Undertow (5 page)

I tried to look studious and scribbled on my notebook while attempting to glance sneakily over my arm towards Sweatshirt Boy. Instead I caught Jesse’s eye. He gave me a knowing smile, clearly aware that I was checking out the boy that had just entered.

He leaned forward, speaking quietly, “He’s new too, although. . .” he glanced back, his body language changing and his voice slowed, “I have no clue who he is, which is surprising.”

“So much for you being the real Gossip Girl, eh?” I whispered, smiling broadly. 

Jesse made a sad face, then smiled, “Seriously, I have no clue who that dude is, although by the look of him, he might be a candidate for the football team. I guess I’ll have to check him out too, though the ‘longing-for-a-liplock’ interest can be yours alone,” he said, laughing quietly.

“I am NOT!” I was grinning like a fool as my face blushed hot red.

We both turned back to the front of the room. Our teacher, a “Mr. Autler” as it now read on the blackboard just above
English Literature 322
, turned around, picking up his coffee mug and taking a sip. He took up the yellow paper and read the written name aloud. “Raef O’Reilly?” he asked looking around.

Sweatshirt Boy raised his hand, barely clearing the top of his head.

“It says you are a new student here at Barnstable and have added my class to your schedule,” said Mr. Autler flatly. “I’m flattered you have decided to join us, but try to be earlier in the future. And no hats, Mr. O’Reilly, and that includes hoods.”

The majority of the room had now turned to see Sweatshirt Boy, aka Raef.  Well, the girls did at least. He pulled his hood back off his head, keeping his eyes on the notebook in front of him.

O . . . M . . .G

I bit my lip so I wouldn’t sigh loudly at his classic, Abercrombie-esque face.  He reminded me of a young cowboy via Hollywood: tossed and wavy dirty blonde hair, strong chin and flawless, golden skin.

With him in the room, I am sure most of the boys in the class wanted to get on with the literary classics, using Clif Notes if needed to speed the process along. The females, on the other hand, could stay in English all day long, perhaps reading
War and Peace
cover-to-cover.

I was just about to pry my attention away from Raef, when he cautiously glanced up from his black and white notebook and connected with my gaze.

I was instantly seized with horrific and illogical fear.

It wasn’t the quick, superficial burst of scariness that accompanies a spider on the wall, but the absolute certainty of imminent death that unleashed a torrent of adrenaline through my body.  Raef must have sensed my startling change of mood because he quickly glanced back to his notebook.

My nerves on fire and my heart ricocheting in my throat, I barely heard Mr. Autler doing roll call.  I stared at my desk, my eyes unseeing as I tried to calm myself, dearly hoping that whatever had just occurred was not love at first sight. My stomach flip-flopped neurotically.              

“Eila!” I heard Jesse whispering urgently. I slowly became aware that someone was butchering my name.

“Ee-Ly-A Walker?” questioned Mr. Autler again, looking out over the class. As my heart slowed, I managed to bring my brain back to the present.

“Uh, here,” I replied, meekly raising my hand. “But it’s EYE-LA,” I continued, trying to calmly correct him. My voice sounded squeaky in my ears.

“No chance you are related to Captain Walker?”

Oh please. Not now. “Uh, yeah. He was my Grandfather way back when.” I was suddenly the new focus of attention and wanted to melt through the chipped linoleum floor.

“Very impressive,” he mused taking another sip of his drink before turning his attention to our reading list for the year.

I glanced over at Jesse, who was watching me, his expression one of concern. He mouthed the words, “You alright?” I nodded rapidly, almost like a bobble head doll on a caffeine high, though my sanity was far from certain.

Through the rest of the class I fought a restless urge to look back at the boy in the corner. The two contrary emotions of an almost magnetic draw to him and primal fear of him tormented me through Mr. Autler’s monologue. Self-preservation, however, won out and I was able to keep my eyes away from the back corner, instead attempting to focus on the class syllabus that was being discussed for the semester. 

