Awake by Nightfall by Emilia Sherman (well read books .TXT) 📕

room. He crashed on Cassie’s bed. He propped his head up and watched me fix everything through the tiny doorway.

“Sorry about the arrangements.”

“It’s fine.” I slid a pillow into a pillowcase.

“When you say things are fine, what do you really mean?”

“I mean that…” I searched for the right words. “That I am fine with living in this room until we find a better place.”

“Oh." He regarded me for moment than asked. "So, I don’t have to feel guilty about not giving you my room?"

“No. You should feel guilty.” I said picking on him.

It got quiet. Apparently, I was the only one making jokes. Which made me feel rather uncomfortable. I mean I remember Gabe. But all I remember was him being mean to me, which weren’t great memories. Sitting here, hearing how he feels guilty, was like I was missing something again. Like me and him had never had those fights in the pass. Like, I forgot a time, a family moment, where we forgave each other and became friends.

“You’ve changed a lot.” Gabe looked me over.

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Usually we would be fighting over… well pretty much everything, right about now.” We both smiled at the memories. He got up from the bed and went to the door. He stopped and turned to face me again. “So, you wanna play some games with me.”

“Like what?”

“Like Halo or something.” He shrugged. “You know, just to get your mind off of things. I mean you are starting school tomorrow.”

“I’m starting school already? I just barely got settled.”

“It is the middle of the semester. You already missed the first few weeks of school and will probably have a ton to get caught up in.”

I forgot about that. It was already the end of September. My parents were coming to visit the week before school started. I was surprised how much I missed when I was in the hospital. That means whatever new students that came were already in groups. I was going to be the only new girl. I mean at least I knew one person there but what were the chances of Gabe wanted to hang out with me. He probably had his own group also.

So, I would have to find my own group. The thought frightened me.

Gabe led me into his room. Just like him, his room had changed over the years. In some pictures, he had model cars stocked up on shelves. Then he grew out of that, and had a skateboarding theme. Now, he had posters of what appeared to be dark angels everywhere. I looked over one curiously. One of the posters, hanging over his bed’s headboard, had an angel boy holding a girl in his arms. No doubt, they were in love. I stared at the other ones spreaded out across his room.

“So, you’re into angels now." I assumed, and laid down on his bed.

“Actually, no." He looked around the room. "These are the Fallen.”

“Fallen?”

“Yes, the Fallen.” He grabbed a tiny black book from his computer desk. He flipped through some pages and opened the book to reveal a picture. It showed a naked man, covering his manly parts with black wings, falling from the sky. “Angels that were exiled from Heaven.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t really curious about these types of things.

“Yeah, I just started collecting them.” He handed me the book.

“So, you’re obsessed.”

“Apparently.” He pointed at the picture over his bed. “That’s a Fallen angel that fell in love with a human. It’s not strange because that was the way they reproduced.”

He laughed and went over to his Xbox games and debating on what to play. I stared down at the picture of the guy falling. It reminded me so much about me falling in the sky. I rubbed my back, checking for any suspicious bumps. Of course, there was nothing there. I observed the guy's facial expression. The guy falling from heaven looked sad and frightened.

Gabe scared me by tossing a controller by me. I closed the book instantly, blocking any thoughts of me being a Fallen angel.

“Come on before my mom takes you shopping.” Gabe said, turning the Xbox on.

Chapter 05: Hope for the Best
Marina

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

That saying was in my head while I was heading to school.

Hope for the best.

Or rather pray that today won’t end up me being completely, and utterly, embarrassed.

Gabriel drove me to the school with the windows rolled down. The cool morning breeze bringing chills inside. The heat of the engine was coming inside Gabe’s ’90 Ford Bronco. If we had closed the windows, we would be extremely hot. I couldn’t decide if I would rather be hot or cold, but then finally decided that I didn’t want to arrive to school sweating. So, I would just have to live with goose bumps growing on my arms.

Today, couldn’t have gone more worse. Maybe I was curse or something. I mean I barely had time to throw on a crew neck shirt with a pair of jeans. We woke up late this morning and I didn’t have time to debate on many outfits. I was lucky that I matched. I had to burrow one of Gabe’s old backpacks because we didn’t have time yesterday to buy me some school supplies. The only things I had for today was a notebook and some pencils. To make my backpack look full, I stuffed a hoodie inside.

