Chapter 11: Someday
The sun was shining brightly through her opened window, informing her that it was time to wake up, but she was still so tired.
Even after she had poured out her heart to a stranger (and enemy for that matter), she was still having problems falling asleep at night. Every time she tried to close her eyes, she saw the Huntsman's cold, angry eyes or magical creatures dying at his hands…or her parents.
A knock on the door pulled her out of her train of thought.
"Rose!" She heard Jake call from outside her door.
She groaned and rolled over onto her other side.
"Rose! Time to get up!" He called again.
With a sigh, she slowly sat herself up. Using her right arm to keep the sun out of her eyes, she glanced over at the clock.
"7:16 a.m.," she thought, "what could he possibly want this early?"
She watched as the doorknob began to turn and the door swung open.
And there he was. Dressed and ready to go.
She somehow felt embarrassed sitting there with her hair standing up in every direction and in sweats that she assumed used to be his.
Then she noticed that he was holding a small red backpack, while another one was on his back.
"What's that for?" She asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"It's for you!" He beamed happily and far too cheerfully for 7:16 in the morning. "You're coming to school with me!"
XX
"This is insane," she said aloud as she trudged along next to him on the New York sidewalk. She hadn't left the shop in the many months she had been there, and she had never been to school before.
She had always been too busy training. And when she had been in school, it had only involved magical creatures and mythology.
"Don't worry," he replied calmly, "Gramps has it all figured out. He managed to make up a fake id for you and filled out some paper work that makes it appear that he is your legal guardian…I'm not sure how really…"
"So…what's my name then?" She asked curiously. She had always just been "Huntsgirl." No one had ever really called her by her real first name before.
"You are now Rose Killdragonosa," he smirked.
"Wow," she raised her eyebrows and looked away, "original."
He laughed, and she couldn't help but notice how beautiful his laugh was…and the way it made his whole face…his eyes…light up.
"Hey," his hands shot up defensively, "Fu Dog came up with it!" He smiled again, shoving his hands in his pockets as they walked.
She forced herself to look away from him.
The school was now coming into view just ahead.
"So," she began quietly, "when did you decide that I was going to come to school with you?"
Jake sighed. "A couple nights ago. Grandpa and I agreed that you should get a shot at trying to live a normal life," he spoke, his eyes remaining fixed on the school. "It's the first day of the school year today, so you shouldn't have any problem fitting in. You are certainly welcome to sit with me and my friends at lunch. Unless you make some new friends that is," he smiled.
"Friends?" She laughed a little. "I don't know how to make friends. I don't know why anyone would want to be friends with me…"
"Well," Jake hesitated for a moment, "I'm your friend right?"
They both stopped walking for a minute. "Yeah," she said slowly, "yeah I guess we are friends."
He laughed a little and continued walking up the stairs and to the main entrance of the school.
"I'll walk you to your first class so you don't get lost," he told her as he held open the door for her. "I think you are in my mythology class, but nothing else, so if you need help finding a class, just ask someone."
"Kay," she replied casually as they walked down the halls of Fillmore High School.
As she looked around at the other students, she realized that it felt good to be walking down the halls of a public school filled with normal teenagers.
"Alright," Jake handed her a schedule as he stopped in front of a classroom door, "this is your algebra class. Here is your schedule for the rest of the day. Do you think you'll be okay?"
"Uh huh," she nodded, clutching her books against her chest. She thanked him as she opened the door and began the first day in her new life.
XX
By lunch time, she was already exhausted.
She sighed as she glanced around the lunch room for any sign of Jake. She didn't see him, so she followed the rest of the students into the lunch line and copied their every move.
Once she had her "food," she sat down at an empty table and began to evaluate her day.
School really was a lot of work. Even from the first day, she could tell that it would require her to think in a way that she had never thought before. Algebra had been especially hard for her since she had never been exposed to it before.
"What is this?" She mumbled to herself as she poked the pile of brown stuff on her tray with her fork.
"I'm not really quite sure," she heard a familiar voice from behind and turned to see Jake.
He was with two other students. One was a tom boyish looking girl with two buns on the top of her head, and the other was a confused looking boy wearing a beanie.
"Rose," he cleared his throat, "these are my friends Trixie and Spud."
"Oh," she nodded. "I'm Ro-"
"Rose!" The boy named Spud grabbed her hand, taking her by surprise. "It's so nice to meet you! I'm Spud! Do you like penguins? I sure do like penguins!"
"Cut it out, boy!" The girl grabbed the boy by the back of the shirt. "You'll have to excuse him," she said. "I'm Trixie."
"Nice to meet you," Rose smiled.
"Rose we'll be right back," Jake said. "We are just going to get our food."
"Okay," she nodded as she watched them walk away.
XX
"Dude, Jake!" Spud turned to him as soon as they were out of Rose's line of sight. "Why didn't you tell me that your prisoner is so pretty?"
"What?! Well…"
"Jakey," Trixie interrupted taking him by the shoulders. "I don't care how much she thinks she's changed, I don't trust her."
Jake smiled and pulled back from her grasp. "Trix, don't worry about it. I mean…I do trust her…I really do think she's just been confused, but I'm not about to let my guard down," he promised.
"I'm just saying," Trixie held her hands up, "she could easily lure you in with that pretty face of hers. She'd get you to fall in love with her…trust her…and then you would be dead before you'd even known she'd played you."
"Trixie," Jake looked his friend carefully in the eye. "I told you…I'm going to be careful, but I really don't think she's evil. There's something so…sincere about her…something that I know wasn't there six months ago."
Trixie huffed in reply.
"Besides, Trix," he crossed his arms over his chest, "it's not like I'm going to fall in love with her or anything."
XX
Rose looked over at the lunch line once more.
Jake and Trixie were in deep conversation. They appeared to be arguing over something, and she had a hunch that it had to do with her.
She sighed.
Jake's friends (and Jake for that matter) had every right to hate her. She was a monster. A failure, and she wanted nothing more than to be proven otherwise.
She looked around at the lunchroom of teenagers happily chatting away about shopping, football, school grades, and weekend dates. Normal, teenager problems.
"Someday," Rose thought to herself, "Someday, "I'll fit in here."
XX
Hi guys. I do apologize for the wait on this…close to a month! I didn't even realize that it had been that long! Yikes!
I also apologize that this chapter is significantly shorter than the last (a couple hundred words I think), but this is only half of what the full chapter was going to be. I figured I'd stop since this is about the length of my normal chapters. In addition, you guys would get to read it sooner. :D
I would also just like to thank you all for such kind reviews! I'm so glad that you all like it so much! You don't know how much I appreciate all of my readers and reviewers. :)
I'll try to get the next update (part two of this chapter) up sooner this next time.
Thanks again!
~ada