Beginnings (The Trifectus Series - Book One) Read online

The Trifectus Series

  Beginnings

  By Logan Byrne

  ~~~

  Copyright © 2013 by Logan Byrne

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances of characters to actual persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. The author, Logan Byrne, holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Books two and three, the complete series, are now available!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter One

  Beginnings

  “JAMES!” I yelled frantically as I ran as fast as I could to his side.

  Bullets were flying everywhere as I ran towards the man I loved. He was hurt, but the soldiers didn’t care. They targeted his body as if they wanted to end his life just for being different from them. As I ran towards him, men grabbed me and held me back. My father passed me and approached James.

  “Stay away from him!” I screamed.

  “Honey, this is for your own good,” my father said.

  “You don’t know what’s good for me!” I screamed.

  “You don’t want to get mixed up with these people,” he said.

  As I closed my tear-filled eyes, I remembered what James had told me earlier. He said that no matter what happened to him, he would love me forever. As my father held up his pistol, something happened. Before I tell you, let me start from the beginning.

  My name is Juliet LaVoe. I’m a normal 17-year-old girl living in a not-so-normal world. Well, it was normal at one point, but ever since the revolution, things have changed. The government has decided that the people cannot take care of themselves, and that they could take care of us better than we could. Some have called the government “tyrannical” or “oppressive,” a government that doesn’t want their people to have many freedoms. We are told when we can go out, what is and isn’t acceptable, and are fed propaganda about who is and isn’t our friend.

  I now go to what is known as an “elitist school.” My father, Colonel Arnold LaVoe, is the head of the M.A.D. unit, or the Mortals Against Destruction. M.A.D. is a new branch of the military that directly fights against the “others.” The “others” is the name the government uses for those beings who aren’t like us: the vampires, werewolves and androidians. You see, people are afraid of them. After all, wouldn’t you be afraid of spooky creatures from afar? Yeah, I thought so too.

  It was a balmy August afternoon when I started at The Jefferson School for the Elite. My father drove me to school that day. It was sort of a family tradition for him to take me to my first day of school. He was never around, so it gave him some sense of bonding and a way to tell himself he was involved.

  “Are you excited to start at your new school?” he asked enthusiastically.

  “I guess,” I said.

  “You know I had to pull a lot of strings to get you here. They don’t just take anyone.”

  “Well, then I hope I don’t let you down,” I said sarcastically.

  “Me neither,” he said as we pulled up.

  My father was that type of man. The type who always had to get in little digs on people to make himself feel better. Ever since his promotion, he has been on a really high horse. He thinks he is some super-powerful military man when in reality he is just a glorified babysitter. As I got out of the car, I saw a pair of snotty girls standing there laughing and making fun of the unpopular kids that walked in.

  I’ve always had to deal with this, the bullying. Being a military kid isn’t easy. Moving around from school to school, making and losing friends from right to left. I have never found it easy, and there is always that group of people who try to make life for the new kid as difficult as possible, at least until the next new poor soul comes to town. I tried to avoid them as I walked up, but my presence was soon known.

  “Oooh, looks like Christmas came early,” said a tall one with short blond hair.

  “I asked for a new car, not a ratty dog!” exclaimed the girl beside her. The two of them looked similar, like they could be sisters.

  As I put my head down, they stepped in front of me, blocking my way.

  “Leave her alone,” someone said. “Don’t you two have anything better to do?”

  I looked up to see a girl in a gray hoodie with long, straight black hair step between me and the mean girls. She glared at them until they backed off.

  “Hi, my name’s Ariel,” she said, turning to smile at me. “Don’t worry about them, that’s Brittany and Ashley, they hate everyone.”

  “Thank you,” I said confusedly. “My name is Juliet.”

  “Nice to meet you, Juliet. Do you know what your first class is?”

  “I have history with Mr. Quigley.”

  “Ouch.” Ariel winced. “Quigley is a mean old man, but a great teacher. Let me show you to his room.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  As I walked with Ariel to see the famous Mr. Quigley, the most breathtaking guy I had ever seen walked by with a girl at his side.

  “Who—who is that?” I whispered.

  “Oh, him? That’s James Sullivan,” said Ariel. “And his sister, Emma.” I was glad to hear she wasn’t his girlfriend.

  “He’s cute,” I said.

  “Yeah, he’s pretty cute. Brittany has been trying to get with him for the past year. If you’re interested in him, I’d suggest you get rid of that thought now.”

  Right as I was about to ask why, the bell rang.

  “Here you are,” said Ariel. “Mr. Quigley’s history class.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile.

