Chapter 01

Rikka Kellerman has had a semi-normal life, ever since she moved away from her home town. What will happen when her dad gets sent to jail and she is sent to move in with her mother in Minnesota?

Chapter 01

 

"I know your secrets," he whispered in my ear.  I never thought that something like this would ever happen.  How could he know something like that?  Wait, which secret?  He was so close to me that I thought that he could feel my heart beating through my coat.  That light around us was hurting my head so bad.  I was scared like hell, but I knew that I was safe in his arms.  I knew I had to get out of them, but something was pushing me to stay near him.  What would I say? 

I woke up from my dream in a daze.  What had just happened?  Did that really happen, in reality, or was it really just a dream?  I sat up in my bed and looked around.  This wasn't the room that I had grown up in.  Where did the pile of clothes I had stole from my friends gone?  The postcards from my best friend when she took the trip around the world?  The giant bookcase that was filled with books that I never finished reading?  Wait, the walls were pink and orange, a canopy over my bed.  Where did all this stuff come from?  I had never seen anything like this before.  Oh, yeah.  I had to move in with my mom.

Hill City, Minnesota is a town that is like any other Minnesota town with twice as many houses as needed, everyone knows everyone, and there are no secrets with anyone.  I was moving in with my mom and my step-dad, Drew, his three kids, Ricky, Timora and Sahara, Drew‘s three horses, and six iguanas.  They aren’t the typical family that I’m used to.  After living here for only three days I can already tell that they don't like me very much.  I don't really consider myself part of their family because I'm just staying with them until I turn 18 in ten months.  This story starts out in my senior year.  Ricky is around my age and was supposed to show me around the school but he told me that he would drop me off at the office and I would find my way around the school very easily.  I had to drive everyone to school because I was the only one who had a driver's license.  Ricky was against driving before he turned eighteen even thought he could have gotten in a year ago.  I walked into the school and the first door to my left was the door that said office.

In the office there was a desk, only about twenty teacher's mail boxes, a conference room, and three offices that were for the principal, superintendent, and the nurse.  There was also a set of stairs tucked in the corner of the office.  I stood by the desk until the lady sitting behind the desk, Shirley, looked up.  She had a kind face and smile, she was wearing a blue and green striped sundress, she had big gold hoops, blonde hair down to the middle of her back, big blue eyes, and she looked like she was about twenty five years old. 

          “You must be Rikka Kellerman.  Your mother told me that you would be coming here this year.  I'm so sorry about what happened to you father.  Such a tragedy that he and his ‘buddies' had to go blow that place up.  Do you have your papers?" asked Shirley.  She talked in a fast, high-pitched voice and used big hand motions.  I handed her a purple folder that said my name across the top.  She continued, "Great.  In this folder-" she said holding up and purple and white striped folder, "-there is a schedule, a list of your teachers and classrooms, the name of your locker partner and all of his classes, your locker number, your lock combination, and your lunch number.  This is such a great school.  It's probably not as fancy and expensive as your last school in New Mexico but you meet a lot of really great people that stick with you the rest of your life.  Welcome to Hill City School."

          "Thank you," I said leaving the office.

          "No problem, dear," Shirley said as the door was closing behind me.

          I walked down the hallway while looking through the folder.  I wasn't paying attention to where I was going because the minute I looked up I ran right into someone and took him down.  Well, at least I thought it was a him.  It smelled like a him.  I looked up and I was right.  It was a him.  He was so cute.  He was about the same height as me at six feet, he had blonde hair, blue eyes and had a great smile.  He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, a purple and white letterman jacket, and jeans with his jacket sleeves pulled up to his elbow.  It looked like he had tattoos up and down his arms that were different colors and had different symbols in the middle of them.  They all had a solid stripe and then the symbol in the middle.  The very bottom was yellow with nothing in the middle, a red one with flames, a green one with a leaf, a purple one with a paw print, orange and it had it had a stick figure, then a white one with a bunch of sparks, one was a black one with clouds, and the very top a blue with a water droplet.  I glanced up at him when someone helped me stand up and he pulled his jacket sleeve over the tattoos.  I looked up at the boy who helped me up and I caught my breath.  I was standing in a group of really hot and really tall guys.  I turned toward the one that I had run into and grabbed my folder from him.  Oh.  My.  God.  That was the guy from my dream.

