I was lying. In addition to that, if he knew what was going through my head and how I felt about Tru when he was near me, Jace would be crushed. Besides, why was I explaining myself to him? I wasn’t with Jace. I shouldn’t have had to explain anything. However, I felt I needed to explain. Yeah, so, I might be attracted to Tru, but I was also very attracted to Jace. There was some kind of magnetic pull toward Jace. What was wrong with me? I needed to get my hormones in check. I was in big trouble. Jace’s expression softened, and then his voice took on a sweet hypnotic tone. Uh-oh!
“Charlie, all I thought about after leaving your house was our kiss. I couldn’t sleep. Over and over in my head, I replayed our kiss. How warm your lips were pressed to mine—the heat of your body against mine—and how soft you felt in my hands. I started wishing I could taste your sweet essence again.” Jace grinned and leaned in closer. He was almost pressing his body against mine as he whispered softly, “I want to kiss you right now. Damn, I want you so bad. I’m aching to feel your body pressed against mine, Charlie. I want to smell you all day. I want to have you as mine. Fuck, I want you right now. I want my lips to caress yours again, and all you have to say is . . . yes!”
Woo. A blast of heat hit me like a ton of bricks. I was going to have a panic attack. Was he for real? I mean, just a second ago, Jace was ready to snap my head off for walking arm and arm with Tru. Now he was ready for a kiss. Did he used to work for a 1 - 900 company? Plus, if he could bottle what he was saying, every female in the world would buy it: h.o.t-hot
Pucker up, baby, which could be his slogan. I didn’t expect him to be that straightforward. Also, I was somewhat baffled by his “Doctor Jekyll” and “Mr. Hyde” swap all of a sudden. But I liked it, and it felt good. Hearing him tell me how much he wanted me had my body alight, because what girl wouldn’t want to hear a hot guy tell her all the naughty things he wanted to do with and to her. And, boy, I wanted it. I was aching for him just as bad in that moment, if not more.
Then strangely, this woozy feeling came over me, and my head began to spin. I found myself gazing up into Jace’s eyes. I watched him hesitantly move his hand up and slowly touch my cheek. Jace then rubbed my lips with his thumb, placing one hand on the wall behind me—trapping me with his body and eyes. At this point, I didn’t care who noticed us. I didn’t care if someone caught us. I didn’t even care if I was kicked out on the first day of school! All I cared about was me, Jace, and that unfinished kiss. As he looked down at me, tiny tingles crawled up my stomach. I felt like this high-frenzy was taking over me entirely. Jace was making me feel high! Mercifully, the spell Jace seemed to cast on my libido faded, and that druggy sensation was being lifted as the bell for class rang. I quickly snapped out of it, whatever it was! It was like I was in some kind of trance.
“Oh, sorry, Jace. I guess, well, I don’t know what happened?” Meanwhile, I did know what happened, right? I just didn’t want him to know that I was stuck and couldn’t move and all I wanted was for him to kiss me again. Yeah, I decided, I totally lost it.
A sly grin formed on Jace’s lips. He breathed saying, “It’s cool. The five-minute bell for class is ringing. We have to get going. I’ll talk to you later. Oh, don’t miss me, Fox.”
I smiled slightly. “Don’t get a big head, Jace. Not every girl flocks to you.” Or maybe they do. I did after all say he could sell his words, didn’t I?
Jace’s husky voice almost came out in a purr. He said, “You want to make a bet on that, Charlie.” Oh yeah, he can sell that stuff alright. “No worries,” Jace was saying. “I only have eyes for you.” He touched the tip of my nose with his finger. I swatted him away. Jace laughed.
“Cocky much?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“Oh, very much, definitely when I’m around you, Fox.” He grinned. “But don’t worry . . . all the flocking girls just have to keep trying. Besides, I won’t stop tell I have that one-and- only girl, flock. Right. To. Me.”
He was bad. And our conversation was a little naughty. Before I could reply, Jace turned and walked away, leaving me flustered. Then reality hit me. Did I almost make out with Jace on my first day at a new school, while Tru was 20 feet away? What was going on? Well, if I was trying to stop Tru from asking me out, then I was doing a good job of it. And the bad thing about this scenario was that I know Jace’s type: player. Groaning, I gazed around for Tru. Although, it seemed like all my efforts were failing in finding Tru. My dilemma, I like Jace, but I like Tru. Furthermore, juggling two guys, I’m thinking, will not be fun. Plus, I didn’t want either of them to know I liked them both. In addition to that, the only one I wanted to really like was Tru. But dang it, there was something mysterious about Jace, something so mysterious that I wanted to find out what exactly that was.
