Into The World : The Mystery Of Disappearing Hearts

Chapter 2 : Prophecies and Peers

Tara looked up at Amanda, as they looked each other in the eye.

Amanda, would be lying if she said that she had not frozen for a sec when she saw her face.

She was beautiful. She had a heart shaped face, sharp nose, round plump lip and jet-black hair. But her most striking feature was her big, cobalt blue eyes which looked extremely pretty due to the black eyeliner that highlighted them.

Amanda couldn’t help but stare at her, dressed in a rather simple over-sized shirt and a pair of black ankle length pants, and with her hair tied in a fish-tail braid looking so mesmerizing.

“Can I know your date of birth, ma’am ?”, The girl asked her softly, breaking her trance.

The voice of the girl sounded rather small yet angelic as she inquired Amanda about her birthday.

“12th of July”, Amanda said to the girl named Tara who smiled a bit before she replied,

“Cancer, aren’t you miss ?”

Then she took her scrape book and started drawing strange geometrical shapes and writing something into the boxes she had drawn.

As Amanda continued to stare at Tara, engrossed in doodling or drawing- whatever she had been doing, she felt a bit jealous. Never had she seen a girl so simple yet perfect nor had she felt a bit insecure of any other girl, how beautiful or talented they may be.

“Oh my goodness!! I never came to anyone with such an extraordinary future-full of achievements and adventures. You are destined to become a queen.”, She announced making Amanda frown.

‘What do you mean by a Queen ? It’s the 21st century !! Is she trying to mock me ?’, Amanda thought angrily as she glanced at the other girl who was staring back at her, giving a genuine sweet smile.

Amanda was about to ask her, what she meant but..

“A queen you say ?! Is monarchy a thing again ??”, A high pitched voice said followed by a equally high pitched laughter.

The voice belonged to Claudia Carling, the daughter of Runavilla’s mayor and school’s most popular girl. She is the most shrewd girl she had ever seen who was better than Amanda in almost all the subjects, and she never failed to rub that on Amanda’s face.

Both of them never got together well, they were poles apart and nemesis since she had known her. The only similarity they had was their blond hair, while the biggest difference between both of them was that she had sea green eyes Claudia had plain black ones, which suited her well though.

“Sod off Carling !! Don’t bother Ama, no one was talking about you.”, Ryan snapped at her.

“Touché Ryan, are you ? I was asking this girl about what she said. I meant no harm.”, she smirked licking her lips, giving him a sly smile.

“Being a queen doesn’t necessarily mean wearing a crown or fancy gowns, going to fancy balls and leading an exquisitely lavish life. A true queen is someone who has a heart full of courage and kindness ; someone who is compassionate and can go to any extreme to protect her subjects or dear ones. And this is what I meant when I predicted of her becoming a queen.”, Tara explained as she looked downwards while she fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

‘Aww she is such a cute little thing !’, Amanda thought as a broad smile appeared on her face on hearing the wonderful words of the new girl.

“Oh, really ! Is that so ?”, Claudia quirked, “Then tell me what my future a holds for me ?”

She pushed Amanda who almost fell off the chair only to be caught by Zeo and Ryan in time.

She sat down where Amanda had been sitting some time back, fixing her skirt a bit before she forwarded her hands towards Tara.

Tara looked rather taken aback by what the new girl who the raven haired boy had called Carling had done to the first girl and she looked at Claudia in a rather pessimistic look, as if penetrating through her inner soul with those observant eyes of her.

“Sure ! What is your date of birth ?”, She asked Claudia the same question, she had asked Amanda.

“ It’s 21st April, 2003. Now make haste and see what amazing achievements I am going to make. ”, she ordered making an arrogant face.

“Well...”, Tara started scribbling on her scrape book again, doing a strange counting thing on her fingers; closing her eyes time to time, thinking.

“You have an interesting future...you see. Success through crooked ways, using already present resources as a powerful weapon. Overall you have a nice future...but there are high chances of life risk this year.”, Tara mumbled the last part almost inaudibly.

“Aww !! That’s so obvious for me to have a nice future, after all am so amazing. Tell me something I don’t know, Lil-miss-seer.”, she let out another high picked fake laugh and headed out of the classroom, with a few other students following her like lost puppies.

“Leave her sweetheart, she is a rude to everyone. Don’t feel sad that she was kind off rude to you, she is just so much used to attention from people around her that she feels a bit insecure when she is not the centre of attention.”, Ryan tried to pacify a rather timid looking Tara who was looking down at her feet, pouting.

