Extraordinary - Chapter Three: Innocent First Encounters

plummet: Hey, back again. Sorry it took so long for me to post this chapter, but it's one of the longer ones. –winks- You'll see why soon enough.

Crowded streets are cleared away
One by one
Hollow heroes separate
As they run
You're so cold
Keep your hand in mine…- So Cold; Breaking Benjamin

I awoke with a nasty start, my heart pounding painfully in my chest. I was…late for something really important, but that something seemed to elude me.

'Why can't I remember…?' I thought airily, the fog of sleep slowly creeping back into my mind.

My eyes lazily scanned the room, heart rate slowing considerably. Eyes halting on the daisy-shaped alarm clock near my bed, I stared blankly at the glaring red numbers. 6:45 A.M…Did that time mean anything?

Suddenly, it hit me. "Ho-ly CRAP! The bus leaves at 7:00!"

I hurled myself out of bed and managed to land on my feet: which, I might add, was an amazing feat in itself because I'm very clumsy. Grabbing my favorite and only pair of faded, ripped jeans, a simple black t-shirt, and my beloved white and black checkered shoes, I sprinted into the bathroom across the hall. In record time, I swapped my pj's with the clothing items I had just hurriedly picked out, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and washed my face.

Running like a mad woman down the stairs and into the kitchen, I checked the clock on the stove. It was currently 6:55 A.M.

"Oh my goodness…I am so gonna miss the bus!"

I was in mid-stride when I realized something. "Hold up…Where is everybody?" I felt the beginnings of a panic attack coming on.

'This is just stinkin' peachy. I'm late, I don't know where anyone is, and to top it all off, I have no idea how to get to the bus stop!' I mentally ranted while throwing my hands up in exasperation.

I jumped up and down frantically. "Why isn't anyone up yet!" I whined.

I looked at the clock again: 6:57 A.M. Screaming in frustration, I ran into the living room, snatched up my electric blue zip-up jacket and back pack, and threw them both carelessly over my shoulder.

I yanked open the front door and was just about to dash outside when a voice stopped me, "Um…Amelie? Where are you going?"

I pivoted on my heel and stared at Layla's pajama-clad self as if she'd just grown another head. "Where am I going!" I half asked, half shouted at her. "Layla, we're late, and we're going to miss the bus!"

"What do you mean, late? It's only 6:30," Layla stated, completely flabbergasted by my outburst.

"No, it's 7:00! And…" I sighed, "And we missed the bus. Wonderful."

I walked over to the couch and sat down on it heavily. Layla descended the rest of the stairs and came to sit next to me.

I started to take a mental count of all the things that had gone wrong, 'Let's see…I missed the bus, I probably look a mess from rushing, I'm starving, I-'

My thoughts were interrupted when Layla decided to speak, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I know why you thought that now! I must've set your alarm clock to the clock in the kitchen. It's a half an hour off…"

Ah, I don't remember that tick ever being in my eye before. "A half…an hour…?" I questioned rather calmly, considering the situation at hand.

"Heh heh. Yeah…" Layla said rather sheepishly. She flashed me a smile. "Look on the bright side! At least you're…" Her smile turned nervous when she saw my annoyed face. "Ready for…school…Eh heh heh…"

I took a deep, cleansing breath and let it out very slowly. There, all better.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad that I didn't have to sprint to the bus stop."

I smirked at her.

She smiled. "Phew, I thought you were going to choke me for a second there!"

I wiped my face clean of all emotion and said seriously, "Who said I wasn't going to choke you?"

Layla looked a bit frightened, and I let out a bark of laughter, "Hah! I was just kidding, silly!"

Layla's fright faded away, and her usual cheerfulness returned. Just then, Mr. and Mrs. Ashcroft came down the stairs.

"Good morning, girls!" Mrs. Ashcroft greeted us happily.

"Good morning," Layla and I both echoed.

Mr. Ashcroft just smiled warmly at us. Layla and I then followed her parents into the kitchen, and three of us sat down at the table. Only Mrs. Ashcroft remained standing.

"So, are you a tea drinker, Amelie?" she addressed me.

"Um…I've never really had tea before."

She put a hand to her chest, "Never had tea! Did you hear that, Hon?"

"Sure did, Mom. Well, we'll just have to introduce her to the wonders of tea-drinking," Layla said with a giggle.

