Secrets …

The bus slowly came to a stop with an annoying squeak as the door opened. I looked to my right at the dirty, frosty window and squinted to get a look outside.

“Galowaya, Refoced,” the bus driver announced over the crackly speakers.

I nodded to myself, and looked to my other side at my sister, Angel.

Angel was a very petite girl, even if she was only twelve years old. Her hair was shoulder-length, and an unimaginably beautiful white. It’s so impossibly thick and effortlessly perfect. Her thick blonde lashes framed pale blue eyes, like two aquamarines, and her white bangs were just barely covering them. Her cute button nose complimented her circular baby-face which was covered in creamy-colored skin. Her dark pink lips were just starting to fill out with the coming of puberty. Her delicate hands that were so slim and feminine and pretty had nails that had been cut unbelievably short were painted a very subtle shade of powder pink that was chipping, and bits of it fell off as she tapped her fingers against the armrest while she was completely immersed in her own thoughts.

“We’re here,” I whispered, nudging her leg gently with my knee.

She nodded to show that she heard me, and sighed. She looked up at me, and I knew what she was about to say before she even started forming the first syllable.

“No,” I said firmly, “we are not going back, Angel, and that’s final.” I gave her a hard look.

She sighed again. “I’m not sure about this, Felina…” she whispered. “I have a bad feeling about this whole thing.”

I rolled my eyes at her unwillingness, slung my backpack over my shoulder, and stood to retrieve our gym bags from their compartments above our heads. “You’ll get over it,” I said as I handed her bag to her. “Now, c’mon. We better hurry if we don’t want to end up in the middle of nowhere.”

She looked at me with pleading eyes, but I didn’t budge. This was better for us. We can start over new; a clean slice. We don’t have to constantly look over our shoulders in fear; worry as the clocks at school ticked closer to the time when we could leave.

She reluctantly grabbed her stuff, and followed me to the front of the bus where I paid for the trip before we hopped off.

“Now where do we go?” Angel grumbled.

I looked around curiously. Which way to go?

“Maybe we should ask those guys over there,” Angel murmured as she noticed my uncertainty. I peeked over at where she was pointing, and nodded in approval. We looked both ways before we crossed the road to the group of teenage boys, jogging quickly before any cars could come and lead us to an afterlife we’d prefer to wait for a little while longer.

“Excuse me,” I said politely, “but would any of you happen to know where we can find a boarding house?”

They looked at me weirdly.

I sighed, and muttered under my breath, “Uneducated twits.” I forced a smile, and repeated, “A hotel?”

“Yeah,” one with blonde hair said. “I can show you where it is.”

“No thank you,” I said a bit too quickly. “Just point us in the direction and I’m sure we’ll find it ourselves.”

“Okay,” he said, sounding disappointed. “You go down that street there and take a right. Are you meeting someone?”

I didn’t bother with replying. I merely spun around, called a “Thank you” over my shoulder, and started walking in the direction he instructed with Angel following behind.

“Really, Felina? Boarding house.” Angel said in annoyance.

“Well, by technicality, that is what we’re looking for.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Why can’t you just talk like a normal teenager?”

“Because then I’d be predictable,” I answered with a confident smirk. She rolled her eyes at me again. “Let’s look at the bright side. I taught those boys a new vocabulary word.”

She looked up at the sky. “Why did I get the weirdo as a big sister?” We laughed at her dramatics.

“So, where are we going to school?”

“Well, you’re going to Topaz Middle School.”

There was a pause. She had obviously expected me to continue, but prompted me with, “And what about you?”

“I’m going to Agate High School,” I muttered.

She nodded. “Where did you say your ‘friend’ was expecting us?” Angel asked, her tone doubtful toward the reference to my ‘friend’.

I had never met my friend in person. We met in an online chat room, and there wasn’t much for me to judge other than his username was the_bogeyman_16—pleasant, right? Angel was always showing her disapproval with my ‘friend’, not that I could blame her. I mean, it did seem a little suspicious when he started telling me all about Galowaya, and I will admit that for the most part I just ignored him. But he was very convincing and persuasive, even online. We chatted privately for the past year, and he described Galowaya in such detail that to this minute I felt like I could find everything without so much as blinking.

