Chapter 4

As Jace and I walked into advisory, all the students’ heads turned towards us. I hated when
people did that. Why would you look if it has nothing to do with you? Anyway, they all looked at us with
mixtures of indifference, curiosity, and from some people… sluttiness. I swear some of the girls were
already undressing him with their minds. At this thought, I immediately tugged on Jace to move and sit
down in the back of the room where Larissa was waving spasmodically at me.

I sat down in one of the creaky desks and when everyone kept on staring at Jace, I glared at
them and hissed, “Is there a problem?”

It didn’t come out as threatening as I thought it would… as a result I got a teasing smirk form
Jace which I almost fainted at the sight of. Even if there was something different about him, I still
couldn’t help swooning at every movement that he made. Note to self I thought Get over crush on Jace.

Everyone started whispering all at the same time, which only paused long enough for the
teacher to take attendance, and then resumed soon after we had all said ‘here.’

“Well now that they’re not gone,” I said bitterly, “I guess I’ll introduce you to Larissa.”

“Larissa, Jace. Jace, Larissa,” I stated, gesturing my hands in between them.

I expected a ‘nice to meet you’ or a handshake or at least a reaction of some sort but Jace and
Larissa just sat there staring at each other with looks of astonishment on their faces, like they had
already met. Larissa’s eyes widened as if she had just learned some dirty secret and flicked her gaze over
to me. I looked at Jace but couldn’t read his expression. My gaze alternated between the two of them. I
bet I looked like some broken bobble head doll that couldn't seem to bobble the right way.

The stare between them stretched longer and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable. “Err…
have you guys already met?” I asked.

Larissa blinked and shook her head. “Of course not! How would we have?” she said a bit too
quickly.

I gave her one of those ‘I know you’re lying’ looks but decided to just let it go. If she thought I
shouldn’t know, then I guess I’d have to trust her on this one. I turned back to the front of the room and
decided to at least hear some of the announcements.

Turned out that I couldn’t listen to the announcements due to the fact that I couldn’t ignore the
escalating hum of thoughts from everyone in the room, most definitely from the entry of the totally hot
new kid. I couldn’t help but get little snippets of the especially strong thoughts.

~Did I forget to mention that I can hear other people’s thoughts? It’s just a downside of being
connected to everybody’s souls… sometimes I wished that I could just turn it off completely but I could
only ‘turn the volume down.’ It’s kind of hard to explain. ~
 OMG the new kid is so CUTE! I hope he asks me to the dance…

He is soo going on my list… I didn’t even want to know what list this person was referring to.

Mmmm… that new guy is sexy… he’s mine I shuddered at this thought. Of course it was from
Jordi… the school slut and unfortunately… the queen bee.

Then I got a bunch of random thoughts from the indifferent guys in the room.

Football tryouts are coming up soon… I SO need to start working out again.

I hope Janette isn’t still mad at me…

But one thought stood out the most…

… is the most beautiful girl in the world… she shines brighter than the stars and is more flawless
than a diamond…I can’t believe I found her… I blushed at this thought. I knew it hadn’t been for me but
it was so sweet! Who had it come from? For some reason I couldn’t track it to its owner. I doubted it had
come from any of the guys in this room. They were either too jerkish, stupid, or just plain weird. I was
still looking across the room to see if I could find out who the person was but I was pulled out of my
thoughts by Larissa shaking my arm.

“Huh? What?” I said, flustered by the sudden intrusion.

“Jayden! Hellooooo anybody in there?” She proceeded to knock her fist on my head. “It’s time
to get to first period!”

I groaned. “Great! Chemistry with Mrs. Locht. You know I heard she has pet llamas?”

“OMG I know right? I heard that when one of them died, she missed three whole days of school
to hold a funeral…”

“I don’t even want to know how these rumors get made up,” Jace said, shuddering.

Me and Larissa laughed. I got up from my chair and walked down the aisle toward the front of
the room. I had just passed the last desk when suddenly, my feet were knocked out from under me and I
fell screaming onto the floor… face first.

Immediately, Jace was at my side helping me up. “Are you OK?” he asked with genuine concern
in his eyes.

The person who had tripped me was none other than… Jordi.

“What the f*** is wrong with you, b*tch?” Larissa screamed into Jordi’s face.

Jordi ignored her and just laughed. “Did you enjoy your trip?” she asked sweetly.
 I didn’t respond. I was still kneeling on the floor, holding my cheek where it had hit the ground.
It was the same cheek that had the bruise on it from Malcolm and it felt like I had just smashed it into
pieces. I bit my lip to keep from screaming until I tasted blood and squeezed my eyes shut.

“Get out of here before I literally tear you to pieces,” Larissa growled in a voice that entirely
wasn’t hers. I opened my eyes and saw Jordi flinch. She kept the same ‘I’m better than you’ posture but
now had actual fear in her eyes.

“Whatever, freak,” she said. “Just get out of my way.” She pushed past Larissa and made sure to
kick my books with her stiletto heels on the way to the door.

Larissa gave one more glare to the back of Jordi’s head and then kneeled down to see if I was
OK.

“Where did you get that bruise?” she exclaimed.

“Err…” I touched my face and realized that the coating of makeup that had masked the bruise
was completely wiped off. A bruise from this fall couldn’t have formed this quickly, I knew that… and so
did she, but I said, “I just got it. From tripping over Jordi. If you didn’t remember.” She narrowed her
eyes at me, signaling that we were going to talk about this later.

“We have to get you to the nurse,” Jace stated. He pulled me up to my feet and told me, “You
can lean on me if you can’t walk.”

