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BUT NO STEALY!!!

Chapter One

“Sasha. Sasha! Sasha!”

With a soft yelp, Sasha Brennan jerked back to reality, looking up at her history teacher in astonishment. Trying to ignore the snickers around the room as best she could, the girl stuttered, “Y-yes Mrs. Madison?”

The older woman frowned at her errant student. “I have called your name at least as many times as you are old. What was so important in dreamland that you had to leave us?” Placing her hands on her hips, the rather large woman waited for an answer.

Sasha licked her lips nervously, eyes darting around the room as if looking for an escape. “N-nothing Mrs. Madison…”

A brown, bushy eyebrow arched over Mrs. Madison’s right eye, a cynical expression crossing the woman’s features. “If it was nothing then perhaps you’d like to pay attention more, hm? I would certainly like the addition to my classroom,” Her tone of voice made it perfectly clear that she wouldn’t care either way, “Stay after class.” Bustling back to the front of the room, she turned to another student who had long, lanky brown locks and dull brown eyes and who was apparently almost asleep. “William, answer the question for Ms. Brennan, would you?”

As William stuttered in surprise and began to recite the answer to whatever it was Mrs. Madison had asked, Sasha sighed and thought- not again. This would be the third time in a week she had to stay after, and her father was not going to be pleased when he found out. She could almost hear what he was going to say when he picked her up after school because she missed her bus.

“Why don’t you try a bit harder, Sasha? Listen to the teachers, don’t get in trouble…”

Fighting down tears, Sasha shifted to look out the window again, trying to regain the thoughts she had before being interrupted. Thoughts of a faraway land, where nobody had to listen to cruel teachers preach, damsels in distress were always rescued, and you didn’t have to sit around all day… But once interrupted, Sasha can’t remember, and sighs, giving up and simply sitting there, listening to Mrs. Madison drone on about why royalty had absolute power over the peasants, staring at the clock and willing the second hand to tick faster.

Sasha was a small girl with wavy golden hair, bright blue eyes, and a heart-shaped face with a small nose and full lips. Only 5’2’’, most of her classmates topped her by more than an inch. Glasses perched on her petite nose, and her hair was always in a ponytail. All in all, she was cute, but a nerd. A bookworm, her fellow students called her. The outcast of the grade.

Nearly an hour later, when the bell rang, instead of gathering all her books and rushing to her locker with the rest of the students, she approached the head of the classroom with trepidation, dreading the talk that was about to come.

Licking her lips, Sasha ventured, “Mrs. Madison? Y-you wanted t-to talk?”

The history teacher look over the top of her reading glasses at the nervous girl, brown eyes stiff with disapproval. “Yes, I did. Sit down, Sasha.” Smoothing her ugly pink blouse as she waited impatiently for the girl to find a chair and drag it over, she launched into her lecture. “You’re an all A’s student, am I right, Ms. Brennan?” After Sasha’s stuttered affirmative, she continued, “You are doing very well in this class, as I’m sure the progress reports showed you, but I think you could do a bit better if you focused during class. I’m going to call your father and let him know how you’re doing. Now get along so you don’t miss your bus home.” Done, Mrs. Madison returned to the wad of papers she was grading.

Sasha’s eyes had widened on the I’m going to call your father bit. “No!” she blurted out before she could stop herself, then, horrified, slapped her hands over her mouth.

Mrs. Madison looked up, brown eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Excuse me, Ms. Brennan? What was that?”

The girl shook her head, softly replying, “N-nothing, Mrs. Madison.”

“Then I suggest it doesn’t happen again. You may go now.” With a wave of her oily hand, Sasha was dismissed.

Not trusting herself to stay silent, the girl returned to her desk, gathered her books, and fled the room, all as quickly as possible without running. Once in the safety of the deserted halls, she let out a quiet sigh of relief and headed towards her locker at a more sedate pace, now having the time to think.

That… that… witch! She knows my father- she knows I’ll get in trouble if she calls home! Great, now not only do I have to call father for a ride, I have to explain to him why I’m not paying attention in class!

So preoccupied with her thoughts, Sasha didn’t notice the girl turning the corner until it was too late.

The two collided, papers flying everywhere. When the mess cleared, Sasha looked up to find she had run into a girl in one of her classes… what was it? Oh, right. They had English together. Blushing furiously at her clumsiness, Sasha mumbled an apology, beginning to gather papers.

