The Order of the Assassins

A sip of freedom

Manhattan, New York 2017
"Mom, for God's sake! I'm 16 and Lucie is my best friend"

"I've already told you several times. Rules are rules."

"But..."

"End of story, Assyia. Ask your uncle and you'll see."

"Ugh... I'll talk to uncle Yousef then"

"Well, good luck with that"

       I asked uncle Yousef, and he agreed quickly. He has always been the best and always tried to convince my mother to offer me more freedom. The only condition was to pass all the exams at school. Stuyvesant, anyone's dream-high school, was the best in New York. From technology to teachers and students, everything was "perfect". 

       In my opinion, those arrogant cheerleaders and athletes were so far from perfection. There is no more place in this world for those clichés. That's why I liked my school, Beacon: here we didn't have those stereotypes about each other. Everyone was living their own lives in peace. Yousef, my father's brother insisted on me going to this school because I needed it. He knew how it feels to be new in a city and it's easier to integrate if you are surrounded by people who don't judge you. 

       After we left Syria, we've been moving from country to country. Finally, we decided that here, in the US we were safe. Every night I still had the same nightmare. It's very hard to forget your past. For years, I've been analyzing "The order of assassins". That world was so different compared to the human world. It was ruled by demons and darkness. The assassins were men paid to kill sinners all around the world. It was said that they disappeared a long time ago, but they are back. My father was the one who reunited them, who gave them power and trust. I wish I didn't find out that he was the kind of person who decides on other's people destiny and murders them because that's his opinion. He was a bad man, but he always tried to protect his family.  The words that he used to say were "You can hurt anything but my family". He woke up something that should've stayed dead. In that book were presented the six laws and also some secret places, potions, and creatures. All my childhood I believed in them but now I think that my uncle was right when he was saying that the order does not exist anymore and those who killed my father were just some fanatics who were delusional.

      Being a freshman was pretty nice because I discovered a lot of myself. For a new girl, I had plenty of friends. My best friend was Lucie James. We met at the rehearsals for the annual musical "The Heathers". At first, I didn't like her because she seemed too immature and silly, but then I got to know her, and she revealed her true personality. She was raised in a family where women were supposed to be inferior, so she learned from her mother that if you want to impress men, you have to act dumb, so they could feel powerful. Often, men are afraid that women are smarter than them so that's why they try to control us in one way or another. However, she was too naive to understand this. I tried to explain it to her several times.

       The day which changed my peaceful life was Friday, the day before Lucie's big party. We were eating some hamburgers atJoe's when some guys came in. Some of them looked like sophomores, but most ofthem were juniors. They had light blue jackets, so we figured outthat they were Stuyvesant boys. They were the exact definition of trouble. Allthe time I tried to keep Lucie away from boys like them and I succeededuntil that day, the first day of our sophomore year...

"Assyia, look over there. Is Nicholas Stepanov. His father is Sergey Stepanov, the CEO of Lukoil, in Moscow. Now he lives here with his mother, and they have a lot of money."

"Which one?"

"The cute one"

"They are all cute, you silly."

"The tall one, with hazel eyes and light brown hair."

 Lucie was right, he was good-looking but beyond this costume, Nicholas was not different from the others: a pretty rich boy with high expectations from everyone due to his social position. I can't blame him. This was his education. I don't want to be a hypocrite and say that I wouldn't kill to have that life.

I was woken up from my fantasy world when Nicholas and another guy, Kale, came to our table.
"Hey girls!" he really amused me with his seductive tone.

"Heyyy!" Lucie was so excited, and she wasn't even trying to hide that.

"Want to have a ride with me and Kale? He has a new car." I looked at Kale and he winked at me. Ew.

"Yeah, sure"

"Actually, Lucie, you forgot that we are really busy right now. Sorry guys."

They were preparing to leave when Lucie stopped them:
"Wait. I am having a party this weekend. On Saturday. The end of summer you know. You should come. I'm Lucie, by the way.

"I'll talk to my friends but sure. Give me the address. I'm Nicholas, but you can call me Nick. And you are...?" I didn't realize he was talking to me because I was literally shocked by what's happening, so I answered really late.

"Assyia"

"Umm, cool name, I guess. OK then, see you!" they went back to the others and started laughing. When they were gone, I had to tell Lucie that she made a huge mistake.

"Damn girl, what were you thinking when you invited them? They won't come and if they would, they will make fun of us both."

"I don't think so. Nick seems to be a nice person. And he's popular, so we'll be popular"
"What's the point? At Beacon popularity doesn't matter."

"At Beacon..." she stopped talking, checked her phone, and smiled.
"We should go, it's getting late. Mamma told me she needs me" a huge lie. I could always tell when she was lying.