breathin - ariana grande

Kora

I trace the raindrops on the window with my finger as they fall on the car door. It is as if I could touch them. I imagine running into the rain and feeling the sky envelope me in its tears.

Its tears for the world that is so broken. Its tears for the war that destroyed everything 15 years ago.

"Ma'am what would you like to eat for breakfast?" Lenny says breaking my haze.

"A Bagel with strawberry cream cheese please." I say politely. Lenny repeats the phrase to the automatic food press and my meal appears.

"Your Dangerously Strawberry Bagel, at your service Ms.Kora." Lenny says in a funny accent.

"Oh Lenny please, the only thing dangerous about that phrase was Ms.Kora. You are my body guard not my student." Lenny is one of my many Body guards but I have known him the longest. He is like a best friend except he is 30 and is paid to make sure nothing touches me.

"Are you ready to get out Ms.Kora?" He says intentionally.

"As ready as I"ll ever be." I say breathing in. I have gone from school to school trying to complete my studies but not one school has been able to keep up with my IQ most of the time I end up teaching the class. I hope that Green Private Academy will be a good match.

"Don't worry you just have to be perfect." Lenny smiles.

Perfect. The one label I will never ever live up to. But its the one label I have. After the war ended scientists needed a solution to everything that was wrong. They needed absolutely perfect people. Peaceful but not Naïve. Strong but not Hostile. Honest but not uptight. Smart but not vain. It also includes looks. Not fat but not too skinny. Long Legs but not too long. Perfect skin, Perfect hair... The list goes on.

So they created me. Well I was kind of an accident. A scientist (my mother) was exposed to the newly made chemical Iropiate while she was pregnant and out popped the "perfect child". I came out marked with the symbol of a diamond on my ankle to mark my perfection.

With all the labels and the fact that I am a "Ground-Breaking Discovery For Man-Kind"; I still don't know who I am. I have to face this though. I stretch out of the car and my guards surround me in a huddle.

"Do you guys have to do this today? I just want to be chill the first day and not draw too much attention." After a few long glances I finally get my reply.

"Fine but our men will be all over the school. And I will be following 30 feet or less behind you always." Lenny says.

I nod along knowing this is as good as I'm going to get.

I start climbing the stairs of my new school. I already see people staring at me and whispering. I immediately feel insecure but I keep my head up and smile at others.

I turn my head and see a group of people approach me.

"Hello!!!! Welcome to Green Private Academy! My name is Amber and I am president of the welcoming comitee." She says. She is my height and her caramel brown hair is flowing effortlessly. She is gorgeous.

"Behind me is John, Captain of the football team and Megan, Head Cheerleader. She also happens to be your roommate this year!" Amber says with glee.

"Nice to meet you guys." I say shaking each of their hands and smiling.

"So this is Green Private Academy founded in 2076 after the war..." She continued to blabber on about the history of the school when I saw something spectacular. Well, someone. It was a boy who had a glow to him. He reminded me of something. It was the glow that I saw looking in the mirror. It was something only I could see. It was a mark of my "perfection"

"Excuse me I have a question." I said politely to John.

"Yes. What is it?" He said suspiciously.

"Who is that Kid over there in the black hoodie?" I said pointing to him.

"His name is Everett Farnsworth. He has the highest GPA in the  school. He has only gotten 100% on everything ever. Other than that no one knows much about him." He pauses. "He's kind of a loser."

The tour continued and I zoned out of all of it. I know where everthing is now but I didn't need to know every name of the construction workers who built this place.

"Thank you so much for the tour. It was very kind of you. I must be getting to class now. It is 2nd period right?"

"Yes. What class do you have?" Megan asks.

"AP Honors English."

"Oooh smarty pants! Luckily I have that class too." She smiled.

"I'm glad to have a friendly face around." I smile.

"I hear the teacher is a real Looney." She says.

Me and Megan head to our class and I can't help but notice how she seems a little uncomfortable by all of the guards in the hallway.

"They must have really stepped up security this year." She says nervously.

"Yeah they must have."

"I don't mean to be rude but are you that one girl from the news?" She asks.

"Yes. The 'perfect person' they call me. But please don't think of me any differently." I say.

