Hell's Angel: Section One

“WHY do I keep doing this to myself?!” I growled, smacking myself on the forehead. The resulting sound seemed loud, and I quickly looked around to make sure no one had seen or heard my little display of frustration. Luckily, the auditorium was quickly filling up with conversing students; no one would have heard it. Unluckily, the filling auditorium meant I had little time left, if any.

Ear-splitting feedback issued from speakers overhead and resounded through the auditorium, and I winced. Nope, no time. Well, maybe, just once, Lady Luck would have pity on me.

Ha…yeah, right.

I sank down onto my seat, rifling through my binder to see if I’d left a pen or pencil somewhere in there between the pages. A few seconds later, someone tapped on the mike, and I looked up obediently.

Miz Harding stood up on the stage in that dark grey business attire she always wore, hard eyes scanning the auditorium. Most students quickly shut up under the force of her gaze like a reverse wave. It was a well-supported rumour that the vice principal held more power than the principal himself – after all, no one ever saw him outside his office – but I was generally a good student and had never been sent to either, so I didn’t care.

“Before I introduce your speaker to you,” Miz Harding said thinly, “I’d also like to introduce to you a new student here at the school.” It was only then that I noticed the tall dark figure standing in the shadows of the right wing, now stalking up to the centre where Miz Harding beckoned with a furious, frozen smile. “Please welcome Aidyn Thiessen.” It wasn’t a request. A slight, feeble smattering of applause rose from the students; I heard a few whistles and catcalls, and grimaced momentarily, disgusted. What a welcome.

Miz Harding seemed to be in as much of a hurry to get Aidyn Thiessen off the stage as he was to get out of the spotlight. I watched as he easily dropped off the edge of the stage and walked in long strides towards one of the aisle stairs. It seemed as if he was trying to go as fast as he could without making it appear as if he was hurrying. I got a better look at him as he came closer, coming up the side where I was sitting.

He had shoulder-length hair tied back in a low ponytail, its colour a light blond, like pale gold, or butter… Ew. Not butter. What was the word?

“Flaxen,” I whispered out loud, and watched, alarmed, to see if he would hear me. He didn’t, or gave no indication of having heard, but then why did he slide into the seat just behind mine when I was surrounded by a sea of empty seats? (My…popularity had taken a plunge back in grade nine after I’d been backstabbed by the queen bees of then, and it had never really resurfaced.) I was mildly surprised – he looked like the type who wanted no contact with anyone at anytime, the stereotypical loner.

The professor I’d forgotten about had been handed the mike and was speaking. I reluctantly turned my attention back to the stage, my thoughts still lingering on the new student in the chair behind me.

Aidyn had been tall. I wasn’t sure how tall, exactly, because I’d always been bad at estimating things, but I knew he was definitely taller than me.

Another thing – everything about him except his hair and face was black. His hair was that flaxen-gold colour, pale but not like it was sun-bleached or anything-bleached pale, and his skin – what I could see of it, that was – was nearly white. Not sickly-white, just…very, very pale. He wore black pants and boots – I could see one boot out of the corner of my eye, partially hidden behind my chair, the laces tied unbelievably impeccably.

What else had he been wearing? I frowned, staring blankly in the direction of the stage, thinking. A black…almost trench coat, left hanging open to reveal a black shirt inside. Even his messenger bag was black, though that in itself was fairly normal. I tuned back in in time to hear the professor chuckle and mention something about teachers wanting us to take notes. Go figure. Maybe I could use my extremely crappy memory to remember all the extremely important details that would most certainly be on the extremely hard tests coming up.

A few seconds into the professor’s lecture, I came up with a positively brilliant idea. I was nearly dying to turn around and study – stalkerish, I know – Aidyn, and here was an excellent excuse. I mean, after all, I needed a writing implement, and…here was the perfect opportunity! I twisted around in my seat and stared over the top of the back.

“Hi,” I chirped, a little too eagerly, and toned down the cheerfulness. No need to permanently scar him for life or something. When I spoke again, it was more like my normal voice. “Um…Aidyn, right? Uh, hi…”

The blond boy didn’t look up. “What?” he snapped.

I reeled back a bit. Did he really need to freak out like that? “Uh, sorry,” I said a little more cautiously. By now I was ready to turn back around and pretend none of this had happened, but that wasn’t an option, so I ventured on. “Uh, I…”

At that moment, he looked up, and my words died before they were ever voiced. I was staring into his eyes…and I couldn’t look away.

My breath caught in my throat. Green. Cold green glittering eyes, like a cat’s, but deeper, burning with a sort of fervour, a fire. I sat lost in the fiery depths of those hazel-tinged green orbs, lost…

Laughter and boos erupted from somewhere down below, startling me enough to forcibly wrench my eyes from his unwavering gaze. There was nothing I could do to keep from blushing.

“I’m sorry,” I stammered, too quickly and too rushed, but I couldn’t help that. “I – I didn’t mean to – t-to stare. I was just – ” I swallowed hard and looked at the floor. “I just wanted to know if you had a pen I could borrow…” I trailed off feebly and darted a quick glance at his face.

Aidyn stared at me with slightly narrowed eyes for a pause that was too long for comfort before he finally reached a hand into the bag at his feet and handed me a pen.

“T-Thanks,” I mumbled, and quickly turned back towards the stage, so fast I almost fell off the seat. My mouth was dry; I could feel the heat in my face, and my heart thudded in my ears, abnormally fast. What was that? And – had I really stared at him for as long as it had felt?

I tried to listen to the lecture. It was creationism versus evolution, and the professor would’ve been interesting on any other day, but this time the words weren’t reaching me. I spent twenty minutes doodling on the margin of my notepaper, moving to the blank space inside the margins when I had run out of room.

Something the professor said brought laughter again, which snapped me out of my dazed state. I became aware of the sound of pencil scraping quickly over paper, and it wasn’t me. I tried to ignore it, since it was really none of my business, but curiosity finally got the better of me. I turned around and rested my chin on the back of my chair.

Aidyn was drawing, his – black – pencil flicking quickly over the paper of a sketchpad. Another notebook with a few lines of notes sat on the chair beside him. I leaned over a little bit, fascinated. Even upside-down, the talent was apparent. A soft gasp slipped from my lips unbidden – that was enough to make Aidyn’s head snap up, glowering at me.

“What are you doing?” he snarled, showing teeth like an animal.

I stared at him, wide-eyed and frightened by his reaction and tone of voice. “I – I’m really sorry,” I whispered tentatively. “I just wanted to look. I shouldn’t have; sorry.” I didn’t wait for him to respond, but turned around again and stayed that way for the rest of the lecture.