Chapter One

As I looked around the main grounds of my new school, I couldn’t help but think
This

is my new school? You’re kidding me, right?

StoneCrest School teaches all grades, Kindergarten through twelfth. The campus was huge with four rooms for each class; each classroom labeled either A, B, C or D and each building has three floors for four graduating classes on each. The PE building was to the south of where I stand, the administration and such to my west, the cafeteria to the east and the learning buildings were dead north. The pavilion, complete with a massive stage for lunchtime activities, was mostly grass with two downhill grates. It looked like they didn’t lead to anything, so I dismissed them from my mind.

“ID please.” The guard beside me ordered. I showed him my ID card, the one claiming I am a Junior. He looked at it for a minute, and then rummaged in his box. A moment later, he pulled out a packet of paper and handed the packet to me.
”You’re schedule, school rules, school day planner, school map and the schedule and requirements of all pep rallies. Go Wolves!” He said with no emotion.
I walked past him and entered StoneCrest for the first time. Nervous, I walked to an empty stone bench, pulled off my backpack and tried to locate my first class on the map as well as write out my classes in my agenda.
A few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, I turned my cell phone off and prepared to pack up my backpack.
“You’re new.”
I turned around and came face-to-face with a boy. He looked about my age, maybe a Senior. His pale skin was blemish free, except for a scar on his right cheek. His hair, jet black, was shining in the sunlight and looked like it needed to see a comb’s tooth. He was wearing a black T-shirt and grey skinny jeans, two garments that accentuated his build, muscles, legs and arms. His face was triangular, all childish fat removed. This gave his face a quality that made many girls go nuts and squealish over. But the feature that made me lose my breath was his eyes. They were a deep gold with a fiery attitude. Around the edges, they were black, but as they traveled toward the pupil, they gently transitioned from black to fool’s gold brown.
When he addressed me again, I shook my head and blinked. That was when I realized I had been staring.
“I’m sorry? Could you repeat?” I said, blushing and avoiding those hypnotic eyes.
“I said ‘You are new.’” It was not a question, but a statement of fact.
“Yes, I am. My name is Andrea Peters, class of twenty ninety. May I help you?”
“Hello, Andrea. I’m Damyn, same class.”
“Nice to meet you, Damyn.”
“I’m here to escort you to and from each class for the remainder of the week, as well as give you tours of the campus. What classroom?”
“Classroom…” I looked at my schedule “11D.”
“Follow me.” He said before turning around and walking away. I grabbed my stuff and hurried to catch up.
“So…” I start to say, but Damyn just cuts me off by stopping dead, twisting around, looking me in the eyes and pointing a finger in my face. I stop and back up to avoid hitting him. “Just because we have every class together doesn’t mean we’re gonna be best friends. Personally, I much prefer being alone with no one to talk to as opposed to being forced to endure your girly, self-centered, ‘it’s all about me’ attitude. So why don’t you save us both some trouble and don’t talk to me at all.”
He turned around again and stalked off, leaving me, shocked, trying to figure out what the hell just happened before running to catch up.
We were silent as Damyn led me down the top floor of the third building and pointed out each appliance in the hallway. A pair of restrooms, two water fountains, sixteen classrooms, multiple shelves for students’ work and some windows looking out over the valley.
Damyn held the door for our classroom open for me. Realizing this, I turned around and landmarked where it lay before stepping inside to greet my new teacher.
“Good morning. Who might you be?” Called the teacher, whom looked to be in his late fifties.
“Andrea Peters. I’m new this year, sir.”
“Welcome, Andrea. I’m Mr. Jasper.” He stood up from his chair and walked to me to shake my hand. “I’m sure you’re going to like it at StoneCrest. We have a very good education program and extracurricular activities.”
“Yes, I saw it on the school district's website. In fact, I was wondering how I might find out about community service opportunities.”
“I will hand out a pamphlet every month. That pamphlet lists all services and suggestions for that month.”
“Oh, good.”
Mr. Jasper’s gaze went from me to Damyn, who stood at the wall behind me. Mr. Jasper’s eyes changed…texture and his voice grew guarded. “Oh. Hello, Damyn.”
“Hello, Mr. Jasper.” Damyn replied.
“You two know each other?”
“Quite. He’s been in my class for the last two years now, last year as my Expository English student and again this year.”
“Oh. Well, I think that’s exciting. Having the same teacher two or more years in a row can make things easier when you know how that teacher does things.” i piped in, trying to keep the atmosphere at least somewhat positive.
“Yes, I suppose you‘re right. You know, most people would have groaned at having the same teacher over and over again. You have a bright outlook on life, don’t you, Ms. Peters?”
“Well, I try. Why should we go through life focusing on the negatives and never the positives?”
“A good question, indeed. My wife just seems absolutely intent on seeing nothing but

