New Beginnings...

     “Look at her!” shouted a boy as he pointed at a little girl. “She’s all alone and stupid!”
     The kids around him laughed at the way he said the last remark in a condescending voice. They all started to pick up with the teasing, pointing, and laughing. The girl sat huddled up at the base of a tree in the school grounds. It was just on a chance walk around of the playground that they found her, and their new victim of the day.
     The kid who seemed to be the ringleader and who had made the initial taunt hefted a rock and took aim at the poor girl’s head and-
     “You leave her alone!” called out a girl with long dirty blond hair.
     The boy turned around to stare at the new girl and the only one who seemed to stand up to him at the time. She returned his stare without even blinking and he knew that she wouldn’t back down. Slowly he lowered his arm and eventually dropped the stone. To the protests of his fans, they left.
     The blond girl got on her knees in front of the girl she had just helped who kept her head buried in her knees and wouldn’t look up no matter what.
     “Are you all right?” asked the second girl and when the first didn’t answer, she pressed a little further. “Why are you alone?”
     The girl didn’t move or say anything. For a time it seemed as if she had stopped breathing. After a while of silence, a normal person would have left, but this girl with blond hair was no normal person. She didn’t like others getting picked on or seeing people left alone.
     “My name’s Isabel.” She was uncertain of what to say but she felt an introduction was in order. To her surprise, the reclusive girl picked up her head.
     “My…my name…,” she started in a faltering voice but as she saw the kindness in Isabel’s eyes, she somehow felt better, as if she had known her for forever. “My name is-”
----
     “Serica!” came an overly joyful call from across the commons. It was Monday morning, way too early to function, and the place was just too crowded for someone to be that cheerful. Isabel came hurrying up to her best friend where she sat reading a book.
     Serica was a quiet girl. Kept to herself, didn’t interfere with others outside her social circle, and could be usually found with her nose in a book. The complete opposite of her friend whom was talkative, easy to get along with, and could pretty much befriend anyone. Others often asked how they could be such good friends, like their sisters, but only they knew the reason.
     Isabel scooted into the end seat across from Serica at the table where she sat, shoving Visia, Serica’s younger and obnoxiously cheerful sister, down the bench a ways. Isabel’s younger sister, Elizabeth, sat down across from Visia and quickly joined in a conversation she was having with Siria.
     These three made quite a team. Siria, a girl stricken from birth as a mute, as the quiet one, Vi, Siria’s interpreter, as the cheerful, optimistic one, and Lizzy, a girl who’d rather sit alone and write, as the basic leader of them. Serica often referred to them as Charlie’s Reject Angels at which Isabel would crack up.
     “How was your weekend?” Isabel asked. “You didn’t come over as planned.”
     “I had to stay at home with Blunder Butt there,” Serica said motioning toward Visia. “Mom didn’t want her at home alone when she and Dad went out. Y’know, since she’s grounded and all.”
     “What about Leer? Or Oric? Couldn’t they have watched her?”
     Serica shook her head. “They were at a party with friends. Not like they’d stay with her anyway,” she added to where her sister could hear her and, sure enough, she did because she glared at Serica before returning to her friends.
     “C’mon,” Isabel said as she stood up. “Let’s go to our usual spot and get away from this madhouse.”
     Serica obliged. They left the commons but not before Isabel ruffled up Elizabeth’s hair. They were down the hall a ways before Elizabeth’s threats died away to the normal morning school activity. Isabel turned at the end of the hall but she wasn’t looking where she was going because she ran into a guy.
     “I’m so sorry,” she apologized as she stepped back and brought him into focus.
     “No,” he assured her, “it was my fault.” He corrected his glasses and fixed his long brown hair back into place.
     He seems familiar somehow, thought Isabel as she looked up into his eyes, but I know I’ve never seen him before…
     “No harm, no foul,” stated another guy who was walking with the first.
     Isabel suddenly realized there was another boy there. She tore her gaze away from the first’s striking red eyes and back to reality. Blushing a little, Isabel restated her apologies and left, with Serica teasing her a little.
     “Did ya see the girl Ser was with?” asked the redhead guy after they watched the girls walk down the hall and they started to leave themselves.
     “Yeah…” replied the first with a hint of red in his cheeks. “Yeah I did…”
----
     “Isn’t it lovely?” asked Isabel when they reached outside. They had exited the school into a garden at the back of the grounds. Although they had seen it the previous week and the one before that, the beauty always surprised her.
