Chapter Four – First Day of School
Zarine woke up with a start. It was a minute before she remembered where she was. Breathing a sigh of relieve, she told herself, it was just another dream. It was another dream about her parents dying, while she had to watch helplessly. Hugging the tiger close to her, she felt better. She smiled in the dark, Ray was so sweet. He bought the tiger for her, so she wouldn't be lonely. Turning onto her side, she fell asleep, thinking about her boyfriend.
In the middle of the night, Ray woke up. He didn't feel so well, but he made himself tiptoed into Zarine's room to check on her. He hoped she wasn't having bad dreams again. Seeing the happy smile on her face, he felt relieved. At least she was having a good sleep. He smiled when he saw the tiger in her arms.
"Sweet dreams," he whispered before he went back to his room.
Zarine opened the door that connected her room to Ray's. Seeing that Ray was still sleeping, she went over to wake him up. She grabbed his shoulder to shake him awake, but when she felt his skin, she quickly withdrew my hand. She blushed, knowing that her boyfriend probably just had his boxers on.
[Get a grip on yourself.] she scolded herself mentally. [You aren't doing anything wrong; you are just waking him up, for goodness' sake!]
Taking his shoulder firmly, she shook him awake. "Ray, it's time to get up," she said.
"I want to sleep," he moaned, turning away from me. He coughed a few times.
"Are you sick?" she asked, concerned.
"Probably, my head feels like it's going to split in half and my throat is sore," he replied.
"Then I'll stay here with you today," she offered.
"Isn't he awake yet?" Kai asked impatiently at the door.
"Ray's sick," Zarine answered. "I'm going to stay here with him."
"No, you're not," he said. "You're coming to school."
"But who's going to take care of my sick man?" she questioned.
"The servants can. That's what they're here for," he said, "Now let's go."
"Just go. I can stay here for the day. It won't be that bad," Ray told Zarine, and squeezing her hand comfortingly.
She gave in. "All right! I'll go. I'll be down in a minute."
Kai grunted and left. "Get lots of rest, okay?" the petite girl said to her boyfriend.
"I will," he promised.
She leaned over to peck him lightly on the lips, but Ray stopped her. "I'm sick, remember? I don't want to pass any germs onto you."
"I can't care less," she replied. She kissed him before he could stop her. "There, I'll see you after school."
Ray scowled as she closed the door behind her. How could she manage to be so maddening, yet so lovable at the same time?
Zarine made her way to the office, swallowing hard. She wished that Ray was there with her. Why did he have to get sick on the first day?? People in the hallway were staring and looking curiously at her.
[They probably think that I'm an alien from outer space.] she thought.
She opened the door to the office and saw someone unexpected.
"Grandpa! What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised. He couldn't have been taking Tyson to school, could he?
"I'm here to see if there are any problems for you and Ray on your first day," he answered. Noticing that she was alone, he asked, "Where's your honeybun?"
"He's sick today," she said, looking sad. "He should be resting right now, at least, he better be."
"Zarine, please go into the principle's office," the secretary said.
Zarine knocked on the door of the principle's office. "Come in," a deep voice said. She opened the door and walked in.
"Hello, Zarine. Mr. Dickenson had talked to me about putting you into Gr. 10. I didn't like the idea, but I came up with an alternative. You will be in Gr. 10, but by the end of the year, you must have a B average to move onto Gr. 11," he told her.
"All right," she said, relieved. At least, she would have friends in some of her classes.
"Off you go, classes had started already," he said.
Zarine found her locker without too much difficulty, but opening it was another matter. How were you supposed to do this? Turn it past zero how many times? She gave a sigh of frustration.
"Need help with this?" someone asked. She looked up, and saw a guy with black hair and smoldering brown eyes. He was a head taller than she was, and was looking at her amusedly.
Zarine wondered what could be so funny. She didn't make a fool of herself already, did she? "How do you get it open?" she asked.
He taught her how and left. It was only until she got out her books that she realized that she didn't ask him his name.
[I'll find out later.] she thought. [Now where is room 205?]
She walked around and searched for it. It was ten minutes before she knew that she was hopelessly lost. Suddenly, someone familiar turned the corner and came into view.
"AH!! I'M SO LATE!!!" Tyson panted.
Zarine stopped him. "Yeah what?" he asked, running on the spot.
"Where's Room 205?" she asked urgently. "I have to get to my class."
"I'm going there, come on!" he said. He grabbed her arm and ran at top speed with her to the class.
??'s POV
It was just like any other day with Mr. Nowak blabbing something about history. I didn't bother to listen. I knew I would pass the tests with flying colors anyway. It was too easy.
I was just doodling on my binder when Tyson opened the door and skidded into class with a girl in toll. I looked at the girl with interest. She was short, with long, curly silver hair. Her eyes were a deep sea green color. She was really pretty, and judging the looks from the others, they thought so too. Everyone stared at them. The small girl reddened, knowing what a bad impression that was, coming into class like that.
"He's late again," Hilary said, standing up. "You should know better than to barge into class like that. You just interrupted the teacher!"
"Hilary, sit down," Mr. Nowak said from behind the desk.
