The Rush (The Siren Series) - By Rachel Higginson Page 0,2

need them to throw themselves at him for attention. Ugh. It just wasn’t fair that he didn’t really have a choice when it came to me.

“I like your hair this color by the way,” his smile turned shy.

“Not a fan of the black?” I forced myself into conversation about my past. Really, seriously, truthfully…. I hated thinking about anything from last year.

“I mean, it was pretty. You could do anything to your hair and you would still be gorgeous,” he offered thoughtfully, like I didn’t already know that. It was all part of the curse. “But I like this red color; it goes better with your freckles.” He reached up and brushed his pointer finger along the bridge of my nose to emphasize his point.

I crinkled my nose in reaction and blushed a deeper shade of red than I felt comfortable with. I hated my freckles. Hated them. Granted they weren’t excessive, just a smattering of light brown on the bridge of my nose, and no doubt designed to make me some kind of more beautiful than the average girl, but they drew every eye and boys were constantly making comments about them.

Like now.

“This is my natural color,” I offered that piece of personal information free of charge and wildly out of character for me. It would be the only one he got. “After everything that, uh, happened last year, my mom made me dye it back. Believe me when I say I desperately miss the black. I preferred the way it washed me out.”

Oh I was wrong, he would get two pieces of personal information.

It must be his lucky day.

Except he would disappointingly not do anything with it. He may be smart, and now that I noticed the pins on his letter jacket weren’t all sports related but actually included some academic endeavors, I started to believe that maybe chemistry was an AP class last year, but he wouldn’t be smart enough for this game we were playing.

And that was just disappointing.

He laughed, thinking I was joking and I sighed, hating that I was right about him.

We reached the top of the stairs. Finally…. that was seriously a long walk from Dodge Street upwards to the entrance. “Grrr” to my mother and her refusal to let me get a driver’s license.

She didn’t believe in driving, if you could believe that. Like driving was some weirdo religion. Or like you could actually choose not to believe in it.

But she claimed that was what boys were for.

Yep, I just threw up in my mouth.

She was like the anti-feminist. She’s was sexist, but in the opposite way.

I was still walking backwards, you know in that flirtatious way that only really coordinated girls can pull off, giving Chase my undivided attention and choosing to believe the busy hallways of the ancient and decrepit school would simply part for me. They did, with no doubt every single eye watching my every move.

This was high school after all. And I was something of a legend….

No, that wasn’t the right word.

Hot topic.

I was something of a hot topic.

I was like the definition of notorious; famous but with negative connotations- very negative.

Or at least I had been when I took my little six month sabbatical at the end of last year, over the summer and part of this year. I was banking on coming back, amping up the gossip mongers material and adding mystery to my every growing nefarious reputation.

“What’s your first class, Chase?” I asked as I slowed down near the office doors.

“Calculus,” he answered, slowing down with me.

“Not slacking off in your last year? You must be undecided about good schools then,” I remarked, narrowing my eyes on him.

His cheeks reddened just a bit in response.

“What about you?” he asked coming to a complete stop with me in front of the long set of glass windows sandwiching the glass door that led into the school office.

“I’m not sure yet,” I nodded in response to the office. The bell rang and he was officially late for class. Not that I thought he would mind. “I’ll see you around.”

“You’ll see me later,” Chase clarified boldly. “Ride home, remember?”

“Oh, I remember,” I smiled coyly and then turned my back on him.

The glass door closed behind me with the tinkling of bells overhead and I visibly shivered against that interaction. Breathing deeply and counting to five again, I promised myself that the minute I graduated high school and had access to my trust fund I was so beyond out