CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5

First day of school

END OF THE SUMMER

DANIELLE

It is the morning of the first day of school, and I am just awake before time.

After the preschool holidays, I am born again, and I am determined to be the best for me and for my future. Now, I am older, I am 17 years old, and I can say that I am rather more mature.

I run down the stairs, and I burst into the kitchen, I snatch the cookies and an apple, only for the breakfast and the snack. The school supplies the lunch. I must go to take the bus, but while I’m going, a pure and shrill voice calls me. For goodness’ sake, no. I forgot of that girl. Across the street, there is the neighbours' daughter which presented at our house. I believe that her name is Linda and, as she promised that evening, she is waiting for me to go to school together.

I know that she made the summer a hell for Jackson, continuing to ask for me. Oh my God, help me.

I deeply breathe, I impress my best false smile on my face, I cross the road, and we get into the car. In the direction of the school.

On the driver side, there is Doc. Breenly which, in a suit, he questions at the mobile. I don’t listen to him, he isn’t polite. The passenger side is empty, I suppose that the son is missing, the one absent from the welcome meeting at the beginning of the summer, will he never participate in the way? Maybe. Who knows.

Andreas turns towards us while we are sitting on the back, and he says good morning to me. Man, he is terribly attractive and affectionate. My cheeks blush under his look.

“Dad, but where is he? We will be late as every year” Linda asks, impatient.

“Linda, now it comes. Be patient, you know that if his hair aren’t perfect, he doesn’t go out.” he replies, sniggering.

“Yes, and after he wears a damned cap. Who can understand him?” she softly mutters, making me smile.

She is ironic, after all. We could get along.

The door of this luxury car opens and a rucksack is thrown in the niche footstool with a lack of finesse. A boy gets into the car and after he slams the door. He doesn’t turn back for any reason, not even by mistake. He doesn’t say good morning, and least of all he talks to us. What sort of ill-mannered person.

“You have still two years, and after you will do what you want, but as long as you don’t obtain the diploma, please, be on time for the school. And don’t do disasters as usual. Thanks to your hair, your sister and her new friend Danielle and you will be obviously late for the first day of school.” the doctor murmurs through his teeth to his son.

Maybe he hoped not to be heard. Well, attempt failed, my dear.

I smile to myself because he told him off in front of strangers. But, the absurd thing is him, he doesn’t look away from the mobile, as this thing doesn’t concern him, as if he is familiar. He suddenly raises his head, looking away from the mobile, he murmurs my name, and he suddenly looks towards me. His eyes in mines, in a sole and surprised look. Oh my god, the boy of the library. Oh my God, no. H-how is it possible? I was able to forget him, and now? And now I discover that he is Linda’s brother? He is my neighbour?

Oh no, no, no and no again. He isn’t. I look at him with wide open and incredulous eyes. I hardly breathe. How I didn’t understand? Without other gestures, he turns without looking the mobile again. He is looking in front of him. I have never felt so uneasy until now. For the first time, I can’t wait to arrive to school, to go out from this car. How is it possible? What did I do wrong?

RICHARD

Oh my God. She is here, she is here. Damn. The girl that I haven’t seen for the whole summer because she went at her cousin in Oxford, she is here. It can’t happen a worse thing.

I don’t know why she continues to wear those enormous sweatshirts and the sleeves tight in the fists. I hope that Linda will be able to give her some advices about the clothes, because she is really pitiful. I know she had some difficult months, she passed terrible moments, but I don’t understand the reason continuing to wrap up in this way. Finally, we arrive at school and I immediately see Sem, which is going to meet me with his usual springy step.

“Hey Breenly.” he says hello to me.

He always has a cigarette on the ear. More I look at him, and more I am stunned by him. I say hello to him with a head nod. And I stand beside him. “Who is that strange girl which is going down from the old man’s car? She is too amusing” of course, who is she?

“Brown” I whisper.

He suddenly stops. I turn towards him and I look at him, waiting his reaction. He uproariously bursts out laughing.

“Sometimes you have a strange sense of humour that I can’t really...”

“Danielle Brown is the girl there. She is my new neighbour. She moved into the same house where Hoggis lived...”

He whitens. He suddenly turns towards her. He grumbles something and he shakes his head. He doesn’t take very long before to abandon me in order to run who knows where. What the heck!

DANIELLE

Everybody is absorbed in speaking, running after, pushing without apologizing, taking the books from the lockers and going towards the classrooms. I don’t know where I have to go.

Linda drags me with her into the class, while her brother stays out, chatting with some crazy boys. It is obvious that it is one of the groups created to do and search for troubles. Everybody is afraid by them. Just look how everybody bows his head at their passage. Really outrageous.

“You will love this place. We will have lots of fun” Linda smiles while she puts in order the things on her desk. I have only put the exercise book and a poor and half-eaten pencil instead.

