Chapter 1: The headless-chicken mentality of Ryder Quin

It's funny how sometimes people when things don't go quite their way, turn their eyes to the past and wonder... Where did I go wrong? As if that would actually change anything. It's probably one of the stupidest things a human can do, but they do it anyway. It's not like they can go back in time and change anything.

Where did I go wrong?

For Ryder Quin, things probably went wrong from the first day of high school. Maybe it started with high school. Or maybe it went wrong when she decided that going to school with e fever and while on her time of the month was a good idea as if she would actually be able to survive that. It's debatable if ANYONE can survive that, but dear Ryder Quin sometimes has the mentality of that one chicken in Moana, so such situations are not rare.

It was that sick body and blurry vision because of the fever, that made her faint in the hallways while trying to make her way to the bathroom. And because of her occasional headless-chicken mentality that convinced her to do dumb shit, this damsel-in-distress-style fainting led this idiot of a girl to meet Aiden Caley. And it was his gentle smile, the help he offered, probably also that stupid desire in the heart of a teenager to experience that movie-like high school experience, or most likely the fact that he carried her in her arms to the school's infirmary that made Ryder develop a crush on him. People are easily fooled creatures when it comes to their feelings. Just a moment is enough to make the heart flutter, to make butterflies fly in their stomach, which is very unscientific, but feelings don't care much about science, do they?

Maybe it all started with this crush... or maybe it all started that day... that night...

That day was like all the other days. Boring. No matter how interesting and exciting movies make high school look like, it is quite the opposite actually. It's boring, physically and mentally tiring and there are a lot of idiots to deal with, most of them being from the school's staff. So, given the fact that this boring day seemed to never come to an end, the dragged voice of the teacher either making people fall asleep or annoyed, Ryder was entertaining herself by, not creepily at all, staring at her very crush, Aiden Caley.

"Psst...Ryder." The staring seemed to be damaging her hearing for Ryder failed to notice that Jasmine, her friend, was calling her. "Yo Ryde..." And yet again another failure. "Yo, you chicken-head." Jasmine's voice sounded a lot like that of a mother trying to scold her wailing-in-public toddler but without making it too obvious. Thankfully, the teacher was half-deaf... or maybe he just didn't care for he was quite old and rumors said that he was so ancient he fought in World War 1. As mentioned before... the school was filled with idiots.

Finally, Ryder, the chicken-head, listened. "What?" Still, her eyes didn't leave the guy's back. She wasn't even looking at his face, what is so interesting about a back? Jasmine could never understand the head of this girl. Maybe because it was partly that of a chicken.

"Stop staring at him for God's sake." Jasmine hissed. And to urge her friend further, she skillfully and mercilessly threw a pencil to her head, not caring if Ryder might lose an eye or not. Or maybe that was her intention from the beginning. Not quite easy to ogle at someone without eyes, right? In her defense, Jasmine was trying to save her friend's dignity and reputation, so she wouldn't become a creep.

However, Ryder was rather bored. It's not like she would stare at the guy's back if it wasn't for that, furthermore, she was more lost in her thoughts while accidentally it happened for her eyes to be landed on Aiden. Still, that didn't make it sound less creepy, so she didn't try to defend or explain herself. Quite on the contrary... "But he is so handsome and..." Ryder finally looked at Jasmine with a frown on her face. Her eyes then landed on the open and miserably abounded "for the sake of love" notebook of hers and the unanswered questions seemed to be taunting her.

Right at that moment, Jasmine gasped as quietly and convincedly as she could. "Oh my God, he is looking at you!" Her right hand gripped her forearm hard and as if Ryder hadn't gotten used to this kind of mockery, mostly likely because Jasmine was quite good at acting the part, Ryder snapped her head to Aiden, only to find him looking down at his book.

Well, that was quite disappointing.

That's called playing dirty.

"You are mean," Ryder whispered to Jasmine annoyed. Annoyed at herself for getting herself fooled once again and at Jasmine for laughing.

"Yes. But you love me." Jasmine said in a matter-of-fact tone that didn't make Ryder any happier.

Jasmine was that kind of friend that cared... a lot... she would care about Ryder like a second mother, feeding and taking care of her, making sure that chicken-head of hers wouldn't get her in trouble even though Jasmine tended to get her own ass in very odd and not pleasant situations herself, but for the love of God, this girl would never stop trolling the hell out of Ryder. The more she cared the more she fooled around. It was quite annoying at times, but after years of enduring Ryder finally learned how to deal with it and more importantly, fight back.

