Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) (8 page)

Kira sighed. All she had were questions. Ever
since she moved back to Charleston, everything about her life had
become questions with no answers. She flipped past the bench
drawings, past some blank pages and tried to see if he drew
anything else in that book she hadn’t seen.

After skipping through fifty blank pages,
Kira was about ready to give up and go to bed, when she turned one
more page and her own face was staring back at her. Her hair took
up most of the small piece of paper, and within the mass of curls
was the most perfect drawing of herself she had ever seen. The fire
in her eyes was sparkling. She was smiling in a laugh and even her
freckles were in the right location. Kira looked alive in the
picture, and happy. Beyond all the minute details he drew to
perfection, her emotion ran off the page. She looked like the sun
radiating warmth to the viewer. Was this a drawing of how he
pictured her? Kira never thought she had looked so happy or pretty
in her life, but maybe Tristan had thought so.

Kira turned to the next page and saw a close
up of her eyes, turned again and it was her lips. One more turn and
she saw herself standing by the wharf staring out at Fort Sumter
with a breeze in her hair and her skirt flowing in the wind. Kira
realized that he must have been observing her for a little while
today before he finally snuck up on her to say hello. Why was he so
afraid to talk to her? Everyone in school was intimated by his good
looks and standoffish attitude, by his dark slacks and typical
black t-shirt, and by his friends. He was a bonafide bad boy. Every
girl secretly loved it and every boy was secretly jealous of it,
but Kira was starting to realize that it wasn’t who he was at all.
What bad boy secretly draws pictures of old ladies and young
couples? Tristan was more of a tortured artist than anything
else.

Kira sighed and turned the page again, but
the blank paper returned. There were only four secret pages devoted
to her, and she tore each one out before dropping the small
notebook back into her bag to give to Tristan at school. She wanted
him to know she had discovered his secret and that she wasn’t going
down without a fight.

"Hello gorgeous." Luke sat down next to Kira
in the cafeteria with his typical greeting. "Where were you this
weekend? I didn’t get a single phone call. Don’t tell me you have a
new best friend that you’re sneaking around with." He looked at her
with pouted puppy eyes.

"You know, now that I think of it, I do have
a new best friend. It’s called my Civil War term paper." She rolled
her eyes and shoved her notebook full of ideas at him.

"Kira, Kira, Kira. When will you learn? Term
papers are to be completed during the last week of the term, not
two months before it’s over." He opened her notebook and skimmed
some of her notes. "But let me know when you decide what to do
cause I will definitely steal one of these discarded theses." Kira
grabbed her research back from him quickly.

"We’ll see," she said to make a joke, knowing
full well she would help him out if he actually needed it.

"Hi y’all," Emma waved, while Dave carried
both of their lunch trays over. Kira assumed the fuchsia dress Emma
wore was new and Dave had been forced to play the chivalrous
boyfriend. From the back of the cafeteria, Kira could barely see
Miles walking over behind the mound of books he held in his arms.
In fact, all the she saw were the black rims of his glasses pressed
against his forehead.

"How are you guys just sitting and laughing?"
He said when he dropped what looked like twenty pounds worth of
library books on the table. "Are you not at all worried about
college?" Kira had noticed the fear of not getting into Harvard or
an Ivy had made Miles go a tad insane.

"Relax, man," Dave chimed in before slapping
Miles on the back.

"Yeah, seriously. Go buy some lunch and take
a minute to chill out. The books will be here when you get back."
Luke pushed Miles towards the lunch line. As soon as he was out of
hearing distance, Luke turned to everyone else and said, "we should
totally hide these."

"Oh lord, leave him alone." Kira put her arms
around the books and protectively pulled them over towards her,
Emma and Dave. Basically, as far from Luke as they could go. When
Miles returned, he seemed calmer but still turned the conversation
towards college applications. Kira knew all of that was irrelevant
for her and couldn’t help but let her eyes shift to gaze out the
window. For the first time in a while, not a single one of the
misfits was looking at her. In fact, Kira studied them for a few
minutes and they seemed completely disinterested in everything
going on inside of the school. She needed to grab Tristan when he
was alone to confront him about what had happened and give him back
his drawings, but how to get him away from his friends?

