Beautiful Bedlam (4 page)

“
Me?
What happened to
you?
” he asked as he stared at her face.

“Oh, it’s a long story. You know how clumsy I can get. There was a wall and-“

“Not the black eye, although you had better tell me about it later. You’re…you know…you look a little different.” He stuttered. She frowned at him confused.

“What? Says America’s biggest loser. How did you lose it all? You look amazing!” she gushed clearly ecstatic for her friend. “Fat camp.” He replied bluntly. Sienna laughed at that then stopped instantly when she saw his serious honest expression.

“Oh my God, you’re not kidding! I thought you said your parents were taking you to New York for the summer.” She hissed, her face shocked.

“They lied. They left me at a weight loss camp for teenagers.”

“Wow. Is that why you didn’t call me all summer?” Sienna asked curiously.

“No phone.” He explained with a small smile. She leaned back in her chair. She was surprised his sweet overly sensitive happy go lucky eat your heart out parents actually did that to him.

“Tough love.” She commented frankly.

“I’ll say.” He replied with a smile that indicated that it was anything but. He wanted this. He wanted to lose the extra weight and good for him. Sienna couldn’t have been more proud. The school bell rang followed by the sound of chairs scraping, books and bags shuffling and there was always at least the one person in every class with their music blaring from their headphones before they even left the class. Never had she seen teenagers spring up from their chairs so fast like the walking dead. It seemed as though she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t exactly thrilled to be back in school. She gathered her belonging in to her backpack and began following Noah out of class before Mr. Blake called her back.

“Miss Rivers, could you just stay back for a moment?” he asked as he leaned against he edge of his desk.

“Sure.” She said in an unusually high-pitched voiced.

“I mean sure.” She coughed in to her fist and walked back in class with a blasé devil may care attitude despite the fact that for some odd reason her heart was beating way too fast. Okay, there was no odd reason. Sienna Rivers had managed yet again, for the second time on her life allowed herself to become absolutely enthralled and attracted to someone that was completely unattainable and quite simply gorgeous.

The cautious frightened nerdy girl inside was already chastising her for her already immediate attraction for her teacher but he was
British
! Could anyone really blame her? ‘
Yes!’
that annoying voice hissed which she promptly ignored. Noah gave her a look as if to say he’d wait for her outside whereas Rose just shot her a look of pure unadulterated envy. Sienna had to bite her bottom lip to keep herself from grinning at her.

“Miss Rivers, please take a seat.” He said in a cold detached professional way as he began rifling through his desk draw sounding more like a doctor than a high school teacher. Sienna reluctantly took a seat. She
knew
it! She knew she was an idiot for thinking she could get away with being so late on the first day. She was lucky she hadn’t been sent to Principal Sharpe’s office already. Lord knows that woman already had it out for her. Mr. Blake took out a thin manila envelope and took out its contents and held the papers in his hands.

“I’m really sorry for being late, sir.” She apologized and tucked her hair behind her ear nervously. She hadn’t expected him to be so…
hostile
. He seemed so nice just moments ago when he was saying goodbye to all the students who were clearly already halfway in love with him.

“ I’m usually always on time-“

“Not according to your punctuality sheet. And your attendance isn’t so great either.” He interjected immediately and frowned at her slightly.
Yikes
. He really didn’t like her. “Oh, well sometimes…I fall ill really easily and I’m really clumsy. I actually-“

“Walked in to a wall? Yes, I heard all about it when you were conversing with Noah earlier whilst in the middle of a very important lesson I was conducting.”  He said with an air of disapproval about him.

“I’m-“ she began speaking but he quickly cut her off, a clear habit of his.

“Sorry? Yes, you’ve said that a number of times but these are merely words. I won’t have you late to my class again otherwise you will not be granted permission to set foot in my class again, do we have an understanding?” he asked austerely and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t look like the senior boy Sienna mistook him to be. He was a cruelly strict man and she decided that she did not like him, not one bit.

“Yes.” Sienna gulped.

