Sheila

Chapter 1

Hey guys! This is my first story ever.. and English is not my first language, so please spare me a bit. I'd love criticism and help, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

Her grey eyes shoot open as the sharp alarm sound blasts from her phone, that's resting on the nightstand, next to the bed. Sheila quickly shuffles over to grab the gadget and turn it off. Even though she tried to set it to the quietest option possible that would still be loud enough to wake her up, she still worries she would wake her family up. It happened way too many times already, no matter how much she tried not to. She groans and turns to lay on her back, staring at the ceiling.

The painting of a beautiful landscape was all across it. It is still quite early in the morning, so there isn't enough light to properly see it, but Sheila knows each detail and where they are perfect. She woke up looking at it each morning, staring at the violets blooming next to the waterfall, the white doves flying off in the distance, the deer's head barely poking out of the forest. Just looking at it causes Sheila to smile, and start the day on a better note.
She gets off from the bed, slowly makes her way over to the wardrobe and gets dressed. She puts on her usual workout clothes, but now also puts on a warmer jumper. The weather is quite cold in the morning, even colder than usual these days. She grabs her keys, phone and earphones, before heading out of her room. As she starts to put in her earphones in the hallway, the phone slips from her hand, which makes quite a loud sound upon impact. She winces silently and quickly reaches down, checking if it's broken. She lets out a sigh of relief as it isn't, but that moment of relief is cut off by an annoyed groan coming from behind the closed door of her sister's room. "Sheeeiillaaaa.." Sheila, now feeling embarrassed and guilty, quickly runs down the stairs after whispering a number of apologies to the now woken up Dorothy's door.
The grey-eyed girl sighs as she walks out of the house, now with a water bottle as well, which was acquired from the kitchen. She takes in a deep breath of the fresh, but cold morning air, before hitting play on her phone, and starting her morning jog.
Her short, dark brown hair bops up and down as she makes her way uphill. She's always liked coming out at this time. The whole town is sleeping, if not just waking up. This is the time where the world feels peaceful and calm, but not lonely.
The trail she usually takes leads her through a forest next to the town. The woods look more dead than she'd expect them to, since its just the beginning of fall. She doesn't bother thinking about it too much though.
As she gets out of the woods she suddenly loses footing and slips, falling onto her back. She winces, as a sharp pain, strikes into her bottom, the ground feeling harder than she expected it to. As she touches the hard surface, she realizes why. She stepped onto a frozen puddle, that she didn't remember being there yesterday. She carefully gets up, trying her best not to fall again, as she already feels quite embarrassed, even though no one saw it.
Just before she tries to continue her jog, she notices a boy at the corner of the street, wearing a black coat. She can't really see his face from this far, but she knows... He's looking at her.
Her embarrassment just grows as the hopeful dream that nobody saw her humiliating fall, had just shattered. She quickly averts her gaze and continues to jog, and as she passes near the boy, she notices he already turned away and her gaze is pulled to an interesting symbol on the back of his coat.
That's cool. I wonder where he got that from.
She makes her way down the rest of the way, back to her house, having just enough time to change and grab a bite before having to head off to school. After putting on casual clothes: an orange shirt with vertical white stripes tucked into her blue, cuffed jeans, complemented by black and white sneakers on top of white socks, and a black belt on her waist, she walks down the stairs, heading towards the kitchen through the living room.
Dorothy, her younger sister is sitting on the sofa. She doesn't look up or reacts, even though Sheila's sure she heard her walking past her, and saying good morning. Any other day, she'd think she's just too invested in the current youtube video she is watching, but today she knows she's just still salty about her waking her up.
Sheila doesn't pay much mind to her and lets her boil in her anger, knowing this will all be forgotten when she brings her favourite cupcake as a peace offering when she gets home after school. Their father is currently in the kitchen, cooking up pancakes as the smell of chocolate and caramel syrup filled the air, causing Sheila's mouth to instantly start to water.
"That smells amaziiinngg! When will it be done?" she inquires while putting down her bag next to the chair she sat down on. Her dad glances back at her, smiling proudly. "Good morning to you too, sweetie. Did you have a good run?"
Sheila instantly blushes out of embarrassment, as she chuckles awkwardly. "Did I wake you up too?"
"It honestly feels like a routine at this point." Her dad answers, with a cheery and calm tone, not really seeming to hold any grudge because of it, and Sheila feels extremely grateful for that. Still, she feels compelled to apologize.
