Novel Chapters
Chapter 1 - Monday - Black, blue and a shadow to brighten your day
It was late in the summer season but early in the day. With the sun glowing brightly over the horizon, creating long drown out shadows of the surrounding deciduous trees and wood clad houses. Off in the distance was the fields and forests of the northern American countryside.
Still laying cosily asleep was Dranared, a 17 year old girl. Her long ginger hair was sprawled all over her puffed up pillow, and the blanket was tucked up over her shoulders. “Drana get up, you’ll be late!” Called her mother from down stairs. Drana blinked her eyes a couple of times to clear her vision so she could read her wrist watch on her desk. “7:30..” she stated still half asleep. A second later after the new information had sunken in, she sprung up out of bed with a fearful and surprised expression. “7:30!” She shouted in her panic.
She quickly grabbed her satchel bag and stuffed it full of all of the books she could find and a hurriedly put together pencil case. She brushed her hair and simultaneously scrubbed her face clean, she threw her hair brush to the side and looked at her makeup bag. ~I don’t have time for that.~ Drana thought to herself and left the makeup bag untouched. She probably would have used the makeup if she had time so that she could look better than normal for her first day. She ran down stairs, waiting for her was both of her parents. Her dad was reading the newspaper and looked up at Drana and snickered. “you could have woken me up sooner, you know.” Drana exclaimed exasperated as she grabbed a bowl out of the cupboard to fill with breakfast cereal. “Yes and where would the fun be in that, it’s much funnier seeing you like this.” Her father managed to say through chuckles of laughter. Her mother tutted at her daughters attitude. “Maybe you should get better at waking up on time.” Her mother stated with an uncaring tone. Drana puffed out her checks in annoyance and went to go eat her cereal in the front room, away from both of her irritating parents.
~Maybe you should use all that money you’ve got to buy me an alarm clock.~ Drana thought as she scoffed her cereal as quickly as she could. It was true that both of her parents were more well off than most, they had moved to America after they had been offered much better pay from the same company they had been working for in England. But the only reason they were really as well off as they were was because both of them were incredibly stingy with their money. From early on they decided that they were going to put Drana into a state school when they moved to America, Drana tried to convince them it would be worth it to put her into a private school or a boarding school but they were as stubborn as she was. In the end they decided on a boarding school that wasn’t horrifically pricey or far away but it wasn’t close either.
Drana gathered up all of her school stuff and left the house, she had calmed down a bit from her disgruntled mood and smiled as she walked. She would often smile even if something was wrong, just to keep her good mood up and not to get others worried about her. It was a long walk to school but at least most of it was on flat ground, she got to the school at about 8:40, 5 minutes before the bell was scheduled to go. So she quickly headed to one of the toilets to go wash her face, mainly to clean off her face from the long walk and also to make up for not using any of her cleansing rubs that morning.
~First day at a new school and I’m already a mess.~ She tried her best to neaten up and she tied back her fringe in to two plats and pined them back so they were out of her face. The bell rang and she quickly picked up her time table to see what she had first. ~tutorial first, that’s right. We get tutorial every morning.~ After tucking her time table back into her blouse pocket she walked off to find her classroom. It turns out it was up a set of stairs that were tucked away, so when she got to class she was five minutes late. “Sorry I’m late miss.” The teacher waved for her to take a seat and Drana sat down near to the front in and amongst a group of girls. Drana smiled warmly at them and quietly said hello. The three girls smiled back but kept talking amongst themselves, like they were an already established group.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they were, after all Drana had been moved into the higher years to where she would have been if she was redoing her GCSE’s back in England. This was so she could get her high school diplomas, that’s not because she wasn’t smart enough to have passed her GCSE’s while she was still in her old school in the south of England. In actual fact she’d passed her GCSE’s before she’d left for America but she needed the equivalent over here before she could do a SAT or ACT exam to get into one of the colleges of her choice, all of which were quite highly sort after and had high requirements.
She was told by her parents that they were moving over the pond while she was still doing her final exams. So she hadn’t had the time to guarantee herself a place in a college or university before she had to make a choice.
The choice was stay in England and live with another family member that she really didn’t get along with at all or living on the streets of England with no one to help you, or move to another country she knew little about and would have her abusive parents with her but she would have a roof over her head and she knew that she could still make a life for herself. It was a tough choice but you already know which one she had chosen.
