Please, don't have an Ace, January thought. She was in the middle of a card game called "10's,7's, and 2's."
January had green eyes and short black hair in a kind of swing-style cut. She was an average looking fifteen year old. She made average grades in an average high school. But her friends were…not so average, along with herself.
"Play high. Play high," the boy on the left of January was telling the girl on her right.
The boy had blonde hair, spiked up for now. He had an amethyst stud in his upper ear. He seemed bossy, but that was his cover-up for his sweet, caring side. His name was February, but many called him Brew.
The girl Brew had been talking to placed a Jack on the table. January stuck her bottom lip out and began pouting. She looked at February then the girl, whose name was June. January smirked, then placed her last card on the table, which was the Queen of hearts.
"Ha!" January yelled.
"Joo-oon!" Brew scorned.
"Sorry. It was the highest card that I could play," June began to shrink in her seat.
June had shoulder length, wavy brown hair. She had copper skin and hazel eyes. On her wrist was a creamy pearl bracelet. She was excellent in school, but also fairly shy.
"Don't be rude, Brew. I would have won anyways. I am number one, in case you don't remember," January giggled.
"Actually, the game is based widely on chance," a boy named August was sitting at the table also. "Not to mention, that you have to use your mind to win," August glared at Brew.
"Don't give me that," Brew defended, "You just say that because you have the 'hots' for January," he shot August a "what-do-you-think-of-that" look.
August's face flushed. He quickly turned back to the book he was reading. It was obvious that he did have a thing for January.
August was covered in freckles from head to toe. You could never see him without a book in his hands. He was very wise for a fourteen year old sophomore. He shook his head so that his shaggy, strawberry-blonde hair hung in his face. Behind his bangs were a set of glasses. In one side of his glasses set a small peridot gemstone.
"Can we play another game?" June said with pleading eyes. Brew ignored her eyes without thought.
"Of this? No way!" Brew said with force.
"Did I hear you back down from a challenge?" a smooth, but dark voice said.
"No!" Brew said with a kind of shaky, high-pitched tone. He knew who had said that.
Otto and April walked out from in between two bookshelves and up to the others. October, or Otto as he had been known, and April had been out on a mission.
"I'll play," Otto said pulling a chair up to the table and sitting between January and June to face Brew. For a moment, you might've thought that they, Brew and Otto, were having a stare-down.
Otto swiftly grabbed the cards from June's fingers. She jumped from her seat and hid behind April. April rolled her eyes.
"I'll start," Brew said. He looked as if he wished he weren't there at the moment. Otto nodded gracefully, as if he already had the plan in his mind.
Otto was the beginning of it all. The start of this group that gathered at this mystical library. Nobody really knew anything about him. One day he just came out of nowhere gathering high school kids to help with missions.
Everyone in the group virtually respected him as their leader, you could say. All but Brew. He was always challenging Otto. Otto didn't seem to mind, though.
Why was Otto so easy going? Was it his stunningly good looks? I don't think that's right. His Charms? Closer, but no. He could see the future.
Otto and Brew began to play "War." They were playing so fast that it might've been hard to see their hands moving at all.
June watched from behind April. I hate it when they get like this, she thought, it's so… tense. June began to remember the first time she had seen October.
It was the end of the sixth grade and Otto just walked up to the playground, during recess. He had been standing in the middle of the road for quite some time just watching the children play. June was sitting alone in a swing, studying in a science book.
"Hello."
June jumped at the sound of his voice. She looked at his attire. Black shirt and jacket with black pants. She particularly noticed his ring. An opal skull set on a barbed-wire band. It looked as if it was stabbing into his skin, but no blood was being drawn. Maybe it was an illusion.
June shook her distracting thoughts out of her head. She quickly grabbed the science book that she had been reading, and began to run. The young man stopped in front of her and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Look at me," he demanded gently. She looked into his gray eyes, " It's alright," he continued, "Don't be afraid." A warmness came over her. She immediately knew she could trust him.
"Okay," June said in a small voice. She looked down at her shoes, too embarrassed to speak. She began smiling, and when she looked up at the young man he was flashing his pearly whites right back.
A girl walked up to them. She had on a bright yellow spaghetti strapped shirt that showed a flower on the front. Her hair was a dirty blonde, cut into a wispy ear-length style.
"Did you find them?" the young man asked the girl.
"Yup," the girl lifted a finger and "poked" absolutely nothing in mid-air. She winked at the young man. A blue light began to grow in the spot she "poked." It was a portal.
