She supposed she should have felt butterflies in her stomach, or nerves of some sort. But she didn’t. New schools were old news. She did feel like having a cigarette. Twelve hours had passed since her last one and her body was craving nicotine. Most schools were smoke-free campuses, but as she rode down the driveway, she did not see any signs indicating her new school was as well. She parked her motorcycle in a side lot and noticed that there were many ordinary cars. Interspersed among the ordinary cars, though, were many luxury ones as well. Mercedes, BMWs, Land Rovers and Porsches, all shiny and new looking, popped up frequently and made the normal cars look like jalopies by comparison. Arianna hadn’t seen a nice neighborhood when she and her mother had entered town. Hers certainly wasn’t.
She wondered where the fancy mansions that belonged with the equally fancy cars might be as she lit her cigarette. Just as she filled her lungs with smoke, the first bell rang. She was the only person in the lot and leaned against her bike, but she noticed that groups had gathered near the main entrance and slowly started to disband. She figured she ought to start walking and make her way inside. Surely, a meeting with a guidance counselor would be on her agenda, as well as a tour, compliments of a student council delegate.
With thoughts of guidance counselors and tours filling her thoughts, she began climbing the wide concrete steps. As she did so, she noticed a group of boys watching her. Dressed in collared shirts and chinos, they looked preppy, and rich. She stared back with her cigarette dangling from her lips. All of them looked away, except one. With exceedingly bronze skin, light-brown hair and bright blue eyes, he looked like a designer clothing catalogue model or a playboy who would be more comfortable helming his yacht than attending high school. He stared at her in a way that irked her so completely, she contemplated walking up to him and punching him right in his smug face. But she did not want to get kicked out of school on her first day. Not again. So she decided to let it go, to ignore his scrutiny. She took a final drag of her cigarette and heard a voice.
“Man, I’d like to go slumming and tap that ass someday,” preppy yacht boy said as she was about to pass him.
Still, she refrained from punching him, but chose instead to casually flick her cigarette at his face as she walked by.
“Holy shit!” he shrieked and ashes, some lit, cascaded down his expensive-looking shirt. He frantically tried to brush them off and left charcoal smears in their wake. “What the fuck?” he whined and sounded like a girl.
“Dude, you totally sounded like chick just now,” she heard one of his friends say and they all laughed at him.
She tossed her head back, laughed loudly and kept walking.
Inside, the hallway was lined with students, most bustling at their lockers gathering books, while others lingered and chatted. A few girls looked in her direction, but looked away quickly. Arianna was not shy about making direct eye contact with people who eyed her. She’d been told many times that her stare was lethal. While she doubted anyone had been killed by it, she felt confident that at least a few had been withered by it.
Her eyes roamed about from the faces of students to room numbers. She was looking for the main office when a pert blonde placed her face in Arianna’s.
“Hi there! Are you Arianna? You must be because I’ve haven’t seen you around here before, and I know everyone,” she said in one breath and eyed Arianna’s clothes disapprovingly. Arianna caught the not-so-subtle look and bristled immediately. She also couldn’t help but notice how the girl’s smile curled up at the corners of her mouth, and did not reach her eyes.
“Yeah, I’m Arianna.”
“I knew it! I’m Cheryl Charles and I am your official tour guide,” she began and flashed her insincere smile. Arianna repressed the urge to gag. “I am the Vice President of the Student Council here at Herald Falls High.”
“What, I’m not important enough to get the President,” Arianna joked and watched the phony smile sag. Clearly, her joke had been lost on Cheryl.
“Well, I suppose I could speak to Principal Wood and get the President here if I’m not good enough for you,” Cheryl said snippily.
“It was a joke, Cheryl. I was just kidding, relax,” she said levelly.
“Oh,” Cheryl said and smoothed her lavender blouse. “I see, well, ha, ha then. Very funny,” she added narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips.
“Hey no need to get all worked up. I was just trying to break the ice.”
