Flight

Chapter 3: Guardian

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I stared at the person standing in the doorway of Ericka, Dia, and my dorm's door. He was tall, 5' 11", and had glasses and a broad face. He had on white and black Tripp pants and a purple hoodie with a white collared shirt on with a cool purple pattern on it. Cool, purple. He was black and had black looking eyes and long (to the base of his neck), black, stiff hair that was tied into a ponytail in the back.

"Oh, um, hi," he stuttered. "I'm sorry....I heard there was a new student here and....I'm supposed to show her around. Are you her?"

"I guess," I said shrugging. I quickly snapped my bracelets back on. "I'm Tylor Val Trafford. What's your name?"

"I'm Elliot Johnson," he smiled. For some reason, he seemed kinda cute, in a freaky way. "Welcome to Flight Academy."

"Thank you." I got up and walked over to him.

"Oh, I love your shoes. And your dress. I wish I had money for those things," he mumbled the last part.

"Thank you. I like you're pants. They're interesting."

"Thanks. So, where do you want to start? Your first period?"

"Sure...um....I have...English with Carlton for first."

"Ah! Carlton is great. C'mon." I followed Elliot out of the dorm and glanced at the beautiful hallways we went threw, trying to take in the way to Mr. Carlton's room. I noticed a lot of people staring at me. I speed up to walk next to Elliot.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" I whispered.

"Hmm...? Oh, cause you're new and you don't have on the uniform," he said. I looked to a crowd passing us. I noticed that some of the girls in the group had on short, plaid skirts on, while others had on shorts with the same plaid pattern, and others had long pants with the plaid and they had white shirts, some had vests or sweaters or sweater-vests over the white shirt, while others had suit jackets on. While the boys, most being pretty good looking, had on pretty much the same attar, minus the plaid and skirts. Instead, they had either white, light-gray, dark-gray, or black pants or shorts on.

"But wait....you don't have on a uniform either," I said looking back to Elliot. He smiled.

"If you ask Ryan nicely, he'll let you wear a variation of the uniform. Very few students know that. I'm in uniform. I'm a fourth year, and the fourth years wear black. First years, like you, wear white, so you're sort of in uniform, seeing as your dress is white, but I don't think all the teachers would approve of the strapless, well, except Mr. Corbin, but that's because he's sort of a pedophile. Just so you know. But I think he's set on one girl, so you might be alright. Anyway, second years wear light-gray and third years wear dark-gray."

"The thing about Mr. Corbin is reassuring, but about the colors....is there a reason for the colors? Like religious or something?"

"Nope....Ryan just wanted it like that. I think he said he knows that EVERY child that comes here starts out pure, or as close as they can get, like for you, I think you're the purest yet, and by fourth year, either our hearts can take a turn for the worst and go evil and the black usually represents evil, but it also represents warmth, if you think of it, so it also means we might embrace the warmth of goodness."

If I'm the purest one to come here, I'd hate to see the rest of the first years. How many people did they kill? A whole country? No wonder the Roman empire fell in on itself. I decided to change the subject, "So...um...what type of ancient are you? Ericka told me she's a hybrid-vampire-ancient and Dia told me she's a mermaid-ancient....what are you?"

"Me? I'm a giant-ancient. Do you know about yourself?"

"Nope...I hope its not something creepy....like a...goblin-ancient or Yeti-ancient or....or...."

"Goblin-ancient? Yeti-ancient? You serious believe those things exist? Yeah right! The only thing you'll need to worry about is being a succubus-ancient. Now, being that sucks."

"Succubus-ancient?" I felt my heart tighten.

"Yeah....Succubus-ancients are more succubus than ancient, really. But their still ancient. Its hard to explain. Over all, everyone's an ancient, but very few are full-ancient, if you get what I'm saying."

"Uh-huh..." I looked down trying to register that when I saw Jude walking up to us he was smiling at Elliot.

"Heh, nothing again," he laughed, "It was a good run, though. You should've seen the fight Michael and Jack got into. They were fighting over Ericka again. You know them, jealousy and all." He then noticed me. "Hey, Tylor. Is Elliot taking good care of you?"

I nodded smiling at Jude. "Very good care of me," I said stumbling over my words and screwing up that sentence, "Um...We were heading to my first period....English with Carlton."

"Cool. I have that first period. What about the rest of your schedual? I'm curious of what other classes I have with you...."

"Math with Remington."

"Hmm..do have that. But I thought it was only for 3rd years."

Elliot smiled. "I guess Tylor's excelled."

I smiled too. "Yep. Um....I've got music with Corbin for third."

"Oh, you've got my brother," Jude said real worry (or something like it) in his voice, "Naturally, I have him, too."

I giggled a bit then said, "Then I have Japanese with Akem."

"Ah, good language. I'm taken Latin, though. Its required in 3rd year so you don't look like an idiot talking to other ancients when the others start speaking in the Ancient language."

"Huh?" That was confusing.

"Latin was deprived from Ancient."

"Awesome!"

"Now, what about fifth. Everyone gets the same lunch."

"Um.....fifth? Oh, I have History with Yasmin."

"Good teacher. She's fun."

"Alright...then there's Science with Ervings."

"Ervings' a very experienced ancient, so he'll tell you a lot about past stuff—some say he should've been the History teacher—and he's very wise, but he'll tell his wisdom threw humor. So he's cool."

I nodded. "Then Awakening 101 with Porter. Ryan said that was with his sister."

"Yep. His sister's pretty nice."

"Is it like PE?"

"No, no....its cooler than PE. For one, you don't have to wear a stinky old uniform, and you actually get to work on some awesome skills all ancients have, from pixie-ancients to ancient-ancients like Ryan and his sister."

"Cool." I smiled up at Jude as he smiled to me.

Suddenly, a voice I didn't recognize said in a high pitched tone, "Aw! Super heart beam!"

"JAYN! GO AWAY! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE IN CHEMESTRY?!" growled Elliot. I looked and saw a girl that had on a white shirt with a hoodie over it and a light gray skirt on with leggings underneath. She had long, mid-back-length, black hair and brown eyes.

"Says who, Elliot? Aw, are you and her like twins?!" she asked in a normal tone.

"Jayn, go away," growled Jude.

"Ooh, Jude. You're turning me on. Who's the new girl?" Jayn, I guess that's her name, started to speak to me in German and I couldn't understand one single word.

"What?" I said dumbly.

"Who are you? Where are you from? What year are you? What type of ancient are you? I'm Jayn Nicholas, I'm from Colorado, I'm a 2nd year, and I'm a vampire-ancient."

"Oh....um....I'm Tylor. Tylor Trafford....um....I'm from here...this town...um....I guess I'm a 1st year, and I have no clue what type I am. All I know is that I'm an ancient."

"Aw, she's so cute with her innocence, huh, Elliot? Like she's the cutest thing ever! Never knowing what's going to happen next at this school! So new and innocent and....virgin."

"Huh?" I blushed brightly.

"I told you I'm a vampire-ancient. I can smell your blood and tell a lot about you. Huh? That's weird."

"You're weird, Jayn. Get to chemistry," Jude said sternly.

"Yeah, don't destroy Tylor so easily," Elliot said stepping in front of Jayn and blocking her from me.

"Aw, you two aren't fun. Or are you two? Ah well! See you! Bye, Tylor!" She waved to me weirdly and hopped off. I cocked an eyebrow.

"Innocent?" I whispered. "Where'd she get that from?" I barely realized I was thinking out loud.

"What do you mean, Tylor?" Jude asked in a humored voice. "Have you committed a murder or something?"

A cold chill went up my back at the word 'murder' that Jude threw so carelessly. "Um....maybe," I said quickly. A little too quick.

"So, shall we go to Mr. Carlton's class?" Elliot said.

"Alright," Jude said. "Coming, Tylor?" I nodded and fallowed them.

When we finally got to Mr. Carlton's room, a dark-blonde guy with a pony tail who was sorta fat, but not too fat, looked at us. His ocean-blue eyes seemed to be perfect on his plump face. I looked at the students. Two people staying back for tutoring. I almost forgot that it was Saturday.

"Hey, Jude. Elliot. is this my next victim?" the blonde haired guy, Mr. Carlton asked smiling widely.

"Yes, Mr. Carlton," Elliot said smiling, "This is Tylor Trafford. She's the new student Ryan told you about."

"Ah, the one that runs into trucks," Mr. Carlton laughed. I blushed and looked down.

"It wasn't my fault," I mumbled.

"Its alright, sweetie," Mr. Carlton said in a caring voice, "I tease all students. Right, Happy?" He looked at one of the students. A black kid looked up in surprise. The name Tyrone popped in my head.

"What?" he asked.

"See? But don't worry....If you're quiet, I won't tease you....much. Right, Starling?" He looked at Jude. Jude smiled.

"Sure, Carlton, sure," Jude chuckled. Jude looked at the other boy sitting in the class. "Michael, what are you doing here?"

