Tyler Simmons, you’re a dead man.
With a deep frown etched on my face, I pranced along the sidewalk Monday morning. I had sent a message to Tyler last night that I still needed a ride from him until Wednesday. He replied that he could pick me up, but he was nowhere to be found. After twenty minutes of waiting, I finally decided to just take the fifteen minute walk to school. I’d probably be a little late, but that was better than not going at all.
As I speed walked to school, oblivious to the buzz around me, I promised to make Tyler suffer some.
Finally school was on sight. I ran toward the front steps and almost banged my right shoulder against the school’s front door when I reached it. Muttering curses under my breath, I continued to sprint until I reached my locker. Judging from the lack of people littering the hallways, the bell had probably already rung. Flinging my locker open, I quickly grabbed my notes and book and slammed the locker shut. I then made my way to chemistry.
When I finally reached the classroom door, I took a deep breath in preparation for Mr. Solis’s young-lady-you’re-late tirade. I also ran a hand over my ponytail in a pathetic last minute effort to smooth down my hair. Placing my palm against the door I pushed through, keeping a nonchalant face and trying not to cringe at the noticeably loud creaking of the hinges. This school seriously needed to get that fixed. The moment I walked into the room, though, my brows furrowed in confusion.
Where the heck was everybody?
Hannah, who had her head buried in her chemistry book, looked up at the sound of the door swinging open. She snorted at my confused expression and nodded her head toward the board.
No class today. Study for finals!
My eyes widened and I felt my mouth drop a little. I speed walked twenty freaking minutes, sweated like a pig, and was slightly out of breath, all for what? No freaking first-period chemistry class.
Slumping down on the chair nearest to me, I let out a groan. This was not really a good way to start the day. Well, yeah it was a bit of a bonus that we didn’t have chemistry, but still. My head felt heavy, and I knew I was going to have a headache in a few minutes. I dropped my head on the desk, letting it rest there. Then I lifted my head up and scanned the scene behind me. Apart from Hannah, only Jimmy Summers was there, sitting at the back corner of the room, buried in a book. As a surge of tiredness overtook me, I closed my eyes only to have had them snap open again when I heard a soft snore to my left. I turned in my seat to the sound, and the din of a chair scraping against the floor resounded inside the nearly empty classroom.
Colby was slumped down on his seat, sleeping. He bolted upright from his seat as my chair made a chaffing noise. Sleep was still clear in him with half closed eyes as he grunted about the noise waking him up. He looked so disoriented I felt laughter bubbling up inside me. I managed to keep it down as his eyes began to somewhat gain focus. On me, I should add.
When he was conscious enough to recognize me, he lifted his hand lazily and a lopsided smirk appeared on his face as he chirped, “Mornin.” Then he slumped back down on his seat and folded his arms on his desk, leaning his head against them. All that time, I was watching him, amused.
“Mornin,” I said back, a smile now slipping onto my face. Colby lifted his hand again in response and snuggled closer to his arms. An audible sigh escaped from him, a sign that he was feeling tired. Well, that was what I thought. He had been to class early everyday, sleeping in before the lessons started. A snore was once again emitted from Colby. He could go back to sleep in five seconds flat, what a talent. I watched the rise and fall of his shoulders as he snored steadily. Again my mind wandered into wondering why Colby always came to chemistry early and tired. Maybe he worked at nights and couldn’t get enough sleep? That didn’t explain him being to class early though.
My thoughts were interrupted when I felt my phone vibrate, making me reach inside my bag to grab it. Oh well see here, I got a text message from Tyler. Lucky him that chemistry class got cancelled, if not I’d still be scheming ways to make him endure my wrath. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic. I opened the message, and about fifty sorry’s were written. Shaking my head, I chuckled a little as I replied back that it was okay, and he was lucky that there I had no class for first period. I still did play the guilt trip card on him though, telling him that I had to walk grumpily to school and sprint to the front entrance like I was on fire to make it to school on time. One of the things I absolutely couldn’t stand was tardiness, and Tyler knew that. I could just imagine him wincing when he gets to that part of my message. Cue evil laugh here.
Suddenly, I felt a breath on my neck and I turned around in my seat, only to see Jimmy. I had no idea why he would be sneaking up on me and breathing down on my neck like that, but it was downright creepy. He smiled once I faced him, his braces glistening and I had to fight the urge to shield my eyes. I smiled back as politely as I could and asked, “Yes, Jimmy?”