She would get her revenge... eventually...

Ryder turned her gaze on Aiden once more, this time actually staring at him, as her lips curved upwards the tiniest bit unconsciously. The young man's dirty blonde hair was messy like he woke up with that hair, but most likely he spent a lot of time in front of the mirror to make it look like that. Ryder had seen her male cousins countless times doing so and found it quite funny. Aiden's leg was stomping against the ground. The black shirt hugged his back too tightly, maybe e bit more than it should, but who's complaining? The shirt had a "To quote Hamlet Act III, Scene III, Line 87 'No'" quote on it, which made her lips curve up e bit more since Ryder had acclaimed Hamlet as her spirit animal for four years now. Just to be clear about this... she's not into theater, nor is she interested in every work of Shakespeare. Ryder just appreciates Hamlet in particular.

From that time she fainted and let herself be carried by him, maybe because she found it interesting and entertaining to have a crush, Ryder would steal glances at the young man as if studying him from afar, but never did she take the initiative to talk to him. She looked at him as he laughed and fooled around with his friends... at the way he looked as if nothing could bother him, always looking carefree and confident. Ryder liked the way he smiled and laughed, and the boy was quite good to look at with those "unintentional" messy hair and his green eyes.

Jasmine sighed as she noticed the look in Ryder's eyes and had to do her part as the supportive friend. "Give it a try. Just ogling like a creep from afar is creepy. Try saying "hi". A simple "hi" can't be that hard."

Ryder shook her head. Some things were better left as they were. Some things were sweeter because they were out of reach or seen from afar. What if she got too close only to see that her prince charming was actually an ugly goblin? Some things were better to be left dipped in sweet ignorance than in bitter verity.

Disappointment isn't a nice feeling and why not avoid it if given the chance.

"I still think you should at least try."

Ryder thought about it. A simple hi wouldn't hurt anyone. Maybe the prince charming wouldn't be a goblin nor turn into a frog after all. Just a simple hello. But how was she supposed to say "hello" to him? Like 'Hi Aiden?' or 'Hi there!' or it's better if she says just 'Hi!'. But if she says just hi, he would start a conversation and she would ramble like a fool and end up saying things she shouldn't say. One of the biggest flaws Ryder possessed was her inability to have small talk. She also wasn't that good at interacting with new people. Due to certain events of the past, someone with Ryder's personality lost interest in socializing. If it weren't for the persistent Jasmine determined in being friends with her, Ryder, most likely, would have no friends at all.

Humans are hard to deal with, Ryder thought with a sigh.

Her head bumped against the table lightly a couple of times in frustration. After enough time for a slight bump to form in her head from all the bumping passed, the bell rang and the classroom finally came back to life as if just woken up from a coma. People groaned, laughed, sighed in relief, and started to leave one after another. Ryder got up, picked up her stuff, and walked to Aiden. She can do it... right? No, no, no.... she's one hundred percent sure she can do it. However, maybe because she was predestined to make a fool of herself right in those moments, or most likely because her eyes were focused only on the back of the young man, dear headless chicken Ryder failed to see the bag thrown on the floor carelessly. And that's when things went downhill. Tripping over it and letting out a scream of surprise and fear as she saw the floor coming closer to her face as if asking for kisses, Ryder was falling.

Great! A broken ugly face is exactly what I needed.

But for some reason, the pain of her nose breaking never came. Instead, she fell on something warm and kind of soft that let out a low groan. Her eyes opened slightly. The first thing she saw was blackness and for a second there, the moron thought she had gone blind. Just as that thought had crossed her mind, Ryder noticed that her blindness was actually a black shirt and as her eyes traveled up, she faced Hamlet saying "No" to her. As her heart trembled in realization, hesitatingly her eyes went up the body and even though she saw it coming, Ryder still widened her eyes when her gaze met a pair of green eyes like a pair of emerald gemstones looking at her and two pink lips turned downwards in a frown twitched slightly.

Holy mutant cow shit!

The previously paled from fear of getting hurt face turned red immediately and the chicken brain of hers stopped working. It wasn't the right time to leave her, but it just left her. Even the chicken brain didn't want to deal with this shit.

"Are you okay?" Aiden asked her in his soft deep voice and Ryder blushed even more from embarrassment as if that was even possible. And then it hit her... from back then when this youth held her in his arms to the infirmary, this was the first time he talked to her. It had been such a long time since Ryder had heard that deep voice directed at her, and the red cheeks just turned even redder like the scarlet ass of a baboon.

