Chapter Two
Jasmine
Pens scrap and write words with dynamic speed on the paper as students sit uncomfortably in their seats wandering when they'll be released from this hell hole. Footsteps were echoed throughout the hall to announce or to warn students of the arrival of the teacher.
Nobody wanted to be here, all were here against their own will. Many had attended though, because if they didn't there would be many consequences and torment to be payed. Some teacher- well, a teacher who's taught my science classes for the past year, but I've never known his name- walked the aisles of tables and children constantly checking to make sure that students were on task and weren't daydreaming. He held us captive and all of us wanted out because, let's face it; nobody knew what in particular they had actually done wrong.
Some were innocent, whilst others weren't. Most of them I knew weren't because I always knew what they had done wrong, or what they hadn't done like homework or the work in his class. Me, I knew exactly what I had done to wind up in this cage with half a quarter of the population of the students from our school. Though, what I do is never for people to know.
Tapping the paper with my pen, I looked around the room glancing at all the faces of the students in the class. I sat near the back door and so it was easy to notice what most were actually doing. Some were concentrating on the work given out but had grim faces as they mumbled all of the stupid things that they had to write. A couple of people were sprawled out all over their desks, almost as if they were falling asleep of all the boring things in this room. They were all obviously bored and waiting to get their papers done so they could go home.
"Ms. Rose, may I ask why you're not working?" In front of me stands the portly figure of my science teacher with his arms crossed over his chest looking at me closely, waiting for an answer. The whole detention troop watch the conflict as it begins, almost smile or yelling at me for getting myself into trouble. He waits for a couple minutes as I death stare him and the squad before asking, "Well, I see. Hmm, what's on your mind, do you want to tell all of us?"
Smirking slightly to myself, I mumble, "What makes you think there's something on my mind, Sir?"
Tusking he sits on the edge of my table casually. The back two legs of the table squeak in pain as they're lifted slightly off of the ground. "I remember my first detention too Ms. Rose, not fun at all but if you want out you better start your work. You have about 5 minutes before I come back up to see if you've started." Getting up he starts to whistle as he walks up and down the aisles of students.
My bag bumping my back repeatedly, I take the street opposite from my home and walk the path to my destination of irrelevance. I would have been walking home, but I remembered that thing that was part of my things to do list for today. It didn't matter if I was an hour late; no doubt they'd know where I'd been.
Walking into the small forest that we called 'our meeting place' I found nobody, so I sat on the tyre swing by the river. Swinging on it, I began to think of what good it had done for me.
Not only was it used for show, but it was a barrier for me to keep my uniform and other clothing clean. I used to just sit on the roots of these trees and dirt, grass stains and anything else that lay on the ground, would manage to smear itself into my clothing. What a hassle it was just to wash all of it off my clothes. Basically, in the end I had been forced by myself to get something to sit on to prevent me from getting dirty all the time. It was easy though.
You should be home said a voice in my head. Funny as it seems, I didn't want to be there at this moment. Easily bored by the nothingness in the house and all the chores I had to do, I would be willing for anything to get out. No matter how much my father would be wondering about my whereabouts at this moment, I didn't want to be there. The only thing I had in my pockets for wasting time was this silly stupid meaningless meeting. And so I had no choice but to obviously stay here.
Closing my eyes and not letting a thing in my mind but the cold wind, it was easy to point out at what particular part of the area that he came through. Re-opening up my eyes, I looked up at him and as per usual he emerged from the treetops, looking as if he had been perched up there for hours. Despite coming from out of the treetops, there was not one speck of dirt on his soft features or broad hands. Not a single leaf hung dangling from his golden brown hair or a cobweb splattered onto his black singlet top or cargo pants. Not even a spot of dirt was on his sickly white shoes. As per usual he was disgustingly perfect.
"You're late," he points out, his deep blue eyes staring into my chocolate brown ones.
"Yeah well if you can be late sometimes, then so can I."
"Oh but you misunderstand some of things that belong to me in this place- woops this whole place- belongs to me including the things you've added." He walks over to edge of the river and sits down, putting his hand into the cold water. "You must have a reason." Blue eyes stare at me though a mirror of blue and wait for a reply. I notice how his golden brown hair seem like claws, as they curl at the edge of his face and how his eyes have gotten somehow just a bit brighter as he stares down at me.
"I was in detention," I announce and get off the swing. Walking to the closet tree near the exit, I lean against it and continue.
