Find My Heart - Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Cole
The summer holiday was finally over and I was in my last year of college.
After that one arranged day with Annabell, I never went back to Highfield Hall. Well, that was a bit of a lie. I did go there, but I never snuck into the grounds.
I was too afraid.
I'd walked the boundary of the land that belonged to the Hall and took several glances over the wall, in the hope to see those big dogs again.
Every now and again I would get a glimpse of them running in the grounds. The more I saw them, the more I became convinced that they were not dogs. They were definitely wolves. It became quite addictive, trying to spot them. And I noticed that there were more of them than I originally thought. I began to document some of the different features and markings on the animals, and I had definitely seen at least 8 different individuals.
There was one in particular that caught my eye. It was a large dark brown wolf that had a streak of silver running from the tip of one ear to it's shoulder. It reminded me of Nathan.
It was slightly bigger than the rest, and seemed to be the dominant one. But despite this, I found myself less afraid of it, and I strangely kept wondering what it would be like to run my hand through its fur.
I was sat having breakfast with my dad before setting off to college when I decided to bring up the subject.
"Dad, is it illegal to keep wolves as pets?"
My dad lowered his newspaper and looked at me for a second.
"Not if you have a license to keep them. Why do you ask?"
My dad went back to looking at his paper, but I could tell something was off. For a start, he was looking at the page he had already read.
"Oh, I just heard someone say that they might be keeping them at Highfield Hall."
"Really, who did you hear that off?" my dad asked.
He had me a bit stumped there. It's not like I hung out with any friends over the holidays.
"I just overheard someone saying something about it."
My dad looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
I felt myself shrink back under his gaze. I hated how he could make me do that.
"You've been back to the Hall, even though I told you not to, haven't you?"
I tried to suppress a gulp. "I might have peeked over the wall," I said in a small voice.
He sighed at me and thankfully his glare faded as he looked back to his paper.
"Just don't go in there. If those wolves attack you because you're trespassing, it'll be your fault not the owners."
"Yeah, I know," I mumbled back.
"Anyway, get your things or we're going to be late," my dad said, getting up from the table.
I quickly scooped up the last couple of spoons of cereal into my mouth and wiped away the dribble of milk that ran down my chin, before heading to the hallway and picking up my bag.
Just as I was about to follow my dad out of the door, he suddenly stopped and turned, making me almost bump into his chest.
"Promise me you won't sneak into Highfield Hall anymore?" he said, and instead of the usual anger, I saw something else in his eyes. It was like he was pleading with me. Like he was scared of something.
"Of course I won't," I reassured him. "They have wolves - I'm not stupid!"
My dad smiled, and I saw his whole body relax at my reply, before he turned and headed out to the car.
I couldn't help but wonder what my dad knew about the new owners of Highfield Hall. Afterall, he was in the police, so it was reasonable to think he might know something about the type of people who used wolves to patrol their grounds.
I walked into college and looked around for Natalie. She had met Nathan before, so I wanted to tell her about how I had seen him at the Hall over the summer.
I hadn't walked more than 2 meters from the front door when I felt myself get shoved rather forcefully into the bank of lockers.
A resounding cheer went up and I looked back to see Keith and his gang of morons walking past, high fiving each other.
"Wankers," I muttered to myself under my breath.
"Hey, are you ok?" I heard a voice next to me say.
"Natalie!" I said with a big smile, as I instantly forgot what had just happened.
"Woah, what's got you in such a good mood after being slammed into the lockers?" she asked, "In fact, forget I asked that. Let me take advantage of this good mood and ask you a question. How do you feel about coming with me to another party on Saturday?"
I felt the smile slide off my face.
"Oh come on, where's happy Cole gone?" she asked while trying to push the corners of my mouth back up with her fingers.
I frowned at her pawing at my face, then bit one of her fingers. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to make her snap it back.
"Ooo, kinky!" she said wiggling her eyebrows at me.
I scowled as I felt my face start to heat up.
"Hey!" I said, suddenly remembering something. "You promised not to make me blush, remember?"
"Did I?" Natalie asked, while pretending to look confused. "Maybe if you come to the party I might remember something like that."
"Oh you're being Little Miss Bitchy today I see," I said, trying to maintain my frown but finding it difficult as I saw her crack a smile.
"Oh come on, pleeeease Cole. I know for a fact that Percy is going to be there...."
"And why would I care whether Percy would be there?" I said, while already making the leap that if Percy turned up, there was a chance that Nathan would also make an appearance.
"I thought you would care, after all the two of you have unfinished business if I remember rightly?"
I felt my cheeks start to grow warm again, and I willed the blood to go away.
Natalie was right though. We were interrupted. What if Percy decided he wanted to finish off his dare. Would I mind? I was surprised to find that I wouldn't. Maybe going to the party wasn't the worst idea in the world....
"Saturday, did you say?" I asked.
"Yeah!" Natalie said throwing her arms around me and jumping up and down excitedly. "Cole and Percy sitting in a tree K.I.S.S.I.N.G"
"Oh my god, how old are you?" I said as I rolled my eyes at her.
"Come on, we better get to class," she said, linking arms with me and dragging me off towards our lecture theatre.
As I sat down, I noticed that there were some chairs placed at the front of the room, like we were expecting a guest lecturer or something.