“Insecure?? My foot!! She just likes being the meanest living being of Runavilla, if not the whole Earth.”, Amanda snorted as she stand down on the desk beside Tara’s, slamming the thick and unattractive Chemistry book on the table, loudly.

“Well, it’s not right to take out your anger on your book. The poor lifeless thing!”, Tara said, now looking at the book in Amanda’s hand with pity, as if it pained her to see the book’s bad condition before she proceeded to add.

“I am not exactly sad that she was rude, it’s just she ignored the last part of what I said. If I would have been in her place.”

“Well...the part about life risk this year? She must have thought about it as a joke.”, Zeo said as he sat behind Amanda, wrapping a hand around Amanda’s shoulders.

“That’s really ignorant of her. Like she can probably be eaten by a lion or fall off a cliff or get hit by a truck. Who knows ?!”, Tara suggested as she threw her hands up in the air, as if it is the most obvious thing in this world.

All the other people just chuckled at her attics, looking amused at how comfortable a new comer was in strange unfamiliar surroundings.

“Well her father is the mayor of our town, so she always has high security guarding her. So, there is no need to think about her and waste our time and sanity on someone like her.”, Ryan scolded everyone softly, like a kind-hearted person he was as he took his usual place on the first bench.

“Yes, Ryan you are absolutely correct. On the contrary it is us who should be concern with a psychopath on loose in town.”, Amanda reminded them of the unfamiliar yet known danger that may be waiting for them in the shadows of some dark lane around.

“Better be careful than be sorry later. Anyway, who knows who he is, or where he is hiding and why is he on this dangerous blood crusade ?!”

“It can be a ‘she' too, couldn’t it?! Who knows, right?”, Tara asked again, looking at her feet like all the other times, making everyone rather surprised by her little comment.

“Well, why would you even say this?”, Amanda questioned as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, looking at the new girl with suddenly arousing suspicion.

“Umm...umm....I really don’t know!! Just felt like saying this.”, She justified herself, yet looking at her shoes- white Snickers, to be precise- as if they were the most interesting thing in the entire Earth.

The sound of a cough, made them turn their attention towards the door as Miss Lopez walked in.

Her heels clicking against the marble, making a rattling noise, as she went and stood infront of the teacher’s table. With her back supported on the table and standing cross-legged – right leg laying over her left one – she observed the class closely, looking at the new faces with her beady eyes.

Tara looked around the class, observing her classmate’s reactions towards the new lady who entered the room, as if waiting for everyone to say something when she suddenly stood up and did something unexpected, which they hadn’t done in years, especially to Miss. Lopez.

“Good morning, Miss!”, she greeted the teacher, making all the heads snap towards her, staring at her as if she was some alien just dropped there by a spaceship from Mars.

‘Like what was really happening? Someone finally politely greeting their old chemistry teacher, that also early in the morning?! What’s next?! Train to Moon?!’, most of the people present their thought inwardly but dared not say anything and miss the drama that was going to start now.

Miss. Lopez looked at Tara, rather optimistic, as she scanned her eyes up-and-down the new girl.

“Good morning to you too, Miss...Tagore.”, she replied, having already read the name of the girl from the label of the book, before she addressed her.

“Now as we move on from our greeting session, how few they may have been...”, Miss Lopez taunted as she looked at the rest of the population of the class, before turning and giving Tara a small smile.

If Amanda would have never seen it herself, then she would have never believed that the great Miss. Lopez could smile.

“Let’s turn to page number 18 and start studying about matter, and whether they are pure or not.”

“Well, what about the first chapter of the book, madam?”, the girl named Phoebe asked.

“That’s a revision chapter, Miss. Holler. Hope you and your fellow classmates are capable enough to remember what was taught last year which you surely would have studied, well unless you are Miss. Edison, of course.”, the teacher clarified, as she took a dig at her least favourite student in her entire career, Amanda.

Well yes, their teacher-student enmity or should it be called hostility towards each other was popular and well-known by all the students of the school. But such digs never earn anything more than an annoyed eye roll from the younger girl.

Though it wasn’t a thing to be proud of or something to be shown publically, Amanda never failed to annoy Miss. Lopez and Miss. Lopez on the contrary, always intended on returning her favours. Infact their hostility was so much that it was quite usual for them to erupt into a full fledged argument quite often, leading to innumerable detentions for Amanda after school. Sometimes when it would go out of hand, her parents were also called up over phone or summoned to school by the principal, but it never stopped Amanda.

