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R E C K L E S S . . .
CHAPTER THREE -
I'd always hated Mondays; especially when the weather was cold, dark and miserable. On days like those everything just seemed that little bit more depressing.
It was just my luck that it was one of those days. A Monday, a cold and dismal Monday at that. It felt like we were in the middle of a swirling tempest, with thick layers of misty cloud pressed down upon us, releasing the torrential rain which pounded down relentlessly and without mercy on anyone or anything. The wind spiralled around, making the trees sway and give out eerie whistles. I was soaked to the bone as the freezing cold rain slammed into me powerfully.
"Why..." moaned Claire, who had to shout over the wind in order to be heard "Do we have to go out in this weather? It’s horrible..."
We were struggling against the elements towards the History block which lay across the damp school field and what seemed an age away from the main building.
I nodded in agreement, "I hate this weather so much. Believe me, I'm moving to somewhere hot and sunny as soon as possible."
A particularly strong gust of wind knocked me several steps backwards and I grumbled "Scrap that, I'm just going anywhere but England. Anywhere could be better than this,"
"Sounds good to me!" Yelled Claire over the wind as we approached the small, crumbling building and ran quickly to the door, slipping and sliding through the mud in our earnestness. The wind caused our clothes to billow around us, making it hard to run and making us stumble dizzily back.
Finally we managed to throw open the door to the History block and scramble quickly in. As soon as the wind slammed the door we were plunged into the silence of the corridor, only interrupted by the now faint splattering of the rain on the windowpanes and the distant ticking of a clock.
Claire looked around "I guess we're late,"
My gaze turned to the clock on the wall, which proclaimed we were 15 minutes late for the lesson. I cursed as I realized this, “We’re just a bit late...” I said sarcastically.
"I guess we should go to the lesson and get yelled at," Claire groaned mournfully, not wanting to go to the lesson one bit.
Our History teacher, Mr. Laurel, was notorious for handing out detentions, even if you were only a few seconds late for his lesson. I didn't want to consider what would happen to me and Claire when we turned up quarter of an hour late.
"We're already late, might as well skip all of History," I ventured, not looking the least bit forward to facing Mr. Laurel.
"But if we miss the entire lesson," Claire pointed out, "He'll definitely give us a worse punishment."
"Yes," I countered, crossing my arms to keep myself from shivering in my wet uniform "But if we miss all of it then we won't be there for him to give us detention. So I say we just skip History and go back to the dorm."
Claire paused as if considering what I had said, "We'll have to go all the way back after that!" She moaned, "I don't want to go outside again!"
"We're already drenched by that rain, so it shouldn't make much difference if we go out again right now. I mean, how soaked can you get?" I reasoned to her, "So I say we go back"
She shrugged, looking out at the raging weather outside, sizing up the options. Finally she sighed and said, "I'm going to the lesson, maybe the weather will have died down by the time we go outside again."
Then she turned and walked towards the History room door without me, her blonde hair hanging limp and her school uniform sticking to her long, thin frame. I watched for a second as she paused at the door with her hand hovering above the handle in indecision, then I turned to face the window which gave a view of outside.
Tiny, sparkling trails of rain trickled down the window and distorted the images of the outside world, making it hard to see through to what was actually happening. I saw the distorted silhouettes of the violently waving trees and faint images of the swirling rain. My eyes eventually focussed on two fuzzy figures making their way across the mud strewn lawn of the school and approaching the History block. I squinted and tried to make the shapes focus so I could figure out what they were; absent-mindedly making my way towards the window so I could peer closer.
"What are you staring at?" asked Claire curiously. She had been watching me with a curious expression on her face and her hand still hovering above the door handle- as if she were just about to have gone in the classroom, before realising my confused face as I pressed it against the cold window and squinted. I realized I had been staring through the window for more time than I had thought, because the mysterious figures had now progressed from the end of the field to half way down it.
I let my gaze linger a while longer then tore it away and turned to face her. "Nothing, I just thought that I'd seen something..." I trailed off, my eyes peering out the window again.
Claire walked to my side and started to stare out the window next to me, "Yeah, there's definitely something out there. All this rain and fog makes it look kind of creepy, doesn't it?"
She stepped forwards and dragged her sleeve across the window, swiping away the fog that had accumulated on it and causing the scene outside to suddenly come into a sharp focus.
