Riley spent all Friday and Saturday unpacking and putting her room together; she also talked a bit more, and slept most of Sunday. Today was her first day at Brookland; she stood in front of her mirror examining herself in the Brookland uniform with her long hair in a French braid trailing down her back. "Riley, you have to leave now or you'll be late for school" her mother called from downstairs, she sighed, picked up her book bag, which was somewhat heavy from all the books she had crammed in the there and walked downstairs.
She walked out the door and down the driveway to the car that was waiting for her. She got in turned the radio on as the driver drove off she stopped when she heard Michael by Franz Ferdinand. A few minutes later they pulled into Brookland's parking lot and she knew who the driver was, he worked for her father, but that was the unspoken rule for them: don't talk to the bosses' daughter unless you are spoken to, and even then keep it at a bare minimum.
She got out of the car and followed the driver into the school office, he opened the door for her and she walked in, he followed and went straight to the secretary desk. Speaking quietly with the secretary, he nodded to Riley and walked out of the office. The woman sitting behind the desk came out from behind it and stood in front of Riley "hello dear, I am Miss Bedfordshire" she said and started explaining different this to Riley.
When she was done with that she said "now, you will have someone taking you around the school for the day, give me a moment while I call him" she said and walked back behind the desk.
Alex was sitting in his first class, thank God this is going to be over soon, he thought as he tried to pay attention to his Math teacher Mr. Collins. "Alex" Mr. Collins said "you have been called down to the office" he said. Alex got up and walked out the door, he saw a man walking in the hallway that was undoubtedly from the MI6. He tried not to think about that, as he walked into the office "Alex, could you please show Riley around the school today, she has your class schedule, so it shouldn't be that hard" Miss Bedfordshire said and Alex nodded. Miss Bedfordshire went back behind her desk and Alex turned around to see Riley standing up, picking up her book bag and walking out of the office with Alex following her.
"Believe it of not I didn't ask specifically for you" she said smiling coyly at him. She looked down at a piece of paper Miss Bedfordshire had given her "do you know where my locker is?" she asked showing him the number "yeah, it's right next to mine" he said and she followed him down a few hall ways "this one" he said "thanks" she said. She put in the combination, opened the locker and started putting her books in the locker "by the way, thanks for helping me today, you could've just walked away as soon as we got out of the office" she said and closed her locker. "No problem," he said "it got me out of first period" and smiled.
She loved his smile, it was sweet and his eyes didn't look as serious as they normally did. The bell rang and kids started flooding out of the class room "come on, we have History next" he said grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards their next class. When they got there he reluctantly let go of her wrist. "Mr. Meharg, this is…" he started but was cut off by Mr. Meharg "Riley Summer, yes I've taught her" he said smiling "nice to see you again" Riley said "and you as well, you can take the seat the back" he said and Riley sat down in the seat he pointed to.
That seat just happened to be next to Alex "lucky" Tom muttered as he passed Alex. Is that her? James mouthed and Alex nodded, the bell rang and the rest of the class filed into the class room. "Class, we have a new student that will be joining us, her name is Riley Summers" Mr. Meharg said and everyone turned around and looked at Riley and she smiled. Alex had to stop himself from laughing, most of the guys stared at her with awestruck expressions. Mr. Meharg started talking about World War 2, but Alex wasn't paying attention.
By lunch Riley was the most fancied girl in Year 9, many guys had asked her to sit with them, but she sat with Alex and his friends. "So what type of Sports are you into?" Tom asked her "soccer, which I think you guys call football, I'm not sure I never understood the different names, hockey, fencing, archery, swimming, I love surfing, and kinda into karate" she said "fencing, archery and karate? Are you training to become part of the MI6, or something?" Alex asked and she smiled, if only he knew, she thought.
The end of the day came soon; Riley was getting her books out of her locker when Alex walked up next to her opened his locker and dumped his gym bag inside. Riley closed her locker and they both walked outside "you want a ride home?" he asked and gestured to his bike, she shrugged "sure" she said and got on the bike.
