A Fox's Love (American Kitsune Book 1) (10 page)

...

Cue long awkward silence.

"Damn that Iris."

"Wow," Kevin whistled in a completely Out of Character kind of way. It's generally called an OC moment. "I just don't – wow. I don't even know what to say to that." Seriously, what does someone say to that?

"A-Anyways," the fox girl tried to get rid of her embarrassment by changing the subject. "Shouldn't you be going to school?"

"Right." Was it just him, or did this girl just sound almost like one of those stay at home wives he heard about on those fifties shows his mom used to love watching when she was at home?

Ugh, whatever. He didn't have time to deal with this. School had started five minutes ago and it would take him twenty to get there. He would deal with this strange fox girl, and everything his new situation entailed (and yes, that was a pun just now) later. Right now, it was time to head out.

Little did he know that there would be more problems than just an angry homeroom teacher to deal with when he finally arrived at school.

Chapter 7: A Not so Normal School Day

"You're late, Mr. Swift!"

Kevin barely managed to withhold a wince at the sharp tone in his homeroom teacher's voice. Ruby Vis was one of those hardcore teachers who was very... passionate? Yes, passionate. She was very passionate about her job. It was her art, and if math was her chisel than teaching was her hammer.

Which meant he and the other students were the marble upon which she would strike.

Ouch.

She was a very plain looking woman with mousy brown hair, dark eyes and pale skin. Whenever Kevin saw her, he could not help but be reminded of a vampire. The only reason he did not suspect her of actually being a vampire was her lack of sparkles. Despite this, her skin was certainly white enough to be a vampire's. It was so translucently pale that he often wondered if she ever got outside beyond walking to and from her car.

Probably not.

"Sorry, Ms. Vis," Kevin apologized quickly. "I had some... erm... trouble, waking up this morning." Internally, he winced at the terrible excuse. Dang his inability to tell a good lie! Maybe he should have said something about a black cat crossing his path forcing him to take the long way around?

Yeah, as if she would believe that.

"You missed my lecture," Ms. Vis continued as if she had not even heard him. Uh oh. That wasn't a good sign. Whenever a teacher pretended to not hear you, it usually meant they were going to punish you. That just sucked, especially since it hadn't been his fault he was late. He had been dealing with a close encounter of the sexy fox-girl kind.

Too bad he couldn't tell her that. What was he supposed to say? “I woke up with a naked girl in my bed. Oh, and by the way, she's a Kitsune. You know, those supernatural creatures found in Japanese Mythology.” Yeah, he could see that going over
really
well.

"Take your seat and ask your neighbor for the notes on
my
lecture that
you
missed." This time, Kevin did wince, especially on those emphasized words. She was definitely peeved at him. "You'll need it if you want to complete your assignment for today."

Kevin almost couldn't contain his surprise. He was getting off without being punished? Or was she just saving her punishment for another time? Either way, it was probably best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Trying his best not to make it look like he was in a rush, Kevin walked to his desk. He didn't want to ruin this moment by seeming hurried. That would just make this whole situation that much worse. She might smell blood in the water, so to speak, and decide he really should be punished.

As he sat down at the desk assigned to him, his neighbor turned in her seat and gave him an amused smile. "It's not like you to be so late, Kevin." She looked like she was taking way to much enjoyment from his unfortunate situation. Not that he noticed. He was having other problems at the moment. "Having some problems at home?"

Kevin's breath caught in his throat as the girl spoke to him. She was very pretty, if tomboyish. Her hair was a short, sandy blond with lighter streaks interspersed throughout, and it was styled in a cute pixy cut with longer than average bangs that ran past her chin. They framed a face with light, baby blue eyes, a small, straight nose and thin but not unpleasant lips.

Of course, while the fact that a cute girl was talking to him was always a problem for Kevin, that was not what had him feeling like someone had taken a vice to his throat. It was
who
she was that made him so incapable of speaking. Lindsay Diane, his secret (or not so secret, depending on who you asked) crush.

He and Lindsay didn't have many classes together, except homeroom and their last class of the day. This was one of the only times he actually got to be with her. He both loved it and hated it. Loved it because, well, he got to sit next to her. Hated it because he could never think of anything to say, and every time he made an attempt, he would usually end up not saying anything at all and would just stare at her with a stupid looking, open mouthed expression instead.

Nothing said idiot better than looking like you were trying to do a fish out of water impression in front of your crush.

Lindsay was a very petite girl, nowhere near as curvy as some of the other female's in their school, and not even close to Lilian's generous proportions, but she had her own strong points. While small, Lindsay possessed a very lean, athletic body from all the sports she played. Her legs and arms were toned, her stomach was taut. The girl didn't have an inch of fat on her thanks to how active she was. That was actually one of the things Kevin liked most about her.

Her love of sports, not her body.

Not that her body was bad or ugly. He thought she had an amazing body. It was just that he was way too shy to actually think about Lindsay's body that way. At least not without his face turning all kinds of red.

“
Hello? Earth to Kevin? Anybody in there?”

Kevin blinked several times as a hand was waved in front of his face. It took him a moment to realize that he had been staring... again.

He jerked his head back as if slapped. Already his cheeks were beginning to heat up as he once more embarrassed himself in front of his crush. He could only imagine how red his face was.

Lindsay was still staring at him. Quick, Kevin! Think of something to say!

"Uh... um... hu... hi...?"

Smooth Kevin, very smooth.

"Hey," Lindsay snickered at him, amused. "Finally back here on Earth with us?” Kevin blushed at her comment, but didn't say anything. “So...any reason why you were so late?"

