Peppermint Kiss Read Online Free

welcomed us and sat Mum down with a pile of forms to fill in. “You’ve missed registration, and you’re late for first lesson, I’m afraid,” she told Grace and me, frowning at the timetable in her hands. “I’ll take you over to 10D, Grace. They’re in the science block and it’s quite a walk from here. Abbie, you can hurry off to join 9L, they’re only just down in Humanities. Mr. Carver’s expecting you. It’s left after the double doors there, follow the corridor, out across the courtyard and first door on the right. Okay, dear?”
    â€œShall I come with you?” asked Mum, looking anxious.
    I pulled on my fake smile again. “I’ll be fine,” I told her, when actually I hadn’t taken in a word that the secretary had said. Besides, Mum’s lovely, and actually pretty cool, but still, I think walking into class with my
mum
in tow would have been a bit of a first-day blunder. I hugged her goodbye, then Grace, took a deep breath and hurried off along the corridor.
    The rain was splashing down harder as I headed out of the double doors. It didn’t look like a courtyard exactly, and I couldn’t see a door, but maybe the secretary had said to follow the path round to the right to find it? As I hurried along beside some bins (still no door to be seen) there was a rumble of thunder and the storm broke.
    Then it absolutely poured down.
    I tried to run back round to the doors I’d come out of, but I must have taken a wrong turn and I ended up by a totally different building, like a gym hall or something. My jumper was completely soaked through and dripping, and the sleeves were getting longer and longer, so I pulled it off over my head as I ran. Rain was pouring down my face and into my eyes, so I could hardly see where I was going, and I was so totally lost and confused by then, I didn’t know which direction to run in anyway. The sky flashed with lightning, and then boomed with thunder a second later. I squealed and stood rigid, stuck to the spot, panicking.
    â€œHey! In here!”
    I whirled round, trying to find where the voice was coming from. A boy was waving at me from a narrow doorway. I ran towards him, each step squelching, and as I got close he dashed out and bundled me in. I clung onto him for a moment, without thinking, like you would if someone really had just rescued you from drowning. Then I realized I was hugging a complete stranger and pulled away.
    And then I looked at him.
    And I mean, well. OMG. I just could not
stop
looking at him. His piercing blue eyes. His rain-slicked black hair. His olive skin and wide smile.
    The lightning struck again.
    He took off his blazer and as he put it round my shoulders I got a big shiver – nothing to do with being cold. I smiled thanks and shrugged it on, breathing in its lovely smell, picking up cinnamon and musk. As the silence grew, I fumbled for something to say. I opened my mouth but found that no words would come out while I was still staring at him, so I dragged my eyes away, out to the storm raging around us. “Yuck, it’s really pouring now.” Oh dear.
Abbie Green, stater of the obvious.
    I just
had
to look at him again and I saw that he was grinning gorgeously. “Without the rain, you wouldn’t have rainbows,” he said.
    That made me snort with laughter (yikes – how attractive!). “True,” I said, “if cheesy. I’m Abbie.” I held out my hand. Goodness knows why, it looked like I thought I was at a business meeting or something, and it seemed especially stupid after the, you know,
hugging
.
    He raised an eyebrow and shook my hand. “Marco.”
    I felt a little jump of electricity between us, and I had to actually
force
myself to let go. Seriously, I pretty much needed to use my other hand to prise my fingers off him.
    â€œLate?” he asked.
    I nodded.
    â€œMe too,” he said. “Where are you headed? You