City of Fire

Chapter Two

"Ilona"

Ilona wished she was dead. She bit back a bored groan as she held her chin in her hand. Her light teal eyes stared out the window from her seat on the second story of the school building. The teacher at the front of the classroom was going on and on about a history lesson that no one in the class was obviously listening to.

Why should they?

After all it was only two days till Spring Break.

She rolled her eyes before flicking them to the front of the classroom. She always sat in the back and always next to her best friend, Melanie. She was busy doodling on her paper, her light blonde hair pulled back into a simple ponytail while her eyes, the color of sapphires tinged with gray, were so focused on the paper before her she didn't hear the teacher, Mr. T, ask her a question.

Ilona stretched out and kicked the chair and Melanie jolted. She glanced up at Mr. T, all five feet of him with half of his hair missing and round glasses to match his round face, and blinked in surprise.

"Miss Dewcast, are you paying attention?" He demanded tersely and for effect he even placed his hand upon his plump hip. Ilona had to bite her lip to keep a giggle from escaping her mouth and Melanie blinked her sapphire eyes once more.

"Uh—" she started and Mr. T narrowed his beady brown eyes at her, his plump lips thinning to nearly a line. Ilona was actually quite impressed with how he could do that but nonchalantly leaned over and slipped Melanie the note. Melanie quickly looked down at her lap before looking back up at a severely ticked Mr. T. "Yes, the answer is 1492." Mr. T blinked at her answer, obviously taken by surprise that she'd answered correctly. It was one of those moments where he'd known that she hadn't been paying attention. Ilona grinned and leaned back in her chair, catching the beady gaze of her teacher but she didn't care. She looked confidently back, silently daring him to accuse her of something but his lips only thinned more before he turned back to the stark white marker board.

"Correct, Miss Dewcast but in the future do try and pay attention." His voice held a sharp, tight tone to it and Ilona dimly wondered how he did that. He sounded so feminine, like a woman scolding her child, yet so commanding like a captain talking to his troops. He did this all at once but with a feminine air about his small and unimposing figure. As he went back to scribbling down dates on the marker board the classroom door was opened. All eyes of the twenty students went to it and Ilona raised a dark brow at the two figures that stood there.

Mr. Glass, the gym teacher, held a guy by the arm. The stranger was well over six foot, his shoulders broad and his hair a dark brown. It was spiked up off of his head, revealing his light cinnamon colored eyes. His face was broad, his jaw line firm and his nose straight with firm lips. His skin was a healthy tan but at the nape of his collar Ilona glimpsed what looked like the end of a tattoo. His legs and arms were long and even underneath the typical school uniform of black pants, black loafers with a white shirt and dark blue striped tie with a jacket, she could see the well toned muscles.

Wow...

Talk about a major jock...

The thoughts buzzed through Ilona's skull as she stared at him and from the silence that filled the classroom, the rest of the students were doing the same. Mr. Glass, his figure stocky but tall with a typical baseball cap, red gym shorts and white t-shirt with the high school logo of the raven across it, gestured with his head to Mr. T who bristled.

"This here is Tidus Randall, he just transferred from uptown," Mr. Glass gestured with his head again, this time to an empty seat and Tidus took a step forward but Mr. T halted them with a penetrated glare.