Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga (3 page)

“I don’t know… I don’t even care.” Aira was already frustrated with all of the other things wrong with her
truck.

Avery
laughed.

Aira’s phone began to vibrate. Avery was sitting on it, so she pulled it out from underneath
her.

“I wonder, is it Jaidas?” Avery asked, slightly waving the phone around, bugging
Aira.

“I don’t know,” Aira replied not seeming to really care. She wanted to avoid the conversation. She knew Avery couldn’t stand him. Avery hated the way he negated Aira’s feelings and how his apologies had become more of a habit rather than being
sincere.

“Aira, I really hope he’s trying with you this time. He’s such a jerk. You’d think after all these years he’d realize it does nothing for his character.” Avery stopped and looked at Aira. She knew Aira hated being in the middle of them, but sometimes Avery couldn’t help
herself.

“I’m sorry, I promised not to be so skeptical, its just
—”

“I know… it’s okay.” Aira pulled into a parking spot across from The Moose and turned off the
truck.

“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about crashing a wedding anytime soon. I’ve never even heard you mention the word love, like ever. Do you love him?” Avery asked tentatively while she rummaged through her backpack to find her
purse.

“I guess that’s where I’m skeptical. What does that even mean?” Aira let out a small
smile.

Avery laughed, opened the truck door and got out. She looked back in at Aira. “Well, you better love
me.”

Aira smiled and shook her head, opened her truck door and got out. They walked across the street to The Moose, went in, quickly grabbed something to eat and drove to
school.

Hope Secondary School was home to the Mustangs. The dark reddish-orange building trimmed in blue and cream beige was surrounded by a parking lot and large playing field. Behind the back side of the school was the mechanics
shop.

When they pulled into the school parking lot Jaidas was standing by his car, a black 1969 Charger in mint condition, with four of his closest guy friends and two of their girlfriends. Harlem Cross, Sara Braney, Jessie Gatta, Chelsey Kuris, Logan Cottee, and Cory
Loric.

Harlem had dark brown hair, was a little thicker than the others, husky, but he suited it. A good looking kid. He was funny and liked to make fun of Logan all the time, mostly because Logan was full of himself and it made Harlem laugh. They were buds,
though.

Logan had sandy blonde hair, light green eyes and was very fit. He also came from wealth. He always wore shorts and a hoodie. He liked to rough house and gloat, and he was very proud. He was also a smart
ass.

Cory’s hair was deep carrot red, and was a jogging pants and T-shirt kind of guy. He was very laid back and peaceful to be around. He had the body of a rugby player. He worked out, but he wasn’t hard and full of muscle, more husky and filled out in a comfortable
way.

Jessie was more slender. He worked out too, so he was pretty toned. He had light brown hair and brown eyes. He dressed like a skateboarder: backwards hat, ripped jeans, simple T-shirts, and pull-over sweaters. He also loved tattoos. He has one sleeve he’d been working on for the past year, as had
Jaidas.

Sara was Harlem’s girlfriend. She was very pretty, sociable, and very, very smart. She had an innocent look to her. Though she looked innocent, she didn’t take crap from anyone. It was definitely what drew Harlem to her. They really loved each
other.

Chelsey was blonde and had the perfect body. She was an avid volleyball player and both she and Sara were straight A students. Chelsey was taller than Sara, 5’8, maybe even a bit taller. She was always happy and loved people. Her presence was very magnetic. She has been Logan’s girlfriend since eighth grade, but surprisingly had fallen completely head over heels for Jessie in tenth grade. Fearing that it would end their friendship she had said nothing, but six months ago Jessie couldn’t hold back his feelings anymore. He told her how he felt about her and they have been secretly seeing each other ever since. Everybody knew except Logan, but even he had his
suspicions.

Out of all of them, Harlem was Jaidas’s dearest friend. Partners in crime, so to speak. Harlem’s father had been pretty rough on him growing up. He used to be quiet, his spirit pretty beat down. When him and Jaidas became friends in middle school all that seemed to change. It was like Jaidas took him under his wing. He became a less self-conscience, panicked-filled
kid.

Aira had been with Jaidas the day that Jaidas had had enough and grown tired of Harlem’s father. He had driven to Harlem’s house and told her to wait in the car. Harlem was at the part-time job he worked to help support his family, though everyone knew it was because of his father’s bad habits. Jaidas had walked right into the house, he hadn’t even knocked. He’d closed the door and had some words with him. Whatever Jaidas said to him was enough that Harlem’s father did a complete 180. He’d never laid another hand on Harlem, or spoken down on him ever since. It was strange. Perhaps the reason Jaidas felt drawn to Harlem was because of the shortcomings of his own life at home. Though his father was never mean to him, his father was all about business and too busy most of the time to pay much attention to him. Jaidas harbored a lot of unresolved
resentment.

The one thing all of the boys had in common was that they loved hockey. They played together since they were little, for the Hope hockey team at the Hope & District Recreation Center
Arena.

Aira pulled into a parking spot, and they got out of the
truck.

“My baby,” Jaidas spoke walking over to them. He was wearing a low-cut white T-shirt and jeans. He picked up Aira and spun her around, and as Jaidas spun her, Aira caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar boy sitting in his car, a grey, 2014 Lexus IS350, with his head down
reading.

His dark, ashy-brown hair highlighted the lightness of his ivory skin. His pointer finger and thumb of his left hand played with his subtle, dusty-rose-colored lips as he concentrated on what he was
reading.

