Boarding School Life

-By Arion Sams

Chapter 1

I rolled over in bed, slightly depressed by the fact that there was another school day ahead of me. As I peeked through my eyelids, I could see that today was a bright sunny day because my room was fairly well lit even though the curtains were closed, and my door was shut. I look around my dull room, taking in the few posters on my wall and the perfect study conditions of the room. You see I live in a boarding school, and this school has rules and regulations, even for your living quarters. Some of the rules I understand, after all you don't own the place, but some are ridiculous. The headmaster of the school is incredibly strict.

I rolled over on to my back and stared at the plain, white, unimaginative ceiling and sighed in despair.

"Alex, are you out of bed yet? I won't wait for you this time, I'm sick of being late to class!"

Silence followed, I didn't bother replying.

"You're not out of bed are you? Of course you're not! Well I'm not going to wait for you, I refuse! I'm heading to class, I'll meet you there."

"Nattallee, wait! Please wait…I…I'll just be a sec okay?"

"Look, I'll wait for…two minutes, if I wait any longer I'll be late for class again, and I won't let that happen. Got it?"

"Yeah alright, fine, I'll be right out!"

I started rushing around my room, getting dressed, throwing my books in my bag and quickly grabbing some food. I didn't bother with my bed and by the time I was ready to go to class, my room look like a tornado had hit it, at the speed I was going, it was close enough to a tornado. I checked my watch, three minutes had past, I wrenched open the door and saw Nat at the end of the hallway. I sprinted down the hallway and caught up with her.

"Amazing!"

"What?"

"Everyone is going to be so surprised!"

I knew what she was talking about; she meant that everybody would be shocked because I actually made it to class on time, well ha-ha, very funny! Like she can talk, then again it is always my fault she's late to class, damn!

Shortly we arrived at class and took our seats. The teacher was already in the classroom and was waiting for everyone to sit down and shut up. Once everyone settled he began to call the roll, to check who was there, and who wasn't.

"Kay? Jordan? Michael? Kayla? Jessica? Wesley? Ann? Rachael? Kenny? Nattallee? Ale…no, not for another ten minutes. Eri…"

"Sir, I'm here!"

"Ah, what? Alex you're…here?"

"Yes sir I made sure she got out of bed this morning."

"Well done Nattallee."

Stupid people, I could be here on time by myself if I wanted to be, anyone could!

Mr. Rakfod was my English teacher, he's pretty cool, He likes to crack jokes a lot and the class loves him. I think he's the best. I learn well in his class, but I learn well in any class with a good teacher. It's just unfortunate for him that his class is the first class, on most mornings; which is the class I'm usually late to because I sleep in a lot.

Today in English we did poetry. We could use any writing style we liked and write about anything we liked.

Which is brilliant! I wrote about the mystical.

When class ended, I was a little disappointed, I was having a lot of fun writing my poem and I didn't get to finish it. I headed to ancient history while Nat headed to modern history.

On my way there I ran into Shane, he is my best guy friend, opposed to Nat, who is my best girl friend. I really like the two of them; I have no idea what I'd do without them. Although they're both my best friends, Nat is the better one, probably because we're both girls, so we have a better understanding of one another.

"Hey sweetthang."

"Shane, you know that's totally wrong, don't you?"

"Yeah, I was just messing with your mental state a little. Thought it might be fun."

"You are such a…"

"Good morning Mr. Talis!"

Mr. Talis just jumped back at Shane's hello and quickly entered the classroom. Mr. Talis is a very jittery person. He's never calm, or relaxed, he's always on edge. He's a great teacher and I really like him, but he's just too weird to get to know.

The lesson started and we all got out books to read, and learn about an ancient battle that occurred in Europe during the 1100's. It was really cool, all these people being chased from their homes and massacred it was said that these soldiers had to come along and clean up the mess, and that usually, no one was left alive. The battles that were fought were supposed to very gruesome, and the people who died during the attacks were usually better off.

