stop it, calm down," I try to break free, "calm down!"
"And now you interrupt me," the rattling gets even louder, it seems almost real, "And grab me, and hurt me, and tell me what to-" I jump as the drinking fountain's faucet flies off, and we're covered in water from head to toe.
I think you know what happens next. I back away a lot of steps, as if blood is coming out of that fountain instead of water, and freeze still, staring at it in shock. What the hell just happened? Did I cause this? How did I cause this? Why did I get so angry at Yorke anyways? I didn't mean for this to happen, but did it really happen because of me? I start to panic inside, as I hear someone call a technician, then someone saying "get back," For some reason, I wanted to see Yorke, to have things explained, perhaps, or not, because he probably can't, or could he? Oh, who cares? I just knew that I wanted to see him. Thing is, I didn't find him, which made me panic even more. Then I saw someone else standing in the crowd, those bright, honey eyes focused on what looked like the fountain. I followed Leo's glance, and realized he was looking at a red-headed girl who was looking at the fountain. He was pretty focused on her, too. Then, when I follow the girl's glance, I see the fountain stop spraying water all at once.
All of that just happened in a few seconds? It seemed like minutes. No one seems surprised, shocked or whatsoever. The technician quickly replaces the faucet and leaves as the crowd clears out. And what was that girl doing? What was Leo doing? Trying to put myself together, I decide to look for him instead of Yorke, he disappeared somewhere in the crowd, but I find him quite fast, since he's one of the last ones to leave.
I walk, or should I say run, up to him and catch up, slowing my run into a pace to keep on the same level. I start thinking of what to say when he beats me to it, "Tough first day, huh?" I open my mouth to answer, but talking seems like such a hard thing right now. I force my throat to swallow, and my voice to reappear, even though it's cracking, "That's one way of saying it," He chuckles for a second.
"I know this may sound stupid, but what happened there?" I ask.
We come to a halt, he faces me and shrugs, "Probably just a glitch in the pipes," his tone was serious, as if he's ordering me to believe it instead of convincing me.
Well, that was unexpected, but no matter how unexpected this is, I'm not giving up, "Then how come it stopped on its own?"
"It didn't, the technician fixed it,"
"You can't simply stop water from pouring out,"
"Unless you block the pipes long enough for him to install a new faucet," Damn, this makes sense. He's good; I think it's obvious he's hiding something, but why?
"But, how can a glitch make water shoot out? A glitch in the pipes blocks them, it doesn't push water out," I try to make my tone sound as ordering as his. There's a pause. As if he's trying to think of something to say.
"Alright," he softens his tone this time, "you couldn't have caused this. Whatever it was, it wasn't you," he sounded more reassuring now, but I didn't want to drop my tone.
"Then how come it went off when I started to shout at Yorke,"
"It didn't go off when you started to shout at him,"
"You know what I mean,"
"Can't you just accept that it was a coincidence?"
"No, I can't. It wasn't. I know it wasn't," I swear, the more I talk, the more I want to know what he's hiding.
He looks me in the eyes, and I look back. He seems to really ponder me, as if he lost something very precious and is trying to find it in me. Those honey eyes, bigger than ever, still make my heart skip a beat, no matter how angry I was. And for a split second, nothing else mattered.
Then the word I was hoping to never hear from him came out of his lips, "Whatever," and he started walking again.
For a few seconds, I watch him walk away. I didn't have time to feel hurt and crap. All I knew was I can't let him go away, not just like that. Therefore, I catch up with him, "What do you mean, 'Whatever'?"
"You want to believe it's your fault, fine. I don't believe it one bit," and he winks at me.
I stop, watching him walk by once more. The feeling to laugh is coming up again, it's like my soul is starting to sparkle, and the feeling of warmth is spreading through my body that seemed freezing just a few moments ago. A simple wink couldn't do this to me; I'm not the type. It was the realization that he wasn't hiding anything this whole time, but that he was denying me doing anything wrong. Even though I, myself believed the opposite.
still dark, and I'm shivering. I look a t the window and realize it's open. Knowing that perhaps all my sleep will fade away, I reach out and close it, next I turn to my right side, and try to go back to sleep. I succeed, but not for long. I wake up another time from a loud, beeping noise. It must be time for school, but as I open my eyes again, it's still dark. I realize what's going on quite quickly; my phone alarm. It's in my bag, and I don't want to get it, so I try to go back to sleep hoping it would stop. You guessed it, it doesn't. You see, I had to be stupid enough to put it on snooze yesterday; when I set it to the time I had to wake up to get here. I woke up that day at 5:20 A.M so I guess it is around this time now. With a huge moan, I get up, open my bag, and shut my phone off as I remember I need an alarm for school. I notice one on the desk and set it to 7:30 A.M. That gives me about two hours of sleep. I place it at the edge of the desk, the part that sticks with the bed, decide to pull back the blanket, and crawl under it. I wake up the next time about half an hour later, for no particular reason, and spend another half hour trying to get to sleep. In what seemed like five minutes, the sound of the alarm wakes me up.
