Welcome To Carlsonton Academy

Chapter I

Two years later.

My heart was beating fast and tears were streaming down my face. My hands shook as I raised the gun. The brown haired boy in front of me shivered.

"Please, love," he said, choking, "you don't have to do this. I can help you."

"Oh, you mean like you've been helping my all these years?" My voice was shaky, like I was trying really hard to stay calm. "I trusted you, Aaron! And you lied to my face!"

The boy took a deep breath and opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him short.

"No. I don't want your apologies. It's over. We're over."

The lights went out just as I positioned my gun. "I'm sorry," I whispered and pulled the trigger.

"And cut!" The lights came back on and I blinked to adjust my eyes to the sudden brightness.

"Oh, that was brilliant!" The old woman with a cherub-like appearance applauded as she hobbled over to the stage. I put the prop down on the table next to me and walked to the end of the stage to talk to her. Mrs. Hislop pushed her horn rimmed glasses up her nose and beamed.

"Well, James," she said, looking at the boy next to me, "I thought you were absolutely stunning. That was a stellar performance."

James gave her a small smile and murmured a quick "Thank you". He didn't really know how to react to compliments.

Mrs. Hislop turned her attention to me. "Valerie, I think we could work on your speed a little more. You speak a little too fast for the audience to grasp." I nodded in agreement. "But besides that, it was beautiful. I loved the way you channelled your emotions."

She looked down at the clipboard in her hand and mumbled something to herself. She looked back at us and her face exploded into a huge grin, showing us her tartar covered teeth. "Well, the two of you have blown me away again and aced your practical. You may head back to your dormitories. I will see you next week."

We thanked Mrs. Hislop and exited the theatre.

"For a minute there I thought the gun was real," said James, chuckling. I laughed. "Yeah, I was kind of hoping it would be."

James Callahan was my best friend. He was my, what do the kids call it these days? Brother from another mother? From day one, we were inseparable. When I first joined Carlsonton, he was the only one who wasn't a stuck up teen. He was like me, shy and lonely, so we really hit it off.

The story of how we met has to be one of my favourite memories at Carlsonton. Almost a month of school was over, and I still hadn't made any friends. Then one day, in the first chemistry lab class, I got paired with a boy who didn't have any friends either. James and I were equally shy, so we didn't say a word to each other. We were also the smartest kids in class, and naturally we finished our experiment first.

"I wish they'd give us something more challenging." That was the first time I heard him speak. His voice hadn't cracked yet, so it was really high-pitched and squeaky, but I didn't really mind.

I nodded in agreement and replied, "We're thirteen, not eight. I mean, what's so hard about introducing a burning splinter in a jar of oxygen?"

He was about to say something when the person behind us wailed. She'd burned herself and had to be taken to the nurse. James shook his head and scoffed. "Apparently that."

That's how my first encounter with James Callahan went. After that, we had many m ore and slowly became the best of friends. James and I had a lot in common. Even he'd been forcefully sent to Carlsonton by his parents, but like me, had grown to love the place. We were also into the same things, and shared the same unconditional love for indie music. We read the same kind of books, watched the same kind of TV shows, among other things. We even wore the same kind of glasses. It was slightly uncanny at first, but then we realised we were made for each other.

For around six months, we were a two people army. We didn't like mingling with others, because everyone was a rude, immature adolescent. It always seemed like a competition as to who was the richest. Somewhere down the line I guess everyone realised how silly they were being, and many dropped the arrogant attitude. Slowly we started letting in people in to join our band, and now our clique that consists of nine amazing people is the most popular in a school filled with rich teens. I started to my own girl friends, he started to make his own male friends, but we never lost each other.

Were James and I together? No, we were not. We were just friends. I didn't have a boyfriend, and I could see why.

When boys say they want someone 'hot', I don't fit the profile. I wasn't ugly, but I didn't fall into the 'pretty' category either. My skin was pale and freckly, and my face was almost always covered in acne. I had an unmanageable red bush on top of my head, which was supposed to pass as hair. It was unruly and thinner than dental floss. It didn't really help that I had both a hairfall and dandruff problem. I didn't have a summer body, with thighs the size of Russia. I didn't look like a small sack of potatoes, but I was no runway model either. My only stunning features were my eyes, which were a rich shade of caramel, and always hidden by humongous glasses. Top it off with my brilliant personality, and all the boys loved me.

The worst part is that all my friends look like Victoria's Secret Angels, standing tall and beautiful without even trying. I felt like a hobo next to them. Even the boys were super hot, well all of them excluding James.

James wasn't the jock with the six pack, but the silent nerd in the front of class. But that doesn't mean he was ugly. He was most certainly a looker, with floppy brown hair and clear blue eyes and adorable dimples which were visible every time his face muscles moved. (Reminder: I am not into him. I'm just very observant.) He wore glasses too, but at least they were in proportion with his face. Many girls were into him and some had even tried their luck. Too bad they weren't his preference.

We left the West Wing and headed for our dorms in the North Wing, on the other side of the campus. It was a long and tiresome walk, and no one wanted to walk all the way under the afternoon sun.

"Ugh, I really wished they had buggies to drive around," I said, huffing and puffing as we made our way up the slope. Carlsonton Academy was huge and I still hadn't been everywhere. At first, I had been awestruck by the boarding school, but now it just annoyed me. The least they could do was have a transport system to take students across the hundred acre campus.

"What's the point of having the dormitories so far away from the educational centre?" said James, wiping off the beads of perspiration that were flowing down his forehead. "So what are you planning on doing once we get back?" he asked in an attempt to change the topic. He hated listening to my whining.

"Oh, I don't know," I said, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly, "maybe watch some Netflix. The new Once episode is out. What about you?"

"We're having a pizza party in Ryan's room. Wanna join?"

"Sounds tempting, but I think I'll pass."

"Shane will be there."

I hesitated. Shane Randall was the boy who I was head over heels in love with. He wasn't just any schoolgirl crush. I had been going after him for almost a year and a half and it was driving me crazy. His curly blonde hair and green eyes were mesmerizing, and his killer body made me feel funny in all the wrong places.

"Maybe I'll come for an hour?"

James smirked. "I knew that would do the trick." He linked my arm through his and dragged me the rest of the way.

"Now come on. We have people waiting for us."

Author's Note

Hey there! So this is the first official chapter where I introduced my two main characters. In the next chapter, which I'll upload next week, I'll introduce the rest of the main cast. Anyway, I hope you liked it!

Please vote, comment, and follow!

Signing off,
Diyu xx