"Um…er…" June mumbled as the girl motioned for June to walk into the portal. June looked back at the young man.
"It's fine," he assured her.
June began walking closer to the blue light. At the same time, she noticed a diamond ring hanging from a small chain around the other girl's neck. A real one? June thought, I doubt it. June walked into the portal.
As soon as the portal closed around her she began to panic. She looked around and she could not see any trace of the way she had come in. The warmness she had felt earlier, had frozen no sooner than when she had left the young man's presence.
"June!" a familiar voice called.
"January?"
"Listen. I know you can't see me and you're probably freaking out, but try to follow my voice."
"Okay." June trusted January greatly.
"Over here. Yeah, that's it. Walk slowly and keep heading straight."
"Okay."
"Hold out your hand."
June held both of her hands out and closed her eyes, while walking forward. She felt hair run through her left fingers. Soft hair, almost baby-like. She moved her right hand in the same direction.
"Oww! Watch your fingers," a boy's voice commanded.
"Ope!" June had tripped over her feet and began falling forward. She felt hands push on her waist as she was falling. When she was finally over the falling part she raised her head and found that she was on top of someone. She jumped up quickly. When she saw that she had fallen on top of a boy, her face became a bright pink.
She gave him a look saying that she was sorry. He stared at her as if he was going to forgive her, then he made a face.
"Get. Off. Me!" the boy shoved June off of himself and stood up. June gathered what was left of her confidence and also stood up.
"Sorry," she whispered. June backed away and began to examine the environment that she suddenly had fallen into…literally.
She was in some type of library. It had many stories to the building. It had a fireplace in the sitting area and she smelled coffee. June began to look around.
"Don't get lost," January told June in a joking tone.
June was reading the sections of books. Dates, Months, Years, Milleniums. Strange categories, she thought. Then she saw the section on Science. June ran toward it.
All her life she loved the logic of it. The predictability of it. Hypotheses, experiments. Everything about Science made her happy.
"I knew that you would like it," the young man said. June didn't even hear him walk up. Near him was the rude boy that she had fallen on top of.
"Who are you?! Where are we?! What's going on?!" June shouted. You could hear the echo of her voice going through the entire library.
"I'm awfully sorry. I didn't introduce myself. I'm October, and this behind me is February-"
"Brew!"the rude boy said.
"Brew, I mean. We are in another world that co-exists with Earth. You have heard of other dimensions, right?" October asked. June nodded in answer.
"Well, we are in Kelta. A place supposed to be in peace but now…" his voice traveled, "Anyways, we brought you here for your training."
"Training? For what?" June asked.
"For your missions."
June had a puzzled look on her face.
"Don't give us that! You know perfectly well what a mission is. It's not that hard to figure out. Maybe it would be better if you had-" Brew stopped in mid-sentence, "You know what…never mind." And with that he left towards the sitting area.
June was so puzzled by this boy. He tried so hard to act cool and collected to the point where he was really rude.
"Anyways," continued October, " missions are like any other missions. We run errans, accomplish goals, save the world. You know, natural everyday things," he smiled, hoping that she would begin to catch on.
"So we," she stopped, "they are doing missions which involve saving the world," June raised her eyebrows, "Comic book superheros?"
"Excluding the tights and weird outfits,Yup,"October said. June looked straight in his grey eyes as he was saying this. He was telling the truth.
"And you want me to be a part of it?"
October walked over towards June and held out a fist. She opened her hand underneath his. He dropped a small pearl in her hand. She grabbed it between her index finger and her thumb.
"What's this for?" she asked.
"Walk around with it for awhile and you will know if you're part of us. If you're not the right person, then it will reject you, and you will forget all about it and it's purpose. Don't ask anymore questions. You'll know when you know. Go sit with the others and we will discuss business."
June nodded and went towards January. January was conversing with the rude boy about something. When the rude boy saw June sit next to January, on the couch in front of the fireplace, he turned his head and immediately stopped talking.
"What is his problem?" June asked in a whisper.
"He likes you," January answered back with a wide grin. June's cheeks began to get brighter by the second. She glanced at the boy. He had been staring at her this whole time. She faced January again.
"I don't even know him."
"You will. I know these things," January giggled but became serious when the girl that was with October walked into the room.
"As you see, we have a guest, a newbie," the girl smiled and held out a hand towards June, "I'm April. How are you? Getting used to it? The awkward feeling will pass, eventually."
June just smiled. This girl somehow seemed to make June comfortable and not out of the circle. June knew that she could get along with April.
