Amelia was up before dawn. She had trouble sleeping for the past few nights, and she did not want to go back to bed in case her nightmares returned. That was when she realised it was Monday. Groaning, she rubbed her eyes and forced her legs to take her to the bathroom.
She sighed when she caught her reflection in the mirror. You're a mess, Amelia. Her red hair was all over the place and under her amber eyes were dark circles. At least no zits showed up today. She pulled out her makeup, comb and toothbrush and got to work. There were still hours to kill before school even started.
Amelia and her father lived in Crimson, a fairly new suburb with modern buildings and infrastructure. It was located north of Melbourne city but touched the border between urban and rural areas. In other words, it was a popular place for both city folk and farmers, especially since it had one of the biggest shopping centres in the state.
After getting ready, she tiptoed to the kitchen and pulled out a box of cornflakes and a bottle of milk. Although still dimly lit, there was enough light seeping through the kitchen windows for her to see what she was doing without the help of a light bulb. Amelia slowly ate her cereal in silence and tried to keep her eyes open. I seriously need to improve my sleep.
Someone walked into the kitchen and turned on the light switch. "You're up early."
"Morning Dad, I couldn't sleep. Did I wake you up?" Amelia asked sheepishly.
"It's not your fault, I'm a light sleeper."
She shrugged and proceeded to eat her cornflakes. She glanced at the clock that stood in the corner of the kitchen bench. 7:56am... guess I'll go to school early today. Amelia quickly gulped down the remains of her breakfast and searched for her school bag in her messy room.
"Dad, I'm going to school now!" she called out.
A shuffling of steps, and then her father appeared from his bedroom. He was a ginger but his amber eyes were less intense than hers. He had a beard and worked part-time as a construction worker, but to Amelia, he was simply her baseball-loving father.
He reached out and gave her a hug. "Okay sweetheart. Have a good day at school, and don't get into any trouble if you can help it," he said with a wink.
She laughed and hugged him back. She always felt safe and secure in his big, loving arms. "Thanks, Dad. Take care of yourself too."
Amelia reached for the doorknob and began walking towards school, which only took her about ten minutes of walking. Soon, rows of large, modern buildings surrounded by tall, black fences came into view. The polished sign that stood at the entrance told her 'Crimson High'. More like Hell High. She sighed and entered the school gates cautiously, hoping that none of her teachers was around to engage her in conversation as her punishment for coming so early.
I wonder if Drake is here yet. She walked past the large double-storey junior building and towards the large patch of artificial grass just outside the canteen area. Her dad had once told her that only the rich schools could afford real grass, but she was not sure whether that was true. Either way, it was a well maintained and popular spot for social butterflies to meet and chat during recess and lunchtimes.
No one was around apart from a lone boy that sat in the middle of the artificial grass. He was furiously typing away on his laptop. Suddenly conscious of what she looked like, Amelia quickly straightened her school dress and blazer and hoped her makeup hid her dark circles well. She approached him with an eyebrow raised and a smile spreading across her face.
"You're here early," she said.
The boy stopped typing and looked up. "Amy? What are you doing here? It's barely even half past eight."
"Drake, I asked first."
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come here early and hack the school. You?"
Amelia rolled her eyes. "As if you're good enough to hack the school system!" She placed her schoolbag on the grass and sat opposite him. He was wearing the Crimson High uniform; white school t-shirt, black pants, and a black and red-striped tie, all without the blazer. She found this strange considering it was winter.
"Hey, a guy like me can dream." His dark brown eyes dropped briefly to his screen. "Especially an amazingly talented guy like me," he boasted as he ran his hand through his spiky jet black hair.
Amelia giggled a little too enthusiastically. "Sure, whatever you say." Two years ago, when she was in year seven and starting her first day in high school, Drake had approached her and asked her about herself when he had noticed her sitting by herself. Although a year older and a year level higher than her, Drake had become her best friend, her only friend.
For some reason, she could not mix well with the other girls in her year level, and she felt uncomfortable whenever she tried hanging out with them. But strangely, she got along well with Drake, even though he was so different from her. For one thing, he got along well with everyone but still preferred to spend time with her instead of the other year nine students.
Amelia suddenly remembered something. "Oh, here's the five dollars I owe you from last week." She reached into her blazer pocket and offered him the money. She had forgotten to bring lunch and money one day and had to borrow cash from him.
