Chapter 6

"So have you lived here long?" Vanessa queried.

"I came to Oak when I was a baby, yourself?" Rex replied.

"I'm from a small town called Valen," she said.

"I've never heard of a place called Valen," Rex said racking his brain for a place with that name, "Where is that?"

"It's a small place, to the east, not far from the ocean," she smiled, "My mother moved here for an important job, and she dragged me with her," She frowned, Rex could tell she was not happy about it.

"Well with it being so close to the end of school exams, I'm not surprised you're not happy about the move, new school, new teachers, that's a lot of pressure on you," Rex sympathized.

"My mother certainly puts a lot of pressure on me, that's for sure," she muttered, still frowning. 

To lighten her mood Rex asked about her likes, they spoke about movies, and books, and Rex spoke about the river.

*RIIIIIINNNNGGG*

Damn! Just when Rex thought he was truly getting somewhere with her, lunch was already over, he waited for Vanessa to stand first, both said their goodbyes and he watched her walk off, ‘That is one incredible woman’ he said to himself.

Classes after lunch went surprisingly quickly, Rex found it hard to concentrate, zoning out constantly, picturing Vanessa in his mind quite a lot, it seemed the first girl to speak to him so nicely had left quite the impression on him.

When it came time for the second break, to Rex's surprise Vanessa was sitting on his bench again, this was unbelievable for him, usually, they got scared off and didn’t want anything to do with him.

"About time," she smiled, turning her wrist over, pretending to look at a watch.

‘I could watch her smile like that every day’ Rex thought to himself, "Sorry got held up by the teacher," quickly thinking of an excuse, he had actually walked a little slower than usual because he was looking to see if Vanessa had slotted into any of the more popular groups, being a girl with her looks and obvious charm he thought she would be suited to be hanging out with them.

After sitting on the bench, they continued their conversation from earlier, talking about their previous schooling and hobbies, ‘Wow her old school sounds worse than this one’ Rex thought, he did physical education at his school, but hers sounded like military camp with how much fitness training Vanessa said they did, Rex then spoke more about the Red River, and how the flowers bloomed strangely on Rex's birthday every year.

He had a sideways glance at her, as he usually did, he wasn't able to pull his eyes away from her it seemed.

Huh?? Her eyes are green...

"What's wrong with your eyes?" He asked, leaning forward to get a better look at her.

Blinking quickly Vanessa turned away and then back to him, "What do you mean?"

‘Her eyes are blue again, I could've sworn I just saw them green,’ he thought.

"Oh sorry, it must've been the sun getting into my eyes or something, I thought your eyes looked green for a second there!" Rex chuckled.

"Don’t be silly, people can't change their eye colour" Vanessa giggled.

Soon the bell rang for the last classes again, once more bidding her farewell and watching her walk away before he left himself, he was plagued by the thought that he could've sworn they were a different colour, must just be nervous, she was very pretty and Rex didn't have a lot of experience talking to women.

Once school had finished, Rex grabbed his bike, and started peddling off, as he shot around the front gate, he noticed the familiar brown hair and knew who it was.

Vanessa had just opened a car door and was getting in with a very sour-looking woman in the driver’s seat, ‘That must be her mother’, he thought, when the woman saw Rex, if looks could kill, he would've died a thousand times that instant. ‘Wow, I can understand why Vanessa didn't want to come with her, she looks extremely angry’ Rex admitted, shuddering slightly at how intense the woman’s stare was.

With the woman's glare firmly on him, Rex rode off again towards home, wondering what he had done to receive a look like that, ‘maybe a protective mother’ he shrugged.

It didn't take him long to round the corner close to his house.

*BANG* 

Suddenly Rex was heading over the front handlebars, "Oh shiiiiiiiitttt!” He cried out.

Hitting the ground he rolled for a bit, groaned once he stopped and sat up, instinctively starting to run his hand over his arms and legs, 'nothing broken that's always a good sign, skin off in a few places, but all in one piece, overall not too bad' he concluded, getting to his feet and dusting himself off, he looked over to his bike and saw the front tire had burst, with only a few pieces of the tire left on the rim, 'that explains why I went over the front, I have never seen a tire disintegrate though, that's weird.'

"They are new tires, I don't understand..." Rex said tugging at the pieces of tire that were still hanging onto the rim, attempting to find out what had popped it, 'Huh? There's nothing even here' he thought, lifting the front of the bike up and twisting and turning the rim to try and get a better view.

‘Wait a minute, what is this...’

A tiny sharp disk had gone through the tire and lodged itself firmly into the metal rim.

"What the!!??" He said seeing it, "that doesn’t belong in there."

It was definitely stuck in there, he tried for a minute to pull it out without success, ‘I'll need some of the tools at home’ he thought.

Pushing his bike the last block home, he limped in through the gate, the shock from his accident was wearing off and the pain was starting to show, Rex dropped the bike into the garage on his way inside.

"Hey Iris! You'll never guess what just happened!!"

"Is that you Rex?" Iris called out, rounding the corner into the dining room at the same time Rex had entered, "Oh my god what happened to you?" She exclaimed, seeing him covered from head to toe in dirt and wearing torn clothes, "Did those boys beat you up again? I might have to talk to their mothers" she said angrily while fidgeting over Rex to examine his injuries.

