“Now class, I want all of you to be on your best behavior. No fooling around. No wandering off. Each member of your group must contribute equally. Again I stress, no one is allowed to leave the building, or to interfere with the employees. Anyone who does so will be given a detention. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes Ms. Morley,” the class chimed.
Leave the building? Anyone dumb enough to do that deserves to be in detention. Please tell us our groups already. I have been in suspense since the field trip and group assignment was announced last week, I thought fidgeting in my chair.
“When we get to City Hall, I will hand out your assigned topics and group members.”
A knock sounded on the door. The principal poked his head in and announced that the bus was here, and it was ready for us. Then said somewhat excitedly, “Ms. Morley, the new student we are expecting will be here in a couple minutes. He got held up, but plans on joining the class today for the field trip.”
“Of course. Thank you, Principal Culver. We will start loading the bus and wait for him outside.”
Grabbing my stuff, I got up and followed everyone outside towards the bus. We have to wait for a new student? Why can’t he be on time like everyone else? Principal Culver seemed almost excited to have him. When has he ever been excited about a late student? It must be another wealthy family that is making a generous donation to the school. Principal Culver practically rolls out the red carpet for his biggest contributors. I should know. My family is one of the wealthiest families in our little town of Pine Hill, Michigan.
As we walked toward the bus, my friend Gabby Smith, walked up, “Do you think he’s cute? If he is, I hope he’s in my group.”
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and it will be yes to both,” I told her as we stood on the sidewalk waiting our turn to get on. I had no interest in the new guy. I was preoccupied with thoughts of Tyler and prom.
In the distance, a roar from a motorcycle rumbled loudly in the quiet morning air.
“Let’s hurry up and get good seats,” I heard Gabby say as she turned and headed up the stairs of the bus. Before I could follow, the loud roar of a motorcycle turning into the parking lot, made me stop and look toward it.
“This must be the new student,” Ms. Morley said, “We can all get on the bus now.”
Throwing a quick glance Gabby’s way, I saw her saying hello to the bus driver. Turning back I watched the rider park his motorcycle and climb off.
He shoulders were wide and his stance seemed cocky. I held my breath as he turned and pulled off his helmet and shook his head of dark hair. His hair was longer than most of the guys at school kept theirs, but fit somehow given that he was riding a motorcycle and dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. Hooking his helmet over the handlebar, he grabbed a black backpack off the bike, turned and...shook an excited Principal Culver’s hand?
Did anyone else find that weird besides me? Principal Culver seems a little over excited to meet him.
“Everyone please find a seat on the bus. It is time to get going,” I heard Ms. Morley shout above the noise of the student’s chatter. I was too preoccupied watching the new student to pay attention.
Since when had the principal personally greeted a new student? And out in the parking lot? One who was late, mind you, and just getting off his motorcycle. Not that I was prejudice to those who ride motorcycles. It’s just unusual for high school students. Looking around, I was amazed to see no one else paying attention to the new arrival. They were all already on the bus.
Hearing Ms. Morley saying something again, I quickly ran up the bus steps. Everyone had already taken a seat. Glancing around, I found Gabby towards the back. I caught her eye and she shrugged apologetically. She was already sitting with Chris, a guy she just started seeing. Giving her a smile and a thumbs up, I looked for Kent. His seat was full also.
It looked like the only seat left was the one in the front. Of course, right behind the driver too.
Tyler! I forgot about him momentarily. Who was he sitting with? I am sure he probably saved me a seat next to him. Quickly scanning the bus, I found him in the very back seat next to a girl who usually sits in the front row in class. I can’t think of her name. She had an enormous smile on her face. Clearly she was excited over sitting next to Tyler. Tyler had an amused smile on his face. He was joking and talking with a group of his friends seated nearby. She must have taken advantage of the seat being open next to him. She must have seen her opportunity to get close to the most popular guy in school, and took it. Tyler must be so annoyed. He told me he hates when girls throw themselves at him. When he glanced my way, I gave him a little wave and headed toward him.
“Excuse me,” I said to the girl next to him, “I believe that he was saving me this seat. There is an open one in the front.” I didn’t want to be mean and hurt her feelings, so I gave her a friendly smile.
“Um…I was here first. You go sit up there,” she said in an annoyed voice.
I gave her a smile and raised my eyebrows at Tyler asking for his help. Shaking his head no he said, “I asked her to sit with me, Nora. Sorry,” he looked a bit sheepish and annoyed.
Annoyed at me? Was I reading him right? Couldn’t be. He was planning on asking me to the dance, right?
Doubts filled my head. What if I had imagined our soon to be relationship? What if it was all one-sided? Mortified, I turned around quickly and walked back to the front. I slumped down into the seat, my face on fire.
“Is this seat taken?” a deep baritone voice asked.
Oh no, not him. Before I even looked over and saw his blue jean covered legs standing next to my seat, I knew it was the new student.
Looking up into a pair of dark eyes, my heart started racing. He was quite possibly the best-looking guy I had ever seen. He had copper colored skin, wide shoulders, and a face like those I see on TV. Realizing he was waiting for an answer, I managed to shake my head no.