My body still tingled, as if wary and on edge. I tried to simply dismiss the whole thing as first day jitters and the fact that an outstandingly beautiful boy looked at me. By the time Mr. Autler was assigning us the first two chapters of
The Scarlet Letter
, I had convinced myself that Raef was a Greek god, fallen down from Olympus to make all the girls at Barnstable High mindless blobs of goo.

When the bell rang, Mount Olympus disappeared and I, heartbeat in check, gathered up my folders and notebook and made sure I was out the door before any immortal heroes.

The mob of students flowing through the corridor was surreal. I felt like a wayward tourist during rush hour in New York City. Not quite knowing which way to go, I got caught up in the stream of students while trying to look at the school map in my hands.  Suddenly, my elbow was knocked hard and all the papers and folders I had hiked under my arm scattered like roadkill in the crammed hallway.

For a second I stood and stared at the carnage strewn on the floor, quickly calculating the probability of being trampled by my peers if I knelt down to recover my schoolwork. I hoped the school nurse was well trained in combat triage as I crouched down to retrieve my belongings.

As I did so, I heard a light laugh and looked up to see Nikki Shae and two cheerleaders walking away from me in the crowd, one glancing back and giving a petulant wave. The throngs of students didn’t seem to impede their stride as the crowd parted for them, as if they were celebrities who could not be touched.

Farther ahead of them I saw Ana looking down the corridor at me, her sympathies projecting past the lockers. She had seen the whole incident and I realized that one of the girls had deliberately knocked into me.

I watched as Ana turned her attention from me to a frazzled freshman across the hall from her. She locked eyes with the skinny kid, who was fumbling with his books. The boy suddenly seemed lost in thought as he stared at Ana. He abruptly straightened and smiled, quickly shifting his books under one arm. He then turned his attention to Nikki, who was rapidly approaching the area where Ana and he stood.

As the cheerleaders strode along chattering, the now squared-shouldered boy burst forward, stepping out in front of the three girls.

The sudden obstacle in the parted sea of students broke their stride and caused Pompom #1 to careen off into a locker. Nikki and PomPom #2 came to an abrupt halt, with Nikki landing nose to nose with the boy who had a toothy, confident smile across his face. He seemed to be talking animatedly at her. Suddenly he held out his hand as if to shake hers.

Nikki looked stunned, then disgusted, and pushed past him. The PomPoms quickly filed in on either side of her. I glanced back to where Ana had been, a smile on my face, but she was nowhere in sight.

As I turned my attention back to where my papers were being crushed, a bolt of panic sent me tipping off my heels. Crouching in front of me, with all my belongings in his hands, was Raef.  As I lost the precarious balance I had attained on the balls of my feet, he quickly reached out and grasped my elbow to steady me.

“I think we better get up, unless your plan was to be trampled. Though, being crushed on your first day may save you from being used as target practice,” said Raef, nodding after Nikki. Stunned at suddenly being face to face with him and dazed by his oddly soothing voice, I was unable to move.

“I think we better get
up
,” he said more urgently as backpacks and students whizzed by our heads.

Realizing I was currently without any survival instincts, he started to guide me to a standing position from my crouch, his hand firm but gentle on my elbow. I quickly judged my heartbeat and level of panic, but was surprised to find not fear, but excitement, as if I was about to bungee jump off the Sagamore Bridge.

Maybe I had misjudged our first eyeball encounter in the class? Maybe I misread my own flaming self-consciousness, in the face of this stunning boy, as fear? That had to be it, for as we stood among the passing river of kids, I felt nothing but a thrilling, magnetic pull towards Raef.

I realized I was staring at him like a fool, so I managed to form a few semi-coherent words, “Uh, thanks,” I mumbled as he slowly released my arm, no doubt worried I would slouch to the floor again. “It is Raef, right?” I asked, slightly straightening my back and trying to act remotely casual.

