Elixir

Chapter 1 - Alexander

I woke up feeling light headed, with my alarm clock buzzing next to me. When I turned over to see what time it was, I had to blink a couple of times, not believing what I saw. The clock said 6:30, in large red letters. I have to be at the corner where the bus will pick me up at 6:45. “Oh my god,” I yelled, astonished, “I’m going to be late for school!” I quickly got out of bed, and headed to my closet to pick out clothes for the day in a rush.

I quickly put on an old, faded out yellow polo, (that I really hoped was clean), and along with khaki pants, and some old, stained, blue converse shoes that I rarely wore. I managed to put on an iota of makeup, just some powder and mascara that will hopefully hide my washed-out face, before I made my way downstairs for breakfast.

My little sister Katie was at the kitchen table, looking annoyed and bored before she saw me come through the kitchen entryway.

When Katie saw me, she nearly leaped with joy. “Good morning Violet, what a wonderful day!” She called as I approached. I looked out the window right next to her, and saw what she meant. The clouds were a depressing shade of gray, all of the trees and flowers, normally so extravagant, were now droopy and wilting. The sky was a washed out color of blue, mixed with the depressing gray of the clouds, and created a depressing picture that made all of the happiness and beauty of everything flee.

Katie is in 1st grade, and is like a childhood movie star, beautiful, but spoiled. She has very pale skin, just like me, with golden blonde hair that curls its way down to the middle of her back. Her eyes are a dark blue, with silver around the center, making her eyes look like a dark moon in the center, emanating from a lunar eclipse.

I saw that she had no breakfast, so I assumed that our mom had to stay up late grading papers from her job as a teacher, which she did about once a week. I made us two bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and when I set it down in front of her, she smiled gratefully and started gobbling it down as fast as her mouth could chew.

After we ate, we grabbed our backpacks and headed outside to the end of our street where the bus was supposed to pick us up. We were out by 6:50, but our mom made us go out 10 minutes before the bus got there so we wouldn’t be late.

Once we arrived, I looked over at Katie who was nervously looking up at the sky. “What’s the matter?” I asked following her gaze. “Do you think...?” She didn’t have time to finish her sentence, because all of a sudden, a huge flash of lightning blew up in the sky, blinding us with light, and causing all of the color to drain out of even the most colorful things, and turn them as white as a sheet. The lightning was almost simultaneous to the thunder, which boomed so loud, that I had to cover my ears to block out the sound. The sound reminded me of a firework booming, the explosion erupting into the sky, deafening your ears and creating the most beautiful array of colors the world has ever seen. But, instead of colorful eruptions, there was only one white streak making the world go white.

“Uh oh…” I thought as I looked down as saw silent tears leaking from Katie’s eyes. “It’s alright, it’s only a storm.” I cooed as I felt rain landing on my skin. But it wasn’t normal rain, for it was like the ocean had come out of the sky, drenching us with cold water, freezing us to the bone. I kneeled down and hugged Katie, trying to protect her from most of the rain. I looked at the bus and found that Katie’s bus should have come 10 minutes ago, and mine 5.

The little bit of mascara that I managed to put on is probably down to my chin by now, making me look like a demon that just washed out of the ocean. I was just about to suggest that we go back home, and wait for my mom to take us to school, all of my hope of the bus coming had left my body when I made out a sliver of yellow from the street. It was the bus!! I helped Katie stand up, shivering, as the bus came into view and I was nearly leaping with joy until I saw that the side said Quest High School, and my heart dropped like a chunk of lead. My bus came into view and the door opened to my bus driver, who no one could remember the name of, because she was from Germany, and had a name like Eisenshuit or something, and since no one wanted to call their bus driver Miss. Eisenshuit, we just called her Ms. Bus Driver, and she was fine with that.

As the bus pulled up next to us and the double doors slid open, I saw Ms. Bus Driver. She was hot and sweaty despite the cold rain. She was a plump old woman, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. “I can’t get on the bus and leave my sister here.” I said motioning to Katie who was silently crying on the sidewalk.

“Quest and Starrett are riding together today because of the rain.” replied Ms. Bus Driver pointing to the inside of the bus. She was right; there were elementary school children raging around the bus, acting like they’re just as old as the teenagers. Some were curled up into a little ball, trying to hide from the raging storm that was threatening to burst through the windows.

I helped Katie onto the bus and began walking toward the back where my two best friends Daisy and Dianna were saving me a seat. Once we were about halfway there, Katie stopped, looked up at me and said “Why are we going to the back of the bus? I wanna sit up front.” Katie gave me a stubborn look and didn’t move. “Daisy and Dianna are in the back, so I’m going to the back.” I claimed as I nodded toward them. “Alright, I guess I’ll sit with you.” Katie said giving me a grim smile. I normally would refuse, but Katie is deathly afraid of storms and I didn’t want her sitting by herself.

            As I sat down, I smiled to Dianna who leaned over the chair in front of me. “Hey.” I greeted. “Hey.” She replied giving me a sheepish smile in return. “There’s a new guy here.” Dianna said.

“Who?” I asked.

“I don’t know what his name is, but he was staring at you when you were walking down here.”

“Really?”

That was odd. We barely ever got anyone new, and school just started.

“Really.” She replied. “Where is he?” I asked looking around the bus. “He’s at the front... Oh god, he’s staring at you again.” She gave a slight nod toward a boy sitting at the front, staring at me with bright blue eyes.

I looked again, and found that he was getting up. “Oh my god, Dianna he’s coming!” I claimed not taking my eyes off of him. I sat there, fingers coming through my tangled hair, hoping that my mascara wasn’t too incredibly bad as he made his way down the aisle, not taking his eyes off of me.

            People started staring at him, then me. I felt like I was on the center of a stage completely naked the way people were looking at me. (Let me say, that if you are ever in a position like that, try to keep a normal face because I must have looked dumbfounded and horrible.)

He came over and sat next to me, neither of us looking away from one-another. “Hello,” he said at last after a long moment, “I’m Alexander, call me Alex. What’s your name?”