Falling Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 1

by Dakota Lake

“Do you think he'll be there on Saturday night?” I asked looking at the flyer. Robbie laughed. “What?” I asked.

  “He just asked me exactly the same thing, wanting to know if you would be there, so you coming?” All I really heard from that sentence was 'he just asked me exactly the same thing' which meant Mack was at school today. Robbie was looking at me waiting for my reply. “Earth to Ruby,” “Sorry I was thinking. But I'm sure I can make it, seeing as everyone else is going and I wouldn't want to miss meeting Feisty Minx if she shows up.”

  “Yeah, I've got a good feeling about this one.” he smiled to himself and walked off. I saw the back of Aimee in the corridor and hurried to catch up with her.

  “Hey,” I said nudging her letting her know I was beside her. “So have you heard about this party on Saturday?”

  “Sure have. I thought you, me and Caitlin could have a pre party slumber party. Pamper ourselves a little, nothing over the top just a quiet night in. My mom's away so it would just be us girls.” She stopped at the sweet dispenser and put some coins into it.

  “What do you think, you up for it?”

  “Actually that sounds like a really good idea, take my mind off things.”

  “Trouble at home?” she asked picking up her chocolate bar from the tray at the bottom. “Something like that,”

  “Well this will be good for you then.” She unwrapped her chocolate bar and took a bite looking at me. “You planning to re-dye those roots anytime soon?” She lifted a strand of my hair and inspected it.

  “Erm, I dunno? I haven't really thought about it.”

  “What about your natural colour?”

  She started moving my hair around with her hands fluffing it up.

  “You know I could dye it back for you, if you wanted. I think brunette suits you more,” “How can you tell? You've never seen me with brown hair,”

  “No but I can imagine you with brown hair, it definitely suits your face. I could put some layers in it for you if you want?”

  “Since when are you a qualified hairdresser?”

  “Relax my mom's a hairdresser and I learned from the best. Think it over about the colour, my mom has tons of hair dye going spare, I'd love to do it for you. I plan on being a hairdresser when I escape this place.” she smiled swishing my hair in front of my face then she started making an alarm sound. I looked at her, laughing not sure what she was doing.

  “Hot Guy alert,” she nodded over my shoulder. Cam was walking towards us.

  “Lockers fixed.” he said.

  “Thanks.” I replied.

  “No problem.” he nodded and walked off.

  “Oh come on, he's a hottie. You can't keep playing this hard to get routine forever, he'll soon move on,”

  “I'm not playing hard to get.”

  “Really, so you're not interested in Cam?” she asked.

  I frowned. I didn't know how to answer that, so I hesitated. Because I really didn't know how I felt about him. He was like an unsolved mystery that kept playing on my mind, I couldn't figure him out. Then there was Mack who was an even bigger mystery.

  “No. I'm not interested in Cam.” It felt like I was lying, I was sure I felt the complete opposite. I was very interested in Cam for different reasons, like why he always smelt of scented roses every time he showed up.

  “So why do you do that thing with your lip every time you see him?”

  “What thing?” I asked.

  “You know, you sort of bite your lip in that sexy way like you're doing right now or am I reading that entirely wrong and you're just really hungry?” she grinned waving her chocolate bar in front of my face. The first bell sounded.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” I replied. Trying not to laugh at her behaviour. “Okay I'll let you off the hook, for now, but I think you've got it bad and I mean real bad for both those boys.” she winked at me and we hurried to first period.

  I sat in biology staring at my palms, how was it possible my skin had healed itself in a minute. I scratched at the spot where I thought the cut was, it wasn't even sore.

  Aimee nudged me to signal the teacher was watching me. I sat up and opened my textbook quickly trying to find the right page, at least it would look like I was paying attention even if my concentration was all over the place. After the lesson I went back to my locker to get my calculus book, Cam had distracted me earlier and I had for gotten to put it in my bag.

  I opened my locker and found a red rose sitting on the top of my books. I picked it up and looked around to see if anyone was watching me. I lifted the rose to my nose, it smelled just like Cam. It was the most beautiful rose I had ever seen, but it looked too perfect to be real. He'd obviously left it for me after he'd finished fixing the hinge.