She then rose out of her chair and got out a box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, a bowl, a spoon, and a milk carton. As she was fixing herself a bowl of cereal, Mr. Ashcroft got out of his seat to make himself a cup of coffee.

"Alright. So how about it, Amelie?"

"Sure…What could it hurt?"

"Well, only your sleep, if you become addicted," Mr. Ashcroft joked.

I stuck my tongue out at him, and he chuckled.

I half smiled. Layla and Mr. Ashcroft sat back down as I got up. I made myself a nice big bowl of cereal and ate away happily. I'd never had any kind of cheerios before, let alone the apple cinnamon ones.

Mrs. Ashcroft put on a pot of tea and handed me my cup when it was finished. I put my now empty bowl in the sink and accepted the warm mug of tea from her with a murmured, "Thanks". In sipping the tea, I closed my eyes in bliss.

"Mmm…What kind is this?" I asked to no one in particular.

Layla answered, "Earl Grey. It's the only kind we ever buy."

"Oooh, is it a British tea?"

"Yeah, it is. How'd you know?"

I grinned. "Just a lucky guess."

Breakfast time with the Ashcrofts went by relatively quickly and, before I knew it, Layla and I were standing at the bus stop and waiting for the bus. I had put on my jacket and zipped it up, but I still felt plain compared to Layla who was wearing a faded green tank top, a dark-green layered skirt, and a pair of comfy looking green oriental slippers. Apparently, you were supposed to dress up for the first day of school. I wouldn't know because I'd never attended public school before, being schooled at the orphanage and all.

I worried my bottom lip. We had been standing there for an estimate of five minutes, but it felt like forever to me. There was a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye, and I looked up to find the bus parked in front of us.

Layla turned and smiled reassuringly at me. "Don't worry yourself sick, okay? You'll be fine, trust me."

'I think it's a little too late for the worrying yourself sick part…' I thought as my stomach made some rather nasty churns.

I never liked meeting new people. It had always seemed pointless to me. And anyway, I kind of have a horrible phobia when it comes to public speaking…An inferiority complex, if you will.

Taking a deep, calming breath, I fixed my backpack strap and climbed aboard the bus. About twenty-five pairs of eyes fell on me. Oh, no, I didn't see them all staring at me. I was gazing nervously at my shoes. But, I felt their stares, and that made me even more uncomfortable. My heart began to beat so furiously against my ribcage that it hurt.

Out of nowhere, it seemed, a male voice said, "Well, Miss, I don't remember ever seeing you on this bus before. You must be new."

I turned to the source of the voice and found a tad bit pudgy, middle-aged man. The tag on his shirt read: Ron Wilson, Bus Driver.

"Um, yeah…I'm Amelie Bowen." I replied in one breath.

"Ron Wilson," he pointed to his tag, "Bus driver."

I smiled softly at his greeting and murmured a quiet, "Nice to meet you" before looking up at the kids on the bus for the first time.

Oh no…My nervousness was back in full force. There were so many of them…Too, too many them…I couldn't do it. I started to back up, but then I found Layla in the crowd and saw that she was waving me over. I reminded myself to thank her later.

Walking down the aisle, I carefully avoided the eyes of everyone else and just focused on Layla and the seat she was waving me into.

'Okay, you can do this. No big deal. Just pretend…Just imagine that they're not there…' I attempted to soothe myself, but it wasn't working.

When I reached Layla, she smiled brightly at me. "See, it wasn't that bad, was it?"

I stared blankly at her, but she paid me no mind, turning around to talk to the brown-haired boy she was sitting with and three other kids I'd never seen before. The bus started with a purr from the engine and began to move forward. I furrowed my brow. Why was my side so…warm? I looked over my shoulder and saw that a rather attractive guy was sitting next to me. Okay, who am I kidding? He was fine!

'Serve me up summa that beef cake!' I thought before I could stop myself.

I mentally rolled my eyes at my antics. Moving on…Yes, well he was very punk/rock-ish in his tattered jeans, black shirt, black leather jacket and cut-off gloves With further examination, I discovered that his shirt had the Chinese character for 'fire' on it in bright red.

Don't ask. I had read a lot of language-based books back at the orphanage. There wasn't much else to do.

His thick, brown hair was angled and layered so that it went from his chin to the base of his neck, framing his angular face in a neat, yet messy sort of way. A couple streaks of red lined the front, right part of his hair. I must've been gaping at him for awhile because he glanced over at me, looking annoyed.

