October Academy

Chapter 25

My lips part, both in shock and in anticipation. His hand that was on the frets reaches up to my neck –

"Oiy," Ben yells out breaking the connection, "Marina and I are going to get ice-cream, you guys want to come?"

Callum stands up, moving to a seat across from me, "Yeah, I'm just packing away my guitar."

"Meet you outside then. You, Jade?"

"I should really get back to Perry," I stutter.

"Sweet, see you Wednesday," he says and waves us goodbye.

Then it's just Callum and I alone again, but now there's distance, and now it's colder. Was he going to kiss me? Did I entirely imagine that? Am I ever going to get another opportunity? Fuck.

"Did you like the show?" he asks me, breaking the silence.

"I love the Pretty Reckless," I smile, "You guys did them justice."

"Ben told me you liked them so I wanted to do it for you," Callum says, quietly.

"For me?"

"Yeah, is that surprising?" he leans forward, resting on his knees.

I laugh awkwardly. "What about all your other fans?"

"You know I'd drop every other girl for you," he says, devoid of any humour, "If you wanted me to."

I bite my lip hard before I say anything embarrassing like But I'm so average... but you are so hot... are you deranged? Do you have self-esteem issues? Is that some kind of twisted joke?

"Hurry up!" we hear from the door. Ben pokes his head through, beckoning for Callum to come and not leaving until he sees Callum stand up.

"I'll see you Wednesday then, pretty girl," he says eyeing me up and down one last time before he leaves the room.

Oh. Fuck.

.

.

Today, we're watching The Outsiders, the movie – with Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze. Something about Socs and Greasers and that things are rough all over, but I only see the Greasers getting it tough.

I lean over to Perry and whisper in her ear, "I think Callum almost kissed me last night."

Her eyes almost bulge out of her head. "Are you serious?"

"I don't know if I imagined it."

"Usually I would say you did, but even I have noticed from the day you two met that you have some chemistry."

"Don't say that shit now, you're just going to confuse me."

"Confuse you how? What are you confused about?" she eyes me up and down. "Confused about Darcy?"

"What? No," I mutter. "I definitely wanted to kiss Callum."

Our English teacher pauses the movie, interrupting our discussion. "I just received an email from Mrs Stock," she says, "that forth period will be a lockdown drill. We are warning you in advance because our sister school in Newhaven had a school shooting this morning."

The class starts to murmur uncomfortably. What's it going to take for anti-gun laws? How many more kids need to die to prove it?

"Our counsellors on campus are opening up their hours over the weekend for any students who wish to talk," she continues.

"Was it the Class Killer?" a random student yells out.

"There are rumours of who was responsible, but nothing has been confirmed. Please don't panic, October Academy has never had a real lock down before."

I remember that our sister school in Newhaven has the same clientele as here – except October Academy is the boarding school version, where as our sister school is centre of the city, surrounded by penthouses and Serena Van der Woodsen, Chuck Bass types.

Perry opens up google and searches current news. And of course the most searched up article right now is about famous comedian who died getting his routine botox surgery. People care more about entertainment than innocent children's lives.

.

.

.

After school I have training. Training goes by quickly, before I know it I'm back at the Academy, having a shower and getting ready to go over to Ben's for Marina's little birthday bash.

Perry and I do our makeup on my dressing table. I haven't seen Perry put so much effort into her makeup for ages. "What's the special occasion?" I say to her.

"Just want to make a good first impression," she says innocently.

I reach into my backpack to grab my lip balm, and a note falls onto the ground.

It reads:

It wasn't an accident.