Bound to a Shadow Warrior (A Fantasy/Paranormal Novel)

Chap 2: What a Jerk...

Chapter 2

        “Wait for it...there! You see!?” Paisley, Devlin's best friend, said pointing her finger at a guy's back. Devlin looked in the direction Paisley was focused on and took in the guy's figure. He was pretty tall looking from behind and had longish blonde hair that was semi slicked back. He was wearing a red tee shirt and jean shorts and from what Devlin could tell, he was pretty muscular.

“That's the guy you like?” Devlin asked, returning her attention to grinning Paisley. Paisley nodded enthusiastically, her brown eyes barely wavering from the guy's back.

            “His name is Gabriel McIntyre and he's a recent transfer from Ireland,” Devlin turned to her locker and began riffling throughout the mess for her Bio things. Paisley followed Devlin's example and also went through her locker. “We share economics together and he always sits next to me.” She continued on.

            “Paisley, the Eco teacher gives assigned seats; obviously the guy is going to be sitting next to you every class.”

Shutting her locker door, Paisley pursed her lips at Devlin, as she also closed her locker. “You just always have to ruin my fun don't you Dev?” she whined as the girls made their way down the hall to their next classes. Laughing, Devlin nodded her head as they headed up the stairs to the second floor. Paisley walked with Devlin to the bio rooms and gave her friend a hand wave as they parted.

     Upon entering the classroom, Devlin took note on the rearrangement of the classroom. Instead of tables of four, the tables were now of two. Only some students were currently hanging in the classroom, none of them seated yet. Mr. O’Connell sat at his desk clicking away on his computer, his baseball cap sat backwards on his head as usual. Mr. O'Connell was one of those chill teachers who liked to see his students as friends. Not knowing what to do, Devlin approached Mr. O'Connell's desk At sight of her, he looked up at her and smiled.

“Hey McPhee, what's up?” Devlin pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the desks.

    “I have no clue where I'm supposed to sit.” Mr. O'Connell rose from his chair and nodded before picking up a clipboard. He walked to the door of the classroom, as more students piled in and began to point them to their seats.

 “Devlin, you sit next to Brad Schmidt.” The table was a middle table which was fine with Devlin, the only problem was the fact that her seat partner was Brad. He was an overly obnoxious jerk who enjoyed annoying as many people as possible.

            Devlin took her seat and looked around the room at the other students, scoping out those who were near her table. Thankfully she had some normal people around her. In front of her table sat Amanda Launder and Matt Kofer, two fairly normal people who were smart enough to hold a complete conversation that made sense. At the table beside her's sat Michelle Hern, the seat next to her, the one closer to Devlin, unoccupied. Two seconds before the bell rang, Brad came in and was motioned to his new seat. Devlin, hoping to ignore Brad, pulled her hair to one side to act as a curtain between the two of them. Brad didn't let this go unnoticed.

“Hey there Dev! Isn't this great, we get to be partners again this year.” Devlin gave only a grunt in response. Sadly, this wasn't the first time for Brad to be Devlin's partner in a class. During her junior year, Devlin had been paired up for Brad for two months in Physics, and the year before that, they were partners in English class for a book project.

            Class was about to start, Mr. O'Connell was at the front of the room, when the door opened again and one last student slid inside. This didn't go unnoticed by Devlin, or any other student in the room. Devlin studied the guy over, immediately taking note that this was the labeled 'Shadow boy' that Eric had mentioned.

The guy sure dressed like a shadow, he was garbed from head to toe in complete black. His hair was an exception, as it was dark brown. He wore a scowl on his face as he made his way down the aisle. “So that's Luca Gemson” Devlin murmured under her breath as she took in his appearance. Almost as if he had heard her mumble, Luca's gaze focused on Devlin, and she could only stare back in return, shock on her face as she took in the bright blue color of his eyes.

            They were a beautiful blue green color, and Devlin couldn't help but study him over again. He wore a leather jacket over a snug fitting black tee shirt that had some unknown band plastered on it. His jeans were ripped at the knees, and he wore black combat boots. Dark charcoal eyeliner rimmed his eyes, and his nails were painted black and his fingers were long and skinny like that of a piano player. Realizing that she was still staring, Devlin squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and looked away only to find Brad staring at her as well.

“Luca so glad you could make it!” Mr. O'Connell said happily. He pointed at the seat next to Michelle. “There is your seat from now on.” Luca only gave a nod, and then made his way over to the seat, his combat boots echoing in the silent classroom.

              As he sat down in his seat, only then did Devlin start to freak out when she noticed just how close the tables were to each other. She could fully smell Luca's scent from her seat. Cinnamon and cigarette smoke, the cinnamon overpowered the smoke though so it wasn't unbearable. If anything Devlin felt that the scent was quite relaxing, which she felt was entirely weird. Deciding to ignore Luca as much as possible, Devlin focused on the lesson that Mr. O'Connell was beginning to teach. She was only vaguely aware of Luca's presence next to her as the class went on, and only then, when the bell rang signaling the end of class, did she realize that she would have to talk to him at some point today.

  Gathering her things, Devlin half listened to what Brad was prattling on about as she shot quick glances over at Luca, who was currently napping, his head laying down on his arms, his face, face down on his desk. “Devlin are you listening to me?” Brad's question finally got Devlin's attention, and she looked over her shoulder at him.

“Sorry Brad but I have things I need to do. You'll have to tell me all about Josh's party next time.” She said to which Brad replied.

 “It was Derek's party.”

 Waving her hand in dismissal, Devlin shouldered her book bag and then took a deep breath before going over to Luca's table.

            As if sensing her, Luca slowly sat up, and stretched his arms out, giving Devlin a peek at his wrists that had once been covered by the sleeves of his jacket. He had a tattoo on the inside of his left wris t, it looked like Chinese lettering around a dragon but she wasn't too sure. Awkwardly Devlin stood by, as Luca gathered up his things. Not once had he spared her a glance, but if his stiff posture said anything, he was aware of her.

“Um, you're Luca right.” She finally asked, as he stood up with his book bag in his one hand, a water fountain pen in the other.

 “Depends on who's asking.” he responded, and Devlin noticed the way he studied her figure.

  Pushing a piece of hair behind one ear, Devlin took out the piece of paper Eric had given her earlier;  the one that was to be given to Luca explaining about the tutoring schedule and process. Luca eyed the letter that she held out to him, before taking it. He gave it what seemed like a quick read through before glancing up at Devlin.

 “I never remember asking for a tutor.” he said gruffly, and then Devlin watched in shock as the boy crumpled up the letter and then threw it into the wastebasket beside the classroom door. Before Devlin could even utter another word, Luca turned around and walked out of the classroom.