The Primordial Sin

Chapter 2

English was as interesting as it always is with Miss Craig. Which wasn't a lot. She was a divorced forty-something lady, which naturally left her feeling frustrated and more often than not she took it out on us.

This was another problem in our world. Marriages hardly ever lasted long. Almost every person I knew in their late thirties to early forties were divorced, save a few. There were only so many fights over the pettiest of things a couple could take before it became too much. I'd seen couples in our neighbourhood fight over things as small as 'you're lying about forgetting to do the laundry, your lazy a*s just didn't want to do it' to 'you are attracted to my best friend, aren't you?'.

But that didn't stop them from trying. Every couple that came together strived to be the one that'd break the long chain of divorces in their family or society. They wanted to be the one everyone around them would idolize for generations to come for their legendary love, but only a few were lucky enough to achieve that. Miss Craig had apparently been one of them.

Having already read the book we were assigned, I sighed quietly to myself, looking at the clock above her head longingly as she droned on and on about what the author was trying to depict in the book as a whole.

We still had fifteen minutes left before the class would end. Trying to distract myself, I let my gaze wander over the other kids in the class.

Most of them, like me, looked bored and the same was reflected in their dimmed eyes.

Every one of us was born with a specific eye colour. Unless there was some particular thought going on in our mind, only the intensity of our eye colour changed. But if we were thinking about something in particular, then our eyes completely changed colour depending on what the thought was making us feel.

Judging by Regina's grey eyes, which were turning a shade darker by the minute, it seemed that she was thinking about the fight with Diana. Clearly, it was making her miserable and it wasn't long before she'd start bawling her eyes out.

I felt bad for her but there wasn't much I could do to help her. I decided to distract her to at least try and get her out of her funk.

So I tore a small piece of paper off the last page of my notebook and tried to throw it on her table. She was sitting one row over diagonally from me so it was a little tricky but I still gave it my best shot.

Only, it didn't go as planned.

The small ball of paper hit the guy who was sitting in front of her in the back of his head instead.

The guy began to turn around, and I winced, ready to apologize.

Though as soon as I realised who it was, I stopped short.

It was Orion Martinez.

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at me and for the second time on the same day, I felt jealousy course through me.

Why can pretty much every person around me raise only one of their brows except me?

Irritated, I shook my head to myself. He only raised his brow higher, unperturbed. His face remained blank, as did his eyes. The guy was infuriatingly difficult to read, given how his eyes seemed to never change colour.

I averted my gaze, breaking eye contact and found myself asking the same question that had troubled me the first time I'd seen him.

Did nothing affect this guy?

Fortunately, I was pulled out of my thoughts as the bell rang, indicating the end of the period.

I had home economics next. It was the elective I'd chosen. It was pretty much a straight-A class and I didn't have to do much either. Besides, it gave me plenty of time to focus on my other courses.

I quickly gathered my books and left the class, speed walking towards home economics, throwing quick hellos' to the kids I knew on my way there. It was pretty much at the other side of the building I was in right now so I had to be quick if I didn't want to be late or cut it too close as I'd done in English.

"Hey, wait up." I skidded to a stop, more out of habit than anything else. Even before I'd turned around, I knew it had been Orion who'd called me. Even though I'd heard it only a few times before, I'd recognise that husky voice anywhere.

"Do you mind telling me where home economics with Mr Newman is?" He asked once he'd reached me.

I looked up at him, sure that my eyes were a whirlpool of all colours there probably were, reflecting my confusion as to why he would ask this of me of all people. It wasn't that I was opposed to helping him or anything, but why me?

"Why are you asking all of this from me?" I blurted out, voicing my thoughts.

"Because you're pretty much the only person I've talked to since coming into this school this morning?"

"Oh." I let out, understanding dawning on me. As rude as he'd been earlier, he was still new here. Deciding that his response had probably been spurred on because of the irritation of not being able to find your next class in a completely new place, I nodded at him, giving him another chance. "Right. I have the same class right now so we can just walk there together."

He nodded back at me for motioning at me with his head to lead the way.

Not a man of many words then. Oh, well.

I marched ahead and he quickly fell into step beside me. Students around us gave us weird looks, their eyes reflecting their confusion as to why the new kid was walking with me.

I ignored the looks and walked on determinedly until we'd reached the home ec. room.

"Here it is." I nodded at the door and we walked inside.

Surprisingly enough, we were the first ones in and almost as if by a mutual agreement we took up seats next to each other in the third last row.

I usually sat at whatever seat was available as long as it wasn't in the front row so it wasn't like I had to sit with someone particular.

"So," I started brightly, turning in my seat slightly to face him, "how did you end up here?"

"You just brought me in."

Ah, so he's a smartass. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I grinned at his response, amused. Evasive as it was, I gathered he didn't want to talk about the circumstances that lead him here, so I changed tack. "How did you find the school so far?"

"Good." Came his prompt, monosyllabic response.

I nodded, waiting for him to add something to it. When he didn't, I realised that it was the only reply I was going to get out of him. My smile dimmed a little but I didn't let his response deter me.