Suddenly, I felt someone’s hands on my waist. I turned awkwardly around and gazed up into Tru’s eyes. I felt the heat of his fingertips as he held me steady.
He smiled wickedly while gingerly pushing my body away from his, and in a low wispy voice, Tru said, “Hey, it’s time to go to class. Are you ready, C?”
Instead of saying yes, because, that would have been the polite thing to do, you know! No, I had to be nosey. I wasn’t really feeling polite, more like suspicious. I wanted to know where he had been just now. “Where did you go? I was looking for you.”
“I was here, just waiting for you to be alone. I . . . uh, didn’t want to interrupt your conversation. It looked very intense. Anyway, the dude really doesn’t like me. I don’t know why. I’ve never said three words to the guy. However, if you’re friends with him, then I respect that.” Tru grinned. “I thought you told me you didn’t know anyone from around here?”
“Yeah, I mean no. I don’t really know him. Um, our parents know one another. Mom asked them to eat dinner with us, so last night was the first time I’d ever met Jace.” I think?
“It’s cool. Like I said, I will respect you and your friends. If you like him, then he can’t be all that bad, right?”
“Umm, right?”
Did my reply sound convincing? And why did Tru have to be so sweet? Jace wasn’t that sweet. Well, he was not sweet to Tru, but on the other hand he was very sweet to me. Remember Jace (the jerk) specifically told you to stay away from Tru, and Tru (the sweetheart) basically told me to befriend anyone. So, why did I have to think Jace was hot? And why did I feel like I knew him? And why did I like him? My head hurt. I really hated myself.
“So, are you ready for your first class? It’s not with me, but I’ll show you where it is and where the other ones are before the final bell.”
“That sounds good, Tru. Let’s get to it.”
Chapter Eleven
Miss Johnson
Tru showed me where all my classes were, and after that, the day went by in a blur. All the way up until it was time for biology. That’s when I met her. The most horrible teacher ever! Ever! Miss Johnson. She was much older than most of the other teachers I had met that day, and not all of them were nice. My day had consisted of constant sneers, scowls, and groans. I thought I was going to be pleased with this teacher. I mean, come on she was an old woman. Old people are supposed to be nice. But I’m wrong most of the time when it comes to judging a book by its cover. Maybe I was dressed inappropriately for my first day, but regardless, this day had not been good. And so I thought maybe an elderly woman would be nice, right? Wrong! Man, my thought process is so off base. I cannot believe I thought an elderly woman would be sweet. On the contrary—she was nasty, rotten, and a whole lot of other bad stuff.
When she opened her mouth, all that rottenness spilled out. “I’m your teacher Miss Johnson. Come in the class now. Don’t linger in the hall. Come now, don’t just stand there looking horrified. Let me see the paper you have in your hand.”
I felt sick. The way she looked at me was so not good. I let out a soft whimper and sighed. That’s when my day totally sunk to a new low. I stumbled into the classroom, tripping over my feet. This just in, I’m a klutz. Oh, wait. W
e already knew that, didn’t we? Everyone let out a snicker. When I thought my day couldn’t get any worse, well let’s just mark off how bad it had really been.
One: Started a new school, check.
Two: Almost made out with Jace right in front of Tru, double check, check.
Three: Made a complete fool of myself and pulled another typical-Charlie move by tripping into the class, triple check, check, check.
Shaking, I slowly handed the slip of paper to Miss Johnson. I noticing her dark-gray hair was pulled up in a bun and her glasses were near the bridge of her nose, making her look evil, as if she was that wicked witch from the “Wizard of Oz.” The only thing missing from her witchy look was a hat and broom. She already had the long flowing black-as-night dress and that evil smile.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been scared of a little old woman. But her eyes were like black holes, sucking me into their abyss. That had to be how she trapped her victims—with her abyss-sucking evil eyes. Miss Johnson curled her lips up at me, and a flash of something crossed her eyes, but was gone before I could make it out.
