Fairytale Green

It was the period before lunch, and I was glad. One of the reasons was because I was starving and the other was because my next class was English.

English was my favourite class with my favourite teacher.

Lana was also in that class with me, and I was eager to hear more about her loverboy. I had not seen her since the encounter at the lockers. I had also yet to run into the two newcomers.

I turned the corner into the English block and hurried to pass the classrooms until I arrived at mine. The door was open and many of my classmates were already inside.

As soon as I stepped inside the classroom, my eccentric English teacher was there waiting to greet me.

‘Hello, Ella!’ The best teacher in the world stood up from his desk and spoke in his gleeful voice.

Mr Dankworth was a sixty-year-old man who loved books more than anything. The way he behaved made him seem more fitting for a librarian at a mental institute rather than a teacher. His passion and craziness for literature was the thing that had drawn me to him.

We were kindred spirits in a way. Through our shared love of books and cult classic films, we had grown a friendship over the years.

‘Hi, Mr Dankworth.’ I replied, grinning back at the old man.

‘I hope you had a great summer break.’ He delivered hopefully before questioning ‘Did you get time to read War and Peace?’

On the last day of term, he had given me the book by Tolstoy to read over the vacation. If he enjoyed a book, then he always gave it to me straight after so he could get my opinion on it too.

‘It had a slow start but I kept powering on. It picked up pace in the middle and I could not put it down.’ I gave him my honest review ‘I finished it in under two days.’

Mr Dankworth looked shocked. His bushy white eyebrows almost hit his receding hairline.

‘The book is one thousand and two hundred pages long.’ He pointed out and then praised ‘I have to say I’m impressed.’

More people rushed their way into the classroom while Mr Dankworth opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a book. He handed the large book to me and encouraged me to take it.

I looked at the title that was not familiar to me. I trusted his judgement entirely so I would read it straight away.

‘Thank you, Mr Dankworth.’

The old English teacher smiled but he was not looking at me. He appeared to be watching over my shoulder.

‘Do you know the new students?’ He questioned, curiosity in his tone.

His words made me turn around and face the rest of the room. Most of the class had taken their seats at their desks.

I scanned the room until I found Lana who had saved us both a seat. Her back was to me and she was facing the two new additions to the school.

The giant man whose attention was fixed on the front of the class was at the desk behind my own.

Stone would be sitting behind me for the rest of the year.

Turning my head back to Mr Dankworth, I asked confusedly. ‘Why would you think that?’

‘The large gentleman in the black is looking at you.’ He told me while moving his brows suggestively.

‘I insulted him.’ I answered before adding to the statement ‘I think he wants to kill me.’

Mr Dankworth hummed before replying ‘Please tell him to wait until after class. It would be a lot of paperwork for myself to fill out of he did not restrain himself.’

A laugh bubbled from my chest as I rotated on my heel and headed in the direction of my seat.

While I walked down the middle aisle between desks, I placed the book I was given in my bag which added a significant amount of weight onto my shoulder. I had very little muscles so I feared the weight of my back would result in me looking like The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I sat down on the seat without looking behind me as I did so. I got out my English folder and pen and attempted to ignore the heat on my neck caused by a pair of dark eyes.

‘Hello again, Ella.’ Brennan voice from his seat diagonal and behind mine ‘This must be fate.’

‘I would not exactly call being in the same English class fate.’ I returned, continuing to look to the front of the class.

A steady beat was present from the desk behind mine. Stone tapped his pen on the desk loudly and repetitively like he was trying to draw attention to himself.

The noise made me turn in my seat.

Stone spoke up, his gravelly voice low like he only wanted me to hear his words ‘Then what do you call us being in the same class together?’

‘A class with you, Lurch?’ I answered him with a deadpan tone ‘There is only one thing that is. A nightmare.’

Brennan tipped his head back and laughed. His amusement did not dull down as he nudged the man next to him with his elbow.

The giant reciprocated his taunt by sending him a scowl that belonged to a stone-cold killer

My pun was intended.

Everything happened so quickly. The nearly black eyes rapidly moved back to me like they had not even budged in the first place.

‘You are a funny little one, Medusa.’

The rough gravelly sound of his voice curled around the single word. It was as if he was claiming the words for himself. His voice was commanding like he was enforcing himself to be heard.

