by Komal Kant
Chapter Four
Lincoln
At first I thought I’d imagined it, but now it was pretty obvious that Hadie Swinton hated my guts.
I wasn’t too sure what I’d done to make her feel that way towards me.
Sure, I’d rather brashly asked her about the pole up her ass, but I’d only been joking and she’d obviously taken it the wrong way. Anyway, it wasn’t my fault she acted so stiff, like it would kill her to crack a smile. The girl was the definition of an ice queen.
Just then she turned around to look at me, her chocolate brown eyes as cold and hard as a stone. When she caught me watching her, she promptly faced the front again. Yeah, she definitely hated me but I couldn’t figure out why.
There was obviously something going on with her that was making her act that way towards me. It was amazing how warm her friends were. How they managed to stand her insufferable attitude was a mystery to me.
I pulled my attention away from her as the teacher, Ms. Flick, shut the door and addressed the class.
“So, I hope that by now you’ve all had a chance to read Wuthering Heights. I want you to jot down a list of themes in the book and then expand upon them. You’re going to have to write a 2000 word essay on it, so make sure you make the most of your time, even if the book wasn’t to your liking.” She gave a bunch of guys in the second row a pointed look.
The class groaned at the mention of “essay” and “2000 words” and Ms. Flick gave them a wry smile before making her way down the aisle to me.
“Lincoln, wasn’t it?” she asked as stopped in front of me.
I nodded in response.
Ms. Flick smoothed back a stray hair. “What were you studying at your last school?”
“Hamlet.”
Ms. Flick frowned. “It’s only been four weeks into the school year, so I’m not too worried you’ll fall behind in this unit. Still, Wuthering Heights can be a little tricky to understand if you haven’t read it before. You haven’t by any chance, have you?”
I reluctantly nodded.
At the look of surprise on her face, I sighed. “I was in the hospital a lot last year and my great-aunt got me a couple of books to read. I was so bored, and it was either that or Twilight. So, yeah, that’s when I read it.”
I could see Ms. Flick trying to fight a smile. “Okay, well, I’m going to go find you a copy of the book and get you a copy of the course outline so you know exactly what’s going on. You’ve missed a lot of notes on the text that you’ll need to catch up on. I’ll find a student who can give you their notes and tutor you until you’re caught up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll go and talk to my star student and find you a copy of the book.” She gave me a smile before walking back down the aisle and stopping at Hadie’s desk.
My heart sank.
No freaking way! I had an urge to bolt out of my seat and tell Ms. Flick that I would rather be tutored by Godzilla than Hadie, but it was too late. Hadie was already nodding at her, looking grim.
Crap. Damn. Shit.
Hadie stood up and walked towards me, looking thoroughly pissed off. She slid into the desk beside mine and slammed her book down on the table.
“You can read, right?” she asked, flipping through the pages of her notebook.
“Pretty well,” I said. “Except sometimes I have trouble distinguishing between ‘k’ and ‘p’.”
Hadie didn’t laugh. Instead, she shot me a withering look. This girl was tough to get through to. “When you’re done with your pathetic attempts at humor, let me know. I’d actually like to get on with my work.”
“Okay, I’m done,” I said, not wanting to piss her off even more. “So, you’re supposed to tutor me or something?”
“Or something,” she said and jotted something down in her book. She tore out the page and slid it over to me. “Here’s my number. I’m available every day after school except Wednesdays and Fridays.”
I didn’t bother mentioning that I would never call her for tutoring. I didn’t care about all that academic stuff.
Hadie got up and walked over to her desk without waiting for me to say anything. All I could do was stare after her in awe. Here I was trying not to get close to anyone, but Hadie was even more closed off than I was. I needed to get some tips from her on how to push people away.
But, seriously, what the hell was up with that girl?
***
I wasn’t going to lie. Having lunch for the first time at a new school was pretty shit ass.
After managing to find my way to the cafeteria and grabbing something relatively healthy to eat—all I’d managed to find was an apple and plain milk—I couldn’t figure out where the hell to sit.
Hadie had mentioned something about the courtyard and field, but I was way too exhausted to go any further. My first day at school had been pretty traumatic as far as first days went. For a school so small, I’d still managed to get lost about five times already.
On the plus side, at least I didn’t have Becky in any of my classes. On the downside, it was getting harder and harder to ignore the “come hither” looks that some of the girls were giving me. It was like they’d never seen a seventeen-year-old male before. A lot of exciting things didn’t seem to happen in a small town like this, so this was probably a big deal.
I’d left New York because I was sick of people gawking at me most of the time, but Statlen was proving to be more or less the same. The looks would stop eventually, once the “new boy” label wore off and I became boring.
Truthfully, I just wanted to be left alone to my own thoughts. I didn’t have the energy to pretend to care as someone rattled on about how drunk they’d gotten at a party or what a loser someone else was. Making friends definitely wasn’t on the agenda.
Finding an empty table and chair in the crowded cafeteria was easier than I’d expected. It was closer to the serving counter where all the students were milling around, but I was too tired to care.
