Turn It Off!!!
Chapter 1
5 minutes after my butt hit the hard seat in my favourite class, English; I heard an audible gasp spread out across the room like some sort of plague, shortly being followed by the excited whispers of my class mates. I didn't bother to look up, mostly because I knew that nobody would meet my gaze or waste their time filling me in on whatever had the rest of them so god damn excited. The other reason I didn't bother to lift my head was because the only person whom I actually wanted to see had been gone for the past 3 weeks, which had kind of depressed me a little.
I was so focused on my thoughts of where he might be that I didn't notice the chair next to me being scraped back at first. It was only after I heard the soft thud of someone sitting down that it registered in my mind the seat next to me was now occupied, which could only mean one thing. I dared myself to peek from the corner of my eye to see if it was really true or if I was having one of my daydreams again, but what my eyes came into contact with shocked me into stillness.
I was looking at Jared, but it wasn't really Jared. For one thing, his gorgeous brown hair which used to reach just below his ears was now gone, instead replaced with a buzz cut, which he strangely managed to pull off. Then again it was Jared, he could probably pull off a nose stud and black lipstick, or was I just really weird in thinking that? He also seems to have shot up like a foot since he's been gone and the newly gained abs are just WOAH! Not that I'm complaining or anything. The only thing that confused me was the bizarrely high body heat that seemed to be radiating from him, although it felt oddly comforting like I wanted to wrap myself up in his arms, then again has there ever been a time when I didn't want to be wrapped up in his glorious embrace? It was after about two minutes of my spastic staring that he finally had enough and turned to face me, probably to tell me to quit the staring, and the most peculiar look passed his face, causing his jaw to slack and his eyes to widen in shock. Now it was him staring at me with what looked like adoration displayed in his brown orbs. I quickly looked towards the front of the class, my natural shyness kicking in, and pretended to be intently interested in how to write an effective formal letter, but the way Jared kept staring at me was quite unnerving, and after a while the rest of the class noticed that I seemed to be the object of his fascination and rude remarks and comments soon followed. To my left, I distinctively heard Esther, the most popular girl in our school say "God, stare at the class freak much Jared?" which caused me to turn an unattractive red and Jared to growl.
Yes! Growl! What the hell was up with him? He disappears for 3 whole weeks then comes back growling at Esther of all people, who was practically his girlfriend before he left. Rumour has it around the school and the whole reservation for that matter that he broke up with her via a telephone call. To be honest, she deserved it kind of. I mean, when she wasn't worrying about how her makeup looked or being the resident slut, she devoted her time to making my life miserable. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why she seemed to hold such a huge grudge against little old me, but it was evident that she wasn't going to let it go anytime soon. Especially after that growl from Jared, which she would later find some way to blame me for. I decided to stop worrying about Esther and her cronies for now and looked towards Jared to find him still staring at me. This time I didn't break eye contact and I wondered how long we kept gawking at each other before the teacher finally cleared her throat, pulling me out of my daze long enough to realise the whole class along with the teacher were now looking at us as if we were barking mad. I started blushing furiously and looked down at the desk. Jared probably noticing the same thing as me peeled his eyes away from my form reluctantly and directed his attention back to the teacher. This signalled to everyone else that nothing important was happening at our table anymore, and so they resumed their previous conversations. Most which were about Jared's return anyway. None of them were going to any effort to disguise the fact that they were conversing about him. I could hear his name mentioned in various conversations here and there in the small and crowded room, and to say that he looked embarrassed would be a huge understatement. The only person who wasn't talking about him was Esther, and that was because she was evidently too busy staring at him with longing in her eyes. I guess she finally registered the fact that there was at least one guy in the whole school that didn't want her.
"So why aren't you talking about me like the rest of them?" Jared suddenly questioned me in a quiet voice so that the people seated around us wouldn't be able to hear. His husky voice caused me to internally swoon, and it was a while before I could clear my head enough to realise that he was expecting an answer.
"Uh, I guess I'm not a gossip", I mumbled back, still recovering from the shock his words brought me. I couldn't believe that after 2 years of sitting next to and ignoring me, he has finally decided to acknowledge my presence. This is definitely going in my diary tonight.
"Thank you", he replied sincerely to my statement, which shocked me even more. What was he thanking me of all people for? He was still throwing me that penetrating gaze that got me all flustered and caused my hands to become clammy with sweat, which is so not attractive.