She was startled when the other girl knelt down next to her and began helping Sasha pick up her school work. “Don’t worry about it.” The voice was cool, melodious, and slightly sarcastic. Gathering her papers, the teenager handed them to Sasha and stood up, offering a hand to the bewildered schoolgirl to help her up.

Once up, Sasha had to crane her neck to get a good look at the girls face. She was tall, but startlingly pretty, even though she only seemed to wear black makeup, which emphasized her pale complexion and black hair… Wait a minute. Were those red eyes? Looking closer, Sasha realized that not only were they red, they had pupils like a cats eyes. The pale girl was dressed in a black tank top, with a baggy sweater over it and slipping off one shoulder, and torn black pants. A pair of leather combat boots completed the ensemble.

“Uh…there something you want? Or are you staring at me for some other reason?” Startled, Sasha glanced up, then colored as she realized that she had been staring.

The taller girl smirked as the Sasha ducked her head and stuttered, “N-no. S-sorry for r-running into you.”

Sasha looked up in time to see one graceful shoulder shrug, the girl’s expression returning to that of nonchalance. “No worries.”

“O-oh.” Having gathered everything she dropped, the shy girl wanted to just call her father and go home. “I-I’ll see you later then.” She sprinted out to go call her father and go home.

An hour later saw Sasha sitting at the table at her house, bored out of her mind. Dinner was a subdued affair, just like always. Sasha picked at her green beans with her fork silently; her mother, Elizabeth, listened attentively to her father ramble on about how useless his secretaries were.

“Linda can’t do anything. Today I told her to make two copies of this paper and go deliver one to Mr. Joseph’s office, and do you know what she says? ‘How many copies would you like, Mr. Brennan?’ That woman… I’m going to be firing her soon, I can just tell it…” The man continued ranting, his wife nodding in all the appropriate places and making sympathetic noises, their daughter all but forgotten.

Sasha turned her mind from the conversation and wondered when Mrs. Madison would be calling, for call she would. That woman delighted in making Sasha miserable, and she was barely holding an A in that class. She knew that she made good enough grades, but for her parents, nothing do that their daughter be absolutely perfect in everything.

Well, except for sports. Elizabeth (her mother) had begged her father to make up some excuse so her daughter didn’t have to ‘ruin’ herself by doing sports until he had reluctantly agreed and sent the principle a letter, all just to get his nagging wife off his back.

Of course, the mood her father tonight proved that tonight would not have a good ending. As soon as Mrs. Madison called, the whole world would grind to a stop and she would probably be grounded for the next month. Not that she did anything outside of read and study, anyways. The girl sighed, and her father heard her.

“Something wrong, Sasha?” His bright, intelligent eyes regarded his daughter like a fox would observe a bird with a broken wing. She didn’t like that, and it made her nervous.

Sasha shook her head silently, mumbling, “N-nothing, father.”

Her mother narrowed her eyes, snapping, “What’s that, child? I can’t understand you! Speak up!”

The helpless girl simply stuttered more, flustered. “I-I said n-nothing, father.”

Mrs. Brennan sighed in exasperation at her daughter, a disappointed expression stealing over her features. “How do you expect to find a nice young man to court you if you don’t speak up? Honestly, child, at this rate you’ll be an old maid by the time you realize your mistake!”

Sasha choked back the tears that were threatening; if either of her parents saw a single shred of emotion it would only earn her another scolding. “Yes, mother.” Apparently this time her response was loud enough- her mother sniffed, then returned to her dinner. After a few more seconds her father followed his wife’s example.

After swallowing the rest of her dinner as fast as humanly possible and still retain good manners, Sasha stood, placing her napkin on by the side of the plate and looking into her mother’s eyes. “Thank you for the good dinner, it was good.” Her mother nodded, and Sasha took the dismissal eagerly and fled.

Behind her, the small woman murmured to her husband, “That child… what will we do with her?”

Taking the steps of the stairs two at a time, Sasha sprinted towards the safety that was her room. Only once was she inside and the door locked behind her, music running, did she allow herself to cry. The tears started slowly first, and then came faster until they were quiet sobs that shook the small body. Flinging herself on her double poster bed, Sasha cried for half an hour, then when she had cried herself out, turned over on her back and let her eyes rove restlessly around the haven.