Once class was over it was time for a break, and morning tea. Shane and I went to the old cherry blossom tree down the back corner of the field, there we sat and waited for Nat to show up. Shane and I talked about class for a while, until Nat showed up and talked to us about her lesson. I found modern history to be entirely boring; Shane didn't mind it though. We told Nat a bit about what we learnt, but she told us to stop, she found ancient history to be too horrible, that's why she did modern.

Unfortunately, during our lovely chat, and our time of serenity, the popular people interrupted us. This happens every year, at the start of summer, the pompous peeps want to take over our spot, because of the shade it provides. So we battle it out, in lots of different ways. Sometimes we have a fight, sometimes we argue, and sometimes we rally up support. The only thing that is different is how it all goes down. The popular girls and guys like to sit together, so they're both here to claim the spot.

We won't give it to them without a fight. And so, it has begun.

"So, you're in our spot…again!"

"Yeah," her followers echoed.

Brittany the queen of pompous asses, she rules over people with an iron hand; and let's not forget the royal king Kraden, who rules over the people with no leniency, not even for his beloved queen.

"What do you two want with our spot?" I replied in the harshest of tones I could manage.

Kraden turned to his most loved and loyal servant, Aoren, and whispered in his ear. This could only mean one thing. Aoren didn't say much, and he constantly wore incredibly dark, black sunglasses, but even though he was quite, he was incredibly strong, the strongest student in the school! Kraden clearly wasn't in the mood for messing around.

Kraden turned to us, "you have one last chance to move, otherwise you will be moved! One, two, thr…"'

"You can't do this!" Shane shouted, "It's against the rules of society. You can't possibly expect to get away with it!"

"Aoren, get 'em."

The way Kraden spoke scared me sometimes, the way he was so calm, like nothing was happening, the way he was constantly monotone. It was unnerving, but I never let it show, I never gave them satisfaction.

If Aoren was going to move us so Kraden could just sit down and relax, I was going to put up a fight.

Aoren walked over to us, he picked up Nat with the utter most ease, and plonked her on the grass a few meters away from the tree. The followers of both groups sat down once Nat was removed, then Aoren came and picked up Shane. He put up a fight, but unfortunately it wasn't enough, and Aoren removed him fairly quickly, and plonked him next to Nat. Once he was gone, Brittany sat down, I was next and I knew that. Aoren came for me, I stood and walked closer to the tree, he knew I was going to be pain. As he got closer to me, I wrapped my arms around the tree, and kicked at him.

The stupid pop people were laughing at the amusing display, all except for Kraden, who was unimpressed, as he just wanted to sit down and indulge in the peace and quiet, but this is exactly what I wanted, his misery.

Eventually Aoren grabbed hold of my legs and was trying to yank me off the tree. I held on tight and waited for a good chance to break free and kick him; my friends were cheering me on.

"Let go of me!"

"Let go of the tree."

That was the second time I had ever heard his voice, it was fairly deep, yet soothing. It sounds like a voice that could be manipulated to make different sounds and voices.

"Let go!" I shouted my arms and legs starting to ache.

He let go, and I dropped to the ground, it was so unexpected, but very smart on his behalf. He came over to me, in my disoriented state, and picked me up, and dumped me with my friends. By the time I knew what was going on, it was too late; Kraden had taken his seat, and began to relax.

"Humph, who do they think they are?" Nat asked in a disgusted manner.

"They think that they're the most important people in the school and that they can get whatever they want...and they'd be right." Shane replied in a dulcet tone.

The two of them turned to me, looking to me for advice for what we should do. Just at that moment it struck that I was the leader of our group. I stuck up to people most and made most of the decisions, but they seemed to like it that way.

"Why don't we go find somewhere in the building to sit and plot their doom? Yes, their doom, for one day we shall rise up and take control, crushing them in our quest for glory!"

"You should become an actress." Nat said with a great amount of pep.

"Yeah ya little drama queen."

"Shut up guys!"

