Chapter 2
Rory ~
What the hell was that?
That was...odd to say the least. I don't talk to people. People don't talk to me. Unless it's supposed to be insulting. It was kind of…nice?
It won't last.
By lunch, they will have warned him off. They being the rest of the damn school.
I quickly realise I'm standing in the front of an empty classroom and head for my next class.
Thinking about that interesting interaction, I miss a step coming into my art room when I see someone I don't recognise in my spot. A new kid? Another one?
It's unusual to have one new student but two? In the middle of a term? There are no other empty desks so I take my chances with the new kid.
There's five circular desks with chairs around them. When you're the social outcast of the school, you're pretty lucky. You're almost guaranteed no friends, a hellish year and a free table anywhere.
I sit down opposite the new guy and put my bag on the chair beside me. I don’t attempt to start a conversation. I don't look at their face.
I fiddle with my hands once I've pulled out my pencil case and laptop, waiting for the teacher to start the lesson.
"Hey," a soft velvety voice says and I look up.
The new guy taps his fingers on the desk in a repeated rhythm that reminds me of Dominic’s irritating tapping. He knew it too.
He's leaning back in his chair but not slouching. Dirty blond hair shorter on the sides falls over his eyes and he brushes it away with a flick of his fingers. His hazel eyes are brimmed with curiosity as he awaits my response. Which snaps me out of my staring.
"Hi," I respond. I smile faintly, not knowing what else to say.
"What's this teacher like?" He leans forward, whispering like he's afraid she'll hear.
I think for a moment about my impression of Mrs Ewelyn, who’s writing something on the whiteboard.
"She's a bit passive-aggressive," I whisper back and he laughs softly.
"Aren't all art teachers?" He half-smiles, his fingers never stop the fast, complex rhythm they're tapping at.
"Yeah." I find myself smiling back.
His shoe brushes mine under the table and his lightly tanned, golden skin burns red for several moments.
"Sorry," he mumbles. His fingers change rhythms but never seem to stop. I’m not even sure he knows he’s doing it.
"It's fine," I smile, hoping it will assure him of my words.
I realise as he looks around the room that he's rather nervous being here. His eyes burning a hole in the table in front of me.
I have an unspeakably confusing need to comfort him. What the fuck is happening?
I swallow my pride and fear. "Don't worry about Mrs Ewelyn. She expects our finished piece to be done but she doesn't set checkpoints or anything. She lets us do it at our own pace."
He seems to relax a bit hearing this, the tension in his face and shoulders melting away.
"I'm Alec," he says. His fingers slow their tempo and I realise it must be a coping mechanism of some kind.
"Laney.” I lie for the second time today. “Nice to meet you, Alec." I manage to get out before a scrunched up ball of paper hits me in the back of the head.
Clearly, there's something wrapped in it because it hurts like hell. Some assholes cackle behind me.
I grit my teeth and ignore it, refusing to meet Alec's eyes.
No friends, I remind myself. It's not worth the pain when you leave.
My eyes fly up when a chair screeches across the floor. I turn around and see Alec shove the ball of paper into a footballer's chest, making him stumble back a step.
"I think this belongs to you," Alec says, deathly quiet.
The footballer scoffs weakly and looks around at his mates that clearly don't want to tangle with a six-footed something, tightly packed threat. They all look away, leaving him with Alec.
Alec says something else that I don't catch when I turn, putting my back to them.
He pulls out his chair to sit back down and grabs a notebook and pencil case from his bag on the chair beside him.
I don't look up. Not even when he starts silently tapping a fast rhythm into the table again.
Mrs Ewelyn draws our attention to the whiteboard where she's written the due dates for our written and creative assessments.
Alec's eyes land on mine a few times but I never allow them to entangle.
We're given time to pick on an idea for our artwork or start working on it. I decide to spend my spare time doing nothing.
I put my head into my hand and doodle with my right into my notebook.
A piece of paper is slid over to me.
Are you okay? Is written in small, neat cursive letters.
I stare at it for a few seconds.
My pencil shakes as I press it to the piece of paper, willing an answer to emerge.
Fine, I eventually write. It's chicken scratch compared to Alec's perfectly calligraphed letters. I push the piece of paper back to him.
I'm only doodling for a few seconds before another note appears.
Does this happen often?
My eyes involuntarily move up to meet his. There's a sadness in them that tells me he already knows the answer. Eventually, my eyes move back down and I write my response.
Thank you, that is all I write before I push it back. Before I can retract my hand back, Alec rests his hand on mine in comfort. I suck in a short breath.
It's only there for a short moment before he removes his hand, allowing me to pull my hand back.
Tears fill my eyes and I hastily blink them away.
Do not cry in the middle of class. Do not show them weakness.
His fingers go back to that upbeat tempo they were drumming into the table.
You won't need to worry about them again, is written slightly messier this time on the other side of the last note.
We exchange a few more notes.
It's never that simple, I write.
What's their problem?
What isn't? I evade the question.
Not wanting to have to lie, I put my head down on the table and close my eyes, listening to the quiet beat of Alec's fingers on the table.
About twenty minutes later, the bell rings. Before I can sit up all the way, someone slams my head into the desk from behind, creating an instant headache and pain in my temples. I grip my head, hissing.
Alec drops down beside me and asks me a few questions I don't hear, only see his lips move.
"Laney?" Something finally crosses my ears and I blink away the black dots creeping into my vision.
"Yeah? No, I'm okay." I brush away Alec's concerns, wanting me to get checked out by the nurse.
He shakes his head. "You need to get looked at." He turns to look for the asshole who did it but they're long gone, leaving the room empty apart from us and the teacher who’s back is facing us.
"Alec, I'm fine. Okay?" I attempt to smile but it falls short.
I can tell by the worried look that he doesn't believe me.
"You could have a concussion." His eyes flick over to the teacher who hasn’t see a thing.
"I'll be fine," I assure him. "If I still feel off later, I'll go get a full body scan," I say jokingly and I get a small smile. It may be small but it sends butterflies fluttering through my stomach.
Slowly getting up, I put all my stuff in my bag and swing it over my shoulder.
Alec follows me out of the classroom. My head pounds angrily with every step.
I go to turn right when Alec calls out. "Where are you going?"
I look around the empty hallway. "The library," I say slowly.
He shakes his head. "Come to lunch with me," he asks, tapping his fingers on his jeans.
"It's not really my scene…" I try to refuse.
"It's not mine either," Alec tells me. I see the look in his eyes and I find myself melting.
"Okay," I say, hesitantly.
He smiles brightly, showcasing his perfect teeth when I take a few hesitant steps toward him. He's almost classically handsome in a boy-next-door short of way but there's something more to it.
As we walk to the lunch area, it goes dead silent. I refuse to acknowledge them, keeping my eyes trained on the dirty ass, gum riddled floor.
Not thrown off by the sudden silence, Alec asks, "What was the book I saw on your desk?"
I chuckle softly, looking up to meet his curious eyes. "You don't want to know."
. . .
Mason ~
"How do we want to play this?" I murmur to my twin by my side.
"I am not sitting with these dickheads." Mav scowls.
"Agreed,” I return instantly.
Dominic, who's been in his head all last class finally speaks. "Follow me."
Mav and I share an equally confused look but we follow Dom through the crowds of people in the lunch area.
I playback Dom's words and realise he's spoken in his accent which is rare for him.
He's spent the last few years trying to get rid of it because he's in Australia now. Although, it might have had something to do with Mav and I bullying him for it when we first met. We can’t all be perfectly well behaved kids.
At the back of the room, I see Alec talking avidly with someone, his back stopping me from seeing their face.
Whoever it is, they've got his fingers tapping a hole through the table. Alec's talking to someone other than us?
We approach the table and Alec turns to face us, a smile on his face.
Holy shit. Alec's talking to a girl.
Not only that, he's talking to a fucking hot girl.
Dominic abandons us to go sit on the other side with the girl, opposite Alec.
Her eyes flick from Dominic to us in surprise. She murmurs something to Alec who nods.
She says a casual hi to Dom, seeming unfazed by his huge and normally scary-to-new-people build. Did they already meet?
My brother and I exchange looks as we sit down.
"Hey, Sweetheart," Dominic drawls and my eyebrows shoot up.
What the fuck is happening? Alec's talking to a girl and Dom gave the same girl a pet name?
