Fantasy

Chapter 1

"You better not screw up this year!" Eris's dad yelled at her. She flinched, the harsh words hitting her like cold stones. Looking at the ground, she didn't dare to meet her father's blazing eyes.

"I won't, Father," she replied, her voice trembling. She fiddled with the ring on the chain around her neck. It had been from her mother, given to her shortly before she had passed away.

Without answering, Eris's father stomped away, and she didn't raise her head until he was in another room.

She combed her hands through her short, spiky, black hair, in which a white streak ran through. Then, she tugged on the straps of her backpack, grabbed her suitcase and turned the brass handle on the wooden door.

It was mid-February. It had been a bleak winter that year in New York, but Eris didn't mind.

She trudged to the nearby train station in her school uniform, plowing through the thick snow. The air pricked her face and tiny snowflakes floated to the snow-coated ground. Eris turned left onto Azbeth Avenue and rubbed her bare hands together to regain warmth.

She was relieved to leave her home for a while for school. Her and her dad hadn't had the best relationship and a lot of the time, Eris felt like her dad thought that he'd be better without her.

In a short matter of fifteen minutes, Eris arrived at the small train station. She quickly paid for her one-way ticket, then waited at the edge of the platform. Very few people were at the train station, and Eris was okay with that. Less people, less attention drawn to her.

Looking down the tracks, she thought about how she felt about leaving home for a year.

This was her first day of a brand new school - her ninth in nine years. Her father had given up and put her in a boarding school for messed-up kids. Another school, another problematic year. Eris backed up away from the tracks and took a seat on a cold bench. She shivered from the frosty morning.

Every school that she had ever been to had either been destroyed or someone had gotten injured and it had been inexplicably connected to Eris. In third grade, a pack of wolves had somehow broken into her school and harmed a third grader- one who had been bullying Eris. The principal had seen Eris petting the wolves, and scratching their bellies afterward, and he had expelled her. He told her parents that she had initiated the attack, and although that was absolutely crazy and insane in Eris's eyes, her parents had impossibly believed the principle. She had sat in her room for days and wondered why everyone was so stupid. She had never seen little Ethan ever again.

In sixth grade, a gas leak had caused part of the school to explode - or that's what the report had said. No one ever believed Eris when she said that a young boy with jet black hair had put a glowing ball into the vent. She had been told that someone had seen her in the vents, but really, she was just going after the boy. The blame had been piled onto her, and she had been expelled yet again.

This year is going to be different, Eris had told herself

She wanted more than anything to please her father. He was a serious man and had no room for jokes and fun. Eris was scared of him more than anything, but luckily, he wasn't around that much.

I'll just do my best and not cause any problems, Eris thought. She would try her hardest to get good grades, be careful about the friends she chose, and stay out of trouble.

A train whistle sounded, pulling Eris from her thoughts. She stood and grabbed her suitcase and backpack, slipping it around her shoulders. Once again leaning out, she could see the light coming from the front of the train, penetrating the morning snowfall. When it neared she stepped back, watching the cars go by.