Chapter 2: 1• Dimples and worn out shoes
Dimples and worn out shoes.
Oddly, they were what drew Raven to him.
She could still remember how he seemed to strut into school the first time she saw him.
She remembered sitting to one side of class, dawdling, as she couldn't be bothered to listen to Mr Montgomery rant on and on about inequalities.
And then, he was introduced to the class, honey brown eyes flickering upwards once in a while as he shuffled his worn out boots on the floor.
The fact that he'd caught her attention when nothing else ever did should have been her cue to avoid him but how could she?
He was a picture of complete innocence, standing tall in cheap, worn out clothes and shoes even though his eyes never strayed from the floor.
Raven couldn't help the fierce protectiveness that engulfed her being at the sight of him, didn't know why her heart skipped a few beats as she watched him under hooded eyes.
And then he looked up.
His eyes shot straight to where she sat without warning, like he'd known she'd been staring.
His gaze was intense as he met hers and it took everything it could for the ice queen not to avert her face in embarrassment at being caught.
But then, he smiled a small dimpled smile, and she swore to God that she'd never seen a more beautiful picture.
Glancing around the class a bit, Raven could see the excitement so clearly etched in the eyes of the girls, the wonderment that shone behind their eyes as they watched the boy transfixed.
Clearly, Raven wasn't the only one who'd noticed how beautiful he was.
Soon, Mr Montgomery assigned him seat at the far right of the class, next to Hairy Hilda, and Raven had never felt as much jealousy for a living being as she did then.
She watched distracted, as he smiled that beautiful smile at Hilda, saw the shine in her eyes as she engaged him throughout the class.
She could barely contain herself that lecture and the moment it was over, she grabbed her stuff and bolted out of the door.
Away from him, away from the strange things she was feeling.
The moment she walked out the door, she set her mask in place, feigning indifference as she strutted languidly towards her table in the centre of the cafeteria.
On her way, she smiled at the calls of 'Hey, Raven' until she could feel her lips hurt.
There was the familiar silence that spread across the room as she walked through the cafeteria doors, a tradition of sorts.
The queen had entered.
The tiled floors were her runway, a chance to show off her shoes and clothes.
It was by far her favourite part of the day, the moment she was reminded of the love people had for her.
She wasn't power hungry. At least, not in the literary sense, but she craved the attention she got.
That day however, the cheers and whistles did nothing to remove the annoying feeling that had settled in the pit of her stomach.
Raven knew what everyone saw when they looked at her; jet black hair that shined under the sun, lustrous and full as it fell into a wavy bob that grazed her shoulders, flawless olive skin that looked so supple it seemed water would bounce off it, eyes holding a startling shade of dark green that bewitched it's onlookers, a rather small nose that cast an especially innocent look and soft, pink lips that stretched into a smile.
As she waltzed over to her table, the table, she watched people watch her, some discreetly and majority of them unabashedly.
"Hey" She said, plopping onto the seat next to Bonnie.
The redhead turned to look at her, smiling as her eyes twinkled with the promise of fresh gossip.
It was all they ever did at their table.
Talk. About themselves, about other people.
It sometimes bored Raven.
'Not sometimes, most times' the thought came, amending.
The table wasn't just one table. It was more like three tables, restructured to form a triangle.
There were the obvious jocks and cheerleaders, who'd occupied two tables and then, Raven's table.
She'd never asked to be part of the populars' table but since the student body had practically elected her their president and Mrs Westhill, she'd earned the spot automatically.
Raven had never complained about it though.
She liked the attention, the respect and the authority that came with being Raven Stone, just that she got bored of it sometimes.
"Did you hear the gist about the new boy?"
Internally, Raven groaned. She'd been trying to escape thinking about the boy until Bonnie called him to mind.
In response, she faked apathy.
"A new boy?"
By now, the entire table had tuned into what Bonnie was saying.
There was a gleam in Bonnie's eye as she spoke, her passion fuelled by the knowledge that she'd knowledge that no one else did.
"Yes. His name is Hayden Keating".
'Hayden' Raven tested the name on her tongue quietly, envisaging the dimpled boy once again in her mind's eye.
She wanted to speak to him, to hear his voice.
"Is he handsome?" One girl from the cheer team asked, causing her boyfriend to frown slightly as he drew her closer to his chest, nipping at her earlobe in a punishing manner.