  The hinge looked neat and smoothed down, I wasn't likely to catch myself on that again. I wondered where he had got the rose from as I'd not seen any roses growing on campus anywhere. I put the rose back in my locker and picked up the book I needed, I had calculus next then English lit, I was eager to see Mack again.

  As soon as the bell went after calculus I was on my feet a little quicker than necessary and out the door, I accidentally bumped into a few people on the way. I walked into the chemistry room we were using for English, I had tried not to get my hopes up too much as to whether Mack would be in the class as previously he hadn't been attending. But today he was already in his seat at the back looking at his cell. He had his red hoodie on today with the hood pulled over his head and he was wearing a pair of black wayfarer sunglasses. I didn't think he had seen me, but I couldn't see his eyes so I didn't know. I grinned at Caitlin as I walked past, she looked over at Mack then back at me smiling.

  “Hey, you made it,” I said putting my bag on the desk.

  He looked up and quickly moved his cell out of sight and into his pocket and half smiled at me. I wasn't sure whether he was pleased to see me or not, it wasn't the reaction I was hoping for. I wanted to ask him about last night, but wasn't sure how to word it. One minute I was looking into his eyes the next Micah was waking me up on the couch. Had I passed out in front of Mack? Did he light the fire and leave me on the couch?

  “Thanks again for driving me home last night, it was fun.”

  He nodded but seemed distracted. He leaned forward, picked up his pen and started doodling on his small notepad. I took my books out and looked out the door wondering where the teacher was? “Can I ask you something?”

  His hand stopped doodling, but he didn't look up at me.

  “It's going to sound a little strange,” he still didn't look up at me. “So recently I've been having these random blackouts,”

  It was the only way I could describe it to him, I couldn't tell him I had been jumping into peoples heads. I still wasn't sure about what had happened, I couldn't have jumped into Mack's head, what I saw made no sense. Maybe I had really blacked out this time and I had been dreaming. I had such an over active imagination anything was possible.

  “And I remember the phone was ringing, it was thundering outside,”

  Mr. Gibson walked in, I looked at Mack waiting for an answer. He flipped his notepad shut and sat up straighter, pulling his reading book in front of him. I turned back in my seat and pulled out my own book.

  “I hope everyone is up to date with the reading I have assigned, we will be discussing and taking notes today I will be calling on you at random to see who's been keeping up with the set reading.” said Mr. Gibson.

  I cringed on the inside, I had completely forgotten to do the reading, fingers crossed he wouldn't call on me.

  Through class I tried my best not to look back at Mack, he was slouched back in his chair as far away from me as he could possibly get, at least that's how it felt.

  He leaned forward to take notes and I was very aware of how close he was. Mr. Gibson was distracted in deep book conversation with some girl at the front, so I thought now would be a good time to ask Mack about last night.

  “Hey,” I whispered, trying
to get his attention.

  I looked down at what he was writing, he wasn't he was drawing a tiny monkey. “Mack,” I tried again. His pen stopped for a split second.

  “Mack.....Mack I know you can hear me. Fine, ignore me.” I scooted my stool away. “Ruby what do you want from me?” he said in a hushed voice.

  He turned himself towards me. I looked at him, but couldn't really see him as he still had his eyes hidden behind his shades.

  “I just wanted to know what happened before you left, I don't remember,”

  “You fell asleep,” he said going back to his drawing.

  “I fell asleep?”

  “Yes on the floor,”

  “Ruby, Mack is there something you want to share with the class?”

  Mr. Gibson stood at the front watching us, other students had also turned around to see what we we're doing. I shook my head.

  “Both of you, detention, twenty minutes after class. Anything you have to say to Mack can wait until you leave this room. We are in here to learn, everything else can wait.”

