A Week with Katherine

Day One

The first time Katherine spoke to me it was a Monday.

It was weird because in the two weeks since I moved here and the week since I started attending school she hadn't so much as spared me a glance, but for whatever reason that day I had felt her look over at me at least four times.

It was exactly 9:27 am when she turned in her seat next to mine in the back of Mrs.Smith's Algebra 2 class and suddenly spoke.

"You have to find the root." She whispered toward me.

I glanced at her. Her long black hair tried into a messy bun with a few loose strands curling at the root and falling into her face. Her so dark brown eyes they almost looked black on me.

I looked away.

She chuckled to herself before leaning closer to me.

"You're doing the standard of divination aren't you?" She asked, already knowing the answer. I nodded anyway.

I refused to look up and meet her gaze again. I wasn't sure what it was about her, but when our eyes met it felt like she could see right through me.

It was as if she knew that she knew things I would never come to understand. And, I didn't realize it at the time, but she probably did.

"Well then, if you want to find the right answer you have to find the root." She said simply.

Knowing what I know now, I wonder if she was really just talking about math that day. Or if just maybe she was talking about the mystery that she'd become, not just to me but to the entire town of Sorrow's Creek.

"Right, thanks," I mumbled back to her as I pretended to understand what she meant. I looked up from my paper to see two girls in the second row glancing back at Katherine and me before whispering something to each other and laughing.

Would they still have laughed if they knew what was going to happen?

"I'm Katherine, by the way."

"I know," I mumbled back.

It hadn't even taken a day since moving to this town for me to figure out that everyone knew who she was.

She was Katherine Marie Sanders.

Every time she walked down the hall people watched. Every time she spoke people leaned in closer just to hear.

Except for me on that day. And it wasn't because I was trying to make some stupid point, but because I didn't yet know what everyone else thought they did.

"And you're Jameson Anthony Clement." She said casually.

That made me turn to look at her. To really look at her. But she wasn't looking at me. She was looking at the clock on the wall.

"James." I corrected her as I watched her watch the clock.

"What?"

"I don't- it's just James." Even my parents didn't call me Jameson.

She had probably heard a teacher call me names during attendance, but that didn't explain how she knew my middle name.

I wasn't like her. I wasn't a star. I was a shadow.

"Well, Just James, let's get out of here." She turned to me. She had a soft smile on her lips and a look in her eye that even to this day I don't understand.

"I have a French test," I answered just as the bell rang ending the first period.

She stood up as if she hadn't heard me, quickly tossing some papers into her bag.

"Let's go." She suggested again.

I didn't know her and this was only my second week. I was already behind as it was. I definitely didn't want to get in trouble for ditching.

"I have a French test," I repeated as I shoved my things into my bag.

Everyone else had already left the classroom. The teacher standing by the door talking to one of the girls who had been whispering about Katherine.

"You have the rest of your life to take French tests, how many chances are you going to have to go on an adventure?" Katherine asked me softly, a single brow raised as if to ask me if I was serious.

She didn't wait for my answer as she put her worksheet on the teacher's desk and walked out of the room just as the warning bell rang.

I quickly put my worksheet down on top of hers and ran to catch up to her in the hall.

"Wait, I'm coming," I called after her.

She stopped to smile at me. As if she knew all along I would follow.

"You have a car right?" She asked.

And just like that the first day of my week with Katherine began.

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(A/N: I am so excited to finally be sharing this. I had the idea for the story and wrote this chapter all the way back on 1/3/21. Then on 12/12/22, I found this first chapter again.

This story was probably the easiest for me to ever write because I didn't think I would share it. But as I finished writing the entire story in just under a month on 1/10/23, I realized how much I really want to share with you all.

So I hope you can enjoy reading this just as much as I enjoyed writing it.)