Confined

"Liyah, time for school," Trish's low voice woke me as her hand lightly shook my shoulder. I turned to face her, half asleep, and tried to process her words in my still sleeping mind. When it finally registered I stretched across the bed, knocking my blanket over the edge of the bed. "Your mother is here, so get ready quickly," she advised, leaving the room and closing the door on her way out.

I groaned at the thought of seeing my mother. Knowing that she was here, I took my time. The whole reason I chose the basement as my room was because it came with its own full bathroom and was larger than the other rooms. I had plenty of space and filled it with my books, either textbooks or spellbooks, which I had a lot of. two of the walls were deticated to bookshelves. I didn't have much furniture besides my bed and a dresser.

Making my way to the bathroom, I stripped myself of my cloths, minding my bad arm. The bandages would be off soon so I didn't need to bother about keeping them dry. I passed the mirror and stopped, glancing at my naked body. My skin was a smooth ivory with a few beauty marks sprinkled across it. My stomach wasn't flat like most girls, but rather actually had muscle that came from hard workouts. My height was standard five foot five but still seemed to be short compared to most in the Quarter. My hair was naturally raven black and cascaded down my back in straight locks, reaching my lower back. My lips were thin but extremely pink and brought color to my face. My nose was small and often made my face look smaller depending on the angle one looked at it. My eyes were a piercing green that seemed to tie in my whole outlook. I often surrounded them with black eyeliner to draw more attention to them, since I was often told they were the highlight of my face.

Tearing myself away from the mirror, I started up the shower and stepped in, not allowing it to warm up. I let the water fall against my back and began to wash my body and hair. After I finished, I regretted letting my arm get wet since it was now soggy and heavy. I wrapped a towel around my body and went back into my room. The black walls were comforting to me as I looked for suitable cloths for the day. I settled on a nicely fitting deep purple tank top and black capris. After getting dressed I put on my sneakers and went to dry my hair and apply my eyeliner. When I was finally finished I grabbed my messenger bag and forced myself up the stairs.

When I entered the living room, I was met by my mother. At one point in time, my mother was beautiful. Her smile used to be full of life and her skin was radiating, but that was when I was just a baby. Now her dark brown hair was dry and brittle, her ivory skin was lifeless, her green eyes held no hint of light or emotion. She looked like the walking dead.

"Aaliyah," she almost sighed. She stood to greet me, her five foot six figure hugging mine tightly against hers.

"You cut your hair," I noticed when she released me. Her hair no longer reached her mid-back but fell to her ears in a very choppy style that led me to believe she did it herself.

"It was annoying me," she forced a smile. She took a seat on the long couch and I moved to occupy the love seat. "I've been told that your still trailing after Demetri..." she began, letting her sentence carry on as if she were going to continue, but didnt. When I didnt reply, she continued, "You need to stop. He isnt coming back. You need to let go. All of this is getting you into some major trouble."

"I really don't care, mother," I told her harshly.

"Mason isn't one you should tangle yourself up in," she went on, ignoring my comment.

"It's funny, you didn't think that when you always wanted him around me." I rolled my eyes.

"Him and his father are up to no good, things have changed," she replied, giving no more information. This might have been the only piece of information my mother said that actually interested me. If my mother knew something was up, I wanted to know about it. But I couldn't let her know that, so I changed my thoughts.

"Why are you here, mother? Besides to chastise me for my after school activities," I asked her, my tone annoyed.

"Just to warn you. Stay away from Mason and let Demetri go, it isn't worth your time," she answered, standing up to leave. Trish entered with enough time to bid my mother goodbye while I remained on the love seat.

"She is your mother, you could at least take her advice into consideration," Trish suggested when my mother was gone. I scoffed sarcastically and followed her to the healing room where she completely fixed my arm, though it was still a little sore.

I left for school, arriving there sooner than I would have liked. I entered through the main gate, soon finding Mason sitting on top of a table with the blonde girl wrapped up in his arms, surrounded by a group of friends. Mason made eye contact with me and winked with a teasing smile. I forced myself to ignore it and quickly change my thoughts to something other than what I really wanted to think.

I've learned to change thoughts quickly since Demetri. It seemed to be more of a requirement now than ever. Nidrus officials, like teachers, principles and representatives, searched through the people's minds to find traces of rebellion or "curiosity" as most of them put it. It's a talent all Praecantatio have, to read minds, and is against the law the use a spell to cloud the mind unless deemed okay. Certain people could cloud their minds because of an incident that happened that may have been tragic, like Demetri after the disappearance of his parents. I, on the other hand, could not and if I did I would be brought in for questioning, so I learned to change my thoughts or sometimes stop thinking all together.

As I walked towards the main hall, the first bell rang. I found my first class and made my way to my seat in the far back corner. I liked to distance myself from others, mostly because my patience was thin and they often made it worse.

This class was my Study of Magic class, which broke down the Praecantatio's magic and body structure. It was a lab class that involved lots of disecting. I, as always, was left partnerless due to the fact that everyone thought I was a loser. Though I didnt care much, sometimes it was hard to work alone when it came to school.

The classroom began to fill up and the teacher entered when the late bell sounded. Mr. Magson was a tall and lean man with thinning grey hair and a long nose that housed a thin pair of round glasses. "Alright guys, lets get started quickly because we have lots to get through before the end of class since we are behind," his high voice rang through the classroom as he wrote something illegible on the board. The door opened and everyone turned to see.

A boy had entered. His hair was brown and about an inch and a half long and looked as if he ran his fingers through it a lot. He had olive toned skin and brown eyes with a thin and long mouth. He was around six foot, maybe an inch or two taller with muscle that wrapped around his arms and made his blue flannel shirt look tighter than it was. Under his flannel he wore a white t-shirt and I could barely make out a necklace that hung on his neck. He wore dark jeans that seemed to hug his lower body nicely. He had a backpack slung on one shoulder and he held up with one hand.

My first thought was that he was attractive. Extremely attractive. Then I noticed all the girls in the room gawking and quickly changed my mindset. He stood at Mr. Magson's desk and handed him a pink slip.

"Ethan Stark from the First Quarter, everybody," Mr.Magon introduced after reading the slip. "Take a seat at the back lab with Aaliyah and try to keep up," he handed Ethan the slip and turned back to the board.

Ethan strutted his way towards my table. I felt my heart pounding and tried to force it to calm down. He smiled at me when he reached his side and dropped his bag to the floor, sitting on the stool beside mine. I focused on Mr. Magson while he went over the procedure for our lab as a distraction from the cute boy next to me. When Magson finished I turned to Ethan.

"We can start now," I told him when he didnt move.

"Right, well I don't really get science so if you would do it, that would be terrific!" he laughed, his voice smooth and deep. His lips curled up at the corners in a smile as he spoke.

" I don't think so, you have to help me," I told him with utter seriousness.

He laughed harder. "If you insist."

Mr. Magson passed out our fake miniature bodies and our utensils. This wasnt a disecting lab but we had to extract key components of the magical parts of the body and match them with their titles.

"This is the head," Ethan said, pointing to the head of the small body with a pair of tweezers. I looked at him with an incredulous look.

Please tell me I did not get stuck with an idiot.