And we all burst out laughing. We headed up to the main building and found an abandoned staircase, that wasn't used very much by any one, at any time. It was peaceful and quiet there, so we decided that during the summer this would be our new spot, and during winter, we'd sit under the cherry blossom.

Soon after we initiated this new spot as our own, the bell rang, so we had to head to class.

Third period, this was a class I really enjoyed, yet hated at the same time. It was maths three, neither of my friends was in this class, and there are only ten people in the class. The teacher, Mrs. Collives, is super cool and nice, but she all about together, so some how she manages to find lots of assignments for us to do in pairs, weird huh? Most of the time I'm paired with someone good, but she chooses the pairs, and I haven't had a person twice yet, and there's only two people I haven't been paired with. These two people are both male and from the popular group, they are; Kraden and Aoren. However I think I'd prefer to work with Aoren, but I'd also like to get the torment of having to work with Kraden out of the way.

As I got to class I found the other nine students standing around outside the door, the teacher was running late. I stood there away from the rest of the people, two of them were popular kids; Kraden and Aoren, and four of them were nerds; Randy, Lucy, Marsha and Steven, one was an emo; Jake, and the other two were just regular nobody people; Emily and Jason. Stayed away from them because they weren't part of any of my cliques, and I wasn't friends with any of them, but I got along with most of them okay.

Mrs. Collives arrived after a couple of minutes and let's inside, we all followed her into the room and took our seats, I always sat up the back left corner, it was fairly dark and I found it easy to concentrate there.

"Okay class, I have an assignment for you, aren't you all so lucky?"

She clearly had no idea what lucky meant, for this certainly wasn't lucky, but knew it was coming, for she warned us last lesson, but it still hit me hard.

She went on, telling us who we were working with, and that this task was the hardest and longest task we'd had and have.

"You'll be seeing a lot of your partner!"

Great just what I want to hear, for I was correct, I was going to end up with one of the two popular people, and I ended up with Kraden!

However, I did feel a little better when I saw that he was not at all looking forward to it either which meant he'd be suffering also.

The teacher handed out the assignment and told us to start work on it today. Kraden stood up and left his servant Aoren behind, he clearly just wanted to start and not argue, because he didn't even try and get me to move. It was clear that both of us want this experience to be as painless as possible, but I knew that that wouldn't happen; I would not be able to stop myself from attacking him while his protector was not around.

"Okay let's get started." He said with a dull, unimpressed tone, "You better be smart, because I'm not doing this stupid project on my own."

"Hey, I'm smart, but are you? I'm not carrying the weight of this project on my shoulders, this is gonna be equally shared, fifty fifty. Got it?"

"Don't you snap at me! I'll put you six feet under before you could even blink!" he whispered to me in most menacing tone.

"I . . ."

"Let's get started." He said calmly as though no argument had just occurred.

We put our heads down and started concentrating on the task before us. A little while before the end of class we stopped working and discussed how we were going to do the rest of the project, we knew there would be no more class time for it.

We decided to break up whose room we'd go to evenly. We would use my room, then his room, then the library, and we'd keep doing this until the project was done. We would spend an hour on it every time, and we'd meet three times a week; Monday at five, Thursday at seven (which was just after dinner), and Sunday at ten.

Just as we finished making our plans, the bell rang.

"Okay so . . .I'll see you at five? That sounds really wrong."

"Yeah it does." He said disgusted, "see you at five."

I headed off to class as he stood and waited for Aoren to leave the classroom, he had been held up by the teacher, the two of them were seemingly inseparable. Walking down the corridors and away from maths three, I got out my timetable and checked what I had next, oh goody, my favourite subject; PE. There was only one good thing about this class and that was that both my friends were in it, everything else about it sucked, I hated PE!