Then in a rusty tone, looking at me she said, “Careful, dear, can you walk? Do you need my glasses?” She pulled her glasses off her face, grinning, and waved them at me.
I scratched the back of my head and glanced down at my feet. I said, “No. Thank you. I can see just fine.” Tragically, most of my classmates laughed at the shallow way she was being toward me, and that made me feel like crap. This was more evidence of my freakish inability to not fit in.
“Settle down, class. We have a new student.”
Oh, perfect. Why couldn’t she just tell me where to sit and not introduce me to everyone? You know why, Charlie, I told myself, because she’s evil.
“This is Cha—”
I leaned in quickly before she could finish. I said in a low voice. “Miss Johnson, will you introduce me as Charlie? Umm, that’s what my parents call me. I just. . . I feel more comfortable with the name Charlie.”
I crossed my fingers behind my back. I hoped her eyes weren’t really showing her true character, and she was really a sweet old woman. I was wrong again. Miss Johnson just embarrassed me more than when I tripped through the door.
In a rugged tone aloud she said, “Charlie? Why Charlie? You’re not a boy!”
Stating the obvious are we? Man, I wanted to say that, but she kept on going just like that damn “Energizer bunny.”
“The name on this paper is a good firm name. Why do your parents call you that? Tsk-tsk, what am I going to do with you? Oh, but we must make you feel comfortable, right?” She raised her eyebrows. I opened my mouth, but the bunny kept going. “Well, class,” she paused and gave me a smirk.
I thought about punching that smug look right off her wrinkled face, but I had more self-control than to sink down to Miss Johnson’s level.
“Meet Charlie.” She said my name with a hint of revulsion and then waved her hand over at a round table where four individuals sat. “There is your new group. Go say hi, Charlie, and be good. I’ll be right back, class.”
My shoulders slumped in defeat. I pulled both my hands up over my face in disgust of how mean Miss Johnson was. I had never encountered an evil, evil . . . uh; I can’t even say the word in my mind let alone out loud. Screw that, I’ve changed my mind. I can say the word. She was a bitch. I shook my head and looked around the class. I spotted four round tables with eyes staring me down, already judging me. I sighed inwardly.
Then someone with a southern voice called me over, thankfully breaking me out of my own pity-party. “Hey. Here’s a seat. Come on, we won’t bite.”
I looked over to see who was talking. There sat a girl with bright golden hair shining like the sun and looking at me with her innocent, dark, sapphire-blue eyes, smiling ever so charismatically. The girl had on faded jeans and a black silky shirt with a cowboy hat embroidered on the side. Which, I have to say, made her look very countrified. I don’t normally envy other people. However, I could not believe that this redneck girl made me feel jealous. She was just so sure of herself. You could almost see her inner light shining bright within her soul and feel a wonderfully warm beauty radiating off her. Plus, her boots were not helping my case of jealousy at all. They were to die for. I’d have to remember to ask her where she got them. I turned and slowly walked to the table. Of course, I was not sure of myself like the golden-hair girl. So I decided to try really, really hard and not trip again.
“Hello,” I said sitting down at the table. “I guess you all know my name’s Charlie.”
The girl with the cowboy-hat shirt and bright soul grinned at me. She said in a southern drawl. “I’m Tammin Fray. It’s nice to meet ya, Charlie.”
God she sounded so southern-sweet and smiled so happily. Could you stand it? Dang it, she looked too nice for her own good.
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” I said.
I turned my head from Tammin and saw a shy boy with wide, bright-green, hazel eyes, the color too unreal for one small kid to have. His eyes looked precisely like the color of antifreeze, or maybe spring-grass. I was intrigued. I couldn’t help myself from giving the kid a big grin. His glasses looked like he had bought them from the “Harry Potter” store. Well, if they have a “Harry Potter” store, that is. Who knows, maybe? I thought he was dressed very funny, not matching at all. He was wearing brown plaid print shorts, and a lime-spray-colored jersey with retro-style graphs. The color of the jersey made his eyes look enchantingly fascinating. He had on classic white flip-flops, and his brown hair had that messy just-got-out- of-bed look.
“I’m Simon Jones,” he murmured tentatively.
