Secrets and Bionics
Hello my friends and loyal readers, I am very excited about this story because this is a passion project that has been on ice for well over two years and with the bit of free time I've had I have been given the permission of Piperup 1030 to take their story and re-write it and continue it.
The original is "Girl of Secrets" and is still available on their page, I do recommend reading it before this. And of course a big thank you to Piperup 1030 for allowing me to do this!
And as always, please. Read Review and Enjoy!
Chapter 1; First impressions
It's true where ever you go that everyone has a title, and never is this more apparent than in high school. Whether it's "Popular", "Jock", "Nerd", "Goth" or what have you you have one. It's just how it works.
A good example of this would be the Crust Cousins Britt and Tiff as the stereotypical popular mean girls, Don Prima as the "Ladies" man who focuses on his hair and nails and of course Ptreresa as the cheerleader who couldn't have a thought of her own without checking in with the head of her click.
And then there was one Sheldon Oswald Lee, a boy who was pale with greasy black hair and mildly crooked teeth. Sheldon fell easily into the category of "Nerdy super freak." A somewhat fitting title all things considered, his first love was a robot after all.
Jenny Wakemen. Sheldon's fascination will all things technological had been what had first drawn him to her in the first place but it was her personality that held him so tightly for so long. She was smart, strong, funny and very nice, even stepping in to save him when he was in trouble. It didn't matter to Sheldon that she was "Just a robot," she had more heart and soul than many of the actual people he's ever met. It was a painful day when Sheldon gave up his hope of winning her heart, the lesson having cost him much more than he had been willing to give.
Yes everyone had a title save for one. Rowena Virquil. Rowena was a stoic woman that no one had been able to figure out, not that very many had tried. Standing at an intimidating 6' 5" she only ever spoke during roll call or when called on by the teacher and as far as anyone knew she never hung out with anyone. Her skin held a lightly sun kissed color, long hail that faded into a soft gold and always in the same type of outfit; a white t-shirt with a sleeveless black hoodie, boot cut jeans with a brown belt, thick soled leather boots with matching elbow length gloves and a black beanie.
Sheldon sighed as the last bell of the day rang. As he was getting up his attention was drawn to his friend, probably the only male friend his age, Brad. "Hey Shell, You still coming to the park?"
"Yeah, I just need to get a few things from my locker." Sheldon said as he lead Brad over to his locker to grab his backpack.
"Hey guys!" Jenny said as she rounded the corner. Hanging off her back was Brad's little brother Tuck, who was tapping impatiently on Jenny's shoulder.
"You guys take to long!" he whined.
"Well we can't control when school ends," Brad sneered, "Now can we?"
"Jenny can," Tuck shot back, causing both Jenny and Brad to blink in surprise before smiling and opening their mouths.
"Principal Rizinsk," Sheldon interrupted before they could say anything, causing both to freeze. Turning to Tuck he said, "The last time they tried to 'Fix the schedule' for the school the principal went threw the roof and almost expelled us."
"We were just trying to fix the menu up a little bit," Brad defended.
"You blew the whole school budget in less than a week going over board," Sheldon said with a smirk, "I'm just glad I had the for thought to have a kill switch for when things went south."
"Uh, don't you mean if?" Tuck asked.
"Nope."
Out of the corner of Sheldon's eye he spotted Rowena, her black backpack slung over her shoulder and was walking alone as usual. Feeling a nudge on her shoulder Sheldon turned to see Brad giving him a look, "Are you eyeing that girl? Do you like her or something?"
A blush spread over Sheldon's face as he began waving his hands around. "What? No!" he stuttered, "I don't even know her! ...Well I know who she is but not really much about her." Brad just smiled and rolled his eyes as they began walking, "I don't like her."
The park was fun for the group, everyone needing bit of fun in the sun. Most of it had been throwing a frisbee for Tuck or just walking around, Jenny feed some ducks and Brad had struck out with some ladies. All and all a good day.
After everybody left for home Sheldon headed to the library, he had a few mechanic and biology books that he needed. Unfortunately Sheldon didn't account for how much time he had spent at the park and in the library. The sun had set and now he would have to walk home in the dark.
