THIRTEEN YEARS LATER
I sat in the car watching the rain roll off my window as my mother stared out of the windshield. An awkward silence hung in the car, disrupted only by the songs playing steadily on the radio and the traffic of other cars passing by. We had run out of car games and things to do on the long road trip, so I sat in near silence watching the rain while my brother looked on at the map.
"How much farther now, Chase?" I asked.
"Um... I think we're almost in the city," he replied. "Getting bored yet?"
"Got there hours ago," I groaned as I turned my head back to the window.
"We're almost there, Storm," Mom sighed. "Get your stuff ready."
I guess I should explain who I am. My name is Storm Rose, and my brother is named Chase. My mom is named Amy, and my dad...well, I don't exactly have one. See, my father died before I was born, and after Mom had me, she moved out of the area she lived in, although she never tells us why. Mom works as a teacher, and she got a job offer to move back to her old town in Station Square. I thought she'd be happy about this, but she accepted it reluctantly. Now she was going to teach in a private school called Oakbranch Academy, where we would be attending, but that didn't make us instantly rich. We still had to live in an apartment and get summer jobs if we wanted a vacation.
"So, are you two ready for school tomorrow?" Mom asked, tearing me away from my train of thought.
"You said we had a week off!" I sputtered.
"I said I had a week off," she spoke with a slight laugh. "You just weren't listening. I need time to unpack, and I can only do that..."
"If you get us out of your quills?" Chase suggested. Mom laughed.
"Sorry to spring this on you, though," she smiled in a sympathetic manner, "Maybe you'll make friends!"
On the first day? Maybe when pigs fly.
The first day of school went just great. There is nothing better than starting school just before the winter holidays, when everyone already knows all the other new kids. Nothing fills me with more joy than taking the only available seat (usually the worst) in every class, in the perfect spot for the teachers to see me slack off.
And nothing, nothing, makes me happier than being in the same class as Dyna the Hawk.
She was the kind of girl who stays right on top of everyone in schools. She wore the kind of clothes you can only get for $100 in a sale at the most expensive store in the mall, but she looked athletic, too, like she did push-ups whenever she wasn't concerned with messing up a pedicure. I, on the other hand, was wearing an old t-shirt from my track team back home with some old jeans. Compared to her, I looked like I had gotten hit by a bus.
She looked me over, taking in all the details. I was sure she was going to say something awful about me, but instead, she took a step back.
"I like your quills," she commented. "Where'd you get them done?"
That's what everyone asks. My quills are cotton candy pink with blue tips, and the pink fades into violet near the tips. It's beautiful, and I hate it. Why can't I have teal quills, like my brother? I don't even like pink!
"I do them myself," I responded, "It's natural."
Some gathered Oohs came from her friends. She looked at me with a hand on her hips.
"You're alright," she smirked. "Wanna eat lunch with us?"
"Sure," I shrugged. I figured it could be worse than getting invited to eat with the popular girl on my first day, and I should take the chance. As we walked to the lunchroom, I swore I saw a shadowy figure outside of a window. I squinted to take a closer look, but it was gone.
"Must be imagining things," I muttered as I left.
Please, correct me on any errors I make! And review, review, review!
