Book 1
Prologue
My life was easy before it happened. Before it ended. I loved my family and I loved my neighborhood, even my conventional New York high school. And then it all changed. Because I never really had those things to begin with. Nothing in my life was meant to be normal. I was doomed to be extraordinary, and I died because of it, and I came back as something else.
Chapter 1
Morning
Buzz. Buzz.
My alarm clock rings, waking me up from my soundless slumber. That’s my cue. It's time for school. Good old boring high school. My high school is so unbelievably boring I can barely stand the thought of one more year. I want to go to college as soon as possible to get out of this dead-end town. I live in a small suburban town called Smithtown on Long Island in New York State. There are about 500 kids in my class, but we have the largest class. For some reason parents found it perfectly appropriate to have children in 1994 but somehow less appropriate in subsequent years. The population is definitely decreasing.
My family is very politically involved so I always know what is going on in the town. My parents met in their freshman year of high school. My dad is the business coordinator of a major beauty product company in New York City, which is a three-hour drive or a two-hour train ride. He is a very strict parent and we don't get along as much as either of us would like. My mom works as head chemist for the same company. I love my mom. She is sweet, pleasant, and knows what is right and wrong. She has a very blunt understanding of life. They both worked very hard for their jobs and encourage us to do the same. The kids in my family consist of my brother Aiden, who is twenty-one, Aaron, fifteen. My brother Aaron was diagnosed with Autism when he was two and this has been a huge obstacle that my family has had to overcome. Growing up with a younger brother like Aaron hasn’t been easy and often my parents are too busy with him to pay any attention to Aiden or I, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world. I actually like him better than Aiden. I also have two little sisters, twins Anna-Sofia and Anne-Leigh. They are thirteen and extremely annoying. They are always messing with my head. They’re identical so even mom can't tell the difference sometimes, but I'm getting better at it. Anna is slightly taller and more muscular. Anne is very intelligent and always the mastermind behind all of their schemes. She graduated elementary school at the top of her class, which is one of the only times I have been proud to call her my sister.
My name is Audria or Dria as my boyfriend Victor and my best friends Taylor and Stephanie call me.
My family is one of those families you see at PTA meetings. The type you would love to become a part of and for whom you might forsake your own family. A good looking bunch, fine breeding. We are definitely the picture perfect kind of family, but we have our problems, like when Aiden eloped with his girlfriend, now wife, Elizabeth, whom I called Beth.
Just then there was a light tap on my door and I heard my sisters creep in, obviously thinking I was still asleep. My eyes are closed but, though I normally sleep on my side, I am lying flat on my back, which is a little uncomfortable for me. So I lay there as they move towards my window. I can tell it’s my sisters because anyone else in my family would have hit me with a pillow or punched me in the arm or the gut by now. Not that I wouldn't punch whoever it was back. It’s a dog-eat-dog household.
Suddenly I realize how bright the light is shining in through my windows and I pop up, pissed that I have overslept and no longer in the mood to fool around. I grab my thick prescription glasses from the nightstand and scream, “Get out of my room. Do you guys have any respect for personal privacy?" I yell as I hurl a pillow in their general direction.
"No, no we don't,” Anne, contends as she drags Anna out of the room with her. I really hate my sisters sometimes. I sit up reluctantly and am immediately pounced on by the fat blob I call Pudding. My loyal cat slaps me in the face with his tail. He probably just woke up too, the fat lazy oaf. His orange stomach nearly drags the floor as he saunters off of my bed. His Tabby features should make him more slender, but the truth is he just likes to eat a lot.
I grab the outfit I had laid out for myself the night before from my dresser. The sequined black tank goes great with my jeans skirt and the forest green, short-sleeved jacket with a hood and large buttons that fastened down the side. I had picked out my outfit to be paired with a set of circular earrings with forest green and navy blue in it. I put my silver name necklace on with it and throw on my favorite pair of black high-top converse sneakers. Fashion makes life so much more interesting.
I took out my night retainer that my mom threatened me to wear every night or they would put braces back on me for college. I brush my teeth vigorously white and smiled a few times in the mirror. I put on my make-up too, not much just some lip-gloss, eyeliner, and mascara. Next I put my contacts in and put my long brownish-blondish hair in a ponytail with my bangs in a braid fastened with a clip.
I headed downstairs to eat. Aiden and Elizabeth were there which didn’t surprise me at all. They spend more time here than their own apartment which is a really nice place to visit when I need time away from the perfection of my parents and the twins. Beth is really nice and easy to talk to even though I think she is an idiot for marrying my brother not to mention running away to get married.
