Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3) by Jennifer Martucci, Christopher Martucci
Authors: Jennifer Martucci, Christopher Martucci
Ads: Link
clips. She did not know where he’d gotten his information from or how he’d gotten it, but she wanted to know more. It was her damn life, after all.
Arianna wiped her eyes with the bottom of her sweater and walked to the kitchen, determined to finish unpacking the kitchen , at the very least, and to make a conscious effort to forget about Desmond.
Chapter 5
Streaks of sherbet orange colored the early morning sky. For the first time in her life, Arianna had awakened without the blaring of an alarm clock. Her eyes had simply popped open of their own accord to see a violet predawn canvas giving way to ribbons of salmon pink. The view from her bedroom was nothing short of breathtaking and would take little time getting used to. Her last bedroom had boasted scenery through a rectangular sliver of a window that had included an oversized satellite dish and the top of the trailer beside it. Between those two eyesores, she had only been able to glimpse a slice of the outdoors. To say her new view was better than the old was a gross understatement.
She rolled over onto her ba ck and stared up at her freshly painted ceiling. Everything was different at her new cabin, including the glaring fact that she was alone. New bedding, new clothes and a nice new place to live were, well, nice. But she would trade all of it to have her mother back.
Thoughts of her mother allowed familiar pangs of grief to encroach. That, and the events of the night before rushed to the forefront of her mind and jockeyed for the distinguished title of which would make her cry first. Being stark naked and about to have sex with a guy, only to have him reject her flat-out had wounded her ego badly. She had strong feelings for Desmond, had wanted to indulge in something pleasurable for the first time in what seemed like eternity. But even that had been taken from her. She was not the kind of girl who was prone to pity parties. If she’d spent her life bemoaning all that had happened to her, it would have consumed her completely and been a twenty four-hour-a-day job. She’d always taken life as it came, and dealt with it accordingly. But nothing that had happened since the dawn of her powers had been easily dealt with. Death, destruction, humiliation and loss after loss made regaining her footing on her path next to impossible. Arianna felt her cheeks burn with shame, frustration, and plain old sadness. She did not want to begin her first day at the last high school she’d ever attend with swollen, red eyes, so she drove each painful thought to the back of her mind, forcefully evicted every one of them until her mind was left with a strange numbness. She’d return to them later. She’d have plenty of time after school, and in the future, to mourn.
A glance at the clock on her nightstand revealed it was just after six o’clock in the morning. Her first class did not start until seven thirty, but she assumed she needed to get there early for her obliga tory meeting with the principal and guidance counselor, and for a tour. Arianna groaned aloud at the memory of her last tour at Herald Falls High School. Going through the whole welcome-to-our-shitty-school rigmarole again seemed like cruel and unusual punishment, especially since she’d been through it so many times. Surely, a statute of limitation on such acts of torture existed somewhere. The only redeemable part of it all was that today would be the last time she would ever have to endure it. Her mother was gone and moving was up to her. Arianna had never liked moving from place to place like a gypsy. She’d always envied people who had true roots to where they were, people who had lived in a town for their whole life. The length of time she and her mom would spend in a particular area had always been dependent upon her mother’s fickle taste in men. Such was no longer the case. Now she was in charge, and the taste of power
Arianna wiped her eyes with the bottom of her sweater and walked to the kitchen, determined to finish unpacking the kitchen , at the very least, and to make a conscious effort to forget about Desmond.
Chapter 5
Streaks of sherbet orange colored the early morning sky. For the first time in her life, Arianna had awakened without the blaring of an alarm clock. Her eyes had simply popped open of their own accord to see a violet predawn canvas giving way to ribbons of salmon pink. The view from her bedroom was nothing short of breathtaking and would take little time getting used to. Her last bedroom had boasted scenery through a rectangular sliver of a window that had included an oversized satellite dish and the top of the trailer beside it. Between those two eyesores, she had only been able to glimpse a slice of the outdoors. To say her new view was better than the old was a gross understatement.
She rolled over onto her ba ck and stared up at her freshly painted ceiling. Everything was different at her new cabin, including the glaring fact that she was alone. New bedding, new clothes and a nice new place to live were, well, nice. But she would trade all of it to have her mother back.
Thoughts of her mother allowed familiar pangs of grief to encroach. That, and the events of the night before rushed to the forefront of her mind and jockeyed for the distinguished title of which would make her cry first. Being stark naked and about to have sex with a guy, only to have him reject her flat-out had wounded her ego badly. She had strong feelings for Desmond, had wanted to indulge in something pleasurable for the first time in what seemed like eternity. But even that had been taken from her. She was not the kind of girl who was prone to pity parties. If she’d spent her life bemoaning all that had happened to her, it would have consumed her completely and been a twenty four-hour-a-day job. She’d always taken life as it came, and dealt with it accordingly. But nothing that had happened since the dawn of her powers had been easily dealt with. Death, destruction, humiliation and loss after loss made regaining her footing on her path next to impossible. Arianna felt her cheeks burn with shame, frustration, and plain old sadness. She did not want to begin her first day at the last high school she’d ever attend with swollen, red eyes, so she drove each painful thought to the back of her mind, forcefully evicted every one of them until her mind was left with a strange numbness. She’d return to them later. She’d have plenty of time after school, and in the future, to mourn.
A glance at the clock on her nightstand revealed it was just after six o’clock in the morning. Her first class did not start until seven thirty, but she assumed she needed to get there early for her obliga tory meeting with the principal and guidance counselor, and for a tour. Arianna groaned aloud at the memory of her last tour at Herald Falls High School. Going through the whole welcome-to-our-shitty-school rigmarole again seemed like cruel and unusual punishment, especially since she’d been through it so many times. Surely, a statute of limitation on such acts of torture existed somewhere. The only redeemable part of it all was that today would be the last time she would ever have to endure it. Her mother was gone and moving was up to her. Arianna had never liked moving from place to place like a gypsy. She’d always envied people who had true roots to where they were, people who had lived in a town for their whole life. The length of time she and her mom would spend in a particular area had always been dependent upon her mother’s fickle taste in men. Such was no longer the case. Now she was in charge, and the taste of power
Similar Books
