This is the new edition of HYHE, hope you like it; I know I had fun!
You will find that several things have change, and I really hope you like this version, slightly more mature and far better developed.
I have grown only because of you and I thank you.
Still haven't had enough
Chapter 1
It begins with an accident
Near Litchfield Hills in Connecticut, there is a summer camp on one of the private states there, owned by the Bear family. The Bear family was as many locals knew, very rich and very powerful. Not only in the area but they were also very influential in the whole tri-state area.
The Blue-Bear Mountain Summer Camp had been an idea of Jessica Bear, honor graduate in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She had insisted terribly to her grandfather William Bear, ex-congressman, that it would be an splendid idea to invest the family millions into building a place where children of elementary to high-school ages were taught in extend during their summer vacation how to explore the arts.
William at his seventy eight years thought of this idea to be an absolute waste of money, of course. The arts? Children needed discipline at those ages, not been taught how to play instruments and join a band. God knows what kind of hippies this type of education would create. But then again, Jessica was his only granddaughter and he wanted to please her and make her happy. How could he deny her? And so, The Blue-Bear Mountain Summer Camp was born.
This was back in the 80's that the camp had opened and as soon as it did, it was a total success.
Parents from all over the East Cost, sent their children for six weeks so they could learn various classes. Dance, Visual Arts, Music and Sports among others. The children were happy and so did their parents who soon realized that their kids were gifted in certain areas.
Then, the unthinkable happened, a group of three brothers whose parents had been sending them for over five years in a row, got so much attention from the local media as if they were the New Jonas Brothers, that they got signed by the Disney Records Label. The place of course got even more famous, since now parents thought that if children were taught there, then, they would become famous.
This was not however the way Irene Thomas found out about the place. Her son, Sam had always being focused at sports. Very well gifted in tennis, Sam had developed abilities worth recognizing, it was then at a tournament in which he participated and almost won, that one of the coaches recommended her this place so he could practice during the summer. She and her husband talked it over and decided to send their two children Sam and Serena.
And this is where they met.
She was singing a song that was close to her heart. She was a talented singer, all her teachers thought so.
She was playing the piano so she could sing to its music. She got drifted away and didn't even realize that her beautiful voice was the thing that brought him in.
Closed off from love
I didn't need the pain
Once or twice was enough
And it was all in vain
Time starts to pass
Before you know it you're frozen
But something happened
For the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground
Thinking I'm going crazy
Hypnotized by her voice he opened the door of the rehearsal room which startled her and made her stop playing.
"Hi, I'm sorry. I heard you sing and I just wanted to… I just wanted to…" But he didn't get to finish his sentence. The moment he laid eyes on her a spell came upon him. He had seen the most beautiful, the most perfect shade of blue in her innocent eyes. She couldn't be older than 14 then…But she looked like an angel, her blonde hair flowing in beautiful curls with the breeze that the window let pass, this made her look ethereal.
"It's ok, I was just going anyway. You can have the room if you like" Serena said standing from the piano's bench.
"No!" He yelled more loudly than he intended. "Don't go" She smiled when she saw him flush.
And that is how it all began.
A song that connected them. A summer that passed and made them fall in love. And a horrible accident that drifted them apart.
Serena Thomas opened her eyes and it was 6:30 am and her first day at a new school. She and her twin brother were accepted at the exclusive Adams Academy near Roslindale, Boston for their junior year, both with a part-scholarship. Sam with a sports one and Serena an arts one.
The Academy was extremely interested in the both of them with the hopes that they would graduate and a prestigious college would accept them and so the long list of Ivy league graduates of the Academy would increase.
Serena craved so much this opportunity although the moment she opened her eyes she felt scared. The Adams Academy represented the opportunity to start all over again, away from a town where everyone knew her name and knew the travesty she went over. Serena couldn't wait for the opportunity of having teachers that weren't automatically going to fell pitty over her. She was the sad and lonely girl that survived a terrible accident on the way over to a summer camp. Out of 34 passengers in the bus that was supposed to take them from New York to Conneticut only 10 survived with serious injuries.
Sam and Serena were two of them. Sam had dislocated his shoulder but recovered in about six weeks. Serena, however was another story.