"You know, it's rude to stare," He said a little gruffly in a low baritone.

I had to bite my tongue to keep my mouth from falling upon. With his dark, fathomless eyes, you could almost assume he'd be able to peer into your soul. Basically, he was just drop dead gorgeous. A light blush crept across my cheeks at the realization.

'Oh, I hope he doesn't notice that I'm blushing…'

At first, I wanted to tell whoever had sat down in my seat to get the hell out, but then I saw who it was: the new girl. I had watched her walk on the bus and shyly converse with the bus driver. She was dressed rather plainly with a black shirt, blue jacket,and ripped jeans,but it was a nice kind of plain. Nice kind of plain? What the frick? Where did that come from? …Whatever.

Anyway, I have to give her credit. She's one of the only girls, ever, that had even remotely caught my interest. Layla had too, but not like this. I'd only ever felt friendship with Layla. This was…different somehow. Attraction, maybe? Ah yeah, that just cramped my style.

I noticed she'd been looking me over for awhile now. I decided to play with her a bit and let her look, while I watched her from her reflection in the bus window. I had to hold back a smirk when I saw her struggle to keep her mouth shut. Without much thought, I decided to tease her some more. Later, I'd probably wonder what the hell had gotten into me.

Glancing at her, I feigned annoyance, "You know, it's rude to stare."

Her eyes widened a bit in shock and uncertainty.

'Probably not expecting that I'd talk to her…' I thought to myself.

I would have chuckled cruelly were it any other girl but her. I shifted slightly in my seat so I could better assess her.

Deciding to look at her from an artist's perspective, I started with the basics. She was thin, her complexion being very pale. The contours of her face were almost pixie-like in appearance with her small and pert nose, softly pointed chin, and arched brows. But her eyes…They stood out a vivid purple against her almost normal features.

There I go with that strange feeling again. I guess you could call it attraction…or something. Probably not, I mean…She wasn't exactly what anyone would call beautiful, but she was pretty. Er, I guess.

My eyes danced when I saw her blush. Raising my brow, I decided to point it out to her, "You're blushing."

"You're blushing," he decided to eloquently point out, raised eyebrow and all.

My blush only deepened.

As if I wasn't embarrassed enough for being caught blushing and staring, my backpack that was resting in my lap decided to randomly open, causing one of my notebooks to slip out and fall onto the floor. Mortified, I averted my eyes from the greatly amused guy sitting next to me and started to bend over to pick up my book. He beat me to it, however, and held it out to me.

I smiled faintly at him, the pink in my cheeks finally fading.

"I didn't know chivalry was still alive," I said softly while reaching out to take back my notebook from him.

"Um, thanks…?" I questioned, wordlessly asking him to tell me his name.

"Warren. Warren Peace," he answered grimly.

"Ah, nice name. Very original," I commented offhandedly while putting my notebook back in its rightful place. I then pointed to myself. "I'm Amelie Bowen. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Peace."

I held out my hand to him in greeting. Mumbling something that sounded like 'Dido', he took my hand.

Unexpectedly and without warning, two seatbelts came out from the back of the seat, crisscrossed over my chest, and buckled me in.

I vaguely heard the bus driver, Ron Wilson, say, "Okay kiddies, hold on to your hats!"

And then the bus took flight. In all my nervousness and panic, I lightly squeezed someone's hand for comfort. I sucked in my breath and, after a couple minutes or so, I let it out in a sigh.

'Well, that was altogether unexpected!' I thought sarcastically, the initial shock of flight wearing off. 'Er, why can't I move my right hand?"

Out of my peripheral vision, I found that my hand was still enclosed in Warren's much bigger and more masculine one. I flexed my fingers a bit,and his hand unconsciously squeezed mine to stop my fingers from moving. Furrowing my brow, I looked at our joined hands for a short moment and then at him. He was looking as calm as ever, nonchalantly staring out the bus window and at the passing clouds.

Ismirked wryly. 'He must not realize he still has my hand.'

The bus stopped ascending and steadied. My smile evanesced and the seatbelts loosened. I attempted to pull my hand away, but to no avail. Warren just gripped it tighter. Exhaling heavily, I decided to just wait until he let go. It would be way too awkward to ask him to release it myself. I flushed just thinking about it.

