Rising Ancients (Book 1)

Chapter 1

AN: This story is a revised version of my other book The Secret Life of an Angel. Please enjoy it and I will hopefully write another book after this one if enough people like it, so comment your thoughts and reccomend it to your friends!

I look forward toward the east, admiring the sunrise. The sun is barely cresting the horizon, creating a collage of color in the sky. The clouds seem painted on a dark canvas in thrilling purples and dashing oranges. I’m surprised I’m awake to admire this view. I don’t normally wake up early enough to see the sunrise. I walk in the thin layer of snow that has gathered in the night. A small amount continues to fall, but I see it’s fading away like the darkness of the night. I look behind me, watching as my footprints disappear in the snow. Avoiding the rotting fence I pass every day, I continue on my way to the abandoned house that marks the halfway point between myself and school. I walk past and notice the crumbling walls and am reminded of crumbling mountains and fallen empires. Continuing to walk through the trees, I come up to the street I must cross to get to school. I cross without hesitation, knowing no one would be driving this early. I hop onto the sidewalk and speed walk to high school, my bag thumping against my leg, threatening to slip off my shoulder. Note to self: Don’t use shoulder bag as backpack.

                I walk underneath the flickering orange lights to the glistening glass doors. I look at the alarm and notice the steady light is still red, locked. Perfect, that gives me till 6:45 to practice. I drop my bag by the doors and walk into the grassy courtyard, surrounded by the circular walls of the school. I look around into the dark shadows surrounding the lights that line the sidewalk and the dark windows that surround me and don’t notice anything suspicious. I look straight ahead into the parking lot in search of any cars that might be in my way. I see none and smile. I take off my coat and am left in my flimsy blue hoodie. I feel the winter chill as the wind surrounding me swirls and makes its way into me, chilling my bones and causing shivers to run up and down my spine.

                I stand for a little longer, just long enough for blue to begin hinting the sky and begin running. I run fast, faster than I thought I ever could across the parking lot. Just when I reach the edge of the parking lot, I unfurl my wings as fast as I can and jump as I push down with my wings with all my might. I stumble in the air and fall a few feet before I regain my balance and flap my wings. I gain altitude and reach the clouds that were purple earlier, but are now grey. I fly toward my house and see our Christmas lights shining bright in the darkness. I smile and close my eyes, savoring the thrill of my experience. I open my eyes and after a while I swoop around in a wide arch and head back to my school. I see cars driving on the road. I’m so high up that they look like little ants, but I’m not high enough to get hit by any oncoming airplanes. As I near my school, I see the same cars that I see every morning. The “Early Birds” I called them. No pun intended.

                I swoop toward the patch of trees on the east side of my school, so I will be concealed by the high bunches of leaves and any on-lookers will be temporarily blinded by the rising sun. I land clumsily, still not used to my wings, and fold them into my back. I put on my jacket so the slits in my hoodie won’t arouse suspicion, and head toward the front entrance. I can see teachers in their windows preparing for the school day and the cafeteria ladies unpacking and heating up breakfast as I grab my bag and walk inside. I wave at the administrator as she sets up her desk and she smiles in response. I walk through the cafeteria and into the wide halls. I continue through the halls until I reach the library entrance. I attempt to open the door but it doesn’t budge. The librarian Ms. Walker must not have arrived at school yet.

I stand near the door for another five minutes until I see my friend Amanda walk up to me. I smile and wave and she does the same. She comes to the door and stands next to me silently, knowing that if the library were open, I would be in there. We stand there relaxing until I feel my foot fall asleep.

                “Damn it,” I whisper under my breath, shaking my foot out.

                “Don’t swear, It’s not nice,” Amanda speaks teasingly. I give her a look and rub my foot, trying, and failing, to get the pins and needles feeling to leave.

                “I wouldn’t swear, but sadly when I was little I made a vow to speak my mind whenever possible, and right now my mind is cursing like a sailor,” I reply in a sarcastic tone.

                Just then I hear a beep and I turn to see Ms. Walker unlocking the door. I smile at her and she gives me a look that tells me she heard my sarcastic retort. I blush and give a sheepish grin and she rolls her eyes and smiles. I hold the door open for Amanda as she walks into the library and to her chair.

In the middle of the library there is a table and surrounding that table are multiple chairs. I don’t sit with her, cause her friends always fill up those chairs with her, but I don’t mind. Amanda and I aren’t great friends. Due to the fact that I’m a freshman and she’s a junior, we don’t really see each other that often. I usually only see her in the morning, because we’re both early birds, and during lunch, because she has to eat freshman lunch for her schedule to work. Even though we don’t see much of each other, we are still friends. We both like the same things, a few examples are books, anime and Dean Winchester from Supernatural. Hey, he’s hot.

I walk over to another little sitting area with only two chairs and open my laptop. I turn on some music and begin to work on my book some more. I want to be a famous author someday, so I write constantly. I get to a really suspenseful part and I’m really getting into writing it, when suddenly my music is gone! I look up surprised and irritated and see my best friend Sam holding my ear-buds.

“Sup chick, you look irritated. Is that my fault?” she asks while wrapping my ear-buds around her index finger.

“As a matter of fact,” I say taking my buds back and turning my music off. “It is.”

“Ouch,” Sam says while fake wincing. “Someone’s not a happy camper.”

I roll my eyes and read what I’ve wrote so far. I feel as though I’m getting better but I’m not good enough to send in any of my works yet. Sam tilts my screen so she can see it and speed reads before I can protest. She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling and smiles widely.

“What,” I ask tentatively.

“Oh nothing,” she begins.” It’s just that-“

“What,”

“I feel as though my best friend will one day grow up to be the new Veronica Roth!”

“What!? No!”

I close my computer and put it in my backpack. I see Sam shrug and stand up, flinging her backpack onto her shoulder. I look at her and am struck by how pretty she is. She isn’t short but isn’t tall, maybe 5’4”. She has light brown/ dark blonde elbow length hair that is naturally curly. She has chocolate brown eyes and olive skin. She has thin lips that are naturally dark pink and she is really skinny. She is so skinny that skinny jeans are her comfy pants. I always envy her metabolism, cause I will NEVER be that skinny. I look average, 5’3” with dark brown shoulder length hair. I have blue-green eyes that stand out severely when I wear eyeliner and I have olive skin. I have thick lips that are pale but have a little color and I am not skinny. I’m not fat or chubby but I do have a stomach. I always try to suck it in, but it never works out in my favor. I also have a weird problem with my blush. I blush all the time, my cheeks have a natural blush, so when I blush in anger, embarrassment or even from the heat/cold, my cheeks become tomato red and I become a stop light. It’s not attractive.

I grab my bag and stand up. I look at the clock, 7:24am. School officially starts in six minutes. I tell Sam that I need to go to my locker and she groans but follows me upstairs. I reach my locker and kick it. It opens without resistance. I grab my German textbook and close my locker, throwing my textbook in my bag. I ask Sam if she needs to go to her locker and she nods and leads the way. I follow and stand next to her as she crouches by her locker. She opens it and grabs her English textbook and I kick her locker closed for her as she stands up. I look around for a clock and see one at the end of the hall by the stairs. It reads 7:28am. I look at Sam and smile apologetically because I had promised I would walk her to class today. She rolls her eyes and waves as she walks toward her English class. I turn around and walk quickly to German class.