Karolyn Winters.
AKA Karolyn Grace Winters.
AKA my current assignment.
... Well, she was hard to find.
"Welcome to Burlington High School," she said with a radiant smile, and I took in her appearance as she stood before me. In person, she was much prettier than in sand. Her hair was the darkest brown, with a slightly chestnut tint when the light hit it directly on, and her eyes were deep chocolate. Her lips were perfect and shapely, as were her teeth, and she had a vaguely Italian look to her. The lightest dusting of freckles graced her nose and cheeks, and her skin still held an even, olive tan, despite it being mid-October.
In short, she was gorgeous.
It would be a shame to kill her.
"Should I show you around your classes?" Karolyn was saying, and I remembered my current situation. I nodded and followed her out into the hall.
"I'm Donovan, by the way," I told her as we set off towards my first hour class, Biology II by the looks of my schedule. "Donovan Gates." I couldn't act completely flabbergasted in front of her, even though she had revealed herself to be my target.
Karolyn smiled up at me.
"Nice to meet you, Donovan Gates," she chimed. "You're really new here, right? Where are you from?"
I thought about how to answer this, and decided to do so with a small bit of honesty; after all, I was going to kill her in just under four months. At least I could tell her this.
"Scotland," I said, though it was more of a fact than a memory after three-hundred years. "I was born in Scotland. I've lived all over though."
Karolyn looked extremely interested, and I wondered if I'd made a mistake.
"Really?" she asked, the excitement in her voice confirming my thoughts. "Where else?"
"Everywhere," I answered this time, deciding to avoid piquing her curiosity further. It didn't seem to work, however, as she tilted her head in interest.
"How'd you end up here?" She must have seen the uncertain look on my face, because she looked away in embarrassment. "Sorry," she said then. "I just love hearing people's stories. I love knowing a person's history."
I shrugged.
"It's fine," I said before I could stop myself. "Mine's just long. Really long. Not for today." Or ever.
Karolyn stopped walking suddenly and motioned to a door, and I realized that we had reached my first hour class.
"Here you are," she announced with an encouraging smile. "I'll see you around, Mister Gates. And if you ever have the time, I'd like to hear more of your story." At that, she turned and walked away from me, glancing back once to smile at me over her shoulder.
I waited until she rounded a corner, her rounded hips swaying as she did, and then strolled into my first hour Biology class.
I'd been through school enough times before to know exactly how the first day at a new school went, so nothing unexpected really happened there. I kept to myself mostly, talking only when someone asked me a question, and keeping my responses short. By the end of class, I was already bored with the prospect of school, and somewhat dragged myself onward.
Second hour proved to be a bit more interesting, though; not only was it one of my more comfortable subjects, History, but Karolyn was there.
"Looks like we share a second hour," I heard her say a few moments after I walked in. I glanced at her and couldn't help smiling. She had one of the kindest, most open faces of anyone I'd ever met, and not smiling back would have been hard even for someone like Hitler or Jack the Ripper. Though Jack was actually a fairly cheery guy...
"Donovan?" I shook my head, realizing that I'd been staring at Karolyn for the duration of my wandering thinking.
"Sorry," I told her. "It seems I zoned out for a moment there. I tend to do that when a thought catches my mind."
Karolyn raised an eyebrow curiously.
"What were you thinking about?" she asked, and I almost laughed aloud at myself.
"History," I replied sincerely, though the idea of telling this girl who barely knew me that I'd been casually thinking about Jack the Ripper made me smirk a bit to myself.
"You like history?" she asked, sounding genuinely interested in my answer.
"What's not to like?" I replied. "We are history. Seeing the past and its patterns... It makes you rethink the present a little bit." That, and it was fun watching teachers get it all wrong.
Karolyn was nodding excitedly though, and I suddenly found myself interested in what she had to say in return.
"I agree. History is fascinating in so many ways. I only wish there were better records of it..." She trailed off as our teacher, Mr. Grouse, began talking. I saw Karolyn motion to me from the corner of my eye and saw that she was pointing to a seat next to her. Against my better judgement, I walked to where she was motioning before slumping into the chair beside her.
"Today we will be beginning the unit on the Revolutionary War," Mr. Grouse was saying. "Would anyone like to tell me some of the causes of the Revolution? Our new student, maybe?" I leered up at the teacher and opened my mouth to answer, but Mr. Grouse laughed and said, "Just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you on your first day." He proceeded to call on another student who seemed to have been half-asleep already.
Class went on with Mr. Grouse giving us notes over the causes of the Revolution, which Karolyn recorded meticulously in neat, swirling handwriting. About halfway through the hour, I found myself with a neatly folded piece of paper sitting on the corner of my desk. I glanced at Karolyn who flicked her eyes to the note and then back to the front of the room. Still watching the teacher, I carefully unfolded the paper and then looked down to read it.
Why aren't you taking notes, silly?
I felt the left corner of my mouth pull up in a smirk and wrote back:
Don't need them; I was there.
