Cont.

"Oh my gosh, have you seen the new kid yet? Gorgeous, totally and completely gorg-Arie,…Arie, are you listening to me? Hot new kid. Hello, are you in there?” Arabella slowly pulled her head out of her locker to look at Kristine, who had stopped babbling and was now staring at her with concern in her bright blue eyes. Kristine was short, 5’2” at the tallest, a good two inches shorter than Arabella, but her big personality more than made up for the lack of height. “You look like hell, Arie, did you sleep at all last night?”

“Barely, I had that nightmare again, you know, the one where I wake up terrified, but have no idea why. Then Sam called, and I had a hard time getting back to sleep.” Arabella explained, shrugging as if nightmares and phone calls at 3 in the morning were normal for her, which they were.

“He’s still calling you at 2 in the morning?”

“Well, this time it was 3:30, but I didn’t give him the chance to explain why he called, I told him I had to sleep and then hung up. He did that thing again right after I answered the phone.”

“You mean when you say ‘hello’ and he knows what mood you’re in from just that one word?” Kristine asked skepticism clear in her voice.

“Yep, the first thing he said was ‘what’s wrong’. The thing is, I have no idea what’s wrong. I don’t even know if it’s wrong exactly, but something is definitely off, I can feel it. Something is about to happen, something big.” Her voice and eyes full of apprehension Arie looked back into her locker to gather the books she would need for her morning classes. “Anyway, what were you saying about a gorgeous new kid?” she asked poking her head back around the door to her locker eyebrows raised.

“Well, I saw him when I passed the office a few minutes ago and…” Kristine trailed off, her eyes widening as she looked over Arie’s shoulder and down the hall. “Oh crap, here he comes…with Cobb. Don’t look, pretend he’s not there, maybe they’ll pass us without Cobb noticing that we’re here.”

Arie used the mirror in her locker to look quickly behind her. Sure enough Mr. Cobb, principal of Golgotha private school, was coming up the hall heading straight for her. Please, don’t be looking for me, please. The tall, skinny man was of the unfortunate type that thought he was cool, but was far from it. Arabella seemed to be one of the only students able to give the man her honest opinion about anything without getting in trouble. The problem was, every time Arie told the truth, Mr. Cobb thought she was being sarcastic or witty and would laugh and joke right back. The man was clueless, completely clueless. “He’s not going to keep walking, he’s coming to talk to us.” Arie breathed to Kristine, “brace yourself.”

“Ah, Arabella, just the girl I was looking for.” Mr. Cobb said, a bit too loudly as if he was incredibly proud of himself for having found her.

“Good morning, sir, was there a specific reason you wanted to see me?” Arie asked as politely as possible. Better to let him think I like him then deal with the fall out if he knew the truth.

“Yes, ma’am, these fine young folks here,” Cobb responded stepping aside to reveal the two teenagers standing behind him. “are Kellan and Kylie Roberts.” The two teens were very obviously twins, both tall with stick strait hair as black as night, Kellan’s cut short to fit school dress code and Kylie’s reached down to just below her waist. They had almost the same face, Kellan’s being more masculine, angular and straight, while Kylie had softer features. The most startling difference was their eyes. Kylie’s eyes were an unsettling shade of purple, something most people could only accomplish through colored contact lenses, while Kellan had luminous jade green eyes that seemed to flicker with light almost as if there was a lit candle behind them.
“Today is their first day and they will both be joining the senior class. I was hoping you would be able to show them around today.”

“Of course, sir. I would love to.” Arie replied, her opinion of Mr. Cobb was clear in her voice, though he remained completely unaware. She shot a glance at the new boy and saw without surprise that it looked as though he was trying not to laugh. Good he catches on quick.

“You’ve been at Golgotha longer than most students; I thought you would be the best guide. Be sure to answer any questions they might have and make them feel welcome.” Turning to the other three students now gathered around Arabella’s locker Cobb finished, “I’ll see you all second period.” And with that he continued down the hall.