Caught Inside

Chapter Sixteen

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." – Proverbs 27:17

"Sorry!" Alana yelped as she nearly collided with a freshman just rounding the corner. She gave him an apologetic look before continuing her mad sprint towards chemistry. It was her own fault she was so late—she'd decided to stop by In-N-Out with Maya for lunch, and they had forgotten to keep track of the time. Alana could only hope that Maya would make it to her own class on time.

Just as her legs felt like they were about to give out, Alana came to a halt in front of the door to chemistry and pushed it open. Unfortunately, the teacher was standing in the front of the room, his mouth open as if to speak.

Fully aware that her hair was tangled and her skin sweaty, Alana meekly slipped inside and made a beeline for the only available desk.

"Try to be on time, Alana," Mr. Jensen scolded, peering at her from above the rims of his glasses.

"Sorry," she said, plopping down in her seat and placing her backpack on the floor. Her heart was still thudding from her sprint across school, but she didn't breathe freely until Mr. Jensen had turned his steely gaze back to the rest of the class.

"How was that In-N-Out run?" Cole asked, leaning over slightly from where he was sitting in the desk next to hers.

"Great," she whispered in between breaths. "Really great."

"You should try to be on time," he added, mimicking Mr. Jensen.

Alana waited until their teacher's gaze had passed over her once again before sticking her tongue out of the side of her mouth.

"So immature," Cole scoffed.

"Anderson!" Mr. Jensen barked. Cole immediately slid down in his seat, trying to hide his smile.

Alana rummaged around in her backpack and pulled out her book and a few sheets of notepaper. She didn't turn around until Mr. Jensen had finished reprimanding Cole for talking in class.

"Looks like he woke up on the wrong side of the bed," she whispered.

Cole grinned and nodded. They didn't have a chance to exchange any other words, however, as Mr. Jensen launched into instructions from their chemistry project. Since Cole and Alana were sitting next to each other, they immediately decided to work together, despite it being an individual project.

"You start cutting and I'll start outlining?" Alana suggested, handing Cole their blank Periodic Tables of the Elements.

"Sounds good to me," he said, taking a pair of scissors from a supplies basket being passed around.

"Remember, this is due at the end of the week, so use the rest of class time wisely," Mr. Jensen warned. "I suggest you finish most or all of the Table while you can."

The volume level in the classroom rose steadily as students chatted away, dividing their attention between their projects and the latest Ventura High gossip. For Alana, that meant telling Cole about her most recent conversation with Maya.

"So here's the thing," she said after she finished writing down all of the elements and their symbols. "Even though Maya has been acting pretty normal since her dad suddenly showed up, has a lot of emotions bottled up inside."

"It took you this long to realize that?" Cole asked.

"Hey, let me finish."