"Hey, Audria, How are you this morning? Did you get a good night’s rest?" Beth asked politely. I knew that no matter whom I marry, I would have no one better to talk to than Beth.
"Yes, thank you,” I took a bite of an apple I found and rinsed.
"Hope you have fun with Bueck,” Aiden said like the idiot he is.
“Didn't Mrs. Buechenburg retire last year?” Beth asked as a wave of terror ran through me. I had already printed Buechenburg on my essay.
“Oh yeah you got that new teacher, what the hell is her name? Um Stripes or something,” Aiden started but kept snapping his fingers trying to remember her name.
“Strix, honey. Your mom was telling us about her last night,” Beth said rubbing his hand as she laughed lightly at his faulty memory.
“That's right, heard she has a family too. Well Mom heard,” Aiden corrected himself while taking a sip of his coffee.
“And where did Mom hear that from?” I asked as I quickly looked for something to eat.
“Where do you think? Her book club,” he answered himself.
“Ugh we have to get her out of that. Too much estrogen in one room,” I said swigging down a gulp of milk form the carton.
“Hey, you’re not supposed to do that,” Aaron said sleepy still. I walked over to him and kissed his head.
“And I won't do it again,” I said before turning back towards the fridge and taking just one more sip.
“Well, now that Bueck is gone there go all your excuses of being late out the door," Aiden said smiling.
"What?" I asked confused about what he meant by all MY excuses of being late to class. Did he know that I cut class a couple of times last year to dodge bullets from my other teachers on assignments I forgot to do?
"When someone was late coming into the classroom we would always tell the teacher we got Buecked,” Aiden said like I was some kind of idiot. He took a bite from a bowl of cereal in front of him and continued.
"And it worked because Buechenburg was notorious for keeping kids after and not giving them passes," he added to make me understand fully. I guess that would be a good excuse, maybe I could say that I got Strixed and they would understand why I was late. I better not; I don't want the new teacher to have such a bad reputation on the first day.
"Good morning Audria, have a nice day at school,” Aaron said in a groggy tone while rubbing his eye. He was literally the sweetest person on the planet. I tousled his hair and got his favorite cereal out of the cabinet for him. He smiled widely as I put it in front of him at the kitchen table. My mom normally takes care of Aaron and the twins in the morning but she started leaving earlier so she could come home to take Aaron to his physical therapist and get the twins off the bus, which reminded me I was supposed to catch my bus soon. I grabbed my bag, which was nearly three times the size of a normal pocket book. Luckily I kept my phone in the secret inside compartment. I checked the time and it was nearly 7.
I decided then that I would call Victor to see if he could drive me to school. He got his license last year just like most of my class, except for a few others and me. Last year when I took the test I had studied and studied and practiced and practiced but I had just frozen once I got into the car. It was so embarrassing. I will have to take the test again this year; the whole non-driver thing was a real disadvantage. So I picked up the phone and called Victor. He answered after two rings.
"Hey Vic can you give me a lift to school? I don't want to go on that smelly old bus," I said in the sweetest voice I could, he loves my voice. And I wasn't exaggerating about the bus, it was ancient, it didn't even have seat belts not that anyone uses them anyway. And the bus driver smokes so it smelled like cigarettes and coffee, disgusting.
"Sure babe, I’ll be there soon," he said and hung up the phone. He didn’t even say goodbye.
"I take it you guys are fine then?” Beth asked concerned. Victor and I had had a fight a few days ago about senior year and what his expectations were and what mine were. My expectations were a seat in the top 10 of our class and a full or partial scholarship to Stanford. His expectations of senior year were to pass, take the football team to the championships, and for us to consummate our relationship for lack of a better term. I told him after high school, but the boy's so damn persistent.
My books and list of completed summer assignments were neatly stacked on the table waiting for me just the way I had left them the night before. Over the summer I had to complete an Advanced Placement Biology assignment, which included the reading of 10 chapters, a packet for each chapter and an essay on the subject of our choosing which for me was the correlation between metabolic pace and life span. I almost fell asleep while writing it; my mom picked the subject for me so it wasn’t really my choice. I also had to read 3 books, each over 300 pages for my AP Lit class. AP Bio was going to be the real trouble. The teacher is a real creep.
I grabbed my book bag and walked calmly to the door to wait for Victor.
“Wait, Audria,” Beth said getting up to hug me.
“Good luck, remember this is the final stride. Make the jump without complication and there will be a scholarship waiting on the other side,” she said making a horrible metaphor of my senior year and some field event.
