Wingless and Beautiful

Chapter Twenty-Six

Zaphkiel - archangel whose name means "the knowledge of God."

Friday night, Denise shared some news that she hoped would excite us as much as her.

“It’s a kind of an exchange program,” she said. “Students from another school will come to our school and a couple of our students will come to theirs, for two weeks.”

Chaise rolled his eyes, showing us that he didn’t share Denise’s enthusiasm.

Denise saw this and stuck a tongue out at him before turning to me. “Anyway, you are looking at the chairman of the first ever Interschool Immersion Program!” she said cheerfully.

The look that she gave me actually made me nervous. It was one of those looks that said ‘No’ is not on the options list.

“Wh-what help would you need from me?”

“Well, you need to help me organize the activities. I’ve already got a lot of ideas listed down but I would need your opinion on them. These kids will be attending our classes but we need to organize some activities for at least two weekends. We want to make sure they get to experience the best of Leighton High.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Excuse me? I think your spiel should be delivered to that table over there.” I pointed at the table where Chelsea and the rest of her squad were.

“Oh please! They’re a disgrace not just to this school but to the rest of humanity.” This time it was her turn to roll her eyes. “Anyway, as I was saying, I have been tasked to organize some activities to make them feel welcome here.”

Chaise smirked.

“What, genius?” Denise asked, raising a brow at him.

“Come on, Denise. Who are we kidding? I’ve been here for months and I still didn’t feel welcome,” he replied.

I smiled at Denise sympathetically. “Sorry to side with Chaise on that one. I feel exactly the same way.”

Denise sighed. “I guess you’re right. If we didn’t feel welcome here, how could we make them fit right in?” She was thoughtful for a while and then as if she decided she wasn’t gonna let anything dampen her enthusiasm for her project, she said, “Well, I’m not aiming to impress them. I’m aiming to impress our principal. I will not fail the first project she entrusted to me. She expects a grand event on the final weekend and maybe a bonfire by the beach. Anyway, we’ll discuss them all later.” Denise beamed. “I can’t wait for next week!”

“Wait, what? Next week? As in they are going to be here next week?” I asked, almost in shock.

Denise nodded. “Yep. And you are going to help me tour them around.”

“Denise… you certainly can’t do that.” I protested instantly. “I can be a crew member of some dance, I can help you organize stuff, but please… I’m no usherette material.”

“Why not?” Denise asked. “You’re gorgeous, you’re smart, you know your way around and you’re probably the only one in this school who had read the school history.”

I shook my head. “These kids hate me! Surely, you can’t make me more vulnerable and visible to scrutiny than I already am.”

Denise was about to open her mouth for an argument when Chaise interrupted, “I can read the school history for your little game, Denise. Leave Alice out of it.” His voice was cold and firm and before Denise replied, I thought I saw her mouth curve a little bit, like she was preventing herself from smiling.

“O-okay. If… if you insist,” she said to Chaise. “I’ll email you the names of the kids and the schedules.”

She then gathered her stuff and before she stood up to leave, she gave me a wink, confirming my suspicions that she wasn’t really thinking of making me go through the worst nightmare of being the school’s tour guide. She wanted Chaise to volunteer for it, but she was too proud to ask him.

When she was gone, I turned to Chaise, “I can’t believe you fell for that too easily.”

I was afraid that he would get mad when he realized what Denise had just done, but he simply shrugged. “I can’t believe you didn’t see that coming before I did.”

I grinned at him. “I guess you and Denise are more compatible than you’d like to admit.”

“Nope. It’s just that most psychopaths think alike.” He grinned back at me. “Aren’t you scared of the company you’re keeping?”

I laughed. “I’d take you and Denise any day over the airhead bimbos on that table.”

“Yeah, I’m worried about what they will do to our visitors when they get here.”

“I’m worried too. You know how those kids want to show the rest of the world they were better than everybody else. I hope they don’t see them as the embodiment of what the rest of us are really like.”

“Yeah. Some of us have brains you know.” Chaise laughed.

“I hope they don’t try to pull off the usual tricks they pull on me. They have the tendency to prey on creatures they thought were weaker than them.”

However, it turned out that we didn’t need to worry that the popular kids in our school would embarrass us in front of the exchange students. One week later, a luxurious bus bearing the banner “Jacksonville Titans” parked in front of the school grounds. Almost all the students lined up to get a glimpse of our visitors. And one by one, they got off the bus looking more like runway models going to a fashion show than students going on a field trip. I thought they didn’t look like a bunch of high school students at all.

Oh well, Chelsea and her gang deserved to know they weren’t the most beautiful people in the universe. At least, I hoped for the time being, the presence of the new kids would get them off my back.

The whole school was in awe of our visitors. Everybody seemed to want a piece of their attention. Denise did not have trouble finding volunteers for the activities she lined up. As for me, I almost got what I was asking for since I stepped into Leighton High. I was invisible. This could probably be the best two weeks of my high school life.

I barely saw Denise and Chaise. I missed their constant company. But in return, I got a little reprieve from the insults and pranks. I thought it was not so bad. Unfortunately, having more time by myself made me constantly think of Hunter too. I couldn’t deny the fact that I was always looking for him. I didn’t see him in the school grounds or even in the cafeteria. It seemed we were the only two people in school who didn’t care much about our new visitors.

One day, as I was eating lunch by myself in our usual corner, I got to observe the exchange students, sitting in the tables in the middle of the cafeteria. There were five boys and five girls, all looking rich, confident and privileged. No wonder even Chelsea and Don looked like groupies hanging around them.

There was one girl that caught my attention. She was tall, with supermodel looks. Perfect curly blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. She looked like a snob, but with every right to be. She had a pair of designer glasses perched up her head, and she was slinging a Gucci bag on her arm. She barely smiled, unlike the rest of her group who all looked enthusiastic about the amount of attention they were getting. She was looking around, observing or scrutinizing every corner of the cafeteria.

I was fascinated with the bored expression on her face. It was obvious she didn’t want to be here. But something in the way she was eagerly looking around told me that she was very curious about Leighton High.

Suddenly, she looked over in my direction and her haughty, oblivious expression changed to something that looked like shock or awe.

I rolled my eyes. As if I wasn’t used to that reaction already! I decided to be brave about it and raised my chin to look at her straight in the eye. But it seemed that she was not looking at me at all. Instead, her eyes were glued to something behind me.

I slowly turned around and saw a guy wearing a red jacket standing a few feet away from me. My heart pounded in my chest so loudly, I was afraid he was going to hear it. I hadn’t seen him in days. And seeing him again now reminded me just how much I still missed him, and how desperately I wished he would remember me… remember our time together when he said he was falling for me.

I found that Hunter was looking at me. His eyes met mine and right then and there, the world froze. It turned quiet, like somebody just hit the mute button on the cafeteria. He was wearing the same arrogant expression on his face, but somehow, something was different, though I could not fathom what it was. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to say something to me.

He moved, like he was starting to walk towards me and then we heard somebody call, “Hunter!” That seemed to break the spell that momentarily enveloped us, or me at least.

I turned to the direction of the voice and saw that beautiful girl, the haughty exchange student, walking towards Hunter. I thought I heard him curse softly behind me.

The next thing I saw was the girl jumping into Hunter’s arms… and the next thing I heard was the sound of my heart jumping out of my ribcage and breaking into a million pieces on the cafeteria floor.