The Gathering (Darkness Rising 1)

He shook his head, fingers sliding into my belt loops, leaning toward me until we were eye to eye. "I was there last night, Maya. What I saw was strength. You were upset, but you knew what had to be done and you did it. I was impressed. Seriously impressed."

He kissed me again and my arms went around his neck and I didn't care about the bell, didn't care if I ever got to class.

A throat-clearing behind Rafe made us both jump.

"I believe that was the bell, Rafael."

I couldn't see the speaker but recognized the voice as Ms. Tate's, the primary grades teacher.

"Whoops," he said. "Guess we'd better get inside, then."

When Ms. Tate saw me, she gave a little "oh" of surprise. "Maya ..."

"Sorry," I said. "We were just going in."

I could feel her gaze on my back as we walked away. When we got around the corner, Rafe whispered, "I think she's disappointed in you."

"She'll get over it."

He grinned and we headed inside.

If I'd felt insensitive earlier, it wasn't long before I was feeling downright callous. Everyone kept telling me they'd heard what had happened and how horrible it must have been. But inside, I was still buzzing, my pulse racing, as giddy as the time Serena and I sneaked champagne at her cousin's wedding.

Rafe didn't make it easy, either. During first period, he found an excuse to walk past my desk and drop off a note. It read, "Not dating classmates means you've missed out on an important part of fifth grade. Time to catch up." Below that, he'd drawn a heart with our initials in it. I'd laughed, added "2 be + 2-gether = 4-ever" and passed it back.

And so it went, all morning, the page getting filled up with doodles as it went back and forth. It was completely fifth grade and completely silly and I loved it, because he wasn't afraid to be silly. It was like kissing him first--I could do whatever I wanted, and not have to worry what he'd think of me.

Five minutes before lunch, he dropped off another note marked "Open at the bell," then excused himself to use the washroom ... and didn't return. When the bell went, I unfolded it to find a rough sketch of the school, with a dotted line from our class to an X by the principal's office.

I stuffed the note in my pocket and took off. At the office, I found an X in marker on the floor beside the trash can. I moved it and found another note. Another dotted line, this one leading outside to another X. That one ended just inside the forest, where I found a third note under a pebble.... It was blank.

I looked up.

Rafe's laugh floated down from the trees. "Can't fool you, huh?"

I scaled the tree. When I reached his branch, he was sitting there, legs dangling.

"Will that branch hold two?" I said, looking at it.

"Maybe. The question is whether you're willing to risk it."

I swung onto the branch and started sidling out.

He grinned. "Dumb question, wasn't it?"

"It was."

"You can't resist me."

"No, I can't resist a dare."

I stopped. He looked at the distance between us and lifted his brows.

"This seems close enough," I said. "For safety's sake."

"Safe from the branch breaking? Or from me?"

He swung his leg over and reached for me, pulling me into a kiss. He started slow, shifting, checking my balance. I backed up a little and swung my leg over, so we were both straddling.