"Why didn't you answer yesterday? Did you and... Mr. Weirdo have some private business?"
I rolled my eyes and closed my locker. "I moved out of my house. I got into a fight with my mom because of my behavior and left. I couldn't stand being grounded for the rest of my life."
"Wow. This sounds... intense." She said, widening her eyes and her mouth almost fell open. "And where... where are you staying now?"
I grimaced. "At Caiden's."
"Are you crazy?!" She yelled, making some people turn their heads towards us. She cringed, realizing how loud her voice was. She came closer to me and whispered: "Are you in your right mind?! How can you move to his house after one day of relationship?!"
"I know it's crazy." I said, having a sudden revelation: it was really crazy. If someone told me that a girl moved out of her house because of an argument with her mother and went to her boyfriend's, after one day of relationship, I would've cringed and said 'gosh, this is crazy'. I sighed and shook my head. I couldn't talk myself out of it. "Can't you just trust me?"
She threw her hands in the air and gasped. "Goddamn, Ivy! How can I just trust you? You're nuts! Come to mine if you really don't want to go home!"
I grimaced. I definitely couldn't go to hers. She would've been targeted by the... creatures who came after my family. I wouldn't have put her to such a risk. "I can't. I promised him I will stay with him. But if anything goes wrong, I'll come right away at yours, I swear."
She rolled her eyes. "If anything goes wrong, first call me so I can come over and kill him."
I chuckled. It would've been much more difficult than she thought.
"Hey, ladies."
Gabe came towards us and waved enthusiastically. I forced myself to smile, even though I wasn't in the mood. I could feel my bags under my eyes and how they were getting bigger and bigger. "Well, hello to you to, Ivy's History partner. What was your name?"
I rolled my eyes and Gabe scratched the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. "Gabe."
"What a nice name." She said, smiling at him. "I'm Emily. Nice to meet you." She narrowed her eyes for a second. "You know... you seem kinda familiar. Have we met before?"
Gabe's brows furrowed, a confused expression appearing on his face.
"No from what I remember. Uh... I gotta go now. Our class will start soon. Cya."
We waved back to him and he turned his back and left us. Emily turned her head towards me with an indignant expression on her face and pointed Gabe with her long finger. "Did you see that? I was nice to him but he barely talked with me! Besides, I'm 70% sure I saw him somewhere else!"
I grimaced, squeezing my books. "I think he's just shy. He came to say hi, not to chat with us. And maybe you're really confusing him with someone else."
She shook her head. "No way. Am I intimidating?"
"You're exaggerating. And now we have History. Let's go."
She began whining, a line appearing between her eyebrows. "Don't want to go. Wanna skip it?"
I rolled my eyes and got a grip on her arm. "Young lady, you're coming with me."
She sighed and jerked away from my touch. "Fine. But if your boyfriend tries something I'm killing him!"
I smiled and opened the class's door.
***
"Was Mr. Wilson's class always this boring?" Emily asked me, leaning on the back of her chair.
I sighed, scribbling on my notebook and resting my chin on my palm with my elbow placed on the desk. "Yes, indeed, yes."
Suddenly, a thought came to my mind. If Caiden could turn off the lights with one finger, couldn't he make something so we can skip the class? I knew he would've said no anyway, but it was worth trying. I ripped a piece of paper from my notebook and wrote him a note. I cleared my throat. Emily turned her face towards me, but I gave her a dismissive wave of my hand. She rolled her eyes, turning her back at me. With a sigh, Caiden turned towards me and lifted an eyebrow. "What?"
I put my index onto my lips, telling him to shut up. His brows furrowed. I sighed and gave him the note. With a confused expression on his face, he opened it. "No way." He said, throwing it back at me.
My mouth fell open. "You didn't even read it! It's impossible to..." I gulped. It wasn't impossible for him to read it in a millisecond.
"Guess we're really stuck here, aren't we?" I whispered to myself, resting my face on my notebook.
"Okay, class. Now I want you to work in pairs. You have two weeks to create a project about any topic in the history you want. It can be a poster, a PowerPoint presentation, a poem or even an act! You choose. The teams can be from 2 people to four. Not more, not less. Understood? You can use the rest of the class to discuss a possible topic."
I sighed, relieved. I didn't have to listen to his blabbering for more 30 minutes. I looked at Emily and Caiden, who both turned their heads towards me at almost the same time.
"Tell me we're alone in the team. No offense." She said, smiling at Caiden. He lifted an eyebrow.
"I kind of want to work together with my girlfriend, if you don't mind." His voice was sarcastic and sort of amused.
He really was trying to be friendly. But it wasn't working. Was it, maybe, because of his excessive sarcasm and cynic manner of speech? I had no clue.
Emily rolled her eyes. "Okay fine, do it with her. I'll work with Gabe. Right, Gabe?"
Gabe looked up from his phone to see us three staring at him. He blushed, lowering his eyes again. "I don't mind. It's fine by me anyhow."
"Emily. Stop trying to avoid you know who. I told you he's fine."
She widened her eyes, not believing what I just said. "You do realize that he has two ears and some logic in his brain, right?"
I shrugged. "I don't think he cares."
"I don't." Caiden said, shrugging as well and typing on his phone.
"Really, now. How can you say he's scary? Look at his perfect skin! His face is like a baby's!"
Caiden threw me an annoyed look. Emily clenched her fists, probably wanting to punch me. I sighed. "C'mon, stop it. He's fine. Please? At least for me?"
She gave him a once-over. Caiden was staring at her, probably trying to look more like a puppy and less like a... well, I suppose fox.
