Chapter One: The llama

I was in the middle of 2nd period English at Madam Maybelle's Academy for Girls when my heart fell for the impossible. A girl ran through the door gasping for air like she had just run a cross-country marathon.

She probably had if she ran all the way here from the dorms, I thought as I appraised the girl. She wore the normal school uniform; red and black plaid skirt that made grown men drool, a white dress shirt that hugged all the right spots and all the right places with the school's crest of two horses and an Scottish coat of arms between them with an M in the middle of it all, knee length tube socks and black clogs; you know those ugly, heavy black rubber shoes that come up to just under the ankle and have a buckle on the sides? Yeah, that's what Maybelle decided was appropriate to torture us for our families paying tuition here. Her long, wavy brown hair fell past her shoulders and her dark skin that looked like milk chocolate was flawless, completely opposite from her cobalt eyes, the watery depths that I could practically dive in. Wow. I think I'm in love.

"Sorry I'm late." She said with a neat British accent. "I slept through my alarm." Snickers could be heard from the back of the class, as I turned to see who it was two of the most popular and richest girls in the school quickly faced the front and sat up straight. One of which was Ophelia Kutchens, the bane of my existence, and easily the worst possible person to do dirty dealings with, she'll cheat you every time, and current Ex. So, yeah, lots of hate going on between us.

The Teacher, Mrs. Alpaca (Seriously, this is her name.) cleared her throat with her permanently pinched face and bifocals resting on the edge of her nose, making her look all the more like a llama yet.

"Excuses, you will find here, are very much looked down upon Miss…?"

"Oh! Sorry, I'm new, just transferred in." She shuffled through her black messenger bag that rested on her hip for something. "Ha!" She exclaimed as she pulled out the pink sheet she was looking for. "The office told me to give you these to put into the computer since you're my homeroom teacher."

The 'llama', Mrs. Alpaca hates that nickname but I've especially reserved it for her, looked over the papers and then over the nameless girl. "Class!" She called to gather our attention, as if we were actually doing work and not paying any attention what-so-ever at the new girl. "This is our new student, Ay-Am-E?" She looked confused as she tried to pronounce the girl's name.

"Ayame, but I prefer to be called Amy, it's easier to say." She said shyly, looked to the ground, now suddenly aware of all the eyes that rested on her petite form.

"Amy Parker. It seems she will be joining us at Miss Maybelle's for quite sometime, so make her feel at home and welcome." Turning to Amy she said in her high and almighty voice, "You may take a seat as we continue with today's lessons."

She nodded and quickly went on the search for an available seat in this over crowded place. Deciding that I'd sent enough time avoiding the inevitable, I went back to finishing 'Mythology' by Edith Hamilton. Zeus, save me from this hell! Ooh look, a unicorn! Oh darn, it's a Pegasus. Oh well.

Without realizing it, someone was tapping on my shoulder, then tapping turned into prodding, and prodding turned into a wadded piece of paper being thrown at the back of my head. That finally got my attention.

"What do you…oh!" I whispered as I turned around to the perpetrator that I was going to unleash my awesome and powerful wrath upon, when it turned out to be Amy! She smiled shyly and pointed to the paper wad that lay motionless on my desk. Trying to understand what she wanted, it took a whole 15 seconds for the thought to finally process itself through my head.

I unwound the wrinkled sheet and read what it said.

'Hi, what's your name?' was written in neat cursive that only blue ballpoint pen can deliver.

I thought for a second before replying. 'Cadin. Welcome to Maybelle's Academy to Hell. How do you like it so far?'

'It's Awesome, I've never seen such an old school before and trust me; I've been to a lot of schools. This is like one of those castles you expect from an Arthurian tale or something.'

'I don't think it's that old but local lore says that it's been around since the 1600s and that there are a couple of ghosts of rebel soldiers that haunt the place, but that's just girls and talking.' She took a few minutes to reply to the note, with a few lingering looks of discontent given by the llama toward me, always thinking I'm up to no good and most of the time she's spot on. I thought that maybe she had scared Amy back into her boots, when a neatly folded, crumbled sheet of paper slipped underneath my elbow.

'Is she always this dull? I mean, I love English, but this is an insomniac's sleep aid class.' I almost snorted at this.

'Never heard it put that way before. Yeah, the llama makes this class pretty boring.' This time she snorted, earning an uber extreme glare from Mrs. Alpaca, and her undivided attention.

Thinking quick on my toes, I pulled out another sheet of paper and scribbled a few words on it and pretended to read it and not so discretely hiding it from her, earning her attention on me instead.

"Miss Corwen, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" She asked with her strictest of strict voice that she only used on yours truly with so much love!

"Uh…not really Mrs. Alpaca." I looked over the class and saw that I was now in center stage. "I was just going over some of last night's homework."

A sickening sadistic smile crept over the wrinkles that made her face an abandoned wasteland of dried, old person skin, and I knew my horrible lie was detected, just like I wanted.

"Well, that's funny. I don't remember assigning any homework last night. So please, why don't you read to us what has caught your interest aloud?"

I frowned and swung my arm in an obvious American way. "Yes Ma'am." I said in a sad voice. Standing up I looked to Ayame and saw she had the look of death on her face. All I did was smile a friendly way that basically said, 'Watch this!'

I walked to the front of the class with the paper I pulled from earlier, clearing my throat in a louder than normal way so that all those in the back could hear me fine. "Now, I'm just giving you guys a heads up, this just very well be a tear jerker, quite possibly even a Kleenex moment."

"Anytime now Miss Corwen!" She stood over Ayame, tapping her foot in an obviously irritated way that I loved getting her in. She was just asking for it, isn't she? Well eat it up sweetie, there's plenty where this came from.

I cleared my throat once more and began. "Shot through the heart! And you're to blame! Darling, you give love a very bad name!" I read so dramatically that it would have put Romeo and Juliet to shame and even made Jon Bon Jovi himself proud, all the while earning snickers and laughs from my fellow classmates including some new ones.

By this time Mrs. Alpaca was livid and most likely would have liked nothing more than to have my head on a pike, but that would be looked down upon society and would probably make her lose her teaching license all in the same time. "Miss Corwen! I have had just about enough of your antics! Now take a seat and please remain quiet for the rest of the class period."

"Yes Ma'am. Sorry Ma'am." I snickered as I made my way back to my seat, brushing past llama Mama on the way there. I took my seat and saw the paper on top of my desk. I tried opening it without making too much noise to register on llama's radar, last thing I need for her to do is sink my battleship and send me to the Head Mistresses office…Again.