The Book Of Life

Chapter Twenty

Sophie jumps off me and I comb a hand through my badly ruffled hair. Sophie's staring at me, my eyebrow knit together in confusion but as I bring my arm down, I realise my shirt hitched up and got caught with my jersey. A bit of my stomach was showing, and Sophie would not stop staring. I tug my shirt down, making sure no one could see anything after that embarrassing moment.

"That never happened......" I mumble.

"It sure did! The koala hug and you have abs!" Sophie gushes. "Right, never happened."

"It's called finding out your super strong and suddenly getting the motivation to work out." My smug reply has her roll her eyes.

"Curse you." she huffs.

"Oh no! Please. Don't curse me!" I joke in a mimicking, sarcastic way.

"Shut up. Or I might just do it." Sophie mumbles but a hint of amusement remains in her voice.

I sigh and reluctantly open the door to the building, cringing as the door's hinge make a screeching, scraping sound.

"Nice of you to show up, Katlyn. What's your reason for being late?" Mrs. Ganer asks.

Her sarcastically happy tone sends shivers down my spine and her light hazel eyes bore into mine. It's evident to that I am in serious trouble. Being a senior makes it worse. What am I going to say?

"Only five minutes?" My surprised thought echoes in my head.

"Oh, sorry miss. I was just sorting out a Supernatural argument in a secret base that we have on school grounds. And I accidentally got caught up in being their Queen; protecting the Supernatural and trying to find out what Riley Coraz did to me and where she went. Could you tell me what I've missed while I've been away? Would she believe ne? Hell no. Would she send me to the phycologist? hell yes!"

Instead, I calmed myself and prepared to face her wrath. I try an approach I know I can get to work but it all counts on her not knowing which days I have instrumental.

"Sorry miss," I somehow make my voice sound remorseful. "I lost track of time in the music block practice rooms, by the time I was packing up my instrument the bell had already gone, and then I rushed here." I keep maintaining eye contact, only dropping it when I finish speaking for a few seconds.

But my eyes find the classroom instead of the floor. If I looked at the floor, she would have known I was lying. She knows I'm in the concert band and school orchestra and a part of the senior music class which always has their students busy and overloaded with pieces to practice. I know Miss knows the pressure we feel as instrumental students and Seniors, I've seen her compassion when defending us from badly timed instrumental music lessons.

"Oh, well Make sure you keep better track of the time next time." She says, opening the door wider.

"Yes miss." I sound like I'm taking it to heart.

I don't dare look at the golden covered watch on my left wrist as I make my way to my seat. If my teacher saw the watch, she wouldn't care but if she saw me check the time on it, Mrs. Ganer would know I knew what time I had arrived. And Mrs. Ganer is not the teacher you want to piss off. She continues to teach the lesson as I begin to copy things down from Tori's book.

"Want to tell me how you lied to our teacher?" Tori whispers to me.

Even though it sounds like a question, I know she's demanding to know. I want to tell her she's making it obvious but passing notes would be way worse.

"Huh?" I play dumb.

After all, I'm the dumb best friend.

"Don't play dumb with me. You actually used your brain this time. Actually, probably the smartest I've ever seen you think in a while." She has no idea how insulting that is, "We all know you don't have your clarinet today and you were never in the music block- we checked. It's not like you to miss out on lunch, that's all you think about. So, when you weren't in the library, we had no idea where you had gone. Maybe gone home." Tori picks me apart.

There's this churning feeling inside my stomach. And it does not feel good at all. I'm angry, insulted and pissed off. They can question me all they want, it's okay for them to worry where our other friends are but no one asks were I go. No one cares where I go. No one is surprised or happy to see me when I appear at lunch. In fact, I'm sure they wish I just disappeared. Even for Tori to ask me where I went now is so out of the blue.

I feel like somethings tugging on my heart. "I'm surprised you care." Slips from my lips in a heartbroken and angered tone before I can stop it.

Tori tenses beside me.

"I'll tell you at lunch." I mutter. "Mrs. Ganers watching me."

My eyes eye the board in disdain as I write.

"She's not happy." Tori goes back to her work, "You better. Or I'm hunting you down at lunch."

I sigh. Since when you have cared so much about my life outside our little friend group circle.

I spend the rest of the lesson analysing a poem. Whoever said we had to analyse a poem and make a story out of it. I want to wring your neck.

Porphyria's lover. What maniac is Robert Browning?

I rush out the door and through a short part of the hallway before I'm outside again. Where I dropped Sophie off. The never-ending flowing tide of students spills from the door, coming from inside the narrow and long hallway. Tori rushes out a few minutes later, giving me the stink eye.

"This bitch really thought I was going to ditch her!" I snort as I lean against the wall with my left hand in my pocket.

We walk towards our spot where we sit, all the while Tori peppered me with questions. I sit down and open my lunch box. Tori's still blabbering on but I don't listen. My eyes and gut are too busy focused on the food in front of me.

Pure joy is plastered on my face as I finish that half of my chicken and mayo sandwich. It abatis the roaring hunger in my stomach, subsiding the hunger evident in my stomach for a few minutes. My stomach finally stops growling.

Tori opens her mouth to speak. Kory comes barreling around the corner, feet slipping on the pebbled concrete. Alyx rams into her back a few seconds later, sending Kory forwards a few steps.

"Katlyn!" Kory sounds panicked out of her mind. "It's Lexi!"