Chapter 1
I am running so late. Mother wanted me home twenty minutes ago. I run as fast as my legs will let me move to get home from school. If only she would let me learn to drive and get a job, than I could drive to school and make some money of my own. I am already seventeen. I only have a few weeks until I turn eighteen. I don't even get the same freedom other kids half my age do. I'm not allowed to hang out with boys or talk to them. If mom could afford for me to go to an all girls school she would have sent me to one, but then she wouldn't be able to watch me all the time. She already has it where the teachers let her know if I even looked at a boy. The only freedom I get is walking to and from school, though I might not even get that after today. Suddenly as I'm walking I run into something solid. Great just what I need. Hurt yourself so mother will freak out more.
"Are you alright?" The most angelic voice I've ever heard asked. I look up from my spot on the ground into the most beautiful sapphire blue eyes I have ever seen.
"I-I I am fine thank you." Just great. Your stuttering. For once mother isn't here and your stuttering. Now I'm talking to myself. Great.
"Have I seen you before? You look really familiar." I make myself look away from his eyes to see the rest of him. My gosh. You're gorgeous. It's like his face was sculpted to be perfect. Pitch black hair that looks touchable. I want to run my hands through his silky hair so bad. What are you thinking. You just met him.
"Do you go to Olympus High?" It's the only place I am allowed that have men. Recognition burns bright in his eyes when I ask him that.
"I've seen you around school but you look so deep in thought all the time that no one wants to disturb you." I tried to hide the blush forming on my face by letting my hair fall forward. "I'm sorry I really didn't mean to embarrass you. I've just noticed you around school. It's hard not to with how your beauty radiates all around you." My beauty?
"Th-thank you. You're very nice." I look up and see the sun lower now than when I left school. "I really must go. I'm late to be home." I hurry to get up and smooth out my clothes. "It was nice to meet you though." I start to walk away when I feel a touch on my arm.
"Can I at least know your name? Mine is Aides." Aides. I wonder what it would sound like to say his name out loud. Should I tell him my name? He told me his.
"Persephone." I tell him as I start to walk again. "I must really get home. I'm sorry." I pick up my pace without looking back but I swear I hear him whisper my name.
After a few blocks and turns, home is finally in sight. A small two bedroom cottage with a garden in the front and a greenhouse in the back. Vines have overgrown the house, wrapping around it. Like it is keeping it in place so it can't escape, like my mother does me.
"Persephone," the voice of my mother exclaims. I stop dead in my tracks in the middle of the walkway. "Why are you so late? You know to come straight home from school. Were you talking to a boy?" Really mother. I look up into the face of my mother in the doorway staring down at me. She is at least a head taller than me. Sometimes I wonder if she is really my mother but my father always says she is. We look nothing alike. I have wavy light brown hair, the color of milk chocolate, that stops a couple inches above my waist line. My eyes are a light lime green with flecks of blue and brown. While she is a ginger with flat mocha brown eyes with a few flecks of pine green. Where I am short and curvy she is tall and slim.
"Answer ms Persephone. Where have you ?" her voice getting louder as she speaks. Finally I snap.
"I was in principals office okay. The school thinks I am to anti-social. They want me to join a club. I told them I would talk to you about it. Then I ran straight here. I swear." Why can't she just trust me? Maybe because you talked to a boy, exactly what she doesn't want you to do. Sapphire blue eyes swim in my vision, but I drown that out. "I don't try to make friends because you never approve of any of them. I'm always alone." Please I need some freedom. "What am I going to do after I graduate? Live here with you my whole life. never making friends or a life of my own." She doesn't make a move to answer. Answer me!