I don’t pay any attention to it because the lesson is starting, but her preparation is uncomfortable for me, I don’t remember very much. I hope not to commit any gaffes.

I am excited, as much as a person can be, coming back to school.

The school bell finally rings for the lunch time, and everybody goes out in a rush, in open air, considering that the days are still hot. While I try to eat my pizza that I took at the canteen, without thinking how many people are looking at me, the boys of the crazy group approach to me. They are too convinced that they can cause me troubles, they are similar to Jackson, it is enough to sulk, and they burst into a lake of apologies and tears. Or did he make it only because I am his sister?

It is clear that there isn’t the boss between them, they are only the henchmen. To live with Jackson, the king of the toughs, will have served some useful purpose, right? How to recognize them, at least, because for the defence, I was by myself.

At least now, I should be brave enough to combat them, considering the ‘military camp’ to which the colonel has enrolled me. Also if it was for a few days, and he recommended not to talk about it with someone. And there is Linda with me, if the things will go wrong.

“Hi gorgeous” the boy says, sitting on the table, and he is staring at us, amazed.

Why is he laughing?

I don’t attach importance to their crazy ramblings and I try to eat my lunch. Even if the ‘phobia’ to eat near the strangers remains, I try not to attach importance to it. I believe that it is called social phobia.

“What do you think if we will go together at the party this night? We will have fun.” the second boy speaks near the first. I am happy to note that the young master ‘IAmTooCoolToGetMyHandsDirty,ILetTheDirtyWorkToMyHenchmen’ isn’t with them. But I want him. I want to take my revenge on our first meeting. I want to see if he will be cockier also with his sister near me, or if he must keep up appearances. In any case, I want show him that I am changed, and that he can’t be clever with me any more. Who knows where he is. He is a boy every day with a different girl. He has got every girl of the school. Who will not do it with a body like that? With that perfect features?

“You are new, we could help you to socialize here. We know a lot of people, and we could make you popular, and let you enter... in our group.” the first is blabbering again.

He is holding out his right hand towards me, and he caresses my cheek. It is rough and cold, without any heat. He has a strange ring on the forefinger that I feel rubbing against my cheek. It burns.

After the contact, I suddenly close the eyes and I frown.

“Ding, ding, here he comes. Now you will see.” Linda suddenly says without noting my reaction after the boy’s touch. They turn towards the boy which is coming, and they suddenly whiten. The first even jumps down from the table in order to move away from us as far as possible. He swears in silence and they look down. What? Oh my God.

The young master passes near them, he overcomes them and, with a click, he is able to follow him.

“But nooo, where is he going with them? He can’t. Come back here.” I say, pretending a deep regret.

Theatre, I must register for the theatre.

They were here to tease me, and they searched to submit me, then he arrived, and he imposed his will on everybody? I wanted to put in place my training, but he stops me from doing this, sabotaging everything. Damned boy of which I don’t know the name. Both boys have followed him without problems, without a murmur, and this means only a thing. He is the boss of that crazy group. “Why would he...”

“He is a hothead” she says, interrupting me “he is always fighting. He is a bad boy or something similar, he insists to play box and parkour. One time I saw him during a fight with his friend Kevin, which fortunately was able to stop him just in time, removing him from the unfortunate person, on the contrary, he would...” she says while she is devouring the muffin. She stops on the last word to swallow the bite.

“Did he put him in hospital?” I ask, curious. Obvious, where else?

“No, dummy, he would kill him.” Her look is strange, she is looking the bottle in front of her, without feelings. “Moreover, he is able to destroy you only with the look without lifting a finger, he mortifies you and he makes you feel a nonentity” she says very sad. “But if he hits, he really hits hard, so they can’t forget it. I think that the thing can be considered equivalent. I don’t know. In both cases, he demolishes.”

“And so that is his group of submissive boys?” I ask, smiling. This thing terrifies me, but it is amazing at the same time. With the look, I search for him, but I don’t see him and even the boys. For Linda, it is more important to free the chocolate muffin from the ramekin.

“Well, in some way. But stay away from them. Especially from Lucas. My brother is perverted. He must absolutely make himself hated or become dreaded. We can say that it is the aim of his sloppy life. He has incredible mood changes. Now he speaks with you, and after he hates you. You never know when you find the first or when you happen the second. On the contrary, Lucas, oh him. He believes to be the boss of the situation. He is the oldest, and he strikes fear into everybody, and he gladly hits.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Not at all. It is enough that you talk back to him, and he starts target you. I don’t know how ‘Ciciad’ is able to keep him quiet, considering that they have a similar character and what it happened between them...”.

“But if they are similar, they would get along, right?”

