Chapter 2
Ruby Mary Johnson bit into the fresh green apple with a crunch as juice streamed into her mouth and dribbled down her chin slightly. Grimacing in embarrassment she wiped her mouth and chin with a napkin before taking a smaller bite of the apple.
"Will you ever learn to eat properly?" laughed Andrew, her best friend. His warm brown eyes gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the window of the cafeteria.
The green eyed girl shrugged, her long red locks shimmering in the sunlight. The brown haired boy, Andrew, smiled cheekily before taking a bite of his tuna sandwich.
The cafeteria was a din of inseparable noise that gave Ruby a slight headache as the incessant chatter continued throughout lunch. Andrew finally left her for his Geography lesson on the first floor of the school and Ruby headed along the ground floor, striding past a small group of jocks and cheerleaders. She naturally ignored their snide remarks and walked, unconcerned, into the history classroom and took a seat next to the window blazing with afternoon sunlight.
As she sat there tapping her foot on the floor impatiently and nibbling on her plastic pen top the classroom slowly filled with uneager students, wishing that the day was over but knowing they had to get through a double period of history before it was. When the teacher arrived there was only two empty seats left, one of them behind Ruby and the other at the front of the classroom. Mrs. Eddington stood in front of the blackboard, a piece of chalk posed and ready to write when she was interrupted by a cough. There was silence immediately and all eyes turned to the direction of the door.
There was a boy stood there, quite a tall, handsome boy with a fine head of straight blond hair and a sharply pointed chin. His creamy skin was glowing healthily and his lips were twisted in a polite smile. He had sunglasses on.
"Excuse me," said the boy loudly, "I'm new here and I don't know if I'm in the right place."
Something quivered in Ruby when she watched his beautifully crafted lips move. He didn't remove his sunglasses and Ruby was meekly curious to see what colour his eyes were.
"Name?" asked the teacher, picking up the register.
"Robert Slater," the boy said clearly.
Mrs. Eddington flicked through the register, her eyes scanning the names and Robert watched her. The students kept their eyes on Robert, a few of the girls whispering to each other and giggling.
"Yes," she confirmed, "yes, your name is right here. I didn't realise this was a new register. Take a seat."
Ruby watched as Robert nodded and walked through the rows, heading for the seat behind her. Something jerked in her chest and her breath lodged in her throat. Robert slid into the seat behind her but Ruby couldn't bring herself to turn around and greet him.
"Hi there," whispered Courtney Heavens, "I'm Courtney."
Mrs. Eddington began scribbling on the board with the chalk and Ruby scowled. Courtney was a slut. Pure and simple. She had been with every popular guy in this school and the other high school and now she had set her sights on new pray.
"Hi," replied Robert. Ruby could imagine the blond girl with a ton of makeup smiling slyly behind her and Robert unable to look away from her.
"So, were do you come from?" she asked him softly.
"Around. Nowhere. Everywhere," Robert said sharply, "I go where I want and I do what I want."
"Oh," breathed Courtney, a little taken aback by his sudden snappishness before her tone of voice reverted to flirtatious, "well you sound like my kind of guy. You should come to my party that I'm have this weekend. It's my seventeenth birthday."
Courtney practically purred the last line.
"Maybe," said Robert, who didn't sound to interested. Perhaps because he hadn't seen her with his eyes yet and had to look through his sunglasses.
"Now," said Mrs. Eddington with authority, putting an end to all the conversations, "Who has done the homework?"
Half the class raised their hands unenthusiastically. The other half shuffled uncomfortably in their seats, Courtney being one of them.
"Detention," said Mrs. Eddington firmly, "To those who have not completed the homework. To those who have leave it on my desk at the end of the lesson."
For Ruby and everyone else the lesson dragged on with no consideration of the students desiring to leave school behind for another day. Everything that she teacher said just went in through one ear and out the other for most of the students but some of them were attentive and a little bit sank in. It really was ridiculous having the most boring lesson as a double period at the end of the day.
The only interesting thing that happened in the lesson was that Robert was asked to remove his glasses and refrain from putting them on until he left the classroom. Robert must have obeyed because Mrs. Eddington didn't complain again. Ruby was extremely tempted to twist in her seat and have a look at his eyes but she resisted, not wanting to make a fool of herself but there was something else. Something she couldn't describe, almost like a warning at the back of her mind that said she should think about him, that there was something wrong with him that she wouldn't be able to comprehend.
That was stupid though, she told herself forcefully, but she didn't risk looking into his eyes.
When the bell echoed down the halls signalling the end of another school day Ruby leapt out of her seat and picked up her stuff. She was almost the first one out of the classroom but somebody beat her to the door.
Robert paused at the door and turned around, staring behind him and straight into Ruby's frightened green eyes. His eyes were exactly the same shade of green as hers but they held so much more, so much more wisdom, a fierce strength and a powerful personality. His stare left an invisible imprint on her skin and Ruby couldn't look away, she was falling…
