For a moment, everyone was perfectly silent, staring at me, shocked. Then someone broke the silence, and whispers spread like ripples the crowd. I glared at Nathan, daring him to rebuke.
Nate blinked at me, rubbing his jaw. Then, unbelievably, a smile started to spread over his face.
“Feisty. I like that.”
I gaped, shocked. Was he making fun of me? I pulled my fist back, about to hit him again.
“Run!” Keri hissed at him, pushing him slightly. “Run, before she gets all Godzilla on your ass!”
Before anything else could happen, Mr. Hale stormed out, from behind the curtain he was apparently hiding behind, his comb-over crazy, and his glasses askew. He weaved through the tables, and he grabbed my arm before I could punch.
“Adrianna!” he screamed. “What have I told you? Why don’t you ever listen? Detention room, now! And every day, for the rest of the week.”
“But –” I protested, pointing at the smirking guy next to me.
“No, Adrianna, that was the last straw! You’ve put too may people into hospital! Our star quarterback, in a coma! The captain of the chess team, unable to father kids –”
“It’s not as if he would’ve fathered many, anyway,” someone muttered, in the crowd. Everyone laughed.
Mr. Hale shot a glare at the person, and turned back to me. “Adrianna,” he said. I recognized this tone, after many, many years of fighting the system, as his “dangerous” tone. “You have ruined this event. Please leave.”
I opened my mouth, about to say that I’d never wanted to come to this stupid event anyway, because it was lame and stupid, when Nate opened his mouth.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nate said, flashing a charming smile at the forty-year old teacher, who blinked, instantly dazzled – just like all the girls. I clenched my fist. There was something about this guy that made me want to beat his face in. But when he turned his dazzling smile to me, even I couldn’t help but gape a little. He winked. “We were just playing, weren’t we?”
***
Keri shook her head at me, sighing like a disappointed mother.
“All you had to do, was let him take the fall for you,” she said, staring at me. “Mr. Hale was going to back down, you knew he was. He was dazzled by Nate’s charm. But you had to freak out when Nate winked at you. You had to hit Nate again. And now you have a month’s detention.”
“He was patronizing me!” I protested.
“And now he has a black eye.”
“Well, that’s what you get when you patronize me!”
“He was flirting. He liked you.”
“Yeah, right.”
I finished my lines, and read through them, making sure that all the words were legible. There was a very special policy in our school – all the words had to be perfectly readable, or we had to do it again. Our teachers were a bunch of sadistic, power-hungry miserable gits, who enjoyed torturing innocent students barely into their delicate school years.
We left the detention room (another policy in our school. We could talk or mess about or whatever in detention, because if we didn’t finish the lines, we didn’t go home. This meant they didn’t bother to stick a teacher in the detention room, but had a guard at the gate instead who would only let you leave if you had a special pass), and I gave my sheet moodily to Mrs. Sandy, who glared at me, before handing me and Keri the special pass.
“I hope you’ll bring the five-hundred dollars into school tomorrow,” she said, frostily.
I blinked, my mind completely blank. “What?”
“You paid five-hundred dollars for your Bachelor. You are going to pay, right? Because I can easily call your parents, and arrange something with them…”
“No!” I yelled. My Dad would skin and gut me. “I’ll bring in the money!”
She smiled at me a little, seeing straight through my heat-of-the-moment lie. Mrs. Sandy wasn’t really a mean teacher, she just hated violence. “Tell you what… I’ll give you two weeks, okay? Bring in the five hundred dollars, and there’s no need to contact the parents.”
I nodded, and she gave me another smile.
“Remember to turn up to detention tomorrow!” she called, over her shoulder.
Keri made a rude sign at her disappearing back.
“How much money have you got saved up?” she asked, getting straight to the point.
“I don’t know…seventy-two cents, maybe?”
“I had fifty dollars in my wallet now,” she said, pulling out her purse. “I was saving up for a bachelor, but since I didn’t buy one… I have another fifty at home. I’ll bring it in, tomorrow.”
As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m not the crying type. But I felt myself well up.
“I don’t know what to say…”
“You could lend me that bachelor of yours,” she said, with a smirk, fanning herself with the fifty dollar note.
I dislocated her arm.
***
I stuck the stamp onto the letter, and gave it to the post office lady.