I launched into a full-fledged speech, telling him about most of the teachers that I knew he might have, warning him about things he shouldn't do and the kind of students he shouldn't mingle with if he wanted to lead a peaceful life here at Westwood High. I also told him about our football team and how their matches were scheduled to be held each Friday night now that the season had started in case he wanted to come to any of them just as students began filing into the class.

There wasn't much to do in our town but the least I could do was tell him the places to be if he wanted to have some fun.

Speaking of fun, I figured it wouldn't hurt to invite him to Jimmy's party this weekend at his house. It would give him the perfect opportunity to mingle and make friends.

"My friend Jimmy is hosting a party this Saturday at his place. You should come." I offered.

"No."

It was the only thing he'd said in the last five minutes as he sat there simply listening to me, nodding every now and then.

"Why not?" I furrowed my brows.

"Because I said so." Even though irritation coloured his voice, his eyes still remained the uninterested dull brown they always seemed to be.

Before I could pester him further, Mr Newman came into the class and a hush fell over us.

"Good morning, class." Mr Newman announced, putting the stack of papers he was holding on the table with an audible thump.

With his slight potbelly, cool hipster glasses and a chipper attitude, he was actually amongst some of the teachers I liked in this school. He was handsome for someone in their late forties and had a passion for teaching his subject if the way his eyes brightened every time he began talking about something new, which was a lot more than I could say for some of the teachers at our school.

"We're pretty much coming to the end of the unit we're studying right now. And I'd like to finish it off with a short assignment I've prepared for you guys." He patted the sheets of paper he'd placed on the table earlier for emphasis.

The class groaned and instead of getting irritated like most teachers would, he just chuckled good-naturedly and continued with crinkling eyes, "This assignment is so you can learn how to apply what you've learned in this unit in your real life. You'll be paired up and each of you will have to jot down your partner's food and calorie intake for all meals of the day for a week. For the following week, you'll be given time to analyze the data you've collected and prepare a diet chart which must contain the adequate amount of food they should be having each day in each meal, keeping in mind their age, s*x, economic condition and other things I've mentioned on the paper you'll be given."

Everyone around me broke out into excited chatter before he intercepted us loudly. "Now, now, hush everyone. This project holds a major portion of your grade so take it seriously and turn it in on time once the two weeks are up. Also, your partner is the person sitting next to you."

The students began murmuring to each other again and I turned to the person next to me since on the other side of me was a wall. "So I guess we're partners," I muttered to Orion who simply nodded at me.

Mr Newman took a seat at his desk. "Each pair is requested to come to my desk so I can write down your names and give you the project guidelines."

I sighed to myself and sunk lower in my seat as one student from each pair began going up to Mr Newman to register both their names and take the papers he was handing over.

Realising Orion probably did not have the notes for the project we'd just been given since he was new, I pushed my notebook towards him. "Here are the notes to this unit. You can just get them photocopied and return them to me later."

"No, thanks."

When I just looked at him, he elaborated, "We already did it back at my old school."

I nodded in understanding as I pulled my notebook back, feeling a little stupid for some reason. He obviously had to have studied somewhere before this for sure. I noticed the guy, Mathew, in front of us coming back to his seat and realised it was our turn.

"I'll go." Orion got up and made his way towards Mr Newman. Belatedly, I realised I hadn't even told him my name and was prepared to shout it across the class but he easily scribbled our names on a piece of paper he had kept on the teacher's desk before picking up the project guidelines and coming back to take his seat.

Wordlessly, he handed mine over to me. "How did you know my name?" I asked, curious.

He looked alarmed for a moment, or at least I was guessing that was what it had been because his eye colour hadn't changed. I was so used to reading people's emotions clearly based off the colour of their eyes that it was hard to guess what they were feeling based on their facial expression alone. It was a weird feeling, but I quite liked it, almost as if it was normal.

"Heard it in homeroom this morning, Eloise." His answer pulled me out of my thoughts and now I felt a completely different kind of weird upon hearing him utter my name in that raspy voice of his. It was good different though so much so that I felt my cheeks heat.

Get a grip, Eloise. I mentally chastised myself for blushing like a twelve-year-old over practically nothing and quickly averted my gaze for fear of what colour he'd see in my eyes case I looked up.

I muttered okay and forced myself to read the project guidelines to distract myself.

"So we're going to have to meet up every day for the next week. When do you want to do this? I don't really any free periods during the day so it's gonna have to be after school." I spoke up once I'd gone over it.

"Right after school works fine for me." He informed me.

"Okay, so let's just meet up at the school library then."

"Okay."

Before I could say much else, the bell rang and I turned to him.

"What class do you have next?" I asked, turning to him.

"Calculus with Mr Strafford."

"Looks like the school pretty much handed you the same schedule as me." I let out, half amused and half thrilled that we got to spend pretty much half the day together.

Sure that my eyes were twinkling a bright blue to reflect my mood, I stood up.

"Follow me if you will, sir." I threw over my shoulder with a smirk before I began heading out towards class.

News about me and the new kid hanging out together was going to spread fast if the way people were practically gawking at the pair of us was anything to go by.

But looking back at the hot, if slightly lost, silent male specimen who was following me the through the throngs of students now milling about in the hallways, I realised I didn't mind nor care what the others had to say. Not at all.