“Yeah sure, see you later Beth,” I kissed her on the cheek. I went to turn away when Aaron mumbled something with cereal in his mouth. I turned around and he was pressing his finger to his cheek waiting for me to kiss him good-bye.
“See you later Aaron. Have a nice day. Don’t play your Xbox for too long or your hand will hurt again,” I said walking away after I kissed his cheek. I went to the door and could hear Victor beeping the horn to call me outside. He was sitting out there in his new Mercedes that his dad had sent him while he was away in Asia on business. He barely ever sees his dad. Even growing up his father was distant.
"Bye sis. Have fun with Strix," Aiden said as I walked out the door. I waved goodbye and Beth yelled something I couldn’t hear.
“Hey, babe you look hot,” Victor, said as I got into the car. He leaned over to kiss me and the thin line of orange hair outlining his jaw line poked my cheeks. I kept my hand on the side of his face for a second and we sped away.
“Thanks, I went shopping with the girls and Taylor picked it out,” I said putting my books and bag on my lap. We stopped at a stop sign and Victor turned the radio on to some random pop song.
“So like the new ride, I told you it was nice,” he said tapping the wheel to the beat of the song. How he got his license and I didn’t is beyond me.
“Yeah it’s really nice. What model is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know, probably the most expensive one they got. The old man owes me a lot in missing quality time, but I really don’t mind when he’s paying me back in cars. Oh check this out,” he said and pressed a button on the dashboard. The roof of the car suddenly seemed to disconnect and disappear slowly into the back of the car. Vic was right, it seemed really expensive. We sat in silence most of the trip with some other small talk like the previous conversation. Victor wasn’t really a talker so much as a doer.
We arrived at the school and parked in the student parking lot reserved for seniors and lucky juniors who had their license. We got out of the car and checked our schedules simultaneously.
“What period do you have lunch?” he asked as we both looked.
“Fifth when do you have it?” I asked as we walked to the doors.
“Fifth, so I guess I’ll be sitting next to the hottest chick in the school, and well I guess you can sit with us too Audria,” he said laughing. I made a face and he just kept laughing. This was a classic Victor joke. It’s almost like he’s going to be sweet and loving and then makes fun of me. I had gotten used to it by now, so it didn’t even faze me.
“Ha-ha now stop kidding around. We have to get to homeroom,” I said as we approached our lockers. Our lockers had stayed the same since freshman year. Victor and I had actually first met at our lockers on the first day of high school. I kind of knew him before that but by the time freshman year had rolled around his muscles had filled out and when he asked me out, I just couldn’t help myself.
I opened my locker and put in what I always had in it. There was a spare brush, a couple of feminine products in a makeup bag for emergency situations, mirror and a notepad for important things like exams and dates. The day started out like I would imagine any other senior’s first day, and I was bubbling with excitement now that the moment was finally here, but in just seconds later…everything changed.
“Oh Audria you know I was just kidding babe,” was all I could make out of what Victor had said. I looked up to meet Victor's eye line but instead my eyes shot to a man I had never seen before walking down the hallway.
He had jet-black hair that went down to just above his earlobe. He was wearing a leather jacket and as he walked in tore off a pair of silver rimmed aviator glasses. His shirt underneath the jacket was a white plain t-shirt; he had on black jeans and black boots. He had a piece of crumpled up paper in his hand that he was reading. He kept looking at the lockers I would assume for the number. He was about six feet away when I first saw his eyes. I couldn’t ever recall a more striking shade of blue. They were so rich in color I wouldn’t doubt it if someone told me he cried blue. They were an indescribable blue; they were bluer than the oceans of the Caribbean or the skies of Montana. And they were, with no doubt, literally the most beautiful and flawless set of eyes I had ever seen set against what can only be described as an equally beautiful being. He looked godly walking down the homely hallway.
He kept walking down the hallway looking at locker numbers until he got to the one next to Victor’s, the one opposite mine. He smiled and seemed to almost be caught off guard when he looked at me. I must have been staring pretty hard at him for him to look that surprised.
“This is it,” he said quietly to himself and opened the locker door. I was still staring at him frozen by his beauty.
“Audria, have you even been listening to me?” I heard Victor say as he put his hand on the side of my face to recall me back to the conversation.
“Yeah, babe I heard you,” I said not tearing my eyes from the figure behind him. He was so perfect it blew my mind. Vic slammed my locker. The sound made me jump a little.
