Chapter One

This will probably be the only chapter I post for a while. If you would like me to continue, please comment so I can have a bit of motivation to write.  Thanks! :)

Chapter One

One Day Before

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

WHACK!

I jumped out of my cozy and heavenly warm bed and looked at the time.

“Great. Juuuuust great,” I muttered to myself, “I’m going to be late again!”

I ran to the bathroom almost tripping over my soiled clothes that I threw carelessly on the ground the night before.

I reached the chilly bathroom and turned the water on so that it was scalding hot. I then took my pajamas off and went for the shower. As I went past the mirror, I couldn’t help but stop and look to see if there was a bruise from last night. I turned around slowly, prepared for the worst thing I could see. As my eyes scanned my back I saw that I had a circular bruise forming on my lower back from being slammed into the door. The door handle had hit on my right lower back leaving a bruise that was an angry black color.

I sighed quietly and took a deep breath, wincing. I must have bruised ribs too. Thank goodness he avoided my face at least. I didn’t know how well I would be able to hide from the pitiful eyes or how much worse it would get if people started asking him questions.

I closed off my thoughts and put them into the back of my mind as I made my way over to the steaming shower. I opened the glass door and stepped into the hot water, hissing as the water burned my sensitive skin. I stood there for a second waiting for my skin to get used to the temperature before washing off my body.

I jumped out of the shower before shutting the water off and pulling a towel around my body. I ran to my room quickly, my feet slapping against the wooden floor of the hallway. I glanced at the clock in the middle of the hall and panicked seeing the time. I had just a few minutes before the bus would be here!

I ran the rest of the way to my room nearly losing my towel in the process. I hurried over to my dresser pulling out an outfit that was suitable for the weather. It was my favorite pair of black skinny jeans and my gray Ohio State hoodie. I quickly pulled on my jeans and put a black tank top on before pulling my hoodie over my head.

I rummaged through my closet until I found my old, worn out, black flats. I gave myself a once-over in the mirror and grabbed my lime green backpack that was full of school books. As fast as I could without falling over, I walked to the bathroom and spotted my pink and black brush on the bathroom counter. I quickly ran my hair through it and gave my black locks a little fluff.

Running out the door, I grabbed a banana and ran out to the yellow school bus that was half-way full and hoped that they hadn’t waited there too long. I never did like the glare I always got from the bus driver whenever I was late. It was like he hated me, but I never knew why when I had done nothing.

The door opened with an angry-sounding hiss and I hesitantly walked up the stairs into the stuffy bus. There were many kids on the bus and many were ignoring me while others were snickering at me because, well, I was just me.

I found a seat and waited for the pieces of garbage to be thrown at me. They never came. I listened for the meaningless taunts to be yelled at me. I never heard them.

Something had to be wrong. They ALWAYS bullied me. I peeked over my seat to see what was wrong with them and what I saw surprised me. Their heads were all turned away from me. There was no glares burning into the back of my head or sneers directed my way. Everyone was either looking out the window, sleeping, or playing games on their phone.

My eyes scanned the heads waiting for the incessant bullying to begin…but it never did. I was extremely confused at this.

My eyes were still gazing at the crowd looking from person to person until I saw an unfamiliar face in one of the popular group’s seat. He was looking at me. My unusual violet eyes locked with strikingly beautiful green ones his and saw that there was anger in them.

I could almost feel the anger, the fury radiating from him. Then I realized that he wasn’t just staring at me, no, he was glaring at me. I finally broke my stare with him and turned around in haste. I focused my gaze onto the ugly brown of the seat in front of me.

I was quite startled when a voice spoke up beside me. I look towards the voice and found that it belong to a little girl who looked to be about nine or ten.

“Do you know who he is?”

“No,” I responded shocked.

“His name is Dimitri,” she said so that I could hardly hear her and paused waiting for a few seconds before speaking again, “Are you Azazel?”

“W-w-why yes, I am,” I sputtered shocked as to how this girl knew me, “Why?”

“Because Miss, he got on here and said he was looking for you.”

She then turned away and went back to playing with her friend that sat next to her. I turned back to him with my back stiff and gaze unreadable. My eyes found his instantly and he was still glaring at me. My eyes widened when he winked at me and I turned forward quickly just as the bus came to a halting stop.

