Princess

Someone knocked hard (it was more like banging) against my door, waking me up instantly. I peered at my clock and silently groaned when the clock informed me that I was awake at the ungodly hour of 3 am. I ignored the banging because it was a pretty common thing at SITT. If people were bored, they went around trying to piss someone off enough and get a fight.

But the banging just got louder.

I was not in the mood for someone to pick on me so I swung open the door and glared, expecting to see some tattooed freak waiting. Instead, I got Dylan Fuller who engulfed me in a hug immediately and sang, “Good morning, Christina!”

I wrestled myself out of his grip (again) while I carefully controlled my body’s instinctive reaction (which was to blush and stammer awkwardly). Raising an eyebrow, I looked behind him but didn’t find Luke. I wasn’t sure why but it was a little disappointing. “What do you want, Dylan?”

“I couldn’t sleep and I figured that-”

Without even bothering to listen to the rest of that sentence, I gritted my teeth and slammed the door shut, ignoring the rest of Dylan’s persistent knocks.
***
Classes at SITT started a little later than normal high schools, since it’s not as though we had anywhere else to be. But I sneaked out of my room at a ridiculously early 7 am to avoid Dylan Fuller. Then I promptly fell asleep in the cafeteria.

I was woken up by somebody shaking me. I resisted the urge to snap and opened my eyes to find Luke handing me an apple and smiling down at me, sans Dylan. “We’re kind of late.”
I nodded, a small smile forming on my lips and took a bite of the apple, following Luke.
***
When a teacher doesn’t come to school, it’s usually because they’ve (a) been fired because they were too nice and clearly not cut out for this job, (b) in therapy because of they endure everyday or (c) somebody has done something to the teacher’s car. All three were distinct possibilities when it came to Mrs. Cabot, our homeroom teacher.

But when nobody else came to replace her, Luke and I were left to talk. The rest of the class barely noticed Luke’s presence and did their usual thing—smoke, sulk and gossip. Luke appeared slightly alarmed when one of the biker girls whipped out her piercing equipment to work on her boyfriend’s ear but it was such a common occurrence so I told Luke to get used to it.

I found out more than I cared to know about Dylan Fuller from Luke because they grew up together. I could see it happening; especially from the few minutes I had spent with them where I had witnessed their easy, familiar interaction. Luke had been adopted by Dylan’s uncle, making Dylan his cousin but Luke didn’t appear too bothered by his missing biological parents.

But then Luke proceeded to tell me a lot more about Dylan. He was actually a year older than us, at 17 though he certainly didn’t act that way. He also didn’t get along with his father, who was some sort of hotshot big business type of guy. I wasn’t too surprised about that. I doubted that Dylan would be able to get along with anyone.
***
A few periods later, it was lunch. Lunch was always excruciatingly painful. Not because I was left alone (I liked it that way) but because any moment a fight could break out and everyone would get implicated. Being a Troubled Teen took a lot of energy.

I settled myself into a seat and kept my expression carefully blank and the others checked each other out, muttering insults and barely concealed hostility.

“There you are, Christina!”

I glanced at the direction the voice came from and cringed once I saw Dylan’s smiling and half-bouncing and half-walking towards me. There were more a few snickers and jeering once everyone got a load of the happy idiot.

There was nothing I could do to prevent the inevitable so I tried to pretend that I hadn’t seen him and studied the brown puke-like substance on my tray. Once he reached me however, I wished that I had tried harder to escape because he leaned down, a millimeter away from my face (bringing up an unpleasant memory of how we’d kissed yesterday) and then gently kissed my forehead.

“Hello, I’ve missed you.”

I stared at him, my mind a complete blank.

The mutterings around the cafeteria escalated and a few catcalls came from the suddenly interested crowd. I shook myself out of my blank and took my tray and smashed it into Dylan’s face before making use of the distraction and dashed out of the cafeteria to the girls’ bathroom.

I stayed there until the final bell rang.
***
The next lesson I had was creative writing. Basically, all the different grades had a combined class called ‘Creative Writing’ but it was actually a fancy name for Reflecting What Shit You did to Get Yourself Sent here. Jane was our ‘Writing Instructor’ but most of the time she was away for her own counselling.

I got into class before anyone noticed me and didn’t seem to find Dylan, so I started to calm down a little. It wasn’t all that terrible, aside from the furious whispering and sly glances. (Clearly after Averill Thompson got sent home after she was discovered to be pregnant, there was a lack of gossip.) I took a seat close to the door so I would be able to leave quickly if needed.

