Emilie Wings

Hello hello, thanks for clicking on my name. That was nice of you.

© Emilie Wings. Taken By Melody Hepburn. 2012

As you've probably heard, I'm Emilie Wings.

Here's a list of the important stuff.

• I'm fifteen.

• I'm a girl.

• I have black and blue hair.
(No, don't be silly, of course not naturally.)

• I have blue eyes.

• I go to an arts school.

• I like to write.

• I like to skate.

• I like to take pictures.

Now, talking about pictures, here's one of me. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, that was fun.


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The Bluntt Truth
The Emilie Wings Version

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Chapter One - - -

After the storm the streets were layered in tree branches and building remains. The sky was bright, feverishly so. A pale yellow atmosphere, contrasting with the dark gray clouds. The world was quiet, peaceful. I watched it from my bedroom window, wishing I was outside taking pictures. Most of the city was outside, trying to clean up the rubble and junk. Some houses were unaffected, some had been destroyed. 

My parents hadn’t wanted me out there. They were afraid of aftershock, and even though I had told them over and over again that aftershock was only for earthquakes, and even if there was aftershock I’d probably be safer out there where the floor underneath me wouldn’t collapse, I still found myself stuck in my room. 

No one had really seen it coming, we’d had the warning, obviously, but we hadn’t realized it would be like this. Our entire city in ruins. Luckily, the death tole was low, but the numbers of homeless was insane. I couldn’t explain to you how lucky I was to still have a house to go home to.

As I watched a man try to pull a tree off his car, my phone rang.

Grumbling, I pulled myself from the windowsill bench and went to go pick it up.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Cora, the school is gone!”

“What?” I asked shocked, “What do you mean, gone?”

“I mean gone! Like no longer there, like bye bye Little Stone!” Juniper’s voice was scared, sad, and loud. 

“This is a joke, this has to be a joke,” 

“Mom says they’re moving all of us to Rytton Heights-”

“No!” I shouted, “They can’t put us in that... public school!” 

“That’s what I said! My parents says there’s no choice! Its the only school still standing!”

Now, before you jump to conclusions and think we’re total snobs, let me explain. In Rytton City, where I live there are four high schools. Rose Petal Academy, Champers Academy, Little Stone School of the Arts, and Rytton Heights Public School. I go... or I guess I went to Little Stone School of the Arts. I was a Visual Arts major, but I also dance a little, sing a little, act a little, and play the flute. My passion, on the other hand is photography. Yes, I’m that kid with the extreme camera. No, I don’t think that expensive cameras equal amazing photos, I’m not stupid. I’m just smart enough to know that a great photo taken with a great camera is better then a great photo taken with a cheap camera. 

Rytton was the name of the city, Rytton Heights was the name of the public school. The kids there weren’t... special. Or at least that’s how we see it. They weren’t smart enough to get into Champers, they weren’t rich enough to go to Rose Petal, and they weren’t talented enough to school with us. They were boring. The kinds of kids that are going to be blue collar workers when they grow up, working for all of us. 

That is why we can’t go to a public school. Not to mention we worked our asses off to get into Little Stone.

On the other end of the call I heard Story try and grabbed the phone from June, the two bickered for a moment and then one, I’m not sure which, they sound similar, said, 

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t mention it... which one of you am I speaking to?”

She laughed, “It’s Story, anyway, June didn’t even tell you the worst part.”

I bit my lip, afraid to ask. “What’s the worst part?”

“Rose Petal and Champers were also destroyed in the storm. All of us will be schooling together.”

I shook my head, unable to put into words the horror I felt. “N-n-no... that can’t be right. Surely they know what an awful idea putting us all together would be, I mean...”

“They don’t seem to know at all.”

“I wanna talk to her!” June complained.

“Give me a second, would you? Those Petals are gonna make our lives a living hell. We have to get them first Cora.”

