Chapter One
Dear Diary,
I have been writing to you since I was three, and today is no different. You are here for one reason: to keep me straight. Every lie I tell, every move that I make, I tell you so that I am never caught out.
At my old school, everyone loved me. I was the best in lessons, as they come easily to me. I was the most beautiful girl in class, an amazing singer, dancer and actress. Everyone loved me; they never knew just how good my acting abilities were. No one ever knew what I thought of them; only you dairy, only you.
My mother is my best friend, corny I know, but it is the truth. She taught me how to get what I want and cares for me. Laura, my old best friend, I really did like her because she was so earthy, but she lives miles away now. Over the summer we had to move, but that does not matter. I will become the most popular girl in my new school. First of all: make sure that my blouse and skirt are the perfect fit on me, just to make all the boys sit up and pay attention. Second: hair and make up. As long as I keep it sweet yet sexy I will be fine; teachers will think that I am sweet and clever and the boys will think that I am worth their time.
Talk to you later Diary! By the end of the day I will be popular.
-x– Ebony –x–
Ebony's mom drove her to school in their Mercedes. The DiAngeli's were rich beyond all comprehension of the word, and liked to make the fact well known.
"Ebony, remember: play it cool and you will be fine", her mother, an extraordinarily pretty woman, told her.
"I will, Mom." Ebony assured her. With that, Ebony stepped out of the car and onto the lush green grass, which led up to Wilnom High.
As Ebony strode confidently up to the main entrance, she felt all eyes on her, men wanting, girl hating; but Ebony never let them get to her. They would all love her and that was all there was to it.
"Hello, dear", the head - a skinny, kind faced woman - greeted her.
"Good morning, madam", Ebony countered politely, seeing that this was going to be easy.
"Well first of all, why don't you tell me a little about yourself?" the head asked her.
"My name is Ebony Maria DiAngeli. My mother is one of the top lawyers in the country and it is my great ambition to follow in her footsteps." Ebony paused of a second, seeing that her audience was captivated. "She is my inspiration." Ebony finished.
"My, that is perfect, just the right kind of person that we want here," the head believed every word of it.
"Oh, by the way, I am Mrs. Townsend", the teacher introduced herself properly shaking Ebony's hand. Several minutes later Ebony found herself in front of the door to her first class.
Ebony took a few deep breaths, making sure that her make up, etc. was perfect, and planning out what she would say before gathering her courage and pushing the door open. The noise hit her full force as she entered the class room and walked to the front of the class.
"You must be Miss. DiAngeli," the teacher, a good looking Italian man, brought her out of her own thoughts.
"Would you care to introduce yourself?" he continued, taking at good look at the new girl. Ebony could tell that he fancied her, and so decided that he may come in useful in future.
"I am Ebony DiAngeli, and I just moved here from San Angels", Ebony introduced herself, catching the eyes of a handsome boy in a varsity jacket. Ignoring the other sitting offers she was getting, she went over and sat next to him.
"Hey, I'm Bray", the stranger lent over and shook her hand.
"Ebony", she replied before the commencement of lesson, which forced them to stop talking.
Ebony listened to the first couple of sentences that which the teacher was saying before knowing that she could already do it and started evaluating her class, knowing that this teacher would not ask her any questions.
Bray's jacket told her that he was captain of the basketball team, he was working hard, and that showed that he was contentious. He was probably in top set for everything like her, and in that case would probably like a sporty, beautiful, intelligent girl.
There were four other people in her class who, unlike her, had to work hard for their grades and there did not seem to be much to them, and so Ebony ignored them. Half way through the lesson, Sir put the homework on the board, and Ebony discovered that she could do all of it before the bell even rang. She packed up a few minutes early and thought about what she had already found out. One teacher fancied her, the head loved her, and the captain of the basketball team had a crush on her.
When the bell rang, she rose to her feet walking out of the classroom, but not too fast so that Bray could catch up with her.
"Ebony, wait up", she heard. Ebony turned to see Bray jogging after her.
"What do you have next?" he asked her. Ebony glanced down at her time table and answered, "P.E.".
