“Oh my, I didn’t expect that,” Amy’s voice broke in, and they jumped apart. Amy was standing at the corner laughing at them.
Reed turned bright red again, but Jessica just grinned back at Amy.
“I’m afraid we were just practising, it wasn’t real.”
Amy raised her eyebrows. “Practising for what? A tongue twister?”
“Don’t be silly. In fact this is perfect – he can practice on you now as well.”
Amy backed up. “Hey, no way. I’m not getting involved in whatever game you two are playing!”
“It’s not like that; please, Amy, just sit down for a minute and let me explain.”
They all sat back down at the corner table and then Jessica quickly filled Amy in on what she was trying to teach Reed.
“Oh, I get it.” Amy nodded. “And actually, a little kissing practice is probably very helpful,” she teased, nudging Jessica hard in the ribs.
“So can he try his ‘silent look’ out on you as well?” Jessica nudged Amy back.
“Yeah, no worries.” Amy grinned at Reed, who looked even more nervous than ever.
“Just do the same look on Amy as we discussed,” Jessica directed. “I’ll sit with her, and you take your chair over there.”
Reed nodded and picked up his chair, moving it away from them a little, before sitting back down.
“Now remember to look chilled out, and that she is a cake,” Jessica reminded him.
Reed adopted a more relaxed stance in the chair and waited until the girls started a pretend conversation. Then he fixed Amy with his newly learned look. She glanced at him and then she giggled.
“What?” Jessica asked. “Is it not working?”
“No, no, it is, it’s very good,” Amy said, then giggled some more. “It’s just weird seeing that look on Reed. I’m more used to it on someone like Byron.”
Jessica bit her lip. Had she unconsciously been trying to make Reed act more like Byron? Was it because Byron was good with girls or because she personally wanted Reed to be more like him? No, she decided, it was a good tactic for Reed because he was shy and this didn’t involve a lot of talking; it was all about eye contact and body language.
“So, do you think you might have noticed him taking an interest in you?” Jessica asked Amy, who was still getting giggle fits.
“Yes,” Amy smiled enthusiastically.
“Good; do you think that if you walked past him in a corridor and he put a move on you, that you might go for it?” Jessica pushed.
It was Amy’s turn to look a bit flushed. “I might,” she said cautiously.
“Excellent.” Jessica stood up. “Okay Reed, let’s try phase two on Amy. Exactly the same as you did on me.”
Reed’s cheeks were red again, but he nodded and moved into his leaning position against the stacks.
“Amy, you’re heading back to South Tower, on your own for some reason, and you see Reed in the corridor. He’s obviously waiting for someone, but you’re not sure if it’s you or just one of his friends. So you come round that corner and just react as you would naturally in that situation, got it?”
Amy stuck out her tongue and then waved as she disappeared behind the stack, circling it and then appearing at the other end. She kept her head down as she passed Reed.
“Hi,” he said.
Amy giggled again. “Hey,” she answered.
“Come here,” Reed said, in exactly the same voice he’d used on Jessica.
Amy went straight into his arms, and Jessica wasn’t even sure who initiated the kiss.
She waited about half a minute then coughed loudly. “Ahem!”
They parted almost reluctantly.
“Oh my, I didn’t expect that.” Jessica mimicked Amy’s Australian accent, using the same words Amy had used when she had caught Jessica kissing Reed.
They all started laughing loudly, until someone shushed them from another part of the library.
“So Reed,” Jessica said when they had eventually all calmed down. “How do you feel that went? Have you learned anything about talking to girls?”
Reed rolled his shoulders. “I’ve learned quite a lot about not talking to girls,” he joked. “But yes, that was an excellent lesson. Can you teach me some other stuff too?”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Probably, but don’t expect a practical application again next time!”
“Damn, foiled!” Reed snapped his fingers, gesturing his disappointment. “It’s nearly dinnertime, girls. We should get back to our school houses.”
“Oh right, yes, I had no idea it was so late.” Amy hurried off to collect up her books, and Reed went to get his comics.
Jessica watched them with a smile, thinking how perfect it would be if they got together. There was obviously a little bit of attraction there on both sides, otherwise they wouldn’t have kissed, but she hadn’t really seen anything more than that.
As she and Amy entered the South Tower Common Room, Jessica said, “He’s pretty cute, isn’t he? Much more handsome than you first think?”
“Oh, defo,” Amy agreed. “I think he must be taller this year, because I never noticed him much before, but yeah, now I can see he is totally rate-worthy”.
“Who is?” Bianca stuck her head up from a chair.
“Reed.” Jessica glared at her, daring her to comment. Which of course Bianca did.
“Useless Weed? Cute? Are you joking?”
“Don’t call him that,” Jessica snapped.
“No, seriously,” Amy chipped in, “He’s kind of built now, Bea. He’s got these macho forearms, and he’s a really good kisser, don’t you think, Jess?”
Bianca looked gobsmacked. “You’ve kissed him? You’ve both kissed him? For a dare or something?”
“Nope.” Jessica shook her head with a smile. “Not for a dare. And yes, I think he’s an excellent kisser,” she agreed with relish.
