Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

One Year Later

Kennedy's POV

I guess life went on pretty smoothly after I had been exported. I went to school near Cambridge and spent the entire year with my nose buried in my books. It was easier to forget everything I had left behind if I kept myself occupied.

I felt really out of touch during my stay in England, The academy was in the middle of nowhere and they didn't have internet access (or cable). Dad had cut off my cell service, so that left me with old fashion snail mail as my only method of communication. The only people I bothered to write to were the twins. It helped receiving letters from them.

I had apologized to them tenfold for the entire boat incident but they had already brushed it off.

So, besides Kate and Erin I hadn't talked to a single person I had left behind in America, Jake included. It would be too hard if I re-opened the wound leaving him had left in my heat. It was just starting to heal over.

I graduated Valedictorian thanks to all of my studying. I got my acceptance letter to Richmond Academy a week later. That pretty much settled everything. Dad kept my bank account fully stocked, so I got a flat near campus and spent the summer getting used to city life and not thinking about the previous summer. Life was ordinary. It was boring, but I was pretty much content.

By time school started up, my heart felt quite a bit lighter.

Jacob's POV

I went back to school and graduated with honors. I was accepted into Columbia, Dartmouth and Yale. I could have done anything I wanted according to my mother. She wanted me to go pre-med like my dad had.

I had absolutely no motivation. Instead of going to school. I used my tuition money to buy a small studio in NY on the upper west side and started a rock band. Mom slowly stopped talking to me. I think I had broken her heart. She wanted so much for me to be dad. I guess my whole skipping out on college was a little disappointing.

I guess after you get your heart broken you kind of lose a lot initiative.

I could still remember the day Kennedy left. I could see the tears falling down her face as she screamed at her father. I had stood out on my balcony, watching. I wished more than anything that I could have done something, said something, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn't change the past.

I could still feel my heart ache whenever I thought about Kennedy, whenever I pictured her smile.

The ache got a little smaller; it hurt less and less every day.

It was ironic really. We had our entire lives and we chose together together the week before she left.

It's almost Shakespearian if you think about it.

Kennedy's POV

I locked the front door behind me and hurried across the busy street. There was no sun in sight, just lovely gray storm clouds. Typical London.

I made my way to school, the autumnal breeze carrying my hair on tendrils of wind. If it kept up my curls would be an afro.

I pulled my green hoodie closer to my body and moved my feet quicker. Maybe if I hurried I could avoid the impending hair disaster.

I was majoring in Art Education. I had found my calling sometime during my stay at boarding school. I guess I just found kids more fun than adults. They didn't send you to foreign countries.

I hurried to my first drawing class and sat down at my work station, feeling frazzled. I could feel my hair expanding. So much for avoiding hair disasters.

I had unpacked my sketchpad and pencils when the teacher entered the room. She was a steel haired old woman who liked necklaces. A lot. She must have had at least forty of them on. She had tick glasses with some strange art deco sort of pattern on them. She tended to favor granny skirts and loafers, but I loved her. Something about her just exuded art, expression, creativity. She was a cool old lady.

"Hello class!" She chirped. She must have been chewing that crazy caffeinated gum or something. It seemed impossible for anyone to be that happy so early. It was only 8:00 for God's sake!

We all murmured hellos and stared at our papers. Even art classes are sleepy that early.

"Today we will be doing more life drawings!" She informed us excitedly.

We had been working on drawing live models for a while now. She usually chose a member of the class to pose for us. We did it grudgingly. We were art students, not models. We wanted to hide behind our easels, not stand in front of them.

"And lucky for you we have an outside model coming in today!" She smiled at us and pushed a large whitewashed box into the center of out ring of easels and drapes a sheet of purple cloth over it. She then puttered around the room, closing the blinds on the windows. She adjusted the track lights above us to shine on the box and made a noise of satisfaction.

"I expect you to all have completed a full figure drawing by the end of this class period. You can draw fast enough by now so don't whine. We'll…"

There were several sharp raps on the door that interrupted her lecture.

