CHAPTER SIX
“THAT’S IT FOR TODAY, guys. Don’t forget to focus on the Rights. Questions will be asked in the next class.”
Amber grumbled under her breath as she stood, pushing her chair across the floor with a squeak that got lost in the commotion of others packing up to leave the classroom. Her head throbbed as she headed towards the door, reminding her that she had barely touched her meal at lunch before the horrible conversation with her best friends, followed by the even more horrible proposition by Mrs. Wilson.
Although their teacher had allowed them to think over their decisions for the rest of the day, Amber hadn’t even begun to wrap her head around it all. There was the fact that she desperately wanted to tell Beverly and Lexi, but neither of them were exactly happy with her. A pit formed in her stomach at telling her mom about this. Amber could predict her reaction wouldn’t be a pleasant one. The only person she could talk to about this was the one person she was stuck in this with. As though she had summoned him, Noah stepped out of a classroom down the hall.
His head was down as he dropped a textbook into his bag and zipped it up. A guy followed him out of the class, saying something that made Noah smile, the smallest tip of his lips that she knew happened when he was amused but trying not to be.
Someone bumping into her back distracted Amber from further stalking their student body President. The girl, Amber realized sat beside her in class, mumbled an apology immediately.
“Are you okay, Lonnie?”Amber asked.“You look tired.”
She shook her head, a frown on her face.“It was a long class, that’s all. I might be regretting choosing Government and Politics for AP.”
Amber nodded.“I don’t know what made me choose this class, either. I thought it would be interesting and now I get to hear Mr. Turner talk about the First Amendments for a whole hour.”
“It doesn’t help that he makes the class boring. He keeps talking about witnessing the breakthrough of the anti-discrimination laws as a little boy when we all know he wasn’t even born at the time,”Lonnie whispered conspiratorially.
Amber laughed, her spirits raised for the first time that day. Mr. Turner was the oldest teacher at Redmington. Because he taught History and Government, he liked to talk about his first-hand experiences with life-changing events in the US, even when some of them had occurred more than hundred years ago. He might be a liar, but Amber appreciated it as eccentricity.
“How are you catching up?”Lonnie asked.“We started a new topic while you were away, right?”
Amber sighed, reminded of her predicament.“Yeah, it seems every class started a new topic while I was gone. It’s been a bit tough juggling it, but I’m hanging in there.”
Lonnie’s smile was sympathetic.“Good luck, Amber. You need any help, you can ask me.”She paused.“Well, maybe not in this class. And a few others.”
Amber snickered at Lonnie’s jibe at herself.“Thanks, but I–”
“She should know when to accept help more often,”Noah interrupted. Amber startled at seeing him appear by her elbow, his satchel slung across his chest, hands in his pockets. He leveled her with a mirthful stare.“What do you say, m’lady? Ready to work together yet?”
Amber glowered at him. Why was he talking about this when they had an audience? The audience who now had a wide eyed look as she stared between them. Lonnie shook her head slightly, looking an inch away from pinching her skin to test if she was seeing things. It wasn’t often that Noah talked to anyone outside his friend group, which was a horrible thing for a student President. No wonder he was on the verge of losing his position.
“I’ll leave you guys to talk,”she said, blinking past the shock.“This sounds like private conversation territory.”Noah’s head bobbed enthusiastically as Amber shook hers, but Lonnie was already backing away.“He’s right, Amber. If you need help with any class, it won’t hurt to ask for it. It’s our last year and everyone should be able to end it well.”
Her words sunk in as she left. The truth was she wasn’t coping well. Not really. With every note she copied or assignment she did, two more were added to the work pile. Midterms were only three weeks away. If Amber continued on this path alone… a stone sunk into her stomach at the thought.
“So?” Noah drawled.
With a roll of her eyes, she asked,“What do you want?”
“Well, firstly I wanted to give you this since you ran out of Mrs. Wilson’s class.”He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his bag.
She scoffed,“I didn’t run out. I walked out because I didn’t want to be late to my next class.”
“It was still lunch period.”He raised a smooth brow.
“I used the extra time to arrange my locker and pick out my books,”she lied. She had wandered aimlessly in the halls, then struggled against the crowd of students leaving the cafeteria to get to her locker. She had ended up being late to her class. Not that she would tell him that.
Snatching the paper from him, she scanned it.
“Write a twelve page summative assessment and literary analysis on the novel titled A Tale of Two Cities ,”Amber read. She flicked the paper in irritation.“What sort of assignment is this? How am I supposed to do this?”
