When you know

2. First glance

Arianna stood at the front of the class, watching the year 10 English class as they seemingly discussed whether George was truly guilty of shooting Lenny from the novel 'Of mice and men'. Dressed in a black pinafore, black tights and a long sleeved shirt, she looked every part of a grammar school English teacher that she had become. Being a private investigator had been her long time ambition but with her record, that clearly had gone out the window. Although she never intended to go into this occupartion, teaching was better than she had expected. It was stressful but kept her busy even at home which was a good thing since she had practically nothing to do. It was an ordinary job, something that was away from the spotlight and normal, unless there was some sort of scandal. Surprisingly, she was a good teacher and the kids never misbehaviored. Well that was one of the perks of teaching at a private school. Education was primal and the pupils took it as seriously as the teachers, who had nothing better to do than hand out homework and she fell under that category.

'Ok, so what have you decided, guilty or not?' she asked and in some ways questioned herself as she went back to the day she had escaped. Was she guilty of shooting Juned or was it really an accident? Uncle Kamal and his goons had failed to find her so far. At the slight chance that they were close, she would be on the move. Arianna had an informant; an informant who was Aisha, Uncle Kamal's only daughter, who warned Arianna when to pick up and leave.

It was amazing how years could fly by almost like water running from a tap. One moment she had been in Saltburn-by-the-sea; a beautiful, quiet little town near a blue sea, and the next she at university. Unsurprisingly not at Oxford where she had been supposed to go. She had shared a room with her now best friend Ellie. It wasn't that difficult to get a new identity. Ellie was one person who she had remained in contact with, but a distant one. She and Ellie had a mutual understanding of not talking about their past which immediately allowed her to become friends with her. Their pasts were a clear no-go area.

Arinna had shopped around for disguises which had been rather fun. In Newcastle her hair was deep mahogany red, a colour; in Cornwall, natural blonde; in Saltburn-by-the-sea, midnight blue; in Gloucester deep cherry brown but this time its caramel brown, more closer to her chestnut brown hair.

She had adopted different personas, met different people and learned so many new things. It was adventurous and a chance to experiment greatly. But after all the packing up and unpacking, she no longer wanted to do it anymore. You could say that she was not the adventurous type. Some people did it their whole lives but she certainly couldn't. Her parents had been more of the settling type. Afterall Arianna had spent her entire eighteen years in a 4 bedroom detached house. They went on plenty of holidays but home was home. God, how she missed them and her old, carefree life.

Besides her university days, although this location was far from the city but close enough to the local town, she had finally found a place that she felt slightly at home in. It was off the map and a place where people hardly knew existed. The small sense of security that she felt had kept her here, along with her busy job and well paid salary.

Arinna left earlier than her usual time as she had finished her set work and there was no need for her to help out anywhere after school. Usually, she stayed after school as long as she could, helped whenever and wherever: anything to avoid her silent, lifeless home. She had set her classes their assignments and the next pieces of marking were due in two days. So it was movie night tonight. She wondered what she would be watching with Kitty, her ever-loyal, grey eyed companion, adorable kitten. Who needed men when you could have a pet who would never betray you?

Arianna tied her cream trench coat closer, put on her black fur faux cassock hat and leather gloves and prepared to battle the cold weather to get past the mostly empty parking space, to her black Mini Cooper. Her prized possession. Yes, it may not be like the glamorous silver Aston Martin V8 Vantage SP10 that she had just walked past, but it was hers. The boot of the car opened and she shoved in the half a dozen folders, which had been killing her arms. As she walked round the front of the car, she took of her annoying glasses, which was also part of the disguise and shoved them in her tote bag.

A fierce gust of wind caused her beautiful soft hat to go flying and her chignon to somehow become untied. Leaving her hair flowing half way down my back, she chased after the hat in her court heels. Just in time she grasped hold of it before it went near the drainage. Arianna stood up in and that’s when she felt a strong gaze. Somehow, she didn’t feel suspicious or threatened, because surely Aisha would've warned her. No, just an electrifying stare which automatically caused her heart beat to go crazy and her cheeks to heat up. Was that even possible? To get noticed? In the last few years, she had become pretty good at becoming invisible. It all started with the outfit, and her outfit catergorised her as a poor, dorky, old teacher and did not cause second glances. She considered her current humiliating situation and realised that it was possible for someone to stare as: she had shrieked, run after a flying hat with her hair also flying.

Keeping her head down Arianna patted her hair down. Thank God she had blow dried it this morning. She walked causally back to her car pretending that she had not done any of that. But the staring continued. It was coming from the direction of the Austin Martin. But there was one problem, Arianna avoided eye contact at all costs. It led to trouble. It caused her to become self-conscious, feel awkward and analysed and wonder if she had a boogie in her eye, or a flake of dry skin hanging about her nose. Even when she conversed with someone, she failed to maintain eye contact for more than a few seconds. It was better that way and men got the idea that she wasn't interested. However, in this moment she just had to see her onlooker. One glance she said to herself.

She looked up and turned towards the direction the stare came from and regretted it immediately as she automatically broke one of her rules: the rule of no staring. However, the only person in the car park was an unbelievably hot man who was looking into his Iphone and not her who stood next to the gorgeois silver Austin Martin. He looked like an Calvin Klein model or he clearly belonged there anyway. He had short dirty blonde hair, the expensive, fitted grey suit dressed his lean, muscular body and a black tie was loose around his neck. She couldn't see his eyes as they were shaded under Ray bans but immediately wondered what colour they were: blue seemed the obvious, but green or grey? Where they the warm, bright, the serious type or was he cross eyed?

She shook head at the thought of it. Why was she thinking about a random guy's eyes when she obviously won't ever get that far? Despite this, she continued to watch him, his muscular biceps flexed as he started speaking into his IPhone. Arianna found herself silently praised God for granting her brilliant eyesight and praying that she fell in love with someone as amazingly looking at him with brilliant eyes, intelligence, someone who was true and faithful. She always specified her prayers and wishes. A man may be good-looking but what if he was dumb, boring or unfaithful? This guy boasted elegance and wealth from every angle. Then she remembered that Roseville Academy was a fee-paying top-notch private school; where rich kids attend. This guy was the stuff of her imagination and... nothing was ever going to happen. She laughed at herself. She was far, very far from the Cameron Diaz looking teacher from 'Bad Teacher' and it was all her own doing and that was point: to shield her identity and not cause second glances.

With a sigh, she got into her car before he caught her eye boggling him like a mad woman. God created everyone marvellously; everyone was beautiful in their own way but this guy; she felt deeeply attracted to him, something she had never before felt so strongly about.

On the other hand, she reminded herself that evenif the guy had loooked at her it was probably at her expense, laughing at her, entertained by lady running madly after a hat. As normal as she wanted to be, I couldn't, she had to keep her guard up. It was better taht she forget him and wiped him out of her mind like every other guy that she came across. Arinna realised that she was probably going to die alone. Despite this, she had a feeling that somehow, somewhere she was going to see him again; or maybe that was just her wishful thinking.

HI Everyone, thank you very much for reading this. Let me know what you think. Please don't forget to vote and comment. I really appreciate it. Thank you. xx