Dawn of Rhan Damaa

Chapter 1- Witch Rhymes With...

With the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore outside the window I sat next to, it was actually possible to completely drown out the sound of my teacher's droning voice talking about some war that took place hundreds of years ago, in some country that no longer exists, and would never make any difference in my life whatsoever. I sighed, propping my head up on my hand watching the waves come in then pull back into the sea, and my eyelids drooped thinking about my stereo and bed at home. Only 40 more minutes, I thought, then I'll be out of here for the weekend. I then proceeded to daydream, ignoring all the sounds from within the classroom.

I heard a loud crack, causing my eyes to shoot open and my head to snap away from the window to see a meter stick firmly planted on the top of my desk accompanied my teacher grinning evilly at me.

"Miss Faoiltiarna Alastrine," she admonished, and I winced at her use of my full name.

I opened my mouth to cheekily respond ‘It's Tiar' but she cut me off.

"Miss Alastrine, please answer my question." she finished, smirking haughtily.

I sighed and answered in a bored monotone, "According to the book The Odyssey, the Greeks, led by the man Odysseus, built a large wooden horse, which we have come to know as the ‘Trojan horse' and appeared to have left it on the shore next to the entrance of Troy. The people of Troy believed that it was a gift for them, as Odysseus had planned, and all but one spoke in favor of bringing the horse into their walls. The suspicious man was taken by the sea and drowned. That night after the horse had been brought in, the men hiding inside crept out and slew the peoples of Troy finally winning the war. Odysseus then claimed loudly that they won without the god's help, and that the gods weren't needed. This angered Poseidon, the god of the sea, who spoke up to Odysseus saying that he was the one who silenced the suspicious Trojan man and that Odysseus and his men would never make their way back home.

"When Odysseus and his crew finally started their journey home, they were soon blown off course by a storm, leading them to an island on which they found a cave full of goats. They quickly made themselves at home, eating the cheese there and drinking the wine, planning on making it up to the owner of the sheep when they got back. Unfortunately the herdsman turned out to be a giant Cyclops, who was less then joyful to welcome his guests to his home, including eating several upon finding them.

"The were trapped in the cave by a giant boulder rolled over the entrance, and only the Cyclops could move it. So Odysseus came up with a plan to take a sharpened stick and poke out the Cyclops's eye and then hide in sheepskins to pass the Cyclopes, who could no longer see, undetected and made it back to their ship and took off once more..." I continued with my explanation of Odysseus's journey home from Troy, which is rather long, so I won't bore you.

I finally finished and smirked in satisfaction at the sour look on my teacher's face. The room was completely silent until my teacher finally spoke in a strangled sounding voice, a very ugly fake smile on her face, "Very... good... Miss Alastrine."

I smiled brightly at her, enjoying every moment of her pain. Evil witch. Then she continued, "I guess you really were listening even if it appeared you were sleeping."

I glanced at the clock over her head, only three minutes left, only three minutes. Keep your mouth shut; it's almost the weekend, only three minutes to go. It wouldn't even have been a record for me if I managed to get in trouble in the last couple minutes. I glared into her smirking face, arguing in my head, only one minute left, only 58 seconds. She looked aloofly down at me, meter stick still on my desk 30 seconds- and I burst out, not being able to take it.

"Or maybe you're a clueless, stupid old hag who doesn't even deserve a teaching degree! I was asleep, you're just so severely lacking in intelligence to ask me a question you have bloody written on the board! And get that freaking stick off my desk before I have to take it and shove-"

She cut me off, loudly proclaiming, as I had started shouting, "That is quite enough Miss Alastrine! Detention after school today!" I could see the satisfied smirk through her fake-aghast look.

Suddenly the bell rang and all the kids quickly hurried past me into the hallway and out into the weekend sunshine.

I simply glared at the witch, "You baited me."

She faked a confused look and asked, "Whatever do you mean?" She was as bad an actor as she was ugly.

"Cut the act, I know you hate me, I'll just tell the principal that-"

She broke in again, (which is very rude, you know) saying, "Your detention has started, you may not talk or leave this room." Then she smirked, "He'd never believe a delinquent like you anyway." and walked out of the room.

"Witch," I muttered, putting my head down on my arms.

