Discoveries

by K Swanson

  His finger brushed against my chin, raising my eyes enough to catch his smirk. “I enjoy the night as well. I have a couple of flowers in my garden that only bloom at night, and—”

  “You grow flowers?” Realizing I’d cut him off, I clapped a hand over my mouth.

  His grin widened as he nodded. “Fuck yeah, I do.”

  The way his eyes lit up drew me in. He must love flowers, and now I really wanted to see his gardens to see what he grew.

  “What kinds of flowers do you have?”

  “I should bring you over one day to see. The gardens at my house are extensive, and my maman owns a couple greenhouses.”

  “Really? I’d love to see them.” I wasn’t even sure what to imagine. What exactly did an extensive garden entail? Another thought occurred to me. “Do you have roses?” Throughout the conversation, I watched as more people filed onto the bus.

  With a cough of amusement, he pulled my attention back to him. “Many varieties.”

  My eyes widened. There were different types? His lips twitched in amusement, but I wasn’t sure why. “There is more than one type?”

  He nodded, his entire body seeming to come alive as he spoke. “At least a hundred and fifty different types.”

  Wow. I just assumed the only differences were their colors and told him as much.

  * * *

  When we pulled up to the front of the school, I glanced at my phone, surprised to see we’d been chatting for nearly thirty minutes as he showed me various roses on his phone. He put his phone in his pocket and I followed him off the bus.

  My jaw nearly dropped as we entered the building. The halls were filled with far more students than I’d imagined a few days ago. CJ must have noticed the dumbfounded look on my face, because he grabbed my hand, tugging me close. “What’s your first class?”

  “Pre-calculus…?” I pulled the sheet of paper from my back pocket, showing him my class list. I’d memorized it last night, but second-guessed my memory now that I was here and seeing the crowded halls.

  With a grin, he led me through the building, not letting go of my hand until he reached a locker and opened it. “Need to find yours?”

  I shook my head. My bag was mostly empty, and since I didn’t have anything in my locker, I didn’t really need it right now.

  “Well, if you need a place near your first class to store shit, you can borrow mine. Just make sure you leave a note on it. My other friends have been known to use my locker as well.”

  I nodded, not knowing what else to say. Did he think of me as a friend? I tilted my head back, looking up at him.

  After shutting his locker and spinning the dial on the lock, he took my hand again. Why did he do that? Maybe it was something friends did in the real world. I’d never held hands with anyone at the institute, but this was kind of nice.

  We walked in silence, and I had a feeling it was more because it was hard to be heard than because he had nothing to say.

  He stopped in front of a room. “Your stop.”

  “Thank you.” I gave him a smile and he returned it, winking at me.

  “I’ll see you at lunch?”

  I shrugged. A lot could happen between now and lunch. Besides, he probably had a bunch of friends, and I didn’t want to intrude. With a wave, I headed into my first class.

  My eyes widened as I took in the entire room. It reminded me of the school rooms at the institute. A bunch of individual desks with chairs cluttered the center of the room, and a larger wooden desk sat front and center, directly in front of the biggest chalkboard I’d ever seen.

  I considered sitting near the front, but the thought of being in front of so many pairs of eyes made me queasy. Nope. It would be best to sit in the back.

  As more students filed into the room, I watched them with interest. One person came in with his white hair sticking straight up in a line. I tilted my head, considering him. How did he get it to stay like that? Running my fingers through my hair, I grabbed a pinch of it and held it away from my head. When I released it, it dropped back to my neck.

  With as stiff as the guy’s hair was, I doubted he used something as simple as hairspray. Not unless he’d used multiple cans of it. We’d had some hairspray at the institute until some idiot used their fire ability to make a can of it explode.

  Watching all the handlers come running into the room had been hilarious. It wasn’t worth it, though. I shuddered, attempting to pull my thoughts away from the panic rooms we’d spent days in after that stunt. When we returned, Aidan and Winter were both gone. The two guys weren’t even related, but I heard they’d refused to do any training without the other nearby.