"I'm sorry!" She exclaims "I try so hard not to make any noise, but it's like I can't. It's impossible! It feels like the universe just wants me to fail!"
"Well, that's a depressing thought." Her father smiles as he walks over with a plate of chocolate chipped pancakes. He puts it down in front of her, planting a loving peck on her forehead as well. He turns towards the living room and shouts out. "Dory! Breakfast is ready!"
"I'm not hungry!" Dory shouts back.
"I made your favourite! Chocolate chipped pancakes with caramel syrup! Are you sure?"
"Yes..." Sheila and her dad could hear the lack of confidence in her voice and realize what's happening.
"Okay..okay. So you're sure you're not.. just mad at Sheila?" Her dad is leaning against the wall, keeping up this shouting back and forth thing, instead of actually going over there to talk to her. Might be because he doesn't want Sheila to feel left out or alone.
"No!" Dory shouts back without hesitation, now having a bit of an angry tone to her voice.
"Alright. Then I'm sure you don't mind if we eat them all!"
"All. The. Chocolate. Chip. Pancakes!" Sheila chimed in as well, now smiling, enjoying her dad's idea.
"What?" They could both hear the panic in her voice. "Can't you just save me some for later?!"
"Excuse me! Pancakes are a breakfast meal! You can only eat them at breakfast!" Their dad walks over to a stack of pancakes and begins to take some into a plate as he relays his message.
"That's so stupid!" Sheila knew... Dory was breaking, she just needed one last push.
"Sorry, its the rule sis! I get all the pancakes!" She bites into a pancake as she yells.
Their father walks closer to the table, with the new plate of pancakes in his hands. They both wait.
After a few seconds, they could hear the rapid footsteps of the supposed "not hungry" Dory coming towards the kitchen. She turns in the archway, still holding her phone in one hand. Her eyes scan the room, not looking at Sheila. Her gaze stops on the plate of pancakes in their dad's hand. She walks up to him and grabs the plate with one hand, before turning back towards the archway, attempting a quick escape.
Their dad is too quick,  though as he quickly stands in the archway, blocking her way. "Nah-ah missy. You're going to eat together."
Dory squints her eyes and glares in front of her, before slowly turning around and making her way over to the table sluggishly. She puts down the plate a bit too hard, earning a strict glare from her dad. He brings both of them some silverware and glasses of water, as they both dive into the delicious meal. Dad is an absolutely amazing cook! Sheila thinks. She told him multiple times to try out being a chef, but he never took the advice.
Dory turned on her phone and started to watch a video. She could only watch the intro of the beauty video before her dad grabs the phone out of her hand and puts it on top of the fridge.
"Dad! What the heck?!"
"You'll get it back after the meal."
"Ugh.. you guys are just.. this is so.. ugh!" Dory murmurs a few angry words to herself that Sheila could barely hear.
Sheila sighs, and pushes a lonely strand of her hair behind her ear, before glancing at her dad. He nods towards Dory before going back to make the rest of the pancakes. She nods to herself and thinks for a second. She takes a bite out of her mouth-watering breakfast, and as she's chewing, she leans down and opens her bag. She quickly takes a pen out and leans back up to grab a hand wipe. She writes a small message on to it and pushes it towards Dory, who tries her best to ignore her.
Dory glances towards the hand wipe after a few moments and sees the message, which read as the following:
"I'm sorry for waking you up! Can I make you forgive me with a cupcake?
Ps: Your favourite cupcake"
She pushes it back and just keeps eating. Sheila furrows her eyebrows slightly, before doing some adjustments to the message, and pushes it right back towards her.
"I'm sorry for waking you up! Can I make you forgive me with a cupcake? 2 cupcakes?
Ps: Your favourite cupcake"
Dory looks at this version for a bit more this time but still pushes it back. Okay, progress! Sheila thinks as she makes one last adjustment, not sure if she could afford more from just her pocket money.
"I'm sorry for waking you up! Can I make you forgive me with a cupcake? 2 cupcakes? 3 CUPCAKES?
Ps: Your favourite cupcake"
Dory looks at the hand wipe for a few seconds, causing Sheila to actually be nervous. She knows 4 cupcakes would be a bit too much. Especially her favourite. It's the bakery's special baked good, so of course, it's extra expensive.
After a few nerve-racking moments of anticipation, Dory nods, glancing at her sister, before going back to her meal.