"Okay. For our first matter of business…"
Her pearl had been in her pocket during school a week after she received it. When it had mysteriously duplicated itself and appeared around her wrist as a bracelet, she knew that she was one of them. She never took it off. It made her feel less vulnerable and weak.
She found out that there were more of people that were supposed to be a part of the group. People whose names were months. Strange, but very interesting.
"You can get out from behind me now," April had her head turned around towards June and was smiling.
June stood up and smiled back. At sixteen, she was beautiful and her personality completed her.
Brew thought that she was the most remarkable girl in the universe. He couldn't live without her. He loved the way she knew what he didn't know. It was amazing to listen to her speak. She kept him in awe with every word. When she smiled, it melted his heart. He would do anything for her. If only she would see me the way I see her, Brew thought, Inside and out.
"Brew?"
"Huh?" Brew took his eyes away from June. Otto glanced from Brew to June and back. Otto began to chuckle.
"What?" Brew asked.
"You."
"What about me?
"You think that she doesn't notice, don't you?"
Brew tapped his fingers on the table nervously. "I don't know what you're talking about," he placed his cards on the table and put his head in his hands, hoping Otto wouldn't see through his masquerade.
"Don't worry. Just talk to her. She's afraid just like you."
"Whatever," he lifted up his head and picked up his pile of cards, "I still have no clue what you are talking about."
Otto smiled. He could read Brew like a book. Brew was head over heels for June. Some call it a crush, but Otto knew in a sense that it was the real thing. Remember, he could see the future.
A student sat sleeping in Ms. Lark's class. She did not tollerate that. That was one of Ms. Lark's pet peeves. "No napping, or I'll go slapping." She said that to all her students. even if they had heard it from her before.
"March Rivers!"
The student stirred in her desk.
"Uhh…" March mumbled.
Ms. Lark picked up the thousand ton encyclopedia that was sitting by the classroom globe. She held it above March's desk, ready to drop it on the floor. The whole class was snickering, knowing what was going to happen. Ms. Lark thrust the book towards the floor. Then… Where was the loud SLAM that happens when you drop a book on the ground?
March flipped her long, bright red hair to look at Ms. Lark. March smiled impishly at Ms. Lark's quizzical look. March then looked towards the floor. There the book sat in mid-air.
"Wha-," Ms. Lark barely got a word out before she saw March's hand beneath the book, "That's it. It's detention for you."
"Finally," March said with exaggerated relief.
"Okay! Now you have two weeks!"
"Good, I couldn't stand listening or looking at you for one more day. You remind me of my pug, Wrinkles," March blurted out.
"Good-bye," Ms. Lark pointed towards the door.
As March walked out, she twinkled her fingers at the class.
"Out!" Ms. Lark seemed to be getting impatient.
March quietly and slowly walked to detention. She passed puke yellow lockers-someone's bad idea for school colors- and thought of how the rest of her day might go. She'd come home to an empty house, do chores, watch TV, then try to fall asleep as her drunken father and his friends messed the house back to the filthy way it was before.
Oh well, March thought, I'll just go to Kyle's tonight. Maybe we can do something fun. She smiled at the thought, as she opened the door to the detention room.
"Good day, Lady Rivers."
"Good day as well, Mr. Brown," March answered. Mr. Brown was one of those teachers that didn't really care what you looked like, what your grades were, or how big of a detention streak you had. He liked students, as well as any other person, for who they were and who they might be.
He personally thought that March could be royalty. That whole idea came along when March was in the ninth grade. Her first day at Peace Alliance Private School (which her mother paid for, even though March had never seen her mother face-to-face), and her first time to detention at that same school.
"Well, look at the newbie," Mr. Brown said to the class as some sadistic introduction.
"Thanks a lot," She handed her slip to Mr. Brown and took a seat. The only seat. Right in front of his desk.
"So what brings you to this school?" He asked in a chipper way with a toothy smile.
"Bad luck, karma, my miserable life? I don't know," she gave him a monotonous answer.
"Is your life really all that miserable?"
"Yes."
"Do you not enjoy it anymore?"
"Never did. Stop asking me all these questions. It's annoying."
"One more," he demanded not really caring for her opinion, "Does life itself hurt you, or is it you hurting you?"
And with that question he hit her in the heart. She had been from place to place tons of times. At most, she had moved five different times in one school year. So she had acted up a bit. Who cares. It wasn't like she was going to make friends anyway.
Her drunken father didn't even notice, at one of his parties, that one of his new buds was trying to "get with" his daughter.
She began cutting when she was eleven, after her father had beaten her once. So at this moment she takes in all the mean things she had said and done, and let them all out to this teacher.
