Revelations

Chapter One: Intrigue

Viola ran down to the soccer pitch as fast as she could. Which was pretty quick, considering the shape she was in. Still, she was afraid she was late for the tryouts. She had really meant to be on time. But, things happened as they did, and here she was, running for her life. She exhaled when she saw the girls from her team lined up on the 18-yard, her coach nowhere to be seen.

She slowed down a little, adjusted her bag strap and dropped her ball to the ground, choosing to kick it now with her feet as opposed to carrying it. She was almost to the line-up, when, "Hastings!"

"Oops…" Viola said to herself.

Coach Jillian Steinfeld was not one to be messed with. Unlike the milquetoast Coach Pistonek, Coach Jillian was hardcore, rigid to a fault, and not one to be bending the rules. Viola turned around, giving the Coach the most apologetic smile she could. Jillian responded with a cold stare.

"Would you mind telling us why you're late?" she commanded.

Viola groaned inwardly. This was one of the things she hated about Jillian. She would never take something quiet. She wasn't a coach that took you into the office to talk to you, no. She was the one that would like to point out your problems in as public of a manner as possible. Which meant pointing out Viola's reason in front of the whole girls' soccer squad.

With any other person, Viola would have responded with some smartass remark, but even though she loved soccer, she didn't exactly want to run five more laps. "Um, well, see, I was helping my brother move into his dorm at Illyria."

It was a true statement, after all. "Uh huh. You're brother is also your twin, correct?"

"Yeah…"

"Which makes him damn near old enough to move himself in, doesn't it, Miss Hastings? An extra lap for you. Now get to work! I want to see no hesitations out there! Divide up now, all of you!" Jillian ordered.

Viola sighed again, but ran out to join the team and got her butt to work, considering she was already starting out on the wrong foot. Jillian didn't have favorites, which meant that the three years Viola had spent on her team at Cornwall was out the window. This would be a fun season.

Once tryouts were done for the day, Viola just about crawled back to up to the school, wondering how her legs survived the practice. Yes, she was very physically fit and could probably withstand boys' practices, but for some reason today Jillian was being harsher than usual, not letting any of the girls relax for a moment. Viola was curious as to whether or not this was in store for the rest of the season, also.

Soon, Kia and Yvonne joined her lying down on the stone benches, and by their coarse breathing and glistening faces, Viola could tell they were rather worn out as well. "Some practice, huh?" Yvonne breathed, her chest's rising and falling slowing, but not dramatically.

"Oh, yes." Viola responded after a moment. "Very fun, indeed."

They sat there for a few minutes, just trying to catch their breaths, when Kia asked, "Hey, do any of you know what time it is? I'm supposed to—"

"Shit!" Viola said, bolting upright. "I promised Sebastian I'd help him finish unpacking! Oh, damnit he's not going to be pleased with me!"

Viola, still in her whole soccer garb, ball and all, started running (energy renewed), towards the parking lot. She got out her cell phone and rapidly, trying her hardest not to have her sweaty fingers slip on the keys, tried calling Paul, who was the only one of her good friends who had a car. After the fourth ring, she was afraid he left his in the back room of the salon he worked at again, but he picked it up just before the answering message started.

"Hello? Vi, is that you? Aren't you supposed to be at tryouts?" Paul answered.

"No, we're done. Listen, could you do me a huge favor?" she asked, hoping he wasn't too busy at the moment.

"Yeah, I'll be over there in a bit. Just give me five minutes, okay?"

Viola smiled into the phone as she snapped it shut. Her friends knew her too well. "Hey, baby!" A familiar voice called out to her.

She was pleased and exasperated at the same time to hear her boyfriend's voice. She turned around and plastered a smile on her face. "Hey, Justin."

He leaned into kiss her, but she put her hands on his chest. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"Justin, I just got done with a two-hour tryout session. I'm sweaty, gross and disgusting. And so are you."

"Aw, come on. You're not one to let a little dirt stop you!" he said, trying to kiss her again.

This time she slapped his hand away. "Justin, stop! I don't want to make out with you every two seconds, okay? Just chill."

He stared at her like she was someone completely different. "Vi, I don't know what's with you, but you should figure it out, okay?" he said, slightly concerned-sounding.

She shook her head. This was the opportunity, and she wasn't going to miss it. Yeah, sometimes he was nice as a boyfriend, but for the most part, he was too clingy and whiny for her to handle. Now was the time to ditch that baggage. "And you should find yourself another girlfriend."

She pushed his hand away again, this time without any struggle, and she imagined it was from the priceless face he gave her in response to what she said. Needless to say, she felt as if a weight had been lifted, one that had been pressing on her for the last couple weeks. Part of her elation died, however, when she heard the honking from Paul's car, reminding her that she had an angry brother to deal with. All in the life of Viola Hastings.

She ran down to where he was and quickly got into the passenger seat. She put on her seatbelt when he had already started reversing to get out of the loading zone. "So what's the big emergency, Vi? I had to postpone an old lady's dye job to come get you."

"Aw, Paul, I'm sorry. I keep asking my mom for a car, but she says 'it's not right for a debutante to drive! She must be prissy and bitchy and neat all the time!'" Paul gave her an odd look. "Alright, alright, I added the last part in, but for the most part that's what she said. Anyway, can you please drop me off at Illyria? I completely forgot that Sebastian asked me to help him move some of his stuff into his new dorm."

