Hello Everyone. You may find this story to be familiar and that is because I once posted this story as "Enchanted" but have been reworking it into something new. I hope you enjoy.
Today had started out like any other day, but this day seemed gloomier than usual, courtesy of the grey rain clouds that covered the sky. My alarm went off as usual, although a few hours too early for my liking, and it took just about every fiber of my conscious being to keep from hitting the snooze and just rolling over and going back to sleep. I managed to sit myself up, before turning off the annoying buzzer that I am sure had woken the entire house by now, if they weren't already. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I felt the dry, sandpapery-ness of my tongue smacking against the roof of my equally parched mouth. The disgust of this alone was enough to get me out of bed and into the bathroom where I brushed away any trace of this along with the morning breathe. Combing my fingers through my hair and splashing a good amount of cold water into my face, I went back to my room to change out of the white tank top and sweats that was currently in, before Mom can running up the stairs wondering why I wasn't in the kitchen eating breakfast already.
Once I did make it into the kitchen, my breakfast was already half-cold, so I shoveled what was still semi-warm into my mouth, washing it down with the orange juice before grabbing my backpack and heading to school, my umbrella still hanging in the hall closet at home.
The bell for first period to begin rang throughout the halls of New Domino High School. Students occupied their respective class rooms, as teachers began their lectures. Mr. Palladium was furiously searching his horribly disorganized and disheveled desk for today's lecture plan. Based on the amount of clutter and papers he had piled on his desk, more than likely the period would end before he found what he was looking for, meaning that today would just be a free day. I pulled out my sketch book and my pencil pouch and went to work on the drawing I had been working on for the last week. I wasn't exactly sure who or what I was drawing but it seemed almost familiar to me.
Most of my sketch book was filled with doodles and drawings of nature: trees in the fall, flowers in the spring, and sometimes if something was cast in the just the right light, I would sketch it. I had a natural talent for drawing and even had a few of my sketches featured at local art fairs when I was younger and even once in the local museum during Children's Art Appreciation Week when I was 10. As I grew older though, I became more apprehensive of showing others my drawings, including my parents. They just never seemed good enough for the public eye, but I could tell, that this one was going to be different.
As I began to really get into my drawing, the rest of the classroom slowly adding from my thoughts, I was immediately pulled back by the classroom door opening and shutting, the sound of the squeaking hinge cutting through the rest of the noise that filled the classroom. A student, more specifically a girl, entered the classroom, capturing my attention. Her skin was the color of caramel and her hair, which she had tied up in a high pony tail, was a very light brunette color with blonde highlights going through it. She went up to Mr. Palladium and handed him a slip of paper, before she turned to face the class, setting her eyes in my direction. Something about her seemed familiar.
"Class, this is Flora Lynphea and she will be joining us for the rest of the school year. So please try to make her feel welcome. Miss Lynphea, you can go ahead and take the empty seat besides Mr. Knightly." Mr. Palladium pointed to the vacant chair that sat beside me that I have ignored since the beginning of the school year. Palladium turned his attention back to his search of his lecture notes as the new girl, Flora, took residence in the once vacant chair. She didn't say a word as she pulled out a notebook and began to write. I wanted to introduce myself to her, but I wasn't sure what to say, or rather how to phrase the multitude of thoughts that were swarming around in my head. So I tried to turn my attention back to my sketch book.
As I tried to focus solely on my drawing, I couldn't help but sneak a few glances at her. She was writing in what appeared to be a journal of some sort, but I didn't pay much attention to what she was writing in particular. I was mainly paying attention to her, trying to figure out why she was so familiar. At one point I held my gaze at her a little bit too long and she caught me. That's when I noticed her eyes. The color was so unusual. They were an intense, striking green color and I know that green eyes weren't really that unusual, but hers were. Her eyes were so green that they were mesmerizing. I hadn't realized that I was staring until she spoke up.
"Is something wrong?" She asked. He voice was soft, almost timid, and the expression she was giving seemed worrisome.
"No, it's nothing. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare. I'm Helia Knightly." I introduced, holding out my hand for her to shake. She took a hold of it and gave a quick handshake, her expression softening.
"It's nice to meet you Helia and it's quite alright." She replied, a small smile appearing on her pink lips. Before I could say anything else, the bell rang for class to end and she vanished out the door.
Lunch rolled around. I hadn't seen Flora again. She wasn't in any of my other morning classes and most likely wouldn't be in the ones I had after lunch. I only saw her for a half an hour and only knew her name, yet I couldn't get her out of my mind. It wasn't until my friend Riven walked up to me that I realized just how lost I was in my thoughts about her.
"Helia, what are you thinking about?" My friend Riven Mitchell asked as he took a seat next to me, dropping the crumpled lunch sack down in front of himself.
"It's nothing." I told him. Riven rolled his eyes, annoyed that I wasn't going to tell him what I was really thinking about. Normally I would, but I wasn't interested in having him poke fun at me for thinking the thoughts that I was.
"Whatever, so anyway I was wondering, do you think that Musa would say yes if I asked her to go out with me on Friday night?" Riven questioned me as he opened the misshaped sack and pulled the partially smashed sandwich from within. Musa was my younger (by 10 minutes) twin sister and for the last year Riven has had a crush on her.
"Just like the last three times you asked her, she is going to turn you down Riven. And before you ask, I am not going to help you get together with my sister. If you want to go out with her then you are going to have to find a way to make that happen by yourself." I told him. The red-head scoffed and turned away from me, taking a single bit from the sandwich before disposing of it back into the sack.
"Whatever." Riven was a good guy, but he had it rough when he was younger. His mom left him and his dad when he was only five and his dad was abusive at times, so Riven never really trusted people and always hid behind this wall that he had built. We had been friends since junior high and my house became like a second home to him whenever he needed to escape his dad. My parents, Musa and I were really the only people he ever trusted and Musa became the only girl he ever genuinely had feelings for. In truth I knew that Musa liked him too, but she was going to make him work for it, before she ever agreed to a date with him.
Just like I had thought, the rest of the day crawled by slowly and I never did see Flora again. One of the girls in my art class, Stella Moon, said that Flora was in her third period English class and that she spent most of the class time just writing away in her notebook, like she had when I first met her in Palladium's class this morning. Brandon Jamison, one of my friends in my sixth period P.E. class and Stella's boyfriend of a year and a half, was partnered with her in their fourth period algebra class and they both had Photography after lunch. By the end of the day I roughly knew her schedule well enough to know that after Chemistry with Palladium first period, I wouldn't be seeing her again.
I was proven wrong.