Novel Chapters
Chapter 2 - Tuesday - Recognition of our problems and dreams
Drana woke up at about five in the morning after having restless sleep. Everything that happened yesterday was stirring through her mind and she couldn't take it anymore. She picked up a towel from her dresser and had a long shower to clean off all of the dirt and grime from last night. While she was in the process of drying her hair in the bathroom she looked at the wall mounted mirror that had de-misted enough to see in now. She couldn't help but frown at the sight of her healing lip and the bruises that covered a fair amount of her body. She finished getting dressed and used the bathroom mirror to put some make-up on. She didn't tend to use make-up but she needed to do so for today, she used some tone evener and some powder to cover up the worst of the bruising. ~Well at least that's the worst of it gone.~ She smiled at herself in the mirror. ~It also gets rid of my silly freckles.~ Drana didn't really like her freckles that much, she used to get bullied for them but she ignored them the best she could.
She shook her head to stop herself from remembering the past and walked off to the kitchen to have her breakfast. She sat in the silent room on her own, with the sound of the birds waking up and calling to one another in the trees outside. She wasn't troubled by the lack of people in the house, she was too used to it to want it any other way. If anything she was happier. If there were people in the house it would only be her parents, which wasn’t the company she wanted.
Drana packed everything she needed including her PE kit this time, and then set off for school. She wasn't going to be early because of her relaxing shower but at least she wasn't going to be late like yesterday. This time while she was walking to school, she had a chance to look around at the scenery in more detail. She'd used her parent’s computer one day while they were out so she could look at an online map of the area, which helped her find the best route to school and some other interesting places around the nearby town. It was a mostly quiet area where she lived and it had a similar countryside to the area of England she used to live in.
She got into school with still two minutes to spare so she looked around to see if she could find either Evelina or Flora, the bell rang while she was still trying to find them so she decided to call it quits and headed off to her tutorial lesson. On the way there she spotted the two boys, Paul and Chris. They were walking in a similar direction to her so she walked a different one so she didn't have to bump into them. When she'd made it near to her classroom she saw that the two of them were stood outside of the room she needed to be in. She frowned and took a deep breath. ~I need to walk past them that's all.~ Drana walked out from the corner she was stood behind and put a smile on her face, as she was walking past them Paul nudged Chris in the arm which made Chris look up in Drana's direction. The two had evil grins on their faces, which in turn made Drana panic a little thinking that they were going to try something again. Instead of her walking into her classroom, where the two were stood right next to, she walked straight past it.
Drana could hear the two of them move from the wall and she walked a little quicker, as she went around the corner of the corridor she saw that the two were following her. So as soon as she was hidden by the corner of the wall she started to run down the corridor at quite a pace. As she made it around the next corner of the corridor she hit something, it wasn't hard like a brick wall but it wasn't that soft either but she pretty much bounced off of it. As she was about to fall over she felt a hand catch her arm. She quickly opened her eyes to find herself looking at a surprised and puzzled looking Ridge. “I'm so sorry, I didn't meant to-” She spluttered as she stood herself up straight and Ridge released his grip on her arm. “It's all right, calm down.” He said with a light hearted chuckle and a broad smile. “Why are you in such a rush?” He asked with an eyebrow raised and his classic smile, she looked at him nervously and then looked around the corner she'd just come around.
Drana saw the tail end of Paul going around the corner on the other side of the corridor. ~That was too close.~ She thought as she quickly looked back at Ridge who was now frowning slightly from confusion. “I was running to get to tutorial.” She answered without stuttering or pursing, which she was rather proud of but Ridge chuckled at her. “You do know your heading the wrong direction to go to tutorial? Most of the tutorial classes are behind you.” He said with an amused voice, he knew that Drana was probably lying but he thought it would be funnier to go along with it. She looked up at him and frowned, then crossed her arms loosely and looked away. “Fine, I wasn't running to tutorial but I was on my way there.” She said with a slightly upset voice as the thought of what could have happen if those two boys had gotten a hold of her again played on her mind. Ridge smiled softly at Drana. “I'll let you get back to your tutorial then.” He said as he started to go off on his way, Drana smiled back at him happy that he didn't ask any more questions. Then she walked off to her tutorial, making sure to look out for the two boys on her way.
...
