Love's Beat

Chapter 14

     "I swear, my life is being controlled by a three-year-old kid in the sky who thinks it's entertaining to turn my life upside-down," Ember murmured to nobody in particular while she adjusted the goggles over her eyes.

It was Chemistry and apparently they were going to blow up something. If what little she managed to catch from the teacher was correct since Ember had been too busy grumbling about her joke of a life.

Right after Mr. Pompous Arse left class, she had her Chemistry books in her arms and fled the class to the lab as inconspicuously as possible, taking advantage of her honed ninja skills. She breathed out a sigh of relief when she successfully made it out of the class without anyone taking much notice of her. Well, much notice because she was positive Jaden had been watching her throughout Mr. Pompous Arse's lesson and also while she made her escape to the lab.

     Ha! And Max said I failed ninja school.

Shaking out her childish thoughts, Ember flipped through her Chemistry book. Her lab partner hadn't shown up for school today so she was flying solo for this experiment. Which wasn't much of a difference especially when afore mentioned partner was usually slumped over the table, fast asleep or being disgustingly obvious in trying to peek up a girl's skirt when they were bent over their experiments.

Guess being rich didn't excuse one from being an class-A prick.

     "Hey teach, I'm partner-less here," she heard someone call out.

Ember didn't catch whatever the teacher replied in that annoyingly high-pitched tone of hers. It reminded her too much of dragging nails on a chalkboard. A certain redhead seated diagonally from her caught her eye --purely coincidence, mind you-- as he laughed at something his partner had said. Jaden's partner flipped her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder and sidled closer to him. Although she could clearly see that his partner was merely pointing out something in the textbook they were both bent over, it didn't stop the twinge in her heart that stole Ember's breath right out of her lungs. It only got worse when he smiled her favourite smile.

     Cut it out, Em! Since when did it become your smile?

Annoyed that she had become some sort of possessive cavewoman, she absorbed herself in the procedures of the experiment when she vaguely heard the stool beside her scraping on the floor and the hush of the room following that. She ignored it, thinking someone must've thought she would get freaked out by taking a stool she wasn't using. Hello, she might've been indifferent --maybe unfriendly-- to them but she wasn't socially challenged. Reading another long-winded procedure, she felt the right side of her body seem to gradually warm up.

     Wait, what?

She snapped her head to the right and a pair of chocolate brown eyes framed by dark, sooty lashes were staring back at her. Those slightly uptilted eyes were prominent on a canvas consisting of sharp, defined features most girls would fall head over heels over. His full lips were tilted in a crooked smile that reminded her of a mischievous kid who could sweet-talk his way out of any kind of trouble. But honestly, the only thing that caught her attention was a shock of blue hair styled in a very impressive mohawk-like cut.

She blinked a couple of times to make sure she was actually seeing right. Wow, it really was blue. Or turquoise really but most people wouldn't dare point that out because he was Dave Jenkins, one of Jesse's best friends and another influential person in school hence, the blue hair.

     Ember realised she was openly gawking at his hair while he was patiently waiting for her to say something. With a flitting thought that she might be socially challenged after all, she cleared her throat and uttered a bemused, "May I help you?"