"Hey there, Delilah, what's it like in New York City--"
"Don't sing that song," I warned Julie, cutting her off and scowling a little. That song annoyed me more than anything on the planet. Everyone thought I loved it, but I really didn't. Aren't you supposed to like a song that has your name in it? Apparently not.
She began to whistle it, and I glared at her even more. She shrugged simply, and we continued to walk to our homeroom. She knew I hated that song, I tried to get everyone to know that I hated the song, but it just had to be her favorite.
When we entered our homeroom, she finally stopped whistling it, to my relief. But I found myself frowning as our friend Arianna waved us over to her. She wasn't exactly the best friend someone could have, but it sure beat being alone. But she was always really mean and snobby to everyone, even us. Julie was the only real friend I seemed to have; our other friends that were twins, Violet and Ericka Chambers, seemed to be more like Arianna's puppets than friends.
"I got a fantastic pair of shoes at the mall yesterday," Arianna told us as we sat down in the desks beside her. She put her feet up on my desk, as if to prove it, and smiled. "Just look. They cost a lot, but it was totally worth it. And I saw a poster of Jay Harris there... He is so hot, I wish I could meet him..."
Ignoring her rambling about the latest hot star, all I wanted to do was tell her to move her feet, or push them off myself, but I really didn't want to be rude and get her angry. I kept my mouth shut as I waited for Mr. Higginson to start class, tapping my foot impatiently against the ground as Arianna's feet continued to stay on my desk. Mr. Higginson was not only my homeroom teacher, but my history teacher as well. He had been my homeroom teacher ever since my first day at high school. He was a good teacher, I guess. I didn't really talk to teachers very much unless I had to, though.
"Arianna, if you don't mind," Mr. Higginson said after the late bell rang. "Can you please remove your feet from Delilah's desk?"
Arianna rolled her eyes, removing her feet and sitting up normally in her desk. I thanked Mr. Higginson mentally as the class began. He usually let us do whatever we wanted during the twenty minutes of homeroom, but today he was telling us about some kind of field trip that didn't sound very interesting. I tapped my fingers against my desk impatiently. I just wanted to get this day over with. I didn't hate school; I just never liked leaving home. People thought I was weird because I liked staying home, but they just didn't know the reason why. No one but my friends knew the real reason why.
The bell rang, signaling that it was the end of homeroom. I slung my backpack over my shoulder lazily, making my way out of the room. Arianna and Julie next to me, we made our way to our lockers, which were right by each other's. That's how we met each other on the first day of school in freshman year. I wondered what my life would have been like if I didn't get a locker next to Arianna. Probably a lot easier, but I was glad that I had met Julie. We all still had the same lockers, so there was no way to get away from Arianna, unfortunately.
When we were twenty feet away from our lockers, I could see that there was a piece of paper taped to mine, and my stomach dropped. But I was used to that feeling. Too used to it.
I plucked it off the locker the second I got to it, barely giving it a glance. Arianna smirked slightly, saying, "From your secret admirer, Delilah?" She tried taking the note from me, but I stuffed it into my pocket before she could.
"No," I told her sharply, my eyes narrowing a little. I knew I had made a mistake telling her my secret. But since she had a locker next to mine, she had seen the first note, so there was no way I could have hid it from her. I was just glad she didn't spread it around school. That surprised me, because Arianna was the queen of gossip. You couldn't trust her with anything. I thought that she was going to tell the whole school, but I was happy when she didn't. She made fun of me for it every day, but at least no one else did.
"I want to read it," Arianna said, pouting a little. She reached for it again, but I moved out of the way before her hands could reach my pocket.
"Sorry," I said, shrugging my backpack onto my other shoulder. "I'm going to be late for algebra."
I didn't care that I left my algebra book in my locker, so I continued my way down the hallway and to the classroom. I sighed as I sat down at my desk, patting my pocket slightly to make sure the note was still safe in my pocket. I wasn't going to read it until I got home later. I really didn't want to read it, but I would have to sooner or later. I always did.