"Have we fallen into an alternate universe?" I ask Mav who nods in agreement, looking stunned and trust me, it ain’t a common appearance on my brother’s face.
"And who might you be?" I lean forward, smiling at her confused expression.
"I'm R—Laney," she says, so softly I almost don't catch it.
"What are you doing here?" Mav growls. I don't think he even realises he's being a dick. Laney flinches slightly but controls her expression. Hmmm, interesting.
"Mav, you're being rude," Alec says bluntly, giving Laney an apologetic look.
"Sorry," my brother grumbles, pulling out his lunchbox.
"It's fine," Laney says, a bit louder this time, a bit more sure of herself.
"He's hangry. He's always grumpy when he's hungry," I tell Laney, trying to make her more comfortable. She smiles faintly.
"I asked Laney to sit with us," Alec announces.
My neck cracks at the speed it moves at going from Laney to Alec in surprise. Alec gives me a warning look not to say anything in front of Laney.
"So, you all know each other?" She asks in a sexy husky voice that seems natural. It makes me want to drop at her feet.
"Yeah," Dom replies to Laney. "Going on six years now."
She mouths the word 'wow' and draws my attention to her pouty red lips.
She puts some loose hair that falls in front of her eyes behind her ear. It's long and luscious, in dark brown wavy strands that reach halfway down her back.
"How did you meet these two kraang?" I say, jokingly.
Laney’s eyes glimmer with knowingness.
"The kraang body and mind switched with Raph here who I had to stop from killing master Splinter when he finally showed up to class late and hungover," Laney says casually, hitching a thumb to Dom who shrugs.
My grin widens at her Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reference.
"The joker's Mason and the gargoyle who needs time to warm up to you is Maverick," Alec says, giving us a warning look to play nicely.
"Nice to meet you both," Laney says. I return it with a grin and Mav nods to her. He's probably feeling a bit more normal now he's got food in his stomach.
“Where were you?” Alec asks me, frustration written all over his face. I wince, I knew he’d be annoyed.
“You didn’t go?” Maverick turns to me, stern look and all. Knowing my brother however, I doubt he’s surprised.
“No,” I mutter. Mav makes an ‘ompf’ noise.
“Come on, Mase. You agreed to go.” Alec crosses his arms. “You could have met Laney an hour ago,” he adds.
Like he knew it would, I perk up.
“You do Art?” I question Laney. She gives me a small nod.
“I’ll go to the next lesson,” I begrudgingly inform Alec. Dom snickers.
We settle down and start eating. I realise that while Laney pulls out a book and starts reading, she doesn't make a move to pull out a lunchbox or go get food.
We all share glances between each other. Alec looks like he's already suspected something.
Dominic leans down, pretending he's getting something from his bag and feels around Laney’s. She doesn't look down, completely engulfed by her book.
Dom sits up and shakes his head, confirming our suspects.
I look at Mav who looks angry. Don't go there, brother, I tell him with one look.
I slide my lunchbox across to Laney, indicating she takes my pizza. "It's pepperoni, jellybean and maple syrup."
I scrunch up my nose like I'm disgusted by it and Laney laughs like music to my ears.
She takes a piece of what's actually just pepperoni pizza because I’m not insane and pushes my lunchbox back to me. Her eyes close when she takes the first bite and chews. A faint smile ghosts her lips.
Mav's face is stony and cold watching her eat and any hopefulness dries up inside me. She finishes eating and I make her take the rest of my pizza.
She shifts on the long seating like she's uncomfortable and a wince crosses her face momentarily.
I look beggingly at Alec, hoping he'll say something.
"How's your head?" Alec taps Laney’s arm.
She sits up straight like his words reminded her of something. A coldness crosses her eyes. She swallows deeply and I see a hint of fear that has my hand slowly reaching for her.
"It's fine," she replies softly. She quickly hops up, grabbing her book and bag.
"I have to go. Thank you for letting me sit with you," she rushes out. Her mismatched eyes flick over all of us before she walks away.
We fall into silence as I think about her hasty retreat. The loneliness and pain in her eyes when Alec asked about her head.
What happened to her?
"What the fuck was that?" Mav growls.
I sigh and watch her disappear into the crowd with ease.
"My sentiments exactly, brother."