The worse thing about it was the teacher, because the teacher was also the headmaster. Who is a very scary person, he is tall and very buff, he has a deep voice that sounds like an evil being of some sort is talking to you and he is the meanest teacher there is, he picks on students like students pick on students. He doesn't care what group you from, he merely judges you on your athletic ability. If you're a really good sportsman then he'll favour you, even when it comes to other things. By students rule, the jocks aren't at the top, the popular peeps are, but in his rule, the jocks are at the top, along with some other sporty people.

I got to the change rooms and changed into my PE gear, when I was ready to enter the gym; I stood near the doors and waited for nat. I saw her heading towards me, as she reached me I opened the gym door and we walked inside together.

"Hey, how was maths three? Did it happen?"

"Yep, it happened, we got a project to work on, and my partner is Kraden."

"Oh well, it could be worse." I just gave her a look, "well it could . . .you could be dead!"

"Well thanks for that thought."

"That's o . . ."

"Shut up! All right now that I have you attention, let's get started! Line up in alphabetical order, in a boys and girls line." He waited while everyone did this, and then began to speak again. "Alright, now turn and face the person opposite you, this is your partner." He began to hand out a very thick rubber ring to the partners, "you will put this ring around one leg each, like a three legged race, except you will be doing my, what you students call, my army training circuit! Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" shouted the entire class in unison.

I had turned to face my partner, but hadn't actually looked at him yet due to the fact I was watching the headmaster. When I finally turned my eyes towards the person standing opposite me, I realised that today was fated to being a bad day, for I was standing opposite Aoren, who didn't seem too pleased about the arrangement either.

The headmaster; Drade, handed a rubber ring to Aoren, who accepted the ring hastily and walked over to me with it putting it on our legs. This was going to be very difficult, Drade's circuit was hard enough, but doing it attached to another person was hopeless, especially someone who was speedy at the circuit, we were going to fall over many times.

"Hi." I could tell I sounded nervous and unsure, I didn't know what to do or how to act. Aoren was a very intimidating person, and he didn't talk, which didn't help. I looked around trying to spot Nat, I found her right up the front, she was next to do the circuit, her partner was, well she was very lucky, Shane.

Eventually it was my turn to do the circuit, I really didn't want to, but I had to, Aoren seemed keen, to a degree, I think he doubted that he could go well with me attached, but it's not like it was picnic for me, so humph to him.

"Okay you two, go!"

We took off, the first part was easy, and we just had to run to the first obstacle. The first obstacle was a pit of mud with wire over it; we had to crawl under the wire and into the mud. I turned and looked at Aoren, he looked at me then grabbed my arm and pulled me down rapidly, I went down with a yell at the unexpectedness. The mud was disgusting, crawling through this thick brown slime, that seemed to suck you in, but with Aoren great strength pulling me along, we got through the mud pretty quickly. We ran to the next obstacle, which was a wall. We both stopped dead at the wall, I'm not sure if he stopped because he was reacting like I was or if it was because he's attached to me and didn't have a choice.

Turns out he stopped because he felt pull me against him.

He turned and looked at me, clearly confused about why we had stopped, I looked back at the teacher giving him the, are you serious, look, then turned back to face Aoren.

"I can't climb a solid wall with no places to grip, I'll fall and. .Die! I can't do it, I just can't!" He stared at me blankly, "It's impossible, please let's just go around and do the rest of the course, I know you've never skipped anything, or gottin' anything less than an A+ in PE, but please!"

He stared at me a little longer, "no, we'll climb the wall. I'll climb, you'll cling."

"Cling to what?"

"Me. I'll climb up the wall pulling the both of us; you just have to hold on to me."

"No! That's, that's . . . its just weird! I won't do it, let's go round."

"No!" He spoke with pure anger and determination, it was as if he planned to pull out duct tape and stick the rest of me to him, so I had no choice, or after PE he was planning to kill me.

"Okay." I said, my voice shaking with a small amount of fear.

We walked towards the wall, when we stood at the foot of the wall, I looked up and down it and swallowed hard it was about fifteen feet high. This was going to be scary; I flung my arms around Aoren and clung to him as if my life was in the balance.

