Chapter One

 

I saw him straight away.

It was hard not to.

Dressed in black, with a dark cap pulled low over his eyes, he stood out like a neon sign. His feet crossed at the ankle on top of a cracked picnic bench as he watched everyone walk by.

Stomping across the grass, I cursed under my breath as my heavy bag bit into my shoulder. Lauren was late. I held in an eye roll as I recalled her jumbled, panicked, call from earlier. Something to do with her brothers, the television screen, and her dad going to kill them all.

Now I was alone. On the first day of term. Attending school was a dangerous affair—well for me, anyway. In fact leaving the house was dangerous . . .  But nothing would stop me attending school. Nothing, not a bag splitting from the weight of too many books, or flying solo.

It was Eleanor Heavers that made me notice. Curse the bitch. I was halfway across the grass when the anomaly struck.  Heavy Ellie, was famous for sniffing out fresh male blood from a clear school corridor away. Yet she walked passed, with her perfect hair streaming in the breeze, as she chewed the ear off Sarah Hamley.

Eleanor didn't notice the biker boots, or the black clothes and baseball cap. Nor did she notice the mysterious allure that exuded from his direction. Neither did anyone else.

Did I?

Hell yes.

I tried to ignore him but my feet weren't listening and walked me right in his direction. My stomach squeezed with a tug that pulled me from the safety of the path onto the uneven tufts of vibrant grass.  Walking is a dangerous pass time—for me.

At first, I thought he wasn't looking. But, when I tripped, the roots of an old oak tree reaching to grab me on my inexplicable detour, I landed with a resounding bang on my hands and knees.

That's when I realised he was watching me. He smiled.

By the time I'd scrambled off the floor and glanced to the picnic bench, he was gone.

"Oh, look." I cringed as Eleanor's voice carried over the lawn to my unwilling ears. "Poor Bronte's on the floor, and the term hasn't even started yet." I didn't bother to locate her. Her twittering laughter bounced off the redbrick building and assaulted my ears. I didn't need an accompanying visual cue. "I wonder how many bones she will break this year?" she said. Her musings were loud. Guaranteed to draw enquiring glances of other students as they crossed the quad on the first day of lessons.

I fidgeted with the neckline of my shirt, which strangled my neck with a Boa Constrictor's grip. With my left hand, I smoothed my skirt, brushing away debris from my first tumble of the term. With a shake of my head, I shook it off and made my way to class.  The strap of my bag dug in like a razor and I winced under the weight, even though I hadn't even made it to the library yet. The familiar "Library thrill" made its way along my spine when I considered the new reading list.

"What are you thinking of?" Lauren skipped up beside me and linked her arm through mine. Our black blazers meshed. I didn't bother to question her tardiness.

"Coach Rivers face."

Lauren giggled, her brown hair lifting in the breeze into some wild halo, as she shook it out the way. "Your mum didn't change her mind then."

"Nope." I patted my bag which safely enclosed a letter excluding me from physical education. The letter had been under more discussion than I would have liked, which I found ridiculous considering my injury rate.

"Do you reckon she'd write one for me?" Lauren pouted her cherry stained lips. "It's not fair you no longer have to do Phys. Ed and I do."

"I suggest you break various bones and fall down a lot, and then they will let you get away with it." When I'd broken my arm for the third time, everyone knew that I shouldn't take part in sports any more. Everyone apart from Coach Rivers. Coach Rivers had sadistic tendencies. Mainly born from the fact she looked like a male shot putter and had the personal allure of a warthog. I hated P.E it was the literal bane of my life. I caused more accidents to others than I did to myself. This was a feat considering I'd been wearing plaster casts for most of the last few months.

"Remember when you smacked Paul in the face with the football?"

I cringed. "Remember when you tried to kiss it better?”

"I did not,” she laughed, “much."

"Anyway, I will be in the library exercising the only muscle I need. My brain."

Lauren shook her head, deep in thought. "I don't know how we are best friends."

"You need me to make you feel like Wonder Woman?”

With a straight face Lauren nodded. “I need you to help me with my math homework more.”

I laughed, losing my concentration and tripped on the edge of the walkway. Lauren's hand shot out to catch me. “Okay, I am Wonder Woman,” she said.

Before my birthday I’d been normal; well, at least I thought I was. I'd always been happy existing in my own little bubble. Happy in my bubble, bopping along, trying to stay out of the way of Eleanor Heavers. Then I'd blown out my sixteen candles and everything had changed. Everything.

By the time Lauren and I reached class, a pinch of anxiety was gripping my insides. It was uncomfortable, and I hoped it wouldn't result in a trip to the toilet before registration. No one wanted to start the new school year doing the hallway dash to the girl's lavatory. 

