Aria Kelvin wasn’t nervous as she entered the building-which kinda bugged her. Most people would be so scared they’d have more than just butterflies in their stomachs-more like pterodactyls. Most people would be jealous of her due to the fact that she didn’t have any fear whatsoever.

    But then again, she wasn’t most people.

    She moved towards her classroom, more than a little annoyed at how calm she still felt, even though she was now over five minutes late. Where was the exciting uneasiness she was supposed to get on her first day at a new school? The one that all the movies and books talked about? Were they all just complete droll letdowns like everything else in life? Maybe the nervousness would come as she got closer to her destination.

    Nope. She didn’t even feel the slightest bit uncomfortable as she went to open the door. Dammit, what was with this?! All she wanted was a little pain in her stomach and then she would be alright! Was being scared on her first day really too much to ask?! Especially since it would probably be one of the only times she’d be able to feel pain as her mom had insisted that she not let anyone know of her masochistic ways. Which meant that she couldn’t even make it semi-obvious. Damn parents and their insane need to protect their kids.

    The teacher was in the middle of lecturing when she threw open the door. She wasn’t quiet like most people would be, having literally thrown the door in hopes that it would slam shut on her face and she would just come across as either clumsy, funny or stupid. But, no, of course there was some kind of magnet on the wall that held it open. Damn rich private schools.

    “Sorry I’m late,” Aria smiled, prancing into the classroom. She had to pretend to be your average student, otherwise horrible things would happen when her mom found out. “I got lost.”

    The teacher was a woman who looked about six months away from kicking the bucket, she had dark grey hair and eyes that were so wrinkled and squinted that-if it weren’t for the huge glasse

s that showed the tiniest of slits in the middle-you’d have to wonder how she saw at all. Aria held back a smirk. Perfect. She looked like the exact kind of teacher who would need help with the heavy lifting-which meant accidents would be easier to fake. Maybe this wouldn’t be such an awful year after all.

    “Are you Aria?” the teacher asked, lifting one gnarled finger to push up her glasses.

    Aria nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”

    “What a nice looking girl,” she smiled before moving her shaky hand so that she was doing this odd pointy-like thing towards the chairs, “You’ll be sitting next to your roommate, Genevieve.” she said this as if she expected Aria to already know who Genevieve was.

    Aria tensed up at that. Her flight had been delayed the night before so she hadn’t actually arrived until this morning and therefore hadn’t met her roommate, yet. But on the bright side, the nervous pains were finally coming.

    Luckily though, she was saved an embarrassing explanation as a girl with bright red hair made eye contact with her and waved ever so slightly. She had an open seat next to her which proved Aria’s suspicion that this was her M.I.A roommate.

    “Thanks,” she murmured, dropping into the seat next to her.

    Genevieve smiled at her, “No problem. I figured I’d save you the embarrassment.” then she cocked an eyebrow, “Where were you last night?”

    Aria flashed her a nervous grin, “My flight was delayed.” she tried to hold in her disappointment over how nice Genevieve seemed to be. There went her dreams of having an abusive roommate. Oh well, there were still many opportunities to quench her craving without anyone figuring out about them.

    “Oh,” Genevieve’s eyebrows drew together and her mouth set in a prominent frown, “Well, that’s too bad. Did you get a tour of the school this morning?”

    Aria shook her head, “I was told to report right here.”

    Genevieve busted out laughing-a silent, laugh seeing as they were in class, “You have a funny vocabulary, Ria.” then she patted her on the back, “Don’t worry, I’ll show you around after school.”

    Aria smiled a thank you at her, before turning back to the front to make it seem as if she were listening even though she really wasn’t. They were in the middle of the room which made it hard to scope out half of the students but that wasn’t a problem. In a school this big-even a snobby, rich one-there was bound to be at least one trouble maker she could trick into beating her. And it should be easy, considering she could be well annoying when she set her mind to it.  She did it many times at her old school. Now all that was left was finding the right person….

