The Red Dress

Chapter One

The Red Dress

She smiled slightly looking at her herself in her bathroom mirror. Blonde hair slicked back to a ponytail, makeup neatly done and minimized to just mascara and foundation and tinted lips glossed.

She rushed down her near isolated house. She knew nobody was ever there at the kitchen or anywhere. But she didn't try to think about it. Her father co-owning a law firm and mother being manager at a big business tend to keep them busy.

But not only they couldn't come home, they didn't want to. As much as they never mentioned it, the problems were always there. They were only together for the money and because it wouldn't look good to have a child and be divorced. She was a mistake and one thing she knew about them were that they never made the same mistakes twice so, of course, she was an only child. They called her Madeline.

Madeline used to have a helper but she let her go after seeing the woman look constantly depressed at the sad, lonely place that Madeline called home.

She shook her head slightly clearing her thoughts. Madeline went to school directly, unintentionally missing her breakfast.

School was a drag. There was no other way to say it, it was just what it was. She didn't have any friends or at least not really. Can you really call people who greet you and then just leave, friends?

She was great in school; almost brilliant. Straight As and a great swimming record Madeline would have Harvard vying for her attention.

But she didn't care. She would give it all up just to have someone care about her.

She got and gave a few smiles as usual, went along her way to homeroom. "Payton, Madeline?" Mrs. Lee the homeroom teacher's almost inaudible voice over the sound of chattering asked.

"Here." She simply called.

Mrs.Lee glanced up from the notebook she was marking from and threw her a smile which Madeline quickly returned. She was the only one who didn't cause to much of trouble. She was the, well, for lack of better words, the good girl. Good grades and no trouble to manage she was every teachers dream.

Mrs. Lee soon asked, " Darcy, Lucas?"

Madeline looked up from her notebook in confusion. There was no Lucas Darcy in this grade.

"Here." A smooth voice called from behind her.

She involuntarily jerked back to see who this man was along with many others. How could he have come without them noticing?

Without her noticing?

She let out a small gasp. She knew she was over reacting but he was handsome. Handsome didn't even cover half of it. Blonde hair much lighter than hers, spiked, green eyes and pale. So pale.

And he was staring right at her.

Her heart gave an involuntary leap. Who the hell was he? Why was he looking at her?

Madeline saw more than just a few girls bend over and accidently drop things on the floor and men sit straighter unintentionally flexing their muscles, either he didn't notice it or just didn't care.

That was impossible. They could pummel him to pieces even though he seemed pretty strong. She almost felt worried for him. Madeline knew he was probably a heartbreaker but she still couldn't stop letting her heart beat so fast.

"Do you need something?" The boy asked Madeline, breaking her out of her own reverie.

"Huh?" She shot her head up so fast she was surprised it didn't snap. With a great feeling of embarrassment she realized out she was checking him out.

"I- I- No." she quickly looked front again, blushing fiercely. How could she have been so stupid just because of a boy?

She suddenly got the feeling someone was looking at her. It was from behind. Was he still staring at her? Was it her imagination?

The bell rang and she jumped up and practically ran away. She couldn't stand embarrassment whether it was directed to her or even somebody she didn't know. She hated the very thought of it.

She rushed to her locker, blocking it from her mind. Madeline quickly took out her English books.

She hoped to dear god he wasn't in any of her classes.