“Oh, um, yeah. I have you first hour and seventh hour,” I mutter, remembering that I get at least two long hours with Ari every single day. I was so happy to have time with Ari earlier, but now a sense of dread overwhelms me.
“Hmm,” he pauses pensively. “Well, I’d better be going. See you soon,” he mutters, glancing around the room sneakily before exiting through the courtyard he brought me to yesterday. I frown in his direction as he fades into the shadows like a sketchy spy.
As I watch him leave, a flash illuminates to my left. Startled, I look that way and see a kid is sitting and creating fire two tables down from me. My mouth falls open in awe as I watch him light things and then destroy them.
He’ arranged wooden Popsicle sticks arranged into a house-like structure atop the lunch table. With the snap of his fingers, a small fire erupts Then with another snap, it’s gone. He does this over and over again until there’s just a heap of charred wood in front of him.
“Good job, Martin,” a teacher praises him. The teacher approaches him from behind and pats him on the back for his fire starting. Odd, I’d figure a teacher would be upset for starting a fire inside. “Try making it taller.”
“I don’t know if I can,” the student answers, frowning at the pile on his table. He looks hard at the wood and then snaps, creating a three foot tall flame on top of it.
The teacher claps. “Wonderful, Martin. Simply wonderful!” The teacher is giddy with enthusiasm for the kid. Finally, he snaps again and the large fire is gone. “Keep practicing and you’ll be a star!” the teacher exclaims in leaving.
Martin looks my way, probably feeling my eyes on him, so I quickly look down at my food and pretend to be interested in it. I’ve lost my appetite, so I toss the rest of my cereal. After dumping my food in the trash, I grab my bag and schedule.
I have to walk past Martin to get to class, so with my head down, I practically jog out of the room. “That was cool,” I tell him shyly.
“Thanks.” He nods at me. I hurry out of the building, clutching my backpack to my chest. The wind chill is insane and almost instantly, my face burns with the cold, my eyes watering. I hike up my sweater so it covers my chin and sprint the rest of the way to the hall. Only sprinting is worse because my face feels like it has suffered from windburn. But I got here faster, so I shouldn’t complain.
My classroom is on the bottom floor, so it’s not difficult to find the magic numbers on the door. I end up making it to class with ten minutes to spare, thanks to my super speedy adventure across campus.
I don’t know why I’m feeling so paranoid or this overwhelming need to get to class and be a perfect pupil, but I do. Ari teaches this class, so I make it a point to sit towards the front of the room and off to the side, virtually right where the teacher’s desk is so my eyes can admire him all class long.
Statistics falls under the math category, so I’m a tad nervous. I hate math, but I’m fairly good at it—although high school math was a bit of a joke. I’ve never taken this level of math before, so to pass, I’m going to need to focus, and with Ari being the teacher, I highly doubt that’s going to happen.
The room begins to fill as time painfully ticks by but I keep my head down, not wanting to draw any more attention than necessary. I turn towards the door and peek out from under my wall of chocolate hair, willing Ari to walk through the door soon so at least I feel comfortable in his familiar presence.
But, he doesn’t.
Instead, Lisa and Megan stroll in hand-in-hand with their boyfriends flanking them on either side. I perk up since I recognize their familiar faces, but Lisa’s almightier-than-thou stare shoots me down instantly. Megan waves over towards me, a sorry expression on her face, before she sits on the opposite side of the room with Lisa and their men. Clearly, we all know who holds the reins in that relationship. I turn and rest my head on my palm, waiting for class to start and end already so I can move on to the next.
“Oh hey, it’s the newbie!” Carter, Lisa’s boyfriend, exclaims when he notices me hiding behind a curtain of hair. His spectacle causes those who are in the room to all turn and stare at me. I just look back as Carter gets up from his desk and grabs his bag from the floor. I try not to look as he struts over towards me.
He throws down his bag on the seat behind me and then plops himself down carelessly. He reaches over the front of his desk and wraps an arm around my shoulder, tugging me close. I frown at his forward behavior, but just brush it off, letting him express himself. It’s an awkward, overly friendly hug that I was definitely not prepared for.
If it wasn’t eight in the morning, I’d think he had a tad too much to drink, but it is, so I don’t know what this guy’s up to—maybe he’s just a touchy feely kind of guy. I smile at him, not liking the fact that he’s groping me but liking that he had the balls to say hello—unlike the other people in the group.
“Hey, Ringo.” Lisa’s voice catches me next as she drawls out my “name.” I look behind her and regard the entire group as they pick up their books and move closer to where I’m sitting. I can tell Lisa’s disgusted with me by the turned up position of her nose and the fact that she might as well be wearing rubber gloves as she shoves her dainty hand in my direction.
“It’s Ryder,” I mutter, not wanting to piss her off but wanting her to get my freaking name right. Deep down, I know she messed up my name on purpose. This isn’t my first run in with a bully.
“Right, Ride-her.” She acts like it’s the funniest thing on the face of the earth. The boys chime in laughing when they get the joke, but I can tell it’s not in a malicious way, unlike Lisa. I don’t know what I did to this girl, but she hates me!
“Like I haven’t heard that before.” I wink towards the guys, trying to act like this mean girl doesn’t faze me. When deep down, my reserved anxious tendencies threaten to surface.
I put up with Becca for far too long, and if Lisa thinks I’m going to let it happen again, she’s wrong. I’ve learned from my mistakes—I’m no doormat anymore. I know how to stand up for myself.
“What’s the rest of your schedule like?” Megan breaks the tension, asking from behind Lisa’s big head. I lean over, pulling my schedule out of my pocket and show her my paper. She takes it from my hand, and her eyes flutter between the two pages. “We have next period together!” she exclaims quietly, avoiding a harsh scowl from Lisa.
“Cool. Kara’s in that class also,” I say just as Ari walks into the room, briefcase and all. He drops the black case on his desk in front of me, before returning to the center of the front of the room. I can’t tear my eyes away from his professional-looking body. I swear the room gets silent the second he steps foot in and stays that way until he breaks it. It’s alarming the effect he has on everyone—myself included. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to say something.
“Good morning. Aren’t you all lucky to have stats first hour,” he jokes, collecting a few laughs from his admiring clan of girls sitting front and center. He makes a point to make little eye contact with me, and it’s frustrating beyond belief.
I want to claim him and crush all those little girls’ hearts by making him mine. “We’re going to start with the boring stuff. I’ll pass around an attendance sheet and then give out the books. I could use some help, please.” Ari picks two girls out from the sea of people, one being Lisa who sways her hips, her eyes locked on Ari like a lioness hunting her prey.
I almost get up to give her a piece of my mind, but Ari must feel my anger because he shoots me a stare, silencing me. I frown, crossing my arms and lean back in my seat, pouting. I hate this new Ari who’s all prim and proper and who loves to chastise me. Where’s my motorcycling bad ass at? It’s frustrating being in class with teacher Ari versus my Ari.
I never knew Ari could be boring, but his lecture is anything but entertaining. Staring at his toned body and beautiful face doesn’t even help to make the class go by faster. Instead, I doodle the entire time, willing myself to not pass o
ut from sheer boredom. He finally dismisses us, and I linger to talk to him but so do a bunch of other people. I don’t bother waiting for him once the line in front of him surpasses five people, all girls.
I rush to my second class, knowing that Kara will be there. I really need someone I feel comfortable with around me. I officially hate Lisa and the way she treats me.
First of all, I swear the girl flirted with Ari all class, and it grated on my every nerve. Then she would laugh, only shutting up when I peeked back at her, insinuating that the joke was on me. The girl has a major problem with me for no reason at all, and it’s making me livid.
I spot Kara when I get into the class room and sit directly next to her. Megan takes the seat behind Kara when she gets in the room and it feels like we’re a cute little friend group and for just a single moment, I let myself revel in it.
“Hopefully this class is better than the last,” Megan says to me as I turn around in my seat to face her.