'Crap,' Sheldon thought as he held tightly to his backpack straps, constantly looking over his shoulder for anything that might be following him, or in this case waiting for him. Feeling himself being yanked into an alley and knocked to the ground with a hard blow to the back of his head, Sheldon just managed to pull his leg back before the guy could try and break it.
Sheldon gasped as he realized that these weren't just your run of the mill school bullies, these were street thugs and judging by the malicious he knew he wasn't gonna be just walking away from this. 'Double crap.'
Two of the goon grabbed him by his shoulders and yanked off his backpack before tossing it to the other who ripped it open and dumped everything out of it. All that fell out was a few books and a bunch of papers, no cash or anything that was of any interest to them. In frustration one of them grabbed a book and threw it at Sheldon who managed to avoid a head shot, unfortunately it nailed his shoulder.
"Leave the kid alone!" growled out a figure as it stuck itself in between Sheldon and the would be assaulters. Sheldon was shocked to see it was Rowena.
Everybody paused for a moment, stunned that this girl would try something so dumb, until one of the guys broke into laughter. "Or what? Oh, I'm so scared!" he mocked, making the other two thugs laugh, "This little girl's gonna beat us up!"
Rowena stepped up to the thug, causing him to back down slightly at seeing that the "Little girl" was a good six inches taller than him. He chuckled nervously before asking, "So... Whaddya want?"
"You're giving in?" one of the others asked in incredulity as he marched up and grabbed Rowena by the collar of her shirt and brought her face close to his, "What do you think you're doing girl?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She growled as a devilish smirk formed on her face. Within a second she removed the man's hand from her shirt, grabbed his collar and raised her other fist, "Or are you just that stupid? Let the kid go, or I'll make ya."
The thug's face shifted from terrified to enraged in an instant. "Make me," he snarled.
Rowena smile sweetly as she said, "My pleasure," and brought down the force of her fist onto the man's jaw, the force of the blow great enough to knock him to the ground. "Who's next? I'm good for another round or two." The two remaining men grabbed their friend and scrambled out of the alley.
With a proud smirk on her face she turned and began to gather the belongings of the kid behind her. Taking in his appearance, noting that he was holding his shoulder, she gave a disarming smile and said, "The name's Rowen, you doing okay um...?"
"Sh-Sheldon," he said, "and yeah I-I'm fine, they just hit a soft spot." As she helped him to his feet Sheldon gulped at a realization that made his heart sink. The goons ran off in the direction of his house.
"I'll walk you home," Rowen said as she gave him a soft pat on the back when she realized that he just had.
As the two began walking Sheldon did his best to break the silence. "I've seen you around the school a bit, I thought your name was Rowena."
A small laugh escaped her as she said, "Yeah, it is but I prefer to go by Rowen. Rowena sounds to much like an evil queen, at least in my opinion. And... I'm not evil..."
Sheldon could instantly feel the discomfort coming from Rowen. "I never imagined you as some one who kicks butt," he said, trying to cheer her up and change the subject, "It was really cool what you did back there!"
"Thanks," she said with a smirked before looking back down at him, frowning a bit a she saw him grab his shoulder again, "You got pretty jacked up back there, does anything hurt?"
Sheldon blushed a bit realizing that he hadn't been very subtle about his pain. "My knee is a bit scratched but it's nothing to worry about but my head is still ringing and that book got my shoulder hard." His blush magnified ten fold when Rowen invaded his space as she ran one hand over his head and the other pulling his shirt down a little and looking at his shoulder.
"Ya got a bit of a goose egg," she said with a sigh and smile, "and you shoulder has a nasty bruised but nothing serious."
Finally making it back to his house, thankfully without being jumped again, Sheldon turned to Rowen and said, "Thanks Rowen, for the save and walking me home. If you hadn't come along... I can imagine things going sour fast, I really appreciate it."
Rowen laughed and ruffled his already messy hair. "No problem Shell," she said with a soft smile, "it was kinda fun knocking those guys around!" The two laughed again as she turned around and gave a wave, "See ya tomorrow!"
"Bye!" he said back as he walked into his home, the image of her hair blowing in the wind as her beautiful face and sharp, focused brownish grey eyes burned into his mind. Sheldon grabbed his right wrist and grit his teeth a bit. 'No, bad Sheldon,' he thought to himself, 'do NOT become obsessed again, remember what happened the last time you blindly followed infatuation!'