A/N This is just a test chapter to gauge interest. It will be replaced shortly but before then I would appreciate your comments and constructive criticism.
This is dedicated to Megan ( meg.luvs.david ) for finding out Monty's name. Thankyou!
This one is a bit of fun, so enjoy.
Deltora HighSummary: This Series 2 of Deltora quest in a different light. A preppy, sophomore, prom, high-schoolish type. It's just a bit of fun. So it starts with the Cavern of Fear. Obviously character representation is going to be completely backward here, so be prepared for a lot of angst and fluff.
Chapter 1: Secret Affairs.
An excerpt from the secret diary of Josef, grade 11 student at Deltora High
Dear Diary,
Sorry for not writing for a full day. Did you miss me? I missed you. I'm so excited about going back to school tomorrow. I think Marilen might be wearing the denim-cyan frill number. Well fingers crossed. One day she will notice me. By then I will have grown a substantial foot taller and will be stronger and more buff than the entire soccer team combined. I have written a poem to explain my passion of her:
Marilen, you sweet eye
Defies me.
Your snide comments
Lie to me.
I know your true feelings my blossoming flower,
One day you will release your passionate power.
Until then my love, unrequited, is hidden.
Yours too is hiding, revealing forbidden.
I love thee dear Marilen and I know you do too.
Perhaps when we are married blissfully and our children are away at Brownies camp or Gumnuts if they were anything like me, I will show it to her. You are not really, a gossiping feisty prep Marilen. That is just a lie told by the goth Doom, he does not understand true love. Deep down you are a soulful deep woman who loves me unrelentingly.
Josef
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A bizarre ringing sound filled the air. Lief jumped up, alarmed. He circled his bed, hitching up his boxers. He approached his bedside table where the noise seemed to be originating from. He raised Monty in defence and flicked away a dirty shirt only to reveal…
"AH HA!" Lief cried, jumping on the alarm clock, "That'll teach you to mess with Lief, captain of the soccer team"
Lief pulled up short, realising today was Monday, and Monday meant school. The first day back after a long summer. He grabbed a school shirt and shorts off his desk and pulled them over his boxers. Then he approached the mirror.
Lief frowned slightly, noting his hair wasn't as boofy as usual. He picked up the super can of hairspray and sprayed freely, puffing his hair up as he went. Once Lief was satisfied his hair was boofy enough he headed into the bathroom he shared with Sharn, his older sister. He needed to cleanse, tone and moisturise, exfoliate, dab some treatment on the blackhead on his chin and apply a lemon citrus facemask.
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Sharn sat down at the dining table, absently stirring her green tea while studying from her biology textbook. She looked up as her younger brother Lief came tripping down the stairs. Lief was only ten months younger than her and an "accident". Sharn remembered sharing this with a friend once and the girl replying 'That would explain a lot'.
Lief and Sharn's mother walked into the kitchen with a bowl of cereal.
"Elsa from next-door just rang and she has asked me to take Jarred and Jasmine to school with you two" she said, taking a seat.
"And what did you say?" asked Lief, leaning intensely over the table. Sharn rolled her eyes.
"Yes, of course" replied his mother.
"Who's Jarred?" asked Lief, trying to balance a spoon on his nose.
"Doom you loser" replied Sharn, snatching the spoon away from him.
"Yes," said their mother, eyebrows furrowed, "He's really into that gothic stuff isn't he?"
"Seems a bit weird if you ask me" commented Lief, supporting his point by poking out his tongue and crossing his eyes.
"Doom is an individual!" said Sharn imperiously; "He uses means of the gothic genre to get his original self expression across".
Lief's large blue eyes widened, he turned his head to the left.
"Do you like him Sharn?" he asked incredulously.
"Gotta go" replied Sharn, dodging the question through the draining of her remaining tea, "Don't want to be late first day back".
Lief rolled his eyes. Their mother smiled, hiding her amusement behind her coffee cup.
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Lief and Sharn's mother tooted the horn outside Jasmine and Dooms house. Her daughter sat in the front seat beside her, smoothing the pleats in her navy skirt. Her son was cramped in the backseat; soccer ball tucked under one arm, eagerly looking out the window for any sign of their friends.
Jasmine came out of the house first, her school bag bouncing against her hip. At just fifteen, Jasmine had reached the peak of her height and beauty. She was short by average standards but made up for it by a wicked smile, high white cheekbones and an incredible pair of emerald green eyes. A sheaf of music was clutched in her right hand. Her older brother Doom came next. He was slouched and walked slowly, dragging his feet. Despite the conservativeness of the Deltora High uniform Doom, and many other students, had managed to expose a slice of their personality in their outfit. A studded cuff enclosed his left wrist and each fingernail was painted black. The white sleeves were rolled up and the upturned collar rubbed against the uneven ends of the deep black hair. Unlike other Goths, Doom didn't need to dye his hair, it was already the colour of his general personality.
"Nice make up" Lief commented as Doom took his place beside him. Doom ignored him and rolling his heavily made up eyes, turned to look out the window.
The car began to move.
"How were your holidays Doom?" asked Sharn, cheerily.
"Alright" he replied. Lief began to sing "Sweet Transvestite" under his breath. Doom made a sound that resembled the grinding of teeth and pulled out his Ipod. Muffled heavy metal escaped from his headphones. Sharn twisted around in her seat and glared at her brother, who did his puppy dog face in reply.
"Is that some new music?" Lief asked of Jasmine who only took up half of the seat beside him. It also might be noted that the half taken up was that closest to Lief.