The only thing that was really hurting me was the bruise on my face, but I couldn’t pass up an
offer of being close to Jace. Some instinct of mine was always urging me to get closer to him. So I said
thanks and wrapped my arm around his torso as ‘support.’ His arm drew me closer and I couldn’t help
but notice that it was completely unnecessary for him to be holding me that close, but I didn’t say
anything. This felt right. Like I was made for him. I fit into his side perfectly, like we were puzzle pieces
that had just found our matches.

Larissa gave us both looks, making me blush. “Let’s go, you lovebirds.”

“We’re not lovebirds,” I exclaimed, although it wasn’t very convincing.

I heard Jace snort but he didn’t let go.

“Where exactly is the nurse? I don’t think we should just stand here any longer. Jade needs to
get ice on that bruise,” Jace said.

Jade. Nobody ever called me Jade. If anyone even tried giving me a nickname, I threatened to
punch them. The only person who I allowed to call me Jay was Larissa but that was only because we
were best friends. But ‘Jade’ sounded right coming from Jace. I think Larissa noticed when I didn’t
protest to him calling me Jade since she raised an eyebrow at me but she only said, “Just follow me.”
 By the time we got to the nurse, the bell had already rung and everyone was in their first period
classes. I guess I would be late to class anyway despite everything that had happened this morning with
Mrs. Pelion.

I walked through the nurse’s doors, with Jace’s arm still tightly wrapped around me, and shyly
said, “Umm… can I have some ice for my face?”

“Oh dear! What happened?” then nurse exclaimed, already rushing around for an ice pack.

“I, uh, tripped.”

“She got tripped by Jordi,” Larissa corrected. I shot her a look that said ‘was that really
necessary?’ but I don’t think she got it.

“That’s horrible! Some girls are just so dreadful. Sonny, why don’t you just sit her down in the
chair,” the nurse suggested to Jace while rummaging through some drawers.

“Of course.”

Jace brought me over to a chair and I was expected him to let me go but instead, he picked me
up like I weighed nothing and sat down in the chair, resting me on his lap. He wrapped his arms around
my waist.

It wasn’t one of those awkward positions like he was trying to hump me or anything… it was like
I was his little sister and I needed some comforting. It was kind of out of place in a nurse’s office but I
thought it was really sweet anyway.

“Um, you don’t have to do that,” I said to him.

“I know.”

I looked down and tried to disguise my smile. How cute was he? Despite my ‘note to self’ I didn’t
think I’d be able to get over this crush. Instead, I found the crush growing larger.

Larissa coughed, but it was one of those fake coughs, like you’re trying to get someone’s
attention or you’re feeling uncomfortable. I had a feeling Larissa was a little weirded out by Jace’s
casualness with me on his lap but instead, she had a serious look on her face. I recognized that look. It
was one of those looks where she wanted me to read her mind. Usually, her’s was one of the only minds
that I couldn’t ever get anything out of but when she actually wanted to tell me something, I
was always able to. I nodded and closed my eyes. Reading minds was an easy thing but I really
had to focus on Larissa’s.

We have to talk. It’s about Jace… it’s serious.

 I gave her a questioning look, asking for more information but just then, the nurse said, “Honey,
you can go to class now. You don’t really have to stay here. Here’s a late pass so you don’t get in
trouble.”

“Thanks.” Larissa took the pass and shot me another look on the way out of the nurse’s office.

Now, my skin was itching to talk to Larissa. What was wrong about Jace? Then I remembered his
eyes changing color and realized that maybe this would be the answer to my questions about him.

The nurse had just finished getting the ice pack ready and gave it to me.

“Sweetie, you can go to class now,” the nurse told Jace.

“I actually don’t know where my class is. She’s supposed to be my guide for the day. I’m new.”

“Oh! Well it’s nice to meet you! And I think I could probably tell you where the classroom is. I
don’t want you to miss any more of your first day.”

“Err, thanks. It’s room 245.”

“That’s down the hall and to the right. Take the staircase on the left and it should be the second
classroom on your right when you get up there.”

“Thanks.” Jace stood up, holding me bridal style, and then placed me gently on my feet. He
walked towards the door but before he left, I hurried over to him and stood on my tip toes and gave him
a soft kiss on the cheek.

He stared at me, shocked and frozen in place. I smiled shyly at him and gestured with my hands
for him to leave. I didn’t think he would have moved at all if I hadn’t told him to.

Right after Jace left, I felt the pain in my cheek more. I wished he hadn’t left me. What was it
about him that made me feel so good?

I gingerly placed the ice pack on my bruise and sighed as the pain got noticeably less.

“Do you want to go up to class with the ice pack? Or you can just stay here for a couple of
minutes. It’s your choice,” the nurse said.

“Umm… can I go to class? I really don’t want to miss anything important.” I figured if I stayed
here, and then went to class, people would stare at my bruise. But if I just went to class, people would
stare at my bruise. Either way, people would stare at my bruise so I just chose the way that I could get
back to Jace faster.

“Sure and if you feel any pain then just come back here OK?”

“Thanks so much.”
 As I walked down the hall towards class, with the ice pack held up to my face, I kept thinking
about Jace. I tried convincing myself that I didn’t like Jace, and don’t call me an idiot, or stupid, or a
stupid idiot who was falling in love to fast… but I couldn’t ignore the warm feeling in my chest whenever
I was around him. Or the way my heart sped up whenever we touched. Or the way that butterflies
fluttered in my stomach every time I looked into his face. Or the way that everything had felt so right in
the world when we kissed.

I knew that I had strong feelings for Jace even if we’d only met this morning, and I wasn’t going
to ignore them any longer.