Light in the Dark

Chapter Four

     The bell for lunch echoed throughout the school, I packed up my belongings and exited the library. It was the last day of the school week and it was about time I braved the lunchroom, couldn't hide in the library all my life. I went into the strangely tinted room and gazed at all the tables, praying to find Darik or Ava or even Michael, just someone familiar.

"So you've finally come out to join the living, huh?" Michael commented from behind me. I jumped a little in surprise then turned towards him.

"Yeah, I thought it'd be worth a shot," I responded with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well congratulations for taking a big step! You want to sit with me and my friends?" he offered. My first instinct was to reject his offer and scurry back to the library but I wouldn't do that. I needed to get back into my social groove.

"Yeah, sure sounds great." I followed him to the Grey room and sat down at a table with a bunch of guys and a few girls. I could only assume that the girls sitting at the table were the girlfriends or the kind of girls who were 'one of the guys'.

"Hey, guys this is Mariah, she's in my alg. class," Micheal, introduced. A few of the boys stopped chewing or talking, turned to me and smiled then introduced themselves.

     Back at my old high school, I had been pretty popular - not cheerleader status. I would usually sit with the jocks or cheerleaders because Kevin was the linebacker for our high school team so his friends were my friends. Lunch went on and the guys would talk about football and when they weren't talking about football it was a video they saw on the internet. None of the girls tried talking to me, wouldn't even look at me. It made me wonder if they were friends with Charlotte, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. In the midst of all that, I had the nagging feeling to leave and find Ava and Darik but didn't know where to look so I stayed put.

     The bell rang for our next class so Michael and I walked together. The whole time he asked me questions about what kind of sports I liked, if I even liked sports, what things I was into and all that jazz. Most of the responses were either that he liked something or he had no idea what I had just said. In math we sat next to each other and took notes, did problems and turned in homework. Afterwards, he had offered to walk me to the gym, but I declined. Mostly because I could use a break from all his talking and just be alone for a minute but he had insisted and said he needed to talk to Coach R anyway. I couldn't refuse after that so my alone time had disappeared.

     When I finally got to gym class I didn't wait for Michael to tell me goodbye, I went straight into the locker room to change into my sweats and t-shirt. Coming out, I saw Darik stretching a bit. I walked over to him and greeted him with a simple 'hello'.

"Your boyfriend seemed disappointed when he left," he commented dryly.

"Michael's not my boyfriend, we've only known each other for a week. Plus I don't think he'll ever be my boyfriend so it doesn't matter if he seemed disappointed," I retorted, a bit defensive.

"Does he know that you feel this way?" he inquired - still stretching. I joined him with my own stretches before answering.

"My, my we are curious today aren't we?" I responded with a sly smile.

"I just don't think it's right to lead someone on, is all," he came back at me.

"I'm not leading anyone on," I corrected resentfully. "We're in the same math class and we sit next to each other, chill out." Before Darik had a chance to say anything else Mr. Ramirez took roll and informed us that we would be running the mile. Groans went through the gym including my own.