    Fifty minutes later, the bell sounded throughout the classroom. Aria made to stand up but stopped as she realized nobody else was following along with her.

    “What are you doing?” Genevieve raised an eyebrow up at her, still in her seat along with most the rest of the class.

    “Getting ready to go to next period….” Aria answered, more than a bit confused.

    Genevieve shook her head, “In this school the teachers move between the classes. We stay right here for the entire morning.”

    “Even for lunch?”

    “Most of the time.”

    Aria sighed. Great. She had been planning on using the hallway time to scope out people while simultaneously trying to piss someone off enough that she’d get slammed into a wall. But she should’ve known better. Leave it to a rich school to be lazy as well.

    “How long do we have between classes?” Aria winced, “Do we have time between classes?”

    Genevieve laughed, “We have about five minutes between each class.”

    Well, good. At least that left some kind of an opening for Aria to find someone to beat her. She glanced around the room briefly before her eyes settled on the perfect person. It was a tall boy with dark hair and a face that seemed to be set in a permanent scowl and had a scar running down the right side of his face. He looked like the leader of some gang… heh heh… he’d be perfect.

    “Hey,” Aria tapped Genevieve on the shoulder, “Who’s that?”

    Genevieve followed her gaze to the back of the classroom, her eyes growing wide as they settled on the boy Aria was indicating to, “Um… you don’t wanna know.”

    Aria shook her head, “Yes, I do. Tell me.”

    “Look, Ria,” Genevieve twirled her around so that they were facing each other, “Look, I know how hot he is, but believe me when I say that unless you’re a masochist, you don’t wanna get involved with him.”

    Wow, way to hit it on the mark, Jen-not that Aria could tell her that, “Just tell me,” she pleaded.

    Genevieve gave her a weird look, clearly confused at why she was so interested in the man, before sighing and saying, “His name is Zeke Miller-or ‘Zeke the killer’ as most of us call him.”

    Wow, what a cheesy nickname, Aria wanted to say. Not that she really cared all that much. It just proved all her suspicions about him correct. This was perfect! Now all she had to do was hunt him down and annoy him to the point where he felt the need to beat her every time he saw her. Which shouldn’t be  too hard.

    Aria propped her chin up on her hand, narrowing her eyes slightly at Zeke. Now to come up with the plan. It would’ve been so easy if they moved between classes-just bump into him so much that he started to hate her. Ugh, oh screw it…

    She hopped out of her chair, vaguely hearing Genevieve’s pleads for her to stop and marched right over to him, perching right in front of her desk with a huge smile on her face.

    “Hi,” she let out a girly giggle that burned her throat, “I’m Aria Kelvin, what’s your name?”

    Zeke glanced up at her through half lidded eyes as if he were tired before sharply turning away. Aria smirked. Perfect. He was already in the “ignore and maybe it’ll go away” phase. Oooh, maybe she’ll feel some sweet nonself-inflicted pain before the day was over! She was beginning to grow worried, too….

“I’m new,” she danced back into his line of sight, ignoring all the gasps from the other kids in her class. After all, only a masochist would be pushing Zeke Miller, “Do you think you could show me around the school?” Zeke turned away again.

“No.”

Aria couldn’t hold back a grin at how angry his voice sounded-oh! This was going along smoothly! “Why not? Don’t tell me you’re new too?” she gasped and grabbed onto his arm, “Oh this is so cool! Maybe we can find someone to give us both a tour!”

Zeke glanced down at his arm briefly, before shooting a glare up at her, “Do you have a death wish or something?”

Well, she wouldn’t necessarily call it a death wish, but hey whatever worked for him.

“Haha, maybe she does,” Genevieve laughed nervously, having suddenly appeared behind her, “Sorry if she bugged you at all. We were just going back to our seats, now…”

She grabbed a firm hold of Aria’s hand and began to drag her back to their desks as promised. Aria glanced behind her back at Zeke as she did so, before smirking.

This was only just beginning.

THE FIRST CUT

“I can’t believe you actually did that!”

