Welcome to New Haven (24 page)

“Hi Alex.” She’d purred, trying to push her chest out in her running outfit.
 
“Do you have any plans for today?
 
I was thinking we could both go out somewhere.”
 

Alex had tried to ignore her when she grabbed his arm, digging her nails in.
 

“Did you hear me?”
 
she spat, causing Alex to stop, shocked at her tone and the force her nails were pressing into him.
   

“Go away.
 
I’m not going anywhere with you, and I never will.
 
Give it up Stacey.”
 

She smiled and licked her lips.

“I’d give
it
up in a heartbeat, for you.” She said in a breathy tone, changing the meaning of his words.
 

“You’re disgusting.”
 
Alex said as he started running again, Stacey going after him.
 

“You know it makes sense Alex.
 
I want you…you want me.”
 
“I
don’t
!” He yelled, stopping again. “Get it into your head, right now, I don’t want you.
 
Not even in the slightest.
 
Leave. Me. Alone.!” He growled and ran off, faster this time, and Stacey couldn’t keep up.
 

“You will eventually!!” she shouted from far behind him.
 
The interaction had made him feel nauseated; he hadn’t even seen Stacey come out from wherever she was.
 
It was as if she’d been lying in wait for him.
 
How could she have known where he was?
 
It was uncanny how she managed to be in the same places as he, as though she was getting a head's up before he even got there.
 

Alex had heard that a friend of hers had told her he was at the park one day, with his friends, and she’d turned up a few minutes later.
 
They’d only made their plans to go there an hour before, at his house, so there was no way she would’ve known where he’d be.
 

Stacey had ruined things for him, in the past. Well, this was something she wasn’t ruining.
 
Alex enjoyed going for his runs so he’d just have to change his route.

Running his hands through his hair and taking a calming breath, Alex picked up his art pad, and loose papers. The special paper he liked to draw his best pictures on, was running low.
 
He’d have to go to the art supply store to get more.
 

He went downstairs and sat at the dining table instead, because he’d have more room on the table to spread out.
 
He put his earbuds in, switched on his music and opened his pad. He took out the loose paper, and continued with his new drawing. It was coming along well, drawing from memory.

After about an hour, he’d turned off his music and gone up to his room, just as he heard Dev coming home.
 
As she was walking up the stairs, he opened his bedroom door wide.
 

“Hi Dev.
 
Have a good day?”
 

“Hi Alex! I’ve had a
great
day.
 
We’ve been out to the park with Kay and Riss.
 
It was good.”
 
Dev turned to go into her room, before quickly turning back.
 
“Oh, and I met Holly’s sister, Emily, today.” She said and grinned at him.
 

“What’s she like?”
 

“Insane”
 
Dev shook her head as she went into her room and shut the door, chuckling.
 

Alex was confused.

Insane as in ‘funny’ or as in actually insane?

At dinner, Dev told their parents about Holly’s older sister, Emily, and that she was quite the character.
 

“She’s fun.
 
When I can understand her that is. Holly had to translate for me.”
 

“Translate? Why?” Asked their Mom, Evie.
 

“Her slang and her accent.”
 
Dev told them about the words ‘chocker’ and ‘kecks’.
 
“She’s insane!” Dev laughed.
 

“She
does
sound like a character, their Dad, Rami, said.
 

“Even funnier together though, I swear my stomach has had a workout from laughing so hard!”
 

Once dinner was over, Dev told Alex what Emily had said about Holly’s personality.
 

“Holly’s sweet and caring, but from what Emily was saying, I’d hate to see her bad side. I think we saw some of it with Stacey.”
 

“According to Ben…” Alex added “…Holly was pretty scary and we all saw what happened with Delaney.” He smiled.
 
Pissing off Holly was
not
a good idea.
 

“She sure showed her.”
 

“She really did” Alex said proudly.
 

He remembered back to the incident on Friday and how Holly looked as she stood in the Hallway.
 
His chest began to hurt.
 

“Alex are you ok?” Dev asked.
 

“Wha?
 
Oh yeah, I’m fine.
 
I'm just going to finish my algebra homework.”
 
He said, trying to cover up his daydream.
 

“Do you mind if we do it together? Holly’s helped a lot but I need to get this last piece finished.”
 

Alex wanted to be alone, with his thoughts, but he also didn’t want to brush off his twin sister.
 

“Yeah sure.
 
I’ll get my books and I’ll be down in a minute.”

Dev had texted Holly a few times, during their studying, for help.
 

“Maybe I should ask her to tutor us both.” Dev snorted.
 

“Like
that
would do me any good.”
 

“What do you mean?
 
Holly’s a great tutor.”
 
Dev asked with a frown.
 

“I mean, how would I do my homework with Holly teaching me?
 
I can barely concentrate in class as it is.”
 

“Aww, Alex, you little romantic, you.”
 
Dev batted her eyes.
 

“Shut up.” He grumbled.
 

“I think it’s sweet.
 
You gotta let me say something to her.”
 

“No!” He snapped.
 
“Don’t tell her.”
 

“But why?” Dev whined.
 

“You know why.
 
You said it yourself…she’s new here, she’s shy, and I’ve only known her for two weeks.
 
If she finds out that I like her then she may avoid me again and possibly altogether.
 
I’m not risking it, Dev, so can you please drop it?”
 

“But Alex, how do you know if you
don’t
take a chance?”
 

