The Darkest Hours

“ Are you sure this is the house?”, I asked Dad.
The three of us were standing in front of the very front door with a bunch of luggage around us.
Dad narrowed his eyes. The reality wasn`t exactly as he expected it to be.
“Wow, I bet there are ghosts in it!”, James exclaimed. I was sure he was half pleased half scared about the whole thing.
“I am afraid this is the house”, Dad answered at last.
It was old grey house, at some places the plaster had fallen out, revealing the red bricks. Big windows painted in green, small abandoned garden and low fence completed the picture.
Well the town obviously wasn`t really prosperous and the most of the houses were old.
“Didn`t you google the place beforehand or something?”, I sighed.
“I did. There`s an awesome national park 50km away.”, he tried to sound optimistic, ”But seriously this place is unrecognizable even for Google Earth.”
James opened the gate and walked along the path to the house.
“Hey, come here!”, he hear him calling.” Let`s get inside”
From the inside the house didn`t seem that eerie. Actually it was really neat. My grandmother must have been a very pedantic woman. The furniture was old fashioned, the wallpapers were faded and except for the exotic eastern touch in the order there was nothing unusual.
The kitchen and the living-room were on the first floor. Both were spacious and well lit, because the windows on the first floor were pretty big. Their curtains though were thick and olive green.
James inspected really closely the ancient TV as if it was some unknown device. The fringe was old as well, but the cooker was definitely bought recently.
“We need to buy a microwave.”, Dad noted and I smiled.
Many portraits were hanged on the wall. I recognized mother at some of them. Most of her photos were really old.
All the bedrooms were on the second floor. Dad took grandmother`s and grandfather`s one. It must have been really weird to sleep in the room of the people that disliked you the most.
At first I and James were decided to share mother`s bedroom until I found something better. Next to the attic staircase there was small door that led to a even smaller room.
It was quite a strange room actually. Nobody had lived in it. There was only one window and low ceiling. The wallpapers were missing at places.
“Um…are you sure?”, Dad asked when I showed him the room, “ There`s no bed.”
“We can move the second couch from the living room here. I`ll sleep on it.”
“But what about that cupboard?”, he protested, “ Mice and cockroaches must be having a great time there.”
The cupboard was rotten indeed and been white once now it was covered with mould.
“I`ll personally clean it.”
He sighed obviously not really satisfied with my decision.
“I`ll go downstairs. James wants me to remove the drapes from the bed.”
≡

The first day at school was pretty normal. And by pretty normal I mean it passed peacefully. Most of the people didn`t come to talk to me and the teacher didn`t make me introduce myself in front of everybody.
I was perfectly fine with it actually. I looked like a weird creature from completely different world that spoke their language by coincidence. It would pass eventually. They just needed some more time to assure their selves that we aren`t that different.
I liked the school as well. The building was kind of gloomy, there weren`t any colorful posters on the walls, nothing that would suggest fake enthusiasm for studying.

The bell rang and everybody collected their stuff quickly. I threw the books in my bag and followed the others to the exit. I decided to walk by foot, because it was the only way to explore the town. I was sure that I could find some interesting places there.
And while I was trying to visualize my way home in my head, I almost tripped in the sidewalk and dropped my bag.
“Great! Just perfect!”, I muttered under my breath.
But then a miracle happened. Someone picked the bag for me and even beat the dust out of it.
My eyes met his green ones. Or were they green? Maybe green mixed with brown. A staring contest wasn`t the smartest thing to do, so I broke the contact.
“Thanks.”, I said quietly and quickly took my bag from his hands.
I didn`t need detailed observations to be sure that everything in him was screaming wildly “bad boy”. Black leather jacket, messy dark hair and a bunch of wild friends staring at us. Thank God, that they weren`t close enough to hear my words. I found their glances at us disturbing enough.
“You`re the foreigner, right?”, asked the boy.
The foreigner… It tasted like a sour fruit.
“Yes, I am the foreigner” , I agreed.
I didn`t want any trouble with him or his friends. I stole a quick glance of them. Two girls – one blond and one with black hair and four other guys. The looked violent enough.
“You don`t have an accent.” , He noted.
I wasn’t quite sure if I can take this as a compliment and I definitely didn`t want to make him angry or something.
I mean he wasn`t like the boys at home. To create the bad boy image they would him, yell, drink, be the center of the attention. He didn`t have to do this. His presence was strong enough.
“Thanks, maybe because I am not a complete foreigner.”, I spat quickly and explained, “ My mother is from here.”
He nodded. I knew he would research me later but I wasn`t sure if I was going to research him. As for now I knew that the situation was too awkward for me.
“I am Vladislav”, he reached for my hand.
I wondered for a second, but I had to take it anyway. Good manners and stuff.
“Stanislava.”
He smiled. A foreigner with a local name must be an entertaining thought.
His grip was strong. I mean he didn`t try to crush my palm, but I could sense his fighter nature. He was perfectly calm though.
“We`re going to play billiards after school. Do you want to come? ”, he asked.
I gave him a puzzled look. We didn`t have anything in common and he was completely aware of that. I guess he was interested in me just because I wasn`t from here. I was something new.
Anyway he was a trouble for me. I was boring, Vladislav obviously wasn`t. But the main problem were his friends. If he was the leader, they were the wild followers. Among them I would be the loser. Going out with them was like asking for bulling.
“That sounds lovely, but no thanks.”, I cleared my throat moving nervously as if I had an urgent business or something.
He got the hint and smirked.
“ As you wish. But if you feel like going we are there every afternoon.”
“Okay.”, I nodded, waved quickly and marched out of the schoolyard.
I heard his friends laughing behind my back. I had no idea if the reason was me.