Broken Ice

Chapter Four

Nicolai's P.O.V.

After this morning's theatrics, the rest of my first day at Fairview High went pretty good. Apparently me getting into a screaming match with Mystery Girl was the right way to gain popularity. The only problem was I couldn't get her out of my mind.

 How ironic—I can't stop thinking about her , yet I don't even know her name.

Shaking my head, I stepped into the cafeteria. Great. Let's hope my new found popularity won me a seat with some normal people. Before I could even take a step towards a table, a group of guys made their way towards me.

"Hey man, I'm Jake. May I say congrats on getting the Ice Queen to talk. Her face was priceless," Jake laughed. His friends, whose names I found out later were Tommy, Johnny, and Aiden, also congratulated me, giving me fist bumps and slaps on the back. These guys seemed cool and normal; they all wore t-shirts with jeans looking very casual and sporting matching grins on their faces. The only weird part was they all had dark brown hair paired with dark brown eyes; hopefully they weren't friends because of their identical looks, that would be a tad weird. Just a tad.

"Hey, I'm Nicolai. It's nice to meet you guys. Uhh not to sound like a total loser, but could I hang out with you guys at your table. Everyone else is giving me really weird looks, which are starting to make me feel really uncomfortable," I said, awkwardly chuckling. Please let me sit at your table. Please say yes. Dang, I'm starting to sound like a whiny teenage girl...

"Sure dude. That's why we came over to talk to you in the first place," Aiden said.

Finally sitting down at the table, Jake went on, "As for the looks people are giving you, there are three reasons. One, you're the new kid. That in itself makes you a juicy topic of the week, hence the stares. Two, the ladies already find you irresistible. Three, you made THE Ice Queen talk. And not just talk, but yell. I can't remember the last time I've heard her speak. Must have been freshmen year. We all thought she was becoming a robot or something; she never showed any emotion until  today. You're practically a celebrity."

"Who even is she? And why the hell is she so nasty. In the time that I did talk to her I don't think she ever said something remotely polite," I questioned.

"Her name is Thea Crystal," Johnny supplied. "As for her story, no one knows. Like Jake said before, she hasn't spoken to anyone in school except for the teachers. She doesn't have friends or anyone."

"So no one ever bothered to ask why the sudden change? I mean, if she talked and was completely normal freshmen year, something must have happened to make her practically heartless."

"I don't know dude," Jake said. "Most people are afraid of her. It's hard to even look her in the  eyes. It's like she can freeze your soul, man. She's unnerving."

"Why are you so interested in her background story, anyway," Tommy asked.

"I wish I knew why," I responded. "There's just this feeling that there's more to her than her bad personality."

"Or maybe you just think she's hot," Jake joked. "It's alright if you agree. Most of the guys want to bang her and would try to if it weren't for the fact that she's so freaking intimidating."

"Well I'm not gonna lie, she's hot. But, there's something else. I just feel like I need to help her."

"Help her huh? Maybe you'll be the first one to find out Ice Queen's dirty little secrets," Tommy commented, nodding his head toward Thea, whose was sitting reading a book at a corner table. Alone.

"Hah! I'd like to see that. Imagine Nicolai and Thea becoming friends," Aiden said laughing.

"Why is that so amusing?" I asked, slightly annoyed.

"No offense dude, nothing against you," Aiden said. "It's just that it would be impossible. I get that you made her talk today, but to make her trust you, well, that's like trying to jump out of an airplane with an umbrella instead of a parachute. I can see you like to take on challenges, but Thea is on a whole different level of difficulty. It's best just to let it go."

"I don't think I could let it go even if I wanted too," I said. "Something tells me I need to save her."

Jake let out a sigh and shook his head slightly.

"Well Superman, just remember that the  Lois Lane in this story is no damsel in distress."

  

Thea P.O.V.

Feeling eyes on me, I looked up catching eye contact with the official bane of my existence.

 Nicolai. 

I glared at him, making him look away. I don't know what his problem is. I've never met someone so irritating; he just manages to get under my skin like no one else.

As I looked around the cafeteria, I noticed almost every girl was staring at Nicolai, not that he noticed. I couldn't blame them, he was freaking hot. (Just cause I don't have emotions, doesn't mean I can't see with my eyes.) His green eyes sparkled with curiosity and mischief and his smile was blinding, a wide grin full of charm. Not to mention his dark brown hair was the perfect messy "bed head" style, which somehow also managed to look extremely soft. His looks combined with his over-confident, flirtatious attitude made him the perfect, stereotypical playboy.

 Like we need more douchebags.

I jolted from my thoughts as the school bell rang. Thank you Jesus, only two more periods.

As I started walking towards my next class, I made eye contact with Nicolai. He smirked at me and then walked in the direction of his next class.

  My stomach twisted.

 He's up to something. And I have a feeling I'm not gonna like it.