Gravitating : Book 1 (The Defying Series)

Chapter One

"Forces always come in pairs - equal and opposite force pairs. In every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. These two forces are called action and reaction, they are the subject of Newton's third law of motion. Formally stated, Newton's third law is-"

Mia's attention broke away from her teacher as her best friend yawned beside her. She was sure that if she was two minutes late from smacking his head, he'd have fallen asleep. "Nick!" She snapped.

"If these force pairs are not equal in nature, the result is destruction. Hence it is-"

"My ears are going to bleed" Nick mumbled, glaring at Mia for the smack she had just landed on his head, even though it didn't even tickle him and he could've dodged it easily. He didn't.

Mia pushed her reading glasses up on her nose and opened her mouth to bite out a smartass reply when-

"Mr Wilson and Ms Starr, can you please continue your conversation some other time?"

"Sorry Sir" Mia muttered before elbowing Nick to do the same.

Nick managed to fake interest for the rest of the class while taking glances at Mia scribbling notes once in a while. The notes he was going to use later. He had never managed to get bad grades in his life, part of the credit went to Mia.

Nick his belongings before the bell rang, and waited for Mia to collected hers after. Once they were out of the class they headed towards the parking lot to Nick's car. He had recently got his hands on his driving license and Mia had been hitching rides from him ever since.

She had got her license with him but she was way too lazy to drive herself to school, and moreover she would always be late if she did that. Ever since the loss of her parents Nick had been her human alarm clock.

Nick's house was a ten minute drive from the school, that's with the speed he drove but at a normal speed it usually took around twenty minutes. Their school was in the proper town, while Nick's house was in the outskirts. Mia had been used to Nick's speeding, she had kept her head against the window to have a proper view of the grey sky above.

Silver Lake always had a pleasant weather, it was more on the cooler side since it was a hilly area but it was not this gloomy unless the rainy season was near.

As if on cue the song that had been playing on the radio ended and the weatherman's voice filled the car. "We are to expect scattered thunderstorms around seven in the evening with a low wind velocity of 2 kilometres per hour, the meteorologists have predicted heavy fog to descend over at night making the conditions absolutely impossible to drive. So we advise you to return home as soon as possible-"

Mia turned the radio off. Even though she flashed Nick a smile before getting out of the car and walking off to his mother standing at the door to welcome them home, Nick knew that the weather report had reminded her of the day her parents died.

His parents had requested Mia to let them adopt her but she has refused. Nick didn't understood why, she had practically grown up at the Wilson household since her parents were always away on some reason or the other. Their friendship dated back to their grandparents and Nick felt that his father loved Mia more than he loved him. Though he never felt jealous because he knew no one could love Mia as much as he did.

"I guess you already know that you're staying today Starr"

Sebastian Wilson looked up from his stack of papers with a no nonsense glare at Mia. She nodded her head and gave him a hug before following Nick to his room.

"Isn't your cousin coming tomorrow?" She asked when she saw Nick's room cleaned up properly.

"No, more three weeks before he comes. There are still somethings they need to wrap up before they can come here"

Nick turned towards her to asses her expression. Her knotted eyebrows and the tug of her lips downwards told him that she wasn't satisfied with his answers yet. "How come I never heard that you had a cousin in Scotland?"

Nick stiffened up, his grip tightening on the iron handle of his cupboard. "We weren't in contact with them for a long time. Some differences, they're sorted now." He lied, before excusing himself and disappearing in to the washroom.

Mia's phone rang with messages from her only female best friend Leah. She was sick with flu and she wanted to know how the day at school went. Instead of typing it all out Mia decided to call her, she had this habit of walking throughout the room while talking on the phone, unless she was really tired.

While telling Leah about their physics class today, she walked towards the full length mirror on Nick's cupboard. Lost in the conversation she took a step closer to the mirror before tripping on the carpet and holding on to the iron handle of the cupboard to prevent her from falling. The odd shape of the handle failed to startle her as she was already too busy explaining what had just happened to Nick, who was magically beside her now.

"You're such a klutz" Nick grumbled before smoothening the carpet with his feet so that his best friend didn't trip on the loose ends again.

"You both said the same thing at the same time again" Mia laughed, handing over the phone to Nick so that Leah could talk to her boyfriend. "Here she wants to talk" She added.

Mia watched Nick's face light up with the probably the first word from Leah. Both of her best friends were completely whipped for each other, and she couldn't be more happy for that. At least people don't think Nick to be her boyfriend now, she shuddered by even remembering those days of starting high school.

But not all experiences of starting high school were bad, one of the good experiences was of meeting Lucas. He was Nick's guy best friend and a part of their small group that stayed together through thick and thin. Mia was glad that Lucas had a girlfriend, or he'd have been linked to Mia after Nick got committed to Leah.

She did understood the curiosity of her classmates regarding her love life, since she had never went past the point of dating to a relationship. The reason being Nick, he thought that no guy could even date her before she was married. Even though with joint efforts from Leah and her sister Catherine, she had managed to go on some dates but Nick had successfully scared off everyone.

She loved the protectiveness Nick had over her, even Leah found it cute but sometimes it was overbearing. She wasn't fragile after all, she went to gym daily with Nick at night, she had learnt boxing from Nick's father, Sebastian, even though it was just for a year. She knew how to defend herself, partly because she was raised with Nick like she was a boy. She'd have probably dressed like one too if Nick's mother hadn't interrupted.

She left Nick's room to let him speak with Leah, and entered the room beside Nick's. It was her permanent guest room even though she had her own little home in town.

Her father ran a construction company, and her mother was a real estate agent. Their last project had been a house complex. Almost fifty identical houses were built strategically in a huge circular plot. They had planned to rent it all out and take a break from their business to spend their time on Mia but that's all it remained, an unfinished plan.

They had completed the construction, sold off their companies and rented off the houses, but just after the day of their retirement party the Silver Lake fog took their lives.

Mia couldn't find the courage in her to continue living in the mansion her grandfather had built. She shifted to one of the houses in the house complex. She'd have gone home today but the news about the fog settling on the roads scared her enough to stay back here. It was not that she minded staying here, she had spent more time here than with her parents but her home back there made her feel closer to her parents, and being close to her parents was probably the only unfulfilled wish she had.