The weekend went by quickly, whilst they put the house in order, Aliyah spent most of it pushing and pulling furniture around. Soon Monday came.
"Aliyah! Come on you're going to miss the buss unless you hurry up!" Nathaniel called to his daughter.
"I'll be down… Out, in a minute!" Aliyah called back, she turned back to her bed, and the choice, the black top or the red one? She couldn't decide and in the end pulped for the black one it extenuated her pale skin and made her look fears, or so she had been tolled, she quickly pulled it over her head, and a loos fitting shirt, in matching black, left open completed in the outfit. She spun in front of her mirror, perfect! She grabbed her bag and ran for the front door.
When she got to the bus stop she saw there was a group of girls talking and laughing, she approached them nervously.
"Hi." She said shyly. "I'm new here, I'm supposed to be starting at Tarrenside High?"
"Tarrenside?" The lead girl said, she was a tall, voluptuous blond; Aliyah could tell the blond hair was out of a bottle. "The bus for Tarrenside left a couple of minutes ago. We're waiting for the Cliffgate bus." She turned to her colleges who mumbled and nodded. "It's not that far, if you run you'll make it before school starts." She gestured down the road.
They all watched the new girl sigh and start off at a light jog down the road.
"That was so mean." One of the others said to the blond.
"Yare, on her first day and everything." One of the others put in. the blond just smiled.
Fifteen minutes later Aliyah was outside the school gates breathing hard, it was lucky she ran five miles a day, and the day was cool, so she wasn't sweating. Adjusting her top and running her fingers through her long hair, she walked into the main foyer. She pulled out the letter with her details on; she was F11, wherever that was. As she rounded the corner she heard a familiar voice.
"…and actually believed me, she's probably still on her way!" the blond finished her story, and the girls around her tittered.
Stepping into view Aliyah smiled brightly. "Hi, aren't you in the wrong place? I mean with you going to Cliffgate and all?"
She watched as the blonds jaw dropped. "How did you get here? I mean you couldn't have gotten here that quick on foot?"
"I enjoy running." Aliyah replied simply and moved to walk off, the blond stepped in front of her, trying to regain some credit with her friends.
"Wait, what is your homeroom?" Aliyah kept walking the blond grabbed her arm. "Do you need directions?" she asked not letting go.
"From you? You really think I'm that stupid?" She looked down at her arm. "Now let me go." She looked the other girl in the eyes.
The blond dropped her arm, and as Aliyah was walking off she heard the other girl call. "Psycho!" she resisted the urge to go back and smash the girl's pretty face into a wall, her dad had enough problems at the moment without her getting into trouble at school.
"I understand, that sir, but why here?" Markus Brody sipped is Tea as he listened to the man on the other end of the phone.
"Matters out of our control." The man on the other end said simply.
"So you want me to watch her."
"She will be called soon, our mystics can sense it." The voice replied. "You must teach her."
"Fine." Markus hung up sighing. He left his office and walked into the front, there were some tourists milling around in the entrance lobby.
"Excuse me Sir." A small Japanese man said. "I was wondering if you could tell me about the display in the other room.
"Certainly." Markus, the curator of the museum, replied leading the other man to the display of interest. "As you can see the statue of Odon was discovered here in 1945, by General Pit Rivers. It is supposed to me of mystical importance, and, according to legend, has the ability to, and I quote, 'Raise hell upon the surface of the world.'"
"I see, and is this the actual statue?"
"Yes it is."
The small man thanked Markus and left.
Aliyah approached the door of Room F11, and shyly knocked.
"Come in." a female voice came from the other side.
Pushing the door open she entered, the woman was in her late forties with a plume of greying hair and a plump figure. "I'm new here, my name's Aliyah, this is supposed to be my homeroom or something."
The woman got up smiling. "Ah yes, well you a bit early homeroom doesn't start for another couple of minutes, but do sit down and make yourself at home."
"Thank you." Aliyah replied moving to sit near the door.
"My name's Mrs Hodgson, I'll be you Tutor for this year, and here is you time table." Mrs Hodgson gave her a folder of papers.
Aliyah watched the rest of the class file in whilst looking though the papers in her folder, she noticed the blond walk in. A small girl with dark blue hair, an excessive number of pearsings, and the dark eye shadow indicative of Goths, sat next to her.
"Hi, my name's Meredith, but everyone calls me Merry, what's yours?"
"I'm Aliyah, but you can call me Ali if you want."
"Are you English?"
"Yes, I'm from Sussex."
"Is that near Buckingham?"
Aliyah rolled her eyes sighing. "Not really." She couldn't really expect them to know much about British geography, she knew very little of US geography.
Obviously not bothered by the response Merry pressed on. "What classes have you got?"
"Take a look." Aliyah pulled her timetable from the folder.
"Cool! Were in the same class for P.E. science and history. You'll love history with Dr Brody; he really makes it come to life." Merry said excitedly showing the other girl her timetable.
"What's that supposed to be?" Aliyah gestured to the symbol on the front of the folder encircled by the name of the school.
"Oh, that, it's the statue of Odon, it's sort of a town symbol, it was discovered here in the 1940's by Pit Rivers."
"Who's Pit Rivers?" Aliyah asked.
"Only the most famous Archaeologist ever, except Indiana Jones, but he's not real, and not a proper archaeologist anyway." A boy, with shoulder length black hair, said leaning over Merry's shoulder.
"And you would be?" Aliyah asked.
"Oh sorry." Merry appeared to blush, but you couldn't be sure under all that makeup. "This is John, he's a bit of a history nut, aren't you?"
"I help Dr Brody in the museum, but I'm not a history nut, I'm an archaeology nut! Sorry, umm, what is you name?"
"Aliyah."
"Well sorry Aliyah, this would be a rather old augment."
"Historian!" Merry said.
"Goth!" John replied. Merry just stuck out her tong; she had a tong pearsing!
"Aright." Mrs Hodgson called. "Every one quiet down, quiet down. The sooner you lot are quiet the sooner you can leave." That last got their attention.