‘Call me that again and you will get a little kick to the balls.’ I threatened while sending him a smile that was not at all genuine.

His eyes were on my mouth. The colour of his irises darkened when he watched the smile slowly disappear from my face.

My threat was not at all logistic. My leg would not be able to kick that high.

‘The book I have in my bag is over eight-hundred pages and it is hardback.’ I threatened while keeping my glare on him ‘I will knock you out with it.’

He never replied but his top lip did twitch after the words left my mouth.

Mr Dankworth started the class before I could say anymore.

‘Hello class! How was your summer break?’ The English teacher spoke from the front of the room ‘As much as I’ve missed everyone, I am distraught that I can no longer spend all day reading.’

Lana giggled from beside me ‘He is literally the male older version of you.’

‘No way.’ I turned and whispered to her ‘If he was forty years younger then he would be the perfect man for me.’

‘Try a hundred years younger.’ She joked back ‘He looks two minutes from death’s door.’

Mr Dankworth stood proudly in his purple waistcoat and bright orange trousers at the projector when he asked, “Did anyone read anything interesting in the holidays?’

A familiar male voice answered from the middle of the classroom. The voice from where the jocks would typically be found.

Chase leant back in his chair as he announced ‘I read a book called How to Stop Being So Appealing To The Ladies. It wasn’t a very useful read because they are still over me.’

All his friends laughed around him and praised him like he had delivered some kind of great joke.

In my opinion, Chase should not consider stand-up comedy for a living.

The English teacher faked a thinking face before responding ‘I don’t think I’ve heard of that book, Mr Andrews.’

I bit my tongue, but it failed miserably.

‘That is because he forgot For Dummies at the end of the title.’ I called out.

The whole class erupted into laughter.

Even the teacher sent a nod of appreciation my way. Chase’s friends were laughing too and I could not help but be pleased with myself.

Chase turned in his chair and sent the combination of a sneer and wink my way ‘You are lucky you are hot, babe.’

A low, deep rumble sounded from behind me.

I ignored it and replied to the quarterback with a bitter tone ‘You are lucky you are far away from me, babe.’

Mr Dankworth continued with the lesson, and everyone resumed focusing on the front excluding a few who were too busy trying to catch a glimpse of the two new students who might as well have been fresh meat.

Brennan leaned forward in his seat and poked both Lana and me with his pen.

‘Chase?’ Brennan inquired before glancing my way ‘As in the guy you were on a date with at the pier?’

I stayed quiet and Lana nodded.

Amusement filled Brennan’s words as he let out a single laugh ‘No wonder you left him to come meet us.’

A dark rough noise came from behind me again.

Slowly and with caution, I adjusted myself in my seat so that I could see why it sounded as if a mountain lion or some other predatory animal had appeared at the back of my English class.

I turned and raised my eyebrow at Stone questioningly, wondering why he was making the deep rumbling noise.

Stone stopped his anger-filled sounds as soon as my eyes met his. His scowl stayed intact but his eyes appeared a lot lighter.

Lana leant to the side towards me and whispered, ‘Why do you still go out with that douchebag?’

‘Chase is usually nice when we are alone.’ I told her quietly ‘I also need to keep him on side because he still has my panda.’

Another noise came from behind me. It was not a growl but instead it was the sound of paper being crushed.

For what felt like the hundredth time in two minutes, I turned in my chair and faced the giant who was currently ripping twenty pages of paper at a time out of a perfectly good notebook.

I flickered my gaze between the murderous male and the bunches of paper being destroyed by the veiny skull-tattooed hand belonging to him.

‘Trees did not give their lives for you to start ripping out paper like an origami fanatic on crack.’ I informed him.

He stopped ripping the paper, but his dinner-plate sized hands remained balled into tight fists.

Brennan spoke up while shooting a nervous glance towards his oversized friend ‘You have horrible taste in guys.’

Lana butted in and agreed with her loverboy ‘You do have terrible taste in guys.’

‘So do you.’ I replied, insulting her and Brennan in one-go.

Mr Dankworth called out enthusiastically from the front of the class, earning everybody’s attention.

‘I bet you are wondering what fun assignment I have planned for you. You need not wait any longer to know.’ The English teacher rambled out quickly like he could barely contain his excitement ‘Your first essay will be a personal and Shakespeare one combined. You must write about a character in a Shakespeare play that you relate to.’

