Crossover

Chapter 1 Dreaded First Day of School

Chapter 1
Dreaded First Day of School

    "Aria!"

    Aria heard her mother's voice calling her name for what seemed like at least five minutes. She knew sooner or later Elizabeth would come upstairs into her room to make sure she was awake. In her household, Aria was pretty well known for over-sleeping. On weekends, she would usually sleep until at least noon, sometimes even two or three in the afternoon. It wasn't like she stayed up late or anything, she just would always sleep for a long period of time.

    "Aria, are you awake?" Elizabeth inquired as she opened the door to check on her daughter.  She saw Aria lying on her stomach, the covers pulled over her head.

    "Come on, Aria. You need to get ready for school." Elizabeth sat down on the bed and gently patted Aria's back.

    Aria, with her eyes still closed, pleaded, "Five more minutes, please?"

    "Last time we did that, when I came back to wake you up you just asked for an additional five minutes. You keep that up and you will be late for school."

    "Fine with me," Aria retorted, groggily. "I don't want to go anyway."

    Elizabeth looked down at Aria, stroking her long golden hair, now tangled. "Don't worry. The first year in high school is always the worst. I'm sure this year will be better. Come on, sweetie, lets get up and I'll help you brush your hair."

    "I don't see why I can't get it cut," Aria complained as she finally sat up to a seated position, rubbing her eyes. "I bet a lot of other girls at school are going to have brand new hairstyles and mine will look exactly the same as it did the year before."

    "I've told you before, Aria. Your long hair is what makes you who you are. It's one of your special qualities."

    Aria rolled her eyes. Mothers. As a little girl, Aria absolutely loved having long hair. It made her feel like a princess in a Disney movie or fairy tale. Now, however, her hair was just another hassle for her to deal with first thing in the morning. She and her mother would spend at least ten minutes every morning trying to get the tangles out. Plus, not one single girl she knew of at school had hair as long as hers. The most recent style is a couple inches past the shoulders with layers. Aria had been asking all summer if she could get her hair cut but her parents refused for some unknown reason.

    After Aria's hair was finally tangle free, she went down stairs for breakfast. As she entered the kitchen, she saw a newspaper held up with her father's legs popping out from from underneath.

    "Well, good morning, Sleeping Beauty," Ted smiled, lowering the paper, as his daughter entered the kitchen. "How'd you sleep?"

    "Fine, though I would have liked to sleep more," Aria replied tiredly, while looking in the fridge, and then grabbed some toast off the counter. "If I didn't have such long hair that took about fifteen minutes to brush everyday then I would have at least some more time for sleep."

    Ted returned his eyes to the paper as he responded, "I don't think I've ever met someone who needed as much sleep as you seem to."

    Aria sighed as she got out some butter for her toast. As she sat across the table from her father, a light bulb seemed to glow over her head as she thought of something.

    "Hey Dad," Aria began as she gently pulled the paper down to talk to him.

    Ted let out a sigh but still grinned. "I know that look. You are going to ask me for something, aren't you?"

    "Well, you know my sixteenth birthday is coming up soon," Aria began, softly.

    "What do you mean soon?" Ted asked. "You've still got another couple months of being fifteen."

    "Less than that," Aria protested. "It's almost the end of August, and my birthday's October 7."

    "So it is. Well, I'm assuming you are bringing this up now because you want something. What is it?"

    Aria looked down, fidgeting her fingers, "Well, I was thinking maybe as an early birthday present, I could get a haircut, not too short but maybe some layers or something to make it look more stylish."

    Before Ted had the chance to respond, Elizabeth appeared at the kitchen door, staring at her daughter in disbelief. "Aria! I tell no so you go and ask you father instead?"

    "I was just wondering if it could be a birthday present," Aria defended. "If you think about it, that's really a different question, or well, at least a different way of asking it."

    Elizabeth just stood, shaking her head. "Aria, you have luxurious healthy long hair. I don't see why you want to hack it all off."

    "I just want a change, that's all," Aria pointed out in a grumble. "Besides, most people ask for a brand new car when turning sixteen. You're lucky all I'm asking for is a haircut." Aria paused, and then muttered, "Maybe I should try asking for a car instead."

