Young Writers Society

This is only a short story I made for my math class. It was for the plot diagram. I just wanted to put it up on YWS for people to read. I hope you like it!

diaNe

“Demetri? Demetri Ayres? Are you here?” asked Mr. Parker. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Demetri raise his hand. Took him a while. What eighteen-year-old doesn’t know how to say ‘present’? I flipped my hair over my shoulder and Demetri’s brother, Marc, scoffed.

“What?” I whispered angrily. Marc had a prejudice against me ever since I stepped foot into this class. I turned to face him and stopped myself before I could go any further. His beauty stunned me every time I looked at him; I was sure to lose my train of thought.

“Stop flipping your hair over, it isn’t pretty,” he whispered back. Before I could retort, Mr. Parker called the next name.

“Marc Ayres?”

“Present!” Marc called out. Ugh! I faced forward in an effort to disguise my disgust for Marc as well as to hide my disgust of being the only girl in a senior health class of ten people.

“Angelis Devlin?” What?! Angelis is here?

“Here. Oh, wait, is it present?” she asked. My dark day found a crack in the clouds. Angelis is here!

Mr. Parker looked up from his role call and his eyes widened at the sight of Angelis. No doubt he was nervous about teaching the women’s stuff. He slowly turned and gazed into my face.

“Seraphina Devlin?” he croaked.

“Present!” I smiled as wide as I could. He gulped and continued to call for attendance. I faced Angelis and waved at her. She waved back then nodded towards Mr. Parker and shrugged. She was most likely wondering why he reacted so surprised. I’ll tell her later. Marc scoffed again.

“What now?” I hissed. I didn’t stop myself this time. My gaze rested on the face of Marc Ayres.

A smirk revealed half of his perfect white teeth, dimples appeared on his slightly pink cheeks, and his dark green eyes were bright with excitement. It all took my breath away.

“Why don’t you tell your little girlfriend over there to stop looking so innocent? She hangs out with you, for all we know, she could be a devil,” he said with faux horror.

AHHH!

“Listen to me! I will not lose my temper, but I will punch you in a place you won’t forget, so shut up and leave me alone!” I turned around before I could see his reaction. I put my head in my hands and looked at the desk.

Why did he hate me? I’d never done anything to him! A small piece of paper landed on my desk, interrupting my thoughts. I unfolded the note.

It’s because he likes you.

-Cain

What? I looked at Cain. He was busily copying down notes from the health book. How could that possibly be true? I'm a seventeen-year-old girl whose dark brown hair doesn't listen to her and I'm far from being supermodel figured. I quickly wrote under his writing.

Are you serious? I don’t believe you.

-Seraphina

I threw it over and he sighed when he picked it up. This is going to be hard; we’re in the first row and Mr. Parker is writing our agenda on the blackboard. Cain tossed the note back.

I am completely serious. Please don’t tell him I told you, he’d kill me.

-Cain

I reread it. Cain is Marc’s younger brother.

Why are you telling me?

-Seraphina

It was a while before the note reached my desk again, so I looked at Cain and shrugged, seeing him look down in embarrassment and Demetri smile impishly at me from the desk on his left. Oh great, who gave him permission to read our conversation? I unfolded the note and read it.

He’s telling you because it’s true.

-Demetri

Do they all have great handwriting? I glanced at them both. It would be hard if we weren’t in the same row. Mr. Parker was already finished with the agenda and was now standing in front of my desk.

“Give me the note.”

* * *

The detention room was small compared to the regular classrooms. Demetri was seated in the back, Cain was in the middle, and I was in the front. Mr. Parker had separated us just before he left to his prep. We weren’t allowed to leave the room, so Mr. Parker made us eat our lunch in here.

Cold air drifted in from the small window; it was probably raining, like it always is in Seattle. I suddenly wondered why Mr. Parker didn’t have someone supervise us; we were all alone in here.

“Seraphina.”

I turned towards Cain. He was sitting on top of his desk, eating an apple.

“What?” I asked. He took a bite of his apple.

“When are you going to talk to Marc about your…er….situation?” he blushed. How was I going to talk to Marc now? A new way of looking at him had opened up. I watched him walk out the room earlier. He had become instantly suspicious when I stayed seated with his brothers. Marc had made eye contact with me for a full ten seconds before he disappeared into the hallway.

Nothing really bothered me about Marc being interested in me. There was only one thing that really spoke to my feelings.

Do I like him back?

Cain’s question was basically that. Do I share Marc’s feelings? Hmm, I’m not sure.

