He watched her rotate the pencil in her fingers as she searched her phone in the opened textbook. The class was a big room with seats sitting in singular six columns, all facing ahead towards the white board and Mrs. Berry's brown square table and herself. She was a spender tall lady in a set of blue jeans and a dress shirt on top with grayish golden hair and dark eyes. Unlike her name, she wasn't as sweet. The rest of the classroom walls around were covered in cork board, stuck with body and plants anatomy posters, along with some forms about school activities.
He sat in a last middle row before the one was plastered against the right wall of the room and she sat in the last seat in the back. He'd found a seat near her for the first time, it being a couple seats ahead in his column.
Mrs. Berry was still explaining the construction of a lung when, he turned his head again and found her squinting at her screen as if a worry or a confusion was setting in. He was interested in the way her lids were pale and it showed she was wearing a bit of make up but when his eyes traveled down her body, he noticed that the right hand that she was checking her phone with had a tattoo as well. On the back of her hand was a tattooed a black rose. It was shaded black from the outside of the petals but left a vaguely clean from the inside. It was a beautiful, especially when with a black band around her middle finger.
"Ms. Monroe! Care to share with the class the important involvement that my lecture is disturbing for you?"
She sighed at the screen and blinked before looking up with a flat look. Her eyes slowly trained to him and he blinked away, though still mesmerized by the sharp brown and a spark of gold in them.
"Nope." Her voice echoed and he found a few boys grinning at each other, a few girls giggle and some people rolling their eyes. Especially the smartest students in the class, judging her harshly. He only bit back his smirk.
"Detention." Mrs. Berry called out.
She didn't say anything.
Picking up her bag, she headed for the door and he smelled the grapes as she passed him.
"See you then." She spoke, casually leaving the class. Murmurs spread around the class but Mason could only watch with a hand under his chin. Difficult girl, definitely fucked up but interesting.
***
After the class ended, he headed out, only to have his arm squeezed almost yanked off of his body. He was slammed into a locker and a pair of lips crashed against his. He watched wide eyed as Bailey ate his lips off and then pushed her back a bit.
"What're you doing?" He asked.
"I missed you." She beamed.
"Bailey, I told you, we don't have a relationship." He shook his head, walking towards the stairs that led to the corridor below.
"Come on, Mason. We were amazing together."
She meant the bed.
"Yeah, sure, you were but I don't want anything more Bailey and I told you that before anything happened. You had a mutual feeling." He pointed out, shaking his head. He couldn't see her because her boots were clicking on the stairs behind him but he could feel the intense gaze on him. A shoulder bumped brushed past him but he heard a grunt from Bailey and watched her stare at Raina, who had bent just a little, holding her phone in a catch.
Raina held the phone up, wordlessly. Bailey looked at her, a little taken back and then looked at Mason. He nodded for her to calm down and she took it.
"Thank you." Bailey bit her lip and Raina nodded before jogging up the steps, skipping one at a time. Bailey's cheeks tinted as she pushed a strand back, facing Mason. He cocked a brow.
"She's hot."
"Swing both ways?" He asked out of curiosity.
"I don't know." She giggled. He shook his head.
"What about her?" He cocked his head in Raina's direction.
"Strictly into guys." She clicked her tongue with a sigh.
"Hmm." He nodded with a pout, shrugged and started making way down the stairs. Bailey was still following him.
"Sorry for kissing you." She apologized as they reached the main lockers corridor.
"Dont sweat it. Something good came of it. You now know you have more options than before."
She snickered with a bitten lip. Tapping his shoulder in a fake slap, she waved at him and left. Mason sighed a breath of relief. He probably wouldn't have known how to fix the situation without it getting ugly.
"Damn." Ben mouthed, passing Bailey and walking up to him, "Going for a second round with her?"
"Thats vulgar, Ben." He shook his head and headed for his locker.
"What? I'm just putting it clearly."
"No. She was just saying hello."
"And did you say Hola?" Ben grinned slyly and Mason slapped a punch in his stomach, making him groan, "So..." His strained voice came as he composed himself, "How was class with the baddie?"
"She got detention." He nodded, "As expected."
"Thought she was too cool to listen to her lecture?"
"I think she was listening. But you know Mrs. Berry. She gets frustrated pretty fast, not that I'm saying that Raina didn't do anything to piss her off." He nodded.
"I don't like Berry, so if she was mean. Hallelujah." He nodded.
"I just can't believe I've never run into her." He shook his head, fixing his bag on his shoulder.
"Girl's always in the back. Quiet. Barely ever picked upon. On top of that she isn't in school during her spares or lunch. So no one meets her up ever."
"Well, truth be told, I think she's my neighbor."
"She's rich?" His eyes practically bulged out.
"Yeah. Her house is on my block. Huge." He snickered, "I mean, I think so. My house keeper said that there was a family of Monroe's live there and I recognize that red beanie."
"Hmm. Fuck. Then what's with that outfit and style."
"What, just because she might be rich she's gotta wear Louis Vuitton and Kate Spade?" He snickered.
"Easy, diva. I'm just sayin'. She doesn't even look average rich. Always thought she lived in one of those tiny apartments in downtown."
"Well, either it's that or the chic drives a beautiful Jaguar."
"Yum." He mumbled.
"Too bad she's into nobody here."
