Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) Read online

  "Geez, can't we just skip?" I asked loudly, sounding as miserable as I possibly could.

  "I wish, see you at the end of the day?"

  "See ya then." I said, as upset as I possibly could. I started off towards the front doors of the already barren looking, run down old school that our classes were going to be held in. Yeah, this was a total let down compared to the last school we were at. Class was probably starting already, and I seriously couldn't even be bothered to care. It was only roll call so, whatever; no one ever pays attention to that stupidity anyway.

  *****

  “When the King, so to say, of Mount Olympus, Zeus - The God of Lightning - saw that his brother, Hades, was a threat to himself and the other gods of Mount Olympus, such as..?” Mr. Rayson paused for a long moment, letting his eyes wander over the class of thirty students who didn't bother to even try to answer. This included me. “Anyone?”

  “Nyx Goddess of the Night, Artemis Goddess of the Hunt and or Moon.” I muttered under my breath, as I kept working at my doodles in my note book, it was just loud enough though that he heard me and gave me a rather dirty look for even speaking.

  “Miss. Renning, how nice of you to volunteer for us; care to list six, since you seem to know so much?” He asked in a cruel voice as he looked at me, I noticed the all too visible glare across his pale face. His beady eyes were staring straight at me, and for his benefit I decided, what the hell

  Letting out a soft, but rather loud sigh, I pulled myself up in my seat so that I was sitting up in a straight position, and began to list off more Gods for him so that he would be happy with his sad teaching life. “Poseidon the God of the sea, Apollo god of music and light, Aphrodite goddess of love and beauty, Aries the war god, Hara goddess of the hearth, and Athena goddess of war.”

  Mr. Rayson straightened himself and pushed his glasses up on his face. I swear he cursed under his breath; there was a hint of disappointment on his face that disappeared as quickly as it came, to be swapped with his nasty glare as he grunted and walked back towards his white board while pulling out a black marker.

  Starting to write on the board, I noticed quickly that he was listing each god that I had managed to list for him. “Yes, those are a few gods and goddess’ anyone else want to name any?” He turned back around looking at the entire class. His disappointment only grew from the silence in the room.

  I smiled to myself, leaning back in my seat once more and returned to my doodling. I didn't much care for this class, or the one before it, or for that matter, any of the classes we had to take here. We had already studied these subjects; it was boring, and the teachers were too stuck up for their own good. The only thing they were going to teach was attitude 101.

  The doodle in my margin slowly became a picture as I ignored the lecture that our teacher was now continuing with about the Gods, I studied the Gods when I was bored. I was sure I knew twice as much as he did about them, so I really didn't have it in me to be bothered with his lecture.

  I watched my drawing as it became a girl. I brushed my black hair from my face and kept drawing; a circle here, dot there, stroke here, and bam… I had a drawing that even I didn't understand, but I thought it was gorgeous. One of my best, sitting in front of my face, staring straight at me.

  It was an Angel, or well looked like one at least. She was beautiful with long wings that came from her back; a cascade of glossy hair tumbled down her shoulders towards her small waist. Her body was clothed in a dress that really didn't cover much more than what was needed.

  A tight smile was pulled across her face, and her eyes seemed to be looking into my own; her right arm was outstretched and holding what looked like a sword, the end of it was covered in a dark substance, blood I suppose. It had flowers carved into it and was decorated with beautiful gems, there was writing that I could barely make out as well.

  I could have sworn I heard a whisper as I stared at the picture, and I felt a jolt rush through my body. Suddenly, I remembered the dream I had, the forest and that creepy man thing that had attacked me wanting my tongue, I felt uneasy as I stared at the picture, then it moved, I swear to god it moved, across the notebook paper.

  She winked at me, her arm laying against her side as she lifted her other hand up to point at me, as she smiled wickedly at me. Then I saw her lips start to move and disturbingly I could swear I heard the words echoing through my mind, I didn't think I could forget them any time soon. "Chosen one, we're waiting… You will be here soon."

  Mr. Rayson ripped the notebook out from under my hands and frowned deeply at me and then it, he studied the picture for a long hard moment and then ripped the picture out of the front of it. Crumbling the picture up, he then threw it into the trash can next to his desk, I locked my jaw and glared daggers into the back of his head, I could feel my hate for him already reaching well above what it should for only being the first day, and then I heard the chorus of snickers from the kids around the room.

  “This might have been how you studied and did homework at your previous school, but it’s not how we do it.” He told me, as he slammed his hands down onto my desk making me jump in my seat before wanting to tear his arms from his body, seriously you just don't touch my art, no matter what. “Learn my rules, Miss. Renning, and you just might survive the rest of this term.”

  I stared him down, wishing for all kinds of things to happen to him for what he had just done. I watched as he walked back to his desk away from my own and sat, suddenly becoming engrossed in whatever papers he had stacked there like they were the only thing in the world.

