The calling of her name made her feel like she should run toward the loo. Maybe she would have if she thought that the door that stated that it was the girl’s would have stopped the pale haired boy who was following her. Hadley pulled her hands from her face, ended her constant reminder of how absolutely mad she’d been to even mention why everyone was laughing, and straightened her shoulders. Though she wasn’t exactly primed to look him in the eye, she sort of looked past him and at the corner of the wall while Tucker’s twin spoke.

“What’s the deal? I mean, I was just kidding, right? You knew that. I mean, what else was I supposed to say?”

She didn’t know what he was supposed to say. So she didn’t have an answer for that. She tried to remember back to what she’d said, and remembered that she’d said the words ‘soul mate’ and Hadley didn’t actually mean that Joel was hers. She’d just meant that having their numbers match was like that. Like finding your soul mate, not actually being one. Hadley wasn’t so sure that Joel could be, she was fairly certain she’d watched enough movies to know that when you were confronted with the person who was supposed to be…well…that, that some bells would chime, or there was supposed to be a dizzy feeling that accompanied trumpets sounding…maybe even lightning racing across the sky and thunder booming somewhere far, far away. Only, when she looked at Joel’s face now she didn’t feel dizzy, she felt childish and silly, and there was no thunder, outside the castle walls was a lovely, mild if wet winter day in Scotland.

“No, I know.” Hadley told him, because she did know how it sounded. But she had been sort of pleased when they had matched up, she couldn’t deny that. Only the moment in her mind of Joel knowing and this one were so far and away from the fantasy she’d had that it was almost too much of a letdown.

“I didn’t mean that we were…that was stupid, I don’t think you are. I explained it badly.” Her explanation was ended on a mumble of discomfort, and one of her shoes hooked behind her ankle to dig into the stone at her feet.

“Just look, go back to class, okay? I didn’t run out because of you.” She lied, right through her teeth and she didn’t even bat one long, white eyelash over it either. Hadley attempted a pained smile, though and looked back over her shoulder and then toward Joel. She sort of hoped that he would assume that she actually was going to the loo without having to say that out loud. The last thing she needed Joel to think was that she was on the verge of wetting her knickers while they talked. She didn’t know what would be worse the fact that he’d asked her to pick out a ring after laughing at her, or that he could possibly know that girls used the facilities on a regular basis. Even if she didn’t have to, and she had in fact left because of him.

"It was stupid." Hadley stated again, just for the record, before starting a few steps backward, just to be sure that Joel wasn’t following her. Keeping her eyes on him, though she did bite at her lip just to keep from saying anything more embarrassing and gave him a shrug as if that answered the rest of the questions he’d asked before turning her back. She could only hope that didn't follow and when she returned, there would be hardly any time left in charms, and that Joel would be distracted by more trouble and wouldn’t want to chat.