OFF LIMITS

F.O.U.R

Jace slid into a seat next to Ellery. The desks sat two people and Ellery turned to look at Jace.

"Why should I stay away from you?" Ellery wondered as she got her notebook out for this class. Jace had been waiting for Ellery to finally be alone. This was their third class of the day and he noticed that she usually had many people around her.

"You shouldn't," Jace said.

"My brothers don't seem to like you."

"I'd rather not talk about your brothers," Jace said. "They annoy me."

"They annoy me," Ellery agreed. This was one of her only classes without one of her brothers in. She loved them but sometimes she enjoyed space.

"Let's talk about you then," Jace said.

Ellery smiled slightly, but gestured to her notebook. "I have work to do."

"You can't multitask?" Jace wondered and arched an eyebrow. He leaned closer to Ellery. "I'd like this to be our 'to be continued'."

"I'd like to know why my brothers don't like you," Ellery said and opened her notebook.

"If you know your brothers like I do then they tend to dislike a lot of people," Jace said and Ellery caught his eye. He had warm hazel eyes that were staring right at her.

"How do you know them?"

Jace paused and frowned at Ellery. "Have you never heard of us, Ellery? Or at least my family? My last name is Ryan. Ring any bells?"

"Should it?"

"I would've said yes, but apparently not," Jace said. "Honestly, Ellery, I have no idea why your brothers hate me as much as they do, but part of the reason is because they don't want to do something that we want them to do."

"That's half an answer," Ellery said.

"Is it?" Jace said and his lips twitched.

"Yes, you've just created more questions for me to ask," Ellery said.

"Well it's a shame you need to do some work, you can't ask them," Jace shrugged and smirked slightly when Ellery rolled her eyes and looked down at her book just as the teacher walked in.

"Guys, calm down, everyone quiet!" The teacher called. He was young, mid 20's and seemed to easily catch the attention of the class. "Welcome back, I hope everyone had a good summer."

"Would've been better in your company, Mr Henshaw" a girl called and fluttered her eyelashes.

"If you want company of a teacher then Mr Bell is running detention tonight," Mr Henshaw said, referring to the eldest and rudest teacher in the school. Mr Henshaw smiled as the class chuckled. "Do you like the sound of that, Amber?"

Amber raised her eyebrows. "Not really."

"Then be quiet," Mr Henshaw smiled. "We have some new students in class today, they've recently transferred from another school, please make them feel welcome." Mr Henshaw sat down at his desk and opened his laptop, within a few minutes math questions popped up on the electric board on the wall. "Honestly, it's the first day back and I can't be bothered to do much work, so if you get these completed then you get to enjoy your lunch today. If you don't complete them then you'll spend your first lunch back with Mr Bell."

Ellery sighed and got to work on the questions. Within 10 minutes she had completed them and she turned to look at Jace who was watching her with a smirk.

"Someone's a little brainiac," he said and Ellery looked at the piece of paper in front of Jace.

"I could say the same," she said. He had also completed the questions.