Emily sighed. "To be honest, he doesn't look so scary when he talks. Besides, he is not even wearing his glasses now! I'm sorry I had a wrong impression. I should stop judging people by appearance, right?"
I looked at his face and rose my eyebrows. I didn't notice he didn't put on his glasses. I frowned and he gave me a quick look. He probably wanted to tell 'we'll talk later about this'. I sighed.
"It's fine. Indeed, my face looks like I'm always angry. Can't help it." Caiden said and shrugged. He even gave her a smile.
Wow, I was jealous. How could he do that for her and whenever he talked with me he had to roll his eyes and say "human here, human there, human do, human stop"?
Because he needs her, not you. You're just a collateral victim, stupid enough to do what he wants.
Was I?
I didn't know. And, anyway, I couldn't change my situation. I didn't know if those shadow things will come back or not, plus my family lost their memories about me. I had nowhere to go and if I did, I would've hurt the person who might've accepted me. Like Emily.
"Okay, fine, let's decide a topic." I said, trying to make them focus. Caiden threw me an ugly look but I ignored him, looking at Gabe and Emily.
"I have no idea, to be honest. I don't even know what Mr. Wilson talked about until now." Emily confessed, shrugging.
"Same. Too busy with the phone." Gabe said as well and I shook my head.
"I don't even know why I took this class again. Probably I forgot over the summer how much I hated it." I scoffed.
"The topic can be Edo Period. Japan, if you don't know where was it." Caiden saved us.
"Of course you know your origins. We're saved!" Emily said, grinning.
I rolled my eyes and bit my tongue. I had to force myself to not tell her she was a huge hypocrite. She knew nothing about her origins. She told me once her descendants were from Russia and then from Italy. I sighed.
"It's established. We're going to meet at my house tonight at seven o'clock." Caiden said, turning his back at us and staring at his phone.
Emily frowned and looked up at him. "But we still have two weeks 'till the deadline...."
"I might not be here these two weeks and you have no idea what to do about Edo Period. Do you want my help now or never?"
His voice was amused and he turned to look into her eyes with a soft expression. I exhaled sharply and rolled my eyes. I placed my elbow on the desk and rested my chin on my hand. "Jealous?" Gabe asked me, smirking and playing on the phone.
"Actually, yea." I said inclining my head towards him. "He's my boyfriend."
He rose his eyebrows, still watching his screen, focused. "Is he? Did you guys know each other before the school started?"
I grimaced. "...kinda."
He lifted an eyebrow. "I see. Well, that's not strange at all, then." His sarcastic voice told me that he didn't believe me.
I rolled my eyes. "It's not like people go to blind dates and then date for real. It just happens sometimes. You can't control this... type of feelings."
I cringed a bit. I was talking like I really was dating Caiden, even though the truth was completely different. But, anyway, I had to make Emily believe that our relationship was serious, right?
Gabe cursed, throwing his phone on the desk and folded his arms. "Well, yea, but sometimes it's wise to not hurry. Especially if the things seem a bit weird."
I frowned and turned my entire body towards him. "What do you mean? What's weird?"
"You said yourself that he's weird. Remember? The 'nerd scary guy'? Guess you want to forget that, right? Well, whatever."
He seemed upset. I sighed. "Look, I have no idea why you react this way, but I don't want to talk about this anymore."
He tilted his head and bored his eyes into mine. His brown eyes seemed brighter in the soft light dancing on our faces in the class. His expression was weird and made me wince. Suddenly, he threw me a smile and returned to his phone like nothing happened. I blinked twice and shook my head. I was quite sensitive. A weird look thrown at me and I was dead. I had to pull myself together. If supernatural things existed that didn't mean everyone around me was like that. Especially not Gabe. He just didn't seem like one... of them.
I hoped so, at least.
The bell rang and I took my backpack, ready to leave the class.
"We need to talk." Caiden said, looking straight into my eyes. I sighed. Emily threw us a confused look and Caiden stormed out of the class.
"Something wrong?" Emily asked me as I started walking towards the class's door.
"Nah." I said, not even looking at her. I knew it wasn't fair to be mad at her, but I just felt angry for no reason. It happened sometimes. I needed to spend some time alone, to cool off my brain. I sighed and Emily took a few steps and stopped in front of me, making me almost bump into her.
"Something's wrong. Tell me, Ivy! You promised you'll tell me!" She insisted, her blue eyes boring into mine and trying to find out my secrets.
I rolled my eyes. I really wasn't in the mood to be questioned by her. "It's fine, I said. I need to talk with Caiden. See you later."
I passed by her, not allowing her to say anything more. I sighed.
Caiden was waiting for me in front of my locker, leaning his broad shoulders against it. He was looking at the ceiling with a lost expression like he was there just physically. I stopped in front of him and touched the thin line between his eyebrows. His forehead became smooth for a few seconds, but then, when he realized what I did, he frowned. "What are you doing?"
I pressed my finger onto my lips. "Sht. We're a couple, remember?"
He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. His black shirt was exposing his muscles and I gulped, trying to keep my eyes only on his face. "Why did you act like that in the class?"
"Like what?"
"Don't you try playing stupid with me. I told you to be in the mood for chit-chatting. As you can see, I made some progressions. Tonight, I might get it."
I rolled my eyes and imitated his position. "If someone hears you they might think you want something more..."
He rolled his eyes, mocking me. "You know what I want to do. Stop being a jealous girlfriend and try to help me, will you?"
I blushed, flustered by his words. "I'm not a jealous girlfriend! I'm just not feeling well, that's it. And now, excuse me, but I have P.E. Bye."
Without giving him a chance to talk, I pivoted and walked down the hallway, towards the locker room.