The Witch and the Wind God

Chapter Four

Most, of the rest of the day, went by uneventful. New schedules and books were handed out and the students got a chance to familiarise themselves with their new classrooms. Anne had seen the new boy around school from time to time, and was surprised to see him being sociable. 

"Maybe he was just having a moment this morning" she thought. 

She was even more surprised after second break to find him in her Maths class, sitting at her desk. She was 10min late for the class because she and her tennis mates had been called into the principal office to discuss the upcoming tennis tournament against Valley West High, the neighbouring town's school. The 3 day tournament would take place at home the following week, and matches would commence on Thursday morning during school times. They would all be excused from classes for the two days and were allowed to come to school wearing their tennis outfits, but the reason they had been called into the principal office was for a pep talk, the principal was a sports fanatic and wanted to remind them how important the upcoming tournament was for the school. They then all got a slip excusing their tardiness, and were sent back to class. 

She walked into class.

Mrs. Walter had started handing out new textbooks already and she walked up quickly saying,

"Good Afternoon, Mrs. Walter, please excuse my tardiness" she said, handing the teacher the note.

"Thanks Anne, here is your textbook, I have paired you up with Eli, our new student" she started saying looking over at the boy sitting at the back. Anne followed her gaze and saw the new boy, apparently called Eli, sitting at her desk. She was surprised to see him there, she had thought he was a year ahead of her, but there he was, glaring back at her, clearly annoyed. 

'What is this guy's problem" Anne thought looking away and back at Mrs. Walter

"You'll take good care of him won't you Anne, he is bit behind and needs help catching up" she said smiling at Anne. 

Anne felt a bit shocked at her request, she was an okay student at best and had never been asked to help tutor someone, and this boy clearly had a dislike to her. 

"Off course Mrs. Walter, .....I....I will try" she politely replied, looking over at the boy again, who had at least stopped glaring at her.

"Thanks Anne" the teacher smiled at her before continuing handing out books. Anne made her way over to her desk. She sat down next to the boy smiling at him, he wasn't looking at her. She rolled her eyes at him thinking.

"So this is how you wanne play it?"

Hi, I'm Anne, welcome to Bridge Wood High! she said turning towards him and giving him her friendliest smile.

"I heard" he said not looking at her.

"Wwwwhaat...ooooh spunky!!" she thought and then tried to suppress a giggle, she must admit, she was finding him fascinating.

"Which part?" she asked trying to keep the amusement out of her voice.

He turned and glared at her crossly and turned back to the front, shaking his head.

Anne watched him for a while, clearly astonished by his rudeness, and trying to compose herself before speaking again.

"And you are ?" she asked smiling at him again.

He was quiet for a second, as if he was deciding to answer or not.

"Eli" he said through gritted teeth.

"You see now that wasn't so bad was it?" she said cheekily, turning to face the front. 

She could feel him stare daggers at her. 

"What is his problem" she wondered trying to keep herself from laughing out loud. If looks could kill! 

She started unpacking her notebook and pencils, wondering to herself, why she was so enthralled by this boy. He was being a complete jerk and that fascinated her! Was it because everyone around here was always so polite.

Even if they didnt like you, they still politely greeted or pretended not to see you.

"But why does he not like me? she thought. 

"He doesn't know me, and I saw him talking with the other students in a friendly manner!!"

She started laying out her pencils, fine liners and highlighters in neat littler colour coordinated groups of 3's . She had 3 of every colour, but she only ever unpacked 3 colours at one time. She then got out her ruler, calculator, eraser and sharpener and started arranging them in neat little rows along her desk, she normally sat alone, and could spread her things out nicely across the desk. She was aware that the boy or Eli rather, was watching her now, with an irritated look on his face. She ignored him.

 There was a thin black line drawn through the middle of their desk, clearly marking the separate stations, and Anne wondered to herself, what he would do, if she pushed her sharpener over the line and on too his side of the desk. She imagined to herself, that he would very abruptly and with a huff, no doubt, push the sharpener back over the line to her side again giving her a nasty look, and when she imagined what that look would be, the image that she came up with, made her laugh out loud so suddenly it caught the boy by surprise, making him jump slightly.