“Yes. Raef O’Reilly. And you’re Eila Walker, correct?” he asked. That smooth, husky voice felt strangely familiar. It was an odd sensation, like when a smell triggers a potent memory that eludes identification. I held his voice in my mind, replaying it over and over.

“Uh, yeah, “ I mumbled again, showing my scholarly command of the English language. He shuffled my papers into a neater stack and handed them to me. “Oh, thank you so much,” I said. “I would have been lost, literally, without this map.”

I snapped out of my daze and looked over the campus map, frantically searching for my next classroom number as I realized there were very few students left in the halls. As if on cue, the bell rang, signaling next period. “Darn it,” I gritted my teeth. “I have no idea where I’m going and now I’m late. Way to go, Eila,” I hissed to myself.

Raef offered up a ray of hope as he glanced at my class schedule, “Chemistry. Fun. I passed it on the way in this morning. Come on, it’s this way,” he nodded down the hall.

As he looked at me, that same, original panic I had when I first saw him flashed through my veins. I quickly shooed it away as pure hormone-issued stupidity or a severe case of butterflies.

A hot guy that had saved me from being roadkill, rescued my academic scribblings, and now was acting as guide? Raging butterflies for sure. I glanced at his face and my stomach did calisthenics, “Uh, lead the way then.”

              We swung down the hallway, me trotting to keep up with Raef’s long, fast strides.  As we rounded a corner, a student hall monitor sitting at a rickety desk saw us coming. “Do you have a pass?” he called out.

Without breaking stride, I called back, “I’m new, slightly lost and now late. Give me a break!”

We continued down the hall for what I swear was a mile of dust bowl brown, finally slowing as we entered the science wing.

“What i
s the room number?” asked Raef, glancing at me.

I slowed, scanning my class schedule until I found my Chemistry class. “It says 115,” I said, looking up at him and then quickly at the number on door closest to me. “It must be a few doors down. I’ll find it. Thanks so much!”

I smiled and started past him down the hall. As I crossed near him, I could feel the air seem to thicken and the back of my neck chilled. If this is indeed what they call love at first sight, then the description is woefully lacking.

As I reached my class door, I looked back and he was still standing there, his backpack hitched over his shoulders and his hands in his jean pockets. I gave a quick wave and he nodded in return and turned, heading in the opposite direction.

The chemistry teacher understood about my being “new and lost,” but quite frankly, she could have put me in detention for a month. I wouldn’t have cared as long as I kept the face of Raef O’Reilly in my mind, with his warm voice making all my senses tingle.

Butterflies?  Nah. This was more like the ravens from
The Birds
, when all the feathered friends attacked the people in a rage.

Chemistry slipped by in a blur of equations and periodic charts. It wasn’t until homework was being distributed that I turned in my chair to fetch a folder from my backpack and saw her.

Seated one row over and three seats back was none other than Nikki. She seemed to be inspecting her manicure and my sudden lack of movement caught her attention. She raised her coal black eyelashes from her nails just long enough to convey a forceful, unspoken loathing.

My wide-eyed surprise slipped into a hardened glare, and Nikki seemed to prime herself for a drawn out battle. The ringing of the 3rd period bell broke off our stare-down.  We both stood and she crossed the aisle to stand in front of me.

“Just because you live on Main and the hot, new guy showed you some mercy, does not mean you fit in with the elite crowd,” she whispered, a sharp razor edge to her words belying her beautiful, crimson smile.

My brain jettisoned any sense of sanity and my words just tumbled out, “Ah, I see. So you haven’t been able to climb the social stratosphere either, huh? Could it be that your fat head makes the climb too difficult?”

A vein nearly popped from the side of her head as I continued, “Oh and, uh, FYI, Raef’s ‘mercy’ extended to walking me to class as well. He is very sweet.” Without doubt, my mutinous mouth was looking to get slapped.

As I watched Nikki, I was sure her head was about to explode all over the taupe desks.  She drew a deep, hateful breath, then turned quickly and strode out the door, her lithe cheerleader figure sashaying ever so slightly.