    Aria glanced up to see a girl who had chestnut brown hair with black streaks staring down at her with wide eyes. The bell for lunch had just rung and she hadn’t had time to even get up before people started swarming her, apparently.

    “Did… what?” she asked, genuinely confused.

    “Bugged Zeke the Killer like you did!” the girl’s eyes followed Aria’s as she got up due to Genevieve’s insistence, “Most people can hardly stand to look at him without wetting themselves!”

    Aria shrugged, as the two of them followed the red head out of the classroom, “I figured you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” oh, how far that was from the truth…..

    “True,” Genevieve murmured, “But in this case, Wendy is correct. If there’s anyone who you can judge by the way they look, it’s him.”

    “I hear he sent a boy to the hospital for a week because he looked at his bike wrong,” Wendy whispered with just a hint of fear in her voice.

    “For just looking at his bike wrong?” Oh, that sounded divine. Aria was getting shivers just from the thought of it.

    “And if you think he’s going to take it easy on you because you’re a girl, think again,” Genevieve conked Aria lightly on the shoulder, “He doesn’t see gender. He’ll be as rough on you as he would with a boy.”

    It was funny, really, at how much of the opposite effect they were having on her than they wanted. Instead of scaring her off, they were making Aria more excited to continue on annoying him. She could almost feel the pain shooting through her body at the thought. What would he do to her? Have some of his goonies beat her up? Hang her from the ceiling by just her hands so that her body weight would pull painfully on her arms? Slowly yank off all of her toenails and fingernails?

    “Seriously,” Wendy grabbed ahold of her arm, “You have to promise me that you won’t try to aggravate him anymore.”

    Aria forced out a laugh, even though she felt like pouting, “Alright, alright. I promise I won’t try to annoy him anymore.”

    Yeah right.

    The other girls seemed to believe it anyway.

    “Good,” Wendy smiled before groaning up at Genevieve, “Did you finish your U.S History project?”

    Genevieve raised an eyebrow back at her, “Didn’t you?”

    Wendy shook her head, “I was busy all night.”

    “Getting high doesn’t qualify as being busy,” Genevieve sighed as Aria blinked. She hadn’t taken Wendy as the type of girl who would enjoy smoking, “And I’m not going to help you again. If I do, you’re never going to learn your lesson.”

    “But what am I gonna do?!” Wendy shrieked, terror evident on her face, “If I don’t turn this in, I’m going to fail the class, and get expelled! Then my mom is going to kill me!”

    “You should’ve thought of that before.”

    Wendy pouted, before grabbing Aria, again, “Are you any good at history?”

    Aria smiled guiltily, “I drabble in it every now and again, but not particularly. I’m more into English and Mythology.”

    Wendy groaned, “Great. What am I gonna do?”

    Genevieve checked her watch, “You still have twenty minutes before lunch is over. If you hurry, you may be able to whip up a ‘C’ grade project.”

    Wendy paused, contemplating that for a moment, before sprinting back off towards the classroom. Aria watched her go with a slight giggle. That girl might be good to keep around-especially since she didn’t know how she got when high. Maybe she was violent!

    “We’re not all like that,”

    Aria glanced over to see Genevieve giving her a nervous smile, “Huh?”

    “Well, I was just thinking,” Genevieve laughed slightly, “Two out of the three people you really talked to today were… delinquent types, I’m just saying that we aren’t all like them.”

    Oh, so she was worried that Aria was scared or something, “Don’t worry,” she chuckled, “Wendy seemed cool.”

    Genevieve smiled at her in a way that looked like she was both confused and happy at Aria’s statement. Not that that was a surprise, of course. Wendy seemed like a nice enough person, but generally people don’t like to associate with druggies.

    “Well, I’m pretty sure that the feeling is mutual,” Genevieve turned back to the front, “Though her feelings will more than likely change if you turn out to be a vegetarian.”

    “Don’t worry,” Aria waved her hand, “I’m a carnivore through and through.”

    Genevieve nodded, “Good. I was worried because you looked like the type of person who would be.”

