Hey guys! Here's a new story. This one isn't published. I'll just write and post part by part. Check out "Guardian" on amazon.com. It's my other book!
Bri hunched her shoulders against the cold autumn wind and hefted her backpack to keep it from slipping. God, she hated autumn, or any season, except for summer. But summer was long gone and it was back to school for her.
She watched as the faded yellow school bus drove away, spewing fumes, after it had deposited sad children in the torture house known as Westing High. It was hell, day after day.
Bri was keeping her eyes peeled for the day there'd be an escape from the monotony of her life. The only escape she could seek from her hell was found in her paintings and the poems she scripted. Her art was a window into another world--a world she could only glimpse at every now and then but never touch.
Bri sighed. She glanced up at the gray stone building that would be her prison for the next three seasons before summer finally came. One glance was enough to hurt her eyes and dash any dreamy escapes she had thought up of. She hunched her shoulders some more and walked inside.
First period was a real drag. She listened to Mr. Warner (aka Mr. Weiner when she was feeling grumpy) yap about class expectations and rules and all the usual crap.
She was about to close her eyes and take a nap when Mr. Weiner stopped talking. She jerked upright. Constant yapping meant he wasn't paying attention to the class. If he stopped...had he spotted her, despite the fact that she had situated herself in the back row?
Bri looked up to see Mr. Weiner looking very stern. But he wasn't looking at her. He was glaring at a hooded figure that had just trudged in to class.
"And who are you, young sir?"
"No need to call me sir." A lilting voice came from under the hood. "I'm Andario Invidia. Call me Rio for short."
Mr. Weiner looked a little red in the face. "Alright, young man, go sit in the back! So far, you have done little to leave me with a good impression...being late on the first day of school."
"Yessir!" The boy snapped a salute.
Mr. Weiner glowered some more while the class laughed.
To Bri's horror, the only available seat in the back was right next to hers. So much for just trying to make it through the school year being invisible. That plan just went out the window.
Rio sat down in the seat next to Bri's, as expected. "What a lovely man," he mused.
Bri snorted, "Yeah, when hell freezes over."
Rio glanced at her and drew back his hood. He looked faintly amused by her wording. "Hell? It's already frozen."
Bri tried not to look at his face because it was too beautiful. It was the kind of face that could get a girl like her in trouble, the kind of face that could ensare others. It was the kind of face that said,'the world could end right now and I couldn't care less'.
He had a square jaw and high cheekbones. His nose and eyes were well defined. His hair was the color of deepest night. His eyes were tawny, with orange flecks in them the color of hellfire. His lips were a perfect double curve and so soft looking.
Bri caught herself before she delved further into his looks. She wasn't the kind of girl that fell, swooning, over a handsome face. So what if he's good-looking? He's probably a jerk. At least, that's what she told herself over and over again.
"It's already frozen? Where in the world do you come from?"
"Hell." He smiled half a smile, a cocky look in his eye. "So you can say I have personal experience."
Bri shook her head, smiling.
"So, introduce yourself. What's your name, pray tell." He leaned closer to her, his smile growing wider, as if he knew his hellfire eyes were entrancing.
"Bri."
"Okay, Bri. I'm Rio."
Bri glared at him. "Stop talking to me like I'm two. I heard you introduce yourself after your 'spectacular entrance'. Stop drawing attention to me."
She turned around in her seat and pretended to be very interested in Mr. Weiner's scribbled on the chalkboard.
"I think you're drawing attention to yourself. It's all you. Not me."
His tone made Bri grit her teeth. It was condescending, as if he was a patient parent with an especially stubborn toddler. But he wasn't. They were in the same grade, for God's sake.
She said out of the corner of her mouth, not pausing to wonder how their conversation had become so heated in such a short span of time, "You're the one that started talking to me first."
"Actually, Bri, I was merely speculating to myself. You're the one that insisted on interjecting."
Bri shook her head in anger. "Right, like everyone should know that you're talking to yourself. Go talk to yourself some more. Actually, just stop talking!"
Mr. Weiner stopped talking. This time, he was staring at her. In fact, the whole class was staring at her after her violent outburst.
"Excuse me, Miss Starbright, perhaps you'd like to share why you've just ordered me to stop instructing this class...the very class that you are disrupting?"
Bri strove to master her temper. She said, between her teeth, "Don't mind me, sir. I didn't mean you. I was telling Andario because he was disrupting my concentration. Sorry, sir."
Mr. Weiner glanced between the two and said, "After school detention. Both of you."
Bri opened her mouth to protest the unfairness, but he stilled her with a raised finger.
"Don't make me add another one."
Her mouth snapped shut. She was shocked. She had never gotten detention before in her life. Ever. It wasn't like she was Little Miss Perfect, but she never got any attention, bad or good. Ever. She just drifted through school, handing homework in, acing tests, and being invisible.
Bri glared at Rio and found him relaxing in his chair, looking for all the world like he had just won some grand prize. He smiled when he caught her looking. She huffed and looked away from him. She stared woodenly at the board, ignoring him. She ignored the urge to take another peek at his gorgeous face. Who cared if he was beautiful? He was a pretty boy that had landed her in her first detention.
Stay tuned to Bri's story. The next one may just answer some important questions. Who is Rio? Where did he come from? Surely not hell...right?
This story is much more than meets the eye, so wait for the next installment.
YOU ARE READING
