A/N: This is my first piece of fiction that I felt was any good, and with any luck the first of many. If you have any advice or criticism, I will gladly take it, but please be honest. I am particularly interested in correcting any problems with punctuation and format so I can make my work easier to read.
The beginning is a little slow, but I tried to make it interesting, but know that it was made that way to allow for a larger, more involved plot.
Chapter 1: The New Kid
(January 4th ---3 months until Outbreak)
Jacen Bennett paced back and forth along the hallway. He had arrived at twelve noon in hopes of being able to find his room with out running into anyone, but as he heard a bell ring in the distance, he knew that wasn't going to happen.
Has it really been three hours, Jacen asked himself, stressfully running a hand through his short brown hair, I have to be missing something; the highest number I can find in this place is 200 and my dorm number is 227.
Jacen was so caught up in figuring out where his room was that he didn't hear to footsteps coming towards him and was very startled when the figure tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around and found himself looking at a girl almost as tall as himself at around five-eight, though maybe a year or two younger.
She smiled impishly. "Wow, somebody's a little jumpy… Sorry anyways, I didn't mean to startle you but you seemed lost so I thought that maybe you could use some help," the girl said in a lively and playful tone of voice.
Jacen was about to start talking but then stopped, realizing that although he had been looking in her direction, he had not actually paid any attention to the images his brain was receiving. He focused his full attention on her. She had a light but not pale skin tone with straight copper-red hair that went down to her elbows. During the time Jacen was taking her image in words like cute kept popping up from his subconscious.
"Excuse me…" she added after waiting for Jacen to respond, letting the sentence trail off to catch his attention.
Jacen surfaced back into reality. The realization that he had zoned off made a blush rise, breaking through the tanned, sun burnt skin on his cheeks. "Oh, sorry about that… must have spaced out there for a minute."
The girl giggled."I said you looked lost," she replied, thoroughly enjoying his embarrassment.
He flashed a small playful grin, already over being embarrassed. "What makes you think I'm lost?"
She put her arm on her chin in the classic thinking pose. "Hmm, well I suppose the flip flops and the T-shirt kinda tipped me off."
Wow she's a fiery one. Jacen made gesture towards his shirt. "Oh that, well you see, I just flew in from Florida this morning and its rather warm th-"
She stopped him before he could continue. "And that would explain the second reason I figured you where lost…" She leaned over and whispered into his ear "this is the girl's dorm; anyone who has been here for any extended period of time would know that."
His blush returned with a vengeance. "Oh… crap, so... umm, where is the boy's dorm then?"
"Opposite side of the school."
"Ok, well thanks for-" Jacen stopped, noticing that the girl was listening to something else. Jacen tried to hear whatever had taken her attention, and then he heard it; footsteps. When she looked back at him a moment later she had a worried look on her face.
She spoke in a hurried tone; "Look, you have to leave now! Boys aren't supposed to be in the girl's dorm, you'll be in a lot of trouble if you're caught. There is an old stairwell down the hall to your left, at the bottom there is a door that will take you outside. No one uses it because the door is supposed to be linked to a fire alarm, but the alarm is broken. Now GO!"
Startled by the urgency in her voice Jacen turn and ran. As he was turning the corner into the stairwell he heard the girl call after him. "Oh by the way I'm Kelsey Weaver."
He stopped and leaned around the corner just enough so Kelsey could see his head and yelled back, "Jacen Bennett" and then raced down the stairs.
Jacen had left the girls dorm 10 minutes ago and what he could only assume was the boy's dorm had come into sight. He still hadn't gotten over his encounter with Kelsey. He couldn't get over it. What a bad first impression, Jacen told himself, I hope she knows it was an honest mistake; I mean how could I have known, I've never been to a boarding school before.
He had little trouble finding his room; it was halfway down the hall on the first floor, which was really the second floor because the first was the 'ground floor.' Jacen found the door unlocked and slightly ajar, through which he could hear a distinct zipping sound. I haven't been here for more than a day and already someone is trying to steal my stuff.