"Ryan and Carlton caught me and Ike got into this big fight, so I'm stuck in here, but poor, old Ike is stuck in Ryan's office. And I heard that Ryan just had candy."

"Yeah, yeah....whatever," Elliot mumbled, "Excuses, excuses."

"By the way, Tylor," Mr. Carlton said catching my attention, "I give every student a nickname. What name haven't I given out yet. I've got Happy, Starling, Rose, Sweetheart, Jumpy.....how about Trucker?"

I looked away for a second then back. "Um..."

"I'm joking....how about...Just Sweetie? That'll work, huh?"

"Sure," I shrugged.

"Sweetie."

"Mr. Carlton, we've got to get to her next period, so she knows her way around by dinnertime," Elliot said smiling. Mr. Carlton nodded, his pony tail bobbing.

"Alright....see ya, Sweetie."

I waved to him and walked out. The second we walked out, my phone started to ring. I took it out and saw Partick's name flash on the screen. Jude scared me when he spoke, "You don't have to talk to him if you dont' want to."

I looked up at him innocently. "What?"

"I can tell you don't want to talk to him," Jude said, sneering a bit at the word him, "I can also tell that he's part of the reason you ran face-first into that truck. He stunk when I meet him."

"I know...but he's still my friend," I said. Jude shrugged. I flipped open my phone and put it to my ear, "What is it? You need someone to pick you up from the bar again?"

"Nah, doll-face," Patrick laughed into the phone. "Just lonely. Your momma said you weren't home. Where you be, girl?"

"At school," I answered looking to the side. He was drunk. Great. "Where are you?"

"I'm at a jail.....you wanna come bail me out?"

"A JAIL?!" I squeaked. Jude made a look at me that said 'Get off the phone now'. I held up a finger, "Dude, what the hell?"

"Someone snitched on me, doll-face. They said the bail was 300 dollars."

"300....? I don't have that money, you idiot! And its not snitching if its saving lives."

"Its snitchin', and you know it, babe."

"Shut up, Patrick. You're going to have to get one of your guy-friends on this one, cause I'm not going to get you out of this."

"They're in here, too. Only you can help us, sweet thing, even my parents bailed on me. Can you believe that?"

"I'm not surprised. I have, too." I then shut my phone and looked at Jude. "He's in jail," I said quietly.

"I knew he would," Jude said.

"Who?" Elliot said.

"My closest friend, Patrick...."

"You poor baby." Elliot turned and gave me a hug, pulling me into his wide chest. I froze and glanced around quickly in fear.

"Uh.....Elliot?"

"Its ok." He let go. "Patrick'll get out of jail."

"Elliot, remember she's not used to the 'friendly giant'," Jude said.

"Oh, sorry," Elliot said smiling bashfully. "I hug all of my friends when they're down. Sorry."

"Its....ok," I said slowly, "Um....I'm just used to the California cold-no-one-cares-if-your-depressed shoulder."

"Oh....Jude was like that when I first meet him....I'm from the South-East, so you've got that southern hospitality with me!"

I laughed nervously. "Oh....cool." My phone started to ring again. I looked at it and Patrick's name flashed onto the screen again. "Great..." Jude grabbed my phone.

"Here, let me talk to him. I bet he won't call again," he said and flipped the phone up and put it to his ear.

"No, you don't--" He put a hand up and smiled a sexy smile. I seemed to forget what he was doing.

I heard Patrick say, "Hey, Tylor, baby, why'd you hang up? Lost connection?"

"Tylor does not wish to speak to you, Patrick, this is Jude Corbin. What do you want?" Jude asked his voice turning cold and almost like a teacher's voice to calm down a class or something.

"Jude? Who're you? I never heard of you, Jude. Who are you? Stealing Tylor's phone when I was talking to her!"

"Patrick, I'm sorry to tell you, but your assumption that I stole Tylor's phone is incorrect. She allowed me to take it from her so she did not have to speak to you. What do you want?"

"Oh....cool.....uh.....hey, could you come bail me out? Its only 300..."

"I don't even know you. Please do not call back." He then shut the phone and looked at me. "Ok?"

I nodded. Jude looked sorta scary there, I thought.

"Cool," I said breathlessly, "But knowing him he'll beg till someone bails him. Silly boy." I took my phone from Jude and put it in my pocket.

"You poor soul....I feel sorry you have to put up with that," Jude sighed, "Are you his girlfriend or something?"

"Hell no," I said sharply. "He is NOT my boyfriend. I actually think we shouldn't be friends at all."

Jude smiled. "Alright then....shale we go to Remington's class?"

"Sure...."

