Rhapsody Wallace's Story

Rhapsody wandered in after Kayin with only a soft, musical laugh at his performance. She took the opportunity to glance over everyone and making little mental notes. The biggest shock was Drake. Rhapsody chewed on her lip slightly as she studied him over, somewhat disconcerted by this sudden change. However, as she peered down each row she found almost everything else in order and let out a soft sigh.

Rhapsody slowly drifted down the front row, her signature smile playing at her lips. She'd actually practiced it for a long while. Not too wide so she didn't seem over excited, not too small so she seemed disingenuous. Plus, due to the fact that her gaze was almost always a little beyond the person, it added a mysterious touch so each person could determine the meaning for themselves.

Rhapsody rounded the corner of the desk next to Annie and set down her things, sitting and stretching back a little to watch the show a while. Kayin's appearance change has worried Rhapsody for the briefest of moments, but her concerns washed away to see him acting just the same.

"Hey, Annie. How'd your break go?" she asked quietly. She was half listening to Aisha and Carissa behind her, trying to gauge whether or not they would be in the mood to talk with her. She always felt it was a gamble with those two...Annie was much safer to greet first.

Annie looked to Rhap with a small, underwhelming smile. "It went well enough. Me and my family went to England for a couple of weeks. There was a lot of time for reading." There was almost always something in the way Annie spoke that came across as irritated, but those that knew her well knew to ignore it. Most of the time she wasn't, it was just the way she spoke - like the world was incredibly, incredibly lame at all times.

"I made some new friends here, too." she added, and that was it. Annie seldom volunteered a lot of information in conversations without prompting. "What about you? How are your sisters?"

To their right, Carissa and Aisha were continuing their conversation in what was probably Aisha's attempted at a hushed tone.

"So what, tell me what, are you gonna do about it this month?" she was saying, giving Carissa a witheringly judgemental glare.

"I was just going to wait it out like I normally do, just beca-"

"Oh and that went so well last time, didn't it?"

"Just because," Carissa continued with a scowl over Aisha's interruption, "it went wrong last month, doesn't mean it will again. I've worked on the setup, it'll be harder for that to happen."

"Yeah yeah girl, you keep tellin' yourself that, but when you wake up-"

"Aisha."

"When you wake up-"

"Aisha. Inside voice."

"... if you will let me finish! When you wake up lookin' for all the world like a drunk hobo in the park, don't come cryin' to me again!" Aisha folded her arms.

"Aisha! I ... I didn't even drink that much, okay? I'll be fine next time."

"... yeah, yeah. You say that, but I got my eye on you!"

A slight yawn escaped from Jerrard as he walked into the classroom, a hand tucked into a pocket of his faded blue jeans while the other scratch at the back of his head. Another new start, another first day of school, it all seemed rather...mocking. He stood to the side of the doorway, looking around the classroom with a plain face. He wondered what it was like to be as carefree as them.

Well, let the game begin. Jerrard sighed, walking further into the classroom.

As he stepped across the front of the room he eyed Amy Rogers, already at her seat reading some magazine. He could probably guess at the content, she tended to have a limited number of interest. Seeing as how last year had gone, he though it not a bad idea to sit with her again. Crossing the floor he passed right by Annie Barnes and Rhapsody, glancing at both of them with a slight nod hello as he moved toward his seat.

Aisha and Carissa's conversation did not go unnoticed, and Jerrard made a mental note to make sure he logged what he'd overheard.

He fell into the chair with another tired yawn before putting an elbow on the table to lean on his cheek.

"So," he said aloud as he looked at his neighbor. "How was your time off Amy?"

Rhapsody nodded with a soft laugh. "Well, sounds like a nice time. Us Wallace girls mostly stayed in. Dad was busy as always, but I managed to arrange a few little outings for the three of us. Davina went out with her girlfriends a lot, too. Isla and I made a habit of watching old movies Saturday nights, but that poor girl...She has such terrible luck with her friends, but I'm hoping her first year of high school will go better." She gave a small wave to Jerrard as he passed, her smile lighting up a little.

Her brow furrowed slightly as she listened to the conversation happening next to her, but she managed to iron out her expression as if she wasn't paying attention. After all, she'd be catching up with them soon enough. "Oh! I almost forgot." She began to dig in her bag, pulling out a small hardcover book and sliding it over to Annie. "I saw the title 'Neverlight' and read the synopsis and thought you might like it. I tucked the gift receipt in the front cover, too, in case you already have it or just want to return it."

Annie blinked with surprise at the proffered book. "Oh, Neverlight - I've actually been meaning to pick that one up for a while. That's really kind of you." She smiled to Rhapsody warmly, "It's by my favourite author, actually. Cassandra Blake. She wrote Mourning Hill and Evernight - that's the one that came before Neverlight. The names are corny, but they're well written."

She slid the book into her bag, slotting it in between a few other books. "I should have got something for you from England, but I didn't think about souvenirs until I got back. I don't even have any myself. I'm sorry to hear about your sister. I'm sure she'll be okay, though. The only thing more full of shit than High School is Middle School."

Nathan gave Kayin a look of confusion as the boy continued to shuffle closer, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Don't know why you've suddenly decided to start talking to me, but whatever." he muttered, folding his arms and shrinking down into his seat. "And don't care about all the meaningless goings on of everyone else. It's all pointless anyway. Looks and drama and sad excuses for relationships."

Clearly, Nathan was a veritable ray of sunshine.

Just a few moments later, the rest of the class started to file in, surrounding - of course - Cynthia Ward. The blonde-haired girl walked with the confidence of someone who knew they were important, knew that people hung on their every word, and knew that they were untouchable.

