black roses from the past

A bright light shone through the window, blinding my eyes, as I opened them to the feel of warm sunshine.

"Will some one please turn off the sun?!" someone yelled as a few delinquents laughed at the joke.

"Awake Paige?" Ivory asked, standing by my bedside.

"I am now," I replied, rolling over. "You look like shit."

She smiled sweetly. "Get use to it, you're going to have to see this face every morning for the rest of the year."

"Yeah... don't remind me," I grumbled but smiled back.

"Come on, Grinch, before the showers are taken." Ivory strolled to her trunk and retrieved her school robes.

I stood up and followed her example, taking the dull black school robes with me.

"Hey Paige, looks like you got a secret admirer," Willow, one of my roomies, said after I emerged from my hot shower fifteen minutes later.

"Really?" I said walking out of the bathroom still drying my red hair.

"Yeah, it's a black rose."

The towel fell from my hands.

I stared at my bedside table and must have turned really pale because Ivory began checking for my pulse.

"Earth to Paige!" she said as I shook my head.

"hey maybe some one sent you it thinking you were rose, or who ever." Some one said as everyone grew quiet.

I glared at the girl, who shrugged and continued dressing for breakfast.

Roses, in Spain, were given to show friendship, love, or death. A black rose was only given to some one if a close friend had died or to warn some one of death drawing near them.

I walked towards the table, probably looking much like a zombie in the process.

The rose looked beautiful, it's velvet petals daring you to touch them. I would have touched the flower to, if the thorns hadn't caught my eye.

"Whose it from?" Willow asked from behind me.

"Don't know," I muttered before turning around to get my school bag.

"It's pretty..." she said, and then before I could stop her she picked it up.

"Crap!" she yelled as the rose fell back on to the table. She grabbed her finger where blood was dripping. Ivory handed her a towel to wrap around her bloody finger and blue nails.

"Come on Paige, before the guys eat everything," Ivory said grabbing her books.

"Alright," I said picking up my bag beside my table.

Then I noticed that there wasn't any blood on the thorns, but there was blood on the floor by Willow.

~*~

"Pass me the sugar, sugar," Salnac joked, poking me. I pointed to the sugar jar and it floated over towards him.

"Cool." he said and then emptied the jar over his eggs.

"That is so gross, Sal!" Willow exclaimed as she poured ketchup over her eggs.

"And like that's much better?" he asked.

"Yeah, a whole lot better," she said shoving a fork full of eggs into her mouth.

"Ack! Gross!" Ivory said turning away.

"Besides you need all the sugar you can get, Sal," I said trying desperately not to look at Willow.

"Remember, honey catches bees, not vinegar," he said poking me again.

"And why would I want to catch you?" I asked as Ivory laughed.

"Because," he paused to be dramatic. "I am irresistible."

Willow snorted in her plate.

"Am I that transparent? I need you. I want you. Oh baby! Oh baby!" I said sarcastically as Ivory laughed.

"Okay, we need to go if we're going to make potions," Ivory commented getting up.

Salnac and Jordan both gagged and made choking signs.

"What's so bad about potions?" I asked.

"Well the teacher is a slimy haired git."

"With no friends,"

"And absolutely no life."

"And we hate him," Salnac finished.

Oh what fun it is to ride into one hell of a problem.

"Are you serious? Because potions is my worst class. The only reason I passed last year was because the teacher liked me."

"Ha! Good luck this year, then. I don't even think Snape likes hookers," Jordan said.

"I'll help you if you want me to. I'm good at potions," Ivory offered as we walked into the cold dungeon.

"Yeah, thanks!" I said as we sat in the only available seats, in the front row.

"Sit down and shut up," a cold voice ordered as the greasiest haired man I have ever seen walked in the room.

"Now open your books and we shall be dealing with today, on Dumbledore's request, past potions."

I looked over at Ivory and could tell she had no idea what this potion was going to do any more than I knew.

"I will, after you have all successfully completed the potion, test it on a student."

