Matters of the Hart

Chapter 3 - Can you stop glaring at me? It’s turning me on.

"In my defence, I did tell you to use more polite words like 'please'." I folded my arms across my chest. There was absolutely no way in hell that I was going to let a piece of s**t like Noah Stark march to my table, take away my lunch time and then talk to me like I was his maid-of-all-work.

In case you're lost, let me recapitulate some significant events from the day before which had led me to this point in time.

Remember Noah Stark - big-shot ass, star player of the basketball team, one fourth of the Broody Brothers? How he came up to little miss me and ordered me to tutor him and how I bailed on him? Yes, that Noah Stark.

He caught me at lunch hour the next day. Obviously like the stalker that he was, he would know where I spent my free hour. Ugh.

His lack of manners had cost me ten minutes already. Time was moving fast as is and I didn't know if Noah was getting more frustrated because I wouldn't let him order me around, or antsy due to Lia's murderous glares. I swear, if Lia looked at me the way she was looking at Noah, I'd want the Earth to tear up and swallow me whole.

"I thought we had a deal, Thea. You were going to tutor me. I waited for, what, a forty minutes before I realised you weren't going to show up. And can you stop glaring at me, Amelia? It's turning me on."

Lia looked like she could vomit all of the apple puree she had consumed on his leather jacket anytime now - that's how repulsed she looked. Noah and Lia? Yeah, maybe when pigs fly, I snorted.

But I guess we know who would be the front runner in the foreplay for angry s*x. EW.

"Okay, first of all, Ew. Second of all, I never agreed to anything," I shrugged nonchalantly. That was the problem with boys like Noah - they thought the sun shone for them every day.

"So let's make a deal now," he put his hand forward for me to shake on it. As if.

"Tutor me?"

"Depends. What do I get in return?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. Yes, a single eyebrow because I could do that. It required some practise, skill and a lot of pent-up sass.

"I'll pay you," he said, pausing a while like he was trying recollect something. "In Kit-Kats."

Universe has created different kinds of obsessions among people; three basic categories of obsessed people.

Category one comprised people who were obsessed with other people. Like cheerleaders, who were obsessed with jocks. Of course they were. They'd do so much better if they had little brains. Never mind.

Moving on - category two consists of people who were obsessed with themselves. Bathroom selfie, new towel selfie, Good hair day selfie, Bad hair day selfie. This selfie. That selfie. Selfie within a selfie. Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

Now came category number three.

This, was a special category of people - they were unhealthily obsessed. But not with other people because they had enough brains, and neither with themselves. This category was the most savage of them all. They were the Kit-Kat addicts and I, Thea Hart fell under the third one.

If there was one thing Noah Stark knew from previous knowledge, it was that I craved Kit-Kats like Hagrid craved Buckbeak. Of course he would play the oldest trick in the book. But if a guy willingly wanted to offer me free Kit-Kats, who was I to let go?

"Make that two per hour and you have yourself a deal," I challenged and he didn't particularly seem to mind that. He just shrugged which I assumed automatically made it a yes.

"You want to spit on it, Tee?" he asked sarcastically, obviously amused.

"Don't you dare, Noah." I warned him. "I agreed to the Kit-Kats but that doesn't make us friends," I spitted out, shaking his outstretched hand once. Noah almost obviously winced lightly at my words, before regaining his cocky 'too-good-for-you' composure.

"Fine then. We have a deal. Enjoy your lunch, ladies."

**********

Aaron Braxton told Samuel Reed (Scholar Collar Samuel Reed) that he had heard Chandler Lawrence tell Akima Neyaka that he had heard Jonah Dawson say that he had seen The Noah Stark talk to Hot-gun Thea Hart under the banyan tree at lunch hour about being his tutor and they were dealing in Kit-Kats. Honestly kids, grow up, I sighed.

Class had ended five minutes ago. I was already at my locker, putting my Health-Ed textbook inside. The hallway was bustling with students like Aaron Braxton who didn't know the concept of minding his own business.

In school, gossip spread like wildfire and guess who made it at the top? You guessed it right, folks. I didn't know what the big deal was. I meant I was going to be tutoring Noah, BFD!

Lia and Cole had gone straight to the cafeteria from class. Apparently there was a hot Irish transfer student this semester, whom Cole had to keep 'company' (in the janitor's closet, if you know what I mean).

The school library was equivalent in size to the town hall. It was the first building from the gates of St. Theo's. It was a two-storey building, the library. From the outside, it almost looked like a haunted house and you couldn't have been able to tell if it weren't for the plush wooden board on the front of it. 'Sir Jameson Thomas Library.'

The first floor of the library was maintained for educational purposes only and it had huge mahogany racks of books for study purposes. All subjects were organised and sections divided neatly so there wouldn't be a ruckus.

Every rack was at least ten feet tall and vast in expanse and every subject had its own set of racks. If you wanted a book from the top shelf, you'd have to either ask someone who reached that height or get the makeshift ladder to get it yourself.

The spiral staircases on the left side of the main door led to the second floor. The second floor was pretty much the same in organisation and architecture, except it had every possible genre you could think of: romance, teen fiction, classics, horror, thriller, mystery, action.

