Espion | Book One

Fourteen

Annabelle Ferguson was a gem. One of the rare ones, not diamonds, but fancier, rarer, more beautiful. More like painite. Diamonds are too mainstreamed, a victim of too much conspiring. Annabelle Ferguson is anything but.

He didn't really care much for her at first, Jessi had to admit. The very first time he saw her was when he had missed the soccer ball and it slammed into her head, and she didn't seem like much then, just another girl in a school of many and so he dismissed her. Said his apologies and left.

Now, he wondered why he didn't notice it before.

She had eyes like a hawk. He realized it when Dan had stood in the hallway talking to her. She was answering him, maintaining conversation but her eyes weren't really focused on him. Her mind wasn't really on the conversation either and he could tell by the way she spoke. She didn't care about Dan, she cared about Jessi.

Of course, Jessi immediately wrote her off as just one of his fans. He was no fool. He knew he had them. Just as how he knew that, while they had stood there in the hallway, all his fans stared at them like they were gods. Since the moment he stepped foot into this school, their numbers have been slowly gaining momentum, and, at that moment, it looked as if Anna was about to join the very annoying club.

That was until he caught the look in her eyes.

They weren't filled with awe, of lust, of wonder or any of the usual emotion he had grown accustomed to. No, what shocked him was that they were empty. Those hawk-like eyes of hers stared him down, the whiskey irises so devoid of any emotion, any life, even as she spoke to Dan, that he was taken aback. That was when he knew Annabelle Ferguson wasn't your average girl.

The attraction he felt towards her was instantaneous as of that moment. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to figure out who this girl was, what was her goal here, where all the life in her eyes had went to. He didn't know he had made it his mission until he saw her in the nurse's office.

Even now, as he sat around the lunch table in the cafeteria, skillfully blocking out the noise that surrounded him, he felt his determination rise. He stared at Anna from across the table, and he was very much aware that she knew he was staring. She was eating, pointedly ignoring him. It made him smile a little, too see how unaffected she was by his presence.

Dan had invited Anna and Mina to eat with them. Mina had, of course, instantly jumped onto the idea. Jessi was just glad Dan was the object of her affection and not himself, although he was beginning to think his best friend didn't mind. In fact, he looked like he enjoyed all the attention he was receiving, even though it came in a super bouncy, talkative package.

He was also glad Anna had agreed too. She didn't look like she cared either way and that, for some reason, excited him. So when she sat down before him, Mina flanking one side of her and Angela's friend, Courtney, flanking the next, he had taken that opportunity to watch her.

"So," Mina said suddenly, setting her fork down to turn her full attention to Anna. "How does it feel being a princess?"

Anna shrugged. She continued spooning her spaghetti, not looking up for a moment. Jessi felt Angela Staton stiffen beside him but he ignored her. He had been doing well paying no attention to her since history class and he was not about to fail now. No matter that they were friends; she can be a real pain sometimes.

"What do you think it feels like?" Anna said. She shoved her spaghetti in her mouth, chewed and swallowed before saying, "Tons of money."