Selling My Soul to His Royal Nerdiness.

Selling My Soul to His Royal Nerdiness. (20)

Annabel Taylor



It was Saturday.

A sleepy, content smile came to my face. There was no scary Principal Malda after school. No dealing with Noah’s fan girls. No stares and winces from people that I happened to look at. Just me, this bed, and the fuzzy feeling that came with sleeping in until twelve.

I could look back on earlier in the week and wince, but I wasn't going to. I was going to enjoy my Saturday. Lord knows I deserved it.

*Flashback*

“And this is where your locker is,” I said finally. We’d gone through the gym, the music hall, the indoor swimming pool, the tennis, cricket, and basketball courts, then the football and soccer fields, the gym, the lunch room, science wing, stargazing tower and-

Well, you get the point. Zaric was pretty huge, so I was panting by the time we got to the main high school. Noah didn’t seem the least bit worn out. It was probably because he was too amazed to worry about the smaller things like, you know, exhaustion.

The hallways were quiet. Everyone was still at the beginning-of-the-year mandatory assembly. It was a pretty huge thing that Noah and I were excused from it.

I glanced up at the guy walking by my side. “What’s your locker number again?”

“412.” He answered absently. His head was thrown back, staring at the ceiling. I looked up and smiled a little. “You like it?”

The ceiling was a dome-like structure, stained glass split into five pieces that made up the Zaric crest. When the sun hit just the right spot, the entire hallway was lit up with colors.
 
“It’s beautiful.” He answered, looking down to smile at me.
 
Screw princely lessons. All he had to do was look at people like that, just like that, and they wouldn’t care if he didn’t know a salad fork from a spoon.

“Come on,” I said, forcibly wrenching my gaze from his. We were in dangerous territory right now, and I didn’t want to confuse things further.

We rounded the corner while I inconspicuously tried to dry my sweaty palms. (What was with me??) Noah didn’t seem affected at all for once. He was happily counting the numbers on the lockers. Occasionally his hand would go to the bridge of his nose-he would reach for his glasses and find out, for the thousandth time, that they weren’t there.

Suddenly, Noah stopped. I thought that he was still looking at the ceiling and looked over my shoulder, my mouth poised to reprimand him for wasting time (he’d have all year to gawk). But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me, smiling at something--

I turned, just as a blur of brown, white, and blue flew in front of Noah.

"Noah!" The thing squealed, bouncing around excitedly. "Dude, you're here!"

"Hey, Kay," Noah said good-naturedly. "I didn't know that you attended this school."

Mikayla Jones, sixteen year old junior, richest girl in school, head of her class, and head of the chorus club, threw her arms around Noah. My Noah. As if they'd know each other for ages.

But I didn't have time to digest that, because...

Silas slammed the door to his locker shut and turned. His gaze met mine. I was shocked to a standstill while he slung a loose bag over his shoulder, strolling toward me.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t comprehend anything, even when he kissed me softly. All I could think was Oh My God.

“Oh my God,” I said aloud. “You’re…you’re wearing the uniform. Why are you wearing our uniform?”

Silas grinned. “Surprise.”

“How…how did you even get in?” I had my arms around his neck now, pressed as close as I could to get. Because he was here. With me. It was something that I hadn’t even dreamed of, what with the hoops you had to jump through in order to go here at Zaric.

 Silas shrugged, still smiling that same, all-knowing smile. “The family business. We’ve got great connections.”

Through our dating days, Silas hadn’t really mentioned his family. This was only the second time that I’d heard about them. I assumed that it was something that he didn’t want to talk about and let the subject drop. We’d get to that later.

“Let me see your schedule,” I stepped back about a foot and held out my hand to distract myself.

Chuckling, Silas took it from his pocket and unfolded the neat creases. Mine was already crumpled up in the bottom of my bag. School administration sent them through the mail, so I already had it memorized.

Running a hand through my hair in disbelief, I looked up at him. “You have almost the exact same schedule as me and Noah.”

“You know what that means.” Silas flashed a cat-like grin and threw his hands into the air in a typical, celebratory stance. “Janitor’s closets!”

I swatted him with his schedule, rolling my eyes. “Quit it.”

"Noah? NOAH. Come in, Noah." Kay was waving her hand in Noah's face. He snapped back to focus quickly.

"Huh?"

Kay rolled her eyes in response.   

"Hey, Noah. I didn't notice you there. It looks as if we're both new here." Silas nodded in greeting, wearing an unreadable expression.

"Yeah." Noah said dully. "Isn't it great?"