  Detention, I'd never heard Mr. Gibson handing out detentions before. In fact I hadn't heard of anyone getting a detention since I'd been here. Mr. Gibson had seemed like one of the more laid back teachers, I wondered what his problem was today something was aggravating him. Now I'd gone and got Mack and I stuck in detention, well if Mack didn't like me five minutes ago he was going to hate me now. I angled myself away from Mack, feeling completely embarrassed and awkward. It made no sense why he was suddenly giving me the cold shoulder, I thought last night we had, had fun. I thought he liked me, why would he ask Robbie if I was going to the party if he wasn't interested in me?

  The next forty five minutes dragged, but I did pay attention and when Mr. Gibson wasn't looking I read through some of the reading I had missed. I felt Mack's knee knock against my leg a few times, I tried not to let it bother me, but it did so I scooted my stool a little further away again. The bell rang loudly in the corridor. Caitlin turned and waved goodbye to me.

  “We'll be in the cafeteria.” she mouthed.

  The class emptied, but Mack and I remained seated.

  “Ruby move to the desk over please.” Mr. Gibson said. I picked up my belongings and moved to the other desk.

  “Right you two can make a start on tonight's reading, twenty minutes worth of reading.” Mr. Gibson sat at his desk with a book, he then pulled out a pre-packed sandwich from his desk drawer. It felt like he was taunting me with his sandwich. I was really looking forward to a burger from the cafeteria, which they only did on Fridays, they would probably all be gone by the time I got to there.

  Grrr! The girls at the front chatted non stop during class but he'd never given them detention. I looked down at my reading book, realising I had been trying to read the same sentence at least four times now. I looked over at Mr. Gibson again, he was happily tucking into his sandwich and pouring what smelt like coffee from his flask to his mug.

  My eyes drifted to the desk next to me. Mack was slouched down on the desk with his arms folded, he had his book propped up in front of him. It was as if he knew I was watching him because at that exact moment his eyes flickered over at me, I quickly turned my head back to my own book. There was a knock at the classroom door. Mr. Gibson waved the person in. The person pushed the door open but didn't come in. It was Cam in his overalls with his cap on pulled down low over his face. “Are you Mr. Gibson?” Cam asked.

  “Yes that's me, what can I do for you?”

  “I was told the blue Ford out front belongs to you,”

  “Yes, yes it does,”

  “Well someone's let all the air out of the tyres and toilet papered the whole thing.” Cam said, a small grin appeared on his lips but quickly disappeared again.

  “What are you sure?” Mr. Gibson stood up abandoning his sandwich.

  “Yeah I'm sure,” Cam nodded his head towards the windows.

  Mr. Gibson rushed over to the window, muttered a few words to himself, then hurried out the classroom and Cam followed behind him.

  Mack stood up and got his stuff together.

  “What are doing?” I asked. I knew what he was doing but I was using it as an excuse to talk to him. “Leaving.” he replied.

  He walked past my desk and disappeared out the door, he didn't even look back once. Well I wasn't going to sit here on my own. If Mack was going to get into trouble for leaving it meant I would probably get the same punishment if I left as well. I thought about it for about thirty seconds and knew if I was going to do this then I should probably do it quickly encase Mr. Gibson came back.

  I was really hungry and really wanted a burger which made the decision for me in the end. I got my stuff and stood up taking a quick look out the window, Mr. Gibson was pulling toilet paper of his car, it wasn't hard to miss, the car looked like it had been wrapped up like a an Egyptian mummy. There we're lots of kids stood around watching, most of them laughing. I didn't think he was going to be back anytime soon so he probably wouldn't even miss me. I hurried out the door, stopping at my locker to dump my heavy books. I soon found Caitlin in the cafeteria and got there just in time for one of the last burgers.

  “So I hear you're turning into a naughty little girl trying to prove your love for that bad boy,” Aimee chuckled.

  “I see Caitlin told you,” I said biting into my burger.

  “Well I didn't say it quite like that.” Caitlin said frowning over my shoulder.

  I looked behind me and saw Cam pushing a mop and bucket along the floor, he looked over and I was sure he winked at me.

  “That guy gives me the creeps,” Caitlin said squirming. “You know I went to the bathroom during English,”

  “Yeah,” I added watching the back of Cam.