“No.” He said again.
 

Alex wasn’t going to budge on it.
 
He’d finally gotten over a ‘sort of’ communicative hurdle with Holly.
 
There was no way he was going to ruin it, by telling her.

Oh Holly, by the way, I like you and I think about kissing you, all the time.
Somehow, he didn’t think that would go over too well.
 

“Look” Dev interrupted his thoughts, “I know you’ve not done this before, and I get it.
 
I totally do.
 
But, I think she should know, maybe just a little bit, how you feel.
 
Maybe I could say ‘I think Alex likes you’ or something like that.”
 

“No Dev.” Alex shook his head as he put his books away.
 
“Just leave it alone.
 
I’ll tell her myself when I’m ready.”
 

Alex left the room and went upstairs.

Chapter 10

The group had met Emily, after school on Monday, when she’d picked her up.
 
Emily had borrowed Holly’s car that day and even though Dev had offered to give Holly a ride, in Alex’s car, Holly had quickly declined.
 
Being in close proximity
and
in the confines of his car, his smell all around her…she would lose all of her self control, for sure.
 

They all seemed to like Emily, especially the girls.
 
Her accent and mannerisms had them laughing, and Holly was happy.

Monday and Tuesday had gone by without any incidents too.
 
She’d had a few ‘you go girl’ and ‘that was awesome’ comments from what had happened with Delaney.
 
There was also a little chatter around school about Stacey, but Holly was trying her best to ignore it.

Wednesday was another matter.
 
Tech class was uncomfortable as ever, with Alex and Ben sitting at the back of the class and Holly could feel his eyes on her. Now, of course, that
was
uncomfortable but only because she’d
liked
it.
 
Her insides were swirling around, as if liquified, and her core temperature had shot up sending waves of heat through her veins.
 
Her face had flamed knowing he’d been looking at her.

He either knows something, or he thinks I’m a weirdo for
 
stumbling over my words. Probably wants to know what the hell is wrong with me.

Holly was attempting to put all of her concentration on the computer screen in front of her, but the rows of coding weren’t making any sense to her, when she had never had trouble with them before.
 

Holly had gotten out of class like she was on fire, which she felt as though she was, and made her way to the girl’s bathrooms to splash cold water on her face.
 
It had helped a little but not much, so she sat outside to get some fresh air.
 

It was her free period and, as she’d quit her Spanish class, she had nothing to do.
 
Mondays’ free period was spent in the library, as it had been raining, and she hadn’t been bothered by anybody whilst there.
 
Now, it was a nice day, so she got her books and decided to sit outside.
 

Holly sat on the ground, by a large oak tree and began looking through her Algebra work for next period.
 

“Hey Holly!” she heard, and turned around to see Ben walking towards her.
 

“Oh, Hi Ben.”
 
She replied, as her nerves paid attention.
 

“Whatcha doing out here?”
 
he asked as he stopped by her.
 

“I’m just checking over my Algebra work.
 
I have a free period now.” She said.
 

“Yeah, me too. Mind if I join you for a bit?”
 

“Um…no.”
 
Holly was slightly taken aback than Ben would want to sit with her.
 

“So…” He said. “How are you liking New Haven so far? I mean, apart from Stacey and Delaney that is.”
 

“It’s ok”
 
Holly replied.
 

“Just Ok?” Ben smiled and he raised an eyebrow.
 
It was as if he knew something she didn’t.”
 

“Well it’s a lot different from my last school, in England, but I’m getting used to it.”
 

“What’s a typical high school like over there?” He asked as he shifted, making himself comfortable on the ground.
 

“Well, they have uniforms in all schools, not just a few.
 
They don’t have free periods, well the ones I know of anyway. The terms, I mean semesters, are spaced differently.
 
The way Mr Lawson has changed the schedules…they’re more like my last school.”
 

Holly knew she was rambling on, but Ben seemed genuinely interested in what she was saying.
 

“Maths and science classes were modular, meaning the subject is different every term and then we get tested at the end of term.
 
The grade went towards the final score at the end of high school.
 
Science didn’t have an exam but maths did. This only happened from year ten, which is ninth grade here.
 
Our English and literature classes were all-in-one.
 
It was just ‘English’ and the two would be learned simultaneously. I’m not sure about how the other schools worked, but this was what happened in mine.
 
The others would be getting to the point where you would choose your ‘options’ as well as the mandatory stuff.

Holly finished her long winded ramble and Ben just smiled.
 

“What?”
 

“Nothing.
 
It’s just that that’s the most I’ve heard you speak since you got here.”
 
Holly felt herself blush.
 

“I do talk you know.”
 

“I know.
 
Just not as much when we’re all together.” He said with a twitch of his lips.
 

“I like to listen.” She said quietly.

I like to listen to Alex’s voice
 

“Uh huh”
 
he replied and Holly scowled.
 

“Anyway, your schools sound complicated.” He said.
 

“They’re not, actually.
 
They’re simpler.
 
Everything is grouped together, and everybody in the same year is grouped together depending on ability.
 
Plus, we have Primary school and High school.
 
No middle, or junior school.”
 

“I guess that’s simpler.” He agreed.
 

“It is…So why aren’t you with the other guys?” she asked, hoping it didn’t sound like she was trying to get rid of him.
 
Even though she felt embarrassed at her over explanation of school.