AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

6| ACCIDENTAL INTRODUCTION

The last bell of the day rung. The English lesson just seemed to drone on and on, it didn't help that one of the boys next to her kept talking to his friend loudly, distracting Callas. Silas would be in the parking lot by now, in his beaten up, old, red truck. When Callas walked out of the classroom, with the two boys behind her still talking loudly, she almost screamed when Henry jumped up from the floor, walking beside her. She held onto her chest, feeling her heartbeat race underneath her skin. Henry laughed and wrapped his arm over her shoulder.

"Don't do that, Henry! I'm too young to have a cardiac arrest." She shook her head, steadying her breathing.

He unwrapped his arm from around her with a grin. "Sorry, Cally. Not my fault you scare easily." He laughed again.

"How was I to know you'd pop up from the ground like a whack-a-mole?" Callas responded as they walked down the stairs and towards the entrance of the school.

Henry laughed again. "Well, I did say I'd wait for you." He shrugged.

She shook her head at him. "You could have gone home instead of waiting around for an hour." She looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

He shook his head this time. "It wasn't a problem. I got more research done anyway." He held up the History book.

She rolled her eyes. "Life of the party, Hen," Callas jested as he lightly shoved her.

Somehow, during some part of the day, Callas became comfortable with Henry. He was just an eccentric character, which Callas countered with her calm and verbose nature. Surprisingly, she never met Jacob in any of her classes, which she remembered Silas saying could happen. Unless she did and she just couldn't recognise him. Not that she really minded, her goal wasn't to meet him or his friends on the first day, she'd rather ease into meeting him and his group gradually, rather than immediately. It wasn't like Henry was that bad of a companion for the day.

Henry did show her around the school, telling her where things would be, pointing out certain people to avoid. Although that last part puzzled her, the people he pointed out looked much too old to be in their year, they looked like they were in their last year if anything. But then again, she wasn't one of the younger students in her year but looked like it, and some of the students who were probably younger looked older than they were. So, she couldn't really tell, as it was the same for her. But she knew, after Henry told her of course, that he was one of the older students in their year, that his birthday was the first week that they started the academic year, so Callas missed that.

Callas put her hand in her pocket and paused. "Oh, the form!" Henry looked back at her.

"Do you want me to wait?"

"You don't have to, my granddad is picking me up, and I don't know how long I'll be in the office. You go on ahead." She waved him off, he nodded back and waved goodbye before he walked out of the parking lot, in the opposite direction Callas would have taken home.

With the form now in her hand, and signed by all her teachers that she had that day, she turned back around. Her eyes were cast on the form in her hand, looking over the messy signatures by all her teachers, not looking at where she was going. A squeak left her lips as she walked into someone, her body falling on top of them, knocking them to the ground, their arms holding her hips. She looked at them, ready to apologise when her breathing got caught in her throat. To say the boy was beautiful would have been the understatement of the year.

He had beautiful russet-coloured skin, short black hair with dark brown eyes. He stared back at Callas, his lips slightly parted, neither of them said anything. It was like her body was filled with a warmth that she's never felt before, it was calming and peaceful. Her heart didn't race, it was steady, but it felt like it stopped for a moment. Something about him had made Callas feel as though part of her life had been completed, like a missing puzzle piece finally slotted into place, like she was where she was meant to be. It was like gravity was pulling them together.