By Demons Be Driven-

Chapter 1:

New Beginnings at a New School

Kamyla held perfectly still, watching her hands work with expert precision as they cut her white hair.  The pale strands that littered the wet wink looked much like the many threads of a spider web.

After collecting the pieces and tossing them in the nearby trash can, Kamyla examined her work in the small bathroom mirror.  She had cut most of her hair off, so low that it barely hung past her ears.

The school had provided temporary housing for free, until they could find another student that she could stay with.  They informed her that she would be moving as soon as they found another willing student with enough room in the apartment.  When she tried to tell them that she would rather stay by herself, they replied that it was their policy to try to have as many students living with another.  They considered it important to have interaction among the students.

The girl entered the living room, which was comprised of a rather vapid looking couch and a small television.  To her immediate right was the extremely small kitchen.  It had no microwave and the dishwasher was one of the smallest she had ever seen before, and that was saying something.  Immediately across from the bathroom was the bedroom.  The bedroom had one twin bed and a chest-of-drawers that wasn’t even full, even though she had emptied everything into it.  Next to the nightstand was a small card table that held her laptop along with an assortment of scattered papers and other computer equipment.

Glancing briefly at the clock, Kamyla gathered her things for school and walked out the door, making sure it was locked before she headed off.

Kamyla slowly began shuffling to school, something that she despised nearly as much as demons.  It was not the fact that teachers tried to drill needless information into your skull; it was just all of those people.  What lunatic would want to cram a bunch of other people, who didn’t really want to be there in the first place, together?

As the girl approached the giant iron gate, she looked over head.  The sky over head was gloomy and mirrored how she felt about her destination.  Kamyla walked through the open gates, along with a bunch of other kids, who were running because they did not want to let the small drizzle of rain to get them wet.

Kamyla did not care if she got wet, she never did. On top of that she had a sweatshirt that was thick enough to absorb most of the rain that fell on her.  Her sweatshirt was orange with a pocket for both of her hands in the front.  Kamyla often used it as her jacket, because of it often kept her much warmer than a simple jacket would have.  Her pair of dark blue jeans began to slowly change colors, however, as the water struck it and clung to its fibers.

Her tennis shoes, however, were not as resilient as her sweatshirt.  By the time she made it to school, her tennis shoes were soaked almost all the way through.

After receiving directions from the perpetual chaos that was the guidance office, Kamyla arrived at her class, now slightly dried off.  As she walked in confidently, the girl saw the class members clumped together and talking loudly.

When she made it to her first class, English, Kamyla sat in an empty desk by the windows, which were on the opposite side of the door.  The teacher was sitting at her desk, scribbling furiously at a stack of papers that Kamyla guessed to be work that she was supposed to be handing back.

When the first bell rang, the students began to slowly find their seats.  A brown-haired boy sat next to her and started talking.  “Hey, how are you?  You must be new.  I wonder if the teacher even knows that you’re here.  She doesn’t pay very good attention to things.”

Kamyla gave him an odd look before returning her attention to the teacher, who had begun moving so fast that she could hardly see her.  Her brow was furrowed in concentration as the pile grew thinner and thinner.

About the time that the final bell rang, the teacher had finished her long overdue task.  After snatching a student by the arm and telling them to pass out the papers, she sat on a stool in front of the class.

While the slightly startled student began to hand back the papers, the teacher called off roll as if everything was perfectly normal.  When she got to Kamyla’s name, however, trouble ensued.  “K-Kamyla?  Who is this?” said the teacher, looking around at the class as if they had caused her to not know what was going on.

“It is me,” replied Kamyla evenly while rising from her seat.  She bowed her head ever so slightly; a sign of respect for the confused teacher, then sat back down in her seat and folded her hands on top of the desk.

“Uhh… okay… anyway, let’s get on with class now,” her teacher said, giving Kamyla a funny look.

Class went by fast, and it wasn’t long before the bell rang, telling the students to go to their next class.  The teacher, who was in the middle of telling them what they would be doing for the next few weeks, almost went berserk when the class started leaving, for she had not noticed that the bell had rang.