"It's alright," Mr. Brown patted her back, "You will grow away from this place in your life."
"I will not!" she cried with tears brimming at the edges of her eyes. It was kind of uncomfortable telling her troubles to a stranger, "I'll just wind up working for a hotel in a rundown town for almost absolutely nothing!" The other detention kids had long been out of the classroom.
Mr. Brown bent down to face her eyes. "Listen. You could bee that, but is that what you choose? Choose who you are going to be, inside and out. You could be royalty, if you tried."
He smiled gently. "Yeah right! Queen March. Sounds ridiculous," she wiped at her eyes.
"What about…hmm…Lady Rivers," he picked up her bag as she stood up to leave.
" I'll think about it," March said. She was back in her "I-don't-give-a-crap" attitude.
As she walked out the door, Mr. Brown could have swore that he saw a slight grin on that ninth grader's face.
Now as a junior in high school, this is what happens.
"How are you today, Ma-Lady?"
"Very well. How's the year starting for you," March handed him her detention slip.
"Absolutely wonderful. You?" He laid his chin in his hand as he put the slip on his desk.
"Wonderfully painful," March smiled a false smile, one that looked as if she was trying to hard to look happy. Then she rolled her eyes, frowned, and took her usual seat, right in front of his desk.
Evil. A four letter word that meant connected with the devil or other powerful destructive forces.
Kent looked up at the bunk above his as he laid in bed. He pulled his hands behind his head and pondered good and evil. Was there really a difference? Two sides fighting for what they believed in. Each thought they were better than the other.
Good. Another four letter word. It means doing something of honor or being nice just to be nice. Blah, blah, blah. Who cares. I'm sleeping.
Kent soon fell asleep. He had been going to some military type school since the fourth grade. He was fairly handsome, with dark black hair shaved, though, and deep green eyes. He was charming, too. Every girl that passed him always grinned at him and felt that they should talk to him. Think about him every minute of the day. He didn't care. Not that he didn't like it, he enjoyed it, but he had better things to do than waste his time with women.
"Dude."
Coming out of his sleep Kent said, "What?"
"Wake-up. The Serge is coming. He'll be pissed at you and make us all do more than what we can handle, not that we don't do that already."
"Kyle. . .shut up," Kent stood by his bunk at attention. He could hear the loud and obnoxious roars of the sergeant coming to his bunk.
His military school wasn't ordinary. It was in a secret world, named after the goddess Dementias. Kent didn't have parents. The only person who took care of him was his older brother, Dorian. He wasn't Kent's real and true brother, but it was the first family he remembered and the only family he had known.
Dorian was the one who paid for and enrolled Kent in military school. It started when Kent was in the fourth grade.
"It'll be good for you," Dorian had said in his deep, calm voice.
"But the pamphlet says that it's all year, non-stop. No breaks 'till graduation," a young squeaky voiced Kent had said.
"Just go!" Dorian cleared his throat and spoke in a more warm voice, "Just go, make friends, and I'll see you at graduation."
Dorian disappeared from the spot he was standing in. Kent had seen Dorian do it many times before, but this time it was different. Kind of like a good-bye.
Now, with only one good friend, he is still at the military school. One two months from graduation. Kent did not look forward to this. He didn't want to see Dorian again, not after Dorian left him at this dreadful place.
When I get out, he thought, I will leave this world for another much better one. I will forget everything here and go to Earth. Earth was a fairy tale in Dementias. Not only did everyone think that it was fake. No one was allowed to speak of going there. If you did there were severe punishments.
Kent started the day with more training than usual due to the sergeant's ideal way of graduating with pride. The serge did that to every senior class. So Kent was relieved when lunch came around the corner.
He grabbed his tray and examined the lunch area. Somehow the atmosphere was different than usual today. He spotted Kyle and went to sit by him. Kyle was looking straight ahead at something, as if he didn't notice anything else around him.
"Dude," Kent said, waving his hand in front of Kyle's face. "Fine don't talk to me. You are as bad as a woman, with this sudden mood change." Kent took a few bites of his burger when Kyle finally spoke.
"So what did you think of the drills today. Thrilling weren't they."
"Ha ha. . .good one. That was funny," Kent chuckled. He glanced at Kyle.
"I was serious," Kyle said. He rose up from the table and went to dump his tray.
Man, he sure is acting weird today, Kent thought, He didn't even eat his burger. Usually he's begging for mine. Maybe he's sick. Yeah I'm pretty sure that that is what it is.