Jaidas put Aira
down.

“Avery,” Jaidas spoke with a
grin.

“Jaidas,” she replied with no
enthusiasm.

He smiled because of Avery’s pessimistic attitude towards him. His friends walked over and instantly started being obnoxious and laughing about something. They were always rowdy and
loud.

The new boy tore his eyes away from what he was reading and looked over at them. His eyes were piercing and intangible blue. Mysterious, he was beautiful— the kind of beauty you want to lay your head on. The moment he looked up, he saw Aira and smiled. His smile was warm and inviting. In the moment that they locked eyes, there was a sound of rolling thunder. Everyone looked up, and a slight streaming bolt of lightning flashed across the
sky.

Aira rubbed her left wrist on her tummy by her hip as she looked at the boy. The feeling in her stomach became like weightless
butterflies.

Jaidas and his friends were too busy talking about the `great adventures` they had had over the summer to even notice Aira staring over at him and that he was looking back at her. But Avery sure
did.

The first bell rang and Aira came back to reality. Jaidas grabbed Aira’s hand and they started to walk towards the
school.

Avery noticed the boy she has secretly loved since elementary school moving things around in the trunk of his car a ways down the parking lot. His car was nothing special, modest, a dull, flat, faded black, and always a mess. He had worked all summer to buy
it.

His name was Joshua. He wore black, quirky-framed glasses, but only when he needed to read, and his hair was light sandy brown. He was very intelligent looking and, especially to Avery, very good looking. Even though he knew a lot about somethings, other things he was just clueless about. He and his parents had moved to Hope when he was in grade six. They had family here and wanted to be closer. Avery had instantly liked him. Joshua was shy, sort of, but he usually kept to himself. When he did come out of his shell he became the life of the party. He was charmingly funny and witty. The thing she loved the most about him was that he never conformed to anything, always staying true to himself. His family was pretty well off, but as a typical eighteen-year-old boy, it didn’t really show. His lack of motivation to keep anything in his life together apparently took too much energy. He lived for corny horror movies and had great taste in music. His locker and desk were also always a big mess, but he always dressed well and he did smell
amazing!

He also had a thing for Avery, but neither dared to say
anything.

“Hi, Joshua,” she spoke softly and
nervously.

Joshua turned around and smiled at
her.

“Hi,
Avery.”

Avery bit her lip and skipped quickly to catch up to
Aira.

Jaidas walked both Avery and Aira to their lockers, as they were side by side. The halls were crowded with frantic and overly-enthusiastic
teenagers.

“What’s your first class?” Jaidas asked somewhat distracted, looking through the halls then back at
her.

As Aira opened the lock on her locker, he tried to peek at her combination in a joking way. She moved so he wouldn’t see it. They were subtly
playing.

“I’m not sure,” she replied, opening
it.

Avery rolled her eyes to
herself.

“Alright, well, I’m gonna drop my bag off.” He kissed the top of her head and walked
away.

Aira started pulling things out of her backpack and putting them in her locker as Avery started to
talk.

“Did you see the new boy? Of course you did, I saw you staring at each other. Do you know him or
something?”

“No, I don’t know him — and no, I wasn’t staring at anyone.” Aira stopped and looked at Avery, trying her best to look convincing while she continued putting her stuff
away.

“Yea, right Aira, I’m your best friend, I see everything.” Avery shut her locker and smiled at her. “I’ll see you after class,” and she walked away, giving her a quick hip
bump.

Aira smiled and shook her head at her best friend’s ridiculousness. She pulled out a piece of paper from her bag and quickly looked up for a second. She noticed the new boy was walking down the hall towards her. Her heart started to pound, and the closer he got the more nervous she got. The whole time neither of them broke eye contact. He smiled and then turned into a
classroom.

Aira took a deep breath of relief, almost like she had stopped breathing as he was walking towards her. She looked down at the paper in her hand, trying to figure out where her first class was. HI 12—History12 it read. She moved her head and looked to the room he had just walked into, and looked at the paper again. “Great,” she said to herself. She pulled some books out of her locker but was so nervous she dropped two onto the floor. She bent down and slowly put them into the crease of her arm trying to take her time. She was dreading going into the room, mostly because she already felt like a complete mess around
him.

As Aira stood up, put her backpack in her locker and closed it, Jaidas walked up behind
her.

“History?” he
asked.

Aira, a bit startled, turned around and looked at him. She took the tips of a strand of her hair and put them across her chin and gave him a light nod turning to walk to the
classroom.

“Well, let’s go,” he smiled, giving her a quick pat on the
bum.

They walked into the class. It was full. There were only two desks left, singular desks, one in the front beside Logan, and one in the very back beside the
boy.

Jaidas took the seat beside Logan right away. They were already talking. Two obnoxious boys sitting by each other all year, not Aira’s idea of a good time especially because they fed off each
other.

Aira looked to the desk at the back and made her way there trying not to make eye contact with him and sat down. She wouldn’t turn her head even once. The boy had his elbow on the desk rubbing his chin with the back of his fingers. He smiled, then opened his
binder.

The teacher began to
speak.

“Good morning class, I hope you all had a good summer. I’m Mr. Robinson, and I am your history teacher for the year.” Mr. Robinson was a great teacher, fun, exciting, enthusiastic, and quite a bit younger than the other teachers. The way he spoke made the students want to
learn.