    Aria raised an eyebrow, “I do?”

    “Yeah, long blonde hair, innocent blue eyes,” Genevieve shrugged, “You look exactly like the kind of girl who would be horrified if she found out what they did to animals to get the meat.”

    Nothing compared to what they used to do, Aria thought about pointing out. But she had a feeling that the redhead probably knew about that. What she was really concerned about was the way she had described her. She couldn’t choose the color of her hair or eyes and the only reason her hair was long was because she’d found out back in elementary school that longer hair tends to get pulled more. She absentmindedly twisted her waist length ponytail around her finger.

    “Well, don’t worry,” she smiled over at her, hoping this new development wouldn’t make people want to protect her any more from Zeke when he finally started wailing on her, “I may look like a pure, innocent little girl, but I most definitely am not.”

    Genevieve laughed, “I’m going to take your word for that.”

    By then they had reached the cafeteria so her sentence was followed up with asking Aria wanted to eat.

    She ordered a slam sandwich and punch.

2: Opposites Attract

    Aria caught sight of Zeke again as her and Genevieve made their way back to the classroom. He was walking down the halls with two guys who looked just as tough on either side of him. Despite them though, he seemed almost as if he were alone.  Aria had to hold back a smile-this was perfect. If she got him mad enough at her now, maybe his other goonies would bash on her as well.

    But first she had to get rid of Genevieve so she didn’t see what she was up to. If she did, there would certainly be hell to pay, especially since Aria had just promised not even ten minutes ago that she would stay away from Zeke.

    She caught the perfect excuse out of the corner of her eye.

    “Jen?” Aria grabbed a hold of the redhead’s arm before pointing back at the doors they’d just passed on the other side of the hall, “I have to go to the bathroom.”

    Genevieve blinked, “Oh, um… do you want me to wait… or do you think you can make it back?”

    Aria laughed, “The classroom is just down the hall, Jen. I think I’ll be fine.”

    Genevieve gave her a suspicious look as if she somehow doubted Aria’s story but nodded and turned back towards the class after a second. Aria waited for her to disappear before turning on her heel and practically sprinting for Zeke and his friends.

    “Zeke!” she laughed, waving her hand in the air. The large boy froze, before turning around with annoyed eyes to face her, “How you been doing?!”

    Zeke stared down at her for a second before hissing, “Do I know you?”

    “Oh, silly you,” Aria giggled, “Of course you do. Don’t you remember? We met this morning in class.”

    “No,” Zeke was now speaking through clenched teeth, good. He was probably so mad now that he would wail on her with one or two more final blows, “I don’t.”

    “Pfft,” Aria rolled her eyes, “You’re just playing with me. I’m too adorable for anyone to forget.”

    “Actually,” Zeke’s hands clenched into fists, “I’m not. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be headed off now.”

    Wait, what?! He was leaving?! Um, no, that wasn’t a part of the plan! And when the hell would he finally turn to his followers so that they could take care of her?! At least do that if he found her too useless to handle on his own!

    “Please don’t!” Aria cried out desperately, “I really wanna hang out with you! You seem like you could need a little-”

    A gasp cut her off as he grabbed a hold of her upper arm and began dragging her off, yelling back at his goonies not to follow him. Aria fought to keep the look of terror and surprise on her face as he dragged her further down the hall into an abandoned area that she’d never been before. This was it! The moment she’d been waiting for all morning! She was gonna get a good pounding in!

    Zeke threw open the door to what seemed to be an abandoned classroom before tossing her in. He wasn’t rough-much to her slight disappointment-but hadn’t been exactly gentle either, so she supposed she could live with it. Especially if the rumors were true about what he was about to do to her.

    He began moving towards her, backing her up until the backs of her knees hit a stray desk. As soon as he was within two feet of her, his hands shot out, slamming them on either side of her, locking her in. So… it seemed he was the type to threaten first, then act. Well, whatever. She could handle both.

    “Look,” he started out by saying, “I don’t know what you think you want from me, but this has got to stop now.”

