Ace of Spades | Book 1

Look, it has never been easy for me. I mean, I can’t help where I was born or the family I was born into, just how I manage myself. Yet I am, or was, confident that I will take care of my life in a manner that might get me in some serious trouble. This story probably proves that. But it’s not supposed to be about how I manage myself. It’s about how my life went from great to greater. Well, sort of. I woke up to the sound of my older brother, Olive, yelling my name up the stairs. “KYLER! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN UP AN HOUR AGO!” Well s**t. I got up and walked to my bathroom, brushing my teeth and hair, and changing into my clothes, a silver and black cropped windbreaker with puffy sleeves, a sleeveless black turtleneck that wrapped snugly around my neck. I slid it carefully around the… altercations in my neck, careful not to tug on the stitches. I pull on some ripped gray jeans and orange knee-high sneakers before slipping a pair of yellow eye contacts into my eyes, blinking a bit, and raced time down the stairs. I grabbed a handful of grapes, shoved them into my mouth at the same time, and raced outside, giving Olive a quick hug on the way out the door. I clumsily attached skate plates, small metal plates you can attach to your shoes to retract into thin skating blades. I put it on the serrated blade for better stability, and attached them to a pair of leather driving gloves I bought at an antique shop. Kind of like the ones from my favorite action-romance movie. Sliding on my helmet, I skated as fast as I could get my legs to move towards the border. I paid the toll, flashed my ID, and slid through the gates, racing my way towards RZ and my new high school life. I got a text, and paused on the street side, slowing my speedy pace to a slow roll. I scrolled through my texts. Starrie: Kyler meet me at the front of the school. Asmere: Kyler it’s your first day!! Kyler: Morning kids I’m almost there Tristan: Hurry up I miss you Astrid: Ew sappy weirdo Stone Vines: Dude don’t text and skate Kyler: Are you stalking me, SV?? I don’t know to be flattered or creeped out Stone Vines: turn around dumbass I whipped around as someone tapped my shoulder and saw Stone Vines on his bike next to me. “Oh hey! You heading this way?” He nodded. “How far is your house?” “About 2 miles away.” He replied, starting to move. I nodded, and sped up. Stone Vines lived in the Red Zone, or RZ, as kids in my zone said, and he said it was a great place to go to school. It was the only place to go to school outside of my zone, though. And it was in RZ, the least populated and most financially successful in the Color Quarter. Probably in all four quarters if you really think about it, the only zones topping them being Solixar and Luxymar. The country was split into four quarters. Color Quarter, Elden, Season Gardens, and Ebony Plateau. Color Quarter was the most segregated, with people living in different zones based on eye color. That’s where I live. Let’s just say some zones are treated worse than others.  Elden is the quarter of the sun and moon, being home to Luxymar and Solixar. Solixar is ruled by Ra and his advisor/messenger Belliam, who comes to my zone a lot to talk about trading agreements. I frequently see him outside of my house. He’s pretty nice. Luxymar is ruled by Selene and her younger brother, Prince Mellodi. I’ve never seen him before, or the queen for that matter. Rumors at school say that Luxymarians don’t even know that they’re in the quarters. They use their moondust and sundust to make the sun and moon rise and set, and to change the landscape. Season Gardens is home to the four seasons; spring, summer, autumn, and winter. There is a whole legend that goes with them, going along the lines of how the eight rulers, kings and their queens, each had one son who was named after the season they were born in? Apparently, they can make the seasons change, considering their powers. I don't quite remember the whole legend. Ebony Plateau is the most dangerous quarter. It’s owned and operated by a strange species of lumberjacks, large hairy yeti-like creatures with coarse brown hair and brown leather jackets and hats. They have two huge black ram horns erupting from under their long, silky black wolf-like ears, and are always armed to the tooth with hatchets and axes. Ebony Plateau is a large wooded area with, you guessed it, ebony trees. In the center, there is a humongous plateau with a large, sparkling blue lake on the top. I’ve been there. I’m friends