Then the door opened and in strode Dylan. My eyes bulged but I tried to even my breathing, the same way any prey does so that the predator wouldn’t be able to find and corner it. But it didn’t work, of course. Everyone took turns to look at Dylan and me. Only an idiot wouldn’t be able to locate me. Though Dylan couldn’t take a hint (he’d managed to clean himself out of the brown vomit), he wasn’t blind. He smiled at me and took the vacant seat next to mine the moment Jane came in.

As usual, she plastered a phony smile on her face and tried to say something but everyone ignored her. Dylan leaned towards me again and I moved a little back. “Where did you run off to?”

I positioned myself so that my bag laid in between us (to prevent Dylan from getting any ideas) but he shifted the bag out of the bag. I scowled but didn’t speak to him. Was it foolish to hope that if I continued to do so, he would eventually leave me alone?

“You’re trying to ignore me, aren’t you?” I didn’t respond. “You are! Oh…I think I can snap you out of that… It’s been a long time since I did this though…I wonder…”

I snorted. Let him think that I could be so easily persuaded.

“I know!” His eyes glinted and I found it hard to swallow, suddenly aware of all the annoying things he was capable of. “You’re not talking to me because everyone’s staring and you’re shy to admit that you’re my girlfriend.”

I spluttered but didn’t reply. He smiled nastily, as though he had calculated those words to get a rise out of me. I knew that Dylan Fuller probably wasn’t as dumb as he looked but I never did imagine that he’d been cunning.

At the front of the classroom, Jane slapped a ruler against the board for attention. Someone chortled and threw a half eaten apple at her. My stomach lurched uncomfortably as tears gathered in Jane’s eyes and those who weren’t staring at Dylan and I tittered louder. All the therapy hadn’t helped Jane and though I could be totally emotionless as a hardened criminal when it came to my job, Jane seemed more vulnerable than anyone else I had seen in a while.

I wanted to help her but I couldn’t. More attention would be drawn to me if I did that and I was probably already in trouble because of Dylan.

Dylan followed my gaze and seemed to be considering something for a few seconds before he got of his seat and to the front so fast that he was a blur. He said something to Jane and she looked back at him in surprise…and what seemed an awfully lot like gratefulness.

She composed herself before taking a seat and smiling serenely, paying no attention to the silence that seemed more appropriate at a funeral that had occurred after Dylan approached her. Dylan ambled back to his seat, his expression hard to read.

“Thanks.” I knew that I was breaking my vow of silence but I also knew that I would be the only one, aside from Jane, that would appreciate what he did. Though I still wasn’t sure why he did that, whether it was for me (how egoistical for me to think this way) or because he felt, like I, that they shouldn’t break Jane just for the joy of it.

“Yeah, thanks for spoiling our fun.” In the silence, a sole voice grumbled.

Dylan barely reacted. Instead, he said, “I knew you’d eventually talk to me.”

I should’ve been annoyed but I wasn’t. Instead, I laughed.
***
To top off an already awesome day, the moment I switched on the screen to complete my daily report, she already looked way pissed off and started reprimanding me, in that low and dangerous tone she favoured when angered. “You’re supposed to be low key. Is being the centre of attention your definition of low key? Is getting a nut job as a boyfriend your idea of on the down low? Is-”

“None of that was my idea! And that guy is not my boyfriend, he’s just mentally unstable. Besides, isn’t it better if I do have a little bit of attention? If people think that they know me, they’re less likely to pay attention to who I really am.” I kept my temper under control as she considered this.

The barest hint of a smile appeared on her face. “You’re pretty good at wriggling your way out of tight situations, aren’t you?”

I shrugged, knowing that Calloway would never let me off that easily. She might have paid me a slight compliment but she would never be that easily appeased.

“That’s a good trait to have when you’re on missions but how unfortunate for you, you’re currently on a break because of the last one that you so terribly screwed up.” She smiled at me and I mentally recoiled, knowing that she was going to strike any moment now. “Your orders were to be as low key as possible but you knowingly did not follow them. I can get you transferred out of this department and into something more...suited and mundane just for your disobedience.”

To stop myself from arguing back (which would make this situation even more miserable than it already was but would certainly make me feel a hell lot better), I pressed my lips together.

