... not in love with Kale Eddison (2 page)

Olivia gave a
defeated sigh, “Ok but I still don’t get why you want you to do
this, when the paparazzi find out they’ll be all over this. You
know that right?”

Kale nodded,
“Yeah but I’ll comply; I’ll even tell them where it is I’m
attending. They’ll get their scoop and then they’ll give up
eventually; they always do. It’s not like I’ll be doing anything
remotely newsworthy other than going to high school – what’s so
exciting about that?”

Olivia looked
at her son carefully, “Ok, you’re eighteen – an adult – I guess you
can do what you want. Now, where have you decided on?”

Kale grinned,
“Hartside High, it’s about twenty minutes from the house we have in
Ireland and I start on Friday.”

Olivia nearly
choked, “What? That gives us today to pack and then we have to
travel over there! Are you really sure about this?”

Kale looked at
his mother sheepishly, “Yeah, that’s the thing, I want to do this
on my own. Besides, I know you and Dad have to stay here in America
– your work is here. I was hoping that you’d let me go on my
own.”

Olivia was
ready to have a coronary now, “What? You, on your own … are you
crazy? You’re eighteen years old, you can’t look after
yourself.”

Kale scoffed,
“Come on, you just said I was an adult … time to start treating me
like one.”

Olivia mulled
this over, “Ok, one condition though …”

“Name it.” Kale
grinned at his mother.

“Your assistant
goes with you, when the paparazzi get all over this; you’ll need
someone to help, agreed?”

Kale nodded,
“Done but as long as she stays at home and doesn’t attend with
me.”

Olivia pondered
this for a moment, “Fine, I’ll tell Alicia to make arrangements so
that you’ll not be hounded by journalists when you arrive at the
school but she’s not to attend with you – happy?”

Kale grinned,
“Yep, I suppose I better go and pack then.” He smiled to himself
and started making plans to pack and arrange his arrival into
Ireland.

Chapter
Three

Izzie woke up
on Thursday morning with a headache; Maddie had called her last
night and squealed loudly down the phone until Izzie had pleaded
with her to shut up and tell her what was wrong.

“Maddie, what
the heck is wrong?” Izzie had asked her, very annoyed at her friend
for being so loud.

“Oh my God,
Izzie! Oh my God! I can’t believe it … I still can’t take it in.
You will never guess what I have just found out?” Maddie had
babbled down the phone.

Izzie had
yawned; it had been very late and she hadn’t had the time or
patience to play games. “What … how to deafen your friend in
one-easy step?”

Maddie had
sighed, “Very funny … this is no time for your sarcasm Ms Frank –
Kale Eddison is coming to our school!”

“What do you
mean he’s coming to our school? For what … to make a speech – teach
drama … what? Just tell me, even though I don’t really care … as
long as it will stop you from squealing again.”

Maddie had
gotten very hysterical then, “He’s joining our school!”

Izzie had
snapped out of her sleepy daze at those particular words, “What?
Why? Oh for the love of God – ours? Why?”

Maddie had
sounded angry, “Izzie, we are so lucky! Out of all the schools in
the world … he picked ours. Who knew – Kale Eddison attending
Hartside High!”

Izzie had then
listened to her friend drone on for ages until she finally told
Maddie she needed to sleep.

Today, however,
Izzie’s headache was a reminder of the day ahead … and the events
that would come to pass. She groaned and seriously considered
skipping school altogether but she knew she had to go; she needed
to – if she wanted to pass her A-Levels. Izzie got up and headed to
the bathroom; she looked at her reflection in the mirror above the
sink, she noted the bags under her eyes and made a mental note to
kill Maddie later. After she had dressed and ate some breakfast,
she made her way to school; she knew it would be mental today –
Kale’s arrival tomorrow meant that everyone was going to be going
bananas about everything; making sure the school was clean, making
sure everybody was welcoming etc. etc. She rolled her eyes as she
passed a group of fellow students gossiping madly and wondering if
they should take extra care getting ready tomorrow morning in case
they were photographed by the paparazzi.

Maddie was
waiting by the lockers as usual but Izzie noticed that she seemed
more alert than any other morning.

