Phoenix - original story

Author's note: So, I began work on this in late November of 2019, and although it's rather short right now I've received a ton of positive feedback from my friends about it. Keep in mind that it is an extremely long work in progress.

Chapter I
“Don’t forget to pick up your sister after school,” Michael Vladmir ushered bluntly.

“Yeah, Dad,” Phoenix Vladmir said quietly, adjusting the straps of his navy blue backpack, hardly looking back at his father. He headed out into the driveway.

Michael muttered something in his gruff voice- which sounded, suspiciously, like “retard” - and slid the door open and slipped back inside the house.

Phoenix wasn’t sure why his parents named him the way they did. His name was based off the mythological creature, “phoenix”- his mom had always been one for mythology, he supposed. He hated standing out, though. He’d always wished he’d been given a common name like John, or Sam, or something simple that didn’t attract attention and arouse interest. Ever since grade school, every single person who has come across him and asked for his name would recoil upon hearing it. One senior-aged teacher in middle school even demanded to speak with his parents after he insisted time and time again his name was Phoenix.

Maybe I should change it one day, he thought gloomily.

He turned on the engine of his black Mercedes SUV. The Arizona sun had been beating down on the car for ages, presumably, and the inside became hot and arid. He flinched at the touch of the steering wheel. Luckily, he was used to this, and always kept oven mitts in the glove compartment. It’s called a glove compartment, so might aswell.

And, if you’re wondering, no, he did not live in Phoenix, Arizona. He lived in a much, much smaller town, called Williams. Only about 3000 people lived there, and the city was tight. Even if someone moved to a new school (there were only two elementary schools and one highschool, anyway), everyone would still know them: and thus, their reputation- whether bad or good- would stay standing for as long as they stayed in the ‘charming’ little town of Williams. If you do a bit of research on Arizona’s quaint cities, Williams may or may not show up on the list as one of the most ‘beautiful and charming towns in Arizona’, though Phoenix don’t find much charm in the various tumbleweeds that drifted across the streets now and then.

He finally made it to my school- Williams Highschool, pretty blatant- and found a deserted area of the parking lot. He usually parked at the far-left end of the school, because not that many people parked there.

Tch. You’re probably getting the idea he was a far-off, reserved teenager who had a screwed-up family. In reality, he kinda was. But he never, ever showed it. His parents made sure of that. They bought him everything he wanted- if you paid a bit of attention to his car, it’s not exactly a cheap one- because they wanted him to be the best. His mother once said, “My son is no simpleton, and any funny business anyone does to you at school you come and tell your father and he’ll beat their ass.”

 

“Phoenix!” a reedy voice rang out from the front of the school. He grimaced as the familiar tanned girl with the tie-dye crop top and lacey shorts rushed up to him, waving madly. He put on his facade once more and managed a tense half smile.

“Hey... Maree,” he winced.

“Do you know where Inez is?” Maree said frantically.

“Uh, no? I just got here.”

Inez Greenway and Maree Merrow were best friends since fourth grade, and had been inseparable. They didn’t mind sitting alone at lunch, but occasionally they’d drag Phoenix and his best friend, Asher Stalin, to hangout with them. Asher seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with them, but in Phoenix’s opinion the two girls couldn’t be more…. weird, to put it nicely. He didn’t know why, but they just were, to him.

Then the familiar blue Tesla came into view.

Maree followed his gaze. “Huh. That’s the Alverez girl, right?” she said, smirking.

His head snapped back to her in defense. “And so what? She has a nice car.”

Vivette Alverez. Huh. She had the most intricate hairstyles, might he say. That day, her hair was down, but braided in braids that were wrapped delicately into roses at the back. She didn’t do it herself- her best friend and neighber/carpool partner, Heather Evans, always did it for her. Her mother was a hairstylist, and she planned on following in her footsteps. Heather didn’t style her own hair, though, because of how short it was. Heather’s strawberry blonde head popped out of the passenger seat. Her hair, in comparison to Vivette’s, was a bob-ish style, but wavy and layered.

Problem was, Phoenix- the usually loud, outgoing lad- could not approach her. At all. For reasons unheard of. He didn’t have a reason to approach her, in the first place. Thus, she had lost interest in him, if she’d ever had any interest in the first place. But, maybe, just maybe, if Maree was acquainted with Vivette in some sort, he’d be able to muster up some courage, using Maree. Using Maree. Now you’re a manipulator, huh? some voice snickered in his head. He shook it off.

Vivette and Heather strolled into the school- odd, it’s only 7:45- and Inez suddenly dashed into the driveway on her roaring motorcycle. Her wavy, black hair and dark skin was so different from Maree’s faint tan and dirty blonde hair.

Before Maree could rush up to her, I tapped her.

“Yo, Maree.”

“Did you seriously say ‘yo’?”

“Shut up. I need help.”

“With what?”

“Vivette.”

“Who?” She fingered her necklace, hardly bothering to glance at him, more focused on Inez and her damned necklace.

“The Alverez girl, idiot.”

“Oh. Her.”

“You talk to her often?”

“Nah. But, I talk to her friend, Cecile.”

“The girl with the red highlights and, like, three piercings in her ears?”

“Mhm. She’s weird, but she’s mostly just friends with Vivette because their parents are close. Family friends, yknow? You surely have ‘em too.”

Wish I did, haha, he thought darkly.

"Anyway, I guess I can arrange something at lunch. Maybe drag Vivette and Heather into our friend group. It’s boring you know, with so many boys- you, Asher, Ben, Levi- it never ends! Adding a couple girls would be so fun. It’d be a perfect amount of people.”

Phoenix’s face was flushed. He wanted help, but he didn’t think he’d get that much help. He was grateful, though. He realized that Maree was actually reliable, surprise, surprise. He’d never held her in high standards. But, that could change.

Chapter II
“Good morning, class,” Mrs. Beckerson said, rather enthusiasticly. “So, we’re back from the weekend! Let’s see who’s ready and attentive for English class!”

She pushed her frizzy hair to the side as she scrawled September 18th on the white board in her wavy handwriting, the marker screeching as it moved across.

Vivette could hardly stay awake. Her older brother had been weeping all night long about some Jennifer, or whoever, and she’d merely managed a couple winks of sleep. Her vision started to become hazy, her neck cocked downward, and just as her eyelids began to get heavy, Mrs. Beckerson suddenly called on her.

“Vivette, since you’re paying so much attention, what are we going to be doing in partners?”

Vivette looked around the class for any type of clue, but every face was blank and their eyes glued onto her.

“Uh…” She trailed off, sheepishly fingering her thick, messy hair.

“We’re going to be doing poems about something that inspires us, deeply.”

Vivette saw some people eyeing their friends, clearly excited to simply be having a partner. She wasn’t acquainted with anyone in the class except rowdy, sharp-jawlined Levi Hoprik in the back, but she wasn’t exactly good friends with him. Besides, he was clearly talking to Ben Hyde, his closest friend who happened to be in the classroom. Heather and Cecil were the only people that Vivette considered close friends- she had other people she knew well, but she didn’t like them all that much. She didn’t talk to Cecil, much, though. Cecil had her own “squad”, as she liked to call it, and although she had invited Vivette to hang out with them before, it was evident that she was not welcomed by Cecil’s friends. Vivette was picky, anyway; they weren’t the right crowd for her. For some odd reason, however, her heart yearned to be part of the clique that Levi, Ben, and some other people were in. They were the troublemakers, the people who had the most excitement and went on the craziest adventures. She never liked excitement, she lived a boring life so far, but some part of her was branching out and reaching for them. They spoke to her.

Problem was, she didn’t know how to approach them.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Mrs. Beckerson snapped at the classroom.

“I am picking your partners.”

Moans and groans of dismay echoed and unhappy sentiments were muttered, but Mrs. Beckerson couldn’t care less. Neither could Vivette- at least she didn’t have to muster up the courage to start a conversation with someone she wasn’t normally accustomed to talking to.

“I’m picking your partners because I think they suit your level. For example, the overachieving students, like Lux here,”- she gestured toward a pretty chestnut-haired girl in the back of the classroom, who Vivette had always seen but had never talked to- “will be partnered with other overachieving students, like, say, Vivette.”

Vivette considered her intellect something she’d talk about to people as a last resort. She was insanely smart, in academics, but she wasn’t adept in real-life situations. And, when she was with people she was somewhat comfortable around, she could be as rowdy and outgoing as Phoenix Vladmir himself.

Huh. She never really thought about Phoenix much. He was what you’d really just have to call popular. Not in the sense where a million girls were swooning over him, but more like everyone would give a lot to be his friend. There was something off-landish about him, something beneath his glassy gray eyes- he was the only person she knew with gray eyes. Her eyes were just a boring dark brown. He was unique. She liked that; she’d always wanted an odd eye color, an odd name. Vivette wasn’t a common name, but it wasn’t like Phoenix. Being named after a mythological creature would be a wonderous thing to her.

When she pulled out of her thoughts, Lux Woods was sitting on the chair next to her, her boots propped up on the desk without a care in the world.