Relieved, I sank down into the chair and played around with the apple before taking a bite out of it. As I chewed, I took the opportunity to scan the cafeteria absently. My eyes fell on four familiar figures. Hadie and her friends.
They were standing at the counter paying for their food, and Hadie actually looked relaxed as her over-talkative, Mariah, gestured wildly with her hands, a huge smile on her face.
That’s when I noticed something strange.
While most of the attention had been on me ever since I’d walked into the cafeteria, the attention now seemed to have shifted. Almost everyone was staring at Hadie and her friends, whispering, smirking or openly laughing.
What the hell was going on?
Before I had a chance to try and figure out why those girls were getting so much attention, a group of people stopped at my table.
It was the girl from the office who was Becky’s buddy. Speaking of the devil, Becky was standing right beside her with a smug look on her face. There were a couple of other girls with them, but they barely registered on my radar.
“Hi!” she said brightly, tilting her head so her curls spilled to one side. “Lincoln, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” I nodded, trying to remember what her name was. “And you’re Trance?”
She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “Kance.”
“Right. Sorry.”
“Your sister said you’re from New York City,” she said, with that bright smile still on her face.
“Uh huh.” I nodded again, craning my head around Kance so I could catch a glimpse of Hadie.
Kance kept the smile on her face, but I noticed her eyes narrow. She obviously didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t giving her my undivided attention. I knew enough about fake smiles to recognize one when I saw it, and Kance’s smile was about as fake as they came.
I knew the kind of girl she was. Popular, attractive, and accustomed to getting whatever she wanted. Guys probably threw themselves at her all the time, so my disregard t
owards her was no doubt disconcerting.
She seemed like the kind of girl who didn’t approach people unless it was to make fun of them or to befriend them. Based on the way she was eyeing me up like I was a piece of meat, I was guessing she wanted to get to know me in more ways than one.
“I saw you sitting alone, so I thought I’d come and ask you to sit with us in the courtyard,” she said, finally getting to the point. “Your sister’s sitting with us, too.”
Like that was going to convince me.
Right away, I shook my head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine by myself.”
The look on her face was priceless. It was like I’d slapped her instead of politely refusing her offer to join them. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said with a laugh. “You can’t sit here by yourself. You belong with us.”
I shook my head again. “I appreciate it, but I’m serious. I’m fine by myself.”
Kance’s mouth twisted into a scowl, but her tone was pleasant as she spoke. “Oh, well, let me know if you change your mind. See you around, Lincoln.”
As they left, Becky shot me a look of disgust which was pretty easy to decipher. She thought I was bat-shit crazy for not wanting to join the popular group.
Not really caring what Becky or her new friends thought of me, my eyes shot back to where Hadie was still standing by the counter with her friends. She’d been watching the exchange between Kance and me, and now her brow was furrowed as she stared at me.
When our eyes met, she quickly looked away and acted like she hadn’t just been staring at me. Her other friend, Estella, said something to her, and Hadie’s shoulders slumped in defeat.
She turned back to face me, and with reluctance approached me alone. Her friends hung back and watched the two of us closely.
I wasn’t sure why exactly, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Hadie for one second. There was something about her that wouldn’t let me look away. I was probably coming across as a huge creep.
Hadie stopped in front of me, looking uncertain. “Um…is everything okay?” she blurted out.
“Huh?”
She sighed, her face turning a light shade of pink. “What I meant to say is that I’m your buddy and I’m supposed to check on you and make sure everything’s okay with you, and if you don’t want to be alone at lunch then I…”
“Whoa, take a breath,” I said, trying to process everything she was saying. “Now, are you asking me to sit with you?”
“Um…” She bit her lip, and finally nodded. “Only because it’s kind of my job as your buddy to offer. I mean, I didn’t want to but Estella thought it would be the nice thing to do. But if you wanted company then you wouldn’t have turned down Kance. No one turns down Kance…so either you’re crazy or you want to be left alone.”
Her rambling made me smile. “And what do you think?”
My question seemed to catch her off guard, and something in her eyes opened up. “Well, I think you’re a bit of both. No male would ever reject Kance Logan, so that makes you crazy. But you looked kind of distracted when she was talking to you, so I guess you want to be left alone.”
I hadn’t realized that she’d been watching me that closely. She was a smart girl because her observations were spot on.
“You’re right. I do want to be left alone. And I don’t care about rejecting Kance. I’m not here to make friends.”
“Oh.” Hadie’s mouth tightened and her face went tense.
“See, I’m pretty used to girls trying to hit on me and asking me to sit with them. It’s not a big deal. It’s pretty typical, actually.”
A look of pure hatred and loathing appeared on Hadie’s face, and she balled up her fists. “I bet it is. That’s why guys like you are such complete sleaze bags.”
Hadie spun around and stormed back to her friends, leaving me with a sick feeling in my stomach.
Whoa. What the hell just happened? I hadn’t meant anything sleazy by what I’d said…I’d only been trying to tell her that I wasn’t into girls like Kance who literally bent over backwards to get a guy. She had completely misunderstood me.
Damn. That’s why I needed to stay away from people. It wasn’t worth letting anyone in.