  I pulled my mind back to my surroundings. Most of the chairs had been filled, but when the bell rang, a large guy dashed into the room, nearly tripping over his untied shoelaces in his hurry to get to an empty seat.

  Apologizing to the teacher, who stood at the front of the room, eyes wide behind his large glasses as the guy nearly tipped someone over while squeezing between desks.

  “Shit, sorry.” He steadied the girl before he slid into his own seat.

  The girl glared at the guy, and I felt a little bad for him. As soon as the guy was situated, the teacher called for attention and the lesson began. My gaze was continually drawn to the large guy as he shifted in his seat and played with his black baseball cap.

  He continued like that for most of class. While I didn’t really mind, a part of me wished I’d sat closer to the front of the room.

  * * *

  A little over three hours later, I couldn’t quit smiling. There was so much to learn! As I headed through the halls toward the cafeteria I’d passed earlier, my stomach growled loudly. For a moment, I considered finding CJ to see if his offer to sit with him still stood, but I had homework to do. Besides, I was okay with us being bus buddies. Was that even a thing? Well, it was now!

  In the cafeteria, I found a quiet table toward the wall and settled in. As I pulled a sandwich out of the bag, I grabbed my math homework and a pencil.

  Two bites later, someone appeared next to me, dropping onto the bench. “Hi! I’m Bekka, and you looked like you could use a friend.”

  Cocking my head slightly, I looked at the girl. Dark brown hair hung to her shoulders and eyes the same shade, framed by long lashes, stared at me. Were those eyelashes natural? No one could have lashes that long, right?

  I smiled back. “Thank you. I’m Haylie.”

  “Haylie, I can tell that you and I are going to be the best of friends.” The way she nodded, perkily punctuating her statement, made me cringe a little. Good Lord, she needed to tone it down.

  Instead of voicing my opinion, I shrugged. “I could definitely use more friends.”

  She continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Where are you from? Why did you move here, of all places?”

  “A few states over. What do you do for fun around here?” Questions about where I came from made me uncomfortable. But perhaps I could get some ideas on ways to spend my time, even if I didn’t become best friends with Bekka.

  She shrugged, biting into her apple. “Mostly the usual. Go see movies. Hang out with friends. Some of the locals go treasure hunting in the woods. There are some caves near the back that are rumored to have pirate treasure in them.”

  Was she talking about the woods near Phil and Min’s? “Pirate treasure? We’re not exactly near any large bodies of water, are we?”

  She shook her head. “No, but there’s a house nearby that belonged to a pirate captain, so it’s still a legit idea.”

  “Really?” It might be interesting to see where a pirate captain had lived, if that story was true.

  “Oh yeah. I should take you out there sometime.” She was quiet for a moment as she turned back to her food, then she glanced back at me. “This weekend! Let’s go this weekend.”

  “But we don’t even know each other.”

  The huge smile that had been plastered to her face drooped. Maybe I was overthinking this. She see
med nice enough.

  Taking a deep breath, I smiled. “Sounds good!”

  Her smile returned. “Great!”

  We made small talk for the next few minutes until the bell rang. Getting to her feet, she asked, “What class do you have next?”

  “US history. You?”

  Her eyes lit up as she bounced on her toes. “Same!” After we threw our trash away, she grabbed my arm, linking our elbows together. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but a friendly face had to be better than being alone.

  The only other class I shared with Bekka was science. Her constant chatter drew a couple of stern warnings from both teachers before she finally stopped talking.

  At the end of the day, I loved school as much as I’d thought I would. It was so much fun to be around others my own age and I felt a little giddy when I realized I’d already made a couple friends.

  I got on the bus, and my stomach did a little flip when I realized how crowded it was. The noise on the bus was nearly deafening, and I thought I heard my name, but scanning the crowd didn’t reveal where it might have come from. Seconds later, an earsplitting whistle made the entire bus shut up and sit down.

  When I realized who the whistler was, my eyes widened and I covered my face, wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole. CJ stood, winking as he gestured for me to sit next to him.

