Exploiting Realities

CHAPTER ONE - SOMETHING DIFFERENT

A/N: I've been told that there's been some confusion about the first chapter, so I just wanted to clarify that this is NOT the main character's POV (the same POV as the summary). I have several POV's because some of the chapters I think are easier to understand from different perspectives, plus I believe that it helps you to get to know the characters better. Other than that, happy reading!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

SUMMER'S POV

Bombarno was such a joke. I'd been taking his Communications class for three years now and I'd still never had to try. Like today, for example. We were watching "Les Miserables" while he pointed out the "most important elements" of the movie. I mean, the movie was over a decade old and everyone in the class had seen it probably 5 or 6 times already, so basically we were all sitting on our phones while he talked to himself.

There was something different about today, though. I could feel it. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but the air just seemed...stiller. Plus I'd had a weird feeling in my stomach all day, but that might have been from the weird shellfish that I had at dinner last night.

I looked around me at the people in the class and sighed. The amount of oddities in this class always seemed to faze me. 80% of the class had to have rainbow-colored hair, weird piercings, weird tattoos... some of them dressed just plain weird. The girl three seats down from me even had her tongue pierced. Her sense of style was outrageous. I couldn't decide if it was goth or just her throwing random things from her closet onto her body. It was disturbing. Pretty much the only normal people in this class were me and my friends Miranda and Aria. I mean, there were some people that didn't seem too bad. Like, there was this one guy Brady that sat across from me. He at least looked normal. I hadn't ever really had a reason to talk to him, though. Next to him was this tan girl named Eileen. Her name was weird and I couldn't tell if she was Mexican or Italian, but she, too, seemed half-way decent. The three of us usually kept our distance from other people in the class, though. 

Miranda and I had been friends since birth, and Aria and I had been friends since sixth or seventh grade. The three of us and our friends Avery, Livi and Lorelai were a practically inseparable group. The six of us pretty much made up the varsity field hockey team at our school. We all lived within a fifteen minute walk from each other, so a day hardly passed that we weren't doing something together. We lived in a small town in New Jersey. So small, in fact, that it hardly even made the map. It was quaint, though, and we all appreciated it, even though we were a half-hour away from the nearest Wal-Mart. 

Miranda wanted to go to college for directing and Aria for producing, so it would make sense that they would be in this class, which circled around filmmaking and cinematography. I was pretty much just in here for the fun video projects. Plus, like I said, I hardly ever even had to try. Plus it counted as an academic elective. Hey, it was better than taking something stupid like Anatomy. 

I glanced next to me at Aria. Well, that was something different. Aria was usually the one person in the class that actually listened to everything that Mr. Bombarno said, regardless of how useless the information was. That was why I had never needed to try over the years, I'd always had Aria to try for me. But right now she had her head down on the table. I couldn't think of one time where Aria actually fell asleep in class. This wasn't normal. What if he actually gave us questions on this later? There was no way I was going to be able to answer them if Aria hadn't been paying attention! Wait, was she...shaking? It seemed like it. I placed my hand on her shoulder. Yes, she was definitely trembling. Maybe something was actually wrong with her...I shuddered at the thought. I leaned down next to her.

"You okay?" I whispered in her ear. She didn't respond. I definitely said it loud enough for her to hear me. I felt her start to tremble even more. What was wrong with her? Was she sick? I placed my hand on her forehead, then jerked it back immediately. Ouch! She definitely had a fever. Aria never got sick! This was so out of the ordinary for her.

I turned to my other side where Miranda was sitting. She was texting Finn, like always. I tapped on her shoulder to get her attention. She glanced up at me.

"Feel Aria's head," I instructed her quietly. She gave me a puzzled look.

"Why?" she asked.

"I think something's wrong with her." That was an understatement. Something was undoubtedly wrong with her. I just knew that Miranda would actually do something about it if she agreed with me.

Miranda reached over me and put her hand on Aria's forehead. She pulled back with the same horrified look on her face as I had.

"Aria? Are you okay?" She whispered in Aria's ear.

"My head hurts..." Aria grumbled quietly without lifting her head.

"Maybe you should go to the nurse," Miranda suggested.

"Yeah," I agreed with her, "you're burning up. Like a lot."

Aria grumbled again. Miranda raised her hand abruptly. Mr. Bombarno glanced at her, irritated that he was being interrupted.

"Mr. Bombarno, Aria needs to go to the nurse" Miranda stated.

"Really? What for?" he responded, obviously cross that he had been interrupted.

"She has a headache and a bad fever," Miranda persisted. Mr. Bombarno walked over to Aria and placed his hand on her forehead. He jerked his hand back the same way that Miranda and I both had. He immediately motioned towards that guy Brady that sat across from me.

"Mr. McCormick, please assist Miss Richter in getting to the nurse's office," he ordered.

Brady rose from his seat, grabbed his bags, and walked over towards Aria. She slowly stood up and he helped her out the door. Miranda and I exchanged worried glances. Mr. Bombarno continued with his lesson right away, but I found myself even more unable to pay attention than usual. This was so abnormal. Aria was a clean freak. She didn't get sick. Ever. Course, it was just a fever, but even that was odd coming from Aria. Stuff like that didn't happen. None of the abnormalities of the class seemed fazed by the odd condition of the girl that had been their classmate for the last three years, but who could've expected them to? Miranda and I, however, were worried sick. I hoped nothing was actually wrong with Aria...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hey guys! This is my first story on wattpad. I know, the beginning is a little rough, but I have a serious problem with knowing how to start things. I hope you understand! Trust me, it gets better later on. I already have the entire story planned out, and I think it's going to be great! Thanks for reading and if you could share this with people that you know (or people that you don't know...I don't really care) it would be greatly appreciated!

[WARNING: THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS ARE VERY SHORT BUT DON'T LET THAT CHASE YOU AWAY BECAUSE AFTER THE FIRST FOUR OR SO THEY GET LONGER]

A picture of Summer is to the right. I'm going to try to put different character posters on each chapter, so let me know what you think of them!

-V. E.