She knew Literature could be difficult, but this looked like it peaked on a whole other level.
“Probably the same way everyone else did theirs?”He answered, his smartass tone prickling at her. She was in no mood for his teasing.
“Sarcasm? Really. No wonder you run people off.”Amber deadpanned.
Noah scowled.“I don’t run people off. It’s not my fault that most people don’t get witty humor. I only enjoy conversations with those who do.”
“I’m among the lucky few, huh? That means you think I’m smart, Noah. I knew you had a compliment for me.”He shot her a blank look.“But get rid of that mindset. You’ll never be able to connect with the students if they ever find out you think they’re dumb.”
“I never said they were dumb. I said they don’t get witty humor. Also, you and I don’t talk. We argue. That’s not a conversation.”
“Technicalities.”Amber flicked her wrist.“Plus we can both agree I deserve extra points for winning those arguments, you know, since I beat your intelligence.”
He narrowed those dark eyes at her.“Yeah, those extra points will definitely be useful in completing that assignment. Alone.”
“Don’t pout, Noah. You wouldn’t back away from this deal,”her voice turned high pitched and she stuck her nose in the air.“ It’s not my fault you’re like obsessed with me or something.”
“ Mean girls? Really?”
Her eyes grew wide.“You know Mean girls? You’ve watched it?”
He blinked. A deep flush rose in his cheeks, his freckles darker against the bridge of his nose. He glanced away, the dark tips of his hair flicking across his brow.“No, of course not. What even is that? Come on. If we’re going to start the assignment, we need to get our research from the library.”
Noah turned, walking at a fast pace down the hall that had rapidly emptied of students. Hardly anyone liked to stay behind after the bell had been rung, except those who had detention or wanted to study in the school library.
“I never agreed to working together.”Amber hurried after him.“I might if you tell me who your favorite was. Cady? The Plastics? Give me something here, Noah.”
He kept his eyes forward.“Zero clue what you’re talking about.”
“Liar.”
“Do you want to do the assignment or not?”
Amber scowled.“You’re asking like I have an option. In case you’d zoned out while Mrs. Wilson was talking, the catch was I do the assignment or fail. I’m not exactly looking forward to failure, boy genius.”
“You sure about that?”Noah taunted as he pushed open the oak door that led into the library. Amber followed a step later, the air-conditioning blasting over her.
“What does that mean?”Amber threw back, annoyance heavy in her tone. Noah glanced at her but said nothing.“Say something, jerk.”
He continued on unfazed, not stopping until they reached the literature aisle of the school’s massive library. With three levels, sky-high shelves and comfortable seating, it was a booklover’s paradise, specifically Noah’s, if she went by the swoony sigh she heard from him as they passed a minted collection of The Raven and other Poems . The way he seemed to have the shelving positions and order of books memorized was another clue that shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did. He wasn’t the Academy’s top student for nothing.
“You haven’t answered me,”Amber recalled as he began to search the shelves.
“I know.”He smirked, throwing her a glance. Her face heated in anger, adding to his amusement.“Here’s what I think, m’lady. You don’t want to work with me because you’ve always seen yourself as capable. You can fix everyone else's problems so yours shouldn’t be difficult, right?”Amber blinked, shocked and suspicious that he was calling her out. And doing it a little too well.“We both know you need a helping hand, but you refuse to admit it even to yourself. I get it. You’re a fixer, Amber. But it’s okay to let someone else share the work.”
An odd sensation fluttered in her chest. Who was this and what had he done with the abrasive Noah who liked to instigate debates with her every chance he got?
“But I also think you’re running scared.”
The sensation dissipated.
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve finally met a challenge. The one thing you don’t want to fix because it belongs to the one person you don’t want to help. Me. You can’t change the opinions of others when you believe the same thing.”
“I may constantly needle and barter with you, but I won’t sit back and let you lose your position.”Amber scowled.“Sure, you have a charred reputation amongst the students but I’ve fixed worse. Remember Bobby Swims from the 10th grade? Everyone thought he was a perv because soggy tampons were found in his bag. We bumped into each other in the hallway and got to talking. I found out he was accused wrongly. That wasn’t even his bag. He was holding Sarah Kinley’s bag for her so bullies wouldn’t dunk her stuff in the fountain again. The very next week, he was having lunch with the cheerleaders and school team who helped spread the word that he was innocent and they found the bullies. No one even found out the bag was Sarah’s, so in a way, I saved two reputations in one. There!”