the negative. She sees everybody’s flaws and focuses on the flaws alone. She even criticizes our kids!”
“Wow. I feel sorry for her. To never know the subtle joys of life…” I sympathized, tsking.
“Tell me about it. Oh, the bell’s about to ring. You’d better get against the wall. The rooms tend to fill up real quick once the bell has rung.”
I nodded, knowing that with an overcrowded school like StoneCrest, it would. I picked a spot by the whiteboard and gripped onto the railing when the flood started.
It was pandemonium pretty damn fast. I found myself without room to breathe within two minutes! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Damyn in the corner, not a single soul near him, standing perfectly calm and inattentive. I made my way towards him for a breath of air and to get away from the deafening noise of three females squealing over some guy.
When I got to him, the relief was so great that I actually lost my footing and had to grapple for his arm to regain my balance. However, as soon as my hand touched his arm, he jerked away and left me to scramble to regain my footing.
“Don’t touch me.” He growled, his voice low and deadly in my ear.
“I lost my balance. You were the closest thing.” I explained, automatically going on the defensive.
“Please! Do you expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth!”
Then, Mr. Jasper blew his whistle. Immediately, every soul was dead silent. It went from an unorganized triple choir concert to a cemetery so fast that it left me reeling to adjust.
“Most of you have been here long enough to know who I am. Therefore, I’m going to skip the whole ‘I’m going to talk about myself’ rant you are treated to every year by every teacher. Instead, I’m going to hand out a packet with everything you’ll need for the semester. Do not lose this because I do not have spares. I’m also going to assign your seats for the next few weeks.” Then, he started calling off names. One by one, the crowd dissipated to their designated seats. I was among those in the middle. I was placed in the last row, second to last on Mr. Jasper’s left hand side, directly in front of the window that overlooked a giant cloud of smog. Incidentally, Damyn was placed on my right hand side.
After each student was seated, Mr. Jasper handed out this semester’s paperwork. Before he could get to me, I had my English folder out and ready to accept the papers. I also pulled out a pencil, sharpener and eraser. People started snickering and pointing but I paid them no mind, although I did start to feel a little self-conscious.
The whole two hours were mostly just passing out paperwork, signing agreement contracts and setting up the rules and requirements of the class.
Before long, the bell was ringing to let one third of the school out to break. The other two thirds continue on to second period.
“Where do I go next?” I asked Damyn, putting my stuff away in its designated compartments.
“You and I go to First Break. Then, we go to second period.”
“Okay. Can you show me around?”
“That’s my job, remember? Keep up.” He stated, shouldering his pack and joining the line bound for the door. Quickly, I finished packing and joined him, cutting in front of a few people to claim the space behind Damyn. It was the only way to lessen the chances of us getting separated. If this school is has as big a population as the brochure bragged, then staying near Damyn was going to be a real chore.
“Umm, Damyn. I know that you don’t like being touched, but may I hold on to your elbow? Its only to make sure we aren’t separated. I could still get very lost.” I asked, using my sweetest tone. I threw in the whys because I knew he would object if I didn’t give a valid reason.
Surprised by my audacity, he turned his head to look at me out of one eye, then nodded. Tentatively, I gripped his jacket’s elbow in a pinch. It was too small to leave wrinkles, but it wasn’t strong enough to make me look like I was throwing myself all over him and trying to find a good excuse.
It worked! We made it outside, after fighting a huge crowd and nearly getting separated with every step. As soon as we were on the grass, I let go of Damyn’s jacket, giving him the space of his personal bubble.
“No more grabbing onto me. From now on, until your tutorial week is up, we will meet here before school, break, lunch and after school. Once Monday of next week comes, no more meetings, no more communication between us. You will be out of my life, out of my hair and I will forget about ever meeting you. Understood?”
“Yeah. Umm, can I ask a question?”
“I guess.” He replied, setting down his backpack.
“Why are you so reclusive? You snapped at me when I tried to talk to you this morning, you’re totally rude and I have to ask you if I can sit next to you! What happened to make you like this? Or is this natural for you? And why did you accuse me of being a self-absorbed bitch? You don't even know me! ” I demanded, royally pissed off that he saw things in me that I just don’t have the bones to do.
“First, you said one question, and you asked me four. Second, I’m just building a barrier. Third, I don’t have to answer any of those questions, and fourth, I…suffered from something that’s completely changed my view on people, women in particular.”
“So, a girlfriend? Did she dump you, cheat, or something?”
“Kind of. But I don’t want to talk about it. Not now, not ever! And I said ‘don’t talk to me’, because I don’t trust women. Several have stabbed me in the back, one was more brutal than the others.” He confessed, his tone deadly serious. I was left speechless, paralyzed by the thought of his ex-girlfriend doing some horrible thing to turn his previous self into this. Damyn, on the other hand, was still clearly suffering from the side effects of his torment. When he talked about the betrayal, his eyes were pained and he spoke quietly until his ‘not now, not ever’ outburst.
I stared at him in shock, but Damyn was still suffering. He sat down beside his pack and pulled a ring out of his pocket. He held in his fingers, examining it. He held it up to the sun and twisted the ring this way and that, trying to read the inscription. He must have loved his girlfriend very much to be so broken and still hold on to her ring. But what did it signify for him? Why did he keep it, even after all of the pain he’s gone through? Most guys would have chucked the ring in the nearest stream and recovered from their loss, throwing themselves into another girl’s arms and forgetting about the previous girl. With Damyn, it was obviously different. What happened to him?

Chapter Two

Break came and went. Heck, so did the rest of the school day for that matter! Before I knew it, Damyn and I were exchanging addresses. Well, I was telling him my address without getting his. He was real secretive about it for some reason. It’s probably related his to ex.
“Why are you telling me you’re address, Andrea? Its not like I’ll ever come over, so what’s the point?”
“I usually exchange addresses and numbers with my friends.”
“Whoa, wait! No. No, no! I am not your friend!” He exclaimed, shaking his head in confusion, then pointing his finger at me like he had this morning.
“Yes, you are. You helped me get accustomed to my new school. And even though you might not think of me as a friend, I still think of you as a friend and that will never change, no matter what you say or do!”
“No! We are not friends. Friends means hanging out, getting close, risking heartache. All three are things I do not wish. I am perfectly happy going solo and I will never get close to anyone else!”
“But why? And a friend is also there when needed for the other, a shoulder to cry on. Someone to help you out of a tight spot, someone for you to trust. I would like to be that friend, since everyone is too scared to approach you. Please, Damyn. I promise, I won’t be like whomever made you so hard and cold. Let me be your friend, Damyn.”
“No. I can’t…I couldn’t handle it. As broken as I am now, even though I have nothing left to lose, if I let myself get close to you, how do I know you won’t be Bell? If I let myself…open my heart to you, in any way, how do I know you won’t betray me, rip my heart to pieces, and destroy what barrier I’ve managed to put up? How do I know I can trust you enough to f…” He stopped, turning away. The pain from the past was back, and he had a lot of valid excuses for not letting me close.
“Fall in love? Is that what you were going to say?” I whispered, shocked by how far his ex had managed to get before turning traitor. “Is that what happened? You fell for her, then she left?” I prodded. He looked like he was about to burst with the truth. He shuddered, tears and an intense pain entered his eyes. He put his head in his hands, gripping his hair. My protective instincts went into overdrive. I stepped forward, risking my sanity if he refused my comfort, put my arms around his waist and snuggled into his chest, trying to erase his pain simply by willing it to happen. He froze for a moment, trying to figure out how to respond to my hug, then put his arms around me, bending down to rest his head against my shoulder. He held me close, his body convulsing with tears and the pain of the past. I just held him tighter, close to tears myself. I tried to recreate what happened in my imagination and I was horrified by what Bell might have done. But, no matter what situation I put up, nothing could be have such lasting effects. Judging from the ease of his pushing everyone away, the reluctance to think or say anything about Bell, the number of tears running down his cheeks, and the intensity of his sobs, he had been alone for a long time. Years, perhaps. And no amount of dating betrayal could leave him scarred for years.
His hands gripped my back, bunching my shirt in his fists, pulling me flat against him. Trying to steady myself, I placed one of my legs between his, knowing there was enough room for it. I snuggled closer, telling him that I am here, will always be here, that he could trust me.
