Innocence

I got up on my own the next morning having set my cell phone to ring five minutes early than Gloria would have come in to wake me up. I showered, curled my hair again, and brushed on a little mascara before descending the stairs. Instead of going into the dining room like I knew I was supposed to, I went straight into the kitchen. The stools there were just as comfortable as the dining chairs. And they had perks.

No parents.

I got a ham omelet placed on my plate, a glass of orange next to that and a bowl of fruit in a matter of ten seconds. These cooks were good.

My morning was going better than I had hoped after the day I had. That is until the kitchen door swung open and in walked Nathan.

He didn't seem surprised to see me there. He sat down in the stool next to me. "Hey Candace. How has your morning been going?"

I got and made it half way to the door before Nathan called me back.

“Wait. Come here we need to talk.” I turned around and faced him, but didn’t move anywhere else.

“Please?” he said.

“Talk.” I said sourly crossing my arms over my chest.

He sighed. “I know you are upset with me Candace. I know that I shouldn’t have left you and your mother, but it was for the best. Your mother and I weren’t happy. We needed a break. I was going to come back, but I got this huge job offer I couldn’t refuse. That’s why I wanted you guys to come up here. To live with me, so we could be a family again.”

“A job offer you couldn’t refuse? What about your girlfriend? The women you spent all your weekends with. The women you spent Valentines Day, Christmas, and New Years with? What about her? Was she your new job offer?”

I didn’t wait for him to respond. I stormed out of the kitchen into the dining room.

I grabbed a doughnut and marched out the room in a huff. I slipped my feet into my boots, grabbed my winter coat from the coat rack, and left the house without glancing back. When I got outside I was hit with a blast of sunshine. The sun was usually something that calmed me, but right now nothing would work. The snow was melting already, and there were large puddles of water in carious places on the driveway and yard.

As I walked toward the limo, I nibbled on the doughnut not really tasting it. So much for starting out the morning great.

  

Maryana was at her locker when I came to mine. I didn't say hi when I saw her, but she did to me. I only smiled, unable to give her more than that. Of course it wasn't Maryana that I was mad at it was myself. And I was punishing myself for how mean I have been lately. So saying hi to Maryana and giving myself that second of happiness just wasn't going to happen.

I opened my locker a little too hard and it swung open, hitting the boy next to me. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

He smiled, then turned back to his buddies pretending it didn't happen. Grinding my teeth together, I threw my book bag inside my locker. I grabbed my things for my first four classes, and slammed my locker shut.

Maryana stood stock still next to me, her locker already closed. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

She cocked her head slightly to one side, her eyebrows shooting halfway up her forehead. "Really?"

The two-minute bell rang through the hallways, alerting students to hurry up. "We better get to class," I said. Avoiding any questions at this point was critical. I was already mad enough as it was, so keeping my thoughts to myself was the best thing.

I turn to leave and bump into the same guy I hit with my locker. "Oh, sorry."

He doesn't smile this time, but moves out of my way. I storm past him, Maryana right next to me. I turn the corner of the hall too quickly and hit my arm on the wall. Immediately tears spring to my eyes as I bring my casted arm closer to myself.

This just not my day!

I curse under my breath. I remembered just then that I didn't take my pain pills this morning. What was wrong with me?

Tears are still filling my eyes when I sit down in my seat in speech class. Mr. Varner is in the front of the class, writing something on the board. I didn't even think about it before I looked across the room and saw Trevor sitting next to Aiden on the other side of the room. I had no idea Aiden had this class. And sitting right next to Aiden is Clark, but there is no Ryan.

Trevor's face looks like Aiden's did yesterday. Aiden's face now is the thing that surprises me. He looks concerned, his mouth dipped down into a frown, and his eyes wrinkling in the middle of his forehead.

I look away from both of them, wiping my eyes with the back of my good hand.

The final bell rings, and Mr. Varner claps his hands together over his big belly. "Alright, so today we will be doing impromptu speeches. Any volunteers?"

No one raises their hand. Mr. Varner is then forced to pick an unwilling person. His eyes lock on my face. "You."

When he sees my eyes still filled with tears from hitting my now throbbing arm, he turns away. "Or not. How about…"

I stand up and push past Maryana to get to the front of the room. "I'll do it."

He makes eye contact with me for just a moment, then go back to his desk. "Alright Miss Hart. You have one minute to talk about…traveling," He looks up from the papers in front of him. "And…go!"

I go off of what Mr. Varner said yesterday, and start off by giving a small introduction to the topic, then my name.

"Traveling is a very big part of our economy and part of so many lives. People travel in planes, in cars, in trains, and on foot. But the type of transportation you use isn't the biggest part of traveling. The biggest part is the destination you are set to go to."

"Hi, my name is Candace Hart and I am going to talk to you about traveling. So, I have done lots of traveling in my life. I was born in California and when I was just a few months old, traveled to Georgia where I grew up. I've traveled to North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, New York, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Just recently I traveled here to Maine when I now live. Each time I travel I use a plane because it is the fastest, most efficient way of traveling. But if you go by train--"

Mr. Varner stops me there by yelling, "Done!"

I sit down in my seat and try and relax. Now that I have gone first and got it out of the way, I don't have to worry about it any longer. Maryana pats my hand, hers warm and delicate. "Nice job."

I look up to see she has almost the same expression Aiden had on. Was everyone worrying about me? They didn't even know me! As Mr. Varner picked his next victim, I turned my head to look in the direction of the Westcott brothers. Both were still staring at me with the same expressions on their faces. Trevor looked mad at me. Of course he would be mad. Everyone was mad at me!

The rest of the class was spent with me trying not to look over at Trevor's hostile features and Aiden's worried ones. They both had almost switched personalities and it was weirding me out.

The pain in my arm had dulled so it wasn't hard to stop the tears from coming to my eyes. Before I got the chance to leave, someone called my name inside Mr. Varner's room. I knew it wasn't Maryana because she was walking right next to me. And it wasn't Mr. Varner's booming voice. It was Aiden's foreign voice curling around my name in the way I had grown to love and hate at the same time.

Maryana stayed by my side as I turned around. Sure enough, there was Aiden, but no Trevor. I had never seen Aiden alone before, and now that he was, he looked strangely unique.

Maryana patted my shoulder. "I'll see you in literature," she mumbled before leaving me alone.

I stared after her, trying to decide weather I should follow or stay and hear what Aiden had to say. Before I could make up my mind, I heard Aiden speaking.

His words tumbled off his lips and into my ears like velvet. I couldn't help but want to stay. "I didn't mean to upset you yesterday. I was just having an off day."

I kept my face down, staring at my books in my hands. I was confused by his words. In truth, I was the one to upset myself. He have pushed me along a little bit, but it definitely wasn't his fault.

And why was he talking to me?

"You didn't upset me."

Aiden didn't answer until I looked up. There was that face again. Hi lips turned down into a frown, his eyebrows pushing themselves together as if they wanted to touch. "Are you sure?"

It took me a few seconds to nod. When I went to turn around and leave, Aiden stepped in front of me. "I want to apologize."

I sighed, "Didn't you just do that?"

This boy was getting on my nerves. Him and his brothers were not the kind of people I usually hung around. They seemed to know they were perfect and that they had good looks. They were the kind of people that knew they only needed to smile to get what they wanted. They were the rich snobby boys that never got real girlfriends because they were just too self-absorbed.

Aiden's sharp shoulders slumped a little. He was about four feet away from me, but I could still see his eyes clearly. The piercing green color they were yesterday was replaced by an evergreen. I had never seen that as an eye color before.

"I just," Aiden began but stopped. He brought his gaze to meet mine for the first time since he stopped me. He didn't finish his sentence.