Sasha’s room was painted a light pink, and everything around it matched perfectly. She had decorated it personally, and posters of famous singers littered the walls. The bed, while covered by lacey blankets and pillows, held a single toy; a stuffed kitten, known as Kitty. A desk stood in the corner, covered by books and paper and sitting on it was a laptop, a dell latitude d600… one of her most coveted possessions. It held her diary, and as such was protected by not one but three passwords in order to log on and simply use the device.

This was Sasha’s room, and to her it meant safety and solitude, the two things she valued most.

Although her mother tried nearly every day to invade this space and redo it, claiming that it was ‘damaging to the house value’. Sasha, everyday, continued to guard it with her life. Of course, her mother was a stay at home mom living on the comforts of her father’s income… and all Elizabeth wanted for her daughter was for her to find some nice, rich man and marry him. Sasha sighed. She wanted more to that in life. She wanted to go to college- her teachers (well, most of them) said that she could probably be accepted into even the highest-level colleges.

But, of course, her dad would then have to actually pay for something other than her wedding, and that was unacceptable. According to his right-wing conservative views, the only role women had in life were to get married and have kids, and always being obedient to their husbands.

Sasha snorted softly in derision, slipping off her bed and going over to her desk where Sally, the housekeeper, had set her backpack. Selecting a rather large binder that she used for Biology she hoisted it up onto the desk. Clearing a big enough space was difficult, but once achieved, the bookworm set it down and flipped it open to sort all the papers that she had dropped today in the hall.

Reading through the notes she had taken that day, the girl frowned. Through the current page of notes was some dark scribbling… a drawing? Sasha didn’t draw- she had no artful talent whatsoever. Curious, she turned the page without finishing reading through the notes… and froze, eyes wide in shock.

Sasha felt as if in one millisecond, her world had been turned upside down. Her stomach felt like she had jumped off a cliff, and her heart had leapt into her lungs, effectively cutting off her air for a few panicky moments. After a few moments of gasping, Sasha calmed down enough to look at the drawing a little closer.

The sketch was beautiful, portraying a figure possessively holding another, smaller human within their arms. The one possessively holding the other had an arched brow, her expression screaming ‘you just try to take what’s mine’, and the smaller seemed to melt into the embrace, glancing back over her shoulder in a contented manner, lips twitching in a small, lazy smile. The taller figure Sasha recognized as the girl she had bumped into earlier that day, the one in her English hour. It was the second figure that made Sasha shiver, for it was herself that was huddled under the arms of the taller girl.

“Oh… my… goodness…” Weakly the girl groped for her stool, then sat down, hard, all without taking her eyes off the sketch.

Dimly her mind wondered just who this girl was… she couldn’t remember her name from class- she had always had her head in a book. Right now, she sorely regretted that, wanting to know just why this girl had drawn herself with Sasha.

Could… could it be that this girl… this girl had a crush on her? Sasha was not so protected that she didn’t know about homosexuals and their relationships… after all, her father came home some days ranting about the ‘stupid homosexuals who worship Satan and now want more rights than just being allowed to live’. But she had never expected to be exposed to any, much less thought of as anything other than straight.

Sasha laughed at herself. “Yeah, right. Like anybody has a crush on me, Sasha Brennan, the social outcast from society.” After all, who could possibly have a crush on the nerd in school?

A closer look of the drawing, however, proved her wrong on both accounts. Stenciled in at the bottom in neat handwriting was the title of the piece… ‘Unrequited Love’. Sasha’s head spun. If she hadn’t been sitting down already, she surely would’ve fallen.

Suddenly a knock on the door and a muffled voice penetrated Sasha’s thoughts, making her squeak and hide the drawing in her science binder hurriedly. “Miss Sasha? Are you in there?”

Sasha cleared her throat and straightened her skirt where it had fallen out of place from when she had sat down. “Yes, Sally, I’m here.”

“Do you need anything, miss?”

The girl smiled to herself- while her parents were strict, Sasha was not, and it showed in how Sally spoke to her. “No thank you, Sally. I’m good for now.”

“Alright, miss. If you need anything just call.” Sasha stayed where she was until the sounds of Sally moving down the hall had faded, then, hands shaking, pulled out the sketch.

