Summer of Love

Raining on a Monday morning was not an unusual thing at all. Who likes Mondays anyways?
To top it off, it's my first day as a senior...Yay.

As soon as my alarm started going off, I reached over and slammed my hand down on top of the snooze button, the little machine creaking under the pressure and I swore I heard something snap off. I listened to the rain pelt the roof and splatter against the windows of my bedroom before blowing out a sigh. Raining days made me lazy and wanting to do nothing more than sit back and read a good book all day. Instead, I had to get my butt out of bed and get ready for school.

Tossing the blanket aside, I climbed to my feet and stretched my body as far as I could before rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stepping into the bathroom. I flipped the light on and blinked at my reflection before realising how horrible I looked. Seriously, I look like one of the hideous beasts from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. My hair was a giant bird's nest and my face was pasty with large dark circles beneath my eyes. It was obvious I didn't get much sleep, what with it being my first day as a senior.

Turning away with a groan, I turned on the taps to prepare for a shower and yawned tiredly as I went to gather my uniform. I cleaned up the best I could in my half asleep state and washed my face with cold water to get myself moving. I slipped into my uniform and walked over to my mirror to see how it turned out. I turned from side to side and growled to myself through the mirror. Oh, there was nothing wrong with the uniform, it was sort of cute...the problem was my height.

Being a senior and a girl for that matter, being taller than the others was embarrassing. I had a full length mirror and I couldn’t even see my entire body in it. Frowning at my reflection, I tried to ignore the height issue and concentrated on my crisp white blouse and plaid skirt of black and red. Seeing my red bow was lopsided, I quickly fixed the problem and narrowed my eyes, surveying my appearance. I decided I was satisfied and moved to my vanity where I tamed my long, layered black locks and enhanced my already noticeable gold eyes.

I added some touch ups to my hair to make sure it stayed the way it was, and stole a glance at the clock. I did a double take when I saw the time and cursed out loud, jumping to my feet in a panic. I grabbed my bag and tore from the room, skipped down the stairs and flashed into the kitchen where my older brother, Derek was making breakfast. As always, he wore Mom's old apron and turned with a raised eyebrow, his stormy grey eyes filled with amusement.

"First day as a senior and you’re going to be late," he teased with an evil grin, mocking me and I pierced him with a glare and grabbed a piece of toast before rushing to the front entrance.

I slipped my shoes on as fast as I could and with my breakfast in my mouth, waved to my brother in the kitchen before running out the door, down the street. I hadn't realised how heavy my bag was until I reached the Academy and could barely breathe. My toast had long since fallen from my mouth to be wasted on the side of the street instead of inside my stomach being digested.

Leaning against the tall stone wall, I heaved in the breaths, trying to fill my lungs as much as I could. I was sweating so much; I knew my first day was going to be the worst day of my life. To add to it all, all I managed to do with my hair was for nothing; it was beginning to puff out and stick to my sweaty face. With a heavy sigh of defeat, I stepped onto the school grounds amidst the other mobs of students and went to find my friends.

By the time I safely made it inside after pushing students aside, I was drenched from head to toe. I was an idiot and forgot my umbrella at home, not wanting to be anymore late than I already was. I moved through the crowds, searching over their heads for my friends when I heard it.

“First day being a senior, and you’re late as always.”

I halted in my tracks, feeling my flesh heat up with anger. That voice...I really hate it. It’s like hearing nails on a chalk board, or a fork scraping on a plate during dinner. Turning, I looked straight into his mocking silver eyes and tried to ignore the giant smirk plastered on his face.

Cian Winters was the most popular guy in school with his natural good looks from his unique moonlight silver eyes, shaggy shiny black hair, perfect pearly white panty-dropping smile, to his natural charisma, flirtatious nature to, of course, his height. He stood taller than all the students, including some of the teachers at 6’5 making him the tallest guy on the premises. In other words, that made me the tallest girl though the top of my head reached just beneath his chin.

Growling, I shook a tiny fist at him angrily as my best friend, Sara rolled her green eyes mockingly before folding her arms and looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh? Look whose talking, buddy! You just got here too!” she said with a glare, pointing a finger accusingly at his face.

He blinked in surprise, his cheeks flushing slightly with embarrassment before shoving his hands in his pockets with a glare and rolled his eyes, mimicking her gesture. It was her turn to sprout steam and shake her fist as her tall, dark haired handsome boyfriend Jack held her back. He was almost as tall as Cian with black spiky hair, tanned skin and kind brown eyes. Seeing him and Sara together made me happy; they made an adorable couple.

Off to the side staying completely out of the way stood shy Hannah with shoulder length ebony hair and big pacific blue eyes against a pale complexion that was flawless. She constantly held a blush and her smile was contagious. Guarding her was Fox, her tall handsome white haired boyfriend who was just as quiet as she was. It surprised me that two shy people could get along so well without being able to hold a conversation too long without getting nervous around each other.

