Elementals: Entwined

Chapter 3: Tiffany

"Ok, James Dalton?" Shelby asked. 

"Passable."

"Pete Samuels."

"No way in hell."

Shelby grinned. For the fast five minutes of lunch, she'd made me play a game called "hot or not", whereby she literally named a guy from our year or above,  and I told her what I thought of their appearance. It was a pretty boring game in my opinion, and I got the idea that the only reason we were playing was that she was trying to distract me from Amy, who looked as though she was contemplating murder. I was dying to ask who'd managed to set her teeth on edge in the last hour, but she kept skirting the question. At that moment, she wasn't speaking, or even looking at what she ate. It worried me, but it wasn't like I could do anything about it.

"Cameron Parker."

"Cute," I admitted absentmindedly. It was only then that I realised that Shelby was smirking, and turned around -face to face with Cameron. I fully intended on murdering Shelby for that, but she was laughing too hard. "Hi," I mumbled to him, trying not to notice the way his light brown hair fell into his eyes, or -

"Hey, Cam! What're you doing over here?" Lily appeared out of nowhere, and slipped her hand into his. I restrained from squishing the sandwich in my hand to a pulp and reminded myself that she had every right to be touching him like that. They were dating after all.

Lily pulled Cameron away, telling stories and making him laugh in so hard that everyone in the small cafe could hear. I sunk lower in my seat, feeling depressed.

Amy glared at Shelby. "Really, Shel?"

Shelby at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't realise he was actually coming here to talk."

Amy sighed. "Just don't do it again," she muttered, absentmindedly pushing around her salad with her fork. I'd never questioned it before, but Amy never seemed to have much of an appetite for anything other than coffee during the day. I could already tell that her lunch was going in the bin, though her latte cup was completely empty. She attempted conversation. "How was English?"

"Terrible. Mr Hughes tried to do a Jamaican accent." Our English teacher was renowned for trying to pronounce the texts as they were supposed to sound, no matter how terrible at the accent he was. I was thankful Amy hadn't been in class -restraining laughter had been hard enough for me, let alone someone whose parents were from there. I'd heard Amy do a Jamaican accent before -Mr Hughes hadn't even been close.

Instead of the horrified amusement I'd expected, Amy barely cracked a smile. She was wary, on edge. "You okay, Amy?" I asked.

Amy automatically sat up straighter. "I'm fine." She paused, thoughtful for a moment. "So what was up with Butler's class this morning? Lily pack a lighter or something?"

I was almost struck speechless. It didn't take long for me to remember the anger I had felt, the way I'd seen red, the flames... then I caught myself. What the hell was I thinking? That I had started them? Who did I think I was, the Human Torch?

"She must have. Books don't catch fire by themselves. Besides, she's a smoker." It was true. Lily permanently smelled of smoke. One thing I never understood, though, was why she smoke didn't stink awfully like other smokers' did, or how she never seemed to be a victim of all the terrible symptoms we were constantly warned about. "She probably carries a lighter."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Shelby and Amy share a look, and wondered what it meant. "She'll still get away with it," Shelby finally said. "Butler's hardly going to report her golden girl."