Cain was still waiting for me to answer his question.

“I don’t know,” I simply answered. Demetri scoffed. So it runs in the family.

“You either like him or you don’t,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Well, I’ll tell you this. I’m not liking you at the moment,” I replied sourly. He scoffed again.

“Like I care.”

Cain threw his apple core at Demetri’s head and it hit him in the ear.

“Thank you,” I told him.

“I didn’t do it just for your benefit,” he smirked. I understand why Angelis likes him. Cain became abruptly uncomfortable and it seemed like he was struggling with something.

“What?“

“I want to ask you something, but it’s a little private, and it changes the subject.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, it’s just that, since we’re talking about liking people, and stuff…” he stammered.

“Spit it out!”

“Do you happen to know if Angelis is interested in anybody?” A small hint of curiosity shone through his eyes, even though his tone was carefully guarded.

“I do know if Angelis is interested in anybody. She’s my sister, she tells me everything,” I teased. Cain looked ready to burst.

“Who?” he squeaked.

“This one guy, ah, what’s his name? I always forget.”

“Stop playing with me, Seraphina,” he warned. I smiled.

“It rhymes with ‘Dane’,” I hinted. It was as if Demetri wasn’t even in the same room as us, of course he needed his attention.

“How hard is it for you to accept the fact that it’s you?” Demetri asked. Ruin the moment, much. Cain ignored him.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah, really,” I said. Cain put his head on the desk and stayed very quiet. I wondered whether Angelis would be mad if she knew I just exposed her secret.

“What are you doing?” Demetri asked. I looked over to Cain, who was squirming in his seat.

“I’m trying not to scream,” he answered. Ha!

“Whatever,” Demetri said. He stood up and walked to the door. Disbelief colored my expression.

“Where are you going?” I practically shouted.

“Don’t you smell that?” he ignored my question.

“Smell what?” But seconds later I did smell it. It was a mixture of smoke and gasoline. It was also getting stronger. I walked over to where Demetri was standing.

On the other side of the glass, smoke filled the hallway. Big clouds of smoke billowed down the corridor. Demetri and I looked at each other; we have to get out.

“Whoa!” Cain stood up from his desk and pointed at the bottom of the door. Small puffs of smoke were trailing into the room from under the crack. We all stepped away from the door. A loud cracking sound came from the ceiling corner. I looked over and it cracked again. The ceiling was falling in. The school was on fire.

I could already hear the sirens coming from the small window. My small bit of hope vanished when I realized that the window was too small for any of us to fit through it.

“What do we do?” Cain asked. Demetri walked over to the door.

“We’re gonna have to run out of here,” he said gravely. The thought obviously terrified him, but there was no other choice. Either we run, or we burn to death.

Demetri walked over to the teacher’s desk and looked through the drawers. He took out some scissors and took off his jacket. He cut it up into three equal sized scraps. Cain walked over to the small fridge the teacher had behind the desk. He pulled out a water bottle and tossed it to Demetri.

Loud series of explosions sounded behind me. I looked at the ceiling. Flames licked at the walls and the heat was too much. The fire was spreading across and the smell of gasoline was stronger than ever. I could clearly see the pipelines that were hidden inside the walls, and one of them had to be the gas pipe.

The fire reached the gas line and it exploded. The fire blew out and thundered toward me. I stood frozen and someone pushed me to the floor.

“Pay attention!” Demetri screamed at me. He gave me a scrap of his jacket that was now doused with water.

“Use this to cover your mouth and don‘t take it off for anything!” he yelled over the roaring fire. “Whatever you do, don’t stop running! I’m going to open the door and you’re gonna run to the nearest exit! Do you understand?!”

I nodded. He picked me up and I stumbled toward the door. I saw Cain getting ready behind me. Demetri opened the door and I ran into the scorching heat.

The hallway was completely empty except for the fire that was now racing toward me. I ran in the opposite direction, to where the emergency exit was. I reached the door but the metal was too hot. There was another exit on the opposite side of the school. I ran down the hallways. I watched room after room being burned; like as if the fire was following me. The jacket wasn’t helping at all. I could feel the smoke burning my throat as I took in quick short breaths.

I ran down the hallway with the library. The emergency exit was on the other side. I started running as fast as I could, but I tripped. The jacket flew from my hand and the smoke blurred my vision. I started crawling towards the exit. I don’t know when and I don’t know why, but I stopped trying. I was too weak to fight against the fire and the smoke.