With the strange man still on my mind, I followed the line off the bus and down the stairs to be met with the familiar site of what is Blue Shore High. I could feel the buzz of happiness coming from everybody close by. They were excited that it was Friday and the excitement for the football game tonight between rivals was the topic of most conversations as I passed by people going up the stone steps and into the hallway that led to my locker.

I came to a stop in from of the locker and put in the combination. It wouldn’t open, so I kicked it and thankfully it snapped open with a slight groan. I shoved my books into it and picked up my first and second hour books. I slammed the door with more force than necessary and it banged loudly against the metal, clicking into place.

I began my walk toward the English room and walked through the door just seconds before the tardy bell rang and took a seat in the way back behind some girl who was filing her nails. Fake, I thought to myself.

Mrs. Fell began teaching and asked us to pull out our worksheet that she had given us the day before. I pulled mine out of my battered book bag and watched a few kids around me struggle with the fact that we had even had homework. I smugly watched them come up with excuses that would only put them in an even deeper hole.

I proudly handed my worksheet to Mrs. Fell as she walked by collecting the papers and she nodded approvingly at me for begin one of the only ones to have actually remembered our homework. I heard someone talking behind me and saw that two boys were talking to each other. I recognized them from their jerseys that they were football players.

“So, you think he will play tonight since he just started going to classes today?”

“Of course he will! He’s a beast on the field. Heck, how many times did he intercept you last night at practice?”

“Five.”

“Yeah, he will most definitely play tonight. Best linebacker we’ve had.”

They both nodded in agreement. I wondered faintly who they were talking about, but it really didn’t matter to me. I never watched the games. After all, I was just the girl that took pictures for the newspaper. There wasn’t really a need for me to actually understand the game.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. There was only a few snide remarks made toward me, but otherwise they pretty much stopped torturing me all together.

I was on the lookout for most of the morning for the stranger I saw on the bus, but I didn’t spot him and soon gave up watching out for him.

…

It was around six-thirty when I came out of the library with all of my homework finished. I could hear the band playing from a distance. They must have just started playing to pep up the crowd. I walked quickly to my locker and struggled to get it open. It finally budged and I shoved my bag in there, but not before I took the newspaper’s camera out of my bag. I pushed my locker shut, having to put my weight against it because it was overflowing from my books. I finally heard the click signifying that it was shut and stalked off to the doors.

I walked out into the brisk, cool air suddenly wishing that I had brought along a heavier jacket, but I was being silly. I wouldn’t have worn it anyways considering that it would get in the way of my camera. I took the sidewalk to the field and pulled out my press pass just in case someone wanted to question why I wasn’t in the stands.

I asked around for what end zone was ours first and found out from a grumpy old man who gave me glare. I then went to that side and waited until kickoff.

I heard some commotion towards the entrance and saw that both teams were entering the field and the crowd was going wild. They were all roaring with anticipation of the upcoming rival game. They then announced that our team had lost the coin toss and our defense would be on the field first.

I realized that I should probably make my way to the middle of the sidelines in order to get the best shots. As I was walking I bumped into a couple players and muttered my apologies to them. I was finally in the perfect spot for all the best pictures.

………….

I got the perfect shot! I was jumping up in down with excitement and people thought that I was happy because of the interception. I didn’t realized that the guy who had caught the interception was still on his feet as I was so consumed with my happiness for an amazing shot…and he was headed straight towards me. He was running full speed towards the sideline as someone was coming up to tackle him out of bounds.

The crashed into me at full speed and I felt the impact with every nerve in my body. It hurt. My ribs were already bruised and this was so not going to help the healing. I was so consumed in my pain that I didn’t realized that they were asking me if I was alright.

I didn’t think that they knew who I was because of the hood over my head; otherwise they probably would have just ignored what had transpired. I muttered that I was fine and saw that there was a hand being held out for me to take.

I took it without hesitation and immediately felt a shock come from the hand as it gripped my fingers and the person connected to it pulled me up with little effort.

The arm pulled me up with a little too much force and I stumbled into a warm chest. No, scratch that. It was a warm, very hard, muscled chest that I fell into. I wanted to get more of this stranger because somehow even though I didn’t know this stranger, I felt safe. I could tell that he was a player because he had pads on.

I looked up and was ready to thank my helper and met green eyes. He realized then who I was and I him. His eyes clouded over in anger and he quickly released me making me lose my footing and fall back down. He turned away quickly and retreated into the throng of players waiting to congratulate him for his interception.

His name rang out in my mind like a bell. Dimitri.