Chapter 1

First Day of School

"Aria!"

Aria heard her mother's voice calling her name for what seemed like at least five minutes. She knew sooner or later Elizabeth would come upstairs into her room to make sure she was awake. In her household, Aria was pretty well known for over sleeping and not hearing alarms. On weekends, she would usually sleep until at least noon, sometimes even two or three in the afternoon. It wasn't like she stayed up late or anything, she just always would sleep for a long period of time.

"Aria, are you awake?" Elizabeth inquired as she opened the door to check on her daughter. When she saw Aria, she was lying on her stomach, the covers pulled over her head.

"Come on, Aria. You need to get ready for school." Elizabeth sat down on the bed and gently patted Aria's back.

Aria pleaded, "Five more minutes, please? I'm really sleepy."

"Last time we did that, when I came back to wake you up you just asked for an additional five minutes. You keep that up and you will be late for school."

"Fine with me," Aria retorted. "I don't want to go anyway."

Elizabeth looked down at Aria. It was hard to believe she will be turning sixteen years old this year. She had grown up beautifully with her long golden hair and fair skin, neither of which Aria appreciated. "Don't worry. The first year in high school is always the worst. I'm sure this year will be better. Come on, sweetie, lets get up and I'll help you blush your hair."

"I don't see why I can't get it cut," Aria complained. "I'll bet a lot of other girls at school are going to have brand new hairstyles and mine will look exactly the same as it did the year before."

"I've told you before, Aria. Your long hair is what makes you who you are. It's one of your special qualities."

Aria rolled her eyes. Mothers. As a little girl, Aria absolutely loved having long hair. It made her feel like a princess in a Disney movie. Now, however, her hair was just another hassle for her to deal with first thing in the morning. She and her mother would spend at least ten minutes every morning trying to get the tangles out. Plus, not one single girl she knew of at school had hair as long as hers. The most recent style is a couple inches past the shoulders with layers. Aria had been asking all summer if she could get her hair cut but her parents refused for some unknown reason. Oh well, Aria sighed. She supposed she will just have to deal with it. She really did not feel like starting this argument again with her mother, especially not this early in the morning.

After Aria's hair was finally tangle free, she went down stairs for breakfast. As she entered the kitchen, she saw a newspaper held up with her father's legs popping out from from underneath.

"Well, good morning, sleeping beauty," Ted smiled, lowering the paper, as his daughter entered the kitchen. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine, though I would have liked to sleep more," Aria replied while looking in the fridge. When nothing appealed to her, she grabbed a piece of toast.

Elizabeth came in. "Aria, that's not enough. Why don't you let me make you something more satisfying."

"I'm not hungry. Besides, Vanessa will be hear soon. I have to finish getting ready."

Vanessa Cooper was probably the best thing about Sheerwood High. She and Aria had been best friends since before Aria could remember. Vanessa lived right across the street from Aria so they could see each other all the time. Every day, they would walk to school together, which was nice since they usually did not have many classes together.

Aria parents exchanged glances with each other before Elizabeth looked over to Aria and spoke, "Aria, maybe either your father or I should start driving you girls to school this year or at least let us walk with you."

"What? Why?" Aria asked, bewildered. "We always walk to school. Besides I would look like a complete dork if my parents walked me to school. It would just give the other kids another reason to make fun of me."

"Oh, honey. You shouldn't worry about what the other kids think. Your safety is what you should be concerned about."

"You let Vanessa and me walk to school by ourselves last year and we were just fine."

"Yeah, well," Elizabeth exchanged a quick glance with Ted before continuing, "you will be turning sixteen in a couple months and, um, there are people out there who may sometimes come after young girls."

Aria did not know what to even say to her mother. It seemed as if the older she got the more overprotective her parents became. When she was ten, she and Vanessa were aloud to run around the neighborhood without adult supervision as long as it wasn't at night. Besides, it's not like the second she turns sixteen people are going to start coming after her.

"Mom, I promise Vanessa and I will stay together and walk straight to school and then come straight home when classes are over. We'll be fine."

The doorbell rang. Before her parents had a chance to say anything else, Aria yelled bye, grabbed her backpack and ran to the front door. When she opened it, she found Vanessa, beaming, her curly, strawberry blonde hair, bouncing off her shoulders.

"Hey girl! I haven't seen you since you got back from from, California. How was it!" Vanessa greeted.

"Great, come on lets start walking," Aria took hold of Vanessa's arm and pulled to down the sidewalk, walking rapidly until they were a few houses down the street.

"Well, you seem to be anxious to get to school for a change," Vanessa commented. "What up with that?"

"Sorry," Aria released Vanessa's arm. "It's just that my parents insisted on walking with us to school."

"What?" Vanessa looked appalled. "Why would they want to do that?"

"I don't know. They said something about some people might be after girls our age or something like that."

"Ok, why are they suddenly worried about it now and not last year? Its not the crime rate in Norfolk suddenly shot up or anything since last year."

Aria sighed as the girls continued to walk down the street. She honestly had no idea what had gotten in to parents this year all of the sudden. They just seemed to get weirder and weirder every year.

When they got to the end they heard a voice.

"Hey girls!"

They looked and saw that it was Ms. Fleming out in her yard waving. Speaking of weird, Ms. Fleming had to be one of the strangest people Aria has ever met in her entire life. The way she dressed reminded Aria of a gypsy with her long shirts and excessive jewelry. Her hair flaming red went about down to just past her mid-back, almost as long as Aria's. Her house seemed to fit her personality quite well. She had painted all over the bricks so it looked like a piece of abstract artwork. Never the less, Aria still liked her. She remembered how much fun she use to have when Ms. Fleming use to babysit her.

"Hi Ms. Fleming," they replied in unison.