The tutor talked about all of the boring things that every school said every time it was a new academic year, and she handed out slips of paper with information on the new events that were going on. After a bit Drana started to only half listened to what the teacher was saying and started to remember back to the first day that she was introduced to this new school.
...
It was on a quiet day and no students were around because it was still the summer holidays for most of them. As she walked through the gates to the school her mum was tugging at her hair to tie it into a ponytail. “Mum stop, it’s fine the way it was.” “I’m not trusting you to do your hair, you always leave it loose. Which makes it look scruffy.” Drana made an annoyed huff, she knew if she complained too much her dad would get involved which would mean risking getting a hard slap after this was all over.
The three of them got to the reception desk and her dad rang the bell while her mum finished trying to make her look more like an adult. A second later a long blonde haired woman with a short slanted fringe walked out from one of the rooms behind the desk, she had a baggy sunset orange cami top and a pleated charcoal black skirt. “'Ello, can I 'elp you?” The receptionist asked with a strong Bristolian accent, which surprised Drana and her parents. “uh, yeah. We’re here to see Mr Richardson Wolff.” Drana’s dad replied swiftly. “Okay, just 'ang on one second.” The receptionist reached over to the phone on the desk. “By the way I’m Miss Russell but you can call me Grace.” She said as she dialled in some numbers, after the quick talk on the phone Grace told them they could sit down because ‘Mr Wolff maybe a while’.
This gave Drana some time to have a look at her surroundings. The building they were in at the moment was built of red brick on the outside with white plaster on the inside, the whole school was in relatively good condition and looked like it was built seventy years ago. Drana shuffled in her seat and looked down at the clothes she’d put on. It was a red knee length skirt with broad white diagonal lines every so often to give it some depth and shape, it matched well with her blazing orange hair and the white flowy blouse she wore. Her mum had tried to get her to wear something else, but Drana managed to win the argument of what to wear at the cost of getting her ear clipped by her dad. The red mark had gone by the time they’d arrived at the school, she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing at this point.
After ten minutes or so of being pestered and bullied by her parents, an incredible tall and rather muscular man walked into the reception. He wore a light blue tie around the collar of his plain white shirt and the shirt was tucked into tan coloured trousers, he also had dark brown polished shoes that were square towards the toe end. Over the top of his shirt he wore a blue striped waistcoat with silver buttons, and the back panel was a charcoal black. He had reasonably short auburn hair except for the top of his head where it was slightly longer and a curl of hair flicked forward on the right side of his forehead, almost covering one of his hook shaped eyebrows. He looked over at Drana and her parents with a pleasant smile, that felt completely genuine but it almost looked like a smirk. His softly rounded face and slightly small rounded nose made him seem a lot less frightening then he first appeared, with his height and build. Drana could tell that both her parents were a little intimidated but they stood up to greet him.
“Hello, I’m Richardson Wolff. The head teacher of this school. I’m guessing you’re the Blazingheart family.” He said in a voice that almost matched his build but was only slightly deeper than most men’s voices. Both of Drana’s parents nodded and shook Ridge’s hand. When Drana came to shake his hand, she found herself looking at his amber eyes but she quickly looked over at both her parents who still seemed a little afraid of Ridge. He was about 7’5 foot in height while Drana was two foot shorter but she smiled and looked perfectly fine, she could tell he was a nice enough person. “I’m Dranared, but most people shorten it to Drana.” She politely told Ridge. She was the first to speak out of the three since both her parents had lost their tongues, her dad frowned at this and quickly cut in before anyone else could do so.
“We’ve all flown in from England about a year ago, and now we’ve settled in we’ve started looking around at different schools that are close by.” He said in a more impudent tone and as her dad spoke he rested a hand on Drana’s shoulder which made her flinch just a tiny bit, and it would have gone unnoticed if Ridge wasn’t as vigilant as he was. He didn’t mention it but his smile dropped a little before he quickly nodded and smiled back at Drana’s parents. “Follow me, we can talk in my office.” And with that he lead the way, both her parents walked alongside him while Drana was forced to walk behind her parents, which she didn’t appreciate very much.
