The Fall Of Essence

Chapter 1 Awakening Who is that boy... And why does he have such an affect on me? Was the question I kept asking myself lately, over and over and yet I had no answer. I had only the heat rising in my stomach right up to my face whenever our eyes met. He first joined the Hadley six-form College about a month ago. The College was situated in the busiest part of our small rural town in Devon. I say busiest but the busiest it ever seemed to get was about as busy as an out of city town on a Sunday afternoon. I was surprised so many places had been taken up on the site; I wondered where all the students had came from. I gathered they must have had to travel miles to get there as the limited population was sparsely distributed leaving lots of amazing greenery and open spaces. The beautiful backdrop of trees spread distant and wide across as far as my eyes were capable of seeing. It was breathtaking and one of the reasons I had such a passion for photography. Over the years I had gathered stacks of boxes of all kinds of nature photos, trees, lakes, birds, unusual flowers and extraordinary sky lines and images. Carl was proud to hang some of the best around the house. Carl is my brother; I had lived with him since the age of fourteen, so that had been four years so far as I was now eighteen. When our parents split and both decided to move away, Carl stayed in the family home. He was in the middle of his business studies and managers college degree so I decided to stay with him to keep him company. I didn’t want to consider living with one or the other parent so it seemed like the easier option was to stay with Carl. I wasn’t the typical fourteen year old back then, getting into trouble was what people of that age were expected to do around certain areas – not me. I stayed clear of all that and Carl was happy that I wanted to stay with him. Ever since my new class mates arrival, I hadn’t been the same. I had no idea where he had came from or what he was like because I hadn’t quite plucked up the courage to talk to him, which was pretty sad really considering he had received all the jibber jabber from the other girls in my class – giggling flirting and doing the usual girly thing at him, though weird enough he hadn’t seemed remotely interested; to a lot of the girls frustration. I wished my heart didn’t skip a beat every time he looked at me – but it did; steer clear, keep quiet and hope he wouldn’t notice me. I was sure that if he did, it would only be because I had done something stupidly embarrassing and made a complete fool of myself – as always. I couldn’t stop looking at him, I felt strangely drawn. He was so unlike the other guys in the college, maybe that was what appealed to me. I got goose bumps just by looking at him – his tousled black hair, breathtaking as it gently fell across his face. He looked very clean shaven, smart and slim, but yet, I got the impression image wasn’t what he was about. He obviously knew he was good-looking but he didn’t seem like the type to throw it in your face like most would. I wouldn’t give most a second glance because their arrogance was so off putting. But he was different and different definitely stood out around here. His clothes even seemed to appeal to me, casual black jeans, and yellow t- shirt, covered by a navy blue and red baseball style jacket. I watched him take off his jacket and slide it over the back of his chair; I wondered what it would smell like. I was envious of the girl sitting behind him as she probably caught a whiff – I noticed the way she looked at him, her expression was so readable. He sat down in his chair not noticing the attention she was paying him, leaving her face to drop sulkily; It made me laugh. What’s so appealing about all that? I asked myself as I looked around the pale and un-distinguished class room, “Nothing” I whispered aloud inviting the girl sitting next to me to study me questioningly. I am going mad! I said to myself – privately this time. I uncomfortably smiled at the girl and looked to the front of the class, hoping she would be distracted by something else. “Rosanna, are you day dreaming again?” Yeah that would be my history teacher, he didn’t mind showing the odd student up In front of the class every now and then, and yes I mean odd in every way possible. Oh I look pretty normal, brown shoulder length hair, hazel eyes, freckles skimming across my nose and forehead, average height of five/three; average for people I know at least, and normal healthy weight – meaning I wouldn’t stand out from a crowd. But just because I don’t mingle with all the popular crowd, act silly, giggle and chat about everyone, that’s considered odd. “No Mr. Baker” I said quietly as my eyes flickered to the reason for my lack of concentration. I felt my face redden, and found it hard to swallow. I felt like pointing and screaming it’s him, he’s the reason I can’t focus on anything else, get him out of my head and I may actually get some work done! I noticed he was looking deeply at me and had a slight grin on his face, I cleared my throat gently; “Can I be excused please?” Was all I could manage, I desperately needed some fresh air.