"Luke, creepy much?" Emma chimed in. Luke dropped the curl immediately, and he and Kira both turned toward Emma. "Whoa, Luke, Kira has your psycho eyes."
"Really? Look at me," Miles asked with a curious expression. "Whoa," was all he said when they looked over.
"Let me see." Luke gently held Kira’s chin so she looked into his eyes.
The moment their gazes touched, she realized why his eyes were so comforting before—she had never seen anyone with irises quite like hers. They were barely green on the outer rim, but that hue was quickly overtaken by a yellow tint with red and orange specks that almost looked like fire. Most people were weirded out by it, but she liked that she wouldn’t be alone in that, at least for the next year.
"I didn’t think they’d look the same," Luke murmured softly. Kira paused at the words Luke clearly had not meant to say out loud.
"Well, obviously you wouldn’t think a complete stranger has the same eyes as you,” Emma said, and Kira silently thanked her for commenting. She was still trying to figure out what he was talking about. “What’s up with you today, Luke? You’re acting all mysterious."
There was a momentary pause. Luke opened his mouth, seemingly unsure of how to answer, but then the lunch bell rang. They all stood up, conversation forgotten. Kira had English with Luke, so he grabbed her arm and started pulling her through the all too confusing hallways she feared she would never figure out. After a few minutes, they arrived at the far side of the building and slid into their seats. More students began trickling in as the bell rang again, but no teacher showed up.
"Mr. Bell is notorious for being late to class," Luke leaned over and whispered to Kira.
"Oh, really? How is he still—"
"Lukey," the girl that Luke had labeled as a misfit plopped down on top of his desk. She had waist-length, stick-straight black hair, and her eyes were impossibly blue, almost like ice. "Hitting on the new girl already? Tsk tsk, you should let her get to know everyone before she’s forced to settle on you."
"Diana," Luke said tersely. "I thought you graduated."
She laughed, and her eyes flashed almost white as she stared at Luke. "No, no. I’m quite content to stay in high school forever. And I had to wait for my boys."
At their mention, the three boys who had been with Diana outside now walked into the classroom. Instantly Kira felt on edge, as though there was something else going on here that she was not privy to but was somehow part of. The look on Luke’s face was strained. Something was happening between him and the others that no one else in the classroom but Kira could feel. She heard laughter and saw students hugging friends they hadn’t seen in a while, but in the back of the classroom, there remained only the tension of a rubber band about to snap.
"Jerome, Tristan, John," Luke said each name with a stiff nod. They circled around him.
Kira lost interest in the strained conversation and instead studied the newcomers. Jerome had black skin that miraculously seemed pale and the same steel blue eyes. He was built like a football player, like a running back who was speedy yet surprisingly strong. John had sandy blond hair, shaved close to his head, with a thin and streamlined build.
Finally, she looked at the guy Luke had called Tristan. He seemed different to her somehow, with jet-black hair that hung over his eyes a little and barely visible dimples that played on his cheeks. His eyes were also an icy blue, but they seemed deeper to her, like steep ravines she could fall into. He stayed out of the conversation, she noticed, as if lost in his own thoughts—ones that seemed more troublesome than the cutting remarks being doled out by his friends. He had a rebel without a cause look that made him perilous for a girl’s heart.
Suddenly, he turned to Kira. His eyes brightened a shade when they landed on hers, staring. And Kira, who was never one to back down, returned his look with interest.
"Who are you?" he asked in a barely audible voice filled with surprise, one just loud enough to attract the attention of his friends and Luke. Kira melted at the sound. He was dangerous she knew, but something about him made her feel safe and afraid at the same time.
"Kira," was all she could respond with. They both looked at each other, trying to unlock the other’s secrets.
His friends came to circle her now, and she instantly felt cornered. Fear sparked in her heart, a quick flash of lightning. She didn’t quite understand the nerves, but she also couldn’t shake them.
