Fifteen minutes after escaping Daniel Rothford, Mary had a plan fully set in motion, as if her angry and rattled brain had been thinking it the whole time. She ran through the busy darken winter light, ducking past tall students, weaving into the music hall without bothering to call Zoe. She had debate team and honestly Mary wanted the time to herself.
Mary entered the music room like it was heaven itself, no teachers, no annoying bitchy girls (oops she had to avoid saying that word), and most importantly, no self-possessed idiot to keep bothering her.
With a heavy sigh, Mary cuddled into the far corner of the room where the light of the winter covered window shined gracefully. Mary never turned the lights on in here; technically she wasn't even supposed to be here. But it was more than that, the darkness made Mary feel safer, more hidden from everything else. No spot light to suddenly come in and intrude on her peace, just the darkness and wisps of sunlight that floated elegantly in the air.
Pulling out her notebook, Mary slanted against the brick wall relaxing her body as she wrote. The words came spilling out of her like water from a bottle, no constraint, and no blockage. Her brain was like a word machine, drilling again and again. She was Jane Eyre; she was the nineteen-year-old girl, filled with passion, filled with the heat of knowledge and faith.
There she was in the arms of Mr. Rochester, listening to the humming of his heart, feeling the raising and falling of his chest as he breathed, taking in his sweet smell . . . She was no bird to be taken by this wind. She was free, her wings flying through the airs of Britain. Through the fogs of rain, and through the storms of spring. They're no constraint to her travels, where her should begged to seek refuge . . .
"What are you writing," said Callum peeking suddenly over Mary's shoulder. Mary let out a terrified shriek holding her notebook to her chest instantly. Her breathing became hard, her heart beating as fast as a humming bird.
"Are you mute? Don't you know how to announce yourself, or even say hi!?" Mary yelled in outrage. Callum raised his hands up in defense, his expression apologetic.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, darling. I just got curious and forgot-"
"Don't call me 'darling'," Mary muttered unintelligently. "It's demeaning, and learn to announced yourself. God." Mary raised her hands in exasperation looking away.
"What are you writing anyways?" Callum asked his eyes pondering on her notebook. Mary's hands tightly grasped the notebook, pulling it safely behind her.
"What's with you F4 people? Can't you all just leave me alone for once? First Rothford and now you." Callum frowned at her forgetting the notebook it seems.
"Daniel? What about him?" Callum asked in interest.
"I don't even know. The guy just wants to push my buttons-why are you here again?"
Callum gave her a bigger smile waving a lunch box in front of her. "You agreed to have lunch with me remember? I brought you and I lunch for today. I hope you're not allergic to anything?" Callum held back the lunchbox eyeing her carefully, waiting for an answer. Mary giggled at the face grabbing the lunch bag forcefully. How could she say no to free food?
"Nope. I was going to tell you off, but since you have food, I'll be lenient."
"Well, now I know how to gain your favor in the future," said Callum grinning at her. "But in all seriousness, what did Daniel want with you?" Mary paused over the sandwich she unwrapped to stare back at Callum. His stern expression startled her, what did he care?
"Uh, um," she said her eyes looking down. Why was she so nervous now? "He just went on about me having to treat me better. Utter nonsense really. He just wanted to get under my skin. I swear your friend is a five year in disguise." Mary ended in a light to get rid of the weird atmosphere that was wrapping around the both of them. She took a smooth bite off her sandwich, her stomach growling gratefully at the chance of food. She hadn't eaten anything since 7 am.
"You alright?" Callum asked scooting to sit next to her. Mary grunted a yes scuffing down more food. God she was starving.
"You don't seem alright. You seem sad." Mary masked a laugh, what the heck did these guys know about her anyways? Why didn't they always need to over analyze her? Pushing away her snarky side Mary smiled gratefully at him. No need to cause fights with someone nice enough to bring her lunch.
"It's not sadness. I'm just tired, I didn't get enough sleep last night,' said Mary. Callum raised his eyebrows in concern.
"Why not?"
"School," Mary answered taking another bite of her sandwich.
"I don't understand," he said with a frown.
"What else could it mean? I had school work to do," Mary said sharply. Well that wasn't entirely true. After finishing her homework, Mary had spent most of the night writing on her laptop, sleep evading her until 3 am.
"That book I returned to you," Callum said resting his hands behind his head, staring calmly at the ceiling. "What's it about?" Mary nearly choked on her water staring back at Callum in disbelief. She remembered, that day, he had given her back the copy of Jane Eyre she lost.