Raven could see the way the girls on the cheer team glared at the couple in jealousy, even as they plastered their fake, red-lipped smiles on their faces.
Her attention was however, fixed on Bonnie who looked around the table, watching to see if everyone was hooked onto her gossip.
They were.
Raven didn't need to hear the answer to the question.
Was Hayden handsome? How could anyone answer that question.
It wasn't a simple yes or no kind of question.
Hayden wasn't confined by the societal standards of what handsome was.
He was miles away from any quantification. And though Raven had no words to describe the allure of his person, or enough time to describe all she'd seen in the few minutes she'd seen him, she was sure of one thing.
Hayden was the most beautiful human being she'd seen.
A secret smile spread across her face at the thought of him, as innocent and beautiful as her memory of him, and in that moment, the dark-haired girl had never looked more beautiful.
"He's super cute in an innocent, nerdy kinda way" Bonnie said, and Raven was pulled from her secret thoughts. A quick survey of her environment showed her the giddy looks the girls on the cheer team shared.
And for the second time that day, she couldn't stop the awful rage that coursed through her.
Her blood simmered beneath her skin, her fingers digging deep into her palm as she struggled to keep her mask of apathy.
"But" Bonnie interjected sharply, seeing the jocks' expectant looks.
They wanted to ascertain whether he would be a threat or not.
" He's poor" She said, in a tone that seemed to find amusement in that fact. Raven didn't get to see the expression of everyone at the table before Bonnie continued.
".....wretched even. He came to school today in rumpled, worn out clothes and shoes that were better off in the gutters than on human feet" She ended, and Raven could feel, rather than see the disgust that had suddenly enveloped the table.
"He's poor?" One of the cheerleaders, Kayna said, unbelievingly.
Kayna's father was a music producer who'd started in the ghetto till he struck gold and went international.
"Ain't nobody got time for a homie with no paper, sister" She said, as the girls around her nodded in response.
Anger. It flamed inside Raven's gut as she watched the girls laugh to themselves and the jocks smirk triumphantly.
The number of times she'd felt angry in that day was more than she'd felt in the past week combined, a record breaking feat for the ice queen.
"What's funny?" Raven asked, unable to stop the word from tumbling out.
It was almost hilarious to see the incredulity on the faces of everyone present.
It was known widely that Raven almost never talked or concerned herself with anything anyone had to say, it was the reason they'd dubbed her the ice queen.
Hearing her speak was a shock to everyone, and even more offsetting was the fact that she'd spoken in defense of the new boy.
Bonnie gulped.
She could hear the menace in Raven's tone, and as adventurous as she was, she knew it was best not to provoke Raven.
It wasn't that Raven had a streak for being mean or fearful, quite the opposite really.
The apprehension everyone felt for Raven stemmed from their lack of knowledge about her.
Even staying around her for as long as they had, no one really knew Raven.
When she'd moved into West hill at the beginning of highschool, she was an enigma.
Rumour spread like wildfire that the prettiest girl to have ever stepped into West hill had moved into town, and before long, the whole town had paid a visit to the Stone's residence, trying to confirm the rumours under the pretext of welcoming them into town.
In their relatively small town, any news was big news. And soon, virtually everyone had heard of the beautiful, quiet Raven Stone.
Raven's parents were nothing out of the ordinary —rich, yes— but nothing unusual. Her older brother was an artist, a damn good one but Troy Stone didn't visit town much. He lived in South Africa with his wife and their two year old daughter.
Raven Stone, however, was a mystery. She hardly talked to anyone, most of the townsfolk had thought her mute when they moved.
The beauty was damn smart too, winning lots of medals for West hill high, even going to represent the school at an international level. It was no wonder everyone adored her despite her lack of conversational skills.
The students at West hill high generally liked her, and while she liked the attention she received, Raven Stone wasn't the typical queen bee they'd expected her to be.
For one, she only hung out with the popular kids at lunch. Almost every other period, she spent time with the nerdy ones at the library, observing them while she silently read a book in the corner.
When she wasn't with them, she would go to the music class, listening to the choir practice. Most of the time, she was their only audience, smiling a rare Raven smile at them when they finished rehearsing.
Despite her lack of speech, she fit in with everyone and oddly, with no one. She was perfectly fine being a lone ranger, but she wasn't lonely.
Raven Stone truly was one weird girl.
***
16/10/2020
~Ameenah
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone