Chapter 1

Karishma

The airport was a whirl of panicked activity. Mothers and children and families of every size and shape moved through the slightly disused building with wide eyes, creating eddies and swirls of frantic jerking movement. A testimony, Karishma thought, to the seriousness of the situation in a usually sedate people. As she walked purposefully towards her destination, the light clicking of her footsteps against the tile drowning under the sound of the frenzy around her, Karishma sneered. Almost every gateway was full to bursting with children, the government having ordered the mass evacuation sometime before. Most were resigned to the danger and stood at the threshold of the gate waving their children off. Others however were not so composed and she was unpleasantly reminded of rats, swarming in their desperate effort to escape a sinking barge. This thought was reenforced as she passed a grown man being restrained by a member of the airports staff as he tried to push the children aside in his effort to get aboard. Pointedly ignoring the shameful display, she quickened her pace.

Despite the general confusion of the entire situation, people had still found the time to take a second look at her and she was relieved at finally having reached her destination. It seemed the last of the passengers were just boarding and the line shortened with the sort of haste born of terror until she was standing before the flight attendant.

The woman, middle aged and mousy, had the sort of face one trusted, one that spoke of church filled Sundays and bake sales. Despite this otherwise comforting countenance her harried expression testified that any emergency she might have weathered in her lifetime came no where close to the organized chaos of today. Despite her plump, welcoming features, the woman compressed her lips into a thin disapproving line as Karishma came to the head of the line.

Karishma quietly sighed, giving no outwards sign as to her anger. 'Damn this war' she inwardly swore as she had many times before. Ever since this nonsense had began the British had managed to develop an even more distrustful attitude towards foreigners, almost phobic towards anyone that looked even slightly foreign. Despite that her roots were obviously centred in a British colony she was no exception.

"Excuse me." The woman, Eliza her name tag read in stark black letters, said. Karishma believed she was attempting to sound sympathetic, however the effect was somewhat ruined when her nose wrinkled as if having passed over some horrible stench.

"This plane if for the students of Academy for boys. I believe you have the wrong flight." Karishma noted that despite her syrupy tone she offered no assistance and her voice was cold as she replied.

"This is my flight." She stated imperiously, daring the attendant to contradict her and offering no explanation as to her presence. Before the, in her opinion rather dumpy, woman could challenge her she unfolded her ticket, until now clasped tightly in her hand, with nimble fingers and shoved it rudely in her face.

Forced to lean back to see the details of the ticket, Karishma enjoyed the sight of the unpleasant staff member struggling to maintain her balance as she teetered in her sensible but ugly heels. Finally after several discriminating glances and a scowl that creased her face like an old wrinkled shirt, the woman reluctantly grunted her defeat and allowed her to go ahead.

As she boarded the plane she could feel the awful woman glaring at her back and indulged herself in an unladylike smirk before quickly smoothing out her face. God forbid she ever got crowsfeet the likes of which that horrid attendant had been sporting.

As she stepped out into the middle of the aisle, Karishma almost stopped dead. Only pride kept her moving gracefully down the middle of the plane as every single passenger turned to stare at her in a near simultaneous movement. Faltering slightly at the unbridled male attention, thick locks of dark hair swung from side to side as she scanned the plane for an open seat.

Finally spying one, unfortunately in the middle of a rather rowdy looking crowd of boys, it was with some nervousness that Karishma walked forward with all the dignity that she could manage. Eyes as focused on her as they were, she did not have to extend much effort to gain their attention and as she approached a rather lanky, red headed boy, obviously the leader of the group, stood in a vaguely military like stance.

"If you would," she said with all of her painstakingly earned manners at the forefront of her mind, "I believe that is my seat." The boy was obviously surprised by this however he did not contradict her and it was with a sharp command that the rest of the boys in the road were evicted from their seats so that she could get by. Karishma knew that no such allowance would have been made for her had she been a boy, or even should Jack not have intervened and so as he led her to her seat she offered him a small approving smile. She knew that he had noticed as a light blush made its way across his cheeks however he quickly suppressed his slight bashfulness and rearranged his face into the kind yet somewhat sly expression of before.

As she sat, smoothing her skirt so that it would not wrinkle, the boys piled back into their seats. The exception, she noted by Jack's satisfied grin, was a rather disgruntled boy that had been relocated, by body language alone it seemed, to Jack's old seat, so that their leader could sit by her.

