[pre]Chapter 1: Aλλαγή (Change)
I drove up to my school and parked in a junior parking spot, the same one as always. I stepped out of my car and walked through the double doors at the entrance that had ‘School of the Arts’ written on them. About two years ago it had said ‘Charleston Country School of the Arts’ before it was faded until it was illegible.
I walked into the school’s library and took a seat at a table as I dropped my backpack beside me. I looked around to notice none of my friends had arrived yet. That’s what I got for coming so early though I wasn’t as early as I normally am due to the new feline in the neighborhood.
I dug into my backpack to get my chemistry notes for a test I had today. I looked up from studying to see my friend sit down next to me. “Hey, Nori,” I said and smiled at her as she also pulled out her chemistry book. She was neither my best friends, nor someone that close, but she was someone I could tell anything to.
“Hey, Garnet, how are you?” She asked as she brushed her hand through her golden blonde hair. I was so glad I wasn’t the only one to come early. “Studying for chem.?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I hope it’s not hard or at least multiple choice!” I said with a groan. I must have been kidding. Our teacher always gave us hard fill-in-the-blank tests. I heard the library doors open and a boy walked in. “Who’s that?” The school was a small magnet school so it wasn’t everyday you saw an unfamiliar face.
Nori looked and turned back to show a rosy blush spreading on her cheeks. “He’s a new transfer student. I heard he’s from Greece or something like that,” It must have been nice to be the Principle’s daughter. I would have loved to get all the great information that only the teachers and Principle were supposed to know.
Nori looked down at her lap as she fiddled with her fingers. I looked at the boy again as he sat down at a different table. I then knew why Nori was blushing: He was handsome. He wasn’t cute or beautiful but handsome.
He casually leaned back in his chair and put his hands in his jean pockets. He had short dirty blonde hair that seemed to have hints of crimson at the roots. I guessed he must have dyed it once. He wore a black hoodie that somehow fit his chest perfectly. When I got up to his eyes I realized they were closed. He was probably resting or something.
I looked to Nori with a knowing smirk. “He is pretty cute. What’s his name?” She gave me a warning look to my teasing.
“I haven’t found out yet,” She said as her blush slowly faded as she glared at me with crystal blue eyes. “I was just able to hear that.”
“Transfer, right?”
“Yeah.”
I stood up. “I’ll go introduce myself. He probably doesn’t know anyone,” I walked over to the table the boy was sitting at and casually sat next to him. “Hey, you’re new, aren’t you?”
His eyes snapped open and I froze as I stared into deep familiar emerald eyes. My voice caught in my throat and he looked away, closing his eyes as he did. He didn’t say anything for an awkward moment. “Yeah,” He finally broke the choking silence and I was able to find my breath again.
I watched as he reached into his backpack’s front pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses which he placed on the bridge of his nose. He opened his eyes, sat up straight and held his hand out to me. “Damon.”
“Garnet,” I said as I shook his hand. “Welcome to Charleston, Damon. Do you plan to stay?” I asked out of curiosity. This question was the judge of how close you should get to a person.
“Dunno. I was planning on just staying for the rest of the school year but you never know,” He smiled softly. “I might decide to stay.”
The way he talked didn’t really match the way he looked yet it seemed to fit him so well. He had great posture and yet seemed to slip a little bit of slang into his speech. He was from Greece, at least that’s what Nori said, and he spoke English so well with only a small hint of an accent evident, though I didn’t know how a Greek accent sounded.
“Garnet?” I blinked when I realized I had zoned out and blushed when I saw Damon smirking at me.
“Sorry.”
“I didn’t know I was that boring,” He said with a light laugh.
“No! It’s not that!” I protested. “You’re very interesting!” He was still smirking.
“I am, am I?” I nodded. “You want to know more?” I nodded again. “Sure, but you have to tell me about yourself also.”
“That’s fair. I’ll say a fact for each fact you tell me, then,” I suggested as I leaned on my hand. He nodded.
“I’m Damon Try and am seventeen years old,” He said with his smirk still in place.
“Garnet Song and sixteen,” I replied.
“I have a sister named Megan,” For some reason this was a little hard to believe but I went along anyway.
“I have a brother named Josh,” We kept talking and I found out that he did, in fact, move from Greece but was not born there. He never did tell me his real origin. He wrote music and played any kind of instrument he could. I was more of a visual artist than a musician.
Damon seemed to get a sly smirk on his face. “What’s your favorite gem? Garnet?”
I smiled at the question. “Actually, no,” He looked at me with a slight shocked expression and gestured for me to continue. “Alexandrite is my favorite because it keeps changing. It always amazes me how it can change from red to green,” His reaction was not what I had expected.
The way he looked I would be surprised if his eyes weren’t wide under his sunglasses, which I made a mental note to ask him about. “Really? You like change? Not many people I know do,” He said with surprise.
“Yeah, I love change because it hardly happens here. For example, I was happy that you came because it was a change,” I explained.
“Is that why you came over here?” He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“It was part of the reason, I guess,” I said and looked at my watch to notice it was ten minutes until eight. Just enough time to go to my locker. “Hey, do you know where your classes are?” I said as I looked up from my watch. “First period starts in ten minutes.”
“I have US History first,” He stood up and grabbed his backpack, which was more of a side bag, and started walking towards the table Nori was at. “I think I know where it is.”
He was new and was acting like he had been here the whole year. “You know the campus well, don’t you?” I asked and stood up.
“I memorized the map,” He said casually as if everyone did it. I had been going here since sixth grade and I still haven’t memorized the map. “You need to get your backpack, don’t you?” I noticed we were at the table I was at before.
“Right, yeah,” Nori was still sitting there, giving me a weird look. “Hey Nori, this is Damon,” I introduced them, much to Nori’s delight.
She held out her hand with a blush. “Nori Caldwell,” Damon took her hand.
“Damon Try. Nice to meet you,” He said politely and Nori smiled up at him in a flirting way.
“It’s nice to meet you, too. I hope to see you around more,” She said and I rolled my eyes. “Can I see your schedule? I’ll see if we have any classes together!” She said brightly.
He smiled back at her. “I have to get to class, but we’ll see then if we have any classes together,” I felt somewhat relived for some reason and I couldn’t figure out why. It might have been because I was getting tired of Nori acting this way; it wasn’t like her at all.
---[/pre]
It's not that we don't like you to, but people are less likely to read it if they have so much to read, you understand?
It clogs the forum.
