September
Monday morning comes around a little too quickly for my liking and I can't help but dread my first class of the day. Chem. It only means one thing; working on the project with Noah. God, I didn't want to do that right now. I have no idea if his argument with Bethany has blown over yet or not, but I definitely did not want her to come storming into our class to scream at me. That would be a very Bethany thing to do.
The whirring of the smoothie machine downstairs pulls me away from my thoughts and I take my own sweet time getting dressed, knowing that mason would have my favourite breakfast drink ready for me.
It's my turn to pick up and drop off Caelum to school this week. Mason had done it last week and my dad is on night shift this week, so the responsibility falls to me, of course. I didn't mind though. We always had fun in the car together. You could say I was an almost mother figure in his life? I certainly acted like our own mother, not that Caelum would know, he was too young when she left.
"Vela Kaira!"
I quickly grab my bag and hop down the stairs whilst pinning back half of my curls.
"Sorry!" I shout.
I toss an apple at Caelum quickly and Mason places a quick kiss on my head before going out to the garden. I grab my smoothie and wink at Caelum.
"Ready?" I ask.
He nods eagerly and practically races to the front door and out to my car. I start the engine and wait a few moments.
"What are we doing?" Caelum huffs from the backseat.
"Just a sec..."
"VK WAIT!"
I grin at the sound of Sarah's voice and she falls against the bonnet of the car as though she had just run a mile. She really hadn't. She clambers into the passenger seat and rummages through her bag whilst catching her breath.
I finally start driving as she turns to the back handing my little brother a poptart.
"Here you go Cae. I knew VK hadn't fed you properly."
I shoot her a glare, "excuse me. An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
She turns and rolls her eyes with Caelum and they giggle away as I focus on the road. We reach Caelum's school a good ten minutes later and I turn around holding my fist out to him.
"I'll pick you up at around 4, okay?"
He bumps his little fist against mine with a nod.
"Later!"
I hear the door slam shut and wait until I see him run out of sight in the direction of the crowd of younger kids.
"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Sarah jokes.
I giggle and slowly back out of the parking space, ready to make our way to school.
After a quick catch up with Sarah and Jake by the lockers, I hear the first bell ring and I push myself away with a wave in their direction, then head to class. Mr.Rogers had told us that we would be in a computer lab today for the purpose of doing research for the project, which I was thankful for as it meant I could focus more on the screen than on Noah.
To my surprise, Noah is already seated at one of the computers when I get inside and, with a friendly smile, he waves me over.
"How was your weekend?" He asks.
I drop my bag onto the floor and drape my/Mason's black denim jacket across the back of the chair.
"Pretty good," I nod, "you?"
"Oh it was great, got plenty of practice in before the big game next week."
I never really went to the games. I used to go a lot when Mason played and he taught me a lot of tricks back when he used to practice in our garden, but when he started college he played less and I guess I didn't have a reason to go to the games anymore.
"Oh right, are you looking forward to it?" I ask.
He beams, "of course. You're coming right?"
I falter.
"You have to come. Friends support friends right?"
We were friends?
"I know Dwaine and Blake won't leave you with any other choice anyway."
Oh.
"Yeah, I guess I'll be there." I smile easily.
Noah reaches down into his backpack and pulls out a packet of chips, Reese's pieces and two sodas.
"I bought snacks."
I laugh a little, "you're very prepared aren't you?"
"Well we got a lot of work to do right? We need the brain power."
I nod as I take another sip of my smoothie.
"Hey, you drink that every morning, why?" He asks with a frown.
At this point, the rest of our classmates have started to filter into the room and are chatting away at their computers around us but Mr.Rogers is yet to arrive.
"Oh it's mango and passion fruit," I tell him, "it's my favourite. The best breakfast, really."
He eyes the cup in my hand for a moment longer then turns away to start searching for some relevant information. I lean across a little to peer at the screen.
"Stop!" I squeak.
He stops scrolling and looks at me in panic, "What? What's wrong?"
"THERE!" I shake my finger at the screen and bounce up and down a little.
"Oh," he breathes a sigh, "you scared me then, I thought something happened."
I shake my head dismissively and continue looking at the monitor.
"Alchemy originated in ancient Egypt. Egyptians believe in life after death and the mummification procedures they developed and used probably gave rise to rudimentary chemical knowledge..."
I watch as Noah's brows raise as he reads the piece of text out to us and I hum in thought.
"I wonder if the findings and alchemy texts were passed along the silk route..." I mumble aloud.
"That would actually make sense, I read a long time ago that they found Chinese silk in Egyptian mummies, which means they might have traded ideas as well as goods." Noah responds.
You see, I told you he had the potential for good grades.
He quickly turns to me as though he was slightly embarrassed that he had even mentioned that.
"That is so cool. Where did you read this?"
I do love history.