She had been going out with a boy she met the previous summer in the camp. He was a year older than her and went to another high school on the other side of town, but they called each other everyday, they skyped whenever they could and texted every second they had available.
That summer in 2008, they met in the bus terminal in Manhattan as their parents drove them so they could take the bus to the camp.
Serena and her friend Darien shared a sit in the backside of the bus.
While the ride went on, they talked about the number of things they would be doing during their summer and Darien promised Serena that they would go for long walks in the trails while they were there.
After an hour or so on the trip, they felt it. The crash.
A truck that transported wood got astray from the road colliding with the bus at the same time. Because of the weight of the truck the bus was sent to a cliff near a small forest. The bus rolled several times down the cliff until it collapsed against several trees.
Serena remembered the turns the bus did as she got ready for school. She got in quickly into the shower and she remembered how the blood of the couple of kids sitting in front of them fell on her face as she was laying down on the floor. She wasn't as lucky to be unconscious after the bus fell down. Darien had protected her head with his strong arms so nothing bad would happen to her. Nevertheless a bar from the bench in front of them got lose and embedded on her leg. The pain was unbearable, but what was excruciating was the fact that Darien had hit his head against the bus window and was sleep with Serena under him. What was agonizing was calling after him over and over again and see that he wouldn't wake up.
After the paramedics arrived to the scene, she had to wait for two hours until they could move her. They took Darien first and she screamed after him. And then she screamed for her brother since she couldn't find him.
After she arrived to the hospital, she had to endure a four hour long surgery for the doctors to be able to take the metal bar off her leg and then repair it as best they could.
Serena turned off the water from the shower and closed her eyes. She opened them again and saw the white lights from the patient room in the hospital. She remembered feeling exhausted and groggy. Pain in her leg was the first feeling, then the relief from the pain medication.
Then she found out that she was to be sentenced to a wheel chair for at least six months until she could walk as normally as she could.
Then, she asked the only question that mattered.
"Where is Darien, is he alive?"
The doctors gave her permission to go and see him.
She found her parents and little sister there waiting for him to wake up.
But he didn't.
Serena didn't lose hope though, she spend all the time she was permitted in his room, waiting for him to wake up, every afternoon after rehabilitation for her leg, in the hopes that he could hear her.
Three months passed and then it happened.
Timidly his eyes flutter and open. Clouds swallowed his sight but then, slowly he could recognize a few colors, white from the walls, black from the hair of a women sitting by the door, blue from the immaculately beautiful eyes that met him.
"You woke up" Serena whispered.
He didn't know who she was. When she found out that he didn't know, she was devastated.
"Serena, are you ready?" said Sam, her twin brother entering her room. "Dad is going to drive us" Serena was sitting on her bed with her fluffy pink bath robe wrapped around her body and her pink towel wrapper around her head. She looked miserable.
"Couldn't sleep again?" asked Sam.
"Now it happens all the time" she said timidly looking outside her window. Luna, her cat jumped on her bed and asked Serena for a cuddle putting her paws on her hand, looking at her with eyes that said, "please don't get depressed, I'm here".
"But you are taking your pills, right?" Serena smiled at him, Sam then understood that she had thrown them away months ago. He sighed. "What are we going to do with you?"
"Love me?" she asked in a sweet voice.
"Well… we have no choice, do we?" Sam said, Serena returned him a smile. After that he said "Try and be pretty in fifteen minutes"
"Will do" she said as Sam left her room. She stepped out of her bed to open her closet where her new set of clothes looked back at her. A pristine white bottom down shirt, a black ruffled skirt, a black blazer with the Academy's coat of arms and a new red blood tie. She got dressed and went down stairs to the kitchen.
Her mother greeted her with a kiss on her cheek, she was busy cooking breakfast. "Eat" she ordered Serena as she signaled the table.
"Not hungry" Serena replied.
"Liar" her mother said. "At least drink your juice and take your pill Serena"
"Mom…" she started to protest but was won by her mother's ultimate look of "I am going to kill you if you don't do it".