Amy and Jessica moved off towards the dormitories still giggling and talking about Reed. Jessica was saying that she thought it would help if he were more cold and aloof with women, with Amy disagreeing and saying he was really nice just the way he was.
Bianca watched them go with a feeling of utter confusion. Maybe they were just teasing. After all, it didn’t seem likely that Reed had managed to convince Amy to kiss him. Maybe Jessica though; she did seem very fond of him. And was he taller this year? And did he have macho forearms? Bianca sat back and tried to consider if he might have changed. No, he’d always been kind of cute, she decided. It was that loser Jessica who had made other people notice it by giving him lots of attention. She felt unreasonably annoyed by that. How dare Jessica make Reed more popular and attractive? After all, I’m the queen bee here, Bianca thought. I’m the one who gets to decide if Reed has become rate-worthy!
With that thought in mind, she stamped up the stairs behind Amy and Jessica to hear what else they might have to say.
Chapter Nine
Byron wasn’t sure why he was so upset about Jessica’s kissing Reed, but instead of finding her story amusing as she had intended when she recounted it to him, he actually felt rather put out.
The thing was that Jessica had made it clear that she had absolutely no intention of getting involved with any boy, and now she was showing signs of interest in not one but two boys, and neither of them was him.
Not that it should have mattered. Byron wasn’t looking for a girlfriend. He didn’t consider himself the monogamous type. Having grown up in a very bohemian world, he was aware of the many pleasures that there were to be sampled, and he had every intention of sampling as many of them at Compass Court as the limitations of school could provide.
He didn’t actually think he was particularly handsome, but girls said his looks were “romantic”, and he had a devil-may-care attitude that they seemed to find irresistible. He rarely attended his classes, was almost unknown as a pupil, and he didn’t hang out in the social areas with the other kids. He never went to the pub, he avoided the games room, and
he rarely put in an appearance in the South Tower Common Room. But he had no trouble finding fresh talent whenever he felt the need for some female company. Due to his rare musical abilities, Byron was considered a “special programme student” by the school, and as such he could come and go pretty much as he wished as long as he passed his exams. The music room was almost his private domain, and jokes had often been made that he should have a bed set up in there for all the girls that came to see him and left looking giggly, flushed and dishevelled. He didn’t like large groups and preferred friendships on a one-to-one basis.
He was attracted to Jessica; she was different from the majority of girls at Compass Court. She wasn’t a pampered rich girl, she was a down-to-earth real girl, and that kick-arse attitude that she tried so hard to repress was clearly visible to him, bubbling just below the surface. He longed for her to let her inner diva loose on the world and give it a smack in the face, but for some reason Jessica was holding back and trying to be a perfect good girl. He felt she had exactly the right sparkly personality and thick hide to make it as a singer, but no matter how much he goaded her, she refused to let it out of the box. She’d clearly had a bad shock somewhere, and it was inhibiting her from being the girl he felt she ought to be. He also felt that until she let go, her singing was suffering; it was like she was holding that in check too. She needed to burst out physically as well as mentally, and until then she wouldn’t hit the levels she was capable of.
Jessica knew there was something off with her singing, but she thought it was probably shyness about performing in front of Byron now that she knew who his parents were; after all, she could never compete with the range his mother had. But she kept trying hard, and little by little she knew she was improving. Plus the amount she was learning about classical music was changing everything for her. Previously she had only known what she had learned from her opera buff father. She would have been laughed out the door if she had expressed an interest at her last school; so she had focussed on popular music instead. But now, with Byron and Miss Bracken both coaching her and teaching her, she found her passion for classical growing every day, and she now knew she would never be happy doing anything else but that as a career.
Byron was thrilled that Jessica had taken to classical music with such enthusiasm. It wasn’t for everyone, but for him it was as important as breathing. He had finally found someone else at Compass Court who embraced it as he did and he was wary about messing up the friendship they were forming. On the other hand, maybe Jessica would be just the right girl for him. Someone he could share his passion with, who understood why and what he was feeling so much of the time – they could experience it all together.
Those particular feelings were fleeting. He liked being single too much to make any kind of commitment. Plus it was bound to go wrong, and he and Jessica would still have to work together, side by side. Which would be very tense if she hated him. What he really needed to do was to convince Jessica to have a fling with him or a casual relationship where she had no real expectations from him. But would she ever go for something like that? He thought probably not.
And he wished Jessica would stop mentioning this Eagle character. She had mention-itis. It was getting rather annoying, feeling like he was competing with a mystery. In retaliation to her continuous updates on her conversations with The Eagle, Byron began to give her continuous updates of his own exploits. It was true that he exaggerated them a little bit, but mainly he enjoyed telling her all the tiny details, because she so often found them hilarious and he loved watching her laugh.
He also tried to get her to break or bend a few rules. One Friday night Jessica was woken up by her phone at just gone midnight.
"Who is it?" Bianca asked in outrage from the other side of the room.
"Sorry," Jessica whispered looking at her phone, "it's Byron."
She took the phone into their study room. "Why are you calling so late?"