Ryder.exe has encountered sudden social interaction. The system therefore will reboot. Please wait until the system is finished with the rebooting process before proceeding.

Behind her, Jasmine was conflicted. Should she roll her eyes or pale in concern? Help her or use this opportunity to let her grow some balls? After all, it would be a good learning experience. In the end, she just remained frozen in place and decided to enjoy the show.

As her brain finally started to work again, it still needed some time to process what was happening. Oh my God, he is talking to me! What should I say?

"Ye... Yes." Ryder muttered and stood up, then extended a hand to the handsome young man in front of her and helped him up. The handsome young man was hella heavy. With a "hmph" Ryder pulled him up, panicking for a second that instead of helping him up, she would let him fall again, and even worse, she would also fall on top of him... again.

Without saying anything, those green gemstones of his glanced at the culprit who had all its content spilled on the floor when Ryder tripped over it. Aiden took his backpack in his hand and looked at Ryder then as if he got reminded of something he broke into a smile. "Be more careful next time." And just like that the prince charming left the classroom with his friends following right behind him. One of them grinned as he threw his arm over Aiden's shoulders and muttered at him.

"How charming of Aiden Caley."

Aiden rolled his eyes and elbowed him in the stomach and rubbed his back with a pained face.

"She was that girl I told you about."

Aiden "??? Who?

His friend rolled his eyes. "The one who has a crush on you."

"Oh."

However, Ryder couldn't hear any of these as the boys had already left.

"That wasn't that hard, was it?" Jasmine used Ryder's shoulder as an armrest, stepping out of the comfortable role of a spectator. Ryder shrugged her arm off and pouted.

"I almost had a heart attack."

"You are hopeless." Jasmine laughed.

***

The school wasn't that far from her house, so Ryder would always walk her way home. Even so, it was a bit tiresome, given the fact that Ryder wasn't the type to go out often and her feet were made only to walk to the fridge. Driving a car was out of the question for two reasons. One: it was uneconomical for the distance was too short and the only car her family had was used by her father. Two: Ryder didn't have a driver's license or better say she didn't want one, much to the others' surprise. She didn't even intend to get one. And so this headless chicken had to walk back home.

Just as she was about to put on her headphones, a voice called.

"Hi!"

Turning her head towards the direction the voice came from, Ryder was blinded by the handsome smirk on the young man's carefree face. Behind him were two of his friends that in order to give Aiden some privacy, had turned their backs to him and chatted among each other while looking at an angry girl walking away. They seemed to be mocking her, shaking their heads as if tired.

Ryder furrowed her eyebrows at Aiden confused as to why would he talk to her. At the same time, her brain couldn't help but go blank for a second. If it weren't for Jasmine, no one else would take the initiative to talk to her. Maybe it was because of the passive and cold glance Ryder would usually have when walking down the hallways of the school alone or maybe it was because Jasmine was her friend that nobody dared to talk to her, for Jasmine even though having that mommy attitude, happened to be quite the aggressive little muffin who thanks to her father's boxing gym that she frequently used, the girl knew how to fight and fought like a hawk when provoked. After breaking a guy's nose from the basketball team after school, it seemed that people either were scared of her, disgusted by her, or just simply hated her. Given the fact that Jasmine also had two bigger brothers and her father looked quite terrifying, the number of people daring to approach her was almost zero. Ryder didn't mind. She didn't like having too many people around. It was quite tiresome.

Seeing that Aiden was approaching her, Ryder couldn't help but think... Is he talking to me because of what happened earlier?

Aiden's expression, if the smirk was left aside, was quite gentle, yet Ryder tensed a bit, be it because of embarrassment or because of fear of saying something she shouldn't.

"Hi." Her voice came out somewhat shaky. Thank God it was just a short word or she wouldn't know how to handle the embarrassment of looking and sounding like a fool.

His hand rose to the back of his neck as he spoke, his eyes avoiding eye contact. Is he being shy? "So I was talking with my friends earlier and... none of them knew your name... so I thought I would ask you myself."

Wait a minute... He wants to know... he wants to know my name?! Not knowing how to feel, flattered that he was interested or annoyed that he didn't know since they had been in the same class for quite a while, Ryder struggled to answer. It was a simple question. Answer the damned thing.

"Ryder King." And just like that, Ryder signed her death contract. What the fuck? Her eyes widened. God, I messed up my own name. "I mean Ryder Quin." Great job Ryder. Well, done.

