Battlefield (Book One)

Chapter Eight - Orlando

Two weeks passed and already Orlando was enrolled at Lunar Falls High with a new schedule. Lyssa worked fast, and he appreciated it because after one day with nothing to do in the house, he needed something to keep himself entertained. Filling the gap had been difficult, especially without his video games. He read through his entire collection of books, reorganized his bedroom, and her closet.

It took him twenty minutes to drive to school on Friday morning. An odd day to start his new classes, but he no longer wanted to delay the inevitable. Ideally, he was hoping for an excuse to get out of playing hero over the weekend. Every day he got a call from Cadence and JD wanting to talk details. And every day he told them not yet. He wasn't ready. He had no clue how he was going to tell them he might never be.

That was something he constantly chewed on over and over again in his mind, how to tell them. The more comfortable he became with his abilities, the more uneasy he began to feel. Lunar Falls was a nice new distraction.

The school was nowhere near as large as Morningtide High. His old school had an average graduating class of five-hundred students, and luxuries most would envy. Visitors always called it an airport or a train station because of the massive size and cleanly upkeep.

Lunar Falls was a dump and a quarter of the size in comparison.

The stares began when he parked his black luxury sports sedan, his sweet-sixteen car. When he stepped out and grabbed his bag, there were even more. He had made sure to wear more black than he normally would, overdid the eye liner, and wore his favorite black, spiked wristband. The goal was to over-shock them.

"Wow, nice car," one underclassman boy called after him. Orlando acknowledged him with a slight wave and a grunt before pulling open the doors.

For a small school, it took him an awfully long time to find the main office. Mostly because he had to shove his way through the halls where everyone spent their time mingling. Everyone, being the small huddles of young teenage girls who gawked and giggled at him.

Giggling at him—that was new.

It'd been a long time since he'd been noticed by a member of the opposite sex, and he had no idea what to do in return. His girl chasing days felt like a lifetime ago. How would his old "pretty boy"-self have handled it? He probably would have soaked it all in and nodded back at them arrogantly. That image made him snort with disgust.

He got his schedule from the office and groaned. "Lyssa," he mumbled as he read through the list of three honors classes, two study halls, music appreciation, and P.E. She was purposefully making his life miserable. He looked at the room number for his first class and then the clock. There was no way around it; he was going to be late.

Taking the time to dawdle through the hallway, he enjoyed the peace the now-empty space brought. It cleared fast, which meant people actually cared about their grades. The school would be interesting indeed.

"One hundred," he searched the room numbers. "Where is one hundred?" He was in the two hundreds and the numbers were getting smaller. He had to be going in the right direction until he reached the end of the hall.

He turned to go down the stairs and ran straight into a boy who was built like he was the quarterback of the football team. The guy could easily be the poster child for the all American football star with his blond hair and confident strut. And his broad shoulders easily filled out his school jersey.

"Sorry," Orlando mumbled and stepped to the other side of the hallway so he didn't get attacked. Normally, he wouldn't bother to apologize, but he didn't want to start things off on the wrong foot.

"It's okay, I wasn't looking either," the guy said. He was definitely close to Orlando's age. "New kid, huh? You must be lost. Here, I'll show you around. I'm trying to ditch out of class anyway for a while."