Then he collapsed. He fell to his knees, bringing me down with him. It was a much more natural position. He placed his chin on my shoulder, brought his arms around the top of my shoulders, moving one down my spine to the small of my back.
Not long after, his sobs were nothing but hiccups and he was pulling away from my embrace. I looked into his face and placed my hand on his cheek. He gripped my hand with his and rubbed his cheek against my palm. He opened his eyes and look into mine.
“Thank you, Andrea.” He whispered, his eyes changed from pained to grateful and tender.
I smiled before pulling him into another hug.
“Congratulations, Andrea.” He whispered in my ear.
“For what?”
“For getting past my shield, for getting me to cry.”
“Oh, come on, Damyn. I didn’t do anything. Okay, so maybe I started the waterworks, but the rest was you. You were ready to spill and I was the one close and caring enough to help.”
“Either way, getting to me is a big deal. Making me cry is even bigger. I trust you, Andrea.”
I was speechless. He has given me his trust?
“I trust you, too, Damyn.” I replied.

Chapter Three

Tuesday greeted me in the form of Damyn knocking on my door. My mom was the one who opened it. “Andrea, you’ve got company!” She hollered.
“Alright! I’ll be right there! Invite him inside!” I replied, finishing my hair and starting on my makeup.
When I shot down the stairs a few minutes later, I rushed to the foyer, eager to see Damyn. Sure enough, there he was. He was sitting in the red love seat, admiring the painting across the room from him.
“Damyn.” I said, glad he was here. He spun to face me and his eyes light up.
"Wow. Andrea, you look really great." I blushed, knowing that such a mild compliment was not easy for him.
"Why, thank you, kind sir. What is the nature of your business on this Tuesday morning?" I asked, switching from my American accent to an obviously fake British of the late 1700s in London. He caught on to my game and, showing an impressive amount of manners, fisted his hands, brought his left behind his back and his right across his belly as he bowed at the waist. "To escort one Andrea Peters to her daily lessons at StoneCrest. Do I have permission to proceed with this task?" he finished beautifully when he stepped forward, grasped my right hand and brought it to his lips. "Although I must admit I am not very sure it is proper for me to be escorting such a beautiful maiden to such a common facility."
"But darling, that's the fun! What better way can I learn to think like them in order to avoid future problems, then to be one of them? And this is the first step. Commoner's school." My act was completely made up on the spot and it was so pathetic I had to struggle from laughing, turning me red. Damyn must have thought the same because he grinned like a fool and played along well.
"I suppose that is true."
Having nowhere else to go, we ended the facade and busted up laughing.
When we finally settled down, I grabbed my backpack and lunch money envelope and Damyn held the door for me when we went out. "But seriously, though, you do look beautiful."
"Thanks. If you think this is good, wait until Prom! The dress is going to knock you dead!"
"Oh, I find that rather hard to believe, but I'm sure you will look absolutely gorgeous anyway."

