A tale with no beginning

How does one start a tale that has no beginning? Probably, from where it all went wrong but alas, this tale is different.

Imagine a beautiful monday morning; singing birds and a beautiful scenery, peace and harmony. A beautiful sweet, innocent girl awaiting to be swept away in the hands of the bad boy who suddenly falls in love with her. She makes all his demons go away( he has a lot). A mean girl who seems to have no purpose in life but to look pretty and go after the sweet girl.

Now erase that thought totally from your mind because what you're about to know, isn't what you would expect. But you were right about one thing, it was a beautiful morning.

Closing her curtains in disgust, Alice Anderson put her hair in a bun and hurridely stripped out of her clothing. She had slept through the alarm like every other day, but for some strange reason, she still had an alarm clock. Maybe she hoped that one day, it would wake her but she had been hoping, for the past 16 years of her life.

She tied her towel around her chest with no haste, as she had enough time to prepare plus, she was the only one awake. It seemed her family was infected with some strange illness that caused them to sleep through alarms.

She walked to her table and picked up her planner. Its pages remained forever empty and like every other day, she had no plan.

Flipping through the pages, she whispered her favorite word:

"Carpe díem"

That was her favorite mantra, seize the day, live in the present.

Flipping through the pages, she looked at the old clock that her grandmother had once used. It was a miracle it still worked based on the amount of torture it had been through.

Turning her attention away from the clock, she looked at her planner in hopes that inspiration would come. It was about time she organized her life, she decided.

Thirty minutes later, Alice still looked at the very much empty page. Nothing, absolutely nothing had been written down and her lips were sore from continuously biting them.

Alice groaned and picked up her phone. At that point, she had totally given up on the idea of writing. Maybe her life was best left, unplanned. Wasn't it the reason that she always said 'capre diem'? Besides, it wasn't as if it would go according to plan anyways; her second name wasn't Anderson for nothing. Her reputation preceded her, the beautiful troublemaker. Her brother's reputation, was just the icing on top.

She tossed her phone mindlessly in the air and nearly jumped out of her chair as it slipped from her hand and landed face flat on the floor. She groaned as she bent to pick up her phone. If there was any additional crack on her phone, she couldn't have noticed because her phone was a literal map. It had fallen many times in several places, some of which would be best left unsaid and yet, yet it still worked perfectly as though it were bought the day before. Well, if you overlooked the little malfunctioning here and there but at least it still served its purpose.

Turning it on, she looked at her notifications and almost laughed in joy. She kissed her phone, careful not to have her lips cut by the cracked screen, as she looked at the message. She had thirty more days to endure in school which she loved to refer to as hell as it housed demons and devils.

Finally deciding to have her long awaited shower, she got up from the chair and stretched like a kitten although she lacked the elegance of one. She walked to her room door and opened the door as gently as she could and closed it slowly. She hurried to the bathroom quickly locking it before any one tried to barge. By anyone, she meant the spawn of the devil that she happened to live with. Her older brother, Alex.

Discarding her towel, she brushed her teeth in peace, while humming a song that she'd heard on TV.

No Alex. No trouble. Perfect morning.

After brushing, she stepped into the shower and reached out for her body wash.

Alice paused out of habit and looked at the door, something was amiss, Alex was supposed to be awake by this time yelling at her to hurry up. That was how it had always been for years.

"Maybe he was tired" she whispered aloud.

Shrugging the thought off, she turned on the switch but instead of being blessed by the bliss of water rushing down her skin, she heard a swishing sound.

That was weird, it never made that sound.

"Damn it" cursing loudly. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Hitting the shower continuously, she stopped when she finally heard the familiar sound of water. Smiling proudly at her plumbing skills she waited for the familiar rain. When it descended on her, she released an unearthly scream which woke the neighborhood.

Oh, it did rain but instead of water a green brown, slimy, substance poured on her.

Taking a deep breath, she screamed at the top of her lungs but this time, it wasn't just a sound she released but the name of the demon behind this work.

"Alex!!!"

****

He was dead. He was going to die by her hands and woe betide her if he lived to see the next light of day.

Clenching her fists in anger, she envisioned several ways to kill her dear brother and each way was more vicious than the other.

"Stop moving Alice, I'm trying to help you here"

Looking up at the voice that cut her thoughts short, she smiled sweetly at her mother who in turn, looked down at her suspiciously as she helped get the mixture that had rained on her an hour ago out of her hair.

Sighing loudly, her mother gripped her shoulders in comfort "You won't let that slide will you?" hoping to talk some sense into her stubborn daughter.

Rolling her eyes, Alice looked at her mother in annoyance. She couldn't seriously be asking her to forgive him, he crossed a line.

"You know that will never happen, he crossed a line... "

"And he would be punished" interrupting her daughter.

"And what will grounding change? " standing up from the bed "I was the live poop"

Brushing her hair for the hundredth time, Alice picked up her bag from the floor. She still had school.

"When will you both grow up?" Her mother asked as she watched her daughter get up.