  I walked into his room swiftly. As I did, I noticed dozens of eyes staring at me. This was the new girl dilemma, as I liked to call it. Everybody stares like some kind of twelve-armed freak just walked in the room. I hurried toward the back of the room and took the first seat I could find. Just as I put my bag down, all of my books fell out and covered the aisle. As I tried to hurry and pick them up, I heard a voice.

  “Do you need some help?”

  As I looked up, I saw him. James. I stared right into his deep hazel eyes.

  “Hello?” he said. “Do you need any help?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said.

  He knelt down and started picking up my books. We reached for the history book at the same time, our hands meeting atop a picture of Napoleon Bonaparte. His pale skin was cool to the touch, almost as if he had been sitting outside in the snow. I got goose bumps on my body as I retracted my hand quickly. He looked at me almost as if he was sad as I pulled away.

  “Take your seats, everyone,” Mr. Quigley said.

  James took a seat diagonally behind me.

  The entire class groaned as Mr. Quigley pulled some papers out of his desk drawer.

  “Since it is the first day of classes, I will be giving a super-fun pop quiz to you all so I can gauge your understanding.”

  Great. A quiz in my very first class at my new school. As I took my quiz, I couldn’t help but look at James from the corner of my eye. He was leaning forward, resting his head on one hand as he filled in
the quiz. He had thick amber hair that fell to his shoulders. His body looked lean and strong all over, like an athlete. I made a mental note to ask Ariel later what sports he played.

  He glanced up, as if he felt my gaze; I quickly looked back at my paper. I forced myself not to look at him again during the quiz, but it wasn’t easy.

  As the rest of the day went on, I found myself looking for him everywhere. For some reason, I couldn’t take my mind off his beautiful face. I’d made a fool of myself before when I thought I guy was cute, but being this distracted was new.

  I didn’t eat lunch that day. When you’re new, it isn’t easy even to go to lunch, let alone eat. I always saw lunch as a sort of popularity contest anyway. I could be judged on the people I ate lunch with and that terrified me. What if I made the wrong choice and the rest of the year was met with laughs and the all-too-fun status of being a loser?

  When school ended, I came home to arguing. My parents were at it again. Ever since my dad got his promotion, his hours have been longer and more frequent. All he and my mother did was fight about the most trivial things. They turned a discussion about what’s for dinner into World War 3.

  “Oh, hi honey,” my mother said excitedly. “How was your first day of school?”

  “It was good. I made a new friend.”

  “Oh, really? Who?”

  “Her name is Ariel. She’s really nice and showed me to my first class.”

  “Oh, dear, that is so good.”

  I really didn’t like talking to my parents that often. We were so disconnected that it felt like we had nothing at all in common. I grabbed my bag and went up to my room.

  Just as I was taking my things upstairs, my phone beeped. It was Marcus. Marcus is this guy I met online. I secretly play Bubble Power Pets online, and Marcus is a fellow bubblenaut that I met in the game. He lived twenty minutes away from me, but we were never able to meet up. I thought that since I was moving here maybe I’d be lucky for once and have a friend right off the bat, but Marcus wouldn’t even video chat with me. It was like he just wanted to talk through texting or the game.

  “Hey, u getting on 2night?” Marcus said.

  “Not 2night,” I said. “I have 2 much hw to do.”

  “Alright well I’ll c u later.”

  I went into my room and threw my things down, thinking how having homework on the first day of school should be outlawed. It was immoral to do that to students just coming off a long summer break.

  As the time passed, I tried to concentrate on my homework, but I couldn’t stop thinking of James. I thought of how incredibly cute he was. About his soft hand brushing against mine when he helped me pick up my books. Did he think I was cute too? Had he thought about me at all today? It took me twice as long to get through my work as it should have.

  I decided to take a break halfway through my homework to stand up and stretch. I got up, walked around my room and saw something out of my window. It looked like James was atop the roof of our neighbors’ house. As I rubbed my eyes, he was gone. I had to have imagined it. But it had seemed so real.

  Could he have been on the roof for some reason? I’d been up studying for hours and thinking about him way too much; it had to just be my imagination. And after all, if he had really been there, he wouldn’t have disappeared after I rubbed my eyes for two seconds.

  I went over to my bed and snuggled under my covers. As I lay my head on my pillow, thoughts of James filled my head. My eyes slowly grew heavy as my mind started to drift off.

  I woke the next morning smiling. I’d had vivid dreams about James. Dreams of a life with him, away from everything I knew. A life away from the violence, away from the fighting. Just us: together forever.

  The dreams had been great but it bothered me; why would I have such intense dreams about a guy I’d only just met?

  As I walked to school the next day, I decided to take a longer route. I wanted to go around the school and see what everything looked like.

  While walking to a side entrance, I passed by the track field.

  “Good job, Derek!” A guy who had to be the coach yelled.