I enjoyed English a lot and as depressing as it sounded, I enjoyed getting assignments. The Shakespearean theme just added to my excitement. I had pretty much read every single play by him, so I had many ideas of what I wanted to do for my essay.

‘Fun assignment?’ Lana cried, showing her contrasting view of the assigned work ‘I would rather stick pins in my eyes.’

Smiling at her amusingly, I tried to be supportive while assuring ‘You are a songwriter. Just imagine you are putting your thoughts into a Shakespearian song.’

‘That is what I did last time, and I got a C.’ She huffed ‘You better help me with my essay. I’m a lost cause without you.’

I would eventually help her, but I still had to taunt her.

‘One day you will have to do this without me.’ I hummed ‘In college, you will have to write essays about music. You will have to start learning to do it for yourself.’

‘That is not fair.’ Lana cried, throwing her pen at her notebook.

‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.’ I quoted dramatically, knowing she hated when I quoted classical literature.

The teacher continued with listing the details of the assignment ‘It must be a thousand words long and it is due a week from today.’

‘I thought he was meant to be a nice teacher.’ Lana exclaimed; her words muffled because of her face being planted on the desk ‘I feel like crying. This is hell.’

‘There, there.’ I patted her head and comforted her before I hit her with another Shakespeare quote ‘Hell is empty. All the devils are here.’

Her head popped up from the desk and she narrowed her eyes while rebutting ‘Can one thy shut up?’

The two males at the desk behind us chuckled at our interaction. They had been eavesdropping on the whole conversation.

My neck grew goosebumps as the owner of the deeper and raspier voice moved closer.

‘Are you always this nerdy, Medusa?’ Stone asked, his deep spoken words filled with taunt.

‘My name is Ella. E-l-l-a.’ I emphasised my words while biting them out, but I never gave him the satisfaction of turning around again as I spoke ‘If you cannot make sense of that then you are in the wrong English class. I would happily escort you to the nearest preschool.’

He had moved closer towards me. The sound of his chair creaking and the increasing goosebumps on my skin were evidence of that.

‘You will not get rid of me that easily.’ He grumbled under his breath.

The lesson continued. I hardly paid attention. I was too busy looking around the class at the curious spectators who were whispering. All the twenty or so pair of eyes of my classmates were on the two new males.

Most girls were stealing glances and giggling at the sight of fresh new meat which made me roll my eyes.

From listening to the whispers and the hushed conversations, it was easy to conclude that every person in the room feared the man seated behind me.

In the middle of the room where the jocks were also talking about the newcomers, Chase was staring in my direction.

The quarterback met my gaze and frowned before mouthing ‘Are you friends with them?’

I shrugged and ignored the tingling sensation that tickled my neck.

Lana was speaking to Brennan, and I pretended I was listening to them instead of what I was really doing.

I pretended to look down at my notebook while I turned to the side and watched the grouchy and mean-looking face in my peripheral vision.

Stone had a clenched jaw and a look of thunderous fury on his face.

Mr Dankworth began showing the class a slideshow of different literary techniques and it made me think about how weird it was that he never got the two newcomers to stand up and introduce themselves.

It was so unlike the English teacher as he always had a keen interest in knowing his students. However, he never asked them anything. It was like he already knew who they were.

I could understand why the English teacher never got Stone to stand up and talk about himself. His demeanour was not something for a friendly introduction to the class.

His glare and scowl were so terrifying that it was kind of impressive. I entertained the idea of sticking horns on him and keeping him for Halloween to scare away the trick or treaters.

Other girls in the class quietly giggled and it was obvious they found him impressive too.

He was scary and intimidating but he was not ugly. He was the furthest thing from it, unfortunately.

Chase stuck his hand up in the air and everyone in the room turned to look at the middle of the room.

‘Yes, Mr Andrews?’ Mr Dankworth drawled out his word like he was dreading what came next.

‘Can I share some poetry with the class?’ Chase queried innocently.

The English teacher let out a sigh “We are not doing poetry but go ahead.’

Chase placed his foot on the desk with a thud and pointed towards it before clearing his throat and uttering ‘Just like my leg is wrapped up in this sock, soon Ella behind me will be wrapped around my—’

Mr Dankworth stopped him before he could go any further ‘That is enough.’

I was mortified as the class started laughing.