"Hello," her escort of a minute previous greeted her. "My name is Jack Merridew." Karishma had to admit to herself that she was impressed. Living in a family such as hers, one developed an appreciation for power, money and breeding and what one or even all three could get you. So far, this boy of perhaps only fifteen had proved to have at least two of the three qualities, power, as proven by the easy obedience of his group, and money, judging by the superior quality of his clothing. It was for these two reasons that Karishma deigned to give him a test.

"Karishma Kingston." She introduced herself, offering him her hand.

Jack

As she stepped out into the aisle of the plane, all sound quickly died. People were staring and though the proper thing would have been to ignore her or at the very least not stare quite so blatantly, Jack was having a hard time taking his eyes off of her himself. They were an all boys military school after all, and it was a rare occasion to see even your own mothers and sisters, not to mention a girl like this.

For a second she seemed, a deer in the headlights, but she quickly composed herself and began her slow journey down the plane. Unhurried and with a regal bearing, he thought, like a queen's procession. To his surprise she stopped before him, though he shouldn't have been, seeing as in their aisle was the only empty seat on the plane. He stood to greet her with the respectful military posture taught to the schoolboys in a thought long forgotten lesson on manners. Stunned with himself for just a second, he was hardly a gentleman at the best of times, jack decided it was the girl. Her ladylike demeanour just brought something out in him, something that no other girl ever had. Waiting politely he was rewarded when she instigated an approach.

"If you would sir, I believe that is my seat." She said, gesturing with a slight nod of her head to the empty space. Her voice was soft and husky, which was why Jack did what he did next.

"Make way!" He barked, and the choir followed his command with the thoughtless, eager obedience of well trained dogs. The girl raised her eyebrow he saw, and despite the minimal change to her expression he could tell he had impressed her. Escorting her to her seat, awkwardly due to the very small amount of space, he settled beside her. With a wave of his hand and a pointed look, his choir once again arranged themselves in their seats, minus one very disappointed boy that settled for Jack's old seat. As he turned back to the intriguing young girl, he saw that she was busy smoothing her skirt and took the time to look her over.

Standing a few inches shorter than Jack himself, he had to admit she was like no girl probably any of them had ever seen before. With thick, pin straight black tresses pinned up in immaculate style, a rarity in a country composed of mainly blondes, fair browns and the occasional ginger, she kept the majority of the mass hidden under a red, wide brimmed hat. Her clothes bore a sharp contrast to her exotic features however. Obviously of British origin and of rich material, they were nevertheless as alien as any foreign garment. In the near hysteria of the situation people had thrown on whatever they could find be they matching or not, the exclusion of course being the boys who wore their school uniforms and apparently this single girl. Matching the hat was a bright red dress. It was of proper length, extending just below the knee in a wide swinging skirt and tight around the waist. What kept the boy's eyes firmly on her developing figure however was the sweetheart neckline. Bare of straps and riding low over her chest, it would have approached near scandalous proportions if not for the no doubt expensive fur stole wrapped firmly around her shoulders. Gracing her delicate wrists were small red gloves, buttoned with a gold pin at the side. This colour scheme also extended to her feet with red flat shoes which laced up around her ankles and finally a bright cherry red lipstick that drew attention to every slight movement of her mouth. All in all she looked far more suited to a garden party than a mass evacuation Jack thought. What was the real attention getter however was her obvious foreign heritage, dark skin was a rarity in Britain and it was the exact sort of feature that drew the most attention.

Looking up Jack saw that he was caught. Likely she had finished smoothing out her skirt awhile ago and was studying him in return. Luckily they had not yet been introduced and he knew exactly how to turn attention away from his social faux pas.

"Hello, my name is Jack Merridew" he said, waiting uncharacteristically patiently as he saw her considering him.

"Karishma Kingston" she finally replied, offering him her hand. The boys around him were watching their interaction with fascination akin to studying the habits of some strange new creature. Despite this, Jack doubted they had noticed what had happened just now.

Her eyes were like dark chocolate he noted, struggling to pick out the pupil fading in and out of the shadows of her iris. While her pupil was somewhat indiscernible, the spark of challenge wasn't as she offered her hand at a slightly odd angle. Immediately he knew that she was testing him. If she had offered that hand to any other boy on the train they would have shaken it the same way they did a man. Even if they knew better, shaking that hand would be second nature. Therein lay the trap. Not only by shaking her hand would they prove their observational skills subpar, but noticing such subtleties was a sign of breeding, a quality she appeared to take a fair amount of stock in. Luckily for Jack however, he was unlike most any boy. Jack was a Merridew, and not just any Merridew, but of the London Merridew's, who operated one of the foremost pharmaceutical companies in the city. With this in mind, Jack took her hand, raising it to his lips for a chaste, if lingering kiss. Jack knew he had passed as she gave him a wide smile, white teeth contrasting beautifully against her dusky skin.

