Broken (The Siren Series #1)

I was dragged down into the dark. My mind was
blurry, darkened figures roamed around me with talon like claws.
Scratching and stabbing as my bare flesh succumbed to the
brutality. I screamed out in pain, pushing the figures away, until
hot agonizing pain shot through my chest.

“
Ellie Laveau, please pay attention.”
The teacher asked.

I was torn away from the dark and brought
back into the reality.

“
Ah crap.” I mumbled under my breath.
Quickly I raised my head.

Mrs. Clayson face was stuck in a constant
frown. She wore it nearly every day. (Cheer up woman).

“
Sorry.” I said. She gave me a quick
nod and turned her back on the class and continued to write on the
board.

I really hated maths. My brain could not keep
up with all the stupid numbers, but like my dad says, I have to
stick it out until the end. I looked over to my right and saw Lilly
heavily reading her text book. Lilly was one of the pretty girls,
but she never really thought about herself as being pretty. She had
long flowing blonde hair, but today it was high up in a ponytail to
show off her high cheek bones. She loved maths, and even tried to
teach me at one point. I love Lilly very much, but the girl she can
be such a know-it-all.

As I was about to finish some of the answers
on my page the bell rang and my heart jumped for joy. I slammed my
books shut and threw the rest into my backpack and zipped it up. I
quickly caught up with Lilly outside the class. She turned to face
me and she had her motherly look plastered onto her face. (Here we
go).

“
You were sleeping again weren’t you?”
Lilly’s tone was not happy one.

Lilly was one of my best friends. I have
known her since I came to this school a few years ago. We hit it
off quickly and have been friends ever since. She has become the
mother of the group, always knew what was best.

“
Um, just a little. I’ve been having
trouble sleeping that’s all.” I replied.

“
Again? what’s going on with you Ellie?
Are you sick or something?” she asked.

“
God I hope not, I hate getting sick,”
I said while feeling my forehead. “No, no temperature.”

I really did hate getting sick. I always felt
like I was on deaths door, and, It was so not attractive, always
blowing my red nose, coughing up nasty phlegm. Ugh I just didn’t
want to think about that right now.

“
Well maybe you should see the schools
nurse?” Lilly suggested. “You do look a bit puffy.”

“
Don’t lie. Anyway let’s get something
to eat maybe that will help.” I said to change the
topic.

We arrived together at the dinner hall, and
as usual everyone had their own little group and sat at same table
every day. The hall had a white high ceiling with long circular
lights hanging down low along with a wooden tiled floor that had
seen better days. We quickly bought a sandwich and a drink from one
of the vending machines.

I looked over and saw Becky wave at us from
our favorite table, shaking her many bangles at the same time.
Rebecca (Becky for short, as she hates being called Rebecca) was
also one of my other best friends and I adore her.

Becky has a cute little mole on her
right cheek, (she calls it her beauty mark, but Lilly and I
sometimes tease her about it), Becky’s hair was black as night, and
cut short that showed off her long slender neck, she had a thin
nose with soft full pink lips that was covered with too much
lip-gloss. I sat down at our small table and started to eat my
sandwich I didn’t realize
how hungry I was until I
took my first bite.

“
So Becky.” Lilly asked “How was
Matthew then?” Lilly gave Becky a cheeky little wink.

“
No, nothing happened.” she sadly said.
“The teacher didn’t give us a chance, and you know that’s the
perfect time when he’s alone. When he’s not in class he’s
surrounded by
those
friends of
his.”

“
Do you want us to go with you” I
asked. I knew what her answer was going to be straight
away.

“
No way, I’m not a kid anymore Ellie,”
I quickly stop talking and continued to eat my sandwich. “It just
drives me mad, we give each other looks, now and then, but none of
us can pluck up the courage.”

“
You’ll get him next time, how does the
saying go?” Lilly asked

“
Absence makes the heart grow
stronger?” I said.

“
Um no, I don’t think that’s it but I
know where you’re coming from,” replied Lilly. “Oh yeah Becky,
Ellie has something to tell you.”

Uh oh I knew what this was going to be. Was
it gang up on Ellie day, and with that I had a major headache going
on.

“
Don’t tell me she’s been sleeping in
class again?” Becky said, like I wasn’t even in the
room.

“
Yep.”

“
Ok, can you two get off my back
please!? I haven’t been sleeping well and I’ve got a thumping
headache and you are not helping,” I felt the anger bubbling deep
down. “I’m sorry girls it’s just that today hasn’t been a good
day.”

“
Sorry Ellie, you know we’re only
joking.” Lilly said.

“
Yeah sorry.”

Both of them just stared down at their food
feeling ashamed. I took a deep breath. What was going on with me
lately, I’ve been snapping at them a lot, and I was acting quite
bitchy lately. I tried to give the girls a little smile to ease the
tension.

“
Fine, but you owe us now.” Becky said
immediately.

“
Deal” I accepted. The awkwardness soon
disappeared between us. I took one last bite of my cheese sandwich
and washed it down with some lemonade when the bell
rang.

“
Let’s go Becky, we’ve got class
together.” I told her.

“
O.M.G. I totally forgot about Mr. Drop
dead gorgeous.” Becky said.

I gave her an eye roll. “Let’s just get
to class or
Mr. Thomas
will
not be so drop dead gorgeous and please do not call him that to his
face” I asked.

Becky bit her lip in a sultry way which
needed another eye roll.