    Aria’s eyes lit up, “What do you mean?” she asked instead of saying “or what?” like she wanted to so bad. For a second she thought she vaguely heard the sound of a door opening but quickly decided it must’ve been her imagination.

    “Clearly, you work for someone, otherwise there is no way you’d approach me saying such odd things when I know you’ve heard the stories about me.”

    She shook her head, “Sorry, I don’t work for anyone. 100% acting on my own.” then she realized that that might’ve been a mistake. If he had believed she were a spy for some rival gang, he might’ve been even harder on her. Dammit.

    “Really?” Zeke’s eyes narrowed dangerously, “Then praytell me why you’re so insistent on making me hate you.”

    Aria smiled guiltily, “That’s… classified.” she was under strict orders from her mother not to tell anyone about her masochistic ways otherwise she would be forever home schooled by her father who apparently wouldn’t be able to hurt her even if he wanted to. That was scary.

    Zeke searched her eyes for a second, though what he was trying to find escaped Aria. Why couldn’t he just get on with that lesson he was bound to teach her already? If he didn’t hurry they would end up missing lunch by the time it was over.

    Then he pulled back, shaking his head, “Nevertheless, it must stop.”

    “Or what?” Aria raised an eyebrow, feeling a half smirk work it’s way across her face, “You’re going to beat me up?”

    Zeke gave her a slightly odd look, “No.”

    Um… what?! “What?”

    Zeke laughed, “I’m a pacifist.”

THE FIRST CUT

    To say that Aria was in a bad mood by the time she got back to class would’ve been an understatement. She’d had such high hopes for that kid, only to find out that he had been a fraud, sent by the devil himself to wreak havoc on her hopes and dreams. A pacifist?! What kind of a gang leader is a pacifist?! She hadn’t gotten a chance to ask as he’d ran from the room right after he’d made this little revelation.

    The chitterchatter from behind the class stopped almost immediately after she opened the door. Everyone turned to look at her with wide, slightly scared eyes. Aria raised a confused eyebrow. What was with all of them? Lunch hadn’t ended yet so it wasn’t like she was late or anything-so they didn’t have a reason to stare. Besides, hadn’t they gotten the whole “new girl” hap out of the way earlier?

    But the weirdness didn’t stop there. She’d expected to have to weave her way through the crowd to get to her seat where she could see Genevieve waiting for her with wide eyes of her own, but people seemed to shuffle out of her path as she moved towards them. Now seriously, what the hell was going on?

    “Did I just enter the Twilight Zone or are you all this weird at lunch time?” she asked, sliding into her seat next to the redhead.

    “Ria,” Genevieve said in a quiet voice, “Everybody knows.”

    Knows? Wait-don’t say they found out about her being a masochist?! Aria forced a confused look onto her face, “Knows what?”

    “About you and Zeke!” Genevieve shrieked, “Tyler saw him drag you into an abandoned classroom and was about to go in and help you when he saw the two of you leaning over a desk, making out!”

    Wait a minute, when had he-oh right. Hadn’t she heard a door opening at some point? Great.

    “We weren’t making out.” she grumbled. Genevieve raised an eyebrow, “What?! We weren’t!”

    The red haired girl shook her head, “Well that doesn’t matter now. It’s already in everyone’s heads that you’re his girl-and there’s no way anyone’s gonna mess with something that belongs to Zeke the Killer.”

    Well, if Aria hadn’t been mad when she’d entered the classroom, she certainly was, now.

3: Second Cut

    Aria collapsed into her chair for her first afternoon class, Child Development. After the little fiasco this morning, she was no longer in a good mood. How had all her dreams for this school been shot before she’d even gotten the chance to eat lunch? It was so unfair! But, leave it to her mom to somehow find the one and only place where she wouldn’t be able to get hurt without drawing attention to her… condition.

    Really, it was kinda funny though. She gets sent to probably the only school in existence where the gang leader was a pacifist but nobody seems to know about it and assume that she’s going out with him. Really, what were the odds? Not that it really mattered as it happened to her anyway.

