White Water

Prologue

Sophie

Cody staggered backwards. I exchanged a gleeful glance with Dad. Wouldn’t it be nicer to just tell him? I asked.

Well sure, but what would the fun in that be? I heard my dad’s deep chuckle in my head.

I do hope you two aren’t hurting the clientele. My mother’s voice floated across from the payment booth.

Stop your worrying woman – he’s a big-headed jerk. We’re just giving him a nice little bruise for the morning.

Cody turned around and frowned at me. He looked at my Dad with the cutest perplexed look, Am I doing something wrong, sir? He asked my dad politely.

I looked at Dad. Surely, he’d tell him now...

Maybe you should hold the gun a little closer into your shoulder, son. My dad’s gruff voice made me smile. He was a big softy really. Sure, he thought the guy was a total jerk that was showing way too much interest in his eldest daughter but still, he wasn’t so mean that he was going to allow him to keep getting hurt.

I wasn’t, however, impressed by his antics, nor interested in his good looks and cute smile. Well not that interested. Okay, that’s a total lie, I was way too interested because he was so gorgeous, but I kept trying to convince myself that I really wasn’t interested...

I heaved a sigh of relief. It really didn’t sit well with me for him to be hurt. He was too damned cute for bruises…

I chanced a glance across at him again. Cody was listening intently to my dad and nodding with him as he showed him how to hold the gun. He never glanced towards me again, which was at once a relief and yet at the same time, very, very depressing…

Cody

There was something about Sophie. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew there was something. It was believing it that was the hard part. How could she be anything like my family and I? We were hardly what you could call commonplace… But the very fact that I could hear her and her father making fun of my appalling attempts at clay pigeon shooting was filling me with absolute glee. If she wasn’t like me then my gift had gotten a whole lot better all of a sudden. I’d never been able to hear normal human’s thoughts before…

Me and my family were hybrids. Well, actually I was second-generation hybrid. My parents were the cross-breeds, me and my four brothers were actually like a whole new-improved species. Maybe I’d better explain…

My father’s father was a volunteer for a super-human breeding program (no really, I’m actually not joking here) from another planet called Gore. He came to Earth and met a human girl. They fell in love and he decided to stay here. They had a child – and that child was of course, my father...

Of course, my grandfather wasn’t the only volunteer and my mother, crazily enough, was also a hybrid. It would seem these gorevans, as they were called, couldn’t stay away from Earth once they’d discovered it – and they must have found it pretty easy to run into each other, too. Goodness only knew how many others there were out there, which brought me back to Sophie. Call me psychic – some people did – but there was something about her that I really felt strongly attracted to. It was like she was my own personal magnet… Could she be like me? Because I’m not gonna lie – that would be absolutely awesome. In all my sixteen years (which okay, wasn’t exactly a long time, but still) I was yet to find another hybrid like us and it was a shock to finally run into one. Particularly since she seemed to really dislike me... But I’m not gonna lie, I’d never been so attracted to another person in my whole life….

We’d only recently moved to this small town in the middle of nowhere. A sort of hideout for my family and I – and I thought it was gonna be the most boring place in the history of the universe. How wrong could I have been?

Chapter 1 – Meeting Cody Conner

Sophie

Are you helping out with me today or what?

I groaned. Dad’s voice had just floated into my head from where he was having a coffee and toast with Mum in the kitchen.

Sure, Dad – I’ll follow you down there. I’m still trying to get my eyes to open.

He chuckled. I want you there at ten am, sharp. We’ve got those Conner boys coming in again.

I groaned again – out loud this time though, so Dad wouldn’t be listening in on me. Those Conner boys were the bane of my life recently. They’d only moved in a couple of months ago, but the stir their combined good looks had immediately created amongst my schoolmates was nothing short of ridiculous.

The girls at school had been positively drooling over the three of them but I’d put good money on it that the eldest of the three, who was in the second year of sixth form, wouldn’t notice any of them. I was convinced he’d be more interested in the football team if you catch my drift.

They were all incredibly handsome boys. Cody – the one who has probably woken up this morning with a bruise right through from his chest to his back, was (in my opinion – not that I fancied him) the best looking of the three. Not that I could really pick out anything on the other two that wasn’t pleasing. Ethan was the eldest of the three. He wore glasses which made him look a little more studious than the other two, but I’d guess that his eyes were brown – they were dark, anyway – and he had long, dark hair that he tied back into a pony tail for school. He didn’t always wear it that way, though. When they came down to the outdoor centre that I helped my dad run it flowed freely and I’ve got to say, I was a little jealous of the lustrous curls he’d got going on – maybe I should have asked him for hair care tips…

Dakota (my God, could his mother have named him anything more droolsome?) was most of my classmates’ idea of heaven on Earth. He really was cute. He’d got cropped, dark hair – in total contrast to his pretty brother; his eyes were brown and he was the tallest of the three of them. He was way over six feet tall – massive.

