Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3) by Jennifer Martucci, Christopher Martucci Page A

was bittersweet.
    A single tear slipped from her cheek.  She quickly brushed it away with the back of her hand and sat up.  She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood.  The plush carpet was warm and soft beneath her feet as she padded toward the small bathroom in her bedroom.  She’d never had more than one bathroom in any place she’d lived.  And she’d had to share it with at least one other person.  Now, she had two bathrooms and lived alone.  Two seemed decadent.  A small smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth at the notion of having two bathrooms.  She would have killed for two when she and her mother had lived at Carl’s place before they’d moved to Herald Falls.  Carl’s bathroom habits and his utter lack of cleanliness had left much to be desired.  But Carl was a part of a past that seemed distant.  And today was the first day of her new life, one that included the title of Sola, a role she was still uncertain of how to perform.  She would figure that out, and many other things in her life, another time, though.  Presently, school awaited her arrival and she needed to ready herself for it.
    After brushing her teeth, taking a quick shower and dressing, Arianna ate breakfast and headed to school.  She drove her mother’s old Camry and decided to park it in the farthest spot in the lot from the actual school building in hopes of avoiding attention.  To her surprise, there were many other cars just like hers.  In varying states of dilapidation that ranged from rust to tied-on bumpers, the vast majority were older models.  The area surrounding the school had looked like the average working-class neighborhood, but experience had taught her that that meant little.  The parking lot always told the whole story.  The one she was currently in upheld the story the neighborhood had told. 
    She remained in her car and lit a cigarette, the need to calm her nerves sudden.  She did not k now why she was nervous.  She’d had enough first days of school to last her a lifetime.  None of them had been nerve-racking.  Why this one would be any different from those was beyond her.  Nevertheless, she smoked and felt only slightly better before she climbed out and began walking to the front doors of the school. 
    Her first stop was at the principal’s office.  Located on the right side immediately after the threshold of the main entrance, the principal’s office had been the most conveniently located to date.  She strolled in and was greeted by a man hunched over a copy machine. 
    “Stupid freaking thing!” he said to the mac hine.  “I’ve cleared your damn paper jam!”
    Arianna cleared her thro at to alert him to her presence.
    He looked up and she was taken aback briefly.  With light brown stylishly mussed hair and big brown eyes, the man appeared to be in his early thirties and hardly resembled the schoolmarm secretary type that had gravitated to every other administrative office in every other school she’d been to.
    “Can I help you?” he asked and smiled. 
    “Uh, yeah, I have an appointment with Principal Keller,” she said.
    “Ah, yes,” the man said and walked behind an empty desk in the far corner of the office.  He flipped through the pages of a date book and said, “You must be Arianna Rose.”
    “Yep, that’s me,” Arianna replied. 
    “You’re early though,” he said and glanced at the clock mounted on the wall to her left. 
    “Oh, yeah, I just assumed I would have to meet with the principal then the guidance counselor then take the tour of the school and all that.  If he’s not here, I can come back.”
    “No, no, he’s here,” the man said.
    “Okay, great,” she said then mumbled, “I can’t wait to meet him.”
    “Ooh, that doesn’t sound like happiness to be here,” the man said and quirked a brow at her.  “Not a big fan of principals I take it?”
    “No, not really, if we’re being honest,” she admitted. 
    “Why not?”
    “I