“Fine then. I guess you aren’t scared of the challenge, only of accepting that you aren’t as invincible as you thought.”
A pause passed between them.
“I thought you had horrible people skills. You don’t go around diagnosing everyone like that,”Amber murmured.
“You’re not everyone else,”he answered. At Amber’s glance, a cheeky grin split his face.“Did I read you a little too well, m’lady?”
“Never, and drop the nickname.”
“Never,” he reiterated.
Her eyes rolled, bringing the light atmosphere back. Noah continued his search of the bookshelves. He picked out a textbook, flipped through a few pages. Appearing satisfied with what he saw, he tucked the text into his elbow and grabbed another book. Amber wanted to ask what he’d found. A different question left her mouth instead.
“Why would you even agree to this anyway? All I need to do is fix up your reputation but you’ll be stuck doing an assignment you’ve done before.”
Noah rose his head, his eyes meeting hers. They’d always been dark, framed by lashes she was jealous of and hooded by thick brows. He raked a hand through his hair, drawing her attention to the thick brown waves that reflected a shine under the room’s recessed lighting.
“I don’t mind re-doing it.”
She squinted at the vague answer. Amber couldn’t believe he would willingly put up with having her by his side after years of drawing a line and placing themselves on opposite ends of it
“But why?” she pressed.
He dropped his eyes to the book in his hand. He flipped a page, a smirk growing on his lips.“Can’t wait to have you to myself, I guess.”
An involuntary blush quickly coated her cheeks. Noah said nothing, a secret smile on his face as he refocused on the book.
“Are we done here?”she sputtered.
“Not quite, but these are a good start.”He held up the two books.“Come on, we’ll build our outline first.”
“Wait,”she spoke before he turned away. The words sat heavily on her tongue but it was now or never. Maybe a part of her really didn’t want anyone knowing how much of a mess she was in academically, but she didn’t want that part to cripple everything she had worked so hard for. With a deciding breath, she continued,“I don’t mind working on fixing the school’s reputation of you. I’m kind of looking forward to it actually, but this assignment isn’t the only thing on my list.”
The longer he looked at her, the more her blush spread.“What I mean is, I might get confused in my other classes or the notes might be difficult to understand or I could–”
“We’ll work on it,”Noah interrupted. She stared at him, a little wide-eyed at the quiet strength in his voice.“Whatever it is, we’ll work on it. I’m not in it for only now, Amber.”
There were two sounds she registered at that moment, the hum of the air conditioner above their heads and the fierce beating in her chest. Thump thump thump. Noah’s freckles darkened across the bridge of his nose as his words settled in the space between them. He cleared his throat and turned away, murmuring a‘going to find our seats’under his breath.
Amber watched him retreat, her brain struggling to catch up. She palmed her cheeks and squeezed her eyes. Even breaths helped her calm down enough to regain functionality. When she got to their table five minutes later, Noah was waiting for her. He’d taken off his jacket, his tie hanging loose around his neck, the top button popped open. He pushed the first textbook towards her and pointed to a section. The awkwardness from earlier was forgotten as Amber opened up a note from her tote and began to make points on what he said.
Twenty minutes later, an exasperated sigh cut through the air.
“Are you going to keep staring at your phone or listen? What’s on there that is taking all your attention?”
She clicked off the screen and set her phone to the side. She had been checking it a little too obsessively. Her fingers itched to pick it back up, even knowing she would find nothing.“That’s none of your business.”
“It is if you’re going to waste our time by getting distracted. This won’t work if you don’t listen. We’ve established this.”
“No problem there. I’m a great listener,”Amber argued.
“Okay, Miss‘great listener.’What was the last thing I said about Bastille?”
She floundered,“I-I… Look, your explanation was barely understandable. You were basically speaking another language.”
He tsked, “Excuses.”
“Whatever.”Amber tried another route.“We’ve got a head start on the assignment. It’s been a long day and I’m sure we’re both tired. Why don’t we continue this tomorrow?”
“Got somewhere to be?”Noah raised a brow.“Is that why you’re running out?”
As a matter of fact, she did. Like Amber had said, it had been a long day. With no one to talk to about the saga of it all, she itched to get her writing notebook out where she could put her thoughts to words instead.
“Or I could be tired of seeing your face this many times in one day,”she said instead.
A smile pulled at his lips again.“Not possible,”he answered with such certainty, Amber was almost impressed.“And you can keep lying to yourself, although I’d strongly advise against it,”he added, crossing his arms. His shirt pulled taut, probably wanting to get away from him too. Her mind formed the image of what that would look like before she could stop it. She blinked to dislodge the picture, hoping her cheeks weren’t tinged.
