Princess Of Night

Princess of Night (ch 14)

I walked into the classroom to see Neil sitting in the desk in front of me.

 I sat down and glanced at Gareth, who was glaring at Neil.

 "Hi. What's wrong?" I said to Gareth. He didn't answer.

 I raised my eyebrows at Lisa who was as confused as me.

 "Ashlee Green.." the teacher called the role.

 "Here!" I said.

 Neil turned around and smiled at me. "Hi."

 "Oh! Hello. How are you coping with your first day?" I glanced down at what he was wearing - a faded t-shirt underneath a black leather jacket.

 "Fine so far," he smiled, turning back to face the teacher.

 I looked over at Gareth again who was frowning crossly. He noticed I was staring at him and shot me a glare.

 I raised my eyebrows. "What was that for?"

 His face changed expression and his eyes lowered.

"I'm sorry. I just don't feel so good today." He gave me a forced smile.

 I knew he was hiding something. I presumed it was something between Neil and him - because of the way he was glaring at Neil's back.

 The bell rang and I glanced at my timetable to see what I had next. History.

 As I walked out of the room, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see Neil. "I'm in your history class."

 I smiled. "Ok, I'll show you the way."

As we walked over to the history room, it started to rain. I cursed under my breath and covered my head with my books.

 As we got to the red bricked building, Neil held open the door and I walked through, saying thanks.

 I watched as he ran his hands threw his soaked hair and wiped his hands on his dark jeans. We walked into the history room and he sat in the empty desk beside me. I opened my book and told him what we'd been learning about in the past few weeks. He listened and nodded. At the end, he said, "I know all of this already.."

 I raised an eyebrow. "Are you a history nerd or something?"

 "Kind of," he smiled, his eyes twinkling mischeviously.

 I blinked as an image of a cottage flashed in my mind. I recognised the cottage - the thatched roof and the white walls...But I couldn't think of where I had seen it before.

 "Is everything all right?" he said, noticing my confused expression.

 I blinked and nodded. "Yeah." I placed my hand on my head which had started to throb all of a sudden.

 Neil narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure? You don't look too good....In fact, you're rather pale."

 "I'm fine," I said, even though the headache had got worse.

 "You're obviously not fine - I'll take you to the nurse," he continued.

 "No," I said defensively. I didn't want to go to the nurse. However, Neil was having none of it.

 "I'm taking you."

*********

As I walked down the stairs with Neil, a wave of dizziness washed over me and I fell forwards. "Ash!" I heard Neil.

 I fell on the concrete step, my foot twisting inwards. I heard a loud crack and screamed in agony.

 I clutched my foot and swore under my breath. The stab of pain almost left me out of breath.

 Neil lifted me up and helped me down the rest of the stairs.

 Tears welled up in my eyes but I blinked them back, not wanting to appear such a wuss in front of Neil.  

Neil put my arm around his shoulder and I began to hop.

"Is everything all right?"

I twisted my neck to see one of the assistant teachers, Mrs Brinne. Her eyes fell to my foot which was bleeding quite badly. I winced as she prodded her cold fingers just above the cut.

"You'll have to go to the hospital. It's a nasty looking wound."

"This is just great," I said sarcastically.

"I'll take you to the hospital.." Neil started.

"No, you've helped me enough. I couldn't..."

"I'll take her," he nodded to the teacher who followed us out to his car in the parking lot.  

I slowly eased myself into the passenger sit and clenched my jaw as a stab of pain came from my foot.

The engine started as we reversed out of the school and onto the main road.

"Thanks. You didn't have to do this," I said.

"No problem. Anyway I got out of history."

I smiled and drummed my fingers to the sound of the radio.

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