His Secret Love Child (Book One of the LOVE CHILD series)

Chapter Two New School

Cameron and his mother pulled up in front of his new school 20 minutes later. The drive over had been done in an uncomfortable silence. Cameron sulked the entire journey and rebuffed every effort that his mother made to start a conversation. She eventually gave up and left him to his brooding silence.

"We're here." His mother said, shaking his arm lightly to get his attention. "I can see that." Cameron grumbled, jerking his arm away from his mother.

"Cameron Cavanaugh, I have had just about enough of your attitude, young man." His mother exclaimed in exasperation. "I know you didn't want to move here, out in the middle of nowhere, as you put it." She continued, "but here in Cromwell City is our home now." "Your father worked very hard to get his promotion, all so that he could provide better for us, better for you."

"Listen, I have heard it all before." Cameron angrily interrupted his mother. "Both you and dad have been selling me the benefits of his promotion, and the subsequent move. All about what it means for him, and you, and me. Neither one of you stopped to think or even asked he me about what I wanted. You were both just too caught up in yourselves." Cameron ranted, pausing to take a deep breath as his anger threatened to spiral out of control. "I never wanted this. I'll never be happy here. I hate you both for forcing me to do this." Cameron finished as he slammed his way out of the car and took angry strides towards the school building. His mother let's him go. She doesn't try to stop him. She knew that he was just angry and upset. That he didn’t really mean the things that he said, but his words hurt none the less and they cut her deeply. She put the car in drive and slowly pulled away from the curb, silent tears streaming down her face.

As Cameron entered Hawkthorne Academy the eyes of all the students lingering in the hallway turned towards him. Cameron gripped the strap of his back and studiously ignored the many stares and whispers as he made his way to the Administration office to collect his schedule and books.

After a couple of wrong turns, because he absolutely refused to ask anyone for direction, Cameron finally found the Administration Office. Pushing the door open he made his way over to the counter. Behind the counter stood a woman he would judge to be in her late fifties. She wore wire rimmed glasses, her brunette hair pulled back into an obviously too tight bun, that was literally pulling at the skin of her face. She wore way too much make up and was a little on the heavy side. All in all she looked liked someone that would give him a hard time.

Clearing his throat to get her attention, Cameron looked down at the name plate on the counter. "Excuse me Ms. Wharmington, good morning, I'm Cameron Cavanaugh, I'm suppose to start here today." He said, offering her a forced smile. She raised her head from whatever it was that she was doing on her computer screen and eyed. She looked him up and down for a long minute. Her stare was piercing and made him feel like a specimen in a petri dish placed under a microscope. Finally she responded and said "good morning Mr. Cavanaugh, I've been expecting you. Please have a seat over there and I'll be with you in just a moment." Cameron was surprised at the quality and cadence of her voice. It was melodious and rich. It flowed soothingly over his stretched nerves.

Cameron walked over to the row of seats that were against the far wall and sat down to wait. Putting in his headset he started listening to the music on his phone. His list of music was quite an eclectic mix and it never failed to relax him. He leaned his head back against the wall, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and allowed the music to consume him.

Cameron was brought out of his trance like state by Ms. Wharmington shaking his shoulder and calling his name. "Mr. Cavanaugh!" Cameron looked up at her questionably, "yes?"

Ms. Wharmington turned away from him and said "follow me please, I have your package ready for you." Cameron got up and made his way back over to the counter. "Here are your books, class schedule, locker assignment with the code and this is a map of the school. Use the map to help you find your way around until you get used to the place, Ok." She informed him. "Now please sign for these, and here is your pass. Give that to your teacher since your late for class." She looked up at the clock as she said all of this. Grabbing the pen from her hand, Cameron hurriedly signed his name, grabbed everything off the counter and muttered angrily to himself " who's fault is that, uh?" , as he stormed out of the office.

Using the map that he was given, Cameron quickly located his locker and put his unnecessary books away. Slamming the locker door closed, Cameron looked back at the map to see which way he should go to get to his class. Muttering to himself about the unfairness of his life, he hurried off. A few minutes later Cameron arrived at his first class for the day, checking his watch he saw l that he was about 10 minutes late. He hoped the teacher didn’t give him a hard time about it.

As Cameron pushed the classroom door open, all heads and eyes turned towards him. Cameron resolutely refused to make eye contact with any one, he walked over to the teacher and handed over his pass. The teacher took it from him, looked down at the pass and then turned back towards the class and addressed them saying "class we have a new a student joining us. His name is Cameron Cavanaugh, please make him feel welcome." Cameron felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment, as the classroom erupted in applause and shouts of welcome. The teacher turned back to him gave him her sickly sweet smile at him and said, "please have a seat." She waved her hand to indicate his assigned seat. Cameron muttered a begrudging thank you and walked over to his desk and plopped down into his seat.

The teacher resumed her lesson, and Cameron pretended to pay attention, all the while trying to ignore the furtive glances that were being thrown his way. A hand tapped him on his shoulder, Cameron looked over to see a dark haired boy looking at him. Cameron raised a Brown in question. The boy just smiled at him and held out his hand for a handshake saying "Hi I'm Thorne. Nice to meet you." Cameron hesitantly shook his hand replying, "Cameron, nice to meet you too, I think." Cameron obvious hesitancy and reluctance caused Thorne to chuckle in amusement. Thorne nodded his head towards the rest of the class, "don't worry about them, just give it a week and they'll find something, or someone else to be gossiping about," he said, while still smiling. "Why are you trying to be nice to me, or even talking to me for that matter?" Cameron asked, truly puzzled. "Because," Thorne replied, "last year I was the new kid. I know how much that sucks."

Cameron studied Thorne's features. Looking for any hint of deceit. He found none. What he did see however, was Thorne's deep dark green eyes with flecks of gold, his thick shiny black hair, straight nose and lips that were just begging to be kissed. In short, Thorne was gorgeous and Cameron found himself attracted to him despite his best efforts. He reluctantly pulled his gaze away from Thorne's face and stared down forlornly at his note book. He didn't want this. He didn't want to be attracted to anyone. His life had been thrown into a tailspin by the move and he was in no kind of emotional state to even be thinking about a relationship. Besides, he just met the guy and knew absolutely nothing about him. This attraction that he was feeling, was just a recipe for disaster.

Cameron was brought out of his thoughts by Thorne patting him on the shoulder and saying, "don't worry man. It gets better, I promise." Cameron offered him a wan  smile and replied "if you say so." A moment later the bell rang signalling the end of the period.

As they grab their backpacks and made their way out of the room, Thorne asked, "so what's your next class?". "Don't know. I'll have to check my schedule." Cameron replied looking down at the paper in his hand. Thorne snatched it away, "let me see that. Hey look we have the exact same schedule. Isn't that weird?" He exclaimed. Cameron snatched the piece of paper back, "I wouldn't know." Cameron muttered. As they finally reached the lockers Cameron realised something else, their lockers where right next to each other. Thorne grinned over at him as they both go to open their lockers and exchange their books for the ones that they needed for their next class. "Stop grinning like a maniac. There is absolutely nothing weird about us having the schedule or our lockers beside each other. I'm sure that plenty of kids here share the same schedule and locker space." Cameron said in exasperation. Thorne just continued to grin widely at him. Cameron just rolled his eyes, slammed his locker door closed and turned to walk away. Thorne cleared his throat behind him to get his attention. "What?" Cameron said turning back around to face him. "And where do you think you're going?" Thorne said in a sing song voice. "To my next class. Which if we don't get going right now we are going to be late for." Cameron growled out through gritted teeth. His anger clearly spiking. Thorne remained completely unphased by Cameron's reaction. Still grinning at him Thorne pointed his thumb over his shoulder and said, "well math is this way. Just letting you know." Cameron glared at him for a second longer, before he stormed past him while he muttered "wipe that smug grin off your face. Your enjoying this way too much." This of course caused Thorne to just burst out laughing.