The Element of Surprise

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Olivia's P.O.V.

BEEP....... BEEP......... BEEP.........

Great. My first day of junior year at Cornell High. With plenty of jocks, cheerleaders, and snotty rich kids to go around.

I turn off my alarm and sit up. I see something hanging on my door. I get up to see what prank Jake, my inconsiderate idiot of a brother, had set up this time.

I take one look at the outfit my mother hung on my bedroom door and laugh. It is a white collared blouse with a black pencil skirt to match my mother's business fashion sense. There is a note attached addressed to me. "Curl your hair. It will go better with the outfit. -Mom" I put the costume in the back of my closet and put on my favorite pair of jeans and a faded, green t-shirt. It's not like my mom will know if I wear that monkey-suit to school or not. She's not here long enough to notice if Jake or I even eat.

After I finish getting ready I look around my room. It's been my sanctuary all summer, and now I have to leave for eight hours every day to go to a place I don't want to go and am invisible.

And my stupid mother wasn't even here to lend some meaningless words of encouragement. She is away on another business trip. She is a scientist for the N.W.O. or the New World Oragization, a science organization that tries to discover how to travel to different dimensions, and she travels a lot. So I am the mother hen of this household. I used to hate that my mom was never around when I was little but now I don't mind as much.

My mother and I are very different people. She is all business...I am no business. Not that I'm not a serious person, it's just...my mom treats everyone as a business associate...including me and Jake.

I pack up my backpack and head downstairs. I see my brother sitting at the dining room table. He is face down with his head resting on his arms.

"Morning." I say as I make my way to the kitchen to make us some coffee.

He replies with a muffled, "Bite me." Well, what an awesome way to start my first day.

We get to school, and right as we step out of the car, we are immediately smacked by a wall of teenagers. Or should I say Jake was.

I played bumper cars across the parking lot, with about fifty students before I finally extracted myself from throng of wild teens.

My brother looked like dead meat in a lion's den but he wore a confident smile and carried himself well. He greeted a bunch of people whom I have never seen before while others I knew were some of my brother's best friends. Of course, after being his best friends for so many years, most of them still don't even know my name. Some of them still don't know he has a sister. I guess that shows how much popular people actually pay attention. I walk up the front steps and open the double doors.

I finally find room 106, home of Mr. Caprio, my new Algebra II teacher. Good thing I dragged Jake out the door when I did or I would have been late.

I open the door and the room was aged and abysmal. The floors were tinted brown from previous years and the walls had cracks in them. The ceiling was like an old treasure map, hidden underground for a thousand years.

There are only about five or six students in the room. It's five minutes until the final bell rings. God, does anyone here want to be on time.

There was a man at the front of the room writing something on the white board. He looks at me, smiles, and then goes back to writing equations on the board. He looks around twenty-five years old, has hair that flows like silk and eyes that sparkled like the sky on a cloudless day. Yet, he had a smirk on his face and a mischievous look in his eyes. He is a cheetah, lively and beautiful, yet fully focused on his prey. He looked like a guy that is stern but outside the classroom could have a real good time.

I walk to the desk farthest from the door and closest to the back wall. As I take out my notebook and pencil, I hear students coming through the door. They're sound blares into the room like a blow horn. Students fall into their seats and the volume levels out to a chilled hush. Mr. Caprio turns to his desk and picks up a stack of papers.

"Good morning class, my name is Mr. Caprio. After attendance, I am going to hand out a 'starter quiz' just to see how much you know. When you have finished the quiz, turn it over on your desk and do the equations on the board. After that, we will discuss the rules of this classroom."

"A test. On the first day. Who is this guy?" I hear a girl say from two seats ahead of me. What did she expect? This is school. Why should it matter whether we have a test on the first day or the last. He begins to call names off of his roster. I have to admit, the way some of these kids say their names, it's pretty funny.

Finally, he gets to me, "Olivia Moser?"

"Here." I say. Not one person even twitches at my name. Some of these people I have been going to school with since kindergarten and they don't even recognize my name!

As he handed out the test there were many moans and groans coming from the class. When I got my test I breezed through it. As I set my test down on my desk, I can see who the savants are in the class, who are already doing the problems written on the white board, and the imbeciles, who have perplexed looks on their faces and who look like they are staring at one hundred impossible conundrums. It took me all of one minute to finish the problems on the board.

The rest of my classes flew by and it was finally time for lunch. I am so starving, I could eat a cow. I see my brother sitting with his faction of popular people. You could say that he is the patriarch of their clan. The table next to me was so load from roaring laughter, I couldn't hear myself think. They are hyenas. Jake catches my eye from across the room and gives me a weak smile, but doesn't come over to me. I love my brother, but sometimes I want to ring his neck! I run our house, make dinner, talk him out of so many stupid stunts, and this is how he repays me! By ignoring me and not helping me when he knows I have no friends. I am so killing him when I get home.

There was nowhere for me to sit, so I slide down against the cold, hard brick wall of the cafeteria, and start to eat my sandwich. I hear footsteps approaching. They sit down next to me. I don't look, just in case they realize sitting next to me is the equivalent of social suicide. I was nobody. Nobody! Who would sit next to me?

"Hey." a mysterious, Irish-accented voice came from beside me. I shyly look up and all I see are mesmerizing, sapphire blue eyes. I look away, but not without struggle. I size him up from head to toe. He was of medium height and build, and overall looked pretty average to me. The only thing out of the ordinary was that there is a nasty scar that flows from his forearm, all the way up his arm and under his sleeve. It wasn't inconspicuous or hidden. It was as noticeable as a journal that is titled in bold letters on the front cover, 'PRIVATE! DO NOT READ!' I look away, breathless.

"Hi." I reply weakly. Who was this guy? I had never seen him here before, so he is most likely new. What would, or rather could, cause a scar like that one?

"I'm Claude." he says with a bright smile. I am so shocked that I didn't reply for what seemed like hours, but had to have only been a few seconds.

"Olivia." I answer. Huh...maybe this year won't be so bad after all.