Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning at 6:47 AM, feeling more than a little tired. I then realized that, "Holy Crap!!! I'm gonna be late for school!". As soon as I hopped off my bed, I crumpled to the ground in a heap of pain. I had totally forgotten about my sprained ankle.

Hoping that Johnathen hadn't gone to school yet, I hollered his name and asked him to go get the crutches that were stored in the basement. There was no reply. I yelled again and again, but then had to accept the fact that he wasn't home. With angry tears in my eyes, I managed to drag myself out of my room and discover that the crutches were right outside my door.

"Hmmm…. That's odd." I said to myself as I grabbed them to help me get off the cold floor. I went to my dresser and grabbed out a purple camisole, some bell-bottom jeans, and skin-tight black hoodie. Then, because I only had about 30 minutes, I hobbled to the bathroom to take a 5 minute shower and to throw on my clothes and some mascara. Then, I some-how got down the stairs without falling and limped into the kitchen. I got a granola bar, which I crammed down my throat, and went to go retrieve my backpack from my room and to brush my hair and my teeth. As soon as I got that done, I ran down the stairs as fast as my ankle and crutches would permit, and I ran out of the house, slamming the door behind me.

I made it to my car, a black 1998 Mitsubishi Gallant, with about 5 minutes to get to Lake George High. I opened the door, threw my back-pack in the back seat, along with my crutches, and I floored it as I pulled out of my long and twisty driveway. I chuckled, hoping that the neighbors heard and woke up, considering they always do that to me on the weekends. The drive to the school was short and sweet, and I got there just in time to have a couple of minutes to situate myself (and not fall flat on my face as I took my bag and my crutches out of the backseat). Then I limped towards the entrance of the school, hoping I wouldn't trip going up the stairs.

When I met up with Sara who was finishing her homework in our first class (which was English), and she didn't seem at all surprised by the crutches.

"What did you do this time?" she asked, not even looking up from her paper.

"Ugh, I only fell down the stairs. Nothin' to worry about." I replied, thinking about how I fell down 2 different kinds of stairs yesterday.

"Well, anything else interesting happen yesterday?" Sara questioned suspiciously as she looked up from my homework and immediately knew that I was hiding something from her.

"Yes, something else did happen yesterday." I dragged on, hoping that Mrs. Begs, the teacher, would start the class before I got attacked by Sara's interrogating.

"Well, what was it?" she now said, looking both curious and annoyed.

I sighed and finally told her about meeting Kiorae, and about my brother's suspension for getting in a fight with Kiorae's brother, Kaylen.

Her eyes got wicked wide as if she knew something that I didn't, then I realized that she was looking over my shoulder. I turned around and my eyes got wider, too. Speak of the devil, Kiorae had just walked in the classroom. Mrs. Begs introduced him to the class and beckoned him to sit in the last open desk, which was directly behind me…

"Oh, crap." I muttered hoping that I wouldn't embarrass myself any further than yesterday, and the fact the I had to use crutches. Of course, Kiorae noticed who I was, and looked worried as he sat down behind me.

"Hello Anna." he started, leaning over then desk and looking concerned. "I really hope that injury isn't because I caught you the wrong way. Are you alright?"

Okay, that just made me blush a wickedly deep red color, and Kiorae seemed waytoo concerned to the point where this conversation was just turning out to be really embarrassing. Or so I thought.

"No, I just fell down a different set of stairs yesterday. So, don't worry, just a sprain! And thanks again for preventing a possibly broken neck." I said as I tried to enlighten the conversation. I really didn't like seeing that amount of unhappiness in his eyes.

"Okay, that's good." Kiorae grimaced, as if the words had caused him physical pain. He actually looked angry with himself for some odd reason.

Just then, Mrs. Begs started today's lesson and lecture on an upcoming play that we were going to go see called "The King and I".

All through the lesson, I had the weirdest feeling of eyes boring into the back of my head. Plus, every time I looked back, Kiorae was looking right at me. Creepy, I shuddered, but I still secretly enjoyed the intricate feeling of having him watching me. I tried to concentrate on the lecture, but was thankful when the bell rang so I could see what Sara thought about Kiorae. But before I could even talk to her, Kiorae was at my side, asking if I needed any help carrying my books, and to help me to my next class. I was so completely befuddled, then Sara caught my eye and winked, which gave me some sort of confidence (perhaps stupidity), so I gave Kiorae my books and started to stride confidently out the door. Then, all off a sudden, some random kid ran into me, causing me to fall down and hit a wall while the kid that knocked me over got up and ran away without even saying sorry.

Kiorae now looked really angry as he glared at the kid running away from the crime scene. He then turned his gaze back to me and started to panic when he saw that there were angry tears in my eyes. Darned ankle!

"Oh My God!!! Are you okay!?! I could have prevented that from happening! Is your ankle okay? Is it broken? Do you need to go to the nurse? Oh gosh, this is all my fault!" he worried on, saying that it was all his fault that I got hurt. My angry tears running down my face didn't help as I was trying to comfort him, saying that I'm totally fine, with exception of my now more screwed-up ankle, and that no-one could of prevented this from happening. I tried to get up on my own but as soon as I put any weight on my ankle, I yelped and immediately switched my weight to the other leg and almost fell over again before he caught me. I told Kiorae that I didn't want to go, but he still insisted that he bring me to the nurse to check it out to make sure I didn't break my ankle, which, knowing me, could be a strong possibility.

His next action made me blush even more as he picked me up, books, crutches, and all, and carried me to the nurse's office. He carried me the entire way there like I weighed lighter than a feather. I was still so extremely embarrassed that I avoided his eyesight the whole walk to the nurses office. When we finally got there, he laid me down on one of the waiting chairs and called the nurse over to look at my ankle. It turned out that it just got sprained even more than it already was, and I was told to stay off of it for a couple days. By now, I had turned a bright crimson red and I really wanted crawl into a shell and die of embarrassment, but Kiorae was being really kind and gentle when the nurse told us to go back to class. Then he gingerly picked me up off the chair set me on my feet.

Our eyes linked and, again, I was mesmerized by his beauty, and I realized just how tall he really was. Kiorae was at least 6 feet tall and had me by a good 5 inches. And he was very, very, strong, and very, very, sweet. Then it hit me. Golden and blue colors fringed my eyesight so I could see him and only him. I had fallen completely and undeniably in love with Kiorae.