LIMINAL || 𝙅𝙖𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙡𝙚 [1]

𝟝 | 𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕒𝕥 𝕒 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖

Republished after revising for spelling and grammatical errors.

After the first, everything got easier a little bit each day. I was able to figure out the most efficient route from one class to the next while still having a chance to stop by my locker to switch out materials. English and Art were my favorite subjects thus far. I had always been better at dissecting a poem or short story than finding x or deciding which formula to solve a problem with.

Angela made my US Government class bearable by chatting on the way and being my partner for the group work we had so far. I remembered my change of clothes and started playing volleyball daily with the girls in PE. Lunch, which could have gone sideways from the start, was much better than I could have asked. Thanks to Bella and Angela, I had a whole group of people to sit and talk with, rather than eating alone by a trashcan. The ever elusive Jasper didn't return until Friday. I wondered how miserable it must be to have a migraine for that long.

As I slid into my chair at the lunch table that day, Alice came prancing up to me with her brother in tow. For as happy as she looked, he was the opposite. Thinly veiled behind a mask of indifference was a frustrated, if not pained, expression. Perhaps that migraine wasn't completely gone. As the two drew nearer, I became even more aware of the fact that the only other people who had arrived at our usual table were Edward and Bella.

"Hi, Collins!" Alice nearly sang as she stopped beside my chair. "I want you to meet Jasper. Jasper, this is the new student I was telling you about. I think you two share Calculus, right?"

I nodded and extended my hand for him to shake. I'm not sure how often high school students shake each others' hands, but her formal introduction seemed to almost call for it. Or maybe it's the Southern Baptist in me. Either way, I had mentally prepared myself for whatever emotional insight I'd get through the touch of our hands; however, nothing could have prepared me for what I received.

First of all, his hands were freezing. I thought my hands and feet were always cold, but in comparison, mine might as well have been on fire. And that wasn't even what caught me by the most surprise. What had, was the emotional feedback loop that made my head spin. I couldn't discern whose feelings belonged to whom and for a second, I forgot where I was and what I was doing. Just in time, I fixed my face, which must have looked as confused and surprised as Jasper's. The entire event couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds, even if it felt like much longer.

"Nice to meet you; you're hands are freezing by the way," I tried to joke and cover the uncomfortable silence that had begun.

"Oh, poor peripheral circulation. Tied to the migraines," supplied Alice before Jasper could answer. Both took the seats to my left. For Alice to have been talking up how swell her brother and I would get along, she makes a special effort to sit between us. The rest of our group has just arrived, and it's like the ice around us thawed. Jessica is complaining about her personal finance class while Angela and Eric are discussing prom decorations for a Vegas theme.

"I'm just saying, go-go dancers would really add to the experience," Eric holds up his hands in defense. Angela looks half exasperated, half amused.

"Yeah, that experience would be teachers having a heart attack and lots of girls breaking up with their boyfriends. Can we move onto something else? Oh, hi Jasper. Are you feeling any better from your migraine?"

"Fair to middlin'," Jasper shrugged, dipping a carrot stick in ranch. Jessica stopped for just a moment in her tirade about how she really hated math to pin him with a look. I'd gotten the same look on Tuesday for saying my parents were 'happier than pigs in slop' concerning their move. No one knew what I'd meant.