Chapter III
Cecil Marquess slammed her locker shut with a violent bang! and jumped when she saw Inez and Maree leaning on the other side.

“Whoa!” she said, taking a subconscious step back, her red highlights flying everywhere.

“You know Vivette, right?” Inez said, her head cocked at a peculiar angle.

“Yes? What’s so urgent?” Cecil said. She was well-quipped with the personnas of Maree Merrow and Inez Greenway, and they were cool with her, but sometimes they were just sketchy to be around. At least to Cecil- she was extremely paranoid and overanalyzed most people.

“So, basically, Phoenix wants Vivette to join our… whaddya call it… friend group? Yeah?” Maree said, talking more to Inez than Cecil.

Cecil thought about it for a moment. “I see where you’re coming from, but Vivette wouldn’t hang out with you guys if Heather wasn’t there.”

“Heather?” Inez asked. She wasn’t expecting that- she had always just thought of Vivette and Heather as friendly neighbors; never had it struck her that they were friends simply because they were friends, like Maree and her.

“Yes, Heather,” Cecil said, alarm writhing on her face as she checked the time on her Fitbit. “I have chemistry class, and I’m going to be late. Cut the crap and get to the point, please.”

“Okay, so basically, just tell Vivette to sit with us and, if she insists, I suppose she can bring Heather too,” Maree said finally, with a sigh.

“Nothing’s wrong with Heather,” Cecil said quietly, but her voice trailed off as the two girls bumbled out of the locker room, and to the cafeteria.

***

The hustle and bustle of the cafeteria was echoey and irritating. Benjamin Hyde had sensitive ears. He didn’t like the cafeteria in general. Way too loud for his likings.

But, oh well, all his friends always sat in the cafeteria, so he had no other choice. At the beginning of freshman year, Inez and Maree had chosen the middle table for the group to sit in, and they had been sitting there ever since. No one bothered them or asked to sit there too. No one dared.

Only Ben had sat on the table; he always came first. He was the only one who had geography right before, and the Mr. Aster always let them off a little early.

Ben slammed his backpack onto the table and it lay there in a heap. He unzipped the bag and pulled out some crackers- he liked calling them saltines, though. He couldn’t exactly eat much, since he was lactose intolerant, but he made adieu with what he had. He flashed out the yellow Lays bag, and quickly began eating.

Phoenix popped into view, and hastily rushed to the table.

“Dude,” Phoenix said, short of breath.

Ben replied with a muffled “What?” under the sound of his chewing.

“Maree said she’s gonna tell Vivette to sit with us,” Phoenix said absentmindedly, in another world entirely.

“Okay?” Ben said, and gulped down the the last of his chips. He delicately opened the saltines pack, his eyebrows creased in dumbfounded confusion.

Levi ran into the cafeteria with a bellow of something incoherent. You’d know Levi Hoprik entered the premises when you hear an uneeded yell. It was just his way of greeting everyone.

“Oh, hey, Levi!” Phoenix called out with an exaggerated wave of his arm.

Levi jumped onto the chair next to Ben, with a deafening screech of the chair scratching the tile floor. Ben and Phoenix staggered a bit in their seats. Levi didn’t even flinch.

“Jeez, Levi, you needa be less reckless,” Ben said.

“Reckless isn’t even the start of it, and you know that from firsthand experience. I can give you a little stop down memory street,” Levi said with a wild grin.

“Uh, no, that won’t be necessary, dude,” Ben said with a chuckle, patting Levi on the back. A little too hard.

“Ow!” Levi yelped.

Vivette had just now walked into the cafeteria accompanied by Heather, and was greeted with Levi’s pathetic screech. So, Maree and Inez had seriously signed her up for… for… this?

Vivette stomped down to the table.

“Okay, I got the message from Cecil that ya’ll want me to sit here, but if I sit here will I constantly be met with screams and shrieks?” Vivette said, leaning against the table with two hands. Her facw was unreadable. Phoenix’s breath quickened.

“Yes, you will,” Asher said. He had just suddenly appeared at the table. He always lurked around places and slipped into view without anyone noticing until he spoke up.

Asher was immediately punched lightly by Phoenix, who mouthed the words you idiot!

“Yes?” Vivette asked again, confirming it.

“N-” Phoenix began.

“Yes,” Levi interjected.

“Then I’m in,” Vivette said, propping her legs on top of the table. Heather rushed to sit next to her. This is exactly what I wanted, she thought giddily.

WIP WIP WIP this chapter's not done yet but im way too lazy to finish it right now