Sheila smiles to herself. Yes! Mission accomplished! Her dad glances back at the two of them and notices Sheila looking happier. As their gaze meets, he winks at her and shows her a thumbs up.
They finish their meal quickly after the exchange and put the dishes into the sink. They both grab their bags, and Dory goes to their dad to ask for her phone back. He gives it to her without a problem, as Sheila puts on a warm black coat with a white scarf. She stops Dory as she tries to head out without any weather appropriate clothing.
"Hey, put on something warm! It's even colder than yesterday."
Dory rolls her eyes slightly and tries to pull away from her big sister. "It's fine, I'm good with the cold."
"Nah-ah, you're gonna get a cold, and be insufferable for days. Go get your coat!" Sheila glares at her with a strict gaze, pointing to the clothing racket.
"Bu-"
"No buts! Listen to your sister!" Their dad shouts from the kitchen, surprising both of them with his crazy good hearing. Dory groans, rolling her eyes even harder this time and stomps over to get and put her pink coat on, that has a unicorn head with a rainbow mane on the back. Sheila ruffles the dark brown hair of her annoyed little sister with a smile, before heading out, yelling one last "Love you!" to their dad.
***
The siblings walk together for a while, not saying much to each other, both understanding the fact that they don't have to talk all the time, and still love each other. They had to understand it, after explaining it more than a hundred times to their loving dad. Soon they reach the point where they both have to turn to opposite directions. They say goodbye, and both head off to their own place of education for the day.
Both excitement and nervousness dance around inside Sheila as she notices the building of her high school. Genevieve, her best friend since kindergarten, most likely has great, or possibly bad news. She has entered her paintings into an art contest, and they both have been waiting for the results all weekend, which supposedly came yesterday evening. Sheila isn't sure if they even did, since Geny managed to break her phone prior to all of this, so they couldn't text at all, which was true torture for both of them. She rushes in the main door and pushes past walls of other kids trying to get to class in the halls, as she does the same, knowing Geny will be there since they have first-period Chemistry together. She'd usually be bummed when she enters the chemistry lab, but today the anticipation is stronger than everything. She quickly glances around the room, before noticing her blonde, curled haired friend in the back of the classroom, doodling into her notebook.
She basically sprints over to the desk, slamming her hands down, causing Geny to almost fall off her chair out of surprise. "Jesus Sheila, you scared the crap out of me!"
"Soooo? What are the results? Did you win?" Sheila stares into her eyes with an extremely curious gaze. Her curiosity soon dies down, as her friend's expression shifts from surprised, to disappointed. She runs her fingers through her hair, turning halfway away from Sheila.
"Oh no.. uh.. did you get into the top 5 at least?" Sheila walks around the desk, dropping her bag on to the ground as she sat down next to her friend.
Genevieve doesn't respond as she stares at the floor, refusing to meet her gaze.
"Geny!"
"I should have won! I needed to win!" Geny turns towards the desk, leaning on to her elbows and burying her face into her hands.
"Come on, don't lose hope! You can't win every contest! You'll wi-"
"But I need to! If I actually want a chance at pursuing it as a career, I need to prove I'm actually good at it!"
"You are amazing at painting Geny! Your art makes me almost love waking up! You can't feel this destroyed after just one small defeat. I know you'll make amazing pieces of art.. more than you already have." Sheila places a hand on Genevieve's shoulder, giving it a small, supportive squeeze.
Geny leans back from her hands with a slight smile, but her eyes still show doubt and worry. "You're so sweet." She pauses for a second to think." But my parents need physical proof that the world thinks I can be successful as well. Your, or Miss Brenter's opinion doesn't matter to them."
"They're such assholes. They should just let you do what you want with your life. They gave it to you, they don't have to live it for you." Sheila leans onto the desk.
"They're doing it out of love... They don't want me to fail in life." Geny leans her face onto her hand, staring at the desk, as Sheila is not sure if she even believed her own words.
"That would be nice, but their idea of failure is anything else than what they have planned out for you. If you won't stand your ground, you'll end up a miserable doctor."
"I don't wanna argue about this again.."
"But you can't -"
"Listen, we have a plan that could work. I don't want to think about things I don't need to yet."
"Fine. But you'll need to stand up to your parents one day." Geny doesn't respond as she just leans down and gets her books out for the class. Sheila sighs before she does the same. The class begins and about 5 minutes in, the awkward tension that formed between the two of them has already faded away, and they are back to quietly chatting and having fun, barely paying any attention to what the teacher is saying. Sheila tells her all about her morning and how she managed to fall onto her butt right in front of a guy, which Geny finds quite amusing.
