Chapter 1

• "God! Just hearing that old trout speak gives me a migraine." Kate huffed, as we finally had made it out of the English class. There was this malicious thing about Penelope Martin, our English teacher. In class, she would barely scratch the surface with the kind of explanation she had to offer for the text. A quick read, once or twice, a rushed summary and voila! It's done. Only if her exams were half as easy! No one would ever believe that Ms. Martin and the person setting the questions weren't two different souls. That being paired with a few surprise tests here and there had successfully earned her the dislikes of all the students.
• The last exam being extremely tough, a lot of students had hardly passed and we knew what was to come. Now it wasn't hard to guess that the last thing everyone would prefer was to hear her speech out elaborate lectures on how we were letting the whole universe down with our marks.
• "She probably gets off by torturing the students." Ace grumpily muttered, thrusting his hands in his pockets. The fact that I didn't verbally let out a statement in favour of the accusations didn't mean that I had aced my exam. The C minus on my paper had glared at me just as hard.
• Five of us were standing in the corridor busy talking among ourselves. What once started as a vilifying Ms. Martin had now taken different turns and we had ended up discussing the party held last Friday night. Well, they did most of the talking while I always had listened more than speaking. That was when we were interrupted by a very soft, gentle voice.
• "Excuse me." My eyes fell on a brunette. She had a tall and thin frame, her brown hair let loose in waves but what was really captivating was her eyes which were a beautiful shade of blue. Her eyes flicked between all of her faces and I could bet that they rested on mine a moment longer.
• "Can you tell me the way to the office? It's my first day, so…" She probably had figured that Avery was the approachable one among us as she trailed off looking at her, a hopeful smile on her face.
• "And you're asking your seniors for help? Risky, isn't it? I may just be the bully here." She squinted her eyes for a second before giving a slight head tilt.
• "Are you?" She asked
• "I could be." Ace shrugged, his signature charming boyish grin stretching across his lips.
• But the sound of her chuckle took my breath away. The large and bright smile on her face had me dazed. My lips too were stretched into a lazy stupid smile and I was literally gawking at her. The way her lips curved up into a smile, the way her hair bounced when she nodded to Ace's words, everything about her was so mesmerizing. I strangely wanted only me to make her smile like this.
• "Well, I just took the risk." Her voice felt so soothing that I was tempted to hear more of her.
• "I will take you to the office." Before my brain could even think of suggesting to be subtle, I volunteered and it brought me her as well as everyone's else's attention. I however was too focused on her to see my friends meaningfully raise their brows. Her eyes roamed about my face. She was taking her own sweet time in checking me out. When her eyes met mine, I smirked, having caught her but instead of being embarrassed. What I expected was for her to blush red or look away, blatantly refusing my offer but she just flashed me an appreciative smile and screw me if I didn't find her more attractive.
• She was fucking beautiful!
• "I'm sure only telling her the directions to the office will suffice. You don't have to walk her there." Ace smirked at me teasingly while others looked strangely at me. I normally never really showed any interest in any girl.
• I glared at him for his unnecessary comment. I felt her eyes go from my face to Ace's and then back at me like she was contemplating her decision.
• "I think it will be nice." She smiled at me and I unknowingly smiled back.
• "Did he really just smile at her?" Ace gasped. This guy!
• The urge to slap the shock off his face was too strong. Shooting him a glare, I started leading her to the office. I had my hands thrusted inside my pockets, a strange nervousness settling in. Why? I didn't know. After some seconds she decided to break the uncomfortable silence between us.
• "Why did he say that? Do you not smile at any girl?" I blinked, unsure of what I should say. I just shrugged, accepting the statement.
• "That means you're rude." I clicked my tongue in annoyance. This definitely wasn't the impression I wanted her to have of me, not when I kind was of attracted to her.
• "No, Ace, he just spits out random shit. Hardly uses his brain. It's not like that . I do smile at them- girl - I mean girls. Always." I frowned at myself not knowing what I was even saying. I always smiled at girls!? What was I, a clown?
• "You always smile at girls? You mean you smile at every girl you see?" I halted in my steps and turned to look at her. This was getting worse. Ace really had to screw this up for me !
• "No. Not at all. I mean not always-sometimes. I mean-" Her snicker cut my rumbling off.
• "Relax ! I was kidding but I guess it was worth it!" I scratched my neck, embarrassed. Why was I so damn nervous? I was sixteen crying out loud!
• "By the way, thank you for walking me to the office.." She trailed off for me to fill in once we were standing right outside the office.
• "Evan. Evan Lewis." I put my hand forward for a shake. She brought her dainty hand forward and shook my hand, flashing a large dazzling smile at me.
• "Braelyn Taylor."