And back to Cody. He was handsome, there was no denying it. He wasn’t quite as tall as Dakota, but he was still around six feet; his hair was just as dark as the others, and like Ethan, it was kind of long –well, not that long but it definitely brushed his collar, and he definitely had curls going on there. If you’d told me six months ago that I would fall for a guy with long, curly hair I’d have laughed in your face but there it was – he’d got long, curly hair and I’d fallen for him.

What I found really attractive about Cody though was this; where both of his brothers had really dark eyes, his were much paler – a kind of silvery-blue, most unusual. His eyelashes were just as dark as his brothers – almost black and he’d got a fine, straight nose with full lips that I had to fight the feeling of kissing on an hourly basis. There I go again, I might as well tell you that I loved him at first sight with that description, and I guess it was true but on the other hand, annoying didn’t begin to cover the way he was around me. I swear he only came to this neck of the woods to be a permanent fly in my ointment…

My first encounter with him wasn’t actually at school. It was at the outdoor centre that my dad owned and ran. I had the misfortune of being on the payment booth when they first arrived.

They didn’t want to just come to have a look around – oh no – these guys were seriously outdoorsy. They wanted to sign up right away and I had to spend quite a lot of time filling in the computer records with them. Dakota had been really polite and nice, as had Ethan but Cody, well, awkward wasn’t quite the word... He was far more intent on chatting me up, which embarrassed and bemused me – I really wasn’t that hot! I was kind of ordinary to look at and I’m quite certain my bemusement was etched all over my face.

He eventually left me to go and join his brothers on the quad bikes and I heaved a sigh of relief.

The next morning at school was, however, quite a different story. The news had spread like wildfire throughout the campus that we had ourselves a new family of totally hot dudes in our midst and my heart sank as I realised that not only was Cody the same age as I was, but that he had been put in my form for registration.

He glanced around the classroom and did a double take as his eyes met with mine.

He grinned and ambled across to me. Hey – it’s my favourite girl from the outdoor centre! he plonked himself down in the seat next to me without even asking if it was anyone else’s seat (which it wasn’t, but still…)

I remained silent.

Aren’t you going to introduce yourself? He asked with a grin, Since you already know all about me.

Sophie, I mumbled, Sophie Milestone.

He turned to me and I looked up at him. He was stunning; he grinned almost shyly at me, taking my breath away with his sparkling eyes. Well, it’s really nice to meet you, Sophie. He stuck his hand out.

Feeling absolutely mortified that all the other girls in the room were watching me jealously, I rolled my eyes and shook his hand.

A tingling feeling crept through my skin at his touch and went all the way up my arm. I snatched my hand away quickly and tore my eyes away from his. He was looking at me far too intently for comfort.

He didn’t say anything else until his name was called out and the teacher said a few words introducing him to the rest of the class. I’ll get one of the students to show you around at break-time, Cody. She smiled at him.

He nodded and smiled, earning himself a round of sighs from the girls in the class, Oh, thanks, He said charmingly, but I already know Sophie. Perhaps she could show me around? he suggested it so innocently that Miss Potts blinked.

I was all set to protest when Miss Potts agreed enthusiastically. Oh, what a good idea. She enthused, yes, Sophie is one of our most gifted students.

I cringed inwardly. That pretty much translated to the rest of the class as ‘girly swot who gets straight A’s and is the most boring girl on the planet’, hence the fact that I was sat alone. She’ll be perfect for you. She added, earning me daggers from every other girl in the room.

Yes, she will.

I looked at Cody quizzically. Had I really just heard him say that? Or was I truly losing it and imagining what I wanted to hear him say? Probably…

He looked back at me with a blank expression. I blushed and decided that I must have been imagining it.

Sophie? Miss Potts was looking at me expectantly.

Yes, miss? I could feel all the girls’ in the room eyes boring into my back. I swear, if looks could have killed I wouldn’t be telling you all of this right now…

Will that be alright? Her expression was almost challenging.

I nodded, Sure, I agreed with a small smile. Well, I could hardly argue, could I?

I dutifully showed him around at break-time – by which time, he seemed to have made friends with almost all of the most big-headed jerks that already graced the school halls that I generally avoided like the plague.

It really wasn’t great that he now seemed to have amassed a posse of idiots who seemed to worship his every word. Seriously, the guy had a high enough opinion of himself already...

The very few girlfriends that I had, seemed to think I was the luckiest girl in the world to have attracted his attention. They almost wet themselves when I told them that he and his brothers had started coming to the outdoor centre.

Oh, my God, you’re so lucky, Sophie, Leanne gushed, because, really, they wouldn’t give you the time of day if it wasn’t for your Dad having that business, would they...? Like I said, they were ‘sort of’ friends, rather than what I could describe as ‘good’ friends of mine…

So, as you can imagine, the general consensus of opinion was that for one, no one in their right mind would fancy me and two, I was really fortunate to work weekends and evenings at the outdoor centre – and not for the extra money, it gave me to spend – oh, no, they were more interested in the fact that it was frequented by more than half of the male youth of our school and every other teenage boy in a twenty mile radius. None of them ever thought anything through, though – if they had, they would know that it was mortally embarrassing most of the time. They had absolutely no idea how excruciating it was, having to show these macho guys how to hold a gun properly, or how to put on a four-point harness correctly.

Let me tell you, it was no picnic – particularly knowing that I was generally deemed to belong to a class of people that rated on a scale just above insect to most of the school’s male population. To be fair to them, some of the boys had a slight look of recognition about them when they saw me, but on the whole, I got away with remaining pretty much invisible, which was fine with me. So, to have Cody seeming so interested was more than weird. In fact, it was completely unbelievable…

Faron was the only friend I had that didn’t seem totally enamoured with the new family and that surprised me a little. He usually really fancied good-looking muscular types. I swear he was secretly in love with his best mate, Jared Ross who was totally muscular – and really good-looking, but he never said as much, so I could have been totally wrong on that...

I had to show Cody Conner around at break-time. I was bemoaning my embarrassing encounter with Faron at lunchtime. He looked at me sympathetically, That’s terrible. He murmured.

I glanced at him to see if he was ill or something. "Did you even hear what I just said?" I asked irritably. He wasn’t even listening!

He jumped slightly and looked at me a little cagily, Um, yes. he said.

I raised an eyebrow and pursed my lips. "You so did not." I scoffed.

Did too, he shot back, you were complaining about someone. He stuck his tongue out at me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, Yeah, I knew you couldn’t have been really listening. There’s no way you would have agreed with me that it was terrible to show around Cody Conner.

He grinned sheepishly at me. Okay, he conceded, "you totally caught me out. What’s the problem with that? He’s well hot." He added with a grin.

I rolled my eyes. Oh, God, I groaned, "I know how hot he is. I can’t stop thinking about him. But why me?" I looked at Faron incredulously.

He gave me a funny look. Please explain to me why the hottest guy in the school – with the exception of his totally gorgeous brothers – being attracted to you is such a bad thing? he asked, a note of exasperation in his voice.

I sighed and frowned, "It’s not that it’s a bad thing... It’s just that it’s a totally bonkers thing. There’s just no way he could be interested in me, seriously."

Rubbish! Faron scoffed, proper scowling at me now, "You’re gorgeous. You’re funny and beautiful and ten times smarter than anyone else in the school!"

I rolled my eyes, "And there lies the reason why I have no friends, I said, expect you of course. The fact that I’m ten times smarter than anyone else generally repels people."

He smiled. "Ah, but now there’s Cody. It’s not so hard to figure out. He’s smart and beautiful and funny too. If he wasn’t… he glanced across the room, where Cody was sat with about twenty girls and guys all hanging on to his every word like he was some sort of god, He wouldn’t have such an adoring fan club."

I glanced across too and somehow or other managed to catch his eye. His eyes lit up and he smiled at me. I blushed bright red and looked away quickly.

I noticed that Faron was looking past my shoulder and I turned that way instead. I wondered who he was looking at for a moment, but then I noticed Jared just picking up his bag and making his way to the exit. Seen much of Jared lately? I asked casually.

Faron snorted, "Huh, No!" he grumbled, I hardly see him at all anymore, since I dropped football.

Well, why don’t you hang out with him after school? I looked at him puzzled. I thought they spent most of their time together when they weren’t here.

He shook his head and sighed. It’s no big deal, Sophie, we’re still mates. It’s all good. He smiled, but his eyes still looked a little sad. I didn’t like seeing him like this. He should be with Jared – and happy…

Chapter 2 – Just my imagination?

Cody

This place was messing with my mind. I’d never felt like this about anyone in my whole existence. No one had ever crept into my thoughts like she did. No one had ever made my heart start to beat faster just from the sight of them. Well, it may well have thumped harder from fear before now, but that wasn’t the same thing. Not the same thing at all…

This was completely different. I was going to make such a dork of myself over this girl, I