The first day at school at Coates is always hectic. You have to find what dormitory you are going to be in, your locker, and everything else in between. There are always new kids at Coates, but they are usually different. Most of them are scared, innocent people who have no idea what they are getting themselves into. Especially the ones how are mainly there because they have gotten rejected by their parent/guardian. It happens. Coates Academy: The place where you can dump your kids and not be bothered by them anymore.
Everyone (including myself) hang out at the front first day back, socialising, or in some cases, scaring people. We all watch curiously as fancy cars sail through the main entrance at Coates. It was easier to find the people you would be spending most of your time with at Coates, because you unfortunately share a room. Even though they are single rooms, I have never gotten one myself. I have always had to share with some bratty girl, and almost every time they are younger than me. It's irritating.
I was talking to Taylor when Caine's car pulled up. Right till she died, Taylor was a gossip. I wanted the dirt from everyone's holidays, so that meant talking to Taylor. After one or two conversations, you can be ready to take on Coates, manipulate people basically. You can't blackmail anyone without having anything to hold against them, it doesn't work like that. Fortunately, Taylor didn't hate my guts yet, so I was equipped to survive another year here at the Fear Factory.
"Alicia and her brother had a big fight at the end of summer" Taylor told me as another plain black BMW came up the entrance. "Something to do with her brother stealing her boyfriend, you know, because he's gay. Anyway, they are totally not speaking now, like at all. Who else did something scandalous this holiday?" Taylor started surveying the courtyard, looking for reminders. She started talking about someone ending up getting arrested, but I wasn't listening, as I was looking at the boy I didn't know I would fall in love with.
He definitely didn't look like your average new kid. He practically glided out of the car, radiating confidence. Obviously he was wearing his Coates uniform, but a pair of sunglasses covered most of his face. He swept a glance around at the other students whilst taking of his sunglasses, revealing dark, dangerous eyes. He seemed to notice me looking at him, as he looked me up and down, taking me in.
I think it was safe to say I looked like the Queen of Coates. I aren't boasting, really, but I was definitely the most beautiful and sexy girl at Coates. Starvation hadn't come yet, or was even on the horizon, so I still had luscious dark hair, and glittering chocolate brown eyes. I am tanned, my mom was Latin American, and so the combination looked gorgeous. The uniform was shit of course, but I did my best with it. I always pulled my tie down low, had an extremely short skirt, and rarely wore my awful blazer. It made me look better than all the other girls, how sometimes didn't bother to put on make-up, or even pluck their eyebrows. It could get pretty sickening.
He seemed to almost smile when he saw me, but that's what I thought back then. After knowing him though, I knew it was his cynical smirk that he wore that day when he first saw me. I raised my sculpted eyebrows as if to say, 'What are you looking at?' He shrugged his shoulders, just slightly, and walked away to the school.
I didn't see him again till the week after. The first week of school is always one week after everyone arrives, so people can get settled in. That first week I spent most of my time in my room, only going out for the crap school meals. I had ended up room sharing with some weird tomboy with the even weirder name of Dekka. I didn't know anything about her, which made me seriously intrigued, but soon enough I realised she wasn't one who could be easily manipulated. It would take time, and effort to break Dekka, but I wasn't going to give in easily. No way.
My first class back was Maths, which sucks. Having Maths first thing was not something I wanted. Are you kidding me? Well, it wasn't as bad as Maths last thing, but it wasn't exactly fantastic. Even though people at Coates were all different with their knowledge and general cleverness, everyone is in the same class for everything, in your year. And because the head of Coates hates our year (if you spent more than five minutes with Drake Merwin you would understand why) we got given Mr Oakwood as our Maths teacher. The most boring person in the entirety of Coates. His lessons were horrifically dull, all we do is textbook work, and he also has a seating plan with boy/girl seating arrangements.
This was always terrible. The boys at Coates were either psychos, idiots, creeps that threaten to sexually harass you, or just plain losers. Caine Soren was different though. He wasn't a psycho, or a creep, idiot or loser. He was a killer, sure, and evil definitely. But he was a good looking, charismatic kind of evil.
Mr Oakwood was obviously oblivious he had just played matchmaker when he sat me and Caine together. It was in alphabetical order by first name, and of course C and D are next to each other in the alphabet. We sat at the back to the side, one of the best spots, as the teacher couldn't see easily if you weren't doing your work, and were just sitting there doodling.
Me and Caine didn't start talking immediately. We just sat down and waited for the class to start. We both thought back then that everyone and everything was beneath us, and quite frankly that lasted a long time. For me, it stopped when it came to starvation time, and there wasn't much energy for acting superior. Caine however, maintained that image up until then end. He never stopped feeling that way, which was one of the things I secretly loved about him. He just had that smug, 'I am forever better than you' look that was unbelievably attractive. Kings need that qualities don't they?
Actually, it took several minutes for that class to start, namely because some loser had been sat next to his ex-girlfriend who had cheated on him, and wasn't too happy about that. Everyone looked upon the scene in interest, apart from Caine. He just stared at nothing, bored. Like an interesting fight about teenage love that was causing serious chaos in class wasn't worth his attention. To be fair, this was his first class at Coates, so he wouldn't know who astonishingly boring things were about to get.
"Is this level of stupidity always presented in class?" was the first sentence Caine Soren said to me. At that I raised one of my sculpted eyebrows. No one was usually that straight forward about saying things like that, not in the first class of the first year. Even then, I could tell Caine was different.
"Well, this is the place to dump your idiotic, worthless kids if you can't be bothered by them" I replied coolly. "So this type of behaviour is natural here. You better get used to it, because this will start happening a lot from now on"
He slowly turned around to face me. His eyes were strangely dark, and that is coming from the girl whose eyes are darker than the future, which included murder, cannibalism and starvation. But now that I think about it, I could see some of his features that looked vaguely similar to Sam's. Those very round pupils with just the right shape of eye. His nose, nearly perfect, and teeth abnormally straight and white. Thing is, from far away, they looked as alike as me and Astrid, which wasn't much.
"Let me guess" he said slowly, looking at me up and down. Most girls would feel self-conscious, an attractive boy checking them out. It didn't bother me, which I saw he noted. "You get sent to Coates from having sex with someone forbidden?"
"Bite me" I said. "Also, you got it wrong. I didn't actually get sent to Coates for that, but flattering thanks". At that I turned back around to face the front of the class.
"Flattering?" he replied quizzically. I rolled my eyes. He knew what I meant, that I was mostly being sarcastic, but he said it anyway, most likely to annoy me.
Not turning back around to face him, I explain what I meant. "Well, apparently I am hot enough for you to think I am an absolute slut, and would have sex with someone I am not supposed to, which is everyone by the way, because I am only fourteen. Anyway, you think I am hot. Which is flattering"
At that, he turned to face the board, but not before I once again saw that cynical smirk. He thought he had me in the palm of his hand, which he was so wrong about. I was always the dominant one in our relationship, no matter what Caine said. He just used violence to get what he wanted, but me? I was able to twist him around my little finger.
He didn't make many friends at his arrival. He mostly stayed at the sidelines, what I after I while I realised was a tactical move. Make a map of the woods before you go in there yourself. He knew what he was doing.
I also found myself being sat next to him in Chemistry, which was eventful. When it came to doing practical's, we didn't talk, so we didn't end up doing so well. We both kept communication to the barest minimum, for the first couple of weeks at least. I hung out with Zara, as she is my neighbour and I have to hang out with her to appease the parents. She wasn't so bad to be honest. Even, though she was one of the first to die, which I will talk more about later.
After the first few weeks, then came the deadly proposition from Caine. One of which I accepted.