“Good.” He replied tersely and turned his back to her as he began shuffling the papers on his desk for seemingly no apparent reason other than to keep his hands busy. ‘
Probably from strangling me’
Sienna thought sullenly.

“May I leave?” she asked tentatively as she stood up awkwardly.

“Yes.” he said briskly, his back still turned. Sienna didn’t need to be told twice. She fleeted towards the door but she barely put a foot out before he called her back.

“Oh and Miss Rivers?” She paused at the doorway unsurely and looked back at his deceivingly handsome face. 

“Your jacket.” He said simply and held her black jacket out towards her. His expression softened as he saw confusion flicker in her eyes.

“Thank you.” She said politely and took it from him whilst holding his gaze. Her fingers grazed against his for a moment too long causing the two to immediately retract their hands away. The air between them was odd, strange, and awkward. He would be her teacher all year. She needed to do not just good but great in chemistry this year. With all the drama at home, the last thing her parents needed was a bad report card from her, especially with her SAT exams in the spring. Sienna decided to try and diffuse the tense atmosphere and extend a metaphorical olive branch by friendly small talk.

“I-“ she barely got a word out before he spoke over her again, irritating her to no end.

“That’ll be all.” He said curtly dismissing her as he once again turned his back on her. She closed her agape mouth and turned on her heel and left quietly trying to ignore the hurt that was swirling around in her chest. She wondered what it was about her that welcomed such aversion and antipathy from people. Her blood grew warmer and warmer as anger coursed through her veins. She thought back to her father. Her kindhearted, loving, warm father who just upped and left without so much as a goodbye. She thought back to what Meredith had said, the way she asked their mother what she had done to cause him to leave. Sienna wondered that herself now.

3.

“Earth to Sienna! Helloooo!” Rose shouted as she waved her hand over Sienna’s blank face. “You totally zoned out on me there.” She said petulantly and blew her blonde bangs out of her pretty blue eyes.

“Oh sorry.” She apologized; clearly it was her word of the day. She looked up to find herself in the middle of the hallway in front of her locker. She frowned slightly as she glanced around wondering how she got there.

“What did Blake want?” Noah asked.

“You mean Mr. Blake?” Sienna corrected.

“He said we could call him Blake, isn’t that cool? His name is William Blake you know like that dead poet? He’s from London. Can you believe he’s only twenty-one years old? He’s like some child genius or something.” Rose gushed and leaned against the lockers and stared up at the ceiling dreamily.

“He was just telling me off about being late. He even brought up my stellar attendance record.” Sienna sighed and rubbed her temples that were beginning to throb a little more at the shrill sound of Rose’s voice.

“Well, you only took a couple of days off here and there because you’re such a klutz. Honestly, you’re worse than my nana and we all know what happened to her.” She laughed. Noah and Sienna exchanged quick weary glances. Rose’s grandmother was moved to a care home after it was discovered that she suffered from Alzheimer’s. Rose wasn’t exactly the most gentle and subtle creature to walk this earth but she did have her good characteristics which Sienna was beginning to forget by each passing day. “Remember last year when you fell down the stairs and fractured your ankle?” she gasped before chuckling and shaking her head no doubt remembering watching Sienna hobble around on crutches for weeks.

“And broke your wrist in middle school while doing what? Swimming?” Noah asked as he tried to recall the vague memory. Sienna had no idea what excuse she’d used that time so she just nodded along.

“Yeah, that’s me. Such a klutz.” Sienna chuckled softly and smiled weakly at her friends as she fought with the combination on her locker.

“
Oh my God!
I just remembered you still don’t know!” Rose squealed.

“Know what?” Sienna said threw gritted teeth as she pulled and pried her locker door open. She almost fell back as it finally opened. Victory at last! She hated that damn locker. It was the third year in a row she’d landed with the rusty old thing. She was sure Principal Sharpe was behind it all!

“Its not
that
big of a deal-“ Noah said.

“Logan Jackson! He’s coming back to school!” Rose exclaimed, her face animated and filled with joy and excitement.

