Roxanne The girl in the red dress

Chapter one- Nebraska

"The most life-changing events are the ones you least expect. The things that happen despite being ridiculously unlikely with odds like one in a million," Danielle said as an introduction to her speech that would undoubtedly be nothing short of perfect. After hearing her opening lines, I zoned out completely. I didn't mean to, as I did genuinely enjoy her speeches but it occurred to me that I had not actually experienced anything that could be classified as life changing. At least not by that criteria.

I looked around the classroom that was still new to me- in particular the faces that I was still desperately struggling to match with names. Despite having been attending Blackman Academy for over a month, I still found it difficult to settle in. I just didn't feel like I belonged. But I was used to this feeling. I didn't ever seem to belong anywhere so as a child I had learned how to pretend I was part of something and to adapt to whoever I felt like I needed to be at a particular point in time. This meant that had experienced almost every school clique from geek to popular. However, I had promised myself that coming to a new school would be a new start. It was this misguided belief that I could have a fresh start and leave my past behind that I shared in common with Roxanne.

I met her on the first day. Actually that isn't completely true. She wasn't actually there on the first day which the girls found particularly strange but it served as a source of amusement to the boys. Every time her name was read out by a teacher in one of my classes, the silence that should have been filled with a response confirming attendance was instead filled with curious speculation as to who Roxanne White was. Some thought she was an emo, others thought she was a geek who must have attended the Classic literature convention that was being held that day not too far away. These speculations were by far outweighed by the majority of the class who were almost certain that anyone with a name like Roxanne White had to be a complete hottie and a blonde bombshell. Those people were proved wrong when Roxanne turned up two days later and strutted gracefully into our English class.

She wasn't a hottie. She wasn't even a blonde bombshell. Neither of these came anywhere near to providing a worthy description of Roxanne. Yes she was beautiful but it wasn't her beauty that made her so difficult to pull your eyes away from. It was something about her body language and her aura. The way the atmosphere changed as soon as she entered the room. The silence that had descended after her entrance was eventually broken by our teacher Mr Brightman.

"Would I be right in assuming that you are Roxanne White?" He asked peering from above his outdated computer. Although the school gave every teacher a very modern complimentary laptop, for some reason that I was unable to comprehend, he insisted on using a chunky white box of a computer that should have been written off along with shoulder pads and flared disco trousers.

"Yes sir," was her simple but polite reply. Even those two short words hooked the whole class. She had a voice that was surprisingly deep and husky for someone so feminine. It was a voice that demanded attention and oozed power.

"Do you go by Roxy or-?" she didn't even wait to hear the rest of his question before she rudely interrupted.

"No. It's just Roxanne. Not Roxy. Or Anne. I might just tolerate Rox but I prefer to go by the name my Grandmother gave to me." I was slightly taken aback by this natural beauty with a sharp tongue. She hadn't even been there for one minute and already she had made a strong impression. Whether that was a good impression or a bad one was still debatable, a conflict I left to my subconscious mind. One that I later realised would probably never find an answer.

She scanned the room in search of a suitable place to sit. Her gaze paused on a few locations before landing on me. She then continued to look around the room before her gaze returned to me. She considered me for a moment before coming to a decision and walking in my direction. All the while, I had pretended not to notice her and kept my head buried in the romance novel I was reading. Well, pretending to read.