Aiden laughed lightly at her and "The scarlet baboon ass face" had a sequel. He looked sweet, so cute, so perfect and the laughter didn't sound like a mockery at all, but embarrassment doesn't care and strikes mercilessly.

I am a mess.

"Nice to meet you, Ryder, I'm Aiden Caley. I like your name." He sounded rather polite and gentle... surprisingly, the prince charming didn't turn into a frog yet. It was such thought that stirred up the warmth in her stomach and Ryder found herself paling in her heart. Oh no! I'm catching feelings. That's when things went downhill and shit got worse and worse. If she was a mess earlier, now she was a total catastrophe.

"Your name is pretty too. No, I mean it is beautiful. I mean I like your name too. No... I..." The urge to slap herself for rambling like this was overwhelming. Now he will think I am stupid and laugh his ass off at me, Ryder thought sighing in her heart. Socializing is very difficult. It was as if this idiot had forgotten how to be human.

"Cute," Aiden murmured to himself as the corner of his lips lifted, finding the girl in front of him interesting. "Well, see you tomorrow." He chuckled and left or something like that, Ryder wasn't really paying attention after he called her cute. Her whole body froze and she forgot how to breathe. This was a first... someone who wasn't her one-hundred-year-old grandmother, and a guy her own age at that... called her cute.

For someone like Ryder, who lacked in human interactions... dealing with compliments felt like someone had thrown a grenade in her hands, being blown away from the overwhelming feeling of panic from not knowing what to do.

In the end, Ryder.exe stopped working again.

He thinks I'm cute.

With that sentence playing like a broken record in her head the whole time, which should have gotten quite irritating after a while, but it didn't seem to happen anytime soon with Ryder, the headless chicken walked back to her house. With every time that sentence was repeated, a monkey-like grin would appear on her face scaring people out of her way or at best just making them worry she might have hit her head so hard the brain probably flew out of her skull. Poor girl. At such a young age. Very pitiful.

The house was empty and a deadly silence hung in the air. Her parents had gone to her grandmother's house since she had been feeling under the weather lately, and being told she was convinced she was dying. With no other option left her parents had left Ryder home alone for a couple of days. They would be back the day after tomorrow. Ryder didn't mind. Quite the contrary... she was enjoying it to her heart's content! The whole house only for her for two days... Aah! Just like Ryder liked it, quiet and with no signs of humans around. Throwing her backpack on the floor of her room, Ryder headed out to the backyard.

There were a lot of things that fascinated this young lady. Most of the time, the internet took the blame for it. Maybe because there weren't many people she could hang out with and there was even less desire to hang out, Ryder loved to spend her free time by undertaking new projects, some left unfinished, some forgotten or just labeled as failures, and many others started in a whim because of a spark of inspiration.

At the moment she was dead set on making herself a drafting table because she thought it was cool and it would be pretty useful on those rare occasions when she felt like drawing. And so, much to her mother's displeasure, the backyard resembled more of a messy garage than the messy garage. There were saws and hammers, clay and cement, iron rods, brushes, paint, random scraps and pieces of wood or plastics, and God knows what else all around the place. It was a nightmare. The lovely green grass had been stomped to that degree of ceasing to exist, the flowers her mother had planted with so much love either had faded colors or were crippled due to accidents during work. Even though both her parents took pride in their daughter being skillful, they both were pained, one because of the unsightly condition of the once lovely backyard and the other because a lot of money would be spent on these odd hobbies of their asocial child.

Since Ryder loved to work until late at night, she had installed a few lights around the place that sometimes wouldn't turn off until two a.m. or later.

Taking advantage of her parents' absence, Ryder decided to stay up till late, trying to figure out the blueprints of the drafting table, even though it was a school night. With the saw brought to her chin, her eyes were focused on the blueprints as the frown on her lips deepened. If it was a pen or a brush, damn it, even a God damn spoon, the image of this girl deep in thoughts was quite beautiful and mesmerizing. But of course, that wouldn't happen. With the saw in her hand and the cold blade of it lightly tapping her chin, this young lady looked like a psychopath about to cut up someone, but hadn't quite figured out of it would be more convenient to cut down the arms from the shoulder, or the elbows because there wasn't too much space inside the trunk of her car.

And so, midnight came before Ryder could notice how late it was. Still, deep in thoughts, at first, she was unaware of the shuffling sounds coming from the wooden fence behind her. It wasn't until a loud thump echoed through the silent night that she jumped up in horror and turned around.