“I know there isn’t an address on it,” I said, before she could tell me I was mental. “But can you just put it onto the “out” pile, anyway? Please?”
She gave me a look, but did as I said.
“Thanks.”
I left the grubby little post office, thinking hard. How the hell was I meant to get the stupid money? I sighed. Four-hundred bucks – and another hundred I had to pay back to Keri. I literally only had seventy-two cents – and I’d just spent some of that buying a stamp for a letter that won’t ever get sent. I really wish I knew more about economics.
It was six-twenty and getting dark, so I should get home before Mom kills me. After the hot dog incident, I was officially grounded. Mom’s gotten a lot tougher ever since my brothers left for Uni – or it could be a coincidence, and she was just getting senile –
Suddenly, I banged my head into someone’s chest, and stumbled back.
“What the –”
My eyes narrowed, as I recognized the face. It was so recognizable, even in the dark. It was Nate, again.
“Sorry,” he said, smiling his charming smile. Oh, right. Like that’ll trick me. “I was wondering…do you know where the –”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” I took a step towards him. He took a step back, a frown crinkling his shadowed face.
“What?”
“You grope me! Then you get me into a month’s detention! And now you pretend we’re friends! Do you have nothing to say?”
“I’m sorry!” he said, looking flustered. “That wasn’t me.” I grabbed the front of his shirt, smiling.
“Do you have short term memory, or something? I can remind you, if you like.” I clenched my hand into a fist. He backed away, and suddenly his face was thrown into relief by a streetlight. I faltered.
He had emerald green eyes.
I let go of his shirt, stumbling back.
“Noah! What’s taking so long?”
I spun around, and saw a second Nathan.
I looked back to the first Nathan, the Nathan I’d just threatened, the Nathan with green eyes. Then to the second Nathan, the one that’d just appeared, the one with brown eyes.
My head spun.
What the hell?
***
Noah laughed, and I stared at him stupidly. We were sitting in the little café at the end of the street, all three of us sitting in front of cokes.
“That sounds exactly like my brother,” he said, flashing me a grin.
My heart thudded hard. It was him. It was really him. The boy from my dream… I gaped as he smiled that beautiful smile at me, his green eyes shining.
“Uh…” I said, stupidly. “Yeah.”
Nate glare at me, annoyed. “Can we go now?”
“But we’re just catching up! Come on, this is Ade! From kindergarten?”
“You remember?” I asked, idiotically.
“Of course I remember. How could I forget you?”
I blushed, and Nate looked even more annoyed. “I remember you as well…” he mumbled. I ignored him.
“Could I just ask one thing…” Noah asked, leaning forwards.
“Anything,” I breathed, leaning forwards as well.
“Why did you buy my brother? I mean, do you have five hundred dollars?”
“No, well, I…thought he was you, to be honest,” I confessed, blushing harder. “I just thought, come on, this is Noah from Kindergarten. I couldn’t let you get away… so I blew five hundred bucks.”
“But I’m actually in University. Don’t you remember? I’m two years older than you. I just went into to Kindergarten late.”
Oh. So he didn’t go to my school. I tried to hide my disappointment
“I only realized he wasn’t you,” I continued, “when I saw his brown eyes.”
Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. I froze, wondering what I’d said wrong. Noah didn’t look at Nate as he said, in a perfectly calm voice, “Nate’s eyes were green as well.”
“What?” I said, frowning, confused by the past tense. “Does he wear contacts, or something –?”
“Never mind. That’s not important,” Noah said, with a forced smile. Nate’s brown eyes wouldn’t meet mine. What was going on? “But I actually have a suggestion. About the whole money thing. You say you own my brother, right? He can do whatever you want? Well, why don’t you get him to do some part-time work with you, or something? Then you could make money, doubly as fast.”
“That’s actually a great idea. Thanks, Noah!”
To be honest, he could’ve suggested we take our clothes off and dance for money, and I would’ve said it was a great idea. I was that far gone. I wonder if he still remembers about proposing… but I can’t bring it up. That’ll be awkward.
“I’m not doing it!” Nate said, finally speaking up. “This is not the type of thing they said I would have to do.”
I turned my gaze to him, glaring. “But if you did those things to me, I would call the police and sue you. Well, I’d beat the crap out of you first.”
***
Author's Note: Chapter two!! What do you think so far? Is it good? :P
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