If I could write a book about my life, the title would be in bold with flashing gold letters, something like: THIS STORY IS BORING. And it would be. All you would find is a bunch of book titles, lists, plans and equations.

Am I a nerd? Well, that depends on your definition of the word 'nerd'. Am I 'a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills'? Not that I know of. Am I 'boringly studious'? Probably. Am I 'a single-minded expert in a particular field'? Yep.

Books are one of my escapes from reality. But you know what? You won't want to hear about my boring back story so let's just get right to it.

My name is Amy Taylor, and if you feel that my story is terribly cliché, then you better start running. I mean, it's always the same. Hero goes on an adventure, people die, the readers cry, hero walks off into the sunset and lives happily ever after.

I'm just a girl in a big world. And this is the story of the Aphrodite Rangers.

Song Of The Chapter ~ The Hanging Tree

Chapter One ~ Be Prepared

Amy Taylor POV

I sighed and plugged my earbuds in. Sometimes music helped me relax from twitching and fidgeting around on the bus trip home from school. (Don't look so bored. It's not my fault that this is the opening scene!)

I was just getting into the chorus of my song before someone yanked my earbuds out. "Hey!" I cried, turning to face the offender, prepared to defend my horrible taste in music to this person. But that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, as the person I was facing was one of the worst people I'd ever met: Susan Simpson.

"Oops! Mind if I see what rubbish you're listening to?" She put one of the earbuds in her ear. Immediately, she scrunched up her nose and tossed the pair back at me.

"Seriously?! What a load of rubbish!" Susan screeched.

"Why would I listen to what you have to say about one of my favourite singers?" I shot back.

"Rot in hell, loser." Susan sneered, then stalked off.

I plugged my earbuds back in, but by now the song had finished. With a sigh, I turned to face the window. What beautiful scenery, you know? I just love watching the rolling fields flash by, all the same green colour, maybe a few cows or sheep here and there -

Suddenly, the bus slammed on the brakes and I went flying forwards. My head didn't hit the seat in front of me, but the girl next to me did. Wait, since when was there anyone next to me? 

The girl groaned and sat up. Then she did something weird, something that I couldn't explain, even if I tried. Well, I mean, her actions were very simple but her reaction was what puzzled me. Since when does taking a sip of apple juice suddenly re-energise you? And holy mother of god was that a knife?!

At this point you can probably tell that I was fearing for my life. Was she going to murder everyone or something?

"Where are we?" I murmured, noticing the lack of movement of the bus. Out of the window, there were only trees and the thin dirt track that we must've been driving on.

"Oh no," the knife girl said with a groan.

And then it was as if everything was a blur. I remember kids standing on their seats to look at the driver, confusion, a sudden burst of light, screams, the knife girl suddenly leaping in front of me, and then darkness tugging at my sleeves.

•••

The first thing I was aware of when I woke up was that I was swaddled by many warm blankets. For a moment I just relaxed into them, completely content. But then the bus thing came flooding back and I opened my eyes to my surroundings. 

The second thing I noticed was that the knife girl from earlier was stoking a campfire in front of me.

The girl was the type of pretty that I yearned to be. Her eyes shone blue like the sky (you know that fanfiction blue) and her blonde hair was tossed to the side in a messy braid. She wore a plaid shirt with coloured jeans to match, a black vest over top with pink peeking out, and riding boots.

"Who?" I groaned, trying to sit up. The girl glanced at me.

"Lexi," She greeted, smiling slightly.

I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off. "I know who you are, Amy."

"How do you-"

"First rule of the Aphrodite Rangers: Be Prepared." I don't know why the words automatically capitalised in my head but sure, whatever.

"Okay," I didn't really feel safe with a girl who knew who I was and had a knife - which was lying on the ground beside her - looking after me. "What's the 'Aphrodite Rangers'? And what happened?"

"The bus crashed. No big deal. I rescued you, but the other kids? The driver restarted the engine, but then it exploded. I told them that there was a service station that way." She pointed through the trees to my left.

"Then why aren't we there?" I protested.

"I'm not really a big fan of interrogations and questions."

"Then why do you have a knife? And you haven't told me what this 'Aphrodite Rangers' thing is!"

Lexi put her hands up. "It's complicated. But the Aphrodite Rangers is kinda like girl scouts, we're big on survival like the Hunters of Artemis, except we can date and we protect our OTPs-" she stopped, like she'd said too much.

I didn't push her. "Okay,"

We sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the fire crunch the wood. "Can you enter the passcode on your iPod?" Lexi asked suddenly. "I feel like singing."

I grinned, and grabbed the small device. Then I typed P-J-O onto the screen and went into my music app, then passed it to her.

She tapped the screen a few times, and a familiar song came on.

"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say who murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called for his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."

Lexi's soft voice echoed around the trees. I hummed along quietly.

"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."

The song continued on, but Lexi had stopped singing, so I clapped quietly. "You should forget about me." She said softly.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Forget that you ever met me. Please, it's for your own good." She helped me stand up, collecting up the blankets as well. Then she gave me my iPod and ushered me into the trees.

I turned to look at her two minutes later, but she was gone.

A/N: Did you like it? I'm really excited about this book!!

Aphrodite Rangers mentioned:

Lexi ~ @IWRITEFANFIC_11