Disclaimer: Own nothing Melissa de la Cruz owns it all.
A/N: Well here is my second stab at a Blue Blood Novel. Yes I fully intend on continuing both, don't worry.
"The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant..."
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Allegra Van Allen was what one would call a curious person. She liked to get to the bottom of things. As a child she had always been the one jumping in mud puddles and searching through the large halls of their mansion in the hopes of finding something more. It was simply the way she was, always searching for something that she felt she had lost but was not quite sure what it was.
Besides that fact that she was a Blue Blood and supposedly some big deal in their society Allegra herself was not sure who she was, anymore. At seventeen she was just beginning her senior year at Duchesne and she felt that her life was already over. Over before it had really even begun.
While her red blooded classmates seemed excited at the prospect of attending college and going on, Allegra felt trapped. She felt that her life had barely begun and now it was over. She was Gabrielle and Allegra no longer existed. It was like she never had any say in the matter it just was. It was something that some part of her had decided long ago. She skipped over the pavement and grabbed the top of the wall that ran around her house. She pulled herself up and over dropping easily onto the soft green grass of her back yard. The lights were all out in the house as Allegra climbed the wall up to her room. Around her fifteenth birthday she had started this late night stroll. It had originally been a time where she could think. Go through her memories in private and collect herself for the coming days.
Now it was just a way for her to relax and get away from everything that was going on at school and in her private life. She felt the initial pull toward Charles early on but now she dug her heels in. She just did not want to be dictated to again by her angelic side. Allegra dropped into her room with ease and grave that was born of her angelic nature. She draped her bag over her chair and pulled out the band that held her hair up. She shook her hair out and ran her fingers through it.
"Interesting entrance, sister," her brother said through the darkness. Allegra's breath caught in her throat she had been found out. It wasn't that her family would mind that she walked the streets alone, it was more that she will fully put herself in danger.
"Charles I thought you would have gone to bed already." She searched around in the darkness for her pajamas. Ignoring her twin who was obviously unhappy.
"I was worried when my twin decides to roam this city late at night."
"I was completely safe."
"That's not the point." Charles replied flicking on the lamp. Allegra shied away from the light, its brightness temporarily blinding her.
"I think it is, goodnight," she replied forcefully shoving him out the door and slamming it in his face. She changed and slunk under the covers of her room. She flicked off the light and relaxed it had been so refreshing to be out and about in New York, it truly was the city that never sleeps.
She was running late, curses. Allegra Van Allen was zooming around her room throwing on various items of clothing and shoving books hurriedly into her bag. Pausing only in the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge and hear her mother say.
"Allegra you need to eat something."
"Can't mom gotta run." She stashed the bottle in her back pack and dashed out the door. If walking through the city at night was invigorating running through the busy city in the day was like living in constant energy. She could be a part of this city and still be able watch people as they went about their daily business. There was the mother—well more likely the nanny taking kids to school, students hurrying to class because like her they were late, there were the business people with the papers and briefcases. The whole realm of humans lay open at her feet and none of them would be able to see her. Even if they could the best part was they would just see a typical girl.
She raced up the steps of Duchesne as the students were trickling into classes and she managed to make it to her AP American History course just as the bell rang.
"Just in time Ms. Van Allen," her teacher commented, "take a seat." She smiled apologetically and took her usual seat in the back of the class. It was becoming a regular occurrence for her this early morning race to school. Her mother thought it was just a phase, something that Allegra would out grow. But lately it was becoming habit, stay out all night, catch a few hours of sleep then race to school without pause or hesitation. No one thought to ask her why but she just did, and she still was not sure why she did it herself.
"Allegra?" Her teacher asked, "Would you care to answer the question?"
"Um sorry, what?"
"The pilgrims Ms. Van Allen, why did the pilgrims travel to the new world?" Was this seriously an Advance Placement class?
"They sought religious freedom among other things." She noticed that a few Blue Bloods smiled secretively to themselves.
"Very nice it would be helpful if in the future you could stay with us." Allegra smiled again and nodded her head. It wasn't like she needed this class, in fact she didn't. She knew what happened in Plymouth even if she had not been there been there. But she knew enough of her Blue Blood history to get by.
"Hmm," a boy said from the doorway of the classroom. The whole class paused to stare at the new boy. Girls immediately swooned at his dark hair and bright blue eyes and leather jacket. While boys decided how much of a threat this new boy would pose a threat to their girl pool. "Sorry I got detained in the hallway, this is AP American History right?" He carried a messenger bag over his shoulder and a piece of paper in his other.
"And you are?"
"Stephen Chase, transfer student."
"Yes Mr. Chase this is AP American History take a seat and I will get you a text book after class." Stephen dropped into a seat next to Allegra spreading his schedule out on his desk. She casually looked over at the schedule examining what exactly he was taking. By the look of his schedule they had three classes together out of the seven she was taking.
Is this class always this exciting? Stephen scribbled on the corner of the paper. Allegra stared at the note and then looked up at the boy who had written it blushing slightly at having been caught. She fumbled in her bag for a pencil and scrawled on the edge of her notebook
This is a good day.
Something to look forward to. She laughed this boy had a sense of humor unlike any she had met. She met his eyes again and he smiled at her.
Charles Van Allen would never understand why his twin insisted on going out alone at night. No he could not understand the reasons why she put herself in danger or why she refused to talk to him about it. In the beginning he had tried to be open to it. But as his memories came faster and faster all he wanted to do was to have what they had always had. What they would always have.
He was seated in his AP Literature and Composition class listening to students debate some book that they were to have read. He had skimmed through it in the last night, though he'd read the original copy of The Awakening when it had debuted. He was half way listening to what they were discussing.
"Charles why don't you share your opinion? You seem to be awfully quiet today." His teacher asked.
"I think Robert was right in leaving Edna, clearly he had her best interests at heart. Robert knew he could not afford to take care of Edna the way she needed to be, and what's more he did the honorable thing and left her an opening to go back to her life."
"So why did Edna choose not to go back?"
"She was foolish to think that her husband didn't love her, he cared for her, gave her everything she needed and was even patient with her when she was going through a rough time. And after all that he did for her, she threw it back in his face."
"You bring up an interesting point Charles, love what does it mean in the grand scheme of things and how can it affect what we are? Can you fall out of love?"
"I don't think so."
"Truly?"
"I think once you find your soul mate you'll stay with them forever."
"Well anyone else want to counter Charles's comments?"
Charles knew the answers to all of those questions. In the grand scheme of things love was what kept you going. It was what made you get up in the morning and stay up late at night. It was the essential drug. He existed because he was Michael, Pure of Heart, he knew what one would do for love. He left heaven in all of its glory to follow Gabrielle to earth. In all the centuries of his long life he was still in love. He could see her in all of her incarnations and to him it was her constant light and love that kept him coming back. One did not fall out of love, it was not possible.