Drake took it and put it in his pocket. He looked up at her and smiled. "Arigatou," he replied in Japanese.
"Dude, speak English," she teased.
"Wow, that's racist." Drake tried to look offended, but he was still smiling.
Amelia laughed. "Just kidding! You know I love you." She cringed when she realised what she had just said. Idiot!
"Thanks, I love me too."
"Oh my gosh, you're so full of yourself!"
"You know it." Drake glanced down at his watch. "It's 8:45 am, we should get going to our lockers. I have computer class first, and my teacher is always early." He closed his laptop and began to stand up. "See you later?"
"Of course." Amelia stood up, grabbed her bag, and gave him a brief hug. "That is if English doesn't kill me first."
Amelia arrived at her class earlier than the other students and sat at her usual spot at the back of the room. Soon, her classmates began piling in as well as her teacher, and the lesson began. A tall man with glasses walked to the front and began writing on the whiteboard. His grey hair was thinning, and she wondered how old he was. Probably old enough to retire.
"Okay class, I hope you've done your homework over the weekend. Today we're going to start reading a new chapter in Blueback. But before we do that, please copy down the questions from the board."
Amelia rapidly copied down the questions. When she noticed that she had finished before everyone else, she beamed and looked down at her work. Messy, but good enough. The teacher then began reading chapter eight Blueback in a slow, monotone voice.
Amelia groaned in annoyance. Here come twenty minutes of torture. She rested her head and arms on the table and closed her eyes. As she tried to block out her teacher's monotonous reading, she began thinking of something that still bothered her to this very day ever since she had become a teenager.
Her powers. More specifically, her ability to create fire out of nothing and manipulate it. After her first encounter in the bathroom two years ago, she had freaked out for a long time. And how could she not? Unprepared teenage girls would be a little freaked out at having their first period, but creating fire with her hands was a whole new level of freakiness.
A freak. Was that what she was? Or was it some strange genetic mutation? Either way, for the past couple of years, she had not dared to explore her powers – or whatever it was – very often. There had been a few times where she would have to use the destructive element of fire, such as lighting up her dark room when the light bulb blew, or when she needed to light up the stove when she was cooking a meal and the lighter had stopped working.
However, there were times when her hands would accidentally catch on fire, triggered by emotions such as anger and rage. Most of the times, no one noticed and nothing got destroyed, but there was that one time where her English papers got burned. Although she did not really mind considering it was the thing that was triggering her in the first place. Unfortunately, she had received a detention the next day for not handing in her homework. Now that sucked.
She wanted to be able to control her powers better and even explore its capabilities safely. But she was too afraid to, and she had not told anyone about it, not even her father. There was one time she had tried telling him about her powers—
"Amelia Blaze, are you sleeping?"
She jolted up and her eyes fluttered open. Her teacher was towering over her with a stern expression. Crap. "Uh... no. I was," she paused and tried to think of a decent excuse. "I was contemplating about Blueblack."
"Amelia, it's Blueback." Her teacher crossed his arms. "I would like to talk about your behaviour after class for five minutes." With that said, he turned around and walked back to the front of the classroom.
Brilliant excuse Amelia! You totally fooled him. The girls and boys around her snickered and she shot them a death stare. Amelia stared at the teacher with a bored expression for the rest of the lesson and when the class was over, she quickly packed her stuff and tried to rush out of the room with the crowd.
She bumped into someone tall at the doorway. She could not see where she was going amongst the dozens of bodies that jammed the only exit. "Oh, oh."
"Nice try, Amelia." The teacher placed an arm firmly on her shoulder, stopping her from moving whilst everyone around them gave her amused looks as they walked out of class with a grin. "Now, about your behaviour in class," the teacher said when they were the only ones left. "Please, take a seat. I'd like to see fifty lines of 'I will not sleep during class' on paper before you can go."
Amelia swore under her breath. English really was going to kill her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Note:
Hey Wattpadians! Thanks for reading this chapter and would love to hear your thoughts on Amelia and Drake. Such as, do you think Amelia will survive through English? xD
This chapter has been dedicated to @ShuhDarrUh , one of my ongoing supporters of my novel Keepers of Ice even though it took me a freaking long time to finish writing it.