You know that feeling you get when you go to a new school? Or even just high school for the first time? There's that worry bubble in your stomach about what the people are going to think of you, or if they will think of you at all. Will you fit in? Will anyone talk to you? All those feelings that tend to revolve around your head until you're so sick with worry that you can't eat the night before? I had that feeling once. But once you shuffle around from school to school as much as I do you tend to loose it, and I've all but stopped caring now.
In all honesty, I didn't know why my parents forced either my brother or I to come to school, but they did. Walking into the front office I could feel the excitement buzzing off the walls of the nearby hallway. Passing students tried to spy their way into to see the new strange girl, but I ignored them. Walking up to the thin lady behind the counter I noticed she was a bit old, and held a handful of grey hairs. She offered me a smile, and I have a half one back, to be polite.
"You must be our new student." Her voice was a soft whisper, and I almost didn't hear her. Glancing down at the paper she held in her pale hands, her brows knit together in concentration and I couldn't help but sigh. I knew I'd be doing this all day, and probably for days onward.
"Irinushka Melanchthon." My voice floated in the air, almost awkwardly. If she had a problem with my name, she could take it up with my parents. Lord knows I have, multiple times, on multiple occasions. They just don't see the point of naming their children with normal names that haven't been around since ancient Greece.
The woman offered me an apologetic smile and handed me my schedule, patting my hand with it.
"If you need anyone to show you around-" she began, but I held my hand up to stop her.
"Don't worry, I won't. I've done this whole new school thing before. My brother, should he ever deicide to show up, will be good, too." I interrupted. Not wanting for anything else, I turned and headed out into the halls, glad to see it empty. Good, I didn't feel like being gawked at by the students in the hall just yet.
Glancing down at my schedule I groaned, instantly hating life. Spanish?! First period?! Great, just great. Just what I needed, start the day forgetting just how to speak properly. I had, thus far, spent my entire high school life trying to avoid that subject, but apparently that was the only foreign language this small little town had.
It took me ten minutes to get to the room, and that was with actually trying to get lost. This was, by far, the worst thing I think I had ever encountered. The Spanish teacher was a short, fat, balding man who talked so slow and deep, so much so it was hard to understand what he was saying even in English.
"You must be Miss Mel…" He drowned off. Of course, genius, you can't say it. Almost no one can. Heaving a sigh I held my hand up to stop him.
"Melanchthon. And, before you take a stab at it, my first name is Irinushka. Want me to write you a side note so you can remember it?" I asked, ignoring the glare he sent me. Dude, seriously? Rolly poleis don't scare me, mister… I snuck a glance at my sheet and smirked. Mr. Sphere? Talk about irony, there.
"That will not be necessary Miss Mel… " he paused and shifted. Oh, burn to the male pride. He'd never get it out of me that I much preferred Reenie to my real name, though. "Just take that seat next to Mr. Avery."
I glanced around the class, whom were all looking at me like I was some sort of shiny new toy. Come on, people, I look human and stuff. Get over it. Stifling my irritation I saw two empty seats by guys. One had kind of greasy looking blond hair and was dressed in button up plaid clothes, please note the ew, while the other had shaggy black hair and a black pull over.
"Uh, whoever you are, can you raise your hand? I'm new and really, if Mr. Grizzly Bear didn't notice, I don't know who he was talking about." I flashed a brilliant smile, showing off some of my pearly whites. I'm pretty sure Mr. Sphere turned about ten different shades of red as multiple kids snickered and one, the shaggy haired guy, raised his hand. Walking over to the desk I slipped into it.
"Thank." I said, giving him a once over. He seemed tall, the way his lean legs were pushed out into the isle. Of course, this coming from the freakishly tall girl who pushes 6'1". Tucking my long legs into the metal book holder thing in the desk in front of me, I see him grin, and I cringe. He's a smoker, he's got that yellow teeth thing going on, and pale skin that contrasts it in the worst way.
"No problem, babe. The name's Thomas. Thomas Avery." He said, letting his gaze fall to my chest. My fist clench slightly. Okay, greasy nerd dude would have been better, and if he keeps it up he might just find himself missing some vital organs.
"Alright, then, I'll give you fair warning, Thomas. Don't call me any sort of pet name. Ever. I won't hesitative to resort to violence, it's in my nature. I would really hate to mess up that pretty face." I flashed a dazzling smile, batting my eyelashes, before looking forward, listening to whatever Mr. Grizzly Bear, because I would be calling him that from now on, was saying.
"We'll see if you still think that once you get to know me." And even though I couldn't predict the future I knew, just knew, that this was going to suck.
It was like déjà every class I went to. The teacher would say hello, I would have to pronounce my name, and than some of them would make my introduce myself. All I could think was thank God that we had transferred in on a Friday, even if it was in the middle of the school year.
