Chapter 2 - Home

"Alice! Get your butt down here now!"

Crap! I thought, grabbing my bag from the bed and hurrying down the stairs. I am going to be so late!

I walked down to the kitchen where Susan stood with her hands on her hip and an annoyed look on her face.

"This is the second time this week, Alice!" she exclaimed. She passed me my toast and led the way to the front door. "Let's go. Your class starts pretty soon."

I rushed out after her, my bag open, toast in my mouth, and hair wild. It had been four months since I was in the hospital. Four very strange and very rewarding months. After I picked my name, the doctors clarified that after a few more therapy sessions, I would be released. The only problem was that I had nowhere to go.

That's where Susan stepped in.

For the last four months, Susan has acted the role of my foster mother, although normally the foster kids are younger than eighteen. She was gracious enough to allow me to live in her home and meet her two young children, Stanton and Julie. They were 9 year old twins and they accepted me immediately, making my heart soar. In gratitude for her hospitality, I helped Susan with the kids and helped keep the house in order. It was truly the least I could do, although I had no experience of anything whatsoever. Through those days of helping, I found that I was perculiarly good at cooking for the children.

After one month in her home, Susan suddenly came in after work and told me we needed to talk. My panic began and I quickly reverted back to my times at the hospital. What did I do? Is she kicking me out?

"Oh, honey, don't look like that!" she said after seeing my expression. "It's nothing bad. I was just thinking today about something and I kind of wanted to run it by you."

I immediately relaxed and continued my cooking. Tonight was spaghetti night.

"Well, what were you thinking?" I asked, my panic seeping out of me.

"I was just thinking that..." she stopped and I turned to look at her. She was looking down at her hands, clearly nervous. "Well, it's kind of unfair to keep you holed up in this house all the time with the kids and today I was talking to Dr. Edmund, remember him?" She looked up and continued before I could answer. "Anyways, he kind of gave me an idea that I kind of like."

"What's the idea?" I asked warily. I had come to learn to be suspicious of any of Susan's ideas. "Please tell me it's something sane."

She laughed nervously at my joke. "Well... I was thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to enroll you into college."

I stared at her for a moment, processing what she said. College. As in school?

"It would be so fun for you to meet new people and make new friends. The police will help you get in since you obviously don't have any school records, but you seem to know alot for someone who's lost her memory."

"I-I couldn't do that, Susan. You already gave me a home, I can't accept large amounts of money for a college too! It's far too much!" And it was true. Besides opening her home to me, she spend countless amounts of money buying me clothes and anything that would make me comfortable. She even got me a cellphone once I started taking care of her kids. I couldn't ask for more than that.

"It won't be a burden, Alice, really. It would just be the local community college, which won't be a lot anyways. Nothing fancy. I promise."

"I don't know, Susan. You've already given me so much. I don't think I can accept this offer. I appreciate it though."

"Oh, hush now, Alice." She came over to the stove where I stood preparing the pasta. "It would be wonderful to have you out there and enjoying yourself. I just want you to have as normal a life as possible. Maybe take this whole cooking thing out of just this home and cook for others as well. The community college has a great culinary arts program, you know."

Well, I do love to cook. Maybe learning a few more things won't hurt.

That's how I found myself three months later, racing out of the house and rushing to school. I had been late once already, missing about twenty minutes of my history class. Thank heavens that the professor was late himself, otherwise I would have been screwed. Now, reaching the parking lot, I raced out of the car, waving goodbye to Susan on the way into the school. I didn't know what time it was, but I knew I was pretty close to being late for my home economics class.

"Hey Alice!" People waved at me as I rushed into the room.

"Hey guys!" I greeted taking my seat next to Kiara. "How late am I?"

I heard Kiara and a couple of the kids laugh, then Kiara turned to me with a confused face.

"Al, you're early. We have a whole fifteen minutes before class starts."

Ugh. Darn Susan and her tricks! For the remainder of the time I talked to Kiara and Simon, sitting in front of me, and waited impatiantly for the class to start. Chatting with these two had become routine for me. I became immediate friends with Kiara, her straight fowardness and her attitude dragging me in. As for Simon, that was another story. We had many classes together, but he wasn't exactly a conversationalist. He hung around us for a while and began hanging out with us, which was apparantly a big deal because he was the number one pretty boy in school. I had to admit, he had his charms, but he wasn't exactly my cup of tea. He's big, blonde, and very attractive, but just friends material. He wasn't going after me anyways.