The class goes by quite fast with her company, but unfortunately, they have to say goodbye to each other soon. Geny is headed off to English, while Sheila is happily dancing her way to Gym. She used to hate it, but ever since she decided to work on herself and got fit, she manages to actually enjoy and like it. A true miracle, according to Geny.
She strolls into the changing rooms and quickly puts on her gym uniform, which could use a bit of editing in her opinion, but that's a fight to be fought for later. She's got other things to focus on right now.
The uniform consists of a white shirt with the logo of the school mascot – a dire wolf- on the back, some way too short blue shorts with white lines on the sides, and blue and white shoes. Basic, plain, and revealing. Not at all Sheila's style.
She joins some of the girls that she gets along with, as they all head to the gym. The moment they step through the big doors, she can hear the murmurs of her classmates. After a few seconds, she realizes the reason. There is a guy standing next to the gym teacher that she hasn't seen before. He's most likely new here. The girls next to her whisper:
„Oh my god... I didn't know we'd get such a hot newbie."
„And I thought Jeremy was hot."
„Do you think he has a girlfriend?"
„If he doesn't, there has to be something wrong with him."
Sheila rolls her eyes at that comment. Or maybe he just doesn't want a relationship or didn't find the right person. Why is that the first assumption?
„Honestly, he could be a serial killer for all I care, I'd still go for him. Look how dreamy he is."
She widens her eyes upon hearing that sentence and forces herself not to visibly cringe. She looks the guy up and down, and she has to admit: He is handsome.
He has short wavy black hair that's brushed to one side. His eyes are a navy blue colour, and they would probably be more attractive to her if his eyes didn't scream: I don't want anyone to even think of me.
Doesn't look exactly approachable, but to some, that probably just adds to the hotness.
He'll probably be popular within a week...but that comment was still laughable. She thinks to herself.
The gym teacher speaks up and -to Sheila's delight- cuts off all the murmuring.
„Is everyone here? Yeah? Good. So, this is Ashton... Rivers was it?" He turns to him with an uncertain look. The guy, apparently Ashton just nods, scanning the crowd.
„Right, Ashton Rivers. He'll be joining us for the rest of the school year. Be nice!" Everyone just nods as he waves a demanding finger.
„Alright. That's over with. Join the others, Ashton." Ashton does as he's told and stands next to everyone.
„So we'll start with laps around the school, then come back inside to play something."
Most of the class groans, while Sheila's eyes shine with excitement. That's great, I wanted to run more later today, so at least now I'll have that done already.
„Pfft.. of course, she's happy."
„Workout junkie."
„Just wait a bit and she'll come to school looking like a freaking bodybuilder." Some of the kids snicker behind Sheila's back. She tries her best to not let the comments get to her, but she just can't shake the heat of anger growing inside her. She whips her head around and glares at the small group.
„Yeah, so maybe you should think of being nicer before I bash your heads in with my bodybuilder muscles!" Welp.. that didn't sound as cool as I thought it would.
They just smirk and look at each other before walking away from her. She can hear them starting to laugh as they make their way out of the gym.
She lets out a disappointed sigh, before heading the same way they are. She does take a little detour tot he changing rooms first though.
„Hey, Sheila!" She hears a familiar voice of Jeremy yell from behind her. As she turns around, she notices it is in fact Jeremy, who is waving towards her.
„Could you get my blue sweater?"
„What? Are you too lazy to get it yourself?" She smirks a bit, as he scratches the back of his neck.
„I don't want to lose too much energy so I can keep up with you!" He winks at her as she raises her eyebrows. Was that.. flirting? She is not exactly used to that, especially not from one of the better-looking guys of the school. She quickly shakes the thought though.
No Sheila, don't be stupid! He's just playing me as he does with all the other girls. I suppose it doesn't hurt to be nice though...
„Fine!" She quickens her pace and basically dashes into first the girl's locker room, dodging some of the girls who were getting warmer clothing as well. She throws on her grey sweater, grabs her phone and earphones before she – now more carefully- heads into the boy's one. She doesn't exactly want to burst into a room of a bunch of half-naked guys.
Thankfully there is no one there.
Most of the guys don't mind the cold it seems... or don't have sweaters.