We just stared at him.

"Now, what are you waiting for?!"

I looked over at ivory.

"Okay, well we need some snake's eyes and higgle root," I said reaching in my bag.

"Higgle root?" Ivory repeated, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, so? What's wrong with higgle root?" I asked noting her sadness.

"I'm allergic to higgle root," she whined.

"Tell the professor, he'll have to let you go," I suggested.

"Yeah right! Not even! Besides didn't you say you sucked at potions? What if you screw it over?"

I shrugged. "Better than you sneezing and scattering our potion around the room, and something bad happening."

"Okay, so we add the quills in after the liquid turns blue?" ivory asked.

Her eyes were seriously puffy and red from the higgle root by now and she was trying not to breath in too close to the potion.

"Y," she sneezed, "eah," she finished.

"Are sure you don't want to ask to leave?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"You don't look it."

"Look the potion turned blue."

I glanced down at the bubbling mass of metallic blue. It kind of looked like willow's nails.

The rose, I remembered, up inside of my room. Maybe one of my friends from Spain sent it as a joke? A really, stupid joke.

"Paige are you going to add," sneeze, "the," sneeze, "quills?" sneeze.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," I apologized, dropping the white feather into the cauldron.

The potion bubbled, and then slowly turned a bright shade of purple.

I hate purple.

I looked over at Ivory, who was, if possible, looking worse.

"Now that everyone has managed a weak purple, meaning you haven't completely failed, I will choose one person to test theirs."

I glanced down at our potion. It was the brightest one in the class, and the book said the brighter the better!

Damn bastard.

I raised my hand. "Professor, Ivory is having an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients; can I take her to the hospital wing?"

Snape glanced over at Ivory, who was looking really bad.

"I see nothing wrong with Miss. Fern. Now, Miss. Enswein, since you interrupted my class, you may test your potion for us."

I glanced over at Ivory, who seemed to be plotting Snape's demise in her head.

I shrugged. What the hell? You only live once.

I picked up the ladle and brought it up to my mouth.

The liquid smelled like honey, even though it looked gross.

I poured the warm, sticky liquid down my throat, and began feeling sleepy.

My eyelids closed and the classroom disappeared.

"Mom? Dad?" I yelled opening the bright red door to our house. Cole and I had gone to the park to swing on the swings. I could still feel his good night kiss on my lips. "Danny?" I asked as I spotted his teddy bear on the floor. I walked over and picked it up. There was blood on its soft arm, and its stomach had been cut open and stuffing was slowly falling out. "Danny!!" I yelled running into his room. He wasn't there. "Danny?! Where are you?" I yelled running out of the room, I couldn't see and my head was spinning, so I couldn't walk straight. I ran into the bathroom.

There was an arm hanging over the bathtub.

I covered my mouth. "No!!" I shrieked, as I grabbed my brother's wrist.

I felt for a pulse.

There was none.

"Danny, please wake up," I whined. I grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him awake. His head moved to his left and I could see the bite marks on his neck. I stared horrified. I only knew one vampire in the world.

Only one.

The one I loved more than anything.

Cole.

"Miss. Enswein?"

The voice was unfamiliar, yet I knew it.

"Paige?" a concerned voice asked.

"Ivory?" I replied weakly, finally remembering.

I was in potions, Professor Snape's classroom. I had just taken a past potion.

Snape was standing beside me on the ground.

"Wait why am I on the ground?" I asked as Ivory helped me up. Every one in the classroom was staring at me. My head hurt, as the image of my brother spun inside my brain.

"You fell. You were reliving the day, someone died," Ivory said quietly.

"Danny," I said softly before passing out.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

ok hopefully this untangled one question, who was it paige almost wrote on that foggy window on the train. Cole, her vampire boyfriend! I will try to unravel the name mix up mystery in a later chapter, but in the next chapter I will tell what happened to cole.....and where he is............and paige may also be getting more black roses...............but whom are they from?