I headed out towards the buses with my hands full of books. My mother's warnings this morning of bringing my black messenger bag suddenly rang in my ears and I had to groan. I hated when she was right.
"Hey loser, you really want to take that bus? Or do you want to ride in my pretty spider?" My head whipped around till I saw exactly who had spoken. A grin momentarily flashed into my face.
My brother stood a few feet from me. He was probably the only person I knew, aside from my father, who was taller than me. At 6'5" he easily had the muscles to balance out his frame. He'd inherited dad's olive colored skin and mom's grey-blue eyes. With those and his black curls that hung around his face, it was all too easy to see how some girls swooned over him. Personally, being his sister, I found that thought vomit deserving.
"Well look what the cat dragged in. Yes, I want to ride your pretty little spider, Nee-oh." No, he hadn't been graced with a semi-normal non-Greek name, either. His real name was Nicasio, but he'd come by the nickname Nee-oh when we were younger.
"C'mon then. And if you're a good girl I'll take you with me to where my new friends invited me to go." He stated, stealing a couple of books from my hands and walking towards the red spider. It stood out in the mist of all the other cars, in its pretty red color. I wish I could say that bothered me, but I love that car to death.
"Where are your books?" I asked, following after him in long strides. Stupid man, even with my long legs I had trouble keeping up wit his power walking.
"In the car already, duh." He rolled duh off his tongue with that natural spunk.
"Well excuse me!" I rolled my eyes as he flashed me a dimpled smile. Opening the door to the car I put my books in the back before getting in. "Where is this place we are supposedly going, anyways?" I asked, putting on a seatbelt. Not that I felt we needed one, it was just for looks, really.
"Uh… La Push?" Nee-oh said, starting the car. I loved when he sounded so confused. Well, as long as he knew how to get there I wasn't going to complain. "But we have to stop by the house first, and get bathing suits. Since it's all bright outside and stuff. Apparently that's an oddity around here. It's warm and sunny. Not normal."
The thought bothered me. I loved warm things. The lack of sunlight didn't seem that awful to me, I was light sensitive and the bright places tended to make me squint and seem angry all the time. But warm weather being an oddity, too? Now that was a total buzz kill.
It didn't take long to get to our house. I truly doubted it took much time to get anywhere in this city, and that included when you walked. Maybe I'd be proven wrong but I doubted it, and I doubted even more so that I would ever admit it. Exiting the car and entering the house I noticed our parents were gone, and watched as Nee-oh went to scribble a note telling them where we would be. Walking up the stairs I ignored how empty the house looked as everything was still and boxes. I wondered if we would actually have time to unpack, or if not.
We moved around a lot, and it was never a set amount of time. It just depended on how the people reacted to us, how long it took us to get our job done, and how long it took the people to realize what we were. If they realized.
Walking into the room on the first room on the right I was instantly pleased to see my mirror had been set up. Ignoring it for the moment I went and began shoveling through boxes. I knew somewhere in here was a bathing suit, but where was always the question.
"Where are you, where are you…" I mumbled, ignoring my brothers remarks of its not sane to talk to yourself while he passed my room to his own. I grinned brilliantly as I found my two piece, strung together so it wouldn't get separated. Changing into them quickly I pulled my clothes back over it and caught my reflection in the mirror.
My dark red, almost black, hair reached my mid-back and curled at the ends while my grey-blue, yes matching my brothers, eyes stared back at me. The olive skinned girl in the mirror wasn't model skinny, as much as she wished she was, but was that of a normal sized female. I guess the only advantage to that was, hey, I may not be bone thin but at least I did have boobs. Call me vain, or what have you.
"Hey Reenie, you ready to go yet, or should I wait an hour?" I rolled my eyes at my brother's voice.
"I'm coming!"
It took us longer than five minutes to get down to La Push, and I was mildly surprised. Getting out I could have groaned, seeing Thomas, aka Spanish douche, in a group of five guys. Great, just great. There was a grand total of two other girls, and unfortunately, they seemed to be wrapped so tightly around their boyfriend's arm I thought it'd have to be surgically removed. I hated girls like that. Pulling off my over shirt I got out of the car and followed my brother.
"Hey, Man!" Thomas yelled before his eyes landed on me and his eyes danced with delight. "Hey, babe!"
I growled low in my thought, causing my brother to give me a stern look. Stopping myself I cast a deep glare over at Thomas, flicking him off. Okay, so maybe I had some attitude problems, but it was either that or throw my fist against his nose.
Nee-oh went towards the group with girls hanging off their arms, and I had an irking feeling that was whom he'd wanted to hang out with and not Thomas.
"Hey, b-" Thomas started but I held up a hand.
"Reenie." I submitted, finally. He smirked.
"Reenie, want to ride with me on my board, or are you afraid of the water?" Thomas asked. My eyes flared.
"I'm not afraid of anything." And even though I really didn't want to ride with him, I refused to let my pride take backseat. One of these days, that was going to get me in trouble.