He rubs the back of his neck and leans back in his chair, "oh...you know, it was a long time ago."
I cock a brow at him.
Why was he so embarrassed by this?
"Stop looking at me like that." He frowns.
"Vela Kaira."
I continue staring with my arms folded, waiting for his answer.
"Stop it."
Still staring.
"You know it's getting creepy."
Still waiting.
"You aren't even blinking at this point."
Still. Waiting.
"I swear, I'll poke those eyes of yours out with a pencil."
"Vela Kaira."
"Oh my god! Fine! I'll tell you."
He gestures with his hand for me to lean in a little closer, so I do.
"When I was younger," he whispers, "I wanted to be an archeologist, I used to read all sorts of books about it, as well as history books and that's where I read about this."
"Oh my god! Really?" I squeal. "That's so cool, Noah!"
"Sh!" He hisses, "it's a secret, Ashford."
"Why?" I frown.
"I don't want anybody to know." He shrugs.
I lean on the table and prop my head up, with my chin in my palm, watching him curiously.
"I see. Is that what you still want to do?" I ask.
He falters for a moment, then shakes his head.
"Nah. I gave up on that dream when I was around 12." He tells me.
"Oh," I frown, "why?"
Again, he shrugs.
"I'm not sure really. Maybe I just lost interest? Basketball kind of became my life, you know?"
I nod.
"I understand. That's a very nice dream to have, though. It's so different to other people."
He laughs a little, "thanks, Ashford."
I turn back to the screen and continue scrolling.
"Thank you for telling me," I flash him a smile, "just for that I'll let you ride in my car."
I swear I have never seen someone become so excited so fast.
"Are you serious?" He almost squeals.
"Hey, I'll let you ride in it, but you are not driving."
He holds his hands up, "that's fine by me. Just being near that baby is enough."
I giggle and nod my head, "okay, great."
"I was actually going to say, do you mind waiting for me after practice today? I was planning on coming to yours to work on the project since we won't have much time next week what with the game and all."
I pause, "what time do you finish?"
"Around half 4."
"Okay, I guess I can. I gotta pick up my brother, though, so we'll just wait for you in the parking lot."
Noah cringes, "is he going to interrogate me again?"
"What?" I frown.
"You know, like the other day about the ball hitting your head..." he trails off.
"Oh!" I exclaim, "oh no. Not that brother," I giggle, "no I'm talking about my younger brother, Caelum."
"Caelum." He repeats.
I nod my head.
"I gotta say, you guys have some interesting names, I've never heard that one before."
"Well, Moretti, we're interesting people."
"That you are."
***
"I just don't get it, you're named after a constellation, but you can't even tell me which one it is?"
I huff for the hundredth time at Josh.
"It's not like I named myself. I haven't really looked at constellations that much, I've never been able to see an open night sky." I point out.
"But you've read about it?" Dwaine pipes up.
I take a bite out of my wrap and nod.
"Yes, just not in as much depth as I want to." I say after swallowing my mouthful.
"I can't believe the amount of time we're spending with you dorks." Sarah rolls her eyes and lifts her feet up to rest on the table.
That's right. We were back here in the library having lunch with Moretti and Co, as Sarah likes to call them.
Noah is sat beside me with a book on the basic history of Alchemy set between us on the table as we munch away and try our hardest to read whilst our friends distract us as best as they can.
"I gotta say Little V, it is incredible how hard you've got our Noah working." Blake grins.
Noah shoots him a quick glare then continues sweeping his eyes across the texts.
"Yeah, it's great and all, but honestly," I wince a little, "isn't Bethany going to freak with how often you guys are in here having lunch with me?"
The boys quickly become silent and Sarah and I look between them all, waiting for a response.
"Who cares?" Dwaine shrugs his shoulders.
"Hey." Noah frowns. "I care."
"Oh really?" Josh laughs a little, "then why haven't you asked her to sit here with us too?"
Noah rolls his eyes, "oh come on, you know she'd throw a bitch fit about that."
"Annoying ass." Blake mumbles under his breath.
Blake disliked Bethany more than the other boys due to his girlfriend's hatred for her. Anybody his girl didn't like, he didn't like. According to him, that's the way it should be.
"Oh, speak of the devil." Dwaine groans.
"You're actually kidding me, right?" Bethany snarls in my direction.
"Babe, what's the problem?" Noah sighs.
"I'm just going to take this." I whisper and swipe the book away from him to check out so we can use it later.
Then, I quickly swipe all my stuff into my bag, and along with Sarah and the boys, make my way out of the library and away from the arguing couple.
I honestly did feel bad for these boys if they had to deal with Bethany complaining every time they hung out together. I would hate to have to witness argument after argument between a couple.
But I guess it's something I'll be getting used to over the course of this school year.
Great.
Before i know it, it's 4pm and I'm outside Caelum's school exactly on time, as promised. He runs to the car and clambers into the front passenger seat, rattling off the details of his day.
