White Innocence

White Innocence Chapter 1::Ember

Chapter 1: Ember

Boarding school. Love it; hate it, either way I still have to go. Or so my almost nonexistent parents tell me. Calwood Boarding School is where I will be living for the next four years of my high school life, though it is for grades 7-12. At least it's on the coast of North Carolina, only a 20-minute drive from the beach. Wonderful.

"Ember! Get the rest of your suitcases and let's go!" my mom yelled up the stairs at me.

I finished straightening my long hair and put some extra eyeliner on. I examined myself in the full-body mirror, scanning my 5 foot self. No matter what I did, I always seemed to find something wrong with the way I looked. I had white-platinum blonde hair, with a layer of jet-black on the bottom and two coon-tails on front sides. Originally my hair was dark brown, but it soon became boring to me and my hair-dying adventures began. My eyes were a mixture of blue and green, with flecks of gold sprinkled in, and were round like a doll's. I so wished they were almond-shaped that my eyelids were painted with dark black eyeliner, ending farther out than where my eyes actually ended. I looked at my small hourglass shape. I hated it. For my size, it didn't make sense that I had the large bust and behind that I did. Though, my favorite part was my pink, heart-shaped mouth, which I smeared clear lip-gloss on. I was dressed in a hot pink lace racer-back tank top, black cut off shorts, and my favorite pair of white gladiator sandals and thought to myself this is as good as its going to get.

I grabbed the few suitcases sitting on my floor and lugged them down the stairs and out to the car where my dad loaded them into the back of the SUV. I made sure I had my phone and ipod in my jeans pocket, and when I was satisfied, boarded the car between my little sister and my older brother. Lacey, my sister, was just 5 years old and starting kindergarten this year. Paxton, my brother, though, was 17, almost 18, and would be a senior this year. He and I are both going to boarding school. I get to be known as 'Paxton's Little Sister' or 'Mini-Sinclair'. Oh what a joy this will be.

For the 2-hour drive up the coast, I listened to my ipod and made sure Lacey was still asleep. Paxton was texting someone on his phone, most likely his girlfriend from hell, Kylie. Imagine your typical cheerleader stereotype: the platinum blonde hair, zero brains cells, bitch attitude and slut lifestyle. This pretty much describes Kylie, except she has a little bit of a backstabbing, two-faced, evilness thrown in as well. Last year when Paxton brought her home for Thanksgiving, she met my boyfriend at the time, Marshall. As soon as she saw that he and I were together, she gave me an evil smirk and wink. Not but a half-hour later, I went to get some extra towels and found them fooling around in the bathroom closet. I didn't have the heart to tell Paxton and I figured it wouldn't last long between them since he was bound to find out she was cheating on him eventually. Sadly, he seems to be stupider than I thought because it's been a whole year, and there hasn't even been a crack in their relationship. Damn, I hate her. Oh, and did I mention, she's only a year older than me?My ipod changed songs, switching to something by Hollywood Undead, and when I looked out the window, we were passing the Welcome To Calwood Boarding School of Excellence entrance sign. We drove up to the dorms, dropping Paxton and his stuff off by the dorms on the left side of the enormous campus, the senior dorms. Finally, we got to the freshman dorms on the right side of campus. I unloaded my bags from the car and carried them to the building in front of me, Breckenridge House.

After 2 trips in the elevator from the lobby to the 12th floor, my suitcases were in room 928, my home for the year. As I entered the room, I was finally able to take in my surroundings. There were four beds: two bunk beds against the wall on either side of the window, which was in the middle of the far wall. On either side of the room there was a closet, and right below the window was a desk.

Two of the beds were already taken, the top and bottom beds on the bunk to the left of the window, which were both neatly made already. I didn't see any suitcases. The others must have unpacked I guess. I put my smallest suitcase on the top bed of the bunk on the right, claiming it for myself. I began to open my suitcase with my bedding in it when two girls walked in, each carrying a Starbucks coffee in her hand, leaving the door open and the sounds of students feet walking and pieces of conversations from the hallway floated through it.

The first, a tall girl with long, curly, blonde surfer-girl hair and sprayed with light freckles sat on the bottom bed. The second, a petite girl with medium length, straight, jet-black hair and an olive skin-tone took the top bed. As if on cue, they both looked at me and asked, "You're our roommate?" I looked back at the two girls.

"Uh, yeah," I said, and gave a small, shy smile. It was then I noticed a twinkle on the blonde's nose. A nose ring? Yep, it was definitely a nose ring. I guess she saw me looking at her nose when she pointed to her nose and asked shyly, "Is it still red? I got it done a week ago and they said the redness would go down, and I'd thought it would be fine by the first week, but I woke up this morning and it was Rudolf the Reindeer red," she blushed, "Do I need some more cover up?"

"No, you're fine," I answered her. "I'm Ember," I told them, planting a cheerleader-worthy smile on my too-pale face.

"Stella." The blonde told me with a smile. "Gemma, say hi!" Stella yelled to the dark-haired girl on the top bed who had put her ipod in and was oblivious to the conversation because of the music blasting in her ears.

"Hey new girl." Gemma said.

"Her name is Ember," Stella told her. A sparkle of interest flashed into Gemma's eyes.

"Ember? The little sister of Paxton Sinclair, Ember?" she asked, a smile slowly creeping onto her face.

"Yep, the one and only," I replied, my smile fading. I hate being the little sister. As soon as I tell people my name, they immediately want to be my friend only because they think it will get them closer to Paxton. This is reason I was looking forward to high school. Paxton started at Calwood as a freshman, which meant no one really knew who he was at the high school back home. I was excited to finally be able to experience something on my own, not following in somebody's footsteps...until the parental units decided to drop the Boarding School Bomb, that is.