Tables and chairs were laid out for students to sit and read or study. There were also beautiful single or two-seater couches with a round coffee table in the centre in between the broad aisle towards the far end from the aisle.

The librarian, Miss Martha was a twice divorced, forty years old lady who she took her job very seriously. I meant if you were ever caught even whispering in her presence, you'd know what I was talking about.

Noah and I had already begun working on his lack of flair and understanding in English Lit. They had Pride and Prejudice for this semester. I had read that book a couple of times and I was getting paid in Kit-Kats, good enough for me.

Twenty minutes into our session, Noah was already exhausted. Kids these days, I muttered. So we decided to take a ten-minute break. "Well, if you're taking a break I can't sit here and look at your annoying face. I'm going to go fetch a book for myself," I said, getting up lightly so my chair won't screech. Obviously it screeched. I got no luck.

"Okay honey, don't get lost," he chirped dramatically.

"Keep it down Noah, and don't call me that," I snapped back, only making him chuckle loudly. The nerve of this guy…

The second floor was where I'd find the genres - romance, young adult and classics and obviously, like the cliché I was, I went to the classics' section. There were three huge racks in the classics section. If I didn't know my way around this place, I would probably have gotten lost by now.

Luckily for me, I liked books. They took me away from reality even if it was for a little while. William Shakespeare once said that there are only nine plots to ever exist. Everything you write after revolves around the same setting.

I had made a new friend in AP English, Sienna who had suggested 'Jane Eyre' to me when she found out that I, like her, loved reading too. We were in class one day and I had told I'd read it but I never got the chance to come up here and do that. Until now.

Scanning through the list of books I found what I was looking for. Jane Eyre - Side eight, shelf number nine. I couldn't go beyond shelf seven and the small ladder that I would have normally used otherwise was now being used by Miss Martha to arrange books at the far end of the isle, in the romance section. Today is not my day, I sighed.

Then a thought struck me. - whacked up but it could work. Maybe if Miss Martha was busy, she wouldn't hear me if I tried to jump. She was at the very far end of the isle and from where I was standing, I couldn't see her so I doubted that she could see me either and considering I used to be a gymnast, maybe I could use support of the edge of the rack.

So I tied my hair into a pony tail (got to focus) and placed one foot at the edge of the rack and put whole of my body weight on it, holding on to the little space between the book and the horizontal edge to reach shelf nine. Almost there, Thea. Just a little bit more, I stretched out.

And then, "Ow."

I slipped and banged my forehead on the shelf below the one I was trying to reach. Did I mention I was wearing pink flip flops? Yeah, gymnastics in flip-flops in a two by two isle was not a good idea and everybody should be refraining from it.

"Damn you, Jane Eyre."

"Excuse me." My head snapped back so fast I was pretty sure I broke my neck.

Uh oh.

See now, there were a lot of beautiful shades of grey on a colour palette. Dark grey, light grey, pale grey, slate grey. The human eye was capable of knowing one from the other. Then why was it that mine just happened to know his and it was the only shade of grey that really matters to me. Mattered. Those eyes.

I remembered those eyes. They were the same grey eyes that always looked my way first and then looked away all the time, like I was a repulsing view to look at. How such a beautiful colour exist could in the eyes of only one person, I never understood. No cloud or object came even close to this shade of grey so esoteric.

He walked past me like wind on a stormy day. Not sparing a care, not looking back. So nonchalant. Why was I expecting so much? Keeping expectations will only bring disappointments.

Shaking my head, I jumped for the book again twice but it was too high up for me to reach. Twice, my gaze was accidentally directed his way and he was into the two books he was checking out. He was standing at the other end of the isle, not very close but not very far, with back turned to me and stance so indifferent that I could only make out his form from his signature black clothing.

Sighing, I walked out of the isle and headed to the romance section. I will just have to read Jane Eyre later, I thought. I picked up 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' by Raymond Carver. It was small book, I'd probably finish it in two days.

It took me five minutes to walk back to where on Noah and I were studying on the floor below. My eyes landed on Noah first and later on the closed book in front of him. Dusty pink cover. Right in the centre was a portrait of a girl. It read Jane Eyre - by Charlotte Bronte.

"Wh...Where did you get that from?" my voice came out as a sublet of horror and amazement. Noah looked up, confused at first but then slowly realised what I was talking about.

"Oh, this? I was just going through it, here." Noah slid the book towards me, across the width of the brown wooden table, his brown eyes watching the book as it reached my end.

"How did this book get here?" I asked again. Noah wasn't even around the aisle to know what book I wanted. I wasn't sure what to make out of it. Funny, wasn't it? The book I was struggling to remove from a high shelf suddenly just landed at the table I was sitting at.

"Your fairy Godmother dropped it here. Jeez, it's not a glass slipper, Thea. Now, do you want me to remind you again what I'm paying you for?" he asked sardonically tapping the back of his pencil twice on the cover of Pride and Prejudice. But I wasn't listening.

My gaze was just stuck on the fat book in my hand as I ran through the pages with my fingers, smiling to myself.