     “Yeah,” replied Serica not really thinking about the answer. There was nothing new about it and she had something else on her mind. “Lily’s really keeping up with it. I wonder how she does it.” Although she had asked the question, Serica knew the answer well before now.
     “I don’t know.” Isabel moved past a girl who was working in a flowerbed and took a seat on one of the stone benches the garden provided. The girl plucked one of the flowers she was caring for, smelled it, and placed it behind her ear. She stood up and pulled her brown hair out of its ponytail, letting it fall to just below her waist.
     “These flowers are really beautiful, Lily,” Isabel commented to the girl when she opened her eyes once again and looked over the flowerbed.
     “Thank you,” came her soft reply before she gathered up the gardening equipment and headed for the shed.
     “It’s a shame that no one really comes out here.”
     “Huh?” asked Serica. She was engrossed into her book once again and wasn’t really paying attention to the pleasantries exchanged between Isabel and Lily. “Oh…yes. Quite a shame.” She looked to Isabel who gave up on conversation seeing how her friend wanted to read.
     Isabel pulled her sketchbook out of her backpack as she normally did and sighed. One boring day after another, she thought. I wish something exciting would happen.
     She flipped past a few pages that contained several old sketches she had done over the span of the school year thus far to her current drawing. She raised her pencil to the very familiar person and paused. How many times have I drawn this swordsman? She sighed and, nevertheless, began to put the familiar touches on him.
     She had just finished drawing an armguard and tilted her head slightly to the left to replace her hair behind her ear when she noticed Serica looking at something. She looked to where she was and noticed the boys from before talking with Lily. When Serica seemed more interested than normal about the affairs of other people, Isabel decided to press the issue.
     “Who are they?”
     “What are you talking about?” Serica asked right back as she tried to return to her book but the false pretense didn’t hold any water.
     “You were more intent on watching them than any other random person. That means you must know them.”
     “I just…don’t like the looks of them. I was seeing if they were going to do something to Lily.”
     “Uh…huh.” Isabel didn’t buy any of what she said but knew she wouldn’t get anything out of her. She gave one last glance toward the trio and caught the brown-haired boy’s eyes once again. Another feeling of familiarity struck her when her brown eyes looked into his deep red pools. The bell rang which caused them to look away from each other. By the time she had gathered her things together, the three had already gone inside.
----
     “Hmph,” Isabel sighed as she stood there waiting for her sister. “She’s ten minutes late. Where the hell can she be?” It wouldn’t have been a problem for her to wait like this if Serica could have stayed behind today. Just then, her cell phone rang.
     “Hello?” she asked and to her surprise, Elizabeth was on the line. “Where the hell are you?! Siria’s?! You could have told me about it sooner! I’ve been standing here like an idiot!”
     Isabel shut off her phone with a growl, cutting off her sister’s laughter. This wasn’t the first time she’d done this and it wouldn’t be the last. Although Visia and Siria were a positive influence on her, they still did things just to piss people off.
     “I’ll see ya later man. My sister dropped by with company so Mom’s kind of agitated. She wants me home now.”
Isabel turned and saw the two from before. They were heading out the front doors and coming closer to her.
     “Alright. I have to get home and start on my homework anyway. Dad wants me passing English even if it kills me.”
     The redhead broke away and left for the bike racks to the right of the school but the other guy continued in her direction. Every time she saw him she just couldn’t look away. She knew she had seen him at some point in time before today but she just couldn’t remember.
     He continued walking until he saw her and when he did, he suddenly stopped and looked at her in a surprised manner. It was several moments before he shook his head and said something.
     “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare.”
     “It’s alright,” she told him softly as she too came back to reality. She thought about it for a second and decided to say it anyway. “I know it sounds a little funny,” she chuckled slightly, “but I feel that I know from someplace.”
     “As do I,” he said to her surprise. “My friend too. We just can’t think of it.” There was a slight pause where Isabel started to walk off and the boy followed her saying, “I see you know Serica.”
     “So you do know each other? She said that you didn’t”
     “Vaguely. Our fathers are friends so we see each other from time to time. It wasn’t much recently that we started talking outside our family get-togethers.”
     “I see.” She paused slightly. “So who’s your friend anyway?”
     “Oh, that’s Ampere Veltago.”
     She seemed puzzled “Veltago? But that’s Siria’s last name.”
