Light as a Feather

Chapter Twelve

     "Annabelle, let's go," Annabelle's mother said to her. It was the first day of her sophomore year, and she was not ready, at least emotionally. On the outside? Yes, she looked a little like she should be going to school. Her hair was done in a messy side braid and she was wearing some jeans and a purple T-shirt. That morning, she had put on some of her signature black eyeliner, but not enough that she'd look goth. It blended in with the mascara. Her dirty backpack was flung over one shoulder. Her mom had practically begged her to get a new one, but Annabelle hadn't wanted to. She would never tell her mother, but the backpack was the only thing that stayed the same when everything else was changing for her. That was the reason why she wanted to keep it. It was sort of symbolic.

     She got in the car by her mom as she bit her lip. Going to a new school was new territory for her. She had stayed in the same place pretty much her whole life, and all of a sudden she was gaining magical powers and moving. It was odd and surreal, and it didn't feel like her life. Annabelle felt like an onlooker to somebody else's life that was like that.

     When her mom stopped the car in the parking lot, she looked at Annabelle and said, "You are very brave, you know."

     "Going to a new school is not brave, mom. Millions of people do it every day."

     "That's not what I meant. I mean... you have been doing so well with your powers, I know I can trust you. You really stepped up to the plate."

     "I didn't have a choice."

     "Of course not. But you still did it. And I think that's worth something." Annabelle touched the necklace. It hung around her neck like a death sentence.

     "Thanks. I have to go," Annabelle said as she got out of the car. She shut the door and put on the backpack. Her mom drove away, looking like that was the last thing she wanted to do.

     Annabelle took a deep breath and then walked through the double doors that led into the school. It was big, but her old school had been larger. Charla had called her a few times and asked when she was coming back, but those had been voice mails, and Annabelle didn't want to answer. She already knew what she'd have to say, and Charla didn't deserve to get that news right before school started.

     The scene was mostly the same as in any other high school. Lockers slamming, freshmen looking freaked in the corners, and all the idiot senior boys gathering for  their first senior prank planning. Most of the popular girls were easily identifiable. Stereotypical blonde hair, shiny lip gloss on their lips, and a boy toy near them at all times, regardless if they were dating or not. Annabelle nearly gagged as she walked past a shiny-haired brunette who said, "Are you sure I should get blonde highlights? Because, like, I think I'd look way too much like Cameron Diaz, and people would mistake me for her, and I don't want paparazzi to be on my doorstep every day."

     The girl she was talking to, who looked like she had the IQ of a brick, said, "You so don't look like Cameron Diaz... maybe Celine Dion, though."

     Annabelle suppressed a laugh as she passed them. This school, she had heard, had some of the highest test scores in the state, but it was obvious who would be skewing the data.

     Her first class was English, something she was fine with. She had never done wonderfully in English, but never too bad, so she was feeling a little optimistic.

     As she was walking, a familiar figure began to walk next to her, and that mood vanished. "Hey," he said. "How come I never saw you this summer?"

     Because there was a magical wall that prevented you from seeing anything going on in my backyard. "I just stayed in a lot. I didn't do much."

     She hadn't seen Tyler since the day on the wall. To tell the truth, Annabelle had been so preoccupied with trying to train her magical cells to keep still, she hadn't thought about boys, really. Much less Tyler. The only boy she had even remotely thought about was Brendon Urie, the lead singer of Panic! at the Disco, and that was only because she listened to music every night.

     "Anna?"

     "Oh, sorry. What did you say?"

     "I asked you what your first period is."

     "Oh, English."

     "Hey, me too!" She only smiled tightly. 

     Throughout the next few class periods, she found out that Tyler was in all of her classes except one; art. He hadn't taken art as an elective, and had chosen woodshop instead. He was even in her P.E. class, which would stink, literally. Smelly shirts and ugly gym shorts were usually horrid, but then you add them with Tyler, and things were worse. She was pretty sure he had a crush on her, and that wasn't her being conceited, it was Annabelle being realistic. She wasn't attracted to him like that, though, and so she felt guilty about it.

     After about a week of being in the school, Annabelle found out that he wasn't in the VIP section in the popular clique, but he was ranked pretty high on the totem pole. The most popular, the Queen Bee, was someone she tried to avoid most of the time, mainly because she didn't feel like dealing with a plastic Barbie doll while working on a science project that she would probably try to weasel her way out of. That girl was Alicia Thompson.

     At her old school, the girl everybody knew and the one who ran the school was Kayla Merit. She was actually a pretty decent human being, and used her powers for good. She had gone to volunteer at numerous shelters and retirement homes, a fact that was widely known throughout the whole school. Kayla had done many bake sales to try and raise money for the school, and she was almost always the tour guide when the middle school came on their "Future High School Field Trip."

     Now, I know what you're thinking. You're either thinking, she's faking it so hard she's probably got plastic hair when you look closer and painted pink lips like one of those knockoff Barbie dolls. Or, you're thinking, Yes, but most Queen Bees aren't like that. And while the second statement is true, she actually wasn't fake. This much Annabelle knew because she used to come over to her house when she was younger, and even then she was super duper nice. Yes, sometimes she was like a too-sweet gumdrop that sticks to your teeth, but at least this gumdrop wasn't actually sour in the middle. Kayla had been a junior in her freshmen year, which meant that she was a senior now.

     Alicia was the kind of girl that everybody just flat out hated, no matter who or what you were. Even the teachers didn't really like her, but they didn't show it because Alicia was a snake that they knew could bite. Honestly, Annabelle thought everyone was scared of her. She knew that she definitely was, and she'd only just gotten to the school. A lot of the less-noticed girls called her small group of friends "The Prissy Posse," mainly because it was catchy and true. None of those girls treated anybody else well, which wasn't news to anybody else but her.

     As for Annabelle, she didn't like popular people anyway, besides Kayla. But Kayla was a minority, and she had found a girl in her art class that loved painting as much as she did, and her name was Esmeralda. A lot of people called her Esmie for short, which was fine with Annabelle because it suited her. She had long, black hair that was luxuriously thick and a pretty face with brown eyes. She was sweet and nice, which was odd if you considered the type of girl Charla was. Charla was the best friend that would drag you along to TP someone's house at one in the morning and then get pissed if you didn't go and threatened to tear your arm off the next day. Esmie wasn't like that. She was actually fun.

     That first week of school, Annabelle realized just how much she'd really changed since she had first driven down that fateful Cherry Street. And she was actually okay with the changes taking place.

      Little did she know that those changes would end up being her downfall.