Nina's First Few Weeks
Chapter 1
I look away quickly. He and everybody else might not realise it, but I'm incredibly shy, especially around him. I don't know what it is; I've just never felt like this about a boy before! But then, I had never met him before. His name is Fabian Rutter. Mine is Nina. Nina Martin. I started at my new boarding school, in England, just a few weeks ago, but it feels like forever. I know that he likes me. He can try to hide it, because he's that shy, but I sometimes steal a glance at him, and catch him staring at me. I smile, and he blushes red, knowing he's been caught, and looks away. He might well be the smartest boy I have ever met, but he still hasn't figured out that every time I catch him, it means I was looking at him too.
There's something weird about this place. Anubis house. There have been some pretty weird things happening, and the housemaster, Victor, is insanely creepy. Plus, on the day I arrived, a girl, Joy, mysteriously vanished, without saying goodbye to any of her friends. Most of whom suspect that I got rid of her. I can hardly blame them, really. I mean, if I was Patricia, and my best friend went missing the same day another stranger arrived, I would suspect her too. So, everybody here thinks that I kidnapped Joy. All, that is, except for Fabian. He has stood up for me as much as he can against the others, and even though I know its because he really likes me, you know, that way, I can't help but be happy that at least one person here is willing to be my friend, particularly as it seems that before she was gone, him and Joy had a bit of a thing.
All the weird things are probably the tricks my mind is playing on me, out of home sickness. This is the furthest I've ever been from home, from America. I really miss Gran, and even Fabian can't cheer me up when I'm thinking about her. What if she dies from her illness before I can go see her? I'll have lost everything important to me in the world. Except Fabian… No! Mustn't think like that! He might like me, but we've only known each other for a few weeks, and there's no such thing as love at first sight, is there? Besides, if I confessed to him that I like him, and we started dating, we would eventually break up, wouldn't we, like all couples eventually do, and then I'd lose the only friend I have in this school. No. I cannot tell him how I feel at all. That I like him, or even… love him.
Suddenly, I am snapped out of my thoughts by a knock on the door. "Who is it?"I call.
"Its Fabian," The very person I've been thinking about. I quickly look down at myself, only to scold myself for doing so, silently reminding myself that I and Fabian can only ever be friends. I look fine anyway.
"Come in Fabian," I call in a much sweeter tone. I must stop this: the unconsciously flirting with him, without being able to stop myself. I doubt he even notices though. Then, he walks through the door to my room, and I have to pinch my arm to stop myself from taking that short intake of breath, that would give everything away. He looks ridiculously cute: his dark hair is all messed up, he's wearing what I have now known him long enough to recognise as his normal out-of-school wear: jeans, a long sleeved striped shirt, and his favourite jacket. And his eyes… I could stare into them for hours… The dreamy soft pools of No Nina! Stop! "What is it Fabian," I said, in a much sharper tone than I intended. If he was surprised at me staring at him, which I was sure he had noticed, it barely registered on his face.
"I just wanted to know if you wanted to go on a walk with me," he said, obviously expecting a negative response: he knew that I didn't like going out of the house much, or so he thought, because I had been turning down similar offers for a while now. What he didn't know is that I don't know if I could keep my feelings in check, with a romantic walk through the woods with him. It was high time though, that I decided to stuff what my feelings said, and manage to control myself. After all, my head knew that I and Fabian wouldn't work, so my heart should have no complaints, right?
"Yeah. Sure thing," I heard myself say. He broke into a massive grin, and grabbed my jacket from where it was draping over my bed, and handed it too me, waiting for me to put it on and follow him. I put on the jacket slowly. I could do this, right?
"Come on," Fabian said, in that beautiful deep voice of his. "It is nearly dark."
I hurried along to keep up with his long strides down the hallway, glancing at my watch, and seeing he was right, as always. We walked out the front door as quietly as we could: Alfie and Jerome have been planning a prank on the next people they see in the woods. "So," he said, with a twinge of barely disguised amusement and hopefulness in his voice "why were you staring at me when I walked into your room?" he questioned.
I had a million excuses running through my head. 'You have something on your shirt'; 'I have the same shirt as you'; 'In that light you looked like someone I knew from the USA'. But it seemed my head wasn't in control of my mouth anymore. My heart was. My stupid, reckless, Fabian-obsessed heart.
"You looked really hot."