He had never done anything like that before. He had never pulled a stunt like that before.

I wondered why Chase had chosen specifically today to start suggesting to everyone that we were sleeping together.

More sounds of angry paper ripping started to fill my ears. Along with a series of grumbles and murderous growls. Growl was the only way I could describe the noise that was so deep and rough but perhaps I was exaggerating due to my sensory sensitivity.

As I listened, I found it somewhat extraordinary the number of sheets he was destroying at a time. He had destroyed his notebook and Brennan’s in a matter of seconds.

‘Ella, I’m turning around to face my computer.’ My favourite teacher told me as he faced away from everyone ‘You may go and slap Mr Andrews.’

The paper shredding came to a stop. Then deep gnarls escaping the hollow-sounding chest filled the silence.

Brennan was the one to speak up next ‘Where did you find that asshole, Ella?’

‘A poetry reading.’ I deadpanned to lighten the mood.

The bell signalling the end of the period and the start of lunch rang out. The noise was loud but not loud enough that it overpowered the dark vicious sounds that came from behind me.

Mr Dankworth raised his arms to stop everyone from moving out of their seats while he announced, ‘Why did Shakespeare write using quills?’

Nobody answered as I packed up my bag and got ready to leave.

‘Because he got confused with pencils.’ The old man delivered after a dramatic pause ‘Two-B or not Two-B.’

‘He is the perfect man.’ I remarked to Lana as we both stood up from our seats ‘He is my soulmate.’

Another guttural noise that I had gotten familiar with happened again.

I stopped walking towards the door of the class. I turned around and tilted my chin up to the man following closely behind me.

‘What are you grumbling at now?’ I sassed, putting my hands on my hips and standing on my toes to grow closer to his face.

‘What fucker do you think is your soulmate?’ He grumbled again.

His voice was deeper. Even smokier and deadlier like he was restraining himself from something.

‘The man who is my kindred spirit and loves classical literature.’ I replied, biting my lip to hold back my laugh.

Stone appeared more pissed. His dark eyes grew blacker in hue as they flicked over my face.

‘Mr Dankworth is my soulmate.’ I told him with a wink ‘My one true love.’

The round wide shoulders belonging to him relaxed but only slightly.

The four of us walked down the hallway and through the English block into the science corridor. Lana grabbed my arm and pulled me further ahead so that a few people from the busy crowd were between us and the two new students.

‘He is so freaking scary.’ Lana whispered with widened eyes and a small, amused smile.

I did not need to ask who she was speaking about.

‘Yeah.’ I agreed ‘He is.’

Her curious voice grew even more hushed when she questioned ‘What is up with you and Stone?’

‘I’m sorry.’ I told her genuinely even tough my tone was sharper than the blade of a butcher’s knife ‘I know that you were really excited about Brennan coming here but his friend gets me fired up.’

She let out a small laugh.

‘Can you believe what he said about my hair and height?’ I mumbled, getting fired up even thinking about him.

‘It is not like you did not hold your own.’ She pointed out, her tone turning playful ‘He seems to enjoy teasing you. The only time I have heard him speak is when he is speaking to you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He never spoke after you left this morning for homeroom.’ Lana replied, glancing over her shoulder as she did so ‘I tried asking him something to be friendly and he ignored me. A few girls said hello to him, and he glared at them until they went away.’

I burst out laughing as the image of an army of people running away from the large man made its way into my mind.

‘It was terrifying.’ Lana added to the story.

‘You should have just called him Lurch like I did.’ I said to her ‘That seemed to get him to talk.’

Lana made a face like the very thought was unthinkable as she affirmed ‘Not everyone has a death wish like you.’

I glanced over my shoulder and what I saw made me bite my lip from smiling again.

Stone did not have to move around to make his way through the swarm of people. He was large enough that everyone just moved out of his way automatically.

He had not seemed to have noticed that everyone was taking one look at him and moving out of his way. Some people were even fleeing. He appeared used to the looks of terror.

‘The other periods leading up to English have gone too slow. I have learned nothing today except Oxygen has a valency of two and that Napoleon was once attacked by a bunch of bunnies.’ Lana complained as we turned into the lunch hall ‘The latter I learned from you.’

As expected from a cliche high school everyone had their set tables. There were not any specific labels to the groups apart from the large huddle of footballer jocks at one big table.

