Chapter One
Tapping my fingers nervously, I wait to hear the sound of the school bus drive past before walking out onto my driveway and getting into the only car available. Realizing I hadn't locked the front door behind me, I sigh and get back out of the car into the cold air to go do so. "I have a new appreciation for adults." I mutter as I kick through the snow back to the door to lock it. Clarissa is going to wonder why I'm not on the bus again today, I realize. Crap.
Clarissa is my best friend, but we have been growing apart over the last year. She finally convinced the football team's quarterback to go out with her, and ever since she's been so busy with him she's forgotten about me. As a result of this, I have yet to explain to her that my father is dead.
It's not your fault he died. You're seventeen, almost old enough to be legal living alone anyway. The Social Services don't need to know. Besides, now you have his car to drive, and you're still making money working with Clarissa's parents. There's no need to be worried.
But even as I think this I know I am wrong. The neighbors have already become suspicious, as my dad's car leaves two hours later than usual and arrives two hours earlier back at the house. Clarissa is trustworthy, but if I don't tell her myself, she might tell her parents her suspicions before I can explain to her what really happened. And if the school tries to contact my dad, they'll know as well.
Did he really leave no will? I ask to myself. I've already searched the house for any clues as to why I found him dead in the middle of our living room a week ago. There was no plausible explanation, besides possibly suicide. But wouldn't he have left a note, or will, or something for me if that was the case? The lack of information he left might lead me to believe that it was hardly suicide. Recently, he'd been extremely secretive and was staying out at nights much later than normal. Could he have provoked someone to the point where they thought killing him was the best option? He had been bleeding severely from a large hole in his chest. What really bothers me though, was the fact that the color had not even been drained from his face when I found him. Whatever had happened, I had only been minutes short of being involved.
The weirdest part was that there had been a very similar occurrence ten years ago when my mother had died. I had come home from school to find her dead in the living room, just like my father, but instead she was bleeding from her neck where something had cut her deeply enough to kill her. And when my father came home from work, he looked frightened to see her, but not necessarily sad at all.
I shake my head of these thoughts as I pull into the school's parking lot, parking in the back so no one can see that I actually drove myself to school. Walking around to the side of the school, I join a large group of bus riders as they make their way into the school.
Clarissa and Grant, her boyfriend, are sitting on one of the benches in the hallway, talking, and Clarissa is completely oblivious as I walk by. Thank God. I sigh in relief, glad to get out of answering a million questions before the first bell rings. I wander the hallways alone until it's time to go to first period.
Walking into my Calculus class, I notice immediately that there is a new student, and that he's sitting in my seat. That's odd. We never get new students in Calculus, more often than not we're losing students. The boy turns around when he feels my gaze on him, and smiles grimly at me. I shudder inwardly. But you know, he is kind of cute. Kind of? Oh, who am I kidding, he's really cute. I finally compose myself enough to walk over to him, and stand awkwardly beside him.
I clear my throat, "Umm… this is actually my seat." I tell him shyly, twirling a piece of my thick golden hair around my finger as I talk.
"Is it? I apologize then for taking it." He replies, but makes no move to find a different seat.
"Elina, you can find a different seat. We would like to make our new students as comfortable as possible while learning. In fact, why don't you sit right there next to him and explain to him what we're learning and tell him a little about the school?" The teacher, Mrs. Bergstrom tells me from behind her desk in the front of the room.
"Yes, Mrs. Bergstrom." Groaning inwardly, I walk around the row of desks and settle into the one right next to the new student. After getting out my supplies, I turn my attention back to him.
"I'm Elina." I say, noticing that he doesn't have a backpack anywhere near his desk. "Where's all of your stuff?" I ask.
"I don't have anything. Do you think I could borrow a pencil and some paper for the day? I find it hard to believe that if we're forced to come fuel our education, we must provide our own supplies." I narrow my eyes at him for a second, but quickly turn to dig some paper out of my backpack, and hand him a pencil as well. "Aciu." He adds.
"What?" I say, thinking I've heard him wrong, but he doesn't seem phased by this.
"Aciu. It means thank you in Lithuanian." The bell rings overhead, signaling for us to be quiet. The announcements play on the television, but I am in a daze and do not pay attention to any of it. I can feel the new student's eyes watching me the whole time, but I don't turn to look at him. I don't want him to get the wrong idea.
When the announcements finish, Mrs. Bergstrom calls the new student to the front to introduce himself to the class. He lightly touches my fingers that are resting on the desk as he walks past me, causing me to shiver and pull my hands back.