     “That’s true. She’s his sister. How do you know her?”
     “My sister is friends with her. It’s really sad that she was born mute.”
     “It really is…” He trailed off to show his sincerity for the situation but because Ampere was his best friend, he knew the real reason behind it. He then realized his rudeness. “I’m sorry. I haven’t properly introduced myself. My name is Blaze Amalfe.”
     To hold to the manner of introductions, she gave hers. “I’m Isabel Ramst… Wait. Did you say Blaze? What kind of name is that? And Ampere for that matter?”
     “It’s actually Blazenien. It was my great uncle’s. We’ve passed it along in my family for generations. And Ampere’s name is just a shortening of his real one. We’ve both requested that people use the shortened version.”
     “I’d do the same thing with a name like that. I was almost named after my grandmother myself. They changed their minds at the last second though.” She looked down at the ground and he saw a slight hint of pain in her eyes. He deduced that her grandmother had died and that it still brought pain to her to remember her like this.
     “So how long have you lived here?” he changed the subject.
     “All my life. I haven’t been able to escape this boring place yet. Dad hasn’t ever felt the need to move.”
     “Really? I’ve been here my whole life too. It’s funny how we haven’t seen each other until today.”
     “Yeah, it is.”
     “You know what they say, don’t you? That if you meet someone three times in one day that it was meant to happen.”
     “That’s a load of bull. I say it’s more of a case of you stalking me.”
     “Heh, heh, heh. Funny…”
----
     Across the street from the two sat a girl with waist-length, white hair. Next to her sat another female with white hair and yellow eyes. The first glared intently at the talking duo and commented to the second.
     “That’s Blaze.” Her dark grey eyes flashed violently. “His father has a thing against mine and Daemon. And that’s the girl we told you about. She’s friends with the Nurtofe girl. We’re pretty sure on our assumptions. All we need you to do is gain her trust and gather as much info as possible. From now on, you aren’t allowed to be seen with any of us unless we instruct otherwise. Your main informant will be your cousin or your sister if ever you see her. Understand?”
     The white-haired girl nodded. She rose slowly from her seat and began to walk off after the two, keeping a reasonable distance behind them. As soon as she was out of sight, two more figures came walking up to the first girl.
     “Are you sure on this?” asked another girl with waist-length, wavy brown hair. “Daemon has been known to make errors in judgment about people.”
     “She has been offered willingly by her sister,” remarked a boy with long, disheveled, brown hair. “Plus she’s as good as any when it comes to the Lupinus or Caturis families.”
     “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
     The guy glared daggers at her for the insult. A low growl began to issue from him when the girl on the bench rose.
     “Shut your yap. Go tell your cousin she need not worry about her sister anymore. We’ll go inform Daemon about what’s happened so far.”
     “Fine,” he growled back and left the girls behind.
     “Now,” said the first girl to the brunette, “tell your sister to step up with her hindrances. “It’ll help when it comes to the brother later on.”
     “Alright,” she said as she watched what seemed like a rather large dog run down the road leading from the school. “What is up with her anyway? She just moves here and goes willingly into an assignment.”
     “I’m not sure. Her sister didn’t seem all that hard up on her and when Daemon went to see her aunt, she didn’t seem to like her either and almost shoved her into his arms. It’s not like it matters anyway. We now have her at our disposal.”
----
     Later that evening when night had fallen on the small city, Isabel was in her room on the second story of her house. She sat on her bed with a sketchbook in front of her. Her school books long forgotten to an inspiration hit. Her favorite music was playing on the computer across the room which added to her procrastination feeling. A faint mewing outside drew her attention away from her artwork.
     A little white tabby cat stood at the window to her bedroom, pawing at the pane. Isabel crossed the room and opened the window. She had to stop the cat from entering the room on it’s own accord.
     “No,” she said, placing the cat back outside. She sat on the sill and asked, “what are you doing here?”
     The cat looked back up at her and meowed again. Isabel wondered why she was trying to talk to an animal. It wasn’t like it could understand her. The cat slowly rubbed up on Isabel’s hand, purring softly. Isabel couldn’t help but fall for the stray animal. She scooped it up in her lap and started to pet it fully. The cat seemed to like it and laid down in her lap. Before settling fully down, the cat’s eyes shifted to that of a human and held a evil glare for a moment. Her eyes returned normal and she rested her head on Isabel’s leg giving into the depths of sleep.