Fading Echoes

Chapter 13

I absolutely hate it when we have English class just before lunch break. Our teacher never seems to end the class on time, especially since there's no other teacher waiting for us after the bell rings.

Today is even worse. She's fifteen minutes late, and I just know she's going to cut into our lunch time to make up for it.

"It's getting boring," I yawned, putting my pen down.

"No one's winning. Are we both equally smart or equally dumb?" Grace said, stretching her arms.

We were playing tic-tac-toe to kill the boredom while waiting for our teacher.

"Who's our English teacher?" a girl sitting behind Grace asked, breaking our concentration.

"I forgot her name," Grace mused for a moment. "Mrs. Johnson, isn't it?" she asked me.

I nodded, feeling a twinge of irritation. The girl behind Grace was new, having joined our school today.

She kept interrupting us, trying to engage Grace in conversation and shifting her attention away from me.

I don't like this.

Just as we were starting another round of tic-tac-toe, the classroom door swung open, and Mrs. Johnson walked in, her arms full of papers and books. The room fell silent as she made her way to the front of the class.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone," Mrs. Johnson said, dropping her materials on the desk with a thud. "Let's get started. I hope you all brought your copies of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'."

I exchanged a glance with Grace, who rolled her eyes.

As Mrs. Johnson began her lecture, I found it hard to focus. The new girl, whose name I still didn't know, kept glancing at Grace and me.

She seemed eager to join our little circle.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Johnson noticed our lack of attention. "Is there something more interesting going on back there?" she asked, her gaze piercing.

"No, ma'am," we mumbled in unison, straightening up in our seats.

"Good. Now, I want you all to partner up and discuss the main themes of the first three chapters," she instructed. "We'll share our thoughts with the class in ten minutes."

I turned to Grace, ready to pair up, but the new girl leaned in before I could say anything.

"Mind if I join you two?" she asked with a hopeful smile.

"Sure, why not," Grace said with a smile.

I sighed inwardly but forced a smile. "Okay, let's get started," I said, opening my book.

.............

As expected, Mrs. Johnson took 20 minutes of our lunch break. Now, we had only 30 minutes left until our next class.

Grace and I exited the classroom, the new girl trailing behind us. We walked side by side, with Grace in the middle.

The hallway was less crowded since most students were already in the cafeteria or at the playground.

"You didn't tell us your name," Grace said, giggling about something I hadn't paid attention to.

"Oh, my bad!" the girl said, dramatically hitting her forehead with her hand. "I'm Daisy."

"I'm Grace, and this is my best friend, Eva," Grace said, pointing toward me.

My head snapped toward her.

Best friend?

I tried my best to suppress the smile that desperately wanted to form on my lips.