Storm {A Light Novel}

. 1

R

"At the beginning of the year, you asked me," he clicks away on his computer and stands up, abrupt, sending his chair flying into the brick wall. "Mr. Greene, what is the meaning of this terribly long speech on birds and bees?"

Without even having heard, I know literally no one asked.

"Mr. Pierce," he bellows, sticking out his stomach, standing arms akimbo. "You seem to be finding this instruction very amusing. Why don't you tell everyone what my birds and bees talk at the beginning of the semester was?"

Liam shrugs, and even with his back to me I am positive a grin is still splayed on his face.

"Aw, come on, I know you can do better than that," Mr. Greene encourages to his own dismay.

Liam shrugs again, though this time throwing out, "Sex?" Most everyone laughs. Real clever, Liam. I roll my eyes.

"No, but nice try!" Mr. Greene applauds. He shouts with great energy, "Birds and bees!"

He points in the air as his voice quiets. "They all work together. They all work together towards a greater purpose, using all the skills relevant to success in society today."

He uses the clicker concealed in his hand and the slide changes, showing a bunch of random pictures. At least they weren't the same hideous clipart most teachers tended to reuse, the kind I remember from elementary school. He points to each and continues his recollection.

"Communication. Adaptability. Collaboration. Leadership. Problem-solving. Management." He stands there without saying anything for a good minute, looking over the heads of everyone in the room with his hands still on his hips, and I wonder if I missed a cue, if we're supposed to do something.

He claps. "I promised you all I would consider your determination to stay away from group projects and only assign individual work so you might showcase your individual abilities and improve on them. I can definitely see how you have improved... your Googling abilities. Are you gonna write that on your resume, Janaya? Cam?" He grins. I think everyone likes him well enough to not flame him for calling them out. He claps of course, this time on his thighs. "But, of course, all good things come to an end. Today is that day."

Going over to the window by his desk, he picks up a clipboard off the sill and sighs. "I have received permission to change the midterm to a group project. You will be working in pairs and handing the final product to me, and I will grade them in place of your midterm exam." Practically everyone groans.

"Believe me, I'm doing you all a favor. It'll be easier than you think." That's never a good sign.

Sure enough, after hearing him explain the premises of the project, I feel drained if I even begin to imagine the amount of work it would take to put it all together. And trust me, I'm not incapable or even a habitual nonparticipant. It really is just a whole headache. At least it sure sounds like it. And if that wasn't enough. He's assigning us partners. Way to take away the only potential fun of a partner project.

He remains at the front of the class and rattles off names while I have an intense staring contest with the clock. I'm biting my lip and squinting my eyes at the jittery skinny hand when he calls my name.

"Hm?" I look to the center of his nose rather than his eyes.

"I said you're with Elijah."

Elijah? Who's that?

"Given you'll be spending a lot of time working on these projects, I'll allow you all to switch seats." No one moves. "That wasn't just a suggestion, guys. Please."

Everyone scuffles about, I stay in my seat. Out of the corner of my eye I can see a blur of black approach my side and squeeze behind me to reach the next seat. I raise my eyebrows, attitude building for whoever has the nerve to take my seat. Well, the seat next to me. "Um, hello?"

He looks at me. I think. I can't really tell when half his face is shielded by a mass of dark curls, and overgrown cloud falling over his forehead.

"Hi." His voice is so quiet I wasn't even confident it was his.

"Hi? Why you sitting here?" I chew my cheek as he takes a million years to respond.

"I'm your partner," he says, sounding unsure himself.

"You're Elijah?"

He nods. "Hi."

"You said that already."

"Right, sorry..." He wipes his hands on the front of his hoodie and returns them to his front pocket. "I'm Elijah. Elijah West. I know we've never met, so..." His voice gets closer and closer to mute.

"Yeah, clearly," I say. There's no way I'd forget someone this annoying. Not that he's out to get me with digs or bootlicking, but it 's frustrating as heck to try and communicate with someone no louder than a mouse.

Mr. Greene seems to have taken his hands off the class for the remainder of class, leaving me no hope. I empathize with the girls who zoomed up to his desk the first chance they got, trying to change partners. There's too many for me to even think about bothering.

"So, can I have your number so..."

"What? No! As--"

"So we can FaceTime to work on the project..." He avoids my eyes, carrying a now listless energy.

"Ugh, fine. I guess." I prop my elbow on the desk and open my palm, expecting him to give me his phone. He just stares at my hand for a minute before realization kicks in.

His movement slows and so do his words. "If you want, I could give you mine... Since you don't want to give out your number..."

"What? Just nevermind, you'd see it anyway if we called." I shook my hand promptly.

"Right," he whispered, giving it up.

He doesn't even have a case? I turn his phone over and back. Technically he does, one of those DIY balloon covers, but that's... Whatever.

"Here," I say, half-tossing it onto the desk space in front of him once I enter my number.

Mr. Greene comes around with a packet for each pairing, explaining that it would help us structure our projects and that we'd have to keep certain parts of it to turn in with our final product. I waste no time sliding it to the other kid. "You take it. Don't even think about losing it, he said we need it."

The bell rings, I catch his nod, and I catch the door before it shuts behind the first person out.