Then it hit.

Maybe it was my day after all.

Surly grey-eyed jerk, I scoffed.

**********

I'd never seen a guy go from frustrated to 'wanting to rip my throat' out to desperate to another level of happiness so fast. And that was just me.

Noah Stark literally snapped the book shut once we were done for the day. Explaining each word to him was so mentally exhausting. That guy needed help. He had ADHD, low IQ and he asked stupid questions the whole damn time. Speaking of time...

"Pay up, big-shot." I sassed as I held my outstretched palm in front of his face. One hour was up and this girl needed her payment after a full hour of hard work.

"I swear you could be a Kit-Kat junkie. The amount of obsession you have with it is not healthy," he grimaced, shaking his head but placing two Kit-Kat bars in my hand.

After I had returned author Raymond Carver's book to Miss Martha and issued Jane Eyre. Noah decided it would be okay for us to walk back to the dorms together. The whole school was divided into quarters - The North Court, The South Court, The East Court and The West Court.

The North Court was where the library, cafeteria and school buildings were located. Every building was given a different alphabet. A, B, C were science buildings. D, E - arts. F - mathematics and economics.

The West Court had the Assembly Hall (Great Hall of Hogwarts, remember?). Polly's office building and the school infirmary were also located in The West Court.

The South court had the gymnasium the basketball court, the lawn tennis court and other indoor games with the music and dance studio.

Finally, The East Court had boys' and girls' dormitories at the two ends of the quarter. In the middle of the two sections of dormitories was another cafeteria.

In the middle of all the four courts was the soccer field. It was more like a mini stadium, the soccer field. Like the health conscious people that we were, Noah and I began our evening stroll from NC to EC.

"You still haven't said please, you know?" I remarked. Extra-sass was sometimes a life-essential.

"I thought our deal was about Kit-Kats?" He retorted back, raising his eyebrows. My Kit-Kats were kept safely in my bag. I figured that I'd eat them later or I would have to share with Noah out of courtesy and I didn't want to.

"It was, essentially, but a please would have been nice, you know what I mean?" I teased back, nudging him lightly.

The wind had picked up at a subtle rate and was hitting my face lightly.

"Why won't you let that go!?"

"Because..." *drum roll please* "My wish!" I clapped my hands to fake excitement. Who knew that someday I would be walking beside Broody Brother Noah Stark again? In all honesty, Noah whined more than he brooded; he was like a baby.

He'd whine if someone drank his almond milk. He'd even whine if somebody offered him their almond milk. You would never actually catch him whine, though. That episode was like Haley's comet. Never happened in years. He was Noah Stark, of the Broody Brothers. He had a reputation to keep.

"Keep dreaming, honey." he smirked.

"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" I snapped back right away. I despised mushy names with a good amount of intolerance to go with it. They made my stomach churn, and not in a good way.

"Okay, Princess…" he trailed off into the distance, testing the word lightly.

"Don't call me that either," I began warning him in a low tone.

"Alright then, princess!" he exclaimed loudly, put his arm around my shoulder. I actually face-palmed. Why does Universe always send headless oafs my way?

"So, Thea," he slowly cleared his throat. Five minutes of silence was a lot to expect from the likes of broody-chatter box. Oh, the irony!

"Do you, maybe, think we can be friends again?"

*Dun-dun-dun*

There it was.

Very few people in this world had the power to stun me. I wouldn't go as far as saying Noah was one of them, but his question did catch me off-guard. There was that question again; after all this time. It had been almost two years since Noah and I had stopped talking.

Basically, two years since the guys and I had stopped being friends. It is not much friendship if only one person is willing to try, now is it? I tried, for a long time and then I realised that maybe I should have just left them alone. I was better off without all of that.

When I agreed to tutor Noah, I kind of knew that this would come up sooner or later. I didn't think it would happen this soon though.

"Is this some kind of a shitty prank?" I asked, not even astonished. It wasn't an impossibility with them. "Because friendships matter a lot to me, Noah. And in my defence I did try once before," I said quietly, removing his arm from around my shoulder.

Obviously he got the memo and shoved his hands back in his jeans pockets as we continued walking in silence, taking un-synced steps as we almost neared the East Court, none of us uttering a single word for a good five minutes before I heard his soft whisper.

"Think maybe you could, like, try again?"

Sometimes I didn't understand what people wanted from me. When I try, they shoo me away like a stray dog. When I don't, they want me to stick around.

"So this is why you really wanted me to tutor you, isn't it?" I sighed. "I don't want your pity, Noah. Whatever happened, I'm over it."

His face lit up like the behind of a space rocket. "Oh, you are over it? So I guess we should be friends again! Oh, you know what? f**k that. We are going be best friends. You'll see."

Cue the face-palm.

At this point, nothing I would say or do would be able to get him off my back. But if he wanted to play it like this, then I'd do my thing too. Best friends? Yeah, right

"Whatever you say, Princess," I smirked right back at him, in hopes the felinity of it would irk him.

"Don't call me that!" his annoyed voice suddenly snapped back, catching hold of my neck but only making me throw my head back in laughter. You get what you give.