Flightless Bird

Chapter 6

"I'm guessing I just shouldn't ask?" Jacob questioned me as we walked out of the dining hall after breakfast. Thankfully that meal had been drama free; there had been no sign of Mrs Marsh's son.

"Not unless you're prepared to be scarred for life," I replied, smirking at him.

"You're right, don't tell me! Girls just....I don't know. They're scary," Jacob said, shuddering theatrically to make his point.

"I'm scary?" I asked, growling at him.

"Very," he replied, laughing when I smacked his arm. I knew I had only known him for like, a day, but I already felt so comfortable around him, it was weird. But I liked it.

"So, what have you got first?" he asked me as we wandered into the main hall. I pulled out the new timetable Lexi had given me earlier, and consulted my lessons for the day.

"Um...biology, and then a free period before break, and then I have double english until lunch," I answered, tucking my timetable back in my bag.

"Aw, I've got maths, but then I have a free period too, and the same double english after," Jacob told me, "you want me to take you through some of the English notes during free period? Miss Sylvester gave us some during summer for this year, but I guess you don't have them..."

"Oh, yeah that would be great, thanks Jacob!"

He grinned at me, returning my goofy smile, "No problem Kerri."

"Hey, we should probably get to class now, but I'll see you in an hour?" I said. Jacob smiled, "Okay, meet me in the sixth form common room, it's on the third floor." I waved at him, then headed out of the main building to the biology lab where I had my first class.

When I walked in everyone else was seated and chatting before the lesson started. The teacher wasn't here yet, so I decided to take a seat and avoid having to introduce myself at the start of the lesson. I looked around the room, not really seeing the people. I was walking to the third row where there was the only free seat. I wasn't looking who was sitting there, since I got distracted by Adam waving at me from the second row. I waved back, and he grinned back, then signalled to me to wait after class to talk to him when the teacher walked in. I wondered why, since I didn't know him all that well, but decided to seeing as he seemed nice and I knew he was friends with Lexi. All this thinking really distracted me, so I just rushed to my seat quietly and slid into it. This is why I was very surprised when, as soon as the teacher started taking the register, the face of a grown man appeared next to mine and said,

"Well I haven't seen you around here before." I jumped, dropping the pen I had just taken out of my bag onto the floor. The boy? No, man, reached down and picked up the pen, handing it back to me without saying a word.

"Thanks," I said quietly. He winked at me, leaning towards me,

"No problem cutie. I'm Charlie, by the way."

"Kerri," I offered.

"Kerri. I like it," he said, moving the word around his mouth as if he liked the taste. He was staring at me with striking green eyes the glowed from his tanned face. I couldn't look away, until I was startled by the teacher calling my name. I turned to the front and called out, 'yes sir'. I had an odd feeling all through class that Charlie was watching me, and it made me feel odd. I didn't like it, and I didn't turn around again for the rest of the lesson. As soon as we were dismissed, I rushed over to Adam.

"Hey Adam," I said cheerily, glad to be away from Charlie's piercing stare.

"Oh, hiya Kerri," he replied.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked him. He smiled at me,

"Nothing really, just wanted to ask how you're getting along so far," he said.

"Great, thanks for asking. I'm really glad I found Lexi so soon, she's a great friend already," I told him as we started walking back to the main building.

"Yeah, she's awesome," Adam agreed, "I guess that's why Jay gets so weird when she's around, huh?"

"I wouldn't know anything about that," I said, giggling.

"Oh right, the girl code? I get it, don't worry. I won't tell Lexi you said anything," he teased. I did a huge fake gasp,

"I said nothing!"

"Sorry, sorry. Chill," Adam said, patting my head. I glared at him from under my eyelashes, making him laugh out loud.

"Aw, Kerri! I can tell you're going to fit right in with the group," he laughed. I smiled,

"Thanks Adam," I said, almost shouting. I guess I had that crazy look in my eye, because then he said,

"Oh no." Just as I jumped on him, screaming,

"I'm in the gang! Best friends for life!"

"Get it off me, get it off me!" Adam cried, faking screaming like a girl. This was all going on as we walked into the main building, me piggy backing Adam as he staggered in screaming. We definitely turned some heads, I can tell you. I decided to get off Adam when I noticed Mrs Marsh enter the hall.

"Well, that was fun," Adam commented as we began to go up to the sixth form common room.

"You have a free period now too?" I asked.

"Yeah, you got anything planned?"

"Studing english notes with Jacob," I replied.

"Oooh! Hot date?" Adam cooed. I smacked his arm, which only reminded me of Jacob.

"Adam, did I really just ride in here on your back?" I asked, beginning to doubt myself. I had barely known him and I was acting like he was one of my best friends. Oh god, oh de-

Adam interrupted my thoughts with a comforting,

"I think so, yeah. But don't worry Kerri. You wouldn't have if I didn't want you to. But I guess there's just something about you that makes you...approachable. I feel like I've known you for ages, y'know?"

"Adam, thank you. I feel like I know you too. I hope that we'll be good friends," I replied. He grinned, and then nudged me to turn around. I spun around to see Jacob peering around in the hallway.

"Judging by how much he was staring at you yesterday, three guesses who he's looking for?" Adam teased. I shushed him, then waved bye and walked up to Jacob.

"Hey," I said. He jumped, startled, then started,

"Oh, hiya Kerri! Ready to study?" I nodded, and then he led me into the common room to a free table in the back corner behind the bookshelves. As he sat down he tripped on the chair, his face going bright red. Was it me, or was he...nervous?