Black Star

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Have you ever believed in myths? Superstitions? I didn’t. That is, until…

Why should I tell you? How do I know that you’re not going to tell them? Don’t think that I’m overreacting, because I’m not. I thought so too at the beginning, but it turned out that my… You really want to know the story? I can tell you the tale, but you have to promise me to not tell anybody. It could ruin my reputation and my identity, maybe even yours. I could shatter your soul.

Just be careful.

I’ve never tried surfboarding neither hunting nor any other sport in my life. I am only a diver. And a good one.

I think.

I can do back flips and summersaults and everything, I’m not a bad diver. I’m okay. But my amazing thing was…well…basically nothing. But at school, it was different. At school, I was the much-loved one that everyone loved to pull jokes on. It’s not that amusing, actually. I get laughed at and I am always the last one picked in gym. The kind of outsider in high school. Yes, I’m in high school and it’s my third year. My age? Fourteen. I was younger than most people, but I didn’t mind.

I have lots of friends, but that didn’t help me either. Ella, who used to be my best friend, started to go out with this super popular guy who I’ve had a crush on for years. She always rejected me ever since and the “popular gang” recruited her in their group of brats. The boy’s name was Jason, and he was my male lead, not Ella’s. Right now, I just wish that he’d dump her so that I’d be more accepted than her.

Sorry, I forgot to tell you.

My name’s Diana Ward and I have black hair. My skin is super light and my lips are red, like really red. I looked like a snow white girl, except for my eyes. They were blue, very sparkly blue. It could nearly blind you, if you’d asked me. I go to Keller Academy and I have a uniform. It wasn’t pretty at all, it was plaid and didn’t fit me well. But the principal didn’t seem to mind that. He only seemed to care about my grades. All of them do.

I held my books close to my chest and ducked practically every two seconds to avoid a paper ball. Let’s agree on one thing, Keller Academy wasn’t the cleanest school in the world. The teachers didn’t even care. A girl joined me and I realised that it was Cecelia.

Cecelia was a close friend. She had blond hair and grey eyes. Honestly, I always compared her to a Barbie doll. She was really nice and I was sure that she’d never join the gang of popular even if she was dating the president of United States, which would be disgusting... She was holding a paper ball and was throwing it back at the person who threw her the ball. It was Ismania.

Ismania, originated from Ireland, was my best friend ever since Ella rejected us all. Ismania didn’t like nicknames, so don’t expect me to call her Izzi or Mania or anything. She liked Ismania just fine. My best friend had dark red hair and a few freckles. What I liked about her was her green eyes. They were like emeralds.

Then, Aurelia joined us.

Aurelia was a typical girl, really. She had dark skin and dark hair with caramel highlights. She has recently done her hair into braids when she went to the Dominican Republic. She talked really awkwardly, but she was still cool.

When I say that she talked “awkwardly”, I meant that she made very awkward comments sometimes that broke the silence. But sometimes, it was a good thing.

We were four girls, not that popular, going down the corridor. We each had our own favourite activities.

Cecelia’s was charming the people around her. She earns and breaks hearts. She always sais that it was her favourite occupation, that it was her job to do it. Cecelia is very weird sometimes.  

Ismania was a pro at strategies. She always, always had a plan for everything. And most of the time, it worked perfectly.

And Aurelia, she was a fire manipulator. She worked all the time in her own special unavoidable place, which was her garage. I have to tell you, I’ve seen her work in action, and she’s really good.

The fire never seemed to bother her.

Me, you would think that it was diving my favourite activity, but no. I’m an expert with animals, which seemed stupid for a girl my age. That’s all I can tell you about me.

As my friends and I walked down the hallway to my gym class, I spotted Ella talking with Jason. He looked worried.

But I didn’t really feel like eavesdropping them.

No, I take that back, I actually do want to hear what they were saying because that’s just what I like to do to traitors. Especially with Ella and Jason around to eavesdrop. I leaned down to listen a little bit, but my friends were walking too fast, so all I could make up was that Ella was crying. I didn’t get it at first, why or how that started. But Ismania pulled me up and I did a fake smile, but nobody could pull it off when Ismania was there. She was too smart, and that was a disadvantage in times like this. She looked at me and I realised that she was looking at Ella too.

- You know, eavesdropping isn’t a smart thing to do, she told me.

- I know, but Ismania, Ella is…

She raised her hand and that ended our small conversation. “Isn’t a smart thing to do”, easy for her to say. She’s a huge smarty pants who only talks smart. I ignored the rest of Ella and Jason’s conversation and I entered the gym, already trembling and already mentally laughing at our gym coach.

Miss Evans, our gym teacher, was a very big middle aged lady with a double chin and a neck twice as long as the usual. I don’t know how they accepted her, but it must've a desperate choice because Miss Evans was the worst gym teacher there was. Despite how brutal she looked, all Miss Evans did was take a seat on the bench and read a magazine until we finished our game.

When I said that my legs were trembling and all, I meant that because she always made us play longer because she always wanted to finish her magazine in time. And that tired everybody, even the most sportive people in my class.

Today, she was wearing sweats and a long cotton shirt. Her whistle was about ten years old, and she never seemed to take note that it’s already broken and that she had to buy a new one.

- Today, she started with her big and brawny voice, we shall play dodge ball!

Nobody was too happy about it.

- Make your teams fast, she added quickly. Jason and Ismania, you are the leaders.

- Ryan, said Jason.

- Aurelia, chose Ismania.

And it continued like that until I was picked, which meant until the others were all picked. Jason’s team was the closest to the balls, so they took them all and we started with none. But of course, Miss Evans didn’t seem to notice that.

Ella was picked in Jason’s team by Scarlett, a world class snob. I never missed a shot, but nobody cared. Apparently, if you were sportive, you had to be hot and cool.

My ex best friend threw a ball direct at me and I had to duck her ball if I didn’t want to stay in the hospital for a whole month. It banged hard on the wall and I took it as soon it touched the floor. I cursed under my breath, I could’ve seriously died because of her. The ball was wet and I really would’ve thrown up if I’d known it was sweat.

And then, I threw it with all of my force towards Ella.

She didn’t know that it was going for her because she ran to the other side as soon as my ball moved.

Instead, it hit the fire alarm.