Yeah, so much for getting a good night's sleep. I raise my head from the pillow and replace their positions, trying as hard as I can to block that annoying noise. After I realize that's useless, I reach my hand out and somehow find the button to shut it off. Getting back to sleep will be pointless, I can't sleep when the sun's out, so I straighten up and sit on the bed. Just as I get up, my uncle bursts in to wake me up for school. To make long things short, I brush my teeth, eat scrambled eggs for breakfast, and quickly get my school books, change, pack my things, and head outside after taking a look at myself in the mirror.
I have to admit, I feel sort of embarrassed not telling you how I look till this point. Well, you already know I'm quite tall, taller than both my parents, I'm not sure if I like my height. Then I have dark red hair, so dark that it only flashes its color slightly when sun rays hit it, otherwise it looks almost pitch black with a hint of brown. I like that. My eyes are blue, dark blue, not like lapis lazuli, more like the ocean. I love it, it suits my hair. My lips are small, but very pink. My nose is just fine length and size. What I do like about myself for sure is my long neck and high cheekbones. Then I have something that I hate, my skin color. It's weird, to tell you the truth, it carries the color of sand, not the yellow sand you find on the beach, more like a cold yellow with a hint of gray, sort of like the sand foundation, the makeup, I mean. I have to deal with this for the rest of my life.
On my way out, I pass the tree and take a glance on it. It's tall, with branches all covered in leaves, I don't know how else to describe it, but I assure you, it's actually quite beautiful, creepy, spooky and awkward, but beautiful.
I reach to my pocket as I approach school; Steve already gave me the school map and schedule, so it saved me from going to the receptionist and all that. As I study the map, I notice something weird; there's the bookstore slash library slash museum I bought my books from, and there's the school four houses away, with two light brown lines cutting across the page , towards the bookstore. A tunnel, and it seems to be underground, hence its light brown color. That doesn't make any sense, is it secret? If so, why would they show it on the school's map they give out to their students? For what purpose does it exist anyways? Why is it connected to a school? For some kind of a teacher-escape-area? A project? My thoughts are interrupted by the sensation of pain shooting from my head, down my body as I hit the wall.
I swear as I cover the place I hit with my right palm and step back. Again, I bump into something, but – thankfully – something softer, and – not thankfully - something that can talk. "Usually people bump into other people," I turn around to face the guy, wanting to say something, but studying him instead. I see he's quite good-looking. Very good-looking. With his messy, dark brown hair, blue eyes, a bit brighter than mine, bronze-tanned skin, my height, long, wide neck, wide jaw-line, fine lips, he's just about everything a girl wants.
But I don't think that after seeing Leo, anyone will have this effect on me, "Didn't I just bump into you?" I ask.
"You bumped into the wall first," he replies, his voice a bit softer that Leo's.
I rub my forehead on the place I hit the wall with, "Gee, thanks."
"Alright, alright, I didn't mean to offend you,"
"Who said I'm offended?"
"Are you being serious right now?" he crosses his arms together.
I roll my eyes and say, "Whatever," as I look back at my map. I'm having trouble focusing, and I stupidly flip it upside-down and back, trying to make sense of it.
And then he speaks again, "Down the hall, turn left, fourth room on your right."
I pause and look up one more time, "Huh?"
"You're heading to English, right?"
"How do you people know everything around here?"
He shrugs and pulls out his right hand "Name's Yorke,"
There's a moment of silence as I study his face and name. Not as exotic as Leonel, but not as popular as Monica either. What can I say? It's a weird place.
I shake his hand and say "Monica,"
"I take it you're new here," he says, stopping but not releasing my hand, so I pull it back myself.
"Yeah," I say, "Arrived yesterday."
"Good, you still have plenty to learn,"
What's he talking about? I swear the more he talks the more confused I get, "Learn what?"
"You'll see," oh, so now he's trying to get me curious, too.
"Look," I start, "If this is some kind of a flirt method, then it's not working,"
He thrusts up his hands in defense as if I attacked him, "Alright, alright, take it easy, no need for the whole school to hear,"
"What are you-" I look around, and once again, every living face is staring right at me. Did I higher my voice? To this day, I do not know.