Pulling off my over shirt I ignored the sharp intake of breathe and the muttered damn from my unwanted companion. As I slid out of my jeans he seemed to remember that he, took, didn't need to be swimming in normal clothes and shed his own shirt and jeans. I was mildly surprised to see some of an four pack going on, with nicely toned muscles on his arms. Thomas grabbed my hand, and I jerked it back. Oh, this was so not going to be fun.
It seemed like hours before we finally got off the board. It took us a few minutes at first for Thomas to get used to surfing with two people on, but then he did decently well. When we got back the rest of our "group", whom I had still yet to meet, was talking to some tall, dark skinned guys.
"Rez kids." Thomas mumbled, going towards where his pants where. I stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Rez kids?" I asked, frowning. He nodded, glancing at the hand. I quickly removed it, repulsed by the fact I openly touched him.
"The reservation kids. The Indian kids, you know? La Push is on the reservation." Thomas answered, looking up at me. Yes I know, I'm taller than him. Again, not an oddity. I made an O with my mouth and he slinked off to his pants, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from them.
Walking over to the rez kids, as it had so been put, I noticed none of them had shirts on. Which left it all too noticeable that they all had… eight packs? And the other odd thing was that they were all tall, as in either my brother's height or taller. Weird. I hadn't seen that many taller people grouped together, well, ever. Tucking a wet strand of hair behind my ear I gave a small wave.
"Uh, hey, guys." I said, almost nervously. Eight heads looked over at me, but only three were the ones who weren't from our group. Finally seeing them all up close I saw they had similar features, but each was different. I laid eyes upon the one on the end and my breath caught in my throat.
He was handsome, with his black hair cut to his shoulders. Dark eyes seemed to be watching me, widely, but they seemed to be… playful even without the intention of doing so. He was taller than me, and even than my brother by at least half an inch. I honestly couldn't remember having seen anyone better looking, and I had to glance away, a faint blush staining my cheeks as I realized I'd been staring. Yet, as I snuck a glance back at him, I noticed he, too, was. Still. And his mouth was hanging open slightly…. Was he okay? Out of habit, because I'd had to do this a many of times with guys or my brother, I reached over and pushed his mouth up. Whoa, he was warm! I wonder if he was sick…?
The other two boys looked between the two of us. The one with the longest hair, whom seemed to be radiating dominate power, actually laughed while the other, short haired one, just grinned.
"I'm Quill." The short haired one said, offering a head shake in my direction, "and this," he jestured to the dominate one, "is Jacob."
"Hey Embry, gonna just stare at her all day or actually introduce yourself?" Jacob said, pushing the one he addressed, Embry was it? That seemed to jar him. Offering me a bright smile, which I noted his pearly white brightly contrasted with his dark skin, he held out his hand.
"I'm Embry. Hi." A chill erupted across my skin and butterflies fluttered in my stomach, almost painfully so. I put my hand into his much larger one.
"Irinushka." I said, "but just call me Reenie. It's a lot simpler."
He seemed to brighten at that, and I couldn't pay attention to my brother's defensive look and the need to hurt the man, since he was certainly not a boy, in front of me. I also didn't notice Thomas come up behind us with his cigarette hanging from his mouth. All I cared about was the fact that I was touching Embry's hand. Or I was, until some Spanish douche wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me back.
"Bein' friendly, babe? That's awful nice, doll." I could register that Thomas's voice held jealousy, but that boy had crossed the limit. I had already warned him about calling me pet named, and now he was going to act like he owned me and actually touch me?! Who the hell did he think he was? All he was to me was a friendly stranger! I growled escaped my throat before I could help myself I reached around and grabbed his balls and twisted. Instantly, I heard the groan and cigarette drop.
"Listen," I said, facing him with a tight frown, "I don't know what I did to make you think that was okay, because I really remember directly telling you not to call me pet names. So I'm going to make sure you get it, mmkay?"
I gave a squeeze and he wheezed.
"Don't call me pet names, and don't ever, and I mean ever touch me unless I tell you its okay. And trust me, babe, it won't ever be okay." I squeezed once more before letting go. He slinked to the floor cupping himself. I could hear the guys wince, and I turned around, looking at Nee-oh, whom, by the way, had a smirk on his face.
"Ready to go, bro?" I asked, receiving a nod. Looking at Embry I smiled. "It was really nice meeting you."
And for once, I meant it.
Krilaia: I actually enjoyed this chapter. Yes, I know, tons of grammar mistakes. So Reenie is a bit of a character. But I'll see how it goes. Reviews are wonderful. Oh! Here are pronunciations and meanings or the names!
Irinushka= ee reen OOSH kah =peace
Nicasio= nee CASS ee oh =Victory of the people
Melanchthon= (my guess) Me lan chi the on= black earth
Is their meaning forshadowing? Who knows? Oh… I do. =p