One Plus One Equals One

Chapter 9 - Gwen's POV

My history class is much smaller then my maths one. A few students give me curious looks, but nobody makes an effort to talk to me as I slide into an empty desk in the middle of the room. The air con hums quietly overhead, and the windows are open meaning I can hear the conversations of students passing by. A girl is sat to my left blowing bubbles with her bubble gum and playing with her phone, but I do not catch her eye so I do not strike up a conversation. Whilst I am arranging my stationary systematically on the white desk, suddenly the door bursts open again and Cohen and his friend Leo saunter in.

"Gentlemen, you just made ze bell." Our teacher reprimands with a heavy French accent. "Please, hurry up and zit down, we are about to start our lesson on ze American civil war."

Surprisingly, Cohen makes his way over and sits next to me on the right (Leo goes and sits by a handful of cooing girls), but I do not make an effort to talk to him since I am ticked off. I am fine by my own; if he hates me that much he does not need to baby-sit me.

"Hey..." Cohen whispers, but I steadfastly ignore him, pretending to be fascinated by Miss Chevrolet's lesson.

"Look, I'm sorry alright, I didn't mean to leave you... well I did, but I regret it. I wasn't thinking clearly." He tries again.

"Ok." I mumble distractedly whilst scribbling some notes down, not willing to give him the time of day.

"The girl we ran into is Raven... my ex girlfriend. It's the first time I've seen her since we... we broke up." He admits, with a painful look flashing in his eye.

"I see..." I answer quietly, feeling a little bad about how cold I have been.

"Yeah, and as douchey as it sounds, when I saw her and that pretty boy I forgot all about you, and had to go otherwise I would have lost control and punched his brains out." Cohen explains, his fists going white as he clenches them, making me wonder whether he is still trying to stop himself from finding the boy and inflicting physical damage on him.

"It's ok, I understand. I forgive you." I smile at him, realising it is simply better to bury the hatchet since he does have a good reason and apologised.

"Is there something you want to share with the class Miss Woods and Mr Kefalas?" Miss Chevrolet snaps, glaring at Cohen and me.

"Oh no, sorry miss, Rayne was just explaining to me the sequence of the first events of the civil war." Cohen hastily says, saving me from being told off.

Staring at him curiously, I wonder why he is suddenly being nice, but he simply winks at me before promising not to talk again. After that incident, we do not talk much - instead concentrating on the lesson. It is certainly very interesting, and as I love history, I listen intently. My cheeks grow hot as I realise that Cohen is not focusing on the video and is instead staring at me!

"What?" I question self-consciously, wondering if there is something on my face.

"Oh, sorry, nothing, just that your concentration face is cute." He reveals with a wicked grin.

I quickly snap my face away from his and hide under my hair, as my cheeks grow hotter then the sun. When I hear Cohen's low chuckle I know he is enjoying my embarrassment. He is certainly very transmutable! Once our history class has finished we have a fifteen-minute break, which I spend with Cohen and the insufferable, flirtatious Leo. Cohen has to hit him more then once on my behalf.

My next lesson is English class, which Cohen kindly walks me to. He instructs me to wait for him after class so that he can walk me to the lunch hall. He arrives around five minutes after the bell, and invites me to sit with him, Susanne, and their friends, and I said I would as long as I could bring one of my own. I am not sure where I am supposed to meet Torryn, but I follow Cohen, Leo and Josh hoping that I will bump into her at the dining hall. The Kefalas's cook (Maple) prepared me an exquisite lunch today so I do not need to go up and get food, although it does look like a wonderful spread – the school does boast a famous cook on their website after all. After entering the canteen by trailing down the white marble steps, I notice there are around twenty gleaming tables with eight red plastic chairs around each one, most of them being at full occupation by this point. The walls are painted a cherry colour, and every so often, there is a portrait of the school or of its students, showing off its excellency.