CHAPTER 9
In Which the Consequences of Lunching With a Light Bearer Make Themselves Apparent
EVAN. BEFORE FIFTH PERIOD.
Evan was by himself again for Freshfolk Fredonian Common-tongue. Ryan and Angie had coordinated their schedule selection pretty closely and had managed to get most of their classes together. Evan had tried for a lot of the same classes too, but he’d forgotten to submit his picks for a week after they had turned theirs in, and so hadn’t gotten into all the same classes as them. And Ryan hadn’t been willing to bail him out, the jag.
This was fine. When Evan was by himself in a class, he just sat in the back, did his work, and kept his head down.
After parting ways with Ryan and Angie, Evan wasted no time getting to the Common-tongue classroom. As a result, he was one of the first people there, so sitting in the back was no problem. He got his (currently empty) Common binder out of his bag along with a pencil, settled in, and tried to think about anything other than his complicated feelings about lunch as he watched his classmates trickle in.
Until two girls and a boy walked in. Not anyone he knew—they’d definitely not gone to Asphodel. But when they looked around the room, their eyes widened when they reached him, and one of the girls looked at the other and whispered something excitedly. Evan felt himself tense up as they started walking toward the back of the room, and him. The girls were looking at each other as they continued whispering something, but the boy behind them was unashamedly staring at Evan. Evan tried not to meet his eyes, watching the three of them out of the corner of his eyes as he attempted to look like he wasn’t paying attention to them.
He didn’t have a choice about paying attention when they all sat down around him—one girl to his left, with the aisle between them, the boy in front of her, and the other girl right in front of Evan. She wasted no time, turning around and addressing him directly. “Hey! So we saw you eating with the new Light Bearer today!” The others were nodding.
Evan stared at her, taken aback at her directness. At least it wasn’t about the Exile. She had olive toned skin, with dark eyes and dark brown hair, a broad nose and a broad chin and a small mouth with braces. “I’m Sam Manoogian,” she went on, lifting one hand and placing two fingers on her sternum. Then she pointed at the other two. “They’re Vicky Hooks and Jack Riddlesworth.”
“Jonathan Riddlesworth, actually,” the boy said. He was shorter and stockier than Evan, with darker brown hair, ruddier skin, and bluer eyes. “But I go by Jack.”
“Okay, fifties sitcom dad,” Evan said, and immediately regretted it.
Thankfully though, they all laughed. Sam, still laughing, said, “That was funny!”
Jack scratched the back of his head, chuckling. “Yeah, it’s a little old fashioned, I guess.”
“We’re from Arcadia,” the other girl, Vicky, said, referring to Arcadia Middle School. She had dyed dark hair shot through with blonde highlights, with broad cheekbones and wide set eyes of some middling shade of brown.
There was an expectant pause, and Evan realized it was time to introduce himself. “Um, I’m Evan Cadell.” They said what school they’re from. He probably should too. “Went to Asphodel.”
“With the Bakilis,” Jack said.
Nodding, Vicky said, “And Megan O’Sadie.”
“Uh, yeah. I guess,” Evan replied. The Bakilis made sense, but why did they know who Megan was?
“So how’d you end up eating with Megan and the Light Bearer? His name’s Chris, right?” Sam asked, with an expression of intense interest. As she spoke, a woman who was clearly the teacher, with brown skin and dark hair, entered the room.
“Um. Megan use—Megan’s a friend, and I guess they met this morning and…”
“Something weird happened!” Vicky said excitedly. “I told you Sam, when I was late to third period, I saw something happen between those—” At this point, she was cut off by the second bell, indicating the start of class. “Two,” Vicky finished.
“Well, nice to meet you, Evan,” Sam whispered, directing a sincere seeming warm smile at him as the teacher started speaking. Then she turned to pay attention.
ANGIE. BEFORE FIFTH PERIOD.
When Lauren came in, Angie and Ryan had already settled in on the far side of their History classroom. Angie sat behind Ryan—she liked to lightly poke his back with her pencil. It would make him shiver sometimes, which she enjoyed.
Angie had never had a class with Lauren, but she’d heard enough talk and witnessed it herself at lunch often enough to know that Lauren always entered a room or area the same way. She would sweep her gaze over the room, evaluating and rendering judgment on each person and thing in it, allowing her to decide what, if anything, was worthy of her attention.
Lauren did not sweep her eyes across the room when she came into History. Instead she seemed dazed, barely even paying attention to where she was going. Nisha was more or less leading her, guiding her gently to the column of desks closest to the door, near the back. Nisha glanced at Angie and Ryan, then looked away with a flushed face and a look of shame.
A minute or so later, Katie Kay skulked in. She snaked across the front of the room, keeping her distance from Lauren, and took a seat near the front. When she saw Angie and Ryan while taking her seat, Katie glowered at them.
Angie smiled back at them both in turn with slightly smug good cheer.
MEGAN. FIFTH PERIOD.
Megan’s Life Science teacher, Mst. Levi, was going through a pretty bog standard class introduction, so she was having a hard time keeping her mind from drifting back to Chris. With a start, she realized she hadn’t given Angie and the boys his commcode yet. Without really thinking, she pulled her phone out of her bag and started to do so.
“Mst. O’Sadie,” Mr. Levi said. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
Megan froze. Almost instantly, her face was flaming, as she slowly looked up at Mst. Levi, who was standing only a few feet away from her. Holding out his hand. He was in his fifties or sixties, with short dark gray hair, a receding hairline, and a large, severe nose. While he did not look amused, he did look genuinely curious.
“I needed to send someone’s code to someone else?” she said, her voice squeaky. “I didn’t want to forget again, and I’m used to it being summer, when I could pull my phone out whenever I wanted? I wasn’t thinking, I’m so sorry.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Mr. Levi released a small sigh. “Clearly. I’m afraid you need to hand it over. You can pick it up from the office after school.”
The whole class was watching, and Megan’s face was going to catch her hair on fire. She looked at his hand and her phone in dismay. “Can… can I finish?” she asked, without much hope.
That almost seemed to amuse him. “Are the people you’re sending this code by chance also in class right now?”
“Um. Yes?” Megan said in a very small voice.
“I should think not, then,” Mr. Levi said. He sighed again, shaking his head. “If you want, write the code down quickly. If you see their intended recipients before the end of the day you can deliver them that way.”
Realizing that she had class with Chris the next period, Megan jotted down Angie, Ryan, and Evan’s codes super quick instead, her face still burning as the class waited on her. Then she handed her phone over to the teacher.
“Thank you. I hope you’ve learned your lesson. I’d appreciate it if you could avoid interrupting my class again like this in the future,” he said.
“You don’t have to worry, ser,” Megan said, her voice still very small. She hadn’t been this mortified in a long time.
EVAN. END OF FIFTH PERIOD.
Once the bells finished ringing, Sam turned around and said, “Hey Evan, what class you got next?”
Evan froze for a half-second, taken off-guard, then said, “Uh, Japanese One.”
“Cool!” Sam said with a wide smile, revealing her small white teeth and her braces. “Vicky and I have Quechua One next. We can hang out until our classes start!”
“G-great,” Evan said as he started putting away his notebook and new textbook. He didn’t quite know how to feel about this. Sure, Sam was kind of cute, but nothing like this had ever happened in middle school. He wasn’t sure how to approach the situation. And he rather suspected he was just going to be asked about Gramyre, if not the Exile.
“I’ve got Algebra One,” Jack said, his expression glum as he too packed up.
Evan finished collecting his stuff, and stood and started heading toward the door. “Um, I kind of want to go put this textbook away, actually,” he said as Vicky and Sam scrambled to catch up with him.
“Oh, really? Freshfolk lockers’re on the other side of campus,” Sam said, a small frown creasing her brow, finishing zipping up her bag as she followed in Evan’s wake. “You’ll be late to class. Your bag still has some room in it.”
“I’ll be fine, I walk fast,” Evan said.
“Okay, well, you were saying about Chris? Something happened with him and Megan?” Sam replied, keeping pace with Evan as he headed toward the stairs, a hopeful note in her voice. To start heading down the stairs, Evan had to turn such that he was able to note Jack and Vicky trailing behind them in his peripheral vision.
“Yup,” Evan agreed. “Sure did. So that’s why they sat with us. Chris seems like a nice guy,” Evan said, his footsteps faint rapid staccato as he descended the stairs.
“Slow down a little,” Sam said, a few steps behind and above him. “What’s he like, though? Did he tell any good stories?”
