Worlds Apart Chapters 3 & 4

• Artist: Sow-long
• Description: This is the third and fourth chapters in my new story Worlds Apart. Enjoy!
• Date: 01/24/2010
• Tags: magic romance fiction fantasy adventure

Chapter 3

As the day went on, things only got weirder.
In second period pre-calculus, I could have
sworn I had the answer wrong, but the teacher
accepted it anyway.
After that, in third period chemistry, I got to
choose my lab partner while the rest of the class’
partners were chosen for them. Of course, I
picked the smartest kid in class.
For P.E., the gym teacher let me sit out of my
most hated sport, basketball. The whole class, I
was able to sit on the sideline and watch all the
students run back and forth. Nobody seemed to
notice me, not even my best friend, Clarence (who
would have probably glared at me the whole
period in a situation like this) as if my incredible
stroke of luck was an everyday occurrence.
Finally, when lunch started, I was so
overjoyed to see Peter again. We met up at the
usual place and I told him the whole story of how
the day had gone. Well, almost the whole story; I
didn’t tell him about Chris.
He laughed. “Well, you’re definitely having
an awesome day today! Good for you!”
I frowned. “Don’t you find it odd that so
many good things happened to me lately?”
“No, I don’t. Some days turn out better than
others,” he said, smiling into his peanut butter and
jelly sandwich.
I watched him in frustration as he gobbled
down his first sandwich. He took another and
practically inhaled it, taking him only about 30
seconds to finish. I looked down at his lunchbox
and snorted. “ How do boys eat so much food?” I
asked, staring at the overflowing food.
Peter just laughed.
Finally, when lunch was over, I left Peter to
his senior friends. I quickly made my way to sixth
period before I could have a second tardy in just
that day alone. No doubt Peter would be late, but
he never really cared much for school.
Eighth period was English, the class I had
been dreading practically the whole day. My final
paper was due and I had to present my report in
front of the whole class, not to mention my
subject was terrible.
The teacher had given each of us a character
from the Odyssey and told us to make a report on
how that character played a part in the main
storyline.
I got one of the worst characters. She gave
me Odysseus’s old dog who died in the end. He
probably did tie in somehow, but I couldn’t think
of anything at the time, so I just put random
nonsense and tried my best to make it sound
remotely logical. I don’t think I succeeded,
though.
When the teacher called me up to present my
project, I was shaking all over. My palms were
sweaty and I felt the blood rush to my face.
“Carmen…are you presenting today or not?”
asked Mrs. Floude, staring at me with piercing
eyes.
I scooted my chair away from my desk and
rushed to the front of the room. “Um…yes,
Ma’am,” I said quietly.
As the presentation went on, I watched in
awe as the students stopped writing on their desks,
looked away from the ceiling, and quite their
discussions with one another and watched
intently.
Finally, when my presentation was over, the
class cheered. The teacher laughed and said, “Well
done, Carmen! Well done, indeed!”
I just stared at them, totally and completely
dumbfounded. I walked back to my seat and sat
down. I think I had gone into shock.
After a minute, the class stopped clapping
and I sighed in relief. I had always hated attention.
Then, the bell rang and I started to rush out
the door in a hurry, but I heard Mrs. Floude call,
“Hm, wait Ms. Black!” from behind me.
I turned around slowly and sighed in
frustration.
Mrs. Floude smiled and said, “That
presentation was brilliant! Just brilliant! I’ve
never seen the likes before! I have to know; how
did you do it?”
I sighed again and said exasperatedly, “ I
don’t know, Mrs. Floude. I don’t know.” I turned
my back to her, walked out the door into the thick
throng of people, and left Mrs. Floude beaming in
her classroom.

Chapter 4

I went to the bathroom and sat there for a
while. As the bell rang again, I stayed in the stall.
