Page 12 of Disobedient Pawn

“It is for me. You can meet me in the office.” I slammed the door hard, and the wood rattled as my heart hammered. “No way, this is not happening.”

A group walking down the hall was watching me, and I took a deep breath to calm down before turning toward the exit. I was in Wayside Hall, the The Imperial Wing. They thought they were so cute with the names of the wings tied to what subjects they taught. Personally, I thought it was stupid and lazy on their part.

My shoes squeaked on the shiny marble floor. Who used marble for floors in a school anyway? At least they got the color right. It was grey and depressing like the rest of this place. Pushing my way outside, I wrapped my arms around myself and made a note to take a jacket to all other classes that weren’t attached to the main building.

Snowflakes slowly drifted to the ground around me. I stopped and held out my hand for just a moment, my lips curving up as I watched them melt in my palm. They reminded me of my mum. She loved winter. She told me her parents liked to stay in warm places, and she had never gotten to experience snow until she met my father and moved to Canada. My grandparents on both sides of my family passed away before I was born. I always felt like I missed out on the experience of having a grandparent tell me stories or spoil me like Lizzy’s did.

I lost count of how many times we’d made hot chocolate and got bundled up to sit outside and watch the snow fall on a clear, calm night. I could feel the tear rolling down my face, leaving a cool line as it went.

“Hey, wait up.” Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Myles jogging my way. I wiped away the tear and marched on, not giving him a second look. I had no time for jocks that didn’t want to learn. I knew my fair share already and had zero interest in getting to know another. “Wow, ya walk faster than ya look like ya could.”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I stopped walking, shoving his arm off as I spun out of his hold. I didn’t care how good-looking this guy was, and he was hot. Tall with wide shoulders, dark chocolate hair, and amber eyes, but that was as far as my interests ran.

“First, don’t touch me.”

“Ya looked cold. Girls normally like it,” he said, and my eyebrow rose as he flashed me another award-winning grin. I did like the hint of an accent. I could tell it was Irish, but it was faint.

“Well, I’m not most girls. So don’t do it. Second, you can forget about talking me into helping you. I don’t help people that don’t want to help themselves.” The smile faltered. “So, you can turn around and go back to class, and I’ll get this sorted with the dean.” Spinning around, I stomped onward for the main doors of the school.

“Wait.” Myles jogged beside me and matched my pace easily with his long strides. I was tempted to speed up to see if I could lose him, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t work.

“What?”

“Where are ya from? Ya have an accent. I’m curious.”

“Says the guy with an Irish accent. What does it matter where I’m from?” I cocked my head and stared at his arrogant face.

He shrugged. “Ya have a sharp mouth, or is that tongue?”

“Sharp mouth? It’s definitely tongue. Otherwise, I don’t know what that means. I’m from Canada.” I crossed my arms, making sure not to shiver.

“Well, that explains it. The cold makes ya feisty,” he said and laughed.

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

Myles stuffed his hands in his pants, his broad shoulders rounding slightly. “I thought it was.”

“That explains a lot,” I said and started to turn away again.

“Okay, wait, wait, wait, please?”

The wind picked up and swirled the loose strands of hair around my face. Myles was staring at me but not saying anything. “Are you going to say something? If not, I’m going inside. It’s cold out here.”

“Here ya can have me sweater,” Myles said, grabbing the bottom of his school sweater to take off.

“No thanks. I just want to know what you want.” I bounced from foot to foot to keep warm. I should really take him up on the sweater, but I knew what taking an item of clothing meant to a guy. It was like they were protecting you, you were suddenly theirs, and that wasn’t happening. I belonged to no one but myself.

“Tutor me, and I promise I will give it me all,” he said.

“No way,” I said, and his smile fell.

“What? Why?”

“Because I don’t believe you. This is what I know in the thirty seconds I’ve known you. You can’t be bothered trying. I have no idea if it’s because you actually don’t understand the material or you don’t want to. But, you certainly haven’t bothered to try, or you wouldn’t have been smirking and chuckling at the pile Mr. Willis put on the desk. You would’ve been horrified or maybe even embarrassed, but it seemed more like a badge of honor to you.” I held up my finger, my hand shaking, but I refused to give in.

“Second, you’re presumptuous. I don’t like to be called pet names like beautiful. We don’t even know one another, and you’re handsy. Wrapping your arm around me like I’m some damsel. That tells me you’re used to getting the hot jock treatment from whatever girl you want something from, whether it be school, money, sex, or whatever. You’re probably also used to throwing them away just as fast. But guess what? I’m not interested in being anyone’s used garbage. Find someone else to help you. I’m not interested.”

This time he didn’t call me back as I marched for the door and pulled it open. The warm air made me shiver like a wet dog and sigh at the same time. Day one was not off to a great start, and I could only hope that the dean got this mess sorted out.