I know I'm a horrible person for making a new story without finishing Marriage For Peace...but I began this awhile ago and I really, really wanted to post it. I really hope it gets some good views.
"I told you-four laps!" Mr. Nickson demanded, pointing at the track. When the class was running their mile yesterday in nice, seventy-five-degree weather, I was sick at home. Now today he wanted me to run it. Alone. I scrunched up my face, as if in disgust.
"No. It's over ninety degrees out. It's too hot to run." As it was, the bright, yellow ball of fire was burning down on us. I started to turn away after my comment, but the teacher jumped in front of me, his face angry red. It made his eyes pop out a little. Like a frog's bulgy ones.
"Run it, or I'll give you an F in this class. You are lazy and inconsiderate!" As he continued ranting, he got closer to my face, raising his voice. Next, he forcibly push his pointer finger against my forehead. "Your participation is already spiraling down the drain, and your brainless attitude is-"
I punched him in the face.
Not only did I earn an F in the class, but the school gave me an expulsion to top it off. Mr. Nickson got away with a bloody nose and a possible black eye.
Dad wasn't mad. Whenever I caused trouble, he always told me, "You're just more logical than you are anything else, and people don't want to listen." Mom, however, never agreed. Instead, she'd shake her head and return to whatever she was doing. To her I was still a violet child in need of even more anger management.
Not only was it ridiculously hot out, I had never been the athletic type. I could run maybe a quarter of a mile and then fall to the ground panting to catch my breath with a sharp pain shooting through my side. My counselor explained I should exercise more. Something about asthma. My doctor said I was a healthy seventeen year old and threw me an inhaler.
Weighing my options, I deemed I just stay with my healthy diet and be good for the rest of my life. My inhaler was buried somewhere deep in my closet of doom. I had the fastest metabolism out of my entire family; cousins and all. I really didn't have to exercise. My health and looks were the only good thing about me. My personality was horrific, as my old best friend Melissa used to tell me. I say old only because she stole the guy I had a huge crush on last year. Now she was happily going out with him.
I was brash, brilliant, blunt and brutal. Melissa used to label my personality the "Big Four B's". I was arrogant and very self-confident, so much that people usually didn't stand a chance trying to take me down a notch. Although that's where my brutal part came in. I never verbally finished arguments. I used my fists a lot. One time I even used my head and broke a kid's jaw in third grade. For good reasons of course.
"I can't believe you got expelled at the very beginning of the school year. If you say your teachers are so bad, then maybe we should transfer you." Dad muttered at the dinner table the next night. I raised my eyebrows at him while mom choked on her food.
"Transfer? Honey, the only high school within thirty miles is the one she's going to-err, was going to yesterday!" Mom exclaimed.
Shrugging my shoulders, I scooped a delicious bite of garlic-butter-soaked asparagus. "I don't really care. It isn't like anyone will miss me. Maybe then I can finally drive my car again, with the next school being thirty-miles away and all."
"If we decide to give it back to you." Dad muttered. Let's just say I had a terrible case of road rage.
"Okay, stop. We didn't even think about a new school yet. I highly doubt any school in this state will allow you near its campus." Mom said coldly. I couldn't help but grimace a little.
My last high school, freshman year, I accidentally bumped into a tall girl who spun around and called me a string of names because supposedly I stepped on her toe in the process. I retaliated and told her not to stop randomly in the halls after walking. Someone was bound to run into her…it just happened that it was her unlucky day with me.
She called me a bitch, something I was proud of, and I said I wasn't apologizing. Then she lurched toward me and I acted only upon self-defense and gave her a good uppercut. It wasn't until we were sitting in the office that they told me she was a model and her face had to be in perfect shape the next day or else she wouldn't get her new job.
Mom and dad had never been so mad at me. Luckily the model didn't press charges, only because she wasn't "the type to stoop to that level". That was around the time I had been put into counseling.
Dad poked around at his dinner. He seemed especially sullen today. Mom took his hand and asked him what was wrong. Sighing heavily, he put down his fork and looked up at me.
"There is a school just outside this city that I heard one of my coworkers talking about. They said it was bound to set delinquent children straight."
