Chapter Two:
"One Angel, One Fall"
Monday November 18
CPOV:
I had barely gotten a hand on the door handle before I heard Emily from her back porch calling me.
"Chaz! …Chaz! Don't you think you're going anywhere without saying goodbye." She warned me.
"Great." I thought, "Agood-bye committee." I grumbled as I jogged over the path in between the left side of their back yard and the woods that led to my little house. It felt kind of like living in a pent house, I imagined, and then laughed at myself for that thought.
"Bye, Emily." I said, as I leaned over to hug her, she kissed me on the cheek.
"Have a good day at school." She said, smiling. "Don't let the bullies push you around too much," she said with a mock tone. I just smiled and jogged back to my car. I was thankful, oh so thankful, for Emily. She was really like a sister or aunt figure to me. Sometimes, she even acted like a mother. A mother I didn't get to have.
My mother and father were work-a-holics who never really had time for a kid. They worked enough, and had money enough to pay people to take care of me, so they didn't feel bad about it. They managed to switch help enough that I didn't get attached to them either. Maybe their plan was for me to never have emotional attachments. If so, they failed in the aspect of family. You would think that I would have given up on family because of them. I'm glad I never had that mindset. It's kind of weird to think about, but I never felt connected to my parents, and that was fine. However, I loved all the rest of my family to death. In fact, the only requirement that I had of someone to take care of me growing up, was the fact that they had to be willing to drive the half hour to La Push so that I could see my family, like my cousin Sam.
When they died it wasn't too traumatic for me. I was really only sad because it was human life that was taken before it was ready. Then I thought about the fact that it was my parents I was talking about. This made me mad. My parents had died and I wasn't even upset? I was more upset at myself. This made me madder. Then, that made me madder. Somewhere in the spiral of all of this anger and haste is when the first phase happened. Of course, my car was destroyed, the pain was unbearable and the confusion nearly send my mind into a stress-induced coma. However, luckily, I was close to the woods, and Sam was already phased. The minute he heard my voice, he came to my side and helped me through it. The rest is now my history.
I realized that I was shutting the engine off before I even realized that I was in the school parking lot. I shook my head furiously. Wake up, man. First day of school. Pay attention. I made my way to the office and got my schedule from a wrinkly lady with too much perfume and flowers on her shirt, and the infamous "granny fro." She gawked at me, probably for my size, for thirty seconds before realizing I was talking to her. Way to go, big shot. I thought to myself. Way to scare innocent old ladies. I got my schedule and a dry layout of the school before glancing at the clock on my way out.
"Ugh." I stated, under my breath. I was three minutes late. I absolutely did not want to be the center of attention. Well, it's better to be as not-late as possible. I thought, checking the hall for pedestrians, before starting to jog. I knew I had to go to the end of this hallway, then turn the corner and go to the middle door on the right, homeroom B5. As soon as I saw it was absolutely clear, I picked up my jog into a full-fledged run. As I came to the end of the hallway, I slowed one leg so that I could turn without having to slow down too much. I barely made it around the corner before time itself bent, putting me nowhere within the limits of time or space.
Unfortunately, the world still consisted of matter, which I found out as soon as my upper body, that kept moving when my feet stopped, hit the floor, face first. I heard the most angelic gasp in the world come from around twenty feet away. I quickly pushed myself upright and dusted myself off.
"Are you…" the most magical sound in the world flowed from her lips, but I had no idea what they were saying. Nor did I have any idea who was saying them. The recent knocking of my head had done a blurry number on my eyes, so I rubbed them while I answered.
"I'm fine, really, no need to worry about me, I'm… I guess that teaches me for running-" My voice caught as I blinked and looked up at her, finally able to see, jumping at the unexpected sight in front of me.
"Running?" A nerdy middle-aged man with mismatching striped tie and argyle sweater-vest inquired with a condemning look on his face asked. I glanced around only to see that the angel had, in fact, disappeared. I may have said I was fine, but I didn't mean it. I just didn't want her to be sad. I mused in my mind before realizing that the man was sill looking at me, expectantly waiting a reply.
"I'm sorry Sir," I said, doing my best to sound apologetic and not distracted by feelings of longing that seemed to be rushing over me after realizing that the angel had disappeared. "It's my first day here and I'm already late. I guess I was just trying to get to cla-" He cut me off again.
"And who, exactly, were you talking to?" He inquired.
"No one- myself, I was talking to myself." Not sure why I was lying for the girl that I had barely seen the back of the head of. "I tripped and fell and was criticizing myself for being an idiot and running." I quickly explained. He seemed to size me up for a second before nodding his head at me once and stating.
"Well then, welcome. You better got to class." He then turned walked away from me going into room B2. I read the sign by the B2 that read "Mr. Peeble" and took out my schedule, sighing in relief when the name Peeble came up nowhere. I walked over to room B5, took a deep breath, anticipating the awaited nightmare, and opened the door.
I opened the door and took one step inside. Instantly, twenty-some heads shot their eyes up at me, exactly as I was hoping wouldn't happen. I averted my eyes from the interested, curious, and somewhat stunned classmates of mine. Most of them were probably stunned to see a new student in La Push-- not many people moved to La Push for any reason, they just moved away-- and even more stunned to see me. Of course, they had all seen me before, in the resemblances of Quil, Embry, and the rest of the pack, but they hadn't met me yet. Embry even informed me yesterday that they had announced a new member of 'the gang.' I hit him. I did not want to be the center of attention. Being the 'new guy' was hard enough, without having to deal with being known as one of one of 'the gang.' Not like I could hide it. Being over six and a half feet and looking like one of 'them' was obvious enough.
Just then, the teacher stood up and motioned me over. As I approached him, I quickly looked him over. He was an average height maybe 5'11 with thick grey-black hair. He was a light tan color, with deep set eyes; he obviously had a bit of Quilite in him. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans, a purple dress shirt, and a grin. Most teachers would me grim at this time of the morning having to keep a bunch of grumbling rowdy teenagers in line, but he actually seemed fairly pleasant. He put his hand on my shoulder.
"Good morning, sir, I am Mr. M." Then he turned back towards the class. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you that we'd be getting a new student this week. Everyone, this is... uh..." He turned around and shuffled some papers on his desk before turning back around with some in his hand. I expected him to try and pronounce my name, saying it wrong somehow. Instead, he just chuckled and looked at me. "Interresting name." That surprised me. He simply put the paper out in front of me and pointed to my name as he repeated, "Everyone, this is..." I decided that I liked his easy-going demeanor, and gave a small smile.
"Chaz-Zonta..." I mumbled, feeling stupid because of my name. It was then that I remembered Sam's words when I changed. "...you will get through this, and toughen up. I know. You want to die, but you won't. You will get through this and you will be string. You are strong. You will never feel inferior to anyone, ever. You are strong. You can get through this..." I knew that it wasn't quite as bad as changing, but I decided to take that as encouragement. I stood up a little straighter and squared my shoulders, raising my head and turning towards the class a little more. "Chaz." I stated, smiling the warmest smile I could manage, and hearing a few girls in the class sigh. Mr. M nodded and told the class to introduce themselves.
All at once, everyone in the class started introducing themselves. I scanned the room to the right, laughing to myself as I saw a few bobble-heads openly flirting with me, and one of the jock-looking boys stood up and yelled, "I am Spartacus!" I then scanned the left of the room, feeling as my whole world stopped. Time no longer existed. No one else existed. It was only me, only her, and millions of miles in-between us. I knew she was the one from the hall. The reason my legs stopped working, and the reason that I gained a new realization of physics.
I also knew the feelings from somewhere. I had seen them in Sam's head. I had felt them through Quil's thoughts. I felt them radiate off Jared. All of those emotions were flooding back to me now, only a million times stronger. I had just imprinted, and I knew it.
Suddenly, a million brick landed on my chest. The pressure and longing to go to her was ripping me into a million pieces. My hands started shaking ever so lightly. I saw her head start to move and tore my gaze away, breathing calming breaths to relax myself. I soon realized my gaze had landed on a blonde girl with too much of her shirt missing as she winked at me. Ugh. Who did she think she was, her? I thought, mentally pointing in the direction of the angel.
I looked back to my teacher who help up his hands. I hadn't even realized that they were still buzzing random things at me. How long had this been going on? Mr. M laughed and said something about there being a quiz on names after class, gave me a textbook and motioned me to sit on the back row, at a middle table. I nodded and got to my seat quickly, still breathing in and out calmly trying to steady my hands, and closed my eyes.
After a few minutes, and being sure that I was calm, I opened my eyes again. Mr. M was talking about some random thing and people were laughing and nodding. I took a deep breath and quickly glanced back to her. I saw that she was looking down, and took the opportunity to look at her. To really be able to look at her. I wanted to know everything about her. Her favorite color, her favorite food, what her laugh sounded like, how her lips moved when she talked, what she liked on pizza, what she wanted to do with her life, what her family was like... everything.
However, since we were in the middle of class, there was only so much I could do. I looked her over and memorized everything I saw. How do I explain an angel? She was small; compared to me everyone was small. I guessed maybe five and a half feet tall. Probably less. She had medium-length brown hair with a died red tint to it. Her face was a beautiful heart shape, with a small nose and big, sparkling green eyes.
She didn't dress like the other girls I had seen so far, either. She didn't wear make-up, or anything with glitter or shine to it. She had on a red shirt with grey swirls and stars on it, that made her hair stand out even more. As I scanned down I saw that she had on dark blue jeans with stress marks and tears on them. She was sitting sideways on her chair, and propping a pair of black vans on the empty chair next to her. In her hand she held a crumpled piece of paper that her eyes were scanning. Every so-often they would brighten or dim. As she read, I swear I saw a small smile dance to her lips, before fading away.
I watched her pull a black pen from behind her ear and twirl it in her hand, clinking it against a ring on her thumb. She set the paper on her desk and scribbled something out before refolding it. She turned to her side, reached over the table, and dropped it on the lap of a curly-haired girl in front of her.
Suddenly, I saw her head start to move my way. I new her eyes would soon follow. I longed to be able to gaze into her eyes, with her gazing back, but I didn't think that I could control myself. So, I tore my eyes away, just as I felt her eyes on the side of my head. I was melting. I was being ripped apart. I so wanted to go to her. Just to be able to look at her freely, for as long as I wanted. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and make sure nothing could ever happen to her. I wanted, I longed... I was pulled out of my thoughts by Mr. M.
"Aiden?" he asked, again. "Aiiidennn," he sang. I felt her gaze release as I heard the most glorious sound in the world; her voice.
"Hm? Yes?"
Aiden. I thought, attaching it to every image and feeling I had of her. Aiden, Aiden, Aiden. It echoed off the walls of my brain. I decided it was the best word known to man, my favorite word, and the meaning of my life. Aiden.
"Are you with us today?" Mr. M asked, again pulling me out of my thoughts. I realized that he was looking at me.
"I.. I'm sorry... uh.." I couldn't think of an actual sentence, so I decided to leave it at that. I then that the rest of the class was looking at me, including... Aiden. The pressure in my chest was unbearable. I shot my hand up and asked to use the restroom.
"This school does not have restrooms I'm sorry." He said, with a straight face, before smiling. "Go ahead." I grabbed my bag and headed out of the room as fast as I was allowed to in front of humans. I headed down the hall and around the corner before running into a very hard, very warm wall. I stepped back a bit before realizing what it was.
