Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DD Chapter 11 - So You Wanna be Popular?

Chapter 11

IN THE DAYS that followed, Zissa avoided Vivienne like the plague. The high school in Remin was completely isolated. It had been calming to Vivienne when she first started school to be surrounded by so much green. In Manna City, everything was made of concrete. The buildings were all stacked on top of each other to squeeze every inch of space. Remin, however, was built low to the ground, and they shared their houses with the beetles, ants, and spiders.

Vivienne never liked bugs, but now there was something else lurking inside the forest for her to fear. Suddenly, the swaying trees didn't calm her. They were hiding a deep, dark secret, just up the mountain. She was so preoccupied with thinking about the hungry beasts in the woods that one day, she didn't even see Zissa and her gang gliding down the hallway, directly toward her.

"Watch where you're going, loser," Sam yelled and slapped Vivienne's books out of her hands. She kicked Vivienne's Calculus textbook across the hall and ran away laughing. Vivienne knelt to gather her things. She could hear the girls whisper to themselves as they gathered around and watched.

"What is she wearing? Is there a hole in her elbow?"

As Vivienne stood up and ran away, she suddenly wished that she had remembered to brush her hair that morning. Catching a glimpse of herself on a shiny surface in the school trophy case, she realized they were right. She looked like the bastard child of a storybook witch and a bridge troll.

Vivienne thought about going to the bathroom to undo the giant knot in her hair when the period bell rang. That sound meant she was supposed to be in her next class by now. Vivienne sighed and found the nearest down stairwell.

Her next class that day was Music Appreciation. It had the unfortunate distinction of being in the basement. Vivienne supposed the school was expressing its lack of appreciation for music by holding the class in the windowless, dark, and damp basement. One didn't need natural light to appreciate Mozart or Bach. At least she couldn't see the haunted forest from that room. But, as Vivienne quickly realized, having Zissa and her gang waiting by the classroom doors was a threat enough.

All right, class, settle down." Their teacher, Mr. Macker, struggled to maintain order. He was a balding dwarf of a man who walked with his hand on his popped hip. He was largely ineffective against the chatter of excited teenage girls. Before Mr. Macker could begin his lesson, an alarm began to blare overhead. The principal's voice came over the loudspeaker. The woman sounded breathless and panicked.

"All students are to evacuate to the school immediately. They are to use all exits except those leading to the football field. All classes are dismissed for the rest of the day."

Mr. Macker returned to the room in a hurried gait. He slammed his book of lesson notes and raised his hands to urge everyone to remain calm. That gesture immediately triggered all the students to begin chaotically yelling questions as to what was going on. Sam was cheerfully throwing her makeup products into her designer backpack.

"Please, exit the school in an or-orderly manner, k-kids." Mr. Macker said, his face as white as a ghost. "Don't panic!"

As Vivienne reached to gather her books, she heard it. There was a scream in the distance; it was a boy. It was a scream that no one else seemed to pay any attention to. Then she felt it, a heavy, vice-like feeling in her chest as though someone was squeezing all the life out of her heart.

Vivienne suddenly felt like the room was spinning. Her knees felt weak, but at the same time, she felt drawn to the direction of the ghostly scream. It came from the direction of the football field.