I was brought back to reality when I was clocked over the head. The pain was instant and I cradled my head in my hands before glaring at Cian.

“What the hell was that for?” I shouted angrily, my head beginning to throb and he sneered.

“For being an idiot and starting this whole argument!” he shouted back, leaning close to me and I felt my temper spark.

“How is this my fault, you moron?” I shrieked, bunching my hand to a fist and returning the favour with just as much strength as he had, knocking him back on his ass.

Sara lifted her brows and clutched onto Jack’s arm with the nod of her head. “It’s obvious her abnormal strength hasn’t disappeared over the summer.”

The others nodded in agreement and I simply ignored them and glared down at Cian with my hands on my hips, glaring daggers as he rubbed his head, wincing.

“How does it feel to be knocked down by a girl?” I asked with a sneer, completely filled with amusement at his embarrassment and he grit his teeth, a challenge flashing in his eyes.

“If you weren’t such a freak with your weird Amazonian strength, it wouldn’t have happened!” he retorted angrily as he climbed to his feet and brushed himself off while I began to steam.

“I am not an Amazon!” I cried, my hands clenched at my sides and he stepped closer threateningly.

“Yes you are!”

“Take it back!”

“Shut up, you beast!”

Sara exhaled in annoyance and treated us both to a glare. “Would you two both shut up?”

“Stay out of it!” we cried in union, both turning to glare back at her and she shook her head with a sigh of defeat and looked up at Jack.

“Darling, I don’t know what else to do. They are completely hopeless as human beings...” she said sadly and Jack, being the good boyfriend he was, held her close to his side and smiled in agreement.

Both Cian and I turned on them, fists shaking and growls issuing. “I’m not hopeless!”

Annoyed, we both turned back on each other, staring each other down angrily until the bell rang. I snapped out of it and looked around in surprise to find students shifting to their respective classrooms and I waved my hand toward Cian dismissively.

“You’re annoying,” I said with irritation and walked away beside Sara to our shared locker to put my things away.

I shoved my pack inside and gathered the books I needed while Sara began to ramble on about Cian and asking why we always fight. I ignored everything she had to say and followed her down the hallway to our homeroom only to step inside and discover that the moron himself was in the same class.

He sat there looking so relaxed with his long legs sticking out from the edge of the desk, flashing that pearly white smile—smirk I should say—in my direction, already knowing we’d be in the same class for the year. Sitting at my assigned desk, I groaned and slammed my forehead down. It didn’t help that he sat right next to me either.

I heard his evil chuckle and looked up through narrowed eyes to find him grinning at me.

“Looks like the last year of High School will be spent in the same class with me,” he said with that cocky grin and I glowered at him, wanting nothing more than to wipe that smile off of his face.

Ignoring him, I turned my attention to the front of the class where Mr. Zimmer stood and began rambling on about the beginning of senior year and what to expect. Somewhere near the beginning, I had fallen asleep and drifted into a dream involving a tall, handsome man on a white stallion. He was going to take me away from this place, take me away from everything and make me his wife. Being romantic and seductive, he blew in my ear...it took a few seconds to realise that wasn’t a part of the dream. Alerted and wide awake, I felt someone blowing in my ear!

Chills spiked straight up my back and spread throughout my body with the same effect Cian’s voice had on me. I screeched in horror and shot up from my desk, toppling the chair and backed away from the source and saw Sara looking at me with a nasty smirk on her face.

“Someone was having a really nice dream,” she taunted evilly and I blinked in surprise before I came to understand that I must have been talking in my sleep and turned bright red in horror.

“H-how do you know?” I countered defensively, hoping like hell she was just kidding. As her grin grew wider, I grew more horrified and gasped when she held out her phone.

There, on the screen as she hit play, a video of myself sleeping played before me and I felt like a giant red tomato. There I was, like an idiot, smiling and giggling to myself while drool dribbled onto the desk.

Seeing my face, Sara started to snicker and turned to show Jack and the others while I sat there, mortified. Cian took one look and sputtered with laughter, pointing at me tauntingly.

“Seriously, what were you dreaming about? Was it me?” I asked cockily with that damn smile of his and I glared angrily. Taking my formed fist, I hit him in the back of the head and sent him a death glare.

“Why the hell would I dream about you, you creep?” I shouted catching the attention of everyone in the class as Cian straightened and returned the glare, leaning forward.

“What the hell was that for?” he growled, shaking his fist and I stood right up to him face to face.

“For being such an idiot!”

“You are the idiot!”

“Not as much as you are!”

While we had our glaring match, I heard Sara sigh.

“Some things are just not meant to change, are they?” she asked in exasperation and Jack chuckled.

“Nope, they’ll always be the same.”

“Jeez...”

Turning to glare at them, Cian and I both took a breath.

“Hey!”

Exchanging one more glare, we both folded our arms and turned away from each other in disgust.

Well, my first day as a senior was going just like I'd hoped...

Not!