It was a short walk to Ridge’s office but the funny thing was that with every doorway they went through Ridge had to duck his head a little, well her parents found this funny but Drana was more sympathetic and didn’t laugh at him. Unlike her parents. Ridge didn’t mind he was used to it after all but he did appreciate at least one person being more respectful then the rest. The only door Ridge didn’t have to duck under was his office door, which was a good foot taller than most doors. He held the door for the family to go in neither of the parents said thanks, but Drana smiled and nodded her head at Ridge as a silent way of saying thanks. Ridge smiled back and shut the door behind him, then walked over to his desk. “Please do sit down.” He said as he did so himself, but even when he was sat down he was a little taller than Drana when she was stood up. She couldn’t help but smirk at this, Ridge must have noticed her smirking because he smiled back and raised an eyebrow. When Drana saw him looking at her, she smiled shyly and looked down at the chair in front of her then she sat down as did her parents.
The room had a nice atmosphere to it but to Drana it would have been nicer if neither of her parents were here. Pushed to one side of the room was an olive green sofa with dark red wood as the legs and arms, on the wall above it was some of the older photos of the school with the students and teachers stood in front of it but in the photos there was no sign of Mr Wolff. He wasn’t in the most resent one either which was three years ago, but there was one or two that had the receptionist Grace in it. Drana was looking around the room casually as her parents and Ridge started to talk, she knew there would be no chance for her to butt in at any point without getting a beating later so this was her way of distracting herself.
On the other side of the room was a couple of bookcases that had various things in them but it was mainly ring binders, on top of the bookcases were some awards for sport. But again Drana noticed that none of them had the name Wolff on them. Drana frowned a little internally while she tried to make sense of this, as she thought she looked back to the front where Ridge was sat. He was sat at a dark red wooden desk that had an olive green writing mat sat in the centre, on the left side of the desk was a computer screen with a mouse and keyboard. On the back of his chair was a large old style dress coat that was a royal burgundy colour with an earthy yellow coloured trim that went around the collar and the front, Drana couldn't really see the coat properly because Ridge was sat in front of it so the other details were hidden.
At the moment Ridge’s conversation with Drana’s parents was coming to a close, and both of them seamed very happy with themselves while Ridge looked ever so slightly concerned but he kept a smile up. ~Oh no, what did I miss.~ She looked at Ridge with a puzzled and concerned expression, and in turn he looked at her with a more concerned look. “I’m sure she’ll be fine, she’s a strong lass aren’t ya?” Her dad stated confidently and then patted Drana on the shoulder, which made her take a sharp inhale and flinch again. She nodded quickly in agreement with her dad as not to anger him, Ridge was certain he knew what was going on now and he didn’t look very convinced. His smile dropped and he leant forward on the desk. “Alright, but as a compromise she has to be reassessed before she can receive any of her high school diplomas in the subjects she completed for her GCSE’s. She has been out of education for a year so it would have affected her capabilities of doing the SAT or ACT exams.” Both parents looked like they wanted to argue with him but before they could interrupt Mr Wolff spoke up once again. “It would be bad practise to let her take the entry exams without having proof of her knowledge in the American equivalent of a GCSE, and I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find a college that would go against its practises.” Drana’s parents didn’t look too happy about his decision but they didn’t argue with Ridge’s intimidating tone, instead they nodded in reluctant agreement.
Drana looked even more confused but Ridge smiled lightly at her to give her a reassurance of sorts, which helped a bit but she still looked puzzled and a hint of worry came through her expression. It wasn’t long until Ridge lead them out of his office and back down to the reception, his previously happy smile looked a little forced as he walked. When they reached the reception Ridge shook their hands but when Drana shook his hand, she hesitated. “How come in all of the photos and awards in your office none of them have you or your name on them?”
She was still holding onto his hand as she asked him, she was being rather brave talking when she wasn’t prompted by her parents. Both her parents frowned at her for this but Drana looked determined despite them. Ridge raised an eyebrow and his previously forced smile turned back into a genuine one. “You’re very observant, but you probably noticed another thing. I’m far too young to be a head teacher, you see I took over from an old friend of mine not too long ago. About a year ago now, and I’m 22 before you ask.” He slowly released his grip on Drana’s hand as he spoke. Both Drana’s parents looked very surprised and Drana did a little bit as well, but she smiled shyly and nodded. Drana’s parents motion for her to follow them and she did so, now that she had figured out her mystery. As she walked out with her parents she noticed that Grace was at the front desk, smiling with a knowing grin. Drana continued walking, not dwelling on it.
When they had left Ridge sighed and put a hand on his hip, Grace smiled at him and tapped on the desk. “I really like that girl, she’s spirit.” She stated with a knowing smirk. Ridge looked over at her and chuckled. “You would get on with her perfectly then.” Grace laughed and shuffled some papers. “Said the man who likes those kinds of girls. I should know since you ‘ad a crush on me until Ivan started dating me.” Ridge rolled his eyes and chuckled for a bit, then his concerned expression started to come back. “I’m worried about that girl.” Grace leaned on the desk and tilted her head at him. “Why would that be?” Ridge went over to her and lent his back on the desk, then he started to explain what he noticed about Drana’s parents and then what he knew about them.
Grace looked a little thoughtful and worried, she looked up at Ridge. “You shouldn’t worry so much. If she’s anything like me I’m sure she’s more than capable of lookin’ after ‘erself… And with that determination of ‘ers she’ll have no problem fitting in ‘ere.” Ridge nodded and looked at her with an unsure smile.
...
The bell went for the next lesson which snapped Drana out of her thoughts, she quickly put her things together and left the tutorial class as did the other students. But unlike Drana they were much more pushy, she tried her best not to be caught up in it all and she made it to her first real class. English, it wasn’t her best subject but she didn’t hate it like most kids. When she got to her class she was greeted by a black short haired teacher with a chin strap beard and chestnut coloured eyes, who wore a baby blue polo shirt with a navy blue blazer over the top. He also had black trousers with black pointy shoes, he had a short and slender build.
She sat down in a seat that was to the side of the class, but as she did she noticed that most of the girls in the class were trying to get seats near to the front of the class and almost all of them were gawking at the teacher. “Everyone get to your seats… right, I’m Mr Ivan Bran.” He said in a firm voice and kept his hands behind his back. ~He’s not that good looking?~ Drana thought as she looked at the girls in the front. She continued to listen and write down notes as the lesson went on, after a while into the lesson a tap on Drana’s shoulder came.
She looked behind her to see a girl with a thin build and long flowing light brown hair that had been dyed scarlet red at the roots and tips of her hair. Her hair was tied back into a pony tail and her light blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm on her delicately round face. “Hey. I’m Evelina, what’s your name?” She asked in a hushed voice. Drana quickly looked over at Ivan to see if he was looking in their direction, then she looked back at Evelina when the coast was clear. “I’m Drana.” She replied in a whisper. Evelina giggled and elbowed the pink haired girl next to her, who was in the middle of writing her work. “Oh I’m Flora, but you can call me Flow.” Flora had light brown hair as well but it was dyed pink on the top and was in a pixie cut. Her eyes were a dark brown and her face was a square-ish shape, on her nose was a small sliver stud pierced into her left nostril. Drana nodded and smiled at the two of them, then she started writing her work again.
It was an hour later and it was the end of the lesson, so Drana began to pack up her stuff. As she was packing up Evelina walked up next to her table with Flora stood next to her. “Since you're new and all do you want to hang out with us at lunch?” Evelina asked with an excited bounce. Drana smiled back and nodded. “Yeah, I’d love to.” Evelina made a happy squeal and she linked her arm with Flora’s, who was now laughing at her friend. “See you at lunch then.” The pink haired girl said as she was dragged off by Evelina. Drana giggled at the two of them and did a little wave goodbye to them as they walked off.
As Drana was about to leave the teacher spoke up. “So you're the new student that Ridge is worried about.” Drana looked over to the front of the class were Ivan was lent up against the white board, by this point all the other students had already left the room. “Um… Why would he be worrying?” She asked hesitantly and slung her satchel bag over her shoulder, she was eager to get to her next class so she wasn't late but she was intrigued by what Ivan had said. “Oh, it's nothing. He gets worried about things he really shouldn't.” Ivan said with a chuckle. Drana looked puzzled by this and narrowed her eyes at him to make sure he wasn't just trying to annoy her, but Ivan was looking at her as if he was interested to know more about her. “I'm just… Going to go now.” She said and started to walk out of the room. “Talk to you later then.” Ivan said in an oddly lingering way, which only made Drana want to leave faster.
~What a weird guy, I hope I don't have to deal with him too often.~ Drana was looking over her shoulder as she was thinking, and inadvertently bumped into a skinny brown haired boy. “The Hell you doin'!” The boy yelped as he grabbed the collar of Drana's blouse and shoved her up against the metal lockers she was walking past. She went wide eyed in her surprise, and when the boy put a fist up to her face she closed her eyes and put her hands in front of her. “I wasn't trying to cause trouble.” She managed to whimper out before the boy had time to do anything, but he didn't look very convinced by what Drana said. A pale skinned boy with scruffy black hair walked up behind the other boy. “What you doin' Paul?” The new boy said with an uninterested tone and looked at Paul with a confused look. “This bitch was tryin' to start somethin' Chris.” The brown haired boy sneered out, like you'd just insulted his mother. Chris laughed whole heartedly and patted the other boy on the shoulder, then he looked down at Drana with an evil smile. “You messed with the wrong people, how ‘bout we teach this pup a new lesson today.” Chris said with an equally sinister tone and Paul started to grin with an evil smile as well.
...
It was ten minutes before the bell was scheduled to go for lunch, and Drana had managed to get away from the two boys that had attacked her. She was sat down against the wall of the main building, it was tucked away in a little alleyway and out of sight for most people. Drana reached up and winced when she touched the area of her lip that had been split open, and a bit of blood was on her finger. She had tried to keep as much blood off of her white blouse as possible but some had still gotten on to it. Newly spreading bruises covered her arms and a few were on her stomach and chest. She couldn't help but make a quiet whimper, she was in a lot of pain after all.
~It's no use, I'll have to go to the nurse’s office... and before anyone gets out of class. I don't want to be seen like this.~ She carefully pushed herself up off of the ground and started to walk to the nurse’s office, luckily no one was around to speak of and she'd snuck by anyone that was around in the distance. As she was making her way to the office out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw something and looked in the direction of the doorway, but there was nothing when she looked. ~I'm getting far to jumpy.~
She quickly dismissed it and turned back around, only to bump into something. That something was a very tall skinny boy's back, he turned around and looked down at Drana with a frown or what she thought was a frown but she couldn't really tell because half his face was covered by a deep red scarf. ~Oh drat. Oh biscuits.~ Drana backed away a little from the boy, who she'd managed to get a better look at now. He was roughly 6'2 foot tall and had dark brown hair with streaks of silver hair either side of his face, and his hair was tied into a small pony tail at the back. On his slightly pointy ears were rows of ear rings of different sorts, and he had a dark tone to his skin. He wore a black leather biker jacket and fingerless biker gloves to match, the rest of his clothing was black as well but his trousers were a deep maroon red.
His frown turned into a confused one after he looked at Drana for a second but she still looked startled, thinking that she may get beaten up again. He tilted his head but still remained completely silent, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a clean tissue. Then held it out to Drana, She looked unsure for a moment then took it. “Um.. Thank you.” She said hesitantly. With that the boy nodded and walked off, well more or less slunk off. He moved very gracefully and with little to no sound. Drana looked puzzled as she watched him walk off, she quickly walked off as well. She dabbed the tissue on her lip as she walked, just as the bell went off she made it to the nurse’s office.
The nurse looked up at Drana as she entered the room. “Oh dearie, what happened to you?” The nurse said and quickly stood up to take a look at Drana and get her to sit down. Drana sat down and looked a little ashamed. “I got beaten up by a couple of boys.” She said simply and quietly. The nurse nodded like this was something that often happened, then she went to go and get a bag of ice out of the small freezer that was set in the corner. Drana shuffled into her seat to make herself more comfortable and as she did that the nurse came back, then held up the bag of ice to Drana's lip. “Keep this on your lip.” The nurse instructed and Drana obliged happily, and did as told.
The nurse sat down on the chair opposite Drana and looked her over. “Do you know the names of the boys that attacked you?” The nurse asked sounding concerned, Drana thought for a moment and then nodded. “I heard them call each other Chris and Paul… If that helps.” The nurse frowned and leaned back in her chair. “Those two have been causing a lot of trouble and getting into all sorts of fights... How come they attacked you?” The nurse asked still with a frown firmly on her face. “I wasn't looking were I was going and ended up bumping into the back of Paul... This was a second after I'd left my English class.” Drana said mumbling slightly because of the ice she was pressing onto her lip, as she spoke to the nurse she felt stupid and useless so she looked down at her feet. The nurse looked at Drana and could tell she was looking rather upset, she smiled and stood up. Then she patted her on the shoulder to help her feel a bit better. “I’ll go and tell Mr Wolff about this, hold the fort for me till I get back. Okay?” The nurse told Drana with a happy voice and a cheerful smile, Drana smiled back and nodded.
Drana let out a relieved sigh, happy that she no longer had anyone looking at her while she was in this state. A second or so later a shadow slipped into the room which made Drana jump. It was the same boy that had given her the tissue from earlier, he looked over at Drana and gave her a nod of his head before he slunk over to the nurse’s desk. Then he opened up the draw of the desk and took out a box of painkillers, Drana frowned at this as she watched him. “Hey, what are you doing?” The boy looked over at Drana, then closed the draw up before walking over to her. He opened up the box and took out a tablet, then handed it to Drana. Drana frowned at him but took the tablet. “That's not what I meant.” The boy smiled at Drana and put the box into his jacket pocket, before he slunk out of the room. Still without muttering a single word, which only added to Drana's confusion. She frowned to herself for a bit before looking down at the pill. She swallowed it with the help of water from her bottle that was in her bag.
...
Ridge was sat at his office desk typing up some paper work as a knock came at his door. “Come in.” He said without a pause in his typing. A second later the nurse walked into the room and closed the door behind her, Ridge raised an eyebrow at this and stopped typing. “There's been another fight between Chris and Paul that involved another student... And by the sounds of it was a more of a one-sided attack.” Ridge frowned inwardly and leaned forward on his desk. “What's the name of the student that got attacked?” He asked with a slightly irritated tone, but the irritation wasn't aimed at the nurse. “I didn't get her name but she looks new to the school, since I haven't seen her before. She had bright ginger hair and a square shaped face; she was wearing a white blouse and a knee length red and white skirt. And isn’t much taller than me.” As the nurse described Drana Ridge started to look worried and he rested his hand over his mouth while he was thinking.
“Do you know her?” The nurse asked curiously as she looked at his expression change quickly as she described Drana. “Yes, I do. And she's the student I was worried about fitting into this school.” There was a silence between the two for a little while before the nurse spoke up again. “I’ll leave you to decide what to do with those two, I'm going to go back and help the girl they attacked.” Ridge nodded and the nurse left the room, Ridge sat at his desk for a little while contemplating on what to do. He let out an irritated sigh and ran a hand over his face. ~How do those two always find a way to irritate me further? ... And of course they had to end up hurting the one student that isn't as insane as the rest. And now no one can tell me I worry about things I shouldn't do.~ Ridge rubbed his temples and made an annoyed grumble. After a little while Ridge stood up and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair, it was the same old style dress coat Drana had seen previously. It had lapels that reached high up to a tall standing mandarin collar. He pulled the coat over him and slid his hands through the plain cuffs, then tugged the middle of the coat were it sat comfortably around his waist.
He walked out from his office and down the stairs as he reached the top of the first set of stairs he saw Drana walk out from the nurse’s office with a happy smile on her face, even though it was easy to see the bruising and the cut on her lip. ~Well at least it hasn't stopped her from smiling.~ Ridge smiled softy and decided it was best if he let her go on her way, so he walked down the stairs slightly slower then he normally would so she wouldn't notice him. He walked through the reception but not before Grace had something to say. “And where are you goin’? I thought you said you ‘ad lots of paperwork to do.” she asked with a sarcastic tone. Ridge chuckled and had his hand on the door handle to walk out, when he looked over his shoulder at Grace. “I've finished most of it now. Can't I go out and have a breath of fresh air after I've been stuck in a stuffy little office all day?” He questioned with a cheerful tone. Grace looked at him with a mischievous smile. “I guess so, you do run this place after all.” Ridge smirked at her and then left the reception to go and have a walk around the school campus.
His real objective was to find Paul and Chris, and he knew exactly where to look for them. He headed to the English and history block, and looked around the back of the building to see if the two of them were outside smoking but he didn't see either of them. He then walked into the building and down the hallway only to see the two of them walking down the hallway facing away from him. He smirked and walked up behind them without announcing himself first. Ridge's shadow loomed over the two and just as Paul noticed his shadow Ridge grabbed both of them by the shoulders in a very tight grip, both of them jumped and looked behind them at Ridge. And as soon as they saw it was Ridge they looked like they'd seen a ghost, Ridge's smile was a passive aggressive one that would unsettle almost anyone.
