Playing with Fire #1 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑 - 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫

Somehow, I managed to get to the end of the day without falling asleep or getting a Strike on my Report Card, although I doubted Theo made it through without either. It'd be an understatement to say that Challis High was strict with its pupils; it was brutal. They'd been cracking down on us more and more over the years, and now we were at breaking point. Well-behaved and yet out of control.

I patiently waited outside of Theo's Photography class at the end of the school day. I saw the class get up and leave. Al left first, raking her hands through her unruly, often knotted, brown hair, before twisting it up into a bun on top of her head. She cast a frown at me.

"Please don't tell me you're waiting for that new guy." She tilted her eyebrows up at me, setting her arms akimbo — her entire body language radiating disapproval. "He's an idiot, by the way."

"His name is Theo," I told her pointedly. "I'm gathering intel, okay?"

"Yeah, right," Al scoffed, "And I'm straight."

"C'mon, Al. He's not that bad."

A second before Theo emerged from the classroom door, Al came close, grabbed me and hissed into my ear — "Don't get too close to him. There's something not right about him." She looked me directly in the eyes, "Trust me."

I trusted Al implicitly, and I was probably doing the wrong thing anyway. So, I began to leave as well, attempting to take both her and my inner conscience's advice.

Theo called out to me and caught up easily with a few long strides, "Hey, Em, hold on a sec!"

"What the actual hell?" I span around, my long blonde hair grazing past his too goddamn attractive face. "My name is Ember. E-M-B-E-R."

"Okay, sorry." He shrugged an unapologetic shoulder; his tone was unnervingly nonchalant — doesn't he care about anything? "Where're you going?"

"Home. I... I don't feel too good." It wasn't a complete untruth; the first day back at school had seriously wiped me out. I felt like I needed to sleep for a full 24 hours before I could face people again.

"I need help studying," he persisted as we walked out.

"Get someone else to help you." I groaned, not in the mood at all to put up with him. I flung an arm around at the other kids pouring out of the gate, the sea of heads surrounding us, "I'm sure you could find someone else."

"Please, Em...ber," he added cautiously.

Knowing I probably wouldn't hear the end of this for a long while, I gave up way too soon. "Fine. Whatever." My inner voices scolded me for being so weak, but I quietened them before I started talking back to them.

"So, have you texted your mom?"

"Yeah, she's said she's fine with it." I glanced at him, praying he wouldn't ask me any questions about my family.

"Cool," he smiled, somehow instantly lighting up the dismal afternoon. "You can ride home with me. My dad's picking me up in the main carpark... wherever that is."

"You'll get used to the layout of Challis in no time." I waved my hand dismissively, before flinging his words back at him in a jokey way, "But I'd love to ride home with you."

He merely smirked and carried on walking, barely even casting a glance at me. I'd barely even grabbed his attention the way I found myself wanting to.

Theo's dad's car was a grey 'people mover', as my dad called them. Theo looked nothing like his father. I wondered whether there would be any resemblance between him and his mother.