"Well, what have we here?" Diana leaned in to really look at her, and Kira thought she read shock on the girl’s face despite the confidence in her voice. Tristan laid a hand on Diana’s arm, almost like a warning.
"Diana, back off," Luke said and tried to come to Kira’s rescue, but it was Mr. Bell who saved her by running into the classroom very late and very out of breath.
"All right, simmer down people, I just lost track of time in the teacher’s lounge. Welcome to Advanced English, I expect everyone’s full attention for the entire first half of the year, and then after winter break, those of you who are college bound can do some slacking."
A general cheer went up around the room. Even Kira, who didn’t really know how to slack off, let out a smile. She had already decided to take a gap year to work and hopefully travel, but a little slacking wouldn’t be too awful.
"We’re starting the year off with Shakespeare,” Mr. Bell continued and the cheer changed to a groan. "Come on now, I’ll show you that Shakespeare can be cool, starting with acting lessons. For the next few weeks, we are going to perform scenes from the plays we read, starting with the age-old classic Romeo and Juliet. Next week we’re going to practice acting out emotions, so everyone please put those game faces on."
The rest of class passed rather quickly as Kira decided she liked Mr. Bell more and more. He was a young teacher who treated them like friends rather than students. Unlike her teachers in New York, she could tell Mr. Bell truly loved teaching, and it wasn’t just a job.
"Hey Luke," she asked when class ended and the students all dispersed. "What was that at the beginning of class? I thought you said you barely knew anything about those guys."
"I don’t, Kira. I don’t know anything but a mutual disgust. Can we just leave it at that?"
She nodded okay but it wasn’t sincere. Something had to have caused that much hatred. At first, Kira thought maybe Diana and Luke used to date, but it seemed less like jealousy and more like something else, something intense that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and Kira didn’t see Luke again. After finishing her last class, she retreated to her car, totally spent.
On her way home, Kira stopped at the supermarket to pick up ingredients for her latest recipe, the one she had thought up during calculus instead of going over differential equations. All she had ever wanted to do was be a chef. And while other students her age were applying to college, she was practicing her knife and cooking skills whenever she got the opportunity, resulting in lots of good food for her family and lots of experience for future entrance examinations to culinary schools. During her gap year, Kira would hopefully be perfecting her skills in a real restaurant kitchen, but for now, she just practiced on her own. Tonight Kira was feeling homey, so she bought fresh tomatoes, spices, and flour to make some good old-fashioned spaghetti.
When she arrived home, the house was empty. Her father, she remembered, had job interviews all day with banks in Charleston’s city center. She assumed her mother was with her baby sister at the pool, since she was still too young for kindergarten.
As Kira dug her fingers into the tomatoes she had just sliced, she thought about her family. When Kira was born, her parents had been twenty-three, which seemed just old enough to have a child. And when her sister was born, they had been thirty-six, which seemed just young enough. Even now, Kira never really grasped who the mistake was—her or her sister. She remembered about five years ago when she got the news. She had just begun boarding school and was thirteen, a rather inopportune age to
realize your parents were still sexually active enough to have a child. Those scars were erased as soon as Kira held her little sister in her arms and looked into her bright green eyes, ones that lacked the yellow center but were filled with warmth. Even now, she couldn't wait for her mother to come home so she could play with Chloe, who always liked helping her in the kitchen (as much as a four-year-old could).
With the sauce finished, Kira turned to the pasta, stirring the batter while she relived her first day. One of the amazing things about cooking was the therapy it provided. She could think about Luke, who at first glance she had figured to be the overly cocky yet oddly lovable boy. But there was something else there too. When he looked at her, it was almost like he saw something she didn't understand and maybe didn’t want to know. In a way, she was reminded of Cy, her ex-boyfriend in New York. They had only dated for a few months—it wasn’t love or anything, just fun for both of them. He had the same look as Luke, with bright blond hair that looked resolutely sun bleached. He had been overprotective of her, something that got old quickly. When she turned sixteen, he appeared out of nowhere and took over her life. While the constant calling to check in was cute at first, Kira had grown more and more frustrated. Moving home was the perfect excuse to dump him. Luke seemed more laid back, but there were traces of protection in his wannabe-knight manner. Could she see herself dating him?
