The Secrets We Share

New School

ALIYNA

A day later...

I stretched my arms, as golden sunlight filled my room.

It had officially been a day since everything had happened. I tried speaking to Leo about everything that occurred between him exposing the real reason for my stay here and then him killing a bunch of people to save some supposed family member of his and yet when I woke up yesterday morning the two of them had suddenly vanished.

Yes I did ask around and everyone, including Gia, told me this was something he always does, just disappearing off without telling anyone where he's going and when he'll be back. So I've decided to push it to the back of my mind as there are more pressing things, such as my first day at an elitist school.

Considering, like majority of this world, I've only been to a state school, I'm slightly cautious about how this days going to go. From every film I've ever watched about private schools, I can gather that they're not the most welcoming, especially to foreigners, so that shall be exciting for me.

I ran into the shower as I noticed I was running very late like always. Routine has never been my thing, nor organisation or time management. Not to be mistaken as me being a roll with the punches kind of girl, cause I'm certainly not; I just tell myself every year that this time around will be different and I'll be more 'put together'. It never works unfortunately.

However, I drag myself out of the comfort of the warm shower and pulled on the required uniform, as well as scraping my Afro into a bun because that's all I could manage within the time frame. I checked myself quickly in the mirror because if I stared for too long I'd possibly never leave the room. Oh that was another resolution I made each year, self confidence.

I dashed out of the room and rushed down the stairs, when I collided with someone as soon as I made it to the bottom. "Oh I'm so sorry", I turned around expecting to see one of the Morettis staff members because Angelica and Gia had gone out for breakfast in the local village before school. They did offer me to go with them but obviously I was running late so I regrettably declined.

"It's alright Aliyna, that was entirely my fault, I don't know why I thought waiting for you right at the bottom of the stairs was a good idea". The man started chuckling and my god was he good looking, he was the literal definition of tall, tanned and handsome. I didn't want to assume it was Mr Moretti because it would be extremely awkward if he wasn't so I held out my hand hoping he'd introduce himself.

"Oh no it's okay, it's nice meeting you mr-" , he grabbed my hand firmly, "you can call me Alessio dear, you'll be staying with us for the next year so you're practically family now". He was so nice that I found it hard to believe he was the mafia boss, for one of the most notorious mafia organisations. I didn't know whether to be intimidated of him or flustered by him. Maybe both.

"Okay Alessio, thank you for welcoming me into your home. It's been lovely so far, I'm looking forward to many more days here". I will say it was slightly difficult pretending to act as if I don't know all that I do know, however, Angelica told me he's a very busy man so hopefully this conversation will not last longer than a few minutes.

"Yes of course, we too look forward to it and I'm especially looking forward to dropping you off at school today", Alessio let go of my hand and reached for some keys in his pocket. "Oh you don't have to do that Mr Moretti, I know you're a busy man and I wouldn't want to keep you from your work", I smiled innocently at him but he waved his hands and opened the door for me to follow him outside. "Okay, a ride would be great thank you", he nodded his head and before I knew it we were driving to my new school in his car.

The awkwardness only increased as Alessio decided to turn off the radio which was the only thing making this ride slightly bearable. "So Aliyna, I know you've only been here a couple days but how much of Italy have you seen so far", he spoke concisely whilst keeping his eyes pinned to the road. "Uh, yeah I haven't seen too much yet but I saw this amazing waterfall, I don't know where it was exactly but it was gorgeous and-".