Disclaimer: I do not own Deltora or any characters in it.
Chapter 1:
14-year-old Lief groaned and got up from his bed. He checked his watch. 6:00 AM. It was time to get up. He took his inhaler from his desk and took a few deep inhales. He had the rarest and most seriousest asthma disease. It gave him lots of chest pains, coughing, not breathing well times and other terrible things. He had a strange and sad history. He had been abandoned by his parents when he was two months old and taken into a shelter. There they waited for someone to take him into their home. Nobody had wanted to take him, since he would be hard to take care of and there might be a chance that he could die fast. The women fell in love with the little Lief at first sight, but when they found out about his condition, they never had another thought about the poor little boy. But then Jasmine, Barda and Doom had come along. They were siblings who lived together and wanted to try and take on a kid. When they found Lief, they decided to try him, even though he had such a terrible condition. And now they had raised him for 14 years and he was going to go to school for the first time of his life. He would go to the 11th grade, since he was advanced. He had never been to school before.
"Lief?" Jasmine's said, opening his door. "Lief, you have to get ready for school. Oh, and good morning."
"Good morning, Jasmine," Lief said. He called Jasmine, Doom and Barda by their real names. "I'll get ready. I don't want breakfast today, if that's okay with you. I don't think I'll have time anyway."
Jasmine frowned. "Since when did I let you not eat your breakfast?"
Lief said, "I-I" he stopped. He started coughing and shaking. He scrambled for his inhaler but couldn't find it.
"Lief!" Jasmine shouted. She ran to him and pressed him down on his bed. Then she found his inhaler from the ground and put it in his mouth. "Calm down, Lief, calm down. It's okay. "
After a few minutes, Lief sat up again. "I'm fine now. Let me just change my clothes and I'll see you down stairs. Then we can go."
Jasmine shrugged and left. As she walked downstairs, she bumped into Barda.
"I heard coughing," Barda said. "Is Lief okay?"
"Now he is," Jasmine said, sinking into a chair. "He doesn't want any breakfast. He just wants to leave now."
Doom came in the room. "Hi you two. So we're dropping off Lief now, right?"
"Yeah," Barda said. "Jasmine, you have his backpack, right?"
"Yep," Jasmine said. She looked very nervous. "Oh, I hope he'll do good. He'll do good, right Barda? And the kids won't make fun of him, right? Right? Oh, please say so!"
Barda looked a little nervous himself. "Let's hope so. I'm just worried because this is a school with low standards and someone told me there were bad kids at the school. I wish we could've sent him somewhere else, but we don't have enough money. We just can't afford it."
At that moment Lief came trudging down the stairs. He took his backpack from Jasmine and said, "Can we go now? I'm ready."
Barda nodded. He and the others led Lief down to the car. Then they got in and started off for school.
"Lief, you have your inhaler, right?" Jasmine asked. "RIght?"
"Yes, I do," Lief mumbled.
Soon they got to the school. Jasmine kissed Lief inside the car, much to Lief's dislike. Then after another goodbye, Lief got out of the car and stared at the school crowd. He sighed and took out his inhaler. One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths. No, this was still not enough. He did five more inhales and then he felt better. Suddenly all the talking at the school stopped. Everyone stared at him. Everyone was quiet. Then a kid broke the silence.
"Hey, its that kid the teacher was talking about. Asthma kid!"
"HA HA! You have asthma! And I heard he has the worst asthma there can be, too. HA HA!"
"What a freak! He's really really weird."
Then a few girls said, "He's hot!"
Lief walked through the crowd, aware of the people, and put his backpack into his locker. Then he went to a classroom which would be the math classroom. A teacher was in the room. The room was filled with students and there was only one empty desk.
"Attention, class. This is the new student. His name is Lief."
Everyone looked at Lief, who was looking at the ground.
"Lief is 14. The reason why he is in the 11th grade is because he is in the advanced class," the teacher said. "Now everyone be nice to him, okay? Lief, you can sit at that table next to that boy, Ranesh," she said, pointing at a mean looking tall kid.
