To be honest I had no idea really where to post this. I wanted to post it up somewhere mainly because a few friends are willing to strangle me if I don't let them finally read it. I heard that some people do post original storylines on here and if anyone has an idea to where this might be better posted I'd appreciate the advice. Currently, I've put it into misc. manga and anime because I will be starting on the manga for this...once I have the complete story finished. Right now progress wise it is at chapter 16 with these first five typed and ready for public viewing. Again, I appreciate advice if anyone has any on where they might like to see the story go or if they see any problems. I welcome criticism, but please, mind your manners. I wouldn't come over and slash up your story with a red pen. So just be polite.
(Disclaimer: This story, plot, and its characters are all copyright and owned by me unless otherwise stated in later chapters where some of my friend's characters may come into play.)
Chapter 1
The air was thick with flower petals of every kind and color imaginable. They floated down on the breeze of the midspring day like the most gentle rain storm of April. Warm and welcome.
She could smell them on the wind, fresh scents of spring flowers mixing in a fragrant wind that wrapped around her as she danced in the shower of them. She swayed and spun, her arms out wide from her body like a child mimicking an airplane.
She could feel the warm rays of a setting sun and turned to behold it in all its glorious majesty on the hilly dappled horizon. With a bright smile she lowered her arms slowly to her sides. Lovely. She let out a nostalgic sigh and plopped down on the long grass of the hillside.
Forget-me-nots brushed her arms, which were bare from the wispy pink sun dress she wore. Idly she stroked her hand over the small blue flowers around her and rolled over on her side in the grass.
A lady bird made her way up a flower stem and onto a perfect green leaf. She fluttered her clear wings from out her turtle shell-like back and took off onto the wind, flying amongst the petals.
Gently, the girl smiled at the beauty of the landscape to herself and turned on her back again to watch the sky as two sparrows chased one another across the sky, darting through the snow of petals.
Then she heard something. The soft rhythm of an acoustic guitar, playing a sassy number that held a distinct Latin feel. A Latino singer began to sing to the melody of the stringed instrument and that made the girl blink. She looked to the side and saw a burro chewing on the flowers next to her. She sat up hastily, a flurry of petals that had coated her went flying again.
A little behind the donkey, down the hillside on which the girl sat, was a man in a sombrero, strumming his guitar and singing with all his heart and emotions. She perked a brow. Why was there a sombreroed man in a poncho singing to her?
Ana got her answer when she opened her eyes. Her alarm clock was wailing next to her on her little end table, some Mexican station that was quickly starting to get on her nerves. She hit the snooze button on the clock to shut it up and laid her head back down on her soft pillow. Telling herself she'd just think a moment then get up. Five minutes passed and the obnoxious music returned, trumpets blaring.
She groaned loudly, curling on her side and tugged the pillow over her head which was pounding with a headache. Hoping to block out the noise and soften the throbbing. How come she could never dream about Michael Buble or hell, Frank Sinatra, singing to her in the flowery field?
"No, that would be too good...Huh, God?" She groaned again. If she ever did she guessed she'd never wake up or move from her bed. Which she really needed to be doing about now...
She fumbled her hand from under her covers and tried to find the off button on the clock, but finally gave up and just ripped the cord from the wall, silencing the Latino and his donkey.
Yawning, she sat up, running a hand through sleep tousled hair. "Another great morning." She said sarcastically and looked out the window. The city was still there, stretching out as far as she could see. "Well, at least the world hasn't ended...YET anyway, but the day is still young."
She made her way to the kitchen for a glass of juice and some Tylenol, idly wondering what today would have in store for her, but she knew before even thinking the question. She would get her drink, bathe, catch the train to school, go to class, take some notes, catch the train home, eat some dinner, and go to sleep. Then things would start over again from there. It wasn't a bad schedule. She was used to it after two years.
Normal was the way she liked things. Calm, quiet, organized. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to her and she was glad in a way for that level of stability.
On the way to the bathroom of her two bed apartment, she side tracked to feed her cat, Kadon, then headed for the linen closet for a towel.
At the closet she stopped to ponder the arrangement of things on the shelves. All her towels were lavender or white and all the bottles of shampoo read lavender. She owned way too much lavender, she decided, shaking her head. She grabbed a purple towel and reached for a bottle of the uniform shampoo then stopped herself as a thought struck her. With a shrug she pushed the bottles aside and grabbed an old bottle of green tea shampoo from the back. Her brother had used this once upon a time. She took a smell of the scented shampoo and smirked, turned, and kicked shut the linen closet door.
Sometimes you have to be wild.