"Um..." Late? Why was he late? Oh! Right. "Ah...I just had some... problems with this...erm...injured fox I found yesterday."

"A fox?” Lindsay perked up. “You brought a fox home? Isn't it against the rules to have animals in your apartment?"

"Well, yeah," Kevin squirmed uncomfortably as he was reminded of that fact. Not that it mattered. No one would think Lilian was a fox so long as she remained in her human form. And on that note, he
really hoped she had the good sense to hide those tails of hers. It wouldn't do if someone, like, say, the landlord, came over and saw her with
those
added appendages out. "That's why I was late. I had to make sure no one would be able to see her from outside of the apartment."

"I gotcha," Lindsay nodded her head. "I remember you always did love animals back when we were younger.”

Kevin ducked his head down to hide his red cheeks while the girl sitting next to him grinned.

“
Anyways, here." She held out her spiral notebook. "Those are the notes from today. Just give that back when you're done copying them."

Carefully reaching out with his hand, his heart pounding against his chest, Kevin touched the notebook Lindsay was offering him. He grabbed it almost reverently, ignoring the millions of butterflies that had welled up in his stomach. They had nothing to do with the binder she gave him, or the skin on skin contact he felt when his hand touched hers. Really.

"Thanks," Kevin's barely audible voice mumbled out. "You're a life saver."

"I know." Lindsay's small, cocky smirk somehow managed to enhance how attractive she was. Kevin nearly swooned, but being a man (real men didn't swoon!), he held himself back. Barely.

The rest of class was mostly silent. Only the sound of pencil scratching on paper and the occasional cough broke the monotonous stillness that permeated the room. Behind her desk, Ms. Vis sat, watching them all like a hawk, making sure they did their work in complete silence. Anyone caught talking or passing notes was given a swift warning not to do so again on pain of detention and those with phones out had them taken away until class ended.

Kevin dutifully copied down all the notes Lindsay had written down in her notebook. The girl had very neat, very precise handwriting, so it was really easy to copy. She was an excellent note taker.

As he finished copying down the notes and then started working on the assignment that Ms. Vis had assigned to them, his mind traveled back to the fox-girl currently rooming in his apartment. He wondered what she was doing right now.

He also hoped to God that she wasn't causing any trouble. The last thing he wanted was to come home and find some kind of disaster in the works.

The bell soon rang, signaling an end to class. As everyone began leaving, Ms. Vis reminded them that any work they had not completed in class was homework and due tomorrow. Those who did not complete their assignments and turn them in on time would get a failing grade for said assignment. Kevin could have sworn she was looking at him when she said this, but he played it off as his imagination. He had never failed to turn in an assignment on time and wasn't about to start now, thank you very much.

Kevin's class after his morning math class―why they made math the first class in the morning was beyond him, most of his peers were still half asleep at that time―was French.

A lot of people wondered why he bothered taking French when they didn't live anywhere near France. Eric in particular thought it was stupid, since they lived just a few hours drive from Mexico, but Kevin had his reasons for taking French instead of Spanish.

To put it simply, he already knew a good deal of French. Since his mom spent a lot of time in France for her job, she had been forced to pick up the language, and since she learned French, Kevin did as well by association. That meant he could coast along on his laurels in that class and still maintain a high grade.

Lazy? Some people would say that, but Kevin liked to think of it as an intelligent decision with the purpose of decreasing his workload so he could put more effort into his other classes. Why go through all the trouble and time of learning another language for high school credit when he could take a class where he already knew the language, gain the credits
and
not spend several hours each week doing the work?

Because very few people took French, the class was quite small. Where a normal class would consist of anywhere from twenty to twenty-five people and sometimes even thirty and over, this class only contained a grand total of twelve. That made it very easy for Kevin to memorize the names of all the people in his class. It helped that he'd had to partner up with all of them at least once last year.

While he wouldn't consider any of the people in his class friends, he did get along with all of them to some degree or another. Well, except for the girls, but that is so obvious by this point in the story it really shouldn't need mentioning.

His teacher for the class was a rather airy woman by the name Madam Bonnet, which was ironic because the teacher in question was always wearing a bonnet. Always. He had never seen her take it off, not even once.

Madam Bonnet was a middle aged woman with black hair that had shots of gray in it and bluish gray eyes. She was tall and willowy, with the personality of someone whose mind was always very far away. Even the way her eyes were constantly shifting seemed to denote that she wasn't really all there. Kevin and the other students all thought she was a very odd woman.

Still, she made French class interesting. Madam Bonnet had an unusual method of teaching and, more often than not, her method involved the students in her class embarrassing themselves by getting in front of everyone and making a presentation of some kind. Sometimes she would bring in cooking supplies and have them make foods found in France, then give both a lecture and assign a written report on the food they made. Other times she would have them do skits from various French plays. One time she even made someone transpose and sing a song. Now that had just been embarrassing. Kevin had felt bad for the girl who had been forced to do that.

Whatever it was she had them do, they always had to speak in French. No English at all. As in, none whatsoever. If they made even one comment in English, she would deduct points from their overall grade.

On this particular day, she had them work in pairs and told them to write a poem about a specific area in France. It could be a province, a city, a historically significant building or a national landmark. Kevin had been paired up with a rather skinny kid with glasses and shaggy black hair named Nathan Luculen. He was a very intelligent kid, one of those students who had a GPA that was over 4.0. He was taking all honors and AP classes and would likely go on to become a nuclear physicist, a neuro surgeon or some equally impressive and rewarding career.