Andromeda

Chapter Four

Several weeks had gone by since the first day of the new school year in Meadowvale, and Anna believed she was settling in well. Much of the stress and anxiety she brought with her that first day had been all but relieved, and her parents were proud to see her excelling so well in her classes. She struggled a little in her humanities classes, but she proved impeccable in courses such as biology and especially Algebra; in fact, she was performing so exceptionally in Algebra that she was promptly moved up to Calculus, but not even that was able to slow her down. She was learning almost as fast as her instructors could teach, and it was not long before she became something of a hero among her classmates who suffered a bit more at the subject and were constantly asking her for help. She had to admit that it was getting annoying to have the other kids approaching her the minute they did not understand something, but if there was one upside to it all, it had to be that she was in the same Calculus class as Tamara Summers and Jason Zimmerman, and it was killing Tamara to see Anna getting so much praise and attention, especially from Jason.

Today, Anna was taking her first Calculus test. The classroom was silent, except for the constant scratching of pencils on paper. She dove right into her test the second it was dropped on her desk. She did not know what it was, but something about staring down at those complex equations of letters and numbers was so enticing. She could almost see them rearranging themselves in her mind's eye, as if guiding her to the answers, which she scribbled non-stop throughout the test.

After ten minutes, Anna stood up to turn in her test, instantly drawing the attention of her classmates who were not even halfway through theirs. She handed her test to the teacher, Mrs. Rowe, a kind, round-faced woman midway through her fifties who beamed at her as she took the paper. Once Anna turned to head back to her desk, Mrs. Rowe shook her head and mouthed, "Wow."

As she returned to her desk, Tamara wasted no time in casting a scowl up at her, which Anna returned with a sly grin and a wink. During the next half hour before the last students finally turned in their tests, she took the opportunity to start going over assignments from her other classes.

"Don't you ever stop doing schoolwork?" Jason leaned over and muttered to her.

Anna shrugged her shoulders. "It just feels natural."

"Clearly," Jason said with a grin. "I wish I was half as good at this stuff as you. If I fail any more assignments, I'll end up kicked off the lacrosse team."

"You won't fail," Anna replied. "You did just fine when I helped you the other day."

"I hope you're right," Jason said with a laugh.

Anna lowered her head, trying to conceal the blush that was coming over her face. Wanting to move the conversation along, she found herself randomly asking, "How do you play anyway?"

"Play what?"

Anna was hardly paying attention when she asked the question. "Lacrosse," she felt obligated to clarify.

Jason looked at her somewhat quizzically. "Haven't you ever played before?"

Anna shook her head. "I can't remember playing any sports."

"Right, keep forgetting about that," Jason said sheepishly. "Can I ask how that happened exactly? Or does that bother you?"

Anna lowered herself in her seat as the stress of her amnesia swarmed around in her head once again. "I mean yeah, a little bit."

Jason's eyes lit up with guilt for asking. "I'm sorry. Forget I said anything."

This left an awkward pause between them. Anna looked back down at her homework, tempted to return to it before Jason spoke up again.