Anguis ➳ FP Jones

IV - BEDS ARE BURNING

word count; 1838

The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

My vision was blurry quite a few seconds after they had reopened. I looked in the mirror and sent myself the look of someone willing to give up on looking nice, yet I pulled myself together and grabbed my hair rollers despite of these thoughts. I put them into my hair while wondering if they would make my hair look as pretty as Embla had managed to do the day before. Waiting for them to set in, I got up from my bed and walked a few metres to get into the bathroom. I grabbed my light-blue coloured toothbrush and started brushing - harder, making sure it cleaned every bit of my teeth. After doing so, I pulled out my hair rollers and my hair somehow actually looked acceptable.
»I'm leaving now. Have a good day, sweetie!« I could hear my father yell a few seconds before closing the door, leaving me before I could say anything back.

»Hey Dahlia, how are you doing?«

I was startled when someone began talking to me as I was walking towards my locker. I looked to where the voice was coming from and my eyes fell upon Embla who was giving me a big bright smile. »Fine. You?« I opened my locker and took out my Biology book before leaving my bag inside the locker. »Well, I'm asking because, you know, I guess you now know Riverdale isn't all innocent.« I raised my eyebrows at her before turning around and walking towards the classroom I had to be in in less than five minutes. Embla started walking quicker to reach me; »If you want to know more about that night, you should ask Alice.«

For the rest of the day, I let myself study the appearance and attitude of those around me. So far there were still only a few faces I could recognize, but there was one face I was eager to find. Someone I had seen once - he was standing in a small group with a bunch of other guys wearing a Jersey jacket; the biggest clue that those wearing these pieces of clothing were in fact the jocks. He was laughing with them until they made a joke about how he looked, about the fact that he was Chinese-Malaysian and not pure American like the rest of them. I saw the look on his face when they cracked that joke. Even though he kept smiling, I wondered if he was in reality bothered by the joke. But this was a week ago and I couldn't find him anywhere since. That was until our Biology teacher said his name during class.

He walked with confidence up to the desk and grabbed a paper the teacher handed him. »What? C+? That's the lowest I've ever gotten in Biology! Man...« he turned around, his face expressing his disappointment and anger, »I miss Mr. Winterbottom. He was the shit.«

»Language,« the teacher corrected him without even looking. As he walked by me, he looked down on me, gave me a wink and a smile and continued to walk over to his fellow jocks to laugh. I wasn't bothered nor flattered by his stare. But I wanted to know more about the fire and even though Embla recommended Alice, wouldn't it be easier to ask Ricky? It was his house after all.

After class had ended and people were heading to the cafeteria, Ricky was left behind, telling his friends he had to do something and then he'd join them. I was still in the classroom because I wanted to talk to him. It all fit together perfectly. I could hear him walk towards me as I was packing my bag, and thus I reminded myself of everything I had been wanting to ask him.

»You're the new girl. I'm Ricky. Ricky Mantle,« he said as he approached me and gave me a confident stare.

»Hey. I'm Dahlia Campbell,« I responded and avoided looking at him.