Chase was sitting on the table and all his friends were watching him down a glass of milk with a slice of pizza in it.

I gagged before looking away from him

Brennan scooted in the space between Lana and I before he put his arm around the blonde girl and asked, ‘So are we allowed to sit at your table?’

Lana let out a nervous giggle ‘Of course you are.’

‘Ella?’ Brennan asked hopefully while glancing behind me.

‘Unless you want to sit on the floor.’ I teased in the nicest way I knew how to discreetly say yes.

‘You know what, Ella.’ Brennan never removed his arm off Lana as he spoke to me ‘I think we might become good friends.’

We reached our normal table which was situated at the very back of the lunch hall. Brennan took Lana’s hand and made her sit next to him while Stone sat at the bench on the opposite side of the table.

Everyone was seated except me. I stood up with my arms crossed while glaring at the large body I was expected to sit next to.

My new lunch buddy Lurch was occupying the whole space at the bench and I knew it was going to be a tight squeeze.

‘So, I’m guessing I have to sit next to you?’ I let out an exaggerated sigh before uttering ‘Lucky me.’

Stone’s gruff voice remained deep and monotonous when he challenged ‘Unless you want to sit on my lap.’

I blinked twice.

‘I would rather sit on an electric chair.’ I spluttered out.

My feet done a nervous shuffle on the floor when I noticed that he was at eye level with me when he was sitting down, and I was standing up.

I lifted one leg over the bench and then the other as I took my place next to him.

He claimed the space of the bench we shared. His large thick biceps were touching the side of my face. His knees were hitting the bottom of table and the side of his right leg was touching my left.

I figured that he was uncomfortable, so I slid to the edge of the bench to give him more space.

His response was to relax his legs further until his leg was touching mine again.

Brennan looked shocked yet amused at the scene unfolding as he watched us from the opposite side of the table.

‘Ella, don’t take notice about the lack of emotion in Stone’s voice. The fact that he is talking to someone at all is a rarity.’ Brennan told me matter of factly ‘He must like you.’

I glanced at Stone before pointing out ‘He must really like making fun of me.’

‘He does not go around asking girls to sit on his lap.’ Brennan replied with a haughty grin.

A wave of surprise hit me, and I glanced again at the owner of the large body occupying the whole space at the table.

Stone never spoke. He just continued to watch me in silence.

‘No wonder. They would probably run for the hills.’ I finally managed to overcome my surprise and force words out of my mouth ‘His whole aura does not exactly scream shopping mall Santa.’

The corner of Stone’s mouth twitched upwards while his study on my face never withered.

To avoid his smirking, I opened my school bag and stuffed my head inside it so that I could find my lunch.

My eyes landed on the food I had brought from home, and I let out a small cry.

‘Is everything okay?’ Lana called.

I pulled my head out of my bag and ignored the hair covering my face as I complained ‘I usually have chemistry before lunch. I had it almost every day before lunch last year. My teacher used to let me use the kettle to boil my noodles.’

‘Your teacher let you make your lunch in class?’ Brennan questioned in disbelief.

I nodded my head and placed my un-boiled pot of noodles on the graffitied table.

‘I could just go and put some hot water from the bathroom in it. It might taste a little like a sewage rat though.’ I rambled on while my stomach started to churn uneasily ‘Or I could just eat it raw and crunchy.’

Lana’s nose wrinkled in disgust at my words before she softened her face and asked lightly ‘Did you not bring any money?’

‘No. That was the point in my noodle cup.’ I purposely left out my father and our lack of income as an explanation ‘It saves me money.’

My Dad left a hundred dollars a month for the food shopping. It seemed a lot of money on paper, but it was not in practise. I had been living off toast and jam for the past week.

‘Here.’ Lana insisted, taking out her sandwich and splitting it in half ‘Take this.’

I smiled at her gesture, but I shook my head anyway.

‘I’m not taking your lunch. That is all you have.’ I told her sternly before assuring ‘It is fine. I’ll just have something when I get home.’

Brennan removed his arm from the back of Lana’s chair as he stood up and announced ‘I’m going to get something from the cafeteria. Do you two want anything?’

Lana shook her head.

