PROLOGUE

The beginning. Please tell me what you think. :)

PROLOGUE

       Athena walked down the stairs and out the door of her high school. She adjusted her backpack so that the weight was evened out on her shoulders and prepared for the long two-mile trek home. Normally, her brother Daniel would drive her home, but he'd been spending so much time with her friend Monica lately that he was just "too busy" for anything that concerned anybody else.
       Athena sighed and stared down at the sidewalk. Leaves were scattered everywhere around her, impossible to miss. She looked up at the trees surrounding the neighborhood. Half of their leaves were gone, and the remaining ones had turned bright shades of yellow, orange, red, and pink. An early-October breeze swayed the branches of the trees and swept Athena's long, dark hair in millions of different directions.
       Fall and Thanksgiving were coming faster than she'd expected. Soon she would be in the kitchen, making pumpkin pies with Daniel, or out in the yard, raking the leaves. She would have sleepovers with her two BFFs, Rosie and Monica, and they would all sit out on the lawn and stare up at the stars, having random discussions and making wishes and listing off things they were thankful for, until they had to go inside because they literally couldn't see their hands in front of their faces.
       Being thankful, giving thanks...that was what Thanksgiving was all about. But it seemed like this year, Athena didn't have much to be thankful for. Sure, she had clothes, food, happy parents, and some awesome best friends. The list ended when it came to her reputation. Ever since somebody reported that she slept with Garret Adams last spring, she was known as The School W***e.
       Athena frowned and stopped walking to kick some leaves aside. She knew that those rumors weren't true. All she and Garret did was make out in his room at a party. Nothing else went on, but somehow that information couldn't register through peoples' heads. A boy and a girl together on a bed in a dark room without doing "that" didn't seem likely. The rumors kept coming, each one worse than the others, until she finally earned her title of S**t.
       All of her friends were happy--anyone could see that. Shy but sweet Rosie had finally been brave enough to ask out her crush, Chance. The two were now officially boyfriend/girlfriend and so in love that it was actually slightly sickening. Daniel had fallen head-over-heels for bossy and mean Monica, who was in fact quite a softy at heart. The two of them were very happy as well, and thought that they needed to spend every single moment of their lives together (hence, the "no ride home" concept).
       As for Athena, practically no guys wanted to go out with her. The ones who did were perverts who were just in it for...well, you get the picture. She knew she should've been happy for her friends and her brother, with all their new relationships, but she was actually kind of jealous. She used to be quite popular, the girl who guys drooled over and dreamed of dating, which was why she was paired with Garret Adams--he was the most popular guy in school, and a senior at that. But ever since that night, her popularity quickly dissolved into nothing.
       The shrill ring of Athena's cell phone interrupted her thoughts. She whipped it out of her backpack and looked at the caller ID, then flipped open the lid and held it up to her ear.
       "Hey, Rosie."
       "Hi, Athena. I was wondering if you could come over for a little bit? Nobody's home, I did all my homework, and this place is so boring," Rosie, who was on the other end of the line, blurted.
       "Sure," Athena said. "My parents wouldn't care."
       "Cool," Rosie replied. The two friends proceeded to talk about anything that interested them, from the fast-approaching Homecoming dance to what they each predicted would be served in the cafeteria tomorrow.
       Athena crossed the street and was a few houses down from where Rosie lived. She was almost to her destination, when something caught her eye and she froze.
       "Uh, Rosie?" she whispered into the phone as her heart skipped a beat. "There's a creepy guy standing on your porch."

Author's Note

Since this is the prologue, it's a lot shorter than the actual chapters are going to be. Please feel free to point out any errors or give any advice/tips on how I could make it better. Thanks :)

Reviews

[nono]

I find it interesting you did a wonderful job and so far have created beautiful imagery...Haha the reason I looked at this is because I had a poem with the same picture and I thought that's not the name of what I wrote. Funny huh? But I'm glad I did look at it nice job!

[SimplyAnime]

Well its very good start but to emphisize the stranger you should set the start with it being halloween that will keep your fall setting yet make it more intresting.

[Katie de Lavani]

Great for a nice light read. I'm looking forward to your characters having more depth. The end makes you want to jump to the next chapter.

[Paul D. Aronson]

This is a great start to what looks to be a promising story/book. You are quite comfortable in your writing. nothing seems forced. every single detail comes across naturally and the characters come to life at a perfect pace. The first rule of long form fiction is to hook the reader with your first chapter. Well, I'm not into the first chapter yet and im already hooked. If this was in a bookstore, I'm sure im not the only one who would buy this right off the shelf.

[watch_the_world]

there are no words I can come up with to describe how good this is... wow, I'm amazed,

Great cliff hanger, xD

[Ethan Castner]

oh Jesus......whats going to happen!?! and yes.....high school is stupid like this, rumor can spread like a fire in the dry woods with gasoline raining down upon it, and its a horrible thing. but hey! love it so far, a few sentence errors but nothing really "big" im going to go read the first chapter right this instant!!!

[Cheyenne]

Creepy guy, huh? Interesting, keep writing!!