HALO, Lorraine C [the giving tree read aloud txt] 📗

cliché. No one had noticed that she had initiated the classes’ bad boy into a conversation; it was as if they were invisible to them. Lynn looked at him properly and noticed his eyes had changed colour once again.

They were now raven blue and were those blonde highlights in his hair that she hadn’t noticed before? He was also noticeably nicer… maybe he had felt bad about being snappy at her earlier, maybe he had decided to make it up to her by being more civil.

Despite herself, she smiled, she had resolved earlier to give him the cold shoulder- which obviously so far wasn’t happening or working.

 

“Oh I’m Alex. Alex Taylor and you are…?” he looked at her expectantly,

“Lynn Smyth” she blurted out before she could stop her mouth. He smiled quirkily and said “Ahhh Yes” as if he knew something that she somehow didn’t. Lynn looked at the timetable she’d been given to avoid his burning eyes.  Advanced Medicinal Research was the first subject of the day. Lynn just hoped she would be left alone because an over cheerful bubbly buddy guide was the last thing she needed. The bell went as she mused over the peculiar boy sitting next to her, with his earphones jammed in, pretending that they’d never spoken in those five minutes when everyone else was distracted.

The class shuffled out as Mr Mann shouted over uninterested heads, “Okay guys and girls have a nice day, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning…be early please, that’s when you make your expedition choices!”

Lynn stood up and picked up her bag and made her way without a second interested glance at Alex Taylor. Lynn wasn’t about to be pulled into whatever game he was playing or planning.

Lynn swore she could almost feel the smile on his face on her retreating back.

 

So far the first two weeks of lectures had been uneventful; Lynn had been the new girl who’d been everyone’s fascination for about the first five minutes she was in the class. Then they all resumed to their normal day to day routines as if it didn’t really matter… which was good anyways since she wasn’t planning on making friends and staying here long.

 

Lynn sat down in the sanctuary of the library, she was sure this was the most uneventful place in the academy. Hopefully no one would notice her and take pity…Lynn didn’t want pity friends.

She picked the furthest, quietest corner that she could find, which wasn’t too difficult since it was warm and sunny today, and most people were outside- sitting on the grass to picnics of their lunches. Picking out her lunch she looked at what she had; a cheese, ham, olive and gherkin sandwich and a bottle of coke. Not too bad for a sunny day lunch, some of her favourite foods. Lynn remembered this one time when her parents had just started out as scientists and they never had time, and for lunch Sara’s idea of a whole meal had been a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar. She loved her adoptive parents but at times it was like she had been just part of an experiment in their lives; to see if they could take a crack at being a normal couple. Obviously the results as they would say were inconclusive.

 

A few sun rays slanted over her little ideas book as she tried to snatch ideas out of the air. Which obviously wasn’t a successful tactic since the pages were empty; all she could think about was Alex and his stupid musical voice. The way he’d looked at her with his easy smile and cold eyes. Lynn even tried looking out for him when she was walking in the corridors during lessons, and every time she thought she saw him, when she looked again it was just some wannabe look alike. It seemed the ‘Alex’ look was in, at HALO Academy. To be honest she didn’t know what it was, but he had that kind of magnetic pull for females and males alike. Which Lynn supposed came with basically being perfect. Suddenly the sun rays were gone, and a shadow was cast over her book, Lynn looked up to see…Rose?

 

A few days earlier she had, had her encounter with Rose when, she had been forced to sit next to her in her New World Theories on Advanced Evolution seminar. Rose had given Lynn a cold withering look, as if she was some dirt under her designer pumps. Rose had wrinkled her nose at Lynn and laughed a high ear piercing laugh with one of her clone-wannabes as she approached. If they were wolves, Lynn was sure Rose would have bared her teeth and growled at her like a vicious little spoilt pup. She had, had to endure the rest of the 45 minutes surrounded by the bitch circle. And at the end, in true predictable threatened alpha female mode, she’d cornered her and tried to give Lynn the ‘Know your place speech’.

Frankly, Lynn hadn’t given a damn, and she’d walked away mid sentence.

 

Now here Rose was, having successfully tracked her down again….Joy.

Rose stood there glaring down at her, with vicious snake like eyes.

‘Where’s your pack?’

‘None of your damn business’ she snarled back at her, Lynn smirked at her visible irritation; she knew somehow that in this situation Lynn had the upper hand. They eyed each other like two circling pythons, waiting to strike. Lynn was the new girl here, and already she had somehow managed to get on her nerves. ‘Well if you don’t mind you can go search for them elsewhere, obviously they aren’t here’. If it were possible Rose’s eyes squinted even further and Lynn bet if she could, Rose would have struck her down with bolts of lightning- she wondered why she hadn’t yet. Rose looked as if she was about to bite back but instead she took a deep breath.