“What?” Sienna asked softly feeling as though all the air had been knocked out of her. She was glad she had her head in her locker so nobody could see the many fleeting emotions ranging from panic to excitement to love to fear then back to casual controlled indifference cross her pretty little face.

“Logan’s back! Word is he’s already here.
Today
. His parents have decided to enroll him back in public school. God knows why but he is! Isn’t this great?” Rose asked.

“Yeah.” Sienna replied meekly as she put her books in her locker.

“That’s it?
That’s
your response?” she scoffed incredulously at her placid reaction.

“Look, Noah’s hot and thin now! I’d have thought we’d be a little more preoccupied getting him laid now instead of talking about strangers whom we haven’t seen in years.” Sienna said quickly, ever the expert at deflecting.

“What makes you guys think I’m a virgin?” Noah asked incredulously acting all offended. Rose instantly opened her locker door to reveal the pictures she had of them. The children in those pictures seemed like strangers consisting of a severely overweight plump chubby cheeked blond boy, a tiny flat chested thin dark haired girl with exotic green eyes all overshadowed by her braces and a pretty blond girl at the center.

“Yeah, alright.” He sighed in defeat. “God, we have to burn those photos, all of them.” He said shuddering just as the bell rang.

“We’ve got Bachman for home economics.” Noah said.

“I’ve got Girard for French. We should go. I don’t want to be late again.” Sienna sighed. The trio went their separate ways through the crowds of bustling teens all eager to get to class. Sienna navigated her way around what looked like the entire football team who had just come in sweaty from practice. She wrinkled her nose, as she had to literally duck before she was forced to endure her first kiss with a senior’s sweaty armpit. God forbid. She shuddered. She squeezed past an oblivious-to-the-world-sickly-sweet-Romeo-and-Juliet-shove-your-love-in-someone-else’s-face couple intent of exchanging as much saliva as they could before a teacher came along and was forced to hose them down or pry them apart.

Within seconds the sea of pubescent stench, teenage angst and sexual frustration parted allowing Sienna to dart to the end of the hallway in to the safe zone near just outside her French class. She had her hand on the door handle just as something in the distance caught her eye.

He was tall, dark-haired, dark clothes, same dark eyes and chiseled cheekbones and a jaw that looked like it was carved from stone. It couldn’t be? He was too far away for Sienna to really be sure, but from the way her stomach churned and the speed rate of her heartbeat she knew she already had her answer. He was back. Logan Jackson was back to torment and tease her with his gorgeous face, impeccable wit and charisma. It had been two years since she had seen him last. Since his family had shipped him off to a fancy prep school somewhere in the city. She had known him all her life, since meeting in the sandbox in kindergarten, all throughout elementary and middle school they had been practically inseparable, then it came to high school and off he went without a word, without so much as a goodbye just like her father.

Her heart lay heavy in her heart with the comparison. What was it about her that drove all the men in her life away? She flinched as she saw the reflection in the window inside the classroom. She tentatively touched her black eye. For some reason, she felt ashamed and looked away hating what she saw. She opened the door and entered the class. Second and third period seemed to whizz by like a blur. As hard as she tried, Sienna’s mind just seemed to wander back to where her heart belonged.

When he first left, his absence hit her harder than any physical beating she’d ever taken in her life. She didn’t quite understand it when Rose had come over and divulged in this piece of exciting gossip. She still remembered the way she didn’t believe her, the way she ran all the way to his mansion on the outskirts of town only to find his room empty, his belongings gone. His parents weren’t home but Lawson, his butler was. He had let her in and broke the news to her. Logan didn’t even have the nerve to tell her himself. She remembered accepting the news with a casual ‘oh’ remark before quickly leaving the mansion with her silent tears. She remembered the way she crumbled on to the ground once she got outside, away from prying eyes, her head in her hands, her heart in pieces like broken shards of glass stuck in her throat as she choked on her tears, sobbing. She was only fourteen years old then. Practically a baby, a girl still with a woman’s love to give.