Flames Underneath, Nina G. [beach read book txt] 📗

Chapter one: GAIL


So there I was… still breathing, don’t worry you’ll be reading the part where I barely could in a while. This part is where all my gloominess spreads out, the part where I still haven’t known him yet. Anyway, I was on the passenger’s seat, quietly thinking I wanted to jump out of the car. Its true I really did want to. Summer just ended and were all back to misery because of boring usual activities like, I don’t know, STUDYING? Ugh. But No. Everything’s new, well at least for me. My mom the one driving me to the other side of my happiness has gone to the so called place a lot of times now. You see she’s a book writer and she travels a lot. Yeah. Without me. Like I said, its all fresh for me. So I said Yes. The biggest mistake of my life. Wrong. My mom needed fresh new ideas for the book she was writing so we had no choice but to move elsewhere. You see as hard it is to admit this I’m kind of a person who hates change, I don’t know maybe because I’m scared of what change has for me… “ oh honey, you look like you’re about to throw up” there it was. Those eyes like a dog’s trying to plea for something. “ I’m fine” I answered, of course that wasn’t true. Like I said I wanted to jump out of the car and just run back home. Sigh* home… it’s only been 4 hours and I'm missing it already, especially the people whom I shared good time’s with. I reached out for my bag, a backpack made entirely of cotton, its color was a faded baby blue. And yes it was almost plain as white because of the washing machine. Its zipper and buttons were black and I opened the one zipping the side pocket. I grabbed my phone and unlocked it. there flashed a wallpaper of me and Jessica my best friend, her hair was always tied up so that it wont block her face in whatever crazy thing she does. She put a grin on my face again and of course mom noticed. “ Gail, I know you miss Jessica but im sure you’ll find other friendly people there” I didn’t think so. Jessica was the only one who stood up for me even in facing bullies in our old school. Which reminds me.. School. I swallowed loud enough for my mom to hear. “ you’ll be fine sweetheart” evading her statement “ are we near?” my mom looked like she could burst out with joy, ugh! Don’t she even think im enjoying this one bit. But anything to make my mom happy. “ we’ll be there in 5 minutes” I was the only thing she had left. she’d even lost her dignity. With that news I knew it was too late to jump out the car, replying “ oh”
* * *
My heart was beating so fast I could faint. The school was entirely built up of wood. Whoa. No way I know what you’re thinking.. its probably small but no. its as big as any other school though it looked more homey. And surrounding it looks like a giant garden. So that’s why my mom chose this place it already looked like Barbie’s fantasy world everything’s just so darn pretty. It was beautiful. I wonder how beautiful the people are living here too. “ well, here we are, your new school” I raised her an eyebrow, and she frowned at me along with a big hug “ please love it here” she whispered to my ear. She let go and I just smiled at her and carefully got 1 foot down the car. I was thinking if I run home now it wont even make a difference. “ honey, it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get here, d’ you really want to run back home now?” its like she can actually read my mind. I avoided eye contact “ I wasn’t thinking of that” she playfully replied an “ mmhmm” she made me smile and off I was to a new life.
The hallway was almost empty. There were probably 12 people and one of them was a hall monitor. Well that’s what it says on his badge. I’m probably late. And because of my clumsy slamming of the door all of their attention went straight to me. Except the hall monitor whom only threw quick glances fearing some of the people caught late for class would run away. They were all pretty normal to me. They were all probably filled with insecurities. A girl was writing down her name into the hall monitor’s note pad “ and who are you?” called the hall monitor, without entirely focusing on him I noticed the girl supposed to be writing her name smiled at me “ I’m Gail Simone and I’m new here” and ran away. “ Hey! Get back here!!!” and of course mr. hall monitor ran after her. People here would never care about people like me. As I bowed down my head I noticed a boy looked at me from a distance there weren’t 12 of them. There were 13. his shirt matched the locker’s metal and wore dark pants. his hair was blocking his eyes and you’d be thinking – Emo. Not at all no. in his case he’d probably be much more than emotional and besides they mostly wore black, and this guys hair wasn’t anything near black. it was rusty brown like it’d been burned. His skin was fair not really tan but fair. That’s it. I wanna find out who he is. But before I walked to his direction. Someone blocked me and his eyes weren’t very clear. Almost blurry. The number “ 6” was sewn into one side of his jacket. A jock. And he was smiling at me. An uncomfortable smile. His hair was blonde a dirty blond. Neatly styled like he was waxing it for hours “ hi, I’m the school’s football quarterback” I tried so hard not to roll my eyes. As if I cared. I wanted a name. I can’t help it “ oh yeah, my name is Brett” I forced a smile and got out of his way. He followed me. What is it with people here? “ wait a minute! You didn’t even tell me your name” the boy with the rusty hair coughed but it sounded like more of a choked in laugh to me. Before I could answer a girl wearing 4 inched heels approached us. And no it wasn’t a teacher. And by the way teachers don’t wear skirts so short that you might actually see what ever she’s hiding under there. She was a blonde of course. no brunette could strut her stuff like that, it was long and dead straight. “ baby, we should go before the hall monitor gets back” watching her linger her fingertips through his chest makes me sick. They were about to leave but there was still something missing and there it was the rolling of her eyes. I’m starting to hate her already. People around me started giggling and whispering to each other. I looked for the guy with rusty hair and he was gone. The sound of heels walking through wood echoed and I was hoping it wasn’t that blonde girl, I looked back and thank got it wasn’t “well, hello I’m Ms. Stanley, and you must be Abigail Simone” she reached out her hand to give me a handshake, but before I could take hers she quickly pulled it away “ now, we can have all that chit chat later you’re late” it was only then I’ve noticed the hallway was empty, Ms. Stanley’s eyes were sturdy “ I’m Sorry” she smiled at me but tried focusing on her duty “ come on, we’ll get you to your first class”