He started to climb the wall with me hanging off him like an autumn leaf hanging from a tree; both the leaf and me were clinging to vestiges of life. The whole way up I told myself not to look down, but it was hard, I almost went the whole way up without looking, but right near the top, I looked and gave a little whimper. Aoren stopped momentarily giving me a look; it was a look of pity. I knew that finally he had realised how horrible this really was for me.

Now, let me make this perfectly clear, I'm not afraid of heights!

I can stand on the edge of a cliff, I can handle planes fine; it's just that this wasn't just high, it was a solid, no grip, straight, brick wall. This wall was just pure madness and torture made up by our crazy teacher, this wall stared you down and told you no!

Once Aoren turned his gaze away, he started to climb again; and I closed my eyes, really tight. Before I knew it I could feel solid ground again and it felt wonderful. Aoren, who was slowly prying me off him, then interrupted this sensation.

I opened my eyes and looked ahead, I saw the rope swings that were across mud, and how the mud got in the gym I'll never know. Realising that I was still partially clinging to Aoren, as he had not completely freed himself from me, I quickly let go of him and sighed as I turned back to face the ropes.

"I know, I know . . . we have to."

We started jogging towards the ropes and jumped up on to the platform. Aoren grabbed hold of a rope and turned to look at me.

"You're going to have to grab the next one. Can you do that? Because I won't be able to, so you have to, got that?"

"Um . . . I have to grab the rope? Um . . . yeah, okay I can do that . . . I think."

He stared at me for a while, clearly unsure wether to trust me, but in reality, he had no choice. Although I wish he did have a choice, then I wouldn't have to do this, and I wouldn't feel bad if we fell into the mud because of me.

We walked back a bit on the platform and got a good run up. He jumped of the platform and swung across the mud to near the second rope, where I had to grab hold of it, and I did!

He let go of the first rope and we swung across to the third. It was amazing; I was actually holding both our weights and not faltering.

We never hit the mud!

We landed on the platform across the other side of the pit, and I actually hugged Aoren . . . oops!

He drilled me with a stare that could shatter a bomb shelter and then cracked his face. Smiled that is. Smiled, I actually made him smile, SMILE!

As abruptly as he started, he stopped, as if he realised his mistake and showed weakness.

"C'mon, let's continue."

We continued the torture of the army drill course and moved on to the next part; the monkey bars, that required ten chin-ups each bar. I know Aoren won't let me slack off and make him do all the work. A real shame that. We stepped up onto the platform and put ours hands on to the first bar.

"I'm not caring, you must take your own weight or I'll knock your hands off the bar so you swing down and your face gets covered by mud. Then of course I'd lift you back up so you can put your hands on the bar and try again. Okay?"

"Um . . . o-Kay." I said in a voice that sounded like a mouse had just been stepped on.

We both started to pull ourselves up for the very first chin-up; I struggled and very slowly wriggled my way up, like a fish out of water still trying to swim. Aoren on the other hand pulled himself up with utter ease. God I hate him sometimes.

Once we had done ten, and of course it was very slow for Aoren, we swung across to the next bar and did the same thing until we completed it all. Although on the third last monkey bar, I felt totally weak and gave up. Aoren stuck to what he said, he shoved my hands off the bar and I swung down into the mud. It was disgusting; I was completely covered in mud from the top of my head to my armpits. Aoren slowly lifted me back so I could grab hold of the bar again. He struggled a bit because he was taking both our weights and he only had one hand on the bar. Apart from that mishap, it was fine; I just can't believe he actually did what he said he'd do!

Right after getting off the monkey bars, we headed straight for the tube. The tube is a small tube that you have to crawl through, which usually, apart from jogging, is the easiest part of the course, but with two people it will be very difficult. One person would have to be on top of the other and both would have to coordinate and push themselves through the tunnel. The bad part is being on top of someone; because you're either facing each other, which seem like sex, both facing the same way, which seems like anal sex, or facing away from each other, which seem rude and is the most uncomfortable position.

