"Thank you very much, Professor," Thomas said with a smile.

The professor waved him away, and Thomas crossed the classroom and sat down next to me.

"What do you think you’re doing?" I snarled.

Thomas smiled at me. "I heard you're watching a video on the Aztecs and asked if I could sit in."

"What about your class?" He was actually skipping class to keep an eye on me. I was getting more than a little creeped out.

He shrugged. "I'd rather watch this."

I knew my mouth hung open, but I didn’t really care. He pulled out a notebook without another word and adjusted himself so that he could see the TV. I spent more of the class glaring at him than I did watching the video. He looked a lot different in the light than he had last night. His eyes were somewhere between gray and green, but the color was muted, almost dull. His skin was a bit pallid, like he didn't get out much, and I hoped he planned on using sunscreen when we got to the equator. Now that it was dry, I could see that his hair was almost as light brown as mine and, without the rain matting it down, it was a totally different style, not at all emo like I had thought. His bangs fell almost neatly across his forehead, not quite long enough to be in his eyes, and it was slightly longer in back. I hated to admit it, but once I could see him in better light he was cute. Really cute, actually. If he put on a little more weight and got a light tan he'd be really handsome. But, I reminded myself, he was here basically spying on me, which made him about as unattractive as a guy could be.

"Can I get a real answer?" I asked when class ended.

"Of course," Thomas said, as if he actually intended to give me one.

"Are you going to follow me to my next class?" It wasn’t the question I wanted to ask, but I wanted to make sure he was capable of answers.

"Sure, I don’t mind walking with you to class."

I glared.

"Here, I’ve got that." He scooped my books from my hands before I could protest and started walking.

"What were you doing in my class?"

"Watching a video. I told you that."

I sighed, then sighed again, when he turned down the hall to my next class without stopping to ask me where it was.

"Look, I know you’re following me around to make sure I don’t tell people about last night, but this is weird enough as it is. You can at least tell me how you know my schedule."

Thomas shrugged. "Mariana’s a work-study student. She helps out at the Student Life desk, so she has some extra computer access."

I almost stopped short. "And she what? Looked up my class schedule?"

"Exactly."

For some reason, confirmation that they had put extra effort into monitoring me was even more unsettling than the paranoia that they might have. Thomas stopped without prompting in front of my Spanish classroom and handed my books back.

"Enjoy class. Adios." Without another word, he turned and headed back the way we had come.

I walked in and sat down, dropping my books heavily on a table. "Well, I’d say this is a pleasant surprise, but it isn't a surprise, and it's not at all pleasant. What’s your story? Flunk out of your Spanish class?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Dani chuckled. "I was feeling seasick this morning and missed mine. Your teacher is kindly letting me make it up this period."

"How generoso of her," I said dryly. I didn't even bother asking Dani why he was skipping his other class. "And why do I get the feeling that you don't get seasick?

Dani looked a bit nervous, and quickly covered it with a grin. Interesting. "We should get started before the teacher yells at us for speaking English. Como estás?"

"Malo."

"Aww, por qué?"

"Por qué do you think?"

Dani smirked.

When class ended, I gathered my books and left the room. Dani followed wordlessly.

"How do you say creepy stalker in Spanish?" I asked.

"Yo no se," Dani said.

We headed aft toward the staircase to Deck Seven and spotted TS going down it.

"Have you seen that?" he asked, pointing to the wall behind him. The walls on every landing between decks were plated with glass and had a different poem painted on them. I had stopped to read them all; they were pretty neat. One side was written in English and the other looked like the Greek alphabet.

"Yeah," I said. "Ocean-y poems."

"Glanced at it," Dani said.

TS grinned and once again, the tip of his tongue stuck out. I couldn't decide if it was almost cute in a weird, funny way, or just weird. "Better read it again."

Dani frowned and hurried up the first half of the stairs to the landing. I followed and stood next to him as he read it.

"What?" he suddenly yelled. He looked back and forth from the English side to the Greek side. "Why would you do that?"

TS started laughing, and his tongue lolled out a bit more.

"Seriously," Dani said. "That ruins the entire verse!" He glared at the wall. "What kind of an idiot translated this?"

"I'm so glad I'm here for this," TS laughed.

Dani turned and said something to him in another language. TS chuckled and replied. Whatever he said made Dani roll his eyes and start up the second flight of stairs.

"Cheers," TS laughed. "Bye, Jen," he added to me as he headed back down the other steps.

Curious, I hurried after Dani. "Do you speak Greek?" I asked when I caught up.

"Yeah."

I looked at his dark hair and tan skin with a fresh perspective. "Are you from Greece?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Oh. You don't have an accent."

Dani shrugged. "I moved to the states a long time ago."

He pushed open the door to the Deck Seven exterior deck, and we went outside. It was still raining, so I ordered hot chocolate and settled into a chair. Dani went out from under the overhang that covered half of the deck, but stayed near me. He dropped his elbows onto the railing and looked out over the water, ignoring the light rain. After a minute, he closed his eyes and raised his head, letting the rain splash onto his face. He looked oddly content.

"Aren’t you cold?" Seeing him getting rained on in just a t-shirt made me shiver.

Dani shook his head. I sipped my hot chocolate and thought about the night before. I never really had a wild imagination and was starting to wish that I did. Judging from their behavior today, I clearly witnessed something important and secret, but couldn’t begin to imagine it. Even though he obviously had gone overboard, I still couldn't figure out how he could possibly have gotten back on the ship.

"Did it hurt?"

"Did what hurt?" Dani asked, looking at me in surprise.

"When you hit the water."

Dani looked at me critically, as if wondering how much to really tell me. His eyes looked a lot lighter and grayer than their usual cheery blue. I would have thought it was just an optical illusion from the gray sky, but I noticed that flecks of grays and blues seemed to move in his eyes, almost like gentle waves.

"Yeah," he said finally and shrugged. "Didn’t kill me though, so no worries there."

"No. Falling off of a ship didn’t kill you."

Dani rolled his eyes. "Just forget it. Really."

I didn’t stay on the deck as long as I usually did. Dani followed me back to my room, and I stopped outside of it.

"I’m not going to tell anyone from inside my room," I said. "Laurie isn't even here. Besides, I’m not planning on telling anyone anyway. But, you know, the more you guys follow me around the more curious you’re going to make me."

He hummed under his breath. It looked like he was annoyed, but the hum was oddly lyrical. Bits of darker blue in his eyes swirled with the lighter blue. I didn't care that it wasn't physically possible; his irises were actually moving. "See you at dinner, then," he said, before heading back down the hall. I stared after him for a moment. I'd never seen anybody with eyes that did that. No, I realized; I had. Charlie's eyes were weird too.

I slammed my door behind me; at last, I was free. At least until they forcibly joined me for dinner. But my freedom didn’t last. I growled when someone knocked on the door just a few minutes later. I opened it and was disappointed, but not surprised, to see Thomas.