This fueled Anne's  laughter, and sent her into a giggle fit, the class turned around to look at them with amusement, their focus falling on Eli, and wondering what he said to Anne to make her laugh like that. Anne who was still trying to get her composure, was waving them away, hoping not too attract Mrs. Walter's attention when she caught site of Eli's face again, and a fresh wave of fits began. The class now joined in, and Mrs. Walter looked over to Anne and Eli.

"Oh Eli, I'm glad you two are getting along," Mrs. Walters said suddenly, addressing a very stunned Eli, who could only manage a half hearted grin, before looking down at his books. 

Anne meanwhile had gotten herself under control a bit and was trying very hard to be serious, she could feel actual anger radiating of her neighbour now, and decided she had probably over stepped enough for one day.

Mrs. Walter began to address the class about the curriculum for the term.

Anne sat up straight concentrating on her and completely ignoring Eli, who by the by, was doing exactly the same. As soon as the bell rang, he was up like a shot, and making his way out the classroom without sparing Anne another look. Anne watched him with an open mouth gawk as she noticed how politely he nodded at all the girls, allowing them to walk out before himself, and smiling at them very sincerely as they blushed and thanked him running out the room. She sat pack in her chair flabbergasted wondering what she did to make him dislike her so.

"Maybe I've  met him before and have rudely not remembered him", but she shook her head at this thought, she would definitely have remembered his face.

There was only two other things it could be, the fact that she had knocked his bag out of his hand earlier this morning causing his books to scatter all over the lawn, but that had been an accident, and she had apologised for that. Maybe it was the other reason, but even if he had heard the story about her mother's mysterious death, there would be no need to be rude about it. Yes a lot of people where suspicious of her family since then, but they always just politely stayed away from her. The second bell rang again, bringing Anne out of her stupor. 

"Oh hell" she said grabbing all her things hastily and running out of the class as the next group of students started to enter. She ran down the hall, rushing to get to her next class, which was Biology, and was relieved to find that Eli, wasn't in that class.

"Ah, Miss Sinclair, dawdling again are we?" Mr. Jackson remarked as she walked in slightly late.

Anne just blushed and smiled at him as she made her way to the back of the class, taking a seat at her usual spot, this time she had it all to herself, she thought smiling happily, and began her little ritual of unpacking her things on the desk, it took a while longer than normal, seeing as she has just shoved everything in just now.!

Mr. Jackson was talking to the class now, asking them questions about their holiday, and making jokes, the kids where happily answering and laughing back at him, when Eli entered the classroom. The class went quiet and Anne looked up, her mood falling a bit when she saw him. He walked over introducing himself to Mr. Jackson, politely offering his hand to shake, while handing him a slip of paper and apologising for being late, he was smiling and everything Anne noticed and Mr. Jackson looked impressed by his good manners. She suddenly felt a dislike growing towards him which intensified, when Eli turned toward the class, smiling and nodding at them until his gaze met hers, and the same disappointed scowl crossed his face, this time however Anne scowled back at him, leaning back in her chair annoyed. One class had been enough for now, Eli she thought was best handled in small doses. She noticed with a quick glance, that the only open space available to him, was at her desk, he seemed to notice that too, because his look darkened as he made his way to his sit beside her. He stopped abruptly next to the desk, looking down at his side and then over at Anne.

"What?" she said in a rather harsh tone, that surprised her.

"Do you mind?" he said gesturing to her stuff on his side.

"Oh"  she said, realising she had taken over the whole desk, and began moving her things over to her side, it was apparently not fast enough to Eli's liking, because the next moment, he swept all her stuff roughly over to her side and sat down with a loud irritated exhale. Again Anne was flabbergasted at his behaviour, she was  however resolved not too show it. She looked down at all her things,  scattered messily around her table, pursed her lips, nodding to herself, then turned towards Eli  a second later saying:

"Thanks for the help" 

"My pleasure", he retorted drily, keeping his eyes focused in front of him. Anne kept her eyes on him for a second longer. She wanted to ask him what the problem was, but now was not the time.