Five minutes later I heard her high-heeled shoes coming back down the hall, accompanied by another pair of shoes, and in she walked... with the principal. She had a look on her face that resembled the look of someone who was on the verge of crying, but it was so fake, there was no way you could actually think she was.

She was complaining in a weedy voice, "She suddenly started yelling, a-and she called me... some names, but I think this is a cry of help, maybe there's something wrong at home, after her father's death..." I stared at her, eyes burning with absolute loathing; how dare she, bringing my father into all of this. And what was with the ‘Let's help the poor, tortured child' act, she wanted me locked up? More likely drugged up on happy pills. Well she might need me locked up to keep me from going after her now. She had no right, no fucking right...my fingers tightened around the edge of my desk, though I'm not sure if it was to keep me from attacking her then and there or because I was just so angry that I needed to release it in some way.

Fiacre, the principal, looked up to see me sitting in the desk and calmly observed my tense stance and the look in my eyes, and then walked toward me, a stern look on his face. I tried to force myself to chill, not wanting him to see how out of control I really felt. I didn't know what to do, because truth be told, he knew me too well to be fooled by a smirk and a shrug.

The witch stood back in the front of the room, smirking at me, hanky in her hand. From the look on her face you would think someone had told her Christmas had come early.

"Now Tiar, would you like to tell me what's wrong?" Fiacre asked me, turning so only I could see his face, then winked, dropping the stern face for a second. I stared for a second, then relaxed slightly, I could usually trust that he knew what he's doing.

I decided that if it is what he wanted, I'd just play along.

"Nothing," I mumbled, pushing as much angst as possible into the single word and looking down to avoid looking anywhere but my lap, hiding my eyes behind my hair. "I've just had a long week and want to go home." I should've won an award for best-angst act of the year.

Fiacre patted me on the back, "Then that's what you do, go home and get some rest, have a great weekend."

"W-w-what?" I heard my teacher's slightly shrill voice from the front of the room.

I looked up at his smiling face appreciably. "Thanks Principal Fiacre, I think some rest is just what I need."

He smiled, "Now, you know better than to call me that, it's Devyn, remember?"

I smiled and nodded, "Alright Devyn, I'm gonna go now then." He nodded and stood so I could pass. I grabbed my backpack and hurried out of the room to my locker, smirking proudly at our grade A act, it took years of practice, but I think we'd finally perfected it. Confused yet? You should be.

It isn't until I was about to leave that I realized I had left behind one of my notebooks. Idiot! I mentally scolded myself and headed back to the room, praying my teacher wasn't in there, she was sure to be pissed now. When I came to the open door I realized that both my teacher and Devyn were still in there.

I heard my teacher's voice first, "But, why did you just let her go? She-she-she called me all those horrible things..." she was trying for the crying, tortured act again. Honestly. I glanced in the room to see Devyn still standing by the desks and my teacher still in the front of the room.

Devyn was standing with his hands behind his head, watching some point on the ceiling above him, his voice carefree, "You did say we should be easy on her, after all, it's not her fault." My teacher started to huff when suddenly Devyn's face became serious and his arms fell back to his sides. He looked strait at my teacher and commented, "Oh, and I thought you might want to know; you're a horrible actor." It was all I could do to simply stand there holding back my laughter, leaning against the wall just outside the door, hand clapped over my mouth so I wouldn't make noise.

My teacher stormed out of the room, to pissed to even notice me standing there. I entered the classroom to find Devyn bent over my desk and retrieving my notebook from the ground. He turned around, looking down at it.

I walked in slightly awkwardly, knowing he hadn't noticed me, until he finally looked up saw me and smiled.

"Forget something?" he teased, waving my notebook in the air.

"Heyyy! Watch it!" I whined as I saw loose papers start to slip out of the notebook.

He grinned wider and handed it to me, "There, better?" he asked. I nodded, took the notebook and carefully made sure none of my papers fell out. After a final see you later to Deyvn, I turned and hurried back out of the room.

(A/N Hi! i'm to this site but i've been writing for years. This story alone is about 2 and a half years old and i'm still workin' on it. The first couple chapters can be really boring (in my opinion) and are basically just an introduction to the rest of the story. I would really like to know what you think!)