Rose of Immortality SAMPLE

“You will act as Ms. Memoka. You will keep her safe. As long as she is in that school, you will be in charge of her safety there. Understand?” said the man about twenty.

 

“I understand, Master,” answered the old lady, at attention.

 

“And you will protect her every where else. Got it?” continued the man to the older gentleman around sixty.

 

“Yes, sir,” he answered.

 

“What are you still doing here?” asked the man turning around to stare at them.

 

“Waiting for her name,” answered the lady.

 

The man paused, “Zelia Zowers.”

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

Just a school for girls or so it seems. This old and ancient school has always been known for the smart, athletic, and all around “good” girls. The school has many secrets just like all the other private schools. Darkness lurks beneath the image the schools have put up. An outsider is about to break the boundaries between Vampires and Humans by entering this school as clueless as when she was born. The question is: Is this for the best or the worst?

 

As she stepped through the door of her new school everything stopped. All the girls turned their heads in unison. There was something different about her. She . . .smelt different. Zelia Zowers was her name. She stood still feeling a wave of uncertainty overcome her. She wanted to turn around and head back to Martinez. An Elder walked down the hall, as she passed, the girls went silently back to their lockers. The woman carried herself very highly as if she ruled this school. Her skin was tight to her skull but it still managed to have wrinkles. Her brown speckled gray hair was pulled so tight to the back of her head that you would have thought her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets!  She stood in front of Zelia, more like towered over Zelia, like she was an insignificant ant and she was the person with the magnifying glass. She was tall and hyper- thin, she looked like a nun in the all black dress she wore, not one of those nice little old nuns but an old stern, “you better not blink in my presence” kind of nun.  A necklace fell to her chest with a pendant of a crocodile.  Zelia looked up at her with confusion written all over her face. The woman grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hall. She opened the wide wooden door and let go of Zelia, slamming the door behind her. Zelia sat down, slumping in the oversized red velvet chair that could fit three of Zelia in. The woman walked around the desk and sat in a tall black chair, the chair wasn’t thin but it was thinner than the one Zelia’s was but not by much, the chair could fit two of the old woman in it. “State your name,” said the woman in her normal scratchy hoarse voice that sounded decades old, taping the clipboard with a pen which she had picked up as she sat down.

 

“Um. . .Zelia Zowers,” stumbled Zelia staring at the pyramid of little blocks on the desk.

 

“Sit up straight,” the woman said throwing a little block at Zelia’s head causing her to look up with a “deer in the headlights” look on her face. “We do not use ‘um’ here. It is not a correct grammatical word.”

 

Zelia sat up straight and put her hands in her lap, “Yes, ma’am,” said Zelia trying to sound confident but obviously failing at it.

 

“It is ‘Yes, Ms. Memoka’. Do you understand Ms. Zowers?” asked Ms. Memoka, irritated .

 

“Yes, Ms. Memoka,” Zelia said giggling not able to help herself at the fact that her name sounded like a type of coffee from Starbucks.

 

“Stop!” said Ms. Memoka extremely irritated.

 

“Yes, Ms. Memoka,” Zelia replied still giggling. Ms. Memoka took another block and threw it at her head hitting her squarely in the forehead. “Sorry, Ms. Memoka,” she was silent, feeling a little scared and annoyed at Ms. Memoka for throwing blocks at her head. That last one had hurt. She swore there was a little indent where the corner had hit her. She rubbed at it furiously trying to remove it but gave up and put her hand back in her lap.

 

Ms. Memoka flipped through the pages slowly on her clipboard as if she had lost something, which she hadn’t but she hoped she did. “Ms. Zowers are you sure you go here?” she looked up at her questioningly hoping by some weird and wonderful chance that she had the wrong school. She looked down just as Zelia nodded her head. “At this school we answer when spoken to,” she said grumpily.

 

“Yes, Ms. Memoka,” Zelia looked down feeling a little defeated and very home- sick.