No doubt the teacher would forgive me for my
absence anyway. I cleared my head and allowed
my mind to wander. As my thoughts became more
and more like a fantasy story, I sighed and came
back to reality. I had to leave; get away from this
deluded place. I forged a plan of escape, and
decided to let Peter in on my plot. I couldn’t just
leave him while I take off without warning. I
know he’d be incredibly worried, although most
of the time he acts the way he acts makes it seem
like he wouldn’t be worried at all in a situation
like this.
So I left the stall and moped out of the
bathroom. I walked down the hall slowly, taking
as much time as possible.
I climbed up to the second floor where the
upperclassmen classrooms were and made my
way to the end of the hall. As I walked by the
classes, the teachers would look at me, but do
nothing about my roaming the halls.
Finally, I made it to Peter’s 9th period class,
Government. Amazingly, Peter hadn’t skipped this
period, like he usually did. He was sitting at his
desk in the back of the room, talking to his friend,
Alex. Mr. Garcia was at the front and was
teaching something that I didn’t care to listen for.
I was patiently waiting for him to notice me
standing in the doorway. Some of seniors started
to notice, but Mr. Garcia wouldn’t look my
direction. I leaned against the doorway and
cleared my throat.
Mr. Garcia whipped around in surprise. For a
second, I nearly laughed at his humorous
expression.
His eyes bugged out, high eyebrows creasing
his forehead, and mouth forming the shape of and
“O”. But he quickly contorted his face into his
usual blank expression. “May I help you, Ms.
Black?”
I stepped into the room, looking around at the
bland painted walls and annoyed stares of
disapproval. I began to nervously twiddle my
fingers. “Uh, y-yes, sir. Could I please see my
brother for a moment?”
I took a quick glance at Peter, who had
stopped conversing with Alex, and was staring in
confusion. I looked back to Mr. Garcia, and saw-
with utter surprise- him smiling back.
“Well, of course you can! Oh, and I might
add, you look lovely today,” he said.
I opened my mouth and said uncertainly,
“O…kay?”
He looked to the back of the room, where
Peter was sitting openmouthed- apparently, I was
right, and Mr. Garcia never did act like this- and
frowned. “Peter! Come here this instant! Your
sister,” looks over at me and smiles, “needs to talk
to you.”
At this, Peter looked more comfortable. He
was more used to the teacher yelling than acting
nicely. He looked at me questioningly, as if to as
‘What’s this about?’, but quickly looked back at
Mr. Garcia and smiled. He said sarcastically, “Yes,
sir!” and rose from his desk. He exchanged
glances with Alex and shrugged. Peter hurried
past Mr. Garcia and was out the door before he
could say another word. I quickly walked out
behind him, not waiting for any other
compliments from the teacher.
I followed Peter to the end of the hallway
where nobody could hear our conversation,
though when Peter finally spoke, his voice was so
soft, it was barely audible.
He asked, “Why are you not in class?”
Then, he turned around and I saw an
expression I had never seen him wear, even when
he was a little kid. It was an expression of…pain?
I looked down at my feet and said, “Well, I
think we should leave. Like now.”
From what I could see of him, he stiffened.
“Why?”
I frowned. “Because all these strange things
that have been happening to me! Every single
time I am seen by anybody, they give me
compliments and every time I do anything wrong,
they don’t care! I just got an A+ for a presentation
on a dog, Peter! A dog! I think we should leave
because it’s all starting to creep me out!”
Peter chuckled and I looked at his face. To
my relief, his features were completely relaxed
once again. I frowned. Seeing my expression, he
said, “Thank God! I thought you were turning into
a good-for-nothing. I thought you were turning
into a person just like me.”
Although he kept a smile on his face, I could
plainly see the pain inside his eyes.
Before I could say anything, Peter raised his
hand and stopped me from going on. “Don’t say
anything.”
Then he laughed again. “Back to the point.
You really took me out of class just so we could
leave because of some stroke of good luck?
Seriously, Carmen!”
