I'm not Kelley Armstrong.

This chapter is a bit different. Kind of a fill in chapter that just popped up in my mind as I was writing the last one. This one is in third person POV, which I'm not used to writing in but let me know how I go. It's set half way through the last chapter.


Derek studied Chloe as her brow furrowed in concentration. Her eyes were glued to the page full of numbers in front of her as she tapped the pencil on the desk. She scrawled some numbers down on her page after reading the formula over and over again. Staring down at the paper triumphantly, she handed the piece of paper to the tall, dark haired boy with a dazzling grin on her face. His emerald green eyes scanned the page until he stumbled upon a mistake. Turning the paper around to show her, he pointed at question five.

"X equals four?" Chloe asked, hopeful.

"You forgot to carry the one here." He jabbed his finger at her working out.

Chloe dropped her head to the desk and let out a frustrated groan.

"I'm never going to understand this. All I'm doing is wasting your time." She said, feeling stupid. Derek was a genius, so she knew why her math teacher had assigned him as her tutor. Chloe felt inferior compared to him, she didn't like feeling dumb.

Derek wasn't used to consoling people. "You'll understand it eventually." He said, trying not to sound condescending. His patience was growing short, but he wanted to make an effort for Chloe's sake. "Now come on, try again. Just remember to carry the numbers when you do your working out. Otherwise your answer will be way off." He gave her another sheet of paper with more math questions printed on it.

Chloe took the paper, feeling less than confident this time.

Again, Derek watched her as she made an attempt at solving the problems. He thought she was pretty and that was strange for him. Never in his life had he paid any attention to girls but Chloe was different. Her blonde hair stopped just below her shoulders. It looked soft and touchable. Freckles scattered the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones; it gave her an almost innocent look. From what Derek had seen during gym class, she was petite but in the short few weeks that Chloe had been at the school, she had started to fill out a bit which made her body look more her age. What really struck Derek about Chloe were her eyes. The blueness of her eyes captivated him. He never thought that I girl would catch his attention like Chloe did, but he knew there was something about her that made him want to be with her.

There was one problem, though. Simon. Derek knew that Simon had a crush on Chloe, but Simon liked a lot of girls. He'd date one for a while, and then dump them so easily, without even blinking. Derek knew he could never compete with his brother. Simon was charming, good looking and friendly. Derek was none of those. His face could be the 'before' shot for an acne commercial and he had the charm of a dead fish. There was no denying that Derek wanted to be more like his brother if it meant being with Chloe. Though with his luck, he knew that Simon would get the girl. He always did, no question. Girls weren't interested in Derek; they were interested in handsome, blonde haired boys with Asian features and a killer smile, not some dark, brooding kid who barely talked.

Derek didn't realise that he had been staring at Chloe until she tilted her head up. "Are you okay?" She asked. "You look like you've completely spaced out." She said, flashing white teeth as she smiled.

He shook his head of the thoughts and then nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." He mumbled, turning his head away to hide the blush that crept onto his face.

Chloe nodded and went back to her work. She hid her smile behind her hair. The look that Derek had on his face had amused her. It almost looked like he had been staring at her but she couldn't be sure. She shook her head of her thoughts and returned to the intimidating numbers on the page in front of her. Sighing, her pencil made contact with the paper as she made another attempt at scrawling down the answers.

After an hour of constant battle with the papers, Chloe closed her textbook and scanned her eyes over the last three pages that she had just filled out.

"Do you want to finish up for today?" She asked Derek.

"Depends." He took the pages and studied them. His brow furrowed as his eyes lowered to the bottom of the sheet. Derek raised his eyebrows at how much Chloe had improved in just one hour. Over all, he was impressed. She had still made some small mistakes here and there but it was still a great improvement. He looked up at Chloe to find her twiddling her thumbs and chewing on her lower lip nervously.

Derek grunted in approval and handed her back the papers. "Do you think you understand it a little better?"

Chloe shrugged. "It's going to take a while, but I guess this helped. Thanks, Derek." She said as she tucked the papers in the back of her math folder and stuffed it in her bag, and then flung it over her shoulder.

The pair walked out into the student parking lot of their school. Chloe began to make her way home, regretting leaving her jacket in her room. She had almost made her way out of the parking lot when she heard a voice behind her.

"How are you getting home?"

Chloe, startled, squeaked and spun around on her heel. She would have tumbled to the ground if it weren't for Derek's firm grip on her arm.

"Do you not make noise when you walk?" She asked, trying to get her heart back to a normal pace.

"Not really." He said with a shrug. "How are you getting home?"

"I usually walk."

Derek raised an eyebrow at her. "Come on, I'll give you a ride." He said as he gestured towards his car.

"A-are you sure?" Chloe stuttered.

"It's not like I'm going out of my way. We're neighbours. Now come on, get in." Derek made his way to his car and Chloe followed, trying to keep the same pace as him. The blonde girl hopped in the passenger seat as Derek held it open for her. Just as Chloe had fastened her seat belt, Derek was in the driver's seat with the keys in the ignition.