Ridge walked off back to his office, as he was about to walk up the stairs he saw Ivan lent over the desk in the reception kissing Grace on the cheek. He rolled his eyes and walked up the stairs. ~That was a ship that sailed a long time ago.~ The story with Ivan is that Ridge was best friends with him throughout college and through Ivan he met Grace. Ridge had a crush on her after a little while of knowing her and he didn't know that Ivan was also after her, so the two almost became rivals but Grace chose to go with Ivan. It's not that she didn't like Ridge it's just that she preferred Ivan as a lover. Ridge was jealous for quite a while but he got over it and felt better having them as friends instead. Ridge isn't jealous of their relationship in particular now but it does remind him of how he's on his own, which makes him jealous of them in a way.
He unlocked the door to his office, then walked over to his desk and sat down in his black fabric office chair. He shuffled through the papers on his desk, as he did this he spotted some of the paperwork that belonged to Drana. ~I should really get this sorted before the social services get on my back about it.~ He grumbled a bit and did as much of the work as he could for now, he wasn't a fan of paperwork but he was one of the few people in the school that could complete the work. ~I'll need to speak with Drana so I can fill in these parts...~ He tapped his finger on the sheet of paper and frowned at it. ~I'm sure I'm reading this all wrong, it doesn't make any sense.~ He rubbed his temples then shook his head, and left the sheet of paper to one side while he got along with the other paperwork in the pile on his desk.
...
The bell sounded and the first lesson of the day had started. Drana was sat at one of the desks in the middle row of the classroom, in front of her was a fully set up desktop computer. Stood at the front of the room was her teacher 'Mr Linus Blaine', he was relatively short for a man and he was also quiet skinny. His head was shaven bold but he had a full shortly trimmed beard of black hair and black rimmed glasses sat on the bridge of his nose. “Right, get your computer turned on and put in your student Id for the username and then your date of birth for the password.” He said with a strict tone and then went and sat at his desk. Drana did as he said without question, as she was waiting for the machine to load up she had a look around the room.
It was mostly just filled with computers and a few pieces of electronic equipment, at the front of the class was a bright orange robot arm that caught the interest of Drana. She'd never seen one before in person and her previous school wasn't as tech savvy as this one. On the metal working plate underneath the robot hand was a screen of some kind it was as small as a mini laptop. There were several wires coming out of the back of the screen which then plugged into a small box that was also propping up the screen. Drana frowned trying to figure out what the screen could be for but she looked back at her computer screen as it had finished loading up.
Mr Blaine got the class to sign into the various websites that were associated with the school and were for learning purposes. When that was all done and over with he started to teach them how to use some of the basic programmes on the computers. At one point a boy in the class raised his hand and Mr Blaine came over to him and looked at his screen. “Are you trying hard enough? ... No? Try harder then!” He said with an enthusiastically aggressive voice and then went and sat down at his desk. There was a few sniggers from the class and even the boy he yelled at was sniggering with his friends. Drana didn't look amused by the teacher’s way of dealing with students, so she got on with her work without really paying too much attention to anyone else.
It didn't feel like a very long lesson to Drana because she was interested in all the new programmes and technology that Mr Blaine went on about, that and she was dreading her next lesson, English. The bell went and she logged off of her computer, as she was waiting for it to log off she looked over at Linus who was sat at his desk typing away like a mad man. “Mr Blaine, what's the screen under the robot arm?” She was still curious about it and she didn't really care if Linus yelled at her like he did to all the other students that asked him questions. He looked up at Drana with a frown and looked like he was about to yell at her like she was an idiot for asking in the first place, then he looked over at the robot arm. “It's a project that Ridge got me to work on in my spare time... It ended up being a waste of my time in the end because I couldn't get the damn thing to work once it was in its casing.” He answered in his aggressive tone but it was less angry and had a hint of reminiscing in it. He looked back over at Drana who smiled, from being happy that she got some information out of him without being yelled at. He huffed and got back to typing on his computer, and Drana picked up her bag then left for her next lesson.
...
When she arrived at her English class she sighed quietly and pushed open the door, while she was walking to her desk she could see out of the corner of her eye that Ivan was looking at her with his sly smile. She sat down and tried to ignore him the best she could but his smile just made her skin crawl, and the way he acted around the other students was also devious to say the least. The more she had to look at him the more annoyed she felt, till she heard a whisper over her shoulder from Evelina. “Hey, are you alright? You look kind of mad.” Drana blinked and realised she was frowning at Ivan. “I'm fine, I don't really like English that much.” She quickly whispered back without thinking about it too much, and she smiled warmly at the two of them as well. Evelina and Flora smiled and nodded at Drana, then got back to their work.