"Are you looking forward to the new school year?"

"Not really," Vanessa responded while Aria just shook her head.

"Oh… come on now. Aren't there like a lot of cute boys? Girls your age should enjoy that."

This time Aria spoke, "Yeah, but none of them are interested in us."

Ms. Fleming just continued to smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure you will find your Prince Charming soon. Well, you girls had better be on your way. You don't want to be late."

When they reached out of earshot from Ms. Fleming Vanessa commented, "That was kind of strange. I mean what she said about finding Prince Charming."

Aria didn't really think much on it. Ever since she was a little girl, Ms. Fleming would talk about how one day Aria would find the perfect man, calling him either her true love or Prince Charming. She said it was Aria's destiny. "I'll bet if she went to out school she would see that not one single boy fits the description of a Prince Charming."

"Sometimes the way she talks, its like she not even from this world. Don't you think?"

Aria was not really sure what to say. Vanessa was always quick to believe in out there or even supernatural ideas. She was the last person Aria knew that stopped believing in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. When they were kids, Vanessa would never go out during a full moon because she believed there may be werewolves out there somewhere.

"She definitely stands out here in Nebraska."

Vanessa still looked deep in thought. "Don't you think its weird that she looks the exact same as she did when we were kids. Its like she does not age."

"Maybe she's she's vampire," said Aria jokingly.

Vanessa suddenly realized how ridiculous she sounded. The girls continued to laugh as they walked the rest of the way to school. When they arrived they found, they saw a group of boys standing by the front steps, talking and laughing.

Oh no, Aria thought to herself, not Derek James. Aria had hoped he'd transfer or get held back or something, anything. Ever since elementary school, Derek had always tormented and made fun of Aria. It was never anything serious. He would just call her names or tug on her long hair, but never too hard, except for once in second grade, he accidentally pulled to hard and made Aria cry. Aria just wished that for once he would just leave her alone.

As Aria quickly walked up the steps, Derek waved to her, "Hey Aria! What did you do over the summer?"

Aria looked at him confused. Was he actually trying to have a real conversation with her? "I went to California with my parents."

Derek laughed, glanced at his best friend, Ian, then said, "Don't people usually get tanner after going to California. You're even paler than I remember you."

"I'm exactly the same," Aria muttered as she and Vanessa moved on into the building.

"Just ignore him," Vanessa consoled. "He's just being a jerk. Besides, its better to use sunblock and protect your skin than wear nothing, try to tan, and then just get burned."

"That's just it, Vanessa. I did not wear any sunblock. I just used sun tan oil and then on the last few days, I didn't even bother with that. Nothing happened. My skin just didn't do anything."

"Well, at least you didn't get burned. There are some people who go out in the sun for like five minutes and turn as red as a tomato," Vanessa stated.

"Yeah, well my skin just never changes. I've looked exactly the same most of my life. The only change is I just grew taller. I'm not allowed to change my hair color or even cut it."

Vanessa thought for a moment. "It's weird that your parent won't let you cut your hair. I mean, I've heard of parents not letting their kids dye their hair, but I've never known anyone's parents to not let them get a simple haircut."

"I swear, my parents seem to get stranger and stranger as time goes on."

"Who's getting stranger?" a voice came from behind them. "You're not talking about behind my back are you?"

"Hey Walter!" the girls greeted their only other friend at Sheerwood, Walter Price.

"Hello, Aria, Vanessa. How was your summer?"

"It was alright," Vanessa answered. "I went to Maine to visit my grandparents and Aria went to California and didn't get a tan."

"Thanks, Vanessa," Aria rolled her eyes. "How about you, Walter?"

"My parents sent me to a study Camp to improve my studying habits. It was actually quite helpful."

Vanessa snorted. "Like you of all people need to go to a study camp! You're already the smartest person in our grade."

"Yes, well, being the smartest student at a mediocre high school is hardly much of an achievement."

"Well then," Vanessa declared. "You'll be able to help us out with our homework even more this year."

"I swear, sometimes I think you two just hang around me for grades. Especially since I only see you at school." Walter smiled as he spoke.

Aria then replied, "Well, you never want to go to the mall or watch chick flicks with us on the weekends."

"That's true. I prefer to use my time more wisely. Such as studying to make good grades, which I advise both of you to do the same."

"Not everyone is a brainiac, Walter, " Vanessa informed. "Some people have a hard time with studying."

"Maybe if I teach you two some of the methods I learned at camp, it will help you improve your grades."

"Yeah maybe," Vanessa sighed. "But I think I'm more of the athletic type. Not the the smart type."

Last year Vanessa played on the girls volleyball team and she was probably one of the strongest players. Aria was sure she would try out for the team again this year. As for Aria, her talents lied more with music. Last year, she played the flute in the school band, and planned to do the same this year. She absolutely loved playing the flute. It made her feel so peaceful. Like Vanessa, she too struggled with academics. As long as she tried, she would make mostly Bs. The only class she ever made an A in was English and of course Band.

"Oh great," Vanessa said sarcastically as she turned around. "Look who it is."

Aria looked down the hall only to see Kendal Lewis, who was probably the meanest, snobbiest girl in the entire school. Behind her, were her two most devoted disciples, Lacey Goodman and Karin Wales. Those two would always follow Kendal around and do whatever she did and Kendal has no problem bossing them around.

Aria saw that she was handing out party invitations. Ever since Kendal's mother got remarried to a wealthy lawyer, Kendal would through huge parities at her new house and invite everyone who was anyone. Unfortunately, Aria was not invited. She never got invited to any parties.

Kendal briefly glared at Aria and then brushed past her lightly bumping her, while proceeding to pass out her invitations.

Aria sighed. It looks like another year in high school had just begun, exactly the same as the year before.