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Chapter 4
§ Maяiσηєttє Stяiηgs §
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The next morning was the same as before. Take a shower. Eat breakfast. Wait for Elaine. Head to school. Same old, same old. Ezio walked to his homeroom, but something stopped him in his tracks. A girl standing by the door had caught his eye. She had unique physical features, just like him. Her dark brown hair was normal, but there were also some purple streaks. Ezio made eye contact with the girl. Unlike most people, her gaze didn’t waver or shift from side to side. She looked directly at him. The girl had bright violet eyes and Ezio was simply mesmerized. He found himself watching her every move. Her eyes widened and she hurried into class. Ezio followed her; it was as if there was an invisible rope attaching him to her. She sat down in the only empty seat at the front of the classroom. Ezio looked at the back of her head, staring intently at the purple color.
When Mrs. Mallory came in, she smiled and said cheerfully, “Oh, good! A new student.” She was in a better mood than usual. Seeing a new face could have been the reason for the sudden change.
She said to Violet, “Why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a few things about you. I’m sure everyone would love to hear.”
The girl sighed, but eventually, she stood up. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. She closed her mouth firmly. Then, she exhaled and said, “I’m Violet and uh, I like writing poems.” She sat down, indicating that she was finished talking. Ezio’s eyes kept going back to the new girl, Violet. He had felt an instant connection to her and couldn’t look away.
At lunch, Ezio stood in the lunch line and let people cut in front of him. He didn’t really care about that kind of stuff anyway; cafeteria food was not worth it. Ezio would not be picking a fight over something so silly. He picked up the first tray in sight and asked politely for various items; it didn’t look too appetizing, but it was better than nothing. Ezio usually sat by himself, but he saw Violet sitting at an empty table.
Before he knew it, he carried his tray over to the table and approached Violet. Ezio set his tray down next to hers. Her face wore a somewhat quizzical expression. She was probably thinking something along the lines of: Who is he and what is he doing here? Ezio gulped and stuck out his hand. He stammered, “I-I-I’m Ezio. I noticed that you were alone and I thought I would come over, you know. Since you’re in my class, I wanted to see how you were doing. Just to be nice. Also, I was wondering if we could be friends. Not like best friends or anything like that. Well, we could if you wanted to.”
Ezio blushed, embarrassed for his rambling. He wanted to smack himself on the forehead, thinking that he had blown his chance of a good first impression. He didn’t know exactly why, but Violet seemed important. Ezio needed—wanted her to like him. Ezio smiled when Violet shook his hand and said, “Nice to meet you.” It was a simple gesture, but it meant a lot to Ezio. She averted her gaze and turned to eat her lunch. Ezio followed suit and scarfed down the food as if he hadn’t eaten for week. Earlier, his stomach had growled and he was quite hungry. He looked down, ashamed for his poor manners. Ezio slowed down, but his lunch was still finished in a matter of a few minutes. He saw that Violet was also eating ravenously. Excusing himself from the table, he threw away the empty Styrofoam tray. He didn’t speak to Violet for the rest of the day, but he felt triumphant. At least he had the guts to introduce himself.
Ezio headed home with Elaine and immediately started working on his homework. He wasn’t exactly a “genius”, but he tried his best to complete all his assignments and projects. Ezio excelled in mathematics, English, P.E., and the arts. Two and a half hours later, he was finally finished. Ezio went to his room and got ready for bed.
That night, Ezio had a fitful sleep. He tossed and turned, barely getting any sleep at all. His thoughts kept drifting back to Violet. The alarm went off and he pressed the “off” button. Sunlight streamed in through his bedroom window, illuminating the entire room. Ezio put his pillow over his face, not wanting to get up.
He must have dozed off again because when he woke up, he felt refreshed. Another indicator was that Elaine was standing at the foot of the bed. Her arms were crossed and she shot him a murderous glare. She was being silent, which was even scarier than her shouting or having a temper tantrum.
Ezio mumbled, “Sorry, I overslept. Why didn’t you wake me up?” Elaine sighed; she was obviously exasperated.
“Apology accepted. It’s not my job to wake you up; that’s your own responsibility. Guess what? We missed the bus and it’s all your fault. I was going to throw a bucket of ice cold water on you, but then you would be furious. Also, I couldn’t go to school myself or skip school. You know our parents would kill us.”
“We’ll just walk then, Elaine.”
Ezio and Elaine walked briskly to school. He saw Violet walking on a sidewalk and noticed that she had dropped something from her unzipped backpack. He ran up and picked up the composition notebook. Ezio caught up with Violet. He tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and hissed, “Don’t touch me…”
Ezio was a bit taken aback; he didn’t know why she was acting this way. Her erratic behavior worried him; it was true that he had just met her the day before and he didn’t know her well, but he thought that she was a quiet, reserved person. As of right now, she was very defensive.
He muttered, “Um, I saw that you dropped your notebook and I wanted to return it to you ‘cause it looks like it’s pretty important.” Ezio held out the notebook and Violet grabbed it back without even thanking him.
She bit her lip and said softly, “Sorry. I can’t do this. We can’t talk. You’re not supposed to know. He forbid me to reveal the—” She frowned so deeply that it creased her forehead. Abruptly, she ran off, hugging her notebook tightly. Ezio was left standing by himself. His jaw dropped as he stared in the spot that Violet had been at only seconds ago. What had made Violet so frightened?
ВЫ ЧИТАЕТЕ
Jigsaw (Undergoing major editing)
РазноеEzio has always been different, so different that people don’t believe that he’s related to his family. Even Ezio doubts that he’s their biological son. His grey hair and mismatched eyes turns others away. Also dealing with amnesia, he doesn’t remem...
