Lost Souls

Part 10

She arrived at her lecture hall breathless from the short run. The piece of denim was still clutched in her hand as she found a seat near the front. Despite the morning's incident at least she didn't have any classes with the lunatic she had been unfortunate enough to meet before. She lifted out her books, barely glancing round when someone slid into the seat next to her.

'Hi!' The voice right next to her ear made her jump sky high. She turned to see the last person she ever wanted to see again.

'What are you doing here?' she asked abruptly. His raised eyebrow had her blushing. She had sounded very rude.

'I decided to take this class,' he replied and opened his book, 'what a coincidence you are here too.'

Coincidence? She narrowed her eyes. She had been in this class for the past week and not seen him. Before she could question him further the lecturer walked in. She sighed and shifted as far as she could from her companion. But for once he didn't pester her with annoying questions. It was only when she was packing up after the lecture that he pushed a book towards her.

'What's this?' she asked, lifting it.

He shrugged with a small smile. 'You seemed to be struggling with Prof. Dale's lecture last time we met. This book is really good.' She looked down at it and her mouth fell open. He was helping her? 'I would have given it to you earlier,' he continued, laughter in his voice, 'but you seemed in a hurry to run away.'

She looked up at his laughing green eyes and felt a slight twinge of regret. She had been so rude earlier and he was actually helping her. 'I...Thank you.'

'Don't mention it,' he replied, waving a hand and then his eyes dropped to the desk. 'Is that a handkerchief?'

She looked down to see the piece of denim. 'No,' she said with a shake of her head, 'It's a shirt.'

'Really?' he lifted it to look at it closer, 'Doesn't look like a shirt.'

'It's a piece of a shirt,' she replied, taking it away from him and stuffing it into her backpack.

'Hmm, interesting,' he drawled, following her as she turned to leave the room. For some reason he kept pace with her as they walked down the hallway. She didn't object, after all he had given her his book.

'Do you tend to keep pieces of shirts around you,' he asked after a few minutes of silence.

She glanced up at him and realised for the first time how tall he was. He was a head taller than her and she wasn't exactly short.

'No,' she wondered how to explain it, 'just today.'

'Oh,' he nodded as though it made perfect sense.

Just then a short dark haired boy she didn't recognise came up to her, glanced quickly at her companion and handed her a folded piece of paper. 'This is for you.'

Before she could ask who the paper was from, the boy had disappeared into the crowd of students. She frowned and unfolded the paper, her eyes widening as she read the words.

'That's an interesting message.'

She turned her head to see the boy staring at it over her shoulder. She crumpled the paper hurriedly, stuffing it into her pocket and kept walking.

'What was that all about?' he asked.

'Nothing.'

'Come on! A mysterious message about a location delivered by a shifty person? It must be something.'

She kept silent, increasing her pace, maybe she could out walk him and lose him in the crowd. She quickly realised that was not going to happen. He kept pace with her easily.

'Ah, it's a date, right?' he continued, 'You have a secret admirer.'

When she didn't reply he continued, 'Please tell me it's not that guy.'

She came to a standstill and turned to look him in the eye. 'Why? What's it to you?' She squeezed her eyes shut, mortified. She was being rude again.

'He's too short for you,' came the amused answer.

She opened her eyes. 'Look, I don't even know your name...'

'Cody,' came the swift answer.

'What?'

'You can call me Cody,' he smiled.

She shook her head quickly, 'Fine, but that still doesn't mean you can...'

'So it's a date then?'

She frowned thrown off balance again. 'Uh, no...'

'That's good,' he nodded, 'coz that store is really expensive.'

'What store?' She looked puzzled.

'The one in the message,' he replied, 'Crezla's only carries the most expensive designer clothes.'

'Oh.' She looked down at her feet. How was she going to replace Kal's shirt? She had some money saved up but it was for her college fees next year to supplement the scholarship she was hoping to get from diving. Cody watched her bowed head.

'You sure have expensive taste,' he drawled, but glancing at her jeans and shirt he didn't think that was the case.

She shook her head. 'I don't.'

'So...?'

She looked up at him and for some reason even though she didn't know him she blurted out what had happened in the morning. He listened closely. She was obviously worried about replacing the shirt. He was just about to open his mouth when another voice broke in.

'Well, well, didn't expect to see you here.'

He groaned and turned to see someone he really didn't want to see. Skye looked past him and smiled when she recognised the girl standing a few feet away.

'Hi,' she said, glad for the distraction. Cody had looked far too intense while she had been telling him about her problem.

The tall girl who had helped her on her first day walked towards them, and Skye couldn't help marvelling at her stylish clothes. Dressed in a short black skirt and thigh high black boots she looked stunning. What was her name again? Oh yeah, Terry Kim.

Terry ignored Skye and stared at Cody who was shifting uneasily now. 'Thought you were studying at home,' she said.

He scowled at her. 'I decided to get in some extra lectures.'

'Really? You needed extra lectures?' She raised her eyebrows, 'The number one ranked student?'

What?! Skye couldn't believe it, was he really the number one student everyone was competing against?

He looked uneasy. 'What do you want?'

She shrugged. 'Nothing, just wanted to say hi. Haven't seen you in a while and the group was wondering where you were.' She glanced at Skye, a sudden knowing gleam in her eye. 'Now we know.'

'No you don't,' he contradicted her irritably and started to walk away. He came to a sudden stop a few metres away and turned to look back at the two girls who were looking after him, one with a knowing smile, the other looking confused. 'Don't worry about the shirt,' he said, 'I'm sure I've got one you can have.'

Before Skye could reply, he had disappeared. She frowned. He was going to give her the shirt? Why? How? She was busy still trying to figure out what he had meant when Terry's voice broke into her thoughts.

'You're the new girl right? Skye?'

Skye looked up and nodded. 'Yeah.'

Terry nodded. 'So, how do you know my cousin?'

'Cousin?'

'Yeah, sadly we're related,' she looked closely at her, 'I haven't seen him for a while since he doesn't need to come to school any more. I wonder what made him come in today?'

Skye bit her lip and tried to ignore Terry's knowing look.

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