"Me too. I'll show you the way", Bray carried Ebony's bag as he showed her the way to the girl's locker room.
"Thanks", Ebony took her books and went to go in but Bray stopped her, "I'll wait for you out here", he said as she passed.
Once Ebony was clear, she let out a breath that she had not even been aware that she was holding; why was she so nervous? Things were going her way. Ebony was late so there was only one person left in the changing rooms who, from the looks of it, was head cheerleader. The girl looked at Ebony for a second before saying, "Hi, I'm Trudy. Are you new here?"
"Yes, my name is Ebony", Ebony put her bag down and began to undo her top. This seemed to shock Trudy. Ebony smiled to herself. Trudy was a cheerleader who was obsessed with her weight and got changed under her clothes. She had one guy who liked her and she probably fancied his brother; Ebony had met her type before. Not knowing what to do, Trudy had left. Ebony put on her expensive red Nike spandex shorts, crop top, and trainers. Ebony looked at her self in the mirror for a moment once she had applied more lip gloss and tied her hair back.
"Time to go humiliate some valley girls", Ebony told the empty locker room.
Ebony wandered onto the track, and was told by a supposedly female teacher to warm up. Ebony decided that the best way of doing this would be to try to touch her toes while the boys were running around the track, so that they ended up tripping over themselves staring at Ebony's behind.
A loud crash could be heard as two boys ran into each other full pelt. Ebony stood up straight, turning around and pretending not to know what had happened. Satisfied that she had everyone's attention, she did a series of impressive back flips, calling to the teacher, "I think that I am warmed up now."
Ebony was put into the next race and won it without breaking a sweat. Ebony kept on winning until she was made to run against some of the boys, one of them being Bray. Although, Ebony could have easily won it but she didn't because if she did, she could create enemies with some of the boys. Bray came in first with Ebony hot on his heels.
"Wow. You're fast", Bray complimented.
"Yeah, I am", Ebony teased, turning away from him and walking back to the changing rooms. Ebony took a nice long shower and got dressed, not wanting to rush herself. She knew that Bray would be waiting for her, this was perhaps what inspired her to spend ten minutes applying lip gloss before breezing out of the door to see Bray waiting, with Trudy on his arm and another boy next to him.
The other boy had been staring at Trudy until now. Ebony could have laughed; she could not have pegged Trudy better if she had tried. The man who she assumed to be Bray's brother was dangerous. Ebony could sense it. He was apparently sweet, caring, gentle but he had the potential to be strong, dangerous and above all, feared.
"Ebony, this is Trudy and my brother Martin", Bray introduced them, once again taking Ebony's bag.
Trudy smiled sweetly at Ebony asking, "Where did you come from?"
"San Angels", Bray answered for her as they walked towards the lunchroom. Spite filled Trudy's features; both Ebony and Martin saw it. Martin looked away obviously upset and Ebony linked arms with him giving him a dazzling smile. This served a triple purpose. Bray was angry that she was paying more attention to his brother than him, it annoyed Trudy and made Martin see Ebony in a kind light – if Martin contained so much power Ebony would keep on his good side.
As they sat down to lunch, Trudy ate nothing and tried to get some one to ask why she was not eating.
"I'm not really hungry", she told no on in particular. Ebony thought that she had better ask why to make herself look good.
"Really, I wish that I had your discipline. I thought about dieting once to get rid of my spare tire, but then I reconsidered. I mean if you diet to get a man or friends then it is like saying that you have nothing else to offer, other than sex", Ebony resumed munching her sandwich.
Trudy looked flabbergasted that anyone would say such a thing. Martin nodded in agreement and Bray tickled Ebony's stomach.
"What ... are ... you ... doing?" Ebony managed to get out between breaths.
"Just trying to find your spare tire", Bray smiled, as he stopped tickling her as he saw that she was unable to breathe. Ebony just gave him a flirty smile and went back to eating.
Once the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, Bray and Martin walked Ebony to her next class, but Bray then had to get to his class. Martin stood at the front of the class while Ebony went to sit down.
