She could see him, his hair placed wildly across his face in the moonlight as he walked gracefully through the grounds of his rickety mansion. The bushy sculpters stood high above him, reaching the starry sky, it seemed, with their majesty. Yet he didn't stare at them in stunned wonder as anyone else would, he strode sleepily past them to reach the gates at the end of his artful garden. He looked through the black bars of the rusty gates, past the charred branches of the dark trees, to the dreamy town below, where the people slept, ridiculing him even in their slumber. Suddenly, he looked at the ground and whispered softly"Ardeth."
"ARDETH" Slowly, her dream faded into reality again. She was in class. When she yawned and looked up drowsily, her first sight was the professor standing over her with a mocking smile on his face. Behind her was the teachers pet, Amanda, with much the same expression.
"Did you have a nice nap, Ardeth" he chortled.
"Yes, i was having a nice nap" she said, smiling"until you woke me up."
The class gasped. Remarks like 'how rude' and 'why i never' were heard amongst the chatter that came after.
"ARDETH! Get to the principle's office" the teacher steamed"NOW"
Ardeth Rainy was always considered to be an outcast, a rogue in her timeless little neighborhood. She'd lived in that wretchedly-perfect town all her life, with it's perfect little houses, perfect families, perfect robot people, and perfectly-retro furniture. It sickened her. Her's was the only house with internet or any hint of modern pop-culture. She was the only teen-ager that didn't carry her school books in a leather strap under her arm. She was the only teen-ager that had a personality, and any knowledge of the world outside their 1950's-styled utopia. She was the only teen-ager that was intrigued by the fairytale about the knife-handed villian that lives in the big, empty house on the hill. She found out about this sad tale from none other than the internet itself, while researching for a paper in Language class.
Ardeth slammed the door open proudly. The secretary looked up from her papers through her half-moon glasses and smiled at her guest, then went back to her work.
"So, what are you in for this week" she asked probingly.
"I fell asleep in the middle of a lecture on..." Ardeth paused"I can't remember."
A deep voice hailed over the intercom on the secretary's desk"Send her in."
"You heard 'im" she pointed her thumb towards the door behind her.
Ardeth strode quietly, her long black hair trailing behind her. Her confident hand turned the doorknob slowly and opened the heavy wooden door to the exquisite office. Inside, behind the dark oak desk, sat the stern principle. Ardeth sat in the kooshy chair in front of the desk, facing him.
"Ardeth" he said, with his fingers to his temples, obviously annoyed"you know the school rules. Yet you continually break them. This is the what... twenty-fourth time you've come here this term"
"Actually, it's the twety-fifth" she said, correcting him.
"Exactly. Now you know that you get into pickles such as this much more than any of your peers" he sighed, dissapointed"and you know that by this time, i'm going to have to suspend you."
"SUSPEND ME" Ardeth was finally susprised"for sleeping? Surely, you, of all people"
"ARDETH! You know that it's not just for sleeping" he debated"it's for all the times you've argued with your peers and teachers over the truth of the story of Edward that is banned from this school. It's for all the times you've put up petitions against the town council's decisions on burning down the old mansion, and for all the times you've never handed in homework."
"And for that I have to call your parents and inform them of your suspension."
The principle dailed her home phone number into his office phone. She sat there, painfully listening to him talk to he mother on the other line. Ardeth only caught the blunt of the conversation. That's all she needed to hear to know that she was waist deep in... poopy.
-end chapter-