I stopped eating and narrowed my eyes. "Delinquent? Now you think I'm a teen who has no control over herself whatsoever?"
Dad's mouth tightened and his eyes were hard. My mouth nearly dropped open. Now even my father was thinking I was a violet, chaotic teenager. I wanted to vehemently shout that people just don't understand me. That and the fact that nothing good and no peace ever came from just discussing. That's why there were wars.
For the sake of my parents, though, I kept my mouth shut.
"The good thing about this school is that it'll accept you. It's better than sending you to boot camp."
"So you're transferring me?" I asked, still getting over being shocked. I indignantly ignored the boot camp comment. Before dad could reply, mom interrupted.
"We'll talk it over tomorrow."
End of discussion. I ate the rest of dinner with my parents in silence.
It wasn't until I started doing the dishes afterwards that the doorbell rang. The clock read 8:50 pm. Nobody ever visited this late. I snuck to our swinging kitchen door and leaned against it. Just on the other side was a hallway that led to the main entrance, so I could hear if someone was talking.
Dad answered the door.
I heard an unfamiliar man speak. "Is this the house of Katarina Annesely?" I froze, wondering who wanted to know where I lived.
There was a pause, before my dad answered, "Yes, that's my daughter. What's going on?"
"There is a man at her school, a teacher, named Brent Nickson who wants to press charges. I thought we could get her side of the story before he does anything irrational."
My blood ran cold. If mom and dad didn't want to kill me before, this would be the perfect time. I knew for a fact that the person at the door right now was a policeman. I'd really done it this time. Apparently Mr. Nickson wasn't worried about being "too low" to stoop to that level.
"Unfortunately she's asleep. I don't want to wake her, she's quite the monster when woken up." Oh my God, my dad was lying? For me?
The was a long silence, and I heard a soft sound of ripping paper. "Very well. Mr. Nickson said he'd be more lenient if you checked out this school. It's a great place for children like yours."
My dad muttered a thank you, and then the front door closed. I jumped back and went to the sink when I heard his footsteps coming close. Sure enough, he swung open the door. I expected him to have a face full of anger. Instead it was slightly morose.
"Why did you lie?" I demanded. My dad never lies. Ever. It was one of the few things we had in common.
"I don't want cops in my house. I wanted them away as soon as possible."
"Why? And what school was he talking about?"
"Cops snoop around. I don't want them to snoop. It's none of their business what is in my house. And it was the same school I mentioned earlier."
I didn't understand what dad meant about snooping. From one look, our house was one of the most ordinary houses on the block. What would they possibly find? Usually I'd ask more questions, but dad silenced me by showing me the paper. Undine Academy. "Academy?" I asked, surprised. "I didn't know they had any of those around here. I thought academy's were for special people with awesome grades and a future ahead of them."
"You're a delinquent type of special."
"So you're sending me there instead of getting charges pressed against us?"
"Of course. It's like hitting two birds with one stone. Except one of them is slowly dying."
"And that's me slowly becoming a good guy." I said bitterly, knowing he was hinting at that.
"Exactly. I'll call them tomorrow, and see when we can get you transferred." With that, dad folded up the paper and left the kitchen.
Turns out the school was actually almost forty miles away instead. It caused mom to complain about a waste of gas money. Dad had called the school this morning. It was a Wednesday morning, already almost eighty degrees out. It was unusually hot this September in Oregon. Oregon was supposed to be the rainy state, and last summer we barely got past seventy degrees the entire time. Global warming was definitely taking a toll here.
Undine Academy was awe-inspiring. It was a gargantuan, three-story school that looked like an old palace. The walls were made of brick that had lost its color probably years ago and were now a beige-brown. Windows that looked like stained black church glass were curved at the top and framed by a soft white trim. There was a staircase that split into two sides leading to the front doors. It was kind of spooky and ancient-looking. It appeared so eerie and oddly quiet. Not to mention that it being surrounded by a forest of trees didn't make it any scarier.
At the very top of the dwelling construction, the school pointed upwards in the middle and a diamond rested in the wall. The diamond was the same white as the window frames, but inside was a carving of a water lily.