Jacen ran in and at first thought that some sort of hairless gorilla had escaped from a local zoo, which was unlikely; zoo's are usually in cities and he was in a boarding school on the outskirts of Bestine, Pa, which was about a two hour drive north east of Pittsburgh. So Jacen assumed it was a man, but that didn't lessen how intimidated Jacen felt. The guy was huge at around six-six and was built like a tank; add in his jet black mohawk and you had someone you would not want to run into in a dark ally.
The anger Jacen had felt from seeing someone shift through his stuff fizzled instantly as the 'gorilla' stood up and looked at him. He pointed at Jacen's luggage, "this yours?"
Repressing the dread in the pit of his stomach, Jacen nodded. Before he could respond the 'gorilla' ran at him and closed the gap in between the two of them with surprising speed for a man of his size. Time seemed to stand still for Jacen as his short seventeen years of his life flashed by, and then the 'gorilla'…
…Enveloped him in a bone crushing bear hug. "Welcome to you're new home!" he exclaimed before letting Jacen go and putting out his right hand, "the names Dave, Dave Richards."
Wasn't I just about to die? Still rather confused, Jacen put his hand out and shook the boy's massive hand, "Im Jacen Bennett…" he paused and pointed at Dave's head, "and If I may ask, what's with the mohawk?"
Dave took a second and then put a hand on his head, finally realizing what Jacen was talking about. "Ohhh almost forgot about that, yeah... I lost a bet."
"Well anyway it's nice to meet you Dave, but if you don't mind I would like to have all my bags unpacked by nightfall." Jacen said wearily and then pointed to the bed which seemed less used. "I assume this is mine?"
He let out a short chuckle. "Yeah that's yours, dust and all."
Jacen picked up the closest suitcase and sat down with it on the bed, whereupon he began the arduous process of unpacking which, conveniently for Dave, blocked his view of the other suitcases which Dave began to rummage through. "What the …. Is, is this chain mail? What the hell do you have chain mail for?" Dave asked in an amused tone.
No, it couldn't be… could it? Jacen put down the toothbrush he was holding and leaned around the side of the open container to find Dave standing there holding up a full body suit made of thousands of interlinked titanium rings. "That's not chain mail, that's my shark suit," he replied matter-of-factly.
Dave shrugged, "What's the difference?"
"Let's put it this way, if a suit of chain mail were the equivalent to a hatchet than this shark suit would be a musket; its half the weight and twice as strong," he replied defensively before continuing with a large grin, "and as far as why its here… I guess my dad must have packed it as a memento, we went diving a lot together."
"Your parents packed your stuff for you?" Dave asked in a disapproving tone.
"You don't understand," exclaimed Jacen, worried he had already fallen out of favor with Dave, "I didn't even know I was coming here until last week; my parents packed for me so I could spend what time I had left there saying goodbye to all my friends."
Seemingly convinced by Jacen's explanation, Dave walked over to the window. "Well regardless, you're not going to get much use out of it. The only body of water for a ways is the Academy's mini-lake." Jacen tilted his head to the left slightly, Dave sighed, "No one ever gets that… I call it a mini-lake because it's too big to be a pond and too small to be a lake."
"Ooook…" Jacen said trying not to sound too insulting, "Well I'm going to get back to unpacking if th-"
"Look, you have plenty of time to unpack later; I've decided I'm going to introduce you to the guys," Dave said, interrupting Jacen mid-sentence. "Oh and bring the chai-… I mean shark suit, they'll get a kick out of that."
"Are you sure you're ok to go to school today?" Dave asked with a hint of guilt in his voice, "I doubt you are even in the attendance database yet, no one would notice."
"No, no, that's ok; I'll just have one of those energy drinks I saved from George's last night," Jacen paused and let out a large yawn as took a can out of the room's mini-fridge. "You know that George… umm, what's his last name again?"
Dave sighed, "It's Havel, George Havel." George was a pleasant enough fellow with unusually thick dark brown hair… and based on his less then flattering physical state, Jacen figured he wasn't the athletic type. He had met George Havel late yesterday afternoon when Dave had taken him to see the guys, which consisted of Dave, George, his roommate Alex Stevens, and now apparently himself. George was the one who had greeted them at the door wearing a sweatshirt which simply had the word "L337" with an arrow pointing upwards towards his head.
