[Smoke Reboot] Faction X

Prologue {Part 3}

~The following is from Deviani "Devi" Jackson's perspective.~

Monday December 10, 2040

2:30PM
"You can't run from me forever babe." said Abe.
His terrible 'joke' proceeded to annoy me. It was followed by the laughter
of his crew.
"For the last time, Abraham! Not your 'babe'."

Abe and his friends continued biking in the other direction towards our
little cul de sac. I had stayed home from school but I had to make it to see Rafael's band play.

The guy's always been a pleasure and treated me like his little crumpet, he's adorable.
I fixed my blonde bun, got off my bike and put it at the Clark High bike racks. I lost my lock so I'm just gonna plan around that not being there when I get back. I thought, sighing.

There's the rest of Abe's crew standing by the entrance. To my surprise they let me get by without harassing me.

"Hey bitch!"

Never mind.

The crowd of 4 girls surrounded me. My back against the royal purple lockers, I surveyed them all quickly. They were all a lot bigger than me seniors, perhaps.

"Are you Rafael's bitch?" One of them asked.

I smiled nervously under pressure, "um..."One of them grabbed an open locker door and slammed it on my hand.I slid down the lockers and sat holding back tears.

"We're not playing games with you!" The one in the middle said.

"No, we're just friends." I said through nervous breaths.

My hair was no longer in a bun, and loosely bundled on my shoulders.Footsteps echoed through the purple and white hallways. The school was supposed to be empty.They picked me up, roughly.A kid with his hair gelled in black thick spikes and stubble on his chin approached me.The gang of girls spoke in unison,

"Hi Rafael!"

He gave a polite smile and waved before focusing his attention to me.

"Deviani, you're going to be backstage right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I said looking up, my head only being at his chest.

"Well let's go!" He smiled before grabbing my hand, leading me up flights of steps.

Rafael slowed to a walking pace as we neared the gray doors leading to the auditorium. It was still dark, meaning that no one had bothered to set up the lights yet.

"You haven't met our new guitarist, have you?" Rafael asked, as we took another door that would eventually lead to backstage.

"No, I believe I haven't." I responded.

Rafael had let go of my hand now, pulling away the red curtain which revealed the rest of the band each of them gearing up for the show. Rafael and I waved to everyone while slowly making our way to the blonde kid sitting on an amp. He turned from the guitar he was studying, and wore a nervous smirk when he looked at us.

"Hey Rafael," The blonde kid greeted. There was a semi-awkward pause when he turned to me.

"Oh Taylor, this is Deviani."