Chapter Four
Her fingers held her notebooks firmly in her arm, while she scurried down the hallway to her next class. Helena tried to slow down to delay her entrance, but to no avail. She was just going to have to deal with.
The door swung wide as she tried to saunter normally into class. It worked, until she went to sneak a quick look around the classroom. A few minutes later teacher walked in after her, but she took no notice. Terry , seated in the middle, was already staring with deep concentration at Helena. Hardly fooling him, she pretended to disregard him and took her seat by the window. Terry was becoming increasingly annoying.
While Mr. Lokin droned on with his lesson of the day, Helena leaned her head on her right fist, too absorbed in thought to listen. Suddenly, she heard the whisking of paper sliding against a desk, and something lightly touched her elbow. Looking down, it was a folded piece of notebook paper. She carefully picked it up and opened it.
Scribbled in messy cursive, a short sentence framed the top of paper.
"So, how are you doing today?"
Helena craned her head down, and read it again.
She knew it was from Terry. No one else in this class talked to her. "Why in the world is he talking to me?" she thought. The casualness of the note stunned her. Wasn't it obvious to from the rudeness she expressed in their last conversation that she didn't want to talk to him?
Annoyed, she crumpled the paper into a small ball and tossed it under her desk.
Soon another folded letter flew across the room and landed on her desk. This time she turned her head and shot him a nasty look. He was smiling like an idiot.
"Knock it off." Helena mouthed silently to him, her brows furrowed in frustration.
Terry bent down, jotted down something on a slip of paper, folded it, and flicked it her way. It landed with the same accuracy as the others did, by her clenched fist, resting on the surface of the table.
"Angry I suppose then? What did I do?" read the letter.
Fed up, she flipped the paper over, and forcefully carved the words "First off, your going to get us in trouble, second…"Helena hesitated. Thinking of letting her theory run out on the paper for just a moment, she decided against it. "…Second, you are getting on my nerves, don't you have anyone else to bother?"
She then flicked the note back to him, however missing his desk. Terry was quickly able to catch it in his hand before it made it to the floor.
Opening it, she saw him smirk, and then write down a response on the same side. The note skittered across her desk once again.
The first line said, "I seriously doubt that."
The second line said
"Come to think of it, I don't believe I do have anyone else to bother…besides, this is fun!"
"He's just bothering me for his own entertainment!" She thought to herself furiously.
This time, she smashed the paper together and threw it at him, not caring whether or not it made it to his desk. The crinkled paper lightly bounced off Terry's head, making him recoil with surprise. The amused look on his face vanished as he picked the paper up, looking at her now with unease. Helena gazed blankly towards the teacher, while he slouched down in his chair.
The bell rang, and the students around them scrambled out of their seats and proceeded out the door. She got up and followed them, vaguely aware that Terry was only a few steps behind her. Once she was out in the hall, she hastily walked to her locker, and began to open it. Suddenly Terry ambled over behind her.
"Look, I didn't mean to make you mad, I was only trying to make conversation…" He trailed off.
She swung around to face him vehemently, her eyes throwing imaginary daggers at him.
He flinched. "Ah! What the…Why is it you have such a problem with me? I'm just talkin'…"
"Where's…your…tower?" She slowly hissed at him, interrupting the middle of his sentence.
Terry paused, baffled. "What?"
She stepped towards him, now right next to his face.
"I said, where's your tower?" she murmured. Her eyes were now glaring into his hazel ones, waiting for an answer.
"I…." He stepped back, not expecting her intense movement.
Then he straightened up, and closed his mouth tightly. His face was still confused.
Helena then twisted around, and marched down the hall towards her last class,
leaving Terry in the hallway alone, scratching his head.
"Who are you…"He whispered to himself.
Instead of drawing, Helena took out notebook and began her math homework in the waning light of her window. It was distracting work, and she started to relax, her mind off the previous events at school.
By the time it was finished, the moon had already risen, and she could hear her parents causally talking over the quiet din of the TV. in their room. Yawning loudly, she shuffled over to her bed and submerged into a quiet sleep.
Meanwhile, Torrey was wandering to through the black streets to the apartment he shared with his dark-haired friend from school, Adrien. Adrien's parents had separated when he was 10, his father went to live somewhere in Asia, leaving him with his mother until she died in a car crash when he was 16. He now lived by himself in his three bedroom flat, and had a job to put him through school, with occasional checkups from a Child Welfare Services agent named Rufus.
Torrey met him while he wandered around town, and had stopped in to explore the school during lunch hour, and they became good friends. He was glad Adrien had accepted him so easily; he had grown tired of camping in a condemned office building near the wharf. The customs were strange, but he was happy to have some companionship while he explored this new world.
"Hey mate, what's up? Lasagna?" Adrien greeted him as he came in the door, pointing to a plastic dish full of oozing pasta and tomato sauce.
"Um, no thanks, I already ate." He lied, as he eyed the food. The food, it turned out, was the only thing people here had trouble making. Not like palace food.
Torrey gave a weak smile, and headed upstairs towards his small and sparsely furnished room. He hadn't brought many things with him when he used the mirrormask, but he would find a way to live without some of his luxuries.
After all, he thought, this world has plenty of opportunities He had already sold most of his possessions he did bring for money to pay Adrien rent, so he could spend more time looking for a job that stood out to him. He already was beginning to grasp how the society here worked, the reason for this thing called "school" he had learned was mandatory for everyone his age. Apparently what was considered normal behavior for kids was not to go exploring about unattended by some blathering adult.
It was just this Helena character. She had thoroughly frightened him today. Was he hearing things when she had mentioned a tower? Surely he was mistaken. Nobody else suspected he wasn't of this world
Yes, she was cute and spunky, that was why she had attracted his attention. But was she insane? She was ignoring him, acting as if he had the plague. Yet, for what reason?
Was it she somehow knew about the other world? That was preposterous. Nobody knew.
He decided that she was just a deranged, pretty girl who had no idea what she was talking about.
Torrey rocked back and forth on his heels, admiring the view from his lone window.
Sighing, he took up his mandolin, and plucked a simple, slow melody.