The head fell again, she thought. The last project of hers had been a life-size wooden doll that she had worked hard to make it look like Medusa, but unfortunately, it turned out a bit deformed. Her parents had proposed to bring the doll to her uncle's farm to scare the crows in the fields... Needless to say, Ryder felt quite offended by such a proposal.

However, it wasn't the head of the deformed Medusa that had fallen. Horrifyingly it was the dark figure of a man, lying on the ground in a fetal position, groaning in pain. As if fate had decided that this night shall end like a scene from a horror movie, the man was hidden by the shadows because of course, the light of that specific corner burned out a few days ago.

I'm going to die tonight.

Her body tensed from fear, and the grip on the saw tightened, as she eyed the hammer that wasn't too far from her, but unlike when forced into socializing, her mind was clear, having the time to analyze the situation, eye up the man and calculate how strong and big he was, and, of course, to curse. But her body still remained frozen like an ice cube. All she could do was look at the man and accept her death.

At least I won't have to do the homework for tomorrow.

However, much to her surprise, the dark figure of the man didn't move, almost as if he was dead. Did he actually jump over the fence into my backyard only to die? How will I explain that to mom? She will never leave me alone if a random dude dies this one time, I have the whole house for myself.

Suddenly, the broad shoulders of the man shook slightly a muffled sound came from him. A soft, heart-breaking cry. He was crying.

Is he drunk?

Still, on high alert, Ryder dared to take her eyes off the man and look around for a phone, only to remember that it had no battery and died a few hours ago. It really must be her destiny to die today. What is this unrealistic horror movie setting?!! What is this kind of death... well on second thought... I will probably end up in the newspaper...

Should I scream?

But what if he jumps on me? I'm armed but he's probably stronger and taller than me so the chances of survival are few...

Just as she was about to decide if screaming or not was a good idea, the man spoke. "I'm sorry..." The voice broke and what followed those two words, Ryder couldn't make out. At first, she thought he was apologizing for intruding, but the man kept crying and muttering under his breath. It wasn't Ryder he was seeking forgiveness from... but then who?

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Hidden in the shadows the man bit his lip as tears washed his face.

Bewildered by such a turn of events, as mentioned before, with that chicken mentality of hers, Ryder now felt more curious than scared of the man. With her saw still held in her hands ready to strike, she found the courage to ask. "Are you okay?"

Are you here to kill me? But of course, she didn't say that at loud. If the man didn't have such intentions, she didn't want to give him ideas.

The man sat up, his head hung low and knees brought to his chest. His hands covered his already hidden by a hood face. In such a position, the shaking of his shoulders was even more visible. The man shook his head.

Oh... so he isn't okay? Okay~

It felt like an eternity drowned in silence before the man took a few deep breaths, sobering up and calming himself down. With a hoarse voice, he broke that silence. "Can... can you give me some water? Please?" His voice sounded like breaking glass. As if there was something in him that kept shattering his soul from inside.

Never in her life had Ryder heard such a pained voice... the sound sent a shiver down her spine, though what caused it was unknown.

"Will you leave afterward?"

The man nodded.

Still, keeping an eye on him, Ryder grabbed the bottle at her worktable. Since she always worked for hours nonstop, she would usually bring some snacks and a bottle of water with her in the backyard for her short breaks. The bottle was almost full, so it should have been enough.

Not daring to approach him, Ryder rolled the bottle to his feet. It felt like she was merely feeding a dog, but even though she had tons of homework to do, Ryder preferred to be alive by tomorrow.

The man took the bottle in his hands and brought it to his lips. The hoodie he was wearing kept his face in total darkness and the burned-out light bulb seemed like it was created just for this specific moment to hide the man's figure, yet as he lifted his head to drink, Ryder saw the white skin of his jawline.

When the bottle was brought back down it was completely empty. The water had sobered up the man. He stood up and dusted off his dark clothes, his voice clearer. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I better get going." The shattered glasses of his voice turned into burning ice. The stranger was about to jump over the fence again, leaving the same way he came, but his movements came to a halt, making the blood turn cold down Ryder's veins. "Thank you for helping me, Ryder." The tone of the man said softly and warmly, holding the taste of a smile...

And then he was gone.

EXTRA:

Ryder: WHO ARE YOU CALLING A CHICKEN?!!!

Author: hehe ╮(╯▽╰)╭