Chapter One
de·but also dé·but (dā-byū', dā'byū') pronunciation
n.
1. The beginning of a course of action
They were in hell. That was the only answer. The screeching of a horrific looking demon filled Mina's ears, crowding out all thoughts beyond despair. It was awful. There was no escape, there was no way out, she was going to die here, and nobody could save her. With a groan that bordered on a scream, she put her head down, resigning herself to her ultimate doom, a fate worse than death.
And then the bell rang, and class was over.
Mina shot up, scrambling to throw everything back into her bag, slamming her binder shut. Stuffing it messily into her black messenger bag, she barely heard the teacher wishing them a safe and happy Christmas vacation, and reminding them that they
would be having a test on the homework she assigned when they got back. Bolting for the door, she got halfway there before anybody else even stood up, until an arm reached up, hooked around hers, putting the brakes on her momentum.
"Mina, damn, wait up!" Mina groaned with an exaggerated eye roll, letting out a whine.
"Marcoooo, come on, come on, let's go!" Mina had lost her edge by now, as the rest of the class had stood up and sluggishly started moving towards the front of the classroom and the door. Dammit, now she was going to have to fight her way through the crowds to get to her locker, she could not believe Marco just
had to stop her. With a sigh borne of frustration, she pulled her hand out of his grasp, crossing her arms. Bouncing on her feet for a moment, she finally leaned over his shoulder, looking at what he was working so intently on.
"
Math homework?!" Oh no, he did
not stop her for math homework. "Are you insane?! Why are you getting a head start, Marco, Christ!" Marco merely plodded along for a second or two more, before setting his pencil down, and shutting his notebook.
"There. Done." Mina stared at the closed notebook in confusion, even as Marco stood up and began gathering his things.
"Done? What, yesterdays homework?" Marco scoffed, hoisting his backpack over one shoulder, and pulling the notebook off the desk.
"No, stupid, done the homework she just assigned." Mina stared at him, slack jawed, even as he started towards the door at the front of the room.
"You just what?! That was like, ten minutes ago! Are you serious?!" Her question was entirely rhetorical (A lot of her questions were like that), and Marco just paused at the door long enough for her to catch up, so they could leave the room together. They had the same first and last period classes, and a shared lunch, and as such, the unspoken rule was that you walked to your lockers together. That's just how it worked. Mina stomped up the space between the desks. "I cannot
believe you, I kind of--" Marco cut her off with a smug expression, looking mischievous.
"Are impressed? In awe of my scintillating wit, and boyishly handsome good looks? In love with me? Yeah, I get that a lot." Mina glared sharply at him and his insufferable expression. She turned up her nose, her expression changing into a haughty one, replacing her annoyed tone with one of cool indifference.
"Actually, I was going to say I kind of hate you, I hope you fall off a cliff and die." Marco laughed out loud, even as he turned around, walking backwards to eye a girl that had just walked past in what was most certainly an illegal modification of the schools uniform. Sigh. Illegal was so hot. Mina noticed where his gaze was, elbowing him hard in the ribs. "Keep it in your pants, God."
Marco shrugged, pivoting forward again, before stopping in front of his locker. Mina huffed, stepping around him to open her own locker, tossing her messenger bag inside, and pulling her prized leather jacket out. Tearing off her navy school blazer and tossing it carelessly inside her locker on top of her bag, she hurriedly undid the tie around her neck, loosening the first 3 buttons of her shirt, and pulling her hair out of it's restricting braid. God, she hated school uniforms. Tossing her jacket around her shoulder, Mina reached back into her locker for her bag and crumpled blazer, only to be interrupted by a wolf whistle to her left.
"Hot damn girl, you should vamp it up more often." Marco ducked a swipe at his head from a somewhat irate looking Mina, shouldering her bag.
"Shut up."
"I'm just sayin'! I am a man of fine tastes, and my fine tastes are telling me that you look good in a skirt." Marco took a step back, shutting his locker door and turning to face his friend, looking her up and down with a smirk. Mina slammed her locker shut with an exasperated sigh. She tended to do that a lot around Marco.
"
You are a little boy with a one track mind." Mina smirked as Marco deflated slightly in the face of her obviously superior burn. She started off towards the stairs again, tossing the rest of her sentence out over her shoulder, "Come on, we'll miss the bus if we don't hurry." Marco took a few quick steps to catch up to her.
"...I'm not little!"
Mina's laugh echoed down the hallway.
---
A five minute running burst later, and not even Mina's superior speed could get them there in time. She skidded to a stop under the hallowed arch of the school entrance, just in time to watch the bus pull away. Marco slammed on the brakes just in time to stop himself from running into Mina behind, watching the bus leave with a groan.
"Aw
man, we were so close this time!" He swung his backpack around, undoing the zipper to reach in for his cellphone. "Who are we gonna call? Not my Dad, again, he'll kill me, and he's probably busy being...himself."
Marco was mostly talking to himself, as Mina wasn't paying that much attention. Sucked that they missed the bus, yeah, but this was nothing new. No, something else...something else was here, something familiar. She narrowed her eyes, scouring the parking lot. What was it, what was it--
"Aedan!"
