Chapter 1 - Light surprises

Chapter 1

“You see, I just don’t think I fit in here anymore!” Makita pulled out the books from her drawer and started towards the front door with Rosette, “well I think the cold is getting to your brain to be honest,” Rosette gesturing to the frosty grass as they walked out of the door and onto the front lawn, “you don’t get what I mean rose, I somehow don’t seem to fit in with my family anymore, I seem to always shock them with my ways, if you catch my drift,” Rosette looked at Makita menacingly, “hey yeah maybe your from another family that lives in the Antarctic!” Rosette remarked sarcastically, yanking the arms of her jumper down over her hands, Rosette was a normal sized girl for her age(16) and had short blond hair and hazel eyes that lit up when she had a new idea, Makita on the other hand,(17) had wavy pitch-black hair, glistening green eyes and her love for animals was unbreakable. The girls were neighbours and both went to Fides dale secondary college, they had lived there all their lives and had been friends since they had been in kinda, “well I don’t care if you’re an alien with green tentacles, you’ll always b my best friend!” Rosette reached over and hugged Makita as they walked, “I know I can always count on you rose! Thanks.” They walked the rest of the way to school chatting and talking about old times, but it was to be on this day, Makita’s life would change forever.

As Makita sat down in her usual place, Mr. Raef cleared his throat to call the class to order, “Excuse me please everyone but we have a new student in our class who has come from Drake dill Secondary College, his name is Jake Lief and I want you all to welcome and help him in the next few weeks to get around to classes and everything.” He gestured towards the boy coming in the door, he had chestnut brown hair, aquamarine blue eyes and a very strong looking build about him, he smiled as Mr. Raef introduced him, he had the whitest teeth Makita had ever seen but she could tell that he was nervous. Mr. Raef pointed along the row of desks that had a few spare seats next to them, “you may sit in any of those seats,” Jake turned away from the teacher and made his way down the isle, as he looked at one of the girls that had giggled, one of the boys, Rife, a soccer player for the school team, stuck his foot out and sent Jake sprawling onto the floor, the class tried to stifle a few giggles as the teacher turned to see what had happened but Makita wasn’t caring about that, she could hardly control the anger that had bubbled up inside her, ‘How dare they! Prey on an innocent person like that! I wonder how they would like it if someone had done it to them, I bet then Rife wouldn’t have that smirk on his face!’ She was so angry now that she could hold it in no longer, “HEY RIFE, WHAT IF I TRIP YOU OVER ON YOUR FIRST DAY IN PLAYING FOR THE STATE TEAM!!” she yelled, “I BET YOU JUST DON’T WANT THIS GUY STEALING “YOUR” GIRLS WITH LOOKS THAT ARE BETTER THAN YOURS!!” Makita stalked out from behind her desk and tried to help Jake get up, the class made a loud “WOOOOO” sound as Rife’s face went bright red with anger, but everyone knew that he would never do anything to hurt anyone during class, (apart from trip people up!) to get out of getting into trouble. Makita helped Jake over to the spare seat beside her and asked if he was ok, “I’m fine, but thank-you for asking. miss?”
“oh, I’m Makita, don’t worry about Rife, he always does that to new comers,” She shot a dirty look towards Rife who was staring at the two of them with a teasing smile on his face, “oh, I see, and are you always this nice to new comers?” he asked politely, but she didn’t get to answer, for at that moment, Mr. Raef, who had been trying to call Makita, roared over the top of everyone and made them all stop dead, “MAKITA WETTAL!! GET OVER TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE NOW!!” She could see that he was really fired up so she didn’t argue when she silently stood and shuffled out of the classroom.
She was half way to the principal’s office when she heard someone call her name, she looked around to find Rosette standing by her locker looking towards her, “where are you going?” she asked with interest,
“principal’s office,” Makita replied,
“what did you do?” Rosette had turned back towards her locker and had begun searching for her homework which she had forgotten to get at the start of her maths class, “I yelled at Rife because he tripped up a new boy in our class called Jake,” Makita shrugged and changed the subject, “hey are you going to the café after school today?”
“ I don’t know, I’ll have to see if mum is going to pick me up first!” by now, Rosette had found her homework and was now leaning against her locker door, “ok, well I’ll wait for you at the gate then,” Makita turned to go towards the principal’s office but crashed into someone who had been standing behind her, it was the principal Mr Fidget.
“well now,” Mr. Fidget leaned forward slightly and rested his clasped hands on his desk, “it seems someone has been a bit reckless wouldn’t you say Makita?”
“Yes sir,” Makita was looking at the floor as she answered.
“and why would that be?” Mr. Fidget sounded calm and polite as he asked.
“because,” Makita began, “as you may have heard there is a new boy in our class and he had started to walk to his seat when Rife Deller stuck his foot out and tripped him up. I thought it really unfair that he should do that and
I must confess I got angry, so I yelled at him and the teacher sent me here to you.” Makita waited for a reply and it seemed the principal was debating with himself on what to do when he finally gave her an explanation, “Hmm…well you standing up for the boy was the right thing to do, but you probably shouldn’t have yelled at Rife.” There was another pause, “Makita, if I let this one slide, will you promise to not to do that again?” She could see he was very serious now.
“yes sir, cross my heart and hope to die!”
“good, now you go back to class and tell Mr. Raef to tell me if there are any more mishaps between you and any other student and I hope there won’t be because next time I may not be so understandable about it.” And with that, Makita was dismissed from the principal’s office.