"My name is Cyprianus Jayden Amadeus Tryforce. I travel a lot, and recently returned from living in Lithuania for three months." He says, watching me still. I shift uncomfortably in my chair. He notices and grins at me.
"Why did you move from Lithuania to Floodwood, Minnesota?" Mrs. Bergstrom asks him, and he grimaces at the question and creates a quick answer in his head. I watch the lie flow from his lips.
"My grandfather lived in Lithuania, but he died a few weeks ago so I decided to move back to America. My mother was born in Floodwood, so I chose to come here." I feel myself getting drawn into his smile and the rest of the room disappears from around me, and all I see is him.
"Do you live by yourself?" I ask from the back of the room, immediately covering my mouth and lowering my head, hoping that no one heard me. Of course, every head in the room turns to look at me, and I can feel my cheeks turning bright red.
"Elina? You know better than that. In my class, we raise our hands when we would like to ask questions." Mrs. Bergstrom frowns at me before turning her attention back to the new student. "Cyprianus Jayden Amadeus? That's an unusually long and uncommon name; is there a nickname you go by?"
"You can call me Jayden." Although I'm looking at the desk, I can feel his gaze on me as he talks.
"Well, thank you Jayden. I look forward to learning more about you while you're in my class. I don't know if Elina told you or not, but right now we are working on functions. You can take a textbook from the shelf in the back to keep at home to do homework for the rest of the year." I looked up in time to see Jayden give Mrs. Bergstrom a large smile and then make his way to the back, past my desk to grab a textbook and then sitting down next to me. "Open your books to page 425 and get started on tonight's homework. Jayden, if you need any help, Elina should be able to help you, but if not, feel free to come to my desk."
I opened the book and wasn't surprised with what the problems looked like, we'd been working on similar ones all week; it would be easy enough for me. I am pretty good at math, actually. It's my favorite subject, which is why, as a senior in high school, I'm taking Calculus. I was on the third problem when Jayden cleared his throat beside me. I bit back a scowl and turned to help him.
"What do you need help with?" I ask, with the friendliest tone I could create. He looks surprised at my rude remark, and then gives me another smile.
"Oh—I don't need any help. Calculus is like second nature to me. I was just going to suggest that you use symbols instead of writing out the functions. Like this," He held his paper out to show me what symbols he meant, and I noticed that he was already on the thirteenth problem. I glared at him and turned back to my desk.
"I prefer to do it my way; it helps me understand what I'm doing. And since it doesn't seem like you need any help, I'd like it if you left me alone so I could finish my own work." I got fifteen more problems done before he cleared his throat again.
"What do you want?" I asked louder than I should've, and received a glare from Mrs. Bergstrom. I winced and whispered, "Sorry, can I help you?"
"Once again, I don't need any help. Since I've finished the homework, I was looking at my schedule, and was wondering if you could walk me to my next class. I'm not sure I know my way around these halls yet."
I couldn't help but drop my charade after hearing that. "You've finished the homework?" I said, a hint of awe in my voice. "All forty-seven problems?" He nodded, smirking.
"You haven't?" He teased, glancing at my paper and raising his eyebrows when he saw I was on nineteen. I took a deep breath, restraining from punching him in the middle of the classroom, and calmed my nerves.
"No, I haven't. I take my time while I'm doing my homework, to ensure I'm doing everything right. We still have forty minutes of class left, I think I'll have plenty of time to finish. Now what is your next class?" I replied, proud of how calm my voice sounded.
He responded immediately, without hesitation. "AP Chemistry with Mr. Troop." I tried to hide my surprise at hearing this, as AP Chemistry was my next class as well.
"Turn left and then take the first right. Follow the hall past the cafeteria and then take the first left, and his room is the third room on the right." I answered as automatically as I could, going back to the math problems when I finished.
"Thanks," he muttered, realizing I didn't want to talk.
I spent the rest of the period doing my homework in silence, and I was on the last problem when the bell rang. I felt Jayden's eyes on me as I hurried out of the room, and I was stopped by Clarissa as soon as I stepped into the hallway.
"Hey! Where were you this morning? Is the bus too good for you now? How have you been getting to school?" She threw the questions at me, but her gaze followed Jayden when he stepped out of the room and brushed me as he walked the way I'd directed him. "Who was that? I've never seen him before." She asked excitedly.
