In Hiding
By SmellDroses
Chapter One
Monday 9th September 2004. The first day of school. I had previously decided that this year was going to be the best year of my life. I was going to keep my bedroom tidy (it represents a pig-sty, I am tired of it), get a new boyfriend (just because Robert turned out to be a jerk doesn't mean all boys are), keep on top of my homework (instead of doing it the night before or coming up with lame excuses like my computer/laptop has a virus) and finally, I was going to be more sociable (I'm the sort of person who loves Saturdays to snuggle up in bed and sleep the weekend through). All of this, I decided, was going to change my life, make me less lazy and more thoughtful and happier.
Imagine my surprise when in assembly it was announced that there was two new students starting at Darwin's Comprehensive for Boys and Girls. The lazy town of Whendigo wasn't used to newcomers, the population was mainly locals of the area, no one seemed to leave, no one seemed to come.
The new students were a boy and a girl. The girl was in my year, in fact she was to be in my class, and the new boy was a year higher. They were brother and sister, both looking quite alike with midnight black hair and deep ocean blue eyes. Already the girls were conspiring with each other about who was going to nab the new boy and how.
I entered my first lesson of the day, Advanced Chem. with enthusiasm, knowing full well that I had the chance of being with the new boy, by the name of Darien, as I was in year eleven's Chem. class, also maths.
I sat down in my normal seat in the middle of the classroom, the rest of the class, already seated, greet me enthusiastically. Then, the doorway is silhouetted by another figure, taller than most of the boys, he entered in the classroom with confidence, unnerved by the jocks at the back who were throwing a football on the ceiling, nor was he nerved by the nerds, throwing pens at each other and snorting. This was the new boy, Darien Welling, to be exact.
Glancing around the class, his aquamarine eyes stop and rest on the empty chair next to mine. "Anyone sit there?" He asks me, his English drawl giving me a sense of familiarity with the home I had left ten years previously.
I shake my head, last year, the seat had been occupied by my best friend Mollie, sadly, her parents decided that she would do better in an all-girls school (she was a little boy crazy) and so they enrolled her in a boarding school.
Darien scraps the chair back and sits in it, neither slouching nor sitting straight, he seemed to fit in with the class like a chameleon, changing personality and status at will.
"So…what's your name? Mine's Darien. Darien Welling." He asks, angling his body so he faces me.
I am aware that his transfixing eyes are staring into my contacted ones. "I'm…Sere…well, Serena Greene. Nice to meet you." I answer, awkward as I can still feel his eyes burning into mine. "Do you like it here?"
"It's sort of quiet, nothing seems to happen here, I never see anyone my age around, not in the park or anything, it seemed like a ghost town to me when I first arrived. Where do all these people go?" He asks me, confused.
"Oh, I forgot you wouldn't know! We all go to the Hangout. It's a big community lot with allsorts, fast food restaurants, shopping centre, a swimming pool, tennis courts, games rooms, everything a teen could want is there, if you like I'll show you, are you doing anything after school today?" I ask, enthusiastic, my timidness earlier long forgotten.
"no, nothing. Can my sister come too?" Darien asks me, seemingly happy, and excited about later on.
I laugh, "Of course she can come. Do you have a car or do you want to go in mine?" Happy that I was already organising things.
"Yeah, I have a car, do you want to go in mine and direct the way, and then I'll drop you back here for your car afterwards?" Darien too seemed eager to go, like a puppy, about to play with a favourite toy.
"Sure, whatever. I'll meet you outside the main entrance, after school, or wherever you were going to meet your sister."
TBC