HEART OF THE CHOSEN (CASTE BOOK 1)

Chapter 2

The first lesson of the year, if you could say that. Or rather, two long hours listening to the teacher introducing us to the new rules of the school and our new schedule.

Earlier, I was overflowing with energy at the idea of starting this new term, but the announcement of my class separation with Olivia had taken away all my moral strength. I was sitting in the back, alone, my hand tucked under my chin to hold my head which, if I had let go, would have ended up sprawling on the desk. For more than three-quarters of an hour, Mr Keller presented the structure of our schedule. I still deigned to show him interest when I realised why Olivia and I were in two different classes. Two days earlier, the teachers’ council had submitted the idea, since validated by the principal, of dividing the classes because of our options to avoid mixing students in the courses. The students from language and mathematics options were in two very distinct groups. Listening to this nonsense, I curse the teachers. Couldn’t they tell us sooner? I would have taken the languages option like Olivia. What a bunch of rats, these teachers!

A knock on the door snapped me out of my dark thoughts. Mr Keller motioned the person in, and my breath stopped when I saw the person coming forward.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, sir, but there’s been a mistake in the division of classes,” said the intruder confidently.

“How’s that?” wondered Mr Keller, who wasn’t a man to like hiccups in his arrangements.

“I have just spoken to the principal about this, and he agrees that there was a misunderstanding about the choice of my admissions option.”

“So, you have taken the mathematics option, Mr... uh.”

“Panchak, Thomas Panchak.”

“Good. Take a seat next to Miss Burberry in the back right, a place is available, and I wouldn’t blame you if you manage to get her to smile.”

All the students giggled, but my handsome dark-haired boy hadn’t blinked, he was already advancing in my direction, and I blessed Heaven to be seated because my legs were becoming dangerously limp. In the class, the comments mingled: “The poor thing, he’s placed next to the crazy,” or “This crazy b***h is too lucky to be at the back with the handsome boy”. Mr Keller didn’t even respond. Unless you were deaf, it was impossible not to notice, but it had been a while since the teachers took offence at contemptuous remarks towards me.

You might wonder why a simple kiss got me voted high school pariah, but I didn’t even know. I had already tried to speak to Cedric to get an explanation, but he immediately wore a terrified look and fled without answering me. According to Olivia, who was aware of everything in high school, Cedric had said that after our famous oral exchange, I had behaved like a hysteric and, the rumour swelling in the ranks of high school shrews, I had, in the end, tried to pull my hair out, screamed like the kid in The Exorcist and threw my bag in his face after hitting him with all my might. I remembered something soft and delicate, which had suddenly stopped when I saw him run away at full speed. However, I could swear that I had done nothing but kiss him. Since that day, I have had a poor image of boys. But when Thomas Panchak sat next to me, I stopped thinking, hypnotised.

He stared at me with his translucent eyes, so I quickly turned mine in the direction of the teacher, blushing. I then saw all the faces of the class staring at us and bursting out laughing when they saw the pink rising to my cheeks. The last hour was going to be agony.

“Alright, that’s enough!” said Mr Keller. “Let’s get back to our schedules, so we’ll…”

This awkward silence between my neighbour and me suddenly weighed heavily. Maybe I Should speak to him first. Just say hello. My handsome brunette allowed himself to put his fingers under my chin and gently brought my face in his direction. I was in full catatonia. I couldn’t even blink my eyes. “I dream he touches me,” I repeated to myself. At his touch, I felt an electrifying charge through my body, and convulsions shook my lower abdomen. He didn’t move, and his eyes fixed on mine prevented me from emitting the slightest sound. Then he took his hand away and sat back in his chair and, with a satisfied look, said to me:

“You saw how I fooled them.”

Rather than comment, I wondered: didn’t he hear the others making fun of me? Didn’t he notice my exile to the plague bench at the back?

“H… how?” I mumbled in a flat voice.

“Well,” he whispered closer to my ear, “there was no error in admissions.”

He looked proud of himself. I would have liked to ask him the reasons which had pushed him to do this, but I didn’t forget that speaking with me would tarnish his reputation as a newcomer. He deserved to know all the same, so I preferred to stop the costs of disappointment right away.

“Listen, Thomas…”

“I like how you pronounce my first name,” he laughed, “I thought you weren’t listening when I arrived, so you remembered it?”

He had that devastating smile. Lord, how attractive he was!

“Yes…uh…no. Listen,” I stammered, “you’re new here, and if you want to keep some popularity in this school, it would be better for you to avoid me.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“What? uh… well.”

“Alright.”

“Alright,” I repeated a little too quickly for my liking.

Deep down, I felt ridiculous. Did I ask him to avoid me? But what did I think? This guy was far too sublime for someone like me.

During the interminable last minutes during which Mr Keller bombarded us with instructions about the new hygiene rules in high school, my neighbour hadn’t spoken the slightest word to me. Yet I felt his eyes on me, so I made monstrous efforts to stay focused on the teacher. I gently ran my hand through my hair to give myself some composure. I must have looked clumsy, but I knew, deep down, I wanted his attention. It was at this precise moment that he asked me the question:

“Why do they all take you for a crackpot?”

A cold shower. How tired I was of this story. I no longer wanted to explain myself, so I answered in an icy voice:

“Because I’m a bad kisser!”

I was devastated. A knife in the heart would have been less painful. After a while, he moved closer to my ear again, and I felt his warm breath brushing the back of my neck.

“I’m sure you’re lying.”

“That’s what they say, though,” I retorted, angry.

“No, you misunderstood me.”