          "Hey, I'm Sebastian," he said holding his hand out for me to shake. 

          "Hi.  I'm Rikka.  I just moved here from New Mexico," I said shaking his hand.

          "Nice to meet you, you look a bit lost.  Do you need any help?” he said.

          "Yeah, I'm trying to find my locker, its locker 35a."

          "Looks like I just found my new locker partner.  Follow me," he said turning back in the direction that he was just coming from.  The three other guys came up beside me and started walking next to me. 

          "I'm Finn," said the one to my right throwing his arm around my shoulder.  He was about the same height of Sebastian, had short, brown, choppy cut hair, and orange eyes that looked more like brown.  "I'm the funny one of the group.  Sebastian over there is the serious one.  Have fun having him as a locker partner this year.  He likes everything nice and neat.  I, personally, I think he's g-"

          "Finn," Sebastian said stopping and turning around and looking at Finn.

          "Yeah?" Finn said looking at him like he didn't know what was going on.  Sebastian raised his hand and punched Finn square on the cheek.  "Sorry.  That's right.  You're the boss."

Sebastian just turned back around and started walking again.  There were no red marks on Finn’s left cheek.  He just turned and smiled at me and started walking again. 

          "He's really not that bad.  He's just strict.  Once you get to know him, he is just fine," Finn said.  The hallway that we were going down was really long and we were walking really slowly.  Finn dropped his arm from around me and the guy to my left threw his arm around me.  Him and the guy next to him looked really old, like, almost twenty-five and looked almost identical.  They had really short, brown hair, light blue, almost white eyes, mixed with orange.

          "I'm Aric.  This guy next to me is my twin Darion.  He can't talk so if you want to talk to him just have to tell me.  I can interpret sign language for you unless you know some."

          "Yeah I do.  It was a required class at my old school.  We had to take a semester of the class," I said.

          "That's great," he said smiling at me.  He and Darion both had the same amount of tattoos as the other two boys but in a different order.

          "I like all of your tattoos," I said. "What do they mean?"

          "It's a long story."

          "So are you guys all brothers?" I asked looking from Finn, to Sebastian, to Aric, to Darion, and back to Finn.

          "You could say that.  We're all from the foster home in Jacobson.  Jacobson is the next town over," Finn said.

          "I know where Jacobson is.  I lived here until my parents got divorced when I was six and my dad moved to New Mexico when he got full custody.  I haven't seen my mom since because she told my dad that she had gotten a new family and she didn't care about me.  But when my dad got sent to jail I had to move in with my mom that doesn't know anything about me.  So, that's how I ended up here."

          "Wow.  No offense but I would hate to have your life," Finn said.  We had finally reached the very last locker on the end and Sebastian opened it.  There was only a backpack hanging up on the left side.  Finn, Aric, and Darion all went to their single lockers that were decorated by pictures of them with different girls.  Darion was with a girl with light brown skin, brown hair and green eyes who only came up to about his shoulder.   Finn had pictures of him and a brunette girl with long straight hair and orange-ish, brown-ish eyes.  She was about three or four inches shorter him.  Aric had pictures of him and a girl who had long brown wavy hair, orange-ish, brown-ish eyes, and was about the same height as me.  They were all really pretty.  I put my backpack on the other side of the locker and put my jacket on top of it.  

          "Do you want the top shelf or the bottom shelf?  I don't really care," Sebastian said.

          "I'll take the top," I said turning around and running right into him.  Oh. My. God. He smelled so good.

          “Here, let me see your schedule."

          "Here you go," I said handing it to him. 

          "Oh good.   I have basically all the same classes as you," he said as three girls went running up to Finn, Darion and Aric and hugged and kissed them.  They were all the girls from the pictures.

          "Who are they?"

