Just then, the intercom announced that Scott Ryder was needed in the office. Cassie looked the picture of disappointment.
‘Don’t worry,’ I whispered to her as Scott headed out the door. ‘You have a geographically advantageous position for the rest of the year!’
We exchanged a discreet high five.
‘Now, a small assignment,’ Mr Bannerman said, pausing at the window. Everyone groaned. ‘I said small, people. We’ve got to get those sleepy brains buzzing again after such a long break. I would like you to research one aspect of medieval history that interests you and present it to the class next Tuesday.’
I already knew what I’d research. I wrote the words ‘Courtly love’ on my notepad in swirly script, then caught Hayden peering at it.
‘Courtly love? Sorry, Aurora, but I think I’ve already got that one in the bag.’
‘I think you’d better think again, because I’ve already claimed it,’ I replied.
‘You just said you’re not the Mills & Boon type and, technically, courtly love could be considered historical romance.’ He grinned. ‘As you don’t want to pollute your mind with any clichéd topics, you should probably leave that one to me.’
‘You, discussing romance? Ha!’
Hayden put on a hurt face. ‘I think I might be alright at it. After all, I’ve been doing a lot of observing lately.’ He gave me a significant look.
‘Observing?’ I repeated, curiosity getting the better of me.
‘Well, you keep accusing me of spying on your dates,’ he said, and shrugged. ‘So, technically, I guess I’m learning about romance firsthand. It seems kind of brutal, judging from the goodnight ritual I saw last night.’
My blood wasn’t boiling, but it was pretty warm. Despite that, I was not going to lose my temper. I was determined that this year Hayden Paris wasn’t going to destroy my composure.
‘But I haven’t seen the whole picture,’ he went on. ‘I was thinking I could sit in on the restaurant part of it; help you assess your dates. I would have given Bradley Scott a strike right off the bat.’
‘My dates are none of your business!’
‘If I’m doing the study, they are.’
‘Study something else!’ I hissed just as Mr Bannerman arrived at my desk.
I smiled. ‘Mr Bannerman! I have the best idea for this assignment —’
‘Aurora, I’m afraid I’m going to have to remind you that drawing on school property is not allowed,’ Mr Bannerman interrupted, looking serious.
‘What?’ I said. The last time I defaced anything was back when I was four, and my mother’s reaction to my mural on our dining-room wall had stopped me ever sketching on anything ever again.
I took a closer look at where Mr Bannerman was pointing. There was a heart drawn on the front of my desk. I struggled to read the scrawled black words inside it. ‘I love … HR?’ I guessed.
‘HP,’ Hayden put in helpfully. ‘I never suspected you had such intense feelings for me, Aurora.’
‘W-what?’ I stuttered. Then it dawned on me. ‘You!’ I cried. ‘You graffitied my desk!’
‘Nothing you can do will ever make me admit it,’ Hayden said as solemnly as someone can when they’re suppressing a smile. ‘Don’t worry, Mr Bannerman,’ he added, ‘it’s nonpermanent. Aurora can take advantage of the situation to get me alone at break and help me clean it off.’
‘You’re driving me crazy!’ I cried.
There went my composure. The whole history class turned to look at us.
‘A person can only drive you crazy if you give them the keys,’ Hayden said with mock serenity, like some sort of Buddhist monk.
‘You’ve stolen the keys!’ I yelled.
He just looked at me and raised his eyebrows.
The bell rang before I could kill him.
CHAPTER 3
Psychic Surgery
If you guessed that I didn’t stick around to help Hayden Paris clean my desk during break, you’d be dead right. Instead, I watched him through the window. Seeing him furiously scrubbing my desk with a bottle of heavy-duty cleaning fluid and rags soothed my anger slightly. For once, justice had been served.
‘What was the deal with you and Hayden in history?’ Cassie said, pulling me away from the window. ‘It seemed to get pretty heated.’
‘Heated? This went beyond heated years ago. An accurate picture would be a deadly battle.’
‘A deadly battle? Ooh, tell me more!’ Jelena came round the corner. Instead of history, she took business studies. As you can imagine, she was aceing the subject. ‘Who with?’
‘Someone who doesn’t fight fair,’ I said.
‘Hayden again,’ Cassie whispered to Jelena.
‘One of these days you’re going to discover why Hayden Paris gets you so worked up,’ Jelena said, swerving around a game of handball going on in the corridor.
I clenched my jaw. ‘I know why he gets me so worked up! He’s deliberately set out to persecute me ever since he moved into the area. When I was six years old, he pushed me into the pool at the get-to-know-the-neighbours barbecue his parents threw. I could have drowned!’
‘It was a paddling pool, Aurora,’ Cassie said, in what I considered to be a very uncaring way.
‘Pool, paddling pool, what’s the difference? He still had devious intentions.’
Jelena made a pained face. ‘Not to be insensitive here, but can we please drop the Hayden subject? For two reasons: the first being, Aurora, no offence, but to the general public you seem to be bordering on crazy when it comes to Hayden —’
‘Hey,’ I said, feeling hurt.
Jelena’s voice dropped several decibels. ‘And the second is obvious if you study the boys positioned at three o’clock.’
We all pretended to look over at the school fountain, but what we were really studying was Scott Ryder and the other new guy we’d noticed in the schoolyard earlier that morning.
‘Did you get any info on Goatee Guy?’ I asked Jelena.
‘He wasn’t in business studies. I’m hoping for some kind of alignment in our schedules somewhere.’
‘Scott Ryder sits next to me in history!’ Cassie said excitedly to Jelena.
‘Have you established contact?’
‘I felt way too shy to say anything.’
‘See, that’s where guys have it easy,’ Jelena said. ‘They can just toss a pencil or paper ball at us to get our attention.’
The moves of high-school boys: Casanova had nothing on them. I tried to imagine Cassie lobbing her HB at someone.
‘So,’ I said, breaking into my friends’ daydreams, ‘plan of approach?’
As the FPP specifies, a girl’s got to actively seek out her Prince. Once she spots him, it’s important to take action.
‘I think Lose an Earring would work well,’ Jelena suggested.
‘Who’s doing the losing?’ I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Cassie always plays the role of loser, as she’s so sweet and innocent-looking. No-one could ever suspect her of setting up a fake situation.