Ben frowned and Mason laughed at his disappointment.
***
He yawned, stretching his arms out and throwing his book on the side table in the upper lounge. The game console sat all set up but the need to play wasnt evident. His eyes felt heavy but he still didn't want to take a nap. He'd done his homework and now debated on whether to workout in the gym down the hall or watch something on the LED. He yawned again, standing and choosing to go for a coffee in the kitchen when the house bell rang. Jogging down the steps, he waited for Annika to come but when she didn't, he chose to greet the arrival himself. For a spell, he checked his amazon, expecting his CD stand to arrive but it showed the package would arrive later in the day.
Shrugging it off, he peeped through the door and saw it to be a brunette girl, with a little brunette boy. Biting his lip, he opened the door. He analyzed the two. The girl was definitely a teenager with soft features and shoulder length wavy and set hair. She was wearing a red coat with black pants, complimenting his golden glinting eyes at him. He stared at the boy with straight but slightly long silk hair who was wearing a black hoodie with a puffy blue jacket on top and jeans under. He was smiling with his small teeth up at him, two missing in the back sides, vaguely seen if he didn't smile so big. His eyes matched the girls and he smiled at the two. The girl bit her lip and her cheeks turned red as he turned to her. She was holding a Tupperware box with something brown inside it.
"Hello." He smirked, sucking a sharp breath in.
"Hi." The girl beamed.
"Hello!" The boy waved with his free hand, the other clutched in the girl's hand.
"Hey, mate." Mason bent, "I'm Mason."
"Gabriel." He smiled.
"Nice." Mason nodded, shaking his hand that was free from the girl's. It was covered in a black glove. He stood to face the girl again.
"I'm Chloe Monroe." She raised a hand with a small smirk and Mason shook her hand.
"Mason Adler." He nodded.
"Please to meet you. Here." she forwarded the box, "My mum has a habit of welcoming the neighbours." She pursed her pink tight lips, "She made a stack of chocolate brownies for you and your family."
Mason held back his grin.
"Damn, nice. Thanks." He grinned.
"The chocolate frosting is yummy!" Gabriel glossed over the box in his fingers.
"You can have one, if you want." Mason offered.
"Oh, that's alright. He's got a buttload at home." Chloe beamed.
"Well, thanks Chloe. Be sure to thank your mum for me." He smirked.
"I will. Erm... you live here alone? I mean of course with your parents but..."
"Aha, no. My brother's with us, as well. What about you guys?" He felt like he knew the answer but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
"Oh, my mum and us three. I mean, we have an older sister. Her name's Raina." She smiled.
"Oh, that's nice." He gulped and nodded, figuring she won't be here with them because of the detention she was probably serving after school. This was the second detention in this week and he wondered how she managed anything.
"Er, well It was nice to meet you Mason. You're welcome to our place, anytime you like." Chloe fixed her black snow hat and he nodded with a smirk.
"Both of you as well. Your mom and sister too." He offered.
"Rainee! Rainee!" Gabriel split himself from Chloe and ran towards the Jaguar that parked by the edge of the curb near her house. Raina pulled herself out and stared in their direction. Gabriel was running to her but slipped face down just as he jumped off of his house's curb.
"Shit!" Mason mumbled, running past Chloe who followed. Raina was running as well and she slid down on a knee beside Gabriel, same time as him.
"Damn it, Gabe, how many times do I have to tell you to not run on the snow!" Raina hissed and that was the first time he was hearing her voice. It was soft but in that moment, a low growl came out. When she picked him and sat him on her knees, there was a redness on his chin with a tiny scrape from the cold gravel road under them.
"Gabriel?" Mason asked and that was the first time Raina looked up from Gabriel to him. Her eyes only shone under the setting sun and his body shivered at that, more harshly than the cold prickling at his skin. Chloe sat by Raina's right shoulder. Gabriel's eyes were pooled as he looked up at Raina with trembling lips, "Gabriel?" He called again in a whisper and Gabriel turned to him, "Can you move your jaw? Open your mouth." He asked, opening his mouth the way he wanted the kid to do so. Gabriel mirrored his actions.
"Does it hurt?" Raina asked.
He nodded.
"Where?" Mason asked.
He patted his chin with a finger and hissed.
"What about your ears, or... here?" She pressed gently around his jaw. He shook his head.
"Good." She nodded. Mason looked around his body and his jeans weren't ripped.
"Are you in pain anywhere else, bud?" Mason asked.
Gabriel sniffed through his red nose, where water pooled in his nostrils as well. He shook his head and Raina wiped a tear away.
"Good man." Mason raised a fist, suddenly unsure whether he'd fist bump. He did and Mason beamed. He looked up at the girls and Chloe was smirking at him while Raina analyzed his face. She nodded at him wordlessly and stood with Gabriel in her arms. He wrapped arms round her shoulders and legs around her waist.
"Thank you, Mason." Chloe chirped. Raina looked back at her once over her shoulder.
"Can I get my ice cream?" Gabriel pouted up at Raina.
"Little devil you are." Raina murmured. She turned on her heel to walk away and Mason shook his head, having expecting a hello or anything really. She paused and looked back at him.
"Thanks, mate." She nodded and walked away with Gabriel waving at him over her shoulder. Mason couldn't help the grin, scratching the nape of his neck as he moved towards his own.