    "I'll do you one better," Ted replied, lifting the paper back up. "I'll get you a chariot with a white pony to drive it."

    Aria just rolled her eyes as she finished up her breakfast.

    At the sound of the doorbell, Aria rose up, finally feeling awake, and announced. "Vanessa's here. See you later!"      
    Vanessa Cooper had to be best thing about Sheerwood High for Aria. The two girls had been best friends since before Aria could even remember. Vanessa lived right across the street from Aria so they could see each other all the time. Every day, they would walk to school together, which was nice since they usually did not have many classes together.

    Aria's parents exchanged glances with each other before Elizabeth halted her and spoke, "Aria, maybe either your father or I should start driving you girls to school this year or at least let us walk with you."

    "What?! Why?" Aria asked, bewildered. "We always walk to school and everything's fine. Besides I would look like a complete dork if my parents walked me to school. It would just give the other kids another reason to make fun of me."

    Elizabeth sighed. "Oh, honey. You shouldn't worry about what the other kids think. Your safety is what you should be concerned about."

    "You let Vanessa and me walk to school by ourselves last year and we were just fine."

    "Yeah, well," Elizabeth exchanged a quick glance with Ted before continuing, "you will be turning sixteen in a couple months and, um, there are people out there who may sometimes come after young girls."

    Aria just gawked at her mother, unable to come up with a response. It seemed as if the older she got the more overprotective her parents became. When she was ten, she and Vanessa were aloud to run around the neighborhood without adult supervision as long as it was not after the sun set. Besides, it's not like the second she turns sixteen people are going to start coming after her. This whole thing just did not make any sense.

    Aria's pleading ocean blue eyes met Elizabeth's. "Mom, I promise Vanessa and I will stay together and walk straight to school and then come right home when classes are over. We'll be fine."

    The doorbell rang again. Aria imagined Vanessa standing there, tapping her foot, wondering what the heck was taking her so long. Before her parents had a chance to say anything else, Aria yelled bye, grabbed her backpack and ran to the front door. When she opened it, she found her best friend smiling but still wearing a look of slight impatience. Her soft curly, strawberry blonde hair bounced just past her shoulders.

    "Hey, Aria!" Vanessa hugged her, warmly. "I was beginning to think you were still asleep. So how was your trip to California?"

    "Great... come on lets start walking," Aria replied rapidly, as she took hold of Vanessa's arm and pulled to down the sidewalk, walking rapidly until they were a few houses down the street.

    "Is there a reason you are so anxious to get to school?" Vanessa asked, confused, while lifting her eyebrow. "You didn't actually buy our parent's 'oh, everything will be much better this year' speech, did you?"

    "Sorry," Aria released Vanessa's arm. "It's just that my parents insisted on walking with us to school."

    Vanessa gaped at her best friend, appalled. "Are you kidding? They actually wanted to go with us to school? Why? We walked by ourselves everyday last year and nothing happened."

    Aria shrugged. "That's exactly what I said, but they seem to think some people might be after girls our age or something like that. They made a big deal about how I am turning sixteen soon."

    "It's not much different from being fifteen," Vanessa pointed out.

    "Yeah, it's not like I look any different," Aria huffed, glumly.

    Vanessa eyed her curiously, "Is something else bothering you."

    Aria sighed. Her best friend seemed to always be able to sense when something was wrong.

    "It's just that I was hoping for some sort of change in appearance over the summer. Since my parents still won't let me get a haircut, going to the beach to and getting tanner was really my only hope."

    Vanessa looked at Aria's complexion. "Yeah, you really don't look much different there. Did your parents make you put on SPF 50 or something? My parents always do."

    Aria shook her head. "No, I asked them if I should put on sunblock, and Mom just shrugged, and answered, 'If you want.' She seemed pretty sure that nothing would happen, and she was right, apparently."

    Before Vanessa had a chance to add anything else, they heard a voice greet, "Hey girls!"

