Ace

Prologue

September 1st, 2001

Ace walked into his first grade class and sat down. All of the other kids were hugging their parents goodbye and Ace did his best not to stare. Ace's mom had dropped him off at the door and sped away. Not even taking the time to look up from her phone or wish him a good day. Ace was used to it though. He had never had the kind of relationship with his parents as these children did. He was mature and independent for his age. People saw him stronger
than most six year old's and that's what he was.

Ace looked up to see the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. The girl was small and fragile and Ace immediately wanted to take her away from everything. It was like time had stopped as he watched her, unlike him, she was openly staring at the group of parent-children duos. He could see on her face that she was mesmerized, though not as much as he was.

When the bell rang, the girl jumped, Ace saved a note to himself. He would have the bells changed later. His parents owned the school, and most of the town, and Ace had free range over most of it. Here, Ace was king and Ace admired the respect given to him by his elders. Everyone knew his father, Ricardo, was the Don of the Italian mafia and everyone knew that Ace was next in line. Everyone was afraid of him, and everyone should have been, except his little flower.

She had no reason to fear him. In Ace's eyes, the girl could do no wrong. She had him wrapped around her little finger and he hadn't even talked to her yet.

-------

During reading time, Ace went to the girl's table and sat down. It was the two of them at the table and even though Ace had nothing to compare it to, he  knew that he liked it better that way. "Hi, I'm Ace," Ace introduced himself.

"Evangeline," the girl said timidly. 

Never one for small talk, Ace decided to jump to the end of the conversation. "Wanna be friends?"Evangeline smiled. 

"I've never had a friend before!"

Ace laughed. 

"Me neither!" he exclaimed with such ferocity she jumped. He made a mental note to be careful about noises around her. 

-------

For the rest of the day, Ace and Evangeline were inseparable. They ate snack together, played on the playground together, and during naptime, Ace brought his cot next to hers. When the day ended, parents came back for their kids and Ace was supposed to meet his guard outside. On his way out, he noticed Evangeline sitting alone. He wanted to make sure she went home safely, so he sat down to wait. 

Evangeline said nothing. She stared at the clock, flicking back and forth between the clock and Ace. She seemed to get antsier every minute. Ace hoped he hadn't made her nervous by sitting with her. He started to wonder where her parents were.

-------

Thirty minutes later, Evangeline told Ace the truth. That she was meant to walk from the school to her home and that she was embarrassed but now late. She had been waiting on his parents to arrive. Ace laughed and said that he, too, was supposed to walk home.  They laughed for a while, then started walking home. They walked to Evangeline's house and Ace waited for her to go inside. He, then, walked around the corner called his guards and had them come pick him up. 

While waiting, Ace looked around. He had never thought of the Shallows as being a place where people lived. He often came down with his father for the warehouses and big drug deals. He didn't like the idea of Evangeline living near those types of things. He made a mental note  to get guards on Evangeline, then thought about her the whole way home. 

-------
Evangeline arrived home at four-thirty. Archie did not even wait for Evangeline to close the door behind her before he picked her up by her hair and slammed her into the wall. 

"You're late!" Archie screamed in her ear. He had woken up around three for his breakfast to find Evangeline had not arrived home. He was waiting on the beat up couch, letting his anger grow. He had needed her at the house and now she would pay for not being there.

Archie punched Evangeline in the stomach and kicked her legs. He continued until he saw the blood pouring out of her.

"You listen now girly. You be home at three from now until the day you die. You got me?"

The only thing Evangeline could do was a subtle nod. Opening her mouth would have released the sob in her throat and sound just made him hit harder.

"Good. Now get out of my sight."

Evangeline jumped to her feet, picked up her bag and started to walk briskly up the stairs. 

"Hold on." Archie stopped her.  

Evangeline turned around to find his eyes on her bag. Archie ran up behind her and ripped something off the bottom part of the bag. She turned around to see half of a piece of paper. It looked to be half of a heart. The to part seemed to be gone but the from was clear as day: From: Ace. 

Evangeline had not seen him put the card in her bag, but she assumed it was for someone else. Nevertheless, Archie pushed her down the stairs she had climbed. "You know the rules, sweet Evangeline. This boy has to go. Don't make me get involved." With that, Archie ripped up the half card and threw them down on top of her. Evangeline decided that she would sleep there that night.

----------
The next morning, Ace looked for Evangeline as soon as he got out of the car. He told himself it was silly, she was in the classroom, obviously, but he couldn't help it. All night he had thought about her; her face, her smell, her smile. He could barely stop from smiling when he saw her as he entered the classroom. But Evangeline turned away from him.

Ace frowned. Ace did not know what he had done wrong, but he knew that it was him. For the whole morning, anytime Ace tried to get anywhere near Evangeline, she would move or turn away from him more. Ace was worried. He wanted to make things right with her.

-------

During recess, Ace spent the time looking for flowers for Evangeline. While under a bush, two boys from his class came up in front of it.

"So, any good looking girls in your class?" one of the boys asked.

"There is one. Evangeline Hartwell. She's new. She is so pretty and smart. I think I'll ask her to be my girlfriend." the second boy blushed. Ace jumped up. 

"You will not!" he said angry. Evangeline was his. He would not tolerate any of this other boy nonsense.

"And whose going to stop me?" the boy antagonized.

Instead of answering, Ace punched him, hard. The boy leaped at him and they began to brawl. The teachers came and separated them and carried Ace to the principal's office. In the blur, Ace had missed Evangeline who saw everything.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So here is the Prologue. Let me know what you guys think!

Gabi

Word count:1,129

Published 9/17/2019