You'd think this was one of those old fairy tales. Charming, popular boy, falls in love with invisible, nerdy girl. To be honest, I'd give anything for this to be just a fairy tale.
It started the day I was sent out of class because I was back-chatting a teacher. Not a big deal. It always happened. I make my point, and it's 'being rude.' Not my fault if I think school is insignificant.
I grabbed my shoulder bag from beside my desk and stood up.
"Down the hall to the right," my teacher said. I rolled my eyes at her.
"Like I need directions," I spat, just pure annoyed at the fact that once again, I was getting in trouble for exactly what the teacher asked me to do. Write the answer on the board, she said. Explain your answer, she said. Oh, I gave her an explanation all right.
I stormed out of the room, and down the hall. Nobody except me went to the principal every time they're sent out of class. I think it was the eighth time at that school. I wondered if I was going to be expelled, but then I remembered that there was a reason I was the only one sent to the principal's office when I got into trouble.
I knocked on the door as hard as I could, not caring whether he was talking to another teacher or not. They all wondered why I hadn't been kicked out yet. If only they knew.
I hear a sigh on the other side of the door and grin.
"Come in Astrid." The sound of Mr Delayee's voice echoed on the other side of the door. I pushed it open, dropped my bag just inside the door and settled myself in the spinny chair Brian usually occupied. Since he was standing by the window looking outside, it didn't really seem like he had any use for it. Plus, it spun around in circles.
"So what's it this time?" I asked him, taking a mintie from the bowl on his desk and unwrapping it. "Cleaning the music rooms? Picking up rubbish from the playground? A week of detentions? Come on, let me have it."
I popped the mintie in my mouth and started spinning around on the chair.
Brian turned away from the window, hands clasped tightly together in front of him. The fact that I had to call him Mr Delayee in front of everyone else was pretty annnoying.
"You have to start showing more respect to your teachers," he said in that goddamn I'm-principal-and-you're-a-student voice.
"Why?" I ask. "So they can walk all over me? If they knew who I am..."
"But they don't!" He almost yelled, and I swore I could see a vein pulsing in his neck. I had to resist the urge to tell him it didn't look good. "And they won't! Do you know how many times a teacher has approached me and asked why haven't you been kicked out yet? You're pushing the limits, Astrid, and I can't keep expanding them for you."
I rolled my eyes, suddenly angry. "Why can't they know?"
Brian grabbed his hair so hard it looked like he was going to pull it out. Brilliant. Baldness as well as poppy-outty veins. Attractive.
"You know damned well why Astrid Harver. There are people out there who want to kill us. I don't even know why He sent you down here. Although every time I've asked you to be sent back, he doesn't answer."
My anger dissipated almost as quickly as it came. I asked, in a small voice, "you want to send me back?"
Brian looked a little guilty. "It would be for the best. You're getting reckless down here. Just because mundanes can't hurt you-"
"No!" I stood up and grabbed my back, prepared to head out the door. "You don't make the choice whether to send me back. And let me tell you, I'm staying here. I like it here, and you can't make me leave."
"Astrid," Brian said quietly. "You're bordering on Falling."
I gasped. "You're an asshole Brian." I stormed out.
Then I stormed back in and took some of those minties, because, well, mundanes have found a way to make me enjoy eating them. I flipped Brian off and left again, slamming the door behind me for extra effect.
He wanted to send me back. I couldn't believe it. Of all the harsh things Brian had said or done in the past, that was the worst.
I couldn't stand the thought of going home. It was beautiful, but it was... empty. Mundanes had so much more emotion, so much more passion, and to be honest, I liked the body I was in. Skinny, but no 'thigh gap' as mundanes called them. Long hair that reached down to my waist, streaked several different colours of blonde. And my eyes. Gold.
Apparently gold isn't a normal eye colour, but I appreciate it every time I look in a reflective surface. My lips are always a soft pink, like I'm wearing colour on them, but it's natural. My looks alone had gained me a lot of followers, but I wouldn't call them friends.
I didn't have any friends, so I didn't have a problem with walking out of the school to the 1967 chevy impala. It was mine. And it was one of the the reasons I didn't want to go back home.
I got in and threw my backpack into the back seat. Screw Brian. Screw his school, and screw his rules. I didn't need him. I could make my own way here. Like he said, mundanes couldn't touch me.
I glanced in the rearview mirror to see if anyone was behind me so I could back out of the parking space. I caught a glimpse of blood-red lips and my heart stopped. No, it couldn't be. Not here, not right now. I bit down on my lip and risked another glance in the mirror. It's true.
Okay, signs you're facing down a demon:
Black eyes.
Blood red lips that don't lose their colour no matter what.
Hair the colour of blood.
Pale skin, just like us angels.
And this girl ticked off every single one of those checkboxes.