"Remind me never to go two to a bike" Alex said once they got to their street and she laughed "it was your idea" she said he turned around and smirked at her she started laughing when he started singing I Want to Break Free by Queen. She got off and so did Alex "I am free!" he yelled and she started laughing even harder "hey you wanna play football" he asked as he got out his soccer ball from his garage where he put his bike "okay" she said and they walked into Alex's backyard and started playing.
Jack was sitting in the kitchen talking with Emily; she had missed her so much. She looked out the window and saw Riley and Alex riding up on Alex's bike. Riley was laughing and Alex was smiling "aw, they're so cute together" she said and Emily nodded, Alex started singing and Riley almost fell over laughing "I haven't seen her smile like that in a long time" Emily said fondly. Jack saw Alex head into the backyard with Riley "you should've seen Alex when he was talking to Riley, it was adorable, he would get this huge smile on his face anytime he made her smile" Jack said and the two friends continued to talk fondly as if they hadn't spent anytime apart.
"Wow, you're pretty good" Alex said "thank you" she said beaming "is it always this hot in London?" she asked "actually most of the time it's raining" Alex said "great" she said "hey, throw the ball over here" he said. She had a mischievous smirk on her face; she picked up the ball and ran with it "HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Alex said chasing after her. She ran through the backyard, after a while Alex had tackled her "let me go!" She yelled laughing "no" he said "why?" she asked "I don't wanna" he said in a babyish voice. It started raining "you cursed it!" she said "how?" he asked "you said it always rains in London, you made the sky mad" she said smiling. "Will you let me go now?" she asked, she was starting to get soaked through, damn white school shirts, she thought "fine" he said getting up and helping her up.
They both walked inside to Alex's house "come on, the towels are upstairs" he said, they passed by the kitchen and heard laughing, but Alex just guessed Jack was on the phone. "I still think this is your fault" Riley said, but he knew she wasn't mad at him, she was smiling, her amazing, breathtaking, smile. He walked into the bathroom and handed Riley a towel "thanks" she said, he looked her over and saw that her clothes were soaked, as were yours "umm, you wanna borrow some clothes?" he asked and she nodded thankfully.
Riley followed Alex into his room and he handed her a t-shirt and some shorts and she went into the bathroom and changed. When she came back out she saw that he had changed too, "here, you can put your clothes in this if you like" he said handing her a bag "thanks" she said and put it next to her back pack. "umm, so what should we do now?" he asks "well we could work on homework" she said and he gave her a look that implied he thought she was crazy and she laughed "or we could do something else" she said trying to wring the water out of her hair with the towel he had given her earlier. Alex just shook his head and water flew everywhere "Alex" she said trying to block the flying water "what?" he asked with an innocent look on his face. She started to walk over to him but slipped on water on the floor, he quickly caught her, she could see his eyes clearer now, they were light brown with darker brown and gold flecks. She was still in his arms, she liked it, she felt safe, something that was rare in her life.
"Alex you up here, I want you to meet" Jack said, but stopped when she saw Alex and Riley, their faces were barely even inches apart "Emily" she said as Riley's mom, her best friend, came up behind her and Alex and Riley quickly scrambled apart.
What had just happened? Alex didn't know, but he did know he didn't want to move away, he didn't know what was wrong with him; his mind seemed to shut off when she got that near to him. "Uh, we were just, um…" Alex began, why was he nervous? They didn't do anything "I was just walking over to help Alex with something when I slipped and Alex caught me" Riley said calmly and Alex nodded. "Alright," Jack said "Alex, this is Emily", Alex saw where Riley got her eyes and her smile "nice to meet you Alex" Emily said smiling, yup, that's definitely were Riley got her smile, Alex smiled and said "you too."
Jack could tell that Alex and Riley were both uncomfortable; Alex was fidgeting with the buckle on his pocket and Riley was staring at the floor "umm, Emily I need your help with something downstairs" she said "what?" Emily asked her confused but quickly understood "oh, okay, well it was nice meeting you Alex" Emily said and Alex nodded.
When they left the room Alex let out a huge sigh of relief and Riley laughed "well I think you made a good first impression" she said "I'm sure" he said sarcastically. Riley smiled "don't worry about it" she said ruffling her hair.