"Jane Eyre, one of the best works of British literature known in history," said Mary slowly. Callum didn't reply waiting for more explanation, but Mary couldn't give any. She was too horrified.
"I'm not even fully British and yet I know about Jane Eyre. How is it that you don't even recognize the title?" Mary knew she should calm down, breath, think in Callum shoes. But her inner fangirl totally took over her self-control.
"Don't you know how much you're missing out!? Dude, read it! Read it!" Mary demanded shaking Callum by the shoulders. His eyes widened at her bold move, a grin forming on his pretty face (could she use the work 'pretty' on a boy? It fit more than 'handsome'. He looked too much like a puppy.)
"First, I'm not fully British either, so I think I can be excused. Second, I'm not into the classics, I'm more of a modern literature guy. You know like dystopian. And third, I think you need to breath." Mary ignored the last comment fully digesting everything else.
"Wait. What do you mean you're not fully British?" Mary asked letting go of Callum's front shirt, relaxing against the wall.
"My mother's French. She was a model that my father met when he went to a conference in Paris. The rest, as I am told, is history." Callum clapped his hands spreading his arms wide dramatically.
"Huh. I don't really see it," Mary pondered analyzing Callum's features with a deeper scrutiny. Callum laughed wiping the hair from his hand.
"Well answer my question. How are you 'not fully British'?" He raised his fingers in quotation signals. Mary got nervous all of a sudden, not liking it when people asked about her background.
Just brush a bit, she though to herself before answering. "My father was British. He met my mom when he moved to New York. I got dual citizenship so me and my little brother live here now," said Mary quickly. She didn't dare look back at Callum, hoping to God that he would end it there.
Callum didn't say anything though; he just continued to stare up at the ceiling, appearing to be deep in thought. Silence filled the room, which suited Mary just fine. They both finished eating in silence, letting the relaxing air of the room fill their bones and clear their heads of any stress.
When the bell rang for the end of lunch, Mary got up quickly throwing her things into her bag. Callum raised as well, his eyes drooping tiredly.
"Why do you always look like you just woke up?" Mary asked opening the door.
"Because I'm always half asleep," Callum answered honestly. He turned his face over to her direction. "You're going to Physics today right?" He asked suddenly. Mary's mind went into a sudden alert at the reminder, crap that was the class she had with all of the F4, how could she have forgotten?
"I was." she mused anxiously. "But now-"
"You should go. I don't think the others will cause any trouble, it's sort of getting old." Mary's head snapped at this.
"What?!" she said sharply.
"Yeah. Will and Josh are getting bored really. They never were really into the whole red mark streak to start with. We all thought you were just going to quit school after a few weeks. But when you didn't, it started to get tiring. Anyways, Will and Josh are more interested with women; they have better things on their minds. It's mostly Daniel who's focused on getting at you," said Callum.
Mary remained silent allowing this knowledge to run through her mind. Mary had always hoped that the F4 would finally leave her alone, but this sudden quiet period only made Mary more nervous. She had always known that Daniel Rothford was a pigheaded idiot, but he was still dangerous. There was no telling what he would do to her now that it was only between him and her.
"Maybe he would go after Zoe?" Mary murmured to herself. Her eyes were plastered on the floor, staring intently at it, but never really seeing the rows and rows of squares. She would have to keep close to her friend now that Daniel Rothford was so intent on getting to Mary.
Before Mary knew it, she and Callum had arrived to the door of their Physics class. Not bothering to wait for Callum, Mary took her usual seat, hulling out her usual notebook, hoping for a chance to read over her writing. It was a tedious job and Mary hated it (her writing always sucked beyond measure), but it was better than thinking any more on Daniel Rothford's potential revenge. Those thoughts only unnerved her and she didn't need to deal with that stress right now.
While reading Mary kept her attention alert, her ears open for any sign of dilemma (trouble was more like it). Mostly she heard the rumbling of useless student gossip. There was a new One Direction CD (nope), news about the fall dance (nope), rumors of a pop quiz (crap she forgot), and more useless stuff . . ..
Mary sighed, groaning as she laid her head on the desk in fatigue. She was too tired for this, why didn't she just go to public school? Mary measured her breathing carefully, = not wanting to go into another panic, but also cautious not to fall asleep. And that's happened before . . .
"Oh my god, it's Daniel! He's so hot! I'm so glad he decided to come to class," a girl at Mary's right squealed. Mary let out an exasperated breath. Stupidity. Oh stupidity, how do you never cease to amaze me, she thought grumpily? Mary heard the talking in the room cease, an awed and terrified silence following. Mary didn't raise her head. Her body was so tired . . .
