Disclaimer's Note: I do not own "The Night World Series" it unfortunately belongs to someone else: L.J. Smith (author mayhem, right here) anyway, bla bla the story plot however is mine. Thanks LJ
Author's note:
Pfft, I am not an author and feel awkward using that description… but anyhoo, this is small-cub presenting her first fanfiction! (cue: screaming fangirls- lol, I joke) love constructive criticism, tell me what it needs, doesn't need, any requests' bla bla (you know drab)
Happy reading!
Scented Shards: Chapter 1
Lina was cautious not to show any pain as she bent down to retrieve her books from the pavement. The bus door opened with a loud clack. Lina carefully climbed the steps as the door slammed shut behind her. She walked down the isle looking for a spare seat. Plenty of people offered her one. What a nice neighbourhood, she thought absently. I thought people said New Yorker's were mean.
Lina choose a seat next to a boy with fluffy, light brown hair and laughing brown eyes.
"Thanks a million" she said as she slowly sat down.
"No worries" he replied cheerfully.
Lina glanced out the window.
New York was a big city was bigger and busy than she had imagined. How on earth am I going to get a job, seriously? She thought with awe.
"You don't look like you're from around here" the boy said with a smile. Lina struggled to fight the oncoming blush.
"Um, I'm not. Is it that obvious? She asked sheepishly.
"Well, your eyes are as wide as saucers when you look out the window, and it looks like they're glued there too." His grin grew even larger. "What's your name, honey?"
Wow. No one in Oregon had called her that, not even her Dad. She hoped to god she wasn't bright red.
"Uh, Lina." She replied with a smile.
"Cute name. I'm Freddie by the way, it's nice to meet you" he stuck out his hand.
Lina took it gently in her own hand and gave a little shake.
"Nice to meet you Freddie." This time, it was his turn to blush.
There we go. First day of school and Lina had already made her first friend. Who said New York wasn't friendly?
Freddy had politely helped her out of the bus, although it was totally unnecessary, Lina enjoyed this mock gentleman. Especially since she didn't mind a helping hand when she was in a little pain, if nobody knew of course.
"So what's your first class, hon'?" Freddy said, bounding along beside her. I wonder what's got him so excited, Lina thought.
"We might have a class together, hopefully. Maybe I can ask to be your buddy while you're here…" he contemplated with himself.
"Uh, I think I have History first, room 601?" Lina looked up at Freddy's gigantic grin.
"Oh my god! We do have a class together! That is so cool!" His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. Is he on steroids or something? He can't honestly be this excited to have a class with me, unless…-
"Hey, we can totally have lunch together too- if you want…" he trailed off, suddenly noticing his over the top excitement. He went a bright scarlet and laughed nervously, then hurried to correct himself.
"Uh, you don't have to, if you don't want to… I mean, um…" he mumbled in embarrassment.
Although it was totally cute seeing this guy fumble over his earlier enthusiasm, she thought she'd save him the trouble and contribute.
"So, Freddy, could you please help me with my locker?" Lina said, feigning innocence, "because I have a little trouble sometimes." Nervous little laugh, batt eyelashes…
It totally worked.
He immediately relaxed and smoothly said "No problem, hon. If you need anything, you know who to ask" moving his eyebrows up and down.
What was that? Lina had to struggle to suppress her laughter. No wonder she'd made a friend so quickly. This guy was beyond desperate to impress her. Lina was clueless as to why. Maybe he has a mental condition…
All these appalling thoughts propelled around her head as Freddy continued to be the finest gentleman as the day went on.
Opening her looker.
Carrying her books.
Whispering the answers in her ear.
Opening doors for her… do New Yorker's do this for all their newies?
Before Lina even thought the question, she knew the answer: No.
No they didn't.
Lina couldn't believe her luck. Things may finally go all right for me after all.
Freddy couldn't stop talking to Lina during History. They had been told to "shut the hell up" roughly five times, even though Freddy was the one talking ninety percent of the time. Lina was grateful when the bell rang for second period. She had quickly escaped him and rushed off to her next class.
Room 607 English Mr. Greene, her timetable read. Oh how I do love English, Lina's thoughts dripped with sarcasm. Moving to a new school in the middle of the semester was bound to wrap her in English homework and countless amounts of assessments to catch up with. Great.
She looked up at the door. Room 607. This is it, my personal hell for the next 45 minutes.
She took a deep breath, fully conscious of the pain that spread across her waist, mumbling as she opened the door.
Every eye went towards her and the class became silent.
Damn. She was late.
Lina hadn't a clue what to say. "Hi! I'm Lina and I'm new here. I just moved all the way here from Oregon because my dad committed suicide, and now I have to live with my sick mom, here in New York. Nice to meet you." Yeah. Right. You could bet on hell Lina wasn't going to introduce herself.
Mr. Greene shifted his glasses to the top of his nose and pointing to the door announced "Class, this is a new student, Lina. She's from Oregon. So, everybody make her feel welcome." Then turning to Lina, "So, Lina, why don't you say something about yourself to the rest of the class?"