 

“Ah, yes. You are here,” she said finding her paper, wishing it wasn’t true, her face grew disgusted then confused and finally back to her normal stern face, “That’s very odd.” She stood up slowly keeping the clipboard to her face to hide the look of hate and disgust from her. “Stand up Ms. Zowers and let me see what I have to work with.” Zelia stood up and walked around the chair and stood in the middle of the floor. Ms. Memoka walked around Zelia taping parts of her body that needed to straighten. Zelia stood in front of Ms. Memoka feeling completely naked even though she was wearing quite a bit of clothes. She wore long baggy black cargo pants, faded muddy army boots, a long sleeve black V-cut shirt underneath a giant baggy black leather jacket. She wore a leather glove on her right hand, which had the fingers of the glove cut off so her fingers were exposed. On her left hand, she wore a fish net glove that went five inches past her elbow, the glove’s fingers were also cut off so her fingers exposed. She wore pink shiny lip gloss that was just a little darker than her original lip color. Her light shade of purple eye color went all the way to her eyebrows. She had a beauty mark just above her upper lip on the left side. It certainly was a beauty mark, she was very beautiful. Her hair was very long, it reached past her butt and was wavy dark brown, a kind of dark brown that looked like dark brown delicious chocolate. Hanging off her right ear was a small black chain with a black spider at the end. “This will not do,” Ms. Memoka said disgusted and unpleased as she stopped in front of Zelia. She wrote a few things down on the clipboard then came to a conclusion, “Age 17. Size five pants. Large shirt. Thirty- four D bra.”

 

Zelia’s eyes were filled with shock , “ Yes... Yes, Ms. Memoka.”

 

She nodded knowing before she even answered that she was right, “Sit back down.” Zelia sat down as Ms. Memoka left the room with the clipboard. Zelia slouched and leaned back against the chair. A few minutes passed before the door opened; Zelia stood up quickly and turned around to face a short, plump lady. Her hair was up tight in a bun just like Ms. Memoka’s but wasn’t as tight to her head.

 

She quickly took Zelia’s hand and shook it excitedly, a smile on her face, “Nice to meet you. . .yes, very nice to meet you. . .it is a pleasure.” She continued still shaking her hand, “Sit. Sit. Sit.” She finally let go of Zelia’s hand and walked to the chair Ms. Memoka had left. The chair fit her butt perfectly. Zelia sat down feeling a little whiplashed by the contradicting personalities of the two women. The woman folded her hands on top of the desk, smiling still, obviously happy that Zelia would be attending her school. “it is nice to meet you, Ms. Zowers. My name is Ms. Glumpom,” she reached her hand across the desk and Zelia put her hand in hers. Ms. Glumpom shook it,” Nice to meet you.” She let go and put her hand back on top of her other one. Zelia sat back down because she had to stand up a little to reach her hand. “I am so glad to finally meet you. Since you are new to this school and obviously different, I will advise the other girls not to eat you,” Ms. Glumpom said a little jokingly but still had a serious tone to her when she spoke, which made Zelia a little scared. “Do not worry, Do not worry,” reassured Ms. Glumpom noticing her tense up. Zelia was still worried but she managed to make her face relax.

 

“Is everyone here cannibals? Or something?” asked Zelia with a giggle but with some honest curiosity to the answer.

 

“Yes, that’s kind of what its like,” Ms. Glumpom said seriously. She stood up happily and walked to the door. When she walked she had a kind of hop to her step. Zelia sat there a little worried by the seriousness of her tone. “Up. Up. Up,” Ms. Glumpom chimed happily. Her voice had a sweet happy tone to it, like one’s grandmother. Zelia got up and walked to the door picking up her backpack off the ground, putting one arm through. She followed Ms. Glumpom into the hallway. There was no one in sight or a sound to be heard.

 

“Did the bell ring or something?” Zelia asked curious to why she did not here anything. Ms. Glumpom was humming a tune that sounded like classical as she walked down the hall. Zelia ran to catch up with her and tapped her on the shoulder lightly. Ms. Glumpom was a little shorter than Zelia,” Ms. Glumpom?”

 

Ms. Glumpom stopped quickly almost causing Zelia to bump into her, “Yes, Yes, do not worry. You are new here,” Ms. Glumpom answered distractedly. She turned left down a hallway. When they reached the end of the hallway, they turned left again through a metal door. This room was huge. It probably wasn’t even a room, it was more like an olympic stadium. Zelia’s jaw dropped as she took in the sights and smells. The air smelt like freshly cut grass. She closed her mouth and began to follow Ms. Glumpom again, who obviously did not share her awe. “You will learn our ways. Just stay focused and keep your eyes open and be cautious at all time. Things are not as they appear. You will succeed do not worry. Have fun. This is your Physical Education Course. I will leave you now in your teachers capable hands,” she said then nodded to the teacher and left.

