To Be There

chapter thirteen | small talk and kind smiles

Lia

Coffee shop music plays softly in Mrs. Pattinson's classroom. The music is soothing as it dwells around the quiet room of teenagers. Lia sits at her table near the window. With her hand resting against her cheek, she looks at a book in front of her.

Nibbling on her bottom lip, her eyes widen. She sees the last word of the page she's on. Wait, I finished, but how? I just started this chapter. She's on the page she's supposed to stop on. She can't go any further, at Mrs. Pattinson's request.

Accepting this, she looks away from her book. Her gaze falls on Angela. Angela sits beside her, absorbed in her reading. Feeling Lia's gaze, Angela stops reading. She turns her head. When she meets Lia's eyes she smiles at her.

"Hey," she whispers. After she talks, she marks the page she's on with her pointer finger to not lose her spot in the chapter she's on.

"Hi," Lia whispers back.

"How's it going?" Angela asks as Lia crosses her arms on top of the table. She rests her head gently upon them. Her cheek touches the soft sleeves of her indigo sweater. She turns her head to the left, so she can still see Angela as they talk.

"I'm good, I finished Chapter 13."

"How was it? Does Nia give her letter to Leroy?" Angela reaches over for her coffee on the table. After the cup is in her hand, she sips away as she listens to Lia.

"Yeah, she does. Mrs. Pattinson was right about that. Nia was going to leave her letter with him before heading to the train."

"Interesting. So she did let Leroy know her reason for leaving in the letter?" Angela asks curiously about the mystery that's taking place in their book.

"She did and she went along with her plan in the last chapter to go into hiding to protect her family," Lia glances at their recent book that her English class started reading last week. A new book Lia couldn't put down the moment she started it.

The book is called In The Daylight. The story focuses on a sixteen-year-old girl named Kia Dixon. Her life changes unexpectedly when she discovers her family is hiding secrets about a lost relative being her older sibling.

Mrs. Pattinson finds the book to be a good choice for her seniors. There's a nice mixture of mystery, adventure, young love, and familial ties to come across when reading. Lia loves this literary novel so far. It's unique with twists and turns that'll have you on the edge of your seat. She didn't realize how much she'd like it after having to stop reading Chapter 13 today. The reason is Mrs. Pattinson wants the class to stop there since she wants to discuss it with them later on in the class period.

"I knew it! I knew she was going to hide. There was no way she wasn't after receiving that note from her cousin," Angela declares in a low voice.

"Yep, you were right. Now we just have to wait and see what she does next now," Lia nods, feeling assured by this idea. She knows she'll find out later in the future.

As Angela goes back to reading Lia reaches for her backpack on the floor. Setting the bag in her lap she roams through to find her notebook. The blue one she uses is for keeping track of her thoughts when analyzing In The Daylight. But as she pushes her other stuff aside from folders, a pencil pouch, and small textbooks realizes the one item she needs isn't there as she'd hoped.

I left it in my locker, she shakes her head at her mistake. Her eyes focus on another blue look-alike notebook. The one she's seeing is the Spanish notebook she grabbed this morning from her locker.

"Hey, I'm going to my locker. I took the wrong notebook for my notes," Lia reveals as she zips her bag closed. She sets it on the ground as she turns to Angela.