I was pulled out of my thoughts of the_bogeyman_16 as Angel nudged me with her elbow to my stomach. I grimaced, and glared at her.

“Well?” she prompted. “Where are we meeting the pedophile?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “At the Libra Inn,” I answered irritably.

“This place has such weird names for things,” Angel muttered under her breath. “Isn’t that it up ahead?” she asked to distract me from over-analyzing her comment.

I looked at where she pointed, and nodded. “Yep. That appears to be it.”

She rolled her eyes at my choice of words. “You’re still the weirdest person I’ve ever met.”

I shrugged, not bothering to summon up the energy it would take to defend myself, or justify how I talk.

I was perfectly aware that I didn’t speak like most fourteen year olds. I used words that most teenagers in a public school system didn’t know, and I phrased things in a way that made me sound like I just stepped out of an old book from the 1800’s. Is that my fault? Yeah, it is. But is it my fault that most people didn’t have a clue about what I’m saying without looking into a dictionary? No. It’s the teachers who believed that vocabulary is a waste of their time and the parents who refused to protest against it.

“Hello? Felina!” Angel said in annoyance. “We’re here.”

I looked up at the neon sign that said “Libra Inn”, and nodded as I checked my watch. “We’re a little early.”

Angel peeked at my watch, and raised her eyebrows in surprise. “We’re early? It’s almost nine o’clock! What time is Mr. Bogeyman supposed to get here?” she demanded angrily.

I rolled my eyes. “At nine o’clock,” I said as we walked into the luxurious lobby.

“Whoa.”

We both looked around curiously. With the grubby exterior, and blinking sign that obviously needed a number of light bulbs to be replaced, the inside was a big surprise. It looked like something that would be in a Hollywood movie. The diamond chandelier was about the size of a baby elephant, and hung dangerously low. The plastic candles inside of the glass balls that dangled below twinkled, making the magnificent structure sparkle into an abundance of colors. A few yards away from us was a marble staircase, and to our left was a desk made out of granite with a polished wood sign glued to it that had the word REGISTRY painted on. To our right was an obviously overpriced restaurant with bored and snobby hostess.

“Can I help you?” a guy asked from the desk. We both turned our heads in the direction of his voice, and I gave him the once-over, not bothering to note any details. He looked only a few years older than me, and I suspected that his job was at stake with how large and forced his smile looked.

“Just waiting for a friend,” I answered.

He nodded, and left the desk to go do who-knows-what. Maybe he would be in the bathroom and complain about how his boss was such a butt and his life was total poop.

“Time check,” Angel demanded. She didn’t wait for me to tell her, but grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm so that she got a better view. “He’s late,” she said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

I rolled my dark brown eyes, and looked at my sister in disapproval. “Three past nine is not late.”

“You said nine. I told you we couldn’t trust—”

“Excuse me,” a boy said politely, “but I was wondering if you could help me find someone.”

Angel turned around slowly, and looked about ready to chop off his head.

“We are, too,” I said before Angel got the chance to take out all her frustration.

“Yeah, Mr. No-Show,” Angel muttered bitterly. I glared at her in disapproval.

“Coincidence, I suppose,” he said, smiling. “My name’s Rob,” he said with his hand outstretched dangerously close to Angel’s mouth. She’s a biter.

“Felina,” I said before I could stop myself, shaking his hand. “Now, about that friend…”

“Ah, yes,” he said, letting his hand fall to the side. “She should be here by now. I’m afraid I don’t know what she looks like, or her name for that matter.”

“Then how’d you meet her?” Angel snapped.

“Online. Her username was KitKat_95.”

Angel looked at me for confirmation for her theory. “That’s me,” I said, readjusting my glass.

“Well, pleasure to meet you.” He chuckled at his own bad joke. “I’m sorry to inform you that my apartment isn’t as, umm, high-class as the Libra Inn, but it’s livable.”

We nodded and followed him out of the hotel.