"Don't worry. I will treat you just as equally." She paused." We are here."

We enter the classroom and everyone turns around and stares. I notice Everett almost immediately with the strong glow surrounding him.

"Ah yes! Our new student! Miss Kora Eversby! How about you set your bookbag down at your seat right next to Everett and Megan." I go sit down.

"You two ladies didn't miss much. My name is Ms.Butchel and I will be your teacher all year for this class." She paused gaining everyone's attention then continued, "During this course you will be challenged. Not only intellectually but emotionally and physically. In this class you are going to be pushed to find who you truly are and not how others label you. So as your first challenge you are to write a book."

Chatter starts and soon the whole room is shouting out complaints.

"Calm down. This is not due until the last day of school. And I will be pairing you up with another person so this will be a lot easier.
The book can be any genre you want but it has to show some self resemblence and growth. Now I will go around with the hat of names and you will pick your partners that way. I'll start with Kyle.

This chubby red headed boy at the back of the class picks the first name."Megan"

Megan's face turns pale and she looks like she is about to pass out. She must not like Kyle.

Next is Jane who looks very friendly she gets Tyler who is visibly nervous.

Then its me. I swirl my hand around until I reach the very bottom and I grab a slip. I read the name. "Everett."

I look over at him and I see his piercing green eyes behind his hood. His perfect skin, Cutting jawline, and jet black hair makes my jaw tremble. He is very very attractive. 

"This must be some mistake. I can't work with her." He says.

"Everett you can indeed work with her. Fate has spoken." She says.

"Fine." He scowls.

The rest of the names are pulled and I wonder what's so wrong with working with me. I haven't even spoken to him and he already hates my guts.

Ms. Butchel assigns us a get to know your co-author assignment that is due next Friday. I write it down in my planner and then walk over to Everett hoping to make a good first impression.

"Hello. My name is Kora Eversby. I am new here to Green Private Academy." I said smiling. I held out my hand for him to shake.

"Yeah, I know who you are." he said his husky voice. I pull my hand away. He was obviously not on the mood for a handshake.

"Well then. May I sit down?" I ask politely.

"Whatever." He says scowling. He puts his hood up and crosses Jim's arms on his desk.

"Mr. Farnsworth how many times have I told you to take that hood off your head?" Ms.Butchel snarled.

"Only six thousand times, Ms.Butchel." he smirks.

I study him. He must be really smart to get into this school or, really rich. I stare at him. The glow from earlier intensifies as I examine his dark, brooding, handsome features.

"If you took a picture maybe it would last longer." He smirked. I turned my head and blushed.

"Are we going to get started?" I ask intensely.

"Woah calm down. You and I both know that we're gonna get 100% anyway. Right, Little Miss Perfect?" He looked at me with a devilish grin.

"Absolutely not. Good grades come from hard work and effort. Not procrastination and laziness. Now I don't know what you think you know about me but slacking has never been a character trait of mine. I will hold up my end of this project and I expect you to hold up yours. Am I clear?"

The tone wrang for the students to be dismissed and I started packing up my supplies in a hurry, furious at the way I responded to him. That was definitely not a perfect response.

I felt Everett's presence behind me and he whispered in my ear "Crystal." His hand grazed my waist and I felt a sharp pain right where he touched me.

He walked away from me with a smirk on his face. I ran to catch up to him. The ache in my waist was stronger now and I felt it searing through my side.

"Everett?" I said loudly so he would catch my eye.

"What do you want now?" He scowled.

"When are we going to get this assignment done?" I urge.

"Later." He shrugged.

I grabbed his shoulder and a surge of energy left my body. It was unlike anything I had ever expeirenced. "Could you just stop and listen to me for one moment?"

He looked at me with a shocked expression strung boldly on his face. "Don't touch me." He paused looking around hesitantly. "We can work on it tonight in your dorm. 6 o'clock. Now leave me alone."

He walked away and disappeared in the crowd of students with only the bright glow and his hooded figure to leave a trace of.

The pain in my side was overbearing now. I limped my way down the hallway to my next class. I could feel beads of sweat dripping down my back.

My vision and hearing started to get blurry and the last thing I saw before the darkness took hold was a bright glow racing towards my collapsing figure.

                             θ

I woke up to bright LED lights shining in my eyes. I looked around at my surroundings and I recognized it as the school nurses office from the school tour.

I saw Lenny and comfort flooded through my veins. "How are you holding up kiddo?"

"I feel great. A little out of the loop sure, but I'll manage." I said, saying a little fib. The pain was much reduced but their was still a strong ache in my waist.

"What happened to me? What time is it?" I asked.

"You must have been dehydrated, got lightheaded and passed out." He paused. "Its 6:30 pm."

"Oh crap! I missed my first day of school! I have to visit all my teachers to collect my work." I said while sitting up.

"Easy now tiger, don't worry about it. All of your homework and classwork has been collected."

"Oh, Lenny you really didn't have to do that for me, thank you." I said sincerely.

"Don't thank me, thank Everett Farnsworth. He collected all of your work before I was  notified that you had fallen. Hell, He's the one who caught you from falling straight on your head.  He's one heck of a kid. In fact he probably hasn't left since he got back here about 5 hours ago. Do you want me to go get him?"

"Yes, please do. Thank you for everything Lenny." I smiled at him. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have him.

Everett walked in and I dismissed the nurse.

"Hey how are you feeling?" He asked with sincerity in his eyes.

"I'll be okay." I paused thinking about what I could say, "I thought you hated me. Why did you catch me from falling, collect my homework, and wait for 5 hours? Are you stalking me or something? Do you want to develop a relationship with me because frankly I don't know if I am ready to do th-"

"Stop talking Kora. Let me show you why I did all that." He took off his shirt and the first thing I saw was his toned abs and perfect shape. A devilish grin spread across his face and he turned around. His back muscles were intense. But the one thing I noticed was a brand new red,  rashed tattoo on his back. It looked brand new.

It read:

Flashback:

I grabbed his shoulder and a surge of energy left my body. It was unlike anything I had ever expeirenced. "Could you just stop and listen to me for one moment?"

He looked at me with a shocked expression strung boldly on his face. "Don't touch me."

End of Flashback

My face turned pale. "I-I-I said that earlier. I s-s-said those words." I immediately got angry. "What kind of idiot do you think I am? To make me believe that I put that there. I mean I know people would want to become famous but I di-"

"Dammit Kora just Listen to me." He said in frustration.

"Okay." I said ashamed. Today was not my day.

"You didn't pass out because you were dehydrated."

"Then why the hell did I pass out?" I exclaimed frustrated.

He walked towards me and was staring straight into my eyes. I felt my heart beat faster as he walked toward me. He took hold of my arms and it felt like he was peering into my soul.

"You can trust me." He said in a soothing voice. I know that I had just met him but I felt a deep connection with him. Something I couldn't describe.

He slowly put his hands on my waist and lifted up my shirt. I helped him and took my shirt all the way off even though it hurt to even move my hip.

"Oh my god. This cannot be happening." He put his hands over his eyes like he was concentrated on a hard math problem.

"What's wrong? What is it?"

"Go to the mirror." He said, his face white as snow.

I ran to the bathroom that was attached to the nurse's office. What I saw in the  mirror shocked my system to its core.

I too had a tattoo right where he touched me. It reads:

Flashback:

I felt Everett's presence behind me and he whispered in my ear "Crystal." His hand grazed my waist and I felt a sharp pain right where he touched me.

Flashback Over

How the Hell was this happening? I am supposed the perfect person. Now I have a tattoo? This day has been nothing but a disaster and it all started with Everett Farnsworth.

I rushed out of the bathroom and put on my shirt. "Kora, I'm so sorry."

"Don't say or do anything Everett. This day was supposed to be a brand new start. Now I'm stuck writing a book with some guy who, Appearently has a tattoo that I gave him and I have a tattoo that he gave me. Please just stay away from me. We will have to make up the assignment at a later date. But for now please just stay away." I quietly collected my things and headed out the door.

As soon as I left, I felt a sensation in my bones. It was like an elastic band stretching between me and the nurses office. I ignored it and kept walking because I was too furious to turn back.

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thank you for reading the first chapter to my new book Perfect Imperfections!

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