with the lumberjacks. But that doesn’t make it any less dangerous. The creatures living there don’t exactly see me as a friend, so I always have to be vigilant. Luckily, everyone in Color Quarter has an ability or power, so I’m easily able to protect myself. Just thought I’d explain the landscape a bit before moving on in the story. We reached the building, and I disabled the skate plates. I shoved them in my bookbag as Stone Vines chained his bike to the bike rack, and we walked up to the front lawn. I looked around for Starrie, and Stone Vines went ahead of me to start his volunteer hours at the library. He graduated from this school a year ago, so he volunteers now since the school doesn’t have enough librarians. Suddenly, I lurched forward as someone rammed into me, ramming my forehead into the tree I was waiting by. I whipped around and held a hand to the back of my head to try and steady the dizziness. “Who-” Starrie smiled sheepishly and put a hand to my forehead where a large welt was forming. I felt an aching pain when he touched it, and Starrie gingerly rubbed his thumb over it. “Sorry! I tripped..” I looked at his feet and saw two rollerblades which he unsteadily stood upon. I gave him a grim look. “You should try taking those off.” He gave me a massive Starrie grin, and held onto my shoulder as he struggled with the skates. Tying his shoelaces, we stumbled into the school just as the bell rang for homeroom. “Follow, my son,” he explains, grabbing my wrist in one hand and my schedule in the other. Leading me onwards with a finger pointing towards the door, he continues “Mr. Jenson is incredibly nice. He’s on the lenient side of teachers. You’ll like him well enough.” We enter the classroom, and a young teacher looks up and smirks at Starrie. “I hope you have a plenty good enough reason to be late to the most important class, Mr. Hemlock…?” He crosses his arms and leans on his hip on the edge of the desk, staring us down. His playful gaze softens when his eyes meet mine. I looked off over his shoulder, unable to hold eye contact for long. I’m scared he’ll see through my expensively tacky disguise. He straightens and walks over to us. His silence is almost unnerving, but I feel my shoulders relax when he holds out his hand. “Lovely to make your acquaintance. You must be Mr. Ikisaki, correct? Was our lovely Starrie here showing you around?” He says, giving Starrie a sidelong glance. Starrie continued to fumble with the buttons on his fingerless gloves, unknowing of the glances and glares sent his way. I couldn’t tell what Mr. Jenson’s general attitude was, never mind his attitude towards Starrie. One second he’s smiling, the next he’s glaring. “Uhm. Yeah. I, uh, I’m Kyler? Starrie was just showing me to class, please don’t get him in trouble.” I awkwardly took his hand and shook it briefly before shoving my hands back into my pockets. He continued to stare at me as I looked around the room at the assorted maps and inspirational posters hanging on the walls. Clearly, Mr. Jenson was a history teacher. Which means this will be the teacher Olive talks to when he notices I’m failing history class. “I won’t, as long as he sits down.” Mr. Jenson dismissed Starrie. Starrie nods and playfully salutes, scurrying off to his seat. He dives deep into the conversation of the random kids around him. I looked nervously to and fro about the room, unsure what to do. “Tell me, Mr. Ikisaki…” “Kyler.” “Kyler, right. Tell me, Kyler, how well do you know the student body here?” He says, leaning against his desk again. I’m miserable as I mull over his question. I just want to sit down and be another nameless face in the mass. “Uh, not very well. I have about 5 friends here.” I respond finally. He nods and walks over to an empty chair next to Starrie.  “This will be your seat both in homeroom and your first period class. Try not to get too distracted by your friend though, or I’ll have to move you next to people you don’t know.” He winks playfully, and sits back down at his desk, getting back to the stack of papers on his desk. I nod to no one in particular and collapse next to Starrie, closing my eyes. Mr. Jenson kind of annoys me. I don’t know why Starrie likes him so much. “You look like you’re about to die.” Starrie’s breath tickled my chin as he rested his head on my shoulder and looked towards my face. I open my eyes and give him my best impression of a puppy whimpering. He laughs and wraps an arm around my shoulder, patting my opposite shoulder. “Poor sweet sweet puppy. It’ll get better, I promise. This’ll be fun.” He cooed jokingly, rubbing my shoulder and closing his eyes as he snuggled closer.  “Eugh, you’re so cold.” I complain as he slides his hand to the back of my neck, making me flinch and throw my head back. He laughs and rests his hands in his lap, still talking to his friends as we use each other for support. Homeroom seems to drag on for years, and we finally get dismissed in the middle of a long argument over whether macaroni is eaten with a spoon or a fork. I get my computer and pull it out, opening it up and using my new user and passcode to enter in. Starrie bids the strangers farewell, and more random people begin to filter in. Including a face I finally recognized. “Are you guys cuddling without me?!” The voice rings with an actor’s disbelief and betrayal, and a lanky figure drops into the seat next to Starrie. Tristan gives us puppy dog eyes, and Starrie tackles him, snuggling up closer to me as I *try* to log on. “Don’t worry, my love, I will never let go.” Starrie sighs dramatically, stroking Tristan’s head. Tristan wraps his arms around us both in a big hug and leans against Starrie, so they’re practically both lying on me. Not that I mind. I love them both, so they’ll get away with it this time. “So, Kyky, how has public school life been treating you?” Tristan queries, looking at me from his perch on Starrie’s collarbone. “So far, so good,” I grumble, “though must I remind you it’s only period one.” He chuckles and reaches for my head, giving me a reassuring pat-pat. “You’ll do fine. Everyone’ll love you or ignore you. I’m sure either one is fine with you.” He said, closing his eyes and relaxing into the hug we were all still stuck in. “Boys, if you don’t mind, I’m about to start class. I’d appreciate it if you’d stop nestling in each other’s personal bubbles so you can properly focus. Leave the PDA for after school, or at least after my class.” We turned around to see Mr. Jenson, with his arms crossed, looked at us expectantly. Starrie sighs dramatically and we all separate, moving to the other side of the table so we can see the front of the room. Class moves on at a slow pace. Since it’s everyone’s first day back at school, we mostly do introductions and class bonding exercises, but Tristan, Starrie and I stay together the whole time. Starrie says the kids in this class are kind of jerks and to not associate with them. We finally are released from history, and bustled off to the first elective class of the day.  “I’m so excited. All of us are in this class. When the teacher isn’t here though it’s so chaotic. Even when she is here it’s chaotic though. This is my favorite teacher and my favorite class,” Starrie rambled on to us as we walked. Tristan nodded vigorously in agreement. “You’ll have so much fun,” he said reassuringly. How did he notice my tense stature? I gave him a trembling smile. We near the classroom when someone tackles me in a massive hug from behind.  “MY CHILD, YOU ARE ALIVE,” a voice booms in my ear. I wince, knowing exactly who it is. “Asmere,” I started, “why would I be dead?” She spins around us, facing us but walking backwards. People swerve to get out of her way. “Well, you weren’t here at the front of the school so I thought your ghost was texting us. I thought you were hit by a car or something. When you didn’t respond to SV I got super suspicious,” she said. “I texted you like 7 times.” I quickly sneak a peek at my phone notifications to see not 7, not 8, but 16 messages, all from Asmere. “I assure you I am perfectly fine.” I said, patting her shoulder and moving around her to follow Astrid into the room as he passed from behind us. We share a quick fist bump and side hug before he moves to his respected seat. “ANYWAYS, the teacher here doesn’t really care where we sit, so just chill with us. We claimed seats yesterday during the trial run through of a school day you unfortunately refused to come to,” she muttered. She plopped down on a seat next to Astrid’s. The table is circular, so we’ll all be able to easily talk to each other. “My unfortunate excuse of a brother also sits here with us, so don’t mind him when he arrives. He’s kind of… weird?” It almost sounded like a question, and she waved around a licorice stick as she spoke with unnecessary drama. I nod and sit in between an empty seat and Starrie, who has made it his mission to adjust the seat to its highest level. He sits down on the overly elevated chair and looks down at me. “I hope you enjoy this class. It can be a little loud and chaotic but it was super