“What did you guys have?” Kara asks us both while she grabs her notebook from her messenger bag on the floor.
“Stats,” I answer.
“With Professor A?” Kara’s eyes dart to me, and I try to play it off like it’s not a big deal.
“Yeah, but I hate math so it was pretty painful at eight a.m.” I laugh it off, but my laugh is forced and painfully awkward.
“I hate math, too! We can die together every first period.” Megan smiles over at me, with a genuine toothy grin. Surprisingly enough, Megan is really nice to me, and it makes me think she’s only timid when Lisa is around.
As we talk, I start to get a feeling that she only hangs out with Lisa because she’s scared of rebelling. Being with her now is like night and day to statistics class where the duo ignored me.
“Welcome class. I’m Professor Lalunis but you can just call me, Miss La. Here’s the agenda for our day…” she trails off, and I can hardly pay attention. I grab my notebook and pen and start copying from the board.
“We should totally have a sleepover,” Kara whispers, leaning into the aisle so both Megan and I can hear. I glance to the front of the room, and Professor Lalunis has her back to the class while she writes down all the books we’re expected to read this semester, so I know the coast is clear.
Miss La is young—she looks to only be a few years older than me, but I know she’s much older by the way she acts and speaks. It’s almost like she’s an old grandma but has been placed in a twenty year old body.
She has light brown hair with inky eyes covered by large glasses straight out of the eighties. She’s wearing a long corduroy dress with an overall top and a long sleeve white turtle neck underneath. It’s not a good look for anyone—grandma or not.
“Yes! In your room. You have the best floor,” Megan hisses, hiding from Miss La behind her bag, which sits on top of her desk in a big, black bundle. I look back and meet her smile to see her genuinely excited to hang out. I smile at her reaction both inside and outside.
“Just us three?” I ask them both to clarify.
“Of course. No boys allowed.”
Oddly enough, I’m eighteen in a few months, and I’ve never felt like a bigger teenager than I do right now. The idea of a sleepover with Kara and Megan is so welcoming that I wouldn’t miss it for anything.
My thoughts unwelcomely drift to middle school when I was best friends with Becca for the remainder of class. I’m reminded of the good times Becca and I had, back when she was a good person and wasn’t harassing or ostracizing me.
We’d have sleepovers all of the time. At both houses, too. We did all the typical things, but back then, we were only thirteen. I missed my shot at having high school sleepovers, and I realize now that I regret that.
I’m glad that DGA is a new chance for me to live a normal life—well a normal Nephilim life. Kara is exactly what I need in my life. I don’t realize I’ve been daydreaming long, but when I look up, everyone is leaving class in a hurry.
After saying a quick goodbye to Megan and Kara, I speed walk to biology and sit in the center of the room. The class is in a completely different hall than my others ones, so I have to go outside to get to this hall. From all my running around, I’m heated up even though the sun has barely shown to heat the earth today.
The classroom is full when I get in, so a few eyes wander my way but the majority of the students look very academic, so they don’t stare at me long. It’s oddly nice being in a class with all the nerds. With my head down, I find a seat near the door and stare at the blackboard, not wanting to be seen.
Professor Elytis introduces himself, and immediately, I get a positive vibe from him. We get the syllabus, and I read through it quickly, noticing we have a few dissections to do during the semester. I dread it, but I know I don’t have a choice, so I just suck it up and shove it into the back of my mind so I don’t think of it right now.
God, I hope I don’t barf on these people.
“We’ll be sitting in pairs at the lab tables in the back from now on so find a seat and whoever sits next to you will be your lab partner for the semester.” Professor Elytis’ speech garners a few groans from some students in the back of the room.
I pick up my backpack and walk to the back of the room without a single objection. Finding an empty table, I sit myself down and wait for someone to come to me. After a few seconds, a tall guy with a long, green bean frame walks towards me. I recognize him from this morning. Fire guy.
“Hey,” I mutter, shrugging my shoulder.
