Her Curse

Chapter 7 - Haven

    The next few days flew by faster than the two weeks ever did. After the kiss we shared in that hallway, Lucas asked me to officially be his girlfriend. In the blink of an eye, our relationship changed from best friends to that impossible and unachievable level: Boyfriend/Girlfriend. In all the years I've known him, I never knew he felt this way about me. Regardless, even after all the times I tried to deny my feelings, I fell for him. I fell for my best friend. But, two things were still eating me away on the inside:

1). Now that Lucas an I are together, is it going to be harder to hide my secret from him?

2). How was I able to hear Ginger's thoughts back in Mr. Seabourge's office?

   I couldn't shake these questions. I was so paranoid that I even had a nightmare about my secret being known. "Adelina... Adelina!" My father's voice cut through my thoughts and snapped me back to reality. I looked away from the car window and looked at my father.

   "Hey, don't fall asleep on your way to school, Shortstack. You have chem first period right?" Literally everyone has a nickname for me, it's actually hard to put a number on how many nicknames have been given to me. "Yeah, I have chemistry for my first period. Plus, I wasn't falling asleep, I was thinking." I stated to my father, who then gave me a knowing smirk before asking, "About what?" He has the wrong idea, I can already tell. "I was thinking about the upcoming Algebra project. So far, we were only told that we would present them once we finish it." I lied to him, and of course he didn't believe me. "No, you were probably thinking about Lucas." He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.

   I laughed and pushed on his shoulder. I told my parents about Lucas and I being a couple, they went off the hook, I've never seen my parents so happy about me having a boyfriend. Typically, I'd expect them to be ready to kill Lucas, I guess I was wrong.

   "Your mom and I like Lucas. We trust him, Adelina, but if he ever hurts you-" "Dad, he would never hurt me." I interrupted my father. See, that's the reaction I was expecting, only maybe about 20x more dramatic. "I know, I know. I just don't want your heart getting broken, that's all. I know you're tough and thick skinned, break ups still suck, Shortstack."

   My father reached into the cup holder and pulled out some money, my lunch money. This is the usual routine since the school year started: My father drops me off at school with $20 and my mom picks me up after practice, then we all go home. I took the money and put it in the front pocket of my backpack.

   "Hey, aren't you trying out for swimming today after school?" My father asked me. I've told my parents so many times, mostly just due to me being nervous as heck about it. "Yeah, but I'm really clueless when it comes to swimming. I mean it has some similarities to track and I've seen Lucas swim a lot, but I still don't understand it." I said, spilling out most of my thoughts to my dad because I was so nervous about trying out. To everyone else, it's just a normal sport: teams pinned against teams, like how track is. But to me, all sports seems like packs of wolves fighting each other, just depends on what your strength is. Pretty ironic, right?

   "Shortstack, relax. You're an incredible athlete. You'll make the team. Do you have everything you need?" My dad looked around the school's parking lot for an empty space as I grabbed my duffle bag from the back seat. "I have my swimsuit, a towel, a hair brush, ponytail bands, goggles, a swim cap, and my flip flops." I listed everything as I dug through my duffle bag. My dad found a spot near the front and I saw Lucas waiting for me. I was about to get out when my dad stopped me, "Actually, you forgot something." My father wagged his finger at me. I did? I have everything I need for school and tryouts. What did I forget? My father pulled out a charm bracelet from his glove compartment. "You forgot this," he said as he put it on my wrist.