In hell!
"Uh…I like gardening…" then the whole class cracked up laughing.
"What!" she said indignantly. So she had a thing for plants, big deal.
Someone yelled out "Ooh la-di-da, I garden!" trying not to laugh.
"Congratulations! What? Expecting a pat on the back? Or maybe a certificate?" she replied him in the same tone.
He immediately shut up, but the rest of the class laughed even harder, some slapping hands and wooting.
"She's good!"
"You so got owned Brad!"
Lina ignored the remarks as she walked towards her seat and carefully sat down. She took a breath of relief as she accomplished the task, without any pain.
As soon as the class quieted down, Mr. Greene spoke directly to Lina.
"Don't stress too much about trying to catch up, I'll give you plenty of time." Clearly, this teacher was a new-student-butt-kisser.
"Thanks" she replied.
Hell began.
It was in the middle of English, when Lina had unfortunately dropped her pencil on the floor.
"Shit" she mumbled. Lina made an as inconspicuous attempt as she could, to position herself in such a way that didn't require bending over to retrieve the pencil. Behind her, she could hear someone laugh under their breath. Okay, not so inconspicuous. Damn, where's Freddy when you need him? Lina thought as she struggled to just reach the tip.
An arm brushed hers to grab the pencil for her. She excused the shock with relief. Well, speak of the devil…
"Hey, Fred, not that I don't appreciate it, but I can't help but wonder… You've been a real gentleman being nice and kind to me all day, but why? You hardly know me." Lina asked as she, with great effort, sat up.
But as she turned to face Freddy, bright lavenders stared back at her. Wait, they were eyes, violet coloured eyes. Framed by thick, dark eyelashes and glossy black hair that looked lit it belonged to a fallen angel.
He was leaning forward to a point where her face was a breath away from his. He smelt like herbs and incense. Home…
"I said, 'Lina, could you please tell us the famous poet who gave birth to Don Juan?'" Mr. Greene broke Lina from her spell. She quickly turned, her long ash-blonde hair flinging across her red cheeks, acting as a thin curtain, as she tried franticly to come up with an answer.
"Uh…" Lina heard a low, soft whisper behind her.
"Shakespeare"
"Sh-Shakespeare?" she said in a soft voice.
Mr. Greene smiled and continued with his tirade. Lina was tempted to look behind her to say thanks but didn't want to be caught staring at the raven-haired boy with the hypnotic violet eyes.
For the rest of the period, Lina couldn't think straight. All she could think about were two things: The boy behind her, and trying to keep her head looking at the board in front of her.
Again, it was a relief to Lina when the bell rang.
She scrambled her books together, and not caring about soreness, she ran out the door.
And collided with Freddy.
Freddy escorted her to the cafeteria during lunch. Lina tried not to search the room for the Black haired boy, but she did anyway. He wasn't there. Lina attempted to hide her disappointment as Freddy offered her to go before him in the line to get food.
"Thanks Fred" she said cheerfully, squeezing his hand as she walked passed him. His hand was sweaty. How cute.
"Your welcome Lina, anytime." He shrugged his shoulders in a jerky movement and couldn't seem to stop fidgeting. He was tapping his fingers on his leg and was looking all around the cafeteria, as if he hadn't seen it before.
"So, I didn't get to ask if you enjoyed History" turning back to Lina, she could see his blush as he smiled. Then upon seeing her amused expression, he quickly added "not that I did, I hate history. It's so boring. I mean who really cares about 'who-bombed-who?' That was like, so yesterday…" Freddy laughed nervously.
Lina selected some veggie soup. Freddy ordered pizza. He led her over to a vacant table near the side windows. Freddy politely pulled out her seat for her then slumped down in his own, beginning to scoff down his pizza.
Lina softly cleared her throat. "Freddy, thanks for being so eager to make me feel welcome. I really do appreciate it."
Freddy's face turned a deep scarlet before he replied, "It was my pleasure, Lina. I know coming to a new school can be really hard if there's no-one there to show you around and be nice to you and stuff." He took a few more bites of his pizza, which he was close to finishing. Lina looked down at her untouched soup.
"I'm really glad you chose to sit next to me on the bus, because some people, well I should say a lot of people here are arseholes and can't be trusted." His face immediately fell at that.
"Anyone in particular I should know about?" Lina asked curiously, keeping her voice down.
Freddy glanced around the room. He glared towards something behind Lina.
"Them" he growled.
Lina had never expected Freddy to be like this, ever. She didn't think he was capable.
She turned.
She didn't even have to ask whom Freddy was referring to, because she saw them straight away.
The three of them.
The tall boys walked into the cafeteria with a swagger, which clearly said something about their status and confidence. All three of them we're dressed in black shirts with dark jeans that clung low on their hips.
The shorter of the boys, still quite tall, had deeply tanned skin with gold-brown eyes and messy black hair that looked as if he'd gotten out of bed and simply walked out the door without the slightest care about how he looked. Who could blame him? He looked like Taylor Launter.
