NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This story deals with sexual and physical abuse and
also contains other adult content. If the topics of abuse and/or sex make
you uncomfortable, please do not read this fic. Consider yourself warned…I
don't want any angry reviews telling me that you were not prepared for the
topics discussed.
Maia Rainsong sighed with frustration as she half-listened to her father discuss the situation surrounding their move with the principal of Han'a'High. Nicolas Rainsong was being extremely persistent in trying to make special arrangements for his daughter's comfort. You'd think he was the one who'd been raped and forced to move to a new school, she thought dryly. The problem was, she didn't want special treatment. As a new student, she was already going to be an outsider. As an American gypsy who looked as though she had a black mother and a white father, it was going to be even worse. Being given special treatment on top of all of that? She didn't even want to think about the hell her life would be at school then.
"Well Mr. Rainsong," the principal started apologetically, "I had arranged for one of my top students to show Maia around. Rowen, however, is male. I can find a female student to show her around instead..."
"No please!" Maia said, speaking up for the first time, "This Rowen guy can show me around. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure Maia?" her father asked.
Maia nodded with a courageous smile, "Yes Papa, I'll be just fine."
Nicolas sighed, worried about his daughter yet proud of her at the same time. "It's your choice, I guess."
The principal stood as he glanced at the clock. "Well, the assembly is about to begin. Ready to be introduced Maia?"
The raven-haired girl nodded and stood. As they left the office, she gave her father a quick hug. "See you tonight dad." She turned and followed the principal down the hallway towards the auditorium.
"Wait here until I call your name," the principal said when they were backstage.
"Okay," she replied.
I'm glad I'm so confident, despite that little episode with that asshole that left me terrified of men and not a virgin, she thought with a hint of bitterness as she glanced down at her outfit. One of the first decisions she had made after being raped by a boyfriend that had supposedly cared about her was to not make any major changes to herself. She wasn't going to hide her body behind loose clothes in the hopes that no one would pay attention to her. She continued to show off her well-toned body whenever she had the chance. For example, today she was wearing a deep red, knee length skirt with a black, form-fitting sweater and a pair of black knee high boots.
"Maia Rainsong," the principal called from the other side of the curtain. Maia dutifully stepped through the curtains to present herself in front of the student body.
She fought down a blush as the auditorium went silent and stared at her, much as they had done nearly a month earlier when Humility Black was introduced. Of course, Maia didn't know that. Please, please let me get off the stage!! she thought as the principal gave a schpiel about making her feel welcome and yadda, yadda, yadda. Finally he told her she could get off the stage. She nearly ran down the stairs and made her way to the back of the auditorium. Thank the Goddess! she thought thankfully, leaning against the back wall.
Rowen's eyes followed Maia as she made her way to the back of the auditorium and leaned up against the wall near where he, the other guys and Humility were at. If Sage wasn't so gone on Humility I bet he'd be all over this girl, he thought as he studied her closely. She was every bit as beautiful as Humility. In fact, the two girls looked remarkably similar. The differences were in the colorings though. Humility was pale with white hair and grey eyes. Maia was dark. Her skin was a creamy brown, almost as if she were part African American. Her features told the truth of her heritage, that she was Romanian…a gypsy. Her features were finely defined like Humility's but her eyes were a deep cerulean blue, and much softer than Hugh's cold grey ones. Thick, coal black hair hung to her waist, even though it was pulled into a loose pony tail, loose curls pulling up the ends and contrasting with the straightness of the rest of her hair. He guessed that it probably hung to the middle of her thighs.
"Hey Rowen, she's going to notice if you keep staring at her," Ryo said in a low whisper.
Rowen felt the heat rise in his face and looked at his friend. "Staring at who?" he asked.
Ryo laughed, "Is our little Rowen taking an interest in something other than his text books?"
Rather than take the bait, Rowen shrugged and laughed back, "It had to happen some day. Textbooks, though quite interesting, aren't exactly "my type" if you know what I mean."
Ryo raised an eyebrow, "I don't think I've ever heard you joke around like that."
"Joke around like what?" Kento asked, tuning into the conversation.