“No if you are my brother. Neither him nor the others would do anything to me. You can make use of me if you are afraid of them. I don’t say this to force you to become my friend, I have a lot of friends, I don’t need new ones and for sure, I will never use my brother and his arrogance to have new friends.”

“Ciciad? However quiet, I live with two toughs and I have learned at my own expenses how to handle it. And they never hit a girl, come on! It is immoral.” I try to persuade myself, but it doesn’t work very well.

“Yes, it is the nickname that I gave to my brother when I was a child, and I still call him like that, but his name is Richard.” she answers, avoiding the second part of my speech, “I warn you, he isn’t only a simple tough of the school. In addition to the crazy group, there is more.”

The hour for the break is finished, and we get back, quiet. When we cross the line of the corridor, Linda slows down.

“The boy there is Lucas” she murmurs, indicating with a head nod the blond boy near to one of the precedent boys. “Another of their group.”

At first sight, I believe to have just seen him before. He has something familiar. But obviously, with my memory, I don’t remember him. Maybe he is friendly, and not how Linda describes him. “The boy with the black t-shirt is Sem.” My eyes look at their lips.

They are talking about a party, which will be this evening and about who will be there. Sem refuses the invitation.

“You are the new one, right?” a raspy voice makes me shiver.

I look away from the lips of the redhead and I look towards the source of the voice. Lucas is making his way towards me with the tilted head and the posture slightly twisted to be at my height. I nod in reply, I don’t want to appear like a frightened grasshopper. He plants himself in front of me, and he snorts in a horrifying laugh. “So, welcome, baby.” and he presses hard on the books, making them slip from my hands, “remember only one thing, we are in charge here.”

I don’t answer and I keep the nervous, it works with Jackson. I hope it will be the same with him.

The young master ‘IAmTooCoolToIntervene’ is turned on the other side, he is busy in a conversation with a blond and breathtaking girl and with Sem.

“But, watch out, idiot!” Linda suddenly says, slipping between us. Her voice is focused to attract the attention of the blond boy, and not only. She takes away Lucas.

“What have you said? Idiot to me?” he asks, showing an amused sneer.

I close the eyes, I deeply breath and I bend down to pick up the books. I hear his laugh. He is irritating, irritating to death. So irritating that I want to throw a punch to him only for this.

I get up and I stretch out my arm between them, without looking at him.

“Okay, everything is okay.” looking straight and trying not to cross his eyes, avoiding inciting him. I try to calm them down. But I am the most nervous.

“Lucas” Richard calls him with a voice too amused.

It is clear from his look. The blond boy turns towards him, and he shrugs his shoulders. Sem looks daggers at him. A flash blinds me and I close my eyes. No, again no.

I retract the arm turned towards the boy, in order to turn back and to pull Linda’s t-shirt and to slip out, getting on his nerves, but I can’t do anything else. I’m not able to do anything else. Another flash presents.

“What do you want?” Lucas screams.

“Leave them alone” Richard screams while we go past near him. The sister doesn’t consider him for any reason, while the blond girl near the boy looks us up ad down. Sem imitates her. I hate them.

“What is it, the new toy of your sister?” the blond girl whispers, amused.

He doesn’t answer, he isn’t able, or he is exasperated. Who knows.

“What is it, you aren’t able to hold off your henchmen?” Linda softly growls towards the brother.

“Hope only that she will not end like the last one.” the blond girl sniggers.

What? Without thinking to this situation, I sit at my desk. I stare into the space, but my forehead is still corrugated. The end of the last one?

“Usually, it isn’t like that. They never consider the newcomers.” she whispers, incredulous “if they know that the girls are with me...” this thing doesn’t comfort me.

“I’m sorry, but… It should comfort me?”

“No, but… I don’t understand why...unless...” now she talks to herself. “Oh shit” she whispers when the teacher enters in the classroom.

Oh shit, what?

“Sat down, guys” the teacher almost screams. I look at her without saying a word, and without thinking to the matter that we will learn.

A vague memory of a girl with some long black hairs, which runs, chased by a boy with a mask, it makes me shudder.

What on the heart?

“Sit down” Linda whispers to me, pulling my arm. I jump and I pull back the arm. She must not touch me, she must not do it. Her face frowns for my reaction. “I’m sorry” she whispers, sweet.

“Brown, is there any problem?” the teacher reprimands me. I suddenly stare at her, frightened. I am the only one standing, and everybody is staring at me. Someone is laughing, indicating me. I believe that I was ready to return to school, I believe that… “Brown?” he continues to say while all eyes are on me. I nervously shake my head and I sit. I’m out of breath and my hands are trembling. What is it happening?

“Are you okay?” she asks.

I nod without looking at her. What’s all this in aid of? I take a deep breath and I smile. I must be smiley.

On second thought, for the moment, things are going well, right?