As we both looked closer through the now clear window, we saw that the two figures we had been confused over were just people. Two guys were walking confidently towards the building, one had brown hair and the other was blonde. They both walked in a way which showed confidence and power; strutting lazily towards the building we were in as if they had all the time in the world.
I groaned when I realized who they were, and turned away from the window with a twinge of annoyance that it just had to be them.
"On second thought, I'd rather face Mr. Laurel..."
Before Claire could reply I had taken her hand and dragged her rapidly towards the History room’s door again, we were just about to twist the handle and go inside when the building's door opened causing an icy wind to blow down the corridor, making us stop and turn in surprise at their entrance.
I saw Chris and Darren walking in that same aggravatingly lazy way, down the corridor towards us. Apart from their slightly windswept hair they looked fine- especially since they had just been walking through the sheets of relentless rain which were pouring down and getting thicker and thicker by the second.
Claire had turned round with me and was now glaring at the pair with the same force as I was. I wondered why, Claire had seemed to like - and even worship - Chris whenever he had come up in our conversations. With a jolt of realization I saw that it was not Chris she was focusing the glare, but Darren. This still made no sense and I strained to work out how they could even know each other.
"Since when did you know Darren?" I whispered curiously in her ear as they drew closer, trying to make sense of the situation.
"Basically since forever. Haven't you noticed before? I just didn't know he’d made friends with Chris..." She trailed off.
I turned to her with a confused expression "He’s Chris’s best friend!” And how could you fail to mention you were friends with this guy?" I demanded impatiently, waving my hands in the air and gesturing to Darren.
"I'll explain later," Claire said softly, twisting us to face the two guys. We still had the identical glares fixed on our faces, a silent act of defiance against the two approaching friends.
"I feel so welcomed!" Exclaimed Chris jovially as they reached us, slinging an arm around my shoulder and smiling. I shrugged his arm off violently and stepped out of his reach before he could try again.
Darren stopped next to Chris and smiled slightly as his glinting golden eyes found Claire's glaring ones. They stared at each other a while longer until Claire turned her head and ripped her gaze away from his.
Chris and I looked at them confusedly, after a few seconds he broke the silence by saying, "So, are we actually going to go to class or are we just going to be standing here for the next half hour? Because both sound good to me...”
"You're in our History class?" I exclaimed in annoyance "I've never seen you there before," It was true, I'd never once seen him in the class, and if he had been before I was extremely unobservant - Chris wasn't the type of person to go unnoticed.
"Sadly," He sighed "No. I'm across the corridor, way over there..." He signalled to a classroom further down the hallway before adding cockily “I know what you’re thinking, you’ll miss my good looks in your lesson...”
“Far from it,” I said, feeling a small pang of annoyance at him, but I hid the expression on my face quickly and covered it up with a grim smile "We better go to class, guys,"
The one thing we all seemed to agree on was the fact that we really didn't want to go to our lessons, but nevertheless we all restrained ourselves from groaning too much and dragged our feet along the ground and towards our classrooms.
"See you soon!” called Chris cheerfully, before opening the door to his class and slipping in silently into the room. Before closing the door completely he stuck his head out the door once more and grinned at us, laughter sparkling happily in his eyes. He probably knew what was awaiting us in Mr. Laurel's class, jerk. I shot him a look of venom as his head retreaded out of site and he closed the door with a soft click.
Claire and Darren refrained from starting another one of their staring matches and walked inside the classroom without a word, leaving me trailing behind helplessly like some sort of lost duckling. Some kind of silent agreement to get it over and done with quickly hovered in the air.
Walking into the room, we saw the whole class’s heads turn towards the door from which we had entered in one swift and co-ordinated movement. I looked around consciously at the staring faces and tried to close the door quietly so we didn't bring as much attention towards us. The door creaked to a close when we stepped fully into the classroom, leaving us trapped with Mr. Laurel.
I wasn't sure whether to approach my desk at the back of the classroom and pretend like I'd always been there, or to stand stoically and wait for the teacher to finally acknowledge us. I chose the latter, and the two people beside me also stayed still.
