Violet's Kismet

Chapter 2: The Dark Ghost

Chapter 2

The Dark Ghost

As the bell rang, Ollie and I filed out of homeroom lackadaisically, as if we had been there forever. When we got up from our seats we shared an awkward stare and we exited clumsily stumbling over who would walk first. The awkward feeling, funnily enough wasn't from the annoyance of my new appendage. Ollie was kind of growing on me. I guess he liked me so he couldn't be all that bad. We had sat through a boring roll call, in a usually chatty homeroom, suffered some beginning of the school year announcements and we were on our way. As we exited the chilly classroom, Ollie flipped his light brown hair and smiled at me.

“Well hey, Vie, since we don't have any classes together till afternoon, do you wanna Uhm, maybe ... sit with me at lunch?” he looked dorky and hopeful; I couldn't help but smile too.

“Yeah, Crys and Gerri have lunch with us too. We can all sit together, and eat food!” I said with a sarcastic and over enthusiastic demeanor.

“Okay! See ya’ then, a-at lunch!” Ollie said as he stumbled over his words staring back at me as if he already had a puppy dog crush. Didn't he have any friends?

As I closed my locker, I looked around at all the cattle, roaming the hallways, fit to the latest fashion, being among this crowd made me feel like cattle too. I saw the 'popular' girls congregating at Amy's locker across from mine. She was the head cheer leader of Albany High School and she couldn't have been any more stereotypical. It disgusted me. Why did it disgust me? As I began to stare over at the popular posse, Amy looked over and saw me. She had cut her platinum blonde hair over the summer and it was just below her ears.

Amy was so pretty that she could get a haircut that short and still look good. She smiled and shifted her eyes back to her pretty hot but shallow boyfriend Ted. Ted was the captain of the football team. He was pretty buff and I liked his buffness. He was eye candy. We'd spoken only a few times, so why was I even giving him a second thought? My bestie, Crys, was a cheerleader too. She was also the only girl on the cheer squad who wasn't a straight up tramp. I ran track and I was pretty fast, but not as fast as Gerri was. I had no problem with running. Maybe I was running, Crys, and Gerri and now apparently Curt Cobain's alter ego.

I began to walk to my first class, Algebra. Nothing like a good mathematics lesson in the wee hours of the morning to put me down for a siesta! As I walked I glanced down at my black converse sneakers and then up again. A few fellow students greeted me eagerly as if they were my besties, or as if they had any idea who I really was, pfft. Gerri stopped me in the hallway she was my second bestie.

“Hiiiiii!” We both said excitedly as we hugged.

“Did you hear about what happened to that boy, who lives on your street, Colin?” Gerri asked me in her semi-valley girl kind-of voice, she sounded like a cross between Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and a  fieldmouse.

“No! I haven't heard. Tell me the news” I said.

“Well, Colin was charged for the murder and rape of Cindy Swanson, yeah. Her body was found on the bank of the Hudson River late June.”

“No, poor Cindy! But Colin’s such a nice boy” I said shaking my head and scrunching my eyebrows in disbelief. “It just doesn't make sense.”

“Well, you never know some people, most of the times, I guess.” Gerri said with her usual cavalier attitude and head roll.

I wondered how I could miss news this serious about a school mate who lived just down the street from me. Then I imagined patting myself on the back for being so oblivious to the Albany City life drama. This was New York after all! There were rapes and murders nearby and frequently. I'd spoken to Colin a few times during my early morning and late evening jogs, he watered the flowers every day. Why would he rape and murder Cindy? They had such a happy relationship.