Standing up he walks over to the tree across me, only when he has climbed the tree does he actually take his seat. "Yeah, I already knew that, one of my friends mentioned it to me."
You always manage to have time don't you? I almost ask him." Why are you even still bothering with these meeting, do you still want counselling for those girls breaking your-"
"That's far from it!" He smiles, "Without you Jasmine, I would never have the fun that's needed in an assholes life. I almost smile back at him but then he adds, "Apart from that, I still have many things to learn about you." After that I have an urge to punch him in the face.
Funny thing is, there's so much that's different between Sam and I. For one he's a guy that is always out and about with his friends. Me, I wasn't one for friends. I only kept two people near me: Jessica- an annoying pestering girl who's always gets on my nerves- and Sam- only because of these meetings. He was like some golden child with beams of light lighting him in every movement and moment he makes, as if he was some kind of angel. Me, I was never a golden child just the complete opposite. You could say that I always had darkness following my footsteps. He had a normal name: Sam Thompson. I had a ridiculously frilly girly name: Jasmine Rose. I'm quite surprised my parents hadn't put an orchid or tulip as my middle name. Sam had normal parents that allowed him to be anywhere, whenever he wanted. As Jasmine Rose, I had a parent who was obsessed with every footstep I took when and where and what I did at anytime. Sam was perfect in every square tissue on his body and life and nothing about me was ever worth knowing.
Shaking my head at my stupid life and differences, I come back to the present. "Yeah well as long as that tattoos on your face- which will be a very long time-, you'll always be an asshole to me."
"You said it wasn't permanent," he gasped, touching his face gingerly.
"I never said such a thing."
"Yes you did, I remember you said it just before-"
"Relax, it's fake," I said and added, "Stop being an asshole. Now hurry up and get this meeting over and done with." Grumbling, he touched his face just to make sure it wasn't real and then he bent down and cupped a handful of dirt from the ground.
Part of our agreed rules is to smear dirt on our face when we accepted a dare. If it was a dare that was meant to be done over a long period of time, then we'd have to use water to keep it there until we wash it off. There were many other rules like: If one of us didn't accept a dare then they would be automatically banned from all the secret meeting places, or they'd just get another chance if the dare was too intense for them to handle. Others that weren't really included were: never pee in the river; no matter what, nobody else enters this place or any others (No doubt I've broken that one several times) and of course no nicknames. And also never ever to mention anything that happened in these meetings.
"You know, I'm surprised we still haven't gotten into doing some sacred dance for these, they feel like spiritual ceremonies. Imagine how funny that'd be. You'd be in a bunny suit, with the costume head on so I wouldn't have to see your face and so you couldn't see out of it." Looking up at the sky, he mumbled, "Actually that does sound really stupid. I'd probably do something different."
"Just get on with it Sam," I moaned picking up a rock from the ground and throwing it at him. He looked at me and then pointed his head at the river, motioning for me to walk over there. "Wow, are you finally giving me a long term dare, what happened to before?"
"Short term dares only last a while and plus, I never get to see you squeal with pain before it finishes," he says as we walk together over to the river bed.
"Maybe it's because no one ever will," I mumble and look up grimly at the sky, touching the side of my neck tenderly looking for the bruise.
Drawing his focus on me he looks at me and chooses to ignore what I'm doing and asks, "Are you sure that nobody has ever seen you squeal in pain before."
"Yeah," I lie because it's none of his business and add, "Though, we're even because I haven't seen you squeal like a girl yet."
"Fair enough," As I sit on the rock he gets his mud ready. "This dare might be hard but-"
"Don't really care just ask ahead!"
"No seriously Jasmine, it's fucking serious," he warns and looks at me intently.
"Whatever! Just hurry up and tell me already!" Anything to keep my mind off of it, I add silently to him in my head.
Shaking his head, he thinks about what to say for a couple seconds and then starts, "As I said before, it's serious no matter what. This one can be easy or it can be hard. Whatever way you interpret it will help you to choose which you go whether if it will turn out easy or hard. Common sense..." He drags on and I start to look away slowly at the sky that always tells me things about what's about to happen; or so that's what it seemed to me.
Currently it's a whole blur of greying clouds, as it always is. Though sometimes, if I look past the blur of clouds, I can see the whole future as if it's been written out from God's hand and he's only given me the answers to what I want to know. It branches out to things to what I mustn't do to get into trouble from all my other predators and of course, I never listen, but if I did I'd never get hurt. If I listened to God, my life would be perfect, but there's always things standing in my way to perfectness. Things that are unimportant to me and are full of hatred always keep me from that perfectness that I want so badly.