"That question should be directed to Alex, not me. I'm not the the 'soon to be adult' that keeps on pulling pranks on his 16 year old sister."

"You both need therapy."

"I'll think about that." Alice said jokingly. She smiled at her mother and kissed on her cheeks as the turned to leave.

"Don't worry, I won't kill him" reassuring her mother. "At least not yet " she whispered the last part once she had closed the door and was safely out of earshot. Running down, the stairs she almost bumped into a figure. Looking up she glared at the person she was planning to murder.

"Hello brother " She said while sneering.

His grin widened as he took in her appearance "You're already dressed, I thought your shower would be longer?" he said while drawling the shower.

Oh, how she longed to beat the crap out of him but alas, she had promised her mother that she wouldn't kill him plus, she was going to play by a different game.

"Oh how amazing it was dear brother, a shower of blessings "

Throwing his head back in laughter he continued his taunt which he seemed to be enjoying.

" More can be arranged cause there's more from where it came from."

"Grow up Alex." Alice snorted

"You're the one who dared me to jinx you for a day aren't you?"

Alice frowned as she remembered telling him to ruin her day if he could but she was obviously joking, she hadn't expected him to actually go that far.

"Who helped you to pull off that prank? Was it Jimmy? Or probably Brian the brainless fool?"

Alex grinned, he was having more fun than he had imagined. "Why would I need help?"

"You obviously lack the skill to pull that off"

"And what are you going to do if I reveal the brawn behind this artwork?"

Alice snorted when he mentioned artwork. If what he did was an art, it deserved to be thoroughly destroyed. But, she kept that opinion to herself.

Alice, matched his grin, and chose ignored him. She was going to find out who had helped him and she was going to make them pay.

"Nothing to say dear Ali?" Alex said as he watched her walk towards the door.

Opening the door she smiled at him in a menacing way.

"I have nothing much to say to you dear brother except one thing. No need to squabble, I accept the challenge. Game on"

****

"... I have successfully dedicated 10 years of my life to teaching you students but what do I get for that? Nominated as the most miserable teacher of the year by you kids."

Sipping his coffee in distaste Mr Liam, the geography teacher continued his motivational speech.

"I hate my job and everything that comes with it. My neighbor's children broke my fence this week, My car was bashed this morning, I got a ticket and yes, yes I'm still single and each day I see your annoying faces" pausing, he let his words sink in. "but guess what? I'm still here, teaching you so don't tell me you had a bad morning if you didn't go through half of what I did"

Alice rolled her eyes at his ever loving words, not everyone was cursed like him. She and every other student that had passed through him had all gotten used to this. Every morning, Mr Liam would come into the classroom with a forever red face and bless each student with kind words and his daily endless talk of how amazing his life was. She ought to have changed her class but asides his usual blessings, he was a pretty good teacher just a little rough around the edges.

"Imbeciles, I'm teaching imbeciles!! "

Okay, she had to admit he was more than a little rough around the edges, he needed immediate help.

Scanning the classroom, she perceived that half of the students shared her opinion. Biting her pen, she shielded her face from the sun rays as she doodled on her note, blocking out his voice.

She was distracted from her doodling when a paper ball fell on top of her table. She looked around to see where it had come from. Shrugging it off, she opened the paper to see the content.

Alice sighed softly when she saw it's content. For a second she thought it was going to contain words that would cause her to break her vows of purity but it was only a sketch of something that was supposed to resemble a human being.

She chocked on her spit as she looked at the drawing again. It looked like a stick with a big butt and missing body parts with Mr Liam boldly scribbled on it. Trying to hold back her laughter, she scanned the classroom again to see who had done such despicable act. Her eyes landed on a girl who looked innocent but she was not fooled by the act, Veronica.

Veronica pretended all was well but if one were to take a closer look, they would see her shoulders shaking lightly in laughter.

Rolling her eyes, Alice quickly faced the front but Mr Liam had noticed her wandering attention. He always seemed to know when she wasn't paying attention. Like a damn monitoring spirit.

She hurriedly composed herself as he approached her table, making sure nothing was amiss. She took an empty paper that was in her book and placed it where the incriminating evidence was.

He stopped in front her desk and took the paper that was beside her book. After what seemed like minutes of him inspecting her environment and making sure that she didn't have something up her sleeves, he walked back to his desk with the paper in his hands without saying a single word to her.

She leaned back on her chair and acted nonchalantly, silently thanking her acting and detective skills. If he had gotten the paper, she'd have faced detention but luckily she had manged to switch the paper.

Releasing the breath she had been holding, she opened the paper in her hands and she, became cold when she looked at the blank sheet.

She. had. given. him. the. real. paper. Shit.

Turning back she quickly warned Ronnie, whose face had turned white as a result of the pending doom. They were dead. Thinking of the lie to cook up if he questioned her, she almost missed the laugh that was coming from Liana and Erica her other friends.

