The Soul Queen -Discovering the hidden.......

CHAPTER 2 - THE STRANGER

I lock the door and run to the street. Our school starts at 7:20 a.m. so I walk briskly on the left side of the street. The town I live in is quite small. It is surrounded by mountains and forest. So, it is usually cool even during summers. There is only one big school in our town. They teach us various subjects about magic and various powers. According to the school and people of our town, everyone once had various magical powers and the world was divided into various clans based on the magical powers. Along with the clans, which had powers, there were also clans whose magical powers declined as the generations progressed. Such people were called "clan less". All the clan less people gathered and formed a world of their own, that is, the world I am living in. The people from various clans have perished and there is no magical powers existing in this world.

This is what the school teaches students. We learn various forms of magic, ancient clans, the uses of magical powers along with science and mathematics. The teachers in our school say that science and magic are always interrelated. I do not know how.

As I walk, I start to feel a strange sensation in my body. My heart starts pounding fast and my stomach feels weird. I look around and find a man far away. No, it's a boy. He is around my age, walking opposite to me. He wears a black jacket and black pants and is carrying a black umbrella. Just how much is he obsessed with black color? As we walk towards each other, the weird sensation in me increases. My palms start sweating and I gasp for breath. What is this weird tension in the atmosphere? Who is he? As we walk more closer, I see him more clearly. He is wearing a black mask covering his mouth and nose. My instinct tells me that I know him since long. He looks as if I know him since I was a child.

As we walk past each other, I look at him and so does he from the corner of his eye. He has fair skin and attractive dark blue eyes, just like the boy from my dream. He is few centimeters taller than me. I want to ask him who he is, but something inside me stops me. I stop walking and think back for a moment. Is he really the boy from my dreams? Or was I imagining things? I look back and find him nowhere. Where did he go? He walked past me just a minute ago and he vanished suddenly. The feeling I had earlier also disappears slowly.

I run towards my school, thinking about the strange boy. I am late to class and enter the classroom, apologizing to my teacher, Mr. Richard. As usual, he just ignores me, so I just go and sit in the last bench of my classroom beside the window. Mr. Richard starts explaining important topics from trigonometry, but I just stare outside the window, thinking about the strange boy. Why did I have those weird sensations? Who is he? I barely listen to the class and just stare out of the window. My mind is flooded with many thoughts and questions.

Just as I keep thinking about the boy, I hear Mr. Richard calling me.

"Ms. Scarlett Frost, if you are here to look at the window, you can gladly leave." He says coldly, his eyes full of hatred.

"I would certainly leave Mr. Richard, but you will be losing a major contribution to your school both in academics and finances. Whose money do you think is funding this school and whose academic merits do you think is keeping this school alive" I say to him, still looking outside the window, not even bothering to look at his face.

Almost fifty percent of my parents wealth goes to the school, annually, and I, as their daughter have achieved many academic merits to the school. These are the only reasons this school does not expel me. Because they need me and my parents wealth.

"You should learn to respect your teachers." He says frowning.

"When did you ever treat me like your student?" I say blankly devoid of any emotion.

I look around the classroom and find few students laughing, few students looking at me with pure hatred and anger and few students sitting awkwardly with the growing tension. I let out a sigh.

"You think you are the only smart person in this school? Let me test you then." He says angrily.

"He is hellbent on making her look down." A student who is sitting diagonally to me says to her friend.

Mr. Richard starts asking me various mathematics questions, which I answer easily. He continues to ask me questions which are of higher standard and are usually solved by university students, but I can answer them with a little bit of thinking.

After asking a series of questions, the bell rings and Mr. Richard leaves the classroom frowning without even saying a word. Next comes the history teacher, Mrs. Jane. The only teacher, who never ignored me.

"So class, today we will not learn about the past, but about your future." She says keeping her books on the table.

Everyone in the classroom starts to murmur among themselves.

"Today I want each one of you to stand up and say to the whole class, what is your goal. What you want to achieve in the future" she says.

What I want to achieve? I do not know. I never thought about what I would do in the future or how I would make a living. I never had any goals or dreams. I am utterly clueless.

One by one, each student stands up and answers. Few want to become doctors, few want to become engineers, few want to become researchers. Out of everyone, I notice one girl standing up confidently.

"I don't know what I want to achieve, but I would do whatever it takes to keep my stomach full of food. I love food." She says.

She has light brown skin, straight ash blonde hair till her shoulders and dark blue eyes. Everyone in the class laughs when they hear her, but not me. I don't find it funny but cute. I give out a small smile when I see that she does not care when the class laughed at her.

"There is nothing funny in that" Mrs. Jane says firmly to the whole class.

The girl sitting next to the ash blonde girl, probably her best friend, stands up nervously. The ash blonde girl keeps urging her to speak without fear.

"I-I wa- want to..um...become a s-singer. Because.... I wa-nt to help people with my singing...ability." She says nervously and sits down letting out a sigh of relief. She has long black hair extending till her hips, which she braided. She has light olive skin and brown eyes. She was nervous but was confident in saying what she wants. Interesting.

Next is my turn and I stand up. The whole class looks at me expecting something. "I...I do not know..." I say and before I could give any explanation, the weird feeling I had before comes up again and instinctively, I look outside the window and spot the strange man again at the basketball ground. He is looking directly at me. I freeze at the spot and just stare outside.

Luckily, the bell rings.

"We will discuss this later" Mrs. Jane says and leaves the classroom.

As soon as she leaves the classroom, I make a run downstairs towards the basketball ground. Who is he? Is he following me? Many questions flood my mind. I run towards the basketball ground and look for him everywhere, but he is gone, again.......