Afterlife (Afterlife Saga) (20 page)

Then silence hushed the room as a man walked towards the desk at the front. He slammed his bag down followed with a pounding from his books. He did not look happy. You could feel the room instantly tense up as everyone seemed to straighten up at the same time causing a wave of creaking chairs that sounded as though it was echoing on surround sound speakers.

He cleared his throat and began.

“This is not a class for easy credit so if you don’t want to work hard then I suggest you take up the creative arts for those easy A’s and stop wasting my time.” He paused and looked about the room. One guy got up but kept his head down, hiding his shame.

“Ah, we have a taker, try wood work, I hear it’s a slam-dunk!” The class let out a series of nervous noises.  The lad left taking with him the tension in the tutor, which seemed to please him, as if the initiation process was over and he could now continue.

“I am
Mr.
Reed, Head of History. I will be taking many of your classes and believe me when I say I do not expect excuses for any reason, I don’t care for them. So unless you are on your death bed in excruciating pain and expelling every liquid from your body, I do not accept absence, just as I don’t accept
tardiness
.” This was directed towards the door as a face had appeared in the little porthole. She knocked and we all held our breath, instantly feeling a mutual sorrow for what was about to occur. We could feel the humiliation ready to erupt as the handle pulled downwards letting the unsuspecting girl into a pit of misery.

She walked in with such grace I think even Reed was taken back. The classroom actually gasped. She was just so beautiful, you could almost hear all the breaking of hearts from the boys and the envious mental screams from the girls. She glided through the door in a way that would put any ballerina to shame.

Reed composed himself ready for the kill and stared at the girl who just smiled
sweetly in return.

“I do not accept anyone late to my class, but as it is the first day, then I will make an exception. However, if this were to happen again then you will be removed from my lesson and failed on any paper which is due, do you understand?”

“Of course and please except my sincere apologies.” Her voice sang out reminding me of one very similar. She was small and elf like, with beautiful black hair that resembled black silk as it hung down in curls to her shoulders and bounced when she moved. Her skin was almost translucent with a rosy tint to her cheeks.  She looked like a china doll, as though her face had been painted in some way. It was an ancient looking beauty, one you would find on the
Sistine Chapel ceiling or the works of Bouguereau.

She looked around for a space and you could see guys standing ready to give up their seats for this lovely creature. I put up my gloved hand and the tutor nodded in my direction. You could hear the groans of disappointment. She walked up the steps and people rose out of their seats to let her through to the middle, I moved the bag that I had put on the other seat and moved one of my books off the now occupied table.

“My name is Sophia and...”

“Excuse me Miss
I want to disrupt the class
! I have had about enough of you today.” I don’t know what came over me but I felt compelled to stand up for this poor innocent girl, after all I was the cause of her being punished now. So I did the unthinkable. I broke my one rule....I drew attention to myself.

I stood up only to get a better view of the students gasping at my madness, some even held their breath.

“Umm...” I had to clear my throat as the words would not form.

“I mean... it was not her fault, I asked her a question and she was answering me,” I managed to say, not as forceful as I had hoped but at least it made sense.

“And pray tell, what may that have been, as I'm sure, now you have all the class’ full attention, we’re all just dying to know what is more important than my lecture?” His words burned as I started to realize his full meaning. Every head in the room had now turned to look at me and I was in my own personal Hell! He had hit me right where he knew it would hurt and he'd been right on the money. I could feel my palms start to sweat and I rubbed them together as I tried to continue.

“I was merely asking her if she had a book or if not would she like to share,” I said in a broken voice.

“What a Good Samaritan you are and your name would be?” Oh shit, how long was he going to keep this going?
I could imagine it from now on.
I was going to be a target for every question, the butt of every joke and the bullseye for every sarcastic comment that would escape those small chewed lips.

“Keira,” I stammered as I sat back down, trying to indicate the end of my humiliation.

“Well Keira, I assume I can continue and would hope you are going to show the same dedication in my class as you have done with your unprepared friend there.”

I just nodded in response and tried to ignore the stares I received from every eye in the room.

“Well now that that little drama is over, open your books to page 68, for those of you that have them, that is.” His tone was cutting and I knew that my chances of this blowing over and being forgotten were not going to happen.

“During this lesson you will see that reading and analysing text is central to understanding and knowing history. In this class you will und
erstand the importance of facts. Y
ou will live and breath
e
the intensive study of books and documents from varying historical fields and periods.” He continued like this for the rest of the hour loving the sound of his own voice. Well at least someone in the room did.

Sophia and I didn’t say another word to each other throughout the class but she did however keep smiling at me like I was some kind of saviour. She wrote the words “
thank you”
in her notebook in the most amazing ornate handwriting I had ever seen. She pushed it my way for me to read, never taking her eyes of the Himmler look alike down at the front. It was the large forehead and the shifty eyes peering from behind small round glasses that gave him the appearance of the head of the
Gestapo. Hitler would’ve been proud!

I scribbled in my not so neat hand “
no problem”.
My
handwriting looked as though it had been written by a toddler compared to her flowing calligraphy. The lecture continued and made History sound like a blurring bore. Something I love so much could easily be destroyed by this man’s voice. He made everything sound as though he was actually there and although there was clearly passion in his expression, it was still unnerving to witness the man smile with his own excitement. I don’t know how I was going to look at history in same way again.

He continued on just like all the first lectures I'd had. The introduction to History was a little wasted on me as I had been studying it all my life. So, as his boring voice droned on, I let my mind drift to other thoughts. Those like working at the club tonight and the thought of being in the same building as Draven. Then I started to wonder would I really want a man like Draven to notice me? Well sure I would want him to notice me but the fact that he would was a bit of a joke, I mean what was there for him to even notice. As much as it had hurt what those girls had said in the toilets that night, they had still been right. Now if I looked like this stunning girl that sat beside me I wouldn't be having any worries about my self-esteem.

The class finally drew to an end and I realized that I had missed most of it due to my daydreaming. I would have to pay more attention in future or I would definitely be caught out in the firing line. I was already an easy target in this man’s mind.

I got up grabbing my books and as I was putting them in my bag I noticed a pair of doll like eyes examining me. I met them with a curious look of my own.

“You have lovely hair, why do you wear it back?” Her question had
thrown
me off guard and I started to stammer my answer out.

“Umm well...it...it gets in the way. But thanks.” I couldn't believe that this enchanting looking creature was complementing me when her hair looked like it had been styled ready for a photo shoot for Vogue.

We both walked down following the mass of numbed students trying to escape before another word leaked from Reed’s mouth, when something caught my eye.
Reed was talking with a student and they were both looking our way, but it was Reed’s expression that held my interest. He looked as though he was in shock. It was as if something the boy had told him was about one of us. No not one of us, it was about Sophia. He was staring but he looked utterly terrified.

I shuddered as we walked out of sight and I realised Sophia was still smiling at me. I kind of felt as though she was studying me more than just looking curiously.  Was there was something more behind the smile? She didn't seem to catch the same horror in Reed's eyes that I had or if she did, she didn't hold much consequence to them.

“Thanks again for bailing me out back there, he's a real piece of work right?” She followed, never taking her eyes of me and people were staring at us in a curious manner.

“Yeah, he's a bit scary but I think we handled it ok, but I bet next time we will get bombarded with questions.” She laughed at this and held out her hand ready to receive mine.

“It was nice to meet you, Keira.” I placed my hand in hers and the warmth I found from her soft skin was comforting. She seemed to read my thoughts and smiled once more before she left. My hand tingled slightly then went very cold along with the rest of my body...Strange.

“Who was that?” RJ's voice interrupted my strange mood and pulled me back to reality.

“No one...how was class?”

RJ went on about her day and I happily listened, not really wanting to tell her about my little run in with Dictator Reed. And I didn’t really know why I didn’t tell her about Sophia. I guess I just felt a weird connection with her at the end of class. I couldn’t explain it but I'm pretty sure she felt something as well, like some sisterly love. Maybe that’s why I had felt so compelled to defend her to Reed. In the same way when RJ asked me about her. I wanted to keep her friendship to myself in some selfish way and protect her from RJ's personal prying.

We were nearly home when RJ's word by word account of her day had finished and my mind hadn’t retained any of it but luckily she hadn't noticed.

“So what you up to tonight, ‘cause a couple of us are going to Afterlife, there’s this great group playing and.....” I stopped her
mid-sentence
before I forgot what she'd asked and we were nearly at my house.

“I can’t but I will see you there anyway ‘cause I'm working. Maybe I can join you if I get off early.”

“Oh my God you are so lucky you work there, I would have to keep sneaking a peek upstairs.” She giggled at the vision. If only it was that easy I thought bitterly.

“Yeah right, have you seen the security they have, those guys give new meaning to steroid abuse… breakfast, lunch and dinner.” I said this last part getting out of the car turning to add “See you later.”

Chapter 11- VIP

I grabbed my usual black top and jeans only this time swapping long sleeves for short ones as it got quite hot in the club especially with lots of enthusiastic Goths swarming the bar. Of course I would wear gloves to match. I wore my hair in its usual knot, tied up by its usual clip. There was nothing to suggest that this wouldn't be just like any other night at the club but I had a strange feeling that was gnawing at my stomach. Maybe it was just after the weird effect meeting Sophia had on me or maybe I was just hoping something might happen, either way I just couldn't shake off the feeling.

The club was quiet when I first walked in and the band had only just arrived.  They were setting up ready for their set. I recognised the drummer to be the same guy RJ had given her number to on my first night here. No wonder she was coming again tonight. What was their name again...Acid umm...Acid Criminals. They actually weren't half bad.

Mike and Hannah were both working tonight and another girl I hadn't seen before, but I knew her to be Cassie Jones. Hannah hadn't kept it a secret of her dislike towards the girl and I now stood next to her hearing even more gossip about her antics.