Ariella

Ariella [Chapter 3]

"Jace Foyers." His soft smile revealed two perfect rows of bleach white teeth. His hair was swept to the side carelessly, yet perfectly quaff at the same time. His eyes were a silvery grey, and his lips were almost full, but not quite. He had a piercing under his lower lip which surprisingly enough because I wasn't the kind of girl to like a guy with a piercing- made him look more attractive.

"Um," My eyes flickered back to the front of the room, and the teacher who seemed oblivious to this small exchange. "I'm Ariella, but you can call me Ari, everyone does."

He raised his eyebrows, "Ari-" he prompted for a last name so I gave him my best answer.

"Ella." he chuckled, and the sound was a low attractive music.

"Ari Ella. . . Pretty name." he grinned. I didn't mean too, and I tried to stop it, but could anyone resist a smile as contagious as that? His face glowed. Or maybe it was the lighting against his soft pale skin.

"Thanks," Even I could plainly hear the smile in my voice. I turned back to the front of the room, occasionally glancing at him from the corner of my eye.

I doodled on my notebook, adding wacky phrases my friends always said, and a few jokes I never really understood. On the back of my notebook I wrote my favorite passage from Romeo and Juliet.

"You have no homework assignments this week, have a nice first day." The teacher concluded his first lesson of the year and I did a touchdown dance inside. That meant that if I had no homework I would have more time for songs and music. The bell rang, seeming to make his farewell more definite, and all of the students stood up and gathered their things. The chatter began almost instantly as everyone bustled back out into the hall.

I stopped when I saw a figure by my locker, a little afraid it may be some prank Erica or Emily had decided to pull on me, but I exhaled a sigh of relief when I saw it was just Emma.

"Hey Em," I smiled and waved at her as I put in the combination to my locker.

"Okay Ari, spit it out." her voice as firm, the kind of voice she used when she wanted me to tell her something. I looked at her, my eyes wide and innocent, except this time I wasn't just acting.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I opened my locker and piled my books inside. I had todig my schedule out of my book bag and check it again to see which class I had next. My finger trailed down the list of my classes until I eventually found Spanish. I had decided one more year couldn't hurt, seeing as it was my senior year.

"Like hell you don't. Then explain why cute. . . Scratch that hot guys keep looking at you?" she was suspicious, and I knew she was looking for something juicy to talk to me about.

"Mm, maybe they were looking at something behind me." I flashed her my best innocent smile and grabbed my Spanish binder. She rolled her eyes and sighed. We began walking through the crowd to the Spanish room, which apparently was on the second floor. I wove my way through the crowd while Emma followed close behind.

"I doubt it. I think they were looking at you." Emma caked on fake jealousy in her voice. Like she would ever be jealous because of a cute boy when she was head over heels for her boyfriend Josh, whom she'd been with for exactly three years in a week and a half. I laughed and opened the door that lead to Spanish. We walked quickly down the almost empty hall until we reached Mrs. Ramirez's classroom.

"Call her Doctor Ramirez." Emma said to me. I looked at her, confusion the dominant expression on my face.

"Why?"

"I don't know, I think she got her doctor's degree or something but it went wrong. Anyways you'll get a detention for not calling her doctor."

It seemed kind of ridiculous to me. That may have been her dream, but now it was her past, and the present had brought her to be a teacher. She should enjoy her life for what it is, instead of what it could have been.

"Okay," I shrugged and opened the door. Inside the classroom was pure chaos. There were students sitting on the desks, and leaning on the chairs. A few jocks passed a football back and forth from across the room, and, of course, Erica and her posse had their half of the room. She was sitting on the desk where Caiden sat, and they were kissing, completely oblivious that they weren't the only ones in the room. Well, Erica was probably kissing him for the attention, probably not enjoying the intimacy. . . .

"Hun? You're staring!" Emma yelled in a whisper, shaking my shoulder.

I glanced at her, "No im not," I mumbled back before walking down the aisle to a seat in the back.

"Okay," Emma seemed to decide it was better not to pry, "you weren't."

I sat down and turned to her, "So what are you doing for your anniversary with Josh?" I asked, knowing this would take her mind off of my weird behavior and on to more important things. More important to her anyways. . .

"Okay, so we are going to Brady's family restaurant on the night of, and the day before we're all going to hang out at the bowling alley!" she exclaimed proudly. The classroom lights made her jet black hair take on a blue tint, and her light blue eyes were wide with excitement.

"We all?" I asked and she nodded.

"You, me, and Josh." she stated simply, and her smiling face fell, "You can come right?" her expression was already worried.

I nodded, "I think so. . . "

"Great!" she was bubbly again, but then something over my shoulder caught her attention, and she frowned.

"Caiden is staring at you." she said in a hushed voice.

"What?" I asked and began turning around but she grabbed my arm firmly and squeezed.

"Don't look!" she yelled in a whisper. Her hand dropped from my arm and I turned around anyways.

My eyes locked with a set of chocolate brown ones. They were full of unspoken emotion and. . . . .really deep, like I could see on and on. . . .

I was completely oblivious to the fact that Emma was snapping her fingers in front of my face. And then I saw that he was still kissing Erica, and his eyes watched me cautiously. Wasn't it rude to stare? I turned away in disgust.

"What was that?" Emma asked me excitedly. "You're guys' first moment?" she was smiling huge and her eyes were wide with excitement. I knew she was kidding, but it made me defensive. I would never, everdate a guy like him. I mean sure he had the looks but from seeing him and Erica around all the time, they were always doing the same thing. Making out. And it was disgusting. If Iever got a boyfriend, I would make sure he liked me for who I was, not because I had a talented tongue. Emphasis on the If.

"Shh," I whispered, not wanting to be rude by telling her to shut up, "don't you see that he's with Erica?" I asked rhetorically. "Besides, I have a strict 'no boyfriends' policy, you know that." Her grin vanished as she looked over the happy couple again, seeming to just realize they were tangled around each other like thorns on a rose bush. She didn't say anything back to me, instead turning to the front of the room. We watched Miss- I mean Doctor Dean entered the room and began scribbling something onto the white board.

"My name is doctor-" she put a BIG emphasis on the 'doctor' part of her name-"Ramirez." She gestured to the board where her name was written in neat cursive.

The whole class was silent as she walked to the other side of the board. Her heels clicked loudly against the cold tile floors and the lights overhead made her caramel skin a lighter, less exotic shade. Her voice was cold and business-like as she spoke, but my thoughts were scattered as I looked around the room and found a pair of soft brown eyes staring back into mine. I fell into their depths, but I was confused at the emotion I saw in them. It wasn't pity. . . Hatred. . . Depression or anything else I could place.

It was almost as if . . . As if something was bothering him.