"Alright, I'm sure we can settle-"
I interrupt him, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Ugh… sure,"
I face him once more, "Who do you think you are?" in about a second, he opens his mouth to answer, but I beat him to it, "No, seriously, butting in, sticking your nose in none of your god damn business," this time, I realize my voice and rage getting higher with every word, proof to that is a rattling sound I always hear somewhere in the background when I'm angry.
"Oka-" he starts,
"And somehow," I do the quotation movement with my fingers at the word as the rattling gets louder, "finding out which class I have first-"
"Monica-" His eyes double their size as the look of shock gets clearer on his face,
"And coming to flirt with me," the rattling gets louder, my voice gets higher, "saying I've got a lot to learn," even louder, even angrier, " "In other words calling me a complete idiot-"
"Look," he holds me by my shoulders and presses down, hurting me, "Monica, you've got to stop it, calm down," I try to break free, "calm down!"
"And now you interrupt me," the rattling gets even louder, it seems almost real, "And grab me, and hurt me, and tell me what to-" I jump as the drinking fountain's faucet flies off, and we're covered in water from head to toe.
I think you know what happens next. I back away a lot of steps, as if blood is coming out of that fountain instead of water, and freeze still, staring at it in shock. What the hell just happened? Did I cause this? How did I cause this? Why did I get so angry at Yorke anyways? I didn't mean for this to happen, but did it really happen because of me? I start to panic inside, as I hear someone call a technician, then someone saying "get back," For some reason, I wanted to see Yorke, to have things explained, perhaps, or not, because he probably can't, or could he? Oh, who cares? I just knew that I wanted to see him. Thing is, I didn't find him, which made me panic even more. Then I saw someone else standing in the crowd, those bright, honey eyes focused on what looked like the fountain. I followed Leo's glance, and realized he was looking at a red-headed girl who was looking at the fountain. He was pretty focused on her, too. Then, when I follow the girl's glance, I see the fountain stop spraying water all at once.
All of that just happened in a few seconds? It seemed like minutes. No one seems surprised, shocked or whatsoever. The technician quickly replaces the faucet and leaves as the crowd clears out. And what was that girl doing? What was Leo doing? Trying to put myself together, I decide to look for him instead of Yorke, he disappeared somewhere in the crowd, but I find him quite fast, since he's one of the last ones to leave.
I walk, or should I say run, up to him and catch up, slowing my run into a pace to keep on the same level. I start thinking of what to say when he beats me to it, "Tough first day, huh?" I open my mouth to answer, but talking seems like such a hard thing right now. I force my throat to swallow, and my voice to reappear, even though it's cracking, "That's one way of saying it," He chuckles for a second.
"I know this may sound stupid, but what happened there?" I ask.
We come to a halt, he faces me and shrugs, "Probably just a glitch in the pipes," his tone was serious, as if he's ordering me to believe it instead of convincing me.
Well, that was unexpected, but no matter how unexpected this is, I'm not giving up, "Then how come it stopped on its own?"
"It didn't, the technician fixed it,"
"You can't simply stop water from pouring out,"
"Unless you block the pipes long enough for him to install a new faucet," Damn, this makes sense. He's good; I think it's obvious he's hiding something, but why?
"But, how can a glitch make water shoot out? A glitch in the pipes blocks them, it doesn't push water out," I try to make my tone sound as ordering as his. There's a pause. As if he's trying to think of something to say.
"Alright," he softens his tone this time, "you couldn't have caused this. Whatever it was, it wasn't you," he sounded more reassuring now, but I didn't want to drop my tone.
"Then how come it went off when I started to shout at Yorke,"
"It didn't go off when you started to shout at him,"
"You know what I mean,"
"Can't you just accept that it was a coincidence?"
"No, I can't. It wasn't. I know it wasn't," I swear, the more I talk, the more I want to know what he's hiding.
He looks me in the eyes, and I look back. He seems to really ponder me, as if he lost something very precious and is trying to find it in me. Those honey eyes, bigger than ever, still make my heart skip a beat, no matter how angry I was. And for a split second, nothing else mattered.
Then the word I was hoping to never hear from him came out of his lips, "Whatever," and he started walking again.
For a few seconds, I watch him walk away. I didn't have time to feel hurt and crap. All I knew was I can't let him go away, not just like that. Therefore, I catch up with him, "What do you mean, 'Whatever'?"
"You want to believe it's your fault, fine. I don't believe it one bit," and he winks at me.
I stop, watching him walk by once more. The feeling to laugh is coming up again, it's like my soul is starting to sparkle, and the feeling of warmth is spreading through my body that seemed freezing just a few moments ago. A simple wink couldn't do this to me; I'm not the type. It was the realization that he wasn't hiding anything this whole time, but that he was denying me doing anything wrong. Even though I, myself believed the opposite.