Pages of Amber

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I HATE CALCULUS!”CASEY announced, her voice reaching Amber as she walked up to where Willow and Casey stood at the row of lockers.

“You’re the one who chose it,”Willow answered.“Your dad said you could study either accounting or psychology for college and you made your bed, sweetie.”

“Why didn’t you stop me?”

Willow slammed her locker shut.“I made a whole board with pros, cons, future benefits and costs, remember? You, on the other hand, wanted to gamble your life on a game of eenie-meenie-miney-mo.”

Casey sulked, clearly unhappy with Willow cutting off her complaints with pragmatic efficiency. But that was who Willow was. All straight-laced, logical and honest to a fault. Exactly what Amber needed.

“Hey, girls!” she called.

Casey spun with a squeal, her petulance falling away.“Amber, hi! We missed you at lunch last Friday. Lexi said a teacher asked for you. Is everything alright?”

Amber tittered, clutching her books tighter.“Yeah, everything’s great. She wanted to check up on my work since I’ve been back, that’s all.”

“And it was okay?”

“Of course,”Amber squeaked. Willow rose a sharp brow, quick to latch onto the slip-up. She cleared her throat, looking to distract her incredibly intuitive friend.“I have a question for you girls.”

“Shoot,”Casey said as she dug around in her locker.

Fingers crossed for luck, she rushed out,“What do you guys think about Noah as student body president? Is he bad, good, average? What are your personal opinions, if you have any, or things you might have heard from other students?”

Oh god, she sounded like she was conducting a job interview. Did she have to ask the questions that way? She sounded crazy. Her friends clearly thought so too. Their widened eyes roamed over her. Casey’s jaw hung open, her locker forgotten in her shock. Willow barely blinked, her eyes drilling a hole in Amber’s head. She needed to say something else.

“That sounded weird, didn’t it? I’m sorry, I got nervous and my tone was way off, like I was a grumpy interviewer or something. No wonder Trent wants me back at the press club.”Her friends continued to stare, and Amber was this close to freaking out.“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Where’s the real Amber? Tell us right now.”Casey flung herself at Amber, shaking her by the shoulder pads of her jacket.

“What?”she questioned in disbelief.

“Better question, what’s going on with you? Are you feeling good?”Willow squinted. She pulled Casey back.“Ease up, Case. She might be having a fever.”

“Guys.” She snorted. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Not possible,”Casey argued.“You mentioned Noah’s name in a sentence. Willingly.”

“And without the usual venom or calling him by some other moniker, like ‘the nemesis’ or ‘boy genius. ’”

“You called him by his name,”Casey whisper-shouted, her tone heavy with emphasis and disbelief.

They were making a bigger deal out of this than she had anticipated. Okay, so she had never liked talking about Noah unless absolutely necessary, but that was because it seemed like anytime she called his name, he popped up, ready to annoy the daylights out of her. For the first time ever, she and Noah had had an actual conversation with no yelling and minimal denigration, which was already shocking bar the fact that they were trying out this‘working together’thing. Willow and Casey might explode if she told them that next.

She said instead,“Did the rest of my questions register at all or was it only that first bit?”At their glare, she grudgingly threw them a bone.“Fine, I said his name. It’s not the end of the world. I have this thing I agreed to. And I can’t do it without feedback. Should I repeat my questions?”

“No need. I’ve had a bit of time for it to sink in,”Willow answered first. Her gaze was inquisitive as she continued,“We’ve kind of been on a Noah-ban around you so I don’t know much about him. He had an older brother that went here though.”

“Yeah. Rowan, Ronan, something like that,”Casey added.“He was student body president in his 12th grade too. Charles said he was the best President we’ve had at Redmington. He played sports with the guys, helped with tutoring, was invited to all the parties and the teachers loved him.”

Amber nodded, soaking in the information. She hadn’t known Noah had a brother. Casey’s brother must have been in his class when they graduated four years ago.

“So Noah picked up the mantle?”

“Probably.”Casey shrugged.“The problem is he isn’t as well-rounded as his brother was. He’s the best student here but everyone knows how anti-social and reserved he is.”

“And grumpy,” Willow added.

“The only people he hangs around with are those twins. The hot, funny guy and his sister. Well, you too. Sometimes.”Casey sighed.“He’s more of a figurehead if you think about it since everyone approaches you with their questions and issues, even the freshmen. I don’t think he has much going for him as President.”

Amber felt a twinge in her chest for Noah, even as she tried to smother it. Was she the reason his tenure was so hard on him? Sure, Noah was more of an introvert and his sarcastic personality didn’t encourage people to stick around, but it seemed she wasn’t without fault either. Casey was right, she had stolen his job, made him seem incompetent for the position and had even rubbed it in his face that the students saw her as more approachable to address their matters to. The twinge in her chest deepened, but Amber had to stay positive. This teamwork scheme had barely begun and there were so many holes in their plan, she wasn’t sure where to start from.