In the end everyone just ended up getting hurt.
Chapter Five
Hadie
When I walked into the kitchen to grab my dog’s leash, I found my parents kissing.
“Ew!” I cried, shielding my eyes with a hand. “Don’t you two have a room where you can do that?”
They broke apart and Mom laughed as she resumed stirring the pot of chili she was making for dinner. Mom was seriously the best cook ever. There was nothing better than one of her home-cooked meals. Especially chili. My mouth was already watering from the delicious smells coming from the pot.
Dad turned to me, his brown eyes twinkling. “We need to tie a collar with a bell around her neck so we know when she’s coming. Don’t you think, Susanne?” He glanced at Mom.
“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Mom said as she gave me a teasing smile. “I can get her a name tag too. I’m always forgetting her name. What was it again?”
Dad scratched his head as he studied me. “It’s H-something. Hannah, wasn’t it?”
“No, Henrietta?”
“Harrison?” Dad slapped his palm against the side of his head as if it had suddenly dawned on him. “I remember now. It’s Hadassah!”
I rolled my eyes, but it was pretty hard not to laugh at my parents’ antics. It was rare to have two parents who were both so laid-back and easy going. My friends were always complaining about their parents, whereas I was always praising mine. Quite often, Estella, Lana and Mariah would be over here because they liked my parents so much.
I had to admit, they were pretty great. Mom was a secretary at a law firm in town that Dad owned. Despite being a lawyer, Dad wasn’t serious or boring. He was lots of fun and was always cracking a joke about something.
Appearance-wise, I had completely taken after Dad. We shared the same features, wavy-ish, light brown hair and small height. He was only a couple inches taller than me, but liked to rub it in. Mom, on the other hand, looked like she didn’t belong in this family. She was tall, like Estella-tall, and had very straight blonde hair. The only thing I’d inherited from her was her chestnut brown eyes.
“You two need serious help,” I said as I grabbed the leash off the counter.
“Darlin’, that just breaks my heart,” Mom said, clutching at her chest dramatically. “We are such cool parents, are we not, Peter?”
Dad nodded in agreement. “Very cool. The coolest. Look it up in the dictionary and you’ll find that our names are the definition of cool.”
“You’re embarrassing yourself again.” I jumped out of Dad’s way as he tried to tousle my hair. “Da-ad! I’m way too old for that!” I told him that every day, but he still did it anyway.
“Really? Are you sure?” Dad raised an eyebrow.
I nodded, calling for our dog, as I kept an eye on him to make sure he didn’t try and tousle my hair again. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“As sure as amnesia?” Mom asked.
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
Halo came running to me, waving his tail like he always did when he knew I was taking him for a walk. We hadn’t had him for very long—only since the beginning of summer when Estella had started volunteering at the animal shelter. I’d gone in one day and after seeing him, knew that I couldn’t leave there without him.
He was a funny looking dog, with a long body but a small head. I wasn’t too sure what he was, to be honest. He had so many different breeds in him that it was impossible to say for sure. It didn’t matter though—I loved him and his goofiness regardless of his pedigree.
I knelt down to clip the leash onto Halo’s collar. “I’m taking Halo for a walk. We’ll be back soon.”
“Don’t stay out too late. And no alcohol or making out with boys,” Dad said, trying his best to look serious.
&nbs
p; My parents were so theatrical about the smallest things, but they always made me laugh. Still, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes again as I headed outside. “No promises.”
Our house was almost identical to every other house on the street. It was a double-story red-brick home with a double garage and large yard with white fencing around it. Mom was really into gardening, so we had a flowerbed filled with seasonal flowers throughout the year that our neighbors envied.
Dad was really into home improvement and was always fixing things that didn't need fixing. Our mailbox was a fancy double-story house with a bird bath. Totally unnecessary, but Dad felt otherwise.
Like I said, my parents were theatrical.
Halo and I started jogging in the direction of Jackson Heights, which was the neighborhood next to ours. Jackson Heights was a small gated community where the mansions were something amazing to look at and where the people liked to keep to themselves and their wealth.
I passed Mariah’s house, which was exactly six houses down from mine. She would be at dance practice right about now, or I would’ve stopped by to hang out for a bit.
As I rounded the corner onto Waterview Crescent, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a familiar figure walking in my direction.
No. No way. I couldn’t seriously be that unlucky, could I?
When Lincoln caught sight of me, he slowed down and stopped, flashing me a grin that I wanted to knock off his face. I suddenly became conscious of the bike shorts and tank top I was wearing. Then my eyes shot to him, and I tried not to stare.
Okay, well, I kinda was staring but I didn’t want to. That had to count for something, didn’t it?
Lincoln was dressed in gym shorts and a white wife beater that stretched across his muscular chest and displayed his arms for the world to see. Obviously, the guy was confident about his body which just made him come across as arrogant and self-assured. The kind of guy I wanted nothing to do with.
“Hairdresser?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”
Was this guy dumb too?
I pointed at Halo. “Obviously I’m walking my dog. And I’ve already told you, my name is Hadie.”