Return to Neverland

Return to Neverland (4)

"Kill me," I ordered.

Jake gave me a look. "I think I'm gonna pass on that."

"Guess who my chemistry partner is," I smiled wryly, my eye twitching. "Just guess."

"I'm hoping it's Skyler," Jake began, looking me up and down worriedly. "But I don't think it's Skyler."

"Nope!" I laughed, probably looking completely insane. "It's not Skyler. It's Quinn. Freaking. Vega."

As if on cue, a voice called out from down the hall, "Oh, wondrous lab partner of mine!"

I groaned, already feeling like my head was splitting open and he'd only said three words to me.

Turning toward the source of the voice, I bit down on my lip and stopped any retort I had from escaping when I saw that Quinn was not on his own, but instead with Luke and the other two Lost Boys. I should have been surprised, but my heart always skipped a beat whenever I saw Luke.

"Hi," I greeted, smiling at Luke and completely ignoring Quinn.

Keegan made kissing noises at me. "Hello to you too, Ebony."

Why was I such good friends with these boys, I'd never know. I liked Luke, but the other boys never failed to get on my nerves. And it seemed like that was always Quinn and Keegan's goal.

"So, Ebby," Quinn began, using that insufferable nickname he had for me. "I guess you could say that you and I have... chemistry together."

As I was about to retort that we definitely did not have any sort of chemistry together beside the actual class itself, a new voice cut me off with, "Lindsey seemed pretty pissed when lab parters were assigned."

I turned to see my mother best friend Skyler making her way over to us, her backpack slung over her shoulder as she lazily leaned against the locker next to mine.

I rolled my eyes at the memory. As soon as Mrs. Campos announced that Quinn and I would be lab partners, Lindsey immediately began to argue against that decision. Our teacher was having none of it, however, and promptly partnered her up with a boy that seemed to never blink. He just stared with wide, green eyes. It was actually pretty creepy.

"Well, hello, beautiful," Keegan greeted Skyler, slipping by us to get closer to her. She made a face. "You're looking as gorgeous as ever today."

Keegan clearly had a huge thing for Skyler, yet she couldn't have cared less. She was turned off by his goofy attitude and violent behavior. She'd always say she wanted to date someone mature, and Keegan was the exact opposite of that.

"And you're just as annoying as ever today," Skyler scowled, but Keegan wasn't deterred. He made kissy faces and reached out to hug her, but all she did was swat him away like he was nothing more than a fly.

Quinn rolled his eyes at them. "She's got to give in eventually."

"Isn't that your wish, Quinn?" was Skyler's flat response to him, and Quinn flipped her off.

"Well, ol' Luke and I here are partners in our period," Keegan explained, wrapping his arm around Luke's shoulder. The loudest Lost Boy then turned toward the quietest. "What about you, Christian? You're in a different period from all of us. Who's your partner?"

Christian shrugged his shoulders uncaringly. "Some guy."

"You're as talkative as always," Skyler drawled with a roll of her eyes.

Christian talked so rarely that it was strange to hear his voice. And when he did speak, it was only ever a few words. I didn't know why he was like this, but he'd been this way ever since I'd met him in sixth grade. He'd never been a talkative person.