Shadow Souls

Chapter Three

Much to my delight the rest of the morning was mostly uneventful. However, two of my teachers did make me stand up in front of the class to introduce myself, and I've decided they need to be cursed to the depths of Hades for it. And now with four of my classes down and only three more to go, I head off to lunch.

As I make my way through the cafeteria line, I'm happy to see that the food here was mostly the same stuff I was accustomed to. Your classic pizza, cheeseburgers, and mystery meats. Yet, at the risk of angering the already present butterflies that accompany the first-day jitters, I settle on only a basket of fries and a bottle of water.

Picking up my tray I do a quick scan of the room for an empty table, and maybe a certain familiar face if I want to be honest with myself but come up empty on both accounts. I see a couple of other students carrying their lunch out a pair of double doors and notice there are more tables set up outside. I remember seeing the courtyard on my map but didn't realize what it was for. I walk over to peer out the glass and see a couple of small groups clustered on a low concrete wall that still has a lot of empty space. Perfect!

Signaling for Ty to follow I head outside and claim a spot for myself, hoping it's not already spoken for. The last thing I want is for my lunch period to turn into some kind of cliché movie scene where the new kid sits in the head cheerleader's special seat, and the whole school comes out to watch the rumble.

I set my tray down before turning to jump back onto the ledge, all the while doing another search for Finn. Almost all the tables are full by now and I still don't see him anywhere and it makes me nervous. I know from my schedule that all the juniors and seniors have the same lunch period, as do all the freshmen and sophomores. So, if he didn't have the same lunch period as me... Oh no! I really hope I wasn't having all these crazy feelings for an underclassman. Usually, I wouldn't have thought it possible that a guy Finn's size could be that young, but I guess you never can tell sometimes.

Tyler, seeing me stare over all the tables full of students, misinterprets my current thoughts for something else entirely.

"Don't worry Alice. I know this is different, but it's still you and me. That much hasn't changed." He says, with a reassuring smile.

I knew what he was referring to. I was so used to eating at a table full of different people, always trying to sit with Tyler. People whose names I usually didn't even know. So, even though sitting here to eat alone was a big change, it was a pleasant one. But I wouldn't tell Ty that. Those were some happy memories for him, and there was no reason to tarnish them.

"I'm glad you're here, Tyler," I tell him, as I set an open book in my lap in the hopes of using it as a cover. Giving me an excuse to keep my head down so I can discreetly talk to him without looking crazy. That was the plan anyway, but instead, I spent most of the time just listening to him rant about how much he hated Finn, and why I should avoid him at all costs.

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Things continued to go smoothly as I made it through my last three classes, and I wasn't asked to do any more embarrassing introductions, so that was a big positive. Even the curious stares were beginning to lessen, now that everyone had already seen me. However, I did find myself scanning the halls for those beautiful honey-colored eyes during every passing period I had. Yep, I'm definitely in trouble.

Memorizing my schedule and the school map turned out to be very helpful, and I am proud to say, I managed to go the whole day without getting lost once. Now that the school day was finally over, I figured I would have been the first one out the door, but instead, I found myself lingering in front of my locker for much longer than necessary. I tried to fool Tyler by pretending like I was trying to decide which books I needed to load into my backpack, and which ones I could do without. He wasn't buying it though.