"Yes sir," she said, before taking her seat again.
Sometimes, I thought that Hilary was a typical military person. She followed orders from superiors without question.
"Tyson, go take a seat," the teacher ordered.
To me, the silver haired girl was extremely nervous. She clutched her skirt tightly, looking anxiously at Kai.
"So you're the new student in class?" Mr. Nowak asked.
"Yes," she answered in a surprisingly steady voice, despite her appearance of anxiety.
"Tell us something about you," the teacher said.
I rolled my eyes. Great, it was going to be one of those stupid introductions again.
"I'm Zarine Alaina Star. I'm on the Bladebreakers. My home was Hong Kong...and..." she trailed off, not sure what to say next. She turned her eyes on me, and a puzzled look appeared on her face, as if she had seen me somewhere before. I narrowed my eyes, why the hell was she looking at me like that? She tore her eyes off when the teacher spoke again.
"Is there any questions that you would like to ask Miss Zarine here?" the teacher asked the class.
"Yeah," Gavin said, raising his hand.
I snorted. It didn't take a genius to guess what Gavin was going to ask.
"Will you go out with me?" Gavin asked. "Please, you're like the sun rising up in the darkness...."
Zarine turned an even brighter shade of red, while everyone laughed. "Stop it Gavin, she's taken!" Kai said, irritated. He stood up, and demanded, "Does anyone have any questions that are not stupid for her to answer?"
Everyone stopped laughing instantly. No one dared to mess with Hiwatari. No one, except me that is.
"Mr. Hiwatari, sit down. Zarine, you can sit beside him," Mr. Nowak said, pointing to the empty seat next to Kai.
Zarine looked relieve to get away from the front of the class, where everyone's attention was on her. She sat down near the middle Like that mattered. People kept on turning back and looking at her. After Kai sent death glares around the room, no one was brave enough to look at them, except me of course.
I stared at them until Kai looked at my way, annoyed. His eyes narrowed dangerously. I smirked at his reaction, and stuck my tongue out at him. Unfortunately, the teacher saw this.
"Miss Satsuki, detention after school for making faces in class," he said.
I sighed, just great. Another detention, this was my fifth one in two weeks. I stuck my tongue out at the teacher when he wasn't looking. I looked amusedly at Kai, he was smirking. He thought that Mr. Nowak was an asshole too.
Even though Kai and I never talked anymore, we always know what each other was thinking. We used to be friends and were called the Wonder Couple. Not that we were going out or anything. That all changed about a year ago, and we haven't talked to each other since then. I grimaced at the memory and couldn't help but think what a jerk Kai could be sometimes. He avoided me after that because he couldn't stand to be in debt to another person. Who did he think I was? Like I cared if he ever returned the favor, we were supposed to be friends.
Pushing him out of my mind, I returned to doodling in my book. It was another forty minutes before I heard the bell ring. Everyone scrambled out of class, who could blame them? An hour of the history's teacher's rumbling about the First Nations people was torture.
It turned out that the new girl had Math with me too. This time, she sat with Kenny because Kai was in Science. Once again, I was bored out of my mind. Instead of listening, I did the stupid homework that Nowak assigned us last class.
I looked at the questions. What was a sweat bath? What did the Fist Nations people eat? What was their log homes called? I sighed. What did the old geezer take us for anyway? Homework was supposed to be challenging, not easy stuff like this.
When Miss Cherry had finally stopped babbling, she assigned us questions to do. She gave us the last twenty minutes to finish them. I was done in five. I looked around the room to see what other people were doing. Hilary was still doing her work, totally absorbed in it. Tyson was sleeping, Max was eating candy...Behind me, Kenny was explaining to Zarine how to do the questions.
Was she dumb or something? Miss Cherry just spent the last forty minutes of the class teaching us. She was probably nothing more than just a pretty face with dung for a brain.
I looked around in English for that new Bladebreaker girl. I couldn't help but feel irritated when Kenny repeated Miss Cherry's speech, word for word to Zarine. At lunch, I saw Gavin and his little friends pinning Zarine against the wall. Didn't they ever get bored of trapping helpless girls? I walked down the hall, and heard what they were saying.
"Let me go. I'm taken," the girl said, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.
"I know, but your boyfriend is not here now," Gavin said, tightening his hold on her.
I stopped in front of them and said in a bored tone, "Just let her go. Can't you see she doesn't want to go out with you?"
"Butt out," one of his followers said.
"Let her go!" I ordered, my eyes flashing dangerously.
Gavin didn't let go of her wrist, but looked a little worried. "Fuck off!" he spat at me finally. I raised a cool eyebrow. He must really like this girl to have the nerve to risk facing me after school when I will hunt him down to beat the crap out of him. I did have a reputation to maintain.
"Parkinson! Let go of her at once!" Kai demanded, who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere to stand beside me. "You know the consequences if you don't."
Gavin looked sulky, and reluctantly let go of Zarine. I had to admit he was daring, but even he wasn't fool enough to disobey us face to face. I smirked, looks like they still haven't forgotten the terror of the Wonder Couple yet.
You'll find out who she is in the next chapter!!
