Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,3
students, choosing their food and then their seats. The tables were nearly all filled, and I began to panic not only about finding Michael, but about finding a place to sit at all.
As my eyes swept the room, I saw Nell sitting at a table, along with Liza and Casey and four other girls. Ah, yes, I thought, that would be the in-crowd right there: Nell and her posse. She was clearly the center of the group, leaning on the table in the bored, self-assured attitude of one who was positive of her place in the world. I sighed at the injustices of life.
“Hey, you made it!” I heard Michael’s happy thought before I saw him. He was smiling and holding an overflowing tray in one hand.
“Yeah, here I am…” Well, that was a truly inspired reply. I tried not to wince at my own lameness.
“We’re right over there.” With his free hand, he pointed to a table in the corner, where two other boys and two girls were sitting. They were all watching us with great interest.
“Are you sure there’s room for me?” Oh, please say yes, I begged silently.
Michael’s thoughts were a warm and happy buzz in my mind, but I focused on listening to his spoken reply. “Oh, yeah, plenty of room. Grab your food and come on over. I’ll save you a spot.”
My hands were still shaking as I picked up a tray. My experience with boys was fairly non-existent. It was all part of the blend in, fly under the radar and don’t make a fuss theory of life to which my parents subscribed, at least when it came to me. Michael was not only a boy, he was an incredibly hot one who actually seemed to be interested in me.
I made it through the line, grabbing only a small salad, a pack of crackers and a bottle of water. Holding the tray in a death grip—what would be worse than to drop it at this point?—I carefully wended my way through clumps of people who were trying to find seats themselves. When I finally reached Michael’s table, he slid along the bench and patted the spot he had just vacated.
I put my tray on the table and dropped onto the bench, still warm from Michael. My heart was pounding so loudly in my ears that between its noise and the crowd of thought voices, I could barely hear Michael introducing me to his friends.
“Hey, guys, this is Tasmyn. She’s new.”
They were all looking at me already, and the rush of attention brought their minds into sharper focus for me. I couldn’t quite pick out who was thinking what.
Michael, with a girl at the lunch table…pretty… what was her name? …Hey, she’s in my speech class… oooh, Michael has a girlfriend!
I flushed and frowned, trying to concentrate on keeping my wall up and the voices out.
“Are you okay?” Michael dropped his voice low and looked at me with concern.
I forced a smile and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Just—you know—a little headache. I’m probably just hungry.”
Michael’s expression cleared, and he turned back to the rest of the table, dropping a hand on my back. I smothered a gasp as a surge of electric feeling shot through me. I was immediately feeling everything he was feeling, and it was dizzying.
He pointed to the opposite bench. “So, over there, that’s Dan, Brea and Jim.” They each smiled in turn, and the girl, Brea, sketched a small wave. “And here on this side, Craig and Anne.”
Anne leaned over and beamed at me. “Don’t worry, there’s no quiz on this stuff. You’ll figure us all out sooner or later.”
One of the boys sitting across from me nodded. “Yeah. So where are you from?”
I kept the smile pasted on my face, trying hard to focus on the conversation and not on Michael’s hand—still on my back—or the curious thoughts buzzing around the table.
“I’ve lived all over, actually. We move about every two years. This last time, we came down here from Wisconsin.”
The boy at the end of my bench snorted. “That’s gonna be a change. So which are you, a skier or a surfer? Are you going to miss the cold or love the heat?”
I shook my head. “Not at all. I was really over the whole snow thing. I like the idea of year-round summer.”
There were snickers all around the table, and I realized I had just fallen into the typical new Florida resident trap.