"Mr Thail, would you mind catching up with the rest of us and not sit there staring at Kim the entire lesson?" Ms Lowell suddenly announced out loud. I looked down, mortification clearly evident in my features and started to take deep breaths in order to clear my head.
"Sorry, uh, what page are we on?" he asked whilst flicking through his textbook impatiently. Even though he had looked away from me, his eyes would flicker up to mine every few seconds.
"Page 114, and don't let me catch you off task again" were the threatening words that left Ms Lowell's lips, but everyone knew that she wouldn't actually take any action even is she did find him off task. Jared was practically her favourite student, regardless of whatever stupid prank he pulled. I could see Stacia, a comrade of Esther, shaking with poorly concealed laughter one desk over. This just added to my insecurities and further heightened my already low self- esteem. Why couldn't they just leave me alone? It was as if they knew the inner workings of my mind and were confident in the fact that I would never in a million years actually stand up for myself, and defend my rights to walk down the same halls as everyone else without being tripped up by a stiletto clad foot or having a slushy dumped on my head, although those are less frequent these days on account of Esther being caught reed handed by the principle last year during a pep rally. Come to think of it, I have no idea what I was even doing at a pep rally in the first place. It wasn't like I had any friends to go with, due to my mental inability to just go over to someone and freaking introduce myself. Then I remembered I had tried that with a horrible bang as if my mind had been set on rewind automatically. Sometimes, I swear my mind hates me and is just out to get my by dragging up awful experiences I have suffered over the years. Some things are meant to be locked up in the recesses of my mind for a reason. It all came back to me with a flash as I remembered when the new student walked into my art class last spring. I resolved with myself that if I was friendly with her and introduced myself before anyone had the chance to tell her about me, and what a social pariah I was, then maybe she might decide that I was worth her time talking to. It had gone well for about 2 days before Esther realised my reasons for initiating the friendship, and sunk her claws into poor Lily. I never saw her again. I mean, obviously I saw her, but that was only when she was assisting Esther in whatever evil plans she had up her sleeve in order to embarrass and humiliate me further.
The bell suddenly rung, causing a small shriek to escape from my lips, which then in turn spurred Jared to turn towards me with something that resembled concern in his dark eyes? I immediately looked down and started packing my books into my bag, dropping some of them in the process. Faster than lightening, they disappeared from the floor and I looked up to find Jared of all people holding them out to me.
"Thanks", I muttered whilst taking them form his rather reluctant grasp. I then proceeded to practically sprint from the room, to the parking lot. I sighed with relief when I saw that my bus hadn't left me again. Our bus driver was notoriously known for having no patience and often left students if they didn't show up on time. In other words, she usually left me because she says that I need to "hurry up", but I know that she secretly hates me and leaving me to walk in the rain everyday is some kind of sick twisted joke on her behalf. I can't wait for my 17th birthday, since my dad promised to buy me a car the last time I visited him at his new home in Boston. I had seen the car he brought for my older step-brother and let me just say that I was not happy. He felt guilty for neglecting his only child, so he assured me that I could expect a car on my birthday, and I am highly anticipating it.
The ride back home was uneventful, and I was only mildly surprised to find the house empty when I reached it. My mom had a time consuming job at a law firm in Seattle, so she usually got home late most nights, and was gone by the time I grudgingly got up in the morning. I didn't really mind though as I had gotten used to being alone, both in and out of school. After eating the left over pizza from last night, I decided that getting an early start on my homework was the only thing that would consume my time and not remind me that I was in a house bordering the forest by myself. I was about an hour into my History homework, thinking about Jared as usual when I first heard it. It sounded somewhere between a howl and a high pitched scream, and reminded me strangely of an agonized cry. I wouldn't have paid much attention to it, had it not been unnervingly close. I wasn't usually the type of girl, who shrieked at anything remotely close to horror, but I did however have an overactive imagination and my mind stared conjuring up preposterous scenarios at once. And single one ended with my violent and untimely death. Immediately, I ran to the front door and bolted all the locks shut, before creeping back warily into my room. My window faced our backyard, which then ran on into the forest, so I decided that closing the curtains would be the best course of action. I was tugging at the frilly pink curtain my mom had gotten me last year, when I saw something move in between the trees, but it was sort of hard to tell due to the darkness the veiled the night. I didn't dwell on it further as with a final yank, I managed to pull my curtain so that the forest was no longer visible to me. After that, there was no way I could concentrate on my homework further, so I grabbed my iPod and turned to my favourite song. As the words of All I Wanted pumped through my mind, there was little opportunity for me to think, and soon I drifted off into unconsciousness.