I waited until the teacher turned to write something on the board and passed the paper back to Karolyn. She flicked it open and read it, raising an eyebrow when she saw what was written. She scribbled something down and sent it back, a small smile playing at her lips.
You just want to have to borrow mine.
I did double-take, her bold attitude catching me off guard, and read on.
Just kidding, but if you want some from
earlier in the section, in whatever class,
I don't mind helping.
Smiling a bit involuntarily, I went ahead and wrote back, telling her how that would probably be a good idea, seeing as I'd missed an entire month of school. She gave me a quick wink when she read it and then focused back on her notes.
Karolyn was adorable when she focused, I found myself noticing almost immediately. She raised her eyebrows a bit and opened her eyes slightly wider, making her look slightly younger. A few hairs from her long bangs, which were mostly tucked back with her wavy hair, would escape from the rest and fall into her face, where she would occasionally blow them out. The expression on her face was more than simply studious, though; it was interested. That made her all the more...
What was I thinking?
Karolyn was my assignment, which meant that she was the one female off-limits for hitting on and messing around with in the entire world at the time. Why was I thinking about how she looked when she took notes so much? And why the hell had I gone and passed notes back to her? I made a mental note to stop looking at Karolyn when she took notes and tried to refocus my mind on the teacher.
Ignoring her during lectures seemed to work, but after class was over, Karolyn caught up to me at the door with another girl at her side.
"Wait up," Karolyn said, matching my step as I exited the classroom. "I wanted to see what you had next hour and introduce you to my friend."
I smiled as politely as I could and tipped an imaginary hat to Karolyn's tall, dark-skinned friend.
"Nice to meet you," I said out of courtesy, not bothering to ask her name.
"Tracy, this is Donovan, the new guy I was telling you about last hour," Karolyn introduced. "And Donovan, this is my best friend, Tracy."
"Nice to meet you too," Tracy told me with a bored smile. "Hey, I'm off to geometry. See you, Karolyn."
"See ya!" Karolyn called, and then added, "Wait! Do you want to go to Dimples after school?"
Tracy flipped her long, corn-row hair and nodded before trailing off and around the corner of the hallway.
"Dimples?" I asked when we began walking again, and Karolyn nodded.
"It's our favorite place to hang and do homework after school," she explained. "And it's right around the corner... Hey! You should come with us. That way you could get to know your way around town some, and I could update you on notes."
I pondered this for a moment. She was my assignment, and already I was getting too friendly with her, but at the same time...
"That sounds fun," I told her, mentally scolding myself as I did, yet not bothering to stop my words. "By the way, what's your next hour?"
"AP English," she replied, and I felt my face brighten against my will. "You?"
"Same," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. What the actual hell was wrong with me?
"Cool! We can walk together then." She was just too damn sweet.
I smiled a little but didn't say anything. I couldn't let her know that this pleased me in some strange, inexplicable way. That would definitely be bad, and go so against my strict system of never getting close to humans that I might as well have tossed it out the window entirely.
When we got to English, Karolyn and I found some empty seats next to each other and sat down, me by the window and her to the right of me. To my surprise, six people, all of which she introduced me to, came up to talk to Karolyn during the time that it took for the hour to start. Three girls, Faith, Laura, and Juniper, stuck around longer than the rest and eventually made plans to meet us at Dimples after school and bring their guy friends along, and I began realizing that Karolyn was more popular than I originally gauged. This theory only proved more and more accurate throughout the day, where Karolyn and I had one more class together, as well as lunch. She seemed like one of those people who everyone wanted to hang out with. The thing was, she didn't seem to crave the attention though; through the entire day she kept a mellow yet outgoing composure that seemed to come naturally to her. It was fascinating.
It made me realize that a lot of people would miss her when she died.
After lunch, Karolyn caught up to me on the way to seventh hour, leaving her friends for a moment to talk to me.
"Hey, do you want to meet at the front of the school after seventh hour?" she asked. "Since you don't know your way around and all yet."
"Fine by me," I agreed. "See you then."
She smiled, waved a little, and then headed back to her friends and on to her seventh hour.
My seventh happened to be gym, which irritated me to no ends. I spoke to no one as I dressed out, though it had slightly less to do with the fact that I was antisocial—which I admittedly was—and just barely more with the fact that I was somewhat looking forward to meeting up with Karolyn and her crew after school that day. Just somewhat, though; real excitement, or any feelings for that matter, hadn't plagued me in nearly a century.
And I was unwaveringly content with this fact.
But if that was true, why did I rush leaving seventh hour?
Even I couldn't say.
---
The picture up top is our friendly neighborhood Reaper, Donovan! Next chapter, I'll post a picture of Karolyn ;)
I'm really enjoying going back through this with the editing process and all. I missed Donovan. Karolyn too, but mostly our melancholy main man.
It makes me want to actually write more in the series. I kind of stopped, due to writers block and starting college a couple years ago, but once I get back up to where I was with editing, I might continue the story line! *excite*
Anywho, hope you're enjoying! I need to finish typing the chapter of Venice I'm on now...
-Haybails