Book of Secrets

CHAPTER ONE-1

CHAPTER ONE

“Bel!”

Loud humming.

“Hey Bel!”

Loud humming.

“BELLA AMSEL!!”

Bella Amsel turned off the hair dryer. “What?”

“Bel, have you seen my calculator?” Stacy called out as she rummaged through the computer desk drawers.

“It was on top of the TV two days ago,” Bella answered, and flipped her hair dryer back on. And sighed and turned it off again as Stacy appeared in the bathroom doorway looking panicked.

“Oh Bel, help me find it! I gotta be across campus for my Trig final in half an hour,” Stacy pleaded.

“I thought you were a human calculator,” Bella said dryly as she moved to the living room and lifted couch cushions.

“I love you too, smartass,” Stacy snapped as she stomped down the hall to her room to check it again.

Meanwhile Bella wandered into the kitchen, spotted the wayward calculator on top of the microwave, retrieved it, and headed back into the living room to wait patiently.

Stacy came barreling down the hallway and stopped in her tracks when she spied the prize in Bella’s hand.

“You found it! I really DO love you!!” Stacy flung herself at Bella and hugged her before grabbing the calculator. She turned her loose and began hastily shoving things into her backpack.

“Don’t you want to know where I found it?”

“No time,” Stacy sang as she headed out the door. “Gotta go. Professor B will throttle me if I walk in late again.”

Shaking her head, Bella retreated to the bathroom to finish getting ready herself. Today was an important day. She had been selected to interview with the Metzger Youth Institute for a tutoring position in the fall.

The first cool thing about it was she would be getting electives credit for it. The second cool thing was she was only a sophomore; most of these positions were filled by seniors or graduates. But her 4.0 GPA and her ability to speak French, German, and Russian fluently had landed her on Student Services radar.

And the third and perhaps most cool thing about it was - she would be getting paid. Paid. To speak in languages that she loved with all her heart, and to teach others to speak them too. This would be a dream come true if it happened. She’d be able to hang up the apron she wore while working the coffee bar in the student union building once the fall term started.

Not that slinging double half-caf foamy latte is a bad thing. But it would be nice to earn more than minimum wage.

Not to mention having the Metzger Youth Institute at the beginning of one’s resume couldn’t do any harm either. Bella smiled as she checked herself one last time in the mirror.

Here’s to the future, she thought, as she knocked back the rest of her orange juice before brushing her teeth.

***

* * * *

Mikel stopped on the landing and stared at the stunning creature walking toward him.

Well, not actually toward him. Toward the headmaster’s office just to the left at the base of the stairs. He could not stop himself from watching her; slender but curvy, with glossy jet-black hair down to her waist that swayed as she walked. She looked straight ahead and did not notice him.

She’s perfect, like a china doll.

Which was a weird thought, even for him. He viewed most everyone and everything around him as inanimate, set there purely as tools for his entertainment and use. The only person he had ever had any sort of positive feelings for was his father. But the girl he had just seen struck his senses in a wholly different and completely new way.

Had Mikel Metzger been wired like other twenty-eight-year-olds he might have recognized the feeling for what it was – love at first sight. But for him anything other than contempt for those around him was foreign, so he didn’t know how to process what was welling up inside him. He found himself wanting to follow her, touch her, hold her, possess her. It unnerved him.

He crept down the stairs, close enough to the open doorway to hear her say, “Hello, I’m Bella, nice to meet you, Mr. Wallace,” before the headmaster closed the door for their meeting.

Bella. My angel’s name is Bella, Mikel’s mind repeated dreamily as he made his way to the elevator. She must be here for one of the tutoring positions.

Mikel decided he would do whatever it took to make sure she got one.

***