Shelter from the Storm

Chapter Two

"Mrs. Leishman is your aunt?"

"Yeah. My dad's brother's wife."

"What brother?"

"Branden."

"Oh okay. Actually I think I can find my way around today. By the way, she did give me a map." I pull a map of the school out and show him.

"Alright. Well I will see you at lunch."

"Bye Kaden."

I am walking and all of the sudden, I run into someone. He has gorgeous green eyes, and dark hair. He is also tall. Looks like the school's typical bad boy type. The ones that hook up with a different girl every week.

"Watch where you're going." He says to me in a harsh tone.

"I'm sorry."

I walk away nervously and also very embarrassed. Why can't guys be extremely gorgeous and have manners? He should have at least said sorry. I walk to my first class which is Choir. Singing has always took my mind off of the stuff that was going on at home. I shouldn't even call it home.

I take a seat on the soprano side, or where I think the sopranos sit. The bell rings and guess who walks through the door. The guy I ran into just moments before. So. Bad boy can sing? He shifts his eyes to mine and for a split second, he looks like a nice guy, but I know what he is. It's obvious. The teacher starts to talk.

"I'm Mr. Baer as most of you may know. I know a lot of people, but some of you don't look familiar," he points at me, "You. I don't know you."

"I'm Faith Montgomery. I'm new here." I say.

"Oh well nice to meet you Faith. Thanks for adding to our choir."

"No problem at all. I love to sing."

He smiles at me. He starts calling off names and I try to listen for when that boy that ran into me says here.

"Faith Montgomery."

"Here." I say.

A few names later, it finally comes.

"Max Ryder."

"Here." Says the boy.

So. Max is his name. I like it, but I don't like him.

Mr. Baer finishes calling role and he starts handing out music to everyone. Yes! We get to start sing today!

"First, I need sopranos to stand at that wall, altos over there, tenors at that wall, and basses behind me. We are going to sing 'Silent Night'. I am going to out you in your seats depending on your voice."

I go and stand against the wall and another girl comes and stands next to me and smiles.

"I'm Sarah. You're Faith, right?"

"Yup. That's me."

"So you sing?"

"Yeah I sing." I reply.

"Mr. Baer is super cool. Nothing to worry about here."

"He looks pretty awesome."

He starts playing the piano and then walks up to the sopranos. He walks past us while we sing. He stops in front of me and puts up 3 fingers. Third row. I love being on the top. I watch as everyone else gets placed in their seats. Max, as I am watching, is a tenor. We all get in our seats and Sarah sits next to me. Mr. Baer starts to speak.

"So we are going to sing 'Dare.' This song is by a group of men called Gentri. Anyone ever heard of them?" He asks the class.

I raise my hand. I love this song.

"Well I am glad one person knows what I am talking about."

I smile.

"Okay now everyone turn to the first page. Tenors, you start us out, but remember, we need to sound unified."

He goes over the notes, but Max looks like he doesn't need any help. Can he sight read? They sing A Capella.

I see the path staring me down

I take a deep breath, feet firm on the ground

My heart's racing fast, beating in time

Counting down

I try to hide my excitement of how good that sounds. What I love is that Mr. Baer makes us sing other people's part. It helps me understand better.

My next class is literature. I start walking and I get to Mrs. Bracken's class. She's young. But no surprise here, Max is in my class. I take a seat in an attempt to get as far away from that jerk as I can, but he walks over to the desk next to me and sits down. I can see in my peripheral vision that he is looking at me, but I can't ignore it. I look over at him. He speaks to me.

"I'm Max. You're Faith right?"

I nod.

The conversation goes on with me nodding my head and him trying to get me to say something. I won't budge.

"You don't talk much, do you?" He asks.

If only he knew why.

The bell rings and I go to lunch. This will probably be the only food I eat all day. That is if I have any money in my lunch account. Thank goodness I do now. I go and get my food and find Kaden sitting down at a table. I go and sit with him.

"Hey Faith. How has your day gone so far?"

"Oh good. Have you heard of Max Ryder?"

"Oh Faith. Don't associate with him. He may be good looking on the outside to every single girl in the school, but if you ever do anything with him, he will drop you the next week and have another girl."

"What makes you think I was going to do anything with him?"

"Nothing. I was just warning you."

I see Max walk into the cafeteria with a girl. Probably one he is going to drop next week.

The rest of the day goes by and the bell finally rings. Not that I am thrilled to go home. I walk to my locker and put in my combination. It doesn't work. After five more attempts, it finally opens and I get out my backpack. I half run half walk outside to where the buses are to see that they are already gone. Crap. Just when I start walking home, a car comes and pulls up next to me. Max Ryder. He drives slowly as he asks me if I need a ride home. I try to ignore him, but there is no way of getting away from him.

"I'm not going to let you walk," he says, "Just get it the car."

"Fine." I say.

I get in the passenger seat.

"Where do you live?"

I hesitate, but tell him. As we drive I stay silent and look out of the window.

"Right here." I say.

He pulls in front of my house and I get out of the car.

"Thanks Max." I say.

"Anytime Faith."

I walk up to the door and I walk in. John was waiting for me.

"Who was that who gave you a ride home?!"

"Just a friend from school. His name is Max." I say, my voice wavering.

"Don't you dare talk to him again!"

Then the same routine went down that happened that morning. I limped upstairs to my room and did as much homework as I could while I can still concentrate. My attention span is very much less than it would usually be. I go to my bed and find peace in my sleep.