She Lives In a Fairytale

Chapter 2

Hayley's next lessons passed by in a blur. Zac wasn't in any of them, unless he just decided not to show up to them. By the time she went to meet Beth at lunch time, she was angry. How could this one boy just enter her life, and possibly damage her chances of university? How can she concentrate on lessons now if he's going to be sat next to her every day? She's worked so hard to be good, and now all of that has just been destroyed by one touch of his hand. Hayley had no idea what had happened, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with Zac, and she was determined to find out what exactly it was. After all, if he was going to ruin her life, she deserved some sort of explanation.

When Hayley eventually found Beth, they made their way to the food court, bought a sandwich each, and then sat at one of the tables in the adjacent common room.

"So, Beth, how did it go with that guy?" Hayley asked, determined to keep the conversation away from her.

Beth gave a toothy grin before answering, "It went well. His name is Joe, and we've just been playing tonsil tennis for the past hour, so I consider that a victory. How about your lessons, how have they been?"

"Fine. Yeah in photography –"

"Whoa," Beth interrupted, "Oh my God, he is gorgeous! Look Hayley over there, and he's staring right at you!"

Hayley dared to take a glance to her right to see Zac sat at a table on his own at the other end of the room, staring at her like he was frustrated with something, like he was frustrated with her.

Why's he mad at me?

"Do you know him?" Beth asked.

"Yeah, kind of, he sits next to me in chemistry."

"What did you do to him? Stab him with a pencil or something? He looks really annoyed."

This was it; Hayley was going to have to tell Beth what happened between her and Zac, no matter how weird it sounded. So she did. She told her about how she thought he was the best looking boy on the planet, how he sat close enough to her to make her feel dizzy, and even about the strange electric shock that happened when their skin came into contact.

"- and after it happened I felt I recognised him somewhere. Like I already knew him or something..." Hayley stopped herself before she said too much. None of this made sense, and the last thing she needs right now is Beth thinking she's a nut job.

"Well, I think there's only one thing you can do now."

"What?"

"Talk to him. Let him get to know you a bit, and then maybe he will start looking at you differently, instead of giving you that death glare he was earlier. Oh and make sure you touch him again."

"What? Why?" Hayley couldn't do that, not if the same thing happened again.

"Well, you need to see if this shock was just a onetime thing or not. If could have just been some built up energy or something; you're the scientist, you figure it out."

Beth did have a point; it could have just been a regular electric shock. Just a really big one that made her feel weak at the knees and made her heart beat erratically against her rib cage.

They changed the conversation topic then, talking about their subjects and lesson times. Hayley had no more lessons for the rest of the day, so she decided to go home, and do some prep on the photography project for the year, which was on structures. She knew exactly what she wanted to photograph, but would have to wait until it became dark to get the prefect shots.

By the time she got home, she was thinking about that bizarre connection between her and Zac again. It must mean something, but she couldn't figure out what. She could ask him, but how do you manage to get that into a normal conversation?

This is absurd! She told herself, unable to justify spending all her time thinking about him. Hayley had never really taken an interest in boys before. Sure she thought some of them were good looking, especially the ones Beth dated, but she was too focused on her school work and future to actually consider going out with them. She did talk to guys, some of her really good friends were guys, but she had known them way too long for them to be anything more.

To distract herself, she decided to make herself busy by staring to make dinner for her family when they got home. Hayley was part of a family of five; her mum and dad, one brother and one sister. She was the middle child, at seventeen. Samantha, her older sister was nineteen and in her second year of university, studying law. She was always loud and outspoken, never afraid to get up in front of a crowd, unlike Hayley who would feel sick at the thought of it. She was tall with long blonde hair, always one of the popular girls. Then there was Jake, her younger brother at fourteen. He spent pretty much all of his time playing some kind of sport, and is, like Samantha, confident when he needs to be. He was also tall, almost as tall as Hayley, and had bright red hair. The only similarity between the siblings is their eyes, which are a deep green, and stood out dramatically against their pale skin.

Before Hayley realised, it was 6 o' clock, and everyone was sat in the dining room, eating their dinner. Everyone was chatting about their day, even Hayley, although she never mentioned her chemistry lesson.

About 7 o'clock, she decided to walk to the old church not far from her house to take some pictures for her photography project. She didn't mind the fact that it was dark, she knew the area and the people too well to be afraid of anything. So she grabbed her camera and her coat, and then made her way through the autumn breeze to the church. It didn't take long to get there, and before she knew it, she had fifty pictures.

That should do.