“Mind if I sit?” he asks, waiting for me to give him the okay. I nod, so he sits on the stool next to me, dropping his neon green bag to the floor. “I’m Martin.” He offers me his hand.
“Ryder,” I say as I take it, giving him a shake.
“You’re new, right?” he asks, as all the other students still try to find a partner.
“Yeah. First day, can you tell?” I try to joke with him.
“Kind of. You give off that whole leave-me-alone-or-I’ll-stab-you kind of vibe.”
“What?” I ask, astonished. “I do not. I’m so nice!” I tell him, hoping that I’m giving off a better vibe than that. Martin laughs at me, deep and throaty, a real laugh.
“Relax.” He holds his hands up, trying to contain himself. “I was joking. You don’t look like a stabber.” He winks.
“I’m starting to second guess our lab partner arrangement.” I tell him, my face dead serious.
“Wait, really?” He double takes, his face falling.
“Now, we’re even.” I smile, widely.
“Okay…” he mutters, nodding his head up and down. “This will definitely be an interesting semester.” Professor Elytis begins class, talking about random stuff I really don’t understand. Most of the students take notes, but I can’t understand what the teacher is saying, let alone try to spell it.
After an hour and a half, we’re dismissed, and I pause to say goodbye to Martin before I leave. “Later, fire guy.”
“Bye, stab girl.”
Laughing, I head to Mythology alone.
After an uneventful yet interesting Mythology class, I realize that I have no idea who is in my lunch period or what even goes on during lunch. Each class is an hour long but then it just says lunch on my paper schedule. I’m confused whether everyone is at lunch at the same time or if there are shifts. I don’t have a choice thanks to my rumbling stomach, so I trek to the student center smack dab in the middle of campus.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I head into the large circular room dreading all of the leering eyes. I gain a boost of confidence when most eyes stay locked on their friends and away from me, so I beeline for the lunch line, wanting to get in and out as fast as possible.
Of course it doesn’t go smoothly when Kara snatches my arm, linking hers in mine and tugs me towards her table after I buy my lunch. I scowl at her but she laughs, talking my ear off about some hot new guy in her classes. She drones on and on, only stopping when we reach the large table. A
t least I’m not the latest gossip anymore. New hot guy overpowers quiet new girl.
Glancing around, there are some new faces that I don’t recognize at the table, but the majority of students are the same group from dinner last night. A bright red haired girl with freckles, an Asian-looking girl, and a group of guys are all new at our table, so I smile at them as they all introduce themselves to me. I don’t catch a single name, but I nod my head, pretending to tune in while I’m really a human zombie.
“Helllloooo?” Kara shakes her perfectly manicured hand in front of my face, reaping my full attention. “Are you listening at all, girl?” Who knows how long she was trying to get my attention.
“Sorry, tuned out.” I smile over at her, acting like I’m fatigued as I rub my eyes which really are sleepy. It’s not a complete lie. I had trouble sleeping last night, and Kara’s light snoring didn’t help rock me to sleep at all.
“What’s your favorite kind of pizza?” Kara asks for the second, possibly third, time. She has a hint of annoyance on her face, but it fades away quickly. I can tell she bounces back like a pro.
“I like margarita.” I jerk my shoulders at her odd question. I don’t want to tell her that I will eat anything and sound like a pig, so I just come up with a random pizza type. Truth is, I like them all since we ordered in almost every night at home.
“Me too!” Megan squeals, clapping her hands together. Her glasses slide down her nose, and she pushes them back up the bridge of her nose like a librarian. She giggles again, and it’s the cutest thing ever. She’s like a little girl in an ice cream parlor.
“We’re getting salad pizza. It’s healthier,” Lisa chimes in, apparently inviting herself into the conversation and possibly our sleep over. My eyes enlarge in horror, and I glance over at Kara, who wiggles her shoulders not caring either way. Megan just nods slightly, not wanting to go against Lisa, so I know no matter how big of a fit I throw, Lisa’s coming. I went from excited to downright dreading this slumber party.
The Curse of Betrayal Page 3
