NOCTURNE » Nathan Prescott

» vi. blackwell

The next few weeks weren't anything too special or exciting. I met up with some other friends and reconnected with everyone a bit, and caught up on some materials for the next schoolyear. Victoria and Nathan ended up convincing me to come back to Blackwell eventually.

It was now Sunday, the day before returning, and my anxiety started to act up more than usual. Mia had left for college a couple days go and my parents were both very busy, so I had a lot of time to think. Too much, that is.

My mother was in New York for some fashion show and my dad pretty much locked himself up in his office, like always when he was stressing out over something. I barely slept that night, even after tip-toeing into the kitchen to have a glass of wine.

I was awake long before my alarm went off, so I took my time showering and trying to relax - and failing. After getting dressed and putting on my makeup I went downstairs, had breakfast and took my pills.
About halfway through my waffles dad showed up and brewed some coffee, placing a quick kiss on the top of my head.

"You holding up okay?" He asked and I shrugged. "Just nervous."
I slid an apple and a sandwich from the fridge into my bag, happily taking the thermal cup full of coffee my father offered me.

Not much later I was in my car, heading towards town with the radio playing. I did have to get up earlier since we lived more out of town, but I much preferred this to the dormitories.

Grabbing my backpack and the coffee I locked my car and walked up the steps towards the building that I had last seen the day I bought my overdose from Frank.

"Look who it is! Maddie Carlyle!" Victoria called out as I walked up to the small group, giving me a hug. "Welcome back, girl." I forced a bunch of smiles as I was introduced to some other people and sat down by the fountain.

First days had always been my least favourite thing -- everybody always acted like they needed to prove some sort of status or whatever, when in  few years none of it would matter. Then again, had I not been away for so long I might just be the same … but who knew.

"Mads, you coming?" Nathan asked and I looked up, seeing everybody walking towards the school while he was standing in front of me. I took a deep breath and stood up, taking a sip of my coffee.
"Sorry," I mumbled and followed everybody else, and with Nathan to my right and Victoria on his other side we entered the building.

I had a whole day of lying ahead of me.
My first class was art, while Vic and Nathan would be in drama so I was on my own. I gave my friends a smile as we parted ways and I headed upstairs to the bigger art lab. For the most part we were told what this year would be composed of and what tasks we would face, and that after the photography contest there would be an art contest as well. Of course, our teacher encouraged everybody to participate.

"Hey, Maddie, is that you?" a strangely familiar voice called after me as I was hurrying to leave after the bell rang.
I turned around to face Luke. "No way, you're back and didn't tell me? I'm offended."

Luke and I had known each other since kindergarten, so I felt even worse for not talking to him during the past three years.

"Dude, I am so sorry. I got a new phone and your number was different, so I thought I'd wait until school started again. Shit, seriously, sorry."

We headed downstairs and to our lockers that were still next to each other, just like always.
"Hey no worries, I'm just glad I got a life update every now and again from across the pond." He gave me a smile and closed his locker again while I was still trying to get all of my books in there somehow.

"Hey, by the way, you still hang with Prescott and Chase?" -- "Yeah, why?"
Luke let out a sigh. "Figures. Their Vortex Club is some shady elitist shit, so - I'm not going to tell you not to join - but that's exactly what I'm telling you."
I raised an eyebrow. "I'll keep it in mind, thanks for the warning."

He looked past me for a moment and rolled his eyes, giving me an apologetic smile. "See you around, Maddie," he said and waved, walking off. Just a second later I heard Victoria talking to Nathan and upon turning around I faced my two friends, approaching me.

"How was art class?" Victoria asked and I shrugged.
"Pretty lame, a lot of organising. How was drama?"
Just like I had expected she began talking about every little detail that even remotely provoked her to be annoyed -- I sighed and let her vent while Nathan was busy with his phone.

The next few classes were rather uneventful, if not boring, and I was happy when I was heading for the last class of the day: photography. Apparently some super well-known photographer was teaching now and I was curious to see how he would approach everything. Obviously I had heard the name Mark Jefferson before, and Victoria gave me a very detailed presentation on his work the other day -- not without mentioning that he was incredibly hot, in her opinion.

Most people were already sitting down when I walked into the room, so I looked around for a while until Victoria motioned for me to sit at her table.

"Just wait until Mark shows up, I'm sure you'll like him," she said and gave me a wink, to which I just smiled and let her continue talking to Taylor.

Looking around the room I spotted a few vaguely familiar faces, along with some girl with short brown hair and freckles that I didn't recognise. Thinking that she must be new and probably just as anxious as I was, I gave her a friendly smile.

The bell rang and the door opened once more, and a man with dark brown hair, glasses and a goatee walked in.
"Good afternoon, everybody. For those of you that are new in this class…," He stopped for a moment and scanned the room, stopping for a moment whenever he spotted a new student. "…my name is Mark Jefferson, but I take it you already knew that."

Victoria snickered at the bad joke and I started scribbling around in my notebook.

The man went on about how this year was going to be a very special one for all of us, and I couldn't help but notice how dark some of his phrases sounded -- I was prone to overanalysing everything though, so I shrugged it off. Still, I couldn't help but have an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever his gaze was resting on me.