The Leaf Catcher (on hold)

Mechanics

Chapter 8

I stood there, my whole body screaming internally with happiness and shock. Kaiden smiled at me when he saw that I'd seen him and motioned me over. I was so surprised and unbelieving that there was a danger of my jaw unhinging.

"Ok, what in holy hell is happening, Meg?" Nora demanded, turning me to face her sharply and waving her hand in front of my face. "Why is he beckoning to you...and why is he here? More to the point, how do you know him and I don't? What is this?" She babbled, clearly showing her confusion. Her tone was harsh, but only because she was trying to get information out of me. I grimaced, realising that I'd have to tell her everything later.

"Um, I'll tell you later." I told her vaguely, turning back to Kaiden and shrugging out of her grip. Nora 'humphed' at me, crossing her arms.

"Urgh. You better. The only reason I'm not forcing you right now is because he's still staring at you, and he looks really hot like that. I don't wanna get in his...way. Whatever."

I didn't even turn to her again, just kept my feet walking, carefully crossing the busy road. I was aware of the stares Kaiden was receiving, especially from the older girls from school, but he didn't seem to notice. I wish I was that oblivious - or maybe he just didn't care. Either way, I hated the stabbing sensation that tingled the back of my neck as people connected the two of us, turning to stare at me too.

I hated mass attention, especially by those who looked down at me. Everyone was so nosy.

As I walked up to him, sightly nervous, Kaiden straightened, a small smile still curling at his lips.

"Hi," I said quietly, drinking in his appearance whilst trying to appear calm and collected. I think I was failing pretty epically to be honest. My insides were practically doing a crazy happy dance right now.

"Hi yourself," Kaiden replied, his smile widening.

"What're you doing here?" I sounded ridiculously breathy, and I wish my voice would sort itself out. Calm, cool and collected Meg, you know the drill. Nope, no such luck. My heart was still hampering insistently on.

Kaiden smirked, a light hearted twist of his lips which twinkled his eyes. "Call it a surprise pick up," he told me, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Shall we?" I started making my way down the pavement, ignoring the many looks I was still receiving. I'd never attracted this much attention in my life.

"How did you find me? My school, that is."

"You told me the name," Kaiden said, shrugging. "Google maps did the rest." I laughed fleetingly, the wind picking up the sound and carrying it through the air. I shivered, huddling down in my blazer. It really was bitter. "I like it," he said, turning slightly to gesture to the old brick building now behind us. "It looks...notorious."

"Yeh," I snorted, probably very unattractively. "You could say that." Kaiden turned to me, an eyebrow raised curiously at my tone. "It's just a school. It looks nice and all, but in the end it's still full of same stereotypical stuff. After a while it loses it's appeal." I elaborated.

"I hear you." Kaiden said, smiling at me. "How was your day?"

"It was okay, although my lesson content sucked. Normally it's good but today...I think the teachers did some kind of collaboration mojo where they got every crappy topic on their courses and threw them into today. I almost fell asleep in maths."

Kaiden laughed, his head tipping back a little. The sound was deep and rich, and it made me want to laugh too. It was so infectious; so wonderful. I tore my eyes away from him before he realised my gaping. "What were the topics?"