I tapped my pen against the desk as I waited for Ivana to come back from the washroom. We were working on a project for Biology and we were hoping we would finish it before school ends so that we could chillax afterschool.  

      When Ivana walked back into the class, she placed the hall pass on our teacher’s desk and smiled at me as she walked back to her seat.

      “There’s a really cute guy standing outside.” She said. “With the principle.”

      I chuckled. “All the cute guys are bad these days.”

      Ivana looked unbelievably pleased with herself, probably because she made me laugh. All my friends have been acting that way ever since what happened between Kero and I.

      Months had passed since I last saw Kero and to be honest… I thought I was taking it quite well.

      But no one else thought that.

      My friends seemed to be sure that my personality was changing from the “I care about everyone and everything” type of person to the “I don’t give a fuck about anything” type of person.

      I didn’t really think that was true… but my friends seemed to always understand me better.

      While I was deep in thought about my changing personality, I hadn’t noticed Ivana nudging me with her knee. “Look! Look!”

      When I did notice though, I looked at her and followed her gaze to the front of the class. “That’s the guy!”

      The whole class had quieted down, so we could easily hear our old teacher speaking to him.

      “Ah! A new student.”

      The black haired boy smiled.

      The teacher took the boys schedule from him and examined it. She then looked at him. “You’re in the right class.” She said as she adjusted her glasses. “Jason Reed?”

      He smiled some more. “People call me Jace.”

      “Alright Jace. Welcome to my biology class. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?”

      He shrugged. “Why not?”

      Our teacher cleared her throat. “Alright class, quiet down.”

      People did as she said. They all wanted to know who this attractive young man was.

      He stood at the front of his class, his backpack on one of his shoulders and his hands in his pocket.

      His hair was as black as night and his eyes were so green that they looked as if they were glowing.

      He was amazingly fit and had features were extremely chiseled.

      He looked like a celebrity.

      But my stomach started to feel a little weird… this guy reminded me a little too much of Darius.

      His eyes suddenly met mine, startling me. But then he smiled at me.

      His smile made me feel a little bit at ease. Maybe I was being stupid…It’s not like every guy with green eyes and black hair was evil.

      “This is Jason Reed, your new classmate. I want you all to welcome him kindly and listen as he tells us a bit about himself.”

      He smiled at the class. “My friends call me Jace… so you all can call me that too if you want. I’m from New York. My dad’s a therapist and got transferred to a hospital near here… that’s why I’m here.” He said as he looked around at the students. “I’m a big fan of the Canadian National Women’s Hockey Team… so moving to Canada was pretty exciting. So I think I’ll like it here.”

      People clapped for him when we thought he was done.

      “Alright… so where should we seat you.”

      He watched the teacher as she thought of where to put him.

      And for some reason, I totally expected this next part.

      “How about you sit with Aathiray and join her group.” She smiled at Jace. “She’s very friendly. I’m sure she’ll be nice.”

      He chuckled and looked around. “Aathiray?” He struggled to pronounce my name.

      I smiled and lifted my hand up. “That’s me.”

      He smiled back and walked over to me.

      I got up and got him a chair.

      His smile grew. “Wow, you really are friendly.”

      I chuckled. “You’re very welcome.”

      He grinned as he sat down and held his hand out when I sat too. “Hey, I’m Jace.”

      “I’m Aathiray.” I said, smiling some more.

      “Ah-thi-ray? Like, when the dentist says to go like ‘ah’ or whatever?”

      I laughed. “Yeah!”

      “I’m sorry.” He said. “I’m bad with long names.”

      “Just call her Aathy.” Ivana said.

      He looked at Ivana and back at me. “Oh god, that’s so much easier… Aathy?”

      I nodded. “Perfect.”

      He nodded too and then turned to Ivana. “And you are?”

      She smiled. “Ivana! Nice to meet you Jason.”

      “Please, Jace is fine.” He said, holding out his hand.

      She took it. “Alright, Jace.”

      “So, wanna explain to me what I’m going to be having to deal with?”

      That made me laugh. “You mean in the school?”

      He dropped his schedule on the desk. “Exactly.”

      I looked at his schedule with Ivana.

      “Oh my gosh.” I said as I looked at Jace. “We have three out of four classes together!”

      Jace’s eyebrows shot up. “Perfect! So you must know these teachers?”

      “Okay, Mr. Caimnight.” Ivana said as she looked at him. “Hottest teacher you will ever have. I promise.”

      Jace laughed. “Well unfortunately for me, I’m as straight as straight can be.”

      Ivana smiled. “Well, that’s good news for some girls here who are staring you down.”

      The smile on his face faded. “Really?”

      Ivana and I nodded.

      He rolled his eyes. “Whatever… so is he a good teacher?”

      “He’s actually pretty amazing.” Ivana said.

      I nodded. “And he’s really friendly.” A little too friendly.

      Though I had never talked to Keroshan’s father since my ‘break up’ with Kero… Mr. Caimnight, the hot and super awesome teacher who’s actually teaching to keep an eye the now evil Jacob and I, is still doing just that… keeping an eye on us.