“Let’s get to homeroom,” Victor said tugging my arm. I went but waved like an idiot to the guy I was just staring at, I don’t think he even noticed. Once inside I sat at the desk I had had the year before like we always did. We always had the same homeroom too. My desk was right across from Vic’s so we could talk. I made small talk again with Victor and a few other kids in the class. Taylor and Stephanie walked in then. I swear those two are tied at the hip. They really are twins from different parents. Taylor had the seat in front of me and Steph was behind me. We were in alphabetical order.
“Hey guys, how was your summer?” I asked politely.
“Omg Audria I had like the best summer of my life. You know how my family goes to like a different tropical island like every summer? Well this year we went to Fiji and it was like the best six weeks of my life,” Taylor said chewing a wad of bubblegum the size of a baseball and blowing a bubble twice as big.
“Awesome what did you do Steph?” I asked.
“Nothing special, went skiing most of the time. The lodge my father owns got snowed in for a couple days and there were at least four professional teams there from like different countries or something so I hung out with some guy from Paris most of the time. I learned a lot about foreign tongues this summer,” she said leaning her chin on her hand and staring off into the distance. Taylor laughed hysterically and so did Victor, while I gave a fake little chuckle. Most of my friend’s parents were eccentric millionaires so none of this was out of the ordinary.
I sat back in my seat thinking about the assignments I had on my desk and whether or not my teachers will like them. I was playing with my papers daydreaming about all A's when the announcements came on the louder speaker. We all stood for the pledge and a moment of silence for those serving overseas in the war. Then there were announcements for upcoming clubs and sports tryouts. Victor kept quiet waiting for the first football practice to be announced. He made first-string quarter back but this was no surprise to anyone, especially not him. He practiced all summer when he wasn't out partying with his football friends, and he never seemed to stop partying; his summer was one big hangover.
"Audria, what did you do this summer?" Taylor asked me half way through the announcements. I was caught off guard.
"Oh, we went to Disney World again for the twin's birthday. They never get tired of that place but this time we went on the Disney cruise in the Mediterranean. It was beautiful," I smiled remembering the two weeks I spent away from Long Island. It was nice to get away from the same old stuff but I missed my house and Victor. He was waiting in the backyard for me when I got home. He texted me to go outside and there he was. It was a really nice surprise. Then that night he got drunk at a party and dragged me along with him as the designator cab caller since I couldn't actually drive him home. He was just lucky that I loved him.
"So while Victor isn't listening, tell me that you made out with at least one Italian guy. Italy is in the Mediterranean right? Or is that in Asia," Taylor said chewing her gum louder than before, if that was possible.
"No we did go to Italy. Sorry Tay, I suppose I could lie and say I made out with half the country but I didn't really meet anyone worthwhile, in that country at least," I said in a tone clearly meant to encourage them to keep digging. There actually was this one guy in Greece who was really nice to me. He had dark hair and green eyes. He lived on one of the islands we went to and gave my family a tour around the island. I think he just did it to impress me. He seemed to be about fifteen but he was still cute. I explained that all to them and they both smiled at each other. They giggled softly and by then the announcements were over. Victor got up to talk to a group of guys in the very back of the classroom. The girls talked to each other while I stared off near the door reading the poster on the wall. It had some catchy line about the benefits of education or something like that.
There was suddenly a figure standing outside the classroom. His face was visible through the small window in the door but all I needed to see were his eyes. It was the guy from the hallway. His blue eyes scanned the room for a second and he opened the door. He walked across the classroom to the teacher's desk and handed her a note. The room drew quieter as he stood there in his perfection. I stared at him like most other people did. I saw Victor look at me angrily from the other side of the room out of the corner of my eye. I looked down at my desk immediately. Victor is a very jealous boyfriend. He barely even tolerates me talking to other guys much less staring at them dismayed.
"Hello, my name is Alex. I'm a new student; I was told that this would be my homeroom," he said smoothly to the teacher that was sitting at the desk. She looked up slowly from the attendance sheet that she was checking people's names off of. She had the look in her eyes that I would imagine I had in the hallway.
"Oh yes well let me see your schedule dear,” she said snapped back into reality. He handed her the piece of paper that he was holding in the hallway.
"Yes, Alexander Strix, welcome to our school, I see you are in quite a few advanced placement classes. Good for you. Well let's get you settled in. Taylor how about you show him around,” she said pointing right at Taylor. Taylor shot her gaze up reacting to her name being said. I don't think she could have heard anything else over the bovine chewing noises she was making. Alex looked back at Taylor and smiled politely. Taylor gave an empty wave like she didn't even know her hand was moving.
"Thank you for your help Mrs. Lampart," he said, sounding somehow even more charming than before.