 

The teacher turned her head to face Zelia, “My name is Ms. Higgoms. Please do not make it a habit to be late to my class,” Ms. Higgoms said sternly then turned her head back to face the class. Zelia sat on the bleachers away from the other students. She leaned against the railing watching the teacher so she wouldn’t be bothered by the way the other girls were staring at her almost with hunger in their eyes. Ms. Higgoms was tall and thin. Her waist barely had a figure and she barely had a C-cup chest. Her muscles were very toned and she had a perfect tan. She looked very athletic. The other girls were dressed in their athletic clothes, they wore blue short shorts and a tight sports bra. Zelia rested her head on the railing as Ms. Higgoms continued her lecture about why athletes should warm- up before they do anything competitive or for a long period of time. Zelia closed her eyes trying to tune the world out while not falling asleep. As she sat there , there was a thump on the bleachers that was getting closer to her. It sounded like someone was walking on the bleachers, which could have been anyone, but they were walking towards her. When the sound stopped, she opened an eye to see who or where that person was, she saw a figure out of the corner of her eye. She jumped and turned so her back was against the railing. She was in a crouching stance, her hands were like claws ready to tear anything apart, or try to, that tried to harm her. In front of her sat a girl looking at her with a tilt to her head.

 

She had curly golden hair that fell to her shoulders. She had a light pink eye shadow on her eye lid that helped accentuate her light purple eyes. She wore a necklace, it was a long chain that fell to her chest and had a pendant of a bird. The girl touched it as Zelia bared her teeth, “This is a purple finch,” the girl said in a loving way. She put her hands on Zelia’s wrists, “My name is Rose Pettle.” She looked up at Zelia’s hazel eyes and said calmly, “it’s okay. I will not hurt you.” She smiled as Zelia calmed down some and relaxed her stance.

 

“Can you let go?” Zelia asked feeling uncomfortable taking deep breaths to calm herself down. The girl put her hands on her lap and tilted her head again. She looked like one of Zelia’s cute little puppies, she had at home. She had a very athletic body like the teacher had. “Thanks. My name is Zelia.” The girl smiled and touched her pendant.

 

“I’m sorry I frightened you,” said Rose sincerely then she stood up and walked down the bleachers. She wrapped her arm around the bar at the end of the steps looking back up at her,” Are you coming?” Zelia looked around and realized that they were the only ones there besides another girl. She got up grabbing her backpack and walked down the stairs. “Stay here. Okay?” Rose said as she touched Zelia’s hand. Then all of the sudden she was gone. Zelia took a deep breath closing her eyes.

 

“Oh!” said Zelia shocked as Rose touched her shoulder. She was wearing a plaid red and black skirt that ended an inch above her knee and a black long sleeve V-cut shirt. She wore tacky black shoes with holes in the toes. She looked down self- consciously at her feet. “Don’t worry about how you look. Zelia says they show character.” smiled Zelia trying to make Rose feel better.

 

Rose giggled and put her arm through Zelia’s,” We have class now.” She looked around and saw a girl sitting on the bleachers. The look in her eyes were distant, as if she wasn’t there at all. Rose dragged Zelia to the girl. Her long pitch black hair covered her face so you could barely see her deep black eyes. “Zelia here, lost her schedule. Could you be a dear and help her?” Rose nudged the girl with her elbow playfully. A smile slowly crept on to her face. She taped Zelia’s forehead then lifted her hands into prayer- hands. She then spread her hands far apart then slammed them together. She opened her hands revealing a crumpled paper. She unfolded it and turned it to Zelia.

 

Zelia was shocked at the girl and that the paper had her name on it. Rose wrapped her arms quickly around the girl and her smile faded just as fast, lingering only for a second. “Thank you,” Zelia said shaking a little from the shock as she slowly took the paper from the girl.  When the paper was out of her hands the girl disappeared. Rose giggled at Zelia’s face then grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the Olympic stadium sized gym. “I have Science next,” Zelia said sadly as she looked down at her paper,” I suck at science.” Rose started laughing hysterically. She covered her mouth and bent over laughing not able to control it or muffle the sound. The other girls did not mind her, they just walked past them as if they were not there, congesting traffic. “Are you okay?” asked Zelia worried because she sounded like her lungs would explode from over laughing.