After what seemed like an age the teacher turned round slowly and stared intently at each of us in turn, his bushy eyebrows pulling down in annoyance as he regarded us. Motioning for the other students to get back to work, he made his way towards us with a slight limp in his step. Mr. Laurel was a middle-aged, balding man; as all teachers were he was incredibly fascinated by his subject. He was in love with History and everything to do with it, which was good for him – but not so good for the collection of students in the room, who were at his mercy for a full hour. The History teacher was also the kind of person to follow the rule book religiously, and was notoriously known for giving out detentions.
"And what time do you call this?" He enquired, the bristly moustache on his upper lip moving vigorously as he spat out each word at us.
We all looked around; uncertain to whether we were actually supposed to answer the question.
"Uh, quarter past nine?" I ventured after glancing at the small white clock mounted on the peeling walls of the classroom.
I heard the class snigger at this in the background, Laurel's head whipped round and they all quickly stopped, continuing to stare down at their History books innocently as if nothing had happened.
Someone cleared their throat and Claire stepped on my foot; I silently cursed and looked up at her angrily. She was giving me the what-the-hell look that was normally reserved for me in times like these. Apparently Mr. Laurel hadn’t meant it as a literal question.
“I didn’t mean that as a literal question, Miss Forbes,” He said, confirming my suspicions.
“If you didn’t want to know, you shouldn’t have asked what the time was...” I pointed out.
I could feel Mr. Laurel’s incredulous gaze boring into me and I cast my eyes up to meet his in a silent staring match. His bloodshot eyes were a washed out grey colour, and he looked like he hadn’t seen sleep for months. My eyes wanted to pull away but I resolutely kept them there, staring back into his and matching the venom with a gaze that did everything except audibly hiss.
Finally his eyes dragged away from mine and he barked out “Lunch time detention, all of you! Now go to your seats and stay there till the end of the lesson,”
Darren mumbled something under his breath and the teacher raised an eyebrow, “Don’t push your luck, Mr. Keller” he warned.
“He won’t” Claire said sweetly, showing a winning smile and pushing us both forcefully towards the very back of the classroom to where our desks were.
I sat down in the hard wooden chair behind the desk I shared with Claire and crossed my arms, getting ready to effectively zone out for the whole lesson.
Claire sat down next to me and laughed quietly under her breath, “His face was hilarious,” she chuckled “It’s brilliant when his eyes just bulge out like that... I honestly think that face was worth a detention.”
There was a scraping sound as Darren pulled his chair out from the empty desk next to ours and slid silently into it.
I regarded him warily before turning to face Claire “Really,” I whispered curiously to her “I’ve never seen Darren in this class before, is he always here?”
“He’s been here since the start of the year, you idiot,” she said “He sits at the back and glowers like a murderer at anyone who tries to sit near him. You’ve been really unobservant lately; I bet you don’t even know what we’re studying...”
“Of course I know what we’re studying!” I bluffed, trying to sound as if I was offended by her utter lack of faith in me.
She smiled slyly at me, knowing that I didn’t know anything about our topic “Then what are we studying then? Please tell,”
I looked around the room for inspiration, “Uh, that time in History... with the... King?”
“Well done, Miss. Forbes. I see you’ve been studying this topic intently,” said a sarcastic voice from behind us, startling me and making me jump. We both turned round to face Mr. Laurel, who was smiling grimly at us, “But, please, continue what you were saying”
The whole class turned round to face me where I sat, a small blush formed on my cheeks, “I’d rather not,” I said to him, my voice practically implying that I didn’t know anything.
He smiled at me, knowing perfectly well that I hadn’t a clue “I’m sure that we would’ve all benefited by all that you had to say, but we’ll let it pass this time,” he turned to walk down the length of the room “And Russia had a Tsar in the early 1900s- not a King, Miss. Forbes.”
I glowered at him as he went back to teaching the lesson, pointing animatedly at the board and motioning at the timeline on the wall which indicated important events in the period of History. I decided to tune out his voice as he droned on in a monotone about aspects of Tsarist Russia, knowing I wouldn’t ever need to know about Russian peasants in later life. The pages of the massive text book in front of me made a dry crinkling sound as I flicked through them slowly, watching each crumbling page of information flutter down to rest on top of the others as I let them go.
