Scarlet's Mate

Part One

RING RING RING

Sleep... All I want is more sleep. As if instinct, my hand flings out and randomly starts hitting my phone. Doing anything to make the obnoxious noise stop. It's bad enough that I have to wake up at all. Why can't waking up be more peaceful? Like in movies or in books, when the main character just sort of floats awake and everything is bright and cheery.

Reluctantly I open my eyes, it's dark but my vision adjusts rather quickly. Chills run down my body as I get out from under the blankets. Even the carpet is freezing, like walking across wet moss.

I make my way to the lamp on my desk, careful not to step on all the clutter in my path. After flicking it on, I look in the little mirror beside the lamp, I'm definitely in need of a shower. My hair was a tangled, greasy disaster. Sometimes I wish I could just chop off all my hair, oh how much easier it'd be to just throw on a little product and call it a day.

Before I get ready to shower I stumble around my room to pick out an outfit. It's senior year and I had just moved across the country to live with my grandma. She lives in the middle of the woods. Everything around here seems to be in the middle of the woods. I can't seem to understand the appeal of no cell phone reception and the constant darkness. But grandma says I'll get used to it eventually.

But today is my first day at a new school, and to say I'm nervous is an understatement. I've always lived in my old town, for 17 years I was in just one place with the same people. I had friends, a boyfriend, a life.. I had my parents.

Everything is different now.

My phone starts to howl again, I must've accidentally hit snooze instead of turning it off. I shake my head trying to get rid of the thoughts as I walk over and grab my phone. I turn off the alarm and delete it just to be safe. Checking the time, 6:05 am, I realize I'll need to get a move on if I want to get to school on time.

School here starts at 7:30 am, and grandma said it's a 20 minute drive. I'll also need to get there a little early so I can get sorted. So that gives me about 45 minutes to make myself at least semi-presentable.

I look around my room and grab my favorite oversized hoodie, it's ash gray which looks nice in contrast to my black hair. And to go with it, I dig around my pile of clothes, and find a pair of black ribbed biker shorts. With my outfit in hand, I head towards the bathroom to start getting ready.

After my shower, and other bathroom necessities, the time now stands at 6:40 am. I hurry back to my room and grab my pre-packed backpack and my car keys. I turn off my lamp and head down the hall to the kitchen. On the counter I notice some money and a post-it. "Scarlet, here's lunch, love grandma."

Laughing at her cute note I put the money in my backpack and went to the sink to fill my water bottle. The nerves start to take over and I feel panicked. What if I go into the wrong classroom and everyone stares at me? Or what if I forget my name when the teacher asks and I just gape looking like an idiot?

Water starts splashing over my hand and I'm thrown back to reality. I turn off the faucet and lift the water bottle slowly to my mouth to drink some before putting the lid back on. I check my phone again, damn If I want to get to school early I better leave right now.

I quickly make my way to the front room and throw on my vans. They're new, my old ones were basically disintegrated. They feel stiff on my feet, but I try not to dwell on that as I run out to my car. I thrust the keys into the ignition and my car gurgles to life. She's a little old but she still works. I connect my phone to the aux and turn on the playlist I hand crafted for rides to school.

All the songs are basically 70's and 80's rock. It helps me calm down listening to music my father used to play. The entire ride to school all I could think about was how many trees there were. Seriously, I have never seen so many trees before in my life. It's not that I'm mad about the trees, I am not a tree hater. I just miss the sunlight. I miss looking up and seeing the sky. I miss my old home.

When I arrive at school it's 7:15 am. Thank god for my perfect timing skills, 15 minutes should be just enough time to become familiar with at least my schedule. I get out of my car and walk towards the front doors. The school looks smaller than my school back at home, it's only two stories and seems to be just the one building. There's vines wrapping around the entire front, covering some of the windows.

As I make my way inside I notice some of the kids in the hall. At least I think their kids, some of them look like they could be middle aged adults. The group of guys who caught my eye all seem to be taller than average and extremely muscular. They must really be into that sort of thing here. Maybe it's steroids? Who knows.

One of the boys noticed me staring and whispered something to his friend, who looked back at me then laughed. I felt my face growing warm and I quickly turned and headed towards the room marked "Main Office." I can't believe they caught me staring then laughed at me, I am so embarrassed I could explode.

The main office seemed to be empty, so I walked over to the desk and noticed a small bell. I dinged it, hoping it wasn't just there for show. Luckily some older lady came out of a doorway I didn't even notice before. She was a short, gray haired woman. Almost reminded me of what a typical librarian would look like.

"Ah, you must be Miss Scarlet John, is that correct?" She quickly looked down and started fumbling papers, as if she already knew my answer.

"Um-yes, hi, yes that's me," I chuckled nervously, still feeling flustered from before.

She reached over the desk to hand me the stack of papers, "the top sheet is your schedule, the next one is your locker information, and the third is a map of the school. I hope you find Darkwood High School to be welcoming. Good luck." She smiled timidly and then went back to the room she had come out of.

I step back out into the hall and lean against some lockers as I sort through my papers. My schedule seemed rather normal, typical classes. Math, english, gym, history, art, lunch, and study hall. I guess It's nice that the day ends with lunch then study hall. Although the beginning of the day seems a bit hectic. Especially since class time runs about an hour here.

I thumb through the other papers, memorizing my locker number and checking the map to see where it is. My eyes are glued to the paper as I walk through the halls, carefully listening and glancing around at feet to make sure I don't bump into anyone. I hear people whisper about me as I walk by. My face so far is a constant state of feeling warm. I hate being watched.

I reach my locker and sigh in relief when there's nobody near it. Everyone else here probably doesn't even care about their lockers yet. If I were home, I wouldn't care about my locker on the first day either. But I need to practice my combination. I look at the sheet, 16 6 0, okay that's easy enough. Carefully I turn the nob.. 16... 6.... 0. Nothing. I tried again, still nothing.

I slam my fist against the locker and I try it one more time. It pops open suddenly, making me jump back and drop my papers. Damn locker. I go to pick up my papers when I notice a girl grabbing them. All I could see was blonde wavy hair swaying as she reached for the papers.

Standing upright again she smiled and held them out, "locker trouble?" She asked with a giggle.

"It appears so," I laugh and reach out to grab my papers, "seems like nothing wants to work out for me lately."

A confused look flashes across her face but quickly changes back to her welcoming smile.

"I'm Rayne, Rayne Willaims, and you're Scarlet, right?"

"Yes, you guys don't get a lot of newcomers around here, do you? Seems like everyone already knows who I am."

"Yeah, I don't remember the last time we had someone new.." She looked away, lost in her thoughts when suddenly her eyes darted up past me, "I'll see you around," and with that she walked away.