Strange Perspectives

Chapter 1

The wind howled around me as I paced before the bus stop, furiously rubbing my mittened hands together in a futile attempt to keep warm.

The gate behind me slowly creaked as the icy winds forced their way through.  I could have sworn it was usually locked, I thought distractedly.

The bitterly cold North-Eastern wind clawed through my hair down to my scalp, icy fingers digging in deeply.

With an enraged shriek, a gave up, stomping my foot angrily as I did so.  I practically crammed my hands into my my pits, muttering angrily as I did.

While I usually threw my long chocolate brown curls up into a messy bun, nature seemed to be doing her best to rip each strand out of said bun one by one - painfully.

Giving up on my hair as a lost job, I hissed out an incessant stream of cuss words under my breath, tearing the scrunchie from my head, along with half my curls.

That done, I craned my neck, searching for the bus in the hopes that the fates would show mercy on me and it would magically appear.  Falling back to my feet, I scrunched up my face in disapointment.

I tapped my foot, scrunching my mouth along with the rest of my face to as I thought of my options. 

Unfortunately, there really was only one at this point; suck it up and walk home.

Hearing the rickety gate squealing once more, I just assumed the wind had forced it's way through the ancient relic gaurding the graveyard. 

When someone gently shook my shoulder it took me a few moments to register the fact that anyone else was unfortunate enough to be out in this weather.

I finally turned around, vaguely remembering seeing the man before me from somewhere.

When he realized that I couldn't quite place him, he took ot upon himself to introduce himself. 

"Greeting, child.. My name is Th-erm, Antonio, though people call me Tony.  I believe we are in the same class, Mythology: Back to Basics..?"  He looked at me questioningly.

"Um.."  I attempted to shrug through all my layers of clothing, looking at him helplessly as I did so.  "Sorry...Tony.  You look familiar, I guess..."

He smiled at me as if to reasure me, as the frigid air continued to howl and rage around us.  After a few awkward minutes, I suddenly realized he might not know my name either.

"Oh," I cried, giggling nervously.  "Ash," I quickly blurt, twirling a huge chunk of former curls nervously.

My frozen cheeks somehow managed to summon enough blood to blush as I look down at my red boots, embarrassed. 

I repeat myself, making sure to enunciate this time, saying, "My name.  Ashes.  Um, I mean, my name is Aeshelynn...everyone calls me Ash, though..."

I peek through my fiery curtain of hair at him to see him not even attempting to hide his amusement.  Jerk.

He just kept looking at me, a small smile on his face.  "I wasn't trying to be rude," I finally grumble, crossing my arms.

He blinked - or winked - then let out a deep, rich chuckle.  "I knew your name, Aeshelynn.  We are in the same class, after all; I was teasing you."  He was?