Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) (2 page)

"He means Dallas," Emma supplied, "I am too.
We never knew each other before moving here, isn’t that funny. I
mean, he went to my rival school, so not that surprising, but
still, it’s pretty crazy."

"Fate?" Kira supplied, knowing it was the
confirmation Emma searched for and guessing Dave would keep
silent.

"Yup, that’s what I like to believe." They
smiled at each other, and Kira knew she would get used to the
silence from Dave and would hopefully become friends with Emma. She
liked Emma’s perfectly styled hair, manicured nails and carefully
applied makeup. She figured she would definitely bank on it for a
date at some point.

"Well, I’m a northerner all the way, or I was
until my parents moved down here. I lived in Boston, and will
hopefully be back in Cambridge in no time." Kira smiled because
Miles definitely looked like the Harvard type with the pile of
books next to his lunch. But, she felt a little edge to him
too.

"And now, my turn," Luke adopted his
theatrical voice again. "I, dear lady, am from the far reaches of,
drum roll please," he supplied his own when the only response was
rolled eyes, "Florida, the sunshine state with glorious beaches,
Walt Disney World and a small town in the middle of nowhere called
Sonnyville where I was born and raised."

"Wait, you’re from a small town?"

"I get that a lot, but why, I don’t
understand."

"I don’t mean any offense, it’s just that
your personality is so," Kira moved her hands in a wide circle
searching for the appropriate word.

"Charming?" Luke supplied.

"I think she means big," Miles chipped in and
Luke sat down with a nod of defeat, but Kira just assumed it was
more playing around, so she quickly agreed with Miles and
smiled.

"You know, I just love your hair," Emma
grabbed at Kira’s curly mess. "Do you dye it?"

"Nope, unfortunately it’s just what I was
born with." Kira self-consciously put a hand to her head. She had
always felt weird about her hair. It was a curly mess of bright red
and almost white blonde strands that mixed to create a sort of
strawberry blonde with a punch.

"Well, I’m jealous. I wish I had such natural
volume and guys go crazy for a red head."

"Enough guys already go crazy for you," Dave
finally spoke up, pulling Emma tighter into the crook of his arm.
Ah, the jealous type, Kira thought.

Luke took a strand of her hair and wrapped
the natural curl around his pointer finger. He stared at it
intently, almost as if he were in a trance, and Kira stared at him,
stuck.

"Luke, creepy much?" Emma chimed in. Luke
dropped the curl immediately, and he and Kira both turned towards
Emma. "Whoa, Luke, Kira has your psycho eyes."

"Really? Look at me," Miles asked with a
curious expression. "Whoa," was all he said when they looked over
at him.

"Let me see," Luke gently held Kira’s chin so
she looked into his eyes. She realized why they were comforting
before: she had never seen anyone with eyes quite like hers. They
were barely green on the outer rim of the iris, but that hue was
quickly overtaken by a yellow tint with red and orange specks that
almost looked like fire. Most people were weirded out by it, but
she liked that she wouldn’t be alone in that, at least for a year.
"I didn’t think they’d look the same," Luke said softly. Kira
paused at the words Luke clearly had not meant to say out loud.

"Well, obviously you wouldn’t think a
complete stranger has the same eyes as you. What’s up with you
today, Luke? You’re acting all mysterious." Kira silently thanked
Emma for commenting. She was still trying to figure out what he was
talking about.

The lunch bell rang and they all stood up.
Kira had English with Luke, so he grabbed her arm and started
pulling her through the all too confusing hallways she feared she
would never figure out. After a few minutes, they arrived at the
far side of the building and slid into their seats. More students
began trickling in as the bell rang, but no teacher showed up.

"Mr. Bell is notorious for being late to
class," Luke leaned over and whispered to Kira.

"Oh, really? How is he still-"

"Lukey," the girl Luke had labeled as a
misfit plopped down on top of his desk. She had waist-length,
stick-straight black hair and her eyes were impossibly blue, almost
like ice. "Hitting on the new girl already? Tsk tsk, you should let
her get to know everyone before she’s forced to settle on you."