I felt myself chewing on my lip as I continued to think about what the note could say. It could have really said anything, really. They were all usually typed, sometimes being cut out of newspaper or magazines. That seemed to take a lot of time; I wondered why the person didn't just write it out. Maybe he didn't want me to see his handwriting. That would be a smart move on his part. But that was bad for me, since I couldn't tell who it was.
"Delilah?" I heard, and I turned slightly to the desk to my right. A boy from my class, Alex, was staring at me strangely. He was always kind to me, so I felt my cheeks heat up a little when I realized I had been staring into space and not responding to whatever he had been saying.
"Uh... yeah?" I asked, still a little dazed and confused. That always happened whenever I zoned out...
Alex blinked for a moment before saying, "Class is about to start, but all you're doing is staring at the board like it just did some kind of magical trick and your waiting for it to do it again."
I felt my lips curl into a smile and I laughed a little. He could always make me laugh, which I was glad about. I really just needed to laugh sometimes. "I was just thinking, that's all," I told him, shrugging slightly. Hey, it was the truth. I was thinking. "Just something on my mind, nothing too important."
If only he knew that that was a lie. It was important. Very important.
I didn't pay attention for the rest of the day, only thinking about the note in my pocket. It felt as if it was burning a hole through my jeans, and even one through my leg. I just wanted to read it and get it over with. I hated that one piece of paper could take my attention all day. And it seemed to be happening a lot.
"So, Delilah," Arianna said at my locker after school. I continued shuffling through it, trying to find my sweater. "Did you read that letter your secret admirer gave to you this morning? Was there anything interesting about it?"
She always called him my secret admirer. I really wouldn't call him that. Secret admirers were cute, and just said that you were pretty and that they'd like to get to know you better. I wouldn't call this guy my secret admirer at all.
"Not yet, Arianna," I almost spat at her, moving through papers and other items I had just thrown in my locker. I pulled out a piece of paper and rolled my eyes when I noticed it was from the first day of school. I wasn't really surprised by that; I was sure I had papers in there from freshman year. But I only threw it back in and continued looking for my sweater. I knew that I put it in my locker. I could remember that I had put it in there that morning. It should have been there. My locker wasn't that messy, so I really should have been able to find it. But I continued shuffling through it, just to try and ignore Arianna. But a part of me was hoping that I would have the sweater; it was my favorite one. I would wear it all the time.
"You should let me read it," Arianna said, reaching for my pocket. "I'm sure I'll be able to--"
"No!" I almost shouted, earning glances from the many people in the hallway. "I--I mean, I'm going to read it when I get home..."
Arianna was about to speak again until she was suddenly knocked into a locker by a freshman that was running past her, trying to catch another student that had stolen something from him. He didn't even turn around to apologize, and Arianna scowled at him as he continued running down the hall in a hurry.
"I hate freshman," she told me, the scowl still on her face. Her eyes narrowed as she continued speaking. "They're even worse than sophomores. They think they're so cool, even though we're juniors and they should be scared of us."
There were a few underclassmen that were scared of us, but they were also scared of the seniors. Truth was, I was even scared of the seniors myself. They didn't seem like the greatest people on the planet, even the quiet ones. They were just so big, even if they were only a year older than us. And I hated big people. They just scared me.
"You better tell me what's in that note," Arianna warned before loudly slamming her locker door shut. "I want to know what he's saying now."
I nodded, trying to ignore her as I closed my locker door in defeat. I don't know what happened to my sweater, but I was now fed up with searching for it. It was gone, or in the lost and found somewhere. And everything in the lost and found was disgusting and dirty, mixed around with things that people "lost" on purpose. If it was in there, I knew that I wasn't going to want it anymore.
Arianna flipped her red hair behind her shoulders before shouting down the hall, "Violet, Ericka! Hurry up and get over here!"
I excused myself before her minions could come any closer, and I darted down the hallway. The Chamber twins both gave me a quick greeting as they passed me, but none of us stopped walking to actually give a real hello. I didn't really expect anything more from Violet and Ericka. They only cared about pleasing Arianna.
I walked home quickly, looking over my shoulder every few minutes or so. I just kept feeling like someone was watching me, which annoyed me so much. The note was still in my pocket, but I still had to check every few seconds to make sure it was still there. If I lost it, it would be a huge pain if someone somehow found it. I seriously almost started sprinting when my house was in view, but I kept my pace in case anyone was really watching.