“I know what you mean Story, but I think we should take the highroad... at least until they’ve pulled something first. We shouldn’t give them any ideas.”
“But- hey! June give it back!”

“You told her she was crazy right? I knew you’d back me up on this one. I don’t feel like dying anytime soon.” June said in a panicked rush.

“I didn’t tell her she was crazy June. I told her that we should wait. If they pull anything, I’m not against revenge, but lets not go crazy. Do you think we’ll have trouble with Champers?”

“Not anything like with the Petals.”

“I’ll call Kye, you call Christian. Let’s meet at the park, I wanna get out of my room.”

“Yeah, kay. Meet us there at... uhm... what time is it? Nine? Alright, half an hour. Meet us at nine thirty.”

When I got off the phone with the twins I called Kye’s home phone. When he didn’t answer I got worried, then called his cell.

“Hello hello, Kye speaking.” 

“I called you remember? Anyway, are you not at home?”

“Tree fell through our roof. I’m just on the porch waiting for my parents to figure out what’s going on.”

“Shit, Kye! Is everyone okay?”

“My fish are dead, which effing sucks, but my mom was so sorry about the fish that she said we could get a snake!”

“A snake? That’s so cool! You’ll let me take pictures, yeah?”

“‘Course bud. Now, whatta ‘ya want?”

“Oh-right, The twins, Christian and I are meeting at the park. Can you come, or...”

“Yeah, should be fine, meet you there.”
“Awesome, nine-thirty?”

“Nine thirty.”

...

Getting out of the house was not an easy task. I had to climb out the bathroom window. Luckily, once I was outside I could grab my bike and the rest of the trip was rather easy. I’d gotten use to sneaking out, my parents hadn’t been getting along very well recently and sometimes it was hard to think clearly with their screaming in the back ground. 

When I got to the park, Christian was the only one there.

I hopped of my bike, and pulled my camera case out of the basket.

“Hello my darling,” I laughed, giving Christian a friendly hug. Though he’d never said it, we all assumed he was gay. He certainly fit the stereotype. Always dressed in fancy get ups, knew every musical theatre song in existence and could sing almost any note you throw at him. 

Today Christian wore his school uniform shirt, a blue and white striped polo. For pants he wore dark jeans, his shirt tucked in. On his head sat his usual white fedora with a pale blue ribbon and his fiery hair was purposefully messy.

“Hey Cor.” He said, grinning when I snapped a picture of him. “What’s this about the school?”

I tried to frame him in the shot so I could get as much of the sky as I could. 

“It was like... destroyed in the storm, look up and try and look as mysterious as possible, please.”

Christian did as I asked, I snapped my picture then he continued. 

“Wait... so where are we going to school?”

Placing my hands on his arms, I lead him in front of a pile of ruble. “They’re making us go to Rytton Public School. Look scared.”

Christian didn’t have to change his features much from what he was feeling after that little bit of information. I snapped the next one, then he reacted.

“Haha,” he said nervously, “Very funny.”

“I’m serious, Chris. They’re sending us to public school.”

“But... I don’t wanna go to public school.” Christian whined, he pouted childishly and I took another picture.

“Hello Cora, Hello Chritsten,” someone called from behind me. Christian waved, I turned to see Kye riding his bike towards us. 

“Hey Kye!” Chris and I yelled in unison, then Chris bumped my hip.

“Jinx.” He chuckled.

“I’m so sorry about your house.” I said when he was closer to us.

“Wait, what happened to his house?” Chris asked.

“A tree happened to it. My parents say we’ll have to go live with my aunt Martha. Who is like in her nineties, and definitely not my aunt. I think she’s like, my mother aunt! She smells like moth balls and she’s always complaining about teenagers.” Kye made a face of disgust. 

Kye has longish brown hair that is constantly falling in front of his blue eyes. Today he wore a black t-shirt and faded jeans with a rip in the left knee. His usual blue tuque had been pulled on, and he didn’t look as if he’d had much sleep.