I noticed something very peculiar about Tammin’s eyes after Simon spoke his name. Huh, maybe I should investigate. Clearly they’re not going out. Come on, if they were, surely Tammin would have mentioned it when she told me her name. Like: “Oh, by the way, this is my boyfriend Simon.” And in girl talk that would mean hands off. But her mouth said nothing, while her eyes were telling me that she wished her and Simon were. Maybe I could help Tammin get Simon to be her boyfriend. Yeah, cause I love matchmaking. Just call me love Doctor Charlie. Funny!
Then Simon said to me, “Miss Johnson is not that nice.”
“So if I was you, I would try to stay on her good side.” Simon gave me a shy hesitant grin after he told me to stay far from the bad teacher.
I guessed that he’d had too many encounters with her. A stocky guy sitting next to Tammin gave Simon a grimacing look at what I assumed was over the comment about Miss Johnson. I watched as the stocky guy stiffened up. He gazed directly into Simon’s eyes sharing a long-suffering look in total agreement with Simon’s pain. The stocky kid had that look: you know the look you would see from a jock.
His pick-up line would probably be: “Hey, baby, you know what? I play football!”
Oh and let’s not forget he more than likely beats his chest with the guys just to impress the girls. Perhaps, I thought he was cocky, and maybe too preppie for my taste. Yeah, I have tendencies to notice every detail about someone’s look, (anal retentive, remember) so what! His look was straight-up snobbish. He had on a carbon-colored polo shirt with his collar pulled up to his jaw-line. A signature eagle embroidered on the side of his shirt, dark-rich indigo jeans, and a pair of regular shoes.
Topping off his snobby look was some gunmetal-color sunglasses on the top of his head. The guy’s hair had that sun kissed look of rich golden brown with a clean cut to it. He also had the most unusual amber-colored eyes. The color was a yellowish-golden-rusty-copper.
He looked over at me and said, “Hi, Charlie, I’m Nolan Smith.”
“Hello.”
Yet, without acknowledging me, he snapped his attention back to Simon. Rude! With a harsh look, he said, “Screw that, Jones. If Charlie wants to cold-cock her, then she has my support. Miss Johnson is a royal-pain in the a—”
Before he could finish, Tammin placed her hand over his mouth. “Don’t ya say that wo
rd, Nolan. I know she’s bad, but ya know how much I hate words like that.” She gave him a stern look and then smiled at me. “Charlie girl, you’re gonna have to put up with this all year.” She waved her hand around the table. “Just thank your stars Simon’s a gentleman.”
“Ouch! That hurt.” Nolan muttered, placing one hand over his heart. “I thought you liked me Tamm-Tamm?”
Tammin rolled her eyes and popped him on the back of the head. Frowning, she said, “Ya know I like ya, Nolan, but not when you’re full of it.”
“So then you never like him? Since in my book he is always full of it,” said a cute guy next to me.
He was wearing rugged denim jeans the color was a light-sanded wash, a black graphic V-neck t-shirt with an intriguing antiqued silver multi-chain necklace pressed against his neck with a tiny St. Christopher medallion clasped onto the chain bringing his sandy-brown skin to life. And his eyes! Wow! He had the most impossibly extraordinary violet-blue eyes that I’d ever seen. They made his ink-black hair shine.
Nolan glared at him and said, “Well, you must be rubbing off on me, Nikko, because the only one full of it here has always been you.” Nolan turned to me. “Oh, by the way, Charlie,” Nolan flicked his thumb at the kid Nikko. “If this retard thinks I’m full of it, just wait, you’ll see.” Nolan smiled mischievously.
“Hey, don’t scare the new girl,” Nikko demanded with a grin. “Charlie, my lady I’m Nikko Knight.”
I giggled. I couldn’t help it. He called me lady. Maybe since the table was round and his last name was Knight he was taking this whole Knight-at-the-round-table thing seriously. So, he was a Knight, eh? We’d see.
“If,” Nikko continued, “You were wondering how bad we are. I promise you, we’re not all that bad.” He leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. Nikko curved his lips up in a sensual way. He looked at me like something just occurred to him. To my shock, he came in close placing, his hand over the top of mine. Laughing, he mumbled, “Unless you want me to be bad. Then I can be very, very bad. Bad, for a beautiful girl just like you.”
A Spark Of Magic: Chosen Saga Book One Page 9