Falling into Forever (10 page)

When Taylor noticed Benjamin looking so long at Alexandra, she turned toward Alexandra with a wry smile on her face.

Don't worry, Taylor,
Alexandra thought.
He's probably
not my type. We're probably not even the same species.

While Dr. Sullivan continued his announcements, Alexandra pulled her class schedule from her bag. Her favorite class—history with Mr. Frost—fell to last period, and she knew the day would drag until then. She thought of all the reasons she liked Mr. Frost. He was eccentric, gifted, and fun. He was voted teacher of the year by the students five years straight. He painted the walls of his classroom with the flags of all the countries where he traveled. Routinely, his lectures often ended up off-track with some tale of adventure in a foreign land. Had Mr. Frost paddled among piranha in the Amazon? Nearly frozen to death hiking the Himalayas? Tossed a water balloon from the Eiffel Tower? The answer was always yes.

Just then she heard, “Regrettably, our beloved faculty member Mr. Frost has taken a leave of absence from Collinsworth Academy this semester.” Dr. Sullivan had swiftly announced this tragedy with nonchalance, as if he had revealed that the cafeteria would be substituting hot dogs for pizza at lunch. Gasps of disappointment filled the room.

A voice from somewhere in the middle of the mass of stunned students shouted, “Why? Where's Mr. Frost?”

“Unfortunately,” continued Dr. Sullivan, with all eyes in the room on him, “Mr. Frost has taken a leave for family matters. I am not at liberty to discuss it any further.”

Raised whispers of speculation dispersed through the crowd as Dr. Sullivan tried to regain his students's attention. Suddenly the door behind Alexandra burst open. A young gentleman strode past her down the center aisle toward the podium where Dr. Sullivan stood. More gliding than walking, the tall figure breached the distance quickly. He was a blur of dark hair and black, tailored suit.

Dr. Sullivan calmly stepped away from the microphone and took the man's outreached hand to shake it vigorously. The stranger stood quietly beside him while the headmaster spoke into the microphone.

“Please allow me to introduce Dr. Sean Callahan,” said Dr. Sullivan with great enthusiasm. “He has agreed to teach Mr. Frost's classes this semester, and it is an honor for him to be here. Please make sure to welcome him to our Collinsworth home when you see him on campus. Dr. Callahan is an Oxford University professor, and he has interrupted a research trip to come here as a personal favor.”

The headmaster stopped speaking and looked at the assembly of astonished students in front of him. Sitting in stunned silence, the students did not seem to feel as comfortable with the turn of events as Dr. Sullivan.

The hint of an Irish brogue skipped from the lips of the mysterious stranger as the assembled students stared openly. Callahan scanned the room from side to side as he assured everyone how glad he felt to be teaching at Collinsworth. To Alexandra, his eyes seemed to fixate on her at the back of the room.

He said, “I am looking forward to meeting every one of you. Your youth and bright minds are a treasure. Now let us prepare for many adventures together.”

High above the assembly, the ringing bell tower startled the students.

“You are dismissed,” said Dr. Sullivan, regaining the microphone. “Please exit slowly now and have a tremendous day.”

Bodies pushed against Alexandra as she squeezed into the wave of students all trying to rush out the doors of Drake Hall at the same time. She made her way through the doors and into the sunshine to wait for Taylor, who appeared, guiding Benjamin behind her by the hand.

“What was that all about?” Taylor asked. Without giving Alexandra a chance to answer, Taylor officially introduced her to Benjamin. “Alexandra, this is Benjamin Lawson. And no you cannot have him. He's mine.” She giggled, pleased with her audaciousness.

Benjamin dropped Taylor's hand to shake Alexandra's. “It's nice to meet you, Alexandra. Call me Ben.”

As he smiled at Alexandra, she felt her cheeks blush.
His eyes are as blue as the sky
, she thought to herself. His golden hair sparkled in the bright morning sun, and his smooth, tanned skin glowed like sweet caramel.

Taylor caught Alexandra staring and coughed beside her. “Alex, Benjamin just moved from California,” she said as she put her arm around his waist. “He's a surfer.”

“Cool,” stuttered Alexandra, her face flushing red.
Well
that went just great,
she mused.