I stared at it for a long time, wondering what the water lily stood for. Our car came to a stop in front of the school, and my eyes dropped down to the statue sitting in the middle of a small pond that I hadn't noticed before. It looked like a mermaid. The woman with the fish tail for legs was reaching up to the sky; her head thrown back as if she were crying out to the stars. My parents must have thought I was mesmerized into shock because mom gave me a small shake at the shoulder.
"It's time to go in and meet with the principal."
From that point on, it was safe to say I was nervous. No, more than nervous. This school was intimidating. I could only imagine how many of those special green papers they put into this school every year. Nevertheless, I swallowed my foreign fear and followed my parents through the large double doors at the top of the stairs.
Class was in at the moment. I could tell while walking past the classroom doors in the large hallways. Despite what it appeared to be on the outside, it actually looked modern on the inside.
On each classroom door there was a small window. Students, who looked not much different then students from my old schools, were fervently writing notes as the teachers spoke. The only difference was that they were wearing uniforms. A sudden dread passed upon me.
Uniforms.
From the first look at this school I knew something was definitely up. It was another rich, snobby school. Where was the talk about delinquents?!
"Well, that's hard to miss." Dad suddenly muttered sarcastically as we stopped.
He was talking about the large oak door with a metal plate screwed into it that said, PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE in big gold letters. "So do we knock?" I asked bitterly as they just stood there waiting, like something magical was going to happen. Though it would be odd to doubt magic in this unbelievable place.
Mom reached forward first and knocked, nice and loud. There was an uncomfortable silence, and then the door squeaked open and a surprisingly young woman stepped out.
Her hair was dark blond, and cascaded down her shoulders in large, bouncy curls. She had bright red lips and white teeth as she smiled at us. The only features that signified her age were the crows feet at the corners of her eyes and the beginnings of wrinkles on her hands as she reached out to greet my mom with a handshake.
"You two must be Mr. and Mrs. Annesely. Oh!" Her gray eyes lit up when she saw me. "And this must be Katarina!"
"I prefer Rina." I stated.
Her smile didn't falter even as she shook my hand and I barely returned it. I wasn't big on the formal introductions. "It is so nice to finally meet you! My name is Esther Undine. How are you all? I'd give you the long history of this school, but unfortunately I only have a short time before I must leave on errands. So if you'd like, come in and sit down. We can go through Rina's files briefly and discuss her transfer!"
Dear goodness, the woman didn't give a chance for anyone to say anything. Although it was kind of cool that the school was probably named after her family line.
Carried into her office by her promptness, we all sat down in three of the four chairs in front of her large desk, where her abnormally large throne-like chair sat behind it. She sat in it and pulled out the files that my school had faxed over this morning. It seemed they were anxious to get rid of me.
"Oh my," she said excitingly, "you spoke of her bad behavior but her grades are outstanding!"
That was true. After all, I was brilliant.
"Yes. She's always paid attention in class. And in all honesty, she's very logic. But that seems to be where her bad behavior comes in. She cannot control her outbursts. Trust me when I say this though, she is never the one to start anything." Dad told Mrs. Undine.
"She does have a tendency to finish things though." Mom included. I wasn't sure if they were insulting me or complimenting me. I was sure there were a couple times when I hadn't been very logic. This must be the caring parental way of handling things.
"We have good students and teachers here, so I doubt she'll have any issues whatsoever." Mrs. Undine stopped flipping through my papers and then leaned forward to look me directly in the eyes. "I know uniforms may not sound appealing whatsoever, but that's probably the least of your worries."
I stared at her. Dad cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, what do you mean?" He asked. She sat back again and smiled.
"We require our students to live in our dorms."
Yep. That was significantly far worse than uniforms. "Dorms?!" I exclaimed, my jaw slack in surprise.
"At least it would save your family money from driving you to school so often."
Mom and dad shared the look. The look that implied they were thinking of it. I stood up abruptly. "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll meet you in the car if you're not here when I come back." I exited the room quickly, afraid I was going to throw up. I knew they were going to agree on it.
Once I was in the hall, of course, I had no idea which direction was the bathroom. Since there was not one on our way in, I took the opposite way. I desperately needed to splash ice cold water on my face to hold back the anger burning my cheeks.
