The Seraphim Project

Chapter Eleven

I slept like a rock that night. During class, I shifted uneasily in my seat, my eyes focused on my desk so that I wouldn’t meet any of the curious eyes on me.

By the time lunch came around, I just wanted to escape outside away from everyone else, but my stomach had other ideas. I’d skipped breakfast, and supper the day before, so I was starving. I knew that I would likely be skipping supper again, so this would be my only opportunity to eat today.

With a sigh, I followed the rest of my class to the cafeteria, where I grabbed a lunch—for free, which was good, because I didn’t have any money—and searched for a place to sit. It seemed that none of the other misfits had lunch at the same time as me. Were they trying to keep us apart? It wouldn’t surprise me, but it did make me mad.

Finally, I found an empty table and sat my trey down on it, sinking onto the seat. I ate my meal in silence, not once looking up at the people that passed by, staring and whispering. I refused to listen to them, either. I didn’t want to get in trouble again, not when I’d only been here for two days. No, I’d better keep my head down and ignore them all.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, a trey thumped down on the table across from me. I looked up incredulously as Jason sat down in front of me and proceeded to start eating as if this happened every day.

He looked up at me, his eyebrows raised. “What?”

I mentally shook myself to clear my head and went back to eating. “Nothing. I was just surprised is all.”

“Why would you be surprised? Did you really expect me to let you eat over here all by yourself?”

I smiled sheepishly at him. “Well, I was kind of hoping that I could get away from all of the people that have been calling me names behind my back all day.”

He faked hurt, his hand over his chest. “And you thought I’d be one of them? I’m hurt, really, I am.”

I rolled my eyes, and went back to my food. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Mostly, I guess I just thought you’d sit with all your other friends.”

He shrugged. “I’d rather sit with you. Especially if it means saving you from being the social outcast that has no one to eat with at lunch.” He grinned.

I huffed. “I have people to eat with at lunch. They’re just not in this lunch.”

“Of course,” he said. “The other kids like you.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “The misfits. That’s what we call ourselves.”

“The misfits,” he repeated, nodding. “What are they like?”

For the rest of lunch, I told him about the other misfits, and how life back at our home had been. He was very interested, nodding and asking questions in all the right places, and soon I was smiling and laughing, describing scenes of Russ messing with Sunny.

And then, without thinking about it, I mentioned Hawk.

“Falcon used to rearrange the furniture when I wasn’t paying attention, and Hawk would…” I trailed off, realizing what I’d said. Shaking my head, I fell silent, staring down at my empty trey.

“Who’s Hawk? I only saw five of you yesterday.”

I fought back tears. “Have I told you why we’re here?” He shook his head. “The people that created us—the Labs—they found us in our home and drove us out. They found us again later that night. In the chaos, they took Hawk and disappeared. We’ve been trying to find them ever since.”

His hand stretched across the table to touch mine. I almost jerked away, simply because none of the misfits would have made a move like that and it surprised me, but I made myself stay still. “I’m sorry. You must’ve been really close.”