Around her, the trio of 'drones' as people called them - Katy, Lana and Marissa - walked like a human shield, separating Cynthia from the masses. As well as them, Andy Lawson and Dave Spinelli walked with their respective girlfriends, though Andy seemed more to be trailing after Cynthia than alongside her. Katy was latched onto Dave's arm like a limpet. Finally, Mei - the one girl of the group who seemed to actually have a mind of her own - picked up the rear, laughing about something with Lana.

The group seated themselves in the center of the room, at the tables that had been left unoccupied for them. Cynthia's eyes scanned the room briefly before she sat, finding Wade's. She met his slippery gaze with her lips pursed with distaste, and nodded her head to him. That was all, and then she sat.

The room continued on in a hubbub of post-summer catching up, before the door swung open once more. The noise quieted down, as the class was expecting their teacher, and then quietened even further then they noticed who it was.

Quietly and without so much as meeting anyone's eyes, Jamie Winters crossed to the empty table at the back of the room and took a seat. She was pale and fragile-looking, but otherwise unchanged from the end of the last year. Of course, everyone had heard the rumours that she had committed suicide over the break. There had been police questioning and everything! And yet, here she was, walking into homeroom as though nothing was wrong.

Lily broke off from her conversation with Alacyn to make her way over - she and Jamie were close friends - and sat beside her. The two began to speak in hushed voices.

It didn't take long for the rest of the room to crescendo again, as people excitedly discussed what had happened.

Amy nudged Jerrard. "Does the walking supposedly-dead count as interesting?" she remarked with a smirk, nodding her head towards Jamie.

At the front of the room, Annie stared after Jamie. "Some people," she muttered finally, rounding back to face the front and Rhapsody. "I bet she started that rumour about suicide just for attention."

Rhapsody opened her mouth to respond to Annie, but when her eyes fell on Jamie, Rhapsody's voice escaped her. Her brows furrowed in absolute confusion as she tried to take in the situation. She knew she'd seen police investigating Jamie's death, how could she have possibly faked such a thing? It was almost too much to believe.

Rhapsody firmly shut her mouth, simply shaking her head slightly at Annie's statement. "I can't believe it," she responded in a breathy tone. This definitely called for some digging...

Kayin traced his lower lip with his thumb and lowered his lids suspiciously. With two fingers, he rapped Nathan on the head. "Hey, you seein' what I'm seein'? I know rumors can get far fetched, but don't you think it's a little strange to pass around that somebody died when they didn't?" he asked, leaning in close with a whisper. He held his chin between his thumb and index. "Very strange..."

With a scruumph of his chair, Kayin pushed back from his desk, then walked over to the other side of the classroom. Without a word, he reached around and put his arms around Rhapsody's shoulders, then gently leaned her chair back as he crouched down to whisper in her ear.

"Hey, princess. Tell me, what did you hear about our main act, over there, Jamie? Anything funny happen to her over the summer?"

Rhapsody reached up a hand to lightly pat Kayin's arm in greeting before placing it next to her mouth as if in thought. Really, though, she was trying to prevent her voice from carrying too far. After all, this wasn't something to taken too lightly, in her mind.

"Hey, Kayin. Well, the news was that she'd taken her breakup with Michael, that senior, harder than normal. Instead of crying over the lose of her latest 'soulmate,' she'd tossed herself into the river. And it would've been a long fall. They found her bag at the top, scraps of clothes at the bottom...but no body, right? Maybe she tried to play Juliet?"

But really...could Jamie pull off a stunt like that on her own? Spreading a bunch of clues to her suicide and then hiding away somewhere until when? Until some senior guy realized he loved her, then she'd come out of hiding? Far-fetched. Then again, any explanations floating around in Rhapsody's head seemed far-fetched at the moment.

Whilst the class continued to murmur about Jamie, the door swung open once more. The arrival of Ms. Cortez didn't immediately hush the students while she crossed over to her desk and placed down several folders. She took a moment to survey the classroom, eyes lingering for a few moments on Jamie - likely for the same reasons as everyone else - before she brought her hands together with a resounding clap!

The hubbub of chatter ceased after a few short moments, and she smiled. "Welcome back, everybody. I hope you all had good summers, got all your excess energy out of your systems, and are ready for a new year of learning!" she declared, each beat of her sentences accompanied by her characteristic gesticulating. "Yes? No? Well, either way, you're stuck here now - you might as well be making the most of it!"

She picked up one of the sheets of paper off her desk. "I just have a few announcements to make, then I'll let you all get back to your socialising - I'm sure you all have a lot to talk about. Ahem... firstly! Sports team tryouts will be taking place over the course of this week. Be sure to talk to the coach about your sport if you want to try out for a team, and remember, just because you were on the team last year doesn't mean you will be this time. Let's see... ah, yes. There will be a whole-school assembly in the main hall on Friday, where the principal will talk about some matters that arose last year and over the summer. Everyone is expected to attend - no excuses without a doctor's note! Finally, you should all have sorted out your timetables online by the deadline last week, but if anybody didn't, you need to see me in my office now."

The hispanic teacher paused, "And I'd like to see Annie, Adrian, Amy and Jamie in my office as well. Annie, you first - come along."

After a moment of surprise, Annie nodded and rose to her feet. She shot Rhapsody and Cody a bemused and slightly irritated glance, then shrugged, before following Ms. Cortez back out of the classroom."

"Well!" Jerrard said somewhat loudly as he raised his head, turning to Amy with an unenthusiastic grin. "Time to get started right? I better get going to class early, always takes me a while to get to classes. See ya later Amy!"

Immediately the young man rose out of his seat, swinging his backpack over his shoulder as he quickly walked towards the door.

Passing by her desk, Jerrard glanced once again to Rhapsody. He neglected to acknowledge Kayin directly though, and turned his head away before he looked too long. Without much more of a delay, he disappeared out the door.

Following Ms. Cortez and Annie from afar.