Even a blind person in this school could tell that Simon was pining after Kiara, and he wasn't afraid to show it. Kiara was a very attractive woman, with beautiful black hair reaching the small of her back, her bronzed skin glowing, and those deep green eyes captivating. Any man would be crazy for her, and Simon was just that. But she was one of those girls that couldn't see when a man was after her, no matter how many clues were given. Either that or she just wanted to make things hard for poor Simon. He didn't care though, he loved the unattainable.

"So, Kiara," Simon began with a tone that I had come to very accustomed to. "I'm having a little party this weekend and I was... um... wondering if maybe you'd want to come?"

I stiffled a laugh when Kiara turned to me with a small smile on her lips. So, I guess she was just making it hard for him.

"Sure Simon!" she exclaimed, turning back to Simon. "I'd love to go. Can Al come with me?"

Simon smiled and turned to me. "Of course! Alice did you want to come?"

"I'd love to, really I would," I said. "But I have to take care of the kids this weekend. Maybe another time. I'm sure you two will have plenty of fun without me."

Kiara looked at me. "Yeah, I'm sure we will, but it would be awesome if you were there! Come on, you never go out to parties or anything."

I groaned. I wasn't one for going out, my loss of memory playing a major factor in the reasoning. People always asked me questions about where I'm from and who my parents were, and those were questions I was incapable of answering. I didn't feel comfortable. The only person besides Susan that knew of my situation was Kiara, and that was only because I had come to trust her as I trusted Susan.

"I'll ask Sus, then I'll let you guys know, okay?"

Kiara smiled and turned to the front as Professor Standley entered the room.

"Quiet down people!" Mr. Standley walked quickly to his desk and placed his briefcase down before adressing the class. "Today, I have some exciting news!" Everyone immediately perked up. "We have a new student here with us today, he'll be arriving any moment now and I would appreciate it very much if you don't make this a living hell for him as you do to many of your other classmates." The class errupted in laughter.

"We'll make sure he gets the proper Angels welcome, Professor," Simon said, bumping fists with Roger next to him. Everyone knew that the Angels welcome consisted of some sort of humiliation for any newcoming male in front of the masses.

Just then, a strange feeling coursed through my body, making me shiver slightly. I looked up from my mindless doodles to see that a boy was standing in the doorway, looking like nothing less than a greek Adonis. Tall with a well muscled build, he was an absolute sight to see. Jet black hair covered the right side of his face, and when he moved the hair aside I saw that he had the same color eyes. They were captivating yet frightening. He was frightening, yet intriguing.

He looked around the room, looking at every person in the room before meeting my gaze. I slowly lowered my eyes back to my notebook while he proceeded towards the teacher.

"Hello, there!" Professor Standley greeted. "And your name is?"

"Hello, sir," came a husky voice. "My name is Lucas Ferrante."

"Well, Lucas, no need to be so formal. You can just call me Standley, as many of your classmates do. Please take a seat and pay attention."

"Yes sir."

"Standley."

"Yes, Standley."

And with that, Lucas walked his way around the room. I took notice that the only available seat in the room was right next to me on mine and Kiara's lab table. He came and sat next to me, smiling as he sat down.

"Hello, I'm Lucas," he said extending his hand out to me.

"So I heard," I said taking his hand quickly.

"Hi Lucas!" squealed Kiara, taking his hand from mine, which I didn't complain about. This guy gave me a weird vibe. Not bad. Just weird. "I'm Kiara. Miss moody over here," she said, nodding her head in my direction, "is Alice. And that over there," she pointed in front of me, "is Simon."

"Nice to meet you all." He nodded at Simon, who acknowledged him but didn't look all that excited about Kiara's eagerness to greet him. He looked over at me once more and a strange sense of curiosity coursed through me. I looked away before my curiosity got the better of me.

The rest of the morning went by quickly, and by the time lunch arrived, I was starving and tired. I decided to skip lunch with Kiara and Simon, opting to make use of the campus' only food source: Nadine's Place. I took a seat in one of the tables and ordered my pizza burger, then got out my pre-calculus book and began to study for tomorrow's exam.

All was quiet and still, the students aound me studying or chatting lightly. A soft breeze passed through the small restaurant and I immideately snuggled in my jacket. Something felt wrong. Another breeze blowed through, chilling me to the core. I turned to see where the breeze came from, but saw no windows or doors open.

That's when I saw him.

Tall, muscular, and utterly terrifying. Wearing all black, he stood in front of the restaurant, looking in through the clear window. Straight at me.

I knew him, I know I did. I just don't know where I know him from.

A word then rung through my head, clear as day.

Danger.