"Rowen's got a thing for Maia," Ryo answered.
Rowen shrugged at Kento's amused glance. I'm never going to hear the end of this, he thought to himself, Well, the up side is that I get to show her around. He smiled at that. Aside from her photography class at the end of the day, her schedule was identical to his…a rare thing considering his heavy academic load. So she's pretty and intelligent, perfect combination. From what the principal had told him when he had been chosen to escort Maia around, she was an excellent photographer. He hoped to see some of her work, he was a fan of photography, though he couldn't take a decent picture to save his life.
He wanted to introduce himself to her before school started up again on Monday but she disappeared as soon as the principal dismissed the students. He fought down a feeling of disappointment at not getting a chance to talk to her and followed the others out of the auditorium, listening to Sai and Humility talking about the shopping trip they were going on the next day.
"You're coming, right Rowen?" Humility asked.
Rowen looked up, only half catching the question. "Oh, yeah. If you want me to, that is. I don't have any major studying to do," he replied.
His thoughts turned back to Maia as the group made their way back to Mia's talking about various things.
Maia groaned inwardly as she saw a handful of girls walking towards her outside of the auditorium. She had managed to get out of the auditorium before everyone else but she hadn't expected the stampede of students that came out immediately after her. I didn't stand a chance of getting out of here without being pounced on by someone, she thought dryly, Too bad it has to be the Barbie squad. She put on a sweet smile and greeted the girls when they caught up with her.
"Maia isn't it?" one of them, a tall blonde asked.
Maia nodded, "That's me." She wrinkled her nose, "Do I really stand out?"
The blond looked her up and down with a superior smile on her face while her two friends snickered, "Actually…" She offered her hand, "My name's Kaylie."
Maia raised a brow at the girl and smiled coldly, "Nice to meet you Kaylie. If you'll excuse me, I have some things to get done before I head home."
"Don't think you're going to win any popularity contests by dressing like that and acting better than everyone else," Kaylie said in a threatening voice. "And you better keep your eyes off of Sage Date," she added, "He's mine."
Maia smirked, "No problem. Of course, that would be much easier if I knew who the hell he was." She turned and walked away from the three girls at a brisk pace.
"Don't be rude to me Maia, I'll make your life miserable," Kaylie called after her.
"Go ahead and try," Maia called over her shoulder without turning around. What a bitch! she thought, Well, good way to start out at a new school. Why couldn't I have been caught by someone nice? She sighed as she left the school grounds and headed home. She had a load of homework to do for the start of her classes on Monday.
Closing up her calculus book, Maia stretched across her bed and yawned. "I hate homework Jana," she said, looking over at the large Irish setter lying at the foot of her bed.
Jana raised her head off her paws and whuffed softly, thoroughly unconcerned with her mistress's complaints.
Time for some tunes, she thought as she hopped off the bed and turned on her stereo. Celine Dion's new song "That's The Way It Is" came blasting out of the speakers and Maia immediately joined in, her clear, sweet voice harmonizing with the artist's as she put up her school books and straightened up her room. A knock sounded on her door and she called to come in.
Her father opened the door and watched his daughter with an affectionate smile on his face as she stood en pointe to set a few books on a high shelf. "Why did you quit ballet? You love it so much," he said after a moment.
"You know I didn't want to constantly worry myself over my weight every time I ate something," she said, before turning and smiling back at him. "So Papa, how was your first day at work?"
"Busy. It's such a pain getting into the feel of things at a new office," he replied, leaning against the door frame, "How was the introduction assembly."
Maia wrinkled her nose, "I hate being the absolute center of attention. I survived though. I did meet up with this bitch afterwards who was trying to make me feel insecure about the way I chose to dress."
Nicolas laughed. His daughter had never once lost confidence in her personal clothing style and nothing was going to change her mind about it.
Maia joined in on the laughter, knowing what he was thinking, "If I'm comfortable in what I'm wearing, no one's going to make me insecure about what I wear. Too bad the bitch didn't realize that, might make her life easier." She smirked, "Get this, she's going to try to make my life miserable for being rude to her."
