Wicked Soul Ascension

Completed Story

Chapter One

Flathill Creek: a grungy town I've called home for eighteen years. The only way people know that it exists is because it's on a major highway. People drive by, wave, and continue up the road to enter Mirror City.

I grumbled and moaned as I pulled into the combined junior and senior high school parking lot on the morning of my twelfth year of school. The entrance to the teenaged prison appeared warm and inviting, welcoming everyone who passed into the grand learning facility it was intended to be. Colourful flower beds and neatly laid pathways made the system seem organized and spirited. The building's red brickwork wrapped stained glass windows of fields of gold, rich green forests, and majestic mountains. Tread inside and all that merriment and wonder is zapped right out, replaced by faded paint and empty planters.

Every other girl in the school was dressed in fancy, first-day-of-school clothing but not me. I was the type of girl that dressed in a plain black T-shirt and baggie blue jeans. I stood at my classroom door with my hands clenched to one strap of my backpack that was slung over my shoulder. My chin dropped to my chest. "This again. Why do I have to do this year after year?"

"Don't worry, Blaze," a cheery voice told me. "Just a list of rules, then school policy, then we get our schedules, and then lunch. I know you love lunch," Hope emphasized the word love by dragging out the middle.

I peeked over my shoulder with a smirk. I knew her voice as well as I knew my own. "Hope, you're chipper as always. If only I could be like you once in a while." She bounced on her toes, her thin rose lips curved up to her vibrant blue eyes. Her tattered zip-up hoodie was a blinding blue. Fitted dark-blue jeans covered her short thin legs. Comfort, not glamour. She only dressed to impress one person—herself. One of many reasons she held my 'best friend' status.

She lifted a blue lily to my nose. "Look, look, a flower!" She giggled then took a sniff herself. "Mmm, isn't it pretty?" She slipped the stem into the water bottle pocket of my backpack. "I know your hatred of school makes you gloomy this time of year, so I thought I'd brighten your day with this blue light I found." She patted the stem to make sure it was secure.

I shook my head and grinned. "Oh Hope, if you only knew the half of my hatred for this place." But she did know, she knew me to the core of my existence.

My hand gripped the silver doorknob. Hope bounced past me into the room with a love-filled 'good morning' to everyone she saw. She found a seat she liked in the middle of the room, plopped herself into the chair with a huge twinkle in her eye. I claimed the seat next to her and prepped for the lecture of school rules and policies we had to endure year after year.

At lunch, Hope had already found our usual spot, which was in the hallway on the floor against the lockers. The school had hundred of students, but nowhere for them to eat. She had her face in her lunch bag by the time I took my seat on the floor next to her.

"So, what classes did you get? I got all the ones I wanted. University here I come!" she bellowed. "Maybe I'll work with bodies discovering how they were killed, or maybe I'll be a surgeon, putting bodies back together. Or apart—I'd like that to. Hmm, so many choices...what to choose?"

She pulled out the first thing she wanted to eat from her bag. My stomach flopped. Hope glared at me. "Just because you don't like seafood doesn't mean that I can't eat it." She popped off the top of the container. "It was seafood night last night. Mmm, smell it." She slightly lifted the container to me.

I instantly backed away. Disgusting. "You know I can't stand the smell of that stuff."

"I got a new male teacher," I said as I pulled out my roast beef sandwich. "Yes, I didn't squish it." I tore off the plastic wrap and took in the scent of the sweet meat smothered in mayo and mustard.