Sweet Amouris High...Really? She thought as she looked up at the disturbingly bright blue school before her. It wasn't too bad looking, a little plain perhaps, but then that often defined school itself.
She tossed her apple core into a nearby trash can with a curled lip. Last time I eat an apple without peeling it. She shivered in disgust.
Wandering up to what seemed like the main entrance as she took in her surroundings she noticed it was uncomfortably quiet. Creepy, she noted as she pulled on the doors. What the... She pulled again.
"Wha—how early am I?" She murmured in disbelief, pulling out her cell to check the time, "Shit."
5:00 am.
She looked down at her cell for a whole minute having exhaustion, frustration, and panic wash over her like spray from a passing truck in the rain. She groaned up at the sky. Now what am I supposed to do?
She heaved a sigh and plunked herself down on a bench in the courtyard, legs spread like a man, arms limp on the bench seat some distance from her sides—the picture of a true lady surely.
Lily let her head fall back so she could look up at the sky pleadingly as if some god or deity or some such thing would suddenly bark out laughing, "HAHA! We joke! We joke!" and allow her to stop feeling like the idiot rat who plays along with the obnoxious scientist's cheese wheel tests and mazes.
She glanced down at her phone once again. Stupid
It was some time before she heard the clicking of heals and snapped her head in the direction of the sound, effectively bringing her out of her daze. A stout old woman bustled her way through the courtyard towards the main doors, keys jangling in her hand.
Lily made to call out for her attention, but stopped when she remembered it was unlikely she would hear her. Her voice never carried. Maybe it was the tone of her voice...She sighed again for what felt like the thousandth time and pushed herself up from the bench and awkwardly made her way over to the old woman.
As the old lady fiddled with her keys to unlock the door Lily stood a little ways behind her scratching her head and chewing her lip hoping she would be noticed without having to say something and startle her. Lily shuffled her feet a bit uncomfortably and gave up.
"Um...'scuse me..." Lily said quietly leaning forward a bit and peaking to the side of the old lady, a blush heating her cheeks. The old lady unlatched the door and smoothed out her rose colored suit jacket. "Um...H-" Lily cut her words as the old lady shuffled inside without so much as glancing in Lily's direction.
Lily rolled her eyes, "Yep," She said sardonically letting the 'p' pop for emphasis. She saw that coming.
Luckily the old lady noticed her shortly thereafter when Lily followed her into the school.
She looked shocked for a fraction of a minute before she approached Lily with a sweet smile which with her grey hair fastened neatly in a bun on the top of her head made her seem grandmotherly.
"You must be our new student. Ms. Vallen, am I right?" She asked brightly.
Lily gave a half nod half bow in response, a terse smile clinging weakly to her face. She mentally face palmed herself for her inability to not be socially challenged with strangers.
"Lily. Uh, Lily Enyana Vallen. Ma'am." She clarified quickly, irritated by the sound of her own meek voice.
"And what a lovely name, dear. As Principle here I welcome you to Sweet Amouris High School, Lily. I hope you'll feel at home quickly at your new school," she continued, "I would suggest you go see Nathaniel, our student body president. He will help you complete your registration," she motioned behind her with a curt hand, "He should be in the student council room later. Good luck, dear." And she walked off without another word.
Lily found the student council room nearby and empty so she decided to go in search of her classrooms while she waited for this "Nathaniel" to arrive. The rooms seemed pretty ordinary: old desks, stiff plastic chairs, and a white board, cramped, but not stuffy, though certainly a bit uncomfortable.
When she finished her lonely self-guided tour of her classrooms, she headed back to the student council room in the hopes that the student body president was there.
She poked her head into the classroom and saw a guy about her age, "Oh, h-hi," she said weakly as she stepped into the room, "Um, I'm looking for a Nathaniel? The student body president? The principal sent me."
He turned around and smiled kindly. Oh, no! Lily quickly looked to the ground a light blush forming on her cheeks as she offered a small shy respectful smile in return. He's really attractive, she thought in a panic as her heart fluttered. Darn it! She started picking at her fingers self-consciously—nervously. She sighed internally God I hate this.
"That's me! You must be the new student. What can I do for you?" He asked in an equally attractive voice.
shit.