The smile stayed on her father's face but she could see the concern in his eyes. "Don't go making enemies right away Maia, you may end up paying for it later," he said when she raised a brow at him.
Hugging him tightly, she assured him that she would be careful.
"You're going to go pick up your uniforms tomorrow right?"
Maia groaned, "You would have to bring up the uniform issue, wouldn't you?"
He laughed, "I know you prefer wearing your own clothes to school but you have to admit, it makes it easier to decide on what to wear for school."
"That's about the only good thing about it," she grumbled. "So, what's for dinner Papa?"
"Take out tonight. I stopped by this restaurant owned by this couple with the name Rei Faun. Really nice people, I guess they've got a son that's about your age. His name's Kento," he said, "Anyways, they have really great food so I ordered dinner for both of us."
Maia nodded, "Sounds good. Let's go eat."
Later that night, Maia lay in her bed with Jana resting her head on her chest. "Jana, I miss Miami," she whispered softly, "I wish that whole situation had never happened." She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, "Why did Kyle have to betray me like that?"
Jana whined softly at the sadness in her mistress's voice. She didn't really understand what happened to the young woman, but she recognized the name Kyle and she recognized the fact that the human man she had disliked from the start had hurt her mistress.
Scratching the dog playfully behind the ears, Maia smiled softly, "Papa thinks I've recovered from that incident but I really haven't. Despite my brave words, I'm terrified of being in the company of guys. I don't know how I'll ever be able to trust any guy that much again." She sighed, "Oh well, nothing can change the past. It's time to think about the future."
Jana barked softly as if in agreement.
"When Papa asked me if I had a preference as far as where to move, I never thought about moving to Japan," she said quietly, "Then all of a sudden I found myself saying "Let's move out of the country. Japan sounds like a good spot." She glanced down at Jana in the pale moonlight shining through the window above her bed. "Something wanted me to be here for some reason. I don't know why but I do know that this is where I should be. My nightmares have stopped at least and that's usually because I'm doing the right thing." She bit her bottom lip, "I just wish I knew who this Jarrol guy was and why I'm supposed to be here to stop him." Her eyes closed sleepily, "I'll figure it out later. For now, I just want to sleep and forget about all the troubles that brought me here."
She sighed and let her mind fade into sleep.
Maia Rainsong sighed with frustration as she half-listened to her father discuss the situation surrounding their move with the principal of Han'a'High. Nicolas Rainsong was being extremely persistent in trying to make special arrangements for his daughter's comfort. You'd think he was the one who'd been raped and forced to move to a new school, she thought dryly. The problem was, she didn't want special treatment. As a new student, she was already going to be an outsider. As an American gypsy who looked as though she had a black mother and a white father, it was going to be even worse. Being given special treatment on top of all of that? She didn't even want to think about the hell her life would be at school then.
"Well Mr. Rainsong," the principal started apologetically, "I had arranged for one of my top students to show Maia around. Rowen, however, is male. I can find a female student to show her around instead..."
"No please!" Maia said, speaking up for the first time, "This Rowen guy can show me around. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure Maia?" her father asked.
Maia nodded with a courageous smile, "Yes Papa, I'll be just fine."
Nicolas sighed, worried about his daughter yet proud of her at the same time. "It's your choice, I guess."
The principal stood as he glanced at the clock. "Well, the assembly is about to begin. Ready to be introduced Maia?"
The raven-haired girl nodded and stood. As they left the office, she gave her father a quick hug. "See you tonight dad." She turned and followed the principal down the hallway towards the auditorium.
"Wait here until I call your name," the principal said when they were backstage.
"Okay," she replied.
I'm glad I'm so confident, despite that little episode with that asshole that left me terrified of men and not a virgin, she thought with a hint of bitterness as she glanced down at her outfit. One of the first decisions she had made after being raped by a boyfriend that had supposedly cared about her was to not make any major changes to herself. She wasn't going to hide her body behind loose clothes in the hopes that no one would pay attention to her. She continued to show off her well-toned body whenever she had the chance. For example, today she was wearing a deep red, knee length skirt with a black, form-fitting sweater and a pair of black knee high boots.