Sliding his hips from Taylor's grasp, Benjamin focused his blue eyes on Alexandra's cheeks. “I'm glad you don't cover those up,” he told her.

“Cover what?” Alexandra asked as she stared at her black Mary Jane shoes shuffling against the cement sidewalk.

“Your freckles,” he said.

“I have to go make potions in chemistry now,” Taylor interrupted. “What do you have for first period, Alexandra? Let me see your schedule,” she demanded and ripped a piece of blue paper from Alexandra's fingers. Disappointment registered across Taylor's face while she silently read the schedule.

“Look, Ben. You and Alexandra have first-period German class with Frau Stunkhaus.” With that fact revealed, Taylor turned her nose up and pranced away to class.

Alexandra stood still, tongue-tied.

“Do you mind showing me where class is?” Ben asked. “I'm totally lost here.”

A shy grin eased across his handsome face while he waited for her to answer.

“Are you okay?” asked Benjamin. Unnerved by him, her fingers twirled her hair unconsciously.

He pulled a rumpled class schedule from his pocket. “Which way is Mitchell Hall?”

Struggling to regain her composure, Alexandra pointed her finger past his head to the ivy-covered, red-brick, two-story building straight behind him. “It's that one,” she mumbled. “Not hard to miss,” she added.

“Let's go, then,” said Benjamin eagerly, leading the way. He paused and waited for her to catch up so that they could walk together. Alexandra thought surely that the eyes of every student in the quad were upon them.

Reaching Mitchell Hall, they climbed a staircase to Frau Stunkhaus's second-floor classroom. Ever the gentleman, Benjamin held the door open when they'd arrived at the right room. Alexandra actually paused for a moment in the doorway, not realizing he was holding the door open for her.

“Does she bite?” Benjamin joked patiently, propping the door open with his arm, waiting for Alexandra to enter.

She looked at him, puzzled. Not accustomed to shy, polite teenage boys, it took her a moment to grasp his gesture.

“Thank you,” said Alexandra, smiling. They walked toward the back of the room.

Cramped and drab Mitchell Hall was one of the oldest buildings on campus. Its uncomfortable classrooms showed their age. Students often had difficulty concentrating when the sun baked or the wind howled outside the building. This was because in Frau Stunkhaus's second-floor classroom, the radiator broke down in the winter, and the air-conditioning sputtered off and on until fall.

Alexandra also found her concentration thin today in that room, but for a different reason. Except for the row of windows and the blackboard at the front of the class, every inch of wall space in the classroom was papered with posters of the European countryside. There were fairy-tale castles, majestic Alpine mountains, and quaint villages nestled in deep valleys. Alexandra's eyes traveled over the scenes as she took her seat. For a fleeting moment, she let herself imagine that she lived in one of the faraway scenes.

Careful to choose the desk closest to the bank of windows lining the room's entire exterior-facing wall, Alexandra planted herself on the hard, wooden chair and reminded herself not to complain about how cold it would be once winter arrived. Wanting to stick close to Alexandra, Benjamin chose the last seat in the row directly across from her.

“Guten morgen, y'all,” Frau Stunkhaus greeted her seated students as others still wandered into the room.

Alexandra giggled, and Benjamin smiled at her. With her cheeks blushing, she noticed how warm the room felt. Stifled by her blazer, Alexandra again removed it and hung it securely on the back of her chair.

Remembering that her ponytail holder sat at the bottom of her book bag, Alexandra pulled her long, auburn hair into a loose pile on the back of her head. Running her fingertips over the birthmark on the nape of her neck, she sensed that someone was watching her and turned around to meet Benjamin's gaze.

“I would cut it,” she admitted, “but it's the only thing that keeps me from looking like a twelve-year-old boy,” she said, giggling.

“Hardly,” he responded. Her stomach flipped. A moment passed while Benjamin dug inside his book bag for a pen. “What's that mark on the back of your neck?” he said finally.

“It's a birthmark,” she tried to explain. “Taylor says it looks like I have eyes on the back of my head. That's why she never does anything behind my back that she wouldn't do in front of me.”

Benjamin leaned over for a closer look and reached his hand out to brush her hair aside for a close look. “I agree with her,” he said. “That's kind of freaky.”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Alexandra said flatly, momentarily horrified. As Frau Stunkhaus approached them with her heels clicking on the linoleum, he pulled his hand away from Alexandra's neck.