Lauren eyed the double doors with measured dislike. "Ready for another boring year?"

"There's a new boy." I shouted the words in my excitement—I didn't know how I'd forgotten to mention it before.

Lauren's mouth fell open, her gum balancing precariously on the tip of her tongue. "Get out. There is not." New kids didn't turn up often. When the last new student arrived, lesson plans had been disrupted for days. He was still famous for being the new kid, and he arrived two years ago. "Where?" Lauren craned her neck trying to locate the newcomer.

"Well he's not here right now, is he?" I rolled my eyes and tried to shush her with my hand. I'd already had enough people stare at me for the day and it hadn't even started yet.

"Are you sure he's real? He's not one of your migraine hallucinations is he?" She chuckled, but I noticed her eyes flick over me.

"No. I haven't had a headache in, uh, in days."

A frown creased between Lauren's eyebrows. "Days?" Her body angled towards mine a fraction, like she was ready to take a bullet for me.

"Don't fuss," I sighed.

"I'm not fussing."

Exhaustion washed over me, I hated feeling I was so different. "You are."

Holding her hands palm up she said, "I'm not. Okay, I'm forgetting all about it, see?" She motioned dragging the thought from her head and throwing it over her shoulder.

We both turned for the doors. "Ready?"

I groaned. "No."

"Come on, you love this stuff."

I shook my head hard enough to make it hurt. "I love the library. The rest of it can burn."

"Maybe it will. It's the end of days, don't you know?"

I laughed and shouldered my bag. My laughter pulled some enquiring glances from a bunch of first years as they scurried past. "The end of days? Have you been reading the Daily Rag again?"

Lauren looked at me, her expression wide eyed. "I saw it on the news. Meteor showers. Days getting shorter even though it's not daylight savings yet."

"It's scaremongering, that's all. It's just global warming, etc, exactly the same as when we had the heat wave in April."

“That may be so.” She snickered. “But I hate the bloody dark.”

I laughed. “Still? Really?” Before I could say anything else, the bell tolled, making us jump. “Come on, doom and gloom," I said, "let's get to class before we get a late slip first period."

"See you at lunch?" She turned for her class while I eyed mine up three doors down the corridor.

"Yep." I hoped I'd make it to lunch. Over the last few months I’d viewed the day as an assault course. It needed completing in hourly intervals. If I got to the end of the day without some physical calamity befalling me, I considered it a win. "See you at lunch," I said, but she was already through her door.

My focus was on the red chipped paint of the classroom door, so I didn't see the chair jump out and attack my leg.

"Bugger."  I rubbed my thigh, which was already aching with that heavy lead sensation that comes from a dead limb, and tried to gain my footing.

"Easy there." A hand jutted out and grasped my elbow, stabilising me as I threatened to topple again.

"Sorry," I mumbled. My cheeks were glowing a vicious, volcanic, burn. I could live without Eleanor Heavers finding out I'd fallen over not once, but twice on the first day. I knew she would, though. Gossip spread through the school like fire through a parched forest.

"You seem to be vertically challenged." The voice was soft, bringing a low bell to mind. My stomach felt all squishy, which was odd when combined with numb legs.

My eyes snapped up into the shadowed face of the boy from the picnic bench. His face tilted under the worn peak of his baseball cap. His features obscured in shadows so I couldn’t get a good look at the caps owner. "I am not." I stated. My blatant lie made the burn running along my cheeks intensify until I was uncomfortably hot. He was scrutinising me and I didn't know why. I stood there, while from under the cap, I knew he was evaluating what he saw. I prickled, straightening my shoulders. I didn't exactly march off down the corridor in outrage at his blatant presumptuous scrutiny. I just kind of suspended there while he stared from under the cap.

"No?" he asked. His fingers still held my elbow, and I tried to peer closer so I could see him better. It was an impulse I couldn’t ignore and I shifted forward.

"You also don't seem to grasp the concept of personal space.” He stepped away, breaking the spell that had pulled me towards him. The burning flush transformed into an all out uncomfortable sweat.

"Sorry, I was just. Um, just." What was I doing?

"Just, what?" The voice sounded like it might be amused if it could be arsed.

"Just trying to see you." The words blurted from my mouth, clanging into the air around me like boulders into a small rain puddle.

"Trying to see what?" As he spoke, my bag slipped off my shoulder. It smashed onto the floor with the heavy thud that twenty overdue library books will make. I scrambled to pick up the mess.

"You," I said.  Glancing up, I looked to see his reaction to my outrageous declaration, but there was nobody there. Just me and an empty hallway and the bell tolling on the wall, telling me I was late for my first class.

 

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