“So, let me
guess … you didn’t sleep at all last night, did you? You were so
excited you couldn’t fall asleep and you’ve had like eight cups of
coffee this morning to stop you from falling asleep during class …
am I right?”

Maddie’s eye
twitched and she shook her head, looking guilty, “No, of course
not, I – oh ok – but I only had five if you must know.”

Izzie shook her
head in disbelief, “You truly have gone mad, you know that?” She
grabbed her bag and made her way to English Class as the bell rang,
Maddie followed a few paces behind; Izzie sighed, ‘Boy it’s going
to be a long day,’ she thought.

Izzie had been
right, the school had been manic; everyone just couldn’t wait for
Kale’s arrival. She, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less;
he was just a famous actor who got paid way too much money while
she struggled with her minimum wage pay to save for University. She
really detested people like him and seemed to be the only person
who was not looking forward to his arrival. Maddie, meanwhile, was
practically giddy at the prospect of breathing the same air as him,
never mind meeting him.

Izzie was so
glad that she was now on her way home but it also meant that she
would have to endure the same thing all over again tomorrow – and
it would probably be even worse. She sighed and parked her car
behind her father’s Golf and went inside the house.

“Hey Mum,”
Izzie walked into the kitchen to find her mother cooking dinner,
“What’s for dinner?”

Her mother
turned around, a spaghetti sauce stain on her apron and a bit of
pasta was stuck in her hair. “Oh hi honey, how was school?”

Izzie laughed
as she pulled the pasta from her mother’s hair, “Oh you know, the
usual.”

“Thanks,” said
her mother and she turned back to the saucepan that was in danger
of boiling over. “Well that’s not what I hear dear, word is that
that famous actor is joining your school.”

Izzie rolled
her eyes, “Yeah and I’m soooo excited,” she told her mother
sarcastically.

“I take it from
your lack of enthusiasm you aren’t.” her mother frowned at her.

Izzie sighed,
“Everyone just seems to be falling all over themselves to impress
him but I just don’t feel the need to.” she shrugged and her mother
gave her a ‘whatever’ kind of smile and turned back to the
pasta.

Izzie left her
school stuff upstairs and decided to get started on her homework;
dinner wasn’t going to be ready for another half hour at the most.
She extracted her English Literature folder from her bag and
started to plan out her essay on Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. She really
didn’t get a lot done since her thoughts kept straying to Jake; she
really knew she should stop dwelling on him but she couldn’t – it’s
not like she had a chance but there was something about him … he
just didn’t seem like a dumb rugby player. She chastised herself
for thinking about his curly blonde hair and tanned physique; you
really could tell he played a lot of sports since he was extremely
well-built. Izzie shook her head, trying to shake those thoughts
out of her head in the process, as she heard her mother call that
dinner was ready.

She sat and
picked at her spaghetti, not really paying attention to what her
parents were talking about until she heard her father say her
name.

“Izzie, did you
hear me?”

Izzie had been
sitting with her elbow on the table and her head resting on her
fist, she sat up straight when her father spoke to her.

“Sorry, I was
thinking about my homework, what did you say?”

Her father
sighed, “I wanted to know if you could work the 3 to 6 shift
tomorrow? It would really help a lot.”

Izzie tried not
to look peeved off, “No that’s ok, I’m out of school at 3 but I’ll
be there just after it.” Her father nodded, satisfied with her
answer and she went back to her cold spaghetti. She pushed it
around the plate for another five minutes and then excused herself,
saying she really needed to get stuck into her school work.

As soon as she
was in her room, she flopped onto her bed, ‘There really has to be
more to life than this’ she thought miserably. Little did she know
what was coming her way.

Izzie woke up
absurdly early the next morning, she groaned as she realised it was
Friday. Normally she would have been very happy that it was the
start of the weekend but today it just meant it was the start of
her final year stuck with a superficial famous actor. She rolled
over and willed herself to get up; she really needed to get ready
if she didn’t want to be late. However, she dozed off again and
only woke when Grandma Frank walked by her room and yelled into
her.

“Izzie, you do
know you have school in forty-five minutes?”

