A/N: Ok, here is chapter 2! Thanks to anyone who reviewed or put this story on alert!
Chapter 2: Flirts
His eyes were a deep warm brown and their depth was seemingly endless. My head started swimming from lack of oxygen. Aimee had continued talking next to me, unaware of anything that was going on. Suddenly her talking cut off and I heard a small gasp of surprise. That small noise was all it took to snap him back to reality, because he shook his head and quickly continued walking down the hall, at a faster pace than before. I furiously blinked my eyes, trying to see the boring hallway again, but it was like his face was seared in my mind. Finally my eyes came into focus and I turned to look at a very shocked Aimee.
"What was that all about?" She demanded. "One minute we're having a perfectly normal conversation, and then I see you locking eyes with Seth, these goofy grins on your faces…" She trailed off. "Oh. No. I see what's going on! You like him!" She accused.
I giggled, trying to seem nonchalant, but even I could hear the edge to it. "What are you talking about Aimee? He was just walking down the hallway and glanced over at us. He stopped and stared so I glared back." I hoped my lie sounded convincing enough. Apparently not.
She scoffed. "Don't even give me that Kayla. It was written all over your face." She giggled. I sighed.
"I've never even talked to him…" Was my next pitiful argument.
"So what?" She still wasn't buying that.
"So I'm not shallow enough to like someone only based on looks!" I forcefully said.
"If you say so." She said, rolling her eyes and digging back into her salad.
This could not be happening. I had my mind convinced that I didn't like him, but my heart wasn't so sure. Something was telling me that this went deeper than looks, because no boy had ever had that effect on me. Plenty of cute guys had glanced over my way, but not to see what I looked like, more to blatantly stare at me as if to say 'how come she understands Algebra but I can't?' And instead of the soft, warm feeling from Seth's eyes, their eyes were full of disdain, and sometimes even hatred. Seth had seemed as transfixed by me as I was of him, but how was that possible? I was plain, shy, and a nerd.
We made it through lunch without revisiting the topic, but Aimee would occasionally glance curiously my way. I tried to keep the subject far away from anything that would remind us of Seth. Our first class after lunch was drawing, one of my favorite classes. Aimee loved it too. Another plus is that nearly every art class had free seating so I could sit with Aimee. We entered the classroom and our noses were immediately assaulted with the distinct smells of tempera paint, clay, and colored pencils. I breathed in deeply, relishing in the smell I hadn't smelled since the previous year. All the seats were filled except for two, thankfully next to each other. They were in between a blond boy who was dressed modestly and sitting quietly, and none other than Seth Clearwater. I tried to take the seat by the blond but Aimee wasn't having that. She steered me towards the other seat.
I sat down at the seat and tried to look busy, digging in my bag for a pencil, then 'accidentally' dropping it, talking enthusiastically to Aimee, and doodling a piece of scrap paper. I felt a small tap on my left shoulder, Seth's side. I turned slightly towards him.
"Hi. I'm Seth Clearwater. Your name is Kayla, right?"
I nodded shyly. "Hi. Yeah I'm Kayla Scott."
"I've had a few classes with you but I don't think I've ever talked to you."
"I'm not a very talkative person. I'm usually the quiet nerd in the back staying out of peoples way." Stupid. Why did I say that? That was more than he needed to know, and probably more than he wanted to know. To my surprise he laughed, but not at me, more in a why that he thought what I said was amusing. I smiled a little.
"The not "nerds," he said, complete with bunny ears with his fingers, "aren't very nice to the "nerds" here are they?" He asked, genuinely curious.
"They are downright bullies." I mumbled, frowning without realizing it. The memories of how they treated me my whole life were sad to relive.
"What have they done to you?" He asked softly. I didn't know why he was talking to me, but I was glad he was. I glanced over to Aimee, who seemed to be deep in conversation with the shy, blond boy. I lowered my voice and leaned in towards Seth a little.
"When I was little they copied my answers. Then it escalated to teasing me about everything under the sun. Then they would steal things off my desk or purposefully block me from even getting to my desk. In middle school I was "accidentally" shoved into a row of lockers while I was changing out of my P.E. uniform. I've had laser pointers shone in my eyes. Last year some sophomores in my Geometry class called me Kelsey all year, no matter how many times people corrected them, and then they would steal my completed work…" I trailed off. I sounded like a whiney baby. I turned embarrassedly towards him, and saw sadness in his eyes. He patted my shoulder, but it wasn't awkward at all.