Sasha traced one finger along the lines of the girl, feather light so she didn’t smudge the lines. Once over her official shock, Sasha had found that she actually liked the picture. Although she couldn’t chance keeping it- what if her mother found it? - but she’d like the answer to the several questions running through her mind.

Such as how long has this crush been going on? Sasha was confused, and she needed to find out the answer. Plus, she was intrigued, and once her curiosity was piqued, nothing would do but for her to find the answer.

Well, as conservatively as Sasha had been brought up, there were still quite a few things Sasha didn’t know. And seeing as how she couldn’t go to her parents and had no friends in which to confide, that left her with the computer. Ah, the joys of the internet.

Pressing her laptop’s power button, Sasha waited for the thing to load up, tapping her fingers against the keyboard a bit impatiently. Once it did, she typed in the required three passwords, they being her favorite foods in order, and selected the internet from the desktop.

Once there, she typed in the URL for google. There she paused, unsure of what to start with. Then she typed in what she wanted and hit the enter button. All the topics that popped up nearly made her stare, but of course, this was google.

Clicking on the first link, it loaded immediately… and Sasha wished that it hadn’t. Her hand darted to the back button, and clicked it hastily. Luckily, the laptop didn’t freeze or anything and went quickly back to the google page. Sasha decided that it was perhaps better if she defined what she wanted a bit better, and she was moving her mouse to click on the subject box when the ring of the house phone startled the teenager.

Locking her computer, Sasha waited as she heard Sally pick up the phone downstairs and ask who was calling. The housekeeper talked a bit longer and then hung up and replied to her mother’s question with a quiet, “A solicitor, ma’am.” She then heard her dad speak up loudly that ‘solicitor’s should go burn in hell’ amid other things. Rolling her eyes, Sasha relaxed, reaching to unlock the electronic device she was sitting in front of.

A soft knock on the door caused Sasha to withdraw her hand. “Yes?”

Sally’s low voice replied. “Miss, may I come in?”

“Hold on, one second.” Sasha stood, going over to the door and unlocking it, then opening it slowly to reveal Sally standing at the threshold.

Sally looked to be around 40, with slightly graying hair. She was medium height, taller than Sasha but smaller than most women. Her brown eyes sparkled, though, and when the woman did smile- which was rare in this house- it made her seem more vital, fuller of life. Right now the woman wore her more businesslike expression- disinterested and competent.

Sasha stood aside to let the housekeeper inside the room, and then closed the door once again, going over to perch on the edge of her bed. “What is it, Sally?”

The woman played with the edge of the outfit she wore unconsciously. “The phone call was from your teacher, Mrs. Madison, miss.”

Sasha paled, but before she could speak Sally interrupted again.

“She asked for your parents. I told her that they were out and would not be returning for the night.” The woman paused, noting the child’s look of relief before continuing. “She asked me to tell you that she would like you to come in early tomorrow- apparently she needs to speak to you.”

The teenager on the bed groaned, covering her eyes and falling back on the bed. “Why me?” She wondered to a bemused housekeeper.

“That is something I do not think I know, miss.”

“Sasha,” The girl automatically corrected the older woman. “I’ve told you before- when my parents aren’t around, don’t call me miss.”

Sally smiled, nodding acceptance. “As you say, mi- Sasha.”

The teenager smiled wryly under her hand. “Much better.” She had been trying for ages to get the woman to stop calling her ‘miss’, and had only recently succeeded.

“Anything else, Sasha?”

Sasha thought for a second and then shook her head. “No, thank you though.” She uncovered her eyes long enough to meet the gaze of Sally, even though that itself was difficult, and smile. “I’ll probably just go to bed.”

The woman curtseyed and opened the door. “As you wish. Have a good night, Sasha.” Closing the door, the housekeeper was gone.

Groaning, Sasha levered herself up off the bed, going over to the computer and switching it off entirely. Great. This was just wonderful. Mrs. Madison would scare her, and so tomorrow would start with a bad morning. Sasha hated bad mornings. It made for bad afternoons, and subsequently, awful evenings.

But as Sasha pulled on her pajamas, snuggled into bed, and thought about the drawing that lay hidden in her binder, she couldn’t help thinking about tomorrow- she had English first hour.

The girl had no way of knowing, but this drawing, the simple scrap of paper that was now tucked away, safely hiding, was going to change the very meaning of her simple life.

That's it for now! Read and review