As she was smiling at her two friends she noticed Ivan looking at her again. ~Stop looking at me.~ She thought in an aggressive tone but she wanted to shout it out loud to his face. She frowned at him and looked back down at her work to continue on writing, but she couldn't help her mind thinking about Ivan’s creepy smile. Now she'd thought about it a little more, she realised he looked like a fox about to eat an easy meal. She started to get worried about what he wanted with her, she rested her cheek on her hand while she slowly became more concerned. She found herself looking up at the clock more often to only realise that it was no longer working so she wouldn't be able to pack her things early so she could go before Ivan had a chance to talk to her.
The lesson felt like it took far too long to finish, and when the bell finally went Drana immediately started packing up her stuff as quickly as she could. But it wasn't quick enough before Ivan walked over to her and sat on the corner of her table, and as she was about to grab the last sheet of paper on her desk she was stopped by the black haired man putting his hand on top of it. Drana pursed mid movement and looked up at him with an expression that only hinted fear, then looked to see if any of the other student were in the room but she only saw the tail end of one that was headed out of the door. “It would be nice to get to know you a bit better since you're one of my students. Maybe we could talk during lunch today or tomorrow?” He asked with his same old smile. Drana looked back at him and stared at him for a moment, completely shell shocked by his suggestion. “No.” Was her answer when the word finally left her lips, and Drana quickly snatched the sheet of paper from under his hand before he could stop her from doing so and she slug her bag over her shoulder. Ivan frowned slightly and tilted his head.
“Well that's a shame, maybe you'll change your mind.” Ivan said while crossing his arms. Drana walked out of the room without uttering another word. ~I won't change my mind.~ She thought but lacked the capacity to say out loud, as soon as she stepped out of the door she released a breath that she'd been holding ever since she'd spoken. She leant her back on the wall for support and put her sheet of paper that was still in her hand into her bag. She took a second to recover before she walked to the exit of the building. Both Evelina and Flora were waiting at the exit and turned to look at Drana as she approached them. “Are you alright?” Evelina asked with great concern. “You look like you've seen a ghost.” Flora added as they both put an arm around Drana, she was feeling a bit dizzy and she looked a little pale compared to her usually rosy completion. ~I wish I saw a ghost... anything is better than that creep.~ It took a second or so before Drana spoke up and even then it was weak. “I'll be alright, I just need a bit of fresh air.” Both the girls nodded and walked Drana over to a low brick wall they could sit on that was also out in the sun. Drana rummaged through her hastily packed bag and pulled out a bottle of water, after a few sips of water and a while of sitting down she was starting to feel better.
“Maybe we should tell the nurse about what's going on?” Evelina suggested still looking concerned but less so than when she first saw Drana. Flora nodded in agreement and folded her arms. “I'm alright... Really, I don't want to get you worried.” Drana quickly countered but It was a little on the weak side and the two girl's noticed. “We're already worried. Now come on, we're going.” Flora said with a stubborn tone and stood up, while pulling Drana up as well. Drana frowned for a bit and then half smiled awkwardly at them as they dragged her off to the medical bay. She didn't complain with them, she went along with it because she thought it would help stop them from worrying about her.
When they got to the medical bay the nurse was sat at her desk doing some bits and pieces of paper work. She looked up at the three as they walked in with Evelina's and Flora's arms around Drana's waist and being sandwiched between the two taller girls. “Um? ... Is there something I can help you girls with.” The nurse said smiling at the three. “Drana almost fainted in class.” Evelina piped up cheerfully and Drana looked away with a shy expression. “Okay, just sit down on a chair.” The nurse said as she stood up from her desk and started to walk over to the three, Drana did what she was told and sat down on one of the seats in the medical bay. The two girls stood and watched what was going on. “You two girls can go now, I'll take good care of Drana.” The nurse said to more or less get Evelina and Flora out of the way. The two looked slightly reluctant to leave but they nodded. “We'll see you later.” The bright pink haired girl said as they left and Drana smiled and nodded back at them.
