Helplessly, Loved

Chapter 1

The next day, Kelly made sure to land herself in detention again. She happily slipped into the library once school hours are over. Mrs. Fisher scowled when she saw her again, but Kelly just beamed at her like she was a saint instead of a sour old lady.

Kelly did not know what got into her. She was never the type of girl who would obsess over guys. In fact, Kelly hardly has any history with any guy. But something about this dude just intrigues her. He was like a magnet and she was the helpless iron lead that was drawn towards him. Kelly was pretty sure she wasn’t the only one though.

Mrs. Fisher was another.

“Detention again, young lady?” Mrs. Fisher’s shrilly voice stopped her from wondering where the dude was. Well, no duh Mrs. Fisher. I just wanted to see your face.

“Yes, Mrs. Fisher,” Kelly said and dutifully handed the old lady the slip of paper.

“That’s Ms. Fisher to you, young lady,” she said and ticked off her name from a list and totally tunes Kelly out after. Kelly was about to turn around and went to the table she was sitting at yesterday when she felt a looming figure walk around her and placed a stack of books on the front desk with a loud thud.

Kelly looked up and was instantly entranced again by the young man she saw yesterday. She finds her unable to stop staring.

“People need to start to learn the difference between fiction and non-fiction,” he told Mrs. – Ms. – Fisher and looking really pissed off. “All these books are labeled wrongly, now I need to fucking change them.”

Kelly finds it intriguing that he comfortably swears in front of Ms. Fisher and she didn’t even bat so much as an eyelash. The young man then noticed Kelly standing there, gawking at him and raised an eyebrow curiously at her. Without another word, Kelly quickly turned around and sits in her usual table, turning her back to the front desk and away from the other detention crowd who are busy having a spitball battle.

Her heart was racing and she was positive her face was flaming red.

“Who was that?” she heard the young man ask Ms. Fisher.

“Kelly Schneider, the girl who landed herself on detention her first day here,” Ms. Fisher said and the young man went ‘aahh’ knowingly. Then their conversation steered back to the wrong labels that Kelly doesn’t give a damn about. She hid her head in her arms once more and sighed.

Now what?

“Philly, I need to go home early again today,” Ms. Fisher whined.

“It’s okay, Miss Joan, I know what to do,” the young man – Philly? – chuckled. Was that a nickname or was that his actual name? Kelly couldn’t help but wonder. She hoped it was a nickname, what kind of name was Philly anyway? It’s something you would name a penguin. “Just go ahead and attend to your business, I will lock up well.”

Ms. Fisher gave a gleeful shriek and thanked him, then packed her stuff and left. Kelly lifted her head to look at the clock on the wall and was saddened to discover that 15 minutes are left to her detention time and she didn’t speak or exchange anything with the young man. Kelly gathered her wits to glance at him, but he was busily tearing off labels and pasting on new ones, his beautiful eyebrows pressed together in the middle in concentration.

With Ms. Fisher gone, the other kids in detention just got up and left and the young man didn’t even bother stopping them. He didn’t even look up or glance at them as they piled out of the library noisily, not bothering to be quiet. It was then that Kelly decided the young man must be a student and not much older than herself.

No teacher would let kids in detention leave when they haven’t served their time. The young man didn’t even care.

Kelly slowly got up as well, but she didn’t pick up her bag and walked towards the front desk instead. When she tapped the cold glass desk twice, the young man jumped and looked up at her.

“Oh, Kelly, I thought you left too,” he said and Kelly loved the way he said her name. He slightly prolonged the ‘e’ in her name, not long enough to notice, but long enough to make Kelly’s heart waver slightly.

She cleared the lump in her throat that makes her unable to speak. “My name is Kelly Schneider and I am a first year. I started school yesterday,” she quickly babbled on, unable to stop, “I live across the town and that’s where I went to school before, but I decided to move here instead and I am glad I did.” She finally stopped herself and panted heavily before turning a bright scarlet at what she just said.

“You moved here yesterday, got into detention and you were glad you did?” he asked curiously. Kelly bit her bottom lip in embarrassment and he laughed. She wanted to hit him. He saw her expression and quickly stopped himself by biting the bottom of his sexy lips, but it was obvious that he finds it hard to stop chuckling.

“S-Shut up! I didn’t mean it that way,” she said and to her own surprise, she did hit him. She extended her left arm and smacked him hard across his upper arm. He instantly stopped all laughter and stared at her wide-eyed, absent-mindedly rubbing his left arm.

“Dude, what was that for?”

“I am sorry,” she mumbled and looked down at her feet. He frowned and stopped rubbing at the spot where it ache.

“Never you mind, it didn’t hurt that much anyway. You hit like you haven’t ate in three months,” he explained although his upper arm was throbbing. Damn that girl could hit well. “I am Philip by the way. Philip Nicholls and I am in my last year,” he properly introduced himself.

“I thought your name might have been Philly,” Kelly blurted once more and she wishes she could filter what was going out of her mouth.

“That was just a nickname that Miss Joan baptized me with,” he said with a grimace. “I prefer if you call me Philip instead though.”

“Why do you call her Miss Joan and not by her last name?” Kelly wondered out loud. Then she realized that it wasn’t any of her business what her students call Ms. Fisher.

“No particular reason, she made me call her that and it just stuck,” he said and resumed his tedious labor of re-labeling each and every book.

“Do you need help with that?” she asked. He stopped in the middle of pasting the sticky yellow label on the side of the book with tape and looked at the wall clock.

“It’s past time for you to go home, you know? Don’t you live across the town? You better hurry up then before it gets too late,” he told her and she shook her head.

“I am okay, I have keys to my front door and it’s not like my mom will lock me out if I went home late,” she said and hurried to sit on Ms. Fisher’s empty seat next to Philip. But he pasted the last label and set the stack of books aside and got up. Kelly watched him in wonder.

“Let’s just go home then,” he said and smiled at her, pushing his glasses up absently and sling the strap of his messenger school bag across his shoulder. Kelly frowned but didn’t argue. She went to retrieve her backpack and by the time she got it around her shoulders, Philip was waiting by the door for her. She quickly rushes outside so Philip could lock it behind them. It took him some time to lock all the bolts, but she stood there waiting for him.

“You are not going home?” he asked her when he stood up and found that she was still standing there.

“Yes I am,” she quickly said and turned around, leaving him once more by the library doors without as much of a goodbye.