The girl stiffened when conversation stopped again as everyone realized this as well.
“Atalanta North,” she whispered just loud enough for us to hear.
“Atalanta! Like the greek hero who slew the caledonian boar! Okay then, Miss North. You may call me Dr. Kline, or Mr. K if that’s easier. I’m also noticing we don’t have enough desks. Jason, go get one for our new student from storage, please.”
I rolled my eyes and walked to the front. “There are other students, you know.”
“Yes, but you're our best errand boy,” He smiled back, his retort double sided.
I shoved down the argument that bubbled up in my throat. It wasn’t worth it. Grabbing the hall pass lanyard off the door hook, I began to shuffle out of the room when I was stopped by the sound of a small voice.
“Here, let me help you,”
I looked back to see our new student walking towards me. I was a little touched, but I shook my head anyway.
“It’s alright, I got it.” I declined with a shake of my head before leaving to go get a desk and chair.
When I got back, I found half of the small class, including Margo, circled around Atalanta as she sat awkwardly at what was once my desk and tried to answer the hundred and six questions that were being thrown at her.
The little minx hadn’t had the decency to wait until I brought her back a chair?
Blowing a frustrated raspberry, I placed the desk and chair down near the front of the classroom against the wall and flopped into it. For a while I sat silently, scrolling through my phone, listening to the students ask her question after question. But it was obvious to me that she was uncomfortable with all of the questions. No sense in trying to stop the curious students though, they would ask these questions eventually anyway.
Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my bottle and took in a long swig of the briny fluid.
With another glance at the new girl before leaning back to close my eyes, I noticed she was staring directly at me, that shy shadow in her eyes being pushed back by the spark of curiosity.
I smiled and held the bottle up to her in salute.
The little annoyed scowl she got on her face was really adorable and I had the urge to poke fun at her till she was steaming from the ears. Though I also had a flash in my mind of scooping her up into my arms and kissing away her anger.
I shook my head to clear the image from my mind.
I tried to remind myself that she was human, therefore off limits to me. Besides, another image of a certain librarian popped into my head. I didn’t really need to be developing another crush I shouldn’t be having.
Chapter Five
Atalanta
“So, what’s it like to live in a city? Is it as noisy as people say?”
I nodded and continued to stare down at the next question on the packet. “Yeah, it can be pretty noisy.”
Who were the main characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby? That was easy.
I scribbled down the answer before one of the other students shot out the next question.
“And then you moved to Forks?”
“Yep.”
Please, please, please. Stop asking questions. It was probably the only thing I hated about small towns; people always noticed the new kid and they always asked far too many questions. I tried to grin and bear it, but every time I was surrounded by all these kids throwing questions at me left and right, I was glad to be well rehearsed by now. There was no point in lying about where we had been, but I was not going to divulge the reason we had left. But this was my fourth class today, and I was starting to sound like a broken record.
At least they weren’t asking anything super personal. Dad had only just given me the new packet this morning to study, and I honestly didn't know much about Atalanta North beyond her being born in Michigan on November 9th. And I think she liked horses.
“So why did your family leave? It’s only like an hour away.”
I turned my face down in an attempt at melancholy. “My dad moves around a lot for work and he’s pretty superstitious. So when he heard that the town was being overrun by vampires, he packed us right up.”
That shut them right up for a solid minute before I started laughing to break the tension and apologized for the joke. They awkwardly laughed it off but I got my wish and the questions died down after that. People shied away from awkward and weird. Though, I did mentally scold myself as being considered the weird girl wasn’t a very good way to blend in. I was just really tired of the questions.
I shot another look over to the guy, Jason, I had heard Mr. K call him. There had to be something in the water in this town because between him, the librarian, and the English teacher, there was far too much good-looking for one space. All of them belonged on a cover of GQ somewhere. Though, I’d say the teacher was a bit more Cal's type than my own. He had too much of that prince charming thing going on, with the odd mix of decorum and familiarity with an accent I couldn’t decipher.
Jason, on the other hand, who seemed to be a bit of a goof ball, was more my speed, if you could look past all that perfection: a bit on the jock side with his square jaw, bulky frame from probably hours of workouts, and close mousy brown hair cut. Then if I heard him correctly earlier, he was actually the student council president and if I had to take a guess, I bet he was on some sort of sports team as well. I could not handle that much perfect in one place.
There was something fishy going on here, and it definitely had something to do with that water bottle.
It hadn’t passed my notice that half the student body and some of the staff I had seen today happened to carry around these giant jugs of water. At first I just thought the water fountains here were something to be feared. That was, until I had come out of the bathroom to see Mr. Perfect over there dumping a freaking cup of salt into his bottle.
And there he was mocking me with it.
“Hey, are you already crushing on my homeboy Jason?”
I jumped a little and turned to the seat next to me to see the girl Jason had been talking to when I had walked into class. She was sweet looking, with brownish red curls and adorable freckles running across her nose.
“Uhh, no?”
She smiled. “It’s just that you keep staring at him. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Most of the girls do. But I just wanted to give you a heads up that you’ll have half his fan club on your butt if you go after him.”
I shook my head frantically. “No, no, I’m not crushing. He’s not my type.”
“Hot blooded males aren’t your type? Then I guess you're more of the sweet guy kind of girl? You're right, though. I shouldn’t assume,” She leaned in close to me and very loudly whispered, “Are you lesbian?”
Like a bloody fish out of water I just gasped at her, opening and closing my mouth with absolutely nothing to say to that. When my eyes naturally darted around, looking for some sort of help or an answer, I realized that the class what staring at me. Including Jason.
In the panic of the spotlight I just spouted the first thing that came to mind. “No, I’m strictly dickly!”
I personally wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there for the rest of eternity, but everyone else found it hilarious as they burst into laughter.
“Saved by the bell,” I muttered as all the students started getting up and shuffling out of the classroom at the sound of the chime.