‘No, thank you.’ I politely declined before informed him of our lovely lunch hall ‘Now it is time for the briefing. Do not buy milk because it is out of date. Do not buy any fruit because the flies from the kitchen live there. Do not buy the custard because I found a bee in it once. Line up for food and do not push because Dinner Lady Mary will kill you and put you in a pie if you do.’

Brennan eyes widened and he appeared completely weirded out when he uttered ‘What?’

I shrugged while declaring ‘She is like Sweeney Todd without the barber shop.’

The bench underneath me creaked as Stone stood up and followed Brennan to the lunch line.

My whole left side went cold at the loss of contact.

When Lana turned her head and saw that the two of them were in the lunch line, she leaned over at the table towards me and whispered ‘So?’

I sent her a puzzled look before suggesting ‘So…?’

‘Do you think Brennan likes me?’ She questioned with a hopeful smile ‘I know it’s early days, but he is sitting with us.’

‘Of course, he likes you. You two are sickeningly sweet.’ I felt the need to assure her before I made a joke ‘I have only known him a day but I can tell he has a horrible taste in girls so you should be fine.’

She broke a piece of her sandwich off and threw it at me. It did not touch me. It instead landed on the person behind me’s head as I ducked in time to dodge it.

A few minutes later and the two new students returned with food. They came back with enough to feed a small village.

I peered between the two trays and seen every food served by the cafeteria on their plates.

I did not realise I was drooling over the fries until Brennan offered one out to me. I reached to take it from his hand, but he pulled it away and laughed at me. I frowned and glared at him until he gave it back.

‘How can you manage to eat all of that?’ I queried, trying to keep the impressiveness in my tone at a minimum ‘I have a massive appetite and I would struggle to finish a quarter of the food on your plate.’

Brennan chuckled before informing ‘We are big guys, Ella.’

‘Yeah.’ I replied absentmindedly while peering at the giant next to me’s arms and torso and his overall body ‘I noticed that.’

My attention was still on the bulky arm at the side of my head when it moved to grab a plate of sweet chilli chicken and noodles from the lunch tray.

Stone set the plate of noodles in front of me.

I quickly looked up at him and tilted my head in confusion.

The large veiny hand belonging to Stone nudged the plate so that it was closer in front of me.

‘For me?’ I asked him, my voice struck with confusion.

His head cocked to the side and his obsidian eyes remained on my expression when he nudged the plate further towards me.

The smell of the food was mouth-watering, but I managed to retrain myself

I sent him a small grateful smile before I shook my head ‘I can’t accept this.’

‘Eat.’ Stone growled.

‘That means I owe you, Lurch.’ I pointed out the obvious while I began to move the plate back towards him.

‘Eat, Medusa.’ He growled again, grabbing the plate and placing it in front of me.

Stone handed me a fork and stared at me. He did not move. He just waited for me to take the first bite.

I took the fork and motioned it towards him ‘I will pay you back tomorrow.’

He scowled and grunted ‘No.’

‘Yes.’ I argued, trying to match his demanding gruff voice but failing.

‘No.’

The gesture had started to change my opinion on him. I thought to myself that maybe he wasn’t so bad.

‘The food will shut you up for a couple of minutes.’ The gravelly voice of the man next to me uttered lowly.

I had understood him right on first impression because he was that bad.

‘You do know that I am purposefully going to talk nonstop from now on.’ I shot him a wicked grin ‘Just to annoy you.’

His reply was not what I expected. He did not frown or grumble but instead, his lip twitched upwards again. It twitched higher than I had seen it go before.

I picked up some of the noodles on my fork before sucking one up into my mouth.

My eyes widened because I was not expecting such a good taste for a cafeteria meal. The noodles were soft, and the sauce melted on my tongue.

It was so amazing that I had let out a small moan.

The leg against mine stiffened and the wide shoulders belonging to him stilled.

Stone stopped moving completely.

‘Do not do that.’ He grunted out like it was too painful to talk.

I raised an eyebrow at him before I took another bite of the chicken and noodles. I closed my eyes and moaned again except I made it louder and longer.

His eyes darkened and a string of curses left his mouth as he looked away from me for what felt like the first time since the beginning of lunch.

The other two were too busy with their conversation to notice our side of the table.

Lana asked the person next to her ‘Which Shakespeare character are you doing for your essay?’

Brennan finished eating his mouthful before answering her ‘I don’t really know. Have you got any ideas?’