Abruptly, Warren's hand grew hot and a wave of heat washed over me, warming my hand to the point of comfort. For the first time ever, my hand wasn't ice cold.

He then glanced over at me and mumbled something.

"Pardon?" I asked. I hadn't heard what he said.

"I said, your hand was cold," he repeated, louder this time, as if it explained everything.

He let go of my hand, and it grew cold again from the sudden loss of his body heat.

"Oh," I said simply, pulling my hand dejectedly back onto my lap.

It was kind of strange, experiencing a piece of someone else's power for the first time. I took an educated guess and figured his powers had something to do with fire.

A long, pregnant pause formed in which neither of us said anything. After what couldn't have been more than a few minutes, some snickers were heard coming from the seat in front of us, and the quiet was broken.

I took one look at the source of the snickers and furrowed my brow. It was Layla and that brown-haired boy from earlier. They were both turned around in their seats, smiling at Warren and me.

'Why are they looking at us like that…?' I thought confusedly.

Their smiles turned devilish, and I shrunk back in my seat. 'Err…Alright, guys…You can stop now…'

'What're they smiling at?' I thought irritably.

My expression turned sour. They had better not be thinking what I think they are.

Just then, their smiles turned almost evil, and my thoughts were confirmed. Would they ever get a life?

I glared at them. "Did you need something?" I inquired with a dangerous arch of my eyebrow.

Layla's eyes were filled up to brim with giddiness. She turned back around in her seat, but not before mouthing 'We'll talk later' to Amelie. I rolled my eyes. I did not want to know what they were going to talk about. But, then again…I wasn't really sure.

Will smiled sheepishly at me and mimicked Layla, turning back around. Good. Be very afraid, Stronghold.

I glanced at Amelie from the corner of my eye. She was nervously worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. My eyes closed of their own accord, and I tilted my head back, encasing it with shadows. Suddenly, the whole situation had lost my interest.

My face turned scarlet.

'How much can a girl possibly blush in one day!' I thought frantically.

Layla and Will hadn't said anything yet, but I could tell they wanted to. I was still clueless as to why they were staring at us. Let's just say, at that time, I had never thought I'd be 'put in the picture' with another guy, let alone a guy like Warren. My thoughts were still innocently centered on confusion.

After it had ebbed slightly, I took my time in looking over Layla's 'seat buddy'. He was pretty attractive and fairly muscular (thought not as much as Warren) with shaggy, red-brown hair and brown eyes. He must've been a nice guy because Layla seemed to be really close to him. She was resting her head on his shoulder, his arms around her waist, hugging her to him. The corner of my mouth quirked into a half smile. They looked cute together.

My eyes shifted over to Warren who was staring out the window again. His face was stony; his jaw set. Somehow, I didn't think we'd be friends, let alone speak again anytime soon.

My seatbelt began to loosen as I felt the bus losing altitude. Avoiding Warren, I looked out the window on the other side. We were going to land on what seemed to be a…floating…island?

The bus landed smoothly on a clear patch of ground. Apparently, Mr. Wilson was a pilot as well as a bus driver.

"Ride's over, kids. Everybody off," I heard Mr. Wilson say.

Everyone got up and out of their seats and started exiting the bus. When it was my turn to pass by Mr. Wilson, he smiled at me. I tilted my head in acknowledgement with a small smile of my own.

I trailed demurely behind Layla, her 'boyfriend', Warren, and a group of seven other kids as we walked up to the school entrance. I looked over my shoulder to see a gathering of seemingly lost students in the courtyard. They must be the freshmen.

I craned my neck to get a better view of the school. Students were constantly milling in and out; more people than I'd ever seen in one place…

This was going to be a challenge.

A special thanks to:

vionette: Hehe yeah, I know! I thought the parrot-Layla thing was kinda funny, so I stuck it in. Glad you liked it. Thank ye 'gain, ya scallywag! Ye be too kind fer yer own good.

T: Thanks. I'll try my best to post as often as I can.

AuburnTressed: Thanks! I thought for a looong time about how I was going to portray my OC. If her character ever becomes unbelievably bland, let me know.

Rae-scars adorn me: Heh, thanks. Lol, I try to be funny. Tell me if I ever try too hard. –falls over-

RaevenMoon: Same here! My friends and I pretend to be pirates all the time…And Aussies, and Britts, and…You get the idea.