Twilight (Book 1 of The Shade Hunt Trilogy)

Chapter Three: The New Girl

Let's fast-forward a semester plus two weeks. Why? Well, I'll tell you.

There's a new girl at our school.

It's nothing new to get new kids each year or sometimes even semester. I myself am a freshman, as you already know. The odd thing is that this girl joined TWO WEEKS after the start of SECOND SEMESTER! I mean, who is this kid?

Her name's Ren Morton. She's in the Other category, but her secondary category is LLH. Apparently, she is also good at music, acting, fencing, and archery. No wonder she got in so late in the year! No one except Headmistress knows what her talent is. Unlike most Other kids, she doesn't receive any private instruction. She gets an independent study period instead. Again, no one but Headmistress really knows what she does during that period.

Also, she's pretty. I mean, really pretty. Like, drop-dead-gorgeous pretty. She has smooth, flawless white skin, jet-black hair, and these stunning purple eyes. Mina, one of the STEM kids, says that it's because of a condition called Alexandria's Genesis, whatever that means. Since she has morning block schedule, her independent study and LLH are in the morning, and since I have afternoon block schedule, I rarely get to see Ren. All the other girls are jealous both because of her beauty and her talent, but I don't really mind. I'll just try my best to make it as far as I can. If I want to be a famous actress, I can't afford to waste all my time admiring some gorgeous girl with envy. I need to do stuff, not watch people.

Okay, so that's my long spiel about Ren. Moving on.

So, as I said, Ren shows up to school two weeks after second semester starts. No one knows what to think of her. She's very mysterious, and guess what: she wears tons of gothic makeup and lots of black. Only people in Art or Drama ever wear makeup here, never mind gothic makeup. On top of that, black is a mourning color. NO ONE wears black. Of course, she wears her gray cape and blue brooch, but underneath that, she wears black from head to toe, with just a little bit of purple here and there.

She's assigned to Room West 253, which is right across the hall from my dorm room, since only 2 other people are in that room: Alyssa Montana(Drama & Music) and Clara Reed(Music & Other).

I've asked Alyssa and Clara about her, but they know just about as much about her as I do. She spends most of her time who-knows-where, only returning to the dorm room in time for curfew at 10:45 pm, which, unfortunately for some people (but thankfully not me), doesn't necessarily mean "lights-out" and "silence so everyone can sleep." It just means that everyone has to be in their dorm rooms. She wakes up long before anyone else and leaves to do who-knows-what who-knows-where. Everything about her is a mystery.

~~~

Ren is the type of girl who both blends into the background and stands out like a sore thumb at the same time. If you're in a crowded room, she's usually standing in a dark corner at the back of the room, and you don't even notice her unless you're looking for her and you know where to look. But then, if you were to line up all the girls in a giant line, you'd easily be able to pick her out: a black smudge in a long row of bright colors.

My first real encounter with her is about a month later. I am walking to B-21 to talk with Ms. F (no one knows her real name) about my grades (since, as you already know, I absolutely suck at literature, and I'm not particularly great at history either), when I bump into Ren.

"Oh!" I exclaim as the towering stack of books that she was holding falls to the ground. As I pick them up, I notice that they are mostly history-related, but I also see three world-languages textbooks: French, German, and Japanese. She must have asked Ms. F for them, although I'm not exactly sure why, since she's apparently doing extremely in all her classes. Well, rumors say that she's struggling in Science and Mathematics, but again, no one's really sure.

And that's how an awkward conversation starts (well, awkward for me anyways). It goes something like this:

Me: "Um, hi?"
Ren: "Hi."
Me: "Uh, sorry about that."
Ren: "It's fine."
Me: "Were you coming from Ms. F's?"
Ren: "Yes." (So formal! What happened to "Yeah?")
Me: "I'm on my way there right now." Awkward pause. "Well then. I'll be going now."
Ren: "Wait. What's your name?"
Me: "Stella. Stella Brunner. You're Ren, right?" (Just trying to make small talk here)
Ren: "Yes. Nice talking with you. Bye."
Me: "Bye."

For some weird reason, my heart was pounding the whole time. And I am usually not the type to get freaked out over a random conversation, even if Ren isn't what you would call "random." Also, I got the feeling that she somehow knew that my heart was racing crazy fast and that I was secretly sweating buckets. I know for a fact that my acting skills have become pretty good after a semester at MBAT, and that I showed absolutely no sign of how I was feeling.

At that moment, Ren was ... creepy? No, that's not the word. Strange? Weird? I couldn't place my finger on it, but something was out of place about Ren. Something almost other-worldly.