The Fairest Stars

Chapter Seven: 'A Troubled Mind.'

‘You could put it like that.’ Kael wasn’t used to this. He didn’t seem to be able to pull off his usual witty banter- her every action, no matter how slight, seemed to turn his mind into a quivering pile of mush.

Isis tilted her head, reminding him of an inquisitive kitten. The effect was rather adorable. ‘You don’t have a posh accent either,’ she commented, after finishing her consideration of him.

‘You expected me to talk like Prince Charles, did you?’

‘Something like that.’ Her eyes widened. ‘I’m not offending you, am I?’ she asked, more curious than apologetic. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, I’m er, just-’

‘Inquisitive,’ he supplied. ‘Nah, don’t worry about it, Isis. I don’t mind.’ Isis. If he remembered rightly, this was the first time he’d actually said her name. Isis. He liked it. It fitted well in his mouth. Just like hers probably would, should he ever get the opportunity… what the hell?! How had he gone from her name to kissing? Kael was feeling more and more flustered with every word she spoke.

‘My dad always used to say I was like Alice in Wonderland,’ Isis replied. ‘Too curious for my own…’ she paused, her voice suddenly going flat. She gulped. ‘For my own good,’ she finished.

Kael itched to ask her what was wrong, but something in her expression told him that wouldn’t be a good idea.

Steering away from the topic of parents, seeing as he didn’t want to be reminded of his own, he cast around, looking for a comment he could make that wouldn’t be awkward. One that would be impressive. Impressive? Fat chance.

‘Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice,’ he settled for, and immediately cursed himself. Could his brain really not come up with anything more impressive than quoting Alice In Wonderland?! Boys like him weren’t supposed to quote Lewis Carroll when talking to a girl they were lusting after. Lusting after Isis? Was he really?

Isis folded her arms, her eyebrows raised. Kael noticed the way that this made her, er, chest area swell and began to feel the blood rush to his own areas. Yep. Lusting. Bloody hell. ‘You are different!’ she pronounced, with an air of triumph about her.

‘Huh?’ Still disconcerted by the fact that he was lusting after someone who had covered her body with enough material to construct a small tent, it took Kael a while to understand what she meant.

‘You’re different,’ she repeated. ‘You wouldn’t find boys in this school quoting Alice In Wonderland, Kael!’

Kael’s eyes were fixated on her lips, intently focused on the way that she formed the two short syllables that made up his name. It made him feel dizzy headed.

‘Kael?’ she repeated. Oh crap, he was still staring at her lips. He tore his eyes away from her mouth. He was turning into some sort of hormonal wreck! This wasn’t funny anymore (not that it had ever been remotely amusing in the first place) and now, it was just plain confusing.

Around them, people were starting to leave, heading off to take a free period seeing as their teacher was nowhere in sight. With a grunt that he hoped would do for a reply, he got up quickly, and removed himself from the classroom before Isis could do anything more to his hormones. Pissed off with himself, and pissed off with her for being so unintentionally bloody seductive, he stomped his feet almost loud enough to drown out Isis’ innocently spoken question as he left: ‘Was it something I said?’

*

Charming, thought Isis. She wasn’t precisely sure what it was that she’d done wrong: as far as she knew, she’d just been having a nice chat with him (nice, chat and Kael didn’t seem to often go in the same sentence, but it actually had been nice), when suddenly, out of the blue, he’d vanished. Pathetic.