          "Girlfriends.  The tallest brunette one is Amythest, the shortest brunette one is Allie, Amythest's twin, and the other one is Ashia, their cousin.  Everyone in their family has a name starting with ‘A.’  They were here when I moved here in third grade," Sebastian said.

          "Who's this, now, Sebastian?  Another one of your girlfriends?" Ashia asked in a thick British accent. 

          "No.  She's my new locker partner, Rikka.  Rikka, this is Ashia, Amythest, and Allie," Sebastian said.

          "So, you’re the new girl.  Come on.  We have so much to tell you," Amythest said grabbing my arm and pulling me to the cafeteria.  We sat at a table that twelve people could sit at.  Ricky and a girl were already sitting at the table and they were kissing.

          "God, guys, get a room," Ashia said.  They pulled away and looked very embarrassed.

          "She doesn't like people making out in front of her because she and Darion haven't made out in three months.  She's in denial," Amythest said.  Ashia pushed Amythest off the seat she was sitting on.

          "I'm not in denial.  Darion just doesn't feel like talking.  It's no big deal," Ashia said.

          "I thought that Darion couldn't talk," I said.

          They looked back and forth at each other than looking back at me. "We text each other," she said texting the air. "IM."

          "I guess this is becoming the girl's table," Ricky said getting up and kissed the girl he was with. "Later losers."

          "Bye, geek," Allie said just getting over here and smiling at him widely.

          "So you must be Rikka, or is it Rik?  I get so confused when people have nicknames," said the girl that was with Rick.

          “Rikka.  You can call me Rikka," I said.

          "Hi, I'm Lana.  I'm Sebastian's twin," she said.

          "How many set of twins are in this school?"

          "Only three.  And they are all in our grade.  Weird, huh?"

          "Yeah," I said as the bell rang.  I looked down at my schedule and saw that first hour was gym class.  I got up and followed everyone else that was sitting at our table.     

"Wait, what class do you have?" Allie asked.

"Gym.  But only on Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday," I said stopping.

"Me too.  That's great," Allie said.  We walked into the gym and I saw that the gym was small compared to the gym at my old school.  The gym had a full basketball court that also had a volleyball net set up in the middle, two full set of bleachers that were purple.  I’m guessing that the school’s colors were purple and white because everything in the gym was purple and white with a giant hornet painted on the wall.  The bleachers were full of other students waiting for orientation.  Allie led me up to two empty spaces between Finn and Sebastian.  She took the spot next to Finn and I sat next to Sebastian.  As I sat, he stiffened up and shifted in his seat so he was facing away from me and towards another girl.  She noticed me and smiled a giant smile.

          “Hi!” she said enthusiastically. “I’m Rachel.  I’m part of the welcoming committee here.  So where are you from?”

“New Mexico.  I used to live here when I was little,” I said inching away from her.

“Oh, fascinating, what’s your name?” she asked pointing at me.  I looked around to see what she was pointing at but couldn’t decipher it.  I smiled slightly but hid it.

“I’m Rikka Kellerman,” I said.

“Oh, I remember you.  You were the girl who fell off the swing in kindergarten and broke her arm.  We were, like, best friends,” she said getting up and sitting on Sebastian’s lap.  I looked at Sebastian and he was looking away from me with his head in his hand and shaking his head. 

“Okay?” I said as a question.

“Didn’t you have a twin sister?”

“No, it’s just me.”

“So have you met Sebastian?  He’s my boyfriend,” she said smiling.  Sebastian turned to look at me and smiled slightly, obviously fake.

“It’s not official yet,” he said,

“We’re locker partners,” I said.  The smile on Rachel’s face faded. 

“Oh.  You’re the girl that everyone was talking about.  You are fairly pretty,” she said smugly. 

“What are you talking about?  She’s beautiful,” Finn said from the row in front of us.  I smiled and blushed at him.

“Thanks,” I said.  Rachel got up and glared at Finn.  She sat back in her seat and crossed her arms, pouting.  A teacher, who I’m guessing was the principle, walked up to the microphone and turned it on.  It sounded a loud squeaking noise that made everyone cover their ears.  The tech guy wiggled a few cords and held his thumbs up. 