I laid on the floor, coughing and yelling for help. The fire didn’t recede. It kept coming back, closer and closer, but never quite touching me. The heat was blazing hot; the only thing that kept me conscious was my thoughts. As long as I was thinking, I was alive.

After what seemed like hours, I heard a voice. I easily recognized who’s voice it was. I could no longer see; I could only hear the voice as it got closer. Then it was right at my ear.

“Seraphina? Are you alright?” he asked. What kind of question is that? I’m half dead, blind, and coughing like crazy.

“I’m going to get you out of here, stay awake,” he said. This was the voice that I recognized. It was Marc’s. What was he doing here? He should be outside, where the rest of the school probably is.

“No.” I said. Now that someone was here I could easily slip into the coma I’ve been wanting to since I tripped. He sat me up and I leaned into him.

“You have to stay awake. If you don’t you could die. Please stay awake.” His voice was tortured. I blinked a couple of times, the blurred vision returned. Marc started coughing.

“Get out,” I said weakly. His blurred silhouette stood up and for a second, I thought he was going to actually leave. Instead, he picked me up and started walking towards the exit. I looked up at him and he stopped. My vision was getting clearer. I touched my cheek and it felt wet. I was crying; the tears were clearing my eyesight. I looked up at Marc’s perfect face. He was crying, too. It was too painful; I had never seen a boy cry. I had to look away.

I saw that he had stopped in front of the exit. The door was open, but a large fire was blocking us from leaving. I looked at Marc again. He was staring at me.

“Please forgive me,” and he jumped into the fire.

I screamed when the heat touched me. It continued to burn, getting hotter with every passing second. We passed too slowly through the fire and then cold air and freezing rain pelted my face. I took a deep breath of the fresh air. Marc collapsed under me. We stayed laying on the concrete floor. It felt like heaven. Marc reached over to me and sat me up, keeping me steady until I could do it on my own.

“You’re too close to the fire,” he said.

“Why are you crying?” I asked him. He looked down and wiped the tears away.

“Because I thought you were dead,” he answered. I leaned over onto him.

“Why did you come back?”

“Because my brothers had detention. I wasn’t going to leave them in there,” he said.

“Where are they now?” I asked. I hadn’t heard them when I was in the hallways.

“They ran out from the other emergency exit,” Marc said.

“What happened?”

“The physics teacher was doing an experiment and it caught on fire. They couldn’t stop it in time and it spread out. They evacuated the school, but I guess they forgot about the people in detention. Mr. Parker had left a note at the front office for them to send someone to supervise, but the front office caught on fire minutes after he left. They didn’t know there were people in that room,” he looked down at me, “I saw Cain and Demetri run out the emergency exit, but you didn’t. I asked them where you were, and they said that you had run out before them. I ran into the school before anyone could stop me,” he sighed.

“But you said you came back for your brothers,” I disagreed.

“I came back for you,” he said. “I…am a little bit in love with you,” he added. I looked up at him.

“I know.” His eyes widened. “I think I’m a little bit in love with you, too.” He looked away. This was the strangest conversation we had ever had. He wrapped his arms around me and sighed. Sirens came around the corner and the ambulances screeched to a stop in front of us. Several nurses came out and took us into the ambulance. We were supposed to be in different cars, but Marc wouldn’t let go. He didn’t want to be away from me. We rode to the hospital and they kept us in the same room. He still hasn’t let go.

The bed is too small for both of us to fit in it. I called the nurse over and she brought another bed so we could fit easier. She left and Marc leaned on me.

“I’m not letting go of you,” he said.

“You don’t have to, I feel way too comfortable right here,” I told him. A knock at the door interrupted us. Demetri walked in, with Cain and Angelis, who were holding hands, behind him.

“You just didn’t listen,” Demetri joked.

“Ha ha. I couldn’t open the door, it was too hot,” I said.

“You just had to use the jacket,” he said.

“You told me not to take it off for anything,” I replied icily.

“It’s called ‘Common Sense’!”

“Stop harassing her!” Marc interrupted.

“What happened to ‘Bros before h--”

“Hey!” Marc yelled. Angelis giggled and Cain laughed. Demetri is tainting my moment.

“So what happens now?” Cain asked.

“You guys get out, I have a surprise for Seraphina and I don’t want you guys to ruin it,” Marc answered him. Cain and Angelis left. Demetri stood up and stopped at the door.

“Eww.” Then he turned and left, shutting the door behind him. I turned toward Marc.

“Why did he say--” but I couldn’t finish my question because Marc’s lips were suddenly on mine.