Chapter 7
GRAYSON
Biology class is fun.
In the first ten minutes, Mr. Thompson spilled the snails all over the floor and began yelling at Cale for distracting him. The whole class laughed, including Kaila and I. Her laugh is just the same as her smile, real and loud.
“What are your next classes?” she whispers curiously, breaking through my thoughts.
I give her a broad smile, secretly rejoicing the fact that she cared. Or maybe she just needed someone to show her to her classes. “I’ve got Math and Physics next with Breckins and Young. How about you?”
She turns her head towards me and I feel my heart quicken when my eyes meet hers. She has a strange effect on me.
“Oh, we won’t be in the same class. I have Mrs. Clearwater.”
“Oh.” I scrabble for something to say. We sit in awkward silence, me staring at the pencil before me, and her looking forward.
Say something!
She blushes and I stare, fascinated with the rosiness in her cheeks. Her cheeks go very red and her eyes seem brighter. No girl should look that pretty when they blush.
“Cale, look what you did!” Mr. Thompson huffs from the front of the room. I see Cale wince.
Kaila laughs quietly next to me. It sounds wonderful.
“Mr. Thompson’s a funny guy, isn’t he?” she asks finally, cocking her head to one side again.
“Yeah, he’s pretty cool. He’s been here for a pretty long time.”
“Really? Have you been here for your whole life?” She circles her pencil in lazy swings on her paper. I watch the pencil roll.
“Yeah, my entire life. I’ve never left.” I’m startled by how easy it is to talk to her. Maybe it’s her tone of voice and sound of it. It is strangely soothing.
Her eyes harden and the pencil drops onto the paper with a light thud as she stretches her arms behind her back.
“You don’t know how lucky you are. I’ve moved around for my whole life. I can’t seem to keep any friends for long because we are constantly moving. It’s not fun.”
“Because of your dad.” It isn’t a question though, it’s a statement.
She nods. “Yep,” she says grimly. “Because of my dad. I’m growing tired of moving all the damn time.”
Surprise fills me and my next words are blurted out. “I didn’t take you for a curser.”
I almost slap my mouth in shock. I can’t believe I just said that.
Instead, she shoots me a wicked grin. “Yeah, I guess I’ve got that innocent town-girl look about me, right?”
My lips turn up by themselves and I feel my eyes crinkle. She stares at me with a weird expression that I can’t understand.
We talk quietly through the whole lesson and I learn that her favorite color is light blue (not just any shade but light blue). I also learn that she really wants a pet (a German shepherd, preferably) that her zodiac sign is Leo and she wants to go to Brazil. I also tell her what my sign, favorite color and food are. I noticed that when she talks, she uses a lot of hand gestures and tilts her head a lot. It looks innocent and cute.
By the time class is almost over, I feel completely at ease and relaxed with her.
The bell rings, stopping Mr. Thompson mid-sentence. He glares at it and then at us as students start to rise from their seats. “Okay,” he says, flinging his arms in the air dramatically. “Obviously, I can’t keep you here just because I want to, so just go. We’ll talk more about respiration next lesson. No homework.”
His brown eyes are narrowed at Cale but he doesn’t really seem all that mad.
I get up and grab my backpack from my chair. I almost wish that Biology is longer so that we could talk more. Almost.
“I guess I’ll see you at lunch.” I smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nicole full-on glaring at Kaila, her eyes shooting javelins. I sigh.
Kaila either doesn’t notice or ignores her. I sincerely hope that she doesn’t notice.
“Yeah, see ya, loser.” She gives me a wink, picks up her bag and walks out of the room, leaving the scent of mint behind her. A part of me wants to follow her immediately.
I groan in frustration and begin heading off to Mr. Young’s class. For some odd, unexplainable reason, I feel the peculiar urge to spill all my secrets whenever she’s around.
……………………………
At lunchtime, I look for Kaila instinctively. I don’t see her and I feel dispirited.
What is about this girl that made me want to see her all the damn time?
“What are you looking for, man?” Cale asks, an irked expression on his face. He had been talking about some modern warcraft shit that he found out last night. He probably realized at last that I hadn’t been listening for the past ten minutes.
“Gray?”
I shake the image of green eyes away in disgust. What are you doing, Cooper? Pining after her like a little fifth grader boy?
“Yeah,” I turn to him. “I’m listening.”
He starts to speak again but suddenly mint wafts to my nose.
“Grayson?” I jerk my head up when I glimpse brown hair and green eyes. She holds a tray of fruit and beans in front of her. She gives me a gorgeous grin.
“Hey,” I say. My heart begins beating faster than normal and I want to step forward but I’m frozen in place.
She tilts her head to one side like a bird and her chocolate brown hair cascades over her shoulder in a soft wave. I want to reach out and touch it. Would it run through my fingers like silk?
I push away the thought.
“Can I ask you one thing? Is the lunch here good?”
I laugh at her puzzled expression. “Yes, but don’t try the mystery meat. It’s shit.”
She laughs that beautiful laugh of hers again. My lips twitch.
“This is Cale. Cale, meet Kaila.”
Cale was watching me with narrowed eyes before he looked over to Kaila.
“Sup.” He holds out his hand.
She takes it gingerly and gives him a snarky smirk. “Hey, Cale. Nice to meet you. Saw you got pounded by Mr. Thompson.”
Cale grins at her wickedly. “That was low, girl.”
Kaila returns the gesture with an equally wicked smile. “You’re right it was.”
He whistles, gazing at her with a predatory look. I feel slightly scared for her. “Kaila, if you ever get bored with this loser, you can—
He’s interrupted my elbow in his ribs as the breath whooshes out of his lungs.
Kaila smiles back. “Thanks for the interrupted offer but no thanks. You’re not my type.”
My eyes widen in shock and I feel myself grinning for the third time today.
Cale whistles before clutching his chest. “How could you?” he asks with doe wide eyes full of fake hurt.
I push him gently. “Get up to the front.”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’m going. You see how he treats me?” He shoots me one last disbelieving look and jerks his head towards Kaila before backing away and heading towards the lunch line. Yep, I was going to hear it from him later.
Kaila is shaking with silent laughter. “That’s your friend? You have a cool one,” she says to me, eyes glittering.
She tucks a loose tendril of hair behind her ear. It falls back against her cheek insistently and I almost lean forward to push it back. My hand itches.
“Yeah, Cale is pretty awesome.”
Kaila comes closer and tips her face toward mine. I can feel her warm breath near my ear and I have the sudden desire to reach out and hold her to me. I clench my fists near my side to stop from doing something stupid like that.
“I made a few friends,” she says softly.
Of course, she is already making friends. She’s kind, smart and slightly sarcastic.
I suppress the twinge of jealousy. What the hell, Cooper?
“Really?”
“Yeah,” she says, looking at me closely. “And she’s taking me out for coffee later.”
“That’s cool. You ready for it?”
She scoffs. “No, I am not. I’m gonna make a fool out of myself, not that I haven’t already.”
I shake my head. “No, you’re going to be fine. You’ll make tons of friends.” I am sure of it.
She opens her mouth again and—
“Kaila!”
She turns to see who called her. I follow her gaze to see a girl with fiery red hair standing up and motioning for her to go over. She’s looking at me, too.
Disappointment sweeps over me. I had planned asking her to sit with me today.
She shoots me a chagrined glance. “I have to go. I’m supposed to meet up with her.”
“Sure, see you later?” I lie even though all I want is for her to stay and talk to me.
“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says before walking away towards her friend.
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