After school, Makita waited at the gate for Rosette and she didn’t have long to wait before Rosette came strolling out the big double doors with her school bag slung over one shoulder.
“So how’d it go?” Rosette was the first to break the silence as they started walking,
“how did what go?”
“the principal’s office dummy!”
“oh, that, he was actually very understandable about it so I’ve got a clean slate.” Makita didn’t really want to take the conversation any further but she knew that Rosette would want all the details because that was what she was like. They talked a bit more about the situation before they reached the café but they changed the subject after Rosette had pried every bit of information from her friend who was now tired of explaining all of the who-said-what stuff. As the walked into the café a sour aroma filled the air that made them both crinkle their noses, “what’s going on?” Makita heard Rosette ask the well known counter lady, Pandora, “ the freezers broke down last night for some unknown reason and all the food is starting to go off.” she turned towards the freezer at the back of the room and started to talk to what looked like an electrician that had come to fix the freezer.
“I guess you’ll have to go somewhere else for a drink then girls! Sorry,” The Friendly man who had taken over the counter announced. Makita and Rosette walked over to the door and only
when they were out in the fresh air did they speak, “phew! What a smell!” Remarked Rosette, “it smells worse than my brother’s football boots after he’s come back from training!”
“Yeah, well where else do you want to go now?”
“how about we look around for a place because I don’t know of any others!” Rosette admitted.
“Sure.”
They looked for a while before they found a descent place to go for a drink and in the end, they found one named “13th café” it looked nice enough but boy, was it was strange inside! There were tables and chairs decorated with pictures of black cats and coins with the tail side up, There were paintings on the wall of birds flying around in a house, the other thing the girls noticed was that the shop was almost deserted! There was only the counter man standing there with a name tag that read; Jake Lief.

With a gasp, Makita realised who the person was, it was the new boy from her class! “Hello Jake! My goodness, what a place you work in! it‘s simply strange and wonderful!” She looked again at the painting of the birds flying in the house, “you like it?” he smiled,
“oh yes! How did you come to get a job here?” Makita had become confused about how a boy as High-class as he seemed to be had come and got a job here. “I own this place. My parents, before they died, left me a lot of money so that I could own my own café and make the money that I needed for schooling and all that.” his eyes seemed to go glassy for a moment but it soon faded, “I’m sorry to hear about that,” Makita bowed her head in shame for making him remember what must have caused him so much pain over the years. “it doesn’t really affect me as much as it used to so please don’t feel you’ve done any wrong!” Jake reassured and for a split second, Makita had really thought he could read minds! ‘silly girl! People can’t read minds!’ she scolded herself, ‘but you on the other hand…’ She became conscious of her mind starting to wander so she turned her attention back to Jake, by now, Rosette had finished goggling at the artwork on the walls and had come over to the counter, “hello sir, it’s a very interesting shop you have here, and might I say the art work is of excellent quality!” She complemented,
“Thank you miss,” Jake bowed slightly then straightened, “is there anything that I can get you two ladies?” he suddenly asked, changing the subject, “well I’m not really that hungry so could I just get can of diet coke please?” Rosette looked at Makita, “is there anything you would like? My shout!” Rosette always tried to pay for everything, ‘she has such a kind soul,’ Thought Makita to herself, thought, how lucky she was to have a friend as genuine as this! “ok, I’ll get a regular coke then thank you,” She turned towards rosette after Jake had left their sight, “I’m paying you back tomorrow!” Makita challenged, Rosette’s eyes became narrow, “fine!” she had always hated the way that Makita did that, she could never take something and give nothing back for it! Jake appeared then with a diet and regular coke in one hand, “that’ll be $4.00 please,” he punched in the numbers on the cash register and waited for the cash, meanwhile Rosette had stopped scowling at Makita and was fiddling with her wallet trying to get out the money and all the while, Makita was studying the paintings and decorations, she also now saw now, having a closer look, a long green snake painting that was posed to strike, an evil looking graveyard theme and some very curious symbols;






