The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 25: Wood

The next week flew by in a haze. Nothing exciting happened, except that we had told Diamond, Evalynn and Evie about Jamie's clone Stacy. They all agreed it would be best not to tell Skylar, and even Diamond, who was horrible at keeping secrets, managed not to let it spill.

So, we had successfully managed to avoid Stacy, Calvin and Bryner as much as possible.

Before everyone knew it, it was the day of the dance. It was Friday morning, and the cafeteria was serving eggs, bacon, and toast.

Evalynn, who had been strangely quiet the past few days, was sitting next to me, picking at her scrambled eggs.

"You okay?" I asked her.

She glanced up at me. "I'm fine," she said bitterly.

Before I could say another word, Skylar happily plopped down next to Diamond, across from me.

"What are you so cheery about?" Diamond asked.

"Chester asked me to the dance tonight," she gave a big grin as she took a huge bite of toast.

I frowned. "But aren't you guys dating?"

Her smile disappeared. "Yeah. So?"

"Well, if you guys are dating, why would he have to ask you? Isn't it a given?"

There was a loud crash, and even Tony looked up from his food to see what it was. Evalynn had slammed her cup down onto the table, and she was now angrily huffing away.

"What's her problem?" I wondered out loud.

"Oh, poor Derek." Skylar murmured.

"Huh?"

"Poor, sweet, naive Derek."

"Huh?" I repeated.

"You didn't ask her to the dance, did you?"

"Well, we're practically dating, isn't it a given?" I asked stupidly.

"Dude." Tony set down his fork. "You still have to ask her. I asked Diamond. David asked Evie."

"Chester asked me." Skylar repeated.

Suddenly, Evalynn's stony silence didn't seem so odd anymore. "Oh. " I said quietly. "Oh, shit."

Tony grinned broadly at me. "Oh, shit indeed."

Then he pointed to my bacon. "Are you gonna eat that?"

I flung it at him, and tore out of the cafeteria. I raced back to the girls dorm, and caught up with Evalynn, right as she was walking in the doorway.

"Eva." I panted. "Eva, wait!"

She stopped, just before closing her door. "What?" she asked irritably.

"Will you...go to..the dance...with me?" I managed to get out between my gasps for air.

She stared at me for a few seconds, and a small smile appeared on her face.

"No." And then she shut the door in my face, leaving me bewildered, and utterly confused.

*************

"She said no?" Tony asked incredulously.

I nodded violently. "And then she slammed the door in my face!"

We were back in the boys main room, for the hour and a half break in the day. It was just myself, Tony and Diamond. Diamond was curled up in the couch, reading Harry Potter, and Tony had his head in her lap, as she played with his hair.