    They looked and saw that it was Ms. Fleming out in her yard, waving enthusiastically. Ms. Fleming had to be one of the strangest people Aria has ever met in her entire life, but that was what she loved about her. The way she dressed reminded Aria of a gypsy with her long shirts and excessive jewelry. Her flaming red hair went about down to just past her mid-back, almost as long as Aria's. Her house seemed to fit her personality quite well. She had painted all over the bricks so it looked like a piece of abstract artwork. Aria had known Ms. Fleming her entire life so she had grown accustomed to this bizarreness. She remembered how much fun she use to have when Ms. Fleming use to babysit both her and sometimes Vanessa.

    "Hi Ms. Fleming," they replied together.

    Ms. Fleming smiled brightly. "Are you two looking forward to the new school year?"

    "Not really," Vanessa responded while Aria just shook her head.

    "Oh… come now," their neighbor replied, still beaming boldly. "Aren't there like a lot of cute boys in high school? You girls are at just the proper age to enjoy that kind of romance."

    This time Aria spoke, "Yeah, I suppose, but none of the boys at our school are interested in us."

    Ms. Fleming just continued to smile. "Don't worry, my dear, I'm sure you will find your Prince Charming soon. Well, you girls had better be on your way. You don't want to be late."

    They both waved bye to Ms. Fleming and continued on the path to Sheerwood High.

    When they reached out of earshot from Ms. Fleming Vanessa commented, "That was kind of strange. I mean what she said about finding Prince Charming."

    Aria didn't really think much on it. Ever since she was a little girl, Ms. Fleming would talk about how one day Aria would find the perfect man, calling him either her true love or Prince Charming. She said it was Aria's destiny. "I'll bet if she went to out school she would see that not one single boy fits the description of a Prince Charming."

    "Sometimes the way she talks, its like she not even from this world." Vanessa gave a quick glance back. "Don't you think? It seems like she popped out of some fantasy novel or something like that."

    "She definitely stands out here in Norfolk."

    Aria was not really sure what else to say. Vanessa was always quick to believe in out there or even supernatural ideas. She was the last person Aria knew that stopped believing in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. When they were kids, Vanessa would never go out during a full moon because she believed there may be werewolves out there somewhere. Aria recalled that one time there was a full moon on Halloween, and Vanessa refused to go trick-or-treating with her because of it.

    Vanessa still stared down as they walked, in deep thought. "Also, don't you think its weird that she looks the exact same as she did when we were kids. Its like she does not age."

    "Maybe she's she's vampire," said Aria jokingly.

    "Yeah, maybe…" Vanessa muttered before it hit her how ridiculous she sounded. Both girls began to laugh.

    The girls continued to chat as they walked the rest of the way to school. When they arrived they found, they saw a group of boys standing by the front steps, hollering and laughing loudly, as though they were at a championship football game. One particular boy stood out to Aria. She stared dreadfully at him as he ran his fingers through his thick light brown hair, brushing it out of his face, wearing a grey t-shirt and loose baggy shorts.

    Oh no, Aria thought to herself, not Derek James. Aria had hoped he'd transfer or get held back or something, anything. Ever since elementary school, Derek had always tormented and made fun of Aria. It was never anything serious. He would just call her names or tug on her long hair usually not too hard, except for once in second grade, he accidentally pulled with too much strength and made her cry. Aria just wished that for once he would just leave her alone.

    As Aria quickly walked up the steps, Derek waved to her, "Hey Aria! "

    Aria waved back, cautiously, giving Vanessa a nervous glance.

    "So what did you do over the summer? Anything fun?"

    Aria shot him a puzzled look and wondered, Is he actually trying to have a real conversation with me?

    "I... um, went to California with my parents," Aria replied shyly, avoiding his brown eyes. "We spent a lot time at the beach."

    Derek chuckled, glanced at his best friend, Ian, then said, "Don't people usually get tanner after going to the beach? You're even paler than I remember you before."

    "I'm exactly the same," Aria muttered as she turned around to walk off.

    "Ignore him," Vanessa consoled, taking her best friend's arm and leading her in the building. "He's just being a jerk."

    As they walked to their lockers, Aria began shaking her head. "I don't think I can do another year of this. I can't take Derek's teasing anymore."

    "He just made a comment about your skin," Vanessa reminded her. "It's not a big deal. You don't even have to take that as an insult."

