The Forgeron Legacy

by J.D. Atchison

  The normally jam-packed hallways of Riverdale High were empty of students. Teacher’s voices were a quiet murmur behind the closed doors of the classrooms, not nearly loud enough to cover the noise of Emma’s feet slapping against the linoleum as she ran. Emma was almost there, her classroom was just around the corner at the end of the hallway. Blue lockers flashed by as she sprinted as fast as she dared and skidded around the corner. Too late, did she notice a guy standing in the middle of the hallway.

  Emma tried to stop her mad dash but her shoes had little traction on the slick linoleum floor. The soft soles of her boots slid her across the floor straight towards the guy, slamming her directly into his chest. Emma felt like she had hit a brick wall. The impact knocked her backward off her feet sending her into a free fall towards the floor. Emma could only brace herself for the inevitable impact. But it never came. Before she hit the floor the guy caught her by the hand, halting her fall with just an inch to spare.

  Emma blinked up at him, as the guy slowly eased her to the floor and she realized that she didn’t know him. Even in a school of 2000 students she knew for sure she had never seen him before because guys this good looking didn’t exist in Riverdale. She had checked. His dark hair tumbled in slight waves onto his forehead and over his ears as he bent down to look at her with deep blue eyes that stared down into hers with a slightly amused expression. He was fighting a grin, she could tell from the way his lips were twitching but she didn’t care. She was too distracted by the hint of a dimple she could see. She bet if he smiled it would turn into a full-fletched heart melting dimple. I’m in so much trouble. Emma thought. She blushed when she realized she was still sitting on the floor, holding his hand gazing up at him like an idiot.

  “You okay?” He asked, gently pulling her up.

  Emma nodded wordlessly, so embarrassed she could hardly bring herself to look him in the eye. His gorgeous, blue eyes. Yep, she was definitely in trouble.

  “You certainly pack a hit for a little girl,” he smiled ruefully, rubbing his chest with one large hand.

  She immediately opened her mouth to argue that she wasn’t little, but then she realized that he still towered over her even though she was standing up. Words began tumbling out of her mouth. “I am so sorry! I hope you’re okay, I can’t believe I ran into you like that! Are you okay?”

  He laughed and waved off her concern. “Don’t worry, after a season of having a bunch of guys trying to tackle me every day it’s nice to have a girl try.” He said with a wink.

  Emma felt heat rush to her face and realized she must be blushing again. She looked down, nervously tugging her shirt straight. Then his words finally sank in and she blinked in confusion.

  “Guys?” She asked, glancing shyly up at him.

  “Football.” He replied with a smile.

  “Ohhh, okay.” Emma nodded. That made sense, he was definitely built like an athlete. Emma frowned as she looked at him. “You’re not one of our football players, I would have recognized you…Are you?” She asked uncertainly.

  “I just transferred here.” He told her, shifting his backpack higher on his shoulder. “You’re actually the first person I’ve met. I’m Jason by the way.” Jason smiled down at her as he held out a hand, showing off the dimple that she had wondered about.

  Emma shook his hand, trying not to look too awestruck. “Nice to meet you, Jason.” She whispered. There was a pause as they both looked at each other, neither saying a word. Emma felt like she was missing something. Jason raised his eyebrows slightly, his smile deepening even further.

  “And your name is…?” He prompted.

  Heat rushed to Emma’s face all over again. “Emma!” She blurted. “My name is Emma. Wow, I’m normally better at this.”

  “Better at what?” Jason finally let go of her hand and took a small step back, giving her some space to breath. Emma sucked in a breath, able to think clearly again now that he wasn’t so close.

  “Being normal.” Emma replied depreciatingly, giving a little half smile.

  Jason chuckled. “Normal is boring. No one I’ve ever met who’s interesting is normal.”

  “And if I was interesting I’d be okay with that, but if I’m not normal or interesting then I would just be a boring oddity and who wants to know someone like that?” Emma quipped back.

  “I would like to know you, even if you were a boring oddity. But I think you’re interesting, so you’re safe.” Jason replied.

  “Thanks.” Emma said with a shy smile.

  Jason shifted closer to her and opened his mouth to say something else when the door to the class room suddenly swung open and Mr. Schneider stood in the doorway glaring down at Emma.

  “Miss Rose, you realize that in order to be counted as present you need to actually be present in the room?” Emma could practically see the icicles hanging from his words as he spoke. Frosty would have been putting it nicely.

  “Yes Mr. Schneider, and I apologize.” Emma began to explain what had happened when Jason smoothly cut in.

  “It’s my fault sir,” He spoke up, drawing Mr. Schneider’s attention away from Emma. “Emma was just helping me since I’m new here.”

  Mr. Schneider’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Jason, clearly skeptical of anything positive about Emma.

