Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga (6 page)

Aira walked into the kitchen, grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table, puttered around the house for a few minutes eating it, then walked out to her
truck.

The day was a bit darker and
cooler.

She threw in her bag, got in, and drove to school. Coming up to a four way stop just before town, Aira was daydreaming again. After a minute a car honked loudly. Aira, startled, looked in her rear-view mirror and saw the car driver waiting impatiently. Pulling her eyes away from the mirror, she looked out the front window and continued to drive to
school.

When Aira pulled up into the parking lot she saw Jaidas, all of his groupies, and of course Kaitlyn standing beside him. They all looked as Aira pulled
in.

Kaitlyn liked to dye her hair different colors. It was now a tangerine orange, but her dark brown roots had grown out a bit. She was pale, had brown eyes and was quite pretty. Actually, she was really
pretty.

Aira parked the truck, opened her door, pulled herself out and shut the truck door. She took a small breath and slowly walked up to
them.

“Hey,” Aira spoke in a quieted voice, feeling awkward. She didn’t let off she knew about Jaidas and Kaitlyn. She wanted him to tell her
himself.

There was high silent tension, then Jaidas, being loud like he always was, said,“Ya, hey, you’ve been a little too off for me lately. I have too much going on to keep guessing with you. This isn’t going to work, sorry.” He sounded condescending like he expected it to hurt
her.

Kaitlyn laughed under her
breath.

Aira looked back at her with
disgust.

“I’m sure she is more than willing,” Aira smiled back at
Jaidas.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kaitlyn asked like a snot, with a mocking smile on her
face.

Aira just walked
away.

Jaidas was stunned. He moved Kaitlyn out of the way watching Aira walk
away.

She wasn’t concerned in any way over Jaidas and his manipulative tactics. She was relieved, and with that relief she walked with confidence into the school with only one person in
mind.

She walked down the halls looking around to see if she could see him. She came to her locker, grabbed her books, put her bag in her locker and closed
it.

Aira smiled to herself holding her books against her chest and walked into history class. There were only a
few people in the classroom, but he wasn’t one of
them.

She walked over to her desk and sat down. Looking at the clock she started tapping her pen impatiently on her desk. She was anxious to see him even if she wasn’t brave enough to really say anything to
him.

The bell rang and shortly more students started piling into the room. Jaidas walked in
with

Logan and Kaitlyn, making a point to not even look at Aira. Aira watched as he played around, pulling at Kaitlyn’s hair in a gentle way before they sat down. Yes, Kaityln was the girl who sat at the desk on the other side of
Jaidas.

Aira looked away towards the door, and Israel finally walked in. His presence was massive to her, like it had filled the whole
room.

She smiled and looked down — and then he smiled, walked to his desk and sat
down.

Jaidas watched. His energy had changed again. He tried to avoid his own tension and reached over to hold Kaitlyn’s
hand.

“You look beautiful,” Israel spoke
calmly.

Aira felt a burst of excitement, then turned her head the other way and smiled. Israel smiled to himself and started to
write.

This had now become the fastest hour of Aira’s life, and the bell rang. It sounded louder, more drawn out. This time, Aira waited for Israel to get up first, then she got
up.

Jaidas was at the front of the class talking to the teacher about switching classes. He wanted to switch it so he would do history in the second semester instead of the first. All Aira heard was Jaidas say, “I can’t concentrate like this,” looking at Aira from the corner of his eye. Aira knew now that she wasn’t seeing things. Jaidas didn’t get to change
classes.

The rest of the day was drawn out. Her teachers seem to talk forever, every second dragged on, and on, and
on.

Distracted by her own thoughts she couldn’t even think. What was happening? How can one person that she didn’t really know have such an effect on her life? She was frustrated with herself. Aira let out a groan and put her head down on her
desk.

“Miss Bellen, is there a problem?” Mr. Anderson, her math teacher, spoke up. The whole class was looking at
her.

“Ah –” she shook her head trying to think of something to say.
“No?”

“If you need help, just ask, okay?” Asking him for help was definitely the farthest thing from her
mind.

Aira nodded at him and returned to her work, feeling completely put on the spot. She hated that
feeling.

She was thankful it was
Friday.

3:00 o’clock and the bell finally rang. Aira got up and walked to her locker. Avery was there with
Joshua.

“Hey,” Aira spoke quietly, closing her locker then leaning her back against
it.

“Let’s go to The Moose for a while. I overheard Jaidas talking, he’s going camping with his friends this weekend, so you don’t have to worry about running into
him.”

“Ya... let’s go.” Aira kept looking at Joshua hoping he would say something about Israel, that maybe he would come. He didn’t, but Israel did walk by and they had a short, walk-by
conversation.

Aira listened to every word they spoke, trying not to be obvious that she was
eaves-dropping.

“We got that project to do,” Joshua spoke
up.

“Ya, I actually gotta go to work right now, but maybe come see me on my break. I’ll see what day I get off, then we’ll start.” Israel was in a
rush.

“Cool.” Joshua looked back at the
girls.

“You finally got yourself a friend, I see.” Avery smiled at
him.

“What’s he like?” Aira quickly spoke up and asked. She could hear how hasty her own words
sounded.

Avery knew Aira well. She looked at Aira and smiled, and then she looked back at
Joshua.

“Ya, Josh, what’s he like?” Avery said it in an indirect way to let Aira know she knew Aira was completely
smitten.

“He’s a good guy, smart as hell.” Joshua was clueless as to what was going on. Aira stood with a quieted, dreamy look in her eyes. Avery smiled at her, grabbed onto Joshua’s hand, and they walked out of the school
together.

