Found (New Earth Saga)

Ch. 7

Jacob waltzed into our math class, completely unapologetic about the fact that we were so late.

"Jacob Mangello, you are unacceptably late!" Mrs. Bielman, a human teacher standing on a massive desk in the front of the class, said into her microphone. This classroom was of course huge, and at a glance appeared to be full of enormous giant teenagers, except there was a desk in the front of the room that was empty. Well, the seat was empty. On top of the table were two rows of tiny human desks with humans sat in them.

"My apologies Mrs. Bielman. My sister was supposed to escort our new student here, to class, but of course, I had to do it myself,"

Jacob waltzed over to the human desk area and lowered his hand down, allowing me to slide off. This class had 7 other humans in it, and they all stared at me with interest. In fact, everyone in the class was staring at me.

"You must be River Reed? River, I'm Mrs. Bielman, and welcome to Wendleton High. Everyone, River is new here. Let's make sure we are all as welcoming and as kind as we can be. River's been through... It's her first day!"

Was this Mrs. Bielman about to share what I'd been through?! Thank goodness she stopped. I was getting enough stares just being late and being new. I don't need her putting anymore focus on me. Not even any of the incredibly attractive guys present in this class. No. I found my way into the only available human desk left and tried to get through the rest of this class as seamlessly as possible.

I looked to my left, and two chairs down from me, Parisa was staring at me. Once our eyes locked she mouthed the words "I'm sorry," most likely apologizing for speeding way ahead of me in the hall, and clearly not waiting up to make sure I'd made it to class. Whatever. People here already had a rhythm. They already had friends to reunite with, or boyfriends to spend time with. Oh well. Everyone around me had their laptops out, so I followed suit and pulled mine out as well. Once I opened it, the internet browser I'd had open last night showed numerous articles trending about Kerry Reddington. Mom. Don't click on it. Don't click on it.

D@mnit. I clicked on one of the articles, and instead of seeing a picture of Kerry, I saw a picture of the three victims she murdered. Two girls, and one boy. All under the age of 6. They looked so innocent. So young. As I scrolled down, my breath hitched when I saw a picture of Thomas, Blue, and Trent. They all looked younger, posing together in the family photo. It wasn't until I examined the photo that I felt my eyes grow wider than I thought was possible. Sitting in Trents hand, that was held against his upper chest was a tiny little girl. She had dark skin, thick dark hair that had been tied into two pigtails, and she looked so incredibly happy. I didn't need to read the caption to realize who that little girl in the picture was. It was me. Or the version of me that I can't remember. It's a version of me that no longer exists. She's the version of me that everyone wants.

"River? Were you able to pull up the syllabus?" Mrs. Bielman asked, making me jump out of my spiral and snap my attention back towards the front of the class. Mrs. Bielman's image was being projected onto a massive screen. While one half the screen had her imagine, the other half had the image of the syllabus we were apparently supposed to be going over. I don't understand how to access this stuff, and I'm not in the mood to ask for help. I clicked the laptop closed, and grabbed my spiral notebook out of my backpack.

"River? You should have this page pulled up on your laptop. Do you need help?"

Ugh. Why was the teacher singling me out?! Just let me sit here.

"I'll show her!" Parisa announced, as she stood from her seat and practically bounced over to mine. Parisa opened my laptop and the picture of the Reed family and I was of course the first thing on the screen. Parisa's jaw seemed to drop for a moment before she opened up another tab that led to the academic portal I was supposed to be using this entire time. Before Parisa returned to her seat, the two of us locked eyes, and something passed between us. Parisa looked guilty, for lack of a better description. I don't understand, but for now that is the only way I can interpret the energy exchanged.