Faithless

Chapter Three

Jasmina was thankful when the man left before the class started. The whole lesson went by like a blur. At the end, all Jasmina had managed was about twenty words, and that included her name and the date. When the bell went, Logan was going to wait for her, but Jasmina told him she would see him in a little while instead. She had a break next, which meant she had twenty minutes to clear her head. Jasmina went to the fountain in the middle of the school to sit. Despite the surroundings being so serene and peaceful, not many people would choose to sit where she sat at this time of year, which made it the perfect spot when Jasmina needed to think.

There were paths going in all different directions, connecting the whole school to this spot. When you came into the school from outside you walked down the path to the fountain, then carried on north, past the fountain to the school reception. If you headed down the south-west path, you reached the boys’ dorm, while the girls’ dorm was down the south-east path. The classroom blocks were dotted in different directions, all circling this spot.

Jasmina sat on the edge of the fountain, almost throwing her bag on the floor. Her ponytail fell over her shoulder and she played with the ends of her hair, while staring down at the water. She thought back to the dream remembering how she could feel his eyes on her. How it compared to her experience in the classroom. Jasmina didn’t feel anything before she looked at him. Surely that proved she was just over thinking things and had nothing to worry about. That didn’t mean she could stop thinking about what his touch must feel like, what his lip…

Jasmina shivered involuntarily, then realised what she was feeling. He was close and she knew it without even turning around. Jasmina could practically hear him breathing. Without turning around properly, she picked up her bag then got up to walk away, but he was closer than she first thought, so rather than avoiding him completely, she almost walked straight into him. He caught her by her arms as gently as possible, steadying her on her feet.

“You okay?” He asked. His voice was a shock to Jasmina. Not because it was in any way abnormal or weird, it was just the fact that Jasmina felt as if she had almost known him for so long, yet this was the first time she actually heard what he sounded like.

“Er… Yeah I, sorry, I just…” Jasmina trailed off, giving up on speech entirely. She pulled her arms out of his grasp, taking a step back and keeping her head down.

“Well that’s not very convincing.” He smirked.

“Maybe I’m just not a good communicator” Jasmina mumbled, more to herself than to him. He carried on smirking for a while, but it was soon replaced with more concern. He stepped a little closer, trying to meet Jasmina's eyes, but she carried on trying to avert her gaze.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked. Jasmina just nodded, looking down to the ground.

“I should go anyway. I had class soon.”

“You still have five minutes, why not sit a while?” He offered. Jasmina looked up then, meeting his eyes which she knew was a big mistake. His eyes were the thing which drew her to him the most. They looked so warm and inviting. “Uh huh so she does have a face, with eyes, ears, a mouth and a nose too.” He grinned. Jasmina smirked, looking down again.

“Cute, mock the girl you nearly rammed over.”

“I’m pretty sure you were doing the ramming.” He laughed, sitting down. Jasmina reluctantly sat down next to him, but looked to the water instead of him, it was still too weird to actually face him, but hearing him was okay, she had never done that before today. “I’m Cam.”

“I’m Jasmina. Are you a student here or something?” She asked, meaning for the question to come out naturally, but instead it sounded like an interrogation. Jasmina mentally cringed at herself, dipping her fingers in the water to distract herself.

“No, I finished school last year. My dad is working here for a while. I just had to give him a few things.”

“The history sub?”

“Yeah. He’ll be here for a couple weeks.” He explained. Jasmina nodded, still looking away. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She tried to think of questions to ask him, but her mind just hit a blank wall. What was she meant to say? They had never met before. It wasn't like she could talk about old times. Jasmina frowned to herself at that thought. She was used to having vivid dreams and she had learned how to deal with them, but this situation she found herself in was completely new. She had never met someone from her dreams before and it wasn't like he would have any idea what she was on about anyway.

The bell rang loudly across the whole school, signaling the start of the next lesson.

“I really need to go now.” Jasmina said, watching as everyone poured out of the school canteen. She got up, throwing her bag on to her shoulder.

“I’ll see you around then.” Cam smiled.

“What do you mean?”

“Well with my dad working here I might be around a little more often. We have to share the car so…” He trailed off, shrugging.

“Then I’ll see you around.” She nodded, then headed for her next lesson as fast as her legs would carry her.

She had English which flew by just like her History class had done. She still wasn’t really concentrating. Candice was in the lesson with her, but Jasmina barely spoke a word. She was sure Candice would question her later, but for now Jasmina was safe. Once the bell went Jasmina packed her things, still kind of zoned out. Jasmina knew what she was doing. She was falling back into old habits and she knew she had to snap out of it. If her father found out she would be out of school and back in some hospital, faster than you could blink.

