3Chapter 3: Just Another Day
"Riane!"
Riane looked behind her as she walked up to the school entrance. Still at the bottom of the steps was her best friend Mika who was jogging up toward her taking the steps two at a time, her long black hair flowing smoothly behind her. Even though the Japanese girl was short, he could take on any terrain, rocky beaches, rolling wheat fields, even shallow rivers, at a surprising speed.
"Did you finish the math homework from last night?" Mika asked frantically, obviously on the verge of panic.
"Yah I did sadly." Riane said mournfully, thinking about how her math work was the last thing she had done before going to bed last night and of course before she had experience the dream with Jason, her knight.
Mika's chocolate colored eyes brightened at the thought of her homework problem being solved. She looked at Riane with what some people would call a "puppy-dog face."
"I don't know why you have to make that stupid face; you know I am going to give it to you anyway." Riane reached down into her school bag that hung from her side and pulled out her math notebook. "Just give it back at lunch. I have a feeling Colby will want to take a look at it too." She said handing it to Mika.
"No way Colby would need it; he is a good kid and probably finished all the work yesterday in class."
Riane rolled her eyes, knowing Colby was really working on trying to think of new set plays for the boy's soccer team. She couldn't blame him though; being captain of the varsity team is no easy task. "Just hurry up and finish the work, okay?"
"Sure. No problem. Well, I got to get going. Mr. Brooks will kill me if I am late again."
"Exactly how many times have you been late?"
"Let's see. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this year I have been late on average of 30 freaking seconds."
Riane said nothing, only starred at her friend.
"What?"
"Forget it, just get to class. And if I were you I would be more worried about me and Colby killing you because you couldn't hang out with us this weekend due to assigned Saturday school from Mr. Brooks."
Mika laughed nervously then spun around and ran into the school.
Riane watched her go then shook her head, causing her short blond hair to fall over her eyes. "What am I going to do with her?"
"With who?" A voice behind her asked softly. Without turning around, she said "Mika of course. The girl is out of control. Why aren't you doing anything about it Colby?"
A boy with dyed black hair that curled past his ears stepped up next to her. He was shorter than most of the boys at the school but still had at least three inches over Riane. His calm dark blue eyes appeared almost violet in the light of the morning sunrise. "Why risk my own life to help a hopeless cause?"
"Oh it's not that bad."
"Yes it is. You try living with her."
"I have. I spent a full two weeks with her at a summer camp a few years back."
"And how was that?"
"Hell."
"Why do I even bother arguing?"
"Cause I'm cute?"
Colby smiled, which was a somewhat rare expression for him since his mother and father died when they were hit by a drunk driving about two years ago. While Mika, his step sister since they were 5, was able to move on fairly quickly knowing it was what her parents would want, Colby had a harder time letting his father go.
However, Riane was pleased that these last couple months he had finally started improving emotionally, but she still worried about him.
"That may be true but irrelevant. Oh, before I forget, did you finish the math homework?"
Riane sighed.
Riane's day usually consisted of a dull morning through her history and French class. However, it usually brightened up by third period, where she was a T.A for her favorite old English teacher, Mrs. Duvon, and stayed pretty interesting through the rest of the day. Right now she was in third and not at all happy about it.
Most days in this class consisted of grading papers for Riane was an exceptional expert in the field of writing. When there were no papers to grade, she found herself writing her own stories to pass the time. It wasn't long until Mrs. Duvon, discovered her secret writing and decided to use some chapters in her class by having Riane make intentional mistakes and the students would correct them.
As time went on, the students requested to read her stories, wanting to know what happened next. But Riane requested that Mrs. Duvon not tell anyone that she wrote them. This was mainly because she didn't want to have people bugging her all the time like they did Mrs. Duvon for the rest of the story. Mika and Colby were the only other ones who knew of her story, but what they didn't know was that the main guy in the story was based on her knight, Jason.
The story she was currently working on was a romantic comedy set in the medieval times about a young girl who wants to be a knight. She ends up disguising herself as a boy and becomes a knight. But it isn't long until she is discovered by a boy, who is based on Jason. He blackmails her into becoming his slave but they soon fall in love and have to face the many challenges of love yet with a certain twist.
The reason she didn't want to work on the story now was because she didn't want to think of Jason. Without her really knowing it, her thoughts trailed to him as she was sitting at Mrs. Duvon's desk in the back of the room while the teacher had everyone focused to the overhead. The room was dark so people could see what the overhead projector was showing so it took Riane a couple of seconds to realize somebody was behind her chair.
She wheeled around in the chair and was surprised to see Jason kneeling beside her, his blue eyes glowing brightly in the light of the computer screen. Before she could ask what the hell he was doing there and how he got in the classroom without anyone noticing, he reached toward her, gently cupped her face in his hands and pulled her mouth toward his. Just when he was about to make contact, she snapped her head back and was about to yell but held her breath at the sight of sadness in his face.
Confused she asked quietly "What's the matter with you?"
He looked away from her and shook his head. "It's not what's wrong with me but what's wrong with you."
Riane was appalled. "What is that suppose to mean?"
"I don't understand why to jump away from my touch when I am your knight and you know it. You once told me you loved me and wished I was real. Yet now that I am able to come to you in this world, you shun me like a stranger."
Guilt flooded Riane. She knew he was right but he was missing one small detail. "That was in my dreams. I don't know I you know but Dreams don't usually come to life buddy, they stay in you mind where no one else can see them."
"But dreams can and do come true."
"That's just something fluffy touchy feely people say to make themselves feel better."
Jason went silent. He looked deeply wounded as if someone had just smashed his heart and laughed while doing it.
Riane brushed it off though. She wasn't going to let him lead her on a guilt trip. "Why are you here? What happened this morning? You feel out my window remember? You should be dead. What am I saying, you a freaking dream."
"That's the answer right there. Because I am a figment of your imagination come to life, I am able to break the rules of your world and appear and disappear as I please. I can also make myself visible to only those I choose. For instance right now only you can see me."
"That makes me feel like I am talking to a ghost which let me tell you is on my 10 top things I never want to do in my life."
"What else is on the list?"
"I don't know, maybe sky diving without a parachute or falling down a waterfall without a raft. Oh how about waking up with spiders in your bed?"
Jason laughed.
Riane laughed too but stopped when Mrs. Duvon asked what she thought was so funny. Riane looked over at the teacher with a blank expression and realized that everyone was looking at her. She was about to speak but no words would come. When she looked back at Jason she saw that he had vanished. Turning back to the teacher, she sad "Oh, I just thought of a joke my friend told me this morning and just now got it." She laughed quietly. "Has that ever happen to you?"
The class remained silent, starring at her like she was crazy.
One girl peeped up over the silence. "That happened to me once, except everyone laughed at me. It isn't something I would really like to experience ever again in my life."
Riane smacked her forehead.