5 A White-haired Nemesis.

     The school was better in person than it had looked in the pictures. Not significantly, but it looked slightly less haunted. Or maybe that was just because it was daytime.

Anyways...

It was a grand gigantic gothic castle-style baroque building that loomed eerily against the early September sun.

The ancient building seemed to be leaning forward, as though it were about to collapse unto the grounds.

Numerous towers jutted out of various sides of it, atop which stone angels and grotesque looking gargoyles were mounted.

The windows in the towers were dark and opaque, as though they'd been coloured and blurred by the hands of time, and misty white fog hung all over the school grounds.

The driveway leading up to the gates seemed like a driveway to the gates of Hell, flanked on both sides by more gargoyles.

I might be a bit dramatic with my descriptions, but yeah, you get the gist. I didn't want to be there.

"We're thrilled to have you joining us for the fall session, Miss Eadwald! I can already tell you'll fit just right in! A lovely addition of beauty and brains to our school of esteemed noblesse prestige!"

A robust, dark-skinned woman who had introduced herself to Mom and I as the principal, babbled on in a thick Irish accent beside me as we walked through the school hallways, headed towards her office.

But I had zoned her out from the moment she came out to receive us at the entrance with shrieking, exaggerated greetings.

Not listening to a word the principal was saying, I let my gaze run along the stone walls of the school halls, and over the paintings lined along them.

Students dressed in pristine, black suit jackets, worn over white shirts with red stripped neck ties, combined with crimson skirts for the girls, and trousers for the boys, milled about.

Some of them eyed me weirdly, but I couldn't care less about them. None of them were half as interesting as the paintings decorating the halls.

Most of the paintings were of unfamiliar people who seemed as ancient as the school itself, and their eyes strangely seemed to follow me as we walked down the hallways. Or maybe I was just imagining it because I was still jet lagged and needed more sleep.

"Jade?" Mom pulled on my sleeve after seconds stretched into awkward minutes, and I still hadn't responded to the principal's babbling.

But my gaze remained transfixed on one of the paintings of a woman with beautiful bronzed dark-brown skin and silver-white hair. Her eyes were such an enthralling shade of midnight blue, that they held me captive. Even as my legs continued to move forward, my gaze remained locked with hers, until I bumped into something...or rather someone.

I turned around in a bid to apologize, but they beat me to speaking.

"Eyes forward, young lady!"

A voice, as chilly as a winter's midnight breeze chided, and I looked up with a brow raised as I took a few steps back.

"I could say the same for you, young man." I retorted, my brow raising further at the demeaning scowl I met with on downturned lips.

A small pit of annoyance bubbled to life in my stomach. To think I had just been about to apologize...

The person I'd bumped into had velvety dark-brown skin that was as smooth and rich as the cool baritone of his voice, with eyes a glacial midnight blue that strangely resembled that of the woman's in the painting.

A small frown took residence on my forehead as I watched him cock his head to the side and regard me through narrowed eyes. The movement caused his head full of curly strands of silvery white hair to droop over his forehead, and lick the bridge of an annoyingly perfect nose.

I watched his scowl slowly turn into a hubristic smirk as his gaze flitted across my face, and I couldn't resist the biting remark that left my lips.

"Something funny, jerkface?"

I didn't know what it was, but something about this guy made me so irritated that I was bothered enough to actually speak to him.

Usually, I'd ignore the likes of him and just keep walking. But something held me in place, anger flaring in my stomach as he looked down at me with plain mockery and arrogance shining in his glacial eyes.

I instantly hated his height. Hated how he towered over me like some sort of...lord. I was pretty tall myself, being over six foot, and it was incredibly annoying to find someone taller than me, and equally as arrogant as he was tall.

"Such insolence..." he breathed, his smirk replaced by a snarl that almost made me recoil in fear. "Someone's having a testy first day of school." He went on, icy eyes raking over me from head to toe, causing tiny pinpricks of icicles to erupt all over my spine.

I made to take another step back, but caught myself just in time. How could I let this indolent, hot-blooded, raging egotistic bull of a boy intimidate me!

"What? Mama forced you to be here against your will?" His lips pulled into a mocking pout, and my fingers balled into fists at my sides. I honestly would have dislocated his stupid perfect nose, had the principal not butted in at that moment.

"Mr. Augustus! Are you picking a fight with a new student on the first day of term?" Her sickly sweet voice had taken on a stern undertone, her eyes hard as steel as she raised a threatening brow at the dude.

The white/silver-haired, arrogant, towering block of ice finally backed away from me with his hands held up in mock surrender.

"Not at all, Principal Fernsby. I was just headed to assembly." He grinned at the Principal, but all the while his eyes never left mine. "Have a good day, will you?"

"You too, Mr. Augustus." The principal smiled tightly, still watching him through narrowed eyes.

He gave me one last lazy grin, showing off a perfect set of dazzling white teeth. "See you around, new girl," he drawled and then sauntered off with hands in his pockets, despicable arrogance bouncing in his every step.

What a weird sicko.

The principal's sickly sweet smile returned again once the weird silver-haired boy was gone, and she returned to my side and took my arm this time.

I gave my mom a 'what the fuck' look, but she simply shook her head and pursed her lips as if begging me not to say or do anything.

She knew how much I hated people touching me.

"Don't let Mr. Augustus bother you too much, my dear. First day of school can be quite hectic for all the students, especially the returning senior class, which you will be joining!" She grinned excitedly as we continued walking, and I simply stared forward.

I was bored and uninterested in her exaggerated enthusiasm. She didn't really give a shit about me joining the school, she only gave a shit about my parents money.

"So," I suddenly decided to speak, "is that how every other kid in this school is like?" I smiled, and it was the fakest smile I'd ever worn. "Snobby and arrogant?"

The principal, Mrs. Fernsby laughed awkwardly as her eyes darted back and forth between Mom and I.

"No! No, Miss Eadwald! Roman is just a...troubled kid. I assure you, he means no harm."

Roman. So that's his name.

Mom gave the principal a smile and launched into a different topic of conversation with her to save the poor woman from me, and I let out a sigh.

I'd never been to school before. Never even stepped a foot inside a school building before, but I'd spent the majority of my life imagining what it would be like, being a normal high-school student like everyone else.

I had movies and netflix shows to help with my imaginations but I'd assumed the shows were obviously exaggerated for entertainment purposes.

I didn't believe high-school could really be that...dramatic. But seeing how that white-haired boy—Roman—had behaved, I knew I was in for a hectic autumn in Bloodstone Academy if the rest of the students were in any way similar to him.

What I didn't know, was how bloody things were about to get.