"Jude, shouldn't you be somewhere else?" Elliot asked. "I think Tylor has stuff she needs to get off her chest that she can't say in front of you. You know, girl and girl talk?"

"But you're not a girl," Jude laughed somewhat.

"I'm bi, I'm close enough to a girl, alright?"

"Fine....I'll walk far ahead of you so I don't hear you guys, alright?"

Elliot nodded. "That'll be fine, Jude." Jude walked far ahead of us and then we started to walk. "So....what's on your mind? You know I'll find out sooner or later, being an ancient and all."

"Huh? Oh," I mumbled and blushed brightly. For some reason, I thought I could trust this Elliot with my whole world. Every little secret of mine. "Well....you see.....I really like.....him," I jerked my head towards Jude, "But....I'm scared to tell him...cause....when ever I look at him, I remember something HORRIBLE I did to his friends from Fountain Valley."

"What did you do?" Elliot looked scared. I looked around to see if anyone was there and no one was in sight. I stood on my tip toes and whispered into his ear.

"I killed 10 of his friends accident, first only 4 then 6," I whispered.

Elliot looked at me wide eyed. "Get out of here, no way!"

"Mm-hmm....Ryan told me there's a 'wall' or something that's put up to prevent others from seeing if we're depressed or guilty or something, but I'm afraid when I talk to Jude...that wall will crumble and he'll read it and he'll hate me...."

"Honey," Elliot said in a wise-but-sassy voice, "Don't beat yourself up like that. No way would Jude do that....Hell, there's barely anyone that Jude doesn't like. Ok, his brother and this guy by the name Marvin, but that's it. And besides, every ancient kills at least 7 people when we're awakening. I'll admit, I killed 18 people....sure, I'm guilty for it, but....the humans won't find out....no need to beat yourself up, Tylor."

I nodded. "How many has Jude killed?"

"Well....I heard, he killed a dozen cheerleaders when he was first awakening and then 17 teachers, then his human girlfriend....or so he says he did. He says that he accidentally went all wolf-ancient around her, and he killed her....but truth, Ryan, says that actually she was depressed and came to his house on his birthday and he had to go use the bathroom and he was peeing when he heard a gun shot....he rushed out and found her with a gun in her hand in Leyton's room. Dead. Shot herself. I'm not sure why Jude tells the first story, but....Leyton says that he's too upset by the whole thing that he doesn't like telling the truth. Ryan says that Jude beats himself up about it, too....saying that if he just didn't leave her alone, she could still be around."

I looked at Jude and felt my heart tense. He couldn't have killed 29 (not including his girlfriend)(I don't think its his fault) people. Right? "How.....sad," I whispered.

"If you're just freaked by how many people Jude's killed, man, will you be surprised by how many Ryan's killed over the decades."

"Decades? But...he's only 20 something, right?"

"No....I'm 20 something.....Ryan's over 1,000, Tylor."

"How old is Jude?"

"He's only 18."

"Oh....cool..."

"I know you're not supposed to ask a girl, but how old are you?"

"I'm 16. I just got my license Thursday."

"Cool."

Jude turned around to us and for a second his green eyes just stared at me then he smirked, "C'mon, you slow pokes."

"Hey, don't call me slow poke," I called to him, "I'm a pure-blooded, fast-lane Californian."

"You can call me slow poke.....I'm a pure-blooded, slow-lane Virginian."

I laughed and then speed up to Jude. "We've stopped talking about things that you shouldn't hear, Jude."

"Alright....I could slow down, but....I don't want to slow down for the Virginian."

"Shut up," Elliot called to him. I laughed.

We shortly came to Remington's classroom. We entered the classroom, and I was flown back to Mid-Evil times. The walls were decorated with gray bricks like from the old castles in Europe (I went to Germany in the 9th grade once and saw them myself)(go me) and paintings of that era. My eyes landed on a—oh my freaking lord—guy in a freaking 14th century, puffy-ass sleeved outfit. Oh my lord.

"Hello, children, how are you this evening?" he asked. He had a red-and-white Texas-mustache and he was bald-headed except for an interesting hat with a pink feather in it.

"Hey, Mr. Remington," Elliot said, "This is your new student, Tylor Trafford." I nodded slightly. He got up from his stool and came up and kissed my hand like they did in Mid-Evil times. Funky.

"Nice to meet you, fair lady," Mr. Remington said politely.

"Pleasures all mine, sir," I replied doing a curtsy. My drama teacher had us learn Romeo and Juliet, that's the only reason why I know all this. I didn't pay attention in History.

"You don't have to act like that," he laughed, "This is all for show. Next week is show off your heritage and where you came from and where you were born. I'm getting way too into it this year."