I raise my voice this time. "Well mother am I?" I don't realize how loud I had got until I stop. The silence just hangs over us in the air. Mother just stares at me, not saying a word. Tired of the silence and staring I tell her, "I'm going to my room." I walk past her and up the staircase to my room. Though it hasn't felt like my room in years. Four white suffocating walls, with only a single window. The only opening to the outside world on the weekends. I haven't bothered to decorate the walls since I was little. I don't have any interests. Mother wouldn't approve of any if I did. The only things in my room is a bed, dresser, desk, and chair. All the furniture is white. My whole life is white, a blank slate. One that I'm not allowed to taint in any way. The comforter and pillow on my bed are even white. All the clothes I own are the purest I have ever seen. All shirts cover my shoulders and arms, only my neck is allowed to show. Any pants can't show my ankle or my curves to much. Any dress much go below my knees with leggings on to show no skin. Sleeves are a must with dresses, with no v neck whatsoever. The only thing that I feel that is mine is a small box that hides underneath a small opening under my dresser. It holds all the items my father has secretly sent me. Mother won't let me see him, or my half siblings. She refuses to give me an answer to why. She says a mother never has to answer to her child.
I drop my school bag by the door to my room and lay on the bed. I can't get the imagine of blue sapphire eyes out of my mind. I wonder if I will see him again. Olympus High is pretty big, with a couple hundred to each grade. I hope I do see him again though. Those eyes, they hold so much pain yet love at the sametime. If I see him again, what would I say to him. I'm not used to talking to the male species. Mother is always watching me, keeping me in line. She has even threatened to send me to an all girls school, if she ever sees me talking to a boy. I used to be terrified of the thought, but as I grew the more I would have been okay with it. Now there is only one semester left until graduation. So much missed experiences that I will never get back. I've been made to miss every dance, game, and other school activities. The only one left is senior prom, something I know I won't ever be able to go to. I wouldn't be surprised if she calls the school to tell them I won't be joining any clubs. She wants me home all the time. I'm always surprised she didn't just homeschool me my whole life, but I've also heard they grow up faster, which might be why she hasn't done it.
She has already forbidden me from having any form of contact with my father and half siblings. I've missed so much in their lives because of my mother. I know he will never give up on me, and I love him dearly for that. Only a few more weeks, I remind myself. Than I'll have absolute freedom to decide for myself. I won't have to live in this suffocating house with my controlling mother anymore. My father has already offered to let me go live with him after I turn 18 or graduate, whichever I decide. I've thought about it so much. I would have more freedom without my mother being in the same town trying to guilt me into staying under her thumb.
The sound of footsteps pull me away from my thoughts. She is coming to scold me. I'm not ready to hear her berate me, but I think she enjoys doing it. My door opens when my mother stepping in. Her face tells me she is still mad. Having my door closed did not help that. She has always hated that, it provides too much freedom that she isn't willing to give me.
"Sweetie, it's time we talk." Sweetie? Where did that name come from? "You know that the way you behaved can not go unpunished. I love you and only want to keep you safe. That's why I set certain rules that I absolutely expect to be follow one hundred percent. You're my baby girl. I would die without you." Over dramatic much mother? "I called the school. We decided that you will join the horticulture club. They meet Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. You'll go to the meeting tomorrow and then straight home afterwards. You will talk to no boys that are in the club under no circumstance whatsoever."
"You're letting me join a club?" I ask not really believing her. I'll be getting a little more freedom from her. "Thank you mother." I smile at her, but I don't let the excitement show to its full extent.
"As your punishment though, you will come straight home from school, finish your homework and then you will be working with me until it is time for dinner and bed. You will follow me, do as I tell you. If you don't follow the rules, your punishment will be much worse. Do you understand me, Persephone?" She give me a stern look that tells me I better do as she says.
"Yes mother, I understand." My voice sounds almost robotic, I know it makes her happy when I show no emotions. If I express to much emotion in front of her, she flips out.
"Good, now work on your homework until dinner is ready. Punishment starts tomorrow after you get home." She turns, heading downstairs to start dinner. "Leave your door open," she tells me as she disappears, leaving me to myself.
The rest of the night is the same as every night. I work on my homework for all seven of my classes. I finish up right as dinner is finished. Mother and I eat our dinner together in silence, the way she likes it. After we finish up I clear the table and wash the dishes. I head up to my room, get ready for bed, and say goodnight to mother. The only thing different tonight than all the nights before is those blue sapphire eyes. They plague my mind like a disease. The long it stays the more it takes over my whole mind. I lay in bed thinking about him until my eyes start get to heavy to stay awake. Right before I fall asleep I whisper his name to myself. "Aides."