Bloodlines



  Chapter One

  A little over two months had passed since the first day of her senior year, and for once in her high school career Adeila couldn't really complain. Her life was pretty near perfect.

  Dawn painted the California sky a brilliant pink and gold, with thin strips of lavender clouds stretching across the landscape, to be lost in the mountain backdrop. From her family's large back deck the view was spectacular, enough to take her breathe away every single time she witnessed the sunrise. This was often these days, since for over a month now she’d been waking at dawn, feeling completely awake and restless. Even though she thought everything in her life was perfect, the restlessness brewing inside her was enough to drive her completely crazy, and to ultimately prove that nothing was ever perfect.

  She held the front bend yoga pose for thirty more seconds before moving on to stretch with her fingertips reaching the sky, elongating her spine. She evened her breathing; inhaling her breath and exhaling at all the precise moments. She'd gone to enough classes to know how to make this work on her own and to be honest the privacy and romanticism of the setting was more then she could ever hope to gain in a yoga studio.

  She'd recently taken up yoga again in hopes that it would help ease her restlessness. Put some balance and meditation back into her life. The spirituality in the movements and breathing regulated her mind and body. So far the morning sessions did help her focus throughout the day. She tried again at night, but her mind still reeled so much while she lay in bed that it still took her a long time to fall asleep. So far she successfully slept only about four hours a night, but woke up feeling recharged as if she'd slept for eight. For a teenage girl, that was just plain weird.

  Adeila Burton shouldn't complain too much about her life. She had an amazing best friend, a great job, maybe not the best home life, but she was used to it now to the point where her own accomplishments were hers to revel in, school was going incredibly well, so well in fact, that she had gained a half scholarship to study biology at Pierce college, she had a new car, and oh, yes, the boy of her dreams. The boy she'd had a crush on for half her life.

  She should be swimming in a sea of her own blissfulness, but she wasn't. Not entirely. This restlessness engulfing her was enough to suffocate, and not to mention the weird things she made happen sometimes. But those things she tried to push from her mind. Her focus right now needed to be getting through her final months of school and moving on to college. Something that should make her excited beyond measure, but instead left her feeling like she was leaving something behind. Like there was something more she had yet to accomplish. It left her annoyed and irritable. It certainly wasn't her family that she felt bad for leaving, as she was almost certain they wouldn't care one bit about her absence. That sad truth should have hit her harder, but instead she only felt the bitter ache of it, and like everything else she pushed it to the wayside to focus on this day.

  She finished the last sip of her tea and went inside to shower and prepare for yet another day in the life of a high school senior.

  .~.

  “Oh my God!”

  Adeila jumped at her friend’s excited exclamation and looked over to where she had stopped on the stairs descending from the main gates of their small high school. Students bustled around her frozen friend, eager to get to their cars or buses and then to freedom, she sent them an apologetic smile. She loved her best friend to pieces but her dramatics were just too much sometimes.

  “What?” She said it between the very fake smile on her lips.

  “Look!” Marissa shoved the phone to her nose. Adeila squinted and peered at the phones overly close screen. She finally made out the backside of a guy.

  He was very well muscled; the deep green t-shirt displayed his biceps and wide broad shoulders and muscled back. You could barely see the faint side view of his strong jawline.

  She shrugged. “So, who is he?”

  “New guy, I guess.”

  Adeila rolled her eyes. “Who sent that to you?”

  Although she already knew the answer. Marissa and Becky had taken gossip and boys to a whole new level.

  “Becky McAlister.”

  Adeila shook her head and made her way down the rest of the stairs, hoping her friend would follow. She unlocked her car from the keys, and looked back. Luckily her nosy friend was indeed slowly trailing behind her, fingers furiously cascading over the screen of her phone.

  Adeila rolled her eyes and let out a sigh as she got into the SUV and let her mind take in another day she could cross off of her school calendar. This day was uneventful. She'd only seen Erik at lunch and at her locker, since they didn't have any classes together. Their relationship was still very fresh and was pretty much on the first level of a teenage relationship. They barely even showed any public displays of affection, some didn't even realize they were dating. Which was fine with Adeila, she was in absolutely no rush and was still getting used to the idea that Erik Thompson was even hers. Although Sadie Simms and her posse still gave her evil glares every chance they got, today she hadn’t noticed any of it. She'd also only run into her sister a few times, and the weirdness of that was slowly dissipating. As days goes this had to be one of the better ones.

  She had work in a half hour so she pulled out of the school, and headed to drop off Marissa, who continued to chatter away about the “hot” new kid, even though she hoped that the girl would reassess her evaluation of his hotness once she at least saw his face, officially met him and had a real conversation with him. Who knew, he may be a total dick.