“Oh gawd.” I said. 

“You can’t leave!” Christian said, “If you go I’ll be stuck in a public school with a bunch of girls!” 

I let a look of mock confusion take over my face. “What’s wrong with girls?”

“Wait,” Kye ignored me, “Public school? Why are you going to public school?” 

“Little Stone was destroyed in the storm and now we have to go to Rytton!” Christian said.

“What?” Kye looked horrified. “Oh my god! I can’t leave! You guys are going to need me!”

“You could stay at my place,” Christian shrugged. “I mean... if your parents are okay with that.”

“Yeah? I’ll ask.” Kye pulled out his cellphone and started dialing, he turned away from us, walking down the path a bit to give himself some privacy. I framed my picture and let the shutter click as he walked away. 

...

Once he was back, Story and Juniper had arrived. The five of us had found a pile of ruble that Story had declared safe to climb. We now sat at the top and discussed our options. 

“I still say we do something evil to the Petals.” Story said. 

“No!” Juniper objected. “We have to take the highroad. We’ll screw our karma if we do anything awful!”

“June’s right Story... we can’t call ourselves artists if we hurt others, no self respecting artist would purposefully hurt anyone.” Chris smiled. 

Story frowned, but she nodded. “Alright. Fine, we’ll do it your way, but if they mess with us, and I mean even if they pull the smallest prank, you won’t be able to stop me from getting my revenge!”

Story and June look... well, being identical twins they look pretty similar. They both have dark brown hair that hangs down to their mid backs.  They both have tanned skin and hazel eyes, and their features are more or less exactly the same. If it wasn’t for June getting fed up with being called Story and dying blue streaks in her hair it’d be hard to tell them apart. There are little differences though, for example, Story’s cheekbones are slightly higher then June’s. June can raise one eyebrow without raising the other, and no matter how hard she tries, Story cannot, and Story’s lips are slightly pinker then June’s. 

“I promise you Story, if they hurt any of you, even emotionally, we’ll get them back.”

“Agreed.” Kye said.

“Aren’t you guys worried about the other schools?” Chris asked. “I mean... they’re not our biggest fans.”

“Yeah, but they’re not like the Petals. I swear being a stuck up brat is a must to get into that school.” June said.

“Still, the Champs don’t like us much either.”

The Champs were the students that went to Champers, the school for the geniuses of Rytton.

“Either do the Public School kids, but we don’t hate each other.” I said. I stood, wiping the dirt off my pants and started climbing down the pile.

“I’m getting serious bad feelings about them putting us all together.” Christian said.

“We all are.” Story agreed. “Its a bad idea.”

I aimed my camera at them, “Say cheese,” I called from the ground.

They all looked up and gave there best smiles. I snapped the picture and then climbed up a bit. “Just the twins,” I said.

The twins grinned and I took their picture, then I took one of just the boys making goofy faces.

“Can I see your camera?” Chris asked. I nodded and handed it over. I didn’t trust just anyone with my camera, but Chris was my best friend and I knew he could handle not breaking it.

“Get over there with the twins.” Chris nodded towards Story and June. I climbed back up and sat cross legged beside Story. Christian grinned from behind the camera and clicked the shutter. A bright flash almost blinded me. 

“Alright, let me see.” I said, holding out my hand. Christian passed me the camera and I looked back at the picture taken.

“Awe, that’s cute.” I smiled. In the picture, all three of us grinned out, June’s hair was tied back and when she smiled her teeth showed. Story’s hair was loose, and pulled to one side of her neck. Her smile was small, and soft like the Mona Lisa. 

My smile was a mix of the two. You couldn’t see my teeth, but my smile pushed my cheeks up, making my my brown eyes squint a little. My hair is a sandy blond. It’s long, down to my shoulders. Today I was wearing my brown fedora, a red t-shirt and black sweats. 

As I put the camera down, I saw my watch out of the corner of my eye.

“Oh shit!” 

