Scott Kellerman

The morning had started as ordinarily as all the others. Me, Jimi and a few of the others had been 'studying' all morning, a.k.a reading half a page of the revision guide before throwing scrunched up bits of paper across the table, and scrolling through Instagram.

When Evangeline rushed in, she'd headed straight for a solo table, and didn't exactly look as though she was in the mood for conversation, so I shut Jimi down as soon as I saw the mischievous glint in his eye, and told him not to try anything.

"Okay, hear me out," he prefaces, with a hand outstretched, asking for patience. "Coin flip."

"What?"

"Heads, we study; tails... you invite Evangeline to come sit with us."

I bury my head in my hands as the others, Gordon, Toby and Ray, make boisterous sounds of approval, even though don't really know about Evangeline – E.F.C and Barbara's party and all that. But they know of her. Everyone does. The smiley redhead from English Lit., smart and stunning in equal measure. Too alluring not to know it; too quick-witted to be undermined because of it. Reputation is everything – such is the beauty of high school.

"Jimi, no."

"Too late," Jimi beams as everyone's eyes, mine included, follow a somersaulting piece of copper as it shoots up and hurtles back down into Jimi's hand, and he clamps it between his palms.

Slowly, he unveils the coin, and everyone leans in towards him with bated breath.

...Heads.

"Studying it is. See," I scoff, re-opening my textbook as I let out a sigh of relief, hopefully masked as a cool indifference, "even the universe doesn't want us to flop our A-Levels."

Jimi rolls his eyes petulantly, but he props open his notebook against his knees nonetheless. Chuckling, I do the same, but not before quickly flitting my gaze over to her for a microsecond. She's settled at the desk now, and looks rather comfortable, sat with one leg tucked beneath her as she scrolls through her phone.

I shake my head to try and tune out the distractions, and tune into price determination in a competitive market. Riveting stuff.

"Evangeline!"

The sheer volume of Jimi's voice makes me flinch, but once I register the name that he's yelled, the alarm drops right into my stomach.

"Jimi, what the fuck! You said 'heads: we study'!" I hiss, sounding like a whiny child fussing over the rules of a game.

If looks good kill, Jimi Coker would have breathed his last breath today. I prick him in his side, shooting the nastiest daggers my usually unthreatening eyes can muster, but the bastard's as ballsy as he is bothersome, so my glare doesn't do a thing to deter him – instead, he waves her over once he's got her attention.

I groan, slinking further down into my beanbag, behind Jimi and, hopefully, out of Evangeline's line of sight.

"Did she hear? Is she coming?" I mouth to Ray. Toby and Gordon are already snickering away, but Ray at least has the decency to mask his smirk and nod, confirming the answer I dread.

"You're gonna thank me for this, Kellie," Jimi says in a sing-song whisper, turning to me momentarily. When he moves again, I see her, and I'm certain she's seen me.

"Hey," I say, my voice dropping an octave in an attempt at non-chalant charm. The corner of Toby's lip quivers as his eyes dart over to me. Shit, did that sound douche-y? Does she think I'm some douche trying to impress her?

If it did, Evangeline doesn't pick up on it. She smiles back comfortably, adjusting the backpack strap on her shoulder.

"Hey guys. What's up?"

"Spare space here, if you want it?" I nod to empty yellow beanbags around the table.

Her gaze rakes over the table and its rabble of occupants, before she scrunches her lips to one side in thought.

"Sure. Yeah, I'll take it."

"Cool," I smile up at her, with my hands clasped around my knees. Now that I have the chance to really look at her, I notice how different she looks today.

Her usually pink-painted lips are a peach sort of tint that I can tell is natural, and her eyes are bare – no colour on her eyelids or ash brown lashes. I make a conscious effort not to let my gaze dip (that would be a douche move), but even in my peripheral view, I catch a flash of skin – a few inches of her stomach uncovered by her unassuming grey sweater.

The soft, rosy flush of her cheeks; the guileless big blue eyes that I've seen brimming with tears, and cloudy with gentle hope. She's adorable, in the most heart-breaking way. There's no other word for it.

Her big blues dart aside awkwardly. Oh shit, am I staring?

"Cool," I say again, clearing my throat and averting my gaze as quickly and smoothly as possible. "Lads, where are your manners? Make some room for our guest, spread out, come on."

The others cooperate and scoot their beanbags backwards against the carpeted floor, but not without doing what they do best – mucking about.

"Accept our humblest apologies, Evangeline."

"Ever so sorry, Evangeline."