  “Miss Rose it seems as though for once your tardiness is excusable. However, make sure that you do not teach Mr. Silverstone your poor attendance habits. Please take your seat. Mr. Silverstone, follow me to my desk.”

  When Mr. Schneider turned and walked back into the room Emma mouthed a quick “Thank you” to Jason before she slipped into the room and went to her seat in the back corner.

  Emma didn’t remember much of that day’s lecture. She was too focused on not looking at Jason but also trying to look at him out of the corner of her eye to see if he was looking at her. Maybe it was because of her intense concentration to not look at Jason but class flew by that day. Before Emma knew it the bell was ringing and everyone was stuffing their books in their backpacks and filing out the door. Emma couldn’t remember a single thing Mr. Schneider had talked about during class, she didn’t even know what subject they were covering.

  As she packed up her stuff she decided to read the assigned chapters in the book that night for the first time that year. If she wasn’t going to be listening in class she should probably do the reading. Emma was so lost in her thoughts as she stuffed her books into her backpack that she didn’t notice someone standing next to her. A hand dropped on her shoulder, startling her so much that she nearly jumped out of her seat.

  “Hey, I didn’t mean to startle you.” Jason said, smiling down at her. “I was just wondering if you could tell me where D150 is. That’s my next class and I have no idea how to get there.”

  “Of course!” Emma flashed him her best smile, “I’m actually headed that way myself. My next class is on the floor above yours.”

  “Great, I was hoping you were going in that direction.” Jason sounded relieved. For a second Emma let herself hope that he wanted to spend more time with her but then… “I don’t know anyone else yet, and I hate wandering around like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  Emma forced herself to laugh lightly. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to walk by yourself.” So much for him wanting to spend time with her.

  Grabbing her backpack she stood up and headed out of the classroom. Jason followed Emma out of the room and into the crowded hallway, sticking close behind her. Students stood at their lockers grabbing books and formed in small groups along the sides of the hall to talk. The students on their way to classes formed two lanes of traffic in the middle of the hallway, one going each direction. Emma pushed her way through the crowd until she got into the line of students moving towards the doors. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Jason was still behind her.

  His eyebrows were lowered over his eyes in a slight frown as he kept glancing back and forth, like he was tracking every movement. He ha
d his shoulders hunched forward as he pushed his way through the crowd after her and every moment in the crowd seemed to heighten his tension. Finally they made it outside and away from the overwhelming crush of students. She watched Jason as he breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

  “Do you not like crowds?” Emma glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, curious but not wanting to pry.

  Jason looked at her quizzically. “What do you mean?”

  “You just seemed a little tense back there, that’s all.” Emma said lightly, looking forward.

  They were walking across the quad now, a giant open space in the middle of campus with sidewalks crisscrossing over the lawn heading to different buildings. They were on the sidewalk that headed to the north side of campus where the D building was.

  Emma watched as everyone who passed them stared at Jason, the girls in admiration and the guys in annoyance. She couldn’t help but smirk when a few of the prettier girls cast openly jealous looks in her direction. There was nothing going on between her and Jason but it was still nice to be the focus of envy for once.

  “Crowds can overwhelm me a little bit sometimes.” Jason explained. “I’m more of an open spaces type of guy.”

  “I’m the same way.” Emma agreed. “I could never live in a city, too many people around all the time. I love being able to see the sky and open land, to be near nature.”

  “Yeah, exactly.” Jason nodded his head enthusiastically.

  “So do you have first lunch or second lunch?” Emma asked. Please let him have first lunch.

  “I’m not sure, let me check.” Jason reached into the side pocket of his backpack and pulled out a piece of paper. “Umm, it says I have Lunch A, so I’m guessing first lunch?”

  Emma grinned, a lot happier than she probably should have been to hear that. “Yes, that’s first lunch. I think it’s the better lunch to have because then lunch divides the classes evenly. I don’t think I could make it through four classes before eating lunch.”

  “Do you have first lunch too?” Jason asked as they left the quad and approached the D building.

  “Yeah, my best friend Amy and I made sure we did.” Emma said with a smile. She pushed open the door to the D building and the two of them squeezed inside. They paused in a small open space just inside the doors of the building next to the staircase while crowds of students pushed past them.

  “Maybe I’ll see you at lunch then.” Jason said, raising his voice a little to be heard above the crowd.

  Emma nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

  Just then the warning bell rang, letting all the students know they had one minute to get into their classrooms. Emma waved a quick goodbye to Jason as she ran up the stairs to her next class. She barely managed to get into the room before Mrs. Kelso closed the door.

  “Cutting it close today Emma.” Mrs. Kelso said teasingly.

  “I always do.” Emma replied cheekily. She liked Mrs. Kelso. The woman had a great sense of humor and was a good teacher.

  As she sat down at her desk Emma took a deep breath, already thinking about what she would do if she saw Jason at lunch.