Counterclockwise

Chapter 4: Tell Us

I stare at him for a minute, then snap out of it.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, thanks," I stammer, straightening the books in my arms awkwardly.

He nods quickly and walks past without another word. I watch him go and Jayden glances from me, to him, and back to me.

"Um, what was that all about?" she asks me as we resume walking down the hall, slower this time.

"What was what all about?" I ask her, sounding as if I truly don't know. But I feel my face getting warm and know I've turned a light shade of red.

Max smirks at this and jerks his thumb over his shoulder, "You looked at that guy like he had three heads!"

I shrugged, "He's new, isn't he? I was just kinda surprised to see someone new."

I knew they were trying to tell if I was lying or not.

"Okay," Max mumbled with a shrug, "Not my fault if he thinks you're a weirdo..."

Jayden rolled her eyes and I could tell I was off the hook. For now. Jayden and Max didn't know as much about magic as I did, so I doubted they knew anything about teleportation. After all, I only knew about it from reading the dusty forgotten magic books in my father's bookshop. They might not believe me at first when I tell them at lunch, but then again, I could always show them the books.

* * *

Finally class let out and it was lunch time. I had to tell someone about that guy. I'm usually pretty good at keeping secrets, but this was getting weird. He acted like nothing happened this morning, not even glancing at me when we passed each other in the halls.

I took a seat at my lunch table, first as usual, and waited for the others to join me. First came Opal - the musician - followed by Isabelle - the athlete - and Dawn - the artist.

"Well?" Opal said, looking at me as she brushed her brown hair behind her shoulders.

"Well what?" I asked. As if I didn't already know. Jayden couldn't keep a secret to save her life. No doubt she had already exaggerated the events of that morning to them.

"Don't play innocent with us," Isabelle said with a smirk, her black hair covering one eye, "Jay told us everything. You like him don't you?"

My lips formed a thin line as I glared at her. "No I don't," I snapped at her, trying to channel my anger into opening my thermos.

Isabelle reached across the table and held her hand out to me, still watching me with a smirk. I sighed knowing she was stronger, and reluctantly handed over the thermos, as if admitting defeat. She held it close to her and opened it with a jerk, then slid it back over to me.

"Thanks Izz," I mumbled, fishing around in my bag for a spoon.

"Anyway, granted Jay can tend to exaggerate," Dawn chimed in, unwrapping her sandwich next to me, "But she said you stared at him like he was a ghost or something. Care to explain?" She had closed her sketchbook and set it aside - something she rarely did at lunch - and waited for an answer. Her blond hair was in a braid, exposing a pencil behind one ear.

I saw that Max had taken a seat at another table, and Jayden finally came and took a seat across from me, grinning.

I narrowed my eyes at her then sighed.

"Okay, fine, I'll tell. It all started this morning before school..."

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I might edit little details in the chapters, so if something minor has changed then it's just the little perfectionist side of me taking over ;)
~Starr