"Maia Rainsong," the principal called from the other side of the curtain. Maia dutifully stepped through the curtains to present herself in front of the student body.
She fought down a blush as the auditorium went silent and stared at her, much as they had done nearly a month earlier when Humility Black was introduced. Of course, Maia didn't know that. Please, please let me get off the stage!! she thought as the principal gave a schpiel about making her feel welcome and yadda, yadda, yadda. Finally he told her she could get off the stage. She nearly ran down the stairs and made her way to the back of the auditorium. Thank the Goddess! she thought thankfully, leaning against the back wall.
Rowen's eyes followed Maia as she made her way to the back of the auditorium and leaned up against the wall near where he, the other guys and Humility were at. If Sage wasn't so gone on Humility I bet he'd be all over this girl, he thought as he studied her closely. She was every bit as beautiful as Humility. In fact, the two girls looked remarkably similar. The differences were in the colorings though. Humility was pale with white hair and grey eyes. Maia was dark. Her skin was a creamy brown, almost as if she were part African American. Her features told the truth of her heritage, that she was Romanian…a gypsy. Her features were finely defined like Humility's but her eyes were a deep cerulean blue, and much softer than Hugh's cold grey ones. Thick, coal black hair hung to her waist, even though it was pulled into a loose pony tail, loose curls pulling up the ends and contrasting with the straightness of the rest of her hair. He guessed that it probably hung to the middle of her thighs.
"Hey Rowen, she's going to notice if you keep staring at her," Ryo said in a low whisper.
Rowen felt the heat rise in his face and looked at his friend. "Staring at who?" he asked.
Ryo laughed, "Is our little Rowen taking an interest in something other than his text books?"
Rather than take the bait, Rowen shrugged and laughed back, "It had to happen some day. Textbooks, though quite interesting, aren't exactly "my type" if you know what I mean."
Ryo raised an eyebrow, "I don't think I've ever heard you joke around like that."
"Joke around like what?" Kento asked, tuning into the conversation.
"Rowen's got a thing for Maia," Ryo answered.
Rowen shrugged at Kento's amused glance. I'm never going to hear the end of this, he thought to himself, Well, the up side is that I get to show her around. He smiled at that. Aside from her photography class at the end of the day, her schedule was identical to his…a rare thing considering his heavy academic load. So she's pretty and intelligent, perfect combination. From what the principal had told him when he had been chosen to escort Maia around, she was an excellent photographer. He hoped to see some of her work, he was a fan of photography, though he couldn't take a decent picture to save his life.
He wanted to introduce himself to her before school started up again on Monday but she disappeared as soon as the principal dismissed the students. He fought down a feeling of disappointment at not getting a chance to talk to her and followed the others out of the auditorium, listening to Sai and Humility talking about the shopping trip they were going on the next day.
"You're coming, right Rowen?" Humility asked.
Rowen looked up, only half catching the question. "Oh, yeah. If you want me to, that is. I don't have any major studying to do," he replied.
His thoughts turned back to Maia as the group made their way back to Mia's talking about various things.
Maia groaned inwardly as she saw a handful of girls walking towards her outside of the auditorium. She had managed to get out of the auditorium before everyone else but she hadn't expected the stampede of students that came out immediately after her. I didn't stand a chance of getting out of here without being pounced on by someone, she thought dryly, Too bad it has to be the Barbie squad. She put on a sweet smile and greeted the girls when they caught up with her.
"Maia isn't it?" one of them, a tall blonde asked.
Maia nodded, "That's me." She wrinkled her nose, "Do I really stand out?"
The blond looked her up and down with a superior smile on her face while her two friends snickered, "Actually…" She offered her hand, "My name's Kaylie."
Maia raised a brow at the girl and smiled coldly, "Nice to meet you Kaylie. If you'll excuse me, I have some things to get done before I head home."
"Don't think you're going to win any popularity contests by dressing like that and acting better than everyone else," Kaylie said in a threatening voice. "And you better keep your eyes off of Sage Date," she added, "He's mine."
Maia smirked, "No problem. Of course, that would be much easier if I knew who the hell he was." She turned and walked away from the three girls at a brisk pace.