She sighed and turned her attention, to Mr. Jackson, who was now speaking again, while's absentmindedly fixing her little groups of colours and 3's again. The boy next to her sat still, keeping his eyes in front of him the whole time. 

Anne leaned back into her chair, and allowed herself a glance or two in his direction from time to time, he was definitely a nice looking guy, he had thick brown hair, that unlike all the other boys in school, he kept rather long and had deliberately styled it in a kind of messy, sexy but neat enough way. She glanced down towards his body, and had to admit, that he looked well build and in shape. He was wearing the school uniform, but had somehow managed to make it look cool. She glanced over to his hand on the desk and noticed he was wearing a silver ring on his left hand, he would get in trouble for that, she thought, while glancing further up his arm , she noticed another contraband item, just peeping out of his sleeve, it looked like a black bracelet, made of some type of leather, there was a marking on the one side, that looked like the pagan symbol but with two snakes intertwined around the center. It was rather a nice looking symbol and Anne thought suddenly that it looked familiar. She gazed up to his face again, trying to figure him out, when suddenly he turned and looked at her with his intense green eyes. She was taken aback and felt herself blush at being caught checking him out, but couldn't shift her gaze. He began scowling at her again and his eyes turned unfriendly once more and then she could definitely hear her name being called.

Oh dear lord, she thought embarrassed it was Mr. Jackson, and by the sounds of it and the fact the whole class was now staring at her, he had been calling her a few times now, and they had all seen her checking out the new kid. She blushed again, turning a nice shade of red, as the boys in the class started whistling at her making oooh noises.

"Uhmm Yes sir" she said  rather loudly addressing Mr. Jackson. She could feel her ears go red. She kept her eyes on the teacher, waiting for him to go on, he was smirking at her now and she felt her heart beat loudly in her throat and ears. "Don't say it, don't say it", she repeated mentally to herself, grimacing and waiting for Mr. Jackson to reply.

"Miss Sinclair, when you're done ogling Mr. Waters, can you please pay attention?" 

He said it, Anne thought dismayed, the whole class burst out laughing, while Anne dejectedly smiled at Mr. Jackson nodding and sinking back into her chair.  At this point she was too embarrassed to see what Eli's reaction was, but she could feel his whole body tense up as he leaned as far away from her as possible. 

"Okay class" Mr. Jackson, finally said after a few seconds, "turn to page 30 and let's see what homework you have" . The whole class turned their attention back to him and began moaning loudly, he was the only teacher giving them homework today. 

"Now, now, its just a bit of a refresher activity, so I can see what you remember from last year" he tried explaining, smiling at the kids "and there's nothing like a bit of thinking work to get the brain pumping again" he continued, laughing at all the disappointed faces. None of the kids returned his smiles though, rather starting to page quite roughly through the text books to page 30. The mood definitely changed in the class and Anne smiled at Mr. Jackson, who was now looking a bit uncomfortable himself. Luckily for him, the bell rang shortly after and the kids, were happily packing up their things again, trying to escape Biology as quickly as possible.

To Anne's surprise the boy next to her wasn't rushing off like before, he seemed to be taking his time packing away his one text book. Anne sensed something was up but continued neatly stacking her piles together, this time, packing them away in their correct places, the classroom was nearly empty  and she could feel the tension building between them, when the boy finally rose from his chair but instead of leaving he leaned over to Anne suddenly placing his one hand on the desk in front of her and the other on her chair behind her forcing her lean back. She looked up surprised meeting his angry green eyes. 

"You think you're funny don't you?" he asked her sternly

"Wh.. what?" she stammered back confused.  

"You can't have missed my intentions"  he continued leaning closer and lowering his voice

"I have been clear enough.... I don't want your kind anywhere near me!!" he said threateningly before standing up straight and stomping off out of the class leaving a bewildered Anne alone sitting at her desk.