This went on for about ten minutes before I ripped a page from my work book, causing several curious people to turn round at the harsh sound of the paper being torn. After a second their heads turned back to the front of the classroom, resuming the blank stare that everyone took up in History class. The stare that meant they weren’t actually listening, just faking interest in the useless facts being frown at them by Mr. Laurel.
Picking up my pen, I scribbled a quick note to Claire ‘You still need to tell me how you know Darren.’ I wrote on the top of the paper, sliding it across the table to the space in front of her and waiting for a reply.
She glanced at me then took her own pen, ‘Whys it so important? He’s just an annoying guy that I happen to know’ She wrote next to my message in her impossibly curly handwriting which daunted the small, illegible writing which was mine.
‘You were staring at him pretty forcefully today; I don’t think he’s just some annoying guy’
‘Can we just talk about this later? I think Laurel’s coming and I don’t want another detention...’
I nodded at her and folded the paper up before depositing it in my pocket. Just like Claire had said I saw Mr. Laurel coming towards us. I had a lingering feeling that Claire was evading the subject, but there was no time to talk.
Sighing, I looked at the worksheet he deposited silently in front of us and automatically started to write the meaningless answers.
--
Once the lesson was dismissed we slung our bags over our shoulders and walked over to the door, listening to Mr. Laurel’s continuous and gleeful reminders about our detentions that day.
Darren followed us out and slung his arms round our shoulders, “This afternoon is going to be fun!” He said with fake enthusiasm in his voice, referring to the upcoming lunch time detention.
Both Claire and I groaned simultaneously then shrugged of his arms, leaving them without anything to rest on. He grumbled and slouched away, only to come back a few seconds later with Chris trailing after him.
“You have detention then, Annie?” He asked smugly, knowing the answer already.
“Yes, I have detention. Do you have any problems with that?” I muttered, before adding on as an afterthought “Don’t call me Annie!” I kept on walking quickly down the corridor and towards the door that led outwards, ignoring the grin that had lit up on his face and trying to get away as quickly as possible.
“I have detention too, you know. I made sure that I had it, just so we could spend some quality time in each other’s company!” he told me once he had pushed through the crowd of people and caught up with me.
I grimaced “This day keeps on getting better and better! Detention with Chris Everdeen, you don’t know how incredibly unappealing that sounds right now”
“Aw, come on,” he complained “Any normal girl would love to spend their detention time with me!”
We were approaching the door that led outside now, the rain was still pounding down relentlessly and never ceasing, “Why do I think that you actually did get detention just to annoy me?” I grumbled, stopping in front of the door and annoying several people who had been walking behind us.
“Because you’re paranoid,” Chris ventured, shrugging his shoulders, “But you didn’t deny that you wouldn’t love to spend your detention with me.”
“Chris,” I said plainly to him “You do know I hate you, right?”
He held a hand to his chest in mock pain, “Ouch, you really hurt my feelings there, Anne.”
I rolled my eyes, “I’m sure I did. You could do with your ego being deflated, anyway – think of it as me doing you a favour.”
“I could think of a few other favours you could do...” He trailed off, raising his eyebrows suggestively before his face contorted into one of pained surprise as I punched him violently on the arm.
I watched Chris glower at me as I walked out the door and away from him, before I realised that the rain was still pouring down and ran back into the building again with a terrified squeal at the prospect of going out in the weather without some kind of cover.
He laughed “You’re really not good at these dramatic exits are you?”
“Meaning...?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, let’s see...” he said, preparing to list “One: You try to walk down the stairs but instead you trip and hit your head. Two: You try to run out the room, which you admittedly succeeded at, but covered in crisp crumbs and screaming manically at us. Three: You try to go through the door only to shriek and run back in...”
“I think I get the point,” I glowered at him because, of course, he was right. Not that I was ever going to admit that. Admitting that Chris was right would mean me being mocked for the rest of my life by him, even if it was completely obvious that I sucked at making an exit without making a fool of myself.
Noticing the umbrella in his hand for the first time, I reached out to snatch it from him, but he anticipated my move and held it high above his head so I couldn’t reach it. I stretched up on my tiptoes and tried to reach high enough to grab the handle, this only resulted in him holding it higher and higher above me.
“Fine, be that way” I crossed my arms and pouted “I’ll just go outside and get soaked to the skin, I’ll be fine...”