"Yes, its for my piano exam. I wanted to get in some practice during lunch today" she replied, holding up the sheaf of music.
"Can I turn the pages for you?" asked Lief hopefully.
Jasmine laughed, "Yes of course" she replied.
Sharn sighed heavily, earning her a smack on the shoulder from her mother.
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A few minutes later the group arrived at Deltora High. Sharn leapt out of the car to meet her large group of friends, Doom scuffled off to the other Goths who were all standing in a circle listening to their Ipods and frowning.
Jasmine looked miserably out at the scene. She didn't feel as though she fit in Deltora High, there was no particular clique for her. Despite living in a suburban area her parents had home schooled her and Doom all through primary school. During that time her only friends had been her neighbours and her many pets and then at the age of twelve she had been flung into the blood thirsty, merciless terror known as high school. When Doom arrived at Deltora High he had found a group straight away and, though enjoying something was against his nature, he had had a pleasant experience so far. When Jasmine had arrived with the other grade eights she was lost, lonely and afraid. Jasmine missed the chance to make friends, preferring to practice in the music room at lunch instead. While her instrumental skills flourished, her social life languished and when the music room was closed for any reason she was forced to sit by herself, hiding in a corner away from the others. It was on one of these lunch times that Lief, her next door neighbour, had found her. Despite his head being filled with fluff, his heart was in the right place, and he had found Jasmine, not friends, but a group with which she could eat her lunch in peace. This group was the sound and lighting club.
The sound and lighting club spent their lunch hours in the school theatre adjoining the drama block. They were not necessarily all interested in sound and lighting but more in a place where they could spend their lunchtimes doing whatever they desired. Lief had introduced Jasmine to Barda, his best friend and the schools resident thug. When Barda wasn't out stealing junior's lunches, he was sitting in the theatre cracking his knuckles and doing his maths homework. Neither Barda nor Jasmine were particularly interested in talking to the other, but exchanged a few words every now and then and over time the friendship flourished. Lief also spent many lunchtimes with them, despite his large group of fellow soccer teammates and often cheerleaders. The trio had truly become close during a weeklong scavenger hunt during geography camp the year before.
"Are you okay?" asked Lief worriedly to Jasmine.
"Yeah, I'm fine" Jasmine smiled at him and got out of the car, "Thanks for the lift"
Lief got out of the car smiling stupidly and with his soccer ball tucked under his arm.
"Lief!" cried several tall males, who also had soccer balls tucked under their arms, rushing toward him.
Lief greeted them with a head but of his soccer ball toward them. This year was Lief's big year, he was captain of the soccer team.
"Lief, captain of the soccer team" he thought to himself happily.
Across the grassy front of the school sat a small boy under a tree scribbling furiously in a diary. He looked around him furtively, clutching the fluffy pink notebook to his chest.
Over by the bike racks the low rumble of a motorbike alerted the gaze of a grey-haired man in a starched suit. He glared at the figure dressed in studded black leather who came cruising into the compound on his large black motorcycle.
"Barda!" he cried, stepping in front of the vehicle, "Ahhhh!" .
The man quickly side stepped to avoid being crushed by the fast moving vehicle.
Barda cruised his motorbike into a larger slot; it's darker metal revealing it to have been welded at some point over the summer.
"Barda!" said the man again, regaining his composure and walking over to Barda, "How many times have I told you not to ride that thing to school. It's a safety hazard!"
"Mr Principal" drawled Barda, pulling off his heavy black helmet to reveal a crew cut, several piercings and a pair of dark eyebrows. He held out his fist to the principal.
"What?" asked the principal, staring at the fist nervously. Barda drew himself up to his full height, despite already being considerably taller than the principal and held his clenched fist close to the cowering mans face. The principal tittered and started breathing quickly,
"Don't try anything. I'll get the behaviour management department on this"
Barda just rolled his eyes and picked up the principals trembling hand and squeezing it into a fist, touched it with his own.
"It's nice to see you again" he said.
"Well, er, yes, yes it is. But – stop Barda! Come back here young man!" the principal cried after Barda's retreating from. Sighing heavily, the principal straightened his jacket and, still tittering, walked out of the bike racks.
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"Jasmine!" called Barda, striding toward her.
"Barda!" cried Jasmine, rushing to greet her friend, "How were your holidays?"
"Pretty good," he replied, "I got a job at my uncles mechanic."
"Wow! That's excellent!" praised Jasmine, "Now you'll be able to save up for those boots."
"Well I lost the job" Barda said, looking straight ahead.
"What?" cried Jasmine, she stopped walking. Barda followed suit. "Whatever happened?"
Barda looked at her for a moment, considering something.
"Actually I don't want to know" continued Jasmine.
"I'm sure you don't" said a new voice, dripping with sarcasm.
Barda and Jasmine turned around to slowly to see Marilen, the head cheerleader and her retinue of peeps, who were also, you guessed it, cheerleaders. The group look at Barda and Jasmine, an identical look of disgust on their faces.
"Hello! This is a walk way not a standstill" said Marilen, smirking at Jasmine who was much shorter than her.
"Sorry," said Jasmine, turning away and moving aside.
"Yeah, you should be keyboard girl," said Marilen, as she her peeps pushed past the stationary Barda with many sighs and "Oh my God, fully sick!"s.
Barda turned back to Jasmine but she was already gone. Rolling his eyes he went off in search of her.
But he never succeeded because just then the home room bell rung and summer break was well and truly over.
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To be continued….
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Thanks for reading and be sure to review!
Keep smiling,
Elven Tresses