Hidden Royalty: The Wolves of Healy Lake

Chapter 1: Rayne

            Rayne Andrews was no stranger to being the new kid at school; after all she had changed schools no less than 10 times since kindergarten. Why her parents constantly moved, was a mystery to her though, it wasn’t like they were a military family or anything. No, she concluded they did it just to drive her crazy and to keep her from forming any lasting relationships.

            While they were fiercely protective, her parents were not the type of parents that encouraged bonding with her peers; in fact, they discouraged her from getting to close.  Her father, Liam, was on the tall side at nearly six and a half feet and was very fit, with a muscular build, sandy blonde hair which he always wore military style, and deep brown eyes. What friends she did make usually had a tendency to drool over him. Something Rayne found disturbing on a good day.

            Her mother, Nora, was only slightly less imposing than her father at just over six feet tall. Nora had more of a mousy brown hair color, was very slender, and had eyes that could only be described as gold. Rayne had never seen eyes that color on any other person, though she thought it seemed fairly common in dogs. No matter where they went people commented on her mother’s eyes, though with curves in all the right places, that was hardly the only thing people noticed about her. 

Rayne could not have looked any less like her parents if she tried, with her jet black hair that hung straight down somewhere between the middle and bottom of her back. She was much shorter than them at only five foot five inches tall but found that her one redeeming quality was he Sapphire blue eyes that seemed to pop in contrast to the color of her dark hair giving her a slightly exotic look. It wasn’t that she hated how she looked; she just could not understand how she could look so different from both of her parents.

She often wondered if one day they would just up and tell her that she had been adopted and that’s why she looked nothing like them, she had even asked them once. They of course told her she had not been but what else did she expect them to tell her, she was 9 years old at the time and they probably thought she couldn’t handle the truth yet. Then there was always the possibility that they had kidnapped her when she was a baby, or too young to remember and that would also explain why they had to move so much and why they didn’t want her to have friends. Her other theory was that she had been switched at birth while in the hospital and her parents just didn’t know they had the wrong kid. Seventeen years is a long time to come up with theories on why you look nothing like your parents and Rayne had plenty.

Rayne and her parents had finally finished unpacking everything last week, which had given her a few days to explore the town a little bit before the first day of school, which was today. At least this time she didn’t have to start in the middle of the year she thought as she headed to the office with her schedule. Her Mom said that they should already have her records and all she had to do was check in at the office to get her schedule and locker assignment. The office was right inside the main doors to the school and since the school was pretty small in comparison to most that she had been to, it was pretty easy to find. When she entered the office she noted how small it was, seeing a counter with a woman behind it who looked to be in her thirties, with warm brown eyes and a friendly smile. Opposite the counter was a wall that held 3 chairs, she assumed was used as a makeshift waiting area.

Rayne approached the woman with the warm brown eyes and she looked up and said “may I help you?” “Yes, my name is Rayne Andrews, I am new here and I was told to check in here to get my schedule and locker assignment.” As she spoke Rayne could of swore she saw the woman sniffing the air, suddenly she felt very self-conscious, she knew she couldn’t smell already, she had just showered and got dressed an hour ago. She found herself wanting to do a quick arm pit sniff and pop a breath mint just in case. “Yes, Rayne Andrews, here it is. My name is Mrs. Alpine; I’m the secretary/guidance counselor here at Healy Lake High School, if you need anything at all just come and see me. Your first class is just down at the end of this hallway, I hope you have a good first day.” After feeling effectively dismissed Rayne felt like she needed to get to the nearest bathroom and check what had caused Mrs. Alpine to sniff the air like that.

Rayne was busy looking at the map of the school she held in her hand to try and find the closest bathroom that she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and walked straight into someone causing her to drop everything she had in her arms, including her schedule, all her paper, books, and binder. Great, way to make a first impression Rayne, she thought to herself as bent down to pick up the mess she had just made. She glanced up to apologize to whoever it was she had just managed to run over and looked straight into a set a gorgeous emerald green eyes, eyes that stunned her speechless quite literally it had seemed. It only took a second for her to shake herself free from his eyes before saying “I am so sorry, I was looking at the map and trying to find a bathroom before my first class and didn’t even see you, are you ok” she asked as she struggled to retrieve her fallen mess. The boy reached down to help her untangle his belongings from her own as he responded with an amused sounding “yes, I am fine. Are you ok” he asked?

Before Rayne had a chance to answer the question their hands brushed against each other and Rayne swore she saw a spark light up when then they touched, but just as quickly as she saw it appear it disappeared. She thought she must have imagined it, she looked to the boy to see if he showed any indication that he had seen it, if he had he wasn’t letting on about it. He was looking at her expectantly, then she realized she hadn’t answered his question yet. “I’m fine” she replied with a sigh. “Just wasn’t watching where I was going. Again, I am really sorry about that.” She thought for a brief moment about asking him about the spark but decided against it fearing he would think she was crazy, and maybe she was.

“It’s no problem the boy said, you must be the new girl. Hi, I’m Phoenix, and this is Aaliyah ”He said as he pointed to the girl standing next to him. Aaliyah was stunning, with golden blonde hair that hung down to the middle of her back in perfect ringlet curls, legs that seemed to go on forever, cheekbones that Rayne was certain even super models would be jealous of and then as she saw her eyes Rayne was stunned to see the same golden eyes she saw on her mother, eyes she was certain had to be rare if not one of a kind. Her parents hadn’t mentioned having family in the area, but then they never spoke of family at all.

Rayne had asked about her grandparents, or aunts and uncles a few times only to be told that her father was an orphan and her mother was an only child and her parents passed away before Rayne had been born, and that was all they would say on the matter. It had always struck her as strange but her parents told her she had an over active imagination, and maybe she did, but seeing her mother’s eyes on this on this girl that stared back at her with cold indifference made Rayne wonder if there was more to it. That was something she would have to think about later, she was already running late, and on her first day no less, and she seemed to have irritated this other girl, how she had no idea. “Hi, my name is Rayne Andrews, yes I’m the new girl, I guess word must travel quickly around here. But then I should be used to that by now, it usually does in small towns like this, as often as we move you would think I would know that by now.” She replied to his earlier introduction. “I better go, don’t want to be late to agriculture class, is that really a required course here? I don’t think I have ever been to a school that even offered it” she laughed.

“Mr. Anderson is great, don’t worry, you will love the class” Phoenix replied. “Come on Phoenix, you did your good deed for the day, now let’s go. I still want to go to my locker before we go to class, you don’t need any more pets” Aaliyah said to Phoenix as she grabbed his hand and tugged to give emphasis to her desire to move on. Phoenix shrugged his shoulders and gave Rayne a helpless grin and walked away with the girl she assumed was his girlfriend.

Well that went well Rayne thought to herself, I have made my first enemy and my first friend and all before the start of my first class. Things can only improve from here, I hope…