“You two have been causing even more trouble. So much so that I've had to come all the way from my office just to pay you a visit.” Ridge explained with a voice that sounded like it had restrained anger in it. The two boys remained completely silent and slowly sunk into their skins. Ridge let go of their shoulders and the two looked a tiny bit relieved for a seconded, until Ridge grabbed them both by the ears and lifted them clean off of the floor. Both of them yelped and grabbed a hold of Ridge's arms in an attempt to help stop the pain that he was causing. Chris thrashed his legs about but Paul tucked up his legs, both had tears in their eyes now not just from the pain but from the fear of what Ridge might do to them.
Ridge brought the two closer to him not caring that Chris was kicking him in the leg. “If either of you two start a fight with any of the other students, then I'll make sure you have no fight left in you.” He said in an incredible threatening tone, which made Paul go wide eyed and Chris stopped thrashing about. Then Ridge let what he said sink in for a second before he dropped the two of them on the floor with a thud, the two of them wasted no time scrabbling to their feet and running away.
Ridge stood for a moment looming in the hallway before he walked off, as he walked off he noticed that there was a few students that were hid around the corner of the hallway. They were more than likely watching the display that Ridge had just finished. He frowned and walked out of the building past the on lookers, they backed off a little when Ridge walked past. He knew that most people feared him at the school, he didn't like it but even he had to admit it did have its uses. Unfortunately it also came with plenty of disadvantages, one of them being unable to have a normal conversation with any of the students and most of the teachers, which meant he would often be stuck doing work in his office because hardly anyone would want to have him around.
...
It was fifteen minutes into the lunch break when Drana was able to leave the nurse’s office and was able to take the ice off of her lip, she put on a happy smile as she left the nurse’s office. She walked over to the cafeteria to go have her lunch and as she walked in she saw Evelina and Flora, Evelina also spotted Drana as she came in and excitedly waved at her. Drana smiled and walked over to them, then sat on their table. Evelina tilted her head at Drana and Flora looked concerned at Drana. “What happened to you, did you get beaten up or something?” The scarlet red haired girl quickly asked. Drana looked a little reluctant to tell them but Evelina put a comforting arm around Drana and encouraged her to tell them. “Paul and Chris attacked me after I accidentally bumped into them.” As Drana spoke she rested her chin on her arms that were folded on top of the table. Both Evelina and Flora looked concerned, then Flora stood up and hugged Drana as well. So now Drana was sandwiched between the two of them. “Don't worry we can help you deal with those two.” Flora said with a smile, Drana frowned slightly at this.
“But Mr Wolff is already involved, I don't want to bother anyone else with my problems… I feel bad enough getting his help as it is.” Drana said to them. The two of them let go of Drana and looked a little thoughtful. “Maybe it's best if we leave it to Mr Wolff, if he gets involved then...” Flora looked reluctant to finish her sentence. Drana raised an eyebrow at the two. “Then what?” She asked curiously as she watched Flora sit back down next to Evelina. Evelina looked over at Drana with a worried expression. “He only gets involved if it's serious enough and when he does... It never ends well for the ones causing the trouble, let's put it that way.” Drana looked even more curious at this. “Is he really that dangerous that it's got you two looking frightened?” She asked with a joking tone but the two girls looked at her with a nervous expression that made Drana quickly realise that they were being serious and she dropped her smile.
Flora put an arm around Evelina's shoulder and smiled at her, which made Evelina smile back. “Anyway, have you just moved here? We've never seen you here before.” Evelina asked after getting out of her worried state, Drana nodded and smiled. “Yep, I moved here from England a year ago and I was getting settled in before I started school here. Both my parents had a job offer over here so I moved with them since I didn't have much of a choice.” Drana said with complete honesty but left out the details. Evelina giggled and then Flora spoke up. “You look a lot more mature than most people in this year.” “That's a good thing of course.” Evelina quickly added onto her friend’s sentence. Drana sniggered at the two of them and replied with. “I've been put back two years so I can get my high school diplomas before I can go into a college.” The pink haired girl raised an eyebrow but Evelina smiled and nodded. “So you're like... 16 then?” Evelina asked not dwelling on the previous implications. “17 and I'm going to be 18 in October, I joined up to school a year later then everyone else.” Both of the girl’s smiles lit up a bit more as Drana told them. “Wow, that’s so awesome. So that means you can learn to drive now.” Drana looked embarrassed by the two of them calling so much attention to it.