Evan hit the bottom of the stairs and spun around, letting his face go full Exile. Sam shrank back, her eyes going wide. “Sam, I am not interested in talking about Gramyre with you. He’s very friendly. He wants to learn everyone’s name by Spirit’s Feast. I’m sure if you wanted to ask him about himself he’d be happy to talk to you.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Sam said in a small, frightened voice, “Um, see you later. Tomorrow, at least.”
“Sure, see you tomorrow,” Evan said coldly before turning to walk to and through the doors outside. As he did, he heard a girl ask Sam, “Do you guys even know who he is?” before the door swung shut.
Then he was off on one of the paths that looped around the central tower. The Freshman locker hall was in the Math and Science building, on the opposite side of the campus. The buildings formed a sort of simple infinity symbol when viewed on a map, with the tower at the intersection of the two loops, the Language and Arts building on the far end of the west loop, the Math and Science building on the far end of the east one, the Administration and Gym buildings on the north ends of each loop, and the Vocational and Social Studies buildings on the south ends of each loop.
Evan was annoyed. He’d had one lunch with Gramyre. He didn’t know what the hell Sam wanted him to tell her about the guy. She clearly had no problem just up and talking to someone she’d never met. She should just talk to Gramyre directly.
RYAN. BEGINNING OF SIXTH PERIOD.
Ryan waited for Evan in the Japanese classroom. He and Angie had made their way over from the Social Studies building. She had Fine Arts, which he hadn’t been interested in, and he had Japanese with Evan, and those were conveniently in the same building. But they’d split up and gone to their classrooms early for good seating, as was their wont, and Ryan had assumed Evan would already be there. But he hadn’t been.
Evan finally burst into the room maybe a minute before the bell was going to ring. “Hey, you get lost or what?” Ryan said as Evan passed to sit down behind him, not bothering to hide his annoyance.
“I went and put my Common book away,” Evan said, perfectly reasonably.
“By the Powers Above, why?” Ryan said as he turned to look at Evan, incredulous. “That’s on the opposite side of campus.” He wasn’t out of breath at all, the in-shape jerk.
“I’m fully aware of that, I just walked it,” Evan said, a little testily. “Because this girl Sam from Arcadia wanted me to give her a PowerPresent on Gramyre,” he went on, sounding annoyed. “And she had a Quechua class next, so she was also just going to be hanging out in this building.”
“Ah,” Ryan said, grinning, as the bell rang. “Yeah, we’re gonna get some of that now.”
Then their teacher, a thirties-something man with a trendy haircut named Akio Rojo, started speaking, and they had to shut it.
MEGAN. ALSO THE BEGINNING OF SIXTH PERIOD.
“Hey,” Chris said, walking up to Megan looking mildly concerned, after walking into the algebra classroom a few minutes before the bell. “You okay?” Megan had started blushing the moment he’d come into the room.
Megan hated her stupid face. “Well,” she said, squeaking despite herself, “I may have gotten my phone taken away trying to send your code to Angie and them in the middle of Life Science.”
Chris regarded her for a long moment, his face totally straight. He sat down in the seat in front of her, and then he burst out laughing. “I’m so sorry,” he said after a moment, sincerity in his voice, somehow, despite the fact he was actively laughing at her. “I’m so sorry! It’s just really funny! You’re so embarrassed over such a little thing. It’s adorable! That was a pretty silly thing you did, but I’ve done some way dumber stuff in class than that before, girl.”
Megan stared at him, then started giggling a little herself. His laugh was infectious. “Um, the teacher let me write down their codes.” She held out the folded piece of paper she’d be clutching.
“Hey!” Chris said, leaning forward. “That was pretty decent of him, eh?” He reached out and took the paper from her, and his fingers, large and warm, brushed up against hers as he did so. It was a good thing she was already blushing. He pulled out his phone and started entering the numbers.
“Yes, it was,” she said, her voice small. She paused for a moment, then said, “You’ll have to tell me what dumb things you’ve done sometime.”
He scratched at an ear, then said, “Do I have to? You’re not the only one capable of getting embarrassed, you know.”
“It’s not a very comforting statement if you can’t back it up,” she said, scrunching her nose at him.
“Well, that’s fair,” Chris replied, grinning at her. The bells rang as he did so. “Saved by the bell though. I’ll have to tell you later.”
“Bleh,” Megan said. “Bleh to you.” His grin got a bit wider, and he winked at her before turning to face the teacher, leaving her a steaming mess.