Fall For Me ((The Tate Chronicles #1)) (4 page)

Instead, I turned to Archer and asked, “What are you having?”

“Probably just an apple.”

“An apple?
You could’ve grabbed an apple at home.”

“It’s probably the only thing that doesn’t taste like cardboard,” he said.

We took our food and I followed Archer to our usual seats in the far corner next to the window. The cafeteria was gradually filling up with more students and the noise level lifted. Archer and I ate in silence while I scanned the room. Most of the time I didn’t listen to people’s thoughts, but since it was the first day of school I couldn’t help being interested. Everyone was at various stages of peril in their young lives, but nothing to really worry about. An eighth grader was standing in line saying a quick prayer, hoping she didn’t look fat in her uniform. I shook my head and chuckled softly. If only looking fat was all I had to worry about.

“Are you going to share?” Archer frowned at me. “Or is it a private joke?”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot you can’t hear
everything
that’s going on.”

“No, some of us aren’t freaks like you.”

“So I’m a freak now?” I leaned into him and gave his shoulder a nudge.

“Yeah, but I still love you,” he said.

I took a bite from my toast and scanned the room again, smiling at the odd person here and there before settling my eyes on Abby. She was sitting close to Josh, and his best friend Ryan was on his other side. Ryan fell into the ‘guy you’d date due to genuine niceness’ category. His skin was tanned and his light brown hair fell across his friendly chocolate coloured eyes. I knew he had a crush on my best friend, Emma, but was too scared to ask her out. It all came down to the different social group thing.

Abby was talking to Josh in hushed tones, leaning in close to him. I got a slight shock from the way this made me feel. Was it jealousy? I didn’t like seeing them together, and then I took a closer look. Abby was crying and Josh looked distant. I focused harder.

Neither of them were vocalising what they were actually thinking. Abby was asking him not to break up with her, but thinking about what she would do without a good looking guy on her arm. Like I said, shallow. Josh was saying he was sorry when really he wasn’t. He couldn’t wait to be free of her. Then I heard something else. Did he just say my name? For a moment my heart froze in my chest then skipped and kept on beating, faster than before. My hands broke out in a sweat and I wiped my palms on my skirt. Joshua Chase was thinking about me.

I had to plant both my feet firmly on the floor to stop myself tumbling off the chair. Josh was thinking about me, I couldn’t believe it. What did this mean? Confusion burst through my head and I had to shake it to clear the fog. Josh raised his eyes and I stared at him, drowning in their blue perfection. I couldn’t tear my eyes away if I tried. His messy dark brown hair fell to one side of his sun kissed face, and I felt the heat rising inside me as it rushed to my cheeks. I knew if I’d looked in a mirror my pale complexion would be on fire.

Archer asked me what was wrong, but I ignored him. I stared at Josh and his expression changed. He locked onto my gaze and a smile spread across his face, reaching his eyes. I couldn’t help returning it. Then I heard it again in his head.

Grace.

My heart skipped another beat, or two.

JOSH

M
y best friend Ryan followed me out of the dorm, drilling me about the break up. I didn’t really want to talk about it, but he insisted. He didn’t like Abby and was relishing the good news.

The cafeteria was buzzing when we entered. A few groups of students were milling around catching up, I suspected, on what everyone did over the break. Ryan and I grabbed our food then made our way to our table, just left of the counter. I’d spotted Grace in her usual seat, next to her brother, when we first walked in, but I was attempting to restrain myself from looking in her direction. From the corner of my eye I saw her chuckle and I smiled, wishing I knew what had made her laugh.

No sooner had we sat down than Abby turned up. My guess was she’d already been inside the cafeteria and was waiting to pounce on me.

“Hey, Abby,” Ryan said. “What did you do over the holiday
break?
”

“Shut up, Ryan,” she said, pulling out a chair and sitting close to me. First she started berating me, telling me off for even thinking about dumping her. Then she moved on to the crying with a few theatrical sobs thrown in for good measure. I tuned her out and Ryan threw me an unsympathetic look that said,
I told you so.
All I could think about was Grace.

I knew she was sitting straight across the room but I was too nervous to look up. What if she wasn’t looking over? Why would she be looking over anyway? It was torture. With my arms folded on the table and my head slightly bowed I dared a peek at Grace. My heart leapt to my throat and I felt a flush run through me.

She was looking.

Slowly, I raised my head and met her gaze. I became lost in her eyes. Everything else around me no longer mattered and all I could see was her. Her pale angelic face surrounded by black was radiant, and her cheeks glowed.
Grace,
I thought as I felt a smile spread across my face. What I saw next was the defining moment in my mind. The thing that helped me to make the decision I did. She smiled back at me and it was like the light from a thousand suns illuminating her. Not just her face but her, all of her. I’d found my reason for breathing, for existing. I knew it sounded clichéd, but she was the one.

“Ouch!” I cried, turning to Abby. “What was that for?” I rubbed my arm where she’d just pinched it.

“You aren’t listening to me.”

“I’m not either,” Ryan said.

Abby scowled. “What were you smiling at? I’m trying to have a conversation with you.” Her eyes followed where my gaze had been and a funny noise came from her throat. Did Abby just growl at me? Next she’d be hissing like a cat and scratching my eyes out.

I leant back in my chair and rubbed my face then quickly stood up. I’d had enough.

Loud enough so pretty much everyone could hear, I said, “It’s over Abby. We’re done. I don’t have anything else to say to you. Please, just leave me alone.” As I walked to the door and out into the yard, I realised how much she actually got under my skin. I felt like punching something again.

