Broken Angel

Chapter 1

'Mrs Jackson, this is our new student.' Mr Wood interrupted the class. 'I'm sure you will all do your best to get him settled in. Must be off, have a meeting to attend.' Mr Wood then left the boy standing alone to handle his first lesson.

'What's your name?' Mrs Jackson smiled.

'Ace Hunter, where should I sit?' The gorgeous boy answered with full confidence.

'There's a seat available behind Ryvre.' Mrs Jackson pointed to me. 'Please take out your notes from last lesson.' Mrs Jackson's desk was in front on mine. She leaned over and whispered, 'Ryvre your notes were very detailed and well written, could you do me a favour and lend them to Ace - he needs to catch up and why not learn from the best?'

'Mrs Jackson,' I smiled, 'flattery won't get you anywhere but because you're a good teacher, I'll do it.' Then I turned around to Ace with my notes, 'here you go, Ace.'

He flashed me his brightest smile and said, 'thanks Ryvre. You're cool.' Could he be anymore wrong?

'Uh-huh,' I turned back around in my seat. I noticed that most of the girls in the class kept glancing at him. When Mrs Jackson had gave us our work to do and allowed us talk quietly to those around us, Ace threw bits of paper at me so I turned around to face him and said, 'it may be fun to waste trees and throw pieces of paper at other people from where you come from, but over here it's called being a pain in the backside.' I smirked and then said, 'So...' politely but added flatly, 'would you knock it off?'

'Girl with an attitude, nice,' he raised his eyebrows completely unfazed by my comment. 'All I was going to say was can I meet you at lunch to discuss your notes?'

'Absolutely... Not.' I turned around to face a frowning Mrs Jackson. 'What? He was being annoying.'

'But you could still help him out, Ryvre.' Mrs Jackson pointed out and then said to Ace, 'will you stop annoying Ryvre if she helps you?'

'Absolutely,' Ace purposely made me wait to hear the 'not' part, but he never said it.

'Who knows, maybe you two will get along.' Mrs Jackson smiled. 'And I expect good grades from you both.'

What a jerk! I screamed in my head. Mr "Oh, look at me. I'm the new American bad-boy. I can do whatever I want."

In maths, Ace kept staring at me and nodded at me when Miss picked me to answer a question and I got it right. In science we had a practical, and Ace kept "bumping" into me whenever he went to collect some equipment or a chemical or even if I walked by him. And every time he did bump into me he wore that stupid bright smile at me. I felt like calling "Ryvre's Smile" just because he kept flashing it at me.

In French we were going over the vocabulary that we "may have forgotten over the holidays" and Ace needed to borrow a pen from me. When I noticed he had one in his pencil case already. I stayed behind after class to ask Mr Colbert when the exams are as they may clash with psychology exams and I noticed that Ace packed up his stuff and was leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded and a smile stuck on his face.

'Do you ever not smile?' I asked Ace as I passed him.

'Do you ever do?' Ace ricocheted and fell into step next to me. 'So, where are you going?' He asked when he noticed I didn't head in the direction of the canteen.

'The library,' I answered tersely, 'is that a problem?'

'No. Not a problem. Do you always hang out at the library?' Ace asked as he followed me.

'Only when I want to be alone,' I mumbled, 'why are you following me?'

'Well,' he sighed sarcastically, 'my parents told me to always follow my dreams... Sigh.' He was pretty funny. He actually got me to smile like how he does. 'Hey, you're smiling!'

'Yeah and you can keep dreaming.' I said defensively. 'So bad-boy, tell me the real reason you're following me.'

'Bad-boy,' Ace repeated, 'I like it. Anyway I'm here because I wanted to discuss your notes with you.'

'Fine, you can come to my house later and I'll help you catch up on everything you need to know, just as long as you stop with the throwing paper thing and don't pretend like you don't know that all the girls in class are falling for you.' I turned to face him. He was so tall compared to me.

'Oh, you've noticed, huh?' Ace's cheeks went red. 'Look, my love-life is kind of complicated so... don't, you know, fall for me or anything.'

'Don't worry, I won't,' I laughed which stomped him and walked off saying, 'your love-life isn't the only one that's complicated.'

The library, the place full of fantasies, freaks, fairytales, stories... everything. I'd love to sit there for hours reading a good book but we only get forty-five minute lunch. Sometimes, when I can't focus - like today - I scan each row, reading the blurbs of some books. It's fun to see the variation of the stories. The heroes, the heroines, the funny characters, the serious characters, symbolism, the places, the relationships, the mysteries... So much life can be created through words and sometimes I'd wish that I could live in a story.

But that's all they are: stories. Reality is a harsh reminder of that. The real stories aren't as much fun to explore. Yes they can be quite intense or funny but a real story compared to one created by someone else's imagination? Nothing can beat that.