“Are we allowed iPods in here?” I asked, looking up to meet David's stare.
He made no effort to look away, smiling before saying, “Yes.”
And my pulse quickened. He just looked so pleased with himself for something, like a schoolboy who just got a new video game. “We weren’t allowed iPods at my old school.” I looked back at the kid for a second. “Private school.”
“Figured as much.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“No. I just have a knack for categorisation.” He cocked his head a little.
“Hm, me too.”
“Then we should get along great.” He dropped the grin and moved into all-business mode, placing a heavy rectangle book on the table in front of me, tapping it twice. “This one’s for you.”
“Yay,” I said in my most sarcastic tone ever. The pages were thin and the cover was hard, which could only mean boring.
“You know,” David said, sitting down, “you’re awfully quiet. I expected you to say more by now.”
“We’re in a library,” I whispered.
He laughed and looked around. “We don’t have teachers in here. No one cares if you talk.”
I sat taller and slowly turned my head. He was right. I didn’t even notice. There was no desk and no old, grey-haired woman with large-rimmed glasses shushing us when we breathed. “Cool.”
“Yeah.” He sat back, leaning his elbow on the desk, a pen coming up to the corner of his mouth. “It’s pretty cool.”
I looked away from him, finally calming myself enough to act human, and opened the giant book. “What page?”
“You know—” he inclined toward me, his voice becoming a husky whisper, “—it’s your first day, so we can either fill you in on Mr Benson’s class, or—” He paused, looking at the student near us.
I rested my cheek on the back of my hand. “I already prefer the or.” And as soon as that creepy sentence slipped past my lips to ruin my life, I dropped my hand, my head begging to follow.
But, instead of throwing a spitball at me before quickly fleeing the room, David just leaned back, crossing his hands behind his head. “You know, I think I’m beginning to like you already, Ara-Rose.”
Which was great, except, I was already in love with him. “It’s just Ara, by the way,” I said.
He sat straight and looked at me with one slightly squinted eye, then folded his arms. “Okay, Ara. What’s your next class?”
“Uh, hold on a sec.” I dug into my backpack, pulled out the schedule and map, then passed them to David, who read the page, wearing an impish grin. “What?”
“We have quite a few classes together.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Including music.” He cleared his throat into his fist.
“Is that...bad?” All the blood ran from my face as he handed the schedule back to me.
He shook his head. “I mean, not all bad. We have Mr Grant, but I’m in your class.”
“Is he...nice?” I kind of expected a two-headed monster, judging from the smirk on David’s face.
“It’s okay, I’ll be there with you.”
I folded my bottom lip between my teeth. Music class was going to be bad—I could feel it.
“He doesn’t stay in the room long,” David said. I looked up at him. “Mr Grant. He comes in, tells us what to do and leaves.”
“And then what?”
“We usually just have a jam-session.”
“Wicked.” I shut the textbook in front of me, finding my cool again. “So? What instrument do you play?” I could sum up a lot about a person by the kind of music they liked, and more, by the instrument they chose to express themselves with.
David sat back a little, drumming his fingers on the desk. “Well, I actually play all instruments. But this year I’m focusing on the guitar.”
Damn. Well, that blew my prejudice out the window. “Hm. I would’ve figured you for a bass guy.”
“Bass? And…what exactly would that say about me?” The heart-stealing smile he presented as he leaned on his elbow made me shiver—in a good way.
“Cool? Confident?” A soft breath left my lips before I added, “Sexy?” And though, on the outside, I shrugged as I said it, every ounce of cool I’d mustered stopped moving and groaned, slapping its head.
David stared at me for a second, his lip twitching as if stuck on a word.
“I’m sorry. That was so rude of me.” I covered my brow.
“No, really, it wasn’t at all. It was just…” He stared forward, frowning slightly. “Unexpected.”
I looked down at my books, unsure what to say.
“You just seem so shy and quiet, now. I never expected you to say something so—honest.”
“I’m not really shy.” I traced the edge of the book. “I’m just quiet because I’m new. But you won’t be able to shut me up in a few weeks.” I laughed but stifled it quickly. As if that would be reassuring. And I was off again with the assumptions. Who said this guy would even talk to me after today? He was only here because the teacher forced him to bring me up to scale. I kind of felt sorry for him then.
He suppressed a smile, nodding his head softly. “Well, I look forward to seeing your more talkative side.”
Was he serious? Maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough the first time. Um, hello? I am totally infatuated with you and I just met you. You should run away, now! “What? What are you laughing at?” I asked, hoping my facial expressions hadn’t given away my strange internal monologue.
“Nothing.”
I scratched at the edge of the book again. “Normally, people don't laugh at nothing.”
He stopped. “Maybe I'm not normal.”
“Hm.” I nodded to myself, and since there was no rock to hide under in here, I covered the awkward tension with a very normal question that I was rather proud of. “So, are the people here nice?” I said, when what nearly came out was, “Hey let’s be rebels and ditch class—go somewhere quiet, talk for hours and get to know each other,” but that would’ve been way too creepy.
David nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, mostly. You shouldn’t have a problem, though. Seems you’ve struck up a friendship with Emily Peirce?”
“Is that good?” I hoped it was. Emily seemed nice, but I’d hate to have ended up friends with the school bully.