  “Asshole.” I grumbled under my breath before turning to look over at the clock, hoping that it was time to leave already, only to be disappointed. There was another fifteen minutes of this god forbidden class, bearable, but not what I'd hoped to have to deal with. I could do it though. I knew I could, or well, I hoped I could anyway, because it'd suck for everyone here if I couldn't.

  “Hey, new girl, is it true your dad left your mom for a hooker? Everyone’s been saying that, it’d suck ass if that was real." A boy next to me asked, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to say. I mean, come on, how stupid can you be? I worried about the people in this world sometimes, especially the kids at school who tried to act cool.

  Turning my head slowly towards him, I met his eyes with cold daggers and stared at him for what felt like a long, long moment. Forcing a fake smile sometime after, I began to speak to him. “Gee, I don’t know; I'll have to ask him when I visit his grave again next week.” I said as flat toned as I could to him, watching for his reaction.

  “Whoa sorry!” He instantly said, his hands went up in the air in what seemed like withdrawal in the same exact moment; I smile a little. “I didn’t know man.”

  “You know; I heard that new girl is a real slut.” Another boy in the back of the room managed to say loudly, which only made me worry for them.

  “Really, where’d you hear that?” I heard another one ask and let out a small sigh.

  “Some boy, he said he dated her when she went to his school, he said she’s really easy to get.”

  “Dude, really? Think we can get any?”

  “You’ll get a fist in your face if you keep talking about my sister that way, and I’ll throw in a rearrangement of your entire bodies for free, hell maybe I could turn you both into women if you’d like.”

  I couldn't help it then; I looked back at my brother who'd spoken to them, if the look he was giving them at the time wasn't enough to make them drop dead, right then and there; the tone in his voice may have been sufficient to make their hearts stop and their bladders empty on the spot.

  “S-sorry man! We just heard it!” The second boy started to say, his face was drained of all color, and he looked like he was in shock.

  “Yeah! Some David boy told us!” The first one instantly said, trying to make Tom find another target or forget about them. It didn't work though.

  “Honestly, I don’t really give a damn who told you
anything, talk about it to anyone again, and I’ll do what I said. Raine doesn’t need a bad name because of two twig sized geek assholes.” Tom hissed in the most sinister voice I had heard come from him in a long time.

  I had to smile to myself for a moment, biting back a laugh that threatened to break free from my lips. The horror on their faces really was just priceless. I mean you couldn't pay for this kind of amusement anywhere; it was sad to see but at the same time so funny. I wish I could've taken a picture of it to keep for the rest of my life, but I didn't have a good phone on me at the time.

  “He’s so cute.”

  “Yeah and he’s so muscular too, only thing is he has a girlfriend.”

  “Maybe we can break them up, and then the new boy can be one of ours.”

  “You mean mine.”

  My attention was caught, and I looked over towards the two blonde girls who were redoing the gloss on their lips and applying more eyeliner to their already overdone eyes, fake blonde Barbies, just what every High School needed. They were exactly what Tom and I hated, so that really sucked for them since they though he was oh so cute, not that what they said was true anyway. Tom's supposed girlfriend, Christie, was his ex-girlfriend as of a week ago.

  They hung out still, but it was more of a, we're good friends so screw it type thing, because that's what they used to be, really good friends, and they didn't want to lose that. Then again, who would?

  “Homework is due on Monday, there’s a test this Thursday. Next week, we start in on The Roman Empire. Thursday's test is going to show where you end up grade wise this semester.” Mr. Rayson announced loudly, just as the bell sounded throughout the class room. I stood to get ready so I could leave. “Miss. Renning, I need a word with you please.” He added

  I groaned, looked over at Tom and mouthed a simple enough 'I'll meet you outside.' to him. With a quick nod, he followed the rest of the class out the door and towards the hall of lockers and teenagers as I stalked towards the idiot teacher we had to have.

  He reached into his waste bin, took out the picture, and without trying to fix it, he placed the crunched up ball of paper into my hand and stared me down. I wanted to hit him for ruining something like that.

  “If I catch you drawing in this class again, I’ll shred it.” He said simply enough to me, and then nodded to the door. “You can go.”

  I closed my hand around the picture, looked at him for another moment, then walked to the door slamming it shut as loud as I could as I went straight to my locker. I started fumbling around with the combination, when the frustration finally kicked in I started kicking the crap out of my locker, cursing a steady flow under my breath at it.

  “Gee Ray, aren’t we in just a super great mood?” Tom asked me as he came up beside me. He hit my locker a few times in a couple of weird places; I heard a pop, then he hit the locker next to it as hard as he could and mine swung open.

  “Thanks, and well, you heard everyone, even you weren’t too thrilled about that Tom.” I said, as I grabbed my jacket and a few books from the locker, they were more of a curiosity type thing to take with me. I wanted to see what they taught in a few odd classes here.

  Slamming the locker door shut, I turned towards him and tilted my head slowly as I let out a sigh. “Transferring to new schools, isn’t it just the greatest?” The sarcasm from that very sentence rolled off my tongue perfectly without any needed effort. It was like a second language that I spoke fluently at this age.

  “Ah, come on Ray, we got each other and tomorrow’s our birthday!” He said in a strange sing-song voice as he slung his arm across my shoulders, he effortlessly turned me, and started walking down the hall way. “Be a little happy, maybe you can get your gift early.”

  “Right.” I said dragging it out slowly as I slid away from him and pulled my mid back, blue-black hair up into a ponytail as we both started clambering down the flight of stairs so that we could get to the exit faster.

  “Ugh, so many stairs, ok I’m missing Brasinton more and more.” Tom groaned, as he kept moving his feet hurrying to get down them all. “Especially how easy it was to go from there, to Christie’s and Josh’s.”

  “I miss Allie and Josh…” I said, frowning deeply as I thought about them, shaking my head.

  “Cheer up Ray, I’m sure Allie can drive over herself soon enough.” Tom smiled towards me softly, as he patted my shoulder a few times.

  “Yeah and pigs will learn how to fly.” I rolled my eyes, let out a sigh, and then went down the stairs with him next to me.

  *****

  Tom laughed as we made it out of the doors of our new prison, I kept walking and noticed when he fell back for a moment, shaking my head I didn't bother stopping for him and just kept walking up the street. I heard him come running with his bag pulled in front of his body.

  I really didn't want to ask why he was carrying it like that. Instead, I just stared at him for a moment, arching my eyebrow as I waited for him to catch his breath enough to start walking again.

  “So tell me Tom, what's it like getting detention on your first day of school?” I asked aloud. I decided to take a look back at him and notice the look on his face.

  His bright green eyes met mine for a brief moment. I saw a flash of his normal wildness in them and then saw the goofy smile that slapped itself across his face as he began to talk. “Well, Miss. Lowman kind of pissed me off in a major way, so, I say it's the most amazing experience in the world to get that honor.”

  I shook my head at him; I didn't understand him sometimes. I truly didn't. “Tell me, what did you do this time?”

  “Stuffed a fake rat in her drawer, and set a bucket of water on the rafter right above her chair, then tied a string from it to the chair. When she opened the drawer and sat up screaming she pulled the string, and down came the water,” He paused, seeming to gaze off into the nothingness in front of him before speaking again. “Best wet shirt ever.”

  “You’re horrible Tom.” I rolled my eyes at him and yawned almost right after.

  “Ah but you love me.” He retorted, smiling brightly towards me and sticking out his tongue.

  “Where did you even find a bucket?” I decided to ask, then thought about it and added onto that question. “Or the fake rat!”

  “The rat was in my bag, you know I never leave without my school things.” He winked at me, and then started laughing. “The bucket was in the storage room outside her class.”

  Shaking my head again, I rolled my eyes once more. Walking a bit faster as we quickly met the busy traffic area of downtown New York City. I began to rock myself on the heels of my shoes as I waited for the cross walk light to light up so that we could finally move. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Tom was looking at me, and when I looked at him, he grinned brightly.

  “I’ll race you across.” He beamed, moving his body back and forth as if he was full of energy that he just had to get rid of right then, or he'd die.

  Honestly, yeah we were turning eighteen in about a day, that was true enough, but sometimes being childish was the best thing in the world for the two of us. It made us forget the stupid stuff that we dealt with every day.

  I felt the tug of a grin on my lips. I couldn't resist this challenge. I watched for the light to change, and when it finally did I raced Tom across. He beat me by one tiny step. He stuck his tongue out at me like a little five-year-old as he basked in his victory.

  “Just wait Tom, I’ll beat you.” I told him as I caught my breath, making a promise to both, him and myself.

  “Yeah, sure.” He laughed at me; I just shrugged my shoulders as we both rounded the corner to our new place. “I’ll always win you know.”

  “You’re six foot two Tom; your legs are hellishly long. I’m five foot four, and you’ll only win because you have longer strides.” I glared at him for a long moment, and then let out a sigh.

  “Height has nothing to do with how fast you are.” He retorted, letting out a bit of a snort as we continued to wa
lk.

  Looking up at our home I wanted to turn around and run away as fast as I could. It was just another reminder that we were never going to have a home to keep. It was yet again a temporary place to live, not something I wanted or cared about. We lasted four years in our last place, and god only knew how long our mom was going to decide this place was suitable.

  “Hmm, thinking what I am?” Tom asked pulling me away from my thoughts. I looked at him and saw him scanning the doors to the building, then it hit me what he meant.

  “I’ll beat you.” I started, smiling from ear to ear as I eyed him.

  “Doubt it, on three. One.” He started, smiling brightly as he put his arms through the straps of his bag, attaching it to his chest like a total moron.

  My smiled turned as dark as possible as I pulled my messenger bag up onto my shoulder snugly and looked at the building. “Two.”

  “Three.”