“Not who you were hoping to share your seat with, eh?” he said it with a smirk.
He had witnessed my whole exchange with Tyler! He evidently found it amusing. Great. Just what I needed, a new, good-looking guy, to witness one of my most embarrassing moments.
It looked like the next couple of weeks might not go as I had planned. An unexpected tiny glimmer of excitement settled in the bottom of my stomach and seemed to take root. Don’t ask me why.
Chapter 2
I can’t believe this is happening. Today was supposed to be a perfect day, and it had started out so great. Well, really it was only perfect until I got to school and was clobbered with a stray football.
Now I am sitting next to a guy who is doing funny things to the inside of my stomach. Even when I turn and look out the window, I can still feel his presence next to me. It is making my heart beat faster and my palms sweaty.
Did I mention that he is taking up most of the seat? There is only enough room for me to sit against the side of the bus, with my slim handbag between us. I was trying not to move, so that I didn’t bump into him.
Should I say something? Should I ask him to move over? He already thinks I’m funny. I guess I don’t have much to lose. That is, not if I wanted to put a little distance between us.
“Umm...excuse me, but would you mind scooting over a little?”
Turning towards me, his dark eyes traveled from my shoes to my head, until finally looking me straight in the eyes. I could hardly keep from fidgeting. His dark eyes had an intelligence that seemed to miss nothing. If not for his eyes, he looked like a delinquent trying to get through school so he could get on with his life. He fit the rough, troublemaker image to a tee.
Taking in my preppy outfit and newly acquired black eye, he raised his brow in silent question.
I could tell that my black eye didn’t fit into the neat little box in his mind that he wanted to fit me into.
“Got me figured out yet?” I asked smugly.
“Not yet babe, but I will,” he drawled with a promising smile.
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br /> I gulped. Was that a come on? He was too large. Too everything. There was no way I would be interested in a guy like him. He was way too mature and worldly for me. My parents would never approve. Because of my faith, I was convicted to only date Christian men who had the same values as I. Of course, I don’t know anything about him. My first instinct was that I was interested in him. If I was smart, I would be polite but distant with him. Unfortunately I was having a hard time with that concept.
Forcing my voice to sound calm and indifferent, I said, “So, are you in this class?”
Grinning, he looked pointedly around him and said, “If I’m not, I sure got on the wrong bus then, didn’t I.”
Mentally slapping myself on the forehead, I felt myself turn beet red. I can’t believe I asked that. What an idiot! Why don’t I just crawl under the seat and stay until we get there.
“What I meant was,” I stammered,” Why did you transfer schools with only a few months left until we graduate? Did your family just move here? I’m assuming of course that you are a senior also.”
“Yes, I am a senior,” he said, with another amused expression. “Job transfer.”
Oh, would you stop rambling, I told myself. Of course he’s amused, I sound like a rambling idiot.
“So your dad got a new job around here?”
“What?” he asked.
Turning to look at me, a puzzled look flashed across his face and just as fast it was gone.
“Oh… Yeah,” he answered. Jed almost blew that one, and on the first day undercover. Jeesh. Get it together, Greyson, he told himself. Remember your cover story. Undercover 101.
At that moment, the bus finally pulled up to the sidewalk of Pine Hill City Hall. Because our town was small, with about 15,000 residents, the library, fire, police station, city hall, and the town’s museum were all housed in the same building. Ever since anyone could remember, the same white building with the tall, big pillars on the front and big, wide stairs leading up to the main entrance housed all of Pine Hill’s finest.
As soon as the door opened, my seat ‘buddy’ was up and down the steps before I had even gathered my bag. Standing up, I scooted into the aisle and made my way down the steps. Before I got very far my best friend, Gabby, grabbed my elbow.
“Tell me everything," she demanded, raising her eye brows up and down.
“About what?” I asked playing dumb. I knew very well she wanted the scoop on the new addition to our class.
“Who IS he? He is a total hottie? What did he say to you?” she asked quickly as she ticked each question off on her fingers.
“I don’t know his name, I didn’t ask, and he didn’t say much of anything.”
Gabby glared at me skeptically. “You didn’t ask his name?
“Um. No, it didn’t come up,” I said, remembering our brief conversation.
“Everyone over here please!” Ms. Morley yelled to the class.
We all filed over to the main entrance where Mayor Greenly was waiting to welcome us.
“Welcome, Welcome, I am glad you all could come today. Our town is very proud to have its youth interested in our government and city municipalities. Please make yourselves at home as you look around, and feel free to ask any employee you see any questions you may have.”
“Thank you Mayor Greenly,” Ms. Morley said shaking his hand with what for a brief second looked like a forced smile.
“I am sure you are all anxious to hear about the final project and be assigned to your groups. Please, can I have your attention for a few more minutes, and then you will have plenty of time to walk around and explore.
I am going to break you into five groups. As you are all probably aware, there are five different divisions of service housed in this building. Each group will be responsible for doing a report on one of the branches. You will need to conduct interviews, explore the part of the building it is housed in, and write about the historic as well as the present purpose your branch contributes to the town. I also expect you to work together and each contribute equally.”