For a moment Jacen frowned out of guilt for forgetting George's name again, but then recovered his optimistic yet tired look. It wasn't his fault; he just wasn't good at last names. Among other things, he added mentally. "Sorry about that, I was just going to say it was very nice of him to allow me to tag along with you."
Placing the can on the table, Jacen took a seat on his bed and bent over to put his shoes on. "What's up with Alex though? He hardly said a word the whole time."
"Don't be offended, that's just Alex, he is like the personification of quiet …" Dave paused; checking to make sure Jacen wasn't looking and then swiped the energy drink off desk. After putting the drink under the pillow, Dave continued; "He even moves quietly; I remember one time after a track race, one of the other runners walked by me and he was mumbling to himself about how he didn't hear or notice Alex catching up to him until Alex passed him."
Finished tying his shoes, Jacen sat up and reached for where his drink had been. "Hey! Gimme my energy drink back... It's not my fault I didn't get to bed until one." He added slyly, trying to make Dave feel guilty.
"Hey! I didn't know we would end up playing Halo for six hours." Dave replied defensively before quietly adding. "It's usually two to three hour's tops."
Jacen sighed, sensing he was not going to get anywhere. "Fine, you win but if I fall asleep on my first day of school then it's on your head," he said with a playful grin.
Off in the distance a bell rang. "That's the first bell, in five minutes the second bell will ring. The second bell means school has started." Dave nonchalantly grabbed his backpack and stood up. "I suggest we get going unless you want to be late for your first day."
Jacen let out a deep sigh of relief, grateful that the day was halfway over, and for the break lunch provided. It hadn't been bad for Jacen, he had been happy to find that Dave was in his English and Chemistry class, but it was tiring. These classes are so much more advanced than the ones in Florida; I mean I know I'm up to it bu-
"Well hello there…" a playful voice said from behind him. Jacen turned around and saw the not quite pale face of Kelsey Weaver. "… I see you escaped the girl's dorm unscathed," she finished, with an impish grin.
He stood there wordless for a moment while his brain rebooted. "Umm… Oh yes, yeah I got out ok. Thanks again for the help," Jacen finished as he tried to calm himself down. Historically he didn't have a good track record with girls, though when he thought back to his first encounter with Kelsey, he felt that he had done much better than usual, definitely much better than I'm doing at the moment.
Kelsey folded her arms and gave him a knowing look. "You're not very good with girls, are you?" she asked, in a quiet, thoughtful voice.
He began to deny it, but thought better of it, and let out a troubled sigh. "You have no idea," he said sadly.
Her grin faded for an instant but was quickly replaced with a smile that seemed to reassure Jacen that everything was going to be ok. "Follow me; I think I know how to help you get over this." Jacen did his best to smile back, but doubted she could help him. How could she possibly…
Kelsey led him through the busy cafeteria at a slow, steady pace, weaving through the crowd. Jacen did the best he could to keep up but found himself having trouble trying to mimic the winding path and graceful movements that she was using to get around the people who stood in the way. He lost sight of her momentarily after a large senior moved into his path. Dodging around the senior he emerged from the crowd on the opposite side of the room and spotted the copper haired girl a couple of feet away. Stopping suddenly, she turned towards him and gave him that same impish grin, which he decided was her trademark, before turning back and walking directly towards a table of… Wait... girls?
Initially Jacen had felt betrayed but then quickly realized what she had planned. Kelsey put a hand on his shoulder as he approached the table. "Everyone…" she said loudly, gaining the attention of the whole table, "…This is my new friend Jacen. If it is ok with all of you, he will be sitting with us for the rest of the year." Jacen's tanned face reddened more and more, showing no indication of stopping. He could feel himself begin to zone out and knew he couldn't stop it. I'm sorry Kelsey, I know you meant we-. That was as far as he got before Kelsey took her hand off his shoulder and discretely elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
Jacen instantly came back to attention. "Umm" he said trying to compose his thoughts. "Hello, my name is Jacen Bennett; I just got here from Key West in Florida. It's very nice to meet you all," Jacen added enthusiastically.