“I am most certainly not worked up,” Cheryl screeched indignantly.
“Of course not,” Arianna muttered as a man approached. He wore a tweed blazer with elbow patches and had gray hair parted neatly and plastered to one side.
“Good morning Cheryl,” he said in a gravelly voice then turned to Arianna. “I’ve never seen you before. Who might you be?”
“Mr. Wood, this is our new student, Arianna Rose,” Cheryl said in a suddenly syrupy voice.
“Nice to meet you Mr. Woods,” Arianna said and offered her hand to him.
“It’s Wood, not Woods dear. Wood, W-O-O-D, no ‘s’; Wood,” he corrected her. Cheryl smirked triumphantly and Arianna used just her middle finger to scratch an imaginary itch on the bridge of her nose. Cheryl got the message and gasped.
“Are you okay Cheryl,” Mr. Wood asked.
“Yes sir, I’m fine,” she sang.
“Very well, then. Miss Rose, I will see you in my office after the tour and introduce you to our counselor Mrs. Gallagher. She can help you with your course schedule et cetera. Good day Miss Charles,” Mr. Wood said and turned on his heels to leave.
“Let’s get this over with,” Cheryl said in a tone far different from the saccharine one she’d used with the principal. “I have more important things to do than be seen with you.”
“Oh and I want to be seen with a preppy little bitch like you?” Arianna said testily. “Go. I think I’ll manage without you.”
Exasperated, Cheryl handed her a map and several other sheets of brightly colored paper. “Here. Suit yourself. Good luck. I’m out of here!”
“Sounds good to me,” she replied and watched as Cheryl started to walk away.
Cheryl stopped abruptly and turned, wearing a snarky smile on her face, “If you go straight down this hall and take the first left, you’ll see a door. On the other side of it, you’ll find people who are more your kind,” she said and eyed Arianna from head to toe. “You know, the trashy kind that really don’t belong here.”
“Excuse me?” Arianna asked. “What did you just say to me? Did you just call me trashy?”
“I think you heard me just fine,” Cheryl said icily. “I would get closer and say it right in your ear, but I don’t want to catch something from you.”
Incensed, Arianna fought to keep her tone calm. She took several steps and stopped just inches from Cheryl. “You’re about to catch something from me right now, bitch,” Arianna hissed and stared into her eyes.
Cheryl’s face blushed deeply and she recoiled from Arianna, shrinking back a few paces.
“I’d back up too if I were you,” Arianna added.
Cheryl refused to meet Arianna’s gaze and opted instead to stare at her feet before marching out of sight. Arianna simmered as she watched her walk away and decided she needed a little fresh air. Left alone with her map, she decided to take Cheryl’s advice and step outside for another cigarette. After her interaction with the student council Vice President, she needed it. She figured she had at least half an hour before she needed to report to Mr. Wood-without-an-s’s office. That left plenty of time to smoke and visit the ladies room.
She continued down the hallway and took her first left and stopped at a pair of doors. She opened one, but wedged a rock in the hinge so that she wouldn’t be locked out. A single step led to a clearing surrounded by trees. The treeline looked afire with rich fall colors. Leaves in varying shades of red, orange and yellow blazed against the azure sky. The scene would have been enjoyable, relaxing even, if she hadn’t been so annoyed
by the Cheryl incident. She sat on the step, took out her pack of cigarettes and her lighter and was about to light up when someone called to her.
“What’re you nuts! Don’t light up there. You’ll get suspended,” a male voice said.
“God, is that you?” she said and laughed.
The voice laughed as well then added, “I’m serious. This is a smoke-free campus. You don’t want to do that.”
“Funny, I didn’t see any signs,” she said and rolled the flint of her lighter. Before the flame touched her cigarette, she caught sight of a figure near one of the trees. “Oh shit, I guess it wasn’t God after all.”
She couldn’t see him clearly, but was able to make out that he was tall and dressed in dark clothes.
