She Lives In a Fairytale
Chapter One
She was running. Faster, she had to go faster. To escape. To get away from the horror that was behind her.
Just a bit more.
Her legs were tiring, she couldn't last much longer. Her breathing was becoming laboured.
Almost there.
She finally made it to the end of the road and around the corner. She stopped to catch her breath, doubling over. She was safe, for now. She took a risky glance behind her. Nothing. But she knew better than to trust the darkness.
Anything could be hiding in the shadows.
Five months was all it took to turn Hayley's world upside down. Five months today. That's when it all changed. Looking back, she can hardly recognise herself...
Today's date was the 4th September. It was also the beginning of a new year at Sixth Form College for Hayley Mason. She wasn't nervous like last year, no. This time she was excited. She was excited about seeing the friends she didn't see over the summer. She was excited to start her classes again, hoping she got the nicer teachers. But most of all, she was excited as this was her last school year before university. It was a year for change.
Hayley was making her way to the school hall to pick up her timetable when she heard her name being called.
"Hayley! Wait up!"
She turned around to see her best friend Beth dodging through the crowd of students. Beth was like a sister to Hayley, and it had been the same since they were four years old when they first met, even though they are almost complete opposites. Beth is a bit of a rebel, never really caring what people thought of her or her actions. She hardly attended her classes, except for one... art. She was extremely passionate about it, sometimes even missing whole school days just to complete a project.
Beth finally made it through the thick mass of people. She was wearing a black, oversized band t-shirt, paint splattered black skinny jeans, and her favourite purple doc martins, unlaced of course. Her dark hair was in a messy bun at the base of her neck, with loose ends falling over her face.
"Hey Hayls, you seen any fresh meat yet?" Hayley rolled her eyes. That was another thing Beth loved... boys, and lots of them. She almost constantly had a boyfriend, ever since she was twelve, but always dumped them at the end of the school year so she could spend the summer with the girls. After all, friends came first.
"No I haven't. But shouldn't you be spending this year actually working? Surely you need results for uni?"
"Don't worry my friend, I have it all figured out. I'm going to go to an art college. I only need one A-level. Sorted."
"Ugh, I wish my application was as easy as that." Hayley was studying Chemistry, Biology, Maths and Photography, and planned to do biochemistry at university. That meant straight 'A's all the way. Photography was her back up plan. She enjoyed it as an escape from all her other work, but she was just as passionate about science as Beth was with art. She couldn't imagine doing anything else.
"Yeah right, you love it really." That was mostly true, Hayley loved a challenge, always determined to do her best. "Anyway, let's have a look at you; we've got to have you looking your best for any cute boys!" Beth winked and stepped back to examine her clothes. Hayley was dressed simply. Blue skinny jeans, pretty pink ballet pumps with a matching vest top, a small grey cardigan and a cropped denim jacket on top. Her shoulder length brown hair was worn straight and down, framing her face. "You'll do. Now let's go get our timetables before it gets too busy."
The girls made their way to the main hall, giggling along the way over events that happened over the holidays. They both quickly grabbed their timetables and made their way back outside to sit on one of the benches.
"So," Beth started, "What lesson you got first?"
"Erm..." Hayley checked her schedule, "Chemistry! With Mr Bacon. That's good, he's nice. What about you?"
"I have a free until after lunch, when I've got art. It looks like a pretty good day. So I think I will be spending my time with..." she looked at every face around her before settling on one, "Him. I'm sure we will know each other very well by the end of the day."
"Well good look with that. I've got to get to chemistry but I'll meet you here at lunch?"
"Yeah sure, see you later." Beth was already making her way over to her victim.
Hayley made her way to the science block, and then up to chemistry on the third floor. There were already a few people in the classroom, but no-one she recognised, so she made her way to one of the back benches and sat in the corner. Hayley hated sitting at the front, mainly because she hated the feeling of eyes watching her from behind. It always made her feel uneasy. The class slowly started to grow, but the seat next to Hayley was still unoccupied. She was a bit disappointed that nobody wanted to sit next to her, she may be shy but she hated feeling alone.
The lesson started when the teacher started to welcome everyone back. He was talking about what they would be studying this year. At least it sounded interesting to Hayley; she would be too involved in her work to notice the absence of anyone beside her.
"Then in January you will start on acids, bases and –"
"Sorry I'm late!"
Hayley looked over to the doorway to see who had interrupted the class, and her eyes widened at the sight. He was the best looking boy Hayley has ever seen. He was pale, tall and muscular, with dark wavy hair that fell over his forehead; his eyes were piercing blue, framed by dark lashes. He was wearing dark jeans with black trainers, a grey t-shirt with a picture of an unusual looking black flower printed on it, and a black zip up jacket. She barely registered the fact that he was making his way over to her, to the empty seat next to her.
Oh my God she thought when her brain finally kicked into gear. He smiled a hello at her before sitting down. She gave a weak smile in return but it was a bit late, so she just turned to try and concentrate on the teacher instead. It turned out to be very difficult. She could feel his body heat radiating off him and onto her left arm, and she could smell his musky yet cool scent. A couple of times she caught herself leaning towards him, before realising what she was doing and pulled herself back, almost falling of her own chair by trying to create distance between them.
This is ridiculous! She told herself. You don't even know him and you are literally falling for him!
When class finally ended Hayley let out a deep breath she hadn't even realised she'd been holding. She quickly picked up her books and made her way to the exit, desperate to get away from the close proximity of the new boy so she could think straight. Unfortunately, she wasn't looking where she was going and ended up walking into someone's back and dropping all of her books.
"Sorry!" she said, before bending down to gather her belongings.
"Nah its fine. Here, let me help you with that." She looked up to see the new boy reaching down to pick up one of her books. "I'm Zac by the way, and new around here if you didn't guess."
"Hayley." She said quietly before straightening up.
Zac was still looking at her textbooks in his own hands, "Looks like you do pretty much the same subjects as me, so I might be seeing a lot of you." He smiled but there was something dark about his eyes, and almost dangerous look.
Definitely one to stay away from then.
His brow furrowed a tiny bit, almost as if he heard what she'd just thought. He reached out to give her the books back, but when Hayley made to grab them, their hands accidently touched. Something happened. It was like an electric shock ran up her arm and through her whole body.
Do I know you?
She pulled away and looked up to see a confused and almost livid expression on Zac's face, before he stormed off without another word.
What was that?
A/N: Hello! I hope you like this, I've already got another three chapters written so if you like this I will put up the others. However, I do have a couple of exams coming up, so revision gets priority, but I just can't seem to stop writing this! I don't own anything you recognise (Night World stuff) but I do own the characters and the story line.
Reviews are always good, I could use the help :), thanks.
Oh and by the way, I'm English, so the school systems are different from other places, we have primary school (4-11 years), high school (11-16 years), sixth form/ college (16-18) then university (18+)