Kamyla made her way to her next class of the day, Geometry.  The teacher here was much more calm then the first had been.  In fact, he was so calm, that she found it very hard to keep awake.  Kamyla fought that urge, though, for the teacher had also threatened to beat any students who feel asleep with the giant protractor that he kept in the front of the class room.

The class passed without anything happening, and Kamyla was slightly disappointed that she did not get to see anyone beaten over the head with the giant protractor.  Then again, she was glad that she was not hit with it, for it probably hurt, and not just a little.

The other classes went by smoothly, and Kamyla learned some of the teachers’ quirks and she also learned what to do and what not to do as well.

 Her other classes were: Chemistry, Computers for Business, History, and Latin.  She did not really like History and knew computers better than probably anyone else in the school, so her opinion of that class was not really great, but the teacher way okay.  Chemistry was a toss-up; it depended on how she was feeling that day.  She was not a real fan of the teacher, but she could make it.

 Latin was a very strange class.  The teacher made the students do very strange odd things, and in some ways surpassed even the Geometry teacher in strangness.  After the class failed to properly conjugate the verb ‘sum’ in the present tense, he made them chant the parts of sum (in the present tense) until they were sure that they would not forget it.  He also said that Kamyla was very lucky, for her name could function like a normal feminine Latin noun of the first declension.  Kamyla nodded when he told her this, but thought it was very peculiar. [See Author’s Note for explanation!!]

Kamyla trudged home slowly in the weather that had not changed much.  It was not raining as heavily as it was before, but it was raining nonetheless.  Many of the puddles that had been on the sidewalk had now either dried up or shrunk and the cars did not create as big of splashes when they went by as they did in the morning.

Kamyla reached her apartment basically dry, only a few wet spots here and there on her pants.  Muttering under her breath a complaint or two about not having a microwave, Kamyla began heating water on the stove so she could have ramen.  She was not a great cook, and therefore stuck to mostly instant foods that anyone could make.

Walking into her bedroom, Kamyla tossed her things onto the bed, without looking to see if they even stayed on the bed, which they did not.  She did not seem to mind the loud crashing noise the books made as they struck the floor, but instead went back to the eating process.

The water took forever to boil, and the bag accidentally popped while Kamyla was crushing up the ramen and some of the contents spilled onto the floor.  After dumping the ramen that was left into the pot, she carefully swept up the remains of what was spilled.  While she was doing this, however, Kamyla neglected the pot of boiling noodles until she turned around and saw that they were about to boil over.  Quickly, she dropped the broom and ran to the pot and removed it from the heat.  Unfortunately, she almost tripped over the broom when she went to get a bowl for the ramen.  Once she was sitting down and eating, she thought, || Man, I really need a microwave.||

-End of Chapter 1-

Author’s Note:  Hey!!  I FINALLY got around to finishing Chapter 1. ~-~ I got so caught up in writing Crystal Dawn that I neglected everything else.  Now that I’m working on this, though, I probably won’t work on Crystal Dawn.  x.x Oh well, read and review please!!

Here is what you probably want to look at:

“||” – from now on these act as quotation marks for thoughts.  (So you know the difference between though and speech)

Latin Stuff:

Conjugation- Latin way of forming verbs.  Present conjugation of the verb sum is as follows: sum, es, est; sumus, estis, sunt.  (I am, you are (singular), he/she/it is; we are, you are (plural), they are (all respectively))  If I ever tell you a verb and say that it is a conjugation (there are six conjugations) of a verb, it will always be in the order: I, You (sing.), He/She/It; We, You (pl.), They.

Declension- Latin way of telling how a noun is functioning.  (I.e. subject, direct object, indirect object)  I won’t get into this, as it would be very confusing, especially because I have no way to show you a nice little chart and everything I need to make you understand.

The Latin teacher is VERY loosely based on a person, who WANTS to be a Latin teacher, I know.  He literally made us chant the parts of sum (in three conjugations) until we had it memorized.

See you at the next Chapter!!!!!!