The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 8: Florence

-Florence’s P.O.V-

 “You’re late.” The sentence that I had heard so many times in my life was repeated to me as my History teacher crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow at me, waiting for an explanation.

Over the years my brothers have taught me many things, including the best excuses for being late. According to Jackson, if your excuse is very personal and embarrassing, the teachers won’t probe too much into it. So that is why I began grinning as a plan formed in my head.

The history teacher, Mr. Morris began tapping his foot and I pretended to sigh. "If you really wanted to know, I get these severe cramps sometimes..."

"Severe cramps?" Mr. Morris didn't look like he believed me.

To make him leave me alone, I decided to add a bit more detail to really make him squirm. "Well I get the cramps because I... y'know... have a heavy flow." His surprised face nearly took me to the edge of laughing uncontrollably, but I kept a straight face. "It means that I get lots of blo-" I was cut off by a freaked out Mr. Morris. “That’s quite enough thank you, Florence! Take a seat will you?” he ushered me off and his face screamed relief as I sat down.

I took my seat next to Annie in the third row. She was giggling quietly because she had overheard my fake excuse and I joined in. “That was hilarious! How do you come up with that?” she asked between her laughter.

“A little trick that Jackson taught me,” I smiled. "Teachers hate the personal stuff."

Mr. Morris started the class and I fell silent, taking notes on what he was lecturing us about. History never did strike me as particularly interesting, and I found my mind wandering. You guessed it; it wandered all the way back to last night.

The scene in St Jame’s was re-playing in my mind and I found myself scowling at the memories. That stupid boy trying to make suggestive comments and get me upstairs, he deserved a good slap on that grinning face. Then he arrived.

I still remember - a good fifteen hours later – the feel of his arms as they encircled me and drew me into his chest. I was a goner from the minute he made contact with my skin. Sinking into his body was the most natural feeling in the world, and his cologne overwhelmed me. His arms wrapped me in a cocoon of warmth and I felt cold and empty without them there at the moment.

Then the world just had to come crashing down on me, and I remembered asking him just exactly what he thought he was doing. Sure, I was attracted to the boy, but he had no reason to just come over to me and make me feel those emotions. I hardly even knew him and he had acted possessive and angry at the fact that I was talking to another male. It annoyed me that he thought I was his property, because I was my own person and nobody owned me.

He even had the nerve to ask me about the night of the attack! And how the hell had he known that it was a wolf attack after I’d lied to the doctors and told them it was a bear? It was scary how close he was to the truth, so I had retreated and hidden in the kitchen, waiting long enough until I saw him leave.

I shook my head to rid the thoughts from my mind and focused on Mr. Morris at the front of the room. He was passionately talking about the Cold War and explaining some of his points with over-exaggerated hand gestures. Beside me, Annie was quietly filling out page after page of notes. History was one of my strong points at school so I didn’t need to memorise most of the information that he told us.

The door swung open gently and Mr. Morris stopped mid-sentence to stare accusingly at the intruder. Once he realized who it was he smiled and ushered the person into the room. In full view, first impressions of this boy were pretty good.