  “Run, baby, run!” shrieked a girl in the stands.

  As I was walking and staring at the girl, I heard a familiar voice.

  “Juliet! Wait up!”

  I turned and saw Ariel running towards me. She had a giant camera in her hands.

  “Hey, Ariel, what’s with the camera?”

  “Oh, this? I am in the photography club. I take pictures of the sports practices and games.”

  “Who’s that guy out there running?” I asked, confused.

  “Oh, that’s Derek. He’s the fastest guy on the team. I hope you’re not interested, though.”

  “Him? No! I was just asking.”

  “Good,” she said. “His girlfriend Cara would kill you if she saw you trying to get with him.” Ariel glanced at the stands. “That’s her, in the red shirt.”

  I followed Ariel’s gaze to the girl, who was giving me a dirty look. It was almost as if she was trying to make my head explode with her thoughts. I looked away and started walking away with Ariel. Just as we were about to walk into school, my phone beeped.

  “Hey, wut u doin?” Marcus asked. “Wanna play?”

  “I’m at skool, I can’t,” I replied.

  “Who was that?” Ariel asked.

  “Oh, just this guy Marcus I met online.”

  “Is he cute?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen him.”

  We walked in the door and saw the two mean girls from yesterday, Brittany and Ashley. They were laughing. Instead of me, this time they were picking on a student teacher. Apparently nobody was off-limits to them. I’d learned that they were sisters and their father, John Cornington, was a wealthy industrialist who’d made a fortune after the government turned. Nobody would try to take them on, not even the faculty.

  I made my way to my locker and got my books. As I closed the door, I saw a face and jumped back. James was standing there staring at me.

  “Hope I didn’t scare you too badly,” he said.

  “Oh—no—you didn’t. I was just a little startled.”

  Right as he was about to speak, the bell rang.

  “Well, I better get to class,” he said with a smile.

  I almost melted. His smile resonated through my entire body. Maybe my question of whether he’d noticed me had been answered. Did he really like me too, or was he just being friendly?

  At lunch, I walked into the cafeteria, wishing James would appear and invite me to sit with him. As I was standing there not sure where to go, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

  “Hello? Juliet? Come sit with us.”

  It was Ariel. I walked with her over to a table filled with a hodgepodge of different people. Everyone from preppy, to nerdy, to jocks and artists sat at her table.

  “Everyone, this is Juliet,” Ariel said. “Juliet, this is Taylor, Steve, Ryan, Greg, Carrie and Melissa.”

  “Hi everyone, nice to meet you,” I said, still focused on James.

  As I sat down, I peeked around, looking for James. Was he even here? Just as I was about to give up looking, I spotted him walking in. He was with his sister again. I’d learned that Emma was two years younger than him. She had pale skin like James. But unlike his amber colored hair, hers was red. She seemed very chatty. Apparently, even though Emma was sort of an outcast at school, James always looked after her and made sure she was okay. .

  Just as James and Emma sat down, Derek, Cara and a few others ran into the cafeteria, shouting and howling. They were amped up and yelling how they were going to win the meet this weekend. I watched as Derek and James locked eyes and the tension shifted. They stared at each other intensely, as if they had known and hated each other for a while.

  “What’s up with them?” I asked.

  “Derek and James?” The girl Ariel had introduced as Taylor said. “They’ve been feuding for years. Nobody really knows why.”

 
Just as fast as Derek and James had locked eyes, they both looked away. Derek moved on and James went on with his lunch. I looked around the room and noticed Cara staring at me. She didn’t seem happy.

  After lunch, we had the pleasure of going to gym. It wasn’t smart, really, putting a bunch of teenagers in a room together to exercise right after lunch. We had the rope today. Everybody moaned when Mr. Callahan told us, but I was focused on something else. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been terrified of heights. While everyone was moaning at the thought of doing physical activity, I was moaning at the thought of making a fool of myself to everyone.

  Cara was up first. She cracked her knuckles and then jumped higher than I had seen anyone jump before. She grabbed the rope and climbed it with ease. As she rang the bell above, everybody was cheering with awe at her ability. Next up was Ariel. Everyone cheered her on as she made her way up the rope. She was no Cara, but she did a great job. As Mr. Callahan went down the roster to pick who was next, he called my name. My happiness dropped and I felt like my heart was racing a mile a minute. As I made my way over to the rope, my friends from lunch made an effort to cheer for me and give me encouragement. I placed my clammy, blotchy hands on the rope as sweat raced down my body. I closed my eyes and started climbing. I was halfway up when I stupidly looked down. The length to the floor stretched and I felt as though I was one hundred feet in the air. I clung to the rope, but I couldn’t hold my body weight up any longer. I let go and fell.