It was a short walk from my house to StoneCrest, but it was far enough for us to exit the 'Mansion District', as Damyn liked to call it, and enter his territory. Yes, I am filthy rich and I will occasionally show it, but only on special nights like Prom or Homecoming. My parents are big-shot photographers and with my novels selling like they are, our combined income is enough to buy several houses in cash. But I'm saving my money for college and starting up my future as part-time novelist and full-time bio-engineer. I have already published three novels and my pride and joy, 'Everlasting', has been on the nations bestselling list for five months now. The other two claim spots two and three of that same list.

We made it to English with no problems and we were seated and ready to start the day long before the bell rang.
Today, Mr. Jasper checked off our 'homework', checked to make sure we all had our ID Cards, then took us to the library to get a couple of books. One was for reading in class and for class discussion. The other was mostly of our choice, but there were restrictions, and it was to be read OUTSIDE of class.
After that, he got us started on setting up our notebooks, which he would collect regularly to check and input grades, another notebook for notes but it had to be of the same color, and gave us our First Period Homework Agenda. When the bell rang an hour after school started, I had a lot of homework to do already and I knew I was going to be up a few hours getting set up correctly.

Second Period Anatomy was more complicated than English. The teacher handed out a series of worksheets, assigning them as homework, passed out the Agendas, and gave us the same notebook criteria as Mr. Jasper. All homework, worksheets included, are to be either written in or stapled to the notebook in any order in one, notes in another. Both must be of same color and clearly labeled as either 'Homework Notebook' or 'Notes'. Then he introduced us to the wonders of the human body. We wrote our vocab words on flash cards and started a few worksheets before the bell rang and the students filed out.

Directly after Second Period, Damyn and I had US History. Basically, we did the whole thing again. Notebooks, Agendas, contracts checked. The whole shebang.
'Damyn, is this going to go on all day? The repetition is giving me a headache.' I wrote on a piece of paper from an extra notebook. I turned the paper slightly toward him and nudged him with my knee to get his attention. He looked at the note, grabbed a pen and wrote his reply.
'Pretty much. We go through the whole thing every year in every class. Even the younger ones are doing it. Sorry about your headache.' I jotted down what I had to say before the teacher saw.
'I feel so sorry for them! It must be brutal for the new newcomers, huh?'

'Oh yeah, brutal is right. I had a hard time adjusting myself. But I think it’s for the best. The teachers are setting the students up to be organized and that will help them succeed tremendously. I can't think of any other way I could study then the way they've taught us.'
'Well, of course! It's the only method you know!'

And so the day went on. Damyn and I had First Break and Third Lunch, so pickings were always a little scarce.

To remind me of what to get, I wrote down the items, quantity and color on a piece of paper. Mom would go shopping tomorrow and I can get started on my sky-high pile of homework. Tomorrow night, I can attach it all to the appropriate notebooks and fill out the Agendas.

As we trudged out of the school at three o'clock, my backpack was very heavy with all of the new items it was carrying.
"God, this thing weighs a ton now! I might have to get a new backpack." I whined, readjusting the backpack's position on my back and shoulders.
"No, you're just carrying it wrong. Here." Damyn said before he reached across my belly and pulled on the straps that adjusted the length of the straps around my shoulders. The straps on my back rose all of the way up and a great deal was lifted from my shoulders.
"Whew! That's better. Thanks, Damyn. How did you know to do that?"
"Years of experience. I've been going here since I was in Kindergarten."
"Really? I would have loved being here so long. To know everything there is to know about the school, where everything is, know a lot if not all of the teachers, to know how to succeed, how the little details play into the bigger areas..."
"Yeah. I've never really noticed. I only knew what to do and how to do it."
"I still envy you."
Damyn laughed at my reply, lifting his head back a little, a big smile spreading across his face. His usually hard, scary features softened and he looked almost happy. Like Bell had never been in his life.
"So, I've got nothing going on tonight and we have a lot of homework to do. Why don't we study for a few hours?" He asked.
"That's a good idea. Mom and Dad won't mind and I'm free, too." I said, grateful I would have someone help me with the homework and get used to the new system.
"Great. So, what subject did you want to tackle first?"
"Umm..." I stalled as I searched my mind for the closest due date. "I think we should do History. We've got several assignments due in two days and the others are between a week and a week and a half. Once we finished the History, we can work on the others."
"Very good. You're going to be just fine."
"Good. Because if I didn't, I wouldn't have a prayer of going to college."
"College? Do what?"
"Novelist and bio-engineer. That's why I'm taking Anatomy. I also might take a few extra courses like BioMed, Physiology, Medical Terminology, AVID. I'm going to need as much preparation as I can get."
"That's a long list. You might want to divide them up between this year, next year and this summer. Maybe even Credit Recovery."
"I was planning on doing just that. But what about you? What do you want to do with your life?"
"I've never thought about it, but I'm pretty good with animals, dogs in particular. Maybe I can be a vet or wildlife worker or something."
"Really? I never would have thought you would like dogs. But, then again, who doesn't?"
"Yeah, that's true. But I sort of gave up on it when I fell for Bell. I wanted to settle down with her, and college isn't exactly compatible with raising kids. But now that path is open to me again, if I can make up the credits. Damn, I'm in for it. Three years of negligence and now I've got to cram six years of studying into two."
"Six years? I thought the High School division only has four."
"Well, yeah, but because of my grades since Bell, I haven't been allowed to progress with my class. They graduated two years ago."
"Oh. Well, I can help you. I can tutor you! I've taken Advanced classes since I was a kid, and I'm sure we had the same classes. We can work on this year's work on the weekdays, other year's on the weekends and when we don't have homework and over vacation. If you're as smart as I think you are, you'll be caught up in no time. We'll also have to get you enrolled in as many Credit Recovery classes as we can. That will cut back on homework time, but you'll still get to graduate."
"You really think so? Okay then."
"But you have to want it. I can't make you study and do the homework. You have to do that on your own."
"Yeah. I know. My mom's been on my ass about it for a long time now."

When we got to my house, I let Damyn use the phone so he could call his mom while I went upstairs to clean up. The most embarrassing things were my laundry, so I grabbed those and threw them in the hamper. Then I emptied its contents down the chute that dumped the clothes in the laundry room and closed the hatch. After that, all that was left was clearing space on the floor. I decided to clear off a section and went to work.
By the time Damyn came up the stairs fifteen minutes later, almost my entire floor had been cleared. This showed off how huge it was and the beauty of the shapes it was given.
"Wow. Nice room."
"Thanks. I want to change the color from indigo to sea-foam blue. What do you think?"
"With all of this cream to offset it, it would look perfect. A natural beach setting five hundred miles from a lake."
"So, I figured we could sit on the floor. Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah, totally." He said, dropping his backpack on the floor across from me. "Okay. You said History, right?"
"Yeah. I've got my textbook here. Figured we could share."
"Always a good idea. Alright." He muttered as he shifted through his backpack, looking for the appropriate things. I got out my stuff as well and soon we were engrossed in our homework.
"Hey, Damyn, would you like a snack?"
"Sure. What do you have?"
I gave him the list of items and his eyes opened wide.
"And those are just the non-perishables. We've also got a bunch of cheeses, sodas, juice, milk, fruit, veggies, leafery. You name it."
"Okay. Wow. Umm... Can you get me a Sprite, a bowl of spinach or iceberg lettuce, the Cheeze-it box and some Lays?"
"Sure thing. I'll be right back." I said, grabbing two baskets by my door. I kept a fridge in my room, and the baskets helped me haul loads of snacks and sodas to my room when I needed to restock my inventory. I was going downstairs because my fridge was low again.

Ten minutes later, I climbed the stairs again, both baskets full with the items and some additional sodas.
"Here you go." I set his basket down next to him and took my place across from him again.
"Jeez! Thanks for the snacks."
“No problem.” I sais as I emptied one basket into my fridge, then I sat down with him and we got started on our homework.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 26.09.2011

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