|
Dreams: Chapter I- Attempt |
|
|
|
|
|
|
─It was a dark, frigid night and still she ran. The lack of light and the uphill trek did nothing to slow her down. She was thinking only of her baby, only a few days old and having yet to experience the hopes, dreams and heartache that life can offer her. She wanted her daughter to experience the pain, the terror and the depression of having no one and nothing. She wanted her daughter to experience the joy, the endless pleasure and the incredible feeling that came with a great accomplishment and with the beginning of her own family; she wanted her to live to be a mother. If she didn’t keep running, none of that would happen.
Her precious gift was held tightly in her arms, still wrapped in the pink blanket from the hospital. She ducked behind a towering oak tree whose trunk was wide enough to hide her completely. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as her head moved from side to side, her ocean coloured eyes scanning the dark for any movement what so ever. She could hear their voices and knew they would soon find her if she didn’t keep moving.
“Find that insolent woman, find her now!” she could hear one man screaming. How dare he call her an insolent woman when she was anything but!
“Over here!” another called this one much closer. The announcement stilled her frantic heart and breath. The tiny bundle made a garbled noise, she was awake now and she was hungry for her mother’s milk.
“Be still my child, my precious baby,” she cooed, hoping she wouldn’t start wailing.
“We’re going to be running again,” she told her. She scanned the growing darkness for any unusual shapes. Deciding that it was safe to do so, she continued her uphill ascent praying that she’d make it down the other side so she could hand the child off.
It was something she was still coming to grips with. If she wanted her child to remain alive, she had to give her only baby girl away. She would sacrifice herself for this baby; she’d do anything for her.
“Nadia over here!” she almost ran passed the Russian woman. Her sister.
“Carina thank God,” she hugged her sister; she must’ve grown worried when she hadn’t made it to the exchange point on time.
“Are you and the baby alright?” Carina asked, watching over her sister’s shoulder.
“Yes, yes we’re both fine. Here,” she handed the baby to her sister who accepted it as if it were her own.
“Take good care of her, I’ll keep them away from you so you can get away,” tears filled her eyes as she realized this would be the last time she’d see her sister and her daughter, “Good-bye my darling,” she bent her head and kissed that full head of hair.
“Good-bye Carina,” she kissed her sister too.
“Nadia come with me, be with your child,” Carina pleaded. It was all too familiar, and it was something she’d already gone over before.
“You know I cannot Carina. You won’t see me again after tonight. I love you,” with that she set off back down the way she’d come. Carina wiped tears away from her eyes. ‘You will come back to us Nadia’ she thought as she looked down at the little bundle of joy in her arms.
“You’re more special than you know my dear niece,” she whispered as she too made her way back the way she’d come.─
Chapter I
“Mary don’t!” she yelped, covering her friend’s mouth. The tall brown head only looked at them in further silence raising his eyebrows, questioning her actions. She smiled and laughed dryly. She felt her friends wet, slimy tongue move across the palm of her hand. She yelped again and pulled it away, but not before delivering a carefully placed poke to the side that made her squeal.
“What are you two doing? What did you want me for?” he asked, looking at both of them, obviously not entertained by their antics and anxious to get to his next class before second bell. Little did he know that this wasn’t meant to entertain him at all, it was supposed to be a settle hint to Mary that she should keep her blabbering lips of steel shut for once.
“Sorry─” “She likes─” She shrieked and grabbed her friend’s arm, dragging her away from the boy before she could say two more words.
“Hey…hey! Let go of me, I thought…”
“Are you crazy? I don’t want him to know!” she shouted. However, she looked over her shoulder hopefully but was disappointed to see that he had disappeared. What had she expected? Him to wait around while she and Mary fought over whether he should know or not? No not in this lifetime.
“Listen Nyssa, for two years you’ve been crazy for that boy, and might I add, drooling all over your work for everyone to see including him!”
“Now, I’ve listened to you fantasize and go on about how nice it would be to go out with him, but you won’t ask him. If you really like him why don’t you? You had your chance just then and you wouldn’t do it! So I was going to do it for you,” she said simply.
“But I don’t want him to know!” Nyssa reiterated.
“Oh for God sake, I can’t take this anymore, lets just get to class,” she shook her head, obviously annoyed with her, but she didn’t care.
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” she frowned and followed in behind Mary. She might not be sure about telling this boy she liked him, or that she even wanted to date him, but she was sure that biology was going to be a red hot affair. Literally. Her cheeks were flushed just thinking about it. She’d be sitting right beside him, trapped there for seventy-five minutes. Not that she minded… Well maybe she minded just a bit.
Everyone knows that in high school there’s an archaic pyramid of “power” among the students. One of the big reasons Nyssa didn’t want to say anything was because of this pyramid. As far as anyone else was concerned, she was the bottom block and wasn’t worth the time, at least if you believed in that kind of thing. She did for the most part, and preferred not to cause any trouble; she just wanted to make it through high school with good grades and great memories to cherish, as she got older.
Popularity usually ruled the roost, and since she wasn’t all too popular, she wasn’t going to be on top any time soon. Popularity usually had great looks and a golden crown of blond hair on their heads. She had neither. Well, Mary would argue the first point, and so would her aunt. Her aunt always told her she was beautiful just like a lily, just like her mother. She never argued with her aunt when she played that card because she never knew her mother and felt she would insult her if she did.
The beautiful Adonis with brown hair that she sat beside was much higher on that pyramid than she was. He might talk to her from time to time, but only because he felt sorry for her. That’s what her mind kept telling her. Although she had yet to come up with a reason as to why he felt sorry for her.