  While I was falling, a million thoughts came into my head. I only dropped for a second or two, but it felt like an hour in my head. Suddenly, the fall was over. I wasn’t on the ground. I wasn’t even hurt. I opened my eyes and saw James. He was holding me. He had caught me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yyy-yeah,” I said, embarrassed.

  As everyone rushed around me to see if I was hurt, I looked into his eyes. He looked back into mine. After a second, when I should have looked away, I didn’t. He broke eye contact first, looking embarrassed.

  Great. I’d probably just frightened him away, a new girl falling all over him on her second day at school.

  Sure enough, he seemed to avoid looking at me the rest of gym period.

  What a fool I’d made of myself. What was wrong with me anyway, to act like that, over a guy I hardly knew?

  For the rest of the day, I tried not to think about what had happened.

  Bad as school was, going home was still the worst part of my day. For most kids, going to school is dreadful and painful. For me, however, I would take sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day over being in my dysfunctional house any day. I came home to the typical situation. Mom and Dad were fighting about pointless things.

  We used to be happy. We used to be a close family unit. Now, we were just three people living in a house together. Roommates at best: not a true family. We used to take vacations and trips all over. With my father being in the military, we got to travel the world. That was when I was five. Now, all we did was fight and see who could scream the loudest.

  That night I needed a change. School was stressing me out, and home life wasn’t helping much either. I decided to log on to Bubble Power Pets and relieve some stress by bashing some blompers. When I logged on, I was happy to see Marcus was online.

  “Hey!” he said. “How have you been?”

  “Stressed!”

  “How come?”

  “My parents are fighting again. School has been tough also.”

  “Aw, I’m sorry. I’m sure it will get better though!”

  “I hope. To top it all off, today I made a fool of myself in front of this cute guy.”

  “Cute guy? Do you like him?”

  “Well, I don’t know. We’ve barely spoken. For all I know, I’m just another face to him. Why do you ask, though?”

  “Oh, no reason. Just trying to keep up-to-date!”

  Even though I’d never met him in person, Marcus had always been a great friend to me. I felt like I could be myself with him. I could tell him my secrets and my dreams. He was really great to me, but I didn’t know if I ever saw myself actually dating him. I mean, after all, he wouldn’t even meet me or send me a picture of himself. He was just that buddy who was always there if I needed him.

  Bubble Power Pets had always been a release for me. I was able to escape to a virtual world where real world problems didn’t seem to matter. I could sit for hours on end, just basking in this fake, virtual world that had been created. I could let go and be myself. During this particular play session, however, I noticed something strange. It seemed like whenever Marcus and I would play together, strange things would happen. It seemed like every time Marcus would do something, a glitch would happen. He would get items, levels and quests done easily, with no problems at all.

  Just as I was about to ask him about it, I heard my name being called.

  “Juliet! Juliet, could you come down here?” my mother asked.

  As I walked down the stairs, I saw my parents both sitting there on the couch. They looked at me as if I had done some horrible thing and they needed to scold and punish me for my behavior.

  “Juliet, honey, we need to talk,” my mother said softly.

  “Your mother and I are worried about you, sweet pea,” my father said. “What—why?” I asked. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “Well, no,” my father said. “But we are worried you aren’t taking your new opportunities seriously.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We talked about this before, how at this new school, you would make an effort to make new friends and socialize with them outside of school. We’re worried that you are already falling into your old habits. We worry that you’re too preoccupied with the computer to make real friends.”

  “Real friends?” I yelled. “People online are real people, you know. That makes them REAL friends. I’m sorry that I’m not little miss perfect cheerleader that goes to every pep rally, but I DO socialize!”

  After yelling at my parents, I ran upstairs. Why couldn’t they understand me? I wasn’t a super-social girl that wanted to go out to parties and school functions. I just wanted to come home and be alone. Ever since the move, I especially hadn’t wanted much to do with anything or anyone. I had just wanted to be alone. How could they say that my online friends weren’t my real friends either? Marcus was more of a friend and family to me than they would ever be. They had no clue. I couldn’t wait until I could leave this place.

  I sat alone for most of the night. I couldn’t get the day out of my head. I hadn’t been as embarrassed in a long time as I was when I fell off that rope. I bet everyone thought I was the dorky new girl who couldn’t tell her right from her left. Why did James catch me, anyway? He could have just let me fall and embarrass myself, but he was there. I kept wondering how he even could have caught me as fast as he did. I fell for a second or two, which was barely enough time for even me to react and comprehend what was happening.

  Maybe I barely knew him, but there was something so special, so intense about him. He was someone I could see myself being with. I wanted a guy that would always be there to catch me, just like he had earlier. As I started drifting off to sleep, thoughts of him filled my mind.

  Chapter Two

  Tension