"Diana," Luke said tersely. "I thought you
graduated." She laughed and her eyes flashed almost white as she
stared at Luke.

"No, no. I’m quite content to stay in high
school forever. And, I had to wait for my boys." At their mention,
the three boys who had been with Diana outside now walked into the
classroom. Instantly Kira felt on edge, like there was something
else going on here that she was not privy to but was somehow part
of. The look on Luke’s face was strained. There was something
happening between him and the others that no one else in the
classroom but her could feel. She heard laughter and saw students
hugging friends they hadn’t seen in a while, but in the back of the
classroom there remained only the tension of a rubber band about to
snap.

"Jerome, Tristan, John." Luke said each name
with a stiff nod. They circled around him. Kira lost interest in
the strained conversation and instead studied the newcomers. Jerome
had black skin that miraculously seemed pale and the same steel
blue eyes. He was built like a football player, like a running back
who was speedy yet surprisingly strong. John had sandy blond hair,
shaved close to his head, with a thin and streamlined build.
Finally, she looked at the guy Luke had called Tristan. He seemed
different to her somehow, with jet-black hair that hung over his
eyes a little, and barely visible dimples that played on his
cheeks. His eyes were also an icy blue, but they seemed deeper to
her, like steep ravines she could fall into. He stayed out of the
conversation, she noticed, as if lost in his own thoughts—ones that
seemed more troublesome than the cutting remarks being doled out by
his friends. He had a rebel without a cause look that made him
perilous for a girl’s heart.

Suddenly, he turned to Kira and his eyes
seemed to brighten a shade when they landed on hers. He stared, and
Kira, who was never one to back down, returned his look with
interest.

"Who are you?" He asked in a barely audible
voice filled with surprise, one just loud enough to attract the
attention of his friends and Luke. Kira melted at the sound. He was
dangerous she knew, but something about him made her feel safe and
afraid at the same time.

"Kira," was all she could respond with. They
both looked at each other, trying to unlock the other’s
secrets.

His friends came to circle her now and she
felt cornered. Fear sparked in her heart, like a quick flash of
lightning. She didn’t quite understand it, but she also couldn’t
shake it.

"Well, what have we here?" Diana leaned in to
really look at her and Kira thought she could read shock on the
girl’s face, despite the confidence in her voice. Tristan laid a
hand on Diana’s arm, almost like a warning, Kira thought.

"Diana, back off," Luke said and tried to
come to Kira’s rescue, but it was Mr. Bell who saved her by running
into the classroom very late and very out of breath.

"All right, simmer down people, I just lost
track of time in the teacher’s lounge. Welcome to Advanced English,
I expect everyone’s full attention for the entire first half of the
year, and then after winter break, those of you who are college
bound can do some slacking." A general cheer went up around the
room. Even Kira, who didn’t really know how to slack off, let a
smile out. She had already decided to take a gap year to work and
hopefully travel, but a little slacking wouldn’t be too awful.
"We’re starting the year off with Shakespeare," the cheer changed
to a groan. "Come on now, I’ll show you that Shakespeare can be
cool, starting with acting lessons. For the next few weeks, we are
going to perform scenes from the plays we read, starting with the
age-old classic
Romeo and Juliet
. Next week we’re going to
practice acting out emotions, so everyone please put those game
faces on."

The rest of class passed rather quickly as
Kira decided she liked Mr. Bell more and more. He was a young
teacher who treated them like friends rather than students. Unlike
her teachers in New York, she could tell Mr. Bell truly loved
teaching and it wasn’t just a job.

"Hey Luke," she asked when class ended and
the students all dispersed. "What was that at the beginning of
class? I thought you said you barely knew anything about those
guys."

"I don’t Kira. I don’t know anything but a
mutual disgust. Can we just leave it at that?" She nodded okay but
it wasn’t sincere. Something had to have caused that much hatred.
At first, she thought maybe Diana and Luke used to date, but it
seemed less like jealousy and more like something else, something
intense that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Kira didn’t see Luke for the rest of the day
and finally retreated to her car after finishing her last
class.