Completely forgetting the discussions of the
past few minutes, I frowned. “This is no random
stroke of good luck, okay? There is something
wrong here! Nobody-and I mean nobody- has this
much good luck in one day! It’s unnatural! There
is no way this can just be a coincidence! How do
you suppose all these things that I never thought
possible would happen all in one day? How did I
not get in trouble when I was late? How’d I get to
sit out of P.E.? Huh? Tell me! How’d I get an A+
on the worst project and presentation of my life?
It just can’t happen! I don’t know how or why this
is happening, but I just can’t take it anymore! The
next thing you know, I’ll be accidentally saving
the world from a rouge space comet!”
Peter looked off into the distance, as if in a
train of thought and said, “I don’t know. That does
sound pretty cool.”
I punched him on the arm. “Peter!”
Finally, after a minute of laughing, he stopped
and asked, “Do you really find this to be such a
big deal?”
I sighed. “Has anything I said in the last five
minutes reached your brain yet? Yes, I find this to
be such a big deal! I’m guessing you don’t.” I
looked down.
Peter sighed and I looked up to see the lines
of stress forming on his face. “Carmen, look.
I’d like to believe you…I really would, but-”
“Then why don’t you? Why won’t you
believe in me?!” I nearly shouted. I looked into
his eyes and with all the will I could muster, I
forced him to hear out my last words.
He stared into my eyes intently, and the stress
on his face turned to pain again and then, finally-
after what seemed like forever- he relaxed. He
closed his eyes and covered his face with his
hand. He sighed and said, “Fine.” He opened his
eyes and I saw the usual flame of determination
burning throughout; the will to protect me at all
]costs. “If this is really bothering you, then we’ll
leave.”
I smiled and hugged him until he begged for
mercy.
“Perfect! You having a family reunion?”
asked a voice that everyone in the school feared.
The voice that annoyed me so much because of
her cruel antics.
We turned around and saw Amanda Riles, the
worst and cruelest bully in the whole school.
I started forward, but Peter held me back.
“I’ll handle this,” he said through clenched
teeth.
Peter was the kindest person I had ever
known. He always loved to help anybody in
trouble. He always wanted to help my mom
around the house on the days when she was too
sick to get out of bed. He made it a hobby to help
the more unfortunate people.
And he didn’t hate anybody or anything. Not
when they made fun of him in the third grade for
not being able to afford his own reading books for
school. Not when his teachers gave him detention
for something he didn’t do. Not even when he was
rejected from every school club because of his
social standing.
But if there was something in the world that
he despised, it was a person who hurt others for
their own benefit.
A person like Amanda Riles.
With pure hatred gleaming in his eyes, he
stepped up to Amanda and spat, “ What do you
want?”
She smiled, but her expression was odd. She
said, “Hello, Carmen Black’s brother! You look
very nice today!” and giggled.
We both gasped and I finally realized what
was so odd about her smile. It was a smile of joy
and happiness, a genuine smile, a sign of the
kindness deep, deep inside her soul. I had never
seen anything like this before. The only time she
was smiling was when she was wearing a sneer
while watching other people’s distress.
Now, Peter- nearly in shock- closed his
mouth and asked, “Is this a joke? I’m not buying
it, Riles.”
Amanda frowned in sincere bewilderment. “A
joke? Why would I ever do such a thing to
Carmen Black’s brother?” she shuddered as if she
found the very thought unthinkable.
Peter frowned and glanced back at me with
confusion. One question came to mind.
Is she joking or is she just a complete lunatic?
I shrugged, not caring less anymore as long
as she continued being nice to us. I think Peter
was finally starting to understand. As he opened
his mouth to talk, Amanda swept past him and in
an instant, was standing in front of me. I stepped
back as she smiled and said, “Do you need any
help, Carmen Black? Can I help you with
anything? Say the word, and I’ll do it.”
I just stared. Here she was, the meanest bully
in all of Coren and she was asking me if I needed
any help?
Yes, I am definitely dreaming.
I continued to stare as Amanda went on.
“I know this may seem odd. I’ve treated you
terribly for a long time now. I’d just like to make
amends with you.” Then, she saw my face and
must have taken my stunned expression for an
expression of horror because she looked down and
stuttered, “I-if that’s alright with you, that is.”
I blinked and asked quietly, “What did you
just say?”
She frowned and started, “I know this may
seem-”
“I know what you said. But…why?”
“Like I said before. I’ve been so mean for
you for this many years, so I’d like to
apologized.”
I considered this for a moment and thought of
all the evil things I could tell her to do, and based
off her expression, I believed she would do them.
I could have told her to jump off a bridge, if I
really wanted to. But I didn’t.
I sighed. “Here is what you can do. You can
never be mean to another person again and…you
can leave us alone.
She nodded, then scampered off in the other
direction. We watched her back until she turned
the corner.
Then, I sighed a big sigh of relief and turned
to face Peter.
He was staring at me in confusion. In his
eyes, I could see a slight glimmer of pain, but it
disappeared as he asked, “How did you do that?”
I shrugged.
Finally, he frowned and said, “Can we leave
now? I’m starting to think that you really are
unnaturally lucky.”
I laughed and said, “Told you so!” as I turned
away and started walking towards the front of the
building.
Finally, we reached the front doors and
walked outside.
I stared in awe.
At first, I thought it was raining, but as I
looked at the ground, I saw some white fluff
accumulating.
Snow.
In South Wyoming.
At the beginning of Summer.
I looked at Peter and smiled as he rolled his
eyes.
I absolutely love snow. It’s my favorite object
in the world. I never really minded the cold that
much.
I ran into it and watched as the flakes drifted
down from the brilliant, white sky. I fell back into
a pile of it and lay there breathing in the sweet air
and felt the cool specks accumulate on my face.
When I finally opened my eyes, Peter was
standing over me. Speckles of snow glistened in
his hair and on his eyelashes. He said quietly, as if
to not disturb the tranquility of the snow, “Come
on, Carmen. We better get going.”
I rolled over. “Go where? If we go home,
mom will yell at us and we can’t stress her out
more than she already is. So where would we
go?”
Peter smiled. “The diner, of course!”
I laughed. “Fine, fine! You win, I’m coming.”
I followed him as we walked a couple of
miles to the Red Wagon Diner. It took us about 45
minutes to get there. We stepped through the large
double doors and walked up to the desk. At the
counter, Grace was greeting a young couple. She
had dark brown hair and eyes. Her smile revealed
brilliant white teeth.
After the couple were seated, Grace finally
noticed us and said, “Hey, guys!”
I smiled. “Hi, Grace. You think you could
find us a seat?”
She smiled. “Sure thing, Carmen! Table for
two comin’ up!”
She led us to a small room with a few people.
On one side, there was an old man drinking some
coffee and a family of three eating dinner. On the
other side, there was the couple from before and
Derek.
…Derek?
Derek was sitting in a booth, with his jeans,
favorite blue shirt, and his old converse. He had
shining, long blond hair and emerald green eyes.
He was slightly short for his age of 17. I’ve
known him only for a couple years and he’s been
my boyfriend for only a couple of weeks.
Peter said, “I think I’ll leave you two alone.
Don’t be home too late, okay?”
I nodded and walked over to Derek. He didn’t
notice me until I tapped his shoulder.
He turned around and smiled. “Hey, Carmen!
You’re early.”
I blinked. “Early? Early for what?”
He frowned.
Finally, I remember. I sighed.
“Sorry, Derek. I forgot about our date again.
Well, at least I’m here!”
He frowned, but signaled for me to sit with
him.
I sat across from him and said, “I really am
sorry about forgetting. You know I am. Please
don’t take it personally. I love you.”
He smiled and that was enough to reassure
me that it was fine with him, but he said anyway,
“That’s okay, Carmen. I will never be angry at
you! I love you, too.”
I tried to hide my smile by holding the menu
in front of my face, but when I looked at him, he
was also looking at the menu.
“So what are you thinking of getting?” I
asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know… I guess I’ll get
a cheeseburger. You?”
“I’ll get the same.”
He smiled and we looked into each others’
eyes. I was soaring through a see of dark green. It
felt like I was floating on nothingness.
For a minute or so, there were no worries in my
life. No difficult family. No dysfunctional high
school. No anything. Just Derek and me. Only
Derek and me. I wanted to stay. I wanted to have
no worries. I wanted to stay in my own fortress of
solitude. I wanted to keep on floating forever into
the depths of Derek’s soul.
But, suddenly, my fantasy was ripped to
shreds by Jordan, one of the waiters.
“Hello? Earth to Carmen,” he said.
I frowned. “What?!”
He seemed taken aback. “What do you want
to eat?”
I smiled. “Uh, what he had.”
Jordan bustled away, still clearly infuriated
with my response.
“Are you okay, Carmen?” asked Derek with a
look of concern.
I frowned. “Yeah. Why?”
He looked down. “Oh, no reason, really. You
just seem a little out of it today.”
I also looked down. “Oh.”
When I looked up again, I saw him staring at
me.
“What ?” I asked.
He smiled. “Your eyes are really beautiful. I
don’t like it when I can’t see them.”
I smiled. “Aw, Derek! Thanks! I lover you so
much.”
He laughed. “I know.”
I frowned and punched his shoulder.
We laughed together until our food came out
and I found I had ordered a cheeseburger with
everything on it and french fries. “Ew!” I said as I
separated the burger from the fries and put it on a
napkin. I hated anything other than just cheese,
meat, and bread on my burgers.
Derek laughed. “I probably should have told
you that you had ordered such a ‘nasty’ dinner.”
I scowled.
For a couple of minutes, we ate in silence.
Then, Derek asked, “So, how has your day been?”
I frowned. “Don’t ask. It was really confusing
and messed up.”
“How so?” he asked and leaned forward so
his face was mere inches away from mine.
I gave him a warning look, but said,
“Everything went my way today. And I mean
everything. It was like the luckiest day anyone has
ever had.”
He blinked in confusion. “What’s so terrible
about that?”
I sighed and looked down. “You don’t
understand. It was just weird. Overly weird. Kind
of scary, actually.”
He leaned back and started eating again. He
was nearly finished. “Nonsense.”
I looked up and narrowed my eyes.
“Nonsense?”
He stared. “Yes, nonsense. Complete and
utter nonsense. If I were you, I’d call that a very
awesome day.”
I stood up. Everyone in the room was staring,
but I didn’t care. “Well, if you don’t believe me, I
might as well leave!”
He stood quickly and said, “Sorry, baby! I
believe you! Please come back!”
I sighed and sat back down again.
He closed his eyes. “Come on, Carmen, let’s
go take a walk.”
I frowned, but followed as he paid, then
walked out the diner and into the snow. I followed
him all the way to the park. Finally, he said, “Do
you remember our first date?”
We walked through the thin snow and down a
scenic path surrounded by beautiful, glistening,
snow covered trees. I thought. “Yes. You brought
me here. On that bench was the first time you said
that you loved me.”
I smiled.
He was smiling ,too, as he asked. “So you
said that you were getting your way all day,
right?”
I frowned. “Yes. Why?”
He said, “Well, I should give you your way,
too.”
And he kissed me.
He bent down as I looked up into his eyes and
kissed me.
It seemed to last for years and it was the
greatest thing I had ever felt in my life. A spark of
electricity illuminated my soul with life and spirit.
The spark ran down my spine and through my
body as were being shocked with electricity.
A connection formed between he and I and
for the first time in my life, I felt a strong
interconnection within me.
What seemed like hours turned to days and
what seemed like days turned to weeks as we
finally released and the connection was lost. It left
me grasping for the light that had just
disappeared.
My body was shaking all over, but it wasn’t
from the cold. As I opened my eyes, I saw a
brilliant light and happiness fade from Derek’s
eyes.