Chapter Four

Again with the help of the GPS, I finally arrived at the park alone. After pleading and begging Jack to not follow me and installing an app in my phone which reported Jack and Katy about my whereabouts, I could finally roam around alone. Katy also installed two more security apps which only God knew how they functioned. Honestly, I didn't bother about those apps. My main focus was on how I was feeling. I felt different walking around the streets, I felt like a free, normal human being.

I came here to pretend living like a normal seventeen year old girl, but with Jack constantly following me, how on earth would I not attract attention?

A few days ago, Ginger alerted me that a man was stalking me [Ginger and I became friends really quick, I didn't know how] I shuddered in fear and my mind was racing through horrifying thoughts. I thought about him, but shook those dreaded thoughts away. I was almost close to getting a panic attack. Goosebumps rose on my skin and I could feel myself getting jittery and sweaty.

But my nerves calmed down and I nearly snorted when the stalker turned out to be my dear bodyguard, Jack. Surprise! Surprise!

And guess what I had told Ginger, "Oh, honey you're wrong! That's my uncle! He assumed that I secretly had an affair with my teacher since I spend extra time in school, which is actually due to my drama practices."

I thought Ginger wouldn't buy it since it was such a silly reason. Who would have an affair with pepper hair, fat and fifty year old teachers? Surprisingly, Ginger looked pretty convinced and so sure that she called the police and apologized to them. She said that it was a mistake on her behalf.

Oh good Lord!

She had informed the cops! The cops were already approaching our school and were quite disappointed hearing the news. They went back again after coming halfway. She had reported to them that some middle-aged man was stalking me, only to discover it was Jack.

Holy mother of nutella and kitkat!

I wondered whether I should have been worried or relieved that my best friend was so protective of me?

Anyway, I was just glad that I got rid of Jack. I hummed quietly and walked towards the noisy park. The weather was so fresh and the atmosphere oddly peaceful yet energetic due to the boisterous children playing around. The chirping birds and the smell of wet mud due to the gardener sprinkling water on grass almost reminded me of my palace garden. Almost.

These past few days, I had hardly left my cozy, little room because of over-protective Jack. Noah and I still didn't have a proper conversation even at school. He probably didn't want to embarrass himself and I had to keep in mind the outfit I was wearing. It wasn't attractive or appealing either. Infact, never in my life had I ever worn these dull clothes.

Noah was hot, handsome and seemed kind. I was attracted to him already and I didn't have any shame in admitting that because I was obviously drawn to him, so there was no use denying. Whereas, I on the other hand looked like stinking cow in this disguise. I had a pitful geek look, not even the cute geek look, but quite the opposite. When I was asked to put up the façade of a nerd, I was pretty excited. Nerds were adorable with glasses and books. But my disguise was nowhere near there.

I sighed wearily and walked into the park. I immediately froze on my tracks when I spotted Noah and Kyle, Noah whose back was facing me. But Kyle noticed me entering the park and immediately reacted by chucking the ball away and shouting excitedly, "Look who's there!"

Noah turned to me and I saw him unconsciously mumbling my name. I smiled at Kyle and he grinned at me looking adorable flashing his cute dimples. I wondered if Noah had any since I had a soft spot for guys with dimples.

Kyle ran towards me in full speed and hugged me. I was surprised by this sudden emotion and awkwardly glanced around before I crouched in front of him to return his warm hug. We then pulled away and he quickly grabbed my hand. He actually dragged me towards Noah and I was astonished to find his bursting energy.

Thankfully, Kyle stopped in his tracks when I was merely two inches away from Noah. I quickly stumbled back to put some respectable distance between us cleared my throat. "Nice to erm meet you, Noah."

I half-smiled, but didn't return back my smile. I was about to curtsy like a silly Victorian woman, when I suddenly remembered who I was and pretended to dust my long, sky blue, denim skirt. I was thoroughly embarrassed because anybody could figure out that I was pretending, so I looked down at Kyle who was engrossed in removing a tiny thread from his glove. Knowing that I had no option left, I swallowed and looked up at Noah.

He was already staring at me like trying to figure something out and our eyes locked with each other's. Within seconds, he broke our eye contact and said nonchalantly, "Likewise."

Then he looked away somewhere near the trees that suddenly caught his attention. I looked there too, but couldn't see anything other than those same dried trees with ocher-yellow coloured leaves. Ignoring his fascination in botany, I looked down at Kyle who still wasn't successful in removing the tiny thread. Finally, Kyle got frustrated and threw the glove on the ground. He pouted and tugged at Noah's shirt. "Noah, can Amelia play with us too?"

"Oh no Kyle, I'm fine. I just came here for a walk," I said and waved my hand dismissively 

Noah glanced at me and mumbled, "You can join us though."

"Really?" I asked, my voice lacing a hint of excitement and I quickly covered it by pretending to check my valuable time on the phone.

"Yeah I will like . . . I mean Kyle will like if you join us, won't you?"

"Anything for you, brother!" Kyle raised his thumb at Noah and smirked. Noah first nodded and then realized what Kyle actually meant and glared at him. I looked down, fiddling with my skirt and blushed.

"Er . . . okay then I'll stay," I announced quickly, trying break the uncomfortable silence.

"Then I should probably leave you two alone," Kyle said smugly and turned around to leave.

Before he could escape, I blocked his way with my leg and caught his small arm. I leaned down while giving my last Kitkat and whispered, "Stay."

* * *

The ball was pretty high up in the air and I ran after it like my life depended on it. I roughly estimated the distance and speed of the ball to know if I could catch or not and I could. But instead of successfully catching the ball, I stumbled like a dumb klutz, tripped over Kyle's baseball helmet and fell.

"Ow!" I groaned in pain when I landed on my butt, right on the spiky stones.

I cursed under my breath while I heard Kyle laugh. Noah came rushing towards me with a concerned look on his face. By now, I felt like hiding behind Kyle's helmet even though technically it wouldn't even cover my toe properly.

"You okay?" Noah offered his right hand and I gladly accepted. His hands felt surprisingly soft for a male, but I liked his firm grip on me He pulled me up and stared intensely at me, looking right into my forest green eyes.

Hell no! Where was my fake glasses? My head hung low to avoid the gaze of Noah and my eyes desperately searching for my glasses. I sighed in relief when I spotted my glasses. I picked it up to inspect it, but unfortunately, I saw that one lens of the spectacles was broken which made me panic and I quickly wore the broken ones again.

I could see the crack of the glass which was disturbing and Noah quirked an eyebrow at question, but thankfully, he didn't say anything. I clearly didn't have any vision problem, I just wore them to hide my identity. I did feel awkward to wear the broken ones again, but I had no choice. My light blue denim skirt had also turned brown, so everything just added to my ugliness and in the end, I didn't care because I was immune to all.

"Do you need anything?" Noah asked and I shook my head. "Are you sure?" 

I shrugged and asked dubiously, "Why do you ask?"

"Because you have turned all pink?" Noah said while pointing at my blushing slash embarrassing state and smiled. My expressions froze when I saw him smile, his adorable dimples appearing which made me want to lift my index finger and poke at it. He had such a gorgeous smile and oh boy, dimples were my weakness.