Chapter 3

"What happened to her?!"

"She hit her head twice. Once with a ball, and the other time on the ground. Well, the ball hit her front, and the ground the ba-"

"Shut up!" I was being dragged out of consciousness slowly. I heard two male voices talking. They sounded worried and annoyed at the same time.

"You asked me what happened, and I answered you."

"Listen, thank you very much for bringing her here, but now you can leave. I'll take care of her," the voice, which sounded very familiar, said rudely to the other person. Was that Jason?

"It's not like I chose to come here anyway," the other voice said, matching the rudeness of the first one.

"Look, kid-"

I groaned in pain, and tried to open my eyes. Where was I? Why did my head feel like it was about to explode? I slowly opened my eyes, and met my brother's worried face. I looked around, and noticed that I was in the health room, lying on the bed, while Jason was hovering over me with a worried look on his face.

I tried to say something, but a sharp pain in my cheek made me wince, and shut my mouth again. I reached up to cup my face, and my fingers touched the rough material of the gauze.

"What...happened?" I managed to spit out, my hand still holding on to my cheek.

Jason glanced behind me, and that's when I noticed the other person. Hazel-eyes. What was he doing here?

"Don't you remember the soccer game?" Hazel-eyes asked me with his deep and sexy voice, which held only a hint of amusement and -worry?- in his voice. Sexy voice? You probably hit your head pretty hard Ellie. The soccer game slowly came back to me, and I remembered what happened.

I tried to get up, but Jason's firm but gentle hand pushed me back down. "Mom's going to come and pick you up soon. Obviously, I can't leave school, or else I would've taken you straight to the hospital. The school nurse took care of you though. Mom freaked out when she heard you blacked out."

I groaned yet again. This was not good. "What is it El? Does something hurt?!" Jason's worried voice cut through my thoughts, and I gave him a genuine smile. Well, I tried to, anyway. Instead, I hissed in pain, my hand shooting up to my cheek and cupping it again.

"You might wanna keep your face straight," Hazel-eyes' deep voice said.

Mine and Jason's head snapped towards him. Jason stood up, and started walking towards him. Oh no. No no no, Jason looked mad. If Jason's mad, then this will not be good. At all. He had a nasty temper, one which I've experienced before.

I had to stop him before he did something to Hazel-eyes. "Jason, stop. Please Jas- Ow!" I gripped my head as a sharp pain pierced through it. Both Jason and Hazel-eyes' attention snapped towards me, and Jason was by my side in an instant.

"I'm so sorry Ellie! I didn't mean to do it! Sorry!" Jason repeatedly apologized, and I covered his mouth to shut him up.

"You didn't do anything. Just shut up, it'll help me if you do," I replied. Jason shut up immediately after that, and sat there silently.

There was an awkward silence in the room, and I glanced at the other guy, to notice he was looking at me. I ducked my head down a little, suddenly feeling nervous, and my stomach started flipping as I still felt his gaze on me.

The moment was broken when the door banged open, revealing my extremely anxious Mom. She quickly ran up to my bed and gently hugged me, trying to be careful. "Oh, Elora! You almost scared me to death! Couldn't you have been more careful?" My mom cried out, unshed tears brimming her eyes.

"Mom, I'm perfectly fine! I just...the ball was hard, Mom! I was careful, the ball wasn't!" I lamely defended myself.

A snort came from Hazel-eyes, and I turned to glare at him. He just smirked at me, which made him look even cuter. My heart rate accelerated, and I mentally chided it for doing so. Cuter my ass. He looks like the son of Satan.

Mom turned around to face Hazel-eyes, and exclaimed, "Ace? What are you doing here?!" Mom's surprised voice filled the room.

"Ace?" I repeated, confused.

"Um...I have gym with her, and when she blacked out...the teacher...asked me to carry her to this room."

"Oh thank God you were there or I wonder what would've happened to poor Elora!" Mom cried out. I honestly thought she was being dramatic, but obviously I couldn't say that to her.

"Someone else would've carried her if he weren't there, Mom," Jason rolled his eyes. Yeah, Mom. I rolled my eyes too.

"Jason-"

I cut Mom off. "Wait, you know him?" I jerked my head towards Hazel- no. Ace.

"Of course I do, honey. He's Sarah's son, Ace."

"Sarah's son?" I was astonished. "How come I never knew that Sarah had a son, Mom?"

" 'Cause you're "Ellie, the Lost One,'" Jason smiled wickedly at me. Funny, 'cuz he didn't know Ace a few minutes ago either.

"Oh shut up Jason!"

