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Disclaimer: all rights go to Charlaine Harris.
Chapter two
Sookie's POV
Amelia is still acting funny, I know there is something pestering her mind, but I don't know what. Amelia is usually a very loud broadcaster, normally I wouldn't even have to try to read her mind, her thoughts would just attack me. But today I have allowed my walls to come down and I am actually trying, I just want to help her, but all I can hear from her is 'lalalalala'. She knows I'm trying, I can see it in her eyes. She just won't say anything to me about it though. This curse of mine, I have had it since I was born. I don't know why I was given it, or even how I developed it, I have sort of just come to that conclusion that it's a mental disability that my brain thought up in order to sustain my sanity. An absurd theory, but a theory nonetheless. Growing up has always been difficult for me; I always heard everyone's thoughts, whether they were positive or negative, and most of the time I heard thoughts I shouldn't or didn't want to hear.
When I was a little girl I heard my father thinking about how much debt we were in, and when I mentioned it to him, he sort of freaked out. He sent me to a mental institution where they probed me and did loads of tests on me. I felt like a guinea pig with the amount of tests I was put through. Since that day I never mentioned any thoughts to my father, or to anyone really, instead I spent day after day building up this wall in my mind. It helps me to block out all the thoughts and images. It's still not that strong now, in a crowd it breaks down easily, but when I am around a small crowd or one person, it works like a charm. You see, there are three different types of thoughts in people's minds; the main one is just worded thoughts where people are babbling to themselves about something they see or something that is troubling them.
Then there are image thoughts, the ones where instead of words, there are scenes playing out in their heads. Sometimes they are real scenes that have actual happened – a memory if you will – but sometimes they are just scenarios. Things like what that person wants to happen, sometimes they are simple thoughts like winning the lottery or the birth or their child, but then some are gruesome and dark. I once saw a thought where this person was murdering his wife, beating her and stabbing her. It was horrible. I spent every night for a couple of weeks crying over that; I was only about twelve. But luckily that man and his wife split up a couple of weeks later, and they are both still alive. The last kind of thought is a mix of both; it's both the scene and the thought. Some people do it without realising it, they will be thinking one thought, but the scene from another thought will be playing in their mind. It is very rare if they are connected together.
In my life there are only very few people who know about my curse and actually believe me about it; there is my gran, Sam, Pam and Amelia. Jason, my brother, is unsure of what to believe. It's the same as my father, they both know about it, but they don't know whether to believe it or not. Although, I think Jason leans more towards the believing side, whenever he brings a girl home he always asks me to check her mind to see how into him she is.
"Amelia" I call softly, my eyes watching her every move as she pulls on her black heels. She has traded her knee-high white socks for black tights instead.
"Yeah?" she looks at me as she stands up, adjusting her skirt ever so slightly before flipping her hair over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the clock.
"We should go if we want a good seat. If he is as hot as everyone is saying, we'll want a good view" she winks at me with a smirk, I shake my head at her as I laugh lightly. With that I get up, Amelia hooking her arm through mine before we head out of the room and towards the assembly hall. The assembly isn't due to start for another fifteen minutes, but Mr Northman did say he didn't want us to be late. I think he would enjoy seeing students so dedicated they were there earlier than expected. Plus, it may give me a chance to talk to him. Might as well get on his good side before he becomes my new teacher, if that is the situation that is. You can never trust gossip, even if it did originally come from a teacher.
"You know you can talk to me about it, I can see it's bothering you" I tell her as we walk down the hall; there isn't a single student in sight, and if I lower my shields all I can hear is all the girls thinking about what they should do with their hair. Not one of them was thinking about this assembly. I was expecting everyone to be excited; we are finally meeting the mysterious headmaster. The one who believes that education should be done so late at night; which is ridiculous, by the way.
"I know, look, there isn't anything bothering me, if there was, I would tell you. I promise" she assures me as we walk into the hall, there are several teachers gathered around the front, but the one that caught my attention the most was the one who was incredibly tall and practically towered over them all. He must be at least 6ft4.