I unlocked my front door, walking in and closing it soundlessly behind me. I locked it as quickly as I could and dropped my backpack by the staircase. "I'm home!" I called out, looking around quizzically. Since no one was replying, my mom must have still been at work. But I then heard music playing from the garage.
How did he manage to get home before me?
The more important question, how did he get all his stupid band mates here as well?
I rolled my eyes as I walked through the kitchen, grabbing a soda from the fridge quickly. I turned toward the garage door and entered, the music becoming ten times louder, bashing against my eardrums painfully.
"Hey!" I cried out, but they didn't hear me, so I tried again. "Hey, idiots!" They still didn't hear me, and I gave them a flat look as I lost my patience, chucking the can of soda that was in my hands at my brother. He immediately stopped playing his guitar to give me a look of annoyance, but once he stopped playing, his stupid idiotic friends stopped playing as well. Finally, some peace and quiet for once.
"Oh, you're home," Jake said, putting his guitar down and picking up with soda I had thrown at him. He snapped the top open and took a sip, annoying me very much. My eyebrows furrowed, but he acted as if nothing was wrong. I hated how he acted so nonchalant when I just wanted to yell at him. It made me feel like a huge jerk.
"Ooh, Jake's hot sister is home," one of his friends said to the others, causing them to laugh like idiots. I rolled my eyes at them, turning toward the door as I tried to ignore their stupid pick-up lines. His friends would always annoy me by saying I was hot. And it was really hard to ignore them, because they were so loud.
"Thanks for the soda!" I heard Jake laugh jokingly before I slammed the garage door behind me. I jumped up my steps two at a time as I heard the boys' music continue loudly. When I finally got to my room, I slammed the door shut behind me, much like I had done with the garage door. Pulling the note out of my pocket, I held my breath as I stared at it. This stupid thing had had my attention all day, and I didn't even know what it said.
I grazed my finger against the side of the paper lightly as I opened it, and I ended up dropping the note, it fluttering to the floor lifelessly. I stuck my finger in my mouth, the iron taste of blood seeping into it only a little. The taste was disgusting, but whatever got it to go away. I looked down at the note to see a drop of my blood had landed on it.
That's just great.
Heaving a large sigh, I bent over and grabbed the note from the ground, turning it over so I could now read the writing. It was typed, not to my surprise, and as I read it, my breath was caught in my throat.
My Dear Delilah,
I saw you at school. You were as beautiful as ever. Can't you see we're meant to be together? You looked so lonely walking home alone. One of these days I'm going to have to come out and talk to you.
It wasn't signed, and that didn't surprise me very much either. I looked back at the ground to see a photo that was facing down, and I realized that it must have came with the note. I sighed once again as I bent over and picked it up. I almost screamed when I saw that it was me at the mall with Arianna, Violet, Ericka, and Julie. He had taken pictures of me outside of school? I quickly shoved the note and photo in my pocket in fear when I heard the front door open. "Jake, Delilah!" I could barely hear my mother over the music. "I'm home!"
I ran out of my room as quickly as I could, almost wiped out over one of Jake's textbooks, and slid down the banister before jumping to a stop next to my mother. "Oh!" she cried when I landed next to her, but then she started laughing. "Delilah, don't scare me like that!"
"Mom, I got another one."
Her laughing immediately stopped, and she looked at me with a serious face now. "You've gotten another note?" she asked, and I nodded.
"Yeah. but this time he sent a photo of me outside of school. This is getting really scary, Mom," I told her, my voice cracking as I did so. I wiped at my eyes quickly, only wanted the tears to fo away. I hated crying, but I did it all the time. It always made me feel weak.
My mother took the note from me and read it over, her eyebrows furrowing as she got through it. "This guy is obviously not backing down. We've already called the police, and there's nothing they can do. This guy's good, which also means he's bad. There's no way to find out who he is..." I continued, wiping my eyes. "I just want it all to go away."
