Like Gold

05.

05.

I LEANED AGAINST my locker with my eyes trained on the brown-haired boy limping down the hallways.

It had been a week since Jace arrived at West Mormet, and he was quickly becoming popular. It wasn't every day we had a new student here, especially in the middle of the semester, and everyone was curious.

To make it worse, Jace was elusive in all of his answers, never really answering people's questions, which of course only made him more interesting.

He had quickly become the talk of the town, everyone theorising over how he got his limp, why he left his previous home, why he came here out of all places – and in the middle of the semester too.

I tried not to listen to the gossip. I knew what it was like to walk around school as if there was a big red target on your back, with people whispering about you everywhere you went, turning their heads to watch you.

If I were to discover anything about Jace, I'd rather he told me himself. Besides, most of the theories were idiotic – from him leaving because he was being chased by police, to him coming here because he was related to a founder of the town and had a huge inheritance waiting for him.

None of it was very believable.

I frowned, watching as students threw their arms around him and smacked him on the back in greeting. His brow wrinkled in a barely-there wince, his leg giving way.

He'd stopped wearing crutches to school a few days ago, but it was clear that his leg still hurt him with every move. He leaned onto his left leg, favouring it over his right one. With every step, the corner of his eye narrowed into a wince, his lips twitching into a slight grimace.

And despite his forced smile, by the clench of his jaw, I knew it was pissing him off.

I sighed, pushing off my locker and hiking my backpack higher onto my shoulder. Piper stood beside me, scrolling lazily through Instagram on her phone.

"Come on, Piper," I said. "Lunch is almost over. Let's get to class."

She blinked, her eyes drifting to the top of her screen to glance at the time before she shoved the phone into her pocket. My ankle was still tender, so we made it a habit to leave for class before the bell to make it easier for me.

"Ugh I really don't feel like doing algebra," Piper complained as we began walking down the hall. She placed an arm around my waist, pretending to just be friendly when I knew she was trying to help me with my limp. I smiled, tossing an arm around her shoulder. "Mr Lawson's voice puts me to sleep, especially after lunch."

"At least you don't have physics with Mr Mallory," I shot back, raising a brow. Mr Mallory was a seventy-something year old teacher, notorious for his tendency to give out detentions for the slightest slip ups. "Remind me why I took that class again."

"Because you're an overachiever who wants to go to med school for some crazy reason," Piper teased.

"Ah, right."

"Well, I'll see you after school?" Piper asked.

The bell had just gone off and the hallways were beginning to fill. We'd reached the end of the hall, where my physics lab was up the stairs and Piper's algebra class was down.

I nodded. "Meet you at my locker."

"'Kay," she grinned, turning and stepping down the stairs towards her class. I watched her retreating back until she'd disappeared to the next floor before releasing a breath, dropping my smile and running a hand over my face.