"No gran, it wasn't that my front tyre on my bike blew and threw me forwards over the handlebars. I'm ok except for a few cuts and scrapes, my clothes seem to be the in the worst condition," Rex said trying his best to get Iris to stop fussing over him.

"What cuts and scrapes?" After turning him around and looking him up and down once more, she said, "You have none on you that I can see." 

"What do you mean? My knees and elbows are all busted...up??" He stammered, getting confused as he twisted and turned his arms and legs around in shock, there was nothing beside a dried blood mark to show the damage he had sustained from his bike accident that had only just happened mere minutes ago.

"Well ok then, if you don't want to tell me you got beaten up again, you don't have to lie to me, so unless you can heal yourself at an incredible rate, which I have never heard of, and mind you is impossible to do by yourself, without someone who knows that type of magic, which means you aren't telling me the truth," Iris said, frowning in frustration.

"I know what happened, I don't know what to tell you, I've told you the truth, if you don't believe me, then fine, don't!" He snapped back, getting quite irritated before storming off upstairs to get changed out of his torn clothes.

‘I know what happened’ he muttered to himself while he changed his outfit, ‘I saw the cuts myself, now they are gone, this just keeps getting weirder’ he thought to himself, getting a slight headache from trying to figure out what had happened between the accident and seeing Iris.

Deciding to clear his mind, he jumped up and headed back out into the garage, “May as well fix my bike and maybe find out what caused all this drama.”

He passed through the dining room without seeing Iris at all, passing the table he noticed a note.

*

Rex,

Have headed out for a stroll, I'll be home before dinner.

Ps. Please don't drink all the juice again.

Love You

Iris

*

With Iris being out of the house meant Rex could play his music while fixing his bike, without her complaints of 'it’s too loud' or 'I don't like that type of music, it sounds like they are screaming.' Starting up his phone speaker and placing it on the shelf over his head, he flipped his bike over to get a better look at what damage the bike had sustained.

He peeled the tyre and tube off from the rim, grabbed a pair of pliers from the small toolbox he kept on the shelf and began attempting to extract the steel coin-shaped object he had just found embedded into the rim.

"Wow this thing is really in there!" He exclaimed, the process taking him 5 minutes of twisting and pulling to get the object out, taking it in his palm he brought it closer to his face, it looked like a sharpened coin, no larger than an inch in diameter, with some strange symbols he had never seen before, he went to turn the coin over, clumsily dropping it onto the concrete with a *Ting* sound.

"Holy s**t!" He cursed bending over to pick the coin back up, just dropping the coin that short distance had chipped a tiny piece of concrete on the garage floor, putting the coin into his pocket so he could inspect it closer later on, he replaced his damaged rim, replaced his tube and tyre and set his bike back up, good as new.

Walking back upstairs to his room, he sat in his chair looking quite closely at the coin trying to figure out what made it so special, he started to daydream about its origins, closed his eyes and then it wasn't long before he fell asleep from pure exhaustion.

Waking up still in his chair the next morning, he groaned, threw on some fresh clothes and headed downstairs, he wasn’t in the mood for his usual morning game, so he greeted Iris with a “good morning” and she replied with her usual chirpy greeting, today he would spend some time with Iris, maybe that's why she was unhappy with him he had concluded, regretting not spending time with her as much as he usually did, even though he was with Iris, one person kept floating into his mind.

Vanessa.

Monday rolled around and Rex had a spring in his step, he did his usual morning and headed off on his bike to school.

Once entering the school, he threw his bike down and headed straight for the main building, hoping to catch Vanessa coming in, after waiting out the front until the class bell sounded, he thought maybe she was already inside, shrugging he went into his first class.

No surprise as lunch came closer, it became hard for Rex to focus on anything else except who he was off to meet very shortly.

After the bell for lunch sounded, he raced out and around the last building before the yard and headed to his usual bench, seeing who was there waiting for him, again, he couldn't help but smile and look at her brown curly hair that touched her shoulders, her perfect skin in the sunlight, what a sight she was.

Seeing Rex coming she waved him to hurry over.

"Wow you're quick, you beat me here again!" Rex said with a smile.

"Well my class was just up there by the yard," Vanessa said smiling and pointing, "Didn't take me long to get here at all slow poke"

"Lucky you," he chuckled.

"Rex I would like to ask you something," Vanessa said with a serious look on her face.

"Anything," he said quickly.

"I would like to have dinner with you. If it’s ok, we could do it at your house and could cook for me, like all romantic and such," she said, putting on a shy smile.

This was unbelievable, for the first time a girl had asked Rex on a date!! 

"Absolutely!!" He said not even holding back his delight.

They exchanged numbers while smiling and began their lunch. 

‘I can't cook for shit, but surely Iris will help me,’ he thought to himself, I must do my best to impress her!

Once the bell had gone, they left for class after saying their goodbyes, class went quickly for Rex again, racing back off to the bench.

‘Hm, I’ve beaten her for once’ he chuckled to himself, sitting down he waited, and waited, checked his phone, and waited, lunch was almost up now! Where was she!

*DING* went his phone, it was a message.

'Hey Rex, it's Vanessa here, I've cut myself during a cooking class and had to go home, I hope we are still on for tonight.'

'No worries at all' he replied quickly, sending his address and telling her ‘Dinner by 6?' 

'Perfect' she said.

He couldn't be happier than he was right now.

Nothing could ruin his night…