  “Well when I came back I caught him looking in our classroom window I think he was spying on you. He had a load of toilet paper rolls and was nowhere near the bathrooms, he's really weird.” She looked at me.

  “Oooo Ruby's got a stalker and a really hot one, they're the best kind.” Aimee said licking her lips. I wasn't that bothered at the fact Cam had been spying in through the window I was putting two and two together, Cam with toilet paper rolls and Mr. Gibson's car had just been toilet papered. Had Cam done that to Mr. Gibson's car? Well if he had, he had just done the coolest thing to get me out of detention, it wasn't like he'd done anything illegal.

  “Well you survived your first detention here, even if it was short lived. Mr. Gibson just found out his wife is leaving him for an orthodontist that's probably why he was a bit worked up this morning.” Caitlin said.

  “How do you know that?” Aimee asked.

  “My mom's friends with Sarah” Caitlin said, turning her lip up in disgust.

  “Who's Sarah?” I asked.

  “Mr. Gibson's wife, we had her over for dinner last week, all through dinner she was naming items she wanted to take with her from the divorce.”

  “Yikes! Awkward much,” Aimee laughed.

  “You have no idea, I felt bad even looking at Mr. Gibson this morning. I can't believe my mom cooked food for that woman, I had to share silverware with that trollop.”

  “Okay changing the subject. Friday night all those coming to my house for a girls night in, raise their hands,” Aimee said. Caitlin stuck her hand up and looked at me. I nodded with my mouth full. “Great we're going to have so much fun.” Caitlin squealed.

  “Geez, calm down Caitlin, don't want to scare her away just as she agreed to come. But Caitlin's right we are going to have loads of fun, especially as my mom has just restocked her liqueur cabinet....score.” Aimee said loudly.

  “No. Last time I slept over and you had access to alcohol, I ended up apologising to your neighbours because you thought you were a mermaid and refused to get out of their pool.” “Come on, you had loads of fun that night. Good times, those will be the kind of stories you can tell your kids about, how wild we were.”

  “No just you Aimee and I'm not wild, I'm more like yo
ur safety net,”

  “Well you make a great safety net and I wouldn't have you any other way. And I don't think you have anything to worry about me turning into Ariel, they drained the pool a few weeks ago.” “Good to know but still no alcohol just soft drinks.” Caitlin said.

  “Yes ma'am,” Aimee replied. “Anyway there wont be enough time for drinking, as I will be too busy turning our ugly duckling into a swan.” Caitlin raised an eyebrow at me. Aimee turned to face me and was holding some sort of colour chart, which had lots of different coloured pieces of brown paper stapled together.

  “I was thinking deep brown,” Aimee said, holding it close to my hair.

  “Is that a colour chart?” Caitlin asked.

  “Yes, I made it for Ruby to pick out the colour she likes the most and I will try to find something to match.”

  “Where did you get all that coloured paper from?” Caitlin asked.

  “The art room.” Aimee replied casually.

  “Since when do you know where the art room is?”

  “Well I didn't, until last year when Jeremy Johnson showed me where it was,”

  “Okay I've changed my mind I don't want to know.” Caitlin said shaking her head. “No you don't it's a little x-rated if you know what I mean,” Aimee looked back at the colour chart next to my hair. “Here take this and pick one.” she said handing it to me.

  “Thanks, I can't wait.” I replied unsure what I was getting myself into.

  Caitlin's cellphone started ringing.

  “Hi mom,” she answered it. “Tonight?.....What time is she expecting me? Okay thanks mom.” “What's was that about?” Aimee asked.

  “Mom's arranged for me to interview this little old lady that's lived in the town a long time for information, for my history assignment. This is great I'll probably get more information from Rose than I found on the internet.”

  “History assignment, I thought it was something exciting.” Aimee said looking back at her own cellphone.

  “So you don't want to come with me, to keep me company on the drive, Roses lives outside of town,” Caitlin asked Aimee.

  “As if, why would I want to spend my evening talking to an old lady, old people give me the creeps it's like a horrible reminder I'll look like that one day.”