"Yes, you are," Jude groaned. "For a second, I thought you were being serious."

"Of course not, Jude. I'd never. I've gotten over that. But you said you name was Tylor, right? Any nicknames you like to be called?"

"Um....Ty, but that's optional," I said thinking for a second, "No one here's called me that yet."

"Alright...So what are you troublemakers up to?"

"We're just showing Tylor around the school," Jude said. "Nothing TOO bad...."

Remington nodded. "Alright...better be on your way then....Seems that its getting dark faster than usual."

"Right," Elliot said. The two of them turned around and I quickly turned and ran after them to catch up.

"Where to next?"

"My brother's class," Jude sighed. I smiled.

"Sounds interesting."

Turned out, Jude's brother, Leyton Corbin, was really creepy. He had very, very, very pale skin, I mean, so pale, he made paper look black. That pale. And he had long black hair that made him look paler (if possible) and he had crimson-red eyes and when he smiled—only once—it was seriously creepy. I mean, all the scary films-past, present, AND future—put together looked like a film with a happy bunny skipping threw a field of flower with a rainbow and a unicorn in the background with Fur Elise playing compared to this man's smile.

We went on to Yasmin and she turned out to be pretty cool. She was young looking, but actually was actually a little girl when the Revolutionary War started. So, I bet she's the perfect pick for American History. She's been threw it all!

Then we moved on to Ervings with science. He seemed like he was really smart, he said he was older than Ryan, about 2,000 years older, but he didn't want to be the head of the school. His gray hair proved how old he was, and his stories of the really, really, really old humans (he said we ancients call them Senex (for girls) Humanus and (for guys) Senis Humanus)(just so we don't have to use the term 'ancient' to describe really, really, really old humans) that were interesting and rather funny.

Finally, we went to Ryan's sister's class, Awakening 101. Sounds creepy enough. When we walked in, a beautiful red-haired, that green-color-eyes that Ryan and I have, but again, looks better on her than me woman looked at us. "Oh, Jude, Elliot, and...let me guess, Tylor? Right, its nice to see you all," she said in a very beautiful voice. "Tylor, I'm Annice Porter."

"Nice to meet you, Miss. Porter," I said.

"Actually, soon its going to Mrs. Randolf soon," she said proudly showing me her engagement ring.

"I thought it was against the rules for us ancients to have relations higher than friendship with our guardians," Elliot said.

"It is part of the rules," Jude said. "For all ancients."

"Yeah, yeah," Miss. Porter-soon-to-be-Mrs. Randolf said, "Whatever."

"Guardian? What's a....guardian?" I asked positively and utterly confused and lost.

"Oh, right, you're new to the whole ancient thing," Miss. Porter said, "Well....every awakening ancient is given a guardian angel....like, for Jude, his is Yalonda, she's pretty good with her job, and Elliot has Remon, who is also pretty good at his job. Each awakening ancient is given a specific guardian since the awakening stages are really powerful and make the young ancients really venerable to all sorts of creatures to kill them...including humans. And there's certain rules that the ancient and guardian have to follow. My guardian and I broke one together....he didn't want to return back to Aura, his home, to say."

"Rules?"

"Right....the first rule, the one me and my guardian broke, is not to have more than a friendship with your guardian, second, you should not have a relationship more than friendship with other ancient's guardians, third, guardians are to remain pure as from when they came down to protect to when the ancient is fully awakened, four, the guardian may leave the ancient's side by request, and five, you can't get a different guardian."

"Interesting...."

She nodded. "I wonder where Cody went off to...oh, have you received your guardian yet, Tylor?"

"No," I shook my head, "At least....I don't THINK I have...."

"You will soon, child. I hope."

I nodded. Jude smiled, "We better be on our way. See ya, Annice." The three of us went out of her class room and we went back to my dorm.

"Thank you for the tour," I said. "That was fun....except for your brother, Jude. Your brother scares me."

"He scares everyone."

"Oh..." When we got to my dorm, I opened the door and heard someone jumping on a bed. I blinked at the sound. "What the hell?" I mumbled and walked towards the bedroom and opened the door. A tall, maroon-haired, very beautiful woman in all white was jumping on my bed, then jumped to Ericka's and then to Dia's. "Who the hell are you?" I said a little bit louder than expected. Elliot and Jude came up behind me when the lady stopped and looked at me. Her beautiful brown eyes seemed to happy and carefree.

She was as beautiful as the angels described at the church my family and the step-family went to. (I was just pulled along) If not prettier.

End of Chapter