“Stop talking,”she blurted as she packed her things in a rush.
“As you wish, m’lady,”Noah answered, oblivious to the hard twist her thoughts had taken. The wry curve of his lips earned him a glare he expertly ignored.
“And stop calling me that,”she demanded.
Clutching her bag, Amber noticed that he hadn’t moved from his spot, not even to close the books on the table.“You’re not going home?”she couldn’t help asking.
Noah leaned back in his seat, head tilted as he looked up at her.“Not yet. I promised to help Mrs. Filch put the textbooks back in order after everyone leaves.”
“Oh. That’s …nice of you.”
His face lit up with amusement, his eyes bright.“A compliment? This little collaboration looks good on you.”
“Shut up,”Amber spat, but there was no heat behind the words. She stomped out as quietly as she could, trying not to disturb other students but at the same time, making her ire known.
Amber checked her phone again as she made her way to the front doors. Nothing.
She hadn’t seen Beverly or Lexi after lunch. They hadn’t had the same classes for the rest of the day and Amber worried the tension between them had risen with their last conversation. If this was giving them space, it really sucked.
Amber tried to imagine their reactions when she’d tell them she had been paired to work with Noah, the boy she called her nemesis and constantly argued with over the littlest things. Lexi would probably ask a dozen questions and badger Amber about how their little partnership would fail. She wouldn’t be wrong. They could barely tolerate each other. Beverly would make it into a whole thing, she’d laugh her head off then dive into imaginary scenarios featuring Noah and Amber, adding in romance and whatever. She’d had to stop her from going too far with it in the past.
Amber missed them. She had never argued with her best friends before. Sure, there were the occasional differences in opinion when it came to their fashion or music tastes or favorite celebrities, but those were never serious and they always respected each other’s opinions. None of those little incidents had gotten to a point where they froze each other out. She was at a complete loss at how to fix it.
With a heavy sigh, Amber pushed open the doors of the Academy. Despite the glare of the afternoon sun, a cold wind made its way through the courtyard, swaying the hem of her skirt and whipping through her hair. She counted down the days until February would be over, impatient for warmer weather.
A few feet from the fountain, Nigel leaned against the car. She had texted him after settling down in the library to let him know she would be out a little late. He straightened as she approached.
“Hello, Amber. Good day at school?”
She was distracted when she said,“I’ve had better, Nigel.”
“They’ve gone home.”Amber stopped her search. There was nothing to find anyway. The parking lot was empty, but she had held out hope.
“You noticed, huh?”She chuckled derisively.“Did you see when they left?”
Nigel nodded,“Beverly came around to ask if I knew where you were. I simply told her what you told me. That you had something to take care of.”
Beverly had asked of her. That had to be a good sign, right? She was so unsure.
Amber had never known her best friends to hold grudges for long. Sure, Beverly was hard and defensive at a first glance. She was loud and outgoing too, her unapologetic personality leading people to think she was brash, even as they admired her sense of style and fashion. Amber knew the truth though, that her best friend was a softie, especially for the people she loved. Lexi was quiet, but she knew when to speak her mind and when to assert herself. She had said they needed space and Amber would do her best to respect that. Everything will be alright, she reassured herself. If she said it enough times, maybe would start to believe it.
Nigel pulled open the door for her.“Straight home?”
The new ballet theatre schedule said her class didn’t have dance practice today. She could still visit the theatre if she wanted solo practice time but ballet would only exhaust her body. At the moment, Amber craved another solution to exhaust her mind. Thankfully, she had found the perfect place the weekend she had returned.
“Actually, I had somewhere else in mind. Can we go to the bookstore?”
“The one from last weekend?”Nigel asked.“You like the place, don’t you?”
She smiled, already picturing the table and chair at the back of the store she had claimed as her writing corner.“It has exactly what I need.”
A matching smile stretched his weathered cheeks.“Of course. In you go. We’ll be there in a few.”
Amber beamed, excitement brewing at the thought of her destination. As the car pulled away from the lot, her mind returned to the deal she’d reluctantly struck. If Noah was going to do his part and help, she needed to do hers too. She wouldn’t give him an inch to outdo her and accuse her of giving excuses or being scared.
Reaching into her bag for a notepad and pen, Amber let her thoughts run and poured her ideas onto the page. Noah Rhodes would be the best student body president Redmington Academy had ever seen by the time she was done with him.