I couldn't help but wonder what position we're going to take up.

As we walked up to the tube, Aoren stopped dead. All colours, which weren't much, drained from his face.

"Um . . . ah . . . how do you . . . ah . . .want to . . .do this?" his voice was high, like he's never even made contact with a girl, which, considering he's popular, is crazy.

"Ah . . .you mean your not choosing? But you've been in control this entire time, now I have to decide?!"

"Yes, yes you do."

Suddenly he had his spunk back.

"Um . . . well, in that case, I . . .um . . .facing, no same way, no facing, ah . . . I can't decide."

"Well hurry up and decided."

"I can't!"

"Look, I'll choose one hand for one way, and the other hand for another, then you pick a hand, yeah?"

"Okay."

He put his hands behind his back and waited for my decision.

" Left."

"My left or yours?"

"Yours."

"Facing it is." He swallowed hard, like he was taking a plunge, or like I was diseased.

We walked to the entrance of the tube, and crouched down, this was it. I turned so I was facing him; he slowly lowered himself down, taking me with him. It was the slowest moment ever; it went on forever and was as awkward as hell.

We slowly started wriggling back into the tunnel, once we were in, it was very cramped, and we were so close we were about three millimetres from kissing. We finally made it to the middle of the tunnel when . . . we got stuck.

STUCK!

Can you believe it, freakin' stuck!

"So . . .you come here often?" he said lamely trying to make light of the situation.

I was just about to reply when Kraden poked his in at the end of the tunnel.

"What are you doing, making out with her?"

We both froze; totally stunned by his remark, once again before I could say anything, someone else spoke first.

"No!" Aoren shouted with a certain amount of disgust in his voice.

"That's good . . . cause . . ." his voice trailed away. " Then what's wrong?"

"We're stuck!" he shouted, "you dick head!"

"Um . . ." I said quietly, "shouldn't you be helping us get unstuck."

"Mmm. I suppose so. But there isn't really anything I can do; it's up to you guys. I'll let the teacher know you're stuck though."

He strutted away and soon after there was an eruption of laughter and I got a look that could kill. Aoren was not happy, his rep probably just fell to pieces right there in front of us, and he blamed me.

On the bright side I'd never have to suffer PE again, or any other class, because I would be dead by morning.

We shuffled around for a while trying to find a position which would give us some room to move. Eventually we found a good position and wriggled our way forward about an inch, then got stuck again. This time though, once we got stuck, we both went nuts, struggling as much and as hard as we could, unfortunately during this time we both made a movement that had great consequence. We accidentally brought our lips together, and kind of kissed.

We both went into a, what I like to call, a shock coma. This is where you freeze up completely, turn red, feel nauseated and sometimes drool a little. We appeared to stay in these shock comas for quite some time, until I finally spoke out.

"Let's hurry up and get out of here."

He nodded. We calmly thought about our situation and came up with a game plan, which let us to freedom. We completed the course and Aoren got an A, while I got a B. unfair if you ask me, but I was happy with a B. and I think, considering we got stuck, Aoren was happy with an A.

Once PE was over Nat and I headed to the change rooms.

"So, how was it?"

"How was what?"

"Being assigned with Aoren?"

"Mmm. I don't know. He's a bit of a fitness freak, but for once I did actually get something above a C."

"Yeah, guess that's good. What about getting stuck in that tunnel? Did anything happen?"

"Being stuck in that stupid tube sucked! And what do you mean did anything happen?"

"Well you're very close in that tunnel, and if you guys got stuck, I guess you were extra close, so, did anything happen? Like a little kiss, kiss?"

"No! God! What's wrong with you, we hate them remember? Plotting their downfall? Ringing a bell?"

"Yeah, Yeah, okay."

"What about you? How was your PE with Shane?"

"Good, cause, well were good friends so it was just . . . normal really."

"That's good!"

We got changed into our regular school uniform and headed to our lunch break.

We headed to our new spot on the abandoned staircase, where it was quiet and cool. We heard and saw the popular people going by, headed to what used to be our spot. I turned to talk to my friends about how we were going to murder them when we had an unexpected guest, Aoren.

We all stared at him, and I could tell we were all thinking the same thing. What the f is he doing he, what, wanted to take this spot too.

"Hey, um . . . Al . . .Alex can . . .can I talk to you?"

I looked at my friends, they seemed shocked and confused. How could he do this to me, in front of my friends, what was he thinking, why did he even want to talk about it?

"Um . . . sure."

I got up and followed him; we walked round a couple of corners and into this little, dark, secret room. I never even knew this place existed. We both stepped in to the tiny space and looked at each other. The space was still big enough for there to be a sizeable gap between us, but it was still plenty awkward. I felt like we were dating in secret and we'd come here to make out. That's what happened in the movies after all, not that movie are something to go, I am smarter than that.

It seemed a while before anyone spoke, and a long, loud silence rang out between us. We both stood there staring at each other, when Aoren looked down and away from me, breaking the horrible silence.

"So. About what happened in gym, um . . . I know it was an accident but, it just, I mean I thought we should maybe say it, and I thought . . . I thought I should check about . . . what you thought about it." He spoke all this fairly nervously, but still with his deep, calm voice. I wasn't sure why he thought we had to talk about it before, but know I understood, he thought one little accidental kiss from him and I'd be head over heels, well he's wrong.

"What, you think I'm in love with you now our or something from one pathetic kiss? Like if any girl gets a taste you they'll want more? Perhaps because you're popular or something? Well, wrong! You're not even popular; not really, you're only popular via association. Kraden is the only reason anyone even notices you! So, get over your self it was an accident, nothing more."

Before he had a chance to reply, I stormed from the room, leaving him in my dust as I headed back to my friends. When I got back, my friends were still frozen in the same expression I'd left them in. mouths gaping, eyes widish covered in great thought. It was crazy, I can't believe the stayed that way, good thing no one come round here or else they would have been a laughingstock.

"Hey, you guys wanna try looking normal?"

They both shook their heads like they were trying to come out of a drunken stupor.

"So, so, what did he want?" Shane asked still sounding slightly out of it.

"Just to talk about something that happened during gym . . . to apologies I think."

"Why what did he do?"

"Shoved my hands off the monkey bars so I swung down and got covered in mud."

"Ewe! That's pleasant." Nat said with a squirm.

The rest of our lunch break consisted of nothing but mindless chatter to one another, but always, in the very back of my mind was a nagging thought. I couldn't shake it, it just kept haunting me, the more I thought about it, and the more it seemed like a mistake. Perhaps Aoren didn't think I had Fallen head over heals for him; maybe he hoped I had cause he liked me, the simple mistakes of a guy. I tried to shake it off, but I couldn't, so I just pushed as far back into my mind as I could and concentrated on other things instead.

Before I knew it lunch was over and I had to head to my next class, history.

I had a split double of it today and I didn't even realize until now. Shane and I headed off and Nat went to her class. I was really looking forward to history; it would just clear the air. We arrived at history and the class was already in, how unusual. We entered the room to find, not Mr. Talis, but Drade!

"What happened to Mr. Talis?' I asked very timidly, only just able o make my voice audible.

" He's not well. Had a bit of a . . .breakdown." said Drade in a deep, growly voice, "have you ever considered trying out for cheerleading?"

I looked at him oddly; it was a weird question, completely out of the blue. I turned and gave Shane a, what the hell look, and he just returned it. I looked back at Drade and then turned to take a seat, ignoring his question. Cheerleader? That's pop central! No way would I ever do that!

We took our seats somewhere near the back and opened our books. The lesson wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I thought he'd be a terrible teacher, but he actually seemed highly out of character, all lucid, like he was on drugs or something.

Once the class was over we headed out and off to our next class. On my way out the door, Drade stopped me, I looked stunned, and I thought I'd done something wrong. He told everyone else to hurry up to their next class, and I knew he was back to being him because he yelled it.