His smile widened at the mention of his name. “I need your help with chemistry, Kayla. Seeing as you’re one of the smartest kids here in class, I was wondering…”
The moment Jimmy got to the I-need-your-help-with-chemistry part, my mind wandered off again. For one, Jimmy Summers did not need any form of help academically. Two, Hannah was seated a couple of rows behind where Jimmy and I were located, and I could see her making faces behind Jimmy’s back. I had to concentrate on not bursting out laughing as Hannah contorted her face and stuck her tongue out at the boy talking to me. Hannah and Jimmy’s rivalry had not been a secret, after all. In all the classes they had gotten together (which was almost all, I think), they had this competition between them on who would come out on top of the other. It didn’t matter whether another person got the highest grade, it was all about who would get the higher grade between the two. It was kind of entertaining, I must say.
When Hannah pulled out a particularly hilarious face, I couldn’t hold it in anymore and I let out a loud chuckle. Quickly I placed a hand over my mouth, muffling the sound of my laughter as my shoulders shook. Jimmy looked genuinely surprised at my sudden reaction but he narrowed his eyes almost instantly as realization dawned on him. He turned slowly and faced a now seemingly innocent Hannah, reading her chemistry book with such fierce concentration that if I hadn’t seen her made faces at Jimmy, I wouldn’t have believed she was doing it a moment ago.
Jimmy then proceeded to stomp back to his seat, clearly forgetting how he needed my help, and sulked. I shook again with silent laughter as I caught Hannah’s knowing smile and turned to face the front of the room. Taking a deep breath, I contemplated on what I could do. I could just sit here and see if Hannah and Jimmy would engage on some sort of a fight, or I could go out the courtyard and visit my favorite tree. Option number two was obviously more appealing. As I stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder, I glanced at Colby. He was still out, one arm now dangling to the side of the chair. I tilted my head while observing him. He was definitely going to feel a crick in the neck once he wakes up.
I gave a small wave to Hannah and turned to the door. I was about to pull it open when Colby’s voice stopped me.
“Going somewhere?”
Closing the partially opened door again, I faced Colby and leaned against the door. His head was now lifted from his arms, he was still slumped down though. I simply nodded, hugging my bag close to my body.
Colby then straightened and stretched, raising his arms above his head when suddenly he yelped, “Ow!” With that, he rubbed vigorously at his neck. Obviously he had pulled a muscle. For the second time that day, I couldn’t help the laugh, and I let it escape. He glared at me as he rubbed his neck, and for some reason that made me laugh more. Even Hannah giggled. Jimmy, on the other hand, was still sulking. The boy has got some serious issues.
“Laugh at an injured man, why don’t you,” he mumbled, still rubbing his neck. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out. It was his fault sleeping hunched like that anyway.
I shrugged. “It’s your own fault, sleeping like that. It was obvious you’re going to wake up to a stiff neck.”
He narrowed his eyes at that, but I didn’t miss the slightly upward twitching of his lips as he retorted, “It wasn’t like I was conscious of my movements when I’m sleeping.”
I smiled sweetly at him. “Still, there’s no one to blame but you. You can’t blame the chair now, can you?”
The twitching intensified, and now there was a smirk on his lips. He shook his head and winced at the sudden jerk of his neck, earning a giggle from both Hannah and me yet again. Scratching his head, he finally sighed and admitted that it was his fault. He then added that the stiff neck was stupid. I was tempted to retort that so was he, much more even, but I held back my tongue. I just smirked back, quite smugly. For what seemed like an eternity, Colby and I looked at each other, smirks on our faces. A clearing of the throat jolted me back to reality, and saw Hannah raising her eyebrows. Colby had to turn his torso around fully to look at the source of the sound behind him and it was quite an amusing sight, he couldn’t really move his neck. As I clasped a hand over my mouth, forcing my giggle at the back of my throat, I remembered my tree. Colby was glaring at Hannah and I took that chance to excuse myself, leaving a giggling Hannah, a sulking Jimmy, and Colby with his stupid stiff neck.
I was out the door, but not without hearing Colby called, "See you around, Kayla." I smiled all the way out to the courtyard.
*****
I shielded my eyes from the sun as I walked down the nearly deserted courtyard to my tree. Before I did though I decided to wash my face clean from the dirt and pollution I had caught when I walked to school that morning. I had also checked my phone, and saw Tyler replied with another message filled with sorry’s. He said he’d treat me out to lunch to make it up to me. Of course I agreed. Who would turn down free food?
My bag collided against my leg with each step I took. I flicked a lint off my shirt and the moment I looked up, I stopped on my tracks. My squinted eyes narrowed even more. A figure was slumped against my tree, looking so comfortable. From the outline, I could tell it was a guy. He had one leg propped up as he leaned against my tree, lazily tossing a baseball up and down. His face was slightly angled away from me, so I couldn’t really figure out who it was.
As I neared my tree, which was rudely being occupied by this person, the tossing noticeably stopped. The guy’s head started to roll away from me even more, drooping to the side. I then realized the guy must’ve fallen asleep. Wow, guys in this school sure loved to sleep. I quickened my pace, determined to wake the guy up and tell him he was invading my tree, when I got a good look at the guy’s head. Brown, slightly curly hair.
Kyle.
My annoyance dissipated as I slowly walked toward his limp form. I positioned myself in front of him, lowering myself in an Indian sitting position. Kyle’s head was rolling back and forth against the tree, his mouth slightly open. His chest rose and fell in a steady pattern, and a lock of hair fell across his forehead. He looked so peaceful. And adorable. And cute. I found myself smiling as I took in his appearance.
The baseball fell from his open palm and rolled a few inches away, as I continued looking at him. When it came to the point that I had to lean into my leg to prop my chin in my hand, I realized the whole staring thing was probably starting to appear creepy. A small amount of heat spread across my cheeks; surely they were pinkish in color by now.
And of course, with the unbelievable luck that I possess, Kyle had to wake up the exact same time I was blushing.
His eyes fluttered open, spotting me instantly as I was seated in front of him. A smile slowly appeared on his face, and with still heavy lidded eyes his husky voice whispered, "Hey."
"Hey," I whispered back, somewhat mesmerized by his sleep-laden voice. A thought then suddenly struck me. This scene was all too familiar. Again. Holy mackarel.
Kyle leaned forward slightly to retrieve the baseball, and as he leaned back against the (my) tree, he patted the space beside him. I gave him a small smile as I scooted on to sit at the space he just tapped. We just sat there in silence. I was still a bit baffled with the thoughts of almost the same scenarios happening that involved me and Colby and me and Kyle. First, the mom meeting, and now this, with the sleeping and greeting. Another Twilight Zone-ish moment right here people.
I heard my name being called, pushing the thoughts back and I turned my head to face Kyle, only to get poked in the cheek by his finger. My mouth dropped open, and Kyle chuckled. "Works every time," he commented happily. I shook my head at his childish display, making his finger graze along my cheek. At the sensation of his calloused finger gliding across the soft skin on my face, I felt another blush coming on. Kyle drew his finger back, almost hesitantly, as a slight coloring rose in his own cheeks. He suddenly found the baseball fascinating as he started to roll it in his hands, his posture noticeably stiff. I, on the other hand, finding no other thing to do with my hands, started to pick out grass.
My eyes scanned the courtyard as my hands picked on the poor grass. A few people milled about, and the smell of freshly-cut grass filled the air. I took a few deep breaths, instantly feeling less awkward as I did. A quick glance at Kyle showed me that he was still rolling the baseball in his hands. His cheeks weren't stained red anymore, but he still had that expression on his face that told me he was still feeling a little awkward. He was biting his bottom lip, and his brows are scrunched slightly. Finally, I decided to end the silence (and the awkwardness) as I asked him, "No class?"
He released his lip from the bite and his shoulders visibly relaxed as he slumped back down to a more comfortable position. His left leg was bent at the knee, and he let his left arm rest against it. "Got cancelled," he replied nonchalantly. Kyle was staring straight ahead, but I caught him sneak a sideways glance at me. I didn't miss the twitch on the corner of his mouth as well, as if he was trying not to smile or laugh. Or both. One corner of my own lip moved upward as I decided to tease him a little.