“Hey, Josh, wait up.” I heard Ryan behind me. “You really gave it to her in there. Everyone’s buzzing. This will go down in Hopetown Valley history as the public breakup of the year.”

“Thought you’d be happy,” I said.

“No, seriously dude, I just want you to be happy, and you weren’t with her.”

We walked in silence the rest of the way back to the dorm. I left Ryan at his room on the ground floor then climbed the stairs to mine for the second time that morning. I used the little time I had before class to unpack. It didn’t take long to put the contents of my suitcase into the cupboard.

The first bell for the day rang causing a flurry of movement and noise in the dorm. The next bell would ring ten minutes later, so I got a move on with everyone else and headed back to the yard. The place was alive with activity; students hurrying here and there attempting to get to class on time. I had my head down with my nose in my timetable so I didn’t see her until it was too late. I clipped Grace on the shoulder and sent her bag flying. She didn’t seem too rattled which was kind of odd. Our eyes connected. A brilliant smile unfolded across her face, and her cheeks flushed a radiant rose colour on her pale skin.

“I’m sorry, Grace. I wasn’t watching where I was going.” I picked up her bag.

“It’s ok.” She reached out to take the bag and our fingers brushed, spreading warmth up my arm that made me tingle all over. Why did this girl have such a hold over me? I was vaguely aware that Grace’s friend, Emma Shrove, was standing beside her, but my eyes were fixed on Grace and I couldn’t pull them away even if I wanted to. She was mesmerising.

“What have you got first up?” she asked.

I almost forgot how to talk.

This was more than the usual ‘Hi Josh’.

“English, I think.” I consulted my timetable again.

“Great.
Us, too.”

“I wonder what Mr Martin will have in store for us this year,” I said, and then kicked myself for not finding something better to say.

“Only good things, I hope,” Grace chuckled.

I couldn’t help smiling and laughing as well, her radiance was infectious. Emma cleared her throat loudly and Grace and I both looked at her.

“In case you haven’t noticed, that was the second bell and we are now late.”

I glanced around the empty yard and Emma was right. We all turned and hurried towards the main building. We climbed the big stone steps and entered the large double wooden doors. When we got to the English classroom, Mr Martin was already at the front of the class and had begun the lesson. He watched us disapprovingly as we came through the door.

“Nice of you three to join us,” he said, squinting through his large wire framed glasses.

Mr Martin was the classic image of an English teacher with his slightly balding head, bushy beard and tweed jacket. I didn’t get his reason for wearing it when it was at least twenty-seven degrees outside. We walked quickly to our seats in the dreary, musty smelling classroom, and Grace and Emma took their places in the back next to Archer. I sat in the only seat left, which was roughly in the middle.

“Now that we’re all here,” Mr Martin began, “we can discuss our first assignment. I trust you are all familiar with the works of Shakespeare.”

Most of the class let out a unified groan. This was the twenty-first century and although I didn’t personally have anything against Shakespeare, I didn’t particularly like his work either, probably because I didn’t understand it. Did they really talk like that in the fifteen hundreds?

Mr Martin dropped a copy of a brick-like book on every desk. This book was big enough to be covered in fabric and used as a substantial doorstop. He passed me and I risked a glance at Grace who was looking at her copy with sheer admiration. She smiled as she held the book in her hands, treating it as if it were made of gold. Obviously she liked Shakespeare.

“Your task,” Mr Martin said as he returned to the front of the room, “is to choose one of Shakespeare’s tragedies…”

More groaning reverberated around the class.

“But which one?” a voice said from the front. “Didn’t he write, like, heaps of plays?”

“Yes, he did, but only eleven were tragedies, and if you had let me finish you would have heard me say that I will narrow it down to two. We will be watching renditions of both
Macbeth
and
Romeo and Juliet
over the next week or so.”

The class erupted into chatter, with a few more protests thrown in for good measure.
That’s just great,
I thought,
Boredom 101 coming up.
I put my face in my hands then waited for Mr Martin to continue.

“Your task,” he said again over the noise, “will be to write an essay on the play of your choice, as well as submit a brief analysis of their differences.”

Essay?
Differences?
Boy was I in trouble. How could I possibly write about something I had absolutely no hope of understanding? I played soccer. Ask me to explain a two touch pass, or how to narrow the angle, and I’m your man. Ask me to decipher Shakespeare and I’ll offer you a brainless, blank expression. Could this day get any better? What a fantastic start to the new school year.

GRACE

O
ur locked gaze broke when Abby pinched Josh’s arm. I watched and listened as Josh very publicly stood and told her it was over. I may have appeared just as surprised as everyone else on the outside, but inside I was jumping for joy. His relationship with Abby was over, and he’d been thinking about me!

I watched Josh leave the cafeteria with Ryan in his wake. Then my eyes fell on Seth
Brone
. He sat with his cronies near the door and his face was plastered with a sly smile. I knew he’d been listening in. Not to me, he couldn’t do that without me knowing, but to Josh. Seth had olive skin, short blond hair and was extremely good looking. He also had a creepy air about him that turned most girls off, me included. His eyes were dark brown almost black, and seemed to change in the light. He leaned forward onto the table and I could see the intricate pattern of the Celtic cross tattooed to his inner left forearm.

Seth was my polar opposite, a Dark Angel whose sole purpose was to make my existence a living hell, no pun intended. But then without him things would get rather boring. We’d been close friends a long time ago, before his fall, but that quickly changed and I still to this day don’t know what happened. He made a choice that I didn’t understand, and I hated him for it. I worked hard every day to block the memories we shared, which was difficult since he’d been following me almost the entire time I’d been on earth.