Lily did her best to swallow her irrational discomfort and embarrassment, "Oh, good. She said you could help me with my enrolment …?" Her voice came out stronger and louder than she expected but she couldn't resist twisting her hands awkwardly in front of her. Her expression somewhere unpleasantly between a pleading smile and a grimace. Stop it! She chastised herself.
"Sure, I'll take a look." He said as kindly as before and turned around to shuffle through some papers.
Lily started chewing on her lip again and couldn't resist taking at peak at what he was doing, feeling uncomfortable with nothing to do and not sure if she should speak or not. However, her eyes had a mind of their own as they wandered over Nathaniel rather than what he was doing. She looked away feeling guilty, but ended up glancing at him several more times.
He had such a kind face, but when he was focusing...the thoughtful determined look on his face...He's very attractive, she thought again taking in his Shaggy, but tidy blonde hair, the sharp angles of his face, straight nose, slight (welcoming) fullness of his lips... She shook her head and looked away. He had nice hands too, clean and gentle-looking, though still masculine. He had broad shoulders and a good posture. He seemed fit, but it was hard for Lily to see with his button up white shirt and blue tie. He had a bit of quirk to him with the pens in his chest pocket, adding a bit of nerdalicious charm. She was tempted, but endeavoured to keep some decency and didn't venture any lower with her eyes.
She was glad he didn't seem bothered by her shyness or awkwardness or at least that he made an effort not to show that he was. She began fiddling with the hair of her stylized angled bob when she realized she had a large rat's nest knot at the back of her head. At the same time Nathaniel came back over to her with a calm expression and handed the papers to Lily.
She did her best to anxiously smooth down the mess at the back of her head with discretion and took the papers from his hand, aiming to not let their fingers grace each other. She smiled more confidently at him as she took them, pretending that her heart wasn't beating too fast for comfort, but her smile faltered slightly when her façade cause her to do the very thing she was aiming to avoid.
Their fingers slid against each other as the papers switched hands. His eyes flicked to hers and hers flicked away before meeting his again like nothing happened. "Thanks." She said shortly giving an honestly thankful smile for his efforts.
He smiled back, though he looked stunned for a moment, a subtle blush reaching his cheeks she thought she saw.
"No problem. But..." He said hesitantly. "It looks like a few things are missing here. Let's see..." He came to stand beside her and look over her shoulder at the paper he had just given her.
She stiffened slightly and made her breathing as quite as possible, making sure to breathe through her nose and not her mouth, focused on keeping her hand and body steady, and ignore the very inviting heat coming off his body. She felt the overwhelming need to swallow a suddenly suspect mouthful of her saliva, but resisted the urge for fear of the awful sound it would make. His shoulder brushed hers as he pointed to a spot on the paper and her cheeks flushed as she grew warm with embarrassment. She almost took a sharp intake of breath, but she controlled it.
"You still need a photo for your ID and $25 for your registration fee," he said turning towards her as he spoke causing her to glance in his direction at her shoulder. His closeness as they both turned their heads caused his breath to tickle her neck. The shiver that went down her spine she couldn't control. Her eyes widened.
"You okay?"
He would notice.
"Just a tickle," she said with a nervous laugh as she shook her head.
He seemed to blush at that too she thought, but maybe not. He stepped back a bit and crossed his arms. Lily gave an internal sigh of relief as she got her space back.
"You also need to get one of the forms signed by your parents, which is the most important," he said looking a bit awkward but nevertheless friendly.
Taken aback by the last bit Lily was able to forget her discomfort as she asked confusedly, "I checked everything myself. Obsessively. Are you sure?" somehow not sounding rude.
"Just in case, I'll check to make sure your form didn't get put in another file. In the mean time you take care of your ID and registration fee."
Lily nodded.
"Well anyway, it was nice meeting you. It's good to have a new student here that's serious!" He said with a slight chuckle, waving as he made to leave.
"Oh. Uh, thanks. You too..." She waved him good bye as he left while she stood there wondering if that was actually a compliment.
Is he always that nice?
...
Probably just doing his job.
Lily shrugged and left the room thinking back on how strange his eyes were, gorgeous, but strange...Oh, get over it.