Eternity | Xavier Thorpe

Chapter One

Lara took her seat near the back of Thornhill's Carnivorous Plants class. It was the same seat she'd been sitting in for thirty years and had she not had the most perfect view of the purple hyacinths she might have switched seats.

The chair to her left scraped against the floor as someone pulled it out and sat next to her. Nobody sat with her usually and she couldn't imagine why today was any different.

She wondered if it was some sort of prank but the boy sitting next to her was sending her the most genuine smile she couldn't help but smile back.

He was pleasant to look at with shoulder-length brown hair and dark eyes to match. She'd seen him before, knew how other girls saw him and wanted no part of that. His proximity to her was slightly alarming - she didn't know who she may become the target of for simply sitting next to Xavier Thorpe.

"Mind if I sit here?" He whispered as Thornhill began the lesson.

Lara shook her head. She did prefer her solitude but she wasn't going to dictate where people could sit. Although it was suspicious when every girl in the class looked back at her at one point - he was clearly welcome next to any of them, so why had he chosen to sit next to her?

"The Darlingtonia Californica." Thornhill lifted a green plant decorated in splotches of pink from behind her desk. "Or better known as the Cobra Lily." Lara hardly paid attention in any of her classes; after a decade lessons became tedious. Examinations even more so.

"You know, they call it a Cobra Lily, but it looks more like a vampire," Xavier whispered.

"What? How?" She couldn't see it. And if this was some sort of offensive joke about vampires, at least it was original.

"The fangs. Look..." He flipped through the pages of his notebook and began to sketch the plant Thornhill was lecturing about. He held his hand out above it and lifted it out of the page. The grey three-dimensional drawing was remarkably similar to the one Thornhill held, only this one had two prominent fangs sticking out from either side of it and wore a cape with a high collar.

"I hate to break it to you, but that's not how we dress anymore." She stifled a laugh, watching as the Cobra Lily strutted across their desk, the cape flowing in a melodramatic fashion.

"No?" He asked and turned to another page, sketching away with a sharp pencil.

He lifted the new drawing from the page. This time the fangs were slightly smaller but it wore a Nevermore uniform and a pair of sunglasses similar to Lara's. The plant moved in sync with the original drawing in some sort of dance until finally, it fell to the table, exhausted.

Lara couldn't help but notice the polka dot legwarmers it wore - they matched the ones she had on right now.

"It has style, I'll admit." She couldn't help the smile lacing her face.

The boy shrugged. "I don't know... The polka dot legwarmers are kinda weird."

"How dare you." She tried to sound offended but couldn't help laughing.

"You two!" Thornhill snapped. "Stop talking or leave my class. Please, guys." She sighed.

They mumbled an apology and turned back to their books. Lara watched from the corner of her eye as the boy crushed his drawings and closed his notebook.

"I'm Xavier, by the way."

"Lara."

"You're new here right? Like you started at the beginning of the year?"

It must have been a joke but Lara didn't laugh this time. "No."

"Weird. I would definitely have remembered you."

"Why's that?"

"Your outrageous legwarmers of course."

She snorted at his response which had Thornhill stopping the lesson and telling Xavier to sit in the front.

"Don't worry." He winked. "I'll be back tomorrow."