"I don't know what we're supposed to do," my mother admitted, sighing and rubbing her forehead. "I'm calling the police again. They have to do something. This is ridiculous. This has been going on for way too long."
I didn't argue with her, because I knew she was right. I let her take the note and the picture away from me as she walked into the family room toward the phone. I sat on the stairs as I listened to my mother's conversation.
"Yes, it's me again," she said, sounding very irritated and angry. I could just picture her rubbing her forehead, which was a habit of hers when she didn't know what she was supposed to do. "Well, I'm sorry that this is the seventeenth time that I've called in the past two months. My daughter is being stalked!"
I hugged my knees to my chest, not wanting to hear someone say the truth.
Ever since freshman year, I had been getting stalked. I had a drawer full of letters from this guy, whoever he even was. At first I didn't even tell my mom because I thought it was a joke. But after a while it didn't stop, so I had to tell her. Jake knew about it, and he almost searched the entire school for this guy. Being a senior, he knew most of the kids at the school, but even he came up empty handed. We had called the police after a couple of months, and they tried their best to figure out who this guy was, but they came up with nothing as well. They were nowhere close to catching the guy.
"Well, what do you suppose we do?" my mother demanded. "Because you all are obviously not helping!"
It was silent for a few minutes, and I assumed that whoever was on the other line was talking. I scuffed my foot against the bottom stair lightly, needing to hear some sort of sound other than the silence of my mother waiting to speak. That sound, even though it wasn't even one, was excruciatingly painful to listen to.
"But where do you suppose?" I finally heard my mother ask, still sounding very irritated. "Is this some kind of joke? There is no way I'm sending my daughter to--" But the person on the other line must have cut her off. I could tell that my mother's eyebrows were furrowing as she said, "Are you sure this is going to work?"
Silence.
"Alright," she sighed, and I knew that she rubbed her forehead as I heard the phone click. After a few moments of silence, my mother finally came back into the foyer, looking down at me with sorrowful eyes. I stared up at her, scared for a moment. Why did she look that way?
"Delilah," she said. "I have some news for you."
"Wh--what?" I stuttered, blinking up at her. My mother looked down at the piece of paper in her hands in silence. I noticed that it wasn't the note that I had gotten from my stalker, but it was something she had written down herself.
"As you probably heard, I was on the phone with Lieutenant Shrew..." she started, and I wrinkled my nose at the mention of Lieutenant Shrew.
He was such an awful man, and he really never did help me at all. He was always mean to Jake and me, and never even wanted anything to do with us. He was supposed to be helping me, wasn't he? It really didn't seem like it. It seemed that he liked making my life even more complicated. Stupid bastard.
"I know Lieutenant Shrew isn't exactly the kindest man," my mother continued on. "But I feel like we have to listen to him this time."
I blinked up at my mother. "What do you mean?"
"He's given us a place where you can go where your stalker can't find you," she now told me, looking back down at the piece of paper in her hands. I stared at it, too as I waited for her to continue on. I hated having to wait for something, and I absolutely hated surprises. "It'll cost us a little amount of money, but I think it's worth it..."
"What is it, Mom?" I asked, standing up from my seat on the stairs nervously.
My mother twiddled her thumbs (another habit of hers that I had as well) for a moment before saying, "You're going to be going to a private school..."
I blinked once again. "How can he never find me there?"
"It's across the county."
I think my jaw dropped to the floor, if that was even humanly possible. "Across the country?" I almost shrieked. "Where?"
"New York," my mother said simply.
I gave her a flat look. Of course it was New York. I shouldn't have even been surprised that it was New York.
"I knew you wouldn't like that part," my mother smiled slightly. "But that isn't the worst part of the whole deal."
"What's worse than living in New York when your name is Delilah?" I asked, my arms crossed as I continued giving her a flat look. She seemed to be stalling, not knowing how to tell me. "Just tell me, Mom," I told her, my arms still crossed, but the flat look now replaced with a softer one. My mother smiled sheepishly.
"It's an all-boys school."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yay! New story for the new year!
This is for Watty Awards 2011! So VOTE, VOTE, VOTE please!
Even though this is under Mystery/Suspense for the Watty Awards, it's also a romance. ^_^
Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :D