Chapter 1

The playground was buzzing with excited chatter as the September sun burned brightly in the air, cliques had already formed separating the students into their allotted groups and it was only the first hour of the first day of term. Several older students, who were rebelling against the school rules, had removed their ties and were covertly smoking a pack of cigarettes that one of them had pinched from their mum. Girls were lined up on the edge of the painted basketball courts, fawning over the boys running across the tarmac in a particularly tense death match, the Populars vs. the Unpopulars, the A-team vs. the B-team. Both sides equally competitive but the A-team, being the schools starting team, were at an advantage. Over on the opposite side of the small playground was a select group of eight people. They had only admitted one member into the group since pre-school and as was expected, they kept to themselves and everyone else kept away from them. It didn’t stop them getting their own band of merry followers who wanted to become part of the elite but they never quite had the ‘special stuff’ required to be part of the group.

                Despite the cliques that separated them, the students collected in the playground all had one thing in common, they were too busy to notice when a bottle green Volkswagen pulled up outside of the school gates. Maybe they would have noticed if the car was a Porsche or something equally expensive but as it was, not one person turned their eyes to the perfectly ordinary vehicle as a petite girl with hair as blonde as the whitest rose climbed out of the car. They didn’t notice when, with sure and practiced movements, she flicked her wrist outwards so that the small stick she was holding extended into a large white cane. Nor did they notice as she tapped her way through the gates into the Mini-kingdom of Tyler Court Secondary School and Sixth form centre.

                She paid no mind to the cliques either as she passed by each of them, instead the girl walked with her head held high and her steps confident as her cane explored the path before her, luckily coming in contact with nothing other than concrete, whilst her unseeing eyes were staring blankly through the tinted lenses of her sunglasses. She was dressed in regulation school uniform apart from the sunglasses and cane but for her the Head of school had made an exception, not that they could really say anything anyway.

                The warning bell for registration reverberated from all the surrounding buildings and the girl was left in momentary confusion as she tried to locate the direction that was best to go in. It was fine when she knew the place but this school was foreign, and she hadn’t even had the chance to spend the weekend mapping the place out to get her bearings because she had only arrived in this small town yesterday. She paused and waited for the rush of footsteps to catch up with her, her cane being retracted so that it lay flat against her leg preventing it from being knocked from her grasp. Only when people started bumping into her did she start moving towards the largest of the three buildings, swept along by the crowd so fast that she almost fell to the floor several times. Her face contorted as each person hit her, her head whipping from side to side as if she was seeing a million different images all at once. It wasn’t too far from the truth because if she hadn’t been wearing the glasses she was sure that the people surrounding her would have noticed her eyes changing all different shades of mundane browns, blues and greens as each person came in contact, momentarily borrowing a part of the essence so that she got a flash of the world around her. She manoeuvred her way to the edge of the steam of students and once she reached the wall she held on tight as the bodies continued to jostle past her, sending her a confusing array of images.

It wasn’t until they had dispersed and she was left on her own, that her eyes reverted to their original colour, one was the brightest violet and the other was the brightest and purest blue. Most found her eyes unnerving, they said they weren’t natural, and so to save problems she kept her eyes covered. It stopped her having to answer a lot of questions in the long run as no one could quite explain away changing eye colours, the last person who had seen the teen’s eyes change had passed it off a trick of light as a moment later, when she stepped away, the eyes had been the unnerving mismatch they were before. Though, it had managed to send a few people to see a shrink as they believed that they had seen a demon rather than a teenager.

                Setting the end of her cane on the ground once more, the girl smoothed out the frown that had appeared during the tussle finally melted away as she tightened her grip around the handle of the cane, obviously relieved to find that it hadn’t been knocked out of her hand. She tapped her way across the tattered linoleum floor until she reached one of the doors, her ears picking up the difference between wall and the wooden door. Rapping on it twice she waited until the door was swung open by a tall man who was balding slightly and had a very prominent beer belly. He looked down at the girl in front of him with a scowl as he leant against the door frame, his arm outstretched to keep the door from swinging shut so that the poor girl had to endure the smell of his offensively overwhelming body odour. It burnt her nostrils and caused her to twitch her nose a few times before she lifted her eyes to where she thought his face would be.

                “Yes?” He questioned after a minute had passed and the girl still had not said anything. “And you do know sunglasses are against regulation.” The last part was said like a statement so she just nodded and looked blankly at the man not that he could tell because of the aforementioned glasses obstructing his view. He sighed angrily when she still didn’t answer him. “Are you going to tell me what you want or are you just going to stand there all day child because you are really trying my patience!” The man muttered several curses under his breath and ran a hand through his thinning hair. He was getting too old for this crap, he thought bitterly. The girl, sensing his less than pleasant emotions towards her, cleared her throat to regain his attention.

                “Sir, is this form room 12C?” Her voice was soothing and the man gaped at the girl. He had assumed that she was deaf or at least unable to speak because of her lack of previous response. Shuffling awkwardly, he hitched a shoulder and then pointed past her down the hall, oblivious to the fact that her gaze didn’t follow his gesture.

                “Second door of the right.” He muttered before stepping back and without another word, he slammed his classroom door in her face.

                The girl took a few deep breaths, the smell of body odour lingering and burning the inside of her nose. She really wished she had brought the bottle of body spray with her, she knew that she would spend the entire day being paranoid about smelling like the bitter oniony smell that had been oozing from every pore of that teacher. Snorting slightly, she reached a hand forwards until she felt the smooth surface of the lacquered doors and then slid her hand until it met cool tile. She knew from the brief flashes she had received, that the tiles were green. The top half of the walls being painted in a pale sickly looking green whilst the bottom half of the wall was tiled in dark emerald green. The place was a hospital during the wars which she supposed explained the décor, most schools she went to spent more time worry about text books and supplies that to blow all that money on fancy tiles.

                Following the wall with her fingers, she counted until she was outside the right door. Closing her eyes she inhaled deeply before using her cane to rap sharply on the door whilst holding in her breath so that her chest puffed out slightly. The chattering that had been leaking through the gaps around the doors stopped abruptly before the definite click clack sound of heels on the hard floor told her that someone was coming. Pulling back the cane, the girl stood up straight and put on the sweetest smile that she could muster which to her wasn’t all that impressive but always seemed to work wonders on strangers.

                The door creaked as it was swung open and the girl’s blonde tresses ruffled slightly in the draft that came from the door being swung open so quickly.

                “Yes?” The woman’s voice was elderly and if the girl had to guess she would say she was about seventy years old. If she could see, she would have known her guess was not far off. The petite blonde exhaled as her chest started burning and when she inhaled, her nose welcomed the smell of the teacher’s perfume that smelt like a mixture of vanilla and roses.

The woman at the door was dressed in a young manner, a long flowing maxi dress that showed off her figure without exposing too much skin to be indecent. Her skin and hair bespoke of many years lived however. Her grey hair was plaited down to her waist and her eyes and mouth were surrounded by laughter lines. The woman was obviously kind because the twinkle of her eyes and the way her whole being screamed that she was relaxed and trustworthy, if not a little too relaxed meant that everyone in the room behind her was happily chattering away and none looked like they were holding onto the desk for dear life. But the girl could see none of this as from behind her glasses her eyes were staring straight ahead whilst she was plunged into darkness. Instead the girl had to rely on instinct. Taking a deep breath she lifted her head hoping she hadn’t misjudged the woman’s height, and gave her a brief smile.

                “Is this form room 12C?” She questioned whilst her fingers tightened around the cane, her hands preparing in case she needed to defend herself. Hoping that the badly smelling teacher hadn’t misdirected her because of her ‘insolence’; she had been overwhelmed by the sudden stench that had overwhelmed her when he had opened the door and it had taken her a moment to recuperate. She just prayed that she didn’t have lessons with him, a whole hour of sitting in the same room as that stench was unthinkable to the petite blonde.

                “Yes it is honey, are you the new transfer?” Before she even got a chance to respond, the girl was pulled into the old room and she did not have to see to feel all of the stares aimed at her.

 As it was the teacher gave her a brief flash of the room, the room was like any other classroom,  rows of tables that filed all of the way to the back of the room. The girl saw that most of the seats already filled with one available next to a snotty looking blonde who was too busy examining her manicure to look up and one next to a red head in the back row. The door clicked shut behind her and with a sense of finality she knew that there was no escaping. With a sigh she relented to the fact that there was no escaping destiny and destiny had brought her here in the first place. She just wished she could see so that she could find the chosen instead of the all the feigned interest in strangers so that she could size them up.

 “Dear, do you want to sit at the front of the back?” The kind old woman asked as she patted the girl on the shoulder.

                Brought from her thoughts sharply, she startled and hopped a step or two away from the teacher before grumbling about taking a seat in the back. She preferred sitting in the back, that way she could think of her quest rather than be forced to pay attention to some teacher droning on about something she already knew. That and the red head looked like the lesser of two evils, the blonde would probably try and gouge her eyes out with fingernails, that’s what had happened last time. The girl shuddered slightly at the memory as the teacher asked if she wanted any help getting to her seat which made the girl roll her eyes behind her lenses before stretching the cane out in front of her and walking towards the back of the room, being careful to alter her course whenever her cane bumped into something.

                She was halfway down the aisle when someone grabbed her butt. She didn’t even take time to think about it, she whipped around and smacked the boy over the back of the head with more force than necessary. Growling at him at him as she pulled back her cane she firmly murmured. “Don’t EVER touch me again or you will regret it, trust me.”

                She continued on to her desk with a smile on her face as if nothing had happened, much to the amusement of the red head at the back who just grinned at her as if she were a gift from God. After much grappling, she managed to slide into a seat. She started to unpack her things when the teacher cleared her throat and looked at the new but rather strange addition to the class. Giving her a warm and welcoming smile even though she already knew about her new student’s ‘condition,’ she spoke loud and clear so that the room that had started to erupt in chatter once more, silenced in anticipation of their next bit of gossip. 

“Would you like to introduce yourself dear?” She questioned raising her voice and putting on a firm tone that meant no wasn’t an option. The girl always hated this because she felt like she was in the spotlight and quite frankly, she didn’t need anything else drawing attention to her but be that as it may, she was expected to comply.

                Letting out a deep breath of air she raised her covered eyes and stared across the classroom not having to imagine people in their underwear to take away the nerves because all she could see was blackness. “My name is Xandria Calibre.” Her voice was smooth and because of the anticipatory silence, it sounded as if she had shouted it across the room. Her name reverberated off the walls with an air of the unseen power that was intertwined with her voice and a few people took in hasty breaths before they turned away in stunned silence.

                The teacher suddenly burst into a lecture about something completely spontaneous and the new girl Xandria leant back in her chair whilst let out a breath in relief so that it ruffled the strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face.

Xandria had always hated school and now because of her quest she was forced to come back but she supposed it was better than the alternative. Failure to attempt the quest resulted in banishment or having your title stripped away from you, which in her world was like getting her soul ripped out. She was so absorbed in her thoughts and her need to not screw up the first encounter with her new classmates, that she was shocked when someone shifted in the seat next to hers, their arm brushing against bare skin as they shifted in their seat. She caught a quick flash of the room so fast and brief that it jolted her forwards and she had to clutch the desk whilst breathing deeply to keep from gasping in surprise. It was during that time that the stranger spoke, his voice deep and gravelly but with a hint of amusement in it and it did more than set her heart racing as the power within his voice rocked through her body so that she shivered.

                “X. Calibre, nice.”

I would love your feedback on the chapter and your vote if you like it as I as entering it into the gatekeeper's contest and I really want to pass the first round.