Mark of the Moon

Chapter 6 - Distractions

Chapter 6: Distractions

  My hand hung limply on the desk in front of me, holding a pencil that was tapping nervously against it, that was even getting on my own nerves. The test that was sure to be handed out in the next few minutes was one that I'd forgotten, totally out of my mind. So now I sat here, a sitting duck, waiting for the un-prepared for test to spear me and set my grades plummeting. 

  "Do you mind, I'm trying not to freak out from this test?" Rachel, the girl in the seat in front of me said in a friendly way, before going up to the teacher to ask to go to the bathroom. I gave her a smile that she returned as she walked out of the door.

  "Today's test..." the teacher started standing up, and immediately I tuned out of the conversation. That had been happening a lot lately, my mind never staying in the same place for too long. What class was I even in? I scrambled for an answer at the momentary mind blank, before glancing at the board. The board mostly consisted of numbers and equations and I quickly deduced I was in Physics. Great.

  "I'll hand the test out after I take roll," Mrs. Reed said sitting back down in front of her laptop once more. The past three weeks of school had both crept and rushed towards now; my nervousness over nothing in particular was driving me crazy. I was always on edge, and was always looking for the same pair of eyes that was the source every class time.

  But he didn't walk into Physics late like he usually did, minutes ticked by and his tall frame didn't walk through the doorway. He wasn't here, neither had he been here the past two hours, not in Wood shop, not in College Writing. He was absent.

  For some reason that even set me more on edge, because he hadn't missed a day in the past month of school, always having to hover around me to make sure I wasn't going to spill their beans. Why was the absence of his annoying presence so terrible?

  "Rachel isn't here." The teacher commented, and I looked back up towards her, her glasses were pushed slightly down the bridge of her nose, so she could just see over the frame. Her gaze was landing on Rachel's temporarily empty desk.

  "She's here, she just went to the bathroom," I commented, starting to tap lightly with my pencil again.

  "I don't see her," the teacher defended.

  "I just told you...you even let her go to the bathroom..." I started, my eyebrows knitting in confusion. I felt a light tap on my shoulder, "She's just making a joke," Quinn whispered in my ear. I just noticed the slight smirk on Mrs. Reed's lips.

  My cheeks tinted rouge slightly, as I noticed my mistake. "I...I knew that," I said, with a forced chuckle. Quinn just rolled her eyes, and leaned back in her seat, "Sure you did,"

  I sighed, as the test landed in front of me, a white death letter that just needed my name on it.

  "Hey...Sam wait up!" Someone called from behind me, and I whirled around to see Quinn maneuvering through the halls in an attempt to get at me. It was the end of school, and I was actually getting out the same time as them, having made a deal with Mrs. Reed to take the test sixth hour. 

  I stood idle by the doorway waiting calmly, my mind pausing to wonder why she was so hysterical about making me wait. She caught up to me with a smile, "Did you forget already?"

  My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, trying to scrounge up some reasonable reason for forgetting whatever she was talking about, "Maybe..." I said slowly, and got me a well deserved eye-roll.