No long message of boring, just read.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Emerald University was a lot bigger then Luce had thought.
On her way to her classroom in just fifteen minutes she'd crashed into a fellow freshman and walked into two different classrooms. Finally though, she walked into the right one and took a seat next to the window while more students poured into the room.
"Welcome," A tall man with salt and pepper hair and a crooked smile called form the front of the class. He was dressed in a dark blazer and a bright red tie and pushed a pair of glasses up higher onto his nose. "To English I. I'm your teacher, Mr. Sterling and I'm going to be in charge of educating your minds with the English language, which will be a challenge for some more than others. Helpful tip, the more you read the better grade you'll probably receive."
A soft laugh ran through the class and Mr. Sterling grabbed the rooster. "Lucinda," He gazed up and his gray eyes narrowed on her. "Yes, the surprised girl near the window. Favorite classic novel."
Luce blinked and said the first book title she'd read her freshman year of high school during her English class. "Bram Stoker's Dracula,"
Her teacher nodded. "Obsessive monster paired with misguided intentions, a good story. And a good old fashioned vampire, much better than that twilight nonsense. In this class we will be studying work created by some of the most famous authors throughout the world and through many different time periods, so pay attention because we're going to be going quickly.
Mr. Sterling continued to tell them about the novels that they were going to read and Luce caught a few glances of fellow freshman giving her an encouraging smile. One person in particular kept smiling at her, but his smile wasn't encouraging, it was a more secretive smile.
Hm, Luce thought, taking in his spikey black and blonde dread locks and beat up leather jacket. He didn't look like anyone in her dorm, but maybe she'd seen him at freshman orientation.
The bell rang and Mr. Sterling waved at his students. "Okay, off with you. Go learn something and report it to me tomorrow."
Luce packed up her stuff and followed the rest of the students as they piled out of the room, forgetting the boy with dreadlocks for the moment and merging into the crowd with all the other students. Her next class was Global History throughout the ages and it was on the other side of campus so she had to hurry.
She decided to cut through the quad which was a big grassy open area where a lot of students had their lunches or hung out on their breaks between classes. It was pretty crowded considering most of the classes were going on but that didn't matter too Luce. She was half way across the lawn when a girl stepped in her way and-
Thump.
She crashed into another body and instantly fell to the ground, her books and papers scattering out of her purse and all around her while Luce stared up at the girl she'd crashed into.
She was beautiful. She had bright crimson curly hair that fell around her pale shoulder speckled with golden freckles and dark blue eyes narrowed down at the girl on the floor in front of her. She looked like an angel with a bad attitude.
"Ugh," Her pale nose scrunched up I n disgust and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Freshman. They get clumsier every year."
"Sorry," Luce mumbled, getting onto her hands and knees and shoving her things haphazardly into her bag even though she wasn't.
"You should be," Luce hated people like her, who treated other people like garbage for no reason.
"Tess." A deep baritone voice called and Luce looked up to see the boy with dread locks standing over her, his mouth a hard line.
The girl, Tessa, paled visibly and her mouth grew hard. "Roland. I never expected you to be here."
"Don't test me," Roland told her calmly, then knelt down to Luce's level and held out a dark hand for her to take. "Come on,"
Luce took his hand and stood up; holding her bag close to her chest and watched Roland and Tess face off at each other. Something was obviously wrong between the two and the last thing Luce wanted to do was get in the middle of it.
"Don't touch her," Roland's warned. "This has nothing to do with you."
"You can't tell me what to do," Tess growled, her dark eyes practically glowing with anger. "This is bigger than you know, Roland."
"I don't care," Roland crossed his arms and stood his ground. "It's over now."
Tess threw her head back and laughed. "It's far from over. In fact, the games have only just begun."
She left Luce and Roland staring after her, and she heard Roland exhale a short breath of exasperation.
"This is not good." He said to himself and, realizing Luce was still there, offered her a warm smile. "Sorry about her, she can be a pain."
"Who is that?" Luce asked, though she wasn't really sure if she wanted to know. She really just should have forgotten all about her.
"An old friend," Roland explained and shook his head, his gold and black dread locks flying around his face. "A very old friend. I'm Roland, Roland Sparks."
"I'm Luce," Luce shook his hand and something flashed in his eyes, amusement? It was gone in the next instant. "Are you a freshman too?"
Roland stuck his hands into his pockets. "I'm new but I know the school."
Luce nodded in understanding. "This school is pretty…"
"Crazy?" He suggested.
: "I was going to say out there," Luce laughed. "But that works too." She looked around and saw that they were nearly alone in the quad and groaned. "I've got to get to class. I'll see you around, alright?"
Roland nodded. "Of course,"
As Luce turned away and started to jog towards her class hoping that she wouldn't be late she heard her name called and turned around, seeing Roland staring after he.
"Yes" Luce called back curiously.
"Be careful," Roland told her in a cryptic tone of voice.
Brownie points if you get where Tess came from. Hope you enjoyed my latest crazy arrangement of words.