I turned on my heel and walked away. I knew the way to my second hour class, and I got there just before the bell rang. Maryana and Atarah were watching the door until the moment I came through it. Before I had the chance to sit down, I was bombarded with questions from both of them.

"Why did Aiden want to talk to you?" Maryana questioned.

"Not that he shouldn't want to," Atarah added.

"Of course not! But what did he say? He looked serious."

"Did you guys make plans to go out on a date or something?"

I set my books down slowly, took out a pencil, a notebook and set up everything I could to start class. I didn't answer their questions right away, thinking about the answers. Why did he want to talk to me? He wanted to apologize for being so rude. But then I would have to explain why and when he was rude to me. What did he say? He said he had an off day yesterday and his anger wasn't supposed to be toward me. And did we make plans to go out on a date? That was yesterdays news.

"All he wanted," I said finally, "was to say that he liked my speech."

Both girls' faces fell. "So that was it? He didn't," Maryana asked.

Atarah butted in, "Ask you anything?"

Mr. Stewart got up in front of the class and started to handout a piece of paper. "These are your notes for today. Go through the book and try and find the answers. The last ten minutes of class we will go over them and see how well you did.

Great. Today was a workday. Now Maryana and Atarah would be questioning me the whole hour and they wouldn't get into trouble for it.

The boy who had winked at me yesterday turned in his seat to pass me the paper. He didn't turn back around though. He leaned on his chair so his face was right next to mine. "How did you break your arm?" he asks quietly.

Maryana and Atarah wait for my answer, wondering if I was going to elaborate on the answer I had already told at lunch yesterday. Sure they had read it in the paper, but they hadn't ever heard the story from me. All of them were really into it, asking question Maryana and Atarah knew the answers to.

I decided I might as well. "I flipped my car."

The boy blinks at me. "Seriously?"

"Yes, I'm being serious."

"When did that happen?"

I shrugged, "Christmas night."

The boy's face turns sour. "That sucks. What happened to the car?"

I shrugged again, "It blew up."

Maryana leans closer to me. "Really? It actually exploded?"

I nodded.

"What kind of car was it?" Atarah asks.

"An Aston Martin."

All three of them answered at once. "'No way!"

The boy in front of me turned his chair around and placed his paper above mine on the table. "So what happened? Did you like, crawl out yourself? Were you alone? And why did you flip the car?"

I smiled at the attention, even though I didn't want any. For now it was okay. They were distracting me and I needed that. "I was driving on an icy road and swerved around a dog. I don't know exactly how but the car flipped three times. And yes, I was alone."

Maryana asked, "So you got yourself out?"

I shook my head. " I was stuck because of the seat belt. Someone pulled me out before it exploded."

"Who?"

I hesitated for a moment, trying to decide what I should say. I guess the truth was best. What would happen anyway? "Trevor and Aiden Westcott."

Maryana actually backed up, pushing her back into Atarah. All three of them were quiet for a few seconds, trying to think it through. To all of these people, the Westcotts were a mystery. More of a mystery than they were to me. They had never heard them speak, never actually approached them, and just knew them by face.

"Wow." Said the boy. His eyes were still wide with awe.

Mr. Stewart cleared his throat. "William?"

The boy in front of me turned to look at the teacher.

"Turn around."

William smiled at me before turning back around to do his work. Maryana and Atarah smiled at each other, moving closer to me.

"So you like, know them, right?" Atarah asked.

I shrugged. "Not really. They're just my neighbors."

"No, I know. But you have talked to them, right?"

"Yeah but--"

"What are they like?"

Mr. Stewart stands from his desk and waddles over to us. "Be quiet ladies or you will have to leave."

"Sorry." I whisper, looking down at the paper in front of me, but thinking instead of the reactions of the people around me. Was it that big of a deal? Should I have just kept my mouth shut? I didn't want it to go all over school. I didn't want to get noticed by everybody.

I think I have made a mistake.