Of the five girls at the table, three of them smiled warmly. One of the remaining two, upon seeing Jacen, began staring intently at her lunch and seemed to want to be invisible. The other, after seeing the first's reaction, shot Kelsey a near unnoticeable glare before giving Jacen a curt nod.
Kelsey sat down and signaled for Jacen to sit to her left. She watched him as he took his seat, clearly trying to see if she had done the right thing. He flashed a weak smile in response and began to rummage through his backpack for his lunch, which ,he quickly found out, he had forgotten. Damn it!
Seeing Jacen's distressed look, the girl to his left picked an apple up off the table and offered it to Jacen. "Here, have my apple."
Jacen accepted the apple graciously, only now realizing how hungry he was. "Thank you very much," he said, starting to bring the apple to his mouth but then stopped and turned towards the girl who had given it to him. "Umm excuse me, but I don't believe I caught your name."
The girl turned towards Jacen. "That would be because I never gave it to you," she said matter-of-factly, "But since you asked, its Gina, Gina Conridge." Jacen immediately felt a little intimidated by Gina. She was tall, not as tall as Kelsey but close, and had olive skin. Her hair was a vibrant black that seemed to have a silvery glint to it and her eyes where a piercing dark green. But by far what stuck out to Jacen the most was this air of superiority she seemed to bestow in the way she moved and how she spoke. All that aside, He didn't think she was that unfriendly, just intimidating.
"Ahh, well it's nice to meet you Gina," Jacen responded before taking a quick bite out of the apple. Then he heard muffled giggles coming from behind Gina and looked over. What the hell…
There to Gina's left where the two other girls who had smiled warmly at him, only they both looked exactly the same as the other. They where younger than the others at the table, probably freshmen, Jacen though. They had dirty-blond hair, both woven back into braids which complimented their Nordic looks and deep blue eyes. They wore matching pink tank tops over a white shirt. In fact the only distinguishable feature about them was that the one had a moon emblazoned on their tank top while the other had a sun.
Noticing that they had called attention to themselves, the two cast fleeting glances at each other and then locked on Jacen, looking like they were up to something. "Oh, don't mind Gina, she-" the closer one said flatly before stopping abruptly, as if waiting for something. "-Is like that with everyone," the other finished in the exact same tone, only moments after the first had stopped.
Jacen just sat there staring at them and then heard Kelsey lean over and whisper into his ear. "The one with the moon is Kat and the other is Erika, they are the Carlson twins. They like to make people think they have some sort of psychic twin thing going. They are good at it too," she added, with a hint of amusement in her voice.
Responding to Kelsey spoiling their fun, Kat and Erika playfully stuck their tongues out at her in unison. "Aww Kelsey, why-" Erica said, leaving her sentence open for Kat to finish. "-Did you tell him. He was taking the bait!" she ended emphatically.
Kelsey began to respond but Jacen wasn't listening. His focus had shifted to the two who hadn't said a word since he had sat down. The shy one had barley taken a bite out of her lunch and seemed to still be staring at the same spot on the table. Jacen felt bad for her, she seemed scared in a way, but sensing that he might be part of the problem, he decided against trying to talk to her. The other, Jacen didn't know what to think of; she seemed agitated but would adopt a soft, worried look when she looked at the shy one, which she did periodically throughout the lunch period.
"Ahem!" Gina said loudly in an authoritative tone that caused Kelsey and the twins to stop talking and turn around. "I meant to ask you Kelsey, is Jacen the boy you where telling us about yesterday?" Kelsey flushed a little, causing Gina to dawn an evil smirk. "You know the one who you ran into skulking around the girl's dorm?"
All eyes turned towards Kelsey, who looked at Jacen questioningly. He sighed in defeat and then nodded to Kelsey. She sat upright and looked directly at Gina. "First off, he was not skulking... he was totally and utterly lost."