"What's our next class?" Jasmina asked Candice.

"We don't have a next class. Parent's evening remember? We're meant to meet our parents in our common rooms then show them around."

"Oh right. I remember now. I guess that means I just have to sit in the common room for the rest of the day then" Jasmina sighed.

"Didn't your dad say that he was coming this time?" Candice asked.

"He said that last time too." Jasmina sighed again.

"Well we can head to our lockers and you can get some stuff to keep you busy?" Candice suggested.

"Yeah that'll be my first stop I guess."

"Well let's just go now and get to our lockers, before there's a mad rush." Candice suggested. Logan was walking down the corridor, fiddling with his phone as usual. Jasmina always found it amusing considering he hated actually texting people. He stopped when he was in front of the girls, but didn’t look up, causing Candice to sigh. "We’re going to our lockers. You coming?"

"Sure." He mumbled, putting his phone in his pocket. They headed for the door, down the busy corridor.

Outside the air was crisp and cold, sending a shiver down their backs. The leaves from the trees had already fallen, covering the ground in yellows, oranges and browns. Jasmina always loved this time of year. She breathed in deeply and felt the coldness go straight through her lungs. Candice and Logan had gone on ahead slightly and Jasmina jogged to keep up, wishing that she had worn a thicker jumper. They headed to the shared common room , which was on the second floor of the history, geography and R.E block. The first floor was a library for all years and the ground floor had all the classrooms.

The upstairs common room was only for the upper years. The lower years had common rooms too, but they were in the centre of other blocks like math and English and art. They all had their lockers next to each other and Candice knew both Jasmina's and Logan's lock combination, yet she never revealed her own. It wasn't unusual to find little notes inside from her every now and then. They grabbed their books then found comfortable seats and Jasmina got to work straight away, catching up on the work she hadn't done today and then getting a head start on any home she had.

There were already some people around. Ruby being one of them. She was sitting with a few others and they were all talking about some new people.

"Did you see them? They must be our year right?"

"They looked too old to be going here. There's no way."

"Why else would they come to a place like this?"

"What's all this about?" Candice asked, joining the group, dragging Jasmina along with her. Logan dragged his feet uncomfortably and soon regretted his choice of not just staying at the table.

"These two guys came into school this morning. With some older man. We're hoping they're starting here." Ruby explained, grinning.

"So they're fit then?" Candice asked.

"Try dreamy." Another girl beamed. Jasmina zoned out after that. She wasn't interested in all the gossip. She knew they must have been talking about Cam, but she didn’t know who the other person was. Jasmina had a nagging feeling in her brain that was dragging her back to her dream the night before. Cam never mentioned anyone else. She thought back to the dream, remembering the other man who looked almost exactly like Cam. It must have been a twin. He didn’t mention having a twin, but he didn’t have a chance to either. Jasmina shook the thought away, then drifted back to the table with Logan.

Everyone else started to arrive at the common room and time just began to fly by. They were still buzzing over the possibility of new people at the school. Jasmina found it kind of sad really, that everyone was so excited over something so small. She always enjoyed the company of pretty much everyone there, but never before had she wished to be completely and utterly alone. Jasmina didn't want to be around all of these people, even if their attention wasn't actually on her. Soon enough, though, they filtered off outside as their parents arrived. Jasmina managed to finish all her work within an hour, including what she didn’t do in History and English, so ended up sitting around fiddling with her thumbs. Logan's parents were notorious no shows as well but he had disappeared to his room where he couldn't be bothered by anyone else, leaving Jasmina completely and utterly alone.

In the end she grabbed her phone from her bag and plugged her earphones in, turning it up as loud as possible and zoning out. She tapped the table in time with the beat every now and then, but other than that she just stayed pretty zoned out.

Jasmina felt something on her shoulder and yelped, nearly falling off her seat. She yanked her earphones out, looking behind her, only to see Mr. Black standing there. Great. Jasmina thought. Cam's dad.

“Scared the life out of me.” She whispered, clutching her chest.

“Well I taught you a life lesson in the process. Keep the music turned down.” He smirked, which reminded her of Cam. While Mr. Black was bald, Jasmina could tell from the slight growth of hair that he used to have dark hair like Cam’s too. But his eyes were blue, rather than Cam’s warm green. Jasmina nodded, turning her music off. “What are you doing here still? Shouldn’t you be showing your parents around the school, or seeing your teachers?”

“Well my mum passed away and my dad is… Preoccupied.” Jasmina just shrugged. “Were you actually looking for me or just saw this as an opportunity to try and scare me to death?”

“I was looking for help in general with moving some books. As I’m going to be here for a couple weeks I plan on tidying up a little ready for the next class. Also I don’t believe I have your work from today.” He explained. Jasmina silently thanked herself for being organised for a change.

“It’s in my bag, sorry.” She said, reaching for her workbooks. She grabbed the sheets of work and handed them over.

“Hm. This is more than I saw you write in class.” He mused, raising an eyebrow. Jasmina refused to make eye contact while she packed her things. He couldn't see the guilt in her eyes if she refused to look at him.

“You said you wanted help?” She asked, changing the subject. He just nodded, leading the way back to the history classroom.

Jasmina helped move books from the classroom to the library upstairs. Mr. Black got a phone call so Jasmina went up on her own. On the way back she saw someone step inside the classroom and followed them in without really looking. Jasmina grabbed the next pile of books and was ready to walk back out.

“Jasmina wait.” Mr Black said. She stopped, putting the books back down and turning to look at them both, pausing on the second man. At first she thought it was Cam, but it couldn’t have been. This man had slightly lighter hair than Cam, and rather than green eyes, he had piercing blue ones that were staring at Jasmina to the point that she felt uncomfortable. Jasmina looked away from him and back to Mr. Black. “This is my son. Aiden. He can help carry some of those books. It isn’t fair to be sending you on your own.” He explained, nodding to Aiden.

“Okay.” She shrugged, picking up the pile once more. Jasmina waited for Aiden to grab a pile too and then led the way, walking ever so slightly in front so she wouldn't actually have to face Aiden. Her mind drifted away, trying to think of when she must have seen both men before, which would logically explain both their faces appearing in her dreams. Her frustration grew more and more as she drew a blank.

“How long did it take the old man to rope you in to helping then?” Aiden asked grinning, which pulled Jasmina back out of her thoughts. There was something about his smile that made Jasmina feel like he didn't have a care in the world. He seemed perfectly relaxed and happy with himself and his life.

“Not long I guess.” Jasmina shrugged, smiling politely. Aiden opened the doors of the library, which she was thankful for, as there was no way she could manage on her own.

“Yeah. He’s a bit of a neat freak I guess. You’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t need to."

"What do you mean?" Aiden asked, a puzzled look covered his face.

"He’s a temporary teacher right? He won’t be here long enough for me to need to get used to him.” Jasmina said, c*****g her head to the side. She saw something in Aiden’s eyes, but it wasn’t there long enough for her to figure out what it was. “Unless you know something I don’t.” Jasmina joked, but she couldn’t mask the suspicious tone.

“Na, I’m an open book.” He shrugged, but Jasmina could tell he was suddenly on edge.

After another ten minutes, all the books that needed to be returned, had been returned. Her normal history teacher loved to hold on to things, so the room was always cluttered, but right now everything was organised and pristine. Jasmina didn’t really understand why Mr. Black was going to so much effort, but she guessed it was up to him. Jasmina slipped out quietly, while Aiden and his father were talking with each other. She didn’t see any point in sticking around so headed back to the girls dorm, and straight into her room. Parent's evening was finally over and Candice was already inside their room, on her bed reading magazines.

“Hey.” She mumbled, barely looking up.

“Hey. How was it?” Jasmina asked, putting her stuff down at the bottom of her bed. She stood at the wardrobe and got changed while Candice read. Their room didn't have enough space for privacy but they had gotten used to just changing where they were. They barely even had separate wardrobes anymore as they had decided they liked to share everything.

“Fine. Mr Rogers laid into me though.” She shrugged, putting down her magazine at last. “What about you? Where did you go?”

“My history teacher asked me to help take some books to the library and stuff.” Jasmina explained. Candice paused for a while looking at Jasmina, to the point where she was uncomfortable. “What is it?”

"What's going on with you Jas? You're so out of it lately. I mean today you were off in English and Logan said you were out of it in History. You were fine in Math though, so what happened?" Candice asked, tilting her head to the side.

“You two were talking about me?”

“We’re worried about you. Logan would be even more worried if he knew about the nightmares like I do. Something isn’t right with you lately.”

"There’s nothing wrong. I'm just..." Jasmina trailed off sighing.

"Is it to do with this morning? And all the other times you’ve woken up like that." She asked.

"No. Well I guess yeah I mean I have nightmares and I lose a little sleep but everything is fine okay? I'm just not feeling too great." Jasmina sighed. Candice was still suspicious, but she didn't say anything more on the subject either. That was one thing Jasmina loved about her, Candice knew when to just give it a rest. But Jasmina knew that at this rate she wasn't going to have a best friend for much longer, not if she didn't come up with an explanation soon, but she didn't even understand what was wrong with her, so how could she explain it to anyone else?