 

Rose stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes,” Yes, I’m fine,” she giggled, “it is just. . . you said ‘suck’. I’m sorry.”

 

Zelia raised an eyebrow thinking that this girl was weird. “Why is that funny?” Rose grabbed her arm ignoring her question and obviously over her laughing epidemic. She dragged Zelia down the hall and turned left down another one.

 

When they reached the end, Rose said letting go of her arm,” After class wait right here for me.” Zelia tried to protest but she was already gone. Zelia looked at the schedule in her hands and turned around. She faced a red metal door with black lettering in the top center that read; 4A. With a sigh, she opened the door slowly. No one was inside except the teacher, who was writing on the whiteboard. Zelia looked down at the paper once again then walked to the desk in front of the teacher.

 

“Ms. Moosmus?” Zelia stumbled as the teacher turned around. She wore the same hideous black nun dress all the other teachers wore but she had a black sweatshirt over top. The sweatshirt was baggy on her and looked too big. Her long silver hair hung to the middle of her back, not a single hair looked out of place. On the front of the sweatshirt on the right breast was the school’s emblem A. H. under it read Aphrodite High School For Girls. Her eyes were silver like her hair only darker. She had the most hypnotic smile anyone has ever seen, her smile lit up the room and would make boys fall to their knees if she smiled at them. Ms. Moosmus looked like she was a teenager inside and out besides her hair. She had a teenage air about her.

 

Ms. Moosmus giggled,” I know what you must be thinking. Why does she have silver hair, but look so young like a teenager and work at this old boring school?” Zelia was awe struck by her beautiful voice. It sounded as if the angels had given it to her, it sounded like wind chimes. “Well, FYI; Ms. Zowers. I am 20 and I really really love teaching. Isn’t that right class?” asked Ms. Moosmus happily. Zelia turned around and saw that the class was full of students, who hadn’t been there a moment ago. Zelia was dumb- founded.

 

“Yes,” the class said warmly. The whole class seemed to love her and did not seem to be bored by her or be watching the clock waiting for class to end like Zelia was used to back at home.

 

“Ms. Zowers, please take a seat by Ms. Vanderbelt,” Ms. Moosmus said pointing toward an empty seat in the middle of the class room. Ms. Moosmus turned around and continued writing on the white board as Zelia walked to the empty seat at the lab station. Next to her sat a girl with blonde wavy hair that fell to the middle of her back. She had blue eyes that looked like a tide pool in the middle of summer, blue with a hint of green. “please turn to page 62 of your science book,” chimed the teacher as the girl placed a book in front of Zelia and herself. Zelia flipped the pages of the book as the teacher talked about dissecting a frog, not forgetting to point to the diagram she had drew on the board. Zelia felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She slowly pulled it out of her coat pocket and flipped it open under the lab station. It read:

hey, Z! Where are you?

Are you sick? Why

were not you at

School?

+~BigDogJerry~+

 

The teacher said loudly, “Cell.”

 

The whole class replied, “Phone.” Zelia quickly put her phone back in her pocket. She had never seen a class and teacher so on the same page as they were, that she wondered if they had practiced that. She looked up and Ms. Moosmus was staring back at her directly in front of her.

 

“Tell your friend not to interrupt my lesson please,” said the teacher a little angry but hidden quite well in her voice. Zelia nodded her head and Ms. Moosmus continued, “Class dismissed.” Zelia looked around and the class was empty. Even the teacher was gone. She picked up her backpack and set it on the lab station. She laid her head on her black scratchy backpack, hoping desperately that she would disappear. She did not want to be here. She wanted to go home. She opened her phone and immediately erased all her messages except Jerry’s last one. She slowly replied:

Hey, Jerry. I was

In class. You got

Me in trouble.

She shoved the phone back in her pocket. It always took awhile for him to write back. She slowly stood up, slung her backpack on her back and walked out of the classroom. There wasn’t a single person in the hallway, or anywhere in sight. She walked down the hall back towards the front door. She walked a little faster as she thought about how easy it would be to escape. She felt as if someone was watching her so she turned around quickly but saw nothing. She stood there wondering why she was so paranoid and why she was here. She remembered the ride here:

“Dad, where are we going? This is not the way to school.” Zelia said a little worried. She looked at her dad. Tears filled his eyes and threatened to leak. He never cried in her presence. “Dad?”