He has golden hair that would most likely usually be a mane around his face, but right now he has it in a braid that goes down the back of his neck. His eyes are a bright blue colour, a very mesmerising blue colour; he looks very snazzy in his black suit. GQ really missed out on something with him. He is absolutely gorgeous. I wonder if they have pestered him with the opportunity before.
"Ah, it would seem we have some eager students" he notes when he spots Amelia and I, by the looks of it we are the only ones here so far.
"Sookie has always been very in control and a very eager student. She wants to learn and because of that she has a bright future" trust Miss Thornton to praise me. Miss Thornton was my PE teacher; PE is something I always seem to excel at, so as you can imagine, Miss Thornton won't be too happy seeing as I have dropped PE this year. She will probably be surprised because I used to enjoy PE and I was quite good at it, the only problem with that is the small fact that I'm not exactly the thinnest person either. Most girls my age are size 8, I'm a size 10.
So as you can imagine, I'm curvy and I like my curves. I wouldn't trade them in for the world, they make me unique and Sam has always told me that a man wants a woman who is soft, not a skeleton who they could probably cut themselves on.
"Sookie; that is quite the unusual name. Is it short for something?" Mr Northman probes as he walks over to me, his bright blue orbs meeting mine. I couldn't help how my breath caught in my throat; he is like an Angel. Now that I have a closer look at him, I can see that he is well-built, he must spend a lot of time at the gym, and that blazer fits him perfectly.
"My parents originally named me Susannah, but that soon turned into Sookie. My dad says I'm a unique child, so I should be graced with a unique name that helps me standout" why did I tell him that? I am such a dork.
"Unique. That is always a good thing, if we were all the same, life would be boring" he gives me a toothy grin, my heart skipping a beat. Why am I acting like this?
"Girls, please do take your seats now. Everyone is starting to arrive; actually, can you two sit at the front please?" Miss Thornton ushers us over to the front row where we sit down, Mr Northman's eyes still attached to me. He gives me another gracious smile before going over and taking his place, ready to talk to us as a school. We are a small school; there are only about 200 students in the entire school; so it is possible for us all to know each other. We just choose not to. We prefer to talk to people of our own age or older. Sam and Tray are the only exceptions for Seniors who actually talk to younger students, but that is mainly because I grew up with Sam. There is no reason for him not to talk to me. He wasn't going to stop socialising with me just because he was in the year above me.
"He is yummy" Amelia whispers to me just as Pam strolls into the hall, I look over to her just in time to see her wink at Mr Northman as she sits down. I look over to him as he smirks at her; I couldn't help how my heart deflated at that. She's already got to him…
"Yeah" I whisper, a sigh leaving my mouth as Sam and Tray come into the hall. I watch as Tray sits in-between Pam and Amelia, Sam coming over to sit on the spare seat beside me.
"You okay?" Sam probes as he looks at me worriedly.
"What? Oh...um...yeah, great. You?"
"Yeah, I'm good, I was only asking because you're frowning. You only ever frown when something is up. You're usually a happy little soul" he smiles at me. Sam really is adorable.
With his sweet smile, beautiful auburn hair and attractive hazel eyes. He is quite the good looking man, could have any girl he wanted of he chose to, but he seems happy being single. Well, I say single, but if I go on what we talked about on the bus; he seems pretty contempt with his flings. I always had him down as being a relationship kind of guy, but I guess even peoples estimations of each other can be wrong.
"Quiet!" Mr Northman roars, everyone suddenly shutting up, all eyes now facing him, other than mine. I keep my eyes firmly on the ground, not wanting to look up.
"Welcome back, students. I am aware that there are new students starting this year and to you I would like to give a warm welcome. For those of you who have been here before, I hope you will enjoy your new year at our school. We have made many adjustments to the school including adding solar panels for the economies sake, repainting the walls and replacing equipment as well as upgrading parts of the school. I know I very rarely make an appearance before the school, but this year I feel the need to be more…interactive with the students who make our school the best in the area. So, in order to take this new role on board, I will be teaching Biology. All biology lessons that I am teaching will take place between 7pm and 9:40pm" he begins, everyone's attentions suddenly caught by this prospect. I could almost hear all the girls sighing at just the thought of being able to stare at him for a whole hour; slags in this school never do work anyway.
I could probably name them all, starting with Felicia and Thalia, the biggest whores known to mankind. They have slept with practically every guy in school.
"As it has come to my understanding, there are only roughly about fifty students per grade; meaning there are two classes per grade. So I have come up with a rota this year where each grade will have their own biology teacher. Ninth grade will have Mrs Fowler, Tenth grade will have Mr Willis, Eleventh grade will have me and Twelfth grade will have Ms Dennis. It will be set so that set X will have their biology lesson first and then straight after them, set Y will have theirs"
In our school we have six periods per day, each lesson is roughly about 50 minutes long, giving us about 5 minutes to walk to each class. We only get one break that lasts about forty minutes and that takes place between 6:10pm and finishes at 6:50pm. In a normal school that would be the lunch break, but in ours it is our dinner break seeing as that is the period we need to eat our dinner or tea as some people like to call it. In a normal school, you would have seven or eight lessons a day and it would be the same lessons at the same time every day, in our school the time table is usually done so that each day is somewhat different from the other, that way the school can provide variety and get us more qualifications. But it is a big strain on us, especially if we do the three sciences separately like I have. Most students take on about seven maybe eight, occasionally nine different subjects, I have about eleven all together.
I have always been advanced in my academic learning, so I always got given all the opportunities to take on more if I thought I could handle it. So that's what I did. I do all three different sciences (each one is a separate subject), two different types of maths, English, Psychology, Theatre production II, World history, Swedish II and Health education. I would usually have PE, but I decided to drop it this year. Most people would find my timetable to be far too much to cope with, but I cope with it just fine. I actually started the higher up ones earlier than everyone else so I will actually be finishing my courses earlier than most people. My Health education is actually due to end in the next couple of months or so hopefully, my Computer science is almost done, I have only one more section left within that to finish and then I'm done there. My world History will be done by the end of this year. So, basically, by the time I reach twelfth grade, I will have half the subjects I do now because I will be refusing to take on the next level for most of them.
Each grade has two classes, set X and set Y; each set is based on what language you are learning. It is compulsory in our school to learn a language, although the two languages they make compulsory are not actually very common. Most schools would choose German and French, the two main languages that are within the world (alongside English, of course), but here we learn either Icelandic or Swedish. As to why we do, I have no clue; they aren't exactly languages that are spoken in a majority of countries. They are only spoken in minimal countries. Whereas German and French are spoken in loads of countries. Pam wasn't too happy when she joined this school; she was denied the chance to learn Swedish considering she is Swedish, so she got stuck with Icelandic that she detests.
"Now that your biology lessons have been dealt with, I would like to inform you that there are some more timetable changes being made this year"
"This is ridiculous" Sam mutters beside me, making me nod. Mr Northman may be attractive and very nice to look at, but he is making far too many changes this year. The younger years will struggle to cope at this rate.
"He's so hot; he can change my schedule any day. But only if it means I get to spend time in his bed with my legs open and him fucking me senseless instead of lessons" I hear Felicia whisper to one of her cronies behind me. I had to resist the urge to gag. I can't believe she said that.
"Jesus Christ she is such a fucking whore" Amelia grumbles to me, I couldn't help laughing, causing everyone's eyes to land on me.
"And what is so funny, Sookie? Care to share it with the rest of the school?" Mr Northman probes as his eyes penetrate the depths of mine.
"No, sir; it was just a joke I remembered. I'm very easily amused" I try to come up with some lame excuse, Sam trying hard not to laugh beside me. All I could do in that situation was glare at him.
"So I can see. I ask you keep quiet for the rest of the assembly then at the end I want you to stay behind. We can have a little chat about interrupting people" I could have sworn he growled at me. I nod silently before letting my head drop, not wanting to say anything else. I just wanted him to forget about me and go back to his assembly.
"Aww, the little goody-two-shoes got told off. I hope she doesn't cry" Felicia puts on a mocking voice, causing me to clench my fists to prevent myself from turning around and hitting her.
"Right then, before I was so rudely interrupted, I was in the middle of telling you about the new changes to the time table. Your break will be cut from forty minutes to thirty minutes. You will finish your third lesson and go to break, then when the bell sounds after thirty minutes you are to go to your fourth lesson. After fourth lesson you are to then go to registration for twenty minutes. You will each be assigned a tutor, you will be told which tutor you are in and where tomorrow in your first lesson. They will be vertical tutor groups, meaning that they will be a mix of grades. This is to encourage socialising and decrease bullying, discrimination and racism along with any other form of bullying" he really is screwing up our timetables; this is going to throw everyone.
But what he doesn't realise is that this new vertical tutoring is only going to encourage bullying, especially if they put sluts and bullies like Felicia and Thalia in tutors with sweet innocent ninth graders. They'll be eaten alive, the poor souls.
"There will be fifteen tutor groups; each tutor will have roughly around 13 students; that way one to ones and trust may be built easier and quicker. This will also allow the tutors to be able to go around each student and get to know them. This will hopefully help to increase grades and learning" he must have spent hours sat down thinking all of this up.
"After tutor you will return to your normal lessons, but school will now finish at 9:50 rather than the original 9:30"
"Great, that's an extra twenty minutes of boredom and twenty minutes less of partying and getting drunk" I hear Pam mutter, I couldn't help but smile. She obviously said it loud enough to be heard because for one I heard her and for two Mr Northman must of heard her because he throws his piercing gaze at her. But instead of embarrassing her in front of everyone, he just dismisses it. That is so unfair. He is willing to show me up, but not her? Oh, yeah, I forgot. Pam is probably sleeping with him and that's why he isn't telling her off. She is almost as bad as Thalia for sleeping around with the teachers. Thalia is the one who loves sex and sleeps with anything and everything, whereas Felicia is choosy of whom she sleeps with and Felicia is just pure evil. She is horrible to everyone who isn't either in her group or she isn't sleeping with.
But how Mr Northman could tell me off in front of everyone but not Pam? That is just unreal. I wish I knew what was going off in his head. Wait, I could try reading his mind – no, no I can't do that. He deserves his privacy and I shouldn't invade that. I'm ashamed of even thinking that in the first place.
"Your timetables have already been sent to you, they will be sat in your rooms when you get back. No one is to leave the premises without permission; anyone who has been caught leaving the site will be given a detention and will have a letter sent home. Punishment will be increased this year; we will no longer tolerate bad behaviour. That is all from me for now, do any of the staff have anything they would like to add?" when they all shake their heads, he asks if any of us have any questions to which we all say no. He then dismisses us all, but makes sure to remind me to stay behind. I sigh, but do not move from my seat nonetheless.
"Good luck, Sook" Sam touches my hand lightly with a smile before heading out the hall. That was such a sweet gesture from him; he's never done that before. He made it seem as though I was about to go on trial or given the death penalty. Not get given a stern warning. Once everyone has gone, it is just Mr Northman and I left behind, he walks over and sits next to me, but not saying a word as he stretches his long legs out in front of him. Mmm, he would look yummy sprawled out on my bed with those long legs… No, Stackhouse! Focus. You are a good innocent little girl, you shouldn't think dirty thoughts like that. Almost as if he could sense what I was thinking I caught a smirk on his face.
"You are a very interesting spectacle, Sookie. This school has been running for a fair few years now, and never have I met anyone quite like you. You stand out amongst the students, you are very bright, I can see that, and you do not seem as though you would go looking for trouble. So that's why I am not going to shout at you, or give you a detention. I did not appreciate the interruption, but I can see you did not mean for it to happen"
"I am very sorry over that, I didn't mean to laugh. I don't know what came over me" I apologise as I smile at him lightly, Mr Northman smiling straight back at me. I wish I knew his name. I just wanted to reach over and caress his face; his skin looked so soft and my God he was just yummy and irresistible. Need to stop this; you are an innocent girl, Stackhouse. Not a sex kitten woman.
"I will forgive you for now, just be careful next time. Go on, it is late at night, you should rest" he smiles at me; I thank him as I get up and head towards the exit. Just as I am about to leave I hear him call out after me.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Sookie" that night I walked back to my room with a grin on my face.