Chapter Three

Week after week and still he didn’t come. But that first day, that first kiss, it stayed with me forever. So every time I heard a rumour, or Mr Yikvondish made a mistake, I would just think about Landon and I would smile knowing that one day, one day soon, I would see him walking through Buckleberry College gates.

You could say I became slightly obsessed with him. You know, drawing his name all over my notebooks, writing “Alice loves Landon” on every empty surface. But there were some people that didn’t like this new change in me, for example, Sam.

It was another Monday morning, when I sat at my desk drawing again, as the class waited for Mr Yikvondish. Everyone was walking around talking to each other, laughing about their weekends full of parties, except me. My chin rested against my palm while I replayed that scene, over and over again. I dropped my pen and sighed, probably the hundredth time, as I looked over my art work for Landon.

Suddenly, it was snatched from my hands. I spun round to see Sam holding my work.

“Hey give it back!” I said, leaping towards him. Sam looked at me; a horrified expression crossed his face, like he had just seen a ghost. Just as quick as it came, it disappeared leaving the most mischievous grin I had ever seen, while his eyes burned with a raging fire that had no bounds.

“What’s it say?” Max said, walking over with a basketball spinning on his finger. Sam looked at me, then back at the piece of paper and began to read.

“Alice loves Landon. Oooooh, how sweet.” Sam teased at the top of his lungs. I felt my cheeks blush as the whole class stared at me. I turned on Sam, feeling tears build up in my eyes, but his smile just broadened; he knew that he hurt me. Time stood still as each pair of eyes widened in shock.

“You in love? Puh-lease, you don’t even know what the word means!” Sarah said, flicking her long blond hair. She was the most popular girl in school, whatever she said goes. Suddenly, the whole class burst out laughing. I wanted to run, run far away, but I was glued to the spot with embarrassment. All I could do was stare at my feet while I heard their stupid remarks. I held my head in my hands, hoping out of hope that I would wake up from this terrible nightmare. Finally my rescue came.

“sezzle zown khlass” Mr. Yikvondish walked in carrying a stack of books that he dropped onto his desk with a “thunk!”. I staggered over to my desk, dropped into the chair and held my head in my hands.

“We khave a new zudent,” he said brightly. No, it couldn’t be, I thought…My heart started beating like it was in a hundred metre sprint. My eyes widened with renewed awareness as my head lifted to see Mr Yikvondish gesturing this new student. I gasped, my mouth hanging open. Because it was him! It was really him!

The darkness disappeared, revealing white lights, bright as the sun shining on me. But there was no sound and still the pain took over my body. I wanted to scream, loud as I could. It was everywhere, my arms and legs burned like coal. It wouldn’t stop. Why wouldn’t it stop?

 “Khlass, ziz iz Landon,” said Mr Yikvondish. Landon scanned the class of watchful students who gasped in amazement at the mention of his name. But I didn’t take notice of anything, except those rich brown eyes. And when they landed on me, a broad smile made them sparkle, and I smiled back. At that moment, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Sam fidgeting uncomfortably with his pen. It seemed that I had had the last laugh. Suddenly he was on his feet, the plastic chair falling to the floor faster than you can say hello.

“Hi Landon,” He said. “I’m Sam class captain of this ridiculously boring class” Sam spoke fearlessly with the intent of insult. The class fell into hysterical laughter within seconds. But Mr Yikvondish wasn’t impressed.

“So if you ever feel like you can’t handle it…it’s because you can’t” the laughter died as if someone pressed the mute button while the entire atmosphere turned into a war zone. I stared at Sam, trying to figure out what he meant. My gaze flicked between Sam and Landon as they stared each other down.

“Zam! Zats no way of treating a new zudent! Move zo ze back of za room!” barked the teacher.

“No” he said bluntly.

“Zen out!” shouted Mr Yikvondish, pointing to the door while almost knocking Landon off his feet in the process.

“With pleasure!” Sam laughed, stomping out of the room.

“Landon, you may zake  Zam’s place” Mr. Yikvondish instructed in a gentle tone. My heart skipped a beat as Landon calmly set his books on my desk and sat down.

The following hours were a blur of linear equations and the murmur of quiet whispers. I was also right about Landon being smart; he was the first person who never asked me for help, instead I needed his.  

So when lunch finally arrived, all I could do was watch him as he opened his locker which was on the same row as mine, and retrieved his lunch. Just as Landon went to close his locker, he glanced my way, smiling. Immediately I blushed and looked away, smiling inwardly. As he started walking in my direction, I instinctively pretended to tidy up my locker, while eyeing him. Maths, Science, English, all on the left side, French on the other, I thought as he drew nearer.

My heart began beating like a caged animal while I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen. Then the moment past and time came back into its gravitational force. Just as I was about to close my locker, I noticed a small, neatly folded piece of paper lying on my math books with my name on it. Curiously, I opened it to see Landon’s Edwardian writing which read:

Hey Alice, meet me in the Northern gardens-if you like.