On her way home, she stopped at the
supermarket to pick up ingredients for her latest recipe, one she
thought up instead of going over differential equations in
calculus. All she had ever wanted to do was be a chef. And, while
other students her age were applying to college, she was practicing
her knife and cooking skills whenever she got the opportunity,
resulting in lots of good food for her family and lots of
experience for future entrance examinations at culinary schools.
During her gap year, Kira would hopefully be perfecting her skills
in a real restaurant kitchen, but for now she just practiced on her
own. Tonight Kira was feeling homey, so she bought fresh tomatoes,
spices and flour to make some good old-fashioned spaghetti.

When she came home, the house was empty. Her
father, she remembered, had job interviews all day with banks in
Charleston’s city center. She assumed her mother was with her baby
sister at the pool, since she was still too young for kindergarten.
Even now, Kira never really grasped who the mistake was, her or her
sister.

As Kira dug her fingers into the tomatoes she
had just sliced, she thought about her family. Her mother had
flaming red hair and her father’s head was covered with a muddy
brown color that was nothing special. His mother apparently had
bright blonde hair, which was where Kira got the mix, but her
grandparents had died before she had been born. Her sister was
barely four with the same brown hair as her father, straight and
normal. When Kira was born, her parents had been twenty-three,
which seemed just old enough to have a child, and when her sister
was born they had been thirty-six, which seemed just young enough.
Kira remembered about five years ago when she got the news. She had
just begun boarding school and was thirteen, a rather inopportune
age to realize your parents were still sexually active enough to
have a child. Those scars were erased as soon as Kira held her
little sister in her arms and looked into her bright green eyes,
ones that lacked the yellow center but were filled with warmth.
Even now, she couldn't wait for her mother to come home so she
could play with Chloe, who always liked helping her in the kitchen
(as much as a four year old could).

With the sauce finished, Kira turned towards
the pasta. She stirred the batter while reliving her first day. One
of the amazing things about cooking was the therapy it provided.
She could think about Luke, who at first glance she had figured to
be the overly cocky yet oddly lovable boy, but there was something
else there. When he looked at her, it was almost like he saw
something she didn't understand and maybe didn’t want to know. In a
way she was reminded of Cy, her ex-boyfriend in New York. They had
only dated for a few months; it wasn’t love or anything, just fun
for both of them. He had the same look as Luke, with bright blond
hair that looked resolutely sun bleached. He had been
overprotective of her, something that got old quickly. When she
turned sixteen, he appeared out of nowhere and took over her life.
But while the constant calling to check in was cute at first, Kira
had grown more and more frustrated. Moving home was the perfect
excuse to dump him. She thought Luke was more laid back, that she
would like him as a best friend maybe, but there were traces of
protection in his wannabe-knight manner. Maybe she could even date
him.

Kira considered it, pondered the idea of a
crush, but her mind slowly wandered from his familiar eyes to the
icy blue ones belonging to Tristan.

Her hands stopped mixing at the thought of
him, he was too much of a distraction, even for cooking. His
brooding eyes seemed to hold pain and love, his dimples added a
cute boyish factor, and his hair hung just low enough to make her
want to run a hand through it. She could tell by looking at him
that he had put up barriers and was full of secrets—ones that she
would just love to unmask. He was the kind of boy you wanted to
comfort and to kiss, the kind you knew would break your heart yet
hoped against all odds wouldn't. The bad boy with a soft heart, the
sort of trap a girl knowingly jumped into.

Stop it, she told herself and began kneading
the dough to get out her frustration. They had barely said two
words to each other, not nearly enough to begin crushing;
especially when all she knew about him was that the one person she
hoped to call a friend hated him.

"Kira, Kira!" She was shocked out of her
thoughts by the four-year-old now attached to her leg. Kira looked
at the dough. She had kneaded it far more than necessary and more
than enough to let her sister play with the now soft putty.