    She sighed, before slamming her head on her desk, enjoying the pain that shot through her neck though not as much as she would’ve had someone else done it for her. Believe it or not, there were morals even in masochism. Pain was a lot more enjoyable if someone else was causing it and not yourself. Probably not the best moral to have but it worked for her.

    “Oh, that sounded like it hurt,” a familiar voice came from above her.

    Aria’s head whipped up, causing a bit more pain to shoot through it, but she hardly noticed through her shock. Standing right above her was Zeke. In Child Development. What the hell?

    “What are you doing here?” she hissed through narrowed eyes. She wasn’t very happy to see the object that caused her problems right in front of her.

    Zeke shrugged and slid into a seat right next to her, “I had this period free and now that everyone thinks we’re going out, they just kinda assumed that I would come here to be with you.”

    Aria raised an eyebrow, she had a feeling that most of his afternoon classes (and on normal days, his morning classes were too), but that wasn’t what she wanted to ask, “They don’t expect you to just make me skip? Attending class at all must be embarrassing for a gang leader such as yourself, but Child Development?” she let out a harsh laugh, “I honestly thought you didn’t have it in you.”

    Zeke returned her laugh with a little half smile of his own which-though she could tell it was supposed to be slightly humorous-he somehow made look scary as hell, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t exactly look like the type of girl who would skip class.”

    “And you don’t look like the type of boy who would attend,” Aria shot back with a wry half smile of her own.

    “But you know better than to judge a book by its cover,” Zeke patted her on the head, “Especially when it comes to me.”

    “Maybe you should learn the same lesson with me,” Aria stuck out her tongue, “I’m not nearly as innocent as I look.”

    Zeke snorted, “Yeah right, I bet you don’t even know what a gang is.”

    Aria rolled her eyes, “I know perfectly well what a gang is. You don’t know everything about me.” then she sighed, before raising her eyebrow at him again, “Speaking of which, when exactly are you going to set everybody straight about us?”

    “What do you mean by that?”

    Aria’s eyes grew wide in exasperation, “Um, how about the fact that they all think we’re going out when we’re-y’know-not?”

    “I’m not.”

    “Excuse me?!”

    Zeke chuckled, “These people are going to believe what they want to believe. And apparently they want to believe that we’re going out for some reason or another.”

    Aria’s eyebrows drew together, “What? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

    Zeke shrugged, “You won’t get any argument from me. Why they all want to believe that I’m going out with someone like you is beyond anything I can think of.”

    Aria felt her eyebrow tick. How was it that in the span of less than an hour, she’d gone from wanting to annoy the hell out of him to him annoying the hell out of her? She hoped that he wasn’t a masochist, because if he was then her plan to beat him up later on was certainly going down the drain. Hey, maybe it would be fun beating up a guy that size, I mean, it would probably be the only time she’d be able to to. Not very many men of his caliber were pacifists.

    “So I guess as of now we may as well be officially dating,” she groaned, turning away and resting her head in her hand. Well, so much for getting beat up anytime before she graduated.

    “Just call me your boyfriend.”

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    “You do realize we’re not going out, right?” she asked Genevieve that night as they changed for bed.

    Genevieve laughed, “For about the billionth time, yes.” she sat down next to her, “Why do you keep asking?”

    Aria sighed, “Sorry, I just… why does everyone seem to want to believe that we’re dating?”

    Genevieve shrugged, “Because we want to believe that people in general are good. He stands in the way of that. But now that you-this giant pillar of goodness and light-are here, they want to believe that you can change him.”

    “Change him?” Aria snorted, “I don’t think that there’s a thing about him that I could change for the better.” especially since she was the one who was messed up in the relationship.

    Genevieve raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean by that?”

    Aria shook her head, “Nevermind. It doesn’t really matter.”

    “Aw! C’mon, tell me! I don’t like being in the dark!”

    Aria blinked at her, “Why are you talking as if I just betrayed you or something?”

    “Because it feels like you have.”

    “But we haven’t even known each other for twenty-four hours yet! I don’t think you can really betray someone you’ve only known that long!”

    “Yes you can!” Genevieve pouted, “Now c’mon, Ria! Please!”

    Aria shook her head, “Sorry, but it isn’t my secret to tell.”

    Genevieve groaned, before falling back on the bed, “I don’t have any secrets from you.”

    “Um… if I may resort back to my original argument-we haven’t even known each other for a day, yet! Of course you have secrets from me!”

    “Yeah, but nothing big.”

    Well, as far as Aria known she was telling the truth. And to add sugar to the mix she was keeping two big secrets from the redhead. Granted, they weren’t exactly best friends, but she got the feeling that Genevieve was the type who grew really close to people really quickly. And the fact that they for some reason already had best friend necklaces just added to the mix. It was odd being the normal one in not just one, but two relationships.

    “Alright,” Aria sighed, “But you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

    Genevieve’s eyes lit up at that, before she sat up and scooched over toward her. Aria regretted her promise almost immediately but Jen was her only ticket to Wendy who seemed to be her last hope of getting beaten up sometime this year at all. She just had to wait for the next time the brunette wanted to get high, which-from what she’d heard from Genevieve-shouldn’t be much more than just a week or two. She could wait that long.

    “Okay,” Aria nodded, “So… here’s the deal. Zeke is actually a pacifist.”

    Genevieve stared at her for a second with wide eyes, before suddenly bursting out laughing, “Oh, that was a good one. Zeke the killer-a pacifist?” she got up and moved for the bathroom, “Oh, Ria, you crack me up.”

    Aria stared after her for a second, before rolling her eyes with a smile.

 

4: Kidnapping Gone Wrong

Aria dropped herself into her seat two weeks later. Just as Genevieve had suspected, nobody would even talk to her, much less pick on her. The only person she had real contact with was her redheaded roommate and Wendy. Which resulted in people walking on eggshells around them as well.

This was going to have to end.

She crossed her arms, staring blankly up at the board. It had been almost a month since the last time she felt any kind of pain inflicted by someone else which wasn’t good. She was currently going through withdrawl-like, literal withdrawl. She was having serious hot and cold flashes.

It was five in the morning, which meant that most everybody else wouldn’t even be up, much less in class. She hadn’t been able to sleep, her dreams haunted her with flashes of pain shooting through her. But tiny, ghost, nothing pains. Not exactly anything that would help her with her need.

She was brought out of her thoughts as the door flew open. She whipped her head around, eyes wide to see a boy with dark brown hair and narrowed eyes. He stood about a foot taller than her and was wearing a simple t-shirt and shorts. Definitely not a student here-but who wa he?

“Hey, girlie,” Aria blinked at the name, more pissed at it than she should be. After all, she had been called worse, “Do you know an Aria Kelvin?”

Why was he looking for her? He looked scary… oh! Maybe he was a childhood friend or something of Zeke’s’ and was coming to beat her up for stealing him! How exciting!

“Yes, I am she.”

He smirked evilly, before pulling out a gun and aiming it straight at her head, “I’m from a the East side gang. You’re gonna have to come with me.”

 

It had never occurred to Aria that Zeke might have enemies. It just wasn’t what you associated with someone being a pacifist.  But now that she thought about it, that had been pretty idiotic of her. He was the freaking leader of a gang so of course there would be people out to get him (And apparently her too, as she was his girlfriend)!  Though, now that it came to mind, how did he get to become the leader of a gang? Quite frankly, it really didn’t make sense at all. She made a quick mental note to remember to ask him.

“So…” she murmured, moving her head around as if she were glancing about even though she was blindfolded, “Why exactly do you want me?”

“You know,” the boy who was not-too-gently leading her forward snorted, “You’re Zeke Miller’s girlfriend.”

Aria shook her head, “Yupp. Nope. Still don’t get it.”

The boy sighed, undoubtedly wondering how she could be so stupid, “That means you’re his weakness. So just about every gang in the country is out for you, I hope you know.” he chuckled, “I hope you’re ready for this to become a frequent experience.”

