Helen sat up with a start. Sweat slid down her forehead and onto her bedsheets. She slid out of her bed and sat on the window sill. The soft breeze blew at her damp dark brown hair. She leaned back against the sill and closed her green streaked gray eyes. She listened to the sound of the night breeze.
Helen opened her eyes again and thought back on her nightmare. She had this dream many times before. The first few times, she couldn't remember much of it, but after going through it repeatedly, she had memorized every aspect of it.
Helen was in the dark in her dreams, always in the darkness. Then out of nowhere, a white hot dagger of pain would pierce her side. She had tried many times to dodge it, but in the darkness, she could see nothing. The dagger would strike her many times over and over again. It drained her of her energy and filled her body with pain, both physical and mental. After what seemed like an eternity of torture, the painful dagger would stop for one moment. Then it would strike her heart. Everytime, the same spot. Helen would then wake up screaming and drenched in sweat. Everytime, she would wonder why she was screaming, the dagger that pierced her heart had no pain, but it sent images into her mind, all flashing by too fast for her to make any sense of them.
Helen looked at the numbers on her clock. Six o'clock, close enough. She slid out of bed and grabbed her clothes. She changed into her school clothes and brushed her dark brown hair back into a ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her skin was pale and even more pale now. Her green streaked grey eyes stared back at her and a drop of sweat shone against her skin. Helen brushed away the sweat and walked softly down the spiral staircase. She grabbed her backpack that was at the foot of the stairs and walked into the kitchen. Her mother stood in front of the stove, stirring something. Helen gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and started walking out of the door. Her mother looked at her.
"Where are you going? Aren't you going to have breakfast?" asked her mother. Helen shook her head.
"Sorry, mom, can't," replied Helen. She grabbed her backpack and walked out of the door. She walked a couple blocks to her friend Lena's house. She knocked on the door and Lena opened the door. Lena was about Helen's height and had light brown hair and green eyes. Lena grabbed her backpack and closed the door. She and Helen walked down to Lena's car, a black eclipse. Lena's father was a car dealer and he gave it to Lena on her sixteenth birthday. Lena was extremely rich and she was talking about getting a silver porsche carrera gt 2004 (Okay, I can't help it, it's my favorite car!) and giving Helen her eclipse. Helen thought that Lena was crazy at first, but she and Lena had been friends for as long as they could remember.
They got into Lena's black eclispe and Lena drove them to school. Helen stared out of the black tinted windows. Her gaze swept over all the passing houses and shops. She had lived in this neighborhood all her life, and now she was going to move to Paris, because of her mom's job. Her mom had a second-cousin,Micha,in Paris and Helen was going to go to school with Micha's son, Vallon.
"Earth to Helen, are you there?" said Lena. Helen snapped out of her thoughts and suddenly realized that Lena had been talking to her all this time.
"Huh? Sorry," said Helen. "I was just thinking." Lena looked at her friend for a second, taking her attention off the road.
"About what?" asked Lena. "Graduation?"
"After that," said Helen.
"Summer?" said Lena, avoiding the subject.
"Stop pretending like you don't remember, Lena," said Helen. She added softly, "Paris."
"I know," said Lena. "Everything's not going to be the same without you. I wish you didn't have to leave."
"So do I, Lena," agreed Helen, "But this is about my mom's job. Ever since my dad disappeared, its been so hard for her."
"I can't imagine my life without my dad. It must be tough." Helen gave a slight nod.
"Don't worry," said Helen. "I'll send you postcards and call you. Maybe I'll save up enough money to come back and visit in the summer." Helen turned away from Lena, making sure that her friend wouldn't see a tear sliding down her face. Lena pulled into the parking lot and they got out. Helen swiped away the tear and walked with Lena up the steps to the main entrance of their high school. They said good bye to each other and went off to their first period class.
Helen walked into her fourth period gym class. She waited for Ms. Berk to take attendence and walked outside with everyone else. The class did a quick stretch adn Ms. Berk started the stop watch and blew the whistle. Everone started running around the huge field. Helen easily got out in front, having an advantage over most of her classmates for being on the cross country and track-and-field team. She ran beside her friend, Daniel.
"Hey," greeted Daniel, "I haven't seen you all day."
"Hey," answered Helen. They ran in front of everyone for a little while.
"So," said Daniel, "What college are you going to go to?" Helen paused for a second.
"I don't know," said Helen. She looked away, not wanting him to see her cry. Daniel noticed her anyways.
"Hey," said Daniel, "You're not the only one going away, you know." Helen ahead of him, around the field as fast as she could, her tears running off her face. Helen liked Daniel ever since sixth grade, even when she had a boyfriend. They use to talk all the time, but then a little while in seventh grade, another girl came and replaced Helen in Daniel's life. Helen was heart broken. Now she was going away and Daniel wasn't even going to say even a small good bye?