Dark Side

New Begining

Today I start my second year of high school, Klaus and I live in the South of Brazil, in Gramado. My mothers are Brazilian, both from Florianópolis, capital of Santa Catarina. When they finished high school, they both decided to study at a Canadian college. My mother of blood chose History while Jenny preferred to follow with the dream of opening a hotel and entered to Hotels.In the first day, a student of Administration showed how the dormitories worked and made a walk with the two for the campus, they soon made friends with him. Jenny fell in love and Klaus, the guide on his first day, corresponded to the same feelings. My mother met my father when she was in the specialization and they made an inseparable pair.  After the murder, my maternal grandparents were devastated, so Jenny waited until I could take a long plane trip and moved with Klaus to Florianopolis. When the tide came down she decided she would finally open the hotel she had dreamed of all her life. We moved to Gramado and she opened a rustic and comfortable Hotel, something of the right size, nothing snorting, but nothing like a small inn.  Our house is in the back of the hotel, on the same land, although it is disintegrated from the main building. Klaus didn't even think twice about living in the guest rooms, he said it would be stressful to mix personal life with work and he had my support. When all was right, we had years of peace until the illness devastated our lives with the loss of Jenny.  If it wasn't enough to be bullied at a young age because of the name I am so attached to, during Elementary School Two I ended up getting fat, the food made me forget everything that was rumbling around me and I abused it. You never know how cruel pre-teens can be, but I remember every abusive word they said to me, all the pushing and humiliation they put me through for two long years, until I finally completed thirteen on February 19th and my first period kept me in bed with a cruel pain. When it was over, I began to lose weight.  I lost so much weight in the following month that I could hardly believe what was happening, my metabolism became absurdly fast, I ate as much as I wanted and I did not get fat, but with that I ended up losing the will to feed myself as before. I thought they would finally leave me alone and I could breathe in relief. I wish I could. According to a friend of mine, I was beautiful, beautiful enough to arouse the envy of the girls who made my life a hell.  No one spoke to me, no living soul who attended the school of my nightmares. Girls can be scary! They were able to force an entire school to stay away from me, if I felt bad, they laughed and looked at me as if I was trying to get attention, if I looked around, they murmured, not understanding the words but the reason: me.  Since then I've been wearing headphones with deafening songs loud enough to muffle the voices of others. My psychologist is my partner, she listens to me like nobody else and before the first year of high school she said "everything is going to get better, people are different at this age," well, I made three friends, a breakthrough, but if they hadn't given it to their faces first, I think it would still be me, my gray sweatshirt and headphones during massaging intervals.Eudora, Dylan and Ethan are the coolest people in the world. Dylan is the kind of guy who prefers to stay home watching animes and drawing instead of going to a party, he and his boyfriend spend a lot of time together so we end up getting to know Caio better, a first year college cat who shares the same interests. Ethan is a musician with a video channel where he posts his compositions. Tall, athletic and from a wealthy family, to this day I wonder why he walks with our kind... Eudora is my born adviser and my best friend. She stands out with black eyes and natural blond hair.  I... can say with all certainty that I am not the most graceful person in the world, in fact I am very clumsy, which gives the other girls an additional reason to make fun of me, but I am not at all bad. I'm 5'10" tall, thin with skin so light that you can map my veins just by looking. My eyes are light grey, something probably coming from my father, hair as black as a crow's feathers and long enough, that is, pixie cut. I stand out a lot because of my appearance while I would actually like to disappear into the crowd.  My love life is practically non-existent, the only interest I have had in anyone until today has been for a colleague in the seventh grade. Diego was a nice and gentle guy, even with me, so I was seduced by the charm of a soap opera star until the beautiful day the school turned its back on my existence. He blamed all the injustices I went through on myself, "Why did you have to lose weight? Everything was so much better before, don't you think?!", I couldn't believe those words, but what a frightened asshole!  After that no one called my attention enough to justify one attempt or another, I didn't even have the courage to move on, my fear of opening myself up to someone with the capacity to leave me devastated made the hypothesis even more frightening.The school year began with a pleasant cloudy weather and I asked the heavens to enjoy the clouds for the rest of the year as they were that morning. Not that I dislike the sun, the problem is when I get in the light, hot or not, if it's sunny, my skin burns like a vampire, without even really burning or leaving marks.  