Untitled

Chapter Four

It was after much argument that I reluctantly returned to Kingsford High the next day. Mother had a conniption when I burst through our front doors the previous afternoon, announcing that I would never set foot in a school again. I couldn't understand why Mother was pushing me this much. It was her idea to keep me out of school in the first place. A private tutor was hired for me the minute I was old enough to learn and I absolutely adored her. She was a Brunette, of course, though she had been educated in all areas of Blonde studies, meeting the approval of both Mother and Father. Her name was Aubree.

Aside from being my tutor, she was my best and only friend. Mother rarely let me leave the house and most of my time was spent in Aubree's company. One day I had ventured down to the study as usual, but Aubree wasn't there. Instead Mother was sitting at the desk, a pained look on her face. At first I feared that Mother had found the history books stashed under the floorboard and fired Aubree, but the dark wooden flooring was intact under my feet and I waved away the notion. Before I could even ask mother answered my questions, as if she had read my mind.

"Verity, Aubree has quit. She was offered a better position elsewhere. We shall have to make some other arrangements but for now I want you to go back to your room and work on your eyeliner techniques, understand?"

I didn't really understand, but I nodded and slowly backed out of the study. I got the feeling that Mother wasn't telling me everything, but I'd never seen that expression on her face before. It looked like fear, though of what I could never figure out.

I held my head high as I walked down the corridor toward my locker that morning. I tried not to pay attention to anyone else, though I found this incredibly difficult. Fortunately it seemed that, like before, no one was paying attention to me, aside from a few curious looking Brunettes who I assume were in that science class yesterday. I let out a breath of relief as I reached my locker, hastily throwing my bag on the bottom shelf. My plan was to simply get to every class as soon as possible and avoid the other students, to some extent, and I was eager to set that plan in motion.

A quiet shriek escaped my lips as I slammed the door shut, revealing a boy, not much taller than me, leaning on the next locker over. His blue eyes were staring right into mine and a cocky grin stretched itself across his face.

"Hey, you're that new girl, right? Veronica or something?" His smooth voice was like honey, probably the result of a lifetime of the vocal lessons I had refused to take.

"My name is Verity," I shot back, suspicious of his sudden interest in me.

"Whatever, look that stunt you pulled with the Brunettes yesterday-" Oh great, so he was here to make fun of me. "-it was wicked cool."

I stared back silently, not quite understanding what he meant, and this seemed to push him to elaborate.

"No one has ever messed with one of Ms Bates' genetics classes before. We're not even supposed to go near the Brunette wing, not that it stops us."

He winked with that last remark and continued talking, but I wasn't listening anymore. My mind was racing, thoughts diverting back to the scrawled writing on the screen. Above all else, I wanted to be sitting in that class, learning with the Brunettes. Genetic coding was something even Aubree couldn't teach me about. Only those who were selected to carry out the process were allowed to learn its secrets and unfortunately neither Aubree nor I were among those chosen few.

"Anyway, I gotta bolt. Places to go, people to see and so on," The boy said walking away from me, though by that point I had completely forgotten that I was in his presence. I watched after him as he strode down the corridor, turning back only once to yell something I had almost missed.

"My name's Logan, by the way, Logan Brooks."

He threw me one last smirk and with that he disappeared into the crowd.

........

I loaded up a tray of food in the lunch room, a meal I had forgone the previous day, too filled with nerves to eat. The air was filled with the chatter of students of all titles, though they all piled into separate corners of the large room. It hadn't taken me long to find Logan in the crowd. Actually I suppose he found me, yelling my name across the room from a table he had been standing on. He jumped down and greeted me before planting himself in a chair, offering the nearest one to me.

There were two other girls at the table with us and, after a moment of silence, Logan introduced them to me. Whitney Gallagher sat directly opposite me. She had sharp features cut at perfect angles and a cool gaze, as if she had been an exquisite, stone statue, hand carved by one of the Reds. I remembered her from a few of my classes. She was born to be a model, a fact that made itself clear with just one glance in her direction. Mother would have liked her. To her right was Lacey Marks. Lacey had a softer, more rounded face and a frictionless smile. With golden curls crowning her head and a natural sparkle in her eyes it was clear she had the makings of a beauty queen. I couldn't help but picture the room full of trophies, sashes and crowns she surely had in her home.

Both girls stared at the snack foods piled up in front of me and wrinkled their noses. I looked over to their trays, looking bare with only a few vegetables tossed together in what could hardly be called a salad, and shrugged, biting into a moist chocolate cupcake. Whitney whispered something to Lacey and both girls sniggered. I thought I head something about diet pills but did not understand what it meant so, like many other things at this school, I put it out of my mind.

Silence fell over the table once more and Logan cleared his throat, signalling his discomfort.

"So, Verity, Whitney is having this wild party tomorrow night. You have to be there!"

Whitney shot Logan an icy glare but it didn't slow him down. He continued to ramble on until Lacey cut him off.

"You just have to be there!" She squealed in excitement. "There'll be music and dancing and..." she paused for dramatic effect "BOYS!"

All three of them looked at me expectantly, believing it to be an offer I could not refuse. I opened my mouth to speak, but the surprise invitation had shocked me so much I didn't know how to respond. I decided to just let the first coherent sentence I could manage tumble from my lips.

"You guys have parties on Wednesdays?"

They looked back curiously for a moment and I was about to desperately retract that statement when they all erupted into a fit of laughter. I sat there, sheepishly, not knowing how to react until Whitney managed to compose herself, tossing her sleek, straight hair over her shoulder.

"You're a funny one V," She said, in a tone warmer than I had expected from her, "maybe I should have hired you as the entertainment."

I smiled back shyly, breathing an internal sigh of relief.

"So, are you coming?" The three of them asked in unison. It was actually sort of creepy.

"Sure," I said, beaming at them, "it couldn't do any harm."