Maybe because she’d always just been the “friend” and not the “girlfriend,” like so many of the girls had been to him. But he wouldn’t know that about her, because she’d never told him anything personal, after all they were just lab partners. When and why would they talk about their personal lives in biology?
Still, she wished she had the fortitude that Mary did when she approached such obstacles, to tell him how she felt about him, just to see if he felt the same way. Even though she knew he probably didn’t. She wished she had the kind of heart that could have such courage to do such a thing. When it came to other things, things she truly believed in, she’d pour all of herself into that. All her blood, sweat and tears would be dumped into what ever it might be. She would fight tooth and nail for what she believed in, even if she might be wrong.
It may have been a total lie to say that she didn’t want to cause trouble in high school. She’d managed to do that her freshmen year and it had just been snowballing ever since. She liked to ignore that fact; it wasn’t her best memory to have.
She solemnly took her seat on the stool next to him and stared straight at the white board. She knew he was looking at her strangely, obviously wondering what the display of idiocy was all about. He didn’t voice the question, but she knew that’s what he wanted to know. She just kept her gaze averted and remained tight-lipped. It wasn’t so hard to do, even with the little Nyssa inside her mind wanting to explode out of her enclosure and just scream that she loved him.
Mr. Bernard walked in the way he usually did, with an arm full of books and a very calculated plan to gross them all out today. He had his moments though, where he could be the best teacher in the world, the kind you can talk to like a friend. She guessed that’s why half the student body loved him and the other half, mainly the “I- don’t-want-to-break-a-nail” half, hated him. She was proud to count herself in the upper half of that percentage.
“Alright, take out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil and copy these questions down. I want paragraph answers and watch your spelling. You have all class, they’re to be handed in before you leave today,” he paused for a moment looking directly at Tom, the trouble maker and joker of the class, then added, “Use your common sense when you’re answering these folks,” there was a wave of not so silent laughter that swept through the room. Tom just smiled stupidly.
Nyssa opened her binder, pulled out a pen and began to copy the questions Mr. Bernard was writing on the board. That man wrote with amazing speed, he had just finished five and was moving on the six as she began to copy.
It seemed that even busying her mind with biology questions wasn’t enough to take her mind off of the guy beside her. ‘Curse her and her female weaknesses!’ She thought as she tried to concentrate more fully on her work. It was of no use. She cursed silently and crumpled the paper she’d been writing on.
It wasn’t like she was going to have a chance with the guy. She might have over exaggerated her appraisal of him being an Adonis; she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, she definitely hadn’t. She cursed again. After all, she’d heard stories; they were just that though, stories. Rumours didn’t hold much validity in her books, but still, what she heard was pretty convincing.
She had heard that while seeming to be a well-adjusted boy on the outside, he was a serious bad boy on the inside. Now that did nothing to discredit him, to make him less appealing. If anything it made him more appealing to her. She hated that it was so stereotypical. Girls like the bad boys, never the good boys. That wasn’t true, and she hated falling into a stereotypical category. She liked him because he was nice to her, the few times that she'd talked to him.
She was aware that this was more than likely just a schoolgirl crush, a complete and total infatuation… an extreme case of it, because thinking about this boy made her shameful of wearing the colour white proudly. She didn’t know him, she wasn’t going to know him, and therefore she couldn’t call it love. She was smart enough to know the difference, and the first step to solving a problem, was admitting you had one. So she was on the right track, whether or not she could stay on that track, was an all-together different question.
“Are you aware that you’re writing in French?” he asked, leaning over to talk to her, she damn well near fell out of her seat.
“WH-what?” She stuttered, righting herself and looked down at her sheet.
“French, you’re writing in French,” he pointed one long, perfectly pale finger at the words she’d written.
“Oh… Damn it…” she mumbled, ripping out that piece of paper so that it could join her first. First step, admit you have a problem, second step, hope to god the problem doesn’t notice. She was thankful he couldn’t read French because she had been describing him and not doing her work.
“Are you alright?” he asked, eyebrows raised. He’d noticed the slight red tint to her cheeks.
“Ms. Roth and Mr. Dolan, less talking and more writing,” Mr. Bernard scolded from his desk, eyeing them both seriously. She grabbed her pen and began rewriting all the questions. Think like a bee; Work, work, work.
Seventy-five minutes and three pieces of paper later, she left the Bio classroom with Mary by her side. She stopped at her locker and wondered why her friend wasn’t talking to her.
“Listen Mary, I’m sorry. I’m just not as brave as you when it comes to these kinds of things. I know listening to me going on and on like there’s no tomorrow has got to be annoying. But you know you’re my walking, talking diary I have to tell you. Just know I’ll do it in my own good time,” she smiled as she shut her locker.
“I’m sorry too, I’m just a little stressed right now. I think though. I’m going to have to start charging you rambling fees,” she said, quite serious about it.
“The day I pay you to ramble is the day I die Mary my friend, besides, I’m flat out broke,” they both looked at each other and laughed.
As she and Mary left the school and began walking home, Nyssa was struck with this sudden sense of danger. Like something bad was about to happen. She couldn’t’ explain, and she didn’t want to scare Mary, so she didn’t say anything. The weather seemed to be mimicking her feeling, because the sky had changed from its beautiful cloudless, blue sky to a dark and ominous grey one. It’s just a rainstorm, she thought, just a rainstorm.
 Mistress_Gigi · Tue Oct 24, 2006 @ 09:25pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