The Druid school is a bit strange and to be honest I really like the picturesque air that the campus adds to you. It works as a kind of boarding school, although residents of the city don't need housing, which was my case until last year. This year I decided to open my horizons to something new and chose to try what was within my reach, a dorm room seemed ideal at the time of decision making.  Not only did it seem like something fun, since I've always loved period movies, but the idea of unpacking the luggage in a new, temporary room is exciting. And I must say that Klaus deserves some time to find someone to make him happy again. Jenny's lack leaves our lives incomplete, but his seems empty since she left, and working at the hotel doesn't help much, all chosen in favour of her preferences, so I'll leave the ideal gap for him to move on.  In front of the lodging building, on the information desk arranged for the new dorm members was a list with their name, class and room numbering. It was not arranged in alphabetical order and being one of the last to have asked for accommodation, I found myself on the third floor, or rather, a huge basement that had been renovated into a room a week before the return of classes, at which time the Druid's management noticed the increase in occupants for the next school year.  Of course, a room envied for its size as the one I was directed to would not be just my gift, it would have two roommates. The two rookies came from the same school, Consilier, and were in the same year as me, not to mention the same class. Before they arrived I decided to choose the bed closest to the bathroom, it was large and leaned against the wall under a quiet window, separated my clothes and kept in a part of the closet, shoes in the trunk at the foot of the bed and materials in an ivory desk, really a charming room size!  There was something about the class I ended up in that really didn't make sense. It's a special class for the gifted or rotten rich and I didn't enter any of the previous categories. I decided to look for information before the opening ceremony started and I covered it with the men's bedroom monitor:-Excuse me, but I have a question about the class I was assigned to and I'd like to clear up any mistakes, if any. I was wondering if you could help me.  -Sure, what is it about?  -I fell into the special class for gifted or upper class people but I'm not in those groups, do you think there was some mistake in the system?  -No, certainly there is no mistake, let me check your registration form and application, please.  I handed him the papers I had brought with me and I saw his expression pondering and agreeing with himself any thought that went through his mind.  -Yes, yes. Everything is in order, but you seem to have forgotten the test you passed when you re-registered. The AAA sign on this green rectangle- he pointed to the top of the license plate- indicates an exceptional test result.  -Sure... thanks a lot for your help.  -Get it!  That morning there would be no classes, just a formal presentation from the faculty to the students in a big meeting which would start from there a few minutes in the gym. My afternoon would be free of worries about the school, so I could read some of the books I brought with me or take a peek at the huge library collection, there would certainly be new titles compared to last year.  I rushed to the meeting on time to make myself presentable, a glimpse of my new teachers would be enough to find a way to be trouble-free and pleasant, making a good impression. I didn't know how I would look in a class of complete strangers, however, I heard rumors that they were small classes, one for each school year, and there was an individual cafeteria for each separate from the canteen, or, in my language, peace and quiet during breaks.  It could be intimidating, a middle class in an environment full of wealthy strangers, but I am not a person they consider "sociable", they probably won't even feel my presence and I will be ignored, a comfortable idea compared to the daily provocations I went through in the first year.My little stroll came to an end when I came across the huge gymnasium doors a bit empty for the hour. I decided to take a little longer before entering to choose a seat, taking the opportunity to look for my name on the large mural made of adhesive tape and printed sheets of paper, glued on the faded gray doors and discovered the names of my classmates, twelve in total, a delightfully small number.  As the number of students increased, I entered the huge blocks now filled with queued chairs and decided to sit at the bottom where I wouldn't draw the attention of anyone unwanted, but as soon as I got close to the idealized seat, a trio of hysterical students with gossip about a new second breathtaking anist took my place without much reverence or even cared about my presence. Great! I spotted a vacant chair as I searched the rows in front of me, and there it was, face to face with the stage... the best way to go unnoticed by new and old faces!  With the entrance of the vice-principal, everyone kept quiet, waiting for the other faculty members to take their proper places on stage. The director Minerva, fond of the dramatization, took the trouble to appear in the center of the bleachers above the court with a spotlight illuminating from head to toe.  -Greet welcome to our esteemed school. I hope you have a warm reception from your classmates and I don't think it's necessary to stress our rules, isn't it? However, feel warned my dear ones, as the obedience expected from you is the least, I am willing to be quite severe when any rule shows itself to be circumvented. So we agree, don't we? Please, Mr. Ricardo, proceed with the ceremony.  Wow! When I first came across Director Minerva I had as many chills as I do now, in fact I must stay in line, I don't have an ounce of curiosity to find out how bad the word "severe" can get. And on the other hand, she's right about the rules being minimal. There are no restrictions on relationships on campus, although it is strictly forbidden to enter opposite-sex dormitory territory, obviously. Cell phones are allowed at any time and place as long as it is not in class, inside a classroom with a teacher. Quite reasonable.  The vice-principal headed towards the microphone three steps from the end of the stage and with that the students in the first row had to raise their heads a little to follow their movements, including me.  -I believe most here already know me, however, being a new year, the first anistas, still somewhat lost in campus size must have barely heard of me. Call me Mr. Ricardo. Any problems you have or cause should be reported to me first and if you don't know where to find me, try my room, 301, in the phoenix hall first. In addition to being the vice-principal, I am a teacher in the special classes from the first to the third year and I will be teaching the extra classes. Welcome and make every effort in your studies, because those who finish each two-month period with the highest grades will be rewarded, and know that the prize is enviable. A good year to all.  Extra classes !? I wouldn't have imagined taking part in the extra classes... I believe I'll have less time with my friends before curfew, an outrage, but I should have guessed. If it's a class at advanced levels, they certainly outnumber everyone else's IQ.With Mr. Ricardo's speech closed, a buzz began over the long-awaited prize and who would be lucky enough to win it. Meanwhile, the other teachers presented themselves one after the other until there was only one left, and he was not present.  Suddenly my head became light for a fraction of a second and then I felt a tremor in my eyes, followed by a chill in the back of my head, a sensation that, however common it was, still made me sick. I was having a vision - in this case the absent teacher would be in hospital to receive a dose of medicine in the vein against migraine, so pills would have no effect. Besides, it was just the teacher in my class.  When I returned to consciousness, my eyes were burning and my head was throbbing slightly above the eyes. I blinked several times before I could see anything other than shadows and observed the surroundings in an attempt to find out if anyone had noticed my presence during the event. To my relief, no one looked at me suspiciously or stunned, I sighed a little too loudly.  I've had visions since Jenny's cancers. The night I turned eleven I dreamt of my aunt's burial. I woke up in tears with no idea how to react, with a hallucinating headache and a nausea that made me put my guts out from all the vomiting. At the time I had no idea what it was, I thought it was just a traumatic nightmare coming from the fear of losing Aunt Jenny. At the end of that day, when we went to visit her, she had a complication and passed away at exactly eight o'clock.  At the time of her burial, everything was exactly as it was in the nightmare I had, that's when I began to suspect that it was a premonition. At the end of the event, going to Klaus' car, I heard my aunt calling, turned around and approached her grave. I reread the name written on the stone several times, finally allowing myself to cry, falling into the painful reality of loss.In the time that followed this chance, I had several premonitions, all coming from dreams or nightmares and beyond them, I see the past of someone coming into physical contact, something I noticed when I bumped into a chambermaid of the hotel a few months ago. From then on, I started snooping around. It works as a teleportation only of the mind and the vision, where I see and feel being there, without really leaving the place, was when I finally hitchhiked a proper name for these occurrences and I mean them nowadays, "visions".  I was stunned for a few more seconds because this was the first time that the vision had been revealed while I was awake, probably a bad sign. Since the turn of the new year, the closer to my sixteenth birthday, the more pronouncements I have had and these have become realistic to the point of competing with reality? but awake !? It frightens me to think the cause of these anomalies, it could be a brain tumor or schizophrenia, when all I expect from my life is peace.  Meanwhile, I know it's something far beyond! Aunt Jenny used to write journals and Klaus made them available for my reading recently. When I moved to the dorm I decided to pack a suitcase full of books in order not to get bored before falling asleep on long nights with a curfew, and I took Jenny's every diary, even my mom's.  There was a moment while I was stacking the as yet unknown titles where I read a torn page from the third or fourth diary written by my aunt. They were all numbered and dated in a simple and understandable way, but the page slipped out of its resulting notebook and landed in front of my feet. There were several phrases marked in a very striking way and my curiosity overcame me, I catechized the page from the floor and began to read.  "Every night I have had the same dream, my dear Calliope gives birth to a shiny baby, the embodied image of her love for Jeremiah, but something in the child's appearance worries me, its brilliance is priceless even before she turns sixteen and the ends of his arms and legs appear covered by a purple blackness, much like the black dust of fallen stars...  As every star knows, light needs darkness to exist and without light, there is no darkness. Stars landed on the land of beings without luminescence for loving, where they created pearls of the galaxy, powerful hybrids against humanity but peaceful, a source of pure light among corrupted hearts still capable of loving, targets of the envy of fallen stars, criminals sentenced to a life in the darkness of the planet Earth and of their bodies incapable of practicing luminous magic, trapped in black dust, magic incapable of affecting even one star.What the stars did not notice at first was the mistake of sending thirsty for the ability to shine precisely to the home of the children of their dear sisters who decided to exchange their shine for a soul and die with those they loved. The pearls of the Galaxy shine half as bright as their star provider was capable and by collecting their souls, fallen stars would be able to return to their sisters' side in search of vengeance.  To protect hybrid children, the stars had to create a mark planted in the baby's navel on its first day of life in the shape of the mother star, the Sun itself, capable of keeping its powers hidden until they were prepared to fight for their lives. The mark disappears by the hidden light of the galaxy's tiny pearl and only reappears on its sixteenth birthday, when it must be taught to control its special abilities to protect itself.  Calliope knows the stories and yet his enormous heart fell in love with a fallen star who in a short time gave herself up to my sister's charms and showed herself capable of giving her life to save hers. Jeremiah, however, had committed an unusual crime among the brutalities of his fellow black dust. He belittled himself by the departure of a very close and beloved sister, then losing his own brilliance.  Both are extremely powerful and by loving someone again, Jeremiah was able to regain his brilliance and traded him for a soul to stand by Calliope's side. It's a unique coincidence and if they really do have a pearl of the galaxy, this fruit of love will really prove to be special!However, the child born of a star and a hybrid will shine too brightly, captivating eager glances from the envious fallen stars, would be very dangerous. And those black marks on the baby in my dreams must be a consequence of Jeremiah's past, I see no other explanation..."  The leaf ends precisely in this observation, there was no explicit end, perhaps there were more pages containing Jenny's closing remarks on the subject, still stuck to the diary, but until recently I was not able to believe such a tale, I always thought it was a tale coming from my aunt's so developed creativity. When I first came across the names Calliope and Jeremiah in their descriptions, I didn't notice the reference to my parents until I spoke their names out loud near Klaus and he ended up commenting on how peculiar he found my mother's name.  There must be some explanation for everything I've been through, and if Jenny's stories are really about her life and not fancy tales, I'll never be a normal girl with a normal life, and that's all I want after so many misfortunes in my short walk to this day.  When I finish thinking and recover from the fatigue of witnessing a vision while awake, I decide to stop in my secret corner on campus, seeking to enjoy the calm and solitude instead of returning to the dormitories. I am not excited about meeting two roommates and having to introduce myself, but to arrive and take a wonderful warm bath to relax every muscle tension in my aching and exhausted body, to finally throw myself into bed and sleep deeply until dinner, my only wish at the moment.  My hiding place in this school is on one of the four corners of the wall that surrounds the grounds, getting there is easy and does not attract looks since it is inside the wooded area and far from the cafeteria. It is a great place to read and rest without being disturbed, I have not even introduced my corner to my faithful companions, because sometimes I also run away from them, and I prefer it to be where they cannot find me.  After passing through a long row of tall, sturdy pines, I find myself in the passage to my refuge, a curtain of leaves and bushes surrounding a small lake of icy, crystalline waters. Near the banks there is a metal table all twisted and shaped with two chairs of the same design placed in front, charming and comfortable, each one with a pillow on the seat.  There was also a wooden stool painted white filled with pillows that I brought myself to look like a soft sofa and a simple wooden swing attached to a long twigged apple tree, right next to the lake. But the boy sitting on my cushions throwing bread at the ducks is not part of that scenario, he was a stranger and my space had been discovered by the worst kind, those who are beautiful, know that they are and behave like snobbish with any inferior person.