"Language, young lady!" Mom said, but I could see she was holding a smile in. She turned back to Ace, giving him a genuine smile. "Thank you so much for my daughter, Ace, I'm really grateful-"

"Oh, it was my pleasure, Mrs. Ewlden, at least I got to know your daughter now," Ace said, smiling politely at my mother. Awww, he was being so cute! Who knew he could turn from being a devil into a prince charming? I needed to stop being dramatic.

She smiled back and turned to me. "Now Elora, can you stand up honey?" She looked a little worried again.

I sighed. "Mom, I'm not a little kid. Yes, I can stand up. You should probably go talk to the nurse, you need to sign in my dismissal."

"Are you sure baby?"

"Mom!"

"Alright, alright! Jason, I expect you to get back to class now, and no, I will not take you home as well," she added when he started to protest. He sighed, and after gently patting my head, he walked out. "I'll sign you out and come back, Ellie. Don't try to get up, okay?" With that, she walked out, leaving me and Ace alone.

As soon as she left, I tried getting up from my bed, only to find myself feeling light-headed, and tripping over my own feet.

"Woaaaaah, easy, there," Ace quickly walked up to me, sliding his arm around my waist to hold me up. I felt embarrassed, but his arms felt good around me.

"You should listen to your Mom when she says something to you," Ace said, his breath fanning across my face.

My heart started thumping rapidly, and I was sure he could feel it. He smelled good, a mixture of lavender and cologne. I tried my best not to sniff him- I didn't want him to think I was a dog. His arm left my waist, only to come back and rest on my shoulders, supporting my weight easily.

I struggled to find my voice, hating the fact that him being close was the reason to it. Not that I minded being close to him. "Sh-should we, um, go?" I stuttered out, and wished I hadn't spoken at all.

"I don't know, should we?" he asked.

"Are you mocking me?"

"I don't know, am I?"

"Ace." His name sounded good on my tongue. Yep, definitely hit my head too hard.

"Yes, Elora?"

Growing frustrated, I swung his arm off my shoulder, and started heading for the door.

"Hey, I was just playing with you," Ace's voice came out from behind me.

I ignored him, opened the doors, and walked out. I walked towards the nurse's office, and stood outside the door, waiting for Mom to come out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ace striding up towards me with a frown on his handsome face.

I couldn't help but stare at his body as he walked towards me. It was obvious he had a six-pack, or maybe an eight-pack. His arms were well muscled, and he was really tall. Which meant he was right in front of me, in less than 5 seconds, glaring at me.

"What?" I asked, irritated.

"You weren't supposed to leave."

"You're not my mother to tell me what to do," I retorted.

"Aha, But your mother did tell you not to leave," he said back, smirking smugly.

"Whatever," I muttered. I change my mind about him being nice.

A few seconds passed.

"Are you mad at me?" Ace asked.

"I don't know, am I?" I responded, earning a chuckle from him.

"Touché," he said, smiling.

I smiled back at him slightly, being cautious of my cheek. It was hard not to. He looked even more adorable - if that was even possible.

My mother decided to come out at that moment. She looked at me, tensed, then at Ace, then relaxed. "Come'on, Ellie, we can go home, and you can rest. Your head must be hurting," she added.

"I'll walk her to the car, Mrs. Ewlden, I don't think she'll be able to handle it," the words smoothly rolled out of his mouth, as he smiled at my mom. When she turned around, he quickly shot me a mocking smirk.

I glared at him, "I'm totally capable of hand-"

"Of course, Ace, I would really appreciate it if you did," My mother cut me off, smiled, and walked off ahead, leaving me with the jerk.

"Hey, Princess, want me to carry you again?" Ace said, smirking.

"Again? I think it was you who hit your head, not me. You never carried me before," I huffed, folding my arms tightly.

"Oh Princess, you have the worst memory ever. Do you think the minions came into the field and carried you to the room?"

I blushed furiously, and walked faster, trying to get rid of him. He easily kept pace with me. I grit my teeth in annoyance, and looked ahead. A teacher was walking the other way, and suddenly, an idea hit me.

"Hey, Ace, don't you think you should be in class right now? I mean, you're not supposed to get out of school. You still have a few hours left of school," I said loudly, so the teacher could hear me and turn around.

Sure enough, he turned back, and looked at us. He scowled at Ace, "Mr. Horris, get back to class this instant!" he barked at Ace (looks like the teachers knew him too well), and turned to me to tell me off.

I was ready for that, and said smoothly, "My mom's right there, I have early dismissal," I pointed at my Mom's retreating back in the distance. I glanced at Ace, who looked pissed off, and smiled sweetly at him. He glared at me.

I walked off, feeling triumphant at last.