Faithless

Chapter One

"Jasmina Stone I swear, if you do not put that diary down and get your butt out of bed I will revoke our friendship!" Candice yelled, stomping into their shared room at Blue Hollow Boarding school. She flipped her short black hair behind her and crossed her arms, doing her best to look like she meant business. The first few times she had said something similar to Jasmina, she had actually scared her, but nowadays Jasmina was used to her empty threats and laughed her off.

The girls attended the single biggest school in their small town, with around nine hundred pupils. Not everyone that attended the school also lived on site, but at nearly five thousand a term, Jasmina's family had been insisted that she got the 'full experience'. She knew it was just an excuse to get her out of their home but the arrangement suited her just fine. Jasmina Stone and Candice Holden were two of the lucky ones out of all the students living there, in that their room only had enough space for two people. Other rooms had up to ten beds inside and all the girls had to use one of the ten shared bathrooms in the dorm.

Jasmina laughed as her best friend pouted miserably. She locked her diary and put it away in her nightstand, right at the back so no one could stumble across it by mistake. It was about four in the afternoon and classes had long been over, yet the girls were about to head out of the dorm to do more school-related work. Neither of them liked school, or being there, but they both had their own reasons for preferring it there to being at home.

For Candice, she never really fit in amongst her own family. They had a whole lineage of business men and women who were known for being over-achievers. Candice, on the other hand, had little interest in business, let alone following in her parent's footsteps. They sent her to Blue Hollow Boarding School in hopes it would give her the boost she needed to be a high achiever like the rest of the family.

Jasmina, on the other hand, found it comical that her father would rather spend five thousand a term, than to live with the daughter he created with his now deceased wife. She didn't blame him though, or at least not all the time. Jasmina was the spitting image of her mother, right down to her bright violet eyes and striking blond, almost white hair which had a slight curl to it and flowed nicely until it just touched the small of her back. Her father, William, had tried to pawn Jasmina off on the rest of his family, but considering they never liked her mother, all the way up to the day she died and even after that, it was no surprise they didn't really like Jasmina very much either. The apple didn't fall far from the tree in their eyes.

"You were the one saying we needed to get involved more!" Jasmina grinned, shaking her head.

"I said that we needed to, not that we actually should." Candice pouted harder. The girls were the same height but that was the only thing similar about them. Candice's Hispanic descent was made obvious by her dark, thick wavy hair that came to her shoulders and dark toned skin. Her chocolate coloured eyes were glaring daggers at Jasmina as she got off her bed and put her favourite blue wooly jumper on. The pair of them gave a whole new meaning to the saying 'opposites attract.' Candice was an outgoing and bubbly character who could talk to anyone about anything. She was friends with virtually everyone she knew, but she only considered Jasmina as her best friend, even though they had only known each other for just over a year. Jasmina on the other hand, was deeply reserved and quiet.

"It's only for tonight and maybe tomorrow if they don’t have enough people, then you can go back to painting your nails or whatever it is you’re missing out on.” Jasmina grinned as the pair stepped out of their dormitory. It was getting close to winter and the sun was already punishing them by taking away her warming rays for the day, so the girls walked quickly to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

"Thank god. Who knew parents' evening was so much work!" Candice sighed.

"How does it feel to know that if something goes wrong tonight it can be traced back to you?" Jasmina smirked.

"Why would you even say that?" Candice whined even louder. Jasmina shook her head while laughing and linking her arm through Candice's. The girls should have met the other volunteers over fifteen minutes ago now, so they picked up the pace, to the point where we were practically running to get to the canteen where the others were surely waiting.

"I think Logan had the right idea when he refused to volunteer." Candice mumbled as they reached the canteen doors. The other volunteers were already inside, assigning jobs to get ready for the parents' evening. Jasmina was glad to be doing the decorations tonight as there was no way she would have felt comfortable being one of the tour guides tomorrow.

"Logan wouldn't volunteer if his life depended on it." Jasmina said quietly, so to not draw attention to them as they walked inside. Candice just smirked as they headed over to an older student named Ruby Mathews. She was holding a clipboard, writing down names next to each task they needed to get done.

"Hey, I assigned you guys to set up signs in the boys' dorm, is that okay? I'm heading there too with Maxine." Ruby said, barely looking up at the pair. She'd only volunteered because she got caught trying to sneak off campus a week ago and the head teacher had 'highly recommended' she attend. Jasmina always thought Ruby was nice and easy going with everyone, she just seemed to have occasional episodes where she would just need to go out of school, and Jasmina didn’t blame her for that. If she didn’t hate home so much she would probably be in a hurry to get out of school too. Ruby had hazel eyes and medium-long mousy brown hair. She was lightly tanned, but not like Candice was, and had thin pink lips.

"That's fine!" Jasmina chirped, before Candice had a chance to make any comments. The pair helped Ruby grab a load of signs and posters and together with a younger student, Maxine, they headed over to the boys dorm. Candice carried the stapler and tape, while dragging her feet and Jasmina struggled to remember why Candice had wanted to get involved more in the first place. Ever since the pair put their names down she had done nothing but complain.

They reached the boys dorm and started outside, setting up signposts ready for the parents who were going to be touring the school tomorrow evening. There were some display boards inside that needed updating so Candice and Jasmina went inside to start on them. A few boys raised their eyes as they walked in as girls weren't actually allowed in the boys dorm, but the volunteers were given permission in order to make sure everything was set up and in place accordingly.

"So this is the boys dorm?" Candice mused, looking around as if she had never seen such a place.

"It mirrors the girl's one." Jasmina pointed out while smiling and shaking her head.

"Yeah but I can check out everyone in here, minus you... Sorry you're just not my type." Candice winked.

"Oh but Candice! I already planned our lives together! How could you be so cold?" Jasmina cried dramatically, faking tears.

"Seriously though, any you like?" Candice asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"You're a perv. Come on we have a job to do then we can go. Would've thought you would want to just get on with it considering all the whining you've done." Jasmina teased, picking up a stapler remover and starting to pull out old staples from the display board.

"Well yeah... But then we got put in the boys dorm..." She trailed off, licking her lips.

"Perv." Jasmina muttered again, shaking her head.

"Who's a perv?" Logan yelled, creeping up behind the pair. Jasmina yelped, spinning round while holding out the staple remover.

"Nice try Jas but unless I'm a staple, that's not going to do much good." He smirked, shaking his head.

"I can still hit you with it! What the hell did you go do that for!" Jasmina scolded, glaring.

"You never answered my question."

"What question?"

"Who's a perv?"

"Her!" Jasmina said, c*****g her head in Candice's direction.

"Should have guessed." Logan muttered, tutting.

"Hey! You're one to talk! I saw you checking out the girl at reception earlier!" Candice huffed, crossing her arms.

"Well did you actually see her?" Logan scoffed.

"I saw her face, not her arse." Candice mocked, grabbing the other stapler remover.

"Why are you two here anyway? Did you get in trouble for something? I mean I would expect it from you Candice, but Jas, what the hell could you have done?" Logan asked, raising his eyebrows. When his eyebrows were raised they were lost in his messy blond hair. He looked at Jasmina with his bright blue eyes, waiting for an answer.

"We're volunteering for the parents' evening, remember?" Jasmina explained. “And hey I can be bad too… If I wanted…” Jasmina trailed off frowning, but Logan ignored her and carried on.

"That's not till the 16th right?"

"Today's the 15th." Jasmina replied, grinning.

It took half an hour to decorate the boys dorm. The pair earned a few stares and wolf whistles while reaching to the top of the display boards, which made Jasmina cringe. Their friend Logan hung around for the first ten minutes to tell them what they were doing wrong every two seconds, but eventually Candice chased him away and the pair just struggled on together. Their situation wasn't helped by the fact that they were only 5'4" and couldn't reach the top of the board. There were visitors going round, even today, touring the school to see if it was a good fit for their children. They did that on occasion if parents couldn't make it on the actual day. One of the people being shown round spotted Jasmina's struggles and decided to lend a hand.

"Thanks." She smiled as he reached at the top of the board with ease, helping her to put up the last couple of posters. He was a least six foot tall, if not a little more with short dark brown hair and full red lips. He was slightly tanned and very muscular.

"It's no problem. I'm kind of surprised you didn't get one of them to help you." He said, c*****g his head over to the boys in the common room.

"Well most of them are jocks, so they've probably taken one too many blows to the head anyway." Jasmina smirked, looking over to the particular group she had lost Candice too. He glanced over to them again, then back to Jasmina.

"I see your point." He grinned. "I need to go and catch up with the group, but I'll see you later Jasmina." He said.

"Er, bye." Jasmina mumbled as he disappeared down the corridor. She frowned as he disappeared around the corner.

"What's up with you?" Candice asked, walking back over to Jasmina.

“Don’t you need to wipe away that drool?”

“What no, what drool?” Candice squeaked, rubbing her face. She stopped after a few minutes, then glared at Jasmina. “Are you just being a b***h or are you dodging my question?” She raised her eyebrows.

“A bit of both, I guess.” Jasmina smirked.

“Well, what is up with you? You looked like a deer in headlights.”

"He just called me by name, but I don’t think I ever said what it was."