She gave him a helpless shrug ‘I don’t know my Macbeth’s from my Hamlet’s.’

‘Romeo and Juliet are the perfect characters for you. Minus the family drama and more of the cheeky one liners from Romeo and it is pretty much you two.’ I intervened by interrupting them ‘Also, hopefully the dying part can get left out.’

‘Who are you writing about?’ Lana turned so she should direct her question to me.

‘I have a few ideas on interesting characters.’ I claimed, ‘I just don’t know which ones are like me.’

A rough husky voice spoke from next to me ‘Puck.’

I sat still for a few seconds in shock. I was in shock that Stone had spoken and that he had Shakespeare knowledge.

Titling my head towards him, I challenged ‘Why do you think I’m like Puck?’

‘Mischievous and meddling.’ He answered with a grumble after a few moments of silence ‘You are also tiny.’

‘Meddling? I am not meddling!’ I blurted out.

Lana sent me a look that gave away she agreed with the giant’s statement.

I angrily stabbed my sweet chilli chicken and imagined it was his face.

He had only known me five minutes and he seemed to think he was an expert.

Brennan quietly murmured to Lana ‘Do you know what they are talking about?’

She shook her head.

The table was too busy talking about the English assignment that we failed to notice Chase standing at the side of the table.

I looked up to find the quarterback with his arms crossed and his glare switching between the two guys sitting down.

I had not forgotten what he said in class, but I did not want to speak about it in front of everyone. Especially in front of the one next to me who looked ready to rip the quarterback’s head off.

Stone appeared like he was seconds away from going on a murdering spree. His whole body had tensed. His veins bulged in his hand as he made fists, and his jaw was ticking rapidly.

Nobody welcomed him so I decided to cut the tension by speaking up ‘Hi, Chase.’

‘Do you want to go out tonight?’ He sent the question my way with a glance in my direction before he eyed the two men sitting at the table.

‘I’m going to Lana’s house.’ I replied truthfully before adding ‘Maybe some other time.’

‘Can you not cancel?’ Chase suggested.

‘No.’ I bit out sternly ‘I am not going to cancel plans with my best friend.’

‘Why not?’

I had seen the quarterback and his friend interact, so I knew there was no point going into detail about the laws of friendship.

‘Her Mom is making macaroni and it is the best food ever. Italian restaurants have nothing on Lana’s mother’s macaroni cheese.’ I declared, ‘The food trumps everything you are willing to offer.’

‘I can offer you anything you want, babe.’ Chase winked with his innuendo.

I felt the whole of my body vibrate as I felt the large chest adjacent to my left side shake violently.

‘It is a hard pass.’ I sarcastically remarked.

‘Is this about my poetry?’ Chase questioned with no guilt present on his features ‘It was just a joke with the boys. I didn’t even get to finish it.’

‘What do you mean finish it?’ I raised my voice in annoyance ‘It does not take sparknotes to figure out what you were going to say next.’

Brennan seemed entertained by Chase’s arrival. His amusement drained however when he saw the reaction of his friend.

Stone looked anything but entertained.

If looks could kill, then Chase would be long gone.

He would be buried six feet under and had his grave pissed on by Stone.

I took a bite of chicken and looked down at my plate to ignore the scowl I was being sent from the man pressed up at my side.

Chase finally took the hint and left to go back to his lunch table.

‘Lana’s Mom’s macaroni is better than sex with Chase?’ Brennan remarked with a chuckle ‘Ouch.’

The fists rested on the table caught my attention. Fists as in plural. Both of Stone’s huge hands were clenched so hard that his knuckles turned white, and his veins bulged out in a rhythm.

I glanced at his murderous expression and wondered if he slept with a scowl on his face.

‘I’m not sleeping with him.’ I pointed out before adding ‘Although, Lana’s mother’s macaroni is better than anything. That probably includes sex.’

The large bulky chest next to me stopped shaking.

‘Please don’t ever say my mom and sex in the same sentence again.’ Lana said as she pretended to shiver ‘Like ever.’

We all laughed and even Stone looked a little happier.

Happy was probably an overstatement but he was no longer scowling.

It came as a surprise that Chase did not try and recruit the massive man made out of muscle for the football team.

Stone would knock everyone and everything out in his path. He had the most intimidating body I had ever seen and that included wrestlers and weightlifters I had seen on the television.

