The Secret Realm

Chapter One

There was a cool breeze through the air; Celeste brought her hands to her eyes as she tried to open them in the bright blinding light. She rubbed her eyes a little and then was able to open them. What she saw when her eyes opened made her gasp out loud from the beauty.
Celeste was looking at a whole different world, where the plants were glowing as well as the butterflies she saw to her left, flying around aimlessly without a care. She reached her hand out and let one land on her, its wings glowed different shades of blue and purple, with swirls and other shapes decorating them. She started to hear a strange loud and repetitive sound.
Suddenly the world in front of Celeste started to disappear and when she looked down the butterfly was gone, and her hand began to fade. Everything faded to black as she heard her alarm going off. She dreadfully opened her eyes and shut off the awful noise before sitting up and rubbing her eyes. It was time for the day to begin.
Celeste got up out of bed and went to her closet. She pulled out a large sweater and some black platform boots. Then she went to her dresser and pulled out black leggings and a quartz necklace. She quickly put everything on and then went to her mirror to put on some makeup before the bus came. She did dark eyeshadow and eyeliner around her eyes quickly, and then wrapped her long bluish purple hair up into a bun so it was out of her face. Celeste looked in the mirror one last time, making sure her long slightly pointed ears were covered with loose pieces of hair before grabbing her bag and heading downstairs.
Her mother was still asleep, she worked the night shift at a nursing home and had just recently gotten home. Celeste grabbed a granola bar and threw it in her bag. She looked at the time and realized she had to leave now to make the bus. She ran out the door and to the sidewalk in her neighborhood, down aways to where the bus picked everyone up.
When she got to school, she walked to her locker and got a few books needed for the first few classes. As she turned around and closed her locker, she looked up noticing someone standing in front of her.
"Hey ugly, trying to hide your deformity?" A girl with a long blonde ponytail asked Celeste motioning to her ears before she slammed a fist on top of the books in her hand. Celeste's books fell to the ground as the blonde haired girl laughed and walked away.
"Great way to start the morning," Celeste mumbled to herself before bending down to pick up her books.
"What happened?!" a startled girl said, quickly helping. Claire, Celeste's best friend, was always worried when the other kids picked on her because she didn't stand up for herself.
"Nothing to worry about," Celeste answered nonchalantly. Just then she saw someone walk by that she'd never seen before at her school. It was a boy with snow white hair and gorgeous golden eyes that met hers when she looked in his direction. She instantly felt something weird about the boy. She felt tingly and warm at the same time. She lost his gaze as he disappeared into the crowd of students.
"Someone thinks the new kid is cute!" Claire said, obviously noticing the exchange a second ago. But Celeste knew that wasn't what had just happened. The feeling was different than having a crush or thinking someone was cute. It was a type of connection that made it seem like they already knew each other. Almost like they were childhood friends that hadn't seen each other for years. Just then the first bell rang and everyone started scattering through the hallways and into their classrooms.
Celeste didn't have any friends besides Claire, but they only had a few classes together, not including first period. Celeste sat in the back of the class and tried to keep her head down. The girl from earlier, Julie, was located in front of the class with a bunch of friends sitting all around her in different desks.
Before class started, someone walked in and handed the teacher a note. Then the boy with white hair walked in and smiled at everyone as the teacher announced "We have a new student joining us today named Blaze. Everyone welcome him."
Celeste looked down trying not to be seen again by this boy. He made her feel a weird was she had never felt before, and she didn't know how to handle it. She was unsure if it was a crush forming or something completely different at this point. He took a seat closer to the front and the teacher started class.

During lunch, Celeste found Claire and they went to the library to avoid the main population of students. They sat in a corner together and started talking about the day so far.
"So you like the new kid right?" Claire asked, after they were talking about some of their least favorite teachers for a while.
"No!" Celeste said, almost too loud. She was annoyed that Claire was bringing this up again.
"You definitely do! I could tell by the way you were looking at him earlier," she said.
"I do not like that boy. I don't even really know him..." she trailed off. "But honestly, it feels like I know him from somewhere," she admitted quietly.
"How would you already know him? Did you guys meet before school or something?" her friend asked, curiously.
"No, nothing like that. It's just a feeling I have. Can we just talk about something else now?" she said, getting a little annoyed.
"Celeste look!" Claire said, obviously staring at something in the front of the library. She followed her gaze to the new kid, Blaze, standing in the front of the library. His white hair was a little longer, not quite to his shoulders, but something looked different. Then Celeste spotted it. It was a long pointed ear sticking out where his hair wasn't covering it. His ear was longer than hers with the same point at the top. She noticed him quickly hiding it, as if he didn't want anyone to see.
"He has ears like mine?" Celeste said, half to herself. Claire nodded, not saying anything more.

At the end of the day, Celeste was waiting for her bus, standing around outside away from most of the other kids.
"Hey deformed dumbass!" Julie yelled to Celeste as she was walking over to her. She shoved Celeste and before she could react she lost her balance and fell. Julie and her friends surrounded her and started kicking her while calling her things like "worthless" "disgusting" "deformed" and so on.
When they were done they kicked dirt onto her clothes and then left to go home. Celeste lied there for a few minutes afterwards, holding areas of her body that were sore and tender.
"Are you ok?" a voice asked. She looked up and someone was holding a hand out to help her up. She took the hand, stood back up and dusted herself off. She then looked at who had helped her, surprised because no one ever seems to care or notice when she's being picked on or beat up. It was Blaze, the new kid who was looking back at her.