"You wouldn't happen to know of Merridew pharmaceuticals would you?" She asked, cocking her head gently to the side in curiosity.

"Why yes I do." He said, as if surprised that she had made the connection. It was likely enough that she had heard of them before if they ran in similar circles. "My father owns the company, you see." The humble tone of voice from the usually arrogant boy had those among his group fighting chuckles and if the twitch of her lips were any indication, Karishma found the false humility humorous as well. Despite their audience Jack felt that it was a grand joke between the two and suddenly his desire to know more about her ignited. Before he could voice his questions however the voice of the pilot echoed throughout the cabin, announcing takeoff. The whining of the engine discouraged conversation and Jack felt his stomach drop briefly as the metal carriage rose several thousand feet in the air. Finally after some minutes they levelled out and the engine quieted to an acceptable enough degree to talk.

"And what does your father do?" He questioned her casually, as if he weren't burning with interest.

"My father owns a rather extensive trading company, mainly dealing in teas from India."

"Kingston teas?" She nodded "I believe my mother is very fond of your darjeeling. She has it for breakfast almost every day." Karishma gave him a grateful smile, as if this was a personal complement.

"I will extend her regards to my father." Jack could think of no completely polite way to phrase this next question but he was simply dying to know.

"And here I was under the impression that Kingston teas were headed by a brit..." He trailed off waiting for her to fill him in. Luckily she did not seem in the least offended and answered promptly.

"Oh it is. My father doesn't have a foreign bone in his body, my mother is a whole other story however. Born and raised in india. She met my father while he was on a business trip to the colony and that was that."

"How interesting. If she looked anything like you I'd have to say it's no wonder he fell for her." Jack was delighted to see her redden at his honeyed words. "I have to wonder though, how you got a ticket on this plane in the first place considering it was supposed to only be for the boys of our school."

"My father is good friends with your headmaster." She explained. "He convinced him to let me have a seat on the plane so that he could make sure I was evacuated safely." Jack hid a smirk as she seemed to easily open up to him, offering answers freely. Perhaps this flight wouldn't be so boring after all.

Karishma

They chattered throughout the rest of the trip, sharing some details of their lives and exchanging others, peppered with brief interjections from the other boys. Jack was sharing a somewhat amusing story about an incident with the school choir, interlaced with arrogant boasting about everything from his natural talent to his leadership capabilities. When he once again brought up his ability to sing in C sharp Karishma had to restrain her giggles.

It was a bit like a character in a story she had once read, Peter Pan she recalled, fun loving, boastful Peter who did what no one dared to do and went where no one dared to go for the simple reason that, if he couldn't do it, who could? She had always liked the character and she found Jack reminded her of him greatly not only in his arrogance but also in his sly smile and reddish hair. If only he had green eyes he would fit the character to a tee, but Karishma decided his blue eyes suited him rather well regardless.

She was just about to mention the uncanny resemblance when the plane gave a large shudder. Several of the younger students screamed and karishma pursed her lips with worry. Some had just began sobbing when the captains voice rushed to assure everyone in a burst of static, citing turbulence. Any reassurances disappeared however when the plane tilted alarmingly, throwing the students to the side. Karishma found herself leaning heavily into Jack and gave a sigh of relief as he wrapped a wiry arm around her shoulders.

Brief popping noises could be heard. And with the loud screech of "THE WINGS TORN OFF, ITS GONE!" panic prevailed. Kids were screaming, crying, fumbling with their seat belts in a hopeless, desperate effort to escape as the plane hurtled ever faster towards the ground. In the pandemonium someone managed to open the emergency door and wind tore through the small enclosure with a vengeance, spiriting away the howls and screams so that everyone was left deaf and dumb.

Struggling to maintain her composure in the worst fright she had ever endured, the blue of the sky and the sea was one great nauseating blur of movement and had she been of the mind, she would have noticed a conspicuous purple bruise, born of her death grip on Jack's arm.

Green and brown superseded blue as with a clash of broken machinery they shuddered to a halt, leaving a swath of destruction behind their wreckage. It was uncommonly quiet, Karishma remembered thinking, despite the low sounds of children whimpering and moaning dizzily around her. Then darkness overtook her vision.