A Kiss for the Queen

Chapter Two:

Halloween for me is...

Callie woke up the next day quite tired. She had been kept awake by nightmares. Vampires and werewolves and evil wizards all haunted her dreams around this time of year. So did bloodcurdling screams and maniacal laughter. Her aunt had always dismissed it very quickly, never offering any type of explanation other than it being so close to Halloween. It was a wonderful way to spend the nights before her birthday, waking up in the dead of night drenched in a cold sweat and breathing very hard. Last year she had even screamed, so loud in fact, that her aunt had had to face several policemen, called by the neighbors, who came knocking on our door. They had been very embarrassed.

This year she was determined to keep herself calm. The more problems she took with her to bed every night, the more vivid the nightmares became. To help with that she had decided to take the initiative and kiss Adam herself. She would start it. Hopefully he would continue.

She sat in her kitchen eating a bowl of slightly soggy corn flakes wondering when best to kiss Adam when the phone rang.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Hey Callie, listen I can’t take you to school today. I forgot to tell you last night. I, uh, have to go to a meeting”

“A meeting? For what?” She asked.

“Uh, Track. Yeah, you know how they are, last minute meetings and all, new training techniques... coach is crazy like that. Ha ha, you know?”

“Oh yeah, like last week when he called you in the middle of our boat ride, all for like a new energy shake or something right?" She said reminiscing about that day. It had been going all too well when Coach Sparks called. Half-way out in the middle of the lake, they had had to very quickly paddle all the way back. It had been very exhausting.

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, the-the shake, yeah right yeah, so, you're not mad or anything?”

“No, I mean I don't see why Coach Sparks can't wait 'till school starts but what can I do? So I'll see you in school then?”

“Yeah I'll see you there”

“Ok, bye Hun”

“Bye”

Sighing and not sure whether she was happy or sad that she wouldn't see him soon, she redirected her attention to her very soggy cereal. Gulping it down very quickly, she went upstairs to grab her bag and left the house. She would have to leave early if she was going to walk to school.

“See ya later Jake!” she yelled and headed out the door. It had been a while since she had walked to school, and even longer since she had been alone when she walked, she took it as a bittersweet change. Lonely, yes, but refreshing.

But she had barely walked a block when the lonely part outweighed the refreshing part and she wished she had someone for company. For as long as she could remember, Callie had suffered from moderate to severe autophobia, a fear of being alone. She could never really understand why though. True her aunt's busy schedule often left her alone in the house as a child, and true she didn't have many friends to spend time with but nothing had ever happened that would cause her to feel anxious and terrified that something horrible would happen if she was alone.

She could feel her heart and breath quicken the further she walked away from home. She could feel it now, that feeling of being utterly and completely alone, and that was not good for her. Something was going to happen. Something bad. Something dangerous. It was reaching an intensity that was making her want to run back home when she turned a corner and saw a familiar face.

“Ruth!” She sighed in relief and her breathing immediately slowed as did her heart rate. She felt quite calm now that she was in someone's company.

“Hey there,” she said in a quite nasally voice. Normally this would be a sign that she was sick, but Ruth always sounded slightly nasally. Ruth Krause was what most would call a complete nerd. A straight A+ student, she was in many clubs, all of which where academic. She was rather short and had freckles splotched across her face. She wore large thick glasses, braces and was always wearing the school uniform in its normal form, unlike the rest of the school who made it as original as possible. She was avoided by most, but as a fellow reject myself, I was nice to her, and possibly one of her only non chess club member friends. However Ruth was a bit on the annoying side on her best days, and a pure nightmare on the worst.

“How's it going Ruth?”

“Oh, fine, fine. Everything's peachy. On my way to school obviously,” she snorted. “Mind if we walk together? It's been a while since I've walked with anyone, and we can talk about last nights HW!”

“Oh, yeah sure... I guess” And partially upset and partially happy, she walked with the walking, talking encyclopedia.

When they finally reached the school, Ruth left to greet some of her chess club members and Callie breathed another sigh of relief. After retrieving her math textbook from her locker, she headed to her first period class.

“Morning Orion!” said super gamer geek Julian who sat in the very front. She wondered weather he had a crush on her. He was a good person she supposed but he had a habit of never returning anything he borrowed in one piece, if at all. Nodding a hello, she took her seat behind the goth poet Selene and began copying the notes on the board.

Halfway through class an announcement interrupted them.

“A quick reminder to our students! This Friday, is the annual Halloween Ball, so dress up and party like a zombie rock star! Tickets are being sold-”
'Wow,' Callie thought. 'Is Halloween really this Friday?' True she knew that it had been coming soon but Friday seemed too soon.

Halloween had always been a morbid time of year, and not because of the “spooky” atmosphere. Approximately 16 years ago, Callie's parents had died in a car crash. She had been orphaned exactly one day before her 2nd birthday. It was such a morbid thought, that when others were trick or treating, she was visiting her parents grave. To them, Halloween meant candy and costumes. To her it meant dead parents, nightmares and her birthday. She would be 18 this year. She wondered how she would have felt had she been older when it happened. To attend their funeral and then celebrate her birthday. In a way she did know. She did it every year.

Callie didn't pay much attention to class that period and was quite surprised when the bell rang. Snapping out of the stupor she had been in, she grabbed her books and headed to her next class.