    "I know, but that's always how he starts each year, with just little comments like that, and then as the year progresses he just gets worse and worse. I don't think I have it in me to put up with it again. I want to be home-schooled," Aria declared, firmly, as she opened her locker.

    As Vanessa grabbed books from her own locker she considered this. "That's actually not a bad idea. That way, we'd never have to see the Wicked Witch of the West again."

    Aria laughed as she knew exactly who Vanessa spoke of, Kendal Lewis. She had to be the meanest, snobbiest girl Sheerwood High has ever had within its walls, and yet, somehow, that made her the most popular. Aria never understood high school politics. Aria spotted her, chatting with her two deciples, Lacey Goodman and Karin Wales.

    Aria let out a deep breath. "Do you think if I were as pretty Kendal, I would be popular too?"

    Vanessa snorted as she glanced down the hall at Kendal. "I don't see why you'd want to look like her. She's Barbie doll pretty. There's nothing natural about her. I bet she spends at least an hour a day putting on make-up. You don't even need any make-up at all."

    Aria saw what Vanessa meant. Kendal had bleach blonde, shiny hair, bone straight that went down to her mid-back. She would always wear short skirts or skin tight jeans, whatever the style was at the time. Today, she wore a laced pink shirt and white top that revealed a half inch of her stomach along with black strapped heels. Aria could easily picture a hot pink plastic box that said Barbie around Kendal. 

    Sighing, Aria pointed out, "Well, she is the kind of beauty that's accepted here in high school. People don't even seem to notice how mean she really is, especially her boyfriend, Ian."

    Vanessa gave Kendal one last bitter look. "The more I think about spending the next three years with her, the better home-schooling sounds."

    Aria almost agreed but then thought their only other friend in this place. "The only problem with that is we would never see Walter anymore."

    Vanessa just shrugged. "Sure we would. He would be the one to home-school us. He's smart enough."

    "Who's smart enough?" came a voice from behind them.

    The girls turned around to see just the person they happened to be discussing, Walter Price. He stood, a few inches taller than the girls, with short spiky dirty blonde hair, wearing thin oval shaped glasses.          
   
    "Hey Walter!" the girls greeted in unison, offering him a smile.

    Walter returned the smile. "Hello, Aria, Vanessa. How was your summer?"

    "It was alright," Vanessa answered. "I went to Maine to visit my grandparents and Aria went to California and didn't get a tan."

    "Thanks, Vanessa," Aria rolled her eyes. "How about you, Walter?"

    "My parents sent me to a study Camp to improve my studying habits. It was actually quite helpful."

    Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Like you of all people need to go to a study camp! You're already the smartest person in our grade."

    Walter sighed and replied, "Yes, well, being a straight A student at a mediocre high school is hardly much of an achievement."

    "Well, at least that's perfect for our plan this year," Vanessa declared, exchanging glances with Aria.

    Walter raised his eyebrow. "What plan would that be?"

    "Aria and I are going to be home-schooled from now on," Vanessa declared, folding her arms, "and you are going to be our tutor."

    "Why on earth would you two want to be home-schooled?" Walter asked.

    "Because Aria doesn't want put up with Derek anymore and I don't want to have to look at Kendal's snotty face ever again," Vanessa explained, stubbornly stomping her foot.

    "I don't really want to see Kendal anymore either," Aria muttered in agreement, and then added more loudly, "Besides, there's nothing for us here." 

    "What about Band? You really enjoy music, right Aria?" Walter reminded her, and then moved his hazel eyes to Vanessa. "And wouldn't you miss being on the volleyball team?"

    Aria exchanged another glance with Vanessa and then sighed. "I think he's right."

    "He's always right," Vanessa grumbled shaking her head at Walter. "Have you ever once in your life actually been wrong?"

    Walter looked up, pretending to think. "I thought so once, but it turned out I was wrong."

    Aria giggled while Vanessa rolled her eyes and playfully smacked his arm. After hearing the five minute warning bell, the three of them made their way to Homeroom to avoid tardiness. As they took their seats, Aria eyed the other side of the classroom, where the popular kids sat, and then turned her gaze back to Vanessa and Walter, who sat beside her and smiled. She figured this next year would at least be bearable as long as she had her friends.