 

“It is better this way, puppy. Your mother would have wanted it to be this way,” he said distractedly.

 

“Dad? But where are we going?” tears started to fill her eyes making it hard to see. He never called her puppy unless something bad was going to happen. “ Dad, What’s wrong?”

 

“Puppy, listen to me,” he turned slightly to face her and touched the side of her face lovingly, distracting himself, “you look so much like your mother.”

 

“Dad. Where?” Zelia said impatiently through the tears.

 

“You have to go the this new school.” replied her dad dryly as he looked back at the road.

 

She put her hand in his and squeezed, “Do you think it is best thing to do?” He nodded he was afraid that if he spoke tears would fall. “Will you be alright?”

 

He replied his voice breaking, “it is a boarding school.”

 

She looked at him shocked, “How can you afford that?”

 

He said looking at her again, “I’m going to miss you.”

 

She squeezed his hand tighter and said quietly, “me too, dad. Me too.”

 

When they arrived at the school, they sat in front of the school for several minutes memorizing each other’s face. His brown messy hair looked like it did when he woke up. He still wore his dark gray sweat pants that he wore to bed. He had managed to put on a black t-shirt before they left the house. She wondered what brought this on but she chose to keep it to herself. He leaned over her and opened her door and unbuckling her. “Hurry and get out. You are late,” he said plainly. She looked at him one more time with tears in her eyes and got out of the car. He leaned over and grabbed her hand as she got out, “I will always love you.” then he let go and drove away letting the door shut by itself. She was left on the door step alone in a place she had never seen before.

 

 

“Zelia!” screamed a familiar voice, pulling her out of her memory as she walked past the final

 hallway before the door. Out of the door poked Rose’s curly blonde covered head. Zelia stood there wondering whether she should go to her or make a break for it and head back home. She stood there speechless and unmoving as Rose slowly walked slowly to Zelia with a huge smile on her face. Zelia couldn’t help but smile in return. “Come on, Zelia. We got stuff to do. I want to show you around.” Zelia smiled at her eagerness to be her friend. Rose grabbed her hand and they ran through the door Rose had come from.  The room had a giant spiral staircase. They ran up the stairs though another pair of doors then turned right down a hallway and finally up the next flight of stairs. “You are going to love it here,” Rose smiled as the finally reached the end of the stairs. Rose ran to her left down another hallway and as they got to the end of the hallway she slowed down and stopped before they reached the stairs. “Zelia...,” Rose said quietly unsure of herself. Rose let go of Zelia’s hand and looked down. She looked like she was going to cry. Zelia wanted to reach out and comfort her but she did not even know what was wrong. “Do you hate me?” Rose said quietly as she put her hands behind her back and rubbed the toe of her shoe into the ground. She looked like a little kid which made Zelia smile despite herself.

 

“Why would I hate you?” Zelia asked smiling but confused. She wondered whether she had a reason to hate her in the five or so minutes they had known each other but she seen nothing wrong about Rose.

 

“. . .because I’m annoying and I’m forcing you to be my friend,” said Rose in a whisper.

 

Zelia shook her head and put her hand on Rose’s shoulder,” You really think I wanted to be alone at a school I feel so out of place in?” Rose shook her head no. “I’m just glad you are nice,” Zelia said smiling.

TO READ MORE GO TO http://www.amazon.com/Immortality-Zelia-Zowers-Adventures-ebook/dp/B004W9C31O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330642653&sr=8-1

Reviews

[Libby McKeown]

I enjoyed this story, and the slow build of suspense. The flow needs work, and some of the narrative is jumbled, so the reader doesn't know who exactly is doing what. Clarify what is happening, and lose unnecessary detail as it distracts from the narrative. Zelia's conversation with her dad flowed well, and I would suggest that as the format for the other conversations taking place. Just my humble suggestion. I look forward to reading more.

[MoriartyMesa]

All I can say is this was something very interesting. Not sure if i get the voice over, but it works. Reminds me of All The King's Men.

[Andrea Mouser]

im sure one day ill fix it and make it make more sense.

[Coyote Poetry]

A amazing story. I like the school and the many colorful characters. The description gave life and create some good vision with interesting situations and set-up of the story. Thank you for the taste of the book.
Coyote