Adria's Beginning

Chapter 1

Another Friday at Midnight Willow, my school, nothing exciting ever happens here unless you know Zannabelle. Nothing ever hit the school like a hurricane until she came. She is a disaster, a troublemaker. Everyone knows who she is and what might happen to them if they get in her way.

She's one of those people who others fear. It's their natural reaction. Everyone thinks she plots to destroy the world, including me. No one knows why she does what she does. If you have the guts to talk to her she puts you on her kill list. Everyone on the list seems to go missing.

She also has thirteen sections of her hair dyed, with naturally dark chocolate brown hair in between the sections. Everyone thinks the thirteen sections represent how many people were on the kill list. My guess is she dyes her hair the color of how they mysteriously disappeared.

There is something wrong with her, maybe wrong with everyone in her family. She calls people weird and strange, and says people who don't seem to be who they look like they are. She's always in other people's business. She notices things no one else can observe. The most popular theory is she is an extraterrestrial who kills people to survive.

She closes her locker and turns around slowly. She observes what everyone else is doing in the blank white hallway, talking to each other. Talking about their assignments they didn't do, the tests they have to take, their plans for the weekend, except for one girl, me. She sees me drinking water then holding it in my hand, although the look on her face tells me it's what the water does.

She walks up to me seeing I am slightly shorter than me with black hair that shines almost a sapphire blue in the light then fades into a dark brown mixed with a tint of a deep ruby. My eyes are a cocoa brown like rich milk chocolate. My skin is fair with a few freckles here and there. I wear a white shirt with dolphins jumping in the ocean with a loose aqua blue sweater with elbow length sleeves over it.

"Sorry, am I in your way?" I ask innocently starting to walk away.

"No, I want to talk to you," She says stopping me before I escape.

"Why would you want to talk to me? I mean look at you, your hair looks like a colorful explosion happened and you could hurt anyone who crosses your path. Besides, look at what you're wearing." She is wearing a black leather jacket, black leather pants, dark brown knee-high boots, and red tie-dyed t-shirt with a blue butterfly on it.

"I have my reasons."

"What would those reasons be?"

"It doesn't matter. What does matter is the water in your hand."

"What about the water in my hand," I say steadily, constantly thinking of the psychotic things she says.

"It seemed to me you were afraid of it."

"Now why would I be afraid of water?"

"Maybe afraid is the wrong word. More of somewhat shocked."

"Shocked over what?"

"That is what I want to know."

"You know what? It probably was not the water I was shocked about. It was me finding out I have an essay due."

She could tell I didn't want to answer her questions. "What class?"

"History."

"We never have essays due without previous notice in class."

"I meant science."

"That is a lie."

"It is for extra credit," I say trying to persuade her.

"We don't get extra credit in science or history or in any other class!"

"You know what? I'm done here," I say while I start to walk past her.

She grabs my arm, almost jerking it, and says, "Just remember this, I will find out what you are hiding whether you know what is going on or I find out."

"Let me go to class," I say desperately trying to get away from her.

"Fine, Adria Jasmine," she says as she lets me go.

"How do you know my name?"

"I know everybody's names, I pay attention to things. I want you to know, I'm not the person you think I am."

"Who do I think you are?"

"You think I'm reckless and mean; it's what everyone thinks."

"Why do they think that?"

"No one ever talks to me. I am what they see. I don't expect anything else from you." She walks away from me as I start to head to class. I knew she was crazy, but never that insane. Every day it gets worse, like after time the one person missing isn't satisfying enough for her.