      But it didn’t bother me too much. He was really good at teaching Chemistry. It was now one of my favourite subjects.

      “Oh! And you have Mr. Odyssey!” Ivana squeaked.

      “Odyssey? Doesn’t it say Odysson?” Jace asked.

      “Yeah… Odyssey is a thing his students do.” I said. “He is a mythology teacher!”

      He nodded. “How cool is he?”

      “The best. He’s our favourite teacher, right Aathy?”

      I nodded. “Totally. He’s amazing.”

      Jace smiled. “So I’m good?”

      “Well… this biology teacher may be a sweety, but she’s totally lazy and sucks at teaching.”

      Jace sighed. “Damn.”

      “Yeah.” I said. “The project we’re doing right now is her way of making us teach each other the unit.” I rolled my eyes.

      “I hate teachers like that.” Jace frowned. “Oh well… my new friends will make this class better, right?”

      Ivana and I smiled. “Yes!” I said.

      “You can totally count on that!” Ivana added.

       No. We didn't end up finishing the project in class that day.

      Jace ended up spending most of the day with us… and for a bit, it almost felt as if he was like Jacob.

      But of course… though all of us were clearly mad at Jacob, who by the way does come to school now and then, we all knew that no one could replace him.

      After going to my locker and packing my bag with homework, I headed for our schools exit, and was surprised by Jason.

      I smiled at him. “Hey!”    

      He nodded his head at me. “Um… do you know the way to Warwick Road?”

      “Yeah… what’s wrong?”

      “My dad sorta can’t make it to pick me up… If you don’t mind—”

      I laughed and started walking. “C’mon, I can walk you home.”

      He smiled and followed me out the door. “Thanks so much Aathy. You’ve been such a help.”

      “Not a problem.”

      As we walked down the street, talking about his old life, I realized that to go to Warwick Road, we had to cross through the park.

      For the past while, I’ve been trying to avoid the park… knowing that the fountain would be in it.

      I guess I’ve been trying to avoid this whole Raakshyan thing. Though I knew it was completely impossible since my favourite aunt was one... and so was my favourite teacher.

      And Chirpy, who dropped by often to say hi.

      But as we walked to the park and towards the fountain, I noticed Jace’s glance.

      “Not a big fan of this place?” He asked.

      I was a little startled by the fact that he said that. “Oh, no… I love it, actually.”

      He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t look very comfortable.”

      I looked at him for a moment then chuckled. “No… not really.”

      “A bad memory here?”

      “Sort of…”

      We were quiet for a moment.

      “Sorry…” He said. “Like I said before, my dad’s a therapist so I’m just sort of good at noticing these things.”

      “Don’t worry.”

      “It used to creep my old girlfriends out. Some of them loved it though.”

      I smiled, though I started to have a strange feeling inside me.

      When we made it to the fountain, he stopped and looked at it. “So this is it.”

      I looked at him, then back at the fountain. “Yup…?”

      He laughed. “I’ve heard tons about this fountain… the history and the myths.”

      “Really?”

      He nodded. “Before I came, I was doing some research about this place.” He said. “I wanted to know if I would like it or not.”

      “Its history is amazing. And the myths.” I gazed at the beautiful fountain. It’s amazing for other reasons too. I thought as I looked up at the statue of the goddess. “It’s a great place.”

      “So you’re not that happy about the fact that they’re thinking of destroying it?”

      My head shot up as I looked at him. “What?” I asked. “They’re not going to destroy it!”

      He raised an eyebrow. “I heard that the government was getting fed up with all the riots and stuff… and the superstition behind the fountain?”

      I shrugged it off. “No way.” I said. “There’s no way they’d destroy a moneymaker like that.”

      He laughed. “What?”

      I shrugged again. “People travel here from all around Canada and the United States to see it.” I said. “It’s a tourist attraction.”

      He nodded. “Good point.” He said. “I think the most awesome part about this fountain is the fact that there are identical ones in Spain, Argentina, Egypt, India, Russia and Australia.”

      My eyebrows shot up. “What?” I asked.

      He chuckled. “Yeah.”

      “That’s like, one on each continent.”

      He nodded again. “Exactly.”

      I shook my head in shock, surprised that I didn’t even know that. Me, who knew more about this fountain than most normal people. “That makes this fountain even more amazing.”

      He nodded again.

      And as we talked more about the fountain, we had arrived at his street.

      “Thanks again Aathy.” He said.

      I nodded. “Not a problem.”

      “No, really. I really appreciate your help. I never thought I’d meet such friendly people here.”

      “Hey. Canada is known for its nice people.”

      He chuckled. “Thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

      “Bye!” I said as I turned around, deciding to stop by my aunt’s house before I go home, since it was on the way.

      “Wait!” He called.

      I turned around.

      “I didn’t get your number.”

      I smiled as I pulled out my cell phone. “Tell me yours and I’ll text you mine.

      And after exchanging numbers, I said my goodbyes again and left for my aunt’s house.

       When I got there though, I found myself wishing with so much of my heart that I had just gone home.