Landon :)

Suddenly, the pain stopped, leaving nothing more than silence. But there was something else something stronger keeping me alive. It was hope. It filled my body with the strength to find my way out of this cascading darkness, to find him.

Stuffing the note in my pocket and grabbing my lunch I sprinted to the northern gardens with the biggest smile on my face. I felt like I was running faster than could be human, because everything just flew past me. I dodged bins, open locker doors, mortified teachers and strange looking plants that I don’t remember noticing.

About two minutes later I found my self wondering breathlessly towards the huge gum tree where Landon sat crossed legged, eating his lunch. When he spotted me, Landon got to his feet and opened his arms just as I ran into them. He chuckled, softly, as we hugged each other.

“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. I leaned back, looking deep into his eyes.

“I missed you too, more than you can imagine” I replied, he smiled and hugged me tighter. We sat down, still hugging each other, watching the clouds silently.

“So how do you like Buckleberry College?” I asked.

“Its awesome, compared to my last school…”

“Really? And what school was that?” I said looking up at him. For a moment he didn’t answer, just played with my hand, intertwining our fingers.

“Well…I’d rather not say…for the moment…” he said, almost apologising. With one eye brow raised, I stared at him quizzically.

“Oh, come on, I won’t tell anyone,” I joked, but silently hoping for an answer. Landon’s brown eyes drifted across the sky, as if he was remembering a long, lost memory. In that instant, he looked frozen like a statue. Then he spoke.

“First you answer a question” Landon’s voice was very serious yet calm.

“Okay…” I whispered back, sitting up and watching him.

“That guy, Sam, when did he come here? Last year?”

“Ah, yeah, how did you know that?” I questioned. Landon took a deep breath in, as if he had seen a ghost, and sighed exaggeratedly.

“What’s wrong?” he turned and faced me.

“Look the reason I know him is because…he used to go to my school. And that school was the Australian Institute of Discipline…military school” he blurted. I sat up, my eyes widening rapidly with shock.

Because the Australian Institute of Discipline was a place that everyone has heard of, a place that we all dread. It’s the place where they send kids who have anger management issues or problems with crime. People say it looks like prison, located somewhere in the middle of Victoria.

“No way! But you don’t seem like someone who would need to go there” my voice shook with a lack of understanding.

“Yeah, that’s because I’m not.” He sighed. “You see, my parents are the principals, which is why they didn’t come on my orientation day.”

“But I still don’t understand, why did Sam insult you if he’s already met you?” I asked.

“Because, he’s the reason I stayed there...” still not understanding he continued to explain this complicated situation.

“We had always hated each other, because he always beat me at everything, not that I tried. But one day as we walked back from drill training, Sam tried to provoke me to fight him, but I refused. Because at the end of that month I would be allowed to transfer to a normal school and that’s all I wanted. But he always had to have his way. And so he threw the first punch, all I did was fight back. By the end of it, he had a broken nose and I was tending to a black eye.

“Anyway, when you get in trouble at military school, you get court marshalled which is what he did to me. So I had to defend my self in front of my own parents trying to explain my innocence. But his stupid perfect grades and clean record led them to find me guilty. They believed that two-faced idiot over me! Their own son!! I was sentenced to an extra four months before I could transfer…” he sighed with bottled up anger.

“So now I’m here, with you.” He said trying to smile but only showing his sadness and anger.

“Hey it’ll be okay,” I said as I hugged him. “You don’t need to worry about Sam anymore”

Sam. Even the sound of his name revolted me. Just thinking about the feelings I had for him before Landon came, to think I liked him! That I thought he was a nice person! How blind could I be?

***

Author's Note

Honesty is the best policy! :)

Reviews

[Meat of Dog]

Wow o.o for some reason I thought Sam was her friend in the first chapter but yeesh, what a jerk! Young people can be so mean to one another... I felt bad for her and wanted to help her, causing me to grow more attached. Also, I felt her loneliness and sadness in waiting for Landon. Five minutes can feel like a long time, let alone weeks. I also feel like there is a nice element of realism here, with her excitement and their having picked out a potential meeting place (the northern gardens). I used to do that in high school: establish a spot on year one and go repeatedly back until graduation.

There's a nice element of mysteriousness to Landon, which makes me interested to know more about his past. I was surprised to realize that he was from military school! That was a good plot twist, as well as the fact that he knew and hated Sam all along. There's some very important character development happening in this chapter, I already feel things are going to get pretty heated.

The concept of the trial seems interesting and realistic, as well as unfortunate for poor Landon. And woah nelly, another plot twist right at the end there, with her liking Sam. That was a great cliff hanger! I feel a love triangle coming on.

Other suggestions:
-“thunk!”. I staggered You don't need a period after an exclamation mark because the mark itself is punctuation.
-"hundred metre sprint" Meter
-"almost apologising. With" apologizing
-"marshalled" marshaled

[Call Me Blu]

Ooh, nice and juicy secret revealed. I would have liked it better if Sam had come and interrupted Landon just as he was talking, and the secret was revealed later. That would have had me flipping pages for sure! Just anidea.
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