LULLABY

From the first moment I laid eyes on Hayden, I was determined to make him mine. The tall boy with curly, ash-blond hair had captured the deer-in-headlights look perfectly as he stands at the front of the classroom. His innocent brown eyes fleetingly dart over our faces, then across at our teacher, then down at the floor. He awkwardly holds onto his stack of textbooks, his arms rigid and feet frozen in place. I let my gaze run over this new addition to our class, and I hear a muffled giggle from beside me as my best friend catches me in the act. She knows me all too well. "I'm betting two days," Laura leans over and whispers in my ear. "Two days, a letter in your locker." Her own eyes look the nervous boy up and down. "The cute nerd boys can never hold out for long around you." I smirk and twirl a lock of dark hair around my finger. Don't I know it. Our math teacher, Mr Holmes, gives the transfer student a sympathetic look, all too knowing that this school likes to chew up and spit out innocent souls like him. "Hayden, could you take the desk on row C? You've got Sam on the right. Sam, please help Hayden navigate the coursework." I raise an eyebrow as the deer-like boy seems to snap out of his daze and starts walking in the direction of the teacher's pointed finger. Interesting... the empty desk next to Sam, my current boyfriend, is the same empty desk next to me. I'm on the left; Sam's on the right. Sam looks across the empty desk at me and pouts jokingly. Now, we have an extra body in the way of our yearning gazes. Sam sighs loudly as Hayden takes his seat, and I giggle as he doesn't even bother disguising an eye roll. Right now, though, I could care less about Sam. My own blue eyes have found a new target. Truth be told, I have a little goal that is very precious to me. Some people might find it selfish, though my friends would expect nothing less. That goal is to make every boy in Harlem High School fall in love with me. But not the silly kind of love that we teenagers breathe on the daily like it's our second oxygen - the real, serious, die-for-you kind of love, a love that only a Siren can draw out of an unsuspecting human boy's heart. I frown as I tilt my head towards this fresh blood. Hayden's arrival was almost a little inconvenient. It was the first day back to school after summer break, and I'd already captured most of the hearts within Harlem High. A quick meeting of the eyes is all that I needed - my Sirenic vision does the rest. I wanted to reach my goal by the end of the year, so, hopefully, Hayden is a quick charm. As Mr Holmes drones on about math, I lean slightly towards the new boy. "Hey, Hayden." He seems a little startled at the whisper of his name, but all boys are like that when I meet them for the first time. He breaks his gaze away from the front of the classroom, and his brown eyes meet my blue. Ah, yes. My favorite part. I hold his gaze and feel the flow of energy seep from my eyes and connect with his. Whoever said that the eyes were the window to the soul had no idea how true those words really are. And not just the soul - the mind and heart, too. I wait for the usual reaction of when I connect with a boy's eyes. Usually, their eyes widen a little and their mouths fall open slightly. Their gaze locks into mine, and they feel paralysed as my mind swirls around their own, clasping it and holding it hostage. Any moment now, and I will have claimed this new boy as my own. "... Hi." Hayden gives me an awkward look before returning his gaze forwards. I frown. It seems this fish will play a harder catch than anticipated. I can feel Laura smirking beside me and Sam's narrowed eyes on the other side of Hayden. The sensation of challenge grows deeper in my chest. "Where are you from?" I ask softly. I lean a little closer, my long black hair falling onto my desk in a curtain. Hayden glances at me but doesn't hold my eyes. "Up north," he murmurs back, opening his textbooks in front of him. I watch in disbelief as he bows his head down, curls falling into his eyes, and starts taking notes on the lesson. Did this guy just... blank me? An unfamiliar feeling creeps into my heart. I'm not used to being ignored. It makes me feel uneasy. It never happens. Due to the Sirenic blood in my veins, any boy that locks eyes with me is immediately infatuated. Why isn't this boy reacting the same? Confused and unsettled, I twirl my own pencil between my fingers and set it to paper. I'll work on you later, Hayden. ~ The unease doesn't leave my chest even over lunch. Not even Sam's adoring eyes could distract me as I watch Hayden across the noisy lunch hall. "Babe, what's wrong? You're not eating," Sam murmurs into my ear. One hand tucks a lock of hair away from my eyes while the other holds my thigh, securing me in his lap. I huff and pout my lips. From across the table, Laura laughs at me. "I know exactly what's wrong," she teases, her gaze surreptitiously following my own line of sight. I shift my scowl onto her and give her a chilling look that tells her to shut up. "I'm just on my period, baby." I turn my attention to Sam and immediately receive his sympathy. "I missed you," he confesses, his eyes falling to my lips. "Summer wasn't the same with you on the other side of the world." "I know, baby. I missed you so much," I lie, running my hand through his sandy blond hair. I hadn't thought of Sam at all whilst my family and I partied in Greece for the summer break. Meeting up with my Siren cousins and distracting the beach lifeguards was way more fun than texting back a sad, sulking and bored teenage boy. As Sam buries his face into the side of my neck, I cast a sweeping glance back across the lunch room. The noisy atmosphere of students yelling and cutlery clicking against plates is grating against my ears. As I look around, I notice about ten boys already looking back at me. If I remember correctly, each of them had left little notes in my locker at some point in time. And yet the one boy who had caught my attention of the day was more interested in his lunch of cold mashed potato than in me. I watch him as he chats with another male student, cracking a smile here and there. Despite his nervous first impressions in math class, he seems quite a natural in this social environment. I channel my focus, the edges of my vision turning blue with intensity. I'm curious to see this strange boy's reaction. Though we're separated by five rows of tables and opposing corners of the room, I issue a single mental demand. Look at me. Three boys on the table beside Hayden's suddenly freeze and look straight at me, as if I'd just screamed at them. But Hayden doesn't even flinch. Something's not right. "Laura," I snap, my sharp tone startling her mid-laugh as she jokes with her boyfriend beside her. "We need to talk." Laura, who was more than used to my erratic behavior, quickly nods and scoffs down the rest of her lunch. "See you, babe," she says to Tony, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. I climb off of Sam's lap, and he playfully groans as my knees dig in to his legs. "Where are you going, Amira?" He catches hold of my wrist as I'm about to stride away. My impatience is nearing a c****x. With a deep sigh, I turn to Sam and cup his face in my hands. "Sammy," I whisper, staring into his strong, ocean eyes. His calloused, soccer-playing hands circle around my wrists. "What are you gonna do, baby?" I smile, wistfully. "I'm breaking up with you."