Maddie’s eye twitched and she shook her head, looking guilty, “No, of course not, I – oh ok – but I only had five if you must know.”
Izzie shook her head in disbelief, “You truly have gone mad, you know that?” She grabbed her bag and made her way to English Class as the bell rang, Maddie followed a few paces behind; Izzie sighed, ‘Boy it’s going to be a long day,’ she thought.
Izzie had been right, the school had been manic; everyone just couldn’t wait for Kale’s arrival. She, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less; he was just a famous actor who got paid way too much money while she struggled with her minimum wage pay to save for University. She really detested people like him and seemed to be the only person who was not looking forward to his arrival. Maddie, meanwhile, was practically giddy at the prospect of breathing the same air as him, never mind meeting him.
Izzie was so glad that she was now on her way home but it also meant that she would have to endure the same thing all over again tomorrow – and it would probably be even worse. She sighed and parked her car behind her father’s Golf and went inside the house.
“Hey Mum,” Izzie walked into the kitchen to find her mother cooking dinner, “What’s for dinner?”
Her mother turned around, a spaghetti sauce stain on her apron and a bit of pasta was stuck in her hair. “Oh hi honey, how was school?”
Izzie laughed as she pulled the pasta from her mother’s hair, “Oh you know, the usual.”
“Thanks,” said her mother and she turned back to the saucepan that was in danger of boiling over. “Well that’s not what I hear dear, word is that that famous actor is joining your school.”
Izzie rolled her eyes, “Yeah and I’m soooo excited,” she told her mother sarcastically.
“I take it from your lack of enthusiasm you aren’t.” her mother frowned at her.
Izzie sighed, “Everyone just seems to be falling all over themselves to impress him but I just don’t feel the need to.” she shrugged and her mother gave her a ‘whatever’ kind of smile and turned back to the pasta.
Izzie left her school stuff upstairs and decided to get started on her homework; dinner wasn’t going to be ready for another half hour at the most. She extracted her English Literature folder from her bag and started to plan out her essay on Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. She really didn’t get a lot done since her thoughts kept straying to Jake; she really knew she should stop dwelling on him but she couldn’t – it’s not like she had a chance but there was something about him … he just didn’t seem like a dumb rugby player. She chastised herself for thinking about his curly blonde hair and tanned physique; you really could tell he played a lot of sports since he was extremely well-built. Izzie shook her head, trying to shake those thoughts out of her head in the process, as she heard her mother call that dinner was ready.
She sat and picked at her spaghetti, not really paying attention to what her parents were talking about until she heard her father say her name.
“Izzie, did you hear me?”
Izzie had been sitting with her elbow on the table and her head resting on her fist, she sat up straight when her father spoke to her.
“Sorry, I was thinking about my homework, what did you say?”
Her father sighed, “I wanted to know if you could work the 3 to 6 shift tomorrow? It would really help a lot.”
Izzie tried not to look peeved off, “No that’s ok, I’m out of school at 3 but I’ll be there just after it.” Her father nodded, satisfied with her answer and she went back to her cold spaghetti. She pushed it around the plate for another five minutes and then excused herself, saying she really needed to get stuck into her school work.
As soon as she was in her room, she flopped onto her bed, ‘There really has to be more to life than this’ she thought miserably. Little did she know what was coming her way.
Izzie woke up absurdly early the next morning, she groaned as she realised it was Friday. Normally she would have been very happy that it was the start of the weekend but today it just meant it was the start of her final year stuck with a superficial famous actor. She rolled over and willed herself to get up; she really needed to get ready if she didn’t want to be late. However, she dozed off again and only woke when Grandma Frank walked by her room and yelled into her.
“Izzie, you do know you have school in forty-five minutes?”
Izzie bolted upright and quickly got out of bed. Fifteen minutes later and Izzie was dressed but still running a little late; it was clear she wasn’t going to make it there for 9 o’clock. She didn’t really mind, Kale would be no doubt causing a fuss she didn’t want to get caught in the middle of. She took her time eating her cereal and then got into her car at 8.55am and pulled out of the driveway to make her way to Hartside. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road, she rolled down her window - it was still quite mild for October – and turned up the radio; she was feeling very relaxed now knowing that she would miss Kale’s grand and – most likely - dramatic entrance.
Izzie hummed along with the song – Snow Patrol’s ‘Open Your Eyes’ – as she pulled into the last parking space and grabbed her bag before she started to rush towards the school. However, she had just reached the entrance door when a voice behind yelled, “Hey, hold the door please!”
She did as she was told and saw the person the voice belonged to approach her.
“Thanks, I was afraid there was some sort of lock on it so I couldn’t get in.”
Izzie looked up at the speaker, rolled her eyes and walked on in without saying anything. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to find he had chased after her.
“Hey, you took off so fast I didn’t get to introduce myself.”
Izzie smirked, “I know who you are thanks, Kale.” she said the last word with great dislike.
Kale looked at this girl he didn’t know and was quite stunned; what had he done that caused this girl to look at him with such loathing? He recovered from this shock when she made to walk off again.
“Hey! Why do you keep doing that? What is your problem?” Kale grabbed her arm and Izzie spun around.
“Hey, watch the hands buddy! What do you want?” Izzie was really beginning to get very angry at Kale; she really didn’t know why but she was.
Kale reeled back, “Wow, thanks for such a friendly welcome, I must say,” he spat sarcastically and then he caught himself on; he really had better manners than that. He let go of her arm and flashed his best award-winning smile.
“I’m sorry, can we start again? I was running late and I seem to have taken it out on you, sorry. Anyway, as you seem to know, I’m Kale Eddison and your name is …”
Izzie rolled her eyes; she guessed he wasn’t that bad – as a matter of fact he was actually better looking in real-life than he looked in magazines; his eyes were a clear, bright baby blue colour and his sandy hair was darker than it looked in magazines. He was also a lot taller than Izzie expected (well over six foot) and he was dressed in dark jeans, a blue shirt with a black leather jacket and black boots. Izzie took a minute to focus her thoughts, “Sorry, guess we both were taking our lateness out on the wrong people. I’m Izzie, Izzie Frank, it’s nice to meet you.”
Kale grinned, “Hi Izzie, great to meet you. Now would you mind if I troubled you as to where I should go to find the Main Office?”
Izzie laughed, “Jeez, no need to be oh-so polite. Sure I’ll show you, come on.”
They both set off down the corridor, Kale trying to think of something to say to break the awkward silence. “So, how long you lived here? It seems pretty nice.”
Izzie laughed humourlessly, “Yeah, it’s really fun! Na, seriously, it’s not that bad. I’ve lived here my whole life but I’m ready to leave when this year’s over, you know.”
Kale nodded, “Yeah, I know what you mean; I couldn’t wait to get out of Hollywood.”
Izzie was surprised at this, “Why? I’d love to live there – it looks really amazing.”
Kale looked
at her with sadness in his eyes, “Yeah it may seem like that but trust me, it isn’t. Everyone is so false and it’s all just a big competition as to who can get the most money for movie roles and stuff not to mention the paparazzi chasing your every move.”
“Mmm, so how’d you escape them today?” Izzie asked; actually finding that she was genuinely curious.
Kale shook his head, “My assistant’s taken care of it. Anyway, enough about me, I want to hear more about you.” he flashed her another blinding smile.
Izzie raised her eyebrows at him, a look of slight amusement mixed with anger on her face, “You really think you can charm me like you do your supermodel girlfriends? Please, give me some credit. Do you expect me to go all gooey-eyed over you saying the overly-clichéd line of ‘I want to hear more about you’? Wow, you really are original, anyway here’s the office, goodbye.” Izzie pointed to the heavy wooden door with ‘Principal’s Office’ marked on it and walked away before Kale could retort anything back.
Kale stood and watched Izzie saunter off; he didn’t know whether to be annoyed or amused at her comments. He shook his head in disbelief; he thought he might have been on the road to actually making his first friend but it didn’t seem that way now; he shrugged to himself as he knocked on the door and went inside.
Izzie was half-way down the corridor when she felt remorse; she really shouldn’t have been so nasty to him but he just seemed to bring the worst out in her. She tried to think of something else as she entered the English Literature classroom and mumbled an excuse to Mr Mason. She took her seat beside Maddie and took out her things; she was going to force herself to focus on something that was actually important and not to do with Kale Eddison and the infuriation he caused her. Half-way into the lesson, Maddie pushed a folded piece of paper over to Izzie. She took it and checked Mr Mason wasn’t looking before she opened it.
Why do you look so distracted? What happened to you this morning? Oh and did you hear … Kale never showed this morning.
Izzie shook her head at Maddie, rolled her eyes and started to write her reply.
Writing notes during class Madd? What are we ten? Anyway, I’ll humour you … I am not distracted! - Ok maybe I am but it was because I was running late and it was all because of your Mr Eddison as a matter of fact. God he really is as irritating as I thought he would be!
Izzie shoved the note back and watched Maddie’s expression go from neutral to completely shell-shocked the further she read down the page; she really hoped Maddie wouldn’t squeal in delight like she usually did when Kale was mentioned. She watched her scribble furiously and practically lob it at Izzie’s head to get her attention. Izzie took it and was about to open it when the bell rang, she pocketed it and packed her bag along with Maddie and then headed out the door towards the Drama room; their next class.
“I’ll read it when Ms Belson isn’t looking, I promise.” Izzie told her before Maddie could interrogate her as they walked along.
Maddie stared at her incredulously, “Erm hello? I can’t wait that long! What did you think we were going to talk about on the way to Drama?”
Izzie sighed exasperatedly, “Oh come on Maddie, I really don’t want to dwell on my unpleasant encounter with Mr Eddison anymore than necessary. Let’s just save it for the written word shall we?”
Maddie knew by the look on Izzie’s face that it was case closed. She dropped it and made small talk about going to the cinema tonight. Izzie agreed to go as long as it wasn’t a Kale Eddison film – Maddie said it wasn’t. They were just deciding on a time as they walked through the door to the Drama room and took the seats farthest from Ms Belson; she was an elderly lady who tended to shout a lot due to her bad hearing and they both refused to have headaches by the end of the class. While Ms Belson called out the names on the register, Izzie read Maddie’s reply.
I know it’s really childish, so sue me! Anyway, what do you mean Kale is the reason you were late? What happened? I thought he didn’t turn up today … how come you met him? Oh I’m jealous - I’d loved to have met him first. You’re so lucky! But what’s this about ‘unpleasant’? Hello?? It’s KALE EDDISON! How could breathing the same air as him and actually having a conversation with him be so horrible? Have you gone completely mad?!
Izzie shook her head and was about to jot something back when all the girls in the class squealed … Kale Eddison had just walked in.
He smiled at them and walked over to Ms Belson who looked like all her birthdays had come at once; Izzie watched how she unashamedly checked her reflection in the mirror behind him and smoothed down her short grey hair while tugging down her knitted cardigan and straightening out her long skirt.
“Oh, this is a pleasant surprise Mr Eddison - are you here to demonstrate your extraordinary talents to us?” she grinned at him and Izzie saw he looked a little scared of this crazy old lady.
“Erm no Ms Belson, isn’t it? No, this is my second period class according to this timetable they gave me.” he waved the sheet of paper at her and she inspected it closely with her thick spectacles perched on the end of her nose.
“Oh indeed you’re right – though it seems rather silly that you should learn how to act – with you being one of the finest actors out there.”
Izzie couldn’t help but let a snort of laughter escape from her, luckily only Maddie appeared to have heard it as she gave her a disapproving look.
Kale smiled modestly, “Oh thanks, I wouldn’t say that but you can never stop honing your skills in this profession – it is an important craft after all.”
Ms Belson nodded wisely, “Indeed dear, now if you just want to take a seat. Anywhere you wish now.”
Kale turned to find around fifteen giddy girls all fighting to get their neighbour to vacate the seat next to them. He also noticed that the guys were all trying to look disinterested but he knew by their faces that they were all dying for him to sit near them so they could be seen to be even cooler than they liked to think they were. Kale wondered if he could just turn around and walk back out again but he knew he had to stick this out; he was sure that by the end of the day – well, he’d be an expert at handling this kind of behaviour. He had wanted this normal school experience after all and he dealt with the paparazzi all the time; this was going to be a piece of cake –well, he hoped it would be.
Kale glanced around the room and found one person who wasn’t looking like they were about to handcuff him to the seat and demand he announce their engagement … and that person was Izzie Frank. She wasn’t looking at him; she was too engrossed in reading the text that they would be studying, Kale smiled as he noticed the empty chair on the other side of her; he had found his seat.
“I think I’ll just take that empty one near the back Ms Belson, if you don’t mind.” He made his way across the room, trying to avoid looking at all the miffed faces and angry glares from the girls and guys respectively.
Kale was relieved when everyone turned back to face the front as Ms Belson starting talking about the play they would be studying this term - Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ He sat down and extracted his own battered copy from his bag and leaned towards Izzie.
“Hello again, fancy seeing you here.” he smiled and laughed when she looked up at him with a look of disgust on her face.
“Oh it’s you – I thought it might’ve been somebody important. Oh well, never mind – what’s one more disappointment.” she threw him a cross look and returned to intently reading the scene Ms Belson was talking them through. She pretended not to notice the amused smirk on Kale’s face nor the incessant elbowing from Maddie on her other side.
Maddie gave up and leaned forward so she could catch a glimpse of Kale, she extended her hand when she saw him looking at her and nodding in acknowledgement. He shook her hand politely as Maddie introduced herself; he tried not to show what he was thinking - he hoped she wasn’t going to turn into a crazed stalker – he had had enough of those back in Hollywood, he didn’t need any here.
“So Kale,” Maddie began, pulling him out of his thoughts, “how do you like it here so far?”
Kale turned his attention to Maddie, “Oh it’s been nice; most people have been very welcoming.” He smirked at Izzie when he said this and chuckled when she ignored him and turned to the next page of her book very forcefully.
Maddie noted this little exchange with slight envy and annoyance but carried on her interrogation regardless. “So, what are your other classes today? Do you need any help finding them? I’d love to give you a tour, if you want.” she looked at him with eager enthusiasm shining on her face; she really wasn’t going to leave him alone until he agreed.
“Erm ok, sure … that would be nice of you.” he smiled at her and then turned his book to the appropriate page; he hoped Maddie would take the hint that she should do the same. She knew that that had been a less-than-subtle hint to leave him alone, so Maddie reluctantly turned her text to the right page and tried to pay attention to Ms Belson; who was now talking about some volunteers to act out a scene.
“Come on now,” Ms Belson pleaded with her reluctant class, “I just want two people to act out one little scene; just so we can get a feel of what we are discussing. Anyone … anyone at all – Mr Eddison, perhaps you would be so kind?”
Kale had been expecting this; he unwillingly agreed and went to stand at the front.
Ms Belson smiled, “Thank you Kale, now who’s going to read the part of ‘Beatrice’?” Fifteen hands shot up in the air and Kale squirmed, ‘sure they all agree now they know I’ll be reading opposite them’ he thought.
Ms Belson looked amused, “Well now, that’s the passion I’m looking for … now let’s see.” She glanced around at the eager faces and stopped when she notice Izzie sitting reading her script instead of acting like a love-struck teenager; Ms Belson thought she would be the perfect choice – at least Izzie wouldn’t act all giddy and would actually take what they were doing very seriously.
... not in love with Kale Eddison Page 2