Believe Beyond

Sitting in my creative writing class (we got a choice of art or creative writing. I can’t draw to save my life, so I ended up there) with Jace, I felt out of place. I was more than a little bit embarrassed by the incident in front of the gates this morning. I knew it was silly, but I couldn’t help it. And then to make things worse, the teacher decided to give us assigned seats because of everyone being so loud, and I got put right next to him.
“I want you all to interview the person sitting next to you as the introduction to journalism. Tomorrow you will all read your articles out loud. You have all period to work. Begin,” Mr. Gregory droned.
I turned and faced Jace, shifting uncomfortably in my seat. “Jace, right?” I said, even though I already knew that was his name.
He nodded. “And you’re Believe.”
I smiled. “Yeah. That’s me. So, uh…” I trailed off when he began writing in his notebook.
“When’s your birthday?” He asked, scribbling away.
“October thirty-first,” I answered. He looked up at me disbelievingly. “What? I’m being dead serious. My birthday is on Halloween.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I guess that makes for an interesting birthday. Candy and presents all in one day.”
I laughed. “Yeah. I got to open presents and then later on I’d go trick-or-treating. I loved it. My birthday parties were always fun.”
He smiled a little. “I can imagine. I bet you got plenty of party crashers.”
“Actually no. I never had that problem. It was just my friends and I. I never had to chase someone off.” Jace gave me a funny look and said nothing. “When’s your birthday?” I decided to ask.
“October thirtieth,” he answered. My turn to be shocked. That put our birthdays a day apart. I picked up my pencil and wrote that down, unsure whether he was serious or not. My paper said nothing more than Jace October thirtieth. Disappointing.
“Who are these friends of yours?” He asked.
“Belle and Karli,” I answered, frowning. “Karli is spelled with a k and an i…” I wondered whether I could even consider them friends anymore… Maybe I should have said that I had none. “Don’t write them down, though,” I heard myself saying.
Jace’s icy blue eyes glanced up at me from his paper. He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “They’re your friends. Why not?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but closed it. I did it again, finding myself hesitant to answer. Did I really want to tell this stranger kid about what happened? I kept hearing Briar calling him intolerable and an ass… He seemed fine to me. I took the opportunity to study him for a couple seconds. He had an almost stocky build, fairly small lips, and unreadable blue eyes. Freckles dotted his nose and splattered his cheeks, giving his roundish face an adorable look. He had a strong jaw and small nose. His hair was light brown, and I could pick out a couple of grey hairs here and there. It was a shame to already be grey when you were so young… must have been caused by whatever landed him in Scarlett Castle.
“Belle and Karli don’t talk to me anymore,” I said softly.
Jace’s mouth twisted into a rueful smile. “Ah. I see.”
I didn’t like the way he said that. I turned away from him, angry at myself for telling him.
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t have any friends back home either. I know how you feel. You’ll get over it. All because they feel that you’ve been sent to a reform school, they seem to think they’re better than you are. I know. All I have to say is that if they ditched you they weren’t real friends to begin with.” My eyes flashed toward Jace’s face, completely shocked. This kid Briar was so keen on insulting every chance she got didn’t seem so bad… yes, he did give off that I’m-better-than-you, you-should-fear-me feel, but he really wasn’t so bad.
I didn’t say anything, just turned my attention to my almost blank page. I felt my breath catch when I realized what he said was true. If they really were my friends, they wouldn’t have left me like that. I had no friends… I really was a loner…
“You okay?” Jace asked, a hand on my shoulder. I just about jumped out of my skin at the touch.
“Yes, I’m fine. It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said, looking back at him. He removed his hand and went back to his previous position. “I do have one friend though. His name is Yuri.”
Jace cocked an eyebrow. Damn, I wished I could do that. Both my brows always went up. “Yuri?”
“Yep, he’s the greatest!” I smiled at the fond memories I had of the dog. He was always loyal. I loved him so much.
“The lovely lady has a boyfriend?” Jace asked.
I felt a blush creep along my cheeks. He just called me lovely. “Maybe,” I heard myself saying, mortified at myself, but continued, “Jealous?” I couldn’t help the flirtatious smile that spread across my face.
I watched a smile tug at the corners of Jace’s mouth. “I’m not jealous. Why would I ever be jealous?”
I had to fight back a giggle. “Oh, I don’t know. You sure seemed jealous.”
“Nope, not jealous. Maybe I was just wishing I were that guy?” Jace smirked.
I felt my face turn flame red and my gaze immediately dropped when the giggle finally did escape. I had no experience with guys. I had never before talked like this. I clicked my high tops together nervously, embarrassed despite myself and not knowing how to respond. “Well, it’s not a guy your wishing you were. Yuri is my pet dog, silly,” I said to my shoes.
“Your dog, huh? Even better. I’ll bet he’s gotten to see a few things about you that I wouldn’t mind seeing. All the more reason for me to wish I were him.”
I looked up at Jace in complete surprise. Did he really just say that?! A strangled sort of laugh slipped out. Jace had the world’s biggest grin on his face. “Um…” The bell rang right then. Jace started to stand to leave. “Wait!” I exclaimed.
He turned and looked at me. “I don’t have anything about you…”
He put his books back down on the table, ripping a page out of his notebook. “Come to my room tonight and we’ll finish the interview there.” He handed me the paper and left. On it was scrawled, 43, in a rather good hand for a guy. Slightly ruffled, I scooped up my books and scrambled out of the room. I had nothing left for the rest of the day but dinner and homework.
“Believe!” Briar called as I trudged to my room. She trotted up next to me, a grin spread across her face. “What are you all red for?”
“I… um… No reason,” I mumbled, turning bright red again.
She sniffed in amusement. “Whatever. Come on, you’re going to my room.” The dirty blonde girl said, skipping ahead. I didn’t get to respond. There was a deafening crack, making me stop in my tracks. It happened so quickly there was no way I would have been able to do anything. A branch about as wide as I was broke from over Briar’s head, hurtling towards her. The girl’s gray eyes widened in horror and she flung herself to the side. The branch landed straight up and down, embedded in the dirt like a dart. Briar had almost been skewered by it and turned into a human shish kebab. It could have been either of us… Heart hammering, I ran to help Briar up.
My eyes darted around to see who all had seen what had just happened. I was surprised that no one was really around. However, my eyes did land on a certain fedora covered head. Jace leaned against a building not so far away, gazing at us intently with a serious expression. I shivered, turning away from him and the monster branch.