The Duchess

Chapter Three- Animal Planet Doesn't Know Anything

Arabella's POV

      It'd been five weeks since I'd started high school in Tampa. Over the time, Niko and I had become really good friends and, although he didn't know, he was helping me get over the break up. Even though Julian and I were broken up for six months, he still lingered in my mind. We dated for two years and broke up on horrible terms. I never thought I could forgive him. I was right.

     Niko had been with me through all the boring classes and he showed me new parts of the school every day. Today's place was the music room. I focused my eyes and paid attention to Niko as he tuned the guitar. His fingers moved meticulously over the strings of the instrument, like it would shatter if he made any wrong moves. I watched his arms as he pulled on the strings. It was as if he calculated how each of his muscles would look as he played with the instruments.

      Suddenly, sounds were emitted by the guitar. His left hand pressed down on the strings while his right one strummed the rhythm to a familiar tune. The corners of my lips curved up into a smile and I started to sing along with the music.

      "Don't let them see you cry, when the dam breaks down and the city's covered in water." I sang the memorized words. Halfway through the short song he began to sing along. When it was over, I smiled widely at him and asked him the question that was dangling in my mind.

      "You listen to Manchester Orchestra?"

      "No. But you do." He said, smartly.

      "And you know that... because?" I inquired.

      "You told me when on the second day of school."

      "Yeah, but I didn't think you'd remember it."

      "I remember everything." He smiled enticingly.

      "Good to know."

      The bell rang, signalling the end of free period. Niko put the guitar in its case and went to the door. He motioned for me to go follow him; I grabbed my bag and went to him. We went to class and sat down in the middle.

      Mrs. Schenck droned on (for what seemed like hours) about symbiosis while I tried furiously to stay awake. Niko was passing me notes with little doodles of Mrs. Schenck in all sorts of clothes. Mostly ridiculous ones.

      Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something small and yellow being taped into my desk. As I tried to see who put it there, I tugged on the sticky note and silently read it.

      "THE EGG IS IN THE NEST." It read in big, bold letters.

      I snapped my head to the side and looked for the writer of the note. When I found nothing useful, I looked to the other side and saw something I may never forget. In the darkest of corners sat a small girl with long blonde hair that went down to her naval. On her upper lip sat a bushy black mustache (obviously fake), her eyes were blocked by pitch black sunnies that were hazardly big on her petite face. What puzzled me the most, though, was her attire.  Drenched over her tiny frame was a gigantic beige trenchcoat that covered her entire legs and feet, on her head was a black fedora that swallowed her head. I tried not to laugh.

      Her leather-clad hand reached the rim of her sunnies and, in a flash, her cobalt blue eyes were staring into my green ones. She raised an eyebrow, as if to send me a silent message. I pointed to the note with a questioning demeanor and she gave me a curt nod.

      The sound of the bell made me snap my head to the front for a spilt second, but when I looked back to Mysterious Trench Coat Girl, her seat was empty.