"I'm sorry people did those things to you." He said solemnly.
I shrugged. "Thanks, but I'm used to it."
He frowned and looked like he wanted to say more, but our teacher came into the room. Her name was Ms. Berkley.
"Ok class, we are diving right into self portraits as our first exercise!" She said excitedly. "Choose a partner. We are going to learn how to draw individual parts of the face before we draw the whole face. Today we draw eyes!"
Seth turned to me. "Be my partner?" I said yes, but then suddenly remembered Aimee. However, when I turned to include her, she was already sitting still while the blond guy drew her eyes. I shrugged and sat for Seth to draw my eyes. He rendered them perfectly, adding subtle details that most people missed. We weren't using color, but he put flecks in my eyes right where there were gold flecks in my eyes and he shaded them to show the different blues of my iris. Too soon it was my turn, and I felt panic in my stomach. Would he tease my mediocre drawing skills? I tensely gripped my pencil and attempted his eyes.
He had eyes like chocolate, and I had to focus very hard on my paper or else I would stop drawing all together and just stare into them. I lightly sketched the outline shapes of his eyes, determined to get the shape just right. Once I had the general idea of them I made darker, more definite lines to shape them. I got the shape as close as I could and then made my way on to the irises. Their shape was easier, a perfect circle. I drew the pupil in and carefully colored it black. His eyes were solid brown, so I just gently shaded to get the closest tone to them. I made sure to add in the reflection of light to them, and each little individual eyelash, them I was as close to done as I was going to get. I nervously showed him my drawing, and he smiled huge.
"You did a good job!" He said.
If I was the type of person who blushes, I would have then. "Thanks, but it's nowhere near as good as yours."
"My eyes aren't as beautiful as yours." He said, no trace of joking in his voice.
I paused just a minute too long. "I like your eyes. They're warm, like melted chocolate. My favorite food." Oh. My. Gosh. Where did that come from? Stupid, stupid, stupid, Kayla!
"Besides the sweet goodness of chocolate, is there any other reason you like it?" He smiled, a hint of teasing now, but not rude.
"It makes me happy when I'm sad. And all the best holidays have chocolate." I smiled, the end a joke.
"Yep, no holiday is complete without chocolate!" He joked back at me. Were we flirting? I doubted it.
"Too bad my crazy mom barely buys anything chocolate anymore."
"And why is that?"
"She thinks I'm too fat so she doesn't buy much of that stuff anymore unless she's in a good mood. Which is like never." Why did these things keep coming out of my mouth?
"I don't think you're fat. Athletic looking to me. Do you play any sports?"
"Yes! I play softball nearly every day. I'm a pitcher, so I have to practice a lot. Do you play sports?"
"No." He said sadly. "I have, umm, family obligations and stuff. But maybe I could come see you play sometime."
I smiled enormously. "I'd like that."
He smiled too. "Cool."
The bell rang just then.
I groaned softly. "Well, I'll see you next time." I was sad.
"What class do you have next?"
I sighed. "Honors English, with a speech first thing."
"That stinks. I have History. Hey, can we compare schedules?"
"Sure!" We quickly grabbed our schedules and set them side by side.
"Hey!" He exclaimed. "We have Spanish and Chemistry together tomorrow!"
"Nice! See you then!"
I rushed out of the room, and up the stairs into the English hallway. Aimee was right behind me.
"So, Aimee, what's his name?" I said in a sing song voice.
"Whose name?" She asked, trying to play innocent.
"Oh come on. The shy blond boy! You know, the one you flirted with the whole class…" I looked at her expectantly.
"Did not! And his name is Levi." She said, almost dreamily.
"You do like him!" I accused.
"Do not!" She argued again. "Anyway, did you practice your speech for English?"
"Nice subject change." I accused scathingly. "Yeah right. I barely had any time!"
"Me neither. Oh well, at least we have a whole semester to make up for this sure to happen failure." I agreed and we entered the room, the smell of books hanging about. The class went quickly, and soon we were on the bus home. For some reason, the bus came through my neighborhood in the afternoon but not the morning. We had managed to struggle through our speeches, doing surprisingly well for having not practiced. My stop was first and hers was last, which was pretty unfortunate. I got off and crossed the street, hyper Daisy coming to greet me at the door. I grabbed a string cheese out of the fridge, said hi so my mom, and collapsed on my bed to relive the day.
A/N: So there you have it! Lot's of people put this on alert, I hope you guys review this chapter. PWEEZ? puppy dog eyes