It was noon, my parents would be looking for me, trying to find out where I’d gone. 

“I’ve got to go!” I exclaimed, making my way down the ruble, “I’ll see you all later!” 

...

It took my all of five minutes to get all my things organized and start riding home. I was rushing, and if you know anything about rushing something awful is bound to happen as soon as you panic. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten this, and while riding my bike I whipped around a corner and smashed into a pedestrian. I was thrown of my bike, and who ever it was let out a moan.

“Oh my god!” I yelled, scared I’d killed him. “Are you alright?”

“No.” The boy said, holding his arm close to his chest. 

“I am so sorry! Do you need to go to a hospital? Does your arm hurt? Did I kill you?” I was out of my mind worried.

“Yes,” the boy forced a grin, “you killed me.”

“Are you serious? I am so sorry!”

The boy chuckled, and with his other hand, managed to pull himself up. “No I not serious. You haven’t killed me. My arm kills though. Are you alright? That was a pretty bad wipe out.”

“Who cares about me!” I snapped. Is it broken? I’m Cora Blunttley, please don’t sue me.” 

“Conner Jewls.” He tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace. For a boy, he had long hair, longer then Kye. It hung down past his shoulders. “I’d offer my hand, but I’m scared you’ll break that one as well.”

“So it is broken?”

“I think so... It’s alright, that’s me right there,” He nodded towards a house, “I’ll just tell my parents I fell over. I promise I won’t sue.”

“Thank you...” I said. “I am so sorry!”

“Yeah... that’s okay. I’d better go to a hospital or something...” He said. “I’ll see you around Blunttly. You should probably get that checked out...” He motioned towards my knee. I had been so worried about him I hadn’t even notice that my leg hurt. I looked down and sure enough, I was bleeding.

“You don’t think I’ll have to go to the hospital, do you?”

Conner shook his head. “It doesn’t look that bad, you probably just need to wash it out.” 

I nodded. “I’m so sorry...”

Conner nodded, then turned away. “Don’t worry about it, Cora, at least you’ll have something to blog about tonight.”

“Huh?”

He turned back. “The Bluntt Truth, that’s you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah... you knew about that?”

“‘Course, and I expect to be the first story posted tonight.”

I pulled out my camera, framed the picture and told him to smile.

“There.” I said, putting my camera away. “Title, Broke Someone’s Arm Today.”

“Oh, sorry... no pictures.”

“Uh... can I just blur out your face? I sort of need a picture...”

“Uhm... as long as I’m unidentifiable I guess... oh, and no last names.”

“Got it. Awesome, see you around.”

“See ya, Blunttly.”
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Chapter Two - - - 

I woke up the next morning a nervous wreck. I was had been so worried about school the night before that I hadn’t updated my blog with the picture of Conner. I have a blog called The Bluntt Truth, and it’s actually pretty popular. My page views are always growing. I mostly post my photography and talk about my day. I’m not really sure why its so famous, but I’m not complaining either.

I pulled my SD card out of my camera and pushed it into the built in card reader on my computer. Uploading them all took time, my computer complaining at the last minute by slowing down right before the loading percentage reached one hundred. I groaned and finally my pictures were on my computer. I picked up my camera place the now empty card back for the first day of school.

Then I opened the picture of Conner in photoshop and blurred out his face. It looked silly, so after that I put a black bar over his eyes. 

I titled the post ‘After the Storm I Break a Survivors Arm.’ Then posted all the pictures, giving them all titles and captions with who was in it and where it was. As soon as I was done I waited a minute them clicked refresh, sure enough there were already some comments.

SweetPotatoe: Oh wow, these are beautiful, Cora. I love the one of Kye and I. Kye wants to know if you’re okay after falling off your bike...

That was Christian, I quickly typed up a reply.

SilverShutter: Yes Kye. I’m fine, just a little shaken up. Thanks Christian, I can print it for you if you’d like.