She tries to look around as fast as possible, not wanting to spend too much time in the cologne filled air. After a bit of searching, she finds the blue sweater she was looking for. It wasn't hard to find, Jeremy always wears this when it's cold. He's like a cartoon character... She smiles to herself at the thought before she turns to leave. Before she could leave though, something catches her eye. She notices the same black coat that he saw on the boy, now barely poking through a bag. She would have missed it if it wasn't for the bright white symbol on it.
It's so intricate and elegant. It looks like something Geny would paint. It looks like it might be even glowing. Sheila just feels drawn to it, like its calling out to her. The whole world around her just seems to disappear.
It's just her, and the symbol. That's all that matters.
She doesn't even realize it, but she starts to slowly stalk towards it, and as she gets closer, the urge to touch it suddenly starts to grow inside her. Her hand involuntarily reaches out an-
„Yo, what are you doing in here?"
Sheila freezes and shakes her head slightly, turning back towards the voice. It seems a few guys have made it back from the first-period gym. She blushes out of embarrassment and just quickly shuffles through them, out to the halls. She can hear the low laughter of the guys fade away behind her as she dashes out to catch up with the rest of the class.
She runs her fingers through her hair, and touches her cheeks, feeling how heated up they are. She must look like a tomato.
It wasn't even that embarrassing.. why do I feel so flustered and hot? And what was that with that symbol? Why did I feel drawn to it? Whose even is it? Wh-
„Thanks, I owe you one." She doesn't even realize as Jeremy walks up to her and takes his sweater. As he's putting it on and pulling it down on his chest, his eyes are scanning Sheila up and down. „Hey.. is everything alright?"
Sheila glances at him and runs her fingers through her hair again, before nodding to him. „Yeah, yeah of course.."
„Then why are you so red? Do I make you that flustered?" He smirks with a teasing twinkle in his eye as he leans a bit down to Sheila's level.
Sheila doesn't really react as her eyes just race back and forth, just like her thoughts. What..was that? I never felt anything like that before... such an urge.. a desire.. it was just a symbol! Probably a logo for a brand or something!
She feels something cold on her forehead, as she realizes its Jeremy's hand. She looks at him as the twinkle in his eye is now gone, replaced by slight confusion and worry. His eyes widen as he moves his hand to her cheek.
„Woah! You're burning up, Sheila. You might have caught a fever.. you should go to the nurse's office." He removes his hand and looks Sheila straight in the eyes, causing Sheila to avert her gaze.
„Yeah, yeah.. you're right. A fever.. I'll go.." She slowly turns around, feeling more disoriented than ever, but before she could even take the first step, a firm hand on her shoulder stops her. Jeremy walks up next to her. „You don't look that good.. do you want me to go with you?"
No... I can't have him around. I don't have the energy to pretend to be okay, and even if I explain it to him, he'll probably just tell everyone else and I'll be the „high" or the „crazy" girl of the school the next day.
„No... No. I can handle myself, I'm good, thanks though." She tries to leave one more time, but this time she stops herself and glances back at him. „Hey... I saw a.. cool looking coat in the locker rooms. It's black and has a white.. logo on the back. Do you know whose is it?"
Jeremy tilts his head, it seems his confusion just increased with that question. „Uh.. no, I don't think I've seen that one.. why?"
„I... I just thought it was cool. Anyway, thanks, see you later." She rushes away from him, not even waiting for his response. She doesn't have time for that right now. At first, she heads towards the nurse's office, as Jeremy told her so, but then decides against it. She doesn't want to be sent home for no reason when she knows this is not just a simple fever. She instead, sneaks into the nearest bathroom she can find, stumbles into a stall and locks the door of it. She sits down on the toilet, leans her head back on to the wall and lets out a sigh of relief. Even just Jeremy's company was way too much in this state that she's in.
Her skin feels like it's on fire, the flames licking her legs, her sides, the side of her face, everything. It feels all too overwhelming, like the heat will just consume her over time. She closes her eyes and tries her best to collect her scrambled thoughts.
Okay. So what happened? I saw the logo or symbol this morning on a guy. I didn't feel this way yet, but then now, I get a closer look and I feel an enormous urge to touch it, and I feel hot.. well more like boiling. Why?
Sheila runs her fingers through her hair again, which are now a bit damp with sweat.
I'll never get anywhere just wondering about it. My best bet is the boy I saw wearing it. I think he had darker hair.. maybe brown or black, and he must be either in my class or the class that had gym class before us.
She leans forward and leans her elbows on her knees.
I'll have to get Geny. We can solve this together.