"Yeah? Says who?" I raised an eyebrow as I turned to look at him. His sideways glance met my eyes, and a playful little smirk appeared on his face. He turned his head as well to fully met my glance. His smirk grew into a full-blown smile as he leaned against his propped up leg. Wiggling his eyebrows, he replied, "Me."
I slapped his shoulder gently and burst out laughing. Kyle wrinkled his nose and rubbed his shoulder as if I'd inflicted such a pain on it. I snorted at that, and soon he joined me in laughing as well. I then learned that indeed his class got cancelled, and he was just playing around. He also told me that he wouldn't mind missing his first class though, which was philosophy. Ugh. I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out at the mention of that dreadful subject. I hated philosophy. Kyle chuckled at my reaction, saying that philosophy wasn't that bad. My response was an eye roll, which Kyle returned, and which caused for another round of chuckles. He asked me as well, what I was doing outside of class. I shrugged and said my class was cancelled as well. Sensing his playful side surfacing, I interrupted his attempt of reenacting my teasing by saying, "Mr. Solis was the one who said so." He wrinkled his nose again, acting annoyed by me being a smarty pants. Oh, I took pride in it, so I decided to tease him some more.
My whole demeanor changed in a flash. Gone was the teasing, bubbly girl. I suddenly fell silent and crossed my arms over my chest as I leaned back against the tree. I concentrated on keeping a serious look on my face, when all I really wanted to do was laugh at the silliness I was about to do. Kyle noticed this transformation, and he shifted on his seat, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Kayla? Something wrong?" The worry in his voice almost made me smile, so I quickly snapped my head away from him. This only added to the effect I wanted, his worrying just grew. He asked again what was wrong, and when his hand touched my arm, I whipped my head back to face him. My serious face was still on, mouth set on a grim line, eyes slightly narrowed. I didn't laugh. I was so proud of myself!
He looked even more concerned, and I let out a breath. "This is my tree, Pennington," I said slowly in a low, gravelly voice. "You're invading my tree, leaning on my tree trunk, and sprawled on the grass that's covering my tree roots."
Kyle was looking at me with such a bewildered expression, and I was really struggling to keep from hooting out a seriously hard, throat aching, tummy exercising laughter. Then his eyes narrowed, and he leaned much too forward that his face was inches from mine. My eyes widened a bit, but I managed to keep my expression serious, though the thought of that laughter had flown away from my thinking and I was pretty sure my cheeks were now decorated by two very pink spots. His eyes bore into mine, and then I noticed how hints of caramels and golds adorned those deep brown pools. His lips parted, and his voice was low as well as he spoke.
"Well, this tree doesn't have your name on it now, does it?"
Now it was my turn to look perplexed. I blinked a couple of times as Kyle continued on, "How can you even claim to be this tree's owner, when it doesn't even have your name on it?" His voice held a heightened amount of conviction, I found myself gaping at him. Before I could tell him though, that he had gone completely bonkers in ten seconds flat, Kyle's face contorted and out of him came uncontrollable guffaws that could probably wake up Santa in the North Pole.
I narrowed my eyes at him, but the sounds of Kyle's unguarded laughter tickled something in me, and I found myself laughing silently along with him. His laugh was loud, explosive, carefree-- it sounded amazing. I had never heard him laugh like that before. Also, I didn't think that Kyle could look better than him being all quiet and calm and cute. Now though, his eyes were all crinckled up, his face was red, his head was thrown back and leaned against the tree, his mouth opened and that incredible sound coming out of him-- he never looked better.
What do you know? This day didn't start exactly as I would've wanted, but it wasn't even one-fourth through it and already I had laughed so much.
Maybe this was a sign of a progressively good day. Or a good week, even. As I laughed and talked with Kyle for the rest of first period, I really believed that that would be the case.
Let the good week roll.
_______________________________________________________________________________ Meh, I'm not entirely happy with this, though I did have my smiles and laugh-out-loud moments when I was writing this chapter. Just a glimpse of Colby here, more on Kyle and Kayla's budding relationship. Kyle would play a great role in this story, so please bear with him spending more time with Kayla. But don't fret though haha, it's getting close to the point where Colby and Kayla would really find a genuine connection of some sort.
I dedicated this chapter to RaeJDon, for always voting and reading. Thank you again for all the support, you lovely people! :D You guys are awesome!