Kira considered it, pondered the idea of a crush, but her mind slowly wandered from his familiar eyes to the icy blue ones belonging to Tristan.
Her hands stopped mixing at the thought of him. He was too much of a distraction, even for cooking. His brooding eyes held pain and love, his dimples added a cute boyish factor, and his hair hung just low enough to make her want to run a hand through it. She could tell just by looking at him that he had put up barriers and was full of secrets—ones that Kira would love to unmask. He was the kind of boy you wanted to comfort and to kiss, the kind you knew would break your heart yet hoped against all odds wouldn't. The bad boy with a soft heart, the sort of trap a girl knowingly jumped into.
Stop it, Kira told herself and began kneading the dough to get out her frustration. They had barely said two words to each other, not nearly enough to begin crushing; especially when all she knew about him was that the one person she hoped to call a friend hated him.
"Kira, Kira!"
She was shocked out of her thoughts by the four-year-old now attached to her leg. Kira looked at the dough. She had kneaded it far more than necessary and more than enough to let her sister play with the now soft putty.
"Want to help me make dinner?" She asked, lifting Chloe onto the marble countertop next to the sink.
Her mother came in seconds later and kissed her on the cheek. "How was your first day?"
"Oh, fine."
Her mother sank a little—clearly, she wanted more details. "Any friends yet? Any guys? Now that you're home I’d hope to get some more information out of you."
"Well, there was this one guy," Kira began telling her mom about Luke and how he had saved her. She could tell her mother was enjoying the teenage gossip she had missed out on while Kira had been up north, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak about Tristan. For now, he would be her secret.
Damn you, she thought. If you’re causing me this much trouble now I can only imagine what will happen if we ever have an entire conversation.
Chapter Two
When Kira arrived at school the next day, Luke was waiting for her outside the entrance. She was happy for the escort but wanted to try walking herself to class to test her memory of the layout. Luke let her lead, which resulted in two miss-turns and a five-minute tardy to class, but she had still gotten them there on her own, which was something.
In no time, Kira’s morning classes whizzed by, and she was sitting with her newfound friends in the cafeteria, feeling like she had an actual place in the school.
"Dude, Wonder Woman is definitely hotter than Catwoman," Luke said to Miles. The two had been in a heated debate since their teacher had mentioned comic books in chemistry class.
"No way man, Catwoman is totally badass and she wears a leather costume. Leather!"
"Okay, Wonder Woman wears a bathing suit, has super human stamina, and can fly," Luke argued, mouth hanging open in disbelief that they were even still talking about the subject.
"Catwoman has a whip."
"Wonder Woman has an invisible flying plane."
"Dude, leather plus whip plus hint of evil wins every time."
Dave decided to chime in with, "Luke, I think Miles has you there."
"Ladies? Come on, help me out." Luke peered over with puppy-dog eyes. A slight pout graced his lower lip.
"Speaking as a completely heterosexual female, I have to say that Catwoman is definitely hotter," Kira spoke up, hoping to end the completely absurd debate. "Now, here’s a real question—Batman or Superman? I have to go with Superman every time."
At that, Miles spit out his drink. "You have got to be kidding me."
Kira laughed and let the new debate continue now with male subjects who were of much more interest to her. But when Miles and Luke began spitting words at each other, most likely forgetting to breathe, she tuned them out.
Letting her gaze wander over all of the different groups around the cafeteria, Kira eventually allowed her eyes to slip out the window to the one person she was secretly searching for. But when her view landed on the misfits' table in search of Tristan, all four of them were looking at her. Jerome, John, and Diana held their gazes for a moment before looking away, but Tristan continued staring.
