Chapter 4:
Sat in the chair in the corner of Father Dom's office was a boy I'd never seen before. He must have been about seventeen years old. He had dark longish hair, like one of those emo kids, emerald green eyes and he had the most perfect smile I'd ever seen in my life, well, with the exception of Jesse's of course.
"This," Father Dominic announced at last, "is Ryan Cooper, and he's a transfer student from Maine."
Ryan got up from where he was sat and held his hand out in front of him. "Pleased to meet you Susannah," he said with a small smile.
"It's Suze…and I'm pleased to meet you too." I extended my hand to meet with his. And let me tell you, I'm so glad I did. He had really strong hands, like Jesse's, except, this time, every could see me touching him, unlike they could when I was with Jesse. Ryan let out a small laugh. " Okay, Suze it is then."
The way my name rolled of his tongue I wanted him to say it over and over again. He had a really soft voice, really gentle. It was perfect. He was perfect.
After a few moments of silence Father Dom spoke again. "Ryan shares the same extraordinary gift that we do Susannah. Ryan too is a mediator."
Okay, if he calls mediating a gift one more time I'm going to lose it. It's a gift that I could really do without. However, by having this so-called gift , I'm going to get to spend more time with the angel faced Ryan. Now that couldn't bee too bad could it? I smiled happily to myself.
"Now, Susannah, I have more forms to fill in with Ryan and Jesse will be waiting for you by the gate now, I changed the time so he was not to worry. See you tomorrow." I waved by to Father Dom and Ryan and made my way outside.
Jesse I could see was leaning against one of the posts, which lead into the Junipero Serra Mission Academy. His hair was lightly blowing in the wind, and into his eyes. He looked like someone out of a scene from an old western. A very hot someone at that. Yet again he was wearing a huge smile. Well that was until he saw that I was hobbling, and very badly at that, towards him. "Susannah, what happened to your leg?" Jesse frowned and looked at me with concern, "You haven't been in another fight have you."
"Gee Jesse," I thought, "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"No Jesse, I have not been in a fight. I just fell of my chair in chemistry, and my leg was re-acquainted with the stone floor."
Jesse let out another one of his small chuckles. "How much does it hurt? Will you be able to walk all the way home?"
"I'm sure I'll…" but I was cut mid-sentence by someone calling my name. "Suze…. hey Suze." I looked around to see who'd called me and to my delight, Ryan was stood at the opposite end of the quad standing next to a 4x4. "Need a ride?" he continued. Jesse grabbed hold of my arm and spun me round to face him. "Who…is that?" he said in a tone, which was pretty obviously filled with anger. "Ow Jesse, that hurt" I cried. "That's Ryan. He's another mediator. Can you get off me please? You're starting to hurt me." But Jesse didn't let go. "JESSE" I shouted. "What are you doing?" He had a tight grip of me and was soon dragging me out of the gates. I managed to break free from Jesse, but his eyes were filled with anger. "THAT Susannah," he pointed towards Ryan, "is why you always end up getting hurt." I looked at Jesse blankly, searching his eyes to try and work out what had made him flip. " What are you talking about? I've only just met Ryan. All he did was offer me a ride home, how is that going to end in me getting hurt." Jesse looked even angrier than before. He began walking up the hill in the direction of my house, but stopped when I screamed at him to make sense of what he had just said.
"Every time you meet a boy you like you end up getting hurt. You have had have the mission collapse on you because of some guy. Last time you met somebody with your gift he nearly had you killed. I will not stand around and see that happen to you again." I couldn't move, I just stared at him. " Do you really think this time is going to be different Querida?" I walked up to where he was standing and stared for a few seconds. " This is why I didn't want you coming to protect me. I knew that if I even spoke to a boy, especially if he was another mediator, you would go psycho on me because you would give me the whole you bring all this pain upon yourself lecture." Jesse looked as if he was about to wring my neck, so I decided to take a few steps backwards in case. Not that this would have done me any good seeing as he did have supernatural powers. I however was not prepared for what happened next. Jesse walked up to me and placed his two hands on my shoulders. "You Susannah Simon are just a silly little girl," he looked at me but this time rather than looking angry he looked hurt. Then he just dematerialised.
Even though he had looked hurt, I was so angry with Jesse I had no time for sympathy. And he had called me a little girl. "I'll show him," I thought to myself, and I made my way back to the school parking lot to see if the offer from Ryan was still standing.