Mr Liam leisurely sat on his desk and opened the paper. The class suddenly became silent. Instead of his usual shouting,he was silent and that was worse. He picked up his pair of spectacles on the table, wiped them on his shirt and wore them. After what seemed like hours, he looked at her and then to Veronica who looked like she was silently confessing her sins.

Finally after what seemed like hours, he finally spoke.

"Both of you, detention. Now back to what I was teaching before we were interrupted... " Dismissing the incident.

Releasing a breath that she didn't realize that she was holding, Alice ignored the curious stares from her friends about the content of the paper. Soon they would all find out and have a good laugh but first, she had something more important in mind. How the heck was she going go tell her parents that she got detention?

***

"I need a boyfriend."

Rolling her eyes at her friend's words, Alice placed her books back in her locker.

"I'm trying to have a conversation with you here" the voice continued.

"But you're ignoring me"

Alice smiled secretly, it was an art that she had learned from a certain someone. The art of silence.

Rolling her eyes again, she faced her best friend, Veronica. Ronnie was the definition of damsel in distress. She had big blue eyes that could melt anyone's stony heart, a childlike figure, flowing straight blonde hair and the temper of a fiery dragon when provoked. Most importantly, she had a huge problem of not being able to stick with one thing. She got bored so easily about everything and that included boys. She seemed to forget that they weren't toilet papers to be used and disposed at will.

"Aren't you tired of the male gender?"

"Says the person who has gone through several males this year "

Alice smiled sweetly at the thought. "I'd rather classify it as giving the unfortunate a chance."

"That's horrible of you to say."

"Call it whatever you want, it's charity to me "

"Well, unlike you I need a proper boyfriend."

"You don't need a boyfriend Ronnie, you want one" Smiling knowingly at her friend.

Veronica groaned and wondered how on earth she had managed to befriend Alice. She blamed it on the fact that she had the beauty of a dark angel, but the humour of a dead dog.

Veronica shrugged her comment off, and arranged her skirt for the millionth time "And what's the difference?"

"Well..." closing her locker and facing her "the difference is you say it everytime..."

"So?"

Ignoring her Alice continued "...and everytime you get bored of the person after a few weeks of passion"

"I'd rather refer to it as experiment. Passion sounds rather overboard"

"Whatever you decide to call it Ronnie, it changes nothing "

"Well it's not my fault I get bored of them easily, there's no new guy in our grade plus, they're all the same"

Raising her brows Alice marveled at the way she spoke.

"They aren't clothes to be changed regularly Ron, they're humans with emotions. Do you know how many hearts you've broken?"

"And how does that bother me? At least I'm better than you"

"And what have I done? Sweet innocent me" feigning innocence.

"Yeah and I'm an actual Angel " Veronica said with enough sarcasm in her voice.

Alice ignored the statement and decided to change the topic "Liana and Erica aren't here yet, I'm tired of waiting" Redoing her bun, Alice ignored the stares she was getting from people. "They're probably having French" answering herself.

She almost laughed when Veronica's expression turned to disgust.

Veronica always failed that subject no matter how hard she tried. She happily dropped it for Home ec when she had the first chance. But who could possibly blame her, the class was extremely boring. Only the good students managed to stay awake. And that good student was Henry Dickson, whose grandmother was French.

Finally releasing her skirt, Veronica she gripped onto Alice hands quite dramatically "Don't you feel tired of this school? In a month, we'll be going for a summer break and what have we achieved so far asides getting detention and you breaking up with Eric?"

Detention. Damn it, she had almost forgotten.

"Firstly..." She began while trying to untangle her hands from Ronnie's tentacles.

"There is no we plus, I didn't break up with Eric."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that"

Ignoring her again she continued "He simply moved to another state and we decided to end things on a safe mutual ground. And secondly I've achieved quite a lot this session"

Stopping suddenly, Veronica looked at her friend as if she had horns on her head.

"And what did you possibly achieve asides being a total pain in the ass?"

"Well I got a boyfriend!" hurridely defending herself.

"That you broke up with"

What the heck was her problem? Not every year had to be chaotic. She had planned to end this year with peace as last year was dramatic but it seemed she was the only one with that opinion.

"Well if you want something to happen so badly, why don't you meet the principal and have this discussion with him; about bringing life to this boring old school that some of us, thank you very much, seem to have no problem with."

Expecting to hear a a sarcastic comeback she was surprised to see Ronnie absolutely quiet with a strange expression on her face.

Oh no. She knew that look, she had invented it.

"What are you planning Veronica Rose Martins" eyeing her suspiciously.

Grinning with joy, Ronnie threw her hands over Alice and pecked her on the cheeks.

"you've just given me the most splendid idea"

Oh no.

"I'll be right back. I have something important to do"

"And what could that possibly be?" stepping in front of Veronica before she did something that they'll both end up regretting.

Veronica's grin widened as she side stepped her "I'm about to have a meeting with the principal"

This was going to be bad, she had infected her with her own craziness.

"And why is that?"

Rubbing her hands in mischief she slowly replied "Don't you worry your pretty head. Everything will go just perfectly"

Curse her big mouth. So much for a peaceful ending.

*

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