The next comment was from someone I didn’t know, but she was a regular on the blog. 

PrettylilPrincess: That storm was like... totally awful, my school was like destroyed!

That was weird... I wondered if I actually did know this girl, thinking about it, I decided that no one I knew would call themselves Pretty lil princess, maybe I’d meet her today.

TheBrian: Ouch, a broken arm? Hope you’re buying him lunch.

There were a few more, but looking at my clock I didn’t have time to answer then. Getting dressed was never a difficult task when your school had a uniform. The girls outfit included a white button down shirt, a pale blue and white sailor scarf and a pale blue skirt. I pulled on my black school girl shoes and ran down the stairs. 

I’d been so busy on the computer I hadn’t heard my parents fighting about who knows what. 

Toby, my baby brother was sitting patiently in his highchair, watching as my mother waved his baby bottle in my father’s face. I pulled it from her hands, she didn’t seem to notice, and passed it to Toby who happily began breakfast with a slurp. 

“I’ll get a coffee on my way to school, bye mom, bye dad.” I said, leaving the kitchen. They hadn’t even seemed to notice I’d been there in the first place. 

I unchained my bike from the porch, tucked my camera case into the basket and wheeled it down the stairs. I texted June and Story to meet me at the Smiling Dog, they agreed and I started my way to the cafe. I’d never been one to sleep in, much preferring mornings for picture taking purposes. I’d unfortunately, learned early on that in order to be up in the morning and function properly, one needed a little bit of help. Caffeine was the obvious choice.

The Smiling Dog was an adorable cafe that made the best caramel lattes. It sort of reminded me of something you would see in Paris. Three cute black, round tables sat out front, with fancy metal black chairs. A cute pink and blue striped awning hung over them topped with the stores sign that read ‘The Smiling Dog,’ with a grinning blue dog instead of an O. 

I parked my bike, chaining it to a stop sign and walked in to ordered my latte while I waited for the twins to show up. The two were always late.

Inside, I was surprised to see Jazz, another Little Stone student sitting at one of the tables, laptop opened in front of him and his head phones in his ears. He seemed to be mixing a song. Jazz was accepted into Little Stone for his amazing musical talents. He sings, plays almost any instrument you can name, and is an incredible song writer. If anyone at Little Stone is going to make it big, it will be Jazz.

After getting my drink, I decided to go say hi. 

I tapped him on the shoulder, sitting down next to him and holding up my camera.

“Hey Jazz,” I grinned, snapping a picture of him.

He pulled his headphones down, so that they now sat on his shoulders and closed his laptop.

“Hello Cora,” he smiled sweetly. Jazz never really hung out with anyone. I didn’t understand why, he was talented, kind, and well, I won’t lie, rather good looking. He had jet black hair and bright blue eyes.

“You excited about public school?” I asked jokingly.

“Oh absolutely,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, I don’t see why we can’t just go to Allegro Theatre, the drama kids are there most of the time anyway, and they’re is enough room to have classes.”

“Was it hurt in the storm?” I asked

“I’m not sure, I drove my bike by the place last night and it seemed fine, but there might be something wrong with the power, but it looks whole.”

“Isn’t Luna Spiral preforming there soon?” I asked. He looked a little shocked, maybe he hadn’t heard that.

“Oh- I don’t know.” He said quickly, “I’m not really a fan, you know?”

I was a little confused at how defensive he was getting, it wasn’t like it was embarrassing to be a fan of Luna Spiral. She was talented. Perhaps Jazz just really didn’t like her. 

Someone’s hands covered my eyes and from behind me I heard someone say, “Guess who.”

“Story...?” I guessed.

“June.” The hands were removed from my face and June walked around me.

“Sorry,” I smiled apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it,” June said sitting beside me.

“Where’s Story?”

“Getting our drinks, hi Jazz, how’s it going?”

“Good, and yourself?”