...
The three of them continued to chat and have their lunch until the bell for class went. Then Drana said goodbye as she went off to the sports hall. When she got to the sports hall all the girls were hanging around the girls changing room while the boys were hanging around their changing room just down the hallway. Drana stood with the rest of the girls and lent up against the wall, as she was waiting she overheard the boys talking. “Got any idea where Chris and Paul are? They’re normally raring to get here by now.” “I don't know man, I haven't seen them since the beginning of lunch.” Drana looked concerned but tried to keep it hidden the best she could. ~I hope I haven't just gotten those two kicked out of the school, the last thing I want to do is make mortal enemies on my first day at school...~ She squirmed a little the more she thought. ~Mr Wolff can't be as bad as Evelina made him sound could he? They've probably gotten the wrong end of the stick as well... He seemed nice enough when I met him.~
The sound of a door being slammed open snapped Drana out of her thoughts before she could debate any further. She looked over to the sound only to see Paul and Chris walking in, both looking a little worse for wear. The two of them pushed aside the girls that were stood in the hallway and walked over to the boy's on the other side. Thankfully neither of them looked like they noticed Drana. She released a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked away from the two of them so it would be harder for them to recognise her. ~Well at least they haven't been kicked out of school yet. Maybe I still have a chance to get along with them.~
Paul was lent up against the wall and was looking at the ground like he wished it would just swallow him up, Chris was patting Paul on the shoulder to try and help him snap out of it. “What happened to you two? It looks like you saw a ghost.” One of the boys commented with a half laugh, which made Chris sneer at the boy. “Shut up, if ya have to know it was the Wolff.” The other boys looked more sympathetic towards him at the mention of Ridge being involved. Drana looked over at them feeling even worse now that she saw the state that Paul was in. A second later the sports teacher turned up to open the changing rooms.
Before the teacher walked off Drana caught her attention. “Miss I haven't brought my PE kit, is there one I could borrow.” The teacher frowned at her and looked like she was about to tell her off but when she looked at her for a second her expression turn to a more worried look. “There should be some spare clothes in the lost and found basket, just inside of the changing rooms... but you don't look too good, you could sit this one out today?” She said in a caring voice that was very unlike most PE teachers, but Drana did look pretty awful. With her split lip and slightly pale completion from all the worrying that she'd being going through. Drana was about to say no to the idea of sitting out the lesson but she realised how bad she felt at that moment, so instead she nodded. “Is there anything else I could be doing while I sit on the side lines?”
The teacher smiled and nodded. “Actually I could use some one to keep score while I supervise. We're going to be playing netball today.” Drana smiled and walked into the changing room to leave her bag and shoes, the other girls raised an eyebrow but didn't stop to talk to Drana. After a double hour of sports, they had finished up for the day and Drana picked up her things to set off home. Her parents didn't want to pay for student accommodation so Drana still had to do the long walk to and from school, but at least it gave her time to think to herself.
When she got to the house she didn't bother knocking on the door before she took out her key and opened up the door herself. She got into the house and locked the door behind her, there was no welcome or anything. The house was devoid of life. ~Home alone again, I wonder if they forgot to leave me anything to eat again?~ She walked over to the kitchen, dropping her bag off at the dining room table as she did so. She scraped through the cupboards and the fridge to find something to work with, in the end she got a cooking apple, onion, gourd and a can of kidney beans. Within an hour Drana had managed to make stuffed gourd with maple and BBQ style beans. She sat down and started to eat her dinner, leaving the leftovers to cool down in the process.
~At least I've got enough to have for tomorrow as well... maybe till Wednesday if I add some garlic bread into the mix... That's if there's any garlic.~ Drana made annoyed grumbles as she ate, she knew that her parents weren't coming back till the end of the week and they hadn't left any money for her to go and buy food. They didn't trust anyone with any of their money, but somehow she managed to survive despite all this. She finished eating and cleaned up her plate, then bagged up the now cool leftovers and put them into the fridge. As she was tidying up the summer sun had descended low enough in the sky that it was getting dark, Drana finished up her chores for the day before she headed upstairs. She brushed her teeth and put on her plain white pyjamas from the night before so she could go off to bed with drowsy eyes.