But she could do this. She’d told Noah she wasn’t scared of the challenge. She needed to follow through with that. This plan was going to work. It had to.

“It’s not going to work.”

“What? Of course it will. Quit being so negative.”

“I’m simply pointing out the truth. This plan of yours has less than a ten percent shot at success.”

“Here we go again. Does boy genius Noah ever take a break?”

“You should consider dropping the sarcasm too, m’lady. It might run people off.”

“You little shi–”

“Noah! There you are.”

Their heads whipped in the direction of the call. It took a minute but Amber recognized the girl coming towards them. Evelyn Davenport looked surprised to see her beside Noah. It wasn’t a secret Amber and Noah liked to argue any chance they got but Evelyn must’ve been surprised seeing them talk to each other. She tilted her head, wisps of her brunette hair interlaced with green highlights flicking across her cheeks. They complimented the green of her uniform jacket beautifully.

“Hi, Amber. How are you? Your bow’s super cute.”

“Thank you. I love your highlights.”

“Thanks. I’ll be taking them down soon, though.”Evelyn shook her head.“This is a bit awkward. I don’t think we’ve spoken outside of practice. Thanks for helping me with the grande jeté last week.”

Amber’s smile relaxed.“Anytime. I remember the first time I learnt that one. It took me weeks and I almost sprained my ankle. My mom was not happy.”

Evelyn giggled again, the sound more carefree this time.“Your mom’s a prima ballerina. You must’ve had so much fun learning from her.”

“Yeah…” Her smile felt brittle now.

“Do I need to be here for this conversation?”Noah interrupted, pulling his hands into his pockets.

Amber rolled her eyes at his bored expression.“This is when you’re supposed to be learning conversation cues, boy genius. Or this really isn’t going to work.”

“You’re trying to get him to hold a conversation? You do realize this is Noah Rhodes you’re talking about, right?”Evelyn looked between them.

Noah scowled at his friend.“I’m standing here, Eve. In case you forgot.”

“That’s exactly why I’m warning her. Now what’s happening and why are you doing whatever it is you’re doing? It’s weird enough that you two are talking to each other and it hasn’t turned into a screaming match yet.”

Amber spun her head.“You didn’t tell her?”

“He never tells us anything,”his friend complained.“We always have to force it out of him. Well, Emmett fights it out of him. I usually guilt him into telling me.”Amber laughed at Evelyn’s serious expression. She’d pay for a chance to see Noah roughhousing. He was always so rigid.

“You’d be surprised how well it works,”Noah murmured.

Evelyn shot him a thumbs up and a cheesy smile, her eyes falling on Amber expectantly. She paused, wondering if Noah wanted her to say anything but when he didn’t object, she laid it out for Evelyn whose eyes widened by the end.

“So if you don’t do this, you can’t pass and he could be ousted from office?”Amber nodded with a wince. Evelyn let it sink for a minute before her fist went flying into Noah’s arm. He jumped back, a yelp escaping him.“Why didn’t you say anything? You jerk! This is serious. You could lose your position, Noah.”

“That’s not gonna happen. We’re working on it,”he muttered. Amber didn’t miss how he avoided Evelyn’s eyes. His friend was worried about him. Could he not see it?

“He’s right. It’s a tough spot but we’re making the best of it.”She pointed at Noah.“Or we would if this one wasn’t so uncooperative about my idea.”

“Because it won’t work,”he argued again.

“Try not to be so negative, Noah.”Evelyn hissed.

“That’s exactly what I said!”

“Great,”he drawled.“Now I have two of you ganging up on me.”

“We wouldn’t need to gang up if you weren’t being so difficult all the time. What’s the plan about, Amber?”

“It’s nothing more than an experiment right now. I figured since Noah isn’t able to get people to communicate with him because they see him as unapproachable or uninterested, why not take him to them instead? If they see him actively trying to engage and asking questions on their welfare, they’re bound to open up.”

“I like it. The students don’t know a version of Noah that’s actually interested in what they have to report or talk about so we need to make them see it. It sounds like this could work,”Evelyn cheered, his smile lighting up her olive eyes. Amber appreciated her support.“Noah, you in or are we going to have to force you?”

He looked between them, his jaw shifting. His eyes roamed their faces, stopping on Amber’s. She blinked at the look in them but it was gone before she could dwell on it.

“That doesn’t seem like much of a choice.”

