Chapter 1

“Come on, Kell, you can do this.” I whispered to myself as I looked at the building to my new high school, no, academy.

This has to be the most nervous moment of my life. My senior year was stripped away from me from my old home. My friends, old life, style, everything! Since my parents got an opportunity for their jobs, they talked me through it and although I hated the idea, they needed the money, and not to mention my choice of college is closer. So with a painful agreement, we moved into a new house and a new environment. I noticed that the surroundings of our house had more of a movie-like neighborhood feel; houses everywhere surrounded by fences with those fancy gates, the mailbox settled against the wall outside the front door, at least a tree or two was settled outside the house, it was very different from our old neighborhood. Although, the more I looked at it, the more I started to like it. I might’ve left my old life, a new one awaited for me here. And throughout the trip to get here, the more I thought about it and started to accept it. I might’ve hated the idea at first, but we all have to learn to adapt to new things. And now here I stood in front of the brown building probably looking like an idiot. The academy was huge and very old looking, but it was beautiful to say the least. The windows were square and spotless. If the sun was out, it would probably blind people. I looked down at my uniform; dark blue short sleeve polo with the symbol of the school underneath the collar and a dark blue skirt to match with ballet flats. At least the shoes were ok for a school uniform, maybe they updated it? Straightening out any wrinkles in my outfit, I took a deep breath, pulled my backpack the school sent me tighter against my back, and ascended up the stairs. As I opened up the doors, I heard people from the entrance. It must be that time. Entering the building, more stairs met me leading off to another hallway. At the top of the staircase was a huge picture of a man posing proudly, his white hair brushed off to the side and he wore his Sunday best with a smile that could light up a room. Several beautiful chandeliers hung above me giving off light and a bit of warmth. As I got out my schedule, the doors behind me opened up with students entering the building all dressed in their uniforms and the same backpacks strapped to their shoulders. Some were talking to each other as they made their way to wherever they needed to be as some others practically ran for upstairs. Not wanting to get in the way, I moved over to the side quickly, trying not to bump into people.

“Kelly! I’m looking for a Kelly!” I heard someone yell from the crowd.

Looking up from my schedule, I noticed someone holding a big sign above the heads of the students with my name in big, colorful letters.

“Um…here! I’m over here!” I yelled at the person.

“Oh! Excuse me, pardon me, oh cute haircut!” The person said throughout the crowd as a girl with short brown hair with a hairclip in the front came out putting away the sign and into her backpack. “Kelly, I assume? At least that’s what I heard from over here.”

“Yes, that’s me.” I smiled.

“Ah, well, at least I found you! I’m Emily, your tour guide, if you will,” she smiled. “You didn’t get a full tour of River Academy, so they signed me to do it, so here I am! First things first, what is your locker number?”

“Um,” I said looking down at my schedule. “Number 2013.”

“Ah, a locker on the second floor, that’s always fun.” Emily said in a sarcastic tone. “Well, follow me, then. To upstairs!”

Squeezing our way through the crowd, we got to the stairs and once we got to the top, Emily stopped in front of the picture, which I noticed there was a gold plaque that stated “Founder of River Academy Est. 1997”.

“Before we get to your locker, here’s a little history lesson! Yay! The first one of the day, probably better than what Mr. Scott can do...” She held in a laugh. “Anyway, this is Elliot Bradford, founder of River Academy.”

“Oh! So that’s who this is! Is he here today?” I asked Emily.

“Oh, you see, that’s the problem. Last year around this time of the new school year, he said there was a problem in the family, said that it had to do with fighting. Said he’d be back by the next week, and he just, never came back.” Emily explained. “Kind of sad because he was a nice guy.”

“No one has heard a word from him since?” I asked looking and studying the picture more. I studied the picture more and it seemed that his smile, instead of bright and happy from when I was downstairs, all of a sudden turned into a fake, unsure smile, like he was unsure or wasn’t feeling well.

“Nope, no one. No one saw him or his family since.” Emily sighed. “Well, enough of that history lesson, if you have Mr. Scott, which I’m sure you do, he can probably explain it, but in a much longer and more boring way.”

“Awe, I do.” I frowned. “Third period if I remember correctly.”

“Whatever you do, don’t ask him to repeat himself. Trust me; it was the worst mistake of my life.” Emily warned me. “Now let’s get to your-”

But before she could finish her sentence, everyone’s head was turned towards the entrance where six boys, not seeming to pay attention to the people around them, entered the building. The room we were in felt like it dropped several degrees. It must’ve been because the doors were wide open, but I don’t remember it being cold outside. Everyone’s words went into whispers as they were walking up towards the stairs, towards us. The boys weren’t wearing uniforms like everyone else; instead they were wearing military-street like clothes.