“So, do you often get light headed or dizzy?” The nurse asked while putting a hand on Drana's fore head. “No, this is a one off and I'm feeling fine now.” Drana answered with a calm voice and a half smile. “I'll be the judge of that.” The nurse said with a smirk, then put a finger on Drana's wrist and looked at her watch. After 15 seconds she let go of Drana's wrist and sat down next to her. “How about eating? Did you have breakfast and do you eat enough at lunch?” Drana looked at the nurse like she didn't really want to answer. “Yes, I have breakfast every morning and I make sure to pack something to eat.” Drana was fibbing about eating enough, she often ran out of things to eat in the house or the things that were left didn't have the right kind of nutrition in them. The nurse couldn't tell that she was lying so she nodded and stood back up again. “You should eat your lunch in here so I can keep an eye on you, I don't want you being dragged back in here because you fainted.” She said with a smile and sat down at her desk to continue writing up on her paperwork.
~Fine, I guess I should.~ She didn't really want to stick around but she didn't want to argue with someone who was only trying to help either. She picked through her bag and pulled out her lunch to eat. While she was eating she couldn't help but feel a little awkward sat in the silent room, so she decided to start up a small conversation. Soon the two were talking about nursing and how Drana wanted to be a nurse one day, Drana was able to find out about some of the local clinics through the nurse and how she got started on the road to becoming a nurse. To Drana it didn't feel like very long at all until she finish her lunch and the bell had gone, she also felt a lot better than before. “Thanks for the information.” Drana said with a cheerful smile as she was walking out to go to her next lesson, the nurse waved goodbye back to her and soon she was on her way.
...
Ridge was almost finished with the pile of paperwork on his desk and he'd sorted it out into the correct files. He stood up and stretched his arms, while doing a big yawn. ~I'm going to have to go jogging this evening.~ He thought as he felt how under used his muscles have been this last week. Staying fit started from way back when he was training to go into the military and from the physical exercise they put them through before sending them off to the front lines, back then he also did more then was really necessary but he did it so that everyday physical tasks were made easier for him. Nowadays it was more so he could eat however much he felt like that day and not have to worry about putting on the pounds, it was especially helpful since he would have ended up not doing any excise if he stayed locked up in his office all day.
He rubbed the back of his neck and frowned while he thought back to all the tortuous days of the front line mechanics. He shook his head and looked back down at his desk, where a sheet of paper still sat mostly untouched. ~I should go find Drana, so I can finish this.~ He reasoned as he picked up the sheet of paper to quickly read it before placing it back down, then he walked out of his office just as the bell for the end of lunch went off. As he got to the bottom of the stairs and looked to the left he noticed Drana walking down the corridor away from where the reception and medical bay were. ~That makes things a lot easier.~ He thought with a smirk.
Drana was walking down the hallway and had an odd feeling, but she ignored it and carried on walking. A second later a pair of hands clasped both her shoulders, which made her jump a little. She calmly looked over her shoulder and found herself looking up at Ridge with a warm smile on his face, Drana happily returned the smile. “I need to borrow you for a while, so I can get some paperwork done.” He explained as his hands released their grip on her shoulders, she nodded back to him. “Sure, I'll just tell my sports teacher where I've been when I get back.” She said sensibly while turning around to follow him as he led the way. ~obviously I'm not scary enough anymore, most students would have jumped out of their skin when I snuck up behind them. Oh well.~ He felt a little silly for trying to scare her in the first place, but he was feeling a bit bored from being stuck up in his office for so long.
Drana saw that he was smiling broadly but she didn't mention it. ~I wonder why he's so happy.~ She noticed herself smiling a tad more as she walked along side him. Now she was beside him and she had a moment to take in everything, she couldn't help but feel tiny next to him. She wasn't that short and she wasn't that skinny but she wasn't that tall or that broad either. He was probably used to people commenting on his height so Drana didn't bring it up as a subject, they just walked in a comfortable silence till they got to his office. He opened the door for her and shut it behind them.