“
Behave!” Lilly said by playfully
throwing a rolled up paper napkin at her.

I threw my rubbish into the bin and brushed
myself off. Becky shot a raised eyebrow my way.

“
What? I don’t want crumbs on me when I
go to lesson.” I said.

“
Yeah, whatever.” Becky
giggled.

We walked together amongst the crowd of
teenagers. It didn’t take us too long to get to our English class
since we knew a short cut up the side stairs. We climbed up
and just around the corner was our English class. We found
our seats, Lucky enough I was sitting next to Becky, but sometimes
we did slack off and just chatted and gossiped about our teacher
(well Becky did I just agreed now and then.)

Becky was right, he was drop dead
gorgeous, all the girls had major thing for him. Mr. Thomas had
short sandy colored hair with two day stubble that looked great on
him. It defined his strong jaw line and in the right light made
me
go weak at the knees. (I know, I know. It’s just
wrong).

Today we were reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. I didn’t really know much about it, but I knew that it was
sad. Why did Shakespeare write such dark tales? I mean did he ever
look on the brighter side of life? I looked over at Becky and saw
she was completely enthralled with Mr. Thomas as were the other
girls. Now and then Mr. Thomas gave us his famous crooked smile
that everyone loves.

Mr. Thomas held up the book. “Right class,
for a few days we will be reading Romeo and Juliet” His voice was
soft yet commanding.

He flipped open the pages and started to
read. His soft manly voice flowed naturally as he began to quote
the words of Romeo to his imaginary Juliet. He asked some of the
students to read passages from the book and he then asked them what
they thought it meant. Some of them gave stupid answers while
others gave deep analysis to the meaning. Thank god he never asked
me to read, I hated reading out loud, too much pressure.

“
Isn’t he gorgeous?” drooled
Becky.

Now and then his eyes would meet mine and I
would blush all over and I would then stick my face straight into
the book.

What had seemed like minutes had turned into
a full hour. It was time to pack up and head home. Becky was fast
to put her things away and zoomed out of the class, but she turned
back and said.

“
I’ll wait outside for you
ok.”

I nodded to her and went back to packing my
stupid overly packed bag. One of these days this bag is going to
fall apart. When I was done, I noticed that I was the last one in
the room except Mr. Thomas. He was tidying some papers away.

“
Don’t you want to go home Ellie?”
asked Mr. Thomas.

“
Yeah just packing this stupid bag, it
keeps jamming all the time.” I replied.

He came around each table to collect the
books that he had provided. There was one of the books sitting on
my table and without thinking I kindly passed it to him and for a
split second my hand touched his. (Oh crap).

I knew what would happen and I slowly looked
into his deep brown eyes. Mr. Thomas’s pupils doubled in size. I
could feel his heat flowing through his body and into mine, it felt
wrong and right at the same time all muddled up in one heat of
desire. He came closer towards me and I immediately pulled my hand
away and ran straight to the door.

I quickly ran down the stairs so fast that I
nearly fell. I had to sit down and take a breath. My head was
spinning, I couldn’t breathe. I undid my buttons on my blazer to
let cool air through. I sat on the cold rubber floor with my back
to the wall. Tears began to flow down my face (crying at school was
such a big no, no) I tried to get my breathing under control when I
heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

No, don’t come up here,
please.
I thought.

I was just about to get up and leave when I
heard a familiar voice calling my name. The two girls came up the
stairs with worried looks.

When I saw them I began to cry again. Becky
and Lilly rushed over to me on the floor and was about to hug
me.

“
Don’t” I yelled and they backed
away.

“
Sorry Ellie.”

“
Don’t worry, we know it’s not your
fault, don’t cry we’re here now.”

I was so lucky to have them as my best
friends; they mean the world to me. But the sad thing is I can
never touch them. They never once judged the things that happen to
me. They just accept me and that’s why I love them.

“
It happened again, didn’t it?”Lilly
asked.

I gave her a quick nod.

“
Who was it?” Lilly’s voice was
soft.

“
Mr. Thomas” I replied.

“
Not Mr. Drop dead gorgeous.” said
Becky.

Lilly gave Becky a slight nudge.

“
Sorry Becky, I know you like him.” I
said. “But he didn’t do anything to me. I ran out of there
quickly.”

“
Don’t be so hard on yourself,” said
Becky “it’s not like you have any control over it, it just
happens.”

Becky was right. I had no control over it
what so ever when I accidently touch people. The people I touch,
they change, and I don’t know why or how, they just do. Even my
friends, I have to watch who I touch, like last year.

I tipped over some idiot’s bag in class, and
I fell, lucky the teacher caught me. (Well not really lucky). As
soon as he grabbed me, he started to change. His eyes went wild and
crazy. He tried to rip my clothes off in front of the class while
saying real horrible graphical stuff to me. He forcefully tried to
kiss my face. Thankfully if it wasn’t for the other students and
the teacher’s god knows what he would have done. Unfortunately for
him he’s no longer working at the school, and, it was my fault.

“
Let’s get you home Ellie.” Said
Becky

I wiped my wet face with the back of my hand.
Lilly and Becky were the first on their feet. I grabbed onto the
stairs banister and pulled myself up.

The three of us walked down the stairs and
into the darkly lit carpeted hallway. It felt a bit weird being in
school after hours, normally there are kids pushing and running
down the halls. Now it just felt spooky and empty.