  I quickly made my way down the aisle, slid across the bench, and looked at him as he sat. “Did you just whistle at me? Like, the same way someone might call their dog?”

  At least he had the decency to duck his head sheepishly. “Sorry. I didn’t think about how that might have sounded. I was trying to get your attention, and you didn’t seem to hear me the first time I tried.”

  Smiling to show I wasn’t really upset, I asked, “How was your day?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t have a ton of homework, so that’s good. You?”

  “I have a bit.”

  His brows went up. “You don’t seem upset about that.”

  “Nope.”

  He looked at me skeptically. “You’re not shitting me? You don’t mind homework?”

  If that’s how he reacted to finding out I didn’t mind it, what would his response be if he found out I actually enjoyed it? “Nope.”

  He chuckled. “Favorite subject?”

  That was a no-brainer. “Astronomy. You?”

  He lifted a shoulder in another shrug. “I actually have pretty fun classes this year. I’m not taking a language, so I get to take a culinary class and another science.”

  “So, you like science? Like, chemistry and stuff?” I wasn’t a huge fan of most science, although I knew that’s what astronomy was considered.

  “Oh yeah, a big fan of chemistry.” A slow smile spread across his lips as he added, “Maybe we could study it together.”

  Butterflies took flight in my stomach, and I wasn’t sure how to respond. When I dropped my gaze, he gave a husky chuckle, but then he changed the subject. We made more small talk until we got off the bus.

  “See you tomorrow, Hayls!” With a cheerful wave, he headed for his own house.

  I went in the opposite direction. Once at Min and Phil’s, I unlocked and opened the door, nearly jumping out of my skin when I realized Phil was in his office doorway, a mug in his hand.

  “Hey, kiddo. How was school today?”

  “I enjoyed it,” I replied with a grin. “But shouldn’t you still be at work?”

  He chuckled, running his fingers through his dark red curls. “I can actually work from home, unless there’s a meeting of some sort at the office. I tend to get a lot more done at the office, though. Min wanted someone to meet you at home after your first day of school.”

  “That was thoughtful of her, but I don’t want to interrupt your work schedule,” I replied with a small frown. I wasn’t upset he was home, but I didn’t want him altering his work schedule because they were worried about me coming home to an empty house.

  He took a sip from his mug. “It’s no trouble. We don’t want you to feel abandoned.”

  My heart pounded, making me feel a little nauseated. I’d never truly been alone before. Realizing how ridiculous my feelings were, I took a deep breath. All the homework I needed to do came to mind, and I said, “You don’t have to worry about me feeling that way.”

  He gave a half-hearted shrug. “I also wanted to use the extra time to figure out what the heck I’m making for dinner.”

  “What are our options?” I headed for the kitchen. Perhaps between the two of us, we could find something.

  “Fuck if I know,” he grumbled, following me.

  My gaze flew to his face. Was he angry? Or did he use curse words the way CJ had seemed to earlier? Watching him didn’t give me an answer.

  After a look through the pantry and fridge, he finally decided to make a homemade pizza. He grinned when he showed me a can proclaiming it was pizza dough. “We’ll use the cheater’s method. When it’s time for dinner, we’ll just spread some sauce on it, slap the other ingredients on top, and it’ll be ready to cook.”

  I’d never had that before, but I hoped Phil would be willing to let me watch. I wanted to learn all I could about making different foods.

  We had a couple of hours left until we needed to fix it though, so I headed to my room to do my homework.

  Once there, I took my phone out of my pocket, surprised to see I’d received a message.

  Lacey: Haylie, I’m glad you’re settling in. Still no word about Kat, but we’re looking. Bas and Ollie say hi. –Lacey

  My stomach sank. I’d hoped they’d found her by now. Biting my lip, I asked Lacey to keep me updated, then closed my messages. Kat had to be alive somewhere. She was the scrappiest person I’d ever met, and she wouldn’t have gone down without a massive fight. I rubbed the knot forming in the pit of my stomach. She was fine. Lacey and the guys would find her.

  Lost

  Over the next few days, I got to know Bekka a little better. She was excruciatingly perky, but as I’d gotten used to it, I realized she wasn’t so bad. Now that it was Friday, we were headed to the bus together. She hadn’t stopped talking since we met up at my locker. How did she find so much to talk about without ever seeming to repeat anything? It was like a gift. Did I know Jenny and Robert were dating? Nope. I didn’t even know who they were, but apparently, it was scandalous because Jenny just dumped Robert’s best friend.

  At the buses, I led the way toward mine. We were headed to Min and Phil’s to study for a history quiz we’d be having on Monday.

  Less than a minute after we got on, a familiar face boarded the bus. He scanned the seats, and did I imagine his eyes lighting up when they stopped on me? Probably, but I’d like to think he was at least a little happy to see me. His brow furrowed when he spotted Bekka, and he took the seat across from me. “Bekka going home with you?” Although his words were innocent enough, his voice was full of tension.

  “Yeah. We have some studying to do, then Bekka wanted to go for a walk.” I saw the appeal of spending time outside, so I didn’t really mind.

  Smirking, he shook his head slowly. “Want some company?”

  Before I could respond, Bekka said, “No, this is a girls only thing.”

  It was? Since when was studying and going for a walk a “girl thing”? With a sigh, I gave a small shrug. I guessed she would know.

  He rolled his eyes, then leaned back in his seat. Was he upset about not being allowed to come with us?

  When we got to our stop, I followed CJ off the bus.

  He turned to me. “Text me after Her Royal Highness goes home.”

  My cheeks heated slightly as I nodded, though I couldn’t hide my smile. On Wednesday, as we were waiting for the bus, CJ and I had exchanged numbers.

  Once Bekka and I got to my house, I grabbed us a snack and we spread out in the front room. As nice as it was to have a friend, I didn’t want to take her upstairs. It was sort of like my own personal sanctuary up there.

&
nbsp; Bekka used her phone to turn on some music. “I hope you don’t mind, but I always listen to my homework playlist.”

  Her what? Was that another way of saying music? Instead of questioning her, I nodded. The sooner we got done with this, the sooner we could go for that walk.

  The material wasn’t difficult to remember, and I chalked that up to being on the first chapter of the book. We hadn’t learned enough information for it to get jumbled in my head.

  After forty-five minutes, the music shut off. “Dammit.” Her voice was soft as she grabbed her phone. “Phone’s dead.”

  “Did you need it?” Truthfully, her perky personality didn’t seem to fit with the heavy metal we’d been listening to, but I was grateful the noise had come to an end.

  With a rueful smile, she shook her head. “No, probably not.” She closed her book with a snap. “I think I’m done studying for the day. Should we go for that walk now?”

  I put my book away and headed for the fridge. “Yeah. Want a bottle of water?”

  She shook her head, so I grabbed one for myself on our way out the back door. It didn’t escape my notice that she dropped her bag on the back porch.

  “When we get back, I’ll grab my bag and head home,” she said.

  She intended to walk home? “Won’t you need to call someone to come pick you up?”

  As she led me toward the trees, she gave a dainty shrug. “I have someone coming to pick me up in about an hour.”

  With that, we headed into the woods. I didn’t really like heading in there without a plan. CJ had said the woods were pretty extensive, and I wished we could have had him along to ensure we wouldn’t get lost.

  “Where exactly are we headed?”

  “Exploring.” She tugged a little harder on my arm, and I stumbled in a small hole.

  I couldn’t say much to that, so I let her lead me through the trees as she proceeded to tell me about her last foray through these woods. In excruciating detail. Maybe she lived with a houseful of siblings and never got a chance to talk at home.

  She let go of my arm to glance at her watch as we approached a fork in the pathway. “We don’t have time to check out both paths…” After a moment of silence, she perked back up. “Let’s split up! You go that way”—she pointed toward the right path— “and I’ll go this way. In a couple minutes, we can both come back and meet right here.”