"No one. " I muttered. "Just some new kid who's really good at math." I answered, grabbing her arm and pulling her down the hallway so we wouldn't be late to class.
"Well, whoever he was, he was totally staring at you as he walked past!" She squealed, and I rolled my eyes at her. Clarissa was used to having guys stare at her; she was a very curvy, tall girl who had vibrant, wavy red hair. Overall, she was gorgeous, and I was just normal. With long, thick, but straight blonde hair, and a normal height of 5'4, I was far from gorgeous. But I wasn't hideous.
"No he wasn't. He's a jerk anyway." A cute jerk. I reminded myself. He had medium length dark hair, and bright blue eyes. He was tall, and he had a very muscular build. I shook his image out of my head and turned the opposite direction as Clarissa and went the rest of the way to Chemistry by myself.
I'd forgotten that Jayden was in this class as well until I walked in the door and saw the look on his face when he saw me. I took a deep breath to hide my disappointment, and made my way to my seat, right next to where he had decided to sit.
He nodded at me and said quietly, "Elina."
"Jayden."
"Care to explain why you didn't mention this being your second period as well?" He smiled mockingly.
"You didn't ask."I retorted.
"I did ask to walk with you, and I figured you only gave me directions because your class was in a different direction. Now, I realize the truth." He sounded hurt, but his smile looked far from it.
"The truth? You want the truth?" I turned to meet his stare for the first time, and held it with passion. "Why did you move from Lithuania to Minnesota? You had no grandfather there, your mother wasn't born here. Why were you in Lithuania to begin with?"
He hesitated and closed his eyes for a few seconds before answering, "Family business."
"By yourself?" I caught his gaze when his eyes opened again.
"I wasn't alone, until my father died. I had to move here to continue his work." I looked down then, silently apologizing for asking, but he just clenched his fists tighter.
"Why didn't you tell Mrs. Bergstrom the truth?" I whispered quietly, while Mr. Troop began addressing the class. We were sitting in the back, though, so he hadn't noticed we were talking yet.
"None of the adults can know that I live by myself, even though I am eighteen. My records state that I'm still in my parent's custody. And I would be, if they were still alive." He pressed his lips together and unclenched his hands. "But they aren't." He added to himself.
"I'm sorry. I know how you feel." His eyes looked up at me, questioningly. "My parents are both dead, too." The smile that was constantly shown on his face through his eyes lost its tenacity, and his gaze went silent. I froze when I realized what I'd just admitted to him. You've just made him the only person in the world who knows that your father is dead, and you don't even know him! And the opposing side in my mind saying, He doesn't know you live alone. He doesn't even know your last name, he poses no threat to us. Just don't take it any farther than this.
We watched each other for a few more seconds before Mr. Troop cleared his throat from the front of the room. "Ms. Mackenzie? Is there something you and our new Mr. Tryforce would like to share?" I turned to face him and shook my head, blushing.
"No, Mr. Troop." I answered barely loud enough for even Jayden to hear.
"Louder, Ms. Mckenzie. The world will never know how you feel if you do not confess you feelings with confidence. Speak as if talking to the sky." He told me, as he often had before. "Perhaps Mr. Tryforce will have a better answer for us." He slowly shifted his eyes from me to Jayden, and raised his brows.
"There is nothing to share, Mr. Troop, except your wonderful teaching. I have learned more from your class so far than I'd learned all year at my previous school." He replied calmly, and I hid my laugh by covering my mouth with my hand. Mr. Troop seemed pleased with this answer and let us off the hook, returning to the class.
When I was positive it was safe to talk again, I whispered, "Kiss ass," in Jayden's direction without actually looking at him.
He waited a few seconds before replying with, "I saved your ass," and a few moments later, "Be grateful." I laughed again quietly, my hand still covering my mouth in an attempt to keep quiet.
We decided to actually pay attention for the remainder of the period, and when the bell rang, I hurried to leave the classroom before having to speak with Jayden again. He caught up to me and tapped my shoulder after I had only taken three steps out the classroom door.
"Hey, wait. You can't get rid of me that fast." He tried to turn my shoulder around, but I remained facing away from him, my feet planted firmly on the ground. Instead of walking around me, he leaned down close to my ear, and I could feel his breath on my neck. "I need directions to my next class." He whispered so only I could hear.
I stepped away from him and turned to face him, noticing too late how much taller he is than I am. While I am only 5'4, Jayden was easily a few inches over six feet. Probably about a foot taller than me, actually. Earlier, he'd always been sitting, or slouching. While standing erect, I had to lean my head back almost completely just to see his face. Narrowing my eyes, I crossed my arms over my chest and began to talk.
