Alive
Chapter One
Faith Edwards walked into the already full classroom. The only seat left empty was in the middle of the room, next to a blond haired man dressed in jeans and a green tee-shirt.
She walked to the seat and dropped in it, placing her backpack next to her. She flashed a smile at he guy sitting next to her and pulled out a notebook and pen, ready to begin her first day of college.
*~*~*
Lance Bass was shocked. Only minutes before the professor walked into the room, this girl sat down next to him. He couldn’t believe his eyes when she suddenly appeared at his side. She looked like something straight out of a Marilyn Manson video.
Lance counted eight earrings in her right ear. She had both eyebrows pierced, and her nose, lip, belly button, and- he would have put money on it- probably her tongue. Along with the three tattoos he could see on her back, one on her left arm, and one around her belly button. And her clothes! Baggy black jeans, a chain, a tight black tank top with a picture of a blue devil on it.
He wondered why she was in college, and why she was sitting next to him. He didn’t feel comfortable sitting next to her. She must have felt the same way about sitting next to him. And he didn’t think people like her went to college. Why would she want to go? What did she care about her education.
Lance turned his attention to the professor, trying in vain to ignore the girl sitting next to him.
She felt without a word once Professor Hiller dismissed class. Lance was torn. Part of him was glad she was gone. But another part wished she would have stayed so he could ask her some questions.
*~*~*
Faith smiled at her friend as she walked out of the classroom.
“How was your first class?” Chris Kirkpatrick asked, falling into step next to her.
“I arrived late, so I had to sit next to this guy who looked frightened by me.”
Chris grinned at her. “Well, Faith, you can look scary to people who don’t know you. You’re like totally Gothic and most people look down on those.”
“I find it so funny that someone could be scared by me.”
“Who’s scared by you?” her best friend, Catriona Kapera, asked, as she walked up behind Faith and Chris.
“This guy in English,” Faith said. “He looked totally scared by me when I sat down.”
“Ah, don’t feel too bad. I scared three people today.” Catriona laughed. “It was fun.”
“Only you would think that scaring people is fun,” Chris told Catriona.
The three of them walked into another classroom.
“Yeah, but that’s because I’m me.”
“You suck,” Chris commented.
“Um, no comment.” Catriona laughed.
“Is that an offer-” Chris began, but Catriona interrupted him.
“No, not even.”
Faith shook her head, sending her blue-streaked black hair fluttering around her face. “You two and your sexual tension! Why don’t you just sleep with each other and get it over with?”
“Sleep with Shorty?” Catriona exclaimed. “That would just be too strange.”
“This is Cat you’re talking about, Fay,” he said, using a nickname that Faith had given herself years ago. “She’s got claws like a tiger.”
Lance walked in the classroom then, talking quietly with a tall, curly-haired blond guy.
Faith watched him walk to a desk in the front of the room and take a seat, his friend sitting next to him.
“That’s the guy I sat next to earlier,” Faith pointed out.
“Which one?” Catriona asked.
“The one with straight blond hair.”
“He’s not all that bad looking,” Catriona said. “Neither is his friend.”
“I doubt either of them would ever talk to us, Cat,” Faith said. “I probably scared the blond one and he’s probably told his friend to avoid all Gothic chicks.”
“Do I care, Faith?” Catriona inquired. “No. You know why? Because they both look like straight-laced mama’s boys who wouldn’t touch us with a ten-foot pole. They just loose out on the interesting personalities that are us.”
“And why you majoring in English, Cat, and not Drama?” Chris asked.
“English Literature, get it right. And because I don’t want to act.”
*~*~*
“That girl is the one who sat next to me in English earlier,” Lance Bass told his friend Justin Timberlake.
“Which one, Lance?”
“The one wearing the baggy black jeans and black tank top.”
“And what about her sitting next to you?”
“Justin, look at her! She looks like she belongs in either a Marilyn Manson video or a cult or something.”
“And what’s wrong with how she looks? She could loose some of the piercings, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
The three people started laughing. Lance frowned. “She’s going to affect our life, I can guarantee that.”“A prophet now, Lance?”
“She just gives me a strange feeling.”
“Good or bad?”
“I don’t know. There’s just a feeling in the pit of my stomach that she’s going to do something.”
Justin brushed off his concerns. “That could just be because you’re hungry.”
The professor walked in then, so Lance couldn’t reply.
*~*~*
“Look, it’s the gothic freaks,” a guy said, as he and a few of his friends walked past Faith’s car, where Faith and Catriona were standing.
Cat glanced at them. “Why look, it’s the preppy sheeps,” she mocked. “Such followers you know, sheep are. Can’t decide shit for themselves.”
“Don’t fucking insult me, bitch,” the guy warned.
“Then don’t fucking mess with me.” Catriona’s green eyes narrowed. “I don’t appreciate being insulted anymore than you do.”
“Then maybe you should think about changing how you dress.”
“And you should stop judging people based on their looks.” Catriona stepped forward. “And if you want to fuck with me, at least do it to my face.”
Faith grabbed her arm, pulling her back before she could do anything. “Stop it.”
“I shouldn’t have to stop. I didn’t do shit.”
Faith glanced at the group of guys standing in front of her car. All of them were obviously jocks or frat guys. Her eyes widened as she recognized someone.
JC Chasez’s eyes widened, too, as he recognized Faith. They were practically related, he and Faith. Their mother’s were best friends. He couldn’t believe this. He didn’t want to lose any of his friends, but Faith was nearly family.
“Yeah, stop it, bitch.” The “leader” of the group laughed. “Is it true Goth girls are easy? I’ve heard they’re willing to fuck anything with a dick.”
Cat laughed. “Is that an offer? I hope it’s not. Because I don’ really appreciate being propositioned by a jackass with a small dick.” She turned to Faith. “Let’s go, before these guys make me even more pissed. Or worse yet, some of their preppiness or following abilities rub on us. We’ve got to meet Joey and Chris.”