The last time Cleo saw Ryder was five years ago. What was he doing here? He had changed an enormous amount, thanks to puberty. He walked through the cafeteria with all his 6'2" glory, unaware that all of the female students were practically drooling at the sight of him. His blonde hair was the shortest its ever been but his eyes were the same sapphire blue that made you feel like you were drowning, if you stared long enough. He walked right by our table and didn't even notice us. You could see the muscles on his back, moving through his shirt, as he headed towards the lunch line.
"Was that...?" Jess was shocked.
"Yeah...it was." I kept sneaking glances at him, just to make sure I wasn't imagining it.
"Do you think he remembers us?"
"I don't know. He didn't even acknowledge our presence, so probably not."
My best friend got closer to my face and said a little more quietly, "You have to admit, he's a total eye candy now." She had a huge grin on her face, as if she just discovered the meaning of our existence.
"Eh, I guess he's okay."
"What do you mean 'he's okay'?? He's a lot more than okay." She looked at me, flabbergasted that Ryder would be anything less than perfect. Not that I was going to admit that to her, because then I would never hear the end of it.
The bell rang and we quickly got our things and headed to class. We said our goodbyes and went towards our designated buildings, according to the element we held. Mine was fire, but Jessica's was air. Therefore, most of our classes weren't the same and we mainly only saw each other at lunch and outside of school. Different elements. Different classes. I entered my History class which has a mixture of elements, since it's about all of us and how we got these powers. You could imagine the surprise on my face when I saw ice boy sitting in my seat. Out of all the seats that were available he had to pick mine. I decided to ignore him and grudgingly take another seat. It was obvious he didn't recognize me, otherwise he would have at least looked at me by now. Mr. Wartz, our history teacher, told everyone to take their seats and started an introductory to today's lesson.
His voice droned on and on and I tried my best not to fall asleep, mainly because I had a low B in this class which was on the brink of being a C and also because there are certain children at this school that like to play pranks on sleeping students. I was not going to experience that kind of humiliation. When class finally ended, I felt a pair of eyes on my back. I turned my head and made eye contact with the one and only, Ryder Wellington. There was something in his eyes that told her he did indeed know who she was and for some unknown reason, she couldn't look away. She was getting closer to him but her feet weren't moving. That was when she realized that he was the one moving towards her, not the other way around.
"Hey, Cleo. Remember me?" He smirked at her.
She decided to have a little fun and pretended not to know him.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?"
His mouth opened a little bit and his eyebrows scrunched together. He looked so confused that Cleo had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. She saw his eyes immediately travel down to her lips and she stopped biting them because she's seen enough movies to know that's every man's weakness.
"Uh, sorry, I must've confused you with someone else." He was about to walk away when Cleo grabbed his forearm. Almost instantly, her touch burned his skin and smoke arose from the contact. She pulled her hand back and watched in amazement as his skin healed right in front of her eyes. She looked up and found him staring at her. Again. "I was just joking. Of course I remember you."
