The Red Winter

Chapter Two - P1

"I just don't get it, it's not like I was away for that long, the way everyone's acting you'd think I'd just come back from heart surgery."

The girl next to me spoke fast and inconsiderately loud to me and the girls as we huddled away from the cold morning by the warmth of my cars heater. They were all in cheer uniforms and the morning weather had not been kind. She had all five of us imprisoned in my car whilst she gossiped about her weeks away.

"Abi, you can't blame them. Nobody knew where you were, not even us!" The small strawberry blonde spoke with hurt in her tone.

The bleached blonde queen bee scowled and her grey eyes hardened, "I told you, Honey, I was busy." Honey looked away, rolling her eyes.

"See the thing is, that's not what I was told." If there was anyone that rivaled Abi it was Lucie, she was dark haired with dark eyes and wasn't so much of a bitch but more of an 'I'll break your nose' sort of girl. Abi looked at her with distaste, with them two it was a 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer' type of relationship. "What? It's not my fault. According to Jax, who heard it from his little sister, you were away doing less conventional things."

"And you believe that because?" Kelsie was the quiet one, but Abi's most loyal friend, and also her sister. Plain in looks with failing eyesight and a large splatter of freckles it was Kelsie's personality that gave her a status in this school.

"I never said I believe it!" I could feel the heat of an argument and quickly I switched off my engine.

"Just remembered I have to see Mr. Parker before class, I'll see you all later." Muttering goodbye's they went to the rest of the cheer team, I sighed in relief and made my way into the school building. I knew exactly who I wanted to see right now.

My shoes were loud in the echoing library and Mrs. Sinead looked at me with a softly stern gaze as I walked past her old fashioned dark desk. At the back of the room sat three people I knew very well compared to everyone else, the secretive trio. Also known as my only companions in Mors Town High, well, the only ones that didn't throw pom-poms.

The first one I saw, curled on a worn school issued long sofa with her phone in hand, was Essie St. John, a tall and lithe, natural red head that skipped nearly every single lesson to sit in the library. Her dark brown eyes were rimmed with mascara and caught everything, they held more secrets than anyone could imagine.

Her twin had his feet up on her knees with several books strewn across his lap. Tom was not a nerd, he was clever and worked hard but had a casual cocky air to him and such a disregard for rules he didn't want to follow that there wasn't a bone of nerd in him. His brown hair lay lazily across his forehead and strong tense arms flexed slightly as he furiously scribbled over a page. Like his sister, he was inquisitive, but unlike her, he had a reserved side as well.

Older by a year, Reid Ryden was the piece that didn't fit the puzzle. He looked like he should be in some sort of biker gang, but then he didn't. He had a finely chiseled jaw and an angular face, he was part French I think but it could have been Greek or Italian. His eyes were bluer than mine and reminded me of a clear days sky but his hair was black and shoulder length, slightly too long and curling at the end. Sat on the only armchair, his dirty brown boots were resting on a bookshelf and a half open curtain left light streaming onto his dark worn jeans.

"Myra, I'm surprised you aren't on the field today. What with your new found status," Tom's words were slightly harsh as he put down his pen and looked up at me with a slight smirk on his lips.

I shrugged, "Abi left and missed three weeks of training, I'm sure I can miss one day."

"Yes, what happened to the bleached blonde cheerleader? I thought you'd have known being her new best friend," Essie spat, barely giving me a glance.