She stared at the symbols a while longer, trying to see what the meant, but it was hopeless in the end. She just could not see how to read them! Rosette found a table for them to sit at and opened her diet coke with a loud FFSSTT that made Makita jump slightly, “hey, Makita, what’s with you?” Rosette demanded “You’ve seemed really jumpy since we came into the shop!” Makita didn’t know for sure if she‘d seen it, but she thought she saw Jake tense slightly and pause in mid-step just out of the corner of her eye, she didn’t bother to tell Rosette so she just answered: “it’s just this shop sends chills up my spine, what with all the tombstones and snake paintings and stuff!” Makita pointed to each one of the things in turn, “and those strange symbols have me stumped! I can’t figure out what they mean!” she nodded her head towards the writing, opened her can of coke and took a swig, “wow, they certainly are strange!” Rosette remarked, but then Makita could hold her suspicion no longer. She drew out her note pad and pen and started to write each shape down. Some of the letters she could make out, while others just seemed like silly scribbles! After they had finished they were just about to leave when Jake called for Makita to come over, “what on earth could he want?” She queried, but she made her way over to the counter anyway, “you called me for something Jake?” she signed for Rosette to meet her out the front and swivelled to face
Jake, she could see he looked really nervous so she as sweetly as she could, “ Erm…yeah…um, I just wanted to give you this,” he handed her a folded up piece of paper, “ ah… it’s just got my…um…phone number on it and my address,” he bowed his head as he waited for a reply, she could see that that he was really embarrassed, “thank-you Jake,” She whispered as she blushed, it was the only thing she could manage for there were butterflies shooting around and around in her stomach, and her throat had become as dry as the Arabian desert! She slowly shuffled towards the door and slid out, it closed with a soft click.

That night, Makita lay on her bed, looking at the note she had scrawled on the her note pad, turning it on it’s side, upside-down and looking at it in the reflection of a mirror, she finally flopped down on her bed and gave up, “how can I make sense of this!?” she thought angrily after what seemed an hour of trying, “the symbols just don’t look like anything I’ve seen written in code before! I mean, I can tell what some of the letters are, but the rest are just senseless scribbles!!” She took out the other piece of paper that Jake had given her and read the details;
Sir Jake Lief Allure
13 Bold lotus ave
Fides Dale 3555
Ph: 5212 3890
Mob: 0456702942She couldn’t believe how elegant his script was! She wondered why he had come to Fides dale secondary college instead of going to some rich kid school further out of town, “ he must be more high class that I thought! Yet, he has come Here a boring old neighbourhood with a run down reputation! And he might fancy me,” Her head spun at the thought, “whoa, girl! Don’t get too caught up! He might only want to be friends!” a voice in her head warned, “you could be getting all excited and happy just to have you’re heart broken!” It suddenly felt like there was an angel and a devil on either one of her shoulders, the devil, on the left, was encouraging all the twisted, happy thoughts, but the angel, on the right, was telling her to be cautious -- She felt she might rip in two!
It was past 10pm now, and her parents were in bed, so Makita put down the piece of paper and walked over to the big, double-shutter window, “ok, I’m thinking there’s angels and devils on my shoulders and I’m getting all wound up in something that might not mean anything so I think it’s time for some air!” She gently eased the window open and climbed up onto the sill, slowly, she stood upright (as to make sure she didn’t fall,) and let her wings burst out from her back and through her shirt as she leaped off the window sill and glided gracefully into the night air. “ah, what a wonderful night it is!” She thought happily, “ I can always think clear on nights like this, and it’s even better when nobody knows my secret that I try my best to hide from the world!” After a while of playing, twirling and spinning, she decided to see what Rosette was doing, she wasn’t going to show herself of course, (because she couldn’t in the state she was in now!) she would just sit and watch her best friend either read, listen to music or draw. Rosette was the best drawer ever in Makita’s mind, she could draw almost anything she wanted without making it look like something completely different, and she loved it! She would sit and draw for hours no end and hum to herself while doing it.
Tonight though, was different, she wasn’t drawing, or listening to music, or reading! She was curled up in a ball on her side and crying. Makita almost jumped through the window to hug her dear friend when she knew what was going on, but common sense got the better of her, so she didn’t. “why would Rose be crying like that? She must of hurt herself or something!” Makita was perched on the roof just above Rosette’s window so she could only just peer in and feel helpless for her best friend. She took flight then for she could take it no longer, she hated to see one of her friends in that state, “the worst thing is though, is that I can’t ask her what the matter is and make her fell better!” Makita’s heart ached at the thought.
She was almost home when she saw a dark silhouetted figure against the moon, she plunged into the trees below and watched, praying that the shadow didn’t see her, “what is it?” She puzzled to herself, she leaned forward slightly to get a better look at the figure, “No, it can’t be! Why would there be? It’s a dark flyer! The opposite to me!”

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment