Crossings: A Sovereign Guardians Novel

by Susan Collins

  "I think you mean Midge," Faith interjected. "I had Midge, Skipper, and Stacey when I was little. Oh, and the townhouse, camper, and sports car, too."

  "Of course you did, Barbie."

  Keller had the audacity to wink at her and then grin at me. My loud sigh was punctuated by my deliberate move to stand up and leave.

  "Don't be like that, sweetheart. Most of the girls I know want to move closer to me, not further away."

  "Well, obviously, most of the girls you associate with have phone numbers that start with 1-900, so it's hard to say whether they're good judges of characters or not, isn't it? That's not including you, of course, Faith," I quickly added to my new and only friend.

  My rebuttal actually appeared to shut Keller up for the moment. I was surprised enough that I sank back onto my seat.

  "What's the matter, Keller? Did I use too many words in one sentence? Are you having trouble processing?"

  "Ouch!" Granger laughed. "The only person I've ever known who could take Keller down a peg or two is me.” The look he gave me was filled with admiration. “I am definitely going to like you, Pagan Saunders."

  His easy smile made my heart beat a little faster.

  There it was again. What was it with these two guys and their abilities to make my heart beat at top notch speeds?

  I knew Keller was too good-looking for my traitorous, teenage hormones not to notice him, but then so was Granger Panera, every delicious inch of him, as he'd so aptly described himself.

  There was something about the two of them, though, that I wanted to clarify.

  "So you two have known each other awhile then? Before moving to Jasper?"

  Granger looked at Keller and then back at me. He seemed unsettled by my question.

  I quickly added, "You did say I was the only person you'd ever met who could put Keller in his place, besides you, which infers you've known each other for awhile. But, I thought you were both new here."

  Before Granger could answer, a voice coming through the intercom broke through the noise in the cafeteria.

  All students with last names beginning with the letters J-M, please report to the library at this time to receive information about next year's scheduling.

  "That's us, Johnson," Keller nodded to Faith. He suddenly seemed in a rush to leave.

  "So it is, Mr. Jones," Faith agreed, oblivious to the tension at our table. She tidied up her leftovers before putting them into her Keep Calm and Carry Chocolate lunch bag and walked around the table to join Keller.

  "See ya later, babe," Keller saluted me before walking off with Faith towards what I could only assume was the direction of the library.

  "I thought they'd never leave." Granger's voice was teasing as he turned his full attention toward me. "Here we are. The new girl and me, alone at last."

  From the corner of my vision I noticed that most of the other girls in the cafeteria were giving me anything but nice looks. I was quite sure they were wondering why someone like me would have the undivided attention of someone like Granger, and I was equally sure they were right in their estimation that I should not be the person left sitting across from this particular guy.

  Faith had probably done her best to keep all the girls away from her new friends since it would have totally ruined her mission if she'd spent the lunch period entertaining people who weren't new to the school. Of course, there was also the fact that it probably was fun to sit with two really good-looking guys for thirty minutes each day without having other girls join the group.

  I guess it was lucky for me that I was new.

  Knowing Granger had already seen the worst of me with Keller, and since I was still in a foul mood, I figured we'd better get the pleasantries out of the way.

  "If you think I'm going to be easy to deal with now that it's just the two of us, think again," I warned him.

  I had meant to sound matter-of-fact, and I was only slightly mortified to hear my voice carry that teasing, suggestive tone that all girls my age have used throughout history when sitting across from a ridiculously, handsome guy. I could not believe I was succumbing to typical, teen behavior instead of holding my ground. I guess this blew my theory from birth that I was something more than human like everyone else around me.

  "I have a feeling," Granger said as he leaned across the table, moving as close to me as possible, "that you are anything but easy." He actually blushed a little and then amended, "Wow, I did not mean for that to come out sounding the way it did. Sorry about that, really."

  "I kind of set myself up for that one, I think," I said quickly, letting him off the hook. "And I'm really not usually such a witch. There's just something about Keller that makes me not act like my normal, nicer self. Sorry."

  "Keller can be a bit of a...challenge."

  Giving me no time to agree, he added, "Why don't we move on to a safer topic. What's your next class?"

  "Uhm, I'm not sure." I dug into the back pocket of my jeans and pulled out the copy of my schedule the secretary at the office had given me earlier. Was it really only this morning?

  "It looks like I have Honors English next."

  "With Mrs. Holmes?"

  I looked at the paper again. "Yep."

  "That's great. So do I."

  I was secretly thrilled at his response, but it would remain just that - my secret.

  Instead I replied, "Gosh, it's your lucky day then. With Faith absent, you get to take over the welcoming committee job."

  "I don't mind," he replied, instantly trying to sound serious, "as long as all the new recruits have red hair."

  He reached across the table, and his fingers gently tugged on a curly strand which had escaped from my ponytail.

  "You know, red's my favorite color."

  I took a drink of my tea to cover my confusion as his hand dropped away.

  "What's yours?" he asked.

  "Excuse me?"

  "Your favorite color. Do you have one?"

  I looked straight into his eyes and answered without thinking.

  "Green."

  The minute the word left my mouth, I realized my mistake.

  "I mean purple," I stammered. Heat flooded my face. "It's definitely purple. Purple is my favorite color."

  His green eyes scanned my face, taking in the color staining my checks.

  "Well, unlike you, I'm not changing my mind," he stated with assurance, while his gaze moved slowly over my face and then back to my hair, making me blush even more. "Red is definitely my favorite color."

  A bell rang saving me from further embarrassment. Granger took one last bite of his food before standing up and throwing away his lunch. He walked over to my side of the table, but when I stood up to join him, there was very little space between us. I would have taken a step back, but with all the tables and chairs, there was really nowhere for me to go.

  "Are you ready?" he asked, looking down into my upturned face.

  "Ready for what?" My voice sounded breathless even to my own ears.

  "English class."

  "Oh, yes. Of course, I'm ready," I nodded a little too much, trying to cover my confusion at his nearness. "I'm definitely ready for English. Lead the way," I offered, sweeping my arm out in a gesture for him to go first.

  As we walked out of the cafeteria and I was no longer the object of his gaze, I finally felt like I could form a logical thought in his presence.

  "So, what are you studying right now?"

  "We're just finishing Pride and Prejudice. Have you ever read it?"

  Did I confess to a boy I hardly knew that I had spent half my life planning to marry Mr. Darcy and the other half planning how I would use the considerable fortune from my marriage to a fabulously rich, literary character to make my father's life miserable?

  Probably not.

  "I've read the Austen novel before. At my old school," I clarified.

  Which was true.

  Granger didn't need to know books had been my best friends for years. Nor did he need to know that
I'd read that particular novel on my own time in the alcove of my last school's library during lunch every day because I much preferred the company of the characters in Jane Austen's novel to the people I was surrounded by each day.

  Yep, that was definitely too much information for a new acquaintance to have to deal with. Simple answers were always the best. And with the way I seemed to stammer and say the wrong things around all of the new people I was meeting, not talking at all might actually be my best bet.

  We continued walking down the hall in what I assumed was the direction of our next class. Granger stopped at his locker and traded out a book, and I was pleasantly surprised to find my own locker was across the hall from his. I took the opportunity to grab my backpack and the things I hoped I would need for the last classes of the day.

  After the locker break, we met back in the center of the hall, and he picked up on the conversation as though we'd never been interrupted.

  "Honestly, that type of book isn't normally my thing, but the teacher makes it interesting. It's funny to watch the girls in class because they all seem to love it. Or, Mr. Darcy, at least."

  "I take it by the annoyed look on your face that you don't have a high opinion of that particular character?"

  We had reached the door number written on my schedule, so I assumed we were outside our English class, but instead of going in the room, Granger paused outside the door.

  "I'm glad we're basically done with the novel. I have to confess, I'm more a fan of Bronte's Mr. Rochester than the interminably confused state of Mr. Darcy."

  I was surprised he knew another character from an author who was definitely not on the reading list of most males, much less that he had a strong opinion about either of the characters.

  "Make fun if you will," he said noting the surprised look on my face, "but we had to read Jane Eyre at my old school."

  "Ah, of course. That explains it. Forced reading."

  He laughed out loud, and my own face broke into a full grin. He had a wonderful laugh that held nothing back. I liked how he put me at ease, unlike Keller.

  The smile on my face died as I thought about Keller's irritating behavior. Frustrated with myself, I wondered why even when he wasn't around, he had the ability to annoy me. Luckily my current companion was nothing like him.

  Granger's voice pulled me back from my thoughts. "Actually, Bronte's graphic novel was amazing. The illustrations were unbelievable."

  His eyebrows shot up and he grinned again, leaving me to only guess at whether he'd actually read the original novel or not.

  We walked into the classroom at that moment, and Mrs. Holmes motioned me over to take a quick glance at my schedule to make sure I was in the right place. She gave me an encouraging smile and a paperback copy of the class novel, jotted some notes down on a piece of paper, and told me to take any empty seat.

  When I turned around to face the class, I was surprised to see Granger patting the back of the chair in front of where he was now seated. I would have thought any seat around Granger Panera would have been taken.

  As I walked between two rows of chairs to reach the spot where Granger had a seat waiting for me, I felt a stare directed straight at me from a strawberry blonde wearing a skirt that was entirely too short for the way she was sitting. Intuitively I knew then my original assumption had been right. There shouldn't have been an empty seat anywhere near Granger.

  All I could guess was that for whatever reason, Granger had used his persuasive personality to empty the seat in front of him for me to be able to sit. I wondered briefly what he'd had to offer the very pretty girl to get her to move. And, I couldn't figure out why he'd go to the trouble, unless he wanted to finish our conversation.

  I slid into the vacated seat, took out my notebook and pen, and put the new copy of Pride and Prejudice on top. Then I put the rest of my things underneath the desk. Mrs. Holmes hadn't started teaching yet, even though the bell had rung right after we'd entered the room.

  Granger leaned forward, and I turned my head to hear what he was saying.

  "Mr. Rochester had secrets. All people have secrets. I think that makes him more real than Mr. Darcy, the besotted yet conflicted, rich gentleman."

  "I'm not saying I don't like Mr. Rochester," I argued back. I had read Jane Eyre several times and even watched both the black and white and the more recent version of the screen adaptation, but Mr. Rochester is no Mr. Darcy."

  I turned my body, so I could see him better. "Really, Granger, don't you think some things should not be secrets? Say for example, the fact that he had a wife hidden in his house? Wasn't that a pretty important piece of information to tell the second woman he was planning to marry? You know, keeping secrets from other people is usually quite selfish and done to protect the person keeping the secret and not the other way around. Of course, I'm not talking about things like not telling someone what their birthday present is. I'm talking about the bigger, untold lies people choose to hide. I think keeping secrets is rarely a good thing."

  Mrs. Holmes started to call roll, and as I turned around to face the front of the room, I couldn't be sure, but I could have sworn I heard Granger whisper, "Some secrets can't always be shared."

  By the time class was over, I'd become fully immersed in the ending chapters of the class novel despite having read the book before. Mrs. Holmes was actually a very good teacher, and her lesson held my attention so that after three pages of notes and only a few doodles in the margins of my paper, I was surprised to see the hour was up.

  The other students began gathering up their things, and I started to do the same. I had just put my notebook and pen in my bag when the bell rang to dismiss the class. I stood and pulled out my schedule from my pocket and was looking at where I had to go for my final class of the day when I felt Granger's hand on the small of my back. He was looking over my shoulder at the paper I had spread out on top of my notebook.

  I didn't always like the feeling of someone in my personal space, but Granger's touch was anything but offensive. I stood perfectly still and admitted to myself I didn't want to move because I didn't want him to take his hand away. Common sense though said I had to walk. Mrs. Holmes next group was already pouring into the room, and after a quick glance at the map printed at the bottom of the page, it looked like I was going to have to hike across the campus to get to the last class on my schedule which was at the back of the school.

  Granger's hand fell away, but he moved in beside me as we stepped into the crowded hall. He kept pace with me as we continued to walk.

  "Do you think you can find the gym?" he questioned me, motioning to my schedule. "It looks like your day ends there."

  "Oversized room, bleachers, basketball goals, not so pleasant smells wafting from the dressing rooms? Yep," I teased, "I think I can find that one by myself."

  "Sorry, that sounded like I thought you were an idiot. I didn't mean it like that. I, just, well, ya know, I'm taking my job as the welcome host seriously in Faith's absence."

  He grinned at me then, and as much as I wished at that moment that we had at least one more class together, I was glad he wasn't coming with me.

  Me and anything that involved objects being thrown towards my body, well, it wasn't pretty. I tried to be tough on the outside, but I tended to turn into a bit of a wimp when flying objects with great speed behind them were aimed at my head. I was quite sure ducking and screaming in my gym outfit wouldn't be an image that would encourage the attention of someone like Granger Panera, not that I necessarily wanted to encourage his attention, I hastily told myself.

  "I guess I'll see you around then."

  Granger said the words more like a question than a statement, so I answered reassuringly, "Absolutely."

  I had just turned to start my trek down the hall and away from the English class when I heard him come back up behind me.

  "Did you forget something?" I stopped, puzzled.

  "Yeah," Granger said slowly. "Your number."

  "Excuse m
e?"

  "I was hoping to get your number so I could maybe text you later, you know, in case you had questions about anything that happened in Mrs. Holmes' class."

  I knew that students weren't allowed to have their cell phones out during school hours, so I wasn't surprised when he took out a piece of paper to take down my number rather than his phone. I stopped him just as he pulled a pen out of the wire spiral of his composition journal.

  "I can't give you my number."

  He looked up startled and then slightly embarrassed.

  "Absolutely, of course, I understand. Pagan, I wasn't trying to push. Really, I'm sorry." He moved to leave and this time it was my turn to hurry and catch up to him. I put my hand on his arm and turned him around.

  "I wasn't brushing you off."

  My face was turning red again, a perpetual problem I seemed to have around him, and a problem I didn't remember having until today.

  "I don't have a number to give you because I'm probably like the only teenager in America who doesn't have a phone other than the antique wall phone at my Gran's house. The school I went to before this one, well, we weren't allowed to have cell phones there."

  The truth was we weren't allowed to have them in class, just like here, but the students living there could use them outside of class. I didn't go on to explain that my father wouldn't buy me a phone because he had no desire to make it any easier to communicate with his only child. Hadn't Granger just tried to convince me that real people kept secrets, and I'd acted as though secrets were wrong? Yet, I definitely had some of my own I didn't want to share. If only he knew all the secrets I had, he'd probably adore me as much as he did Mr. Rochester and his veritable vault of mysteries. I wondered if there would ever be a time when my ideals and my life would be in synch with each other.

  I dared to raise my eyes from the floor and look at him. I was silently relieved to see he was smiling at me again.

  "Hey, that's fine, really. It's cool that you don't have a phone, Pagan. I like it that you aren't a carbon copy of everybody else around here." His voice deepened as he added, "Even if it means I can't bombard you with annoying texts all night until you fall asleep with my words tucked in beside you."