Ready?! Hell yeah she was ready! She’d been ready the day she was born! Aria was almost jumping in excitement. Getting kidnapped by a rival gang meant she’d pretty much be certain to get beaten up or at least have a punch or two thrown in. Go rival gangs!

She held back a giggle and disguised her skip as a stumble at the thought. Oh, how lucky she was! No longer would she have to worry about stupid, wussy getting thrown into a locker or two! Now she would probably get tortured for information! She would have to remember to thank Zeke for this, later.

But first, she had to make sure that nobody knew her real intentions.

“Where are we going?” she asked, lacing “disguised fear” into her voice.

“Nothing you have to worry your pretty little head about,” the boy snapped, “It’s not you we’re after.”

“Really?” Aria snorted, “Coulda fooled me.” there was silence, “If you’re not after me, then what’s with tying me up and blindfolding me?”

“We can’t have you knowing where our hideout is, now can we?”

Aria thought about that for a second, before something hit her, “Wait,” she said, honestly more out of curiosity than anything else, “You’re expecting Zeke to come and save me, right?”

“You’re a smart one.”

Aria bit back her anger at his snide tone, “Then you should know that as we escape, I shall see where it is, anyway.”

She slammed into his back after he came to a halt. There was silence for a second, before he busted out laughing. It wasn’t a crude laugh like the ones so much before, but a joyful laugh, as if she’d actually managed to hit his funny bone.

“You really are very smart,” Aria felt him grab her wrist and yank her forward, placing his other on the small of her back. She couldn’t feel anything else of him but the heat of his body and his breath ever so slightly across her lips as he spoke, “And pretty, too. It’s really too bad that you’re Zeke Miller’s girl.”

“It wouldn’t matter,” she shot back, barely moving her mouth as she was afraid that if she did, their lips would brush, “If my information is correct, you probably hate everyone who goes to this school. The fact that I’m dating Zeke Miller only adds to your hatred of me.”

There was a chuckle, “How is it that you make it both easy and hard to hate you at the same time?”

“Believe me, I’m not trying to.” Aria hissed, “I’m just trying to knock some sense into that thick skull of yours.”

There was another moment of silence. Aria imagined he was probably examining her face and tried to hold back a blush as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Would they ever get going so she could just get beaten up already?

But then the unthinkable happened. His hands moved away from her and-as her own dropped to her side-she realised that he’d somehow released her binds without her noticing. She hesitated for a second, before reaching up to remove her blindfold. A part of her would miss it, but she knew that it would probably arise questions if she kept it on.

The boy was standing with his back to her, his hands shoved in his pockets. They were standing right inside the front doors, the early rays of the morning sun giving them both a golden glow.

“You really are a remarkable girl,” the boy laughed, “I never thought Zeke would choose someone like you to be his girlfriend.”

Someone like her? What did that mean? Whatever, it wasn’t important. What mattered was that he seemed to be letting her go! That couldn’t happen!

The boy then turned to shoot her a huge grin, “You’ve captured my interest. Now, my intentions have completely changed.”

Aria blinked, changed? What could that mean? She voiced her questions.

“My name is Loke Carter,” the boy said as if that answered all her questions, “I think it’s important that you know the name of your future boyfriend.”

Aria’s eyes grew wide, “Huh?”

Loke smirked, before pointing a long finger at her, “I’m going to steal you from Zeke Miller, Aria Kelvin. Mark my words! You will be mine!”

“Um…” Aria was dumbstruck. No! This couldn’t be happening! She was supposed be getting beaten up right now! She had to think of something-something to get back on track, “What about your boss? I don’t think he would be happy to hear that you let me-”

“Don’t you worry,” Loke nodded, “After all, I’m the leader of the gang.”

Aria gulped. A part of her was afraid to ask, but she felt as if she had to.

“And what gang would that be?”

Loke smiled proudly, “Only the second most feared gang in the city.”

Yupp… that was just her luck.