Poisoned Rose

Chapter 2: New Girl, New World

Chapter 2:

The bright warm morning sunshine awoke me from my restless sleep.

Today I would be my first day at Ridge Black Valley University. I could already feel the nervousness and keenness bubble over in the pit of my stomach, but when I turned around to face the large encompassing windows that held a spectacular view of the calm blue ocean, it shimmered down every thread of anxiety - disappearing completely. The noises of chirping seagulls were audibly heard and the sound was more welcoming than hearing my mother’s morning gossip and the hoots of yellow cabs. All of it was a welcoming blanket of cleanly calm and serenity over my new home.

When I finished cleaning up myself and priming up for the new day, I looked at my face in the mirror as I brushed though my tangled, damp blonde hair. Maybe it was the light or atmosphere residing in my home, but I already looked healthier with a glow on my face and a glimmer in my violet-blue eyes. I had my breakfast over at a diner on Main Street. It was early and the diner had just opened, so I was their first consumer eating their breakfast special. I hadn’t yet furnished my house for me to cook a proper meal in the kitchen. My house was completely barren of any furniture accept for the airbed I had pumped up last night to sleep on. It made every small noise echo from the emptiness and as I sat in that lonesome diner, I thought about the reasons that brought me here. It was Bacardi, daring me to find out more about werewolves, to discover a new world free of my parents reign, to heal a boy I didn’t even know and more essentially find closure on my sister…                       

When I reached the University I pulled over in the student parking lot already filled with flashy and sporty cars and, I jumped out to take in the sight. A sign in bold rusty iron letters stood out in a banner shape over the entrance. It read RBVU. Trees and shrubs scattered around the tall University building. The neat manicured grass seemed greener and the sky bluer than I had ever seen it before. I started to follow the wide, cobblestone path snaking its way to the buildings. A green field was spread out on my left, and in the distance, a few shirtless boys with well-toned bodies were kicking around a soccer ball.                                                

The stately clock tower bonged out the time and suddenly I felt as if this was where I belonged.  I started nearing the red bricked buildings. Green ivy crept up from the sides and meandered up to wrap around the white window frames of the University. I had to check in at the front office and as I moved, I could feel the stares of the students around me bore into my back with deep curiosity. 

The front office was a ballroom size, with shiny waxed flooring and a large crystal chandelier hanging above from the high-ceiling. Leather couches were arranged in clusters around a dark cherry wood coffee tables, and a good looking, brown haired boy was stretched out on one of them, reading FHM and snacking on cheese doodles. The walls were filled with framed black rimmed photo’s detailing staff and previous graduate classes. A large redwood casement showed off shiny gold trophies and medals. The receptionist sitting behind a desk peered wide-eyed at me through her red hawked glasses. Her mouth had stopped chewing on the gum and dropped low as a bright red nail pressed into her cheek, making her look even more dumbfounded by my presence.  

“Did you get lost from the freeway, sweetheart?” she asked in the highest pitched voice I have ever heard. She went back to chewing her gum rather unladylike. “Cause, you look to me like ya did.”

She sniffed the air around her by scrunching up her nose and nodded in confirmation to herself, before muttering ever so softly under her breathe, “Definitely human’s blood.”“Uh…No,” I replied timidly, “I’m Arianne Rose. I transferred from NYU to here, third year BSC?”