"Earth to Kira. Come in Kira," Luke was
waving his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of her
thoughts and rejoined the conversation.

"What? Sorry, I’ve had a lot going on."

"Just asked what you would be up to next
year."

"Oh, gap year to work in a restaurant
hopefully, then I’ll be applying to culinary school and I’ll be
just as crazy as Miles is now." Miles finally cracked a smile at
her statement and they continued lunch with ease.

As she walked to English with Luke, Kira knew
this would be her only chance to catch Tristan alone. But, when Mr.
Bell walked through the door, Tristan came rushing in and sat down
on the opposite side of the room. And when the class was over,
Tristan ran out before Kira could even begin to stand and walk over
to him. For the next two days, the same thing happened. Kira was
always one step behind and couldn’t trap Tristan alone for the two
minutes she needed to get her point across. On Wednesday, after her
third try at chasing him down, Kira pulled Emma aside at the end of
the day and sat down with her on one of the benches outside of the
school.

"So, I need to get some advice. Can I give
you the short version of my weekend?" Kira asked once they’d
settled.

"Oo, this sounds juicy," Emma said and Kira
noticed that she seemed very excited for some gossip to live
vicariously through.

"Okay, well, on Saturday I went to Charleston
to start working on my history paper, just like I told you all in
the cafeteria. What I didn’t mention was that I ran into Tristan,
we snuck into a church steeple and ended up making out for a
while." Kira finished quickly and let out the breath she had been
holding. She peered at Emma carefully, hoping to see no judgment
coming from her friend’s eyes.

"Whoa, I was not expecting that. Way to go,
Kira," Emma put her hand out for a discreet low five, and Kira
happily slapped her hand down. "Now back up, give me a little more
detail and tell me what the heck the problem is."

"I basically ran into him early in the day,
and then he said he would be my tour guide and show me all the
Charleston hot spots. We ended up having a great time and Tristan
told me he wanted to show me his favorite place in the city, which
happened to be the top of church steeple, so we snuck up. We ended
up talking, which turned into fighting, and fighting turned into
kissing, and kissing turned into Tristan freaking out, running away
and abandoning me in the church."

Kira sighed and thought about how much to
reveal about why Tristan ran away. She could tell Emma was trying
to wait patiently, but her foot was tapping against the sidewalk
with enthusiasm at the new turn of events. "I’m not completely sure
why he left, but I think it has something to do with his friends.
And now at school he’s avoiding me. I know I need to catch him
alone, which is where you come in." Kira looked at Emma
hopefully—she needed a plan and fast.

"And the only class you have together is
English, right?" Kira nodded. "With Luke?" Kira nodded again. "I’m
going to need to do some thinking for a minute, a little scheming
time." Now it was Kira’s turn to try and wait patiently while Emma
sat with a furrowed brow and her chin resting on her hand. Kira
looked out at the school parking lot, which had completely emptied
during their conversation, and she was grateful to not have to
worry about eavesdroppers. The last thing she needed was to be the
talk of the school and to let her secret afternoon become public
knowledge. Kira ran her sweaty palms down the length of her pants,
trying to calm herself.

"I have it," Emma’s entire face brightened as
she turned to Kira with a gleam in her eye. Kira was instantly
overjoyed to have Emma on her side, especially when she looked so
mischievous. "Today, in my English class, we got into groups of two
to read lines from
Romeo and Juliet
, something about how
hearing it gives it more meaning or whatever. Anyway, you’ll only
have about five or so minutes, but if you can trap Tristan and
force him to be your partner it might give you the time you
need."

"Emma, you’re a genius!" Kira grabbed the
girl’s shoulders, shaking them with glee. "I totally forgot when
Mr. Bell made that announcement at the end of class."