The halls in Undine Academy were ridiculously confusing. I probably should have dropped bread crumbs behind me in case I got lost. About to give up trying to find one, I turned the next corner and whabam! I found one. Thankful for it, I quickly pushed open the shiny swinging door marked GIRLS and stopped.
There was a terrible retching sound coming from one of the stalls. Someone was throwing up. Without hesitating, I took action and knocked on the black granite stall door. The vomiting stopped long enough for someone to hiss out, "Go away, Annabel!"
"Actually I'm Rina. Are you okay?"
A long silence seeped through the bathroom and the girl angrily muttered, "I don't know who you are, but don't bother concerning yourself with me."
I raised an eyebrow. This is usually what happened. I try to care and they throw me to the ground like a spider. "Just wanted to make sure you weren't vomiting out your entrails." I turned away and flipped on the sink water; ice cold. After splashing my face and then drying it off with soft paper towels, I turned off the water.
The girl was no longer throwing up, but she stayed in the stall, probably scared to show her face.
I glanced in the mirror and sighed. My eyes had a slight dark ring forming around them. The result of a restless sleep. Auburn brown hair hung just past my chest in a boring, wavy and even frizzy form. I found myself wishing I had Mrs. Undine's awesome curly hair. Although I was happy with my eyes. Even though they were brown, in the sunlight they glowed a pretty reddish-gold color. I knew I was attractive, but no one-no guy- had ever really wanted to get to know the violent, bitchy girl that was me.
I wasn't tall, at all; I was a measly 5'2", but I could still pack a huge punch. My body was a mix between pear-shaped and hourglass-shaped, which I was proud of. The only thing I wasn't proud of were my breasts, which were no bigger than a B. Maybe if I had more cleavage guys would look at me more.
"I didn't think staring at your breasts was a past-time."
The girl from the stall startled me so much, I spun and tripped over my own foot. Catching myself on the sink rim, I stared at her. She didn't look happy at all. In fact, she looked awful. Her skin was a sick pallor in color, and her hazel eyes were dull and surrounded by dark rings, like she hadn't slept in days.
"Dear lord, I think you need to go to the nurse's office!" I nearly cried out.
She bared her teeth in a snarl. "Do I look that bad?" she growled. Actually, she looked like she wanted to rip my head off.
Catching hold of my fast-beating heart again, I stood straight, hardening my face. "If you want to continue bearing your illness then so be it." I made to go walk past her. She stepped in front of me. Suddenly her expression was frightened.
"Don't tell anyone please." Then she paused and looked at me, up and down. "You don't look like you go to this school. Where's your uniform?"
"I'll probably be going here within the next couple days to a week." I sighed bitterly. This time I made it past her and left the bathroom. The ill girl followed me.
"I'm not contagious. I think it was something I ate. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was something I ate. So don't tell Mrs. Undine, please. Or anyone. At all."
I stopped and sent her a narrowed gaze. "It's none of my business. I wasn't planning on it in the beginning."
She looked relieved. "Well, if you're coming to this school soon, feel free to ask me anything you want. My name is Cora. Cora Hannelore. Awful name, right?"
I was sure she probably babbled more than Mrs. Undine. Maybe they were related somehow. Also, she'd gone from being angry to nice. Kind of bipolar. I stopped outside the principal's office and pressed my ear to the door.
"No one is in there." Cora said. I shot her a frustrated look. Shouldn't she have gone back to class?
"Okay then. I'm leaving now. Actually leaving. To my parent's car. By myself. So see you." I tried to make it clear to her, and then turned away and made my way towards the entrance where we had entered in the first place.
Before opening the doors, I glanced back. Cora had disappeared without even saying bye. When I sat down in the car, mom and dad both giving me a glare, I asked, "So am I staying in the dorms?"
"Yes. But you only have one year left of school, so it's one year you'll be away from us. Plus you'll be able to visit on Thanksgiving, Winter break and Spring break."
"I love how you guys don't even ask how I feel about it." I muttered darkly, sinking down in my seat as we drove away from the castle school. Neither one answered, probably scared to get on my bad side and get hit. Lovely.