Jacobson’s narrow face pulls down into a frown as he stares at me for far too long before responding. He gives us all the information but appears reluctant to do so. I give Richard a look, silently questioning if he’s noticing the same thing. With confirmation that Richard too thinks the principal is acting a little shady, I slip my hand into my pocket and pull out my mobile, pretending to let it slip from my fingers to the floor. “Sorry, butter fingers today.” I mutter as I quickly bend over, grabbing the phone while also placing a listening device to the underside of Jacobson’s desk.
With everything squared away with the principal, Richard and I head to the empty classroom put aside for our operation.
Fourteen
Areyna
"Hey beautiful, we meet again." Derrin's voice comes from my left and I turn my head to look at him, his face is right next to mine, I gasp and step to the right to put a bit of distance between us.
Those lips are just too tempting."Hi, Derrin, right?"
"I see my reputation has preceded me. You just starting here?" I nod, unsure what else to say.
"Give's a look." Before I can ask him what he wants to look at, he snatches my timetable paper from my hands and starts reading it. "Your locker is right next to mine so I can take you there, you've got room 7 as your homeroom, that's just down the hall from the locker, AP Science first period, then Maths same as me, Health class, then a free period and finally a double of Visual Arts, I'm in that class too." He hands the paper back to me and I glance at it again, trying to figure out how he was able to read it.
Sci must be science, Mat - maths, HPE-health class, Eng-english. I get to Phys and am lost again. Shaking my head, I look up at him, a small fake smile on my lips. "So, where's this locker?" I ask, trying to hide the fact that I don't have a clue what he's talking about. Don't get me wrong, we had lockers in Laverton, they made us put all of our personal effects into one when we wound up in there, but I had nothing beside the blood-stained clothes to put in mine. I figure if he has to go to his locker, then I can watch what he does and do the same.
"This way." He waves his hand to our left and starts walking in that direction. I follow, keeping a couple steps behind him.
A tall girl, wearing a blue and yellow cheerleader type outfit, two sizes too small, walks right up to him and drapes herself across him, fluttering her eyelashes. "Hey baby, want to meet up at lunch, I got a new piercing over the weekend, I could show you where it is." Her voice grates on my nerves and I have to swallow back a smartass comment.
Derrin steps back, almost crushing my foot. I dodge at the last second, then watch fascinated as he gently removes her hands from him and pushes her off to the side. "Sorry, I'm no longer on the market." Without looking, he reaches around behind him, grabbing my wrist. Just like with Char, Derrin uses the limb to pull me forward. I end up right next to him, my hip touching his. "Come on beautiful, let's go." My stomach flips around like it's trying to take flight. For some reason when he calls me beautiful, I feel like I really am.
I get the feeling he’s not actually interested in me though, more like he’s using me as a shield to make the clingy girl leave him alone. I don’t mind either way, especially when I get to pretend for a few moments that I’m normal and happy with someone like him wrapped around me. We start walking again but he doesn't let go of my wrist. Rather than cause a scene, I just let him keep hold of me.
"Bitch." I hear the girl mumble after we are far enough away for human ears to not hear. Derrin stops so suddenly that I'm three steps in front before I realise.
"What did you just call my girl?" The growl coming out of Derrin is enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end.
"No... Nothing." The tall girl spins on her heel, her face bright red and runs off in the opposite direction. Me on the other hand, I'm staring at Derrin, trying to figure out how in the hell he was able to hear her.
"You're staring, beautiful."
"Would you mind not calling me that?" I ask turning my gaze to the mismatched wooden floor.
"I could, but then I wouldn't know what to call you." His words have me looking into his piercing midnight eyes in shock, cheeks turning slightly red.
"I um, don't actually remember your name." He confesses.
"Oh." Is all I say. Come to think of it, I don’t remember giving him my name, so I can’t really get upset. We start walking again, this time he's a little closer and his hand slips down my wrist to my hand. I pull it away, pretending to fuss with my hair. We stop again a minute later, this time in front of a row of lockers. I glance at my timetable again and notice the number fifty-five circled in red ink. The locker in front of me has the same number so I assume it's mine. There's no lock on it so I just pull it open, watching Derrin do the same with his. He pulls a couple of books from inside it and then puts three different ones into the locker before closing it. I have no idea what the titles of the books were so I just keep all of mine with me and quickly close the locker so he can't see that there's nothing inside it.
"You've got Homeroom in room 7, it's just down the hall there, you can't miss it." Before I can respond he kisses my cheek and walks away. My hand flies up to where his lips touched my skin and I stand there staring after his retreating form.
"Why aren't you in class yet?" The sound of Jase's voice makes me jump, feeling guilty, I turn around to face him.
"I don't know where I'm supposed to go." I tell him.
"Shit, I guess we forgot to give you the map." He takes my timetable from my hand and looks it over. "Okay, we've got the same classes all day and we're in homeroom together, I'll walk with you." For the second time today I'm speechless. Jase is acting so strangely, almost distant. I don't know what to make of it, so I just follow along behind him, pretending everything is okay. Inside however, I am a ball of nervous energy. I'm nervous about being in classes, I'm nervous about meeting all the students but most of all I'm scared that Jase and Char are going to leave me alone.
"I changed my mind. I don't want you two to leave me alone while you're here." I mutter. Jase stops in front of a classroom and turns to look at me. His eyes glow under the fluorescent lighting making them look more of a seafoam than his usual grey.
"Are you sure?" I nod in answer. "Thank god for that. We were trying to figure out how we were going to keep an eye on you if you ended up wanting to avoid us, this'll make things so much easier."
Keep an eye on me?My heart drops.I really am nothing more than a burden to them.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Jase lifts my chin gently with one finger. "Talk to me, Rose, I don't want you keeping things from me."
"It's nothing. I'm nervous is all." I lie. Jase stares into my eyes like he's trying to see into my mind, after several long tense seconds, he nods and motions for me to enter the classroom.