A Season of Firsts

Chapter 3 - Cleo

Before December 31st

EMMA

I lie on my bed with my legs in the air. My sister is lying on the floor looking up at me as we talk.

I've considered telling her about Aiden quite a few times, but the sensible part of me dismissed the idea, knowing that she would be instantly concerned and watchful. I don't need that. It's taken forever for my family to learn that I don't want to be treated like a fragile flower, but they still do sometimes. It's not their fault, though. I know that if any of us could take back what happened that December night, we would, in a heartbeat. But we can't, so it looms over us, like a threatening raincloud.

"So. Patty." I say in a cheerful tone, shaking off the past. "What are you going to wear to Adrianne's party?"

"That forest green dress I have," she says, smiling up at me, her eyes dreamy. "and maybe pair it with my heeled pumps."

Dear Patty. I love my younger sister to bits. With her intelligent eyes that will no doubt look marvellous with that dress, her kind heart, and her lovable quirks. We are only eighteen months apart, and very close. I thank God for her all of the time, because sometimes I feel I wouldn't be able to do life without her. I also love Carpenter, my big brother, and Eddie, my little brother, but brothers are not the same as sisters.

"What about you?" she asks.

"I don't know if I'm coming, Pat." I look away for a moment and then back at her. I know she hates it when I refuse to leave the house, but she also understands that I am not always emotionally stable enough to do so.

"Emma! You have to. I don't want to go without you." She's frowning now, little creases between her brows.

"Oh, I just don't know if I'll enjoy it...but you must go."

She doesn't say anything for a while. I know what she's thinking, though. My mind wanders away as I listen to the rustle of leaves through the open window. First I'm thinking, how unfair that Patty looks so pretty when she's cross, because she's still frowning, meanwhile I look like a red tomato when I am angry. Then when I look outside the window again, I'm thinking how beautifully the leaves flutter to the ground as I watch them fall. And then, even though I don't want to think about him, I do. I think how I wouldn't mind going to the party if I knew he was going to be there.

~ ~ ~

AIDEN

Thursday. Midweek and all of the students at Stowe High School are just hanging in there till the weekend. Including me, and I only just started at this school.

I'm on my way to history class, daydreaming a little as I walk. Suddenly I crash into someone I didn't notice walking towards me, causing her to drop the books she was carrying. Classic, Aiden, classic. She's already hurriedly picking up her books when I crouch down to help her. I want to say sorry, but somehow it feels right for both of us to stay silent. She gives me one quick smile as I hand her the last book, 'A History of Modern Art', and is gone before I can ask her name, her wavy cocoa brown hair and shy demeanour leaving with her. Could've sworn I'd seen her somewhere before, but I can't remember where. I shrug to myself and stand up, finding that I'm only a few feet away from the classroom I was on my way to.

History would be okay, if the teacher was...well, not himself. Mr. Hardwell's surname suits him, being the plank of a man that he is. Hard on the outside and undoubtedly hard on the inside too. Tall, skinny, bespectacled and always smelling of smoke. One minute late to his class gets you in big trouble, and if my watch is correct, I'm already five minutes late.

I stand outside the door for a moment, definitely considering bunking, but because I've never bunked before anyways, I walk in.

I'm met by a full classroom of bored looking students and a fuming Mr. Hardwell.

"Mr. Harper!" he sputters, putting emphasis on the 'Mr'. "I'll thank you not to be late in the future again, ever, and to attend detention after school today."

Detention is way too big a punishment for being five minutes late, so I'm not afraid of that happening. "Sir, with all due respect, I'll do my best not to be late in the future. But, you and I both know I won't be in detention later today," I grin up at him with the cheesiest smile I have, and watch his face turn red. He's mostly bark and no bite, simply because he's not in a place high enough to carry out most of the threats he gives. The school would be a military school if he were to run it.

"You may sit, Harper. And I assure you, I have my eye on you." He hasn't liked me since I started here, and I have no idea why. But I can manage it.

Later, when I'm walking the school grounds to hockey practice, I find the girl I bumped into earlier. She's lying on her stomach atop the trimmed green grass, a pen in her hand and a drawing pad in front of her. She's concentrating so hard on whatever she's drawing that she doesn't notice me walking up.

"Hey," I say.

She startles, dropping her pen and snapping the pad shut. When she looks up at me, I notice she has dark, thick lashes. "Hi."

"What are you drawing that is so private?" I ask.

"Who are you that you think you should know?" she counters, calmly and not at all hostilely. But I see colour filling her cheeks.

I normally would have said bye and carried on to hockey practice, but something made me want to stay. I wanted to be friends with this girl.

"Nobody that should know. Just someone with enough curiosity to want to know." I sit down next to her. "You made me late for history class."

Half of her mouth turns up, in a charmingly crooked smile that makes her nose wrinkle. "You made me drop my books."

"Why were you carrying so many books anyway?"

She gets up to sit cross legged. "I love books."

"So do I, actually," I tell her. "I'm Aiden, by the way."

She holds out her hand. "Cleo."