Slowly, Sam's voice comes back to my ears. "... I want you to do things that you aren't meant to do. You have to remember what I said to you about it being easy or it being hard."
Chapter three
Sam
She wasn't listening; she never really did until the end when the dare came. All the time during the time I spoke of the important things, she'd look up into the sky and I'd wonder, what exactly she's experiencing. Is she looking into the eyes of God and asking him for something, or is she flying in the clouds and landing down softly on them? It didn't particularly matter because if she wasn't up there she'd wish for a more harmful place and I didn't want that.
Her attention focused on me and I got the full impact of confusion from her eyes as she looked back into my eyes and listened to the dare. I knew it, I squeal in my head, she's confused and that means it's going to work .I smile sarcastically at her and ask, "Is it too much? I can give you another if you want or then you don't have to even take any more and you can-"
"Not really caring; it's a good dare and you have a deal," she says dismissively with a wave of her hand. I'm confused at first until she says, "Smear the freaking mud on my face asshole!" She touches her hand to my palm, placing it softly in my hard one and then puts her whole hand on half her face. Fierce frightened brown eyes stare at me through her mud streaked faced as she smiles at me and asks, "Is that all?"
"What do you mean if that's all!" I almost yell. I thought this would have been the best dare to finally give her, but she's not taking it seriously; I can tell. Or then there's something really wrong with her. I should have been her friend instead of being some kind of joker or devil. Dealing with the devil and joker are always obviously not going to be taken seriously with her! If I was her friend she would have told me things and then I could have cured her! But, I'd never want to be only her friend; I'd want to be more.
Her half mud caked lips smile up at me and say, "It's absolutely fine, best dare ever. You can add more to it if you want."
I laugh at her and shake my head. "No way do I want to add more to that. That dare will make me have to see you more often and it's bad enough I have to see you so often. I mean, go get friends already, why do you hang around me?" Say something nice, please? I plead inside my head.
"Because it frustrates you so much, I'll allow you stop seeing me then," she says casually with a flick of her dark brown hair.
"Is that a dare?" I ask.
"Nah, it'd be too annoying 'cause then I'd see you around school and be reminded of the dares I can't dare you." Her smile dies down as rain starts to sprinkle down on us. Looking back up, she stares at the sky and its greying clouds, as if she hadn't noticed them before and almost started to have a conversation with them. Feeling left out, I also look up but see only what any sane person would see: clouds and water droplets.
I look back down, look across at her and come face to face with brown eyes and a caked face. "I have to leave, right now. Or else, I'll be sleeping up there tonight," she points up at the tree house and I smile. We used to meet up there at night if she didn't have time or if it was raining. It actually could suit as a house, since we did put supplies like food and things that would satisfy us. The food would last up to two months though, if we ate it all the time I guess, it'd be gone sooner. "Dad wouldn't like it if I was wet because then I'd spend more time on my hair and that for the party tonight." She smiled but I could see how frightened she was of going out to a party but what was bugging me was the fact that she never mentioned her mother.
But it was never my business to ask what or who was part of her life. What mattered was that she always safe and that no one ever hurt her; not even if it's me.
"... I hear everyone's practically invited to this party and even if you're going, I'm still going 'cause right now I need fun. Alex and I want an excuse out of the house and so you're taking him off of my back."
Alex her brother was, her twin and an awesome guy to hang around. They were close, but not that close as some thought. Where Jasmine was damaged and fragile; Alex was strong and perfect and never intended on doing half the things that she's done. Alex would have been a close friend of mine, but because of these meetings, I knew that if I was to do them then I couldn't be friends with him because she'd be suspicious of how much I told him about our meetings. Though of course I still did talk to him, Jasmine after all has done things against the rules. "The kids okay, but if you're going to force me to do that then I have to take it as a dare."
"Whatever, hurry up its raining." Taking some dirt from the ground she started to stoke lines onto my face and then leaning in so our lips nearly met she says, "I dare you to spend an entire night with my brother." She stares at me for a time, smiles and quickly dashes out of the area with her bag strapped to her back.
If I hadn't known better I would have kissed her gorgeous lips softly and would have run off before she could. Though for some reason, she never wanted strong relationships with people. As much as it kills me, I think I have to actually make that happen for her. Make her fall in love with someone else other than me. But before that she'll need to have friends and the like. If only I could just kill some of the insanity in her eyes and stop every bad thing from happening in her life.