“Because it isn’t.”Evelyn fluttered her lashes. The innocuous smile on her lips prompted a smile from Amber. Their easy camaraderie was charming to witness. Noah was usually all brooding looks and sharp edges. Evelyn worked around those edges, wearing them down to obtuse points.

“Are you guys headed to lunch? Emmett said he’ll meet us there. His class is running a bit long.”

“Emmett is your twin, right?”At Evelyn’s nod, Amber smiled.“He played really well in the last game. Jacob says he’s a great co-captain.”

Evelyn giggled.“Thanks. I would tell him, but his ego might explode if he knows you said that.”

“Maybe I’ll meet him myself to tell him. I wouldn’t want to miss that.”Amber wiggled her brows and they laughed. Noah folded his arms, taking in the interaction, making her remember she hadn’t answered Evelyn’s question.“I’m hoping Noah and I could start our little experiment at lunch. I wanted to test him out on a couple of my friends.”

They began to walk towards the cafeteria with Evelyn between them. She suggested other ideas to get Noah involved with the students and Amber shared hers, asking what Evelyn thought about them. She wondered why they had never talked more as she realized how radiant, funny and lively Evelyn was. They seemed to have so much in common, especially when it came to needling Noah.

They stepped into the cafeteria and Evelyn wished them luck, heading over to the counter to get her meal. Amber looked over at her usual table, where Beverly and Lexi were already seated. Willow and Casey sat at the table today talking to a dark haired guy. Amber recognized Jacob sitting beside Beverly. They were doing this with a full audience then.

“Come on, let’s get this over with,”she murmured, unsure if she was trying to encourage Noah or herself. Beside her, the man of the hour drew a face, digging in his heels. She grabbed at the sleeve of his jacket to get him moving.“Fix your face or you’ll scare them off before we start,”she hissed.

With every step, her worry heightened. She hadn’t given Willow and Casey any more information about the thing she was doing or told Beverly and Lexi about the deal with Noah. Her best friends had avoided her the whole morning, refusing to say more than five words at a time to her even when they shared classes. She secretly hoped that this experiment would melt their anger a bit if they had something else to focus on.

Amber and Noah took the last free seats, a hush greeting them. Amber tried not to notice Bev and Lexi’s baffled stares.

It was Jacob, Beverly’s boyfriend who broke the air.“What’s happening here?”

Amber put on her best smile and got to work.“You all know Noah, our… incredible student body president.”Noah tossed a wave, his casual bearing at odds with her nerves.“He needs to fill out a little assessment and you’re the lucky students he’s meeting with first. He’s going to ask a few questions about the cafeteria facilities and any comment is welcome. It won’t take long.”

Silence hung in the air when she finished. Amber fidgeted in her seat, wondering if she hadn’t sold that as well as she thought she had. Beverly blinked at her like she couldn’t believe her eyes and Lexi just stared at Noah like he’d dropped from another planet. Willow and Casey’s expressions weren’t off the grid. Willow might have had her suspicions by the look she gave Amber in the hall earlier, but her wide eyes said she probably hadn’t braced herself for this. Jacob and Sean, a guy from the football team, looked like they’d probably been lost from the start. Poor guys, she was incorporating them into her Noah drama.

“Amber, honey,”Beverly said her name in a whisper that wasn’t a whisper at all.“If you’re doing this against your will, all you have to do is blink twice.”

Okay. Not the first thing she’d expected to hear from her friend. At least she didn’t seem angry, more concerned for Amber’s safety. She would take Beverly speaking to her as a small win.

“I’m fine, Bev. I know it seems strange. Noah and I sitting together and for some weird reason, posing a united front about something and trust me, I never thought it would have happened either. Never ever in a thousand, million years.”

Noah’s head swiveled. Was it that impossible to imagine? his scowl said. She ignored him and continued,“But this is real and I’m just helping out our President. That’s all.”

A snort came from Sean, turning eyes around the table. He narrowed his gaze on the slit of space barely between her and Noah’s arms.“Our President? So now he’s aware he has a duty to students?”

Noah glanced at him.“I’ve always been aware of my duty, not only to students but to the school and its staff. When it became difficult to reach the students, I asked Amber for a few tips.”

“Yeah, right.”Sean pointed his finger around the table.“None of us believe that for a second. You’re taking advantage of her kind, sweet nature to make her do your bidding. We’ve all seen you bully her in an effort to constantly fish for her attention.”

His words left a ringing in Amber’s ears. Why was he talking to Noah like that? Sure, he could be a jerk sometimes but no one deserved to be talked down to. Amber had known Sean only as long as Beverly had been dating his friend, but they had barely spoken to each other. She was grateful for it if this was who he was.

“He wasn’t bullying me.”Amber defended.“Yes, we argue but there’s no bullying and I probably start those arguments half the time.”

In a condescending tone, he said,“Amber, you might never have thought that way but this is how guys work, okay? Noah, over here, is definitely reaching for something he shouldn’t have. He must have succeeded in getting it, too.”He chuffed, his lip curling. It wasn’t a pretty look and served to intensify Amber’s irritation.“I mean, why else would Amber waste her time with some scholarship student, President or not?”

Noah’s jaw tightened. Amber tensed up at his side, trying to convince herself she had heard wrong.

“Hey!” Beverly and Willow protested.

Jacob wasn’t far behind. He shoved Sean.“Dude! What are you doing? Shut up.”

Lexi and Casey sat in stunned silence. Under the table, she caught Noah’s hands clenching as he fought for control. She took a breath herself, attempting to tamp down the flare that had risen in her chest. They couldn’t do anything brash or they would get in trouble. This was supposed to improve Noah in the eyes of the students, not the opposite. Beverly and Willow’s yell had drawn attention to their table. One wrong move would get them whispering. It was hard to bite her tongue though. Much harder than it had ever been, especially as she could probably count on a single hand the number of times she’d gotten furious in her life. This one was definitely up there.

“How foolishly arrogant could you be to look down on someone because according to you he’s‘some scholarship student?’”

Sean froze when he met her cold glare. Good. Her blue irises weren’t the only thing she got from her mother.

“Do you realize getting awarded a scholarship into Redmington is nearly impossible unless you have a ninety-five percent score on entrance exams? Ninety-five percent, Sean. That’s twenty-five more than a regular student needs to get in, which means not only did such a student prove they deserve to glide through high school on a hefty scholarship but that student also proved he or she is academically gifted.”

“I didn’t mean…”

“I’m not even talking about the fact that you could have had Mommy and Daddy buy your way into school when these scholarship students earned their way in all on their own.”She heard Beverly choke on her laugh but kept her eyes on Sean. Apparently, he needed to be re-educated on how their Academy policies and common manners worked.“I’m gonna ask this once. Do you have something against this spectacular set of students or is jealousy mixed in there?”

The dark haired jock shrunk into his seat, looking thoroughly chastened. How he could criticize someone so harshly while being unable to take the same criticism was beyond her.“I don’t. No jealousy at all,”he murmured.

“Glad we got that out of the way. Now apologize.”

He avoided Amber’s eyes.“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said any of that. I was out of line.”

“You shouldn’t have.”Amber folded her arms, willing her anger to dial back.“I’m not the one you owe an apology, though.”

Sean swung his gaze to her left. His hand gripped his neck.“I’m sorry, man. I really shouldn’t have said that.”

Amber narrowed her eyes. She turned to ask Noah if he was satisfied with the apology, however the words swiftly died on her tongue when she found Noah had his attention on her.

If she thought his eyes were dark, now they flared a mesmerizing gold, luring her in. He leaned back in his chair, his head tipped to the side. His hair fell over his brows, his lips curved in a soft grin. His gaze swept over her face, almost a physical caress. In what felt like hours but was barely a minute, he seemed to scour every inch, every pore, every bit of her face. Then those devil eyes fell to her lips. Her face heated so fast Amber could have sworn she had been lit on fire. She turned away, her fingers digging hard into her sleeves. Clearing her throat, she dragged her mind back on track, trying to erase the memory of Noah’s burning stare.

“Willow too. She’s an exceptional scholarship student who had to sit there, listening to you belittle her.”

Sean turned to Willow and visibly suppressed a wince at her fierce stare. At his sputtered apology, Willow’s glare only seemed to grow.“You sure have a skill for throwing balls around on the field, maybe you should try aiming for your mouth once in a while.”

Beverly choked on air a second time. Lexi thumped her back, offering her water as she held in her laugh. Casey and Willow high-fived, their matching expressions triumphant. The poor guy reddened further. With a last hasty apology, he fled, taking his tray with him. They all exchanged glances.

Lexi broke first, releasing a guffaw so loud and animalistic that it sent the table into an uproar. Amber couldn’t find it in her to hold back her laughter despite the attention they had drawn. Once they eventually settled down, the girls surprisingly redirected Noah to ask his questions about the cafeteria facilities. Jacob joined in to suggest an energy drink dispenser which Noah raised a dubious eyebrow at. Later, he thanked her friends and left to get his meal before the lunch period ended.

The conversation flowed after his exit, grudges and cold shoulders forgotten. The more she laughed with her friends, the higher her relief grew. Her girls were back, the circle of friendship restored. Amber looked at her best friends, their smiles wide as they talked.

Yeah. Everything was going to be just fine.