The Golden Rose

•Chapter 1•

Tap, tap, tap. My pencil drummed endlessly as I stared out the droplet-covered window of my hushed classroom. My thoughts wandered and drifted, filled with questions about my destiny and what my trinket would look like.

Everyone receives a trinket on their 17th birthday, and it's supposed to represent who you are and what your destiny will be. Of course, I already have a pretty good guess at what my trinket will be. A rose, well, because my name is Rose Woods. What the trinket is represents who you are. The material though, represents your future. As boring as my life is, I sure hope mine is at least stainless steel or copper. Those are the most common among the people in my district, The District of Nature. It's unspoken of to get anything higher than that around here, but rumors say that it doesn't matter if-

"Rose! Pay attention in my class!" Ms. Bonnavook yelled at me as I straightened in my chair and faced the front. I guess my thoughts must've run off on their own again.

On the outside, I probably look really sorry and innocent.

"My sincere apologies, Ms. Bonnavook," I spoke politely. She simply nodded and turned back to her teaching.

Oh, but that was a simple cover-up for my extreme hatred toward her. This class was of utmost lifelessness, I could hardly bare to be there.

When will this pointless class end? I thought to myself, as I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

~~~~~

The bell had finally rang and it was time for lunch. I scurried up the stairs to the roof, where I usually went to meet with my friends. Right as I sat down on my usual bench, I heard voices echoing from the doors that led to the roof.

"-I know right?! Ms. Bonnavook TOTALLY has a thing for Mr. Fletcher! You can tell by the way she looks at him," My good friend Blossom ambled. She spotted me and gave a waving gesture, seemingly very excited. "Hey Rose!"

I gave a gentle wave back and smiled kindly to her. Right behind her was my other two best friends, Ren and Basil.

Basil was the stupidest guy I had ever met, and often made horrible attempts to get me to go out with him. As you could guess, he never succeeded. He ran over and seductively slid next to me on the bench, a sly grin played upon his face. He turned and faced me, legs crossed and head leaning to the side on his hand. "Well hello, Miss. Rosy-cakes." He had a cheerfully confident tone in his voice, making him seem all the more sadistic.

      I rolled my eyes and pushed his face out of mine. He chuckled and sat back to a normal position. I couldn't help but let out a tiny smile... his confidence was truly admirable.

      "You don't seem to be making much progress with that date, Basil. Again." I looked over to see Ren sigh as he dropped to the ground close to the bench. Basil just dramatically gasped, obviously exaggerating his surprise. He put a hand up to his chest and leaned back slightly to show that he was 'deeply hurt'. We all had a good laugh as he pulled himself back together into his normal, cocky self. "Next time I'll get her for sure!" He pledged.

      Now Ren was a different story. He absolutely loved to mess around with Basil. Although his dark, perplexing looks seemed to get lighter around Basil... which sometimes made me think he might actually liked Basil, it's really none of my business, as Ren usually likes to keep to himself.

      We all really only got along because we had names from a very similar piece of nature; flowers. My name being Rose of course, Blossom just means flowers, Basil is a fragrant herb, and Ren means lotus. All of us often talked about this to each other, thinking how strange and awesome it was that we became a friend group.

We talked all lunch long, joking about Ms. Bonnavook and Mr. Fletcher and how we'd all end up having horrible destinies working at MukDaniel's or Bella's Tacos. Our endless conversation finally came to an easy stop and we rushed off to our other boring classes, longing for the day to be done.

~~~~~

"Wow today was seriously SO BORING." I grunted as Blossom and I exited the front doors of our high school. She laughed at my comment of the day and sighed with relief. Ren and Basil usually had to take care of cleaning in their class after school if Basil had gotten them into trouble, which was usually the case, so Blossom and I weren't surprised at all when we didn't see them walking home with us.

"Well at least today's Friday! No school tomorrow, but certainly my 17th biiiirthday!!!" Blossom cheered to herself and I found myself cheering with her. Tomorrow was her day! She would finally get her trinket and find out a hint of her fortunate or unfortunate future. I hoped for her that she had a very fortunate one.

"And I have the perfect gift for you! I know you'll just adore it... but you should be even more excited about getting your trinket! Whoop!" I laughed and gave her a light punch.

She looked at the ground and got a worried look on her face. "I'm scared..." she started, fidgeting with her hands. "What if my future ends up being miserable? What if I end up being super unfortunate, and my trinket is made of zinc alloy or even aluminum??? I would be as low as dirt..."

Her saying this made me think about it myself... What if that happened to me? My birthday was only a few days away. But there was no time to mope and get caught up on something I have no evidence of.

"Blossom, don't even think about it! I just know you'll get a good material!" I touched her arm to insure her and she looked up at me in hope.

"You really think so?" I could see the light brightening in her glassy, green eyes once again, the wind blowing her long, yellow-gold hair ever so slightly.

I kindly smiled at her. "Absolutely. You will get something special." And with that, we kept strolling slowly down the ally, the air that was just so moist from the rain that you could barely feel it. We were heading to a safe place called home.

~~~~~

Hello there! Thank you for looking into my story. This is the first one I've written on this app, so I hope it turns out well. Sorry if this chapter seemed somewhat boring, but I insure you I have big plans for this book. Also, the girl in the photo is Rose. I am going to try to write this everyday and maybe start writing new stories if this one becomes any good. Thank you! Please comment, vote, and rate!

-RunYouCleverBoy