"Hey you want some ice cream?" I ask.
He nods eagerly and I drive to the nearest place to buy two ice creams for the both of us. Yum.
Caelum frowns as he licks away at his cone when he notices us pulling up in front of school.
"What are we doing here?" He asks.
"Oh, I'm waiting for someone." I tell him.
"Who?" He quizzes.
"...a friend?"
"Like a guy friend?" Caelum asks.
"Yeah, he's my chemistry partner. He'll be coming with us so we can work on our project, which means you need to sit in the back."
"Are you serious?" Caelum whines.
"Just move, please."
After polishing off our ice creams and Caelum telling me about his homework, there's finally a loud bustle of noise from the direction of the gym. All the jocks suddenly pile out at once, with wet hair and messy clothes.
Noah immediately spots us and with a quick slap on the backs to his friends, he jogs over and into the car. The heavy scent of men's cologne fills the car as he gets inside and after pulling on his seatbelt, he quickly turns around to smile at Caelum.
"Hey, little bro."
Caelum smiles at him unsurely.
"Caelum, right?"
He nods.
"Well, I'm Noah. Your sister's Chemistry partner. Hope you don't mind me being here, we can swap seats if you want?"
Caelum quickly shakes his head, "no that's fine. I'm good here."
"Oh okay," Noah grins, "you like basketball?"
Caelum perks up pretty quickly and I tune out the rest of their conversation for the drive back home, instead focusing on the roads and the light breeze from my slightly open window.
"Dad!" I grin and slap my palm against my dad's as we all get into the house.
"You leaving?" Caelum asks.
"Yep, shift starts at 5:30 buddy." He ruffles Caelum's hair a little.
"Dr. Ashford, it's good to see you." Noah holds his hand out with a smile.
"Hey! Noah Moretti! It's good to see you too kid." He shakes his hand, "how's your dad doing? Recovered from the accident?"
"Oh yeah," Noah nods, "he's a lot better. He was back on his feet straight away. Can hardly tell anything even happened." He grins.
"That's good to hear. Tell your parents I said hi," he puts on his shoes and waves his hand around in the air, "bye kids!"
The door slams shut and Caelum is almost instantly in the living room playing video games. I turn to Noah awkwardly.
"So, can I get you anything?"
"Just some water, thanks."
We make our way up to my room and I excuse myself to quickly change into a pair of sweatpants and comfortable hoodie then settle down on my bed with an open laptop.
"You got a hoop out back?" Noah asks, his gaze fixed on the window.
I smile up at him, "yeah, Mas used to play. And as you can probably tell Caelum is very interested in playing now too."
"Oh yeah, nice. Maybe I can coach him." He jokes.
I laugh for a moment then allow the smile to fall from my face.
"Hey is everything okay with Bethany? I'd rather we worked in school only if she's going to have a problem with you being here."
Noah snorts a laugh, "she has a problem with everything. Don't worry Ashford, I promised to work on this project and make sure we get a good grade. I'm keeping that promise."
"Okay, if you say so." I mutter.
Noah and I work away on the project for two hours until Mason gets home. We reach a good base for our presentation, with just information needing to be put in place and a script needs to be written for us. Once all of that is sorted, we should be good to just practice and then present next Thursday.
Admittedly, we make a good enough team. Noah has done substantial research, while I have been noting it all down and cutting out any unnecessary parts.
"Don't you think we're going a little overboard, Ashford? I mean, I was talking to Jess earlier and by the looks of it, her and a bunch of other groups haven't even done half of what we have. I don't want to get up there and people thinking we're doing too much."
I shrug and continue scribbling away the final sentence,
"So? Why do you care what people think?"
Noah falters as he tries to form words.
"I don't know. I don't want anyone thinking I'm a nerd..." he mumbles.
"Why? Because you've put effort into your work?"
"Look, it's just–"
"Vela Kaira!" Mason shouts up the stairs.
Noah sighs in relief and quickly gets his backpack onto his shoulder, ready to leave.
"Coming!" I shout back down.
We get downstairs and Noah waits at the front door as I grab my keys and a bottle of water from the fridge.
"I'm just dropping Noah off at home and then we can have dinner." I tell Mason.
He shoots a glare at Noah then nods.
"Okay. Drive safe."
I smile and walk away, gesturing for Noah to follow me outside to the car. We climb in and roll down the windows, then drive off in a comfortable silence.
Ten minutes later, we pull up outside his house and I hear the clicking of his seatbelt before he cracks open the door a little.
"Thanks for the ride."
"No problem," I grin, "and hey, don't worry about what anyone says with this project. If they really do bother you about it then just pass it off by saying you're motivated and working to make sure you don't have to sit exams at the end of the year."
Noah breathes a laugh and nods.
"Noted. See you later, Ashford."