Hi, thank you to the one person that reviewed so far! I hope this is better than the first chapter. Enjoy!
Tessa stares out the window and watches the raindrops pitter-patter against it before sliding down. She always thought it was a stereotype that London was always raining, but based on the weather since she'd been here, she was beginning to doubt that. Then again, she hadn't been here that long, so she probably shouldn't judge the book by its cover.
Nate offered to drive her. He claimed he had nothing better to do since he didn't have a job yet after being fired from his last one. Nate was going to be the one who paid for her tuition at the Institute, but after being fired, Tessa had to apply for the scholarship last minute. It was practically a miracle that she got in, because the plane ticket was already booked.
"Hello? Earth to Tessie? Are you in there?" A voice startles her out of her reverie. It seems annoyed, so she knows Nate had been trying to get her attention for a while now.
She blinks. "Yeah. Sorry. What was that?"
Nate sighs. "Don't you think it weird that they haven't asked you to pack any clothes or something? I mean, they don't expect you to wear the uniform all the time, right? For the time I went there, it was included in the letter."
"What letter?" Nate snickers, and Tessa feels dread coil in her stomach. "What? Nate, you'd better tell me." she says threateningly.
Nate snickers again. "You didn't get a letter? The one they give you to formally invite you to the school and tell you what things you need to bring? It's basically only clothes, they provide everything else, but… that's a pretty important thing." He seems to be trying to contain his laughter.
Tessa scrunches up her nose, thinking. She doesn't think there was a letter. Then it hits her. The fancy looking envelope that she stuffed with the rest of the junk mail, the feeling that maybe it was important, but she threw it away anyway. Crap.
"Crap indeed, little sis. You're on your own for this." Nate flashes a grin from the rearview mirror.
Had she said that aloud? Crap again. She realizes the full extent of the complications that come with not having any clothes except for the one's she's wearing and her uniform. Crappity crap crap crap. CRAP.
Still sulking, Tessa doesn't notice when the car turns into the parking lot of her new school. It is a huge church, with towers spiraling toward the sky, as if they wish to touch the clouds, and stained glass windows that dot the walls like many-colored eyes. When she finally looks up, her jaw drops. Nate gives another smile, clearly amused at her ill-disguised awe. She glares at him.
Tessa is about to resume staring at the London Institute, which seems very intimidating, when her view is obstructed by a scowling boy standing right in front of the car. He has hair as black as ink, and piercing blue eyes, he is almost equally intimidating.
"Oi! Are you going to just sit there, gawping, or are you going to get out of your car and cease obstructing my view?" He wrenches open the car door and pulls her out, dumping her unceromoniously onto the pavement. It scratches her hands, leaving a small but painful cut on Tessa's palm. She winces.
Tessa is suddenly angry. She just got here, why can't she gawp? He's lived here for longer. What could he possibly be looking at that the car blocks it. Also, how will pulling her out of the car make it move away faster? "How rude," she says, "are you like this to all the new people? Maybe that's why there are so few people here." Indeed, there are only a few people outside. There are probably more inside the Institute, but Tessa could only think of that to say. There is a classically pretty girl with blond hair that falls down her back in waves, a woman that couldn't have been that much older than Tessa, with a short stature, but clearly had an aura of authority, and a man with red hair and several burn marks on his shirt sleeve.
The boy seems momentarily startled, as if no one ever speaks to him this way and he is surprised she dared to. He needs it, she thinks to herself. Then he smooths his face into an expression of loathing and something else Tessa can't place, and storms back into the enormous building.
Will tries not to think about her as he practically flees from the outside. He tells himself it is only because Charlotte made them stand out there in the rain to wait for them, and he wanted to go inside for warmth and dryness, but he knows he fooled no one, much less himself. He can't stop thinking about her eyes, those beautiful grey eyes that seemed like the sky before a storm.
He can't afford to think those thoughts, though, so he runs instinctively to the Institute's enormous library. When he arrives, however, it is not as unoccupied as he hoped it might be.
"What's wrong?" asks the silver-eyed boy sitting at one of the large tables, clutching a violin. He sounds concerned.
"Nothing." Will says roughly as he pulls out a chair to sit in.
"You're lying," says Jem, but there is no accusation in his tone. He is simply stating a fact, as if he had just said the sky is blue.
"I suppose I can't hide anything from you." says Will.
"What, after all these years of you annoying me from dawn to dusk, and you think I wouldn't know when you lie?" Jem's voice is mocking, but kind. He wouldn't push, he never does.
Will replies cheerfully and they fall into their usual pattern of banter. Then Jem frowns.
"Why did you come in here? Shouldn't you be greeting the new girl?" His face then clears as he realizes. Will wishes he didn't. "What did you say?" Jem asks, resigned.
"Why of course, she dropped down and fainted at the beautiful sight of me, and I had no choice but to flee." Will proclaims dramatically. Jem frowns, but Will can see through to his carefully masked amusement.
He grins.
Jem grins back.