Hayley started to make her way out of the church grounds along a narrow path, that was really just grass that had been worn away from the countless times it had been walked over. She had gone quite deep into the land, ending up on the edge of the cemetery. She started to walk faster. She may not be afraid of dark roads and silent walkways, but a scary cemetery was another thing entirely.

There was a noise, almost like a ruffling. As if someone was following her. She was almost running by this point, but then accidently tripped up on a tree root that was sticking out of the ground.

Get up quick!

"Here, let me help you." That voice, she knew that voice. She cautiously turned around to see Zac standing over her, holding his hand out.

I can't touch him!

"I'm okay, thanks." She pushed herself up and wiped herself down, pretty sure by this point that she looked a mess. He was still hovering over her as if she was going to collapse at any point.

"You know you really shouldn't be here past sundown."

"Why not? I've been coming here for years. I don't live far away, and it's not like any of my neighbours are going to attack me or anything." She felt a bit protective of this. Where did he get the nerve to tell her where she should and shouldn't go? He'd only just moved here!

"You never know what could be hiding in the darkness." He had that dangerous look on his face again when he said it.

"You mean like you?"

"What?" Uh oh. He looked annoyed.

"Well... I just mean that..." His glare was making her nervous, why couldn't she just be more confident? Suddenly she remembered how annoyed she had been with him earlier, and her worlds gushed out, along with her pent up anger from earlier in the day. "Well, why are you here? Like you said, it's not very safe to be here alone at night. Anyone could be here, just like you are now, practically creeping up on me. Are you trying to scare me on purpose? Do you hate me for some reason? I don't know what happened between us earlier but you've been giving me death stares ever since and it's unfair when I have only just met you! I don't even know your last name!"

That was the longest speech Hayley had very possibly ever given. She was breathing heavily, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to escape.

"Armstrong."

"What?" She was too confused to play games, her head was still spinning.

"That's my last name, Armstrong, and I don't hate you. I wasn't creeping up on you either or whatever you think I was doing. If you really want to know, I was visiting some old family members." He motioned towards the gravestones. "My family was a big part of this town, hundreds of years ago. I was just paying my respects." He was surprisingly calm throughout all of this.

Hayley felt like a fool. She should have asked before she judged. "I'm sorry. I didn't realise. It's just that you scared me a bit. That's why I was running." She looked down at her clothes that were dusted with dirt, "Or trying to anyway."

She looked up to see him laughing, and her heart gave an unnatural thud at the sight of his smile.

What is wrong with me?

"Look, Hayley, is it?" She felt a strange sensation go through her when he said her name, but managed to nod weakly, not quite trusting her own voice. "I know we didn't get off to the best start. So can we have a do over?"

"Okay." She replied, in barely a whisper.

"I also think you should let me drive you home, just to be safe." He gave her a little smile.

"Okay." She repeated, unable to think of anything else to say.

They made their way out of the church then and into his car in silence. When Hayley got into his car, she realised how cold she was and gave a little shiver.

"You cold?" Zac asked, before turning the heaters on. Hayley vaguely noticed that his car was really nice, almost too nice for a student. She would have to ask him about that later, if they ever spoke again.

She gave him directions to her house, and then they just talked about school and their subjects while he was driving. It turns out he is studying all the sciences and then maths, almost the same as Hayley, and he is in her maths as well as chemistry. She asked him why he wasn't in lesson today.

"I, er, didn't feel too well after chem. Sorry about that by the way when I just walked out." He seemed genuine, but she noticed how he never mentioned the shock that seemed to go through both of them when they touched.

"It's fine. I was wondering though, about what happened with us back then. Surely you must have felt it too?"

He pulled up at her house then, just as it started raining. "I don't know." His brow was furrowed and he seemed to be having some internal debate in his head. After about a minute he turned to face her, all confusion gone from his face, "We can find out if you want?" He held out his hand as an offer, she was free to refuse if she wanted.

What do I do?

Hayley then remembered what Beth said. If she wanted to find out what this thing was, she needed to face it head on. She slowly reached towards him, slightly scared of what was about to happen next. She hesitated just before taking hold of his hand to think over everything.

What's the worst that could happen?

She grabbed his hand.

A/N: Hey, hope you like this chapter :), I will put up the other chapters I've written sometime after Monday, when I have my last ever chemistry exam! Could make the difference between going to university and not, scary stuff... Wish me luck!
Enough about me, so yeah I hope you like this, thanks for all the lovely reviews, they make me feel so good about all this stuff. I'm thinking about doing another story separate from this in Zac's point of view, what do you think? Let me know :)