fun last year and hopefully it’ll be super fun this year.” I nodded and looked at the schedule. Embarrassed to have forgotten what class this was, I looked at my schedule and read over the name. Home EC! I wanted to take this class SO badly. It’s the one class provided that actually teaches you how to do stuff in the real world properly. “But I will warn you, you-know-who is also in this class. He is sitting at the other side of the room, don’t worry,” Tristan murmured to me. I felt my shoulders tense up and sudden desperation claw at my throat, escaping in a small whimper. Real, this time. Right on cue, a large group of guys and girls parades in, chattering about sports season and whatever else they talk about. Some of them break away from the group, but most sit at a table in the back. I see the flash of a familiar face and feel nausea creep up on me. I turned away from him and looked back at the table. Someone sits next to me, making me jump. I heard Asmere’s annoyed sigh and looked at the now occupied seat next to me. “You’re gonna scare him with your ugly face! Sit over here where he can’t see you instead,” she snaps at the guy. I looked up to see him grinning mischievously at her and giving me a sidelong glance. He’s taller than me, making me want to straighten my spine a bit, and looks strangely enough nothing like Asmere. Like, at all. He has long gray hair, not quite light and not dark, with lots of bright yellow streaks in it. He had vibrant yellow eyes in contrast to Asmere’s red eyes. His warm smile turned to me and he looked me in the eye. “Aw, this one’s kinda cute! Like a lost puppy!” he practically cooed at me. I shriveled back and wrinkled my nose, which only made his smile wider. He patted the base of my neck where my spine jutted out and turned back to Asmere as she snapped something at him in another language and slapped his arm. The skin on my neck where he had patted tingled with an unrecognizable warmth. I shook it off and looked at the door behind the teacher’s desk as it opened with a dramatic flourish. “Hello class. For those of you who are unaware of my identity, you may call me Ms. Roberts. This is your Home EC class, so those of you not supposed to be here are free to leave but not free to stay.” Two kids look at each other and get up before leaving the classroom, embarrassed. Ms. Roberts nods curtly and starts naming kids off of her roster. As names are called out, each student gets up to grab something off of the front table. My name is called, and I stand up to grab the item. It’s a thick, hard folder wrapped in a paper-like substance. It’s completely blank. I nod my thanks to her and sit back down as the others are called up. We all sit down at the end of roll-call, and I look down at the folder. Upon further inspection, I discovered that it was completely empty. “This folder will hold all of your important documentation. Including the cure for cancer and the recipe for chocolate chip cookies. There is a huge box of alcohol markers and colored pencils on your table, along with four different sizes of pens. I stole them all from the art room closets, so don’t ruin them. Spend this time decorating your folder, putting your name and maybe a thing or two that describes you or things you are passionate about on it. Or just a drawing. I’m going to be doing some last-minute organizing that the district didn’t allow me to finish while you work on that. Also, be quiet. I don’t need the band teacher yelling at me for throwing off his metronome. Again.” I smile. Ms. Roberts is most likely going to be my favorite teacher. She has a sense of humor and says it all with a straight face. My friends opened up the coloring utensil boxes and we started to draw and talk. “I think I’m gonna draw Consequence and Bento and Mochi and Mercedes.” Starrie says, getting to work. Consequence, a fox, and Mochi, my cat, slowly appear on the folder cover next to Bento the cat and Mercedes the ferret. “You should do me.” A raspy voice murmurs in my ear. I inwardly sigh in annoyance and start sketching. We all finish and show off our drawings. Starrie, true to his word, drew Mochi, Bento, Consequence, and Mercedes playing in a large expansive forest. His animated art style leaps across the cover. It’s really incredible. Asmere drew herself throwing bombs at the school, and Astrid drew a diagram of 452’s anatomy. For some reason. Tristan drew a very… ok, a very bad drawing of a house on a hill with a sun. But he was proud of it, so good for him. I’m willing to pretend it doesn’t look like