To admit, I was a nervous wreck. My plan for today was to be the quiet, unnoticeable girl and hopefully unapproachable. I really wasn’t in the mood to talk. My first night, in the closet, was a rather uncomfortable one. I couldn’t get my mind set on sleeping. I was thinking about too many things at once and my mind felt like it was about to explode. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the alarm clock go off, and I wanted to murder it.

Not a great way to start the day.

As we pulled into the school parking lot, I knew we were late. The parking lot was packed. We had to park in the way back, where most of the empty spaces were. Gabe parked the truck diagonal over two car lines. I would have found this annoying but I didn’t have time to argue. I jumped out of the passenger seat, and impatiently watch Gabe casually getting out of his side. Irritating as he was, I had to wait for Gabe to walk with me because I had no clue where to go.

“Hurry up, Gabe.” I said intolerantly.

He got out of the truck, slamming his door. He grabs a binder and stuffs some pens into his pocket. We started walking towards the back entrance of the school. There was couple of other students that were also late. They didn’t look at us, although, concentrating on other things more important. I overheard a guy’s conversation on the phone with his parent as we passed.

“Mom, you have to call in before I go up there. She won’t give me another pass unless I’m excused.” He said nervously.

We arrived at the attendance office. We got behind the other students, who were already had formed a straight line, waiting for our passes. Gabe said hi to a few of them, but stayed by my side. This put my nerves a little bit at ease. I would never have thought Gabe to be this nice towards me. When we finally got to the front of the line, I understood why the guy was so scared. I also figured out why Gabe needed me to be by his side.

The attendance lady was threatening looking. She was old and wore thin, rectangular glasses that slightly hid her dark, brown eyes. Wrinkles were spotted nearly everywhere around her small forehead and circling around her eyes and lips. This only made her even more frightening. She was wearing a hot pink dress. The dress was too bright that I could hardly make out her name tag, which said, Ms. Abba Johnson. She was talking on the phone with someone, nodding aimlessly to the person’s words. She pointed at us to come forward.

She was standing behind a tall, wooden counter. The room she was in looked like the hallway. The walls were white but were covered with calendar, some news ads about the school, and school clubs. The floor where we were standing was just plain grey tile. She was standing on flat, navy carpet.

“Gabriel Striker, this is your second time being here this week. What’s your excuse this time?” Ms. Johnson asked after she hanged up the phone.

“Actually, I was late the other day because you see my cousin was in the hospital.” He wrapped his arm around me, trying his best to look compassionate. “I’m late today because we had to get her.”

“Are you Marina Stonehart?” She asked, inspecting me with her eyes.

“Yes.”

“Do not make a habit on being late. Get here on time unlike your cousin here.” She handed a signed pass to Gabe.

“Always a pleasure, Ms. Johnson.” Gabe laughed, snatching the pass quickly from her outstretched hand.

“Get out of here.” She smacked him across the shoulder with the pad of late passes. She came around the counter and grabbed me by the shoulder. “Marina, we need to get your schedule and school map. You will also need your aunt to sign a few guardian forms.” She pointed at a student, which was helping in the office with her. “Take over the attendance office please.”

“Ok.” The girl said shyly.

The girl got up and I heard a few of the students cheer. They had gotten lucky. I followed Ms. Johnson to another office. This one was stock with file cabinets and a stack of unused chairs. She opened one of the file cabinets and pulled out some papers and handed them to me. She led me to the front office again and looked through some papers and handed me a schedule.

“We usually don’t get students in the middle semester. Hopefully, the adjustment here will move quickly for you.” She pulled a map of the school, and started highlighting parts of the school. “I suggest joining a club, or some of the sports will help with the adjustment.”

“I will think about it.”

She nodded and handed the map to me. She peered around the corner and said down a smaller hallway. “Aria, can you come help a new student?”

A short, skinny girl came out the nurse’s office, smiling cheerfully. She looked like a slightly rocker and halfway pixie with a short, round face with cropped, straight bangs. She was a brunette with some highlights. She was wearing a small, floral day dress with gladiator sandals. Aria looked me over, her green eyes shining, and took my schedule.

“Bye Ms. Johnson.” She said as we exited the office through another door.

We walked into another hallway. These hallway walls were covered by lockers. A handful of students were going through some of their things. Others were just conversing on the latest gossip. I doubt my name was going to be in any of those conversations. This was a big school, and a new student was unlikely the biggest topic to talk about.

“I will show all your