Glancing around, I caught Gabby’s eyes and we both crossed our fingers. I knew that she was hoping she got put in a group with Chris and hoping for me to get in a group with Tyler. I was sort of relieved that she didn’t know what had happened on the bus. Hopefully that meant not very many people had been paying attention.
Giving her a smile, I turned and saw Vanessa and Shelby flirting with the new student. If they stood any closer to him, they would be plastered to him. Not that I care or anything. Don’t ask me why I felt annoyed watching the three of them. I hardly knew him. In fact, I didn’t even know his name.
“I know that you all have certain groups you want to be in, but we are going to do things a little bit differently this time,” Ms. Morley explained. “I am going to draw five names out of this paper sack. Those five will make up group number one.”
Pulling five names out she read them off and assigned the group to cover the fire station.
Giving Gabby the thumbs up sign because she was in Chris’s group, I crossed my fingers behind my back and waited impatiently for Ms. Morley to announce the next group.
If Gabby was lucky enough to have Chris as her partner, there was hope that I would be in the same group as Tyler. Although, honestly, I don’t know if I still wanted to be in his group. My feelings still hurt just thinking about his reaction on the bus. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and another chance if it presented itself.
Glancing up, I caught sight of the new guy leaning against a handrail. He was all alone. I wonder how he got rid of Vanessa. He seemed to be intently studying everyone around him. As he looked my way, I tried to turn my head away quickly, but he managed to catch my eye and wink.
I quickly turned away wincing. He probably thought I was a groupie like the other girls in our class who couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off him. Embarrassed once again, I kept my back to him and tried to concentrate on what Ms. Morley was saying. His wink did funny things to my insides. All thoughts of Ms. Morley disappeared. All I could think of was how to look like I was immune to his charm and not effected in the least by his good looks, strong muscles and intense dark eyes. Looking around, I saw that I was probably the only girl trying to ignore him.
It was actually quite comical, I thought. All the girls in class were preening, and straining to catch his attention. I have heard more than one whispered comment about hoping he was in their group. All the guys on the other hand, were trying to check him out subtly, and trying to determine if they should be threatened by him, or if he was harmless. From some of the wary looks on their faces, I would say they were leaning towards threatened.
“In the second group...”Ms. Morley was saying”…we have Vanessa... Mike… Tyler…”
Please, Please I thought. This is it...
“Jessica and. …Finally,” she said reaching into her bag for the last name, “Mitch.”
Bummer. There goes my chance with Tyler. I could feel my face heating up. A few of my friends looked at me with sympathy. They all knew I had a slight crush on him. Surprisingly, I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be. I’m more embarrassed than anything else.
Tuning out for a while, I was lost in my own thoughts, so I was surprised to hear my own name called.
“Finally, group five, your project is on the Mayor’s office,” Ms. Morley said. ”Please find your groups and make sure you know each other, start planning out your project, and make a list of questions you will need answered. As soon as you have them, head on into the building and find your respective areas. They are all expecting you. Good Luck. And remember this counts towards twenty-five percent of your grade.”
Looking up, I saw Gabby looking at me with her eyebrows going up and down, smiling. What did I miss? Who’s in my group?
“Looks like we’re in this together, Sis,” Kent said slapping me on the back.
Kent was in my group. That’s good. But what was Gabby so excited about? Looking around
for the other members, I saw Charlotte shyly walking over. Giving her a welcoming smile, I looked over the class. That’s three of us.
“Hi! I think I’m in your group,” a young boyish voice said.
Turning around, I saw the smart kid who was really young, shaking hands with Kent. He was probably about five foot eight, with a boyish looking face and a head of jet black curls. He had a backpack slung over one shoulder and a pad of paper in his hand.
“I’m Oliver, but you can call me Ollie”
“Kent. Nice to meet you,” Kent said with a smile.
Great. The perfectionist. Well, at least we’ll get an A, I thought.
Stepping closer, I introduced myself.
“And this is Charlotte,” I told Kent, pulling her forward. I knew that Charlotte and Ollie knew each other from the science club.
“Who are we missing?” I asked.
“I think maybe that new guy,” Ollie said, eyeing him speculatively, “He’s headed over here.”
Inwardly groaning, I thought, not him!
As he walked up, Kent stuck out his hand and pointing to each of us said, “Welcome, I’m Kent, this is my sister Nora, and that’s Ollie and she’s Charlotte. Welcome to Pine Hill also, by the way.”
“Thanks,” drawled that deep voice that sent chills running down my spine. “Jed. Nice to meet you,” he gave Ollie a small nod.
As he turned to me he said, “Hello, again.”
“Your name is Jed?”
“That’s right, Jedediah Greyson, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
I liked the sound of his voice. I knew that if he kept talking, I was going to find myself entranced and probably make a fool out of myself. His voice was deep and smooth. I think I could listen to him speak all day. I quickly said, “My name is Nora.” Mentally slapping myself, I felt my face turn red. Kent just introduced me. He already knew my name was Nora.
“Hello, Nora,” he drawled putting an emphasis on my name.
Undercover Justice Page 2