“Why don’t you save yourself from getting the boot from this dump and join me over here?” he said.
“What do you care if I get kicked out?” she asked.
“Huh,” he replied. “I guess I don’t. Good luck,” he said and disappeared.
Arianna couldn’t explain why, but felt compelled to meet the person who’d warned her. She stood, slung her bag over her shoulder and walked across the grass to the tree he had stood near. She looked behind it, certain she was at the right one, but saw no one. She turned around and scanned the clearing. As far as she could tell, she was alone. She placed the cigarette she held between her lips and lit it, all the while wondering where the darkly dressed figure had gone. She looked from left to right a final time as she exhaled a cloud of opaque smoke. She fanned it with her hand, despite being outside.
“Looking for me,” the now-familiar male voice said behind her.
She spun, startled, and said, “Shit! Another ninja!”
“Ninja? What?” he asked confused.
“Nothing; never mind,” Arianna said and waved her hand dismissively.
“Okay,” he said. “You’re new here?”
“Yep, today’s my first day.”
“Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, be in class or something?”
“I’m supposed to be getting a tour from Cheryl Charles. But we didn’t exactly hit it off so she gave me this,” she showed him her map then added, “and sent me on my way.”
“Lucky you. Dodging Cheryl Charles is a good thing. Prissy little bitch,” he spat.
“How could you say that about your esteemed Vice President?” Arianna said sarcastically.
“You’re funny. I like that. My name’s Luke by the way.”
“Arianna,” she said.
“Arianna, that’s different. Pretty, but different,” he said and lit a cigarette of his own.
“Thanks. So where should you be right now?”
“Uh, that’s a good question. Art class, I think. I go so infrequently, I’m starting to lose track.”
“Are you a senior?”
“Yep, for the second year in a row,” Luke said and bowed.
“Ha!” Arianna added. “I got left back too, but in first grade.”
“No elementary school story here, just cutting class and attendance bullshit,” Luke smiled.
Arianna liked his smile. His smile was mischievous and pleasant; his entire face smiled, in fact, right up to his gray-blue eyes. But his smile dropped almost immediately.
“Drop your cigarette,” he ordered her.
“What? Why?” she asked.
“Principal douche bag Wood just passed in that window,” he pointed to a large window on the building. “He never comes out here. How much you wanna bet that bitch Cheryl told him to check out here? Come on. Let’s get out of here,” he said and took her hand.
She allowed herself to be led, liked the feel of his hand around hers. He walked quickly and navigated a labyrinth of trees and low-growing brush. The strip of woods was narrow and they arrived at a grassy clearing which led to the front parking lot. He let go of her hand once they were on the grass and Arianna felt inexplicably disappointed. She was not the type of girl who fawned over guys. She didn’t dare indulge in extravagances like teen romance and crushes. She was all too familiar with what men did to vulnerable women. And she did not allow herself to be vulnerable.
“We should be fine now. I doubt he saw us, just that there were two people standing by a tree.”
She sighed. “Well that would have been a record for me, getting kicked out of a school on the first day before I even made it to my first class. My mom would have had an excuse to tie one on,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Sounds like our moms are a lot alike,” Luke said and surprised her. She didn’t think he’d heard her. “Mine goes from shitty boyfriend to shitty boyfriend with a glass of whiskey in one hand and joint in the other.”
“Shit, we should send them out together, my mom could be your mom’s sloppy wing man,” Arianna laughed.
Luke laughed too but stopped when he looked up. Arianna followed his eyes and saw what he was looking at. She was tall and thin with platinum-blonde hair. She wore heavy eye makeup and a tight miniskirt that showed off nicely shaped legs. And she glared in their direction.
“I gotta go,” Luke said and didn’t take his eyes off the mystery blonde. He turned to her suddenly and added, “It was nice meeting you, Arianna,” then jogged toward the glaring blonde.