“Guten morgen, Miss Peyton,” her teacher said, smiling. She proceeded to open the window beside Alexandra's desk. A breeze ruffled the notebook pages on Alexandra's desk, and she sucked in the fresh air greedily as Frau Stunkhaus walked back to the front of the room, ready to begin class.

Frau Stunkhaus was petite, ash-blond, and she still possessed striking good looks, though long past her youth. Aside from her name, she seemed the epitome of a southern belle, with a refined demeanor and saccharine voice. Of course when she stepped in front of a class of students to teach the German language, the sounds that came out of her mouth were hard and guttural. She practically spit the German from her mouth.

During the lesson, Alexandra found it difficult to concentrate because her nervous, sideways glances at Benjamin throughout class confirmed her fear: he'd become preoccupied with her birthmark. Rubbing at her neck, Alexandra tried to keep the mark covered with her hand. Finally she gave up and let her hair down from her ponytail.

“You should have left your hair up, Alex,” said Benjamin as he leaned over the aisle between their desks. “It was cute that way,” he told her.

“Thanks,” she stuttered, her cheeks the same color as Frau Stunkhaus's flaming-red lipstick.

The bell rang out from the hallway outside the classroom, and Frau Stunkhaus dismissed class. Benjamin pulled his crumpled schedule from his pocket. Casually spying the schedule Alexandra held in her hands, Benjamin asked, “So what's next? It does look like we have lunch together later.”

“Taylor will be there, too,” Alexandra added. “We usually grab something quickly and sit outside to eat.”

“Cool,” he said enthusiastically, flashing a wide smile.

There were two hours until lunch. Alexandra promised herself that she would be able to regain her composure by then. As they left class, they saw Taylor waiting for them at the foot of the staircase. Alexandra and Benjamin descended from the second floor.

“Later,” Benjamin said, bypassing Taylor and hurrying to his next class.

“Humph,” grunted Taylor, her ego bruised. She yanked Alexandra outside and wrapped her arm around her so she could not escape as they walked through the grassy quad. “So, what did you two talk about without me?”

“Not much. Ben didn't have much to say. He is very observant, though,” Alexandra said, blushing at the thought of Benjamin Lawson staring at her neck.

“I saw that,” Taylor said accusingly, but the ringing of the bell reminded her to hurry to her next class before she could ask any more questions. “I'll see you at lunch,” she said as she ducked back into Drake Hall for drama class, leaving Alexandra to walk to calculus class by herself.

8
Hunger

Trudging from class to class like a zombie, Alexandra pressed forward through her morning schedule despite a lack of sleep and an empty stomach. Chemistry class followed calculus class. She finally found the lab room, which was in the dankest basement on campus. This was not the end of the horror; Mr. Haney assigned her to sit next to Pete Evans, one of Taylor's former boyfriends.

Victims
, Alexandra aptly called them.

Pete still harbored an unrequited obsession for Taylor. That morning, his obnoxious questions about her nauseated Alexandra almost as much as the fumes from his cologne.

When Mr. Haney dismissed class, she escaped from Pete as fast as possible. Only psychology class separated her from lunch and seeing Benjamin again. Inside the classroom, Alexandra took a desk next to Courtney and Michelle. They were redheaded twins, and she'd been on the tennis team with them since freshmen year. The twins eagerly attempted to catch up on the latest news before class started.

“I heard Taylor got a nose job over the summer. Is that true?” asked Courtney.

“Is she dating Benjamin Lawson or what?” poked Michelle. “He is beyond cute.”

“No nose job. And she's not dating him,” Alexandra explained. “But maybe you should just ask her yourselves.”

“No way,” said Courtney. “You're the one who is a friend of hers. She hasn't spoken to me since the ninth grade when I told her that her eyebrows didn't match her hair.”

“Spill it, Alex,” demanded Michelle. “We need some gossip.”

Alexandra shrugged. “I don't know anything,” she fibbed. “Taylor was gone most of the summer. Besides, I wouldn't talk about her behind her back.”

“But that's no fun!” said Michelle, giggling as their teacher closed the classroom door and brushed past their desks.