“Just amazing.” June turned back to me, I took her picture and she flinched, stunned momentarily. “Uh- oh right, Kye’s staying at Christian’s, they’re gonna meet us at the school.”

“Oh? What time is it?”

“Eight twenty, do you wanna go?”

“Yeah, sure.” I nodded. “Nice seeing you Jazz, bye,” I said, waving. 

“Bye Cora, try not to break anyone on your way to school.” I smiled, he must have seen my post this morning.

“I’ll try my hardest.” I said.

...

When we got to the school, Kye and Chris were waiting for us. I got them all to stand in front of the school, looking up at the three story building, then I took a low angled picture of them. 

“It looks like a prison.” Chris said.

“Uh guys...” Juniper said.

We all turned to face where she was looking, three girls maybe a year older then us were walking our way.

“Hello Littles,” a girl I knew as Sapphire said, sneering.

She was the head of a lot of the sports teams at Rose Petal Academy. Sports meets never went well between the Littles and the Petals.

“Hello Sapphire.” June said.

“Juniper.” Sapphire nodded. “It’s so nice to see you all, I can’t express how happy I am to be going to public school,” she said is the most fake tone I’d ever heard.

“We just came to warn you.” The girl to Sapphire’s right said, “If you try and mess with us, we’ll like, totally mess you up emotionally and stuff.” Her voice sounded a little to happy to take the threat seriously.

“Don’t worry Petals,” Story grumbled. “we’re taking the highroad.” She didn’t sound happy with this information. 

“Oh, good.” The girl to Sapphire’s left said, “then we can be friends! I’m Emmeline, that’s Sarah and this is-”

“They know who I am!” Sapphire snapped. “And no, we can not be friends!”

Emmeline looked like a kicked puppy. “Oh... I like you’re blog Cora...” She said.

“Wow, thanks,” I said, trying to ignore Sapphire. “If you girls smile, I’ll make sure to add you to it tonight,” I said.

Emmeline clapped, “Yay!” She gave her friends a huge hug and I took a picture. It was rather funny because Sapphire was glaring, Sarah looked extremely startled, and Emmeline was giving the camera a cheshire grin.

Sapphire grabbed Emmeline by the arm and led her away.

“Well that was a great start to the day,” June said.

“I’ve got a better one,” I said, showing the picture I’d just taken to my friends.

They all laughed. 

“That’s amazing!” Chris grinned. 

“Look at Sarah,” Kye laughed.

“You have to put this online,” Story giggled. 

“Don’t worry,” I smiled, “I will.”

...

When we got into the school, a boy and girl held up a long banner that read, “Welcome to Rytton Heights!” The girl was tan skinned with long dark brown hair in loose ponytails. She wore jeans, a green hoodie and matching tuque. A name tag was pinned to her chest, claiming that she was Artemis. The boy had a red shirt on with black sleeves, his hair was black and his name tag stated that he was Darren. 

As we approached them another girl who had been standing beside Artemis ran up to us and through her arms around Chris. I jumped back, confused.

“Christian!” She grinned. “Hi!”

“Hey Wynter Bells,” Chris said. “Everyone, this is my cousin, Wynter Belles Barn.”

“Wynter is fine,” She said.

“Wynter, this is Cora Blunttly, Story and Juniper Jacobs, and Kye Spencer.” 

“Wow, I’ve heard so many good things about all of you!” Wynter grinned. She was a small girl, a little to skinny, and very energetic. Her hair was just as fiery red as Chris’ and hung down past her shoulders, kept out of her face by a black headband. 

“It’s really nice to meet you Wynter,” I said.

She grinned, “You guys should be heading down to the cafeteria for the assembly.”

“The cafeteria? What about the auditorium?”

Wynter looked confused, “Uhm... we don’t have an auditorium.”

“You don’t have an auditorium?” Story asked shocked. “Where do you preform?”

“We don’t usually preform...” Wynter smiled like that was a joke.

We all gave her nervous smiles and made our way down the stairs.