Drana took to sitting down in the seat in front of his desk, as did he take the seat behind the desk and picked up the form that was laying on the green mat fitted to the desk. “So the first question is, what do you aspire to be when you find work?” He asked as he took out a pen and then looked at Drana, who'd now made herself comfortable. “I've always wanted to become a nurse of some kind.” She began to say as Ridge started to write down what she was saying. “That's why I chose to take a day release to the medical college for one of my options.” Ridge nodded and finished what he was writing. “So you were thinking of becoming either a registered nurse or a licensed practical nurse?” Ridge asked with his head tilted to the left a little and a kind smiled. Drana nodded and returned the smile to confirm what he asked, which made him write down the further information.
“The next one is, how are you finding your classes? Are they too easy or too difficult?” Drana looked a little confused at Ridge and he sounded slightly annoyed but the annoyance wasn't directed at Drana. “Wouldn't it be better if you asked me that once I've done one of each of my lessons?” Ridge nodded and put down the sheet of paper then he looked over at Drana with a straight face. “Yes, it would be but this form needs to be back at your school in England by Friday. And the postal system around here isn't the best in the world, so this form is already late being sent off.” He explained while he lent back in his chair. He also brushed a hand up through the front of his hair, which put the curl of hair that normally laid on his forehead back up into his fringe.
Drana looked at him sympathetically until she noticed the curl of hair that sprung back out of his spiked up fringe, which made her smile at him but she tried to hold back her smile. She couldn't help but find it funny and a tiny bit cute that someone who was meant to be so serious had a rebellious curl of hair. Ridge saw that Drana had a restrained smile on her face so he tilted his head. “What?” He asked softly and folded his arms across his chest. This made Drana frown her lips and look away from him to help stop herself from sniggering, she didn't notice that holding in her laughter also made her cheeks go subtly pink but the makeup helped to conceal it. “Nothing.” She replied quietly and she clenched her hands on her lap. Ridge smiled and lent an elbow on his desk. “Come on, I want to know what's so funny.” He said as he rested his chin on the palm of his hand. Drana looked back at him and her face crinkled more as she saw his curious expression.
Drana motioned to her forehead where Ridge's curl of hair would be sitting. “The curl in your hair is... too cute.” She finally answered with a giggle but she couldn't think of another word to describe his hair. Ridge frowned for a bit until he found himself smiling at Drana's giggles of pure happiness. After she'd mostly calmed down from laughing at him, Ridge shook his head and sat up straight. “So are you going to answer my previous question?” He asked smiling at Drana. She nodded back to him and shuffled in her seat to sit straight in her chair again. “I'm not finding my classes too difficult but they're challenging enough to get you thinking on your own.” She replied, gradually regaining her composure as she did so but she was still smirking at him as he wrote down her answer. Ridge looked back up at Drana and he placed the pen down he was using.
“There's a question that I've been meaning to ask either you or your parents... Why was it that your family moved here before you’d finished your exams, instead of waiting till afterwards?” He asked curious as to the answer but sounding more concerned. Drana looked off to one side of the room and her body language showed that she was reluctant to answer. “It's a long story, but my parents were offered jobs over here... So they took them up and we moved over here. They couldn't say no to the job offers because they were on a timer and they probably weren't going to get offered them ever again.” Drana was lying slightly, her parents could have very well taken up the job offers and told their employer they would have to stay put for another two months before moving. For Drana's sakes, but they did otherwise and this is now the life that she's been dragged into. As Drana was explaining the circumstances she was fiddling with her hands and the normally smiley girl had a straight face on.
Ridge could easily see the change in Drana's expression and he showed his sympathy through his own expression. ~She was laughing a second ago... It must be a sore subject for her.~ And with that thought he quickly went to change the topic with another question from the work sheet. “So even though you've moved countries are you settling in well? … Of course you’ve already had a year to get used to the country its self, but I mean how’s it going now, in this school. ” In Mr Wolff’s attempt at changing subjects he ended up sounding rather awkward, though he managed to keep a relatively positive expression as he did so. Drana looked at Ridge and her smile returned a little bit. “I've been getting on well, I've made friends with two of the girls that are often in the same classes as me. And the school itself isn't too different from my previous one.” Ridge nodded and quickly wrote down the answer to the last question. He looked back at Drana and smiled. “That's the last question, it was nice hearing what you think and everything you had to say, and thank you for letting me take you out of your lesson.” He said as he stood up and walked out from behind his desk, Drana also stood up from her seat and smiled happily.
