Halo Of Fire: An Angel In Trouble

Picking Up Really Sketch Vibes

After my visit to Cecily's house with Ophelia and Jordan, it became a regular thing to hang out during our free time. I tried their extracurricular activities to see how I felt about them so I spent an afternoon with Cecily in the Art Club, with Jordan in Student Government, and with Ophelia volunteering in the library. None of these activities particularly enticed me to continue, but I did learn a lot about my new friends.

Cecily was a master at charcoal but struggled with acrylics and oil paint. She planned on majoring in Art History and minoring in Architecture once she got into College. She was thinking about working in a museum or as an art curator, but it was all still up in the air really.

Jordan was incredibly assertive and had a power that emanated from them when arguing for or against a new rule or budget that made everyone in the room want to agree with them. They had told me they wanted to be a Lawyer but what they hadn't said was that they had already started studying for the Bar exam.

And Ophelia was passionate about books to a fault, her biggest dream was to become the head librarian at the Library of Congress or an equally magical library, as she put it. She planned on English Literature as her college major but she was also interested in Psychology. She told me, with a secretive grin and a twinkle in her eyes how books contained many secrets. But she refused to elaborate when I asked her what she meant, only saying that the school had a lot of secrets itself.

That statement kept me up that night. I wondered about the different people that walked those halls and what they might've done during their time there. I was still thinking about it as I stepped out of my morning class heading over to the front steps to meet the girls for my break when I was run into by a guy that seemed to be going in a hurry, bumping the books I was trying to stuff into my bag to the floor.

The bump ran tingles down my spine, "Well shit." I muttered under my breath kneeling down to pick up my stuff while the guy just stared at me. "No, please, I can handle myself," I said sarcastically grabbing the rest of my stuff and stuffing it into the bag.

"You should've watched where you were going," he said harshly.

I looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and immediately noticed there was something terribly wrong with him. I couldn't pinpoint it, but there was something off about him. I tried to keep my composure as I replied to his hostility, "Says the one that ran into me." I said, getting up and giving him a once-over with my eyes. He was definitely handsome which explained his comfort in being harsh with a stranger. Green eyes, thick eyebrows, and a defined jawline which he clenched tightly at my retort. He looked surprised.

I decided then to turn around and walk away, no matter how handsome the guy was, he gave me real sketch vibes and I couldn't be around that sort of negativity. As I walked, I could feel his eyes staring after me, or I had the feeling he was, but I held my head high and kept walking all the way through the front doors and then I sprinted down the steps to meet with the girls.

"Oh my lord, you'll never believe what just happened to me!" I said, heaving an exasperated sigh and sitting down next to Ophelia. And proceeded, unprompted, to tell them what happened.

"That sounds like Damian," Jordan said, sipping from the straw of an apple-flavored juice box.

"Well, he was rude."

"He's not necessarily the 'school bully,' but he's something like it." Ophelia piped in. "He's so hot though that he kind of gets away with a lot of the stuff he pulls."

I pulled out a pb&j sandwich from my bag, "Well, he gives me sketchy vibes and I don't want him anywhere near me."

"What is that?" Cecily pointed to the sandwich I was about to bite into.

"A peanut butter and jelly sandwich," I said, looking at her weirdly. The girls all looked at each other like they'd never heard of it, "Are you joking? You've never had a pb&j?" They all shook their heads, "Oh my god, here," I split the sandwich in four with my hands, "Try it."

They all took small bites and chewed slowly, then all their faces lit up like it was Christmas day, and a spew of praises and OMG's flew from their mouths as they finished their squares.

"So you're trying to tell me that you've never had this before."

"Never!"

"It's so good!"

"I'd heard about it but my parents wouldn't ever let me have it."

"Child cruelty!" I gasped, but the bell rang and we couldn't continue the conversation. We got up and as we went to our separate classes I promised I'd have a full sandwich for each of them the next day.

Tyler found me then and offered to walk me to class, "So I've noticed you've been hanging out with Cecily, Jordan, and Ophelia a lot lately."

"Yes," I smiled, "They've been taking me around and getting me acquainted with the school."

"That's nice," He said pushing his floppy hair back. It seemed like he hadn't gotten his hair cut in a while, and then I noticed it. A faint dullness in his aura, like his vibrant colors, had been diluted in white, causing them to shine not as brightly as I had seen them when we first met.

"What's wrong?" I asked instinctively. Though he didn't show what he was feeling, the lack of vibrancy in his aura made me uneasy, just like Damian did, when I first met him.

He looked at me confused, "What do you mean?"

"I'm really good at reading faces. Your brows creased together for a fraction of a second and you had other micro-expressions." I said, lying. "Is there anything wrong?" I had to learn to control myself better or it was going to be hard covering up my mistakes.

"Oh, it's nothing." He smiled and pulled me with him. "Come on, we'll be late for class."

"I know something is bothering you." I insisted, I wanted to know what happened over the week that had caused his aura to become dull. I'd never seen such a thing before but I knew it couldn't be good.

"I'll tell you after class." He said, walking away from me towards his own class after steering me towards my door.

Hello hello, Reader! Welcome back! What did you think? How do you feel? What do you think happened to Tyler? I know the characters are dragging me places as I write that even I didn't think of and it's getting intense. Can't wait to see what you think!
Veronique