* * *

ok. This is kind of embarrassing in a very wrong way. I wasn’t supposed to be shy. Ms. Stanley introduced me to the class “class I’d like you to meet Ms. Abigail Simone” involuntarily, I protested : “Gail” *sigh “ Gail Simone” they all started whispering to one another. “ I – I mean, y-you guys can call me anything you want” Brett raised an eyebrow at me and his girlfriend was doing some kind of evil smile… whoa. Too much pressure. “but I’d prefer Gail” ugh. I hate myself. “ anyway let’s take you to your seat” Ms. Stanley added. She led the way and stupid Brett offered the seat next to his. No way, I don’t ever want to be next to that guy. “no, I don’t think so” Ms. Stanley mumbled. “ oh well, I guess ill just catch ‘ya later” Brett said confidently and winked at me. yeah right I thought sarcastically to myself. I was busy watching the Blonde girl trying to scold at Brett when suddenly Ms. Stanley mentioned a name and it seemed like everyone paused and turned to the rusty haired boy I just saw a while ago. “Mr. Flay, is it okay if we offer the seat next to you to Ms. Simone over here” then she pointed at me. The rusty haired guy didn’t even look up but answered “ sure, why not”
... we were sitting there in silence, pretending as if we were listening to ms. Stanley discussing something about this part of a heart. I managed to pull a quick glimpse on my seatmate. He caught me and playfully smiled at me "Hi I'm Danny" he wasn't so bad after all. "Gail." I reached out my hand to shake his. suddenly his smile faded. " I don't think so" he flexed his wrist and buried it again into his jacket's pockets..
Hmm… I wonder what’s bothering him. And I’m gonna’ find out.
The school bell just rang and everybody rushed outside. Like its going to kill them to be any second spotted in this school. Everybody except… my seatmate. He wasn’t even doing anything. At first I thought he was on his way to the door when he turned around and dusted the chalkboard. Weird. I thought janitors were supposed to be handling that. I guess not in this school. Time passed and I was still pretending to write notes in my notebook. Funny. He walks around like there was no one else inside the room. The school janitor arrived “uh..Thanks kid but ill handle it from here. you better head home” Danny put on the hood