The slightly taller boy had blonde hair that was swept across his face in a manner that was sure to make girls drool on his black sketchers. He had sleepy blue eyes gave away the slightest hint of arrogance.
Then Lina's eyes drifted to the tallest of the three.
It was him.
It was him…
Freddy's voice made her jump.
"I hate them" he spat, "they think they own everything. Arseholes."
Lina tore her eyes away. Freddy looked like a mad puppy; Angry and harmless.
"Have the done anything in particular?" Lina asked him, "Did they hurt you?"
Freddy looked at her, then his mouth relaxed into a smile.
"Not to me, but they do threaten people if the don't get their way, although I don't think anyone would do that because they're the most popular kids in the entire school. I think they could hurt people. They look as if they're in a gang."
Lina turned to look at them again.
The blonde haired boy was staring right at her. His blue eyes like ice. She instantly felt cold beneath that stare.
He nodded his head at her and winked. Her insides melted. The other two turned to look at whom their friend was flirting with. The tanned boy also nodded and winked, flashing a grin, she thought, girls would kill for. But the other boy just continued to stare blankly.
They began a conversation she couldn't hear, and she began to feel awkward staring at them. She turned back to face Freddy. He looked sullen.
"What's wrong, Freddy?" she asked.
"Nothing" he shook his head, "I just thought that maybe they'd try something on you." He looked up shyly.
"I don't know what you mean Fred" Lina saw him blush.
"Well, you're beautiful…" he mumbled.
"No I'm not" she replied automatically. She'd said that to every boy who called her that, even her dad...
She held back the tears that welled in her eyes.
Freddy took it the wrong way and began trying to explain himself.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! I really meant it. I swear!" he put a hesitant hand on her back and patted her gently between the shoulder blades. "You really are beautiful." Freddy looked horror stricken, as if he'd actually offended her.
Lina giggled at his hysterics. And he gave a confused smiled back and slumped back in his chair with relief, raking a nervous hand through his curly brown hair.
Surely this poor kid had never had a reaction like that from a girl, she thought with amusement. Poor guy.
Things got even more complicated for Freddy as the day went on. Lina and Freddy walked to their next class, Spanish. She had never learnt any Spanish before now and struggled to keep up with the teacher. Thankfully, Freddy was a big help by, every five seconds, translating everything in her ear. By the end of the class, she thought, Freddy ended up teaching her more than the teacher did.
The bell rang and everyone gathered their books together, finally able to go home. Some students stayed to hand in some work to the teacher.
Lina and Freddy pack up their books and she was desperate to test something.
She dropped her pencil case on the ground.
Freddy dove for it. "Here you go" he said, smiling a goofy grin.
Lina couldn't hold it in anymore. She blurt out "Why are you so nice to me Freddy? I truly do appreciate it, but your acting as if I'll hate you if you don't try desperately to impress me." She added, "I'm not that mean."
Freddy froze. The remainder of the class turned to stare. There was silence.
And then Freddy spoke.
"Well, the truth is…" he said in a shy voice "when I first saw you, I… err" he reached behind his head to scratch his neck, then began tapping his fingers nervously on his jeans, looking in all directions of the classroom, all but her eyes. "I thought that you were…" and then he decided to start again.
"When you first got onto the bus I thought you were the most pretty looking girl I had ever seen in Manhattan and so I offered you a seat and when I got speaking to you" he took a breath, "you were really cute and nice and shy and the most gorgeous person I had ever met and I really wanted to impress you so that we could be friends and maybe you would like me too because I've never met a girl like you…" he gasped for breath. The look on his face indicated that he probably never intended to say that to her face, let alone the first day they met.
Lina could feel her cheek twitching. Oh. My. God! He just declared his feelings towards me in a totally blatant way… For the love of god… do not. Laugh.
Lina could hear people gagging at the front of the classroom. Including the teacher. Freddy had gone bright red and was looking down as his shoelaces.
Lina couldn't forgive herself. This guy had been unswervingly kind to her on her first day and ended up getting laughed at. Well Freddy, ask and you shall receive…
Lina carefully detached herself from her seat and stood on her tippee-toes to enclose her arms around his neck. Freddy looked up, confused.
It was now or never. She knew people were watching but that was her punishment for almost laughing at this poor guy.
She pulled his head down towards her and tilted her head to match his. Her lips brushed over his, but there was no response. It was like kissing stone. His eyes were still open in shock. Oh god, I just made it worse, she thought dismally.
Lina detached her arms, turned to grab her books and walked out, unaware of the violet eyes that stared from outside the windows.
Author's note:
Reviews plzzz? Do you think I should have the next chapter in his (Mista raven-hared dude whos kinda creepily/ stalkerish watching through windows) POV? Cause I am seriously thinking about it. In the next chapter: there will be more info on her story, why she's in pain? Some creep who has a serious obsession (and no, it isn't poor Freddy ;)) and finally more on the mysterious boys… well that just gave it away now didn't it.. Reviews are wanted please
Small- cub