"Don't be rude to me Maia, I'll make your life miserable," Kaylie called after her.
"Go ahead and try," Maia called over her shoulder without turning around. What a bitch! she thought, Well, good way to start out at a new school. Why couldn't I have been caught by someone nice? She sighed as she left the school grounds and headed home. She had a load of homework to do for the start of her classes on Monday.
Closing up her calculus book, Maia stretched across her bed and yawned. "I hate homework Jana," she said, looking over at the large Irish setter lying at the foot of her bed.
Jana raised her head off her paws and whuffed softly, thoroughly unconcerned with her mistress's complaints.
Time for some tunes, she thought as she hopped off the bed and turned on her stereo. Celine Dion's new song "That's The Way It Is" came blasting out of the speakers and Maia immediately joined in, her clear, sweet voice harmonizing with the artist's as she put up her school books and straightened up her room. A knock sounded on her door and she called to come in.
Her father opened the door and watched his daughter with an affectionate smile on his face as she stood en pointe to set a few books on a high shelf. "Why did you quit ballet? You love it so much," he said after a moment.
"You know I didn't want to constantly worry myself over my weight every time I ate something," she said, before turning and smiling back at him. "So Papa, how was your first day at work?"
"Busy. It's such a pain getting into the feel of things at a new office," he replied, leaning against the door frame, "How was the introduction assembly."
Maia wrinkled her nose, "I hate being the absolute center of attention. I survived though. I did meet up with this bitch afterwards who was trying to make me feel insecure about the way I chose to dress."
Nicolas laughed. His daughter had never once lost confidence in her personal clothing style and nothing was going to change her mind about it.
Maia joined in on the laughter, knowing what he was thinking, "If I'm comfortable in what I'm wearing, no one's going to make me insecure about what I wear. Too bad the bitch didn't realize that, might make her life easier." She smirked, "Get this, she's going to try to make my life miserable for being rude to her."
The smile stayed on her father's face but she could see the concern in his eyes. "Don't go making enemies right away Maia, you may end up paying for it later," he said when she raised a brow at him.
Hugging him tightly, she assured him that she would be careful.
"You're going to go pick up your uniforms tomorrow right?"
Maia groaned, "You would have to bring up the uniform issue, wouldn't you?"
He laughed, "I know you prefer wearing your own clothes to school but you have to admit, it makes it easier to decide on what to wear for school."
"That's about the only good thing about it," she grumbled. "So, what's for dinner Papa?"
"Take out tonight. I stopped by this restaurant owned by this couple with the name Rei Faun. Really nice people, I guess they've got a son that's about your age. His name's Kento," he said, "Anyways, they have really great food so I ordered dinner for both of us."
Maia nodded, "Sounds good. Let's go eat."
Later that night, Maia lay in her bed with Jana resting her head on her chest. "Jana, I miss Miami," she whispered softly, "I wish that whole situation had never happened." She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, "Why did Kyle have to betray me like that?"
Jana whined softly at the sadness in her mistress's voice. She didn't really understand what happened to the young woman, but she recognized the name Kyle and she recognized the fact that the human man she had disliked from the start had hurt her mistress.
Scratching the dog playfully behind the ears, Maia smiled softly, "Papa thinks I've recovered from that incident but I really haven't. Despite my brave words, I'm terrified of being in the company of guys. I don't know how I'll ever be able to trust any guy that much again." She sighed, "Oh well, nothing can change the past. It's time to think about the future."
Jana barked softly as if in agreement.
"When Papa asked me if I had a preference as far as where to move, I never thought about moving to Japan," she said quietly, "Then all of a sudden I found myself saying "Let's move out of the country. Japan sounds like a good spot." She glanced down at Jana in the pale moonlight shining through the window above her bed. "Something wanted me to be here for some reason. I don't know why but I do know that this is where I should be. My nightmares have stopped at least and that's usually because I'm doing the right thing." She bit her bottom lip, "I just wish I knew who this Jarrol guy was and why I'm supposed to be here to stop him." Her eyes closed sleepily, "I'll figure it out later. For now, I just want to sleep and forget about all the troubles that brought me here."
She sighed and let her mind fade into sleep.