Izzie bolted
upright and quickly got out of bed. Fifteen minutes later and Izzie
was dressed but still running a little late; it was clear she
wasn’t going to make it there for 9 o’clock. She didn’t really
mind, Kale would be no doubt causing a fuss she didn’t want to get
caught in the middle of. She took her time eating her cereal and
then got into her car at 8.55am and pulled out of the driveway to
make her way to Hartside. There was quite a bit of traffic on the
road, she rolled down her window - it was still quite mild for
October – and turned up the radio; she was feeling very relaxed now
knowing that she would miss Kale’s grand and – most likely -
dramatic entrance.

Izzie hummed
along with the song – Snow Patrol’s ‘Open Your Eyes’ – as she
pulled into the last parking space and grabbed her bag before she
started to rush towards the school. However, she had just reached
the entrance door when a voice behind yelled, “Hey, hold the door
please!”

She did as she
was told and saw the person the voice belonged to approach her.

“Thanks, I was
afraid there was some sort of lock on it so I couldn’t get in.”

Izzie looked up
at the speaker, rolled her eyes and walked on in without saying
anything. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to find he had
chased after her.

“Hey, you took
off so fast I didn’t get to introduce myself.”

Izzie smirked,
“I know who you are thanks,
Kale.
” she said the last word
with great dislike.

Kale looked at
this girl he didn’t know and was quite stunned; what had he done
that caused this girl to look at him with such loathing? He
recovered from this shock when she made to walk off again.

“Hey! Why do
you keep doing that? What is your problem?” Kale grabbed her arm
and Izzie spun around.

“Hey, watch the
hands buddy! What do you want?” Izzie was really beginning to get
very angry at Kale; she really didn’t know why but she was.

Kale reeled
back, “Wow, thanks for such a friendly welcome, I must say,” he
spat sarcastically and then he caught himself on; he really had
better manners than that. He let go of her arm and flashed his best
award-winning smile.

“I’m sorry, can
we start again? I was running late and I seem to have taken it out
on you, sorry. Anyway, as you seem to know, I’m Kale Eddison and
your name is …”

Izzie rolled
her eyes; she guessed he wasn’t that bad – as a matter of fact he
was actually better looking in real-life than he looked in
magazines; his eyes were a clear, bright baby blue colour and his
sandy hair was darker than it looked in magazines. He was also a
lot taller than Izzie expected (well over six foot) and he was
dressed in dark jeans, a blue shirt with a black leather jacket and
black boots. Izzie took a minute to focus her thoughts, “Sorry,
guess we both were taking our lateness out on the wrong people. I’m
Izzie, Izzie Frank, it’s nice to meet you.”

Kale grinned,
“Hi Izzie, great to meet you. Now would you mind if I troubled you
as to where I should go to find the Main Office?”

Izzie laughed,
“Jeez, no need to be oh-so polite. Sure I’ll show you, come
on.”

They both set
off down the corridor, Kale trying to think of something to say to
break the awkward silence. “So, how long you lived here? It seems
pretty nice.”

Izzie laughed
humourlessly, “Yeah, it’s
really
fun! Na, seriously, it’s
not that bad. I’ve lived here my whole life but I’m ready to leave
when this year’s over, you know.”

Kale nodded,
“Yeah, I know what you mean; I couldn’t wait to get out of
Hollywood.”

Izzie was
surprised at this, “Why? I’d love to live there – it looks really
amazing.”

Kale looked at
her with sadness in his eyes, “Yeah it may seem like that but trust
me, it isn’t. Everyone is so false and it’s all just a big
competition as to who can get the most money for movie roles and
stuff not to mention the paparazzi chasing your every move.”

“Mmm, so how’d
you escape them today?” Izzie asked; actually finding that she was
genuinely curious.

Kale shook his
head, “My assistant’s taken care of it. Anyway, enough about me, I
want to hear more about you.” he flashed her another blinding
smile.

Izzie raised
her eyebrows at him, a look of slight amusement mixed with anger on
her face, “You really think you can charm me like you do your
supermodel girlfriends? Please, give me some credit. Do you expect
me to go all gooey-eyed over you saying the overly-clichéd line of
‘I want to hear more about you’? Wow, you really are original,
anyway here’s the office, goodbye.” Izzie pointed to the heavy
wooden door with ‘Principal’s Office’ marked on it and walked away
before Kale could retort anything back.