He chuckled at my words and stepped out of the door without a word, fanning his umbrella out and holding it above his head. The people darting around him and trying to block the worst of the rain by holding folders above their heads shot him envious looks as he walked leisurely across the field.
Claire and Darren came up behind me, watching Chris with the same expression of annoyance.
“That was my umbrella,” Said Darren mournfully.
“How terrible, Darren! You’ll have to get your precious hair all wet,” Claire said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at him “How will you live?”
He glared at her then pushed her out of the door and into the rain, she was soaked as soon as the water hit her “I’m going to actually kill you, Darren!” she screamed, the rain pounding down on top of her. Claire ran through the door and grabbed his hands, pulling him out with her and causing him to become drenched too.
They both glared forcefully at each other, and then Darren started laughing at her drenched state. Claire snatched his bag from him and held it over her head, sheltering herself from the rain. Looking annoyed, he tried to take it back, but Claire was too fast and ran away easily from him. He looked stumped for a second, and then started to run after her. Claire was a fast runner, and his long legs weren’t enough to help him catch her up.
She looked over her shoulder at his shrinking form and laughed. I could faintly see that before Claire completely disappeared into the main school building she gave me a thumbs up and winked at me.
I sighed and stepped out of the shelter of the History building, preparing myself for the harsh rain that was still pouring down without mercy.
Chris, I noticed, was still walking aimlessly down the field with the umbrella above his head, and more than enough room underneath.
Taking my History textbook from my bag and holding it over my head so it would act as temporary cover, I ran as quickly as I could in Chris’s general direction. I slid in the mud and would’ve kept on sliding across the field if he hadn’t flung his arms out at lightning speed and steadied me. We stood for a second with his hands gripped tightly round my arms, holding me steady. The umbrella had dropped to the ground when I had skid into him and left us at the mercy of the rain.
He bent down so that his face was directly in front of mine and I could see every detail. A glistening drop of rain trickled off his shining brown hair and ran silently down his cheek; he would’ve looked like he was crying if it wasn’t for the smile that lit up his face and the glint of his dark grey eyes. We were both soaked to the skin within a few seconds of standing in the torrential rain, I wanted to move but the gaze he was giving me held me in place.
“You know in those movies...” Chris said slowly, his breath making small puffs of steam in the air “When they kiss in the rain?” Then he lifted both eyebrows suggestively and grinned, effectively ruining the one moment when he hadn’t completely annoyed me.
I groaned and pushed him away forcefully, he stumbled back several steps in surprise at my reaction as I snapped “Go and bother someone else, Chris, because I certainly don’t want you here.” I started to walk off but he caught my arm and held me there.
“You’re forgetting,” He said “That I have an umbrella.”
My gaze shifted to the empty space of ground where the umbrella had once been, then to its current location in Chris’s hand, then back to his face which was sporting a winning smile.
“Fine,” I sighed, even though it was no use trying to stay dry now, the rain had obliterated all sense of dryness and I was shivering in the cold. I knew that staying under the umbrella was the least I could do to get some warmth in my body and shelter from the rain.
I felt something warm drape round my shoulders and I looked round to see that Chris had shrugged out of his jacket and was putting it round my shoulder. I shook my head vehemently and stepped away.
He rolled his eyes, “You’re cold, take it”
“Knowing you there’s some ulterior motive... like killing me, or payback...” I mused.
“Can’t you just worry about it later and accept that I’m trying to be nice to you for once?” He sighed, holding out the jacket earnestly in front of me.
I shivered again, my school uniform was thin and the wet material plastered to my skin, offering no protection from the outside elements. It would be useless to not accept the jacket so I put it on grouchily, glaring at him reproachfully as I did.
“You’re not getting it back, you know?” I mumbled as we started to walk, trying to show a shred of defiance.
“I don’t mind, I can buy another one”
Does nothing seem to annoy him? I thought grudgingly as we trudged through the rain towards the main school. I wondered where Claire had gone after running away and if Darren had caught her up yet. Knowing Claire, they were probably still sprinting around the corridors of the school creating a ruckus and bumping into everything and everyone.
After an awkward silence I voiced what had been on my mind for a while, “Do you know how Darren and Claire know each other?”
“Darren and... who?” He asked, raising a questioning eyebrow at me.
“My friend Claire, the one who was with me before History...” I said, rolling my eyes at his stupidity. Who else could I be asking about?