a five-year-old’s drawing for his sake. Ray made a bunch of patterns, shapes, and squiggles which overall made a pretty cool drawing pattern. It was done in multiple shades of blues and purples. “Who is that?” He murmurs, pointing at the thing on my folder. The character is holding his knees to his chest, with 3 or 4 sets of fluffy white wings spread around him. (Too many to tell.) He has two sets of blue eyes with black sclera, and a large scaly white tail wrapped around his shoulders. His fingers fade into long white claws, and he’s wrapped shoulders to heel in white bandages that hang loosely over his twig-like frame. “Esther!!” Starrie says excitedly. I swear he worships him sometimes. “He’s so cute!! Is that him as a child?” He asks me happily. I nod. Ray nods. He opened his mouth to speak but Ms. Roberts cuts him off.  “Let’s go around and say our names. Then we can assign names to faces.” She starts at one of the fuller tables, and they go around. I hear assorted names, including  “Rowan Pratchett” and “Summer Green.” Just random names. I try to memorize as many of them as I possibly can, but it’s difficult. It gets to the table next to ours, and my eye immediately catches the first person at the table. He looks to be my height, maybe shorter, with long fluffy brown hair pulled partially back into a ponytail. The rest of his hair curls around his neck and ears, framing his jaw. My eyes travel up to his eyes, which are a deep shade of purple. He fiddles with one of the hoop earrings in his left ear and smiles. He has two silver snake bite piercings on his lip, which shift as he speaks.  “My name is Mischa Evergreen,” he says in a honey voice. I’m stuck in a trance and barely hear the others at his table say their names. His gaze traveled along the table, and met my eye. He gives me a tiny smile when he notices my staring, and I quickly tear my gaze away and look down in embarrassment as my face heats up. I continue to listen to the names. It comes to us after a while. “I’m Starrie Hemlock!” “I go by Tristan Delfuero.” “Astrid Freemen.” “My name’s Asmere Desmond, and this is my bro Ray Desmond.” Ray waves. It comes to me. “Kyler Ikisaki.” An eye catches mine, filled with surprise, delight, and pure animal lust. I shiver as the face is revealed to me when someone shifts, and my breath hitches in my throat. Rowan stared at me, a smile creeping across his face. I try to tear my eyes away from him, but I can’t seem to. I’m shaking violently, and my fists clench, digging my nails into the palm of my hand. The moment we share staring feels like an eternity, but probably only lasts a couple seconds. I’m five seconds away from marching over there and stabbing my safety scissors into his f*****g neck. Someone taps my shoulder, and Starrie is looking at me like he’s the one I wish to murder and he’s just learned about it. I relaxed my fingers and smiled cheekily at him. He visibly relaxes, and we go back to the first day of school activities Ms. Roberts has planned for us so meticulously. The rest of the day goes by easily, up until lunch. Having gone through science, band, and ELA, we reached the lunch room right on time. Starrie herds me to a table, and I sit down. I’m seated in between him and Tristan, with Asmere right across from me, Ray at her left next to Starrie, Astrid at her right, and Stone Vines in between him and an empty seat. One empty seat separates Tristan from Stone Vines, one that should have been used to sit someone who once was important. I scan the heads popping into the room and seated at tables, looking for someone specific. Starrie nudges me. I look at him and he flashes me a coy smile. “Does someone have a wittle cwushy cwush?” He coos at me. I snorted in indignation.  “No! What gave you THAT idea?” I grumbled, turning back to my tray. Asmere and Ray were listening intently now, Astrid uninterested. Tristan leans on one hand, grinning a bit too wide. Stone Vines continues to read the book in his hand, the only indication of him listening is the smirk tugging at his lips and the quick glances up at us. “You’re looking for someone. It doesn’t happen to be that dude you were making goo-goo eyes at during Home EC, does it?” Tristan counters, eager to get me riled up. I shake my head but look back at the door with each turn of the hinges. Starrie lets it go and shrugs. “If you get a crush you are legally required to tell me. ANYWAYS, what clubs are we thinking of joining?” He asks, diving into his lunch. Tristan turns his grin to Starrie. “I have a couple of ideas…”