Black Wing [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 2

The next morning I awoke to the sound of “Amelia! Get up! It’s your first day at school; you don’t want to be late”.

I literally dragged myself out of bed; I hadn’t been awake this early in a while. I felt like the walking dead.  I decided to jump in the shower to wake myself up. The shower helped, but not as much as the frosty air that hit me as I walked out the door, it hit me like waves crashing against a cliff.

I will never be able to get used to this weather after having living in a place like Lydon, the weather there was unbelievably hot, like we were only a few metres away from the sun. In Harlan, it couldn’t be more opposite; here it was really cold, like wear-your-gloves-at-all-times cold.

I walked the couple of blocks to school. When I reached the car park of the school, I could feel everyone’s eyes following me as I past them. My instincts told me to put my head down and cross my arms across my body, but I didn’t, I didn’t want people to think I was beneath them in any sort of way. I made my way towards my first class; when I entered I immediately scanned the room for a spare seat, not wanting to embarrass myself by not having anywhere to sit.

Then I noticed a group of girls surrounding a table at the back, all of them acting like dogs in heat.

That’s when I noticed the boy sat amongst the girls; his hair was dark brown, his eyes a captivating, ice blue, his skin was porcelain white, he was obviously beautiful, but he was also self-indulgent, which I hated.

He knew how beautiful he was, and he used it to his advantage. I couldn’t help but stare, to notice the way his jaw line was so sculptured, his eyelashes were so thick, then he looked at me, we must stared at eachother for only a moment. But a moment was all it took. The eyes were so familiar, his gaze penetrating. I immediately looked away, and took my seat.

I fumbled around looking for my books, his gaze burning into the back of my head. I try my best not to look back, but I can’t help myself.

I turned, and I immediately knew where I’ve seen those enticing blue eyes before. Gabriel.

My mouth crept up the sides of my face melding into a huge smile; I can’t believe it’s him. But he didn’t return my smile; he just stared back at me.

That’s when all the girls surrounding his table turned, if looks could kill, I’d be laying stone cold on the floor. All the girls were gorgeous, no doubt about that, but they were all so over-indulged in their own looks. I turned to face the front, my heart thumping so fast and hard, I thought someone would hear it.

When the teacher entered everyone took their seats, and he wrote his name on the board, Mr.Carter. He was a tall, skinny man, with oversized glasses; exactly the sort of teacher I always imagined teaching biology.

“Ok class, today we are going to be studying Biology and Disease, we will be studying this for the rest of the term, so do your research” he continued “But first, I am aware we have a few new students in our class this term, so all of you we be giving a little speech about yourself, just to get to know eachother a bit better, so, I want you to say your name, age and then something interesting about yourself, so we’ll start at the front” He pointed at a girl at the front, her hair was golden brown, but that’s all I could see of her.

“My name is Katie Longstaff, I'm 17, and I moved here from South Pendlebury” She drifted back in her seat, as if she was glad that she’d finished.

Mr.Carter went through the first few rows, and eventually got to me, I was so focused on what the other people were saying I never thought about what I would say, then I remembered Gabriel was sitting just two rows behind me, and I wandered whether he would take notice of what I would say. Mr.Carter pointed at me.

“My names Amelia Page, I'm 17, and I lived here until I was 10, then I moved to Lydon, but I’ve just recently moved back” My hand were clammy, and my breath accelerated, I never knew I would be so nervous speaking infront of a bunch of strangers.

My mind was so focused on Gabriel, and whether he heard what I said and realised it was me, I never even took any notice of what anybody else said about themselves, I was waiting for what Gabriel would say. Mr.Carter pointed at Gabriel, I was tempted to turn, but I didn’t, I just sat and waited for his answer.

“I'm Gabriel Turner, I'm 18, and I'm a poet”

You’ve got to be kidding me, Gabriel, a poet? When we were younger Gabriel was never any good at putting words onto paper, so I wandered how this had come about. Mr.Carter smiled and moved onto the girl sat next to him.

 “My name is Casey King, I'm 17, and my boyfriend is Gabriel Turner”  

My mouth dropped, Gabriel was not one for girlfriends, but I guess things change. I turned to look at her, her hair a blazing red, and her eyes were pure black, she grabbed hold of Gabriel's hand and my stomach churned.

She didn’t look like the sort of girl Gabriel would go for, it’s like he’s a totally different person now, it’s like I don’t even know him anymore. He’s like the perfect stranger.

I looked at all the girls that were surrounding their table when I first entered, they were all smiling at Casey, when I came into this class all of them were flirting with Gabriel. How could Casey sit there and let them all act like that? Then I realised it was because she knew Gabriel would never leave someone like her, for people like them.

The bell rang on my third lesson, for people to go to dinner. I made my way through all the pushing and shoving teenagers, and through to the cafeteria, I scanned the room, trying to figure out the seating arrangements, it was obvious who sat where. All the football players and their girlfriends sat on the circular table in the middle of the room, while the unpopular kids sat in the far corner of the room; I wandered where I would be placed.

I went over to the counter and picked up a bottle of lemonade, and a bowl of mixed salad. The woman at the till wasn’t very pleasant; she looked me up and down, as many of the other students did today. I turned to look again at the tables in the cafeteria, when I noticed an empty table near the window. I hurried over to it, hoping nobody would steal it before I got there.

All of a sudden a boy turned up from nowhere, sitting next to me. “Hey! Your Amelia right?” he looked at me with his brown eyes.

“Er-yeah”

“You moved here from Lydon?” he asked, his voice was higher pitched than I would have imagined.

“Yes. How do you know all of this?” I asked, wandering who would have told him all of this information about me.

“Oh, Katie told me about you, you know Katie Longstaff right?” He pointed over to a table in the corner, she wore thick rimmed glasses and her golden brown hair hanging down the sides of her face.

“Yeah, she was just in my biology class, she moved here from South Pendlebury right?” I asked, recalling the events from my Biology class which I would rather forget.

He nodded and asked “Do you want to come over and sit with us?”

“Sure” I smiled, finally, someone I can get along with. As I walked over to their table Katie looked at me and smiled, I smiled back and sat down.

“Hey, I'm Katie, I'm in your biology class”

“Yeah I know-” I pointed at the boy who told me who she was, and realised I didn’t know his name.

“I'm Jack” he said. After a few others introduced themselves, I looked at all the people in the cafeteria. There he was. Gabriel. He walked in with Casey by his side; her face glowed when he spoke to her, she seemed so happy to be with him.

Gabriel turned and met my gaze, his face completely changed; it went from smiling to glaring in a matter of seconds. I just looked at him with hopeful eyes, willing him to come and talk to me. But he just turned and looked at Casey, who was staring at me, and they both walked over to the centre table. What is he being so cold for? 

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Hey guys :) Hopefully you enjoy this story, I know it's not exactly the best. But give me some credit, this is my first story, after all. Anyway, I'll be uploading again tomorrow x