"Hey American, I didn't finish talking to you," Rothford muttered in front of her. Mary peeked through her thick eyelashes. Rothford had taken the seat in front of her. His head was bent down so no one else could hear him as he talked with her. Mary groaned again moving her head so her cheek lay flatly on the desk's top.
"Go. Away. Dumbass." Mary said it slowly letting her voice roll on. She closed her eyes; maybe she could nap for a few minutes . . .
"Listen you-," he whispered angrily.
"My sleep right now is more important than you. Go away," Mary groaned dismissively wrapping her arms around her head.
Rothford opened his mouth as if to argue some more, but got cut off at the sudden arrival of the professor. Thank God, Mary thought raising her head once Rothford turned away.
All the seniors in the class the had noticed the definite increase in coursework expected in many of their class, coupled with the college entrance applications many had straddling at home. However, like many teachers here, Dr. Simmons could have cared less and decided to assign three more pages of homework and add a test the next week. The whole class gave a particularly loud groan at the size of the assignment list for this week.
Shrugging Mary decided to zone out for the rest of the class, opening her textbook as Dr. Simmons rushed out the door to grab more copies. Mary flipped through her tattered notebook searching for an available blank page to use. She didn't have time to start her homework though when a massive hand planted itself on her book. Mary could swear she felt a vein pop in her head in irritation.
"Do you mind?" she asked acidly, not bothering to look at Rothford.
"I wasn't finished talking," Rothford said. Mary breathed out heavily rubbing her temples in impatience.
"I am. Just go away, Rothford."
"Whoa that's a first," said Will Rhys his voice teasing. He laid his elbow on Mary's shoulder, kneeling on the ground so as to be included in the conversation. "A girl shooing away Dan. Is she deranged?" Rhys leaned over to get a closer inspection of her face, feigned curiosity coursing his expression. His wide blue eyes looked her up and down giving her a nasty smirk.
"She isn't much," said Josh McGhee standing beside Rothford's desk. Mary held her breath. Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them, she thought to herself.
"What do I owe the annoyance?" Mary asked sarcastically turning away from Rhys. Rothford narrowed his eyes at her when she gave him a self-satisfied smile. No way she was letting his goons demean her.
"I believe the word is pleasure," said Rhys tapping her nose. Mary slapped his hand away giving him a dirty look. Rhys laughed leaning further into her desk.
"With you boneheads it never is," said Mary opening her textbook again.
"Guys what's going on," called Callum. Mary paused for a brief moment peeking to her right. Rothford noticed this and gave her a measuring look, keeping silent all the same.
"Ah Cal. I was just wondering why Dan's usual appeal isn't striking our friend here in any way," Rhys said motioning in her direction. Mary rolled her eyes closing her book dramatically.
"What do you want? Out with it," Mary spat crossing her arms over her chest. She also crossed her legs, it was her battle position, and she knew it made her feel badass.
Rothford though didn't say a word his expression suddenly anxious.
"So serious," McGhee mocked puckering his lips at her. Mary spared him only a second of a glance before narrowing her eyes back at Rothford.
"What? Come on you've been babbling all this time. Just out with it-"
"Is the loud voice a commoner's thing? Or do you just have no filter?" Rothford interrupted. He crossed his arms as well mimicking her expression as he did. Mary felt her temper rise. As she started to rise from her chair she felt a firm hand hold her down.
Glancing up, Mary was surprised to see Callum holding her down giving Rothford a stern look.
"Dan, I don't think now is the time. The professor will be back at any moment," said Callum squeezing Mary shoulder. Mary got the hint well enough. Don't try anything now, you'll regret it. Hands gripping the sides of her desk. Mary kept her eyes down, willing her body to calm down.
"Cal, what the hell? I just got started," Rothford said in outrage. Mary snorted, her rage nearly dissipated at that point. Callum's hand was still on her shoulder and Mary couldn't get herself to look at him. If she did her face would betray her, probably turn scarlet red at the sight. Ugh, she did not need Rothford or his goons to see that.
"Dan, you'll have other times to do as you wish. When have I been one to stop you? But this isn't the best time." Callum's voice dropped to a low whisper, noticing finally the dozens of heads staring at their direction. Mary flinched at the realization, how long had they been the class show?
As if to save her from salvation, the professor finally appeared, her hands filled with papers. At her appearance the rest of the F4 vanished to their seats. Though Rhys conveniently thought to tug on Mary's braid on the way out.
Rothford, however, remained situated where he was, glaring at Mary entirely. Not even looking back at the professor began to pass out the project sheets for the next week.