"Our model must be here!" She gave us a sudden pointed look. I was tempted to hide behind my pad. "I expect you to treat this situation professionally. Last year I had a girl removed from my class because she couldn't control herself. I don't want to hear any snickering or giggling."

With that, she went to answer the door.

What was going on? We'd worked with models before without any problems. What was the issue with this model?

The word figure suddenly floated into mind.

Suddenly I understood.

The model came into the room behind our professor, clad in a fluffy purple robe.

I knew I would be drawing nude models in school, but this was pretty sudden. I didn't do well around naked people. I knew that if he dropped his robe I would get giggly.

"This is Jason" Dr. Jeffries (the professor) informed us as she gave him a little push to the center of the room. He offered her a smile before stepping up onto the box. "He used to be one of my students. He owns his own gallery right down the street. If you ever need any advice on art or school, he's the one to ask." She paused and took the room in in one sweeping gaze. "Okay, enough about Jason. You'll have one hour to complete your drawing and hand it in to me. Standard charcoal should suffice." She adjusted the lights once more before nodding to Jason who began to untie his robe.

Oh god. I could hear the mental dun dun dunnnnn and I watched his fingers work the knot apart. You would think that by 18 years old I could handle a naked model, but after the summer from hell, I had been shipped off to an all girls school. I was seriously deprived of testosterone. The only male there was our German teacher, who wore silk socks and lederhosen on a daily basis.

I moved my eyes from his robe up to his face.

At least he was hot.

Jason was fair, with pale skin that rivaled mine, and big baby blues. He had golden curls that fell into his eyes perfectly. The overhead lights turned those curls to spun gold, forming a halo around his face.

Two words. Greek God.

If he head been planning to stand there in his robe all day, I would have been more than happy to stare away at him. He was that good looking.

But I feared my giggling fit would upset him.

Giggling was not something men appreciated when they got naked.

At least, I didn't think so….

I really didn't have any experience in that department.

So Jason (a.k.a. Adonis) undressed and stood there in all of his naked glory for us to draw.

I'll admit, it wasn't one of my greatest pictures. I was a little distracted and I was pointedly not looking at a certain area of his body.

I could feel the room getting hotter as I worked. I shrugged off my hoodie and adjusted the straps on my tank top nervously.

God, this was seriously uncomfortable.

Dr. Jeffries came to my easel halfway through the class and took in my work.

There was a big white space where I had purposely not drawn certain parts of the male anatomy.

"It's not gonna bite you" She said, way too loud. The rest of the class looked at me and chuckled. I wanted to run put of the room. I could feel my cheeks turning bright red. It would be so noticeable if I blushed beneath the studio lights.

"I was the same way Susan" Jason said from where he posed. "Don't giver her a hard time. The first drawing is always weird."

After the professor had left me to torture some other poor student, Jason shifted his leg ever so slightly and winked at me. He was covering certain unmentionables rather slyly.

I blushed and ducked behind my work.

I couldn't deal with naked people winking. It was too weird.

I gained my composure after a few minutes and returned to my work. I went back and fixed the whole thing first, before tackling the big white spot. As I drew I took in his flat stomach, his muscular arms and legs. His thin neck. He really was gorgeous. Last, but most defiantly not least, I filled the white spot, thankfully with leg and not…other things.

By the end of class I had a decent figure drawing done. When I returned to my easel, Jason was re-tying his robe (thankfully).

I loaded everything in my bag and brushed the eraser debris from my area. I did erase an awful lot.

As I made my way to the door, Jason stepped between me and my sweet escape.

"You should stop by my studio some time." He informed me with a dreamy smile. I surreptitiously checked for drool.

Nope. I was good.

"Sure" I mumbled, not meeting his eyes. I knew if I actually looked at him I would see him naked. Naked wasn't good. I don't even like the word naked.

I stepped around him and left for my next class.

After I had settled in my seat for Art History, I realized something.

Not once had I thought about Jacob that entire morning.

A/N:

I know, this one is horribly short as well, but I really wanted to get another chapter out quickly.

The next one should be out super quick (I'm working on it right now)

PLEASE REVIEW! Reviews just make my day! D

Thanks for reading!

-Lisa