It was on the train ride to school that Ana really had her epiphany. She sat on the second floor of a double decker tram car with her head leaned on the vibrating glass of the window. She wore her regular school uniform, pleated green skirt and a white dress shirt under her green vest. Her tie was still undone, however and her hair was pulled back into two pigtails.
Her feet were up on the open, back facing seat in front of her in a very comfortable sort of reclined manner. She was slightly slouched down in her seat as the tram bumped along the track.
She had been sitting there like that for a good fifteen minutes before realization struck her and she took a look around the car. She knew these people too well.
The old lady in the far end near the exit was a florist on 10th street. Her stop was coming up next. Two seats in front of her was a boy napping with his iPod headphones jammed in his ears. The music was entirely too loud since Ana heard it from all the way up on the second layer of the car. He got off usually at 34th, wear he worked as a waiter at some little café that she couldn't remember the name of. Across from him there was the business man. He was yelling, as he was most days, at Shelley, which Ana assumed could only be his secretary. After all what married man yelled at his wife like that via cell phone? Not a smart one.
Ana knew these people, maybe not personally, but by habit at least. She could tell where they all got off and on. Hell, she could tell you in the contents of the old lady's purse who sifted through it on the way to work each morning.
They were all stuck in this loop of day to day life, or at least, Ana realized, she was. She wondered if they knew her mornings just as well as she knew theirs. After all, it wasn't hard to tell that she was in collage, or at least in school still. The uniform had to be a dead giveaway.
The though made Ana sit up suddenly in her seat. Her eyes went to the large tram window in silent amazement. Normal. This was all so...normal.
This was a normal, ordinary everyday life. She should have felt good that she had this life. That everything was so in tune and scheduled to run like a well oiled machine. Why then did she feel so...trapped? Why did she get this feeling of dread in her stomach like she was missing something and she should know what it was.
What am I doing with my life? Where was all this normality going?
Collage.
That's right. School. She sat back in her seat with a sigh, relieved. She was studying to be a vet, following in her father's footsteps to take up the family business. That meant lots of study time and little time for friends and partying. Which meant she needed a level of normality in her life to stay on top. That's what this was all for. It was all just part of the plan.
The plan...
Everything seemed so planned now that she thought about it. Had she ever done anything that wasn't preplanned? Out of ordinary? The answer was no.
Her eyes went to the marque over the exit as she was going adrift in a sea of her own thoughts. 12th. They were close to her stop now.
St. Mary's was a loose lace catholic school. It had long been a school that delved into darker things. Well, darker things by the Pope's standards. Science, medical, and even study fields for things like ghost hunting and the occult were offered. It had also become one of the first coed religious schools in the country.
Ana's mother and father, and brother for that matter, had all graduated from the university with high honors and now, it was her turn.
With a sigh, she sat forward in her seat, looking down at her simple penny loafers and shook her head. The PA buzzed in the back of her thoughts as the train came to a stop at 14th. The doors opened and shut and within minutes they were off again and moving. Her stop was next.
Ana thought back to her childhood, furrowing her brow. Come to think of it she had never been a wild child either. Lydon, her brother, had his wild nights, yes, but Ana had always been the quiet one growing up. Well, not to say her brother was still that way, he had his insane teen years, but had calmed down since he buggered off to work at the military base. She supposed training did that to you...or at least death did. It had been nearly seven years before that their parents had died, leaving her and her brother alone at only twelve and fifteen.
Lydon had had to grow up fast after that, as had Ana.
Perhaps that was the problem with her today. She was finally seeing how fast her life had run her by. She sighed, looking out the window as the tram disappeared into a tunnel, the sight outside now black. She was met with her reflection in the glass.
Ana had black hair to the middle of her back. It was that particular shade of midnight that reflected blue to the light. Her eyes were a calm shade of grey-blue. A color that her grandfather had always called ghost grey. No wonder he had called her Boo growing up. Her mother and father had had ocean blue eyes and Lydon's had been a shade darker than theirs. Ana, however, was the anomaly of the family. Unlike the others, she was pale toned, and naturally fair next to the near Italian dark of the rest of them. She looked like a pasty, dark haired mistake in all the family photos. Sometimes she wondered if she was adopted. Fat chance of finding out though.
"St. Mary's. Last call for St. Mary's. Please exit at this time and have a pleasant day." The PA droned softly and Ana blinked from her thoughts, looking to the window again and saw they were at her stop. She reached for her bag to stand then stopped.
What if she skipped school for a day? After all, she didn't have any tests or assignments due today.
But...
She worried her lower lip and stiffened her knees so she would remain seated. No backing out now, she thought as she watched the doors shut and the tram once again began to move along the track.
"Lets just see where this train goes..." She whispered and propped her feet up on the seat in front of her again.