Lief slowly walked over to the seat. He sat down and put his books in his desk. Then the mean kid scratched a note and handed it to a boy next to him. That boy looked at it and snickered. He passed it on and it went on from one person to the next, finally ending at a girl with red hair and blue eyes. She looked at it and frowned. She ripped it up and threw it into the trash can. Lief saw all of this and had a big feeling that the note was about him. And why had that girl ripped it up? Maybe it was about her?
"Excuse me, Adriane?" the teacher said, walking over to the girl's desk. "What is that note?" She bent down and picked up the pieces. She fitted them together and read them to herself. A deep frown came over her and she glared at everyone.
"How could you?" Ms. Oliva asked, sighing. "Oh, I begged and begged you not to, but yet, you did...you, my students...why?"
Lief felt his face getting red. He knew she was talking about the other students. They must have written a note mocking him. And the girl had rippen it up because she felt sorry for him. Lief felt his head getting dizzy and he almost groaned.
"Well, I suppose we'll get on with our lesson," Ms. Oliva said. She went on to lecture about algebra for a while.
During the middle of class, Ms. Oliva said," Lief, would you like to answer this question on the board? Come up and answer it."
Lief was feeling very dizzy. He staggered up to the board. He suddenly felt very tight chestpains. Nausea swept over him and he could scarcely stop shivering. He felt very weak. His breath became short. He grasped the chalk in his hand and looked up at the board, the numbers blurring in front of him.
In his mind he was thinking, Oh no! I'm going to have an asthma attack! Uh oh...I better do this problem quickly or I'll faint in front of everyone!
Lief stared at the numbers. Immediately he knew what to do. He wrote it out and got the answer quickly. He put the chalk down and turned around, into the amazed faces of the other students. For a second he thought they knew he was going to have an asthma attack. But he was wrong.
A boy whistled. "How'd he do that problem so fast? And how'd he get it right?"
The teacher said, "Oh, very well done, Lief. You may sit down now."
Lief's face suddenly paled. He could scarcely breath. He grabbed his inhaler from his pocket and ran to his seat. Then he began inhaling with his head bent down. The other kids were staring curiously at him and all except for the girl Adriane were laughing quietly.
Class soon was over and it was lunch time. Lief walked up to the teacher.
Ms. Oliva looked up from her desk. "What is it, Lief?"
"I do not know where to go," Lief mumbled, looking at the ground. Suddenly a big wave of dizziness overcame him and he fell to the floor.
Ms. Oliva gasped and bent over him. "Are you okay? Lief? Are you alright?"
Lief nodded, breathing hard. He inhaled six times and felt better. He got up with the help of Ms. Oliva.
"I'm fine," he said. He looked behind and saw that the girl Adriane was still putting her things away in her desk. He noticed that she had red hair and blue eyes. Her blue eyes were just about the color of his. Her hair was much different from his blond hair.
"Adriane, could you show Lief where the cafetaria is?" Ms. Oliva asked. "Thank you."
Adriane nodded. "Yes, Ms. Oliva."
Lief walked over to Adriane.
"Hi Lief," Adraine said cheerfully. "Let's go."
Lief walked with her. They went to the cafetaria and went to an empty table.
"So," she said, after a while, "you're foutrteen too. I'm 14."
"Oh, that's nice," Lief said, smiling.
They finished their lunch in silence, that being their conversation. But then Lief tried to talk to her again.
"Adriane, do you know anyone around here? I mean, are there some people you hang out with or something?" Lief asked cautiously, looking at Adriane.
"No," Adriane said. "The other kids around here don't like me," she said, after a hesitation.
Lief hesitated also. "The kids around here will never like me. I have the most serious type of asthma."
"But that doesn't matter. All that matters is how you really are like. Of course you did not choose to have asthma," Adriane said.
Lief nodded. "But some people do not understand that. But why does nobody like you?"
Adriane sighed. "Because I have red hair."
Lief frowned. "That's ridiculous. Red hair is fine. Why are they so mean?"
"I don't know," Adriane said. "I just don't understand them. Well, let's go I guess."
"Go where?" Lief asked. "What's the next class?"
Adriane thouht for a moment and then said, "Well, if today's Monday, after lunch we have soccer. Are you allowed to do soccer, Lief? Or do your parents not allow you to?"
Lief hesitated. "Well, I'm allowed to do soccer. And I don't have any parents. They abandoned me when I was little."
Adriane felt a pang of symphaty for this boy, who was so deprived. "Oh." She coughed. "Um...can I ask you who takes care of you?"
Lief nodded. "I was adopted by three people. They are very nice to me." There was an awkward silence after this. Lief looked down at the ground. All of a sudden, his chest started to tighten. He used his inhaler a few times. He noticed that Adriane was looking at him anxiously.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "You'e been using your inhaler a lot today. Don't you only use it once or twice a day?"
Lief shook his head. "My type of asthma is different. I get more asthma attacks than other people with asthma." Lief smiled sadly at her surprised face when he said, "I have to use my inhaler about 60 or 70 times a day."
Suddenly the bell rang and they had to go outside to the soccer field. Adriane had to go do something before she could go to soccer so Lief was alone as he walked to the field.
'The mean tall boy suddenly came up to Lief. He grabbed him and turned him upside down. A crowd of students crowded around the two, laughing hysterically at Lief's peril.
A boy in the crowd said, "Hey, Ranesh!" to the mean boy, which made us know his name is Ranesh. "Look at him! I think he's trtying to get his inhaler. Take his inhaler away, Ranesh!"
Ranesh laughed and took the inhaler away from Lief, dropping the boy to the ground. Then Ranesh snapped the inhaler in half and threw it in the garbage, much to the delight of the students. Lief lay on the floor, gasping for breath. He knew he needed his inhaler to live and now it was gone. The crowd of students were all clapping Ranesh on the back and high-fiving him.
Lief groaned. "Please give me my inhaler. Please..." He pulled himself into a sitting position. He reached out his hands.
"Oh look, the baby wants his bottle," a girl laughed.
Lief turned to look at the girl. He gave her such a withering look that she stepped back and said nothing more.
Lief stood up, leaning against a wall. He would have to go tell a teacher. And soon. His breath was dying every second. He gasped for breath and started to move, using the wall as a support. The crowd of kids had dispersed, for there was a 20 minute break before soccer.
Lief walked down a corridor. He had no idea where he was going but he kept on going. Suddenly a tall man came out of a door. He looked at Lief and Lief groaned inwardly as he saw the man's angry face.
"What are you doing here, young man? Don't you know this is the-" he stopped as Lief fell to the ground. "Hey, are you the new student?"
He ran to Lief. "What's wrong?"
Lief managed to gasp, "Ranesh took and broke my inhaler."
A frown came on the man's face. "That big thug! I will have him suspended!" Then he helped Lief up. "Don't worry, we have emergency inhalers at the First Aid. Come with me."
The man led Lief to a dark room. A lady was sitting at her desk, writing on a piece of paper. She looked up, saw Lief and said, "Where is he hurt?"
The man shook his head. "He has asthma and needs an inhaler. His was...broken by...Ranesh," he said, emphasizing the last word.
The woman helped Lief sit down and got an inhaler. "Here, boy. Now take some deep breaths."
Lief took it gratefully and inhaled. After a few moments, he began to feel better. The woman told him to keep it. She would call his guardians later and ask them to get another one for him. Then Lief had to go to soccer.
"Don't forget to take it easy!" the man called, as he left.
"Yeah, like I wanted Ranesh to come and break my stupid inhaler," Lief muttered under his breath, walking out to the field. He kicked a rock under his foot and gasped in surprise at what he heard next.
A girl's voice said, "Ow! You hurt me!"
Lief looked up and his jaw dropped. The most beautiful girl in the world was staring directly at him.
Thanks for reading! Review and review if you dare and I will surely update! Thanks again! Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is my first fanfic and I need practice..,just wanna know what you think. Bye---becca.