Serena took a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and started to pour herself a glass. She then took the little orange bottle of antidepressants that sat on the kitchen's cabinet and showed her mom that she had successfully swallowed it. She felt in a loony hospital every time her family forced her to swallow her pills.
"Good, now eat some toast, it's on the table"
"Mom, I am going to be late"
"Then wake up earlier tomorrow morning, but before you leave you better have something on your stomach"
Serena grabbed a piece of toast and put some grape jam on it. She started to eat it and her mom added "This way you'll have something to throw-up if you get really nervous" Serena rolled her eyes. "Thank you mom"
She said good bye to her mother who in return wished her good luck on her first day in the Academy. Serena went outside to wait for her father and brother, but they were already waiting for her inside the car. She got inside and fastened her seat belt.
"How are you bunny-bee?" her father asked.
"Good dad" Serena answered.
"Leg giving you any trouble?"
"Nop"
"Good, I hope you feel up for this adventure"
"Yeah dad, I am really exited" Serena said in a low voice. Both Ken and Sam looked at each other. They were worried, always worried for her.
Serena didn't felt like continuing the chat and putted on her ipod. She went straight to her sad-song list. A list of songs that she collected that ironically made her feel better after listening to them.
Hello there, the angel from my nightmare
The shadow in the background of the morgue
The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley
We can live like jack and sally if we want
Where you can always find me
We'll have halloween on christmas
And in the night we'll wish this never ends
We'll wish this never ends
Normally a song where you listen to an immensely sad love story and remember the love you could never have you would be depressed, but that was the thing. She remembered everything she didn't have with this type of music. That fantasy, living it, remembering it, was what sometimes kept her going.
We'll wish this never ends
Serena imagined a possibility… her world with her beloved Darien by her side. He would have certainly being accepted as well in the academy so he would ride with them in the backside of the car next to Serena.
She imagined her father making a stop on Renard's Ave. to wait for him and him opening the car door and sliding by her side.
He would have greeted her father and brother and then sneaked a kiss without her father noticing in the rearview mirror.
"Nervous?" he asked
"So much, I couldn't sleep. Think everyone is going to hate me?" Serena asked
"Of course not. Why would anyone hate you. You are perfect. As soon as you get signed up for some extracurricular classes you will no doubt make some friends" Darien said.
"What would you recommend?" Serena asked again
"With your voice and talent, musical theater. Hands Down!" Darien said
"You're teasing me" Serena said.
"Not at all Buns, you make the Glee kids look like amateurs" Darien said
"Come on Darien, trying too hard there" Sam said joining in the teasing.
"Shut up Samuel" Serena said to him.
"Why, you think you're better than Lea Michelle?" Sam asked.
Serena rolled her eyes. "Are you going to have a musical fantasy about singing with her Telephone in a bathroom?" Sam said and Darien laughed.
"Dad, Sammy is being a pain in the butt" Serena said.
"Kids…come on…its way too early to talk about Glee. Sam, be nice to your sister, Serena don't listen to what Sam says and Darien… stop the excessive hand holding" Ken said.
"Dad!" Serena exclaimed
"You heard young lady" Ken finished and Serena and Darien looked at each other with puppy eyes and separated an inch.
She bent her neck so her head rested on his shoulder and she closed her eyes again. She felt his lips on her forehead. "Good luck today Buns" he whispered on her ear and she opened her eyes once more.
"We are here Bunny" Ken announced.
Serena sighed and tried to hide her tears that where just about to leave her eyes.
She stepped out of her father's car and she kissed Ken good-bye. "Call us if anything happens" he told her. "Ok dad, drive safe" she said.
Looking at the immense building in front of her she felt scared. This was her new life, and she was nervous. What if this was yet another failed attempted at blending in? She knew Sammy would have no problems at all. Even after the accident, it was her people just didn't talk to. People tried to avoid her…Serena thought it was because the accident had left a mark on her skin, she just didn't like people getting to close to hurt her…she couldn't take any more.
"We should go first to the Secretaries Office so they give us our schedules" Sam offered
"Did dad talk with the principal into putting us on the same classes?" Serena asked hopeful.
"I think he did… but I guess there will be some classes we don't share, like math and P.E" Sam said.
"And I think you won't be taking Art" Serena said.
