Something Special

Chapter 3

"Alex, my man. How you doing mate?"

"Alex. How was Wales?"

"OMG Alex! You look great!"

"We love you Alex!"

Alex Cross smiled luxuriously at his fans on his arrival back to school. Most of them he replied to, but when one arrogant guy ha asked if he'd had fun shagging sheep he hadn't been amused. "You're just jealous that I've made more in 1 month filming then you'll make in your lifetime." He shot back angrily.

At 1 oclock he made his way to the dining room that was really just a canteen. The queue was massive but one of his friends let him come in at the front. "Cheers."

"No problem mate. So are the rumours true?" Alex looks at him blankly. "What rumours?"

"That you got off with Jenny Dexter!" Ah. Jenny was the female protagonist in his film. And he had but she didn't him to tell anyone. "Keep it our secret." she'd whispered in her lovely Welsh accent.

"Nah mate. There are fitter birds here if you ask me."

"Oh really..." he says with a wink. "Like who?" Like Tara Lincoln, he thought.

"Oh I don't know. Izzy Green's got a nice arse and Becky St. Louis's hot." he randomly names two of the girls in the netball team. His friend agrees, before spiralling into a conversation about rugby.

Alex let's his mind wander to Tara as the dinner lady bats her eyelashes at him while piling carrots o.nto him plate. Why was she so quiet? And was she new? He didn't remember seeing her around school in year 12. "Yo. Alex?"

"Hmm."

"Did you hear anything I just said?"

"Man, I'm absolutely knackered! Queen Latifa could walk in and I wouldn't notice." He says taking a seat next to Buster. The rugby captain. For the rest of lunch he doesn't talk much, just thinking about the rest of his lessons. He had a free and then PE. He groans and the table looks at him. "PE." He says simply.

"Haha sucker. Mr Bagshit is acting like a complete cock at the moment so you're in for a treat!" Mr Bagshit was the nickname for Mr Bagshot. The athletic coach. "If he makes me run laps. I will literally refuse. Like point blank refuse." Alex's least favourite lesson was PE even though he was a beast when it came to any kind of sport. He was amazing. He just despised it.

At the end of lunch he makes his way to the library to study. Last year he'd wasted all his free periods going into town and messing about. He wasn't going to make the same mistake this year! For his A Levels he was doing Bio, English and Drama. By far the easiest subject was drama. But that was just because he was a professional actor so he did have a kind of unfair advantage. Oh well. Taking out his biology books he makes a start on the huge pile of papers and course work Mr Frewick had given them, suddenly wishing he had Tara's notes. Glancing round the spacious library he searches for her. There!

Sat right in the corner table she was there. Quiet and unassuming. He takes a moment to study her. She had on a pair of Doc Martins on with knee length thick socks on and a short-ish skirt on she would of looked slutty had she not been so cute. Her military jacket was draped over the back of her chair and she had a pair of headphone stuffed in her ears. Blocking out the world. He grins. Perfect.

...................................................................................

One second she was humming along to the pounding Nirvana the next the music was replaced with a deep voice that made he freeze in her seat. "Tut tut tut. Music in the library!" he puts in one of her headphone and his eyes widen fractionally. "Nirvana no less! Well Miss Lincoln, I have to say I am impressed. At least you know your music." Mutely she bobs her head. Covering her face with a curtain of dark hair. That boy just didn't give up. After she told him her name that morning she'd scurried off. She'd saw the disgust in his eyes when he saw the stitches. Girls were supposed to be pretty and perfect. Not broken.

"What are you doing here?" she say quietly, snatching her headphone back and trying to jam it back into her ear. "Um nope." He says. Taking back the headphone. "You're gonna talk to me. And let me borrow your bio notes. And then I'll leave." She exhales heavily before taking out the pages if bio notes and shoving them towards him. "Hear," she mumbles, careful not to touch him. "Have the stupid notes." She didn't need them anyway. She would ace this class with or without the notes. "Now will you go?" For a second he looks at the notes before shaking his head. "No. You still have to talk to me."

"Look I am talking. Do you not see my lips moving!?" Chuckling lightly he sits on the chair next to her. "Nope!" he says, popping the p. "I'm not giving up that easily."

"Well you should 'cus I'm not talking to you." She mumbles. Wishing she hadn't come to the public library to study. 'I could be in a nice secluded part of the school right now' she thinks quietly. 'But instead I'm sat here with big head and no headphones'.

"Ok. If you answer one question with absolute truth i'll leave you be. If you want you can even ask me a question!" she just nods mutely. 'Yey!" he puts his fingers on his chin and taps his lip.

"Ok I've got one." Oh this should be good. "How did you bust your face up?" she stops breathing.

CRAP! "I um..." she comes up with a blank "um, I walked into a lamppost." She mutters. Obviously she couldn't tell him the truth. That her dad likes to use her as a punch bag. "A lamppost?" he asks enquiringly. "Really?" Tara nods and he sighs.

"Fine." And quietly he puts down the headphone and picks up the notes. Turning on his his heel he makes his way to his table. "Wait." She calls out. He spins around on his foot and looks her in the eye. "What?" he snaps.

"I still get to ask you a question." She say innocently. He nods. "Did you actually shag a sheep?!" His eyes widen. "Excuse me?" his voice was an octave higher then usual. "Did you shag a sheep?" She repeats, cocking her head to the side. "I mean. You got to ask a question. So I'm asking one too." A hint of a smile playing at her mouth. He just shakes his head. A smile on his lips. "And even if I had." He says, putting his mouth near her ear. "I wouldn't be telling anyone." And with a wink he was gone.

Tara sat perfectly still for a second before quickly packing up her stuff and practically running to the empty bathroom. The she put her head in the toilet and emptied the contents of her stomach. Then she sat on the bathroom room floor with tears running down her face and let her anxiety swallow her up.