Mr Frodsham, our ecology teacher walked in, but no one else seemed to be with him.
The lesson passed off as normal, but I noticed that he seemed to be drawing to an end earlier than usual.
"Now, I've finished a little early today," he said, "because I have a couple of people here who want to talk to you about a little project that is happening at Highfield Hall."
My ears instantly pricked up at the mention of the Hall and I swear before I even heard or saw anything, my eyes instantly went to the door, where none other that Nathan walked in, followed by another man I had never seen before.
My jaw dropped open, until Natalie smacked me rather enthusiastically on the arm while hissing, "It's him, it's him!"
"I know," I said through gritted teeth while rubbing the arm that she smacked.
"This is Nathan Blake," Mr Frodsham said, "who has recently taken up residence at Highfield Hall, and James Duckworth who's the head gardener there. They are looking to start a project on the extensive woodland behind the Hall and they are looking for volunteers, preferably with knowledge of woodland ecology, hence them coming to speak to this class. Please listen to what they have to tell you, and if any of you want to sign up as volunteers, you can come and speak to them at the end. I shouldn't need to remind you that this might be a perfect dissertation subject which will count for 50% of your final mark."
I didn't take my eyes off Nathan, the whole time Mr Frodsham was talking. He looked like he had tried to make an effort with his clothing, and was wearing a navy shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, and some beige trousers. I frowned while studying him. He looked hot. Hell, he looked beyond hot, yet I would still say it wasn't a look that suited him. I couldn't say why. I guess it just wasn't.....well, it wasn't him.
I was willing him to look up in my direction, but Nathan seemed intent on staring at Mr Frodsham. In fact I don't think Nathan had looked up at any of the students once. It was almost like he was trying to pretend they weren't there.
Mr Frodsham finally sat down, and I felt everyone's eyes turn to Nathan.
I felt my heart pick up pace, and I realised that I suddenly felt nervous for him. Would he be ok speaking in front of such a large group?
Nathan took a few steps forward and finally looked up to the sea of students in front of him.
This was a popular class and so there were probably around 70 - 80 students. This was a small lecture theatre rather than a classroom so the seats were tiered, and I was sat fairly near the back.
I regretted that now as Nathan seemed to focus his gaze on the front two rows.
"Thank you for letting me steal 10 minutes of your lecture time," Nathan said, and I was surprised by the level of confidence that seemed to radiate off him. It seemed my concern was misplaced.
"You may or may not know, that my family have recently purchased Highfield Hall. The Hall was in a pretty bad way when we took it on, and we have spent time renovating it back to its original state. However, the grounds behind the Hall have also been neglected, and now we are looking to spend some time rectifying that too.
"Highfield Hall has over 100 acres of Natural British Woodland, which I am sure you are aware, has a significant importance and as such has a preservation order on it. I am led to believe that there are some quite rare species of plants and insects in this woodland, but I'm afraid my knowledge of ecology is fairly limited.
"What we are looking for, is a group of students such as yourselves, to come and look at the woodlands and to help us draw up a management plan, to help us to preserve some of the protected species that live there."
I pretty much stopped listening after that. My mind was too busy racing with the information he had already given me.
Basically he was inviting me to do what I loved best. He was inviting me to do what I had been sneakily doing anyway, before I nearly got eaten alive by those beasts.
I, Cole Dawson, was about to get an official invite to Highfield Hall. Suck on that Dad!
I felt my leg start to bounce with excitement.
"Are you going to volunteer?" Natalie whispered to me.
"Hell yeah!" I whispered back.
Natalie's eyes widened at my response. "Even with scary demon dude?" she added, while nodding her head at Nathan.
"He's not that scary," I whispered back, then felt a slight blush appear on my cheeks under Natalie's intense gaze.
"Oh my god, you like him!" she squealed, causing some people on the rows in front to turn round, and me to elbow Natalie sharply in the ribs.
She mouthed an "ow" while sending me her best glare, before she chuckled and went back to looking at Nathan, and then at me, and then at Nathan again, then me...
"What are you doing?" I hissed at her.
"I'm trying to imagine it."
"What?" I asked, then immediately regretted it.
"The two of you.....you know rutting and stuff."
"Rutting?" I squeaked in disbelief, before hiding my now burning face in my hands.
"Yeah," she said, now staring intensely at Nathan, "I mean look at him, he's oozing sex. I'd just like to run over there and lick him," she said, finishing with sort of slurping noise that sent a shiver of embarrassment down my body.
"Natalie!" I hissed, while keeping my face tilted down to hide my burning cheeks.
"Oh, come on, they've finished," she said, and sure enough I looked up to see people starting to get out of their seats.
I needed to let my face return to it's normal colour before I could let Nathan see me.
Natalie stood up and I could feel her jiggling around next to me.
"What are you doing?" I asked while I put my notebook in my bag.
"YOOO HOOOO!" Natalie suddenly yelled, making me snap my head up to attention.
"NATHAN, OVER HERE!!" she shouted while waving her hands in the air, making everyone look round, Nathan included.
I felt myself sink lower into my seat and I suddenly found the bottom of my bag very interesting.
"LOOK NATHAN, COLE'S HERE TOO!!"
Arrrgghhhh, please lord, let the ground swallow me up now!