Nyx (ON HOLD)

First Day, Part III

I sprinted past the final trees at the edge of the trail, and slammed directly into someone. My shoulder collided with them like a brick wall, and I heard a faint, "Oof!" and then the breath was knocked from my lungs as the grassy ground surged up like a wave.

It was instinct to roll aside, but I was so confused from the direction of the impact that I ended up nearly smacking into the other person again. I scrambled away instinctively, somehow finding my feet on the sharp slope. The chain-link fence that divided the forest and the school grounds was almost entirely hidden beneath a thousand kelly-green leaves, all tipped with frost; the imposing brick wall that ran parallel to it seemed to be the side wall of the school proper.

Having figured all that out, I turned my gaze to the person I'd smacked into — and the breath went out of my lungs all over again.

As soon as I saw the girl I knew it was her I'd seen last night. Her hair was that mercurial silver, patterns carved into the buzzed crescent on one side of her skull while her locks fell to her shoulder on the other. Her features were delicate but sharp, like a fox, and her warm caramel skin seemed luminous beneath the light from the clouded sky.

The girl must have been wearing contacts, because her eyes — which had seemed so dark when I saw her before — were a brilliant violet, and her lips parted, refined eyebrows drawing together in shock as she stared up at me.

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered quickly. She was even slighter than she'd seemed through the curious telescope mounted to my balcony, but it had felt like her willowy body was made of iron. I wasn't the smallest girl in existence by far; the mere fact that I hadn't squished her was a miracle. Today her clothes were lightweight and colorful, magenta pink accented with lime green, and some sort of long sash or scarf to match. If I'd had to guess I would've said the garb was Indian, and I felt all the more awful for knocking her down into the grass, probably scuffing up the delicately embroidered fabric in the process.

Some instinctive urge to correct my boorishness kicked in, and I thrust my hand out to help her to her feet. I wasn't actually expecting her to take it, though — and as her fingers closed over mine, I jumped so hard that my hand reflexively tightened about hers. The girl felt like a live wire against me, as though she was so fully alive that her body simply couldn't contain all the energy burning just beneath her skin.

The girl's coral-pink lips moved, and her quiet alto echoed off the school's brick wall: "Brace yourself."

For a moment I'd forgotten what I was even doing — but at her words I readjusted my stance. It took surprisingly little effort to pull the girl to her feet, and we almost collided again as she practically alighted on the slanted ground. Her purple eyes narrowed a little as she smiled. "Thank you."

"Sorry for crashing into you like that," I mumbled, ducking my head as she stared at me. Her gaze was piercing, and as she watched me I felt like I was under a microscope, but there was no way to escape; tiny as the girl was, she was between me and the parking loop visible just around the corner of the brick wall.

"No damage done — I bounce." A tentative smile crept over her face. I hadn't been sure at first, but it sounded like she had some sort of accent — though if so, I couldn't place it. Her voice had a dreamy lilt to it, and I found myself starting to mentally drift even during the few words she spoke, becoming untethered from our surroundings somehow. "You must be new to Marblehead."

I could feel myself frowning as I thought of my grandmother. Had there been some kind of announcement in the local paper that I didn't know about?

The girl's expression shifted to one of confusion as she gazed up at me. "Did I say something wrong?"

"N-No — just wondering why my grandmother went around yammering to people that I was here when she won't even say more than two words to my face," I grumbled.

The breeze shifted a little and I caught the girl's scent, like sparkling grapefruit and the warm, inviting hint of sun-baked stone. It was intoxicating — and I balled my hands into fists in a vain effort to stop myself from going strangely derpy all over again.

"Ah." She smiled again, self-consciously now as roses bloomed in her cheeks. "Sorry, I was just assuming. You had that same look on your face that I was wearing the entire first day I came here."

My brows knit together. "How many years ago was that?"

A tinkling laugh burst from the girl's lips like wind chimes. "Two weeks."

So I wasn't the only outsider here — and a lump in my chest that I hadn't noticed before softened at the thought that maybe I really wasn't as alone as I'd thought. "Oh...so you're, like, an exchange student?"

She pursed her lips, looking up and to the side in a show of thinking, and then smiled again. "Something like that. My name's Keiko Arora."

"Mel. Sparks," I answered with a tight smile. Something lurched deep inside me every time she spoke — it was almost more terrifying than the thing behind me in the forest.

The forest — I'd forgotten it after all of this, and remembering it now, I spun around and stared back at the trail, now reduced to a dark maw in the half-frozen wall of greenery. The sound had been coming closer...but was that just my imagination?

Keiko followed my gaze, squinting into the forest. "Did you see an animal?"

"I guess it was nothing," I mumbled, embarrassed to look so jumpy. The man in the trench coat was probably long gone, off hunting for robins or cardinals or whatever kind of birds nested around here — and whatever I'd heard must've been some small animal rummaging around in the undergrowth. It had probably been more terrified of me than I was of it.

She smiled again, as pale and brilliant as the crescent moon. "Hopefully it won't come back, whatever it was."

"Hopefully," I agreed. Then we were staring at each other again, and I could feel my cheeks burning as I struggled uselessly to think of something to say.

"Do you want to—" Keiko began, her violet eyes sparkling as the sun emerged over the pines.

The school's bell split the air, drowning out whatever the silver-haired girl was going to say, and the warm feeling in my chest faded in disappointment. "I'd better go find the main office. They probably don't even know I'm supposed to start today."

"Best go let them know, then." It was probably my imagination, but the corner of her mouth quirked, and I wondered if she wasn't disappointed, too. She was watching me so eagerly, even though I hadn't done a thing in the world to warrant it. "Around the building there to the left. You won't miss the entrance — it's straight through there to the right."

"Thanks." My feet felt heavier, as though my shoes had rooted themselves to the ground, but I forced myself to stir. "Sorry again."

"It was no trouble," Keiko offered.

I nodded and started to walk away, but then her low voice sounded from over my shoulder again.

"I'm sure I'll see you around."

I looked back, but she was moving away in the opposite direction, and I only caught the glint of another smile as she turned away.

💙

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NEXT TIME: Mel begins her first day as a senior at Marblehead High School, and learns more about the town and its history — including the tense situation at the waterfront, which is threatening to spill over into violence.