"Care for a Fruit Pastille, Evangeline?" Gordon effuses, extending the green tube of sweets towards her.

Evangeline laughs as she shuffles around their playful overacting, past the other spare beanbags, and, with her vanilla scent bursting outwards just as quickly, plops into the empty one to my left. Jimi spots it, and starts jabbing my leg with his biro, but I bite back my grin and swat away the pen.

"Such hospitality," she gushes playfully, reaching over the coffee table for a sweet. "Thanks, Gordon."

"You're very welcome."

She smiles at me again when she turns to get her books out of her bag, settling with a textbook against her lap and I have no idea how 'heads: we study' turned into sitting side-by-side with E.F.C, but hey, I'm definitely not complaining.

Toby starts bickering with Gordon about why he didn't offer him a Fruit Pastille, with Ray mediating the quarrel, and after watching them amusedly for a moment, Evangeline shifts her focus to her work, reading and highlighting and so on. I drum my fingers on my knee before reaching into the centre of the table for a sheet of lined paper; but when I do, I feel Jimi staring me down.

I sit back in my beanbag and look over at him furtively.

What? I mouth, raising my shoulders.

Jimi uses his pen to stab me in the side again.

Say something to her! He insists with no words, jutting his neck in Evangeline's direction.

My eyes widen at the prospect of striking up conversation. Like what? I respond silently.

Ask about her weekend, Jimi shrugs.

I roll my eyes, and begin to mouth my disapproval. That's lame, I'm not asking about her w-

"What are you revising?" Comes the softly spoken voice from my left.

"Uh," I let out an involuntary, breathy laugh, "what else?" I hold up the textbook on my lap, to show her the matte red cover that reads: 'A-Level Economics'.

She lifts up the textbook she's working on, and it's the same as mine, only she's a chapter or two behind where I am. There's a glint in her eye before she rolls them in a way that lets me know that Econ is the bane of her life too.

I laugh when she makes a face. "Just wait until you get to price determination," I joke, "that's where the real party starts."

"Oh, I bet. I'm just grateful it's one of the last exams, because I am nowhere near getting my head around capital theory."

I'm about to agree before she perks up in her seat, her eyebrows shooting up.

"Oh, before I forget..." She rifles through her backpack, digging right to the bottom, and pulls out my black leather jacket from Saturday, clean, dry and folded.

"Speaking of grateful..." She speaks shyly with her gaze down and her lips cocked to one side, and my heart melts right there. She's adorable.

"Uh, y'know," Jimi starts loudly, his voice booming even from behind me, "I think we've got a thing right now. Yeah, me, Ray, Tobes and Gordon have thing. Haven't we, lads?"

"Huh?" A 'thing'?

It already sounds phony, but when I spot Jimi's eyes shifting between Evangeline and I, and Ray and Toby catching his drift and suddenly playing along, I get it.

Ray slaps his forehead, slightly overacting,

"Of course! We've got to go right now or else we'll be late! For the thing!"

Evangeline follows the exchange with her brows drawn together, and aside from the slight tilt of her head, she doesn't seem suspicious of their hammy performance.

They've almost gotten away with it, until Gordon, unobservant as ever, blurts out,

"What? I don't have a thing – I've got free periods all day."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I suppress the urge to face palm. Fucks' sake, Gordon.

As the others stand to leave, Ray pulls him by the arm out of his beanbag.

"Tell you what, Gord – I have a thing, and I need your help with it. Alright?"

Gordon's not happy with it, but he takes Ray's answer with a grumble as he swipes his bookbag from the floor and follows the others as they leave the sixth form centre.

"Kellie," Jimi catches my attention with a clean whistle before they disappear up the stairwell, "see you at lunch, yeah? See you 'round, Angie!"

She waves them goodbye warmly, and we can hear Gordon's gradually quieting protests up the stairwell even once we can't see them anymore. Soon, though, we can't hear them either, and beyond the low buzz of conversation at surrounding tables, it's silent where we're sat.

Evangeline looks over at me, stretching her soft peach lips into a little smile before she returns to her textbook. She lets out a sigh as she begins to concentrate again, a gentle flush rising to her cheeks, likely with the gust of air. I'm careful not to stare this time.

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Hullo all & thank you so much for 4K reads!! I'm going to try and get another chapter out for you lovely lot this week to say thank you, but honestly, it'd just be a token, because my gratitude is SO IMMENSE AND YOU'RE ALL TOO WONDERFUL FOR WORDS, THANK YOU SO MUCH ❤️❤️❤️