Paul laughed. "No offense, Vi, but what does he need your help for?"

"None taken, and I don't know. I just think he's unhappy with Mom and Dad making him go to another school rather than letting him go on with his music. I'm surprised he doesn't just fly off to London one of these days! I'd say that he wants me there for moral support, but I'm also thinking it's just cause he doesn't want to move all of it himself. I know he puts on a strong man façade, but he's really actually very wimpy at times."

"You don't have to explain all that to me, Vi. I just needed to mainly know where I'm headed."

She smiled and leaned back, spinning her soccer ball on her finger for the rest of the ride.

Viola thanked Paul for giving her a ride, and as he drove off, she walked up the steps to the main part of the school, admiring the beautiful stonework and architecture of it. Illyria really was a better school, she admitted. Yeah, Cornwall was good, but Illyria did look more appeasing on first glance. She walked absentmindedly up to where the dorm buildings were, and walked into the Windsor building, trying to find the right corridor for Sebastian's room, 234, amidst all the roughhousing of the dorm boys. Really, they needed to shape up. They were almost in college for goodness' sake!

Once she did finally find it, though, she knocked…rather loudly, hoping he could even hear it through all the commotion going on outside. "Com—n—" was the muffled reply she thought she heard.

Assuming it was meant as an invitation for her to let herself in, she did. She automatically looked to Sebastian's bed on the right, thinking him to be where he usually would be, playing his guitar. Only this time he wasn't there. It didn't look like he had done any moving in, either. The bedspread wasn't even thrown on yet, and only one of his couple duffel bags of household wares was piled against the wall. She was about to roll her eyes when she remembered that someone had told her to come in.

She gave a hesitant smile as she slowly turned around (shutting the door behind her), to face three guys: one shirtless and looking at her with an odd expression on his face, one playing a video game, completely unaware as to the fact that a girl had just entered their room, and one looking at a magazine, glancing up for a second, but not really paying attention.

"H-Hi." She greeted. She didn't want to prolong the already awkward silence longer than it needed to be. "I'm Viola Hastings, Sebastian's sister. I was supposed to be here to help him move in, but—," She looked around for effect, "—it looks like he's not here. You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?" she asked hopefully.

Only the shirtless guy seemed to actually acknowledge fully that she was there. Sometimes guys still surprised her at their obliviousness. "No, sorry. We had hardly met. He just came in here with one bag and a guitar in his hand, and then left, keeping the guitar and throwing his other stuff against the wall. He didn't even say his name. But thanks for telling us it's Sebastian. That's helpful."

Viola smiled. This guy was nice. And not so bad on the eyes, either. "So what was your name? I'm afraid I didn't catch it."

"O-Oh, Duke Orsino. Sorry. A-And, Andrew and Toby. They live next door."

He gave an uncomfortable half-smile, and seemed a little out of place, which was an interesting occurrence. Like she said, guys still did surprise her. Viola nodded, and was about to give a reassuring smile again, when she noticed he had a soccer ball in the corner, and posters of Frank Lampard, Eddie Gaven, and Arjen Robben, them being some of her favorite soccer players.

"You play soccer?" she asked exhilaratingly, unable to hold back her excitement. It was almost rhetorical, as it was obvious he did.

Something lit up in his face. "Definitely. I'm a striker. They're halfbacks." Duke said, referring to Andrew and Toby. No move from them.

"Excellent. Good to know at least his roommate has some common sense! I'm center forward by the way. Oh, and if you're wondering about my appearance, I just got done with my soccer tryouts, so that's why I'm disgusting looking."

Duke grinned. "Yeah? What team you play for?"

"C—" Viola paused, knowing all too well the rivalry between the two schools. Ah, the hell with it. They don't like it, too bad. "Cornwall. I go to Cornwall."

Disgust crossed Duke's face, and suddenly, as if their hearing had been turned on, Andrew dropped his controller to look at her, and Toby similar with his magazine. Viola suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She looked down, wondering why this was affecting her so much. Usually she'd be just fine, but for some reason, these three guys' scrutinizing stares made her regret telling them she goes to Cornwall.

"Hey, don't take it like that. It's just—well…you know the rivalry between us. I-I guess it-it shouldn't extend to all parts and people of the school, though. As long as you don't tell anyone else, you'll be fine."

She could tell his attempt at reassurance was very, very forced indeed, but she was glad of his effort, anyway. She had an idea of how strong the rivalry was, and she imagined it wasn't exactly easy to say that it didn't matter too much that she was from Cornwall. She looked up, giving him a genuine smile. She gave a shaky laugh. "Thanks." She looked at the time displayed on her cell phone, seeing that it was Sebastian this time that was late. "Oh, well, it was nice talking to you and all, but I can't just sit around here all day waiting for my dumbass brother to get his male butt into gear, so I'm going to head out, but tell him to give me a call if he wants to apologize, okay?"

Duke nodded, and she left, her parting gesture being to attempt to say goodbye to Andrew and Toby, but seeing them having gone back to their respective toys, she exhaled in annoyance.

"Who was that?" Duke asked to no one in particular.

Okay, so it might not be my best work, but I was very, very compelled to do this, because this movie is my all-time favorite. I hope it's okay, though. I'll update as soon as I can! I have ideas as to where this'll go, but if you have any suggestions, I'm welcome to them. Later!