"To distracted by your lover?" Emma asked
with a teasing grin. Kira tried to laugh it off, but the caught in
the act look was all over her face. "Seriously though, I need some
details. Was he a good kisser?"

Kira had a quick flashback to being backed up
against the wall in his arms. "Yes," she said while biting her lip
to keep from smiling too widely.

"Can I get some more details on that please?
A little play-by-play maybe? I can promise you, every girl in the
school wishes she was in my shoes right now, well more likely
yours, but still." Kira laughed and started giving up some of the
more intimate details about the romance of the location and how
they were yelling one moment then caught up in it the next. Emma
hung on her every word and sighed romantically at the appropriate
moments. It was the perfect ten minutes to Kira, who had been
thinking too many deep thoughts recently. She just wished she had
thought to supply some chocolate or peanut butter. One thing was
certain though, next time she needed to watch romantic movies like
The Notebook
, Emma would definitely be the one to call. She
needed another person besides her mother who could appreciate the
‘I want to cry because this is so heartbreakingly romantic’ sort of
movie.

Eventually, Kira drove away from the school
and found her way back home, just in time to make dinner. She sat
her little sister on the counter as she prepared the chicken
picatta and heard all about Chloe’s day with her imaginary friend
Beth. Sometimes Kira wished she was still in those days of make
believe, but despite how nerve-wracking the past weeks had been,
she knew she was on the verge of figuring it all out. She just
needed a bit more patience.

The next day, all Kira could think about was
how to put her plan into action. She barely spoke to her friends at
lunch and was silent during her walk to English with Luke. Just as
they were about to turn into the classroom, she stopped moving.

"Hey Luke?" He turned when he heard her
speak. "I forgot something in my locker. I’ll meet you inside."

He nodded and continued into the classroom.
She tried to walk at a normal pace, but quickly sped to her hiding
spot and peered around the corner of a locker to keep a lookout on
the classroom door. For a moment she was worried that Tristan would
be the one to sneak up on her, but Kira soon saw Mr. Bell enter the
classroom and Tristan was close behind. After he disappeared
inside, Kira made her way to the door, hoping that an open seat was
left next to Tristan and that all of this planning wasn’t for
nothing. She saw Luke at the front of the classroom with an open
seat next to him and Tristan two feet from her next to the other
open seat. She flashed an apologetic look at Luke and sat down
trying to look guilty at being late instead of smug at having
everything go smoothly.

Tristan didn’t glance at her, but she thought
she saw his arm muscles tighten in anger when she sat down a few
inches from him. Kira tried to act innocent and pulled out paper to
jot down some notes during the first half of class. Really, she was
losing all of her patience waiting for Mr. Bell to end the lecture
and start with the acting lessons. If he didn’t do it soon, she
knew her chance to trap Tristan for a few minutes would be lost.
She couldn’t really pull the ‘I left something in my locker’ act
again. Kira knew Luke would be suspicious. Finally, Mr. Bell walked
down the aisles assigning pairs and Kira let out a silent breath of
relief when she and Tristan were paired together.

"Okay everyone, now that we’ve finished
reading the play, I want you all to practice reading Shakespeare
out loud. He was a playwright after all, his words were meant to be
spoken. I think the balcony scene will do since I paired you all in
coed groups. You are all hormonal teenagers, right?" The class
responded with a laugh and everyone opened their books to Act Two,
Scene Two. Tristan turned to Kira with what she could only call a
pained look, and tried his best to read some of the most romantic
lines ever written in a completely melancholic voice.

"But soft what light through yonder window
breaks. It is the east and Juliet is the sun. Arise fair sun and
kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that
thou her maid art far more fair than she." Kira couldn’t help but
laugh at him as he speedily grumbled out the lines without even an
ounce of passion.

"You know this is supposed to be a love
scene, right?" He looked up at her with contempt while she tried to
swallow her smile.

"Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed." He looked
back down at the page and continued to read aloud in his monotone
voice, totally ignoring her, which just prompted her to
continue.