‘That’s not why I am here… I am here to warn you’ Lynn looked puzzled, what was this? Some kind of crazy omen horror movie that she’d gotten herself into, and it seemed that her messenger of death was a tall, naturally curly blonde. She looked angelic and dangerous at the same time, and had that kind of beauty that made you want to just hide in shame- high cutting cheek bones and expressive eyes and mouth- with an upturned nose that looked down at you. ‘Look I haven’t got time to play games with you, I’m just telling you…stay away’

Lynn raised an eyebrow…what, did she expect her to magically guess what she was going on about? Rose was about to open her mouth to elaborate and the bell went, and her little puppies burst in. They were like Rose clones except well…less, beautiful I guess. Rose gave her a last warning withering glance that said this wasn’t over. And she sauntered off before here clones noticed she’d just been talking to her.

Lynn saw one of them pointing at her and then cackling as they cat walked out of the library, if only the books cared.

The bell went and she hitched her bag onto her shoulder and scooped up her finished lunch. This was obviously going to be a tough year of college.

 

‘Hey Lynn! Lynn wait!’ turning around she saw Alex coming towards her, and you could see everyone’s shocked face, Lynn guessed he didn’t normally go round shouting after people to wait for him. She waited as he strode to catch up to her with a few steps and a trail of lustily envious glares in his wake. Looking at him she expected him to start talking, considering he’d chased her down the corridor to stop her- but he didn’t. Instead they walked in awkward silence, well on her side anyway. He seemed to be in his element and a bit too comfortable. With most guys they’d have backed off from her glacial unwelcoming silence. Initiating conversations and maintaining them wasn’t her strong suit to say the least. Glancing at the timetable, it read Physical Ed. For someone who had been a big Lara Croft fan it was funny that she had hated it in high school. At HALO the lessons were mandatory, she thought that once she had finished high school she had managed to escape the clutches of forced gym classes. Here if you wanted to be a field agent, you had to do them. Tactical planning, combat and weapons handling, and that had been enough to sway her mind about the subject, this was what she had been waiting for all along. If she couldn’t be a HALO scientist she definitely wanted to try her hand at field work. More specifically there were rumours that a few undergraduates would be chosen to go on the Babylonian temple expedition. No one knew much about it but somehow everyone who was anyone in the academy had been furiously training in hopes of getting noticed and picked for the expedition team.

 

Just as they stepped out of the door to go outside, he shoved her behind him as a ball hit him squarely on the chest and bounced off. If he hadn’t it would have hit Lynn squarely in the face and that wasn’t a look she wanted to be sporting right now. Lynn could almost see it in the school newspaper…new girl takes balls to the face. The ball now rolled absently and harmlessly away from them, her mouth was still a round empty dazed O. ‘You okay?’ he turned around searching Lynn’s face for anything. Which Lynn thought was pretty stupid since it was his chest that had stopped any potential damage. Immediately he dropped his hands midway to her face and swallowed nervously. ‘Erm yeah yeah thanks, it was just a near call that’s all.’ He nodded and slipped his hands into his pocket. ‘So how did you know it was headed for me?’ he cleared his throat and it was almost as if he was looking for the best way to answer, ‘Oh you know erm, being captain of the rugby team and all er you kinda get a sixth sense for any airborne balls whenever they’re in the vicinity.’, raising an eyebrow Lynn smirked at him, ‘Oh really huh, maybe I should sign up too it looks like a useful skill to have.’, at that he laughed out loud almost a little to relieved. For some reason Lynn had a stupid thought of a book she’d read, the guy saving the girl from an escapee car. She just hoped her story hadn’t just started as stupidly as that. But his over reaction still set off some suspicions. Deciding to relieve some of the tension Lynn decided to change her train of thought; it didn’t escape her that he visibly relaxed a little too much.

 

‘So yeah why did you want me before?’ he looked perplexed and then it registered on his face, ‘Oh you mean the whole chasing you down the corridor?’ Lynn laughed as they started towards the Physical Training Block. ‘Come on that’s an exaggeration it was more like commandeering my attention, from the impending doom of my first training class.’ His lips curved up a bit in a sort of smile, ‘And don’t forget to protect you from airborne balls’ before Lynn could answer he hurried on quickly, ‘And to also ask you if you needed anyone to show you around, you know like a tourist guide slash err buddy person. I kinda noticed you didn’t have one you see.’

‘I know. I’ve avoided having one. But thank you for the offer Alex; I’m sure I’ll be fine, considering I’ve already been here a coupla weeks.’ He looked a bit crestfallen and out of his element. Lynn guessed he wasn’t used to rejection. ‘What I meant was, you might need a friend y’know or something.’ He looked a bit lost as she laughed at his discomfort. ‘You know if you wanted to hang out with me you could’ve just asked Alex, you don’t