Arianna watched as he went to the waiting girl. She felt a twinge of something, a faint pang of emotion she was uncomfortable with. Jealously was too strong a word for it. But it did vaguely resemble it. It seemed ridiculous to feel jealous, even slightly so. After all, she had just met Luke. And he had not flirted with her overtly. Yet, as she watched him approach the waiting blonde, she felt annoyed and a little sad at the same time. He stood in front of the girl. She could not hear what the girl said, but saw that she spoke animatedly to Luke, gesturing angrily to him then to Arianna. He did not appear to argue back which surprised her. She wasn’t sure why, but she did not see him as the kind of person who accepted reprimand readily. Then again, she’d only known him for ten minutes. Either way, she felt a fleeting sense of disappointed.
She quickly brushed off the feeling of disappointment. She needed to get back inside and meet with her guidance counselor. She walked to the front of the building again and entered. The hallway was deserted and she consulted her map to find the main office. Her day, as well as her final year of high school, was about to commence.
Chapter 4
Howard Kane knelt upon the pristine, tiled floor before the altar of the Soldiers of the Divine Trinity Church and listened intently, waiting patiently for God’s instructions. God had been speaking to him since he was a young boy, guiding him and directing him through life. Though many people had claimed they’d heard God’s voice, he felt confident only a select few had. The rest were narcissists who lacked the discipline to hear anything more than their basest impulses. He was not like others who had alleged to hear God. Howard had heard God clearly, and the Lord’s voice had not caused him to indulge his desires or whims. To the contrary, he felt more rooted to his beliefs, compelled to dedicate himself fully. He needed God, and God and his fellow worshippers needed him.
With his hands pressed together in prayer, he paid close attention to every subtle sound in the hallowed building, opening the sincerest, humblest channels to his soul to foster God’s voice. In a near-meditative state, he heard many things. Sounds of settling creaked and crackled intermittently. Dried leaves rustled from a treetop beyond the stained-glass windows, likely caused by the departure of finches or sparrows that had remained too late into the fall. But his Maker’s instructions did not echo in his head, did not breathe through him like a warm spring breeze caressing tender blooms as it had in the past. All he heard was the sound of his own breaths, and the rhythmic pulse of his heartbeat.
Days had passed since he’d heard God’s words, long days of strained silence. But he felt neither frustration nor anger. God would invariably speak to him. He always had, and Howard doubted He would ever stop.
With his hands still clasped in front on him, he closed h
is eyes and inhaled deeply and focused more intensely. When concentrating as he was, his senses seemed to heighten. Sounds were amplified. His sight became sharper, and his sense of smell more distinct. He filled his lungs, drawing in air through his nose. Strong notes of pine infused the air and mingled with the slightest hint of lemon. The average man would not have noticed the fresh, clean scents surrounding him, their subtlety; their depth. But he did. He had a divine appointment. His followers knew of his blessing and one of them had undoubtedly scrubbed and polished the altar hours earlier. His many gifts were not secrets he kept from his congregants, and they responded accordingly, heeding and abiding the ancient adage that cleanliness was, in fact, next to godliness. He was, after all, the closest a human being could ever be to God, and his followers knew that. For that reason, every surface of the church was cleaned daily in his honor, as well as the Lord’s. As founder and leader of the Soldiers of the Divine Trinity congregation, in addition to having divine influence, Howard was the heir to a kind of sight only a select few in his family had possessed; sight that the naked eye was incapable of perceiving. He could see evil, sense it as clearly as the notes of pine and lemon in the air. His vision, his divination, enabled him to lead his congregation.
He preached daily at the consecrated dais he knelt before, reached out to his flock, shared his vision, and spread the word of God. But God’s word was not as simple as other groups claimed it to be. It went beyond Commandments and Sacraments, surpassed feasting, fasting and offerings. His unique vision offered his devotees a singular experience. It offered them opportunity to seek out and eradicate evil. Other sects downplayed the evil that roamed the earth, romanticized it even. But he did not. He knew the truth. He had the gift.
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