Lana and Brennan were talking among themselves as I stood up and grabbed my bag from under the table.

‘Where are you going?’ Lana voiced in confusion.

‘I have to run to my locker for my stuff for next period.’ I explained to her while ignoring the pair of dark eyes following me as I moved away from the bench ‘I will see you after school.’

The corridors were empty as I drifted through them to my locker. I didn’t desperately need to get my folders, but I wanted to give the couple some time alone.

I also wanted a minute away from the heat that came with being pressed up against a certain someone.

Tidying up the small compartment of my locker, I rearranged my folders into alphabetic order and placed the book Mr Dankworth gave me with the others I had stored.

I then noticed a large veiny hand rested on the locker beside mine.

A few breaths later and I slowly turned around to face the person lingering behind me.

Stone had taken his jacket off. His black short-sleeved shirt showed off his arm muscles that were covered in black ink. Both of his ponderous arms were sleeves of tattoos. Thickly heavy lines covered all of his visible skin which included bottom of his neck and start of his chest

There was no way this man was high-school aged.

I stared at his stomach and grew a weird wish to know if his whole body was covered in tattoos.

He remained stood in front of me with one hand on the locker beside my head. His other hand was by his side but I felt entrapped by his gaze, so I did not move.

I tilted my chin and looked up at him when I realised, I had spent a good while staring at his tattoos.

‘Are you always going to be lurking around?’ I asked, meeting his eye.

His chest grew closer to my face as he neared closer and bent down so my body was within inches of his.

I put my hands together and twiddled my thumbs as I continued to meet his eye.

‘I am just so lucky.’ I remarked humourlessly ‘Out of two thousand or so lockers, you just had to get the one that’s two away from mine.’

The corner of his mouth hiked up a millimetre.

I leaned on my toes and stretched up to observe his minuscule hint of a smile closer. I also rose in my toes to appear taller and stronger.

‘Must be the green hair that gives you all of that luck.’ He grumbled, his expression remaining unreadable.

‘What is your obsession with my hair?’ I raised further on my toes while I gritted out the question.

He never answered. He only cocked his head and studied my angry pout and my narrowed eyes.

‘I don’t point out the colour of your hair.’ I rebutted because I could not think of anything else to say.

His head cocked further to the side and his emotionless rumble of a voice had a hint of amusement in it as he probed ‘What is the colour of my hair?’

Stone’s hair was black. Black like midnight. Black like his obsidian eyes. Black like the dark.

Nothing came to mind to reply so I ended up blurting out ‘The colour of a cow pat.’

Once again, his mouth twitched upwards. The movement disappeared as quick as it had appeared.

‘It is nearly the end of the day. I am too out of energy to give good insults.’ I lamely made up an excuse to recover from my cow-pat comment ‘Tomorrow I’ll be ready.’

He moved closer. He stole the space between us and neared so that his scent filled my senses. He smelled like leather and cologne and everything masculine.

My goal was to remain strong and act unaffected but that thought quickly got thrown to the wind.

The thick muscly arm brushed past the top of my head before moving past me and reaching into my locker.

A book was in his hand when he pulled his arm back.

Stone held my book up close to his face so he could read the title which meant it was out of my reach. He did not even have to raise his arm up for me to be jumping in an attempt to get it back.

‘Give it back, Lurch!’ I demanded, continuing to jump up higher and higher.

If I knew I was going to have to climb a mountain, then I would have brought a harness with me to school.

He noticed my stretching to try and get the book because his dark eyes lit up in amusement as I kept on shooting him an angry glare.

I felt like I was back at middle school when the boys in my class would steal my frog shaped cookies and hold them out of reach from me.

The giant finally took pity and lowered the novel, so that it was in reach.

I took it and placed it back in the locker. I never stopped glaring at him as I did so.

‘I have had enough of you today.’ I huffed as I slammed my locker dramatically.

The bell for the end of lunch filled the empty hall.

Before the bustling crowd of noisy students filled the hall, Stone lowered his head and uttered gruffly ‘See you tonight, Medusa.’

People flooded into the corridor from either side of us, but I could not focus on any of them. I could not focus on anything else but the broad shoulders looking gown on me

‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ I questioned with widened eyes.

He did not answer. He took off down the hall towards the exit of the school but not before stealing another look at me over his shoulder.