Chapter 3

I had a scowl on my face, but as I turned around to face the voice I hid it behind a mask of impassiveness, making sure people couldn't see my emotions. The owner of the voice was a short, brown-haired girl who considered herself my girlfriend, although I don't know where she got that idea from. I never agreed to it, I probably never would have. Her name was Stellar; she was not the type of person I was interested in. She spent more time in front of the mirror each morning than Danielle, talked non-stop about how she looked and the clothing she wore. Was always shopping for the most recent fashion of clothing, whether it was artificial or natural, natural meaning it was once alive, and she was always the centre of attention, The only attribute about her that I didn't mind was her cunning, otherwise how would she have been able to stalk me?

"Nathan, over here!" she called again. "Why didn't you call me at all during summer break? I am your girlfriend after all."

"How many times have I told you Stellar," I replied, "That I am not your boyfriend. You decided to stalk me up and make me your boyfriend. I never agreed to it."

"Oh, come now," Stellar replied, "I thought you would have gotten over the shyness by now."

"Stellar," I said, losing my patience from lack of sleep, "I have told you once and I will not tell you again, I am not your boyfriend. I would never be interested in you. You are self-centered and delusional. You care more about how you look and what you are wearing than things happening in reality, you focus yourself as the centre of the universe with every person falling at your feet. I wonder how many children in some third world country starved while you spent your daddy's fortune buying those new clothes. It is people like you that make me sick. And the fact you are mentally unstable doesn't help. If you come near me again, I will file a restraining order. I am not your boyfriend!"

"There is another girl, isn't there?" Stellar asked, not registering what I had just said. I said she was cunning, I never said her brain functioned properly.

"No Stellar," I replied, "there isn't. I'm not your boyfriend and that's final."

I walked away from her and the rest of the people standing and staring at the two of us outside the building and walked inside. No sooner than I had walked inside than the full impact sunk in. I wish I could tell you my life was simple and quiet, but that's not the case. As I told you before, there was a small group of girls that had fallen for my charms. As soon as the door closed, chaos ensued. The girls just figured I was single again. I sighed; life was never peaceful around me. I don't have any clue, but those girls seemed to be attracted to me. Probably because every girl that had asked me out I turned down and I had proved that I was not the other way inclined either, so they wanted what they couldn't have I suppose.

I ran around the corner and pulled my jacket off and reversed it inside out. I learnt that trick from the movie 'The Recruit'. I pulled the reversible jacket back on, but with the other side showing and grabbed a hat off of the guy at his locker next to me and pulled it over my heard.

"Hey!" He said surprised, "that's my hat!"

I signaled him to be quiet as the group of girls came running around the corner. All of them were looking excited. Man I think I'm in a school of stalkers. It's unnatural how they seemed to chase me. I swear I'm cursed.

"Did you see which way Nathan went?" One girl asked us.

I pointed down the corridor that was ahead of me to the right. The girls ran down the corridor and soon disappeared. It was safe to now stop hiding. I pulled the cap off and gave it back to the guy and turned my jacket back.

"Thanks for the hat man," I said, "You saved my life. What is it with girls and what they can't have?"

"You're Nathan?" The guy asked.

"The one and only," I replied, "You're new here aren't you? The chicks here are crazy. Watch yourself ok."

I walked off as the first bell for school rang. We had an assembly first thing to welcome the new students to the school and for the principal to lay down the ground rules for them. I already knew the first one he would tell them, the forest on the edges of the school ground were out of bounds. He would tell them the ghost story he tells every new batch of students. I had to smile at the looks they might have on their faces. The Principal was known for exaggerating the story. But this year the story was different. This year, a child had died, from a pack of wild wolves in the forest…

Chapter 4

"That's good, Nathan," his art teacher told him, "The sketch is well drawn and well proportioned. The shading is excellent, but it's missing something. It's missing the personal touch, what inspired you to draw it? Without that it is not art, but a useless picture."

I tore off the picture from my sketching pad and held it up in front of my face. Then I lifted my fathers lighter out of my pocket and lit it, burning the picture in front of my eyes. The kids weren't surprised, neither was the teacher. I was known to do that if something wasn't right about the picture. I burnt it to destroy the imperfect artwork. This time it was the picture of the train from my dream.

Once the drawing had been burnt and the ashes swept away. I pulled out my pad and stared at it wondering what to draw. I had no idea what to draw. I took art at school because it was my talent. I was good at pencil sketches. It was what I specialized at in art. Art was the class I enjoyed the most. It allowed me to express myself and all the emotions inside me. It was also the only class that allowed me to burn my work. It was intriguing to watch the paper blacken and burn, to watch the picture fade. It was a failure I had to remove from my life.

"That's better, Nathan," The teacher said, coming around to me again.

I hadn't realized I had started drawing again. I looked at the clock and realized about ten minutes had passed. I looked down at the picture on my sketching pad and my eyes widened. The picture was of the girl from my dream, laying on the train tracks, unconscious, oblivious to her impending death. The line were fine, the shadowing perfect. The picture seemed to be so real, a black and white portrait of the girl I had envisioned. Then I noticed the small words in the corner of the picture, the ones the teacher could not see. I stared at them, for all they said was hurry, before time runs out.

"What inspired you to draw this?" The teacher asked me, "Nathan? What inspired you to draw such a majestic drawing? Perhaps it was love? For this girl?"

"It was a dream," I whispered back to him, "A dream I had last night."

Just then the bell went to signal the end of class. I got up from off my seat and folded the cover of my sketching pad back and placed it in my bag, then walked out of the class. I didn't want to go home, not yet so I walked to the district library which was just down the road, to continue reading a book for English class. But my mind kept returning to that drawing, the picture of the girl.I gave up trying to read his book and pulled out the picture of the drawing. I studied it, examining the lines, the pencil strokes. They were all single, sure of themselves. No marks showed on the paper where an eraser would be used. The entire picture had been drawn sharp and accurate, no signs of hesitation, no signs of mistakes. He examined the girls face; she was no older than he was, seventeen and extremely attractive.

She's only a dream figment, I told myself, she doesn't exist.

"I was right," Stellar's voice sounded from behind me, "There is another girl. That's her, isn't it?"

"No Stellar," I replied, "there is no other girl. This picture is from a nightmare I had last night. Now what do you want and please don't say to get together again. The answer will still be no."

"I can forgive you for your outburst this morning," Stellar replied, "If you take me to the movies tonight."

"Forget it," I replied, "When will it be drilled through your thick head, I'm not interested. Now if you come near me again to ask me something like that, I'll order the police to put a restraining order on you."

I placed the picture in my bag and walked out of the library, leaving Stellar in the library with a stunned look on her face. The sun was still up, but it was getting late and the sun was near the horizon. I walked passed the school and down the path next to the train tracks, lost in thought. It was the low rumble of the oncoming train and the faint whistle from the engine that drew my attention to the tracks, and lying there, like in my dream, was the girl…