The day had become warmer. They decided to take Joshua’s car, so he had to clear the back seat for
Aira.

Jaidas yelled from his car to his friends about going to pick up things to go
camping.

Aira watched while Jaidas opened his car door for
Kaitlyn.

“Okay, let’s go,” Avery
spoke.

Aira held her bag snuggled against her chest and crawled into the
backseat.

Avery got in, shut the door and put on her seat belt. Joshua pulled out and they drove to The Moose. He parked his car across the street, and they went inside and grabbed some cold drinks, coffee, and ordered some food. They decided to sit
outside.

After about twenty minutes their food was brought out to them. They ate and enjoyed what sun was left of a long hot summer. Who knew how much longer it would
last.

Aira looked up, and across the street saw Israel walking out of a restaurant called The Kettle Valley in a worn white apron. He was dish-washing there part time. He walked over to some benches that were in front of the town hall on the corner by the town clock. He must have been on his
break.

Joshua saw him and stood
up.

“Hey, I’ll be right back.” He got up and walked across the street to
Israel.

As they talked, Aira had no idea Avery was watching her. Aira was now in another world, just watched
Israel.

Instead of sitting, Israel stood up on one of the benches. They talked for about five minutes, and for five minutes Avery watched Aira play with her hair at the top of her shoulder, staring over at him. Avery didn’t say anything, not wanting to interfere with whatever Aira was feeling, because she knew. Aira deserved better than
Jaidas.

When Israel and Joshua finished talking, Joshua must have told him who he was with because he looked over to Aira and
Avery.

Israel jumped off of the bench onto the ground. When he jumped, it felt like a rush of wind through her whole body. Whatever she was feeling, it was something undeniable and very
apparent.

Israel started walking with Joshua over to The
Moose.

“Just breathe,” Avery spoke at Aira. She could tell Aira was freaking out
inside.

“Israel wanted to come say hi,” Joshua spoke as they walked up to
them.

“I didn’t want to be rude,” Israel smiled, staring right at
Aira.

Avery smiled and stood up to shake his hand from across the
table.

“I’m
Avery.”

“Yes, I’ve heard a lot about
you.”

“All good, I
hope.”

“Absolutely,” he answered, staring at
Aira.

Avery looked over at
her.

“And this little mouse…is my best-friend
Aira.”

“I know.” He smiled. “How is your tire holding
up?”

Aira’s head stayed down while she answered him. To her it felt like she was choking to get her words out. “Um...it’s really good. Barry’s actually going to put new tires on it.” Aira looked up at him, and became completely wrapped in his gaze. Everything around her seemed to fade into the background and all she could see was him. Everything she felt showed in her
eyes.

She couldn’t understand how no one seemed to notice his eyes except for her. Was she seeing
things?

Avery just looked at them as she had no idea what they were talking
about.

“You’re welcome to join us,” Avery
offered.

“I’d love to, but I actually gotta get back to work.” Just as he finished answering, his boss walked outside looking for him, Israel looked over. “Ya, I should probably go.” He looked at Aira one more time. She didn’t want him to go, he could feel that from her, and he didn’t want to go either. “Maybe I’ll see you guys
later.”

“Ya man, we’re going to the lake on Sunday if this nice weather holds out. You should come,” Joshua
offered.

“Ya, I got Saturday off, if it’s not busy I might be able to get Sunday off. Depends on his mood, I guess.” Israel’s boss was very erratic, and acted like he was very businesslike, even though he was scattered and unorganized most of the time. It amused Israel. “I’ll see you later.” Israel walked out to the
street.

“It was nice meeting you.” Avery spoke
up.

He did a wave as he ran back across the street to
work.

“Your tire?” Avery laughed confused, asking
Aira.

“I don’t know.” Aira put her hands into her hair and her elbows on the table. She smiled because she felt
ridiculous.

Joshua was now aware of what was going on and decided it was the right time to speak
up.

“He sure likes you,” he smiled at Aira. Aira looked at him like she couldn’t believe he just said that and so did
Avery.

“How do you know that?” Avery asked as excited as Aira
felt.

“He told me,” Joshua
grinned.

Avery looked back at Aira with a shocked look that quickly became a
smile.

Saturday consisted of homework, roaming the house aimlessly, and checking the online weather forecast a million times because it had rained all day. It was now 9:15p.m. Aira was in her room sitting on her bed talking on speaker phone to
Avery.

“If it doesn’t rain tomorrow we’ll be there by
noon.”

“I don’t think I’ve hated rain more in my life!” She was frustrated. The rain was relentless. Avery laughed out loud. Aira shook her head and
smiled.

“Have you checked the
forecast?”

“Like a million times,” Avery laughed
again.

“I love you. Get some sleep and try and work on your communication
skills.”

Aira lightly laughed,
“Okay.”

“Sweet
dreams.”

Aira hung up the phone and laid
down.

Would it ever stop raining? Would he get Sunday off? She just wanted to sleep but her brain wouldn’t shut off. She tossed and turned until about 12:45 a.m. Finally she fell asleep, and almost instantly fell into what she thought was a
dream.

She was still in her room, it was still dark, and she was still laying in her bed. She didn’t even know she was dreaming. The moonlight was shining through her half
open-curtains.

There was a light knock on her bedroom
door.

“Come in.” Aira moved her hair out of her face and sat
up.

Her mother opened the door a bit and poked her head
in.

“Someone is here to see you.” Maddy smiled, and she opened the door all the way and Israel walked
in.

Her mother faded into the background until she wasn’t there anymore. Aira was too shocked to even
notice.