“It wasn't a problem at all.” She replied as she walked with him to the door, and Ridge opened the door for her. He looked like he just remembered something as Drana was about to step out of the door. “And by the way those two boys that bullied you, they shouldn't be a problem anymore but if you do get any trouble from them again please let me know.” He quickly added which made Drana look back at him and smile broadly. “Will do.” She replied simply and waved goodbye just as the bell went for the next lesson.
Ridge smiled back at her and slowly closed his office door. He walked casually over to his desk and picked up the form he'd filled in with Drana's help, he looked at it for a moment with a smile. Then he reached his hand up to the curl of hair sat on his forehead and twizzled it in-between his thumb and index finger. “Cute.” He softy repeated to himself in the silence of his office. ~I Don't think anyone's called me that since I was a pup.~ He chuckled at the thought.
...
Drana arrived at her Home economics lesson on time and walked into the room with a smile on her face. When she got into the room she was surprised to see Flora there, what was even stranger was that Evelina wasn't with her. Drana went over to her and sat down next to her, the pink haired girl smiled at Drana as she made herself comfortable. “Good evening.” She said cheerfully to Drana, and she nodded back in recognition so that the teacher wouldn't complain about them speaking now that lesson time had started. When the rest of the class had settled in and the teacher had finished explaining their task for the day, Drana leant over to Flora.
“So where's Evelina?” Flora smiled at Drana like she'd been expecting that question. “She didn't choose Home economics as one of her options; she chose art and sport over this.” Flora explained happily. Drana nodded and started writing in her book. “So what got you to choose Home economics?” Drana said half looking at Flora, she looked back at Drana and giggled quietly. “I've always wanted to become a chief or have something to do with making food... so what about you?” She enthusiastically told Drana and then with a curious smile as she questioned back to Drana. “I've had lots of practice at home so I thought I might as well pick up a diploma while I'm at it.” Drana explained with a cheerful tone to her voice.
The two got on with their work happily and found the work to be very easy so when they weren't given anymore work for the day and had also finished what was supposed to be their homework, they chatted quietly so they didn't disturb anyone else while they were still working. In the process they talked about their favourite foods and swopped a couple of tips for cooking. The lesson quickly came to a close but before it had ended, Drana's attention was caught by a mention the teacher did. “On Thursday make sure to bring in the ingredients on this list and the right amounts. If you'd like to there’s an empty fridge in the back to put the ingredients in but make sure to label which one is yours first.” Drana quickly scribbled down the list from the white board at the front of the classroom.
She looked at the ingredients for a moment and pondered as to what they were for, then she looked at Flora who was now packing up her things. “I think we're going to be making shortbread on Thursday.” Drana said happily and started packing up her own things. “Yeah, I don't think there's much else they’d get us to make with only three ingredients.” Flora replied with a snigger which made Drana laugh quietly in return.
The two of them walked out of the classroom together and were met by a very happy and enthusiastic Evelina. “What's cookin' baby?” She greeted the two of them as she bounced over to them and hugged Flora. The pink haired girl giggled and wrapped an arm around Evelina's shoulders. “We're not 'cookin' anything today Evey.” Flora replied with a knowing smirk, which Evelina pouted at. Drana laughed at the two of them then she waved goodbye to them as she started to head off back home.
As she walked steadily home she thought of how well today went. ~Today went so much better then yesterday... well except Ivan acting like a creep.~ She pulled a disgusted face while she thought about the way Ivan was acting up but then she quickly tried to push the memories out because it was starting to make her feel sick and she'd rather just forget it. To distract herself she thought back to that funny moment when she laughed at Ridge's rebellious tuft of hair. She couldn't help but have a big cheesy grin on her face. ~People think he's really scary but he's just a big cutie.~ She felt so ridiculous thinking it but she couldn't stop smiling, it was just such a precious moment to her.
After her long walk home she got into the house and locked up the front door shortly after she was done taking off her shoes and bag. She went and quickly did all the chores around the house before she came back into the kitchen and finished eating the leftovers of yesterday’s meal. She stretched out her arms and legs while she was perched on the edge of her chair in the dining room. ~I should get some early rest.~ She lazily thought to herself just before she stood up and walked off up stairs to her bedroom, she changed into her loose fitting top and a pair of pyjama shorts ready for sleep. She untied her plats in her hair slipped under the thin summer covers of her bed and then she flipped the switch for her desk lamp, so that the room fell into darkness and she rested her eyes shut.