“But you’ve been rather capable at your job so I’m not going to do that. Instead, I hope that you wouldn’t repeat that mistake.” Her lips curve up even higher as she added, “Do something about that boyfriend of yours, wouldn’t you? Even if he is stupid, I don’t think that you would want him to...shall we say, get into an unlucky accident of sorts, do you?”

Somehow I just knew that she would say that. “He’s a civilian. You shouldn’t involve him in this.”

“But he already is involved, isn’t he?”

I stared hard at her. Calloway was a master of manipulation and she knew that I disliked getting any innocent party into trouble even if it stood in my way but she had no qualms about ruthlessly discarding someone as long as it helped her to proceed. That was why she was so good at her job and why she was considered an utter bitch.

Just like she knew I would, I gave in and nodded. “Fine, I’ll do something to make sure that he gets the idea that I’m not interested.”

And just like that, she disappeared from the screen.
***
I opened the door, ready to head to the cafeteria for dinner only to find Luke standing at the door. Struggling to hide my alarm (why didn’t I hear his footsteps?), I kept my expression light and pleasantly surprised.

This place was supposed to be a safe house, where I could rough it out for a while before trying to complete the same mission which I had messed up so badly. It may have been stupid of me to try to do so when they already knew who I was but everything was at stake here and I would go to any length to complete the mission, even if it killed me.

But if Luke could have so easily sneaked up on me, didn’t it mean that something was wrong? Maybe I was getting rusty with all those months of hiding...or maybe Luke Ouverson was not as simple as I had thought he was.

“Hey.” The word snapped me out of my thoughts. His green eyes danced with amusement. “Are you disappointed that it’s me and not Dylan?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” What was it about Dylan Fuller and Luke Ouverson that continued to unnerve me so much? Or was it just because that I was mentally exhausted that I had slipped up? Regardless, I did a mental sweep of the area, satisfied that I could not find anything that leapt out as being unusual. My eyes returned back to Luke and I tried to convey my distaste for Dylan. “I’ve had way too much of him and we still have a year to go.”

“But that’s wonderful! You’d have so much more quality time with your boyfriend!”

“Do not say that word. Please don’t tell me that you guys are going for dinner too. I don’t think I can suffer through a meal with Dylan.”

“We don’t do everything together, Christina.” He rolled his eyes. A slightly concerned tone grew in his voice as he said, “He’s not hungry.”

“Are you his keeper or something? Who cares if he isn’t hungry? Let’s go for dinner.”

Luke smiled and attempted to look innocent as he asked, “Did you remember to bring your keys this time? It’ll be bad if you forgot again.”

“That isn’t funny at all.” Still, I felt around my pocket and checked just in case.

We started walking towards the cafeteria, talking effortlessly about the most random things like our weird teachers and the strange names they had and continued our pointless arguments until we reached the cafeteria.

Then Luke went all weird on me.

“Holy shit.” He stared at a pageant pretty girl, chatting with one of the tattooed guys, in shock and if I wasn’t mistaken, fear.

“What’s wrong?”

“This is not good. What the hell is she doing here?” He ducked behind a pillar. Little droplets of sweat started to form on his forehead.

I tried to lean against the pillar causally while muttering out of the corner of my mouth, “I’ll take it that ‘she’ is that brunette. But why are you acting like...you’re scared of her?”
“Trust me; you would not want to know.” He covered his face with his hands and wiped his sweat away.
“What? Did you make her pregnant or something?”
“Worse.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I told you-you don’t want to know.”
“Seriously, Luke.”

“Excuse me, did you just say Luke?” The brunette looked expectantly at me. I must’ve been louder than I thought or she just had superb hearing.

Luke shook his head vigorously. “Uh...no....”

She narrowed her eyes and started approaching us. Pursing her lips as she got closer, she said, “Hey, Luke. You look very nice behind that pillar.”

Luke straightened and tried (unconvincingly) like he hadn’t been hiding from her. Wondering if I should leave them alone before deciding that this was too good to miss, I settled myself down for an awkward situation. “Well...um...hi. You look...nice too, Tia.”

I nearly choked. Who names their kid Tia?

“Save it, Luke. You received that email from godfather, haven’t you?”
“No...there’s no internet here.”
She smiled grimly. “This will come to you as a surprise then... He’s pushed the date forward.”
“What date?”
“The date of our engagement.”