Huldrefolk

Rose kept the book held high so it shielded her face from onlookers. She didn't feel like being disturbed. Not that it was a good book, by any means. No. She had been bored two pages in. That was not the point. The point was: if people thought she was distracted by the earphones she had shoved in her ears and turned up full blast. If they thought she was engaged in this god-awful story, they wouldn't sit next to her. For several stops, this tactic worked, but as the school bus began to fill up, Rose felt the weight of a body next to her. She flinched back, pressing up against the window like a cornered mouse.  "Twilight?" This stranger inquired, clearly referring to the name of the book. Rose glanced up at the top of the page. Yes, it was Twilight. He was talking to her. "Yeah. I'm already bored." She stammered, not looking up from the small black print that swirled together to spell out words. Not good words, mind you. "Ha. I can relate. I tried to read it a year back but it didn't appeal. It was a recommendation from a friend. I gave her my own recommendation of acceptable reading material, al-la Lord of the Rings." The boy, she figured, had a nice voice. Melodic and charming. The way he spoke made it seem like he was genuinely engaged in this out-of-the-blue conversation. Rose lowered the book from her face and looked at him for the first time.  "I like LotR." Was all she could say as her grey eyes met the earth-shatteringly blue ones across from her. He was lounging on the seat with one knee pulled up to his chest, one hand gripping the seat in front of him, while the other arm was draped over the top of his seat, his long pale fingers so close to her shoulder she could feel the warmth radiating off them.  "Good, I was worried for a second you'd throw bad literature at me for insulting your chick-lit." His mouth curved up in a wide smile that spread across his heavily freckled face, showing a row of vaguely pointed, white teeth. "I can kind of hear your music too...  I don't think it's Justin Bieber or anything too edgy, so I think we're good. My name's Kade, by the way." He held out his hand for her to shake, and she hesitated. Her hands were freezing. She'd forgotten her gloves, as usual. She took a chance, afraid of embarrassing herself even more if she didn't do it. She touched his hand, holding it for a firm shake, the way Pa had taught her to when greeting formal guests. Kade smiled at her again, not releasing her hand even after the shake. "You're freezing." "You're... really warm." She felt a bubble of nervous laughter break through the closed gates of her lips, making his smile grow wider. How were his teeth so white? The boy's hands were softer than any man's hands she'd felt. Considering Pa's work colleagues did nothing but write up stupid quotes and type on computers all day, their fingertips were always hard and calloused. Their sons had been intolerable, with more money than sense, so she had never dared to touch them, though they had tried to touch her. "You can borrow my gloves if you want. Wouldn't you want to get frostbite. It's chilly today, even for Canada."  "Uh... I just met you." Rose quirked an eyebrow, giving him an odd look. "Yes, and I’m sure my gloves are likely to be poisoned or something." Even the sarcasm in his voice felt utterly friendly, helped along by his grin and the gloves he was offering her with the hand that wasn't entwined around hers.  "Thank you." She accepted the offer. "They'll probably be too big." "Big gloves are warmer than no gloves." He shrugged. "You still haven't told me your name..." "Oh. Rose. Rose Martin." "As in Martin Estates? I knew Mr. Martin had a daughter that went to Grove but I didn't know that was you..." His eyes widened and eyebrows raised. She cringed inside. Now he'd take back the gloves, sit somewhere else and tell everyone at the school who she was. Then she'd have to switch schools again and then she'd never see him aga- how could she worry about not seeing him? That shouldn't have been her main concern! "Uh... yeah. Sorry. I don't usually say my last name." She felt sweat break out on her skin and her clothes felt more confining than they were. "Oh, no. It's fine. I'm just surprised, that's all. I won't tell anyone, seeing as you seem like it's something you seem to want to keep on the down-low." He smiled again and she breathed a sigh of relief.  "Thanks." She was safe. The bus pulled to a stop and she stared out at the snow-dusted, red-brick building that was Amber Grove Academy. The pair disembarked, thanking the driver as they stepped out into the snow. Rose pulled out her earphones as she stood and regarded Kade in his entirety. He was tall, taller than even her, and she was one of the taller girls at the school. He was thin, too, with a slender waist which she found attractive and slightly feminine. She smiled at him again. "I do promise I was being sarcastic when I said the gloves would be poisoned." The boy smirked, gesturing to them as they rested in her hands alongside the book. "Oh. Right." Rose hurriedly shoved them on. Kade smiled, reaching out to squeeze her free hand.  "Warmer already." He whispered as if to himself. He smiled once more before he turned to leave. She heard his feet crunching into the snow as she watched him.  "Kade?!" She called out, almost involuntarily. He turned to regard her but was still walking. "Where do I find you, to umm..." She scrambled for a reason to find him again. "Give these back?" She held up her newly gloved hand. "Where the wild things play, Rose Martin. I promise I'll be the one to find you." He shot her one last, heart-stoppingly beautiful smile, before turning and disappearing into the building.  0-0-0-0-0-0 "So his name was Kade?" Danie,  Rose's best friend at her current school, asked, as the two whispered exchanges in the dim light of Grove's big theatre. It was a weekly assembly of all the students. Currently, two preppy cheerleaders with perfectly glossed lips, curled ponytails and fake tans were advertising the latest lacrosse and football games the school was attending. "Yeah. You know him?" "Can't say I do. Sounds like a player, though, so I probably should." She smirked, and Rose had to giggle, earning her a stern look from their shared homeroom teacher.  The two girls faced forward and pretended to be listening to whatever the cheerleaders were on about when another, familiar, face stepped on stage to address the audience.  "Hey, guys. I'm Kade Dawson and I encourage anyone with any musical talent at all to drop into room 45 at lunch to sign up for Music Club. No one cares if you suck at it, because the point is to get better. Thanks." There were whispers throughout the crowd, and as he left the stage, Rose was only too aware of the sound of her racing heart. "Ohhhh. I see the allure. Guess who's going to room 45 at lunch? You."  "What? Danie, I can't just show up I-" "Play the violin beautifully. I agree. Babes, he was practically speaking to YOU." Rose flinched as her phone beeped loudly, earning her another look from her homeroom teacher. She waited until Ms. Coulter was distracted, then pulled it out and saw it was from an unknown number.  'Hey, it's Kade. This is probably going to sound slightly stalkery, but I got your number from my mate, Roland. He's your friend's boyfriend I think... anyway if I was mistaken in taking you for a musical gal, 145 Amber Park Drive, I'm home by 5.'  The lack of annoying abbreviations seemed like such a Kade thing to do. She showed the text to Danie, who immediately added the number to Rose's contacts, dubbing Kade "Sexy Musician", and insisting Rose reply with something mildly provocative. Rose rolled her eyes, and hastily typed: 'Hey Kade, yeah, Roland is my best friend Danie's bf. It's fine you got my number from him. You aren't mistaken, I play the violin. I'll see you at lunch.' "You could have done better," Danie teased, nudging her. "You're so vanilla!" "Sure Danie, sure," Rose smirks, resting her head lightly on her best friend's shoulder. Within a matter of seconds, her phone buzzed again, her idea to put it on vibrate paying off when Ms. Coulter didn't take her eyes of the Dean, who everyone knew she had the hots for. 'I'll be waiting :-)' Her heart did a little flutter and she grinned down at her phone, catching sight of Kade leaning casually against the door, looking directly at her. Her periods leading up to lunch consisted of art, art history, and creative writing. By the time the bell hailed her to room 45, she was way overthinking the whole experience. It wasn't the first time she'd been hit on. She got wolf-whistled and things got scary once when a guy had shoved her up against a wall. Luckily, Danie was there and absolutely beat him senseless (then turned him in and got him expelled). Half the time, boys were the reason Rose had to switch schools. This was the first time she'd been genuinely interested in a guy, though. He had shown her kindness, which made him different in ways he probably didn't even comprehend.  Room 45 was pretty full by the time she got there, with groups of mostly geeky kids crowded around the front desk, signing up for the club. When one moved over, Rose caught sight of Kade. He saw her and smiled. She lined up, and a few minutes later she was at the front.  "This is where I'd usually ask for your number, but I already skipped ahead." He said quietly, as she busied herself with signing her name, number, email, and homeroom on the paper under about seven others. "You did. And you gave me your address, too." She glanced up at him for a split second, before finding herself imagining his lips on hers. She decided quickly to focus on her writing. "Will you be showing up? I should probably know, so I'm not like, in the shower or otherwise... indecent when you show up." This would usually be a big turn-off for Rose, but the way Kade said it, it sounded as sweet as if he'd offered to bring her flowers. "I'll take it under consideration. I won't insist you wear clothes, either." She didn't look him in the eye as she said this and wondered if it was stupid of her to be so forward. It wasn't usually her style. He caught her wrist gently with his fingertips as she went to leave.  "Thank you for signing up, Rose. We meet in here every Thursday." She nodded and smiled as she slipped the gloves he'd lent her into his hand, with a note she'd prepared during art history. 'I'll be there at 6.'  As she wandered back to the cafeteria to meet with Danie, humming to herself, her phone buzzed with a new message from ' Sexy Musician'.  'I'll make sure not to wear any clothes ;-)' Rose laughed out loud, hurrying to go tell Danie about her first official sort of maybe date.