Chris looked stumped, “There was someone with you before History?” He asked confusedly. Obviously he didn’t know anything about them if he had no idea who Claire even was. Nevertheless I decided to keep on ploughing in hope that some seed of knowledge would appear.
I slapped my hand against my head in exasperation. “Yes. She was called Claire,” I said slowly as if I was addressing a five year old, emphasizing her name.
When the confused look didn’t clear off his face I threw my hands up in exasperation, “You borrowed a pencil off her once,” I said as my last hope, trying to make him remember her.
“Did I give it back?”
“What do you think?” I asked sarcastically “You’re a jerk, Chris, I hardly think you’d bother to give a stranger’s pencil back.”
“I’m a jerk?” He asked, “Since when did you make that decision? Isn’t it a bit too early to judge?”
“With you it’s never too early to judge,” I sighed as we thankfully reached the door of the building and stepped inside.
I veered off to the staircase while Chris started to head off in the opposite direction. He turned round and called out to me but I ignored him and kept on walking away.
As I started to climb the stairs a loud voice screeched out “Anne! Quick!”
I looked up to where the voice had come from and saw Claire sliding quickly down the banister with a frantic look on her face; I saw Darren’s head pop out of a distant doorway as he looked for Claire. He caught sight of her and skidded round the corner, running down the stairs in chase.
Before I had any time to register what was actually happening, Claire grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her in a sprint. I heard Chris and Darren yelling after us as we rounded the corner and went out of their site. I noticed she still had Darren’s bag in her hand and quickly pieced together the pieces.
“Darren’s still chasing you?” I asked incredulously as we ran. It was proving hard to keep up with Claire, I was no athlete and she was running as if her life depended on it.
She nodded, looking out of breath. Tugging my hand and refusing to let me slow down, Claire pulled me through a door and into a corridor which we rapidly sprinted through.
“When... are we going to.... stop?” I panted, since I was already out of breath from our short run.
“In a second,” She called out to me and tugged impatiently on my hand, “We just need to get to the canteen...”
We swerved round the corner and burst into the canteen, Claire looked round frantically before pulling us, now at walking pace, towards a table where Sam was sat alone with a small plate of chips in front of her.
I let go of her hand and sat next to her, “I’m never,” I said between pants “Doing that again.”
“It wasn’t that far, Anne” Claire pointed out as she sat next to Samantha.
I groaned, clutching the stitch at my side “It’s far for me, Claire. Not all of us are natural born athletes...”
She rolled her eyes then turned to Sam, “So how’re you?” She asked pleasantly, ignoring my grumbled complaints.
“I’m fine. I just had Biology, though,” Sam said, her face contorting into a frustrated expression as her thoughts moved to her least favourite lesson. She took one of the chips from her plate and dunked it in the thick dollop of tomato sauce on her plate, spreading it around absentmindedly and covering the plate with a thick layer of red, before dropping it into her mouth. She chewed slowly before asking, “Who were you running from, anyway?”
Claire looked around self consciously, playing with her hair and biting her lip like she always did when she was in an awkward situation. I could tell that she was avoiding answering the question. Her friend looked at Darren’s stolen bag which was still gripped tightly in her hand and sighed.
“That’s a guy’s bag,” She said whilst looking it over. Sam reached for the bag but Claire moved it away quickly, looking guiltily at her- like a small child with their hand in the cookie jar.
In one quick movement Sam had the bag and was emptying the contents, a tattered textbook fell out of the bag and she picked it up, leafing through the crumpled pages until she found the inside cover. She glanced at the name scrawled in messy handwriting on the page, then groaned disbelievingly at what she saw.
“Seriously, Claire?” Sam asked, “You’re not talking to Darren again are you?”
“I wouldn’t call it talking,” I told Sam “It was more like glaring, stealing his stuff, and then running for her life....” I trailed off as Claire glared at me and we all fell silent.
The silence carried on for what seemed like an age, before I broke it by saying impatiently “Okay, can someone please tell me about all this stuff with Darren? Because I honestly have no idea at all....”
They both glanced at me and Claire looked away quickly, blushing.
“She doesn’t want you to know,” Sam filled in for her.
“That’s not what I was going to say,” Claire snapped grouchily.