Derek drove Chloe home in comfortable silence. Every now and then he would peek at her out of the corner of his eye. Each time he did this, she was staring down at her hands.

Finally, he pulled into her drive way and slowed the car to a stop.

"Thank you, Derek. For the tutoring and the lift." She turned to him and smiled. Girls never smiled at Derek. Everybody felt intimidated by him, so it was nice to have somebody who was somewhat comfortable around him that wasn't family.

Derek didn't smile back though. He just nodded and grunted. "Just let me know if you ever want a ride home."

The blonde girl smiled gratefully at him once more and got out of the car, rushing towards the door as Derek watched her. When she was safely inside, he left.


Chloe was welcomed home by shouting. Andrew and Gwen hadn't noticed the front door open and close; they remained oblivious to everything but their own insults and yelling about who said what and who was at fault. The older blonde woman, Gwen, was pulling at her hair as she shouted over the top of Andrew, trying to get her point across. The man bought his hand up, as if to punch her but quickly slammed it down on the kitchen bench, causing both Gwen and Chloe to flinch as she peered around the corner. The shouts continued as Chloe dragged herself up the stairs, feeling a little upset in her sudden mood change.

She flopped down on her bed and studied the ceiling, finding nothing of interest. Gwen and Andrew could still be heard in the kitchen, both shouting over the top of each other. The woman's voice was becoming hoarse the more she screamed at her husband. Andrew was swearing like a sailor at poor Gwen.

Chloe was tired of hearing their screams over her music, so she did the first thing she thought of and grabbed her sketchpad and pencils, and then stuffed them in her backpack. Leaving her room by the balcony, she made her way into the woods. After a few minutes of walking, she looked back and could barely see the house. There was no way that Andrew or Gwen could see her now. The further Chloe walked, the quieter the shouting became. She walked until she couldn't hear a trace of the argument that her foster parents faced.

Behind a thick layer of branches, she found a small clearing next to a stream. A log was placed against a tree where she decided to sit and pull out her sketchbook. She drew the beautiful scene in front of her as the fish made their way up and down the stream. Her sketch turned out rough but she decided that she could always do a better copy of it when she got back to her room.

For a while, Chloe sat back and let the sun beat down on her face, not knowing that she was being watched.


Derek had dropped Chloe off and drove the small distance to his house. He had heard Andrew and Gwen yelling at each other while he was parked outside their house, waiting for Chloe to go inside. He felt bad for leaving her there, but how was he supposed to explain to her that he could hear them when she couldn't? He closed the front door behind him to be greeted by his father.

"Hey, son. How did tutoring go?" Kit asked to Derek.

"Fine." He grunted. "I'm going for a run."

"Be careful." Kit called as his son bounded up the stairs.

Stepping into his room, Derek strode towards the cupboard that held his clothes. He pulled off his baggy jacket and replaced it with a loose shirt. His pants were replaced with black gym shorts. He draped his navy blue jacket over his arm and pulled on his running shoes as he headed out the back door into the woods.

Now that the sun had come out, Derek left his jacket on the branch of a tree where the forest started. He ran through the jungle of branches and leaves and decided to go off his usual track, so he made his way over the rocks in the stream and went east – towards Andrew and Gwen's house. A small, brown rabbit hopped in his path as he came to a stop, then it quickly scurried away into a nearby bush. Animals weren't fond of Derek, most living things weren't. The boy decided to take a break and slumped down at the roots of a large tree that stood a few feet away from the stream.

A movement caught his attention on the other side of the water. The pretty blonde girl he had been tutoring less than an hour ago was making her way towards the bed of the stream, and settled for sitting on a log with her back propped up against a tree. She dumped her back pack at her feet and pulled out a black covered sketch book. Derek watched as the blonde girl looked at the scenery in front of her and started sketching in her book. He considered approaching her and striking up a conversation, but he didn't want to interrupt her drawing. The boy settled for admiring her from afar, feeling ashamed of his lack of social skills. He studied her face in the distance, how her nose scrunched up when she was concentrating. Cute.

'I could just run past, stop, and act as if I stumbled upon her by coincidence.' He thought to himself. But Derek didn't want to scare the poor girl. Although he didn't get the same reaction from Chloe as he got from anybody else, he still felt insecure. Most people at his school avoided him like the plague, whereas Chloe wasn't bothered by his existence – and he liked that.

The blonde set her sketchbook aside and looked around her once more at the scenery before leaning back against the base of the tree behind her. Derek heard her let out a content sigh as she closed her eyes. He so badly wanted to approach her and he knew that she wouldn't turn him away, so what the hell was stopping him?

"Just man up." He mumbled to himself furiously as he stepped out of the bushes, into the view of the small, blonde girl.


I'm going to leave it there because I want what happens next to be in Chloe's POV. Hopefully this chapter isn't too bad. Reviews would be much appreciated!