"Get a map of the school. Or ask a teacher. I'm not going to be your official tour guide of Floodwood High. Find your own way around. Challenges are good for your mind." Turning, I stalked towards my next class as fast as my feet would take me without running.
After the bell rang, I was extremely relieved to see that he wasn't also in my third period, and took the next three classes to relax my thoughts and compose my mind. Clarissa met me in the hall after fifth period, and together we walked to the cafeteria for lunch.
Normally, we sat with her boyfriend, Grant, and a few of his friends, which all happened to be jocks, but today they'd had an extra practice for an upcoming game, so it was just the two of us. Tell her. She'll find out eventually. If she knows, she can help you keep it a secret. There was another side of the argument in the mind, though. No one can find out. Clarissa may be your best friend, but she's been known to gossip. It isn't worth the risk. The Social Securities will take you away if anyone finds out your living by yourself. Then I remembered what I'd said earlier, in chemistry. My parents are both dead, too.
I told Jayden? Jayden, who's mocked and tormented me to the point of exhaustion in just a few hours? Oh my god! How could I be so careless, and let that slip? And of all people? If he finds out anymore about my situation, he'll for sure tell the Social's on me!
My thoughts were interrupted by Clarissa hitting my arm, hard. I glanced over at her and followed her gaze up to where someone was standing. Jayden was holding a tray piled high with food and leaning, one arm on the table, the other holding his meal, and smiling mysteriously. "Is this seat taken?" He asked mischievously. I took a deep breath and shook my head.
"No, it isn't." Clarissa answered beside me. I turned and sent her a look that said, Shut up, I already told you what I thought of him, but she ignored it. "So, what's your name?" She asked innocently, leaning her head on her arm and smiling past me at him.
"Cyprianus Jayden Amadeus Tryforce." He responded without thinking, glancing once in her direction and then back at me.
"Wow… that's a mouthful."
"Call me Jayden." They continued to talk, and after a few minutes, I was tired of it, and went to throw our lunch trays away. When I came back, they were in a full fledged conversation on the new pop hit that I honestly had never heard of. Clarissa was a pretty good singer, and she liked to follow the music just to have something new to sing every week. I, personally, had never had any interests in music and never intended to. So, naturally, I hadn't heard whatever song they were talking about.
I waited patiently until their conversation was over, oblivious to their voices but totally aware of Jayden's leg pressing against mine. Uncomfortable with the sudden contact, I tried to move my leg away but found myself stuck between his leg and a pole holding up the table, and decided to stick it out for another couple of minutes of lunch.
When it sounded like their conversation was over, I reached for my backpack, but Clarissa caught my arm. "He's not a jerk!" She glanced in his direction, and a nervous smile grew on her lips. I rolled my eyes, knowing he could hear us.
"That's your opinion." I declared, grabbing my backpack and standing up, waiting for her to follow me. She shrugged and whispered something to Jayden before walking past me towards the football fields. Jayden stood up to walk with me, and, being tired of fighting it, I let him escort me to my next class.
"A jerk, huh?" He inquired.
"I'm not going to lie to you. I do think you're a jerk. But I'm quick to jumping to conclusions, and could be wrong." Hoping my reply has satisfied him, I pick up my pace, but he speeds up to stay by my side.
"Could I try and change your mind at dinner some time?"
"We can go to dinner after you change my mind. For now, dinner is out of the question." What am I doing? Turning down a date from who's pretty much the hottest guy in school? Why is he asking me anyway?
"Fair enough." He smiled. "But what exactly have I done to make you jump to conclusions? I haven't said one mean word to you."
"Yes you… haven't." Replaying the day's events in my mind, I realized suddenly that he was right. He had done nothing but appreciate the small favors he'd asked of me, and I'd done them as impolitely as I possibly could. "You know what, you're right. I'm sorry. But I'm not much of a dinner type girl, anyway." I apologized as politely as I could, and it almost felt strange to be nice to him for once.
"Alright, if you really don't want to. But don't think this means I'm going to stop asking." He smirked, taking my hand and squeezing it once before stalking off in the direction I'd pointed him to go. I stood, awestruck, and watched him until he turned the corner. The bell rang before I could make it into the gymnasium for P.E., and I was happy to have a day just watching the other students play Kickball, even if it meant I would get a little bit in trouble.