“Good morning, everyone.  I’m Mr. Gordon, the principle.  As you may know, the physical education teacher last year, Mr. Larter, recently retired.  We are happy to accept Mr. Johnson from Roswell, New Mexico as the new teacher.  Mr. Johnson, will you please come up and say a few words?” said the pudgy teacher.  A teacher dressed in athletic shorts, a gray t-shirt, and black zip up sweatshirt walked up to the microphone and shook the teacher’s hand. 

“Hey, Rikka, aren’t you from Roswell?  Did anyone have the last name of Johnson?” Allie asked leaning towards me.

“Yeah.  Richard Johnson.  He was four years ahead of me but only three years older.  He was one of those smart kids whose birthday was right at the deadline so they got to go a year early.  He was really hot,” I said.  I looked closer at him and noticed he looked exactly like the guy I remembered, short brown hair, tall, lean, he always had a very straight posture.  We dated for a while but only were friends after that. “Oh, my, god.  That is him.”

“Really?  Wow, coincidence,” she said.

“Hey, guys,” Richard said. “I’m Mr. Johnson.  I’ll be taking Mr. Larter’s position, as you know.  I’ll also be taking his position as football and basketball coach and will assistant coaching baseball.  I’m not a very strict teacher but if you mouth off, that’ll be fifteen laps.  Just don’t mouth off, okay?”

Laughter spread throughout the crowd and he waved as everyone clapped and he ran off.  Some other teachers talked about the new year and I blanked out through the whole presentation and ended up following Allie the health room and sat down at a desk.  Richard came in and caught my gaze right away.  He looked at me and cocked his head. 

“Rikka?  Is that you?”  he asked.  He walked closer to me and stopped in front of my desk.  Sebastian and Allie were sitting on opposite sides on me and both stared at him like he was crazy.

“Yup,” I said popping the ‘p,’ “It’s me.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked coming closer to my desk in complete awe. 

“I live here.  I moved in with my mom.  What are you doing here?” I asked quietly.  I could see out of the corner of my eye that Sebastian and Allie were giving me weird glances. 

“I went to college in Duluth, full ride.  I didn’t know your mom lived here.  That’s so awesome,” he said.

“I know.  Actually Ricky is my step-brother,” I said pointing to him.  Richard turned to look and Ricky flicked him off.  Richard shook his head and looked back at me. “Just ignore him.  He’s in his ‘I hate the world’ phase.”

“It’s all good.  I think I remember you hitting that phase in, like, fifth grade,” he said as the bell rang.  “I should get class started.  We should go out Friday, catch up.  How does that sound?”

“It sounds like a date.  You know, you’re my teacher now.  I’m not sure if we can go on dates.”

“Hey, you’re the one who brought up the date part.  It could just be two old friends, hanging out, catching up.  How about seven-thirty?  I’ll pick you up and we can go out to eat.  We’ll just make it casual,” he said.

“Perfect,” I said, smiling.  He smiled a crooked smile and walked away to start the class.  I looked at Allie and she was smiling very brightly.  But when I looked at Sebastian, he had the scariest scowl on his face. 

 

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! Give it a chance! :)

Reviews

[emmajoy]

Of course I'll give this a chance, you must have worked very hard to get the above ready for posting on a new site!

Firstly, your dialogue is very good, it flows naturally and the conversations follow through with a certain amount of clarity. Reika, the main character, is quickly identified as being both feisty and strangely imaginative - as per the dream of Sebastian before actually meeting him. There's the mention about her father being in prison, her having to stay with her mother untill she's eighteen and various other clues which lure me into your story. Various of the other characters have specific 'indredients' which could also prove interesting.

Your writing shows quite an imagination and great promise. I've a few negatives to mention but hope it'll be ok to send them privately. Welcome, new friend. :)

[zainul]

Very neat presentation.
Does not look like a work of novice.
You deserve lots of applause.