"Follow me."

I followed him, obeying my head master and teacher; he took me to his office.

"So . . .you're the girl that got paired with Aoren, yes?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh I was just wondering. You're not very good at PE."

"No, I'm not but . . .you haven't called me here to talk about PE, have you?"

"No."

He walked over to the door and locked it, then shut the blinds. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew it wasn't good.

"What . . .What are you doing?"

"Oh . . .nothing."

He grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall. He was kissing me and holding me very tightly, I could barely move. I could feel his muscles pulsing against me and he was starting to sweat. He lifted me up off the ground and began to take off me clothes. I tried to struggle, but I could barely breathe let alone move.

He'd stripped me down to my underwear and suddenly came to a halt, like he'd only just received morals or a conscience. He looked at me and there wasn't guilt in his eyes but pure hunger! I stared up into his eyes and saw a monster, my gaze fell down to his mouth were what I felt combined with what I saw, fangs.

I stumbled away from him and towards the door. I fumbled with the handle, but it was pointless, it was locked. He came up behind me and grabbed hold, I kicked and screamed, he sat me down on his desk and walk towards the door, and he unlocked it and chucked my clothes to me.

Scrambling, I got dressed and ran from the room. I ran down the hallways ignoring anyone and everything, I just kept running until I was at the end of the open fields outside the mansion. I collapsed to the ground panting, struggling to breathe. I couldn't wrap my head around what had happened, he had . . . I mean, it was just too much to handle.

I turned to look back up at the school, but when I did he was standing there, I stumbled backwards and nearly hit the ground hard. He held out his hand and in it was a piece of paper; I stared at it but did not take it. He threw it at me and walked away. I picked up the note; it was a reason for why was late to class.

Please excuse Alex for her tardiness as she was helping me with something, yours sincerely Drade.

I stared at the note with disbelief, he actually expected me to go back to class.

I couldn't go back to class, I can't even think straight, I was almost raped!

I sat there on the grass for a while and then thought about what I would be doing right now if this hadn't happened. Right now I would be in chem., with Nat. I also had a study date with Kraden, I felt like I could cry, and eventually, once my mind caught up, I probably would.

I stayed out there for the rest of the period; I didn't want to go to class.

Once the period was over, I searched for Nat.

"Hey I . . ."

"Hey, where were you?"

"I, we had Drade for history and he held me back."

"Why?"

"I . . . I'll tell you later."

"But . . ."

"Look . . .I . . . I just don't want to talk about it here. I'll tell you later, I have to . . .I have to go."

I went away, where no one would find me and stayed there until a little before five. I knew had to go meet Kraden and work on our assignment, I wasn't going to pike out on this.

I headed to my room, and as I got to my door, I saw Kraden, he was there waiting.

I opened the door and we went inside. I got out the stuff we needed and we got to work, then my mind caught up and I broke into tears.

"Hey, ah what's wrong? Ah . . . don't cry!"

He scooched over to me and tried to find out what was wrong.

Eventually he got it out of me and he grabbed hold of me and embraced me in a hug, I just cried into him, bawling my eyes out.

We stayed like that for a while, unmoving, except for the convulsions of my body caused by my crying. He stayed and held me the whole time, uttering calming words into my ear. For once I found his voice very calming and comforting. His words echoed in my ears, casting a net of calm over my brains that flowed down my nerves.

After a while I stopped crying and started taking deep breaths.

"Are you okay now?"

"No. But I will be. Thanks."

"It's okay. Do want me to go kick the headmaster in the head, because I will."

"No, it's okay."

"Good, cause I would probably be killed."

I stared at him for a while and then we both cracked up laughing. We kept laughing until we thought we'd die from the pain. That's when we slowly calmed ourselves down and sat up. I looked at him for a while and he looked back at me, a dazed look in his eye. He shook his head and stood up.

"Well, we'll do our assignment next time. Bye"

He turned and walked out the door.