Sam grinned “Admit it, babe, you weren’t even going to say anything. I just filled in what you would’ve said if you were in a slightly more sociable mood,”
“True,” Claire said, a small smile forming before the grouchy face overruled it and she slumped back on her seat before muttering, “You should just tell her, I guess. She’ll find out somehow,”
“Well,” started Sam, who was leaning back in her chair and lazily chewing on another chip “Claire and Darren used to go out about two years back...”
“Then why didn’t Chris know anything about this if they dated?” I interjected.
She sighed, as if she was tired with my stupidity “Because Chris wasn’t at this school then, he started to go here about a year ago-“
“Really?”
“Yes, Really” Sam said quickly, interrupting me. I motioned with my hands for her to carry on and she continued, “As you can tell: they broke up-“
I looked at them both, surprised by so short an answer “And that’s the big secret?”
“If you would let me finish, Anne, you might know more,”” She said exasperatedly “Anyway, before you butt in again. They hate each other now; but we all really know that they still like each other...”
“No we don’t!” growled Claire, who had been silent for most of the conversation. She was blushing a faint pink and desperately trying to hide it by covering her face with her hands, “I don’t get why you’re saying that. I wouldn’t ever get back with him,”
Sam laughed at the expression on her friend’s face, “Can you just stop with the denial already?”
As we smiled, a shadow cast over our table, covering us in darkness and interrupting our conversation. I looked round too see Chris and Darren both grinning happily down at us, proud to have found Claire and I at last. Before any of us could react Darren had snatched his bag from shocked Sam and walked away without a word.
Chris paused and rolled his eyes at his friends; he made to leave then hesitated and turned round as if he had just remembered something important.
“Claire,” He smiled at her, surprising her by the fact he knew her name. Reaching into his pocket, he drew out a pencil and dropped it in her unsuspecting hands, “I believe I owe you a pencil.”
He turned slightly in my direction and gave a small smile, before completely turning away and walking towards where Darren had gone- leaving two shocked girls and one disbelieving one.
“Since when did Chris Everdeen know your name, Claire?!” Sam screeched excitedly, waving her hands in the air animatedly.
Claire grinned, “I don’t know,”
They quickly started talking about every aspect of the meeting, forgetting entirely about the previous events with Darren.
I hastily zoned-out of their squealing conversation and leaned back in my chair, thinking about what had happened.
Chris was obviously trying to make me believe he wasn’t a jerk, I remembered when we were under the umbrella, when I had called him a jerk and declared he’d never give a stranger’s pencil back because of it. In the short space of time which I had known him for, I had gathered that he was the kind of conceited guy that wanted everything and everyone to like them. If I had called him a jerk, he sure as hell was going to prove me wrong. Unluckily for him, giving a few pencils back and smiling wasn’t going to change anything. Once I lost my good opinion of someone it was lost forever; and no one, not even Chris, was going to change that aspect of me.
I subconsciously shivered, and realised how cold I actually was. My hair hung damply, and small strands clung around my face and back. The only part of my body that wasn’t enveloped by coldness was my shoulders, where Chris had draped his jacket. I suddenly found myself appreciating him for one thing; at least I was kind of warm. Despite me hating him, I appreciated his insistence that I wore his jacket. I snuggled into it for warmth and breathed in the cool smell of mint which was intensified by the rain. Could he actually be changing my opinion of him?
I hoped not.
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Sorry it took so long, I’ve been spending my life procrastinating Plus I have a load of exams and such coming up. I’ve been working hard on my art final piece and then I have lots of work and tests for other subjects. ^^
So something is actually going to happen soon in this story. Don’t worry; I won’t bore you to death... I hope. ;) But don’t give up on me just yet!
You don’t even know how excited I am that this actually got reads, votes and comments. It makes me happy to know that someone reads this. THAT MEANS YOU. *stares through screen*
But really, 800 reads for 2 parts is great! 28 votes as well, which makes me incredibly and strangely happy. ^^
Don’t forget: read, vote, comment and such! Because I love you <3
I’ll stop rambling now, it’s probably annoying you and you’ve given up reading this already... :’)
See you when I next update! (; ...Which will be sooner? I don’t know. I just spent 2 hours purely on editing... o_e
xox
(The song has nothing to do with anything - it's just my favourite song of the day...)