“Hanna—Wow, you look great!” Damien slurred my name a little, probably because of his accent (slightly Cockney and super hot), so it sounded more like ‘Anna’ than Hanna, but whatever. I had nothing against the name Anna. His hazel eyes were bright as he looked at me. I grinned.
“Thanks, you too!” He really did look great. He was wearing faded jeans that weren’t too baggy, but weren’t too tight (skinny jeans on guys is a major turn-off for me) and a pale blue UNC hoodie. As he walked me to the party at his friend, Mark’s house, we talked. Damien asked me questions that he acted like he actually wanted to know the answer to the questions. Nobody else ever acted like that with me. Damien held my hand and never took his eyes off me as we walked through upscale neighborhoods.
Mark’s party could be heard from three blocks down. I grinned. This was my type of party! I twisted my reddish-blonde side bangs into a bobby pin as we neared the pulsing lights. Finally, Damien asked the question I’d been dreading.
“Soo… what school do you go to?” He asked it so innocently, and I didn’t want to lie to him, I really liked him.
Trying to sound nonchalant, I said, “Oh… St. Augustine’s. Remember what I said about my dad dying when I was little? After that, my mom was never the same, she would drink, and hit me, and always tried to enter me in pageants to get the money so she wouldn’t have to get a job, so I always tried to run away… Then my mom sent me here, on scholarship.”
Damien nodded, his thick hair whipped by the wind. “That’s too bad. I’d probably do the same thing if I was in your shoes. Oh! By the way, remember that weird girl I was talking about? She goes there, too. Do you know anyone named… Charlie? Char—“
I cut him off with a giggle. “Charlotte? She’s my roommate and thinks she’s so special because her parents are famous, but she has no friends. She’s a klepto!”
Damien smirked and made a snickering sound behind a closed mouth. He didn’t say anything, but his expression read ‘go figure’. I heard a sniffle, and turned around just in time to see a blonde figure running back to the park, probably back to our dorm. Oops, I thought, unfazed. Nothing could bring me down tonight.
Two hours later, after one of the best parties I had ever been to (no drugs or alcohol (that I saw), thank God! After firsthand experience, thanks to my boozy mother, those things terrified me), I ran back home from the park. Damien had walked me to the edge of the woods and gave me a kiss goodnight. I was running on pure adrenaline. Leaping through the gap in the wall, I stopped short when I saw something that terrified me, which is pretty hard to do. Six teachers were patrolling the area, talking into walkie-talkies and shining searchlights over the field. Charlotte must have given me away. Damn!
I was an expert on sneaky getaways, so I climbed on the wall that was obscured by trees. Channeling my inner squirrel, I crept on the wall, keeping my head and body as low as possible. I spun onto the ground about ten feet away, landing without any pain, thanks to my gymnastics training on the bars, where falling off was as expected as Dolly Parton’s plastic surgery. Crab-crawling right next to the wall, my butt almost touching the ground, I stayed unnoticed. The second a teacher stepped away from my window, I scampered across the yard and climbed the walls of the school, staying as close to the bricks as possible.
As I reached the window, I sighed in relief. The window was still open. I spun over the sill just as a beam of light flickered towards the window and reflected on the wall. Ariel looked at me, smiling serenely. Home sweet home, I thought, slipping the putrid yellow comforter over my sun-kissed skin. Maybe I could deal with this place, at least long enough to prove I’m sane, so I could be shipped back home.