By the time Marco looked up from his phone, Mina had already dropped her bag, and any pretense of being modest, flying down the steps and towards the idling car that had been hidden by the yellow buses just moments before.
"...Okay, Aedan works too." Marco snapped his phone shut, shoving it into the pocket of his uniform pants, and picking up Mina's backpack, making his way down the stairs with a fair bit more caution; they were covered in snow and ice. Stupid Mina and her stupid balance. What a cheater.
Mina, of course, couldn't hear a word Marco was thinking. Her smile had gone from supercilious to genuine faster than most people could blink, flinging herself into the open arms of her best friend in the entire world. Aedan picked her up with a laugh, swinging her around, his smile just as big as hers.
"Kitten!" He set her back down on her feet, before he was crushed in a bear hug of epic proportions. Mina could barely repress a squeal of joy at the sound of her nickname, releasing her grip to allow Aedan to breathe, taking a step back, grinning broadly, throwing her arms out.
"I thought you weren't coming home until tomorrow!" Mina's arm was weighed down as Marco dropped her backpack strap onto it, passing past the two of them with a manly nod in Aedan's direction. She shouldered it, hardly sparing him her usual exasperated glare. Aedan spread his hands out with a benign shrug.
"Caught an early flight." His impish tone belied an extra meaning in his words as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at someone who Mina had failed to notice.
"'Nix!" Mina rushed past Aedan, dropping her backpack again to tackle her other friend. Phoenix caught Mina with a laugh, wrapping one arm around her in a hug, and putting the other on the hood of the BMW SUV behind her, to prevent herself from slipping.
"Hey Mina, Marco." Mina stepped back with a grin, looking at the pair of them. Aedan was still Aedan, thank God. Tall, messy brown hair, sheepish grin. Something was off though, something was different.
"Your eyes!" Mina exclaimed suddenly, leaning up close to Aedan's face to get a better look, "They're...blue now?" She put both her hands on his cheeks, ignoring the flinch. Her hands were cold, oh well, he could get over it. Moving his face from side to side to get a better look, she squinted critically. "I think that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen." His contacts had always been brown, at least when he attended school here.
Aedan laughed again, pulling her cold hands away from his face and pulling her into another hug. He kissed her forehead, keeping her close. "Missed you too kitten." He leaned down to stage whisper in her ear, looking at the other two conspiratorially, "And I'd like to see you try to explain red eyes to a teacher."
The four of them shared a laugh, before Phoenix leaned over the car, puling the back door open and motioning for Marco and Mina to dump their bags inside, "We should get going, Aedan promised he would pick up Fayth and Callie."
Aedan released Mina again, giving her a small nudge towards the open door. Mina slid in, moving all the way over to the other side to allow Marco in, tugging her backpack onto her lap. She did a mental count as Phoenix and Aedan got in the car, blinking, "Wait, what about Nate?"
Phoenix rolled her eyes as she did up her seat-belt, tossing her long, dark hair over her shoulder to look back at Mina, "He ran off a few minutes before you guys came around, said he was going to run home or something."
Mina scoffed, settling back into her seat. Of course he was going to run home. She liked a good work out just as much as the next person, but he was ridiculous. "Yeah, should've figured something like that..."
There was a small break in the conversation as Aedan started up the car and began fiddling with the radio. Mina closed her eyes in the back-seat, taking it all in. The car smelled familiar again, like leather...trees, and expensive perfume (That was all Phoenix, although Mina could never explain why she
always smelled vaguely of Dior, even after a shower); paper, and hair-gel (An extremely odd combination that was all Marco); and her favourite smell, and the only one that couldn't be related to anything human; that was Aedan. She missed this, she had missed her friends. Marco was good company, great even, but he just couldn't compare to Aedan.
"Sooo Phoenix...Got a fancy French boyfriend yet?"
Marco also had a bad habit of completely ruining her moments. Phoenix burst out into laughter, even as Mina leaned over and punched Marco in the arm.
"Ow, what the hell was that for?!" Marco glared over at Mina balefully, shrinking against the door to make himself a smaller target.
"For being you, mostly." Mina stuck her tongue out at him, crossing her arms over her chest once more. Marco let out a groan, rubbing his shoulder, talking to himself under his breath, causing Mina to kick at him with her eyes closed. Marco swore loudly in Italian, holding his shin.
"Jesus, Mina, ow!"
Mina gave him her best bitchy smile, showing off her teeth in a feral display. "Well, maybe if you weren't such an ass all the time--Ah, hey!" She flinched, throwing her hands up over her ears, shooting a glare at the driver. "Aedan, God, loud much?"
Aedan had cranked up the sound to drown out the two in the back seat before they could start arguing. He hadn't missed
everything about being home after all. Phoenix giggled again, inching the sound down a notch, "Oh calm down Mina, it's not that loud."
Mina rolled her eyes, her expression becoming sullen. "Not to
you maybe..." Jerks. They always turned that kind of thing against her. She turned her face towards the window, pointedly ignoring the other three and watching the wintry landscape go by. She listened to Aedan and Marco start one of their inane arguments, just like the one Aedan had just prevented, and she allowed a small smile to cross over her face.
It felt like home again.