Kira’s breath caught. She didn’t understand or want their interest. Well, she secretly wanted Tristan’s but not the others. She smiled at him, trying to change his sort of gloomy stare for a flirtier one. But he just looked away, confusing her more.
Luke nudged her, pulling her gaze from the window. "Come on, it’s time to go to class."
They walked together, winding through the sunlit hallways, and sat down quietly until Mr. Bell walked in, flustered. Hastily, he started to lecture.
During class, Kira looked over her shoulder to catch all of the misfits staring at her once more. She held Tristan’s eyes again, only breaking contact when Luke tapped her shoulder to pass her a note. He sufficiently distracted her with funny notes for the rest of class, but the hairs on the back of her neck remained standing for the entire period.
"Luke, why do they keep staring?" Kira asked as they followed everyone out of the room.
"Don’t worry about it. It’s just because you’re new. I’m sure it will wear off soon."
But despite his reassurance, it didn’t.
Every day for the rest of the week, Kira was under scrutiny. The misfits would only look away when she finally turned to meet their gazes. Kira was confused, but more than anything, annoyed.
"I’m going to confront them," she told Luke after school let out on Friday afternoon. Her first week was complete, but she felt like things were only just beginning.
"Kira, leave it alone." He shook his head, exasperated with the conversation they had had every day this week. "The more it bothers you, the more they do it. They’re jerks. If you ignore them, I’m sure they’ll stop."
"I can tell from your voice that you don’t believe what you just said. Do you know what’s going on?" Kira made Luke stop walking before they reached her car, which was only a few steps away. She wanted to delve deeper into what Luke was obviously hiding from her.
"Nothing, it’s just who they are." He turned away, unable to meet her eyes, and continued his stroll.
"Well, we’ll see next Monday. If I catch them staring again, I’m going to talk to them. I’m not really one to stand idle when I’m annoyed."
"I’m starting to realize that," Luke said in a resigned voice and leaned against the trunk of her small car. "Do what you want to. I doubt I could stop you anyway."
Kira laughed. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Luke. We
are definitely starting to understand each other."
He put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against the car, and smiled. The playful mood finally returned to their conversation, the way it always did. "Hey," he said, as though suddenly remembering something he forgot to tell her. "You have to come to the beach with us tomorrow. Apparently, it’s a school tradition. The entire senior class goes to Folly Beach and has a sort of picnic-type event."
"Sounds great."
Kira jumped from his grasp and dug through her purse for her car keys. When she found them, they said their goodbyes, and Kira stepped into her car, more than ready for a mellow Friday night with the family.
The next morning, Kira was jarred awake by a booming alarm, dragging her out of that perfect place between being asleep and being awake, when everything seemed so serene. She flopped her hand on the clock to shut it off, stretched her muscles, and then rolled over to see sunbeams filtering through the yellow sheers on her window.
Beautiful, she thought, still trying to hold on to that limbo.
After a few minutes, she was finally awake enough to stand and start preparing for the beach. Flinging the curtains aside, Kira let the sun warm through her before heading toward the closet to find the perfect bikini and cover-up combo. The white bedazzled two-piece might be too flashy, and her new brown one didn’t really go with her hair, so Kira decided on her new kelly green bikini that would definitely flatter her hair and maybe even her eyes. She threw on her favorite beach cover-up, a pink and green polka-dotted strapless dress she picked up last summer, and flip-flops to prevent from seeming too fancy. After a look in the mirror, Kira decided it was New York chic meets low-key beachy.
She had told Luke she would bring a picnic basket, eager to let some new people taste her food. After making a killer pasta salad and cold cut sandwiches with her special sauce—a hint of mayo, a hint of mustard, and a little something secret—she was ready to go. Kira walked outside, waiting for Luke to pick her up, and was shocked to see a huge pickup careen around the corner with Dave and Miles lounging next to surfboards in the bed of the truck. Kira opened the paint-flaked passenger side door to a giggle-fest between Luke and Emma, and hopped in beside them.
The Complete Midnight Fire Series Page 2