“Emily, who are they?” I whispered as she quickly took my arm and made me move out of their way.

I got a closer look at them as they passed us on the stairs, and my cheeks flushed. They were very good looking boys. The boy with the unique grey brownish hair looked over and all of sudden glared at me. What did I do to make him do that? Glaring at him back, he followed his group to the left hallway and I could’ve sworn I saw a little smirk on his face. Once they were gone, everyone went back to normal and started to lighten up the room again.

“What is their problem? And who are they?” I asked Emily as she started to walk to the right side of the painting down the hallway. I followed her down the hallway to notice that there were classrooms on the right side and lockers on the left. The lockers were bigger than usual and they were the same color as our uniforms; blue. On the lockers in a gold plate were the numbers and our names on the locker themselves.

“Those boys cause nothing but trouble around here. They showed up last year, the same year that Mr. Scott left.  Many people think it’s their fault for making him leave, but I would stay away from them.” Emily stated her opinion. “Anyway, here is your locker! Your combination should be on your schedule. And those rooms behind you are the classrooms. This is the English and Social Studies corridor.”

As I opened up my locker, I was shocked as there were accessories in my locker like a mirror, dry erase board, shelves, and a place to hold your utensils.

“I was not expecting this,” I smiled as I closed the door, considering there wasn’t anything to put in there. Before I could say anything else, a loud bell sound rang in our ears. Everyone in the hallway started to wave to each other and go into a classroom. Looking down in my schedule, I noticed that my first class was Creative Writing with Mrs. Thomas.

“Ah, first period.” Emily sighed. “After each period, I’ll show you where to go, ok? Let’s see your schedule. Oh, Mrs. Thomas, lucky!”

“Is she nice?” I asked.

“Totally! See that door that’s covered in decorations of flowers? That’s her room, you can’t miss it! Now, I have to go, I’ll meet you back here and I’ll guide you to your next class.” Emily smiled as she waved goodbye to me and went to her classroom.

Moving over to the flowered door, I sighed as I opened up the door and entered the room. And just as I feared, everyone looked at me like I was an alien. The individual desks were arranged facing the board, boys and girls arranged in their seats row by row. At the far end of the room was a desk, with a real flower was planted on top. A woman in her 30’s sat at the desk looking over papers, her blonde hair was put up in a bun and she was wearing a yellow sundress. Standing at the entrance, not knowing what to say, one of the boys yelled out to Mrs. Thomas.

“Oh! Why hello there! You must be Kelly, the new student?” She smiled lively.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Welcome to River Academy,” She got up and opened up her arms in welcome. “There’s an open seat for you by the window over to your right, behind Felicity and right next to Daehyun.”

I looked over to where she was pointing and noticed that the guy I was seated next to was the same guy who glared at me at the top of the stairs. My heart stopped as I remembered Emily’s words to stay away from them. Mrs. Thomas handed me a thick book with the words “Creative Writing” in fancy lettering. I smiled as I made my way towards my seat, trying to hide my nervousness. So his name was Daehyun, interesting name to say the least. As I sat down, I noticed that he didn’t even bat an eye at me. I wanted to ask him why he looked at me like that in the hallway, but he didn’t look like the type who would cooperate.

“Alright class, welcome to the new year and also welcome our new student!” Mrs. Thomas clapped her hands and smiled. “Today we’re going to start with a little practice in writing. I’m going to pass out a paper and you’re going to write your summer vacation in story form.”

Mrs. Thomas started to pass out papers and as we were passing them back, I accidentally dropped the papers next to Daehyun and some of the papers fell on his desk. He slowly looked over at me glaring, annoyed at what I did.

“Sorry,” I whispered to him, getting out of my seat.

Daehyun sighed and rolled his eyes as he raised his hand. As I collected the papers, I heard Mrs. Thomas call on him.

“Can I have my seat moved?” He asked in a semi-deep voice and in a very unique accent, which I couldn’t figure out, which made me blush.

“Now Daehyun, do you want to start the new year by getting off on the wrong foot again? These seats have been chosen for the rest of the semester. They’ll be changed by the next half of the year.” Mrs. Thomas explained.

I looked up at him after I collected all of the papers and sat back into my seat. His hands went into fists and it looked like the pencil he was holding was about to snap in half. Daehyun looked over at me and glared at me more.

“Is that all you can do?” I asked him lowering my eyes.

Daehyun didn’t answer my question, instead he looked over at the board and trying to collect himself, he rose from his seat, not even collecting his things and made his way out the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Mrs. Thomas asked.

“I’ll be back,” was all he said before closing the door and leaving the classroom.

This was going to be a very interesting year.