Cause according to her, Miss. Lopez had conceived a thought somehow, that she is always correct in her place which may not necessarily be true.

“Well I did like to defer, ma’am. I do remember what was taught last year in Chemistry.”, Amanda stated with a sly smile.

“Very good then, what is the formula for Methane?”

“CH₄, Miss. Lopez.”

“Valency of Silver ?”

“1”

“Formula for potassium permanganate”

“Potassium permanganate formula is KMnO₄”

“Well done, now we can continue with today’s lessons when you have successfully wasted a lot of my time.”, Miss. Lopez sneered before turning around on her feet and opening her book, before she walked up to the black board and wrote down the name of the chapter.

“Now who will do the honour of reading out the chapter to the class?”, she shouted out her question to the class, who royally ignored her and minded their own business- playing tik-tak-toe or making paper planes with mean slangs written on them- and didn’t care to respond.

“May I, Miss Lopez ?”, Tara asked again as the exasperated lady just nodded.

Tara picked up her book, reading out the chapter, slowly and softly.

Her voice small and appealing, just like a nightingale singing on a tree branch.

The breezy air from the open window, fanning her face, enthusiastically taking in all the information she could as she read from the book, aloud.

While everyone were busy minding their own business, Amanda stared at the new girl while she played with a pen lazily, smiling to herself.

How unique the new girl was ! She even made Miss Lopez smile for once, for whatever small time it may be for, but she did. Only one day at school and she had already attained the unattainable. It was really impressive and she already had an affect on Amanda, stirring an unusual emotion inside her which had never known before.

The rest of the class was spend in seer ignorance, passing her time texting secretly under her desk or reading her favourite book 'ROYALTY & ME’ by Sofia Slater. It was a really nice book about a girl’s fight for love and equality against destiny and society as she struggles to become a successful vampire queen instead of being the werewolf heiress like she was supposed to be. It was a pretty amazing book, which had kept her hooked till she had finished reading it completely. It had such a unique concept and she had never stopped wanted more from the author once she had finished reading it but the author never published any new book anymore. She also tried to find who this Sofia Slater was but after many efforts, all she found out was that it was most probably a pseudonym for the writer to hide his or her true identity.

Once the class ended, all the students gathered their stuff, heading out – some to their next class, some to the library while some back home. Being the first day of high school, no one had more than three periods and Amanda had only two today which were Chemistry, so now she would either go back home or hang out with her friends.

As she saw Tara picking up her books, Amanda hurried towards her and stood infront of her, blocking her path.

“So”, she started awkwardly, “I didn’t introduce myself properly. So...hey am Amanda but my friends call me Ama. Nice to meet you. ”

Amanda offered her right hand towards Tara for a shake which she accepted immediately with a thought.

“Hello Ama, am Tara Tagore but you can call me whatever you what to cause by default my name is too short for me to have a proper nickname.”, she replied with a bright smile which seemed sweeter than maple syrup.

“Umm...me and my friends were planning to hang out now, so would you care to join us ?”,she asked nervously, slowly rubbing the back of her neck.

“I did love to, but I have geography class now. Maybe later.”, she admitted as she excused herself and went for her next class, after giving Amanda one of her cutest ‘sorry’ smiles that melted her heart.

It was strange, never had Amanda acted this way- like a love-struck teen boy who feels nervous while talking to his crush.

Amanda was never a besotted little girl neither did she go out of her way to be friends with anyone. She had been friends with Remus, Ryan and Zeo since the first day of school - it didn’t take much efforts though, everything happened naturally.

But for Tara, she wanted to put some efforts and impress her – maybe it was because she had been awed by the latter herself and wanted to leave a good impression on that girl herself. Maybe she had an infatuation towards her, at most but nothing more.

“So where to go now? To the mall or the beach?”, Zeo asked smirking at Ama, having seen the interaction between the two girls.

“Well beach, I will have to go to mall in a few days anyway for the weekend party.”, Ama suggested.

“Yes we have to go to the beach to cool her burning heart anyways.”, Ryan smirked as he stated sarcastically.

“Oh! It’s nothing guys, just a bit infatuation at most.”, she pleaded feeling rather shy on being teased by her friends.

Slowly they headed out of school, teasing and taunting each other, riding on their bikes – well Ama sat on the back of Ryan’s bike. Then they spend hours playing in the cool sea water, having ice-cream and building sand castles and later whining like little kids when there were washed away by the waves. Oh, what fun they had!

Ama returned home, tired and worn out from school and all the playing in the beach. Unaware she was that there was a surprise waiting for her at home.