"More like "How to cut with Scissors 101" Sam said and they both laughed.
"Sam I'm scared, when we met the principal last week he told me I barely made the average grade to get in. This school is going to be a hundred times harder than Mapple Town High" Serena said.
"Well, they already assigned you a tutor, you just need to work harder that's all" Sam said.
"I do work hard" Serena said.
"Yeah, but you do the work just to get it over with, you are a million times brighter than you give yourself credit for" Sam said giving her an encouraging smile.
"Thanks personal Cheerio. Glad to know Big Bro has my back" Serena said.
They both entered the main building and felt already the hundreds of eyes watching them, analyzing them, trying to see through their souls, searching for any weaknesses. An open space with a big sign that said Administration made them stop, they went to ask an old woman wearing a black and white suit where could they find their schedules and in return the woman gave them two folders full of information for new students. Map, social activities agenda for the month, professor's contact list and a lot more. In there somewhere they found their schedules and found out that most of it was the same. Their morning start was about to begin with a two hour period of History, but before they left the Administration office they were stopped by another student.
"Hi, wait, are you guys the Thomas Twins?" a slim blonde girl asked them.
"Hey, that actually has a nice ring to it, don't you think Serena?" Sam asked in a mocking voice.
"Yeah, maybe we'll form a band or make the first flying plane" Serena said
"No…some other idiots beat us to it" Sam said
"Oh…bummer" Serena said smiling
"You two guys are funny. My name is Mina Norton and I was assigned as your class-buddy." the girl said.
"See, Sam, mom was right, we did make a friend on our first day" Serena said. "I have nothing left to do here, so I should get back home, since for the rest of my day I won't learn anything useful for my promising career in plastic arts"
"Well, you can always suffer from endless note-taking and then channel that into a painting." Sam said.
"Ohh, right you two are the new stars, right? Our teacher was talking all about Samuel's tennis record, which is really impressive, a new Andy Murray perhaps?" Mina asked
"British reference? I bet you are not from around here either" Sam said.
"Not exactly, born and raised in Liverpool, my dad was a reporter back there, but a local news station here, Channel 2, offered him the editor in chief position so we moved here. We have lived here in Roslindale for five years now" Mina said. "But enough 'bout me let me show you guys around before your torture begins" and so she showed them around the cafeteria, the library and their new lockers.
The first bell rang and Mina ushered them into History where their new professor Mr. Lexington was already going through papers and some other stuff. His classroom was full of books and maps, well, no surprise there, but also, the classroom had several screens where GPS locations where displayed and quotes from famous authors where displayed. Kind of blending the old with the new… Serena liked that.
"Welcome students, please take a sit" professor Lexington said as all her classmates took a sit. Sam and Serena took the ones in the back just as Mina did so she could sit near them. "We have some new students with us this year, please welcome Samuel and Serena Thomas" everyone had turned to stare at them and Serena felt a light blush go straight to her face. "Why don't you talk a little about yourselves, why don't you start Samuel?" said the professor.
Sam stood up and waved at his classmates. "Hi, my name is Sam Thomas. I'm 16 years old. I play a lot of tennis and I'm training to hopefully get into the National Junior Championship this year" San said and took his seat.
"Well, Serena, could you introduce yourself?" the professor said and Serena stood up from her seat.
As she was mentally preparing to start talking the classroom door opened. For a second there Serena thought she was again consumed on her own dreams because her boyfriend…ex-boyfriend Darien entered the classroom. "So sorry Mr. Lex" Darien said and the blood in Serena's cheeks drained completely. She started shaking too. "It's ok Darien, do you have the material for today?" the professor asked. "Yeah, these came straight from the copier" Darien said handling some copies to Mr. Lexington". Sam immediately looked at her sister as she was backing down from her stop to hopefully find the exit of her classroom. She instead crashed against one of the plasma screens in the room and it collapsed on the floor causing the screen to break and smoke a little. All eyes were on Serena again, some people were laughing and others were just shocked at what just happen.
"Serena? Serena Thomas?" Darien asked in shock
Serena didn't say anything. She simply in her state of shock left running from the room, Sam on her heels running after her.