"Sorry," he sounded drunk and mischievous. "It's so hot and muggy tonight, do you want to come swimming in the river?"
"Are you crazy?" It didn’t sound fun at all to Jessica. "Swimming in the dark would be dangerous, and we would be in a world of trouble sneaking out at this time of night."
"We won't get caught, and it will be fun. There's already a bunch of kids here, including your friend Ellie. Go on, Chase. I'll wait by the front door for you?"
"No, Byron. I won't do anything that could get me kicked out. Sorry." Jessica hung up the phone with a slight pang. It was definitely the kind of fun she might have enjoyed in the past, but not now, it wasn't worth it.
He tried to tempt her out of bed at other times too. Once with midnight kitchen raid and once just because he was up late writing a piece of music and wanted her to come and listen to it, but she always refused. Now she knew why the Headmistress had warned her not to become too friendly with him. If she gave him even an inch then he would land her in a heap of trouble! She just wished he wasn’t so good looking and such an adorable bad boy. She also desperately wished she was free to be her old self and to run out the door and join him; instead she started switching off her phone at night.
Chapter Ten
The last week of October was a half-term holiday, and most of the school emptied out as the pupils went home to see their parents.
Flora was amazed and delighted when Michael invited her to spend a few days with him at his parents’ house. She arranged to go there for four days; then she would fly to Paris for a long weekend with her mother before flying back for school the following Monday.
Things had been distant between her and Michael recently. He had been attentive and loving when it was just the two of them, holding her hand and kissing her all the time; but he had seemed to stop bothering to spend time with her doing other things as well. If she invited him to come to the Games Room or the local pub or on a day out with friends, then he had always been too busy. So Flora jumped at the chance to spend a few days alone together, thinking it would help them becoming closer again.
At first it seemed to work. His parents had a huge estate, and she and Michael had found lots of time to sneak away on their own, but he had become increasingly bad-tempered with her, and now on her third day she was already looking forward to leaving. After a family breakfast where he’d barely said a word to her, Flora decided to go for a long walk in the fresh air, culminating in a spot of dozing in a walled rose garden.
Flora’s breath caught in her throat as she saw a figure walking towards her. She’d assumed it was Michael, but now he was getting closer she could see it was his brother Gabriel. How long had she been in the garden? When did Gabriel arrive?
Gabriel gave her a warm smile and sat on the grass beside her.
“Hi, Flora, long time no see.” He was still the most stunning man she had ever seen and Flora just gaped at him for a moment before gathering her wits.
“Hello, Gabriel. Yes, it’s been a few months.”
“So you and Michael are a couple now” – Gabriel gave her a perceptive glance – “but you’re hiding in the garden and he’s sulking in his room?”
Flora picked at the grass in front of her. “Yeah, we argue a lot.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “I find that hard to believe. You’re not exactly the argumentative type, and Michael has always been fairly gentle too. Is he not settling in at Compass Court?”
Flora couldn’t help a little bitterness from creeping into her tone as she said, “Oh, he’s settling in just fine. Seems to have more female friends than he can handle, quite frankly. They are still calling him at all hours of the day and night, even though I’m here.”
“Oh.” Gabriel blinked a few times in surprise. “Yes, of course,” He muttered to himself, “I should have seen that coming.”
Flora looked at him questioningly.
“I’ll have a chat with him,” Gabriel said. “Will you just give him a little time to adjust?”
“Of course,” Flora said sincerely, “I really want
things to work out between us.”
“You’re a nice girl, Flora.” Gabriel patted her knee, and Flora felt her heart rate kick up a notch.
“So, how’s Vanessa?” she asked.
Gabriel paused. “Well, actually, we broke up.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Flora felt awful for bringing it up.
“No, it’s fine. Honestly. It was very amicable, our schedules just weren’t compatible and in the end we realised we were wasting our time.”
Flora nodded sympathetically, and so Gabriel opened up a little more.
“She spent most of the summer working in Dubai, and even though I went over there, I barely got to see her. Then she flew back just as I was starting the Academy and I was frantically busy. She only had two weeks in London before she was supposed to go on another job to Australia, and she wanted me to drop everything to spend the time with her but I just couldn’t. We realised it was pointless trying to fit around each other at this stage in our lives. I guess I don’t really have time for a girlfriend right now.”
“Or maybe you just need someone who will be there for you when you need them?” Flora suggested.
Gabriel let out a short laugh, “Yeah, I’ll let you know if I ever find anyone like that.”
“I’m sure you will,” Flora said confidently. After all, she thought, most girls would take Gabriel any way they could get him and be grateful.
***
“So, you and Flora. Things going alright?” Gabriel cornered his brother while Flora was dressing for dinner.
“Not as well as I’d like,” Michael said moodily. “I was hoping things would progress a little further by inviting her here, but she isn’t getting the hint. I don’t know, I might finish with her if it carries on like this. Plenty of other willing girls at Compass Court.”
Gabriel looked amazed. “Are we talking about sex? You’re thinking of dumping her because she hasn’t slept with you yet? Cripes, Mikey, she’s only fifteen.”
Good @ Games (Book Four, The Flirting Games Series) Page 5