"Martin, are you coming?" she asked, Martin's face lit up as he went to sit next to Ebony. The class began to fill up and then the teacher came and told them to get into pairs. Everyone in the class was naturally drawn to Ebony and asked her to be there partner but her response was, "Oh sorry, I just asked Martin to be my partner." Everyone was shocked. Why would a gorgeous woman choose a little boy like Martin? Only Ebony could see his power.
"Um, are you sure?" Martin checked, as Ebony smiled. Although most of the class was spent in silence, at the end as everybody was getting ready to leave, Ebony asked, "Hey Martin, do you want to come over tonight?"
"Um, yeah", Martin answered excitedly, "Where do live?" Ebony gave him her address and got into her mom's car.
"Good day sweetie?" Her mom asked.
"Yes it was. The head and teachers love me, the work is easy. The captain of the basket ball team is interested and his brother has power", Ebony thought.
"How do you mean has power?" Her mom looked concerned.
"You and I know both know that something is coming, something big, but we are not quite sure what", Ebony started, "when I am around Martin I sense that when it comes he will snap and survive. He has the power to make people follow him", Ebony explained.
"Good. Forget about popularity though. I have found out what is coming, there is a virus coming and it will kill all the adults", Ebony took in a breath at her mom's news.
"The government thinks that they can handle it but they can't. Forget all about this basket ball guy and focus on his brother. Get him on your side and I will sort out everything else, people will being to form tribes and I want you and this Martin boy to be the head of one. Promise me that whatever happens you will survive", her mother asked.
"I promise that I will survive and come out on top", Ebony vowed.
When Ebony got home that night the first thing that she did was to write in her diary about her day.
Dear Diary,
Today I just found out that all the adults will be wiped out by some virus, I wonder what life would be like without my Mom. I mean I love my mom she is the only person in this world that I trust but I will have to do without her soon. She says that she will get everything that I need to start my tribe, now I just have to concentrate on getting Martin to love me.
-x – Ebony – x –
Ebony closed her diary and looked around her large room. Ebony got changed into a red halt which displayed plenty of cleavage with a hair or black leather pants just as the door bell rang. Ebony wandered down the stairs to see Martin who she had to admit cleaned up quite nicely.
"Hey Ebony, you look great", Martin said confidently. Normally in the face of such beauty he would have stammered but what he did not know was that Ebony was slowly bringing him out of his shell and helping him to become a great warrior.
Ebony took his hand and led him up to her spacious bed room, to watch a movie. They had laughed joked and talked for hours when Ebony pushed her lips up to Martin's, before he left abruptly. Ebony had no idea what had happened. Had she come on too strong?
This could push him back slightly but that was alright. Ebony would act as if she wanted Martin but as she could not have him she would go out with Bray instead. That way she could be around Martin as well. She would make Martin a warrior. With this thought in mind Ebony went to sleep.
And that is exactly what Ebony did over the next few weeks Ebony became Bray's girlfriend and very close with Martin. The news of the virus had hit and his parents had been the first victims. Martin snapped in class one day he jumped on his desk and yelled at the teacher that they were all dead. Trudy had slept with Martin to get back at Bray for kissing Ebony and now it was show time.
"Martin", Bray called, "we have to talk".
"I told you, my name is Zoot", Zoot screamed.
"What is going on", Ebony asked, already knowing.
"He got Trudy pregnant. Trudy knows that it was a mistake but ..." Bray broke off seeing the look on Ebony's face.
"Zoot are you alright", Ebony asked.
"Fine" Zoot looked mildly surprised. Seeing that if she made her move now Martin would be lost for ever and Zoot would be all hers, Ebony began, "Trudy if you don't love someone, if you aren't willing to give that person everything then don't sleep with them. I am more worried about Zoot. You could have broken his heart but do you care no. People are dying", a tear rolled down Ebony's cheek, "but all you care about is yourself".
With that Ebony and Zoot left. Bray was sure that Ebony was acting in this way because her mother had just died and because she felt bad for him and that was all. It never occurred to him that she might be playing him for a fool. He vowed to take care of Trudy but that one day he would get his love Ebony back.
Ebony and Martin climbed into a police car and drove with their tribe, sirens blazing to their new home, and life. The life in which Ebony would become a heartless warrior who would always come out on top.