“Sorry?”

“I’m sure you’re a good kisser.”

The alarm rings.

In the hallway, two doors down from my classroom, Olivia was smiling, leaning against the wall waiting for me. I still managed to get out of my chair after the Panchak tornado. How stupid I must have looked in front of him! I was speechless and said, “I have to go!” Pathetic.

No, but who was he to put me in such a state? I would have liked to believe that his allusions were mere flirtation, but deep down, I am convinced he was making fun of me. Anyway, seeing my expression, Olivia frowned.

“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately, “you’re as white as an aspirin.”

“Let’s eat. I’ll tell you EVERYTHING,” I replied, looking tired.

“Okay, because I have things to tell you. Oh my, Eve! It promises to be an interesting year !”

To say the least, I thought.

When we were going to the bus stop, I noticed the two Panchak brothers in a metallic grey Audi A6 coming out of the school parking lot. I could make out Eric at the wheel, having a visibly heated discussion with his brother Thomas.

“No, but you’ve seen their car!” marvelled Olivia, a fan of beautiful German cars, “they’re perfect, these guys!”

When we got home, I made lunch while Olivia told me the details of her morning. She explained to me the curious agitation of the two brothers when the form teacher gave details of the new class arrangements. That’s when Thomas submitted his fake option problem and left the class in a hurry. Strangely enough, they seemed to disagree on this. Maybe Eric didn’t want to be separated from his brother in his new school, but I couldn’t see the handsome dark blond moping for that reason. Either way, Olivia had spent the entire two hours of class trying to get his attention. However, without success. At the same time, she was two rows behind him which didn’t help.

“But I’m not going to give up,” she said, resolute.

Now it was my turn to tell her everything. I didn’t pass on any details. I had never seen her so attentive.

“What? He said he thought you’re a good kisser? Wow! You realise that was hot, Eve!”

“Oh, yes!” I said sarcastically, “I especially realise that he doesn’t care about me. He’s playing with me.”

“Why would he do that? He has nothing to gain from it, and anyway, it wasn’t Sophia Chang he was eyeing this morning in the yard. It was you!”

Sophia Chang was a popular student and my scourge of last year and, incidentally, ex of Cedric Fabre.

“Yeah, well, anyway, I almost felt sick.”

“What did you say to him after that?” Olivia continued to question me.

“I have to go!”

“What? No, Eve, you’re exaggerating! When’s the last time a guy hit on you like that?”

“I don’t know. It’s just that I sense something not logical in this story.”

“If you want my opinion, you’re using your head too much.”

Our discussion on the Panchak theme ended, so we continued to other subjects that were much less exciting but oh so important: the purchase of our books for the year, our next cinema outing, and our plans for the All Saints holidays. We had no sooner resumed lessons than we were already thinking about the next holiday.

Olivia left around five o’clock. I took the opportunity to do some cleaning. Sam and I lived in a small house at the corner of a suburban street in London. It was a small millstone building from the 1930s with only two bedrooms, an American kitchen opening onto a large living room and two bathrooms. I had the upstairs all to myself, a blessing, especially since Sam rarely came up there to see me. Tonight, I decided to cook him some Mexican fajitas. No sooner had I finished slicing the peppers than the front door opened. It was already seven o’clock, but Sam was coming home early today, which was rare enough to be noted.

“Hi, Eve, so a good day?”

“Very nice!”

I wasn’t going to tell him all the details.

“So much the better. I hope this year will be less trying for you. Don’t forget what I told you: you won’t think about it anymore in a few years, and there’s no point in getting upset.”

“Thanks for your usual spiel, Sam, but it’s easy for you to say. You’re incredibly calm. I do my best and don’t want to give them another opportunity to make me look crazy.”

“Well said! Otherwise, anyone new at school?”

Why was he asking me that? He had read my thoughts or what!

“Uh yes… two brothers, one is in my class, by the way. Olivia thinks he’s interested in me. In the yard, he looked at me, that’s all.”

Damn! I had already said too much!

“Hmm… What are the names?”

“Hey! I’m almost eighteen!”

Seeing him raise an eyebrow in an if-you-think-I’m-going-to-drop-it-you’re-dreaming! I give in miserably.

“Well, okay, Eric and Thomas Panchak, that’s all I know, so don’t insist.”

Sam looked thoughtful all of a sudden. How protective he was at times!

“Be careful, okay? You don’t know them.”

“Oh, they don’t look dangerous.”

Admittedly, that wasn’t quite the truth considering the sudden spontaneous combustion of my cheeks facing Thomas. A tomato would have looked less red. What’s more, Eric the blond didn’t look like an altar boy, but what was the point of mentioning this to Sam? If I drove the point home, he would get into his head that they were undercover terrorists. I didn’t forget that Sam worked for the British army in special operations, the only aspect of his job I had managed to grasp. He never mentioned it, as if I understood what that meant! One thing was for sure; he was systematically investigating my friends and, particularly, my boyfriends. Willy, the second (out of six, we can’t say that Sam had a lot of work with my romantic relationships), had been arrested for dealing c******s at 15; Damien, my fourth, had a very promiscuous mother during her husband’s absences, while Cedric’s father evaded taxes. None, of course, had any grace in Sam’s eyes.

“Alright, I trust you,” he told me.

He went to take a shower while I set up the table. We had dinner watching yet another rerun of CSI and, around 11 p.m. I went to bed.

My night was agitated. I kept thinking about Thomas, his beautiful eyes, his hand touching my face, his body approaching mine. The last images were pure fantasy as I fell into a deep sleep.