Chapter 2: Superfluous Promises

The next morning, her mother drove Sarella to school. She was upset about yesterday’s events and absolutely refused to ride the bus with her friends. As soon as she entered the building, unfamiliar faces surrounded her. Cries of ‘I can’t believe you’re so lucky!’ and ‘Can you get Chris’s autograph for me?’ sounded the main hall. The crowd grew bigger and louder until Sarella’s temper hit its limit.

“SHUT UP!” she exploded, shocking everyone to a silence, “Move it!”

People moved out of her way as she marched past. By the time she reached her locker, she found her group of friends. Ignoring them purposely, she jerked her locker open and stuffed the books in her backpack. To her surprise, the locker slammed itself shut.

“Good morning sunshine.” Chris greeted smoothly.

“What are you doing here?” Sarella hissed. “I told you I wasn’t interested in your stupid contest!”

“By entering the contest, you undeniably agreed to the terms. I get to attend your school for three months and you get to be my girlfriend.” he smirked, “C’mon! You know you want me. You were just playing hard-to-get.”

“You arrogant JERK! I didn’t enter that contest, my friends did! You want a girlfriend so badly? Then by all means, take any of the girls here! I’m sure they would be more than happy to be your girlfriend!”

“The terms state that I only date you.”

“Too bad.” Sarella replied gruffly. “Deal with it!”

“You will date me!” he shouted.

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” she scoffed.

“By the end of the week; count on it!”

“Careful, your head may not fit through doors.”

Gossip spread like a wildfire. By lunchtime, the whole school was tittering about Chris’ ‘romantic’ promise. Sarella groaned, feeling the beginnings of a headache. She laid her head on the table, closing her eyes.

“Something wrong Sarella?” Andy gently shook her shoulder.

“I need drugs” Sarella grumbled.

“What!? Why?” Andy yelled, overreacting.

“For my headache, you idiot!”

“Oh. Well, can’t help ya there, sorry.” Andy simply shrugged his shoulders.

Opening her eyes to survey the lunchroom, Sarella caught Chris’s eye. He smirked and smiled to the girls surrounding him, clearly trying to make her jealous. Sarella wrinkled her nose at him. With a gloomy sigh, she laid her head back down.

Suddenly, Sarella jerked her head up with a sharp intake of breath, drawing the attention of her friends. Her face scrunched in pain. She quickly rose, excusing herself to the bathroom. She barged through the door and into one of the stalls, surprising a girl washing her hands. When she gently pulled her hand away from her side, it was covered in blood.

She gasped in pain, shock and confusion. How did she get this? Unless… Questions continued to swirl through her mind, but another wave of pain grabbed her attention. She slid to the ground, wincing. She hesitantly peeled her blood soaked shirt from her skin. A jagged gash ran up from her left hip. By further inspection, Sarella found the wound looked worse than it really was. It wasn’t deep, but long. She let out a sigh, relieved.

On to the next problem, Sarella needed to clean it, but she had no supplies. If she went to the nurse, what would be her excuse? She fell out of a tree? Someone attacked her with a spork?? She had a pencil fight???

Sarella shook her head. None of those would work and probably…no excuse would be feasible with this wound. She thought for a moment, but was unable to come up with anything else.

Sighing, Sarella took off her black shirt. Under, she wore a white tank top. Taking her tank off, she tore it in two pieces. She used some wet paper towels and hot water. She dabbed the area around her wound, wincing when she pressed too hard. When she was done cleaning her wound, she took one piece of the tank top and tied it around the wound, tight. She did the same with the other piece of cloth.

Sarella carefully stood up, frowning when the white cloth turned red. She shrugged her shoulders. She’d have to deal with it until the end of the day. That was the best she could do.

Sarella walked over to one of the sinks, her black shirt in hand. She shook her head, lucky that she’d worn a dark shirt. She turned the faucet, placing the blood soaked shirt under the stream of water. Luckily, the blood washed out. She wrung out her shirt and put it under a hand dryer, checking her watch; three minutes

She felt her shirt. It was damp. That’ll have to do for now. It would dry with time. She walked to the door and opened it stiffly. She grabbed her backpack from her locker and calmly walked to class, pretending nothing happened.

In the classroom, Sarella met several worried faces.

“What happened? You ran out of the lunchroom so quickly!” Andy asked.

Sarella franticly searched for an excuse. “I…uh…stomach was upset?”

Her friends looked skeptical, but let it slide. The teacher clapped her hands, ushering the class to sit in their respectful seats. The teacher began to ramble about the wonders of matrix while Sarella stared out the window.

A red cardinal flew onto a nearby branch and started to tweet a sweet tune. The courtyard was so peaceful. Sarella wished she could sit in the grass by the pond. She let her mind wander, dreaming.

Reality. It left such distaste in her mouth. Unfortunately, what happened yesterday was no dream. But today… Sarella looked down at her side where the wound was hidden. What happened at lunch was quite out of the ordinary.

She huffed, questioning for the umpteenth time since lunch. She didn’t know how she got it. She didn’t know what did it to her. And she didn’t know how to treat it. Dammit! She didn’t know ANYTHING!

She chewed on the end to her pen angrily. And on top of that, she had to suffer three months with that spoiled brat! Sarella shook her head. Enough worrying! She had some searching to do.

The bell rang, announcing the end of school. Sarella waved her friends off, avoiding the crazed fans Chris seemed to have accumulated through the day. She slid through the door of the library. Setting her backpack on a desk, she ran to a bookshelf and immediately began searching.

Unknown to Sarella, Chris was on a wild goose chase and he was the goose. Chris saw the library and escaped through. His fans ran past without stopping. Chris let out the breath he’d been holding. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he walked around the library aimlessly. When he saw Sarella, he became curious. He quickly ran to the bookshelf behind her, observing when in truth he was spying.

Sarella closed the book, coughing when dust blew everywhere. “This isn’t getting me anywhere! Now where can I find...” Her hand strayed to the wound on her hip.

Chris’ curiosity rose. He panicked when she walked towards the bookshelf where he was hidden. He ran behind the next bookshelf, feeling oddly like a stalker. He cringed when a book fell off the shelf, afraid he would be exposed.

“Who’s there?” Sarella accused.

When no one answered her, she shrugged, letting it slide. Curiously, she picked up the book that lay on the floor, noticing how old it was. She opened it, flipping through the text and pictures. They were all hand-drawn. She closed it, coughing once more as dust flew in her face. She stared at the title and raised an eyebrow. An Origin of Magick was painted in faded gold.

“I’ll just check this one out and try tomorrow.” Sarella sighed.

She brought the book to the front desk, watching with curiosity when the librarian looked surprised. “An interesting choice, my dear.” he said.

“Er…thanks…?” she said with uncertainty.

Sarella quickly rushed out the doors, nearly forgetting her backpack. Chris followed a few moments after, disappointed and relieved that she didn’t discover him.