Hidden Thorns

Chapter 2

I stare at the dusty, old, and outdated rug that covers the floor of the office. I pick at my cuticles, which, is a bad habit I have when I get nervous, and sporadically  tuck my hair behind my ear.

"Can you stop?" Lucas sighs.

"Huh?" I mumble looking up. He places his hand on my knee to stop my leg from the continuous twitch. I am so shocked by the action that I just stare at his hand. It sent a fiery feeling up my leg oddly calming me. He must have noticed me overanalyzing his hand because he jerks it away and folds it into his lap.

"I don't get in trouble. I-I don't understand why he called me in here." I explain.

"You mean," he pauses and takes in a deep breath,"you don't understand why they called you into the office with me."

I open my mouth to explain that that was not what I meant but then was cut off by the door of my principal's office swing open.

"I'm sorry. I was dealing with an angry mom. Please, come in," he says stepping out of the way keeping the door open with his body and allowing a path for me and Lucas to walk through.

"Roseline, you are an outstanding student, however, I've noticed the lack of extracurriculars in your schedule," Principal Smiths explains. "And you Lucas," he said positioning his shoulders to be square in front of Lucas, "have been slipping. Failing all of your classes, barely even showing up to school, and getting in lots of fights." Lucas flashed a toothy smile as if he was proud of this track record.

"So I found a solution to fix both problems. Kill a bird with two stones." Principal Smiths exclaims. Lucas loudly cleared his throat and I stared at the floor in my best attempted to hide the smile on my face, which, appears because my principal just ruined that expression. "You both can  build a model of the school to put on display for our parents night next month. Roseline will be able to put this on her college application as an extracurricular and this will hopefully help improve Lucas's attitude or just him a better way to spend his time."

I felt myself let out a breath and my body relaxes. "Who all is going to help with this project?" I ask.

"Just you two." says Principal Smiths unfolding his hands and pointing them towards us.

Lucas and I slowly turn our heads towards each other. A smile begins to form from ear to ear while my reaction was not as amusing.

"I don't think Pri- Miller would want to spent that much time with me." Lucas explains. I rolled my eyes, lean back in my seat, and push my hair out of my face.

"What does the other guy look like?" Lucas asks noticing the bruise on my nose.

Feeling embarrassed I let my hair fall back in my face and turn back to face the principal. 

"It's not really a matter of want but need." Principal Smiths answers too joyfully.

He then pushes his rolling chair back, stands up, and makes his what to the door. Principal Smiths places his hand on the door knob and explains " No more discussion. You both are doing in." He then turns the handle, swung open the door, and gestures towards the hallway.

~~

"Wait, what are you complaining about?" Emilia says while scribiling down answers to the quantitative energy problems worksheet that was given out. "You get to spend hours everyday with a hot guy. Alone."

"You really don't see the problem in this?" I question. "He is annoying and arrogant and..and.."

"I think you like him."

"I am most positive that I do not."

Em scoffs and points at my worksheet with her wooden pencil. "Finish your work and then worry about him."

I run my fingers through my hair and then begin to work out the problems in front of me until the bell rang.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful and I practically ran out of my last classroom. I toss my homework in my backpack, throw on my coat, then spin on my heel towards the door to the parking lot. My backpack hits the ground as I, yet again, run into someone else. This time it was not a wall but something soothing warm and comforting. Lucas set his hands on my waist to steady me so I didn't going crashing into the floor.

"Whoa." Lucas says. "Why don't you look up when you're walking."

"What do you want?" I coldly ask.

"I wanted to know if I could go over to your house so we could discuss plans for the model."

"Are you messing with me?"

"I actually like building. Principal Smiths gave me a good deal. "

"Lucky you," I sigh rolling my eyes.

"I get that you don't want to hang out with a lowlife like me but can we just get this project over with."

"I never said that."

"Can I just come over right after school?"

"Yeah." Lucas and I stand there for a moment looking at each other. His eyes were a glowing green and his face has an unreadable expression across his face. He then blinks which brought me back to reality causing me to jump back a little. In this moment I realize that Lucas and I were only about two inches apart and he had been holding onto my waist during our whole conversation. After I jump back, Lucas's hands drop to his sides and walks towards the exit. I follow behind a couple seconds after he disappears behind the door. I